:

on the supposition of enthusiasm; it is perfectly intelligible, if we allow Moses to have been free from that mental disorder. He was living in much domestic comfort, which he had no inclination to resign he had formed a new set of connections, which he was unwilling to relinquish he was growing into years, and wished not to be disturbed: he had contracted a habit of rustic indolence, and shrank from an enterprize full of trouble if not of absolute danger: he had already proved the temper of his countrymen when long since he rose up to vindicate their wrongs, and he had no inclination to harass himself any further about them. A man under such impressions will not the more affect a laborious and comfortless office, because he is assured of supernatural power to execute it. He may indeed obey: but, so far as natural liking is concerned, the gift of miracles will not make him in love with trouble, nor will it induce him joyfully to exchange a life of ease for a life of toilsome anxiety. If among ourselves a retired and domestic man, in the decline of life, fixed in his habits, and with all his accustomed comforts about him, were suddenly commanded by a voice from heaven, which forthwith approved itself to be no deception. by enabling him to work a miracle upon the spot, to leave his family and to transport himself as an evangelist to the heart of China; if it were promised to him, that he should be secure from all personal danger, that God would be preternaturally with him, that his ministry should be illustrated by a most stupendous display of portents; and if he

were amply convinced by the divine speaker, that his efforts should be attended with complete success, though it would be necessary for him to dedicate the whole of his remaining life to the business: if a devout English believer so circumstanced received such a commission; it may be well doubted, whether in itself it would excite any very lively emotions of joy; it may be well doubted, whether he would not rather wish to decline the painful honour which courted his acceptance; it may be well doubted, whether he would not be ready to take up the deprecation of Moses, O my Lord, send, I pray thee, by the hand of him whom thou wilt send. Some such natural feelings plainly enough influenced the mind of the secluded octagenarian shepherd: but those feelings are no less plainly inconsistent with a wild and daring enthusiasm.

If it be objected, that ambition alone will sometimes lead men to encounter hardships and difficulties at a very advanced period of life, and therefore much more ambition when united with enthusiasm: I reply, that this will never be found to happen, except when a person has been incessantly accustomed to bustle and activity. Habit has then made a strong stimulus a necessary enjoyment: and, even on the verge of the grave, he will rush with all the ardour of expected happiness into scenes, which would give a death-blow to the serene felicity of reposing age. Moses, on the contrary, had led a life of complete inactivity during forty years. His habits were fixed in quiet

domestic indolence.

To have all his plans f

happiness therefore suddenly and unexpectedy broken in upon by a peremptory mandate fro heaven, must have been unspeakably grievous o the feelings of a peaceful old man, whose dreais of ambition were long since vanished into empty ar, and who panted after nothing so much as the ca3lessness of his wonted repose.

4. Here it may possibly be contended, tht, whatever might induce Moses to quit his retiremnt in Midian, his unceremonious address to Pharoh is precisely what might be expected from an inflæd and self-important enthusiast: Thus saith the Ird God of Israel, Let my people go, that they ay hold a feast unto me in the wilderness.'

I freely allow, that such is exactly the langige which a fanatic would use. Without any resect for dignities, he would at once make his demd, would assert that the Lord had sent him, and wald intimate that a judgment might be expecte to follow a refusal. But what then? Would a ere fanatic compass his ends the better by empling this language? So far from it, he would be spdily ordered out of the royal presence: and his dernds and his pretensions would be alike treatedvith well-merited contempt. Moses, on the corary, reluctant as Pharaoh was, did certainly at 1gth, by some means or other, extort his consen. So far as the matter of fact is concerned, the Iselites were brought out of Egypt, though the king hrtily

Exod. v. 1.

How was this

dsapproved of their emigration. efected, if Moses were nothing more than a rash athusiast? Theudas promised to divide Jordan,' ithe people would follow him': Moses threatened haraoh with God's immediate vengeance, if he resumed to detain the Israelites. In what manner vere these different engagements fulfilled? Theudas ad his followers miserably perished by the Roman sord: Moses and his followers marched out of Hypt in despite of the Egyptians, and the Hebrew ntion finally succeeded in establishing itself in Plestine. How are we to account for this prodigius difference of result, if Moses and Theudas ake were two wrong-headed enthusiasts? The languge, employed by the former in his interview with Paraoh, is clearly that, either of a rank fanatic, orf a conscious heaven-sent prophet. Either of thse characters would use such language: the on, because he fancied himself to be God's delegat; the other, because he was really so. If a mee enthusiast used it, he would fail of success : if true prophet employed it, the predicted result wold follow. But Moses safely conducted the Isralites out of Egypt, as the gentile writers themselvs acknowledge. Therefore Moses could not have been a mere enthusiast, whatever may have been the mode in which he accomplished his purpose.

5. To the preceding arguments we may add that, which is derived from the texture of the Law itself.

Here we find no traces of enthusiasm, but rather evident marks of sound moral feeling and of deep

political wisdom. The code is built upon the best principles and every thing in it is admirably calculated to produce the desired and avowed object, the worship of one sole God, and the separation of Israel from the pagan world. No mere enthusiast could ever have excogitated such a volume.

An infidel may perhaps urge, that none but a fanatic would have promised victory and success upon condition of obedience to his statutes. :

He forgets, that an inspired delegate of heaven might have been ordered to do the very same. Whether Moses was the one or the other, must be determined by the accomplishment or the nonaccomplishment of the promise. An enthusiast might so promise, but he could not perform: a true prophet only could both promise, and ensure performance. If the making then of such a promise be an argument of enthusiasm on the part of Moses, the due performance of it must be no less an argument of his divine legation. The promise in question must either have been accomplished, or not accomplished. If accomplished; then Moses must have been an inspired prophet: if not accomplished; then the Israelites, like the deluded followers of Theudas, must soon have detected his falsehood, and must soon have found reason to lament their own absurd credulity. The fanatical partizans of the covenant promised the Scottish ariny a complete victory over Cromwell but they found it more easy to make, than to fulfil, their promise.

II. It may be objected, that, if Moses were