for which Mofes appointed them, but rather that they varied both their Number, and their Office, as the Circumftances of the State required, or the Persons who had the appointing thefe Officers, thought fit to employ them. Here therefore is the Failure of our noble Author's Reflection: He defigned to prove fome Part of the Jewish Polity to be a Contrivance of Jethro's, and confequently a mere human Inftitution; but his Inftance is a Point, which was indeed an human Inftitution, but not an effential and established Part of the Jewish Polity. There are indeed fome learned Writers, who have thought thefe Officers of divine. Appointment (p); but whoever will carefully examine, will find no good Foundation for their Opinion, and may thereby effectually filence a Cavil, which our modern Deifts, from the Hint I have confidered, think to raise against the Jewish Polity. Jethro made but a fhort Stay with Mofes; for before they departed from Rephidim He went his way into his own Land (q).

The Ifraelites, on the fifteenth Day of the third Month after their leaving Egypt, marched from Rephidim into the Wilderness of Sinai, and pitched their Camp at the Foot of Mount Sinai (r): They tay'd almost a

(p) Vid. Sigon. de Rep. Heb. 1. 7. c. 7.

XVIII. 27.

Year

(q) Exod.

(r) xix. 1, 2. The Words of Mofes feem to me to intimate, that the Ifraelites came to Sinai on the 15th Day of this Month. They came hither, Moses says, in the third Month of their Exit from Egypt [1] bejom hazzeh, on the very Day, i. e. of their Exit, or on the 15th; for on that Day of the firft Month they came out of Egypt. The most learned Archbishop Ufher

300

indeed

Year in this Place (s). In the first three Days was tranfacted what is recorded in the xix. xx. xxi. xxii. xxiii. Chapters of Exodus (t). And Mofes probably spent fome Days in writing down the Laws and the Judgments which God had given them (u), after which he built an Altar, offered Sacrifices, and read what he had written in the Book (w), and the People entered into the most folemn Engagement to perform what was written in it (ww). After this, Mofes and Aaron, Nadab and Abibu, and feventy of the Elders of Ifrael went up fome Part of the Mountain (x), and they faw the God of Ifrael (y) and worshipped him (≈):

indeed took the Words otherwife. He fuppofes bejom hazzeh to refer to the Month, and to intimate that the Ifraelites came to Sinai on the Day of the Month the fame in Number with the Month, or on the 3d Day of the 3d Month, See his Annals. Other Writers imagine the Words bejom hazzeh to fignify no more, than that they came to Sinai, on the very Day they left Rephidim, and that the Intimation bere intended is, that from Rephidim to Sinai was the Journey of but one Day. Vid. Pool's Synop. in loc. There are fome, who would render the Verfe to this purpose, On the third New-Moon after the Exit, on the very Day, i. e. of the Moon, &c. fo as to fix the coming to Sinai to be on the firft Day of this third Month. But to this it is obvious to anfwer: The Word must be here tranf lated Month, and not new Moon; for 1. The Ifraelites coming out of Egypt in the Middle of the firft Month, the firft Day of the third Month could be only the fecond, and not the third new Moon after their Exit. 2. The facred Writers never ufe fuch an Expreffion, as is here before us; for on the firft Day of a Month, beachad lachdef is on the first Day of the Month. See Gen. viii. 5. 13. Exodus xl. 2. Levit. xxiii. 24. Numbers i. 1. xxix. 1. xxxiii. 38. Deut. i. 3. Ezra iii. 6. Nehem. viii. 2. Ezek. xxvi. 1.

xxxi. 1. xlv. 18, &c. and thus Mofes would moft probably have bere written, if the first Day of the Month had been here intended by bim. (s) They came to Sinai on the 15th of the third Month, in the first Year of the Exit, and they left Sinai on the 20th Day of the Second Month of the fecond Year; fo that they stayed here 11 Months and 5 Days. (t) Exod. xix. 11. (u) xxiv. 4. (w) ver. 7. (x) ver. 9. (y) ver. 1o. (x) Exod. xxiv. 11. D 2

(ww) ver. 7, 8.

And

>

And Mofes upon God's commanding it, having given Aaron and Hur the Charge of the People, went with Joshua up to the Top of the Mount, and was on the Mount forty Days and forty Nights (a); during which Time he received the Directions, and Commands contained in Exodus xxv, and in the following Chapters to the End of the xxxi.

It may be here asked, How and in what Senfe, did Mofes, Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and the Elders fee the God of Ifrael? No Man bath feen God at any Time (b). It seems hard to imagine, how the infinite God can be cloathed in Shape, and bounded within the Limits of a Form or Figure; fo as to become the Object of Sight to a mortal Eye: The wife Heathens apprehended infuperable Difficulties in any fuch Suppofition (c); and it must be confeffed, that fome of the Verfions of the Bible do not render the Paffage literally. The LXX tranflate it, They faw the Place, where there ftood the God of Ifrael (d); and Onkelos, They faw the Glory of the God of Ifrael (e): And the Commentators, from what Mofes in another Place remarks to the Ifraelites, that they had feen no manner of Similitude, do generally conclude, that he did not intend here to intimate, that he or the Nobles of Ifrael did really and visibly fee God. But

(a) 12.- -18. (b)1 John iv. 12. (c) ὡς ἢ καὶ σώματος ἀνθρωπίνε καὶ ὥρας ἐσί τις θεῷ καὶ δαίμονι κοινωνία και χάρις, Beyond TYTO Tel. Plut. in Numâ, p. 62. (d) idor τὸν τόπον ὁ εἰσήκει ἐκεῖ ὁ Θεὸς το Ισραήλ. MS. A. gum Onkelos.

४

(c) Tar

I would beg leave to offer to the Reader fome Thoughts that occur to me, whenever I read this Paffage.

1. I cannot but obferve, that Mofes does not fay, that he and the Nobles of Ifrael faw the invifible God; the Expreffion is, that they faw the God of Ifrael (f): No Man indeed bath ever feen the invifible God (g), nor can fee him (b); but the God of Ifrael, the divine Perfon, who is many Times ftiled in the Old Teftament the God of Abraham, the God of Ifaac, and the God of Jacob (i) frequently appeared to them, and was in After-ages made Flesh (k), and for about three and thirty Years dwelt on Earth amongst Men. 2. That this Perfon appeared to the Patriarchs of old in a real Body, was evident to them by the fame infallible Proofs as thofe, by which he fhewed himself alive to his Difciples after his Paffion (1) After he was rifen from the Dead, he was feen of the Disciples, fpeaking to them (m): And fo he was in divers Places, and at fundry Times to Abraham (n), to Ifaac (0) and to Jacob (p). The Difciples not only beheld him, but they felt him, and handled him, and were as fure that he was really with them, as they were that a Spirit hath not Flesh and Bones, as they faw him have (q). In like

f) Exod. xxiv. 10. (g) Coloff. i. 15. (b) 1 Tim. vi. 16. (i) Gen. xxvi. 24. xxviii. 13. Exod. iii. 6. See Vol. II. B. IX. See Acts vii. 2. and Gen. xvii. 1. (k) See Vol. I. B. V. John i. 14. (1) Acts i. 3. (m) Acts i. 3. (n) Gen. xii. 7. xvii. 1. xviii. 1. (0) xxvi. 24. (p) xxxii, (2) Luke xxiv. 39. D 3

30.

XXXV. 9.

manner

manner Jacob experienced as fenfible a Prefence, when he wrestled with him (r). Whilft the Difciples believed not, but wondered, He faid unto them, Have ye bere any Meat? And they gave him a Piece of a broiled Fish, and of an Honeycomb, and he took it, and did eat before them (s): And agreeably hereto, when THE LORD (t) with two Angels accompanying him appeared unto Abraham in the Plains of Mamre, after Abraham had the Calf dreffed, and fet it before them, whilft he stood by them under the Tree, They did eat (u). And now from all these Paffages, I think, I fee it to have been real and indifputable Fact, that the Perfon, who is here ftiled the God of Ifrael, did frequently for a fhort or a longer Space of Time, according to his own Goodwill and Pleasure, affume and unite himself. to a real Body, and thereby appear visible to fuch Perfons, as he thought fit to manifeft himself to in this manner, and confequently that he might be thus feen by Mofes and the Elders on the Mount. His Appearance on the Mount was indeed glorious (x), attended with a Splendor he had not before been seen in to Man, and perhaps fomething like it afterwards was his Transfiguration before the three Difciples (a): But the Text of Mofes does in no wife fuggeft, that he and the Elders faw the God of Ifrael in all his Glory: Mofes indeed did afterwards defire thus to fee

(r) Gen. xxxii. (s) Luke xxiv. 41, 42, 43. xviii. 1. (u) ver. 8. (x) Exod. xxiv. 10. xyii. Mark ix,

(t) Gen.

(a) Matt.