History of Moses.

LECTURE XVIII.

And there went a man of the house of Levi, and took to wife a daughter of Levi. And the woman conceived, and bare a son; and when she saw him that he was a goodly child, she hid him three months. And when she could no longer hide him, she took for him an ark of bulrushes, and daubed it with slime and with pitch, and put the child therein; and she laid it in the flags by the river's brink. And his sister stood afar off to wit what would be done to him. And the daughter of Pharaoh came down to wash her self at the river, and her maidens walked along by the river's side: and when she saw the ark among the flags, she sent her maid to fetch it. And when she had opened it, she saw the child: and behold, the babe wept. And she had compassion on him, and said, This is one of the Hebrew's children. Then said his sister to Pharaoh's daughter, Shall I go and call to thee a nurse of the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for thee? And Pharaoh's daughter said unto her, Go. And the maid went, and called the child's mother. And Pharaoh's daughter said unto her, Take this child away, and nurse it for me, and I will give thee thy wages: and the woman took the child, and nursed it. And the child grew, and she brought him unto Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son: and she called his name Moses; and she said, Because I drew him out of the water.... EXODUS Xi. 1...10.

IF the ingenious fictions of ancient bards afford an

innocent and rational amusement, and be therefore held in high estimation; what superior obligation is the world under, to that divine Spirit who has vouchsafed to draw into light the most remote antiquity, to preserve from oblivion the venerable men who first cultivated and peopled the earth; and in the language, not of fiction, but of truth, has delineated the ways of Providence, and unfolded the deep and intricate recesses of the human heart? Were it not for the sacred pages of divine revelation we should have been entirely ignorant of what happened in the world, for at least one half of its duration. But borne on the wings of inspiration, we fly back to the very birth of nature, we behold the first dawning of light scattering the gloom, and converse with the first man whom God created upon the earth. And how much more pleasant, as well as profitable, is it to expatiate in the field of real history, than to wander and lose ourselves in the idle regions of romance! If we owe much to the illustrious poet of Greece, for his amusing pictures of early life and manners, how deeply are we indebted to the more illustrious Jewish historian and poet, who has furnished us with so much juster and more exalted ideas of Deity, more faithful and instructive pictures of human life; and who has so successively interwoven the history of redemption with that of mankind.

The sacred book which has afforded us during the year past, so much pleasing instruction, is altogether extraordinary in its kind, whether we consider the beauty of the composition, the importance of the information which it contains, the internal marks of authenticity which it bears, or the noble purposes to which it has been, and may be made subservient. Moses, its inspired author, who has with so much accuracy, elegance and force, described the characters and lives of the patriarchs from Adam to Joseph, is now enter, ing on his own wonderful and interesting story. The man who henceforth acts, is the same who writes: the

events which he is about to record come, not from the information of others, but from his own immediate knowledge; and the simplicity and candor of his narration are sufficient vouchers of its truth and faithfulness. Sixty-four years had now elapsed from the death of Joseph, and one hundred and thirty-four from the descent of Jacob into Egypt: and what surprising changes have taken place! A little band of seventy persons is multiplied into a great nation: the mild and gracious prince who took pleasure in cherishing and protecting the father and brethren of Joseph, is exchanged for a jealous and sanguinary tyrant, determined to depress and extripate their descendants: the country which once gave them support and shelter, is now moistened with their tears, and with the blood of their infant offspring; and favored guests, made to dwell in the best of the land, are turned into odious slaves condmned to the furnace. Such are the alterations which time is continually producing in human affairs, such the impotency of man to secure blessings to his posterity, such the misery of a people subjected to the will of a despotic sovereign.

In vain do men dream of national generosity and gratitude...they exist not: in vain do the claims of humanity and justice oppose themselves to the interest, the ambition or caprice of princes. Joseph had very unwisely contributed to the aggrandizement of the Egyptian monarchs, and his own family is the first to feel the rod of that power which he had helped to raise. Injustice in princes is always bad policy. A nation so certainly favored of Heaven as Israel was, must have proved the strongest bulwark to Egypt, if treated as friends. Increased from seventy souls, to six hundred thousand men, besides women and children, it was dangerous to irritate them, and difficult, if not impossible to subdue. Too proud to enter into treaty with them as allies, too timid to attempt their extirpation by open force, and too suspicious to confide in their grati

tude and attachment, Pharaoh adopts the barbarous policy of undermining their strength by excessive labor; of breaking their spirit by severity, and of preventing their future increase, by putting to death their male children as soon as they were born. Such a state of things was very unfavorable to marrying and giving in marriage. Nevertheless'marriages were contracted, and children procreated; for it is absurd as it is wicked, for any earthly power whatever to set itself to counteract the great plans of God and nature. God has said "increase and multiply;" in vain has Pharaoh said "abstain." Amram of the family of Levi, accordingly, in these worst of times, takes to wife Jochebed of the same tribe, indeed his own father's sister, by whom he had three children; Aaron, probably born before the bloody edict for destroying the males was published; Miriam, whose sex was a protection from the rigor of it, and Moses, who came into the world while it was operating with all its horrid effects.

Josephus in his Jewish antiquities relates, that about the time of the birth of Moses, one of the Egyptian seers informed the king that a child was about to arise among the Israelites, who should crush the power of Egypt, and exalt his own nation to great eminence and splendor, if he lived to the years of maturity: for that he should distinguish himself above all his contemporaries by his wisdom and virtue, and acquire immortal glory by his exploits. He farther alleges, that the king, instigated by his own fears of such an event, and by the cruel counsels of the seer, issued the bloody decree which must be an eternal blot upon his memory.

The distresses of Jochebed upon finding herself pregnant, is to be conceived, not described. The anxiety and apprehension naturally incident to that delicate situation, must have been aggravated by terrors more dreadful than the pangs of child-birth, or even the loss of life itself. As a wife and a mother in Israel, she was looking and longing for the birth of another

man child; but that sweet expectation was as often checked and destroyed by the bitter reflection that she was subject to the king of Egypt; that if she bare a son it was for the sword, or to glut some monster of the river. The Jewish antiquarian informs us, that the anxiety of the parents was greatly alleviated by assurances given to the father in a vision of the night, that the child with whom his wife was then preg、nant should be miraculously preserved, and raised up by Providence to the glorious and important work of delivering the seed of Abraham from their present misery. And indeed, this fact is countenanced and supported by the short hints which scripture has given us of the subject. Among the other instances of victorious faith recorded in the eleventh chapter of the Hebrews, that of the parents of Moses is marked with honor and approbation by the apostle. "By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three months of his parents, because they saw he was a proper child, and they were not afraid of the king's commandment,' Heb. xi. 23. It is not unreasonable to suppose, that their faith might have some particular promise or intimation from Heaven to rest upon.

The time at length came that she should be delivered; and she brought forth a son, according to the same historian, without the usual pains and consequent weakness of child-bearing; by which means no foreign aid being required, concealment was rendered · more easy, and the exertions of the mother in behalf of her child, were scarcely, if at all, interrupted. "A goodly child" is the modest language which Moses employs in describing himself: "exceeding fair," or fair to God, that is, divinely fair, is the stronger expression of St. Stephen, in his recapitulation of this period of the Jewish history. From which, without the fond encomiums of profane authors, we may conclude, that Providence had distinguished this illustrious person from his birth, by uncommon strength, size and beauty.