their defcent from Abraham, and the tendernefs which Efau.himfelf fhewed to Jacob, they were to be treated as brethren. Nor were they to treat the Egyptians with cruelty for the following reafons: First, their ancestors had been once tenderly treated by the Egyptians. Secondly, the children of Ifrael had been kept in a fevere ftate of bondage by thofe people. The confideration of the firft, was to keep alive in their minds fentiments of gratitude. The fecond, to humanize their natures, by teaching them charity, benevolence, compaffion, mercy, and all thofe other virtues which adorn the human mind, and make men ornaments of civil fociety. Slavery was permitted by the law of Mofes, but flaves or bondfmen were not to be treated with cruelty; and the reafon affigned was, that the children of Ifrael had themselves been flaves in the land of Egypt. Every widow, and every orphan, were to be confidered as objects of compaffion; and thofe who treated them with cruelty, were to be confidered as objects of divine difpleasure. Nay, it was further threatened in this divine law, that thofe who oppreffed the widow or fatherlefs, fhould die an ignominious death; that their widows fhould be expofed to want, and their children fubjected to all the hardfhips of an injurious world. The duty of charity was ftrongly' inculcated by the Mofaic œconomy; for whatever was left of the fruits of the earth, in the field, they were not to go back to gather, it was for the poor and needy: the flaves were to enjoy it, and fo were the widows and fatherlefs. The tribe of Levi, to whom the priesthood was confined, were not to have any local inheritance, but they were to dwell in the prefence of their brethren, and one tenth part of the earth was to be fet afide for their fubfiftence. Thefe Levites, however, were commanded to relieve the widow and fatherlefs; and in confequence of their actions, being in all refpects confiftent with the purity of the divine law, they were either to be acquitted or condemned. ASTRO-THEOLOGY. SACRED TRUTHS: DEMONSTRATED FROM A SURVEY OF THE HEAVENLY BODIES. [Continued from page 513.] WHO can reflect on the hea venly bodies, and not per ceive and admire the hand that actuates them, the contrivance and power of an omnipotent workman! For where we have fuch manifeft ftrokes of wife order, coun fel, and management, of the obfervance and mathematical proportions, can we conclude there was any thing lefs than reason, judgment, and 4 mathematical skill in the cafe? or that this could be effectuated by any other power but that of an intelligent being, who had wifdom and power for fuch a work? According to the reafoning of the ftoic in Cicero, who pleads thus "If thou shouldft fee a large and fair house, thou couldst not be brought to imagine that houfe was built by the mice and weafels, although thou shouldft not fee the mafter thereof: fo, faith he, couldt not thou think thyfelf very plainly to play the fool, if thou fhouldit imagine fo orderly a frame of the world, fo great a variety and beauty of the heavenly things, fo prodigious prodigious a quantity and magnitude of fea and land, to be thy house, thy workmanship,and not that of the immortal gods?" And fo when we fee fuch good order, fuch due proportion, in thefe regions of the univerfe, and have good reafon to conclude the fame may be throughout the whole, can we, without great violence to reason, imagine this to be any other than the work of God? We come now to the motions of the heavenly bodies themselves; and we fhall confider them as a demonftration of the being and attributes of God. In treating concerning the motions of the heavenly bodies, it will be neceffary to take in that of the earth too, it being difficult to fpeak of the one without the other. And here are two things that point out the prefcience and regard of God; first, that fuch bodies fhould move at all; and, fecondly, that their motion should be fo regular. First, The motion of all thofe vaft bodies must of neceffity be caufed by a being that had power to put them in motion; for, as Lactantius well argues, there is indeed a power in the ftars, and the like may be faid of the reft of the globes, of performing their motions; but that is the power of God, which orders and governs all things, and not of the ftars themfelves that are moved; for it is impoffible for fuch lifelefs, dull, unwieldy bodies, to move themselves; but what motion they have, they must receive from fomething elfe able to move them. car Now this, fome will fay, may be effected by the vortices furrounding the fun, the earth, or other primary mover, or from a vortorial power or emanation of the fun or other like primary mover, rying about and pushing on fuch bodies as move about them. But allowing it is poffible it might be fo, yet ftill we must recur to fome first mover, fome primary agent, who was able to fet that principle mover into motion. And then the cafe amounts to much the same, and the argument hath the fame force, whether we attribute the motion of one or all the feveral globes to the power of God; for in our folar fyltem for inftance, if it fhould be thought that the fix primary planets revolving round the fun received their motion from his revolution round his axis, yet let us confider whether it is poffible for fuch a prodigious mafs to be carried round for fo long a time by any natural caufe. "For which reafon (fays Plato) I affert God to be the cause, and that it is impoffible it fhould be otherwife.” [To be continued.] who is the firft author of wisdom and beauty. : Nature has defined many creatures to pafs part of their lives under water, and part on land; but to all of them, excepting the fea-horse kind, she has given means of fwimming this has none-the fnake kind, by their motion of the whole body pafs along very fwiftly under water, and the otter has feet for fwimming: the fea-horfe has to feed under water, yet it is the moft unweildy of all creatures, and has no fuch power. It comes out of the water in an evening to fleep, and when it goes in again, it walks very deliberately in over head, and purfues its courfe along the bottom as eafy and unconcerned as if it were in open air: the rivers it most frequents are very deep, and where they are alfo clean; this affords a moft aftonishing fight. : : is To understand this, it is neceffary first to be acquainted with its form the river horfe is as tall as the largest horfe, but its body is much larger, and its legs thicker and fhorter; and its fkin quite naked the head is vaftly bulky; and the mouth, which it has a way of opening very frequently, and of toffing up its head at the fame time, is the most terrible that can be imagined; the teeth are blunt, but very thick and long, and are harder than any other animal fubftance; the tail is fhort and naked; and the feet are not folid like thofe of an horfe, but are divided each into four parts, in the manner of toes. An animal of this fize and make must be one of the strongest in the world, and it is fo: it therefore required from nature no fwiftness to efcape purfuit; nor, as it is deftined to feed on vegetables, did it require fwiftnefs to overtake a a prey that at all times lies before it; the manner of its feeding, as feen by the Africans, in fome of their large rivers, where it is very VOL. I. No. 11. frequent, is this: It walks very deliberately into a river, and feldom looks about it till it is nearly in the middle, the water there being deep, and confequently it being out of the way of disturbance: here it feeks about for the larger water herbs, and in particular for the root of a large water lilly, which is frequent there, and flowers under the water. People, from a boat on the surface, frequently fee this: It will root up this with its nose, like an hog; and, the mouth and throat being very wide, it fwallows them in vaft mouthfuls half chewed. The river-horfe feeding on vegetables only, its flesh is delicate and white, although the fkin looks forbidding: thofe who have eaten of it, say that it is of a middle tafte between that of veal and pork. The natives kill it by way of food; this they fometimes take opportunity to do as it is afleep on the fhores in the night; but the most usual way is in the day-time, by a baited hook: this is a very fingular fport, though a dangerous one. Those who go on this expedition, take for it a feafon when there have not been rains, fo that the river is clear: and they fet out with their tackle for catching the creatures, and with arms for their defence. They embark in a boat capable to carry twenty people, though only five ufually go in it; and these boats are built with remarkable ftrength: they fall down the river in one of thefe, and they wait at a distance from fome proper place to fee whereabouts the creatures are; this is eafily difcovered, by their rifing to the furface, for they do this frequently when not difturbed. The fea-horfe has an occafion to breath at times, though he can keep long under water; water; and when feeding at his ease, his cuftom is once in ten minutes to rife to the furface of the water: this he does from ever fo great a depth, D By |