raoh king of Egypt.---Thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I am against thee, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great dragon that lieth in the midst of his rivers, which hath said, My river is mine own, and I have made it for myself Behold

therefore, I am against thee, and against thy rivers, and I will make the land of Egypt utterly waste and desolate, from Migdol even to Syene and the borders of Cush. plished; and the prophet it was to be effected.

This was accom

foretells by whom Therefore thus saith

the Lord God, Behold, I will give the land of Egypt unto Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon; and he shall take her multitude, and take her spoil, &c. chap. xxix. 2, 3, 10, 19. And they shall know that I am the Lord, because he hath said, The river is mine, and I have made it. ver. 9. The same conquest is alluded to by the prophet Jeremiah, who mentions the like circumstances.---Egypt riseth up like a flood, and his waters are moved like the rivers: and he saith, I will go up, and will cover the earth. chap. xlvi. 8. Here the widely extended army is compared to the overflowing of the Nile. Such is the history of the sea of Egypt, which, according to the prophecy, was to be exhausted, and all the rivers to be bereft of water, to

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facilitate the invasion of the Babylonish monarch, by whom the country was to be conquered. I will make the rivers dry. Ezekiel

XXX. 12.

Hence it seems, I think, manifest, that when Isaiah says---The Lord shall utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea,- -and shall shake his hand over the river, and shall smite it in its seven streams, &c. there is no reference to the Red-sea, but to the river of Egypt solely.

The Departure and Route of the Children of Israel from Egypt.

After that such repeated wonders had been displayed in Egypt, and such a superiority manifested by the Deity over all the gods of the country, to the confusion of their votaries, the children of Israel are at last permitted to depart. It was not however a bare permission; they were solicited to go by the very king and people who had before restrained them. As the history of their departure, and the course which they took, is very precisely described in scripture, it will be proper to place it at large before the reader, as he will

more readily see how the more modern ac counts correspond with, and how greatly it is illustrated by their evidence.

But before I proceed, I beg leave to lay down some principles, by which I must abide; and these, I hope, will be allowed me, if I am obliged to controvert the opinions of any of our late travellers. In the first, I address myself only to such as allow the real interposition of the Deity in all these great operations, and consequently believe the history of the miracles recorded. In the next place, I admit of no objections which arise from a notion of that fitness, expedience, and method, which are expected to be found in what we call the common course of things. For these works were not of man, but of God. And the mode of procedure with the Deity bears no analogy to the mode of human operations, When therefore it may be said, that the great Lawgiver should have acted in this or that manner, and such means were most proper, and such measures most natural, I cannot agree about the necessity or fitness, as the whole is supernatural, and not to be determined by rules so foreign and inadequate. The reason for my introducing this caution will be seen in the course of my procedure.

The History, as given in Scripture.

Exodus, Ch. xii. V. 30. And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he and all his servants.—

V. 31. And he called for Moses and Aaron by night, and said, Rise up, and get you forth from amongst my people, both ye and the children of Israel: and go, serve the Lord, as ye have said.

V. 33. And the Egyptians were urgent upon the people, that they might send them out of the land in haste: for they said, We be all dead men.

V. 37. And the children of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth.

Ch. xiii. ver. 17. And it came to pass, when Pharaoh had let the people go, that God led them not through the way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near,

V. 18. But God led the people about, through the way of the wilderness of the Red-sea--

V. 20. And they took their journey from Succoth, and encamped in Etham, in the edge of the wilderness.

V. 21. And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light; to go by day and night.

V. 22. He took not away the pillar of the cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night, from before the people.

Ch. xiv, ver. 1. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,

V. 2. Speak unto the children of Israel, that they turn and encamp before Pi-hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea, over against Baalzephon ; before it shall ye encamp by the sea.

V. 3. For Pharaoh will say of the children of Israel, They are entangled in the land, the wilderness hath shut them in.

V. 4. And I will harden Pharaoh's heart, that he shall follow after them; and I will be ho noured upon Pharaoh, and upon all his host; that the Egyptians may know that I am the Lord.

V. 8. And the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and he pursued after the children of Israel:

V. 9. -and overtook them encamping by the sea, beside Pi-hahiroth, before Baalzephon.V. 10. And when Pharaoh drew nigh, the children of Israel lift up their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians marched after them; and they were sore afraid; and the children of Israel cried out unto the Lord.

V. 11. And they said unto Moses, Because