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thor should have thought proper to enjoin many particulars, which figuratively and symbolically pointed out good things to come; as well as literally expressed good things that were present.

The feast was prepared by the removal of all leaven, the emblem of malice and wickedness; and eaten with unleavened bread, the emblem of sincerity and truth. The sacrifices of the Mosaic dispensation were many, because they were imperfect. The sacrifice of the gospel is one, because, once offered, it for ever perfects them that are sanctified by it.

It is repeatedly remarked, that the prediction relating to the deliverance of this people, was fulfilled to a single day: "And it came to pass at the end of the 430 years, even the self same day, it came to pass, that all the hosts of the Lord went out of the land of Egypt." In this sum of 430 years, Moses reckoned all the pilgrimages of Abraham and his posterity, from his first leaving his kindred and his father's house in Mesopotamia, down to their triumphant exit from Egypt, and their setting out on the conquest of Canaan, whose iniquity, though not so before, was now full.

The whole number which accompanied Jacob from Canaan, when driven thence by famine, himself included, was sixty-six; which, added

to the family of Joseph already in Egypt, consisting of himself and Asenath, the daughter of the priest of On, adopted by marriage into the family of Abraham, and their two sons, the amount is seventy.,

In a little more than 200 years, when they left that country, they were increased to the amazing number of 600,000 men, of military age; without reckoning females, children of both sexes under twenty, and old men of sixty and upwards; for that was the age of superannuation among this people.

Men, with their usual haste and ignorance, would have been for conducting this mighty army directly to Canaan. And no doubt the same Almighty arm which had thus effected their liberty, could have led them straight on to conquest. But, contemplating the history of the Divine conduct, as ordering and governing the affairs of men, we find it composed of Providential interpositions, as well as of human exertions. Not all miracle; that were to encourage indolence and stupidity in rational beings, formed after the image of God, and to reduce men to mere passive clods of earth; nor all, on the other hand, the effect of human skill, industry, and diligence ; that were to resign the government of the world to the frail and foolish; that were to weaken the

power of religion, which is the life, the joy, the guide, the supporter of the universe.

But we discover Divine interposition to a certain degree, sufficient to inspire a reasonable confidence in and dependence upon, our great Creator, for the success of our exertions, when we have brought forth, and exercised those intellectual powers and faculties, which he hath bestowed upon us for this very purpose.

The passage of perhaps four millions of people, with their immense possessions of flocks, and herds, and other property from Egypt to Canaan, will appear one of those singular phænomena in history which no principles of human conduct, no natural, and ordinary concurrence of events can explain; and which must finally be resolved into a Wisdom and Power, preternatural and divine. Accordingly we find Providence taking immediately the charge of them, but not in the usual way; not by forming a regular discipline, and raising up commanders and magistrates of unusual address and ability; but declaring by sensible tokens: "I am the leader and commander of my people."

It is evident, God intended to form the courage of this people in the wilderness, before he tried it upon those nations which they were intended to subdue. Nay, further, it was His de

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sign to settle their whole civil and religious polity, while they were yet in an erratic state; that, when they came to Canaan, they might be prepared to execute the laws which they had already received. Instead then of marching them northward in the direction of Canaan, their course is bent eastward to the great wilderness, which bounds Egypt, and Arabia Petreak; God himself leading the way, in a most wonderful display of his glorious power and presence, described in these words: "And the Lord went before them, by day, in a pillar of a cloud; and by night, in a pillar of fire, to give them light.”

CHAPTER XIX.

MOSES.

THE gracious interpositions of Jehovah on behalf of his chosen people, have this peculiar recommendation to our attention, as they have had to that people's grateful observation and acknowledgment, that they were not in the usual course of things: they were the fruits of the constant unremitting care of a special Providence; they were the suspension, or the alteration, of the established laws of nature: they were the operation of a mighty hand, and of an outstretched arm, sensibly controlling the winds, the waves, and the clouds, and subduing the most ungovernable elements to his purpose.

In vain had Israel, by a series of miracles unparalleled in the annals of mankind, been rescued from Egyptian oppression, had not the same Almighty arm which delivered them at first, continued to protect and support them. The strength of Egypt, broken as it was, had been sufficient to force them back.-The wilderness itself had

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