As to the cafe of Abraham, with refpect to the command he received to offer his fon Ifaac, it cannot, I think, be denied, that he who gave life had a right to take it away, and in whatever manner his infinite wifdom fhould fee fit; and if, for the trial of his obedience in fo tender a point, he chofe to make Abraham himself the inftrument of it, inftead of a disease, or what we ufually call an accident, I do not know that it is inconfiftent with any thing that we already know of the divine conduct. Abraham, who had had frequent communications with God, could have no doubt concerning the authority from which the order came ;` and knowing the divine power and juftice, he might be satisfied that, notwithstanding all appearances, neither himself nor his fon would be lofers by their obedience.

Paul fays, that Abraham knew that God was even able to raise Ifaac from the dead, and indeed it is probable that this was the very thing that Abraham expected; for the promise that was made. to him, of being the father of many nations, chiefly respected Ifaac, In Ifaac fhall thy feed be called. If, therefore, Abraham believed this promife, he must have fully expected, either that God would not permit him to put his fon to death, or that he would raife him from the dead; and if he had not firmly believed the former promife, much lefs would he have regarded this harsh command.

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It may also be obferved, in order to leffen the difficulty which arifes from this part of the fcripture hiftory, that the Gentile world was, probably, about this time, falling into the horrid cuf tom of human facrifices; and that the divine being might chufe to fhew, in this inftance, that though he had a right to demand such offerings, they were not pleafing to him, and he would not accept of them. Upon all other occafions he is represented as expreffing the greatest abhorrence of fuch cruel rights, and his higheft difpleafure against all thofe nations who practifed them. See Lev. xviii. 21. Deut. xviii. 10. Jer. vii. 31. Ez. xvi, 21. XX. 26. 31.

I would obferve farther, that, with refpect to ideas of right and equity, the fentiments of those people who obferved any particular fact, and who were to be inftructed by it, fhould be chiefly confidered. Now it cannot be pretended that any objection was ever made to God's requiring the facrifice of Ifaac, for the trial of Abraham's faith and obedience, till the prefent age, which is above four thousand years fince the event; nor can it be made to appear that any bad confequence ever flowed from it.

Though the Ifraelites left Egypt loaded with the treasures of the country, the ungrateful usage they had met with, and the cruel and unjust fervitude to which they had been reduced, and the VOL. II.

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recompenfe they were fairly intitled to fhould be confidered, in order to leffen the difficulty which might arife from the account of the method which they took to recover their right. But the word which we render borrow, alfo fignifies to require, or demand; and in the fituation in which the Egyptians are reprefented to have been, willing to get rid of the Ifraelites at any rate, left they should all be dead men, it may eafily be imagined, that they would have been as ready to give, as to lend them, whatever they should have asked.

It is alfo faid, that when they left the country, it was on a promise to return; but certainly that promise must have been cancelled by the hoftile manner in which they were purfued by the Egyptians. Befides the use of ftratagems, in order to free men from unjust fervitude, is not confidered as liable to much objection in the history of human affairs,

It is also objected to this part of the history, that God is faid to have hardened the heart of Pharaoh, in order that he might do the very things for which he is exprefsly faid to have been punished. But in the language of fcripture, God is often faid to do, whatever comes to pass according to the ordinary courfe of nature and providence; and therefore God's not interpofing to foften the heart of Pharaoh, may be all that is meant when he is said to harden it.

Befides,

Besides, it is fufficiently intimated, in the course ef the narration, that the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, not by any proper act of God, but in confequence of its own depravity, and the circumftances he was in. For when the frogs were removed, we read, Exod. viii. 15, that when Pharaoh saw that there was refpite, he hardened his heart, and hearkened not unto them, as the Lord had faid. Pharaoh does not feem to have been more infatuated than the rulers of the Jews were, with refpect to the murder of Chrift; and yet nobody fuppofes that they did not, in that case act, naturally, or as their own evil difpofitions prompted them.

It is faid that, by the account of Mofes himself, miracles were wrought by the Egyptian magicians, as well as by himself and Aaron; and therefore that his miracles were no proof of a divine miffion. But all that Mofes really fays, is that the Egyptians did (by which he could not poffibly mean more than that they feemed, or pretended to do) by their arts and tricks, what he performed by the finger and power of God. The word which we render fo, only means a general fimilitude, and by no means, neceffarily, a perfect sameness, refpecting both the effect and the caufe. Nay, this very word is applied when the magicians failed of fuccefs. Exod. viii. 18. They did fo, to bring forth lice, but they could not, that is, they practised the fame

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fame arts, but in vain. Alfo the words which we render enchantments, &c. only fignify covered arts, and fecret fleights, in which the Egyptians are known to have excelled.

If the Egyptian magicians were really poffeffed of fupernatural power, why did they not employ it to defeat the purposes of Mofes's miracles, and relieve their country? More especially, why did they not guard themselves from the boils which are exprefsly faid to have been upon the magici.. ans, as well as upon Pharaoh, and the reft of the Egyptians, and why did they fail in the cafe of the lice? The reafon of this failure plainly appears, from the hiftory, to have been, that, with refpect to this miracle, they had no notice beforehand what they were to do, and therefore could not prepare themselves as before.

Pharaoh himself would naturally imagine, that the miracles of Mofes were only fuch tricks as his own magicians excelled in, and therefore very properly called them in, to see whether they could do the fame, and detect the impofition; and fo long as they could contrive to seem to do any thing like what Mofes performed, it is no wonder that, circumstanced and prejudiced as he was, he shut his eyes to the evidence of the divine power which accompanied Mofes,

In fact, the Egyptian magicians themselves feem to have confeffed, that there was nothing above

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