Israelites who paid a tax to the Tabernacle a short time, and only a short time, before its erection, were 603,550, being all the males above twenty years of age, the Levites excepted* at least this exception is all but certain, that tribe being the tellers, being already consecrated, and set apart from the other tribes, and it not being usual to take the sum of them among the children of Israel. Moreover, the number is likely, in this instance, to be correct, because it tallies with the number of talents to which the poll-tax amounted at half a shekel a head. But shortly after the Tabernacle had been set up, (for it was at the beginning of the second month of the second year,) the number of the people was again taken according to the families and tribes, and still it is just the same as be

* Exodus, xxxviii. 26. Numbers, i. 46.

† See Numbers, i. 47. 49,

and xxvi. 62.

fore, 603,550 men. In this short interval, therefore, (which is that in which we are now interested,) it should seem, that no man had died of the males who were above twenty, not being Levites-for of these no account seems to have been taken in either census-indeed in the latter census they are expressly excepted. The dead body, therefore, by which these "certain men" were defiled, could not have belonged to this large class of the Israelites. But of a case of death, and of defilement in consequence, which had happened only six days before the Passover, amongst the Levites, we had been told (as we have seen) in the 9th chapter of Leviticus. My conclusion, therefore, is, that these "certain men," who were defiled, were no others than Mishael and Elizaphan, who had carried out the dead bodies of Nadab and Abihu. Neither can any thing be more likely than

that, with the lively impression on their minds of God's wrath so recently testified against those who should presume to approach him unhallowed, they should refer their case to Moses, and run no risk.

I state the conclusion and the grounds of it. To those who require stronger proof, I can only say I have none to give; but if the coincidence be thought well founded, then surely a more striking example of consistency without design cannot well be conceived. Indeed after it had been suggested to me by a hint to this effect, thrown out by Dr. Shuckford, unaccompanied by any exposition of the arguments which might be urged in support of it, I had put it aside as one of those gratuitous conjectures in which that learned Author may perhaps be thought sometimes to indulge-till by searching more accu

rately through several detached parts of several detached chapters in Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers, I was able to collect the evidence I have produced, whether satisfactory or not-be my readers, as I have said, the judges. For myself, I confess, that though it is not demonstrative, it is very persuasive.

XV.

"ALL the congregation of the children of Israel," we read,* "journeyed from the wilderness of Sin, after their journeys according to the commandment of the Lord, and pitched in Rephidim, and there was no water for the people to drink."-" And the people thirsted there for water, and the people murmured against Moses, and said, Wherefore is this, that thou hast brought * Exodus, xvii. 1.

us up out of Egypt to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst?" (v. 3.) Moses upon this entreats the Lord for Israel; and the narrative proceeds in the words of the Almighty-" Behold I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb, and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it that my people may drink. And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel. And he called the name of the place Massah and Meribah, because of the chiding of the children of Israel, and because they tempted the Lord saying, Is the Lord among us or not?" "Then came Amalek," the narrative continues, "and fought with Israel in Rephidim."

Now this last incident is mentioned, as must be perceived at once, without any other reference to what had gone before