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called ISAAC; and of him a Grandchild called JACOB (q) very much like him in Faith, Wisdom, and Renown. The Grandchild, having twelve Sons, departs from CANAAN to a Land, which will afterwards be called EGYPT, divided by the River NILE: See there where it flows, difgorging itself at seven Mouths into the Sea! He comes to live in that Land, being thither invited by a younger Son in a Time of Famine; (call him JOSEPH) a Son, whofe worthy Deeds raife him to be the next in Dignity to PHARAOH in that Kingdom: There he dies, and leaves his Race growing into a Nation; and being thought too powerful, by another King who fucceeded to the Throne of that Kingdom, fome Years after the Death of JOSEPH, he fought to stop the Growth of their Numbers, looking upon them as too numerous a People to fhare the Land with them: Whence he, inhofpitably, of Guests made them Slaves; and ordered the Midwives of EGYPT, to kill all the HEBREW male Infants; till by two Brethren, (call those two Brethren MOSES (r) and AARON) who shall be

from Chaldea into Egypt, as Jo. Jephus relates: But Geometry was first found out in Egypt, from the Overflowing of the Nile. He was born A. M. 1948, and lived an hundred and feventy five Years.

(9) Jacob increased wonderfully; for of seventy Souls which went with him into Egypt, in the Space of two hundred and fifteen Years they increased to fix hundred thoufand armed Men, befides Women, Children, and old Men unfit for War. At the first numbering of them, in the first Year after they went out of Egypt, they were 603,550, Exod. xxx. 11, 12. xxxviii 25, 26. In the fecond Year their Number was the fame, although the Tribe of

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sent from God, to demand his People to be delivered from Bondage: They return back again to their promifed Land, with Glory and Spoils. But firft the lawless Tyrant (who denies to know any Thing of their GoD, or give any Reward to their Meffage) must be compelled to let them go, by Signs and great Plagues: The Rivers, and Ponds, and Pools of Water, must all be turned to Blood; his Palace must be filled at different Times with Frogs, and Lice, and Flies, which will be loathfomely fcattered all over the Land: There must be a grievous Murrain; his Cattle muft die of the Rot, and Blotches and Blains muft. disfigure all his Flesh, and the Flesh of all his People Then Thunder, and Hail, and Fire, running along upon the Ground very grievous, fuch as there was none like it in EGYPT fince it became a Nation; and it fmote both MAN and Beaft, and every Herb of the Field, and broke every Tree. What that does not devour, either Herb, or Fruit, or Grain, a darkfome Cloud of Locufts (fuch as had never been before, nor never will be again) must eat, and leave nothing green upon the Ground: A thick Darkness muft overshadow all his Kingdom; fuch Darkness as may be felt, and endure for three Days; fo that they neither faw one, another, nor any rofe from their Place And lastly, with one Stroke at Midnight, all the First-born of EGYPT, from the King to the

was Joachim, Jehotiel, Chabar, &c. Vide Huet. Dem. Evang. P. 120. Mofes was the youngest Son of Amram and Jockebed, of the Tribe of Levi, born in Egypt, A. M. 2373. The grand Prophet and Lawgiver of the Jews, and cele rated by the wifeft and beft of the antient Heathens, as being the first and greateft Phi lofopher, Poet, and Lawgiver in the World; for he was five hundred Years before Homer,

eight hundred before Thales, nine hundred before Pythago as, eleven hundred before Socrates, Plato, and Ariftotle; and from him they extracted all the belt Parts of their Philofophy, Policy, Hiftory, Religion and Laws. He died on Mount Nebo in the Land of Moab, at an hundred and twenty Years of Age, upon the feventh Day of the Month, on which he was born, A. M. 2493.

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meanest Servant, must be laid dead; and even the Firft-born of Beafts. Thus PHARAOH, the King of EGYPT, at length tamed with these ten Plagues, fub. mits to let the Children of ISRAEL depart; and often humbles his ftubborn Heart; but still it was like Ice, that will freeze the harder after it has been thawed: 'Till purfuing in his Rage thofe he had fo lately difmiffed, the Sea fwallows him up, with all his Army; but lets the Children of ISRAEL pafs as upon dry Land, and the Waters were a Wall unto them, on their Right-Hand and on their Left, which ftood fo divided on MOSES's ftretching his Rod over the Sea; 'till fuch Time as thofe he had to refcue were got on Shore (s) through the RED SEA. Such wondrous Power GOD will lend to holy Moses, though his Angel will be there in Prefence; who fhall go before the Camp of ISRAEL, in a Cloud and a Pillar of Fire; and remove and go behind them, by Day a Cloud, and by Night a Pillar of Fire, to guide them in their Journey while PHARAOH purfues them. He will pursue them all Night, but GOD will interpofe Darkness between him and them 'till Morning; then looking through the fiery Pillar and the Cloud, Gop will trouble the Army of the EGYPTIANS, and render all their Chariots unfit for Ufe: When MOSES, by Command, extends his powerful Rod once more over

(3) Shore; Sax. Dut. A Geographical Term. This Shore was on the Egyptian Ground. The People did not go directly cross the Red Sea from Shore to Shore, according to the vulgar Opinion; but took a circular Compafs in that Sea, and came out on the fame Side: The Sea there is about feven Leagues over. The Ifraelites went out of the Wilderness of Etham in Egypt, and came out of it upon

the very fame Side; they travelled three Days in the fame Wilderness Then they marched Northward to the Ifthmus of Sues, a Tract of dry Land between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea, which is eighteen Leagues broad; and there they travelled out of Egypt, as others do, into the Wilderness of Arabia; where they abode forty Years.

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the Sea; the Sea obeys his Rod, the Waves return to their Place that stood divided, and over-whelmed all the Hoft of PHARAOH: The chofen People of GoD advance on, through the wild Defert, towards CANAAN; not the neareft Way, left entering on the Country of the CANAANITES, it might alarm them, and they be obliged to enter into War, being quite undifciplined, and Fear might make them return back to EGYPT, chufing inglorious Life with Slavery, rather than Death: (for Life is more fweet to the nobleft Minds, fpent in Peace, than in War; except where Rashness pufhes forwards.) This alfo they fhall gain by their Stay in the Wildernefs; that there they fhall lay the Foundations of their Government, and chufe their great Senate (t), through the twelve Tribes, to rule according to the Laws which GOD ordained. Go D, defcending from the Mountain of SINAI, (which fhall tremble at his Prefence) will himself ordain them Laws, with Thunder, Lightning, and the loud Sound of a Trumpet: Part, fuch as appertain to civil Juftice; Part, Religious Rites of Sacrifice, teaching them, by Types and Shadows of that Seed which was decreed to bruize the Serpent, by what Means he fhall bring the Deliverance of MANKIND to pafs. But the Voice of God is dreadful to the Ears of MEN; they befeech, that MoSES

(t) Senate; Fr. Ital. Span. Lat. A Council of old Men. The Lacedemonians called them Gerontes, Gr. i. e. Old Men or Senators; they were always chofen for this Office, because of their greater Experience and Prudence. We find them mentioned in the early Days of Job. Such only were elected in the Areopagus or grand Council of Athens, Sparta, Rome, and all o ther polite Nations. The Jew b Council was first inftituted

by the Advice of Jethro, MoJes's Father in law, Exodus xvii. 25, 26; and afterwards erected into the Number of feventy-two Elders, i. e. fix Men out of every Tribe, by divine Inftitution; and Mofes was the Prince or Head of them, Numb. xi. 16. It was called Beth-dan, i. e. The House of Judgment, and Sanhedrim or Sanhedrin, contracted from the Greek Synedrian, i. e. A Synod or Affembly.

might report his Will to them, and that Terror might ceale: He grants them their Defire; they being inftructed, that there is no Access to GOD without a Mediator, whofe high Office now MOSES bears in a figurative Senfe, to introduce one greater, of whofe Day he fhall foretell, and all the Prophets in their Age fhall prophecy of the Times of the great MESSIAH. Thus Laws and Rights. being established, GOD takes fuch Delight in MEN, obedient to his Will, that he vouchfafes to fet up his Tabernacle among them, and (though the holy and everlasting GoD) to dwell with mortal MEN. By his Ordinance is built a Sanctuary of Cedar, overlaid with Gold; and in that an Ark, or little Cheft; and in that his Testimony, the Records of his Covenant with his People: Over thefe a Mercy-Seat of Gold, between the Wings of two bright Cherubim: Before him burn feven Lamps, as in a Zodiack, whofe Number is to represent the feven Planets: Over the Tent a Cloud fhall reft by Day, and a Gleam of Fire by Night, except when they travel; for then the Cloud fhall be taken up from over the Tabernacle; 'till at length they come, conducted by the Angel of GOD, to the Land promifed to ABRAHAM and his Seed.

The reft were long to tell, how many Battles fought, how many Kings deftroyed and how many Kingdoms won; or how the Sun fhali ftand ftill in the Midft of Heaven a whole Day, and put off the due Course of the Night, at the Command and Voice of a MAN; "Sun! ftand thou ftill upon GIBEON (u), "and thou Moon! in the Valley of AJALON (x),

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i. e. An Oak, an Hind, or Strength; because it was a ftrong City. It belonged to the Philiftines, in the Tribe of Dax, four Miles from Jerufalem to the South-Eaft: Near it this Miracle was wrought by Joshua. It was given to the Levites. See Joshua x. 12,

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