II. There are touches of nature in the narrative which bespeak its truth, for it is

not easy to regard them otherwise than as strokes from the life--as where " the mixed multitude," whether half-castes or Egyptians, are the first to sigh for the cucumbers and melons of Egypt, and to spread discontent through the camp*-as, the miserable exculpation of himself, which Aaron attempts, with all the cowardice of conscious guilt-" I cast into the fire, and there came out this calf:" the fire, to be sure, being in the fault.+

III. There are certain little inconveniences represented as turning up unexpectedly, that bespeak truth in the story; for they are just such accidents as are characteristic of the working of a new system and untried machinery. What is to be done with the + Exod. xxxii. 24.

*Numb. xi. 4.

man who is found gathering sticks on the

sabbath-day* — (Could an impostor have

devised such a trifle?) How the inheritance of the daughters of Zelophehad is to be disposed of, there being no heir-male.+ Either of them inconsiderable matters in themselves, but both giving occasion to very important laws; the one touching life, and the other property.

IV. There is a simplicity in the manner of Moses, when telling his tale, which bespeaks its truth-no parade of language, no pomp of circumstance even in his miracles, a modesty and dignity throughout all. Let us but compare him in any trying scene with Josephus; his description, for instance, of the passage through the Red Sea, of the murmuring of the Israelites

*Numb. xv. 32.

Numb. xxxvi. 2.

Exod. xiv. Joseph. Antiq. b. 2. c. xvi.

and the supply of quails and manna, with the same as given by the Jewish historian, or rhetorician, we might rather say,—and the force of the observation will be felt.*

V. There is a candour in the treatment of his subject by Moses, which bespeaks his truth; as when he tells of his own want of eloquence, which unfitted him for a leader -his own want of faith, which prevented him from entering the promised land the idolatry of Aaron his brother §-the profaneness of Nadab and Abihu, his nephews||—the disaffection and punishment of Miriam, his sister.T

VI. There is a disinterestedness in his conduct, which bespeaks him to be a man of truth; for though he had sons, he ap

* Exod. xvi. Joseph. Antiq. b. 3. c. i.

+ Ibid. iv. 10.

§ Ibid. xxxii. 21 ¶ Numb. xii. 1.

Numb. xx. 12.

|| Levit. x. 1.

parently takes no measures during his life to give them offices of trust or profit; and at his death he appoints as his successor, one who had no claims upon him, either of alliance, of clan-ship, or of blood.

VII. There are certain prophetical passages in the writings of Moses, which bespeak their truth; as several respecting the future Messiah; and the very sublime and literal one respecting the final fall of Jerusalem.*

VIII. There is a simple key supplied by these writings, to the meaning of many ancient traditions current amongst the heathens, though greatly disguised, which is another circumstance that bespeaks their truth-as, the golden age-the garden of the Hesperides---the fruit-tree in the midst of the garden which the dragon guarded

* Deut. xxviii.

the destruction of mankind by a flood, all except two persons, and those righteous persons

"Innocuos ambos, cultores numinis ambos :** the rainbow," which Jupiter set in the cloud, a sign to men"+-the seventh day a sacred day-with many others: all conspiring to establish the reality of the facts which Moses relates, because tending to show that vestiges of the like present themselves in the traditional history of the world at large.

IX. The concurrence which is found between the writings of Moses and those of the New Testament, bespeaks their truth: the latter constantly appealing to them, being indeed but the completion of the system which the others are the first to

* Ovid, Met. i. 327. † Hom. Il. xi. 27, 28. See Grot. de Verit. Rel. Christ. 1. 1. xvi.