Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

had a thousand different tricks played with them to the astonishment of the spectators. Huetius tells us, that among the Chinese there are jugglers who undertake to turn rods into serpents; though no doubt they only dexterously substitute the latter in the room of the former. Now this is the very trick the magicians played; and as it appears by facts, that the thing in general is very practicable, it is immaterial to account particularly how the thing was done; since it is not always easy to explain in what manner a common juggler imposes upon our sight. Should it be suggested, that Moses might impose upon the sight of the spectators, as well as the magicians, I answer, that as he ascribes their performances to legerdemain, and his own to God, so there might and must have been a wide difference in their manner of acting; the covered arts of the magicians not being used by Moses, the same suspicion could not rest on him that did on them. What an ingenious writer asserts is not true, that, according to the book of Exodus, the outward appearance on both sides was precisely the same. The book of Exodus specifies a most important difference between the miracle of Aaron, and the impostures of the magicians; for it says, that Aaron cast down his rod before Pharaoh and before his servants, and it became a serpent; but with regard to the magicians, it uses very different language, for at the same time it says, They cast down every man his rod, and they became serpents. It expressly declares, that they did this by their enchantments or covered arts; and what in the most effectual manner prevented any apprehension, that the serpent of Aaron was (like those of the magicians) the effect only of a dexterous management, not a miraculous production, God caused his rod to swallow up theirs, in which there was no room for artifice, and which for this reason the magicians did not attempt to imitate. This new miracle was not designed to establish the superiority of the God of Israel to the idols of Egypt; nor was it capable of answering that end; but in the view here given of it, had much wisdom by vindicating the credit of the former miracle (which might possibly be more open to suspicion than any of the rest) as well as by affording new evidence of a divine interposition in favor of Moses. God considered this evidence as fully decisive of the point in question, between his messengers and the magicians; for from this time he proceeded to the punishment of Pharaoh and the Egyptians; which affords a new demonstration, drawn from the justice of the Divine Being, of the falsehood of the common hypothesis, according to the representation given of it by those who maintain that the magicians were not plainly vanquished till they were restrained

from turning the dust into lice. Had this been the case it would have been right in Pharaoh to suspend his judgment till that time, nor would God have punished him by the two intervening plagues, that of turning the waters of the Nile (to which Egypt owed its fecundity) into blood, and covering the land with frogs; punishments so severe as imply the most criminal obstinacy on the part of Pharaoh.

With regard to the next attempt of the magicians to imitate Moses, who had already turned all the running and standing waters of Egypt into blood, there is no difficulty in accounting for their success in the degree in which they succeeded. For it was during the continuance of this judgment, when no water could be procured but by digging round about the river, that the magicians attempted by some proper preparations to change the color of the small quantity that was brought them (probably endeavoring to persuade Pharaoh, that they could as easily have turned a larger quantity into blood.) In a case of this nature, imposture might, and as we learn from history, often did take place. It is related by Valerius Maximus, that the wine poured into the cup of Xerxes was three times changed into blood. But such trifling feats as these could not at all disparage the miracle of Moses; the vast extent of which raised it above the suspicion of fraud, and stamped upon every heart, that was not steeled against all conviction, the strongest impression of its divinity. For he turned their streams, rivers, ponds, and the water in all their receptacles into blood. And the fish that was in the river (Nile) died; and the river stank.

Pharaoh not yielding to this evidence, God proceeded to farther punishments, and covered the land of Egypt with frogs. Before these frogs were removed, the magicians undertook to bring into some place cleared for the purpose a fresh supply; which they might easily do, when there was such plenty every where at hand. Here also the narrow compass of the work exposed it to the suspicion of being effected by human art, to which the miracle of Moses was not liable; the infinite number of frogs which filled the whole kingdom of Egypt (so that their ovens, beds, and tables swarmed with them) being a proof of their immediate miraculous production. Besides, the magicians were unable to procure their removal; which was accomplished by Moses, at the submissive application of Pharaoh, and at the very time that Pharaoh himself chose, the more clearly to convince him that God was the author of these miraculous judgments, and that their infliction or removal did not depend upon the influence of the elements or stars, at set times or in critical junctures.

count here given of all their former ones. Moses turned all the dust of the land into lice; and this plague, like the two preceding ones, being inflicted at the word of Moses, and extending over the whole kingdom of Egypt, must necessarily have been owing, not to human art, but to a divine power. Nevertheless, the motives upon which the magicians at first engaged in the contest with Moses, the shame of desisting, and some slight appearances of success in their former attempts, prompted them still to carry on the imposture, and to try with their enchantments to bring forth lice; but they could not. With all their skill in magic, and with all their dexterity in deceiving the spectators, they could not even succeed so far as they had done in former instances, by producing a specious counterfeit of this work of Moses. Had they hitherto performed real miracles by the assistance of the devil, how came they to desist now? It cannot be a greater miracle to produce lice, than to turn rods into serpents, water into blood, and to create frogs. It has indeed been very often said, that the devil was now laid under a restraint; but hitherto no proof of this assertion has been produced. The Scripture is silent, both as to the devil being now restrained from interposing any farther in favor of the magicians, and as to his having afforded them his assistance on the former occasions. But if we agree with Moses, in ascribing to the magicians nothing more than the artifice and dexterity which belonged to their professions; we shall find that their want of success in their last attempt, was owing to the different nature and circumstances of their enterprise. In all the former instances, the magicians knew beforehand what they were to undertake, and had time for preparation. They were not sent for by Pharaoh, till after Moses had turned his rod into a serpent, and previous notice had been publicly given of the two first plagues. But the orders in relation to the third, were no sooner issued than executed, without being previously imparted to Pharaoh. So that in this last case they had no time for contriving any expedient for imitating or impeaching the act of MoAnd had they been allowed time, how was it possible for them to make it appear that they produced those animals, by which they themselves and all the country were already covered and surrounded? or what artifice could escape detection, in relation to insects, whose minuteness hinders them from being perceived till they are brought so near as to be subject to the closest inspection? Now therefore the magicians chose to say, This (last work of Moses) is the finger of God.

ses.

It has been generally thought that the magicians here acknowledge

that the God of Israel was stronger than the gods of Egypt, who had hitherto assisted them, but were now restrained from doing it by his superior power. But the text makes no mention of their allowing the God of Israel to be superior to the gods of Egypt, much less of their admitting the former to be Jehovah and the only true God. Nor do they refer to any supernatural restraint upon the Egyptian deities, but to the last miracle of Moses, when they say, This is the finger of God, or of a god; for the original word admits this sense, and very probably was used in no other by the magicians, who believed in a plurality of gods. But unable to turn the dust of the earth into lice (and even to seem to do it) they allow that this surpassed the science they professed, and argued the special miraculous interposition of some deity. There is no sort of evidence that this language of the magicians proceeded from a desire of doing justice to the character and claims of the God of Israel, or that it was not merely designed as the best apology they were able to make for their own failure of success, and to prevent Pharaoh from reproaching them with the want of skill in their profession. Certain it is that this declaration of the magicians had no good effect upon Pharaoh, but seems rather to be mentioned as an occasion of his continued hardness. Nay, the history plainly intimates that the magicians themselves afterwards confronted Moses, till in punishment of their obstinacy, they were smitten with ulcers. I add, that the sense here assigned to their language, is perfectly agreeable to the account before given of the state of the controversy between them and Moses; for it implies, that the magicians had not so much as pretended to any miraculous interposition of the gods in their favor, but relied entirely upon the established rules of their art; and consequently that Pharaoh's view in sending for them, was to enable himself to determine, whether the works of Moses lay within the compass of it,

I cannot conclude this subject without observing that the strenuous but unsuccessful opposition to Moses added strength to his cause, as it seemed to manifest the divinity of his miracles, by clearing him. from all suspicion of magic. This art was thought equal to the most wonderful phenonema. In Egypt it was held in the highest esteem, and carried to its utmost perfection. Pharaoh, without doubt, on the present most important and interesting occasion, engaged the assistance of the most able professors of it, who from a regard to their own reputation and interest, would try every possible method to invalidate the miracles of Moses. Nevertheless their utmost efforts

detected and exposed, agreeably to the censure passed upon them by saint Paul; for, speaking of certain persons, whose opposition to genuine Christianity was the sole effect of their corrupt minds, without the least color of reason, he compares them to Jannes and Jambres, who withstood Moses; and did it, he must mean, with as little pretence, or there could be no justice in the comparison. He adds, their folly was manifest unto all men ; and thus he taxes the conduct of magicians with the most glaring absurdity. He cannot therefore be supposed to admit, that they imitated and equalled, for a time, the miracles of Moses, and then desisted as soon as they found themselves unable to continue the contest to advantage, (which would have been a sort of prudence,) but to assert, that they wickedly and absuredly attempted to place the feats of art on a level with the undeniable operations of a divine power; and so shamefully miscarrying in their undertaking, they exposed themselves to the contempt of those who had once held them in high veneration." Horne.)

(Quoted from

ww

SECTION I.

INFIDELS assert that the pillar of cloud and fire is a fiction, having its foundation in a custom very early in life, and to a certain extent still practised by travelers through the desert. That before the compass was invented, caravans were in the habit of having their route marked by guides who preceded them, and carried as a sort of movable beacon, a quantity of fire elevated upon lofty poles. That such a beacon, seen from the rear of an immense column, marching through a sandy plain, would by day present the appearance of a cloudy pillar, as by night it would assume the aspect of a pillar of flame.

To this it is replied, that the cloudy pillar was either what Moses represents it to have been, or there was no cloudy pillar at all, for it is absurd to suppose that any argument could persuade six hundred thousand men, that one man, or a hundred men, marching before them and bearing fire upon poles, performed all that Moses tells his contemporaries was performed by the pillar of cloud in their presence, and under their immediate observation. Sometimes the cloudy pillar was within the camp, sometimes it appeared in the rear, and sometimes in the front; and it is not to be imagined that six hundred thousand persons could be persuaded that a single man, carrying an ordinary fire, or a hundred men carrying as many fires, and occa

« AnteriorContinuar »