averr; it being with me a facred maxim, to advance no fact, without vouchers not to be contradicted. In the Introduction to the so often mention'd MOSAIC REPUBLIC, Ifhall add more reasons, proving the Pentateuch an Abridgement, to thofe already produc'd by Monfieur LE CLERC, whofe Critical Commentaries on the Old Teftament, farr furpaffing all that ever appear'd of that kind, I long to fee happily finish'd. In the mean time I cannot but obferve with AMMIANUS MARCELLINUS, that 20 whoever affects too great a brevity in relating. things unknown, does not fo much confider, what are the most remarkable things he fhou'd exprefs, as what he fhou'd pass over in filence; which obfer vation, tho not originally true of the hiftorical books of the Old Teftament, yet is too true as they happen to be read at prefent: but when thofe things were written, or even abridg'd, they were very familiar to the readers of these volums, and all the ideas relating to them perfectly underftood.

XV. TO return to the Subject, from whence I have made this fmall excurfion, I wonder they, who are fo fond of a Miracle in the Pillar of Cloud and Fire, do not affirm as much of the Ark; fince, after the Ifraelites had, in their second march, advanc'd three days Journey from Mount Sinai, the Ark of the Covenant of the LORD went before Num. 10. them in the three days journey, to fearch out a refting 33, 34. place for them: and the Cloud of JEHOVAH was upon them by day, when they went out of the Camp. No mention is here made of the Ark's

20 Quifquis enim adfectat nimiam brevitatem, ubi narrantur incognita; non quid fignantiùs explicet, fed quid debeat praeterire, fcrutatur. Lib. 23. cap. 6.

34.

being carry'd on men's fhoulders before the Army, as reprefenting GOD or the King's prefence: Exod. 25. and had not this circumftance been recorded elfe14,15.& where, with the rings and ftaves to make it port37. 3.4, able, it must undoubtedly have been transform'd into a Miracle, as well as the Cloud of JEHOVAH (every thing being denominated from the King) Ibid. 10. which, in the fame place, is faid was upon them by day, when they went out of the Camp. To this a particular allufion is made in the first chapter of Deuteronomy, where the thing reprefenting is call'd by the name of the thing reprefented, or Deut. 1. the Ark call'd the LORD your GOD who went in the way before you, fays Moses, to fearch you out a place to pitch your tents in ; in Fire by night, to fhow you by what way you shou'd go, and in a Cloud by day. This he likewife does, in the laft cited place of Numbers, by a very folemn form Num. 1o. of words: for when the Ark fet forward MOSES 35. 36. faid, rife up, LORD, and let thine Enemies be scattered; and let them that hate thee, flee before thee. And when it refted, he faid; return, LORD, unto the many thousands of Ifrael. From his royal preeminence the Cloud, as you have now feen, is call'd the Cloud of JEHOVAH; as MOSES Ibid. 14. fays elfwhere, It will be told the Inhabi

32, 33.

14.

tants of this land, that thy Cloud ftandeth over them, and that thou goeft before them: by daytime in a Pillar of a Cloud, and in a Pillar of Fire by night. Nothing can be plainer than all this.

XVI. THERE are alfo paffages that how the Cloud was taken down, and yet not exalted on a Pole to move forward; as a fign not only that there was no march as ufual: but that, upon high caufes of displeasure, the difcipline of the Camp fhou'd no longer be obferv'd; and that the Peo

ple

con

Exod 33.

9.

ple were to be abandon'd, without head or guide in the Wilderness. When MOSES, upon their making the Golden Calf, had remov'd the Tabernacle out of the Camp, it came to pass as be enter'd into the Tabernacle, that the Cloudy Pillar defcended, and food at the door of the Tabernacle: that is, as clearly appears from the text, it was taken down from the Tabernacle, yet not carry'd before the Army as a fign of marching, but fixt before the door; because the LORD refus'd to go up with them, till afterwards, upon their repentance, they were led on as before. So upon a like occafion, viz: the fedition of Aaron and Miriam, the Pillar of the Cloud was taken Num. 12. down (NOTA BENE here it is in terminis faid 5, 10. to be TAKEN DOWN) and food at the door of the Tabernacle. I hope by this time I have fet in the clearest light the nature and use of the Pillar of Cloud and Fire, directing the marches and ftations of the Ifraelites in the Wilderness; in fuch a light, I fay, that no man of good understanding, or void of fuperftition, will any longer think it a miracle: for by a common rule, agreed upon no lefs by Divines than others, that thing ought not to be reputed a Miracle, which can be explain'd by the laws of Nature or ordinary means, and where a perfect account is given of all appearances. On this fcore it is, that I have brought parallel examples, as I fhall do more prefently, out of au thors pofterior to MOSES, not for proof (fince that results from the thing it self) but for illuftration; as all Commentators explain the antient by the modern usages of the Eastern nations, wher of numberless inftances occurr in their books. Where things, in fhort, feem in all refpects alike, they ought to be deem'd of the like nature, tho one author be more particular in relating circumftances than another, or may use a different ftile and manner of writing.

XVII.

5-12.

XVII. I READILY agree however, that I am oblig'd to folve all the difficulties, which can be reasonably made against my account of the Cloud. Some, that have been offer'd in fortuitous converfation, are extremely frivolous and impertinent. But the objection, with which I fhall begin, appears at firft fight to be the difficulteft of all, or, if people will have it fo, the most miraculous. When the Ifraelites, in their flight or Exod. 14. expulfion, were got as farr as Pihahiroth by the red fea; and the Egyptians purfuing had come up close with them, being farr fuperior in number and all other advantages: the first were in the utmost confternation, having the fea before and the Enemy behind; which made them give themfelves over for loft, not onely as foon as the Morning fhou'd appear, but even took it for granted they were to be attack'd, and quite destroy'd that very night. The particulars you have in the fourteenth chapter of Exodus, where it is further Ibid. 14. related, that the Angel of GOD, which went before the Camp of Ifrael, remov'd and went behind them; and the Pillar of the Cloud went from before their face, or front, and food behind them, or in the rear: and it came between the Camp of the Egyptians and the Camp of Ifrael, and it was a cloud and darkness to thofe, but it gave light by night to these; fo that the one came not near the other all that night. It is obfervable, that the Egyptians, accuftom'd to the manner of paffing those defarts, were not amaz'd at the Cloud (which they must certainly have been, were it a thing unusual) but, on the contrary, they follow'd its tho, as it will be immediately feen, it deceived and mifguided them. The Angel of GOD mention'd here, and about which the Chriftian Divines of all nations are divided (fome maintaining it to be the first of the heavenly Hierarchy, but moft

19, 20.

moft that it was no meaner a Person than CHRIST himself) I fhall prove in its place to have been no other, than a mere mortal man, the Guide of the Ifraelites in the Wilderness; and the overfeer or director of the portable Fire, as part of his peculiar office and province. But as for the thing it felf, the moving of the FIRE, which is the point in queftion, it was a ftratagem of warr there, no less than elfwhere; which ftratagein I lay here open to the meaneft capacity, by a paf fage out of the Cyropedia, as being exactly parallel. When CYRUS and CYAXARES, at the head of an Army of Medes and Perfians, lay incamp'd in the enemie's country; the Army of the Babylonians, Lydians, and Egyptians, farr fuperior in number, came up with them at laft. Here upon (fays 1 XENOPHON) they did not by night kindle the Fires in the center of the Camp, but in the front of it; that, if any of the Enemy mov'd in the night, they might fee and not be feen of them, by means of the Fire. They likewife frequently plac'd the Fire in the rear of the Camp to deceive the ene my, which occafion'd their Scouts to fall in with the out-guards by reafon the Fires were behind the Camp, wheras they, fuppos'd themselves to be at a confiderable diftance, as believing the Fire was in its ordinary place. I have noted much fuch another paffage in the fame XENOPHON, and there Lib. 8. & are many more in other Hiftorians. Here then Hift. Graec. you have FIRE removing from one place to lib. another, fomtimes before and fomtimes behind

21. Πυρα δε νυκτωρ ουκ εκαιον εν τω ςρατοπεδώ, εμπρόσ δεν μεντοι του τρατοπέδου εκαιον, ὅπως ὁρωεν, μεν εκτινες νυκτωρ προσιοιεν, δια το πυρ, μη όρωντο δε ύπο προσιούτων. Πολλάκις δε και οπισθεν του ςρατοπεδου επυρπολούν, απα της ένεκα των πολεμίων, ὡς εςιν ὅτε και κατασκοποι ενέ πιπτον εις τας προσφυλακας αυτων (δια το όπισθεν τα πυρά είναι) ετι πόρρω του κρατοπεδου οιομενοι είναι Cyropaed. lib. 3.

the