forcibly to his imagination, that he fully believed himself to have conversed with the Deity and to have witnessed certain miraculous appearances.'

III. Let us see then, by way of completing what has been said, how far this theory will untie the knot without the intervention of a Divinity: let us consider, whether, even if such had been the character of the leader, even if Moses had been either an enthusiast or a dupe, he could have imparted the same character to his followers. For let us remember, that the difficulty will not be solved by stopping short with Moses alone. If we determine him to be either a dupe or a fanatic; we shall still have to account for his success, both in persuading the Israelites to follow him, and in triumphantly conducting them from the house of bondage.

1. On this point it may be urged, that, as Theudas and other acknowledged fanatics had no difficulty in persuading great numbers to follow them, in expectation of seeing a miracle performed; why should it be thought incredible, that Moses might do the very same with the very same people?

To such an objection I would reply, that we may observe a striking difference between the Hebrew contemporaries of Moses and the Jewish contemporaries of Theudas, plainly arising from the dissimilar retrospective views which were severally presented to them.

See a curious account of hallucination in Dr. Ferrier's Theory of Apparitions.

The Jewish contemporaries of Theudas looked back to the times; when, as they learned from their sacred books, God was wont supernaturally to interpose in behalf of his people: and, from their experience that many prophecies had already been accomplished, and from their knowledge that Daniel's seventy weeks however computed must either have expired or must be on the point of expiring; they daily expected with full confidence the manifestation of a Saviour, one of whose predicted characteristics is the working of miracles. Hence the recurrence of an age of wonders shocked not their belief: and hence, irritated as they were against the Romans, they lent a willing ear to every enthusiast or impostor, who claimed to be the anticipated Messiah, and who promised to give them the expected evidence of miracles if they would follow him into the wilderness.

Here then we have cause enough to account rationally for such an effect: but, if we turn to the Hebrew contemporaries of Moses, we shall both find them very differently circumstanced, and we shall perceive that they immediately required that evidence for which the credulity of the others was content to wait. When Moses first made his appearance among the Israelites in the character of a heaven-commissioned delegate, they had sojourned in the land of Egypt, if we reckon from the descent of Jacob and his family, two hundred and fifteen years. Now, during the whole of that time, they had been no more accustomed to miracles than we ourselves are: nor, if we except the

deluge, the confusion of tongues at Babel, and the supernatural destruction of Sodom and Gomorrha, had they even any tradition of miracles properly so called. They had heard indeed of an extraordinary intercourse between God and certain of their ancestors, and they were not ignorant that some of their forefathers had uttered prophecies but they had witnessed no such intercourse for more than two centuries; and, whether the predictions were genuine or not, they had no opportunity of determining from the event. That prophecy, which most of all concerned them; the declaration to Abraham, that his seed should be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and should serve them, and they shall afflict them four hundred years: this prophecy, unlike Daniel's prophecy of the seventy weeks, so far from predisposing them to listen to Moses, would obviously have a directly contrary effect. Not aware, that the four hundred years were to be reckoned from the birth of Isaac; nor observing, that the prophecy treated of two particulars, the xenization of Abraham's seed in a foreign land, and their afflicting servitude to a strange nation: they would naturally conclude from a cursory inspection of it, that they were to be inslaved during the entire period of four centuries. Hence, as their actual servitude in Egypt could not then have continued much more than a century, and as the whole terin of their national sojourning in Egypt had not then

Gen. xv. 13.

exceeded two hundred and fifteen years: the most sanguine calculators would anticipate near two centuries more of slavery, while the dreary vista of three yet unexpired centuries of affliction would present itself to the eyes of the more desponding.' At all events therefore Moses, according to the apparently obvious interpretation of the prophecy, would seem to present himself as a deliverer far too early. The voice of God, consequently, would be judged to be against him: the ruling men of Israel would declare, that the time could not be yet come and, so far from being enthusiastically disposed to follow him into the wilderness on the promise only of seeing a miracle; the nation, just like ourselves at the present day, would not stir a step, unless a claimant, who seemed to oppose an express prediction, gave immediate ocular testimony of his divine mission by performing a miracle on the spot. Of this disposition of his countrymen, so highly unfavourable to the views either of a dupe or of a fanatic, Moses himself was fully aware. Behold, says he, they will not believe me, nor hearken unto my voice: for they will say, The Lord hath not appeared unto thee. If then he himself were either a mere dupe or a mere enthusiast, how did he persuade this incredulous people to follow him? How did he induce them

The four hundred and thirty years, mentioned Exod. xii. 40, 41, are to be reckoned from Abraham's departure from Haran, when the patriarch of the Israelites became a sojourner.

2 Exod. iv. 1.

to receive him, as their prophet and their legislator?

2. The answer to this question immediately meets the objection, that Moses might have been deceived into a belief of his divine commission by the agency of an extraordinary disorder, which is known sometimes to present delusion to the mind with all the semblance of reality.

We are told, that, after the meeting of himself and his brother Aaron, they two went together, and declared the purpose of the Lord to all the elders of the children of Israel. What reception they met with, we are not positively informed: but, from what immediately follows, we may collect not equivocally, that the expectation of Moses was fully verified; their language seems to have been, The Lord hath not appeared unto thee. This very rational incredulity could be overcome by nothing save the evidence of miracles: for, without such evidence, how could they be certain, that he was not either an enthusiast or a dupe or an impostor? Accordingly we read, that the same miracles, which Moses had beheld in the wilderness; namely the twofold transmutation of his rod and his hand, together with an additional sign, that of changing the river-water into blood: that all these miracles were done openly in the sight of the people, and that in consequence of them the people believed and bowed their heads and worshipped.

Compare Exod. iv. 1-9. with iv. 27-31.