4. The various miracles which God wrought to feed and supply the Israelites during forty years in the deserts of Arabia.

5. God, in awful majesty, giving the law from mount Sinai in Arabia.

6. The foolish and wicked idolatry of the Israelites in making a golden calf as an object of worship.

7. The costly and particular system of ceremonies for the public worship of God, designed to shadow forth the way of salvation by Jesus Christ.

Observations on the Ten Plagues of Egypt.

These ten plagues were inflicted upon Egypt in a manner remarkably adapted to punish the stupid idolatries of that people, their monstrous wickedness, and their wanton cruelties. This will evidently appear from a few observations.

1. The waters turned to blood. The priests of Egypt held blood in abhorrence, yet they cruelly sported with the blood of the captive Israelites, whose children they had caused to be cast into the river. The Egyptians worshipped the river Nile, calling it the ocean; but its waters being turned into blood, must have excited their loathing and detestation, while the calamity would cover them with confusion and shame, ther fish having died, and their deity being degraded.

2. The plague of frogs. Frogs were consecrated to the Egyptian deity Osiris; and their swelling was employed, by the priests, as an emblem of divine inspira

tion. Their gross superstition, therefore, was suitably punished when their sacred river was polluted with miraculous swarms of these creatures, so as to fill the land, and to enter even their houses, their beds, and the vessels of their food, making the whole country offensive.

3. The plague of lice. The idolatries of Egypt were accompanied with rites, the most unclean, foul, and abominable; but these were performed under the appearance of scrupulous external cleanliness, especially in respect to the priests. They were excessively cautious lest any lice should be found upon their garments; so that by this plague, their superstitious prejudices must have been distressingly shocked, and the people with the priests overwhelmed with a common disgrace.

4. The plague of flies. The Egyptians worshipped several deities, whose province it was to drive away flies. In many places they even offered an ox in sacrifice to these despicable insects. Beelzebub, or Baalzebul, the god of Ekron, 2 Kings i. 2. was a fly deity of this people. The plague of flies, therefore, was the more grievous to them, as it so utterly degraded this revered divinity.

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5. The murrain of the cattle. The Egyptians held many beasts in idolatrous veneration. The lion, wolf, dog, cat, ape, and goat, among the wild animals, were held sacred by them; but especially the ox, heifer, and ram. soul of their god Osiris was believed to reside in the body of the bull Apis: yet neither Osiris nor all the rest could save the beasts of Egypt from the fatal disease which fell upon them at the command of Moses the messenger of Jehovah.

6. The plague of boils. The Egyptians had several medical divinities, to whom, on particular occasions, they sacrificed living men. These were taken, it is supposed, in those times, from among the Israelites. They were burnt alive upon a high altar, and their ashes were cast into the air; that with every scattered atom a bless

ing might descend. Moses, therefore, took ashes from the furnace, and cast them into the air; atoms of which were scattered by the wind, and overspread the land, and these descended upon both priests and people in curses, with tormenting boils, which shamed their honoured deities.

7. The plague of hail, rain, and fire. In Egypt it neither hails nor rains: consequently this plague must have been very terrible. By the destruction of the barley, their supply of food must have been grievously diminished; and by the loss of the flax the trade in fine linen, which in Egypt was very great and important, must have been extensively spoiled.

8. The plague of locusts. In Africa these destructive creatures so dreadfully abound, that their swarms sometimes cover an extent of land a hundred miles square; and, devouring in a single night every green herb, they produce a fearful famine. Such havoc followed them in Egypt; nor could Isis, Serapis, and all the divinities of the land, avail to deliver them from under the rod of Moses, the appointed badge of his divine mission.

9. The plague of darkness. The Egyptians worshipped darkness as the origin of their gods. Orpheus, the most ancient pagan writer, who borrowed his notions from Egypt, in one of his hymns says, "I will sing of night, the parent of the gods and men: night, the origin of all things." They were therefore plagued with a horrible darkness-the blackness of darkness, with darkness which might be felt; and which their gods had no power either to prevent or alleviate, while the Israelites enjoyed light in all their dwellings.

10. The death of the first-born in every family. The howlings of the Egyptians at their funerals, and at the decease of their friends, were dreadful beyond those of every other people; but now they had cause for their lamentation. The principal reason of this last and heaviest calamity, was to avenge their unlamented cruelties upon the people of Israel. They had been preserved as

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a nation by one of that family, and yet they had enslaved the people, and murdered their male children; but now the awful vengeance of God overtook them, in righteous retribution visiting every house.

LEVITICUS.

The third book in the Bible is called Leviticus, because it contains the laws relating to the ceremonies and offices of divine worship, to be observed by the Israelites, among whom the Levites were divinely appointed to be the ministers of religion. Leviticus was written by Moses: it is divided into twenty-seven chapters, and includes four principal sections.

Section 1. Contains the laws concerning the several kinds of sacrifices, ch. i.—vii.

Sec. II. The laws and ceremonies of consecrating the high priests, ch. viii.—x.

Sec. III. The laws relating to the various purifications, ch. xi.-xxii.

Sec. IV. The laws concerning the sacred festivals, ch. xxiii.-xxvii.

The book of Leviticus contains a code of laws, sacrificial, ceremonial, civil, and judicial, which, for the purity of their morality, the wisdom, justice, and beneficence of their enactments, and the simplicity, dignity, and impressive nature of their rites, are perfectly unrivalled, and altogether worthy of their Divine Author. All the ceremonies of the Mosaic ritual are at once dignified and expressive: they evidently point out the holiness of their Author, the sinfulness of man, the necessity of an atonement, and the state of moral excellence to which the mercy and grace of the Creator have destined to raise the human soul. They include, as well as point out, the gospel of the Son of God; from which they receive their consummation and perfection. The sacrifices and oblations were significant of the atonement of Christ; the requisite qualities of those sacrifices were

emblematical of his immaculate character; and the prescribed mode in the form of those offerings, and the mystical rites ordained, were allusive institutions, calculated to enlighten the apprehensions of the Jews, and to prepare them for the reception of the gospel. The institution of the high priesthood, typified Jesus the great High Priest, who hath an unchangeable priesthood, by which he is able to save to the uttermost all that come unto God by Him. Thus the Levitical economy directed the pious Hebrews to behold "the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world!"

The epistle to the Hebrews is an inspired commentary upon the book of Leviticus, from which we learn that the Hebrew ritual was the gospel of Christ exhibited in symbols or shadows.

That which is most remarkable in the Levitical ceremonies, is the ordinance of the daily and yearly sacrifices, as atonements for the sins of the nation. The daily sacrifice was a lamb; one in the morning for the sins of the night, and another in the evening for the sins of the day, Exod. xxix. 38-42, at which time the priest offered incense upon the golden altar, with prayers for the whole Israelitish people. The annual sacrifice, on the day of atonement, was two goats: after the sins of the nation had been confessed over their heads, which was the custom at the daily sacrifice, one of them was offered in sacrifice as a burnt-offering; and the other was led into the wilderness to be seen no more, as if it bore away for ever the guilt of the whole community, Lev. xvi. 15-21.

The most remarkable fact recorded in Leviticus, is the judgment of God upon Nadab and Abihu, sons of Aaron, on account of their irreverence.

Probably nothing was ever written, in so small a compass, so accurately to express the typical nature of the Levitical ordinances, as the following verses of the poet Cowper.