"Many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, when the Heaven was shut up for three years and six months, when great famine was throughout all the land." That is, there was no rain; see James 5, 17. Are not these quotations sufficient to prove the perforation. The scriptures also frequently speak of the Heavens passing away, and the creation of new Heavens, and of the pillars and foundation of Heaven and of their trembling, but the passages which are as decisive as any other of the main position (that Heaven meant an arch,) are the following--Psalm civ, 2: "Who stretchest out the heavens as a curtain." Isa. Lx, 22, to the same effect, also xxxiv, 4: "And the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll." And Rev. vi, 14: "And the heavens departed as a scroll when it is rolled together;" that is, heaven was rolled up as we roll a sheet of paper or a piece of sheet iron. What stronger proof can you require that Moses' firmament, or heaven, was a solid, though transparent and pliant, arch or concave. The sun, moon, and stars were set in it, as gems in a coronet-water rested upon it-it had doors or windows, through whose openings the water ran—was spread out-could be rolled up, and was to be destroyed, and a new one made in its place. Ezekiel says, its likeness was as the color of the terrible chrystal stretched forth over their heads; and Josephus, a Jewish author, held in high repute by you all, calls it the chrystaline. And lastly, its very name imports solidity.

I am aware that some of you, seeing the force of this argument, object to the common translation, and tell us that the Hebrew word rendered firmament can and should be rendered expanse, or expansion. Let us test the correctness of this translation, by the same rule that polemics adopt towards each other, viz: substituting the word expanse for heaven, or firmament, in the passages quoted. "And God said let there be an expanse," (firmament). That must be a singular system of philosophy, which shall teach that it required a fiat from any being whatever, for the existence of expanse or expansion. Again: "And God made the expanse and divided the waters which were under the expanse from the waters which were above the expanse." Will you be pleased to inform us where those waters must have been which were above expanse; for Moses tells us "it was so.' "And the windows of expanse were opened and stopped:" "If I shut up expanse and there be no rain:" "When the expanse is shut up and there is no rain:" "The expanse was shut up for three years:" "The expanse shall pass away:" "The foundations and pillars of expanse were shaken or trembled:" "Who stretchest out expanse as a curtain:" "And the expanse shall be rolled together as a scroll." "And the expanse departed as a scroll when it is rolled together." The stretching out and rolling up of expanse, its destruction and passing away, and the trembling of its pillars

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are all equally ridiculous. We are all very curious to see a new expanse, Were it not that men of great reputation for talents and learning really have, or pretend to have, faith in Moses, I should feel ashamed seriously to labor this question. I pronounce the allegation that God made the Heaven, or firmament, a falsehood; for we know that no such thing ever existed. But it is said that Moses was not a philosopher, and that his object was not to teach us a system of physics. His object was surely to teach what he undertook to teach, and the misfortune is that his doctrine, or teaching, whether you call it theology or philosophy, is false. Will you admit that God ever inspired a man to teach a false system of physics? You may reply, as many have, that Moses found the crude system in existence, and universally admitted, Would God enjoin upon him to perpetuate it, by a record that was to go down to the latest generations? But the truth is, Moses was not, properly speaking, acting the part of a philosopher. The astronomer, for instance, treats only of the laws of the motions of the great orbs, which laws he has learned from observation; and the moment he begins to talk about when and how God (Theos) made them and put them in motion, he is stepping out of his proper field and trespassing upon the theologian, The astronomer says, the planet is of such a size, and moves in such an orbit. The theologian says, God (Theos) made it at a certain period, and ordered it to move in a certain orbit, Moses was therefore playing the part of a theologian as much, when treating of the creation of the earth and firmament, as when speaking of the creation of man, and his fall. We have shewn that the account of the one is false: and shall we then put faith in the other? As we cannot in this latter instance, as in the former, prove a negative, and as this is a question of fact, I ask the question, which I shall frequently ask: on which wide is the probability? Is it as probable that those wonderful literal facts found in the first chapters of Genesis, actually occurred, as that Moses was romancing? This, as well as all other questions like it, is for the candid, independent reader to decide, The following are a few of those growing out of the writings attributed to Moses, viz: Did God actually appear and talk to Moses, face to face-shew him his hinder parts-engrave on stonewrestle with Jacob and wither his thigh? Was Moses' hand leprous one moment and sound the next? Did God convert his staff into a serpent? Did he (Moses) afterwards do the same thing? Did the magicians of Egypt also? Did Moses bring many plagues upon Egypt, each of which would have destroyed the whole population? Did God order him, Joshua, and others, to do what would disgrace even an Alaric or a Pizaro? I say, in all such questions of fact, the reader is to decide whether the probability is as great that the things were done and the orders issued, as that the writers spoke falsely.

One of your great arguments in support of these facts, is certain institutions commemorative of some of them, commenced at the time, and continued down uninterruptedly to this day among the Jews.

Admitting, for the nonce, that there is force in the argument, let us aseertain what institutions these are, and of what facts they are said to be commemorative. These institutions are said to be feasts, or holy convocations, or holy days; and of all these Jewish feasts, but two are pretended by Moses to be commemorative of facts, viz: the feast of tabernacles, and the feast of the passover; the first, commemorative of the fact that the Israelites had lived in tents-a very common circumstance, or fact, and perfectly immaterial to me, whether true or not; the other, of the fact that God slew all the first born of the children of Egypt, on the night of the departure of the Israelites from that country, passing by the houses of the Israelites, because their door-posts were stained with blood.

It will be proper, in this place, to give a concise history of the Israelites, from Abraham until Moses. The former is said to be the father of the faithful-the person to whom God promised that in his seed all the families of the earth should be blessed-a native of Ur of Chaldee; his travels and wanderings can be found in Genesis. He had one son, Isaac, by his wife, in her old age; Isaac had two, Esau and Jacob, the latter of whom by fraud and trick, said to be approved of by God, obtained his father's bless ing, that is, the rights and immunities of primogeniture. Jacob, by his wives and mistresses, had twelve sons, after whom the twelve tribes of Israel are named, he having been called Israel after he wrestled with God and prevailed. One of his sons, Joseph, (and the affecting story of Joseph is familiar to you all) was sold as a slave, by some of his brethren, to some merchants travelling to Egypt; they sold him to the King of Egypt. By means of his skill in interpreting dreams, he became one of the King's ministers. Anticipating a famine, he purchased and laid up in the King's store houses large supplies of grain. The famine extending to the land of Canaan, where his father and brethren dwelt, some of them went down to Egypt to purchase a supply of corn. Joseph recognized them, and finally prevailed on the whole family, the old gentleman and all the daughtersin-law, to settle in Egypt. They went down, seventy-five souls in all, and settled on the coast of the Mediterranean, east of the Nile, in that part of Egypt called Goshen. Here they increased in a wonderful manner; for as some say in two hundred and thirty, and some in four hundred, and others in four hundred and thirty years, they had become sufficiently numerous to furnish six hundred thousand fighting men. I allude to the time that Moses is said to have led them out of that country. It appears from Moses' account, that they had been for a long time oppressed by the Kings

of Egypt; and what is very remarkable, one of the decrees of the King was, that all the male children of the Hebrews or Israelites should be strangled at birth; but the midwives, and it appears there were but two to all this people, (it is impossible to read the account with any thing like patience, as this people are sometimes represented as amounting to at least two millions, and again as living in a small village, and each knowing what every other one did,) said they could not kill them all, and thus it would appear that if they escaped the midwives' hands, they were suffered to live. Yet this Moses was hid three months after his birth, and then, for fear he would be put to death if discovered, his mother contrived to place him in a situation where he would either be picked up by the King's daughter, or be drowned. He was taken up by the King's daughter and reared in the court of Pharoah; and was, as St. Stephen tells us, "learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians," which consisted then, as now, in magic, or tricks of legerdemain. We are at a loss, then, whether this decree was rigidly executed or not, for we are told both ways. If it was, it is perfectly ridiculous to suppose there could have been six hundred thousand fighting men when Moses appeared among them from the land of Midian; for he was then eighty years old; it is perfectly ridiculous, I say, to suppose that a decree of this nature could have been in existence for eighty years, and enforced, as we are led to believe it was, from the case of Moses himself, and there still have been six hundred thousand fighting men. Decree or no decree, it is incredible, that from seventy-five souls, there could have sprung as many as two millions, in even four hundred years, and especially in that region so subject to plagues. We return to

the narration.

When Moses was forty years old, he slew an Egyptian that was maltreating one of his brethren, for which he fled his country, and went and dwelt in the neighboring country of Midian, where, after forty years residence, God (he says) appeared to him, and told him he must go and lead his people out of Egypt. This is the first interview of which it is pretended we have any account from the man himself whom God is alleged to have met. Moses obeys the orders of God. The plagues he is said to have brought on the Egyptians, in order to induce the King of Egypt to let his people leave that country for a few day's journey, in order to sacrifice, you are all familiar with. It will be remarked that Moses never intimates that his intention or wish was to take his final departure from Egypt; but on the contrary, expressly tells Pharoah, that his only object was to take his people out a few day's journey, merely to sacrifice; and this deception he practised at the express direction (he says) of God. And all this finesse was resorted to, and these miracles wrought to induce the King of

Egypt, who probably never had even three hundred thousand men at his command, to grant a favor to this Israelite who had six hundred thou sand warriors at his back. Moses finally extorts permission from the King that he might go-to sacrifice, mind you. Under the false pretence (that they were going a few days' journey only,) the Israelitish women, at the command of God, communicated to them through his agent, Moses, borrowed the jewels of the Egyptian ladies, intending never to return them. (Just think of this-God enjoining swindling!) But this is not all; God is determined that Moses shall glut his vengeance by murdering all the first born of the children of Egypt on the night previous to the departure of the Hebrews. For this purpose God Almighty tells Moses, that he (God Almighty) is to be the chief—in fact, the only actor in this butchery; and that for fear, he (God Almighty) will make some mistake and murder some Hebrews in the bloody tragedy about to be enacted, the children of the Israelites (after having got their shoes and hats on, and provision in their packs, and them slung, in fine, after being properly prepared and tucked up for a start,) must each kill a goat and besmear his door posts, as a sign to this God Almighty, that in such house a Hebrew lives, and into which he is not to enter, but over or by which he is to pass. This is the passover; and to commemorate this wanton and foul murder-for Moses says all was done as concerted-the feast of the passover was instituted by him, soon after he left Egypt. Now if any body can believe that the finger of God was in this thing, or that he was the actor in this bloody business, or can think it probable, he has a mind differently constituted from mine. In the first place, that God Almighty would be the physical agent in a butchery of this extent, is past belief and degrading to God. In the next place, to suppose that God Almighty would not know what house to enter with his Bowie knife, unless directed by the absence of this bloody token, is paying but a sorry compliment to his discernment.

That a tribe or horde of Arabs might have dwelt on the confines of Egypt, and that some few choice spirits among them, imagining themselves aggrieved, or for the mere love of destruction, might have murdered helpless children to some extent, on the eve of their departure, may or may not be true-similar scenes have been acted even in our own times. Moses does not pretend that his people saw this murdering. From the very circumstances of the case, the great body of them were neither to see nor do any of it. They were to besmear their door-posts only, and God Almighty was to do the work, and immediately when told it was done, they were to scamper. From Moses' own account, his people were only told that the tragedy was played: yet you christians put the strong case of the children of Israel passing the Red sea, and ask with quite a show of