sumed; and the voice of God therefrom, went no farther than his own conviction; and had the evidence ended here, no one but Moses would have been bound to believe. Our blessed Saviour himself confirms this conclusion, by saying to the Jews, "Had I not done among you, the works which no other man ever did, ye had not had sin"-that is, if I had not given you evidence of my coming from God, sufficient to convince the human mind, you would not have been to blame for not believing. But when Moses was sent, first to his own people, and afterwards to Pharaoh, in the name of God, the evidence was equal to the nature of the mission

Moses, conscious of his own insufficiency, and the difficulty of requiring the belief of his nation, without full evidence of his mission, said to God, "But behold they will not believe me nor hearken unto my voice; for they will say, the Lord hath not appeared unto thee." This was rational and proper-God therefore enabled him to prove his mission to them, by casting his rod on the ground, and it became a serpent, and by taking it again, it became a rod, "that they may believe that the Lord God of their fathers hath appeared unto thee." And if this did not work a full conviction, then he was empowered to perform two othermiracles, that could not be doubted.*

Pharaoh being the head and governor of a nation, the request to let so large a body of the people leave the kingdom at once, was of a more public nature. He ought not to have consented, but upon full, public and convincing testimony, that the demand was made by divine authority. And though he received this, yet he hardened his heart, and rejected the full testimony at first afforded him, till by the repetition of them, they became his severest punishment. The miraculous plagues brought on the court and people of Egypt previous to their conviction, and the consequent departure of the Hebrews from that house of bondage, need not here be repeated. No one who reads the account, will doubt of the publicity, universality, and unequivocal nature of the testimony.

They were at last suffered to depart for a few days to worship God in the wilderness: but they were no sooner gone, than the Egyptians, with Pharaoh at their head, finding by their manner of going, that they did not mean to return, and knowing that they carried with them much property given to them, under a violent paroxism of fear, repented of their concession, and determined without delay to pursue, overtake, and bring them back.

It now became necessary, that Moses should be able to show more expressly to the multitude of the people at large, some plain and certain evidence of his divine authority, suited to their then peculiar circumstances, and which should so operate on the whole congregation, as to leave no doubt, but that they were acting in what they did, by the commandment of heaven.

The Egyptian king was a mighty monarch, and had at his command a numerous army, with which the Hebrews could not pretend to combat.

Nothing short of the interposing power of Omnipotence could save them. Here was no possibility of deception; no eloquence, no magical art, no intrigues,

could now avail against an incensed tyrant, raging with malicious fury against an unarmed people, who were trying to escape by flight from his power.

The Red Sea is in their front, without any artificial mode of passing it; and a haughty and powerful enemy in their rear-three millions of souls, men, women and children-no provisions laid up for any length of time-no arms in their hands, or means of defence in their power, equal to their necessities. To God alone, through the mediation of Moses, the great type of him that was to come, could they look. Now was the time to try their faith and constancy-if they had been deceived by an impostor, or had they too credulously believed, without a certainty of Moses's supernatural power, they now stood on the brink of irretrievable destruction. But as it is often the case with the children of God, in the moment of danger, they found a glorious deliverance. Behold the fiery cloud changing its position from front to rearand while it affords a perfect light to the Hebrews in advance, is total darkness to the Egyptians pursuing in the rear.

At a stroke of Moses's rod, the billows cease to roll-the waters separate, and a passage on dry ground is opened for their escape into the wilderness; which passage, whilst it proves their salvation, becomes a snare and immediate destruction to Pharaoh and his host. "And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the Lord caused the sea to go back by means of a strong south wind,* (as it is in the Septuagint,

and should be rendered) all that night, and made the sea dry land, and divided the waters and the Egyptians pursued and went after them into the midst of the sea-and Moses stretched forth his hand upon the sea, and the sea returned to its strength early in the morning, and the Egyptians fled against it, and the Lord overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea."*

This miraculous deliverance could not be idealit was not done in secret-it was not done " in the presence of eight or nine witnesses, as proxies for the whole world." The facts, in Mr. Paine's own words, "admitted of public and ocular demonstration, like the sun at noon-day." This demonstration was given, and every individual man, woman, and child, (capable of knowledge) who passed through the sea, and found themselves the next morning safe on dry land, while they beheld their enemies perishing in the waters, now closing on all sides of them, were, with the whole Egyptian people, witnesses for Moses that he was sent of God.

Let me here ask, what effect this public demonstration of the divine mission of Moses had on Korah, Dathan, and Abiram-or, to come nearer home, what effect has it had on our author, who calls for it with so much confidence in the case of the resurrection and ascension of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ; the evidence of which, take it in all its parts, though equal in point of universality and certainty, yet was necessarily different in the form and nature of the testimony.

Has it commanded his assent? Does he firmly be lieve in the divine mission of Moses, or has he impiously considered it as "a history of wickedness, that has served to corrupt and brutalize mankind, and which therefore he sincerely detests." If this has been the case with him and his brethren in unbelief, when the public demonstration, which they consider as necessary for the confirmation of truth, was so clearly and unequivocally given, we may safely conclude, what would have been their conduct and practice, with their present dispositions, had they been eye witnesses of the resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ.

The effect of this unequivocal evidence of the divine mission of Moses, and the presence of God with him, on hearts unchanged by divine grace, was very manifest from the conduct of many of the Israelites themselves, who but a few days after this " public and ocular demonstration" of the divine power and presence, murmured against Moses, and upbraided him with bringing them into a wilderness to perish. Such was, and still is, the nature of man in a fallen state, without the knowledge of God; until by means of sufferings and trials, and a thorough change of heart by