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 THE 
 
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 VERACITY 
 
 THE FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES. 
 
 ARGUED FROM THE 
 
 UNDESIGNED COINCIDENCES 
 
 TO BE FOUND IN THEM, 
 
 WHEN COMPARED IN THEIR SEVERAL PARTS. 
 
 . J? J. 
 
 BY THE REV. J: J; BLUNT, 
 
 FELLOW OF ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE. 
 
 NEW EDITION. 
 
 LONDON: 
 JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE-STREET. 
 
 MDCCCXXXV. 
 
123 5" 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 Printed by W. CLOWES and SONS, 
 
 Stamford Street. 
 
 »6ii2Ar«|-^Ci)i^ 
 
TO 
 THE VERY REV. JAMES WOOD, D.D., 
 
 DEAN OF ELY J 
 
 MASTER OF ST. JOHN' S COLLEGE., CAMBRIDGE; 
 
 IN TOKEN OF UNFEIGNED RESPECT AND REGARD FOR THE 
 
 ANCIENT AND RELIGIOUS FOUNDATION ITSELF 
 
 OYER WHICH HE PRESIDES J 
 
 FOR THE ATTAINMENTS BY WHICH HE ADORNS IT; 
 
 FOR THE ZEALOUS AND DISINTERESTED SPIRIT IN WHICH 
 
 HE PROMOTES ITS WELFARE ', 
 
 AND 
 
 FOR THOSE PRIVATE VIRTUES WHICH MAKE ITS MEMBERS 
 
 HIS PERSONAL FRIENDS ; 
 
 THIS ATTEMPT 
 TO CONFIRM THE EVIDENCE OF THE 
 
 MOSAIC WRITINGS, 
 
 (BEING THE SUBSTANCE OF A COURSE OF SERMONS 
 
 DELIVERED BEFORE THE UNIVERSITY,) 
 
 IS INSCRIBED, 
 
 BY HIS FAITHFUL AND OBLIGED SERVANT, 
 
 J. J. BLUNT. 
 
VERACITY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES. 
 
 It is my intention to argue in the following 
 pages the Veracity of the Five Books of 
 Moses, from the instances they contain of 
 coincidence without design, in their several 
 parts. I am not aware that this test of 
 truth (to which alone I shall appeal) has 
 been deliberately, applied to these writings, 
 except by Dr. Graves in two of his useful 
 Lectures upon the Pentateuch. In them 
 he has done much, but much he has still 
 left to be done by others ; and though I do 
 not lay claim to the merit (whatever it may 
 be) of actually discovering all the examples 
 
 B 
 
Z THE VERACITY OF THE 
 
 of consistency without contrivance which 
 I shall bring forward in this volume ; and 
 though in many cases, where the detection 
 was my own, I found on examination that 
 there were others who had forestalled me 
 — qui nostra ante nos — yet some of them I 
 have not seen noticed by commentators at 
 all, and scarcely any of them in that light 
 in which only I regard them, as grounds of 
 evidence. It is to this application, there- 
 fore, of expositions, often in themselves suf- 
 ficiently familiar, that I have to beg the 
 candid attention of my readers ; and if I 
 shall frequently bring out of the treasures 
 of God's Word, or of the interpretations of 
 God's Word, " things old" the use that I 
 make of them may not perhaps be altoge- 
 ther thought so. 
 
 But before I proceed to individual in- 
 stances, I will endeavour to develope a 
 principle upon which the Book of Genesis 
 
FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES. 3 
 
 goes as a whole, for this is in itself an ex- 
 ample of consistency. 
 
 I. 
 
 There may be those who look upon the 
 Book of Genesis as an epitome of the general 
 history of the world in its early ages, and 
 of the private history of certain families 
 more distinguished than the rest. And so 
 it is, and on a first view it may seem to be 
 little else ; but if we consider it more 
 closely, I think we may convince ourselves 
 of the truth of this proposition, that it con- 
 tains fragments (as it were) of the fabric of 
 a Patriarchal Church — fragments scattered 
 indeed and imperfect, but capable of com- 
 bination, and when combined, consistent as 
 a whole. Now it is not easy to imagine 
 that any impostor would set himself to 
 compose a book upon a plan so recondite ; 
 nor, if he did, would it be possible for him 
 
 b 2 
 
4 THE VERACITY OF THE 
 
 to execute it as it is executed here. For 
 the incidents which go to prove this pro- 
 position are to be picked out from among 
 many others; and on being brought toge- 
 ther by ourselves, they are found to agree 
 together as parts of a system, though they 
 are not contemplated as such, or at least 
 are not produced as such by the author 
 himself. 
 
 I am aware that whilst we are endea- 
 vouring to obtain a view of such a Patri- 
 archal Church by the glimpses afforded us 
 in Genesis, there is a danger of our theo- 
 logy becoming visionary : — it is a search 
 upon which the imagination enters with 
 alacrity, and readily breaks its bounds — it 
 has done so in former times and in our own. 
 Still the principle of such investigation is 
 good ; for out of God's book, as out of God's 
 world, more may be often concluded than 
 our philosophy at first suspects. The prin- 
 
 
FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES. O 
 
 ciple is good, for it is sanctioned by our 
 Lord himself, who reproaches the Saddu- 
 cees with not knowing those Scriptures 
 which they received, because they had not 
 deduced the doctrine of a future state from 
 the words of Moses — " I am the God of 
 Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the 
 God of Jacob " — though the doctrine was 
 there if they would but have sought it out. 
 One consideration, however, we must take 
 along with us in this inquiry, that the 
 Books of Moses are in most cases a very 
 incomplete history of facts — telling some- 
 thing, and leaving a great deal untold — 
 abounding in chasms which cannot be filled 
 up — not, therefore, to be lightly esteemed 
 even in their hints, for hints are often all 
 that they offer. 
 
 The proofs of this are numberless ; but 
 as it is important to my argument that the 
 thing itself should be distinctly borne in 
 
O THE VERACITY OF THE 
 
 mind, I will name a few. Thus if we read 
 the history of Joseph, as it is given in the 
 37th chapter of Genesis, where his brethren 
 first put him into the pit and then sell him 
 to the Ishmaelites, we might conclude that 
 he was himself quite passive in the whole 
 transaction. Yet when the brothers hap- 
 pen to talk together upon this same subject 
 many years afterwards in Egypt, they say 
 one to another, " We are verily guilty con- 
 cerning our brother, in that we saw the 
 anguish of his soul when he besought us, and 
 we would not hear."* All these fervent 
 entreaties are sunk in the direct history of 
 the event, and only come out by accident 
 after all. 
 
 As another instance. The simple account 
 of Jacob's reluctance to part with Benjamin 
 would lead us to suppose that it was ex- 
 pressed and overcome in a short time, and 
 * Genesis xlii. 21. 
 
FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES. 7 
 
 with no great effort. Yet we incidentally 
 hear from Judah that this family struggle 
 (for such it seems to have been) had occu- 
 pied as much time as would have sufficed 
 for a journey to Egypt and back.* 
 
 As a third instance. The several bless- 
 ings which Jacob bestows on his sons have 
 probably a reference to the past as well as 
 to the future fortunes of each. In the case 
 of Reuben, the allusion happens to be to a 
 circumstance in his life with which we are 
 already acquainted ; here, therefore, we 
 understand the old man's address ; f but 
 in the case of several at least of his other 
 sons, where there are probably similar allu- 
 sions to events in their lives too, which 
 have not, however, been left on record, 
 there is much that is obscure — the brevity 
 of the previous narrative not supplying us 
 with the proper key to the blessing. It is 
 * Genesis xliii. 10. t xlix. 4. 
 
 
8 THE VERACITY OF THE 
 
 needless to multiply instances ; all that I 
 wish to impress is this, that in the Book of 
 Genesis a hint is not to be wasted but im- 
 proved ; and that he who expects every 
 probable deduction from Scripture to be 
 made out complete in all its parts before he 
 will admit it, expects more than he will in 
 many cases meet with, and will learn much 
 less than he might otherwise learn. 
 
 Having made these preliminary remarks, 
 I shall now proceed to collect the detached 
 incidents in Genesis which appear to point 
 out the existence of a Patriarchal Church. 
 And the circumstance of so many incidents 
 tending to this one centre, though evidently 
 without being marshalled or arranged, im- 
 plies veracity in the record itself, for it is 
 a very comprehensive instance of coincidence 
 without design in the several parts of that 
 record. 
 
 1. First, then, the Patriarchs seem to 
 
FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES. V 
 
 have had places set apart for the worship 
 of God, consecrated, as it were, especially 
 to His service. To do things " before the 
 Lord," is a phrase not unfrequently occur- 
 ring, and generally in a local sense. Cain 
 and Abel appear to have brought their 
 offerings to the same spot — -it might be (as 
 some have thought*) to the East of the 
 Garden, where the symbols of God's pre- 
 sence were displayed; and when Cain is 
 banished from his first dwelling, and driven 
 to wander upon the earth, he is said to 
 have " gone out from the presence of the 
 Lord" t as though, in the land where he 
 was henceforward to live, he would no 
 longer have access to the spot where God 
 had more especially set his name. " More- 
 over, when it is said of Cain, ' If thou 
 doest not well, sin (or the sin-offering) lieth 
 
 * Vide Mr. Faber's Three Dispensations, vol. i. p. 8, 
 and comp. Wisdom ix. 9 ; Hooker, Eccles. Pol. b. v. 
 §11. t Genesis iv. 16. 
 
 B 3 
 
10 THE VERACITY OF THE 
 
 at the door,' the door of a tabernacle or 
 temple of God is evidently intended ; for 
 there the sacrifices were constantly brought 
 in later times."* Again, of Rebekah we 
 read, that when the children struggled 
 within her, " she went to inquire of the 
 Lord," and an answer was received pro- 
 phetic of the different fortunes of those 
 children, f And when Isaac contemplated 
 blessing his son, which was a religious act, 
 a solemn appeal to God to remember His 
 covenant unto Abraham, it was to be done 
 ** before the Lord."$ The place might be 
 an altar such as was put up by Abraham 
 at Hebron, by Isaac at Beer-sheba, or by 
 Jacob at Beth-el, where they respectively 
 dwelt ; § it might be a separate tent ; and 
 a tent actually was set apart by Moses 
 outside the camp, before the Tabernacle 
 
 * See Lightioot, vol. i. p. 3. 
 
 t Genesis xxv. 22. X Ibid, xxvii. 7. 
 
 § Ibid. xiii. 18 ; xxvi. 25 ; xxxv. 6. 
 
FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES. 11 
 
 was erected, where every one repaired who 
 sought the Lord ;* or it might be a separate 
 part of a chamber of the tent : but however 
 that was, the expression is a definite one, 
 and relates to some appointed quarter to 
 which the family resorted for purposes of 
 devotion. Accordingly the very same ex- 
 pression is used in after-times, when the 
 Tabernacle had been set up confessedly as 
 the place where the people were to assemble 
 for prayer and sacrifice. ei He shall offer 
 it of his own voluntary will at the door of 
 the Tabernacle of the Congregation before 
 the Lord, and he shall kill the bullock be- 
 fore the Lord.''f "Three times in the year 
 shall all thy males appear before the Lord 
 thy God in the place which he shall 
 choose. "J Here there can be no question 
 as to the meaning of the phrase ; it occurs, 
 indeed, some five-and-thirty times in the 
 
 * Exodus xxxiii. 7. f Leviticus i. 3. 
 
 X Deuteronomy xvi. 16. 
 
12 THE VERACITY OF THE 
 
 four last Books of Moses, and in all as sig- 
 nificant of the place set apart for the wor- 
 ship of God. I conclude therefore that in 
 those passages of Genesis which I have 
 quoted, Moses employs the same expres- 
 sion in the same sense. 
 
 Such are some of the hints which seem 
 to point to places of patriarchal io or ship. 
 
 2. In like manner, and by evidence of 
 the same indirect and imperfect kind, I 
 gather that there were persons whose busi- 
 ness it was to perform the rites of that 
 worship — not perhaps their sole business, 
 but their appropriate business. Whether 
 the first born was by right of birth the 
 priest also has been doubted ; at the same 
 time it is obvious that this circumstance 
 w T ould often, perhaps generally where there 
 was no impediment, point him out as the 
 fit person to keep alive in his own house- 
 hold the fear of that God who alone could 
 
FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES. 13 
 
 make it to prosper. Persons, however, 
 invested with the sacerdotal office there 
 undoubtedly were ; such was Melchizedeck, 
 " the Priest of the Most High God," as he 
 is expressly called,* and the functions of 
 his ministry he publicly performs towards 
 Abraham, blessing him as God's servant, as 
 the instrument by which His arm had over- 
 thrown the confederate kings, and receiving 
 from Abraham a tenth of the spoil, which 
 could be nothing but a religious offering, 
 and which indeed, as such, is the ground of 
 St. Paul's argument for the superiority of 
 Christ's priesthood over the Levitical.j" 
 Such probably was Jethro " the Priest of 
 Midian."J Moreover we find the priests 
 expressly mentioned as a body of function- 
 aries existing amongst the Israelites even 
 before the consecration of Aaron and his 
 
 * Genesis xiv. 18. t Hebrews vii. 9. 
 
 t Exodus ii. 16. 
 
14 THE VERACITY OF THE 
 
 sons.* And the same are probably alluded 
 to in a subsequent chapter under the name 
 of " young men of the children of Israel 
 which offered burnt-offerings." f Then if 
 we read of Patriarchal Priests, so do we of 
 Patriarchal " Preachers of Righteousness," 
 as in Noah, f So do we of Patriarchal 
 Prophets, as in Balaam, as in Job, as in 
 Enoch. All these are hints of a Patriarchal 
 Church, differing perhaps less in its con- 
 struction and in the manner in which God 
 was pleased to use it, as the means of 
 keeping Himself in remembrance amongst 
 men, from the churches which have suc- 
 ceeded, than may be at first imagined. 
 
 3. Pursue we the inquiry, and I think a 
 hint may be discovered of a peculiar dress 
 assigned to the Patriarchal Priest when he 
 officiated ; for Jacob, being already pos- 
 
 * Exodus xix. 22. f Exod. xxiv. 5. 
 
 t 2 Peter ii. 5. 
 
FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES. 15 
 
 sessed oi the birth-right, and probably in 
 this instance of the priesthood with it, 
 since Esau by surrendering the birth-right 
 became " profane" * goes in to Isaac to re- 
 ceive the blessing, a religious act, as I have 
 already said, to be done before the Lord. 
 Now, on this occasion, Rebekah took 
 " goodly raiment " (such is our translation) 
 " of her eldest son Esau, which were with 
 her in the house, and put them upon Jacob 
 her younger son." f Were these the sacer- 
 dotal robes of the first-born? It occurred to 
 me that they might be so; and on refer- 
 ence I find that the Jews themselves so 
 interpreted them,J an interpretation which 
 has been treated by Dr. Patrick more con- 
 temptuously than it deserved to be, especially 
 as he quotes, in another place, an opinion 
 of the Hebrew doctors, that vestments were 
 
 *• Hebrews xii. 16. f Genesis xxvii. 15. 
 
 % Vide Patrick in loc. 
 
16 THE VERACITY OF THE 
 
 so inseparable from the priesthood, that 
 even Adam, Abel, and Cain did not sacri- 
 fice without them ; * for I look upon it as 
 a trifle indeed, but still as a trifle which is, 
 a component part of the system I am endea- 
 vouring to trace out — had it stood alone it 
 would have been fruitless perhaps to have 
 hazarded a word upon it — as it stands in 
 conjunction with so many other indications 
 of a Patriarchal Church it has its weight. 
 Now I do not say that the Hebrew expres- 
 sion | here rendered " raiment " (for of the 
 epithet " goodly " I will speak by and by) 
 is exclusively confined to the garments of 
 a priest ; it is certainly a term of consider- 
 able latitude, and is by no means to be so 
 restricted : still when the priest's garments 
 are to be expressed by any general term 
 at all, it is always by the one in ques- 
 
 * See Dr. Patrick on Exod. xxviii. 2. 
 
 t dh:q 
 
FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES. 17 
 
 tion. Yet there is another term in the 
 Hebrew/' perhaps of as frequent occurrence, 
 and also a comprehensive term ; but whilst 
 this latter is constantly applied to the dress 
 of other individuals of both sexes, I do not 
 find it ever applied to the dress of the 
 priests. The distinction and the argument 
 will be best illustrated by examples : — Thus 
 we read -in Leviticus,f according to our 
 version, " the High-priest that is conse- 
 crated to put on the garments shall not 
 uncover his head, nor rend his clothes." 
 The word here translated (C garments " in 
 the one clause, and " clothes" in the other, 
 is in the Hebrew in both clauses the same 
 — is the word in question — is the raiment of 
 Esau which Rebekah took ; and in both 
 clauses the priests' dress is meant, and no 
 other. So, again, what are called \ " the 
 
 * rdto or rhtiv. 
 
 t j — t ; • 
 
 t Chapter xxi. 10. J Exodus xxxv. 19. 
 
18 THE VERACITY OF THE 
 
 clothes of service," is still the same word, as 
 implying Aaron's clothes, or those of his 
 sons, and no other. And, again, Moses 
 says,* " uncover not your heads, neither 
 rend your clothes, lest ■ ye die ; " still the 
 word is the same, for he is there speaking 
 to Aaron and his sons, and to none other. 
 But when he says,t * your clothes are not 
 waxed old," the Hebrew word is> no longer 
 the same, though the English word is, but 
 is the other word of which I spoke,J for 
 the clothes of the people are here signified, 
 and not of the priests. 
 
 This, therefore, is all that can be main- 
 tained, that the term used to express the 
 " raiment" which Rebekah brought out for 
 Jacob, is the term which would express 
 appropriately the dress of the priest, though 
 it certainly would not express it exclusively. 
 
 * Leviticus x. 6. t Deuteronomy xxix. 5. 
 
 
FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES. 19 
 
 But, again, the epithet " goodly " (or '*' de- 
 sirable"* as the margin renders it more 
 closely) annexed to the raiment is still in 
 favour of our interpretation, though neither 
 is this word, any more than the other, con- 
 clusive of the question. Certain, however, 
 it is, that though the word translated 
 " goodly " is not restricted to sacred things, 
 it does so happen that to sacred things it is 
 attached in very many instances, if not in 
 a majority of instances, where it occurs in 
 Holy Writ, Thus the utensils of the Tem- 
 ple which Nebuchadnezzar carried away 
 are called in the Book of Chronicles f " the 
 goodly vessels of the House of the Lord." 
 And Isaiah writes, " all our pleasant things 
 are laid waste/' J meaning the Temple — 
 the word here rendered " pleasant " being 
 the same as that in the former passages ren- 
 
 * Ttttom 
 
 t 2 Chronicles xxxvi. 10. J Isaiah lxiv. 11. 
 
20 TKE VERACITY OF THE 
 
 dered " goodly;" and in the Lamentations* 
 we read, " the adversary hath spread out 
 his hand upon all our pleasant things," 
 where the Temple is again understood, as 
 the context proves. In other places it 
 occurs in a bad sense, as relating to what 
 was held sacred by Heathens only, but still 
 what was held sacred — " The oaks which 
 ye have desired"']' " all pleasant pictures," % 
 objects of idolatry, as the tenour of the 
 passage indicates — " their delectable things 
 shall not profit,"§ that is, their idols. I may 
 add too, that the a-roT^r) of the Septuagint, 
 (for this answers to the " raiment " of our 
 version,) though not limited to the robe of 
 the altar, is the term used in the Greek as 
 the appropriate one for the robe of Aaron ; 
 and finally, that the care with which this 
 vesture had been kept by Rebekah, and the 
 
 * Lamentations i. 10. t Isaiah i. 29. 
 
 I Isaiah ii. 16. § Ibid. xliv. 9. 
 
FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES. 21 
 
 perfumes with which it was imbued when 
 Jacob wore it, (for Isaac " smelled the smell 
 of his raiment,") savour of things pertain- 
 ing unto God. * 
 
 But if there were Patriarchal Places for 
 worship — if there were Priests to conduct 
 the worship — if there were decent Robes 
 wherein those priests ministered at the 
 worship ; so do I think there were stated 
 Seaso?is set apart for it : though here again 
 we have nothing but hints to guide us to a 
 conclusion. 
 
 4. I confess that the Divine institution 
 of the Sabbath, as a day of religious duties, 
 seems to me to have been from the begin- 
 ning ; and though we have but glimpses of 
 such a fact, still to my eye they present 
 themselves as parts of that one harmonious 
 whole which I am now endeavouring to 
 develop and draw out — even of a Patriarchal 
 
22 THE VERACITY OF THE 
 
 Church, whereof we see scarcely anything 
 but by glimpse. 
 
 " And it came to pass that on the sixth 
 day they gathered twice as much bread, 
 two omers for one man, and all the rulers 
 of the congregation came, and told Moses. 
 And he said unto them, This is that which 
 the Lord hath said, to-morrow is the rest of 
 the Holy Sabbath unto the Lord. Six days 
 ye shall gather it, but on the seventh day, 
 which is the Sabbath, in it there shall be 
 none."* And again, in a few verses after, 
 " And the Lord said unto Moses, How long 
 refuse ye to keep my commandments and 
 my laws ? See, for that the Lord hath 
 give?i you the Sabbath, therefore he giveth 
 you on the sixth day the bread of two 
 days." Now the transaction here recorded 
 is by some argued to be the first institution 
 of the Sabbath. The inference I draw from 
 
 * Exodus xvi. 22. 
 
FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES. 23 
 
 it, I confess, is different. I see in it, that 
 a Sabbath had already been appointed — 
 that the Lord had already given it ; and 
 that, in accommodation to that institution 
 already understood, he had doubled the 
 manna on the sixth day. But even sup- 
 posing the Institution of the Sabbath to be 
 here formally proclaimed^ or supposing (as 
 others would have it, and as the Jews them- 
 selves pretend) that it was not now pro- 
 mulgated, strictly speaking, but was actually 
 one of the two precepts given a little earlier 
 at Mar ah,* still it is not uncommon in the 
 writings of Moses, nor indeed in other parts 
 of Scripture, for an event to be mentioned 
 as then occurring for the first time, which 
 had in fact occurred, and which had been 
 reported to have occurred, long before. 
 For instance, Isaac and Abimelech meet, 
 and swear to do each other no injury. 
 * Exodus xv. 25, and compare Deuteronomy v. 12. 
 
24 THE VERACITY OF THE 
 
 " And it came to pass the same day, that 
 Isaac's servants came and told him con- 
 cerning the well which they had digged, 
 and said unto him, We have found water ; 
 and he called it Shebah, therefore the name 
 of the city is Beer-Sheba unto this day."* 
 Now who would not say that the name 
 was then given to the place by Isaac, and 
 for the first time ? Yet it had been un- 
 doubtedly given by Abraham long before, 
 in commemoration of a similar covenant 
 which he had struck with the Abimelech 
 of his day. " These seven ewe-lambs," 
 said he to that prince, " shalt thou take at 
 my hand, that they ma}' be a witness unto 
 thee that I have digged this well ; where- 
 fore he called the place Beer-Sheba, because 
 they sware both of them." f Or, as another 
 instance : — " And God appeared unto Jacob 
 again when he came out of Padan-Aram, 
 * Genesis xxvi. 32. t Ibid. xxi. 31. 
 
FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES. 25 
 
 and blessed him : and God said unto him, 
 Thy name is Jacob, thy name shall not be 
 Called any more Jacob, but Israel shall be 
 thy name, and he called his name Israel"* 
 Who would not suppose that the name of 
 Israel was now given to Jacob for the first 
 time ? Yet several chapters before this, 
 when Jacob had wrestled with the angel, 
 (not at Beth-el, which was the former 
 scene, but at Peniel,) we read, that " the 
 angel said, What is thy name ? and he said, 
 Jacob : and he said, thy name shall be 
 called no more Jacob, but Israel, for as a 
 prince hast thou power with God, and with 
 man, and hast prevailed." f 
 
 Thus again, to add one example more, 
 we are told in the Book of Judges,J that 
 a certain Jair, a Gileadite, a successor of 
 Abimelech in the government of Israel, 
 
 * Genesis xxxv. 10. t Ibid, xxxii. 28. 
 
 % Judges x. 4. 
 
26 THE VERACITY OF THE 
 
 • 
 
 " had thirty sons that rode on thirty ass- 
 colts, and they had thirty cities, which are 
 called Havoth-Jair unto this day, which 
 are in the land of Gilead." Who would 
 not conclude that the cities were then 
 called by this name for the first time, 
 and that this Jair was the person from 
 whom they derived it ? Yet we read in 
 the Book of Numbers,* that another Jair, 
 who lived nearly three hundred years ear- 
 lier, u went and took the small towns of 
 Gilead" (apparently these very same), " and 
 called them Havoth-Jair." So that the 
 name had been given nearly three centuries 
 already. Why, then,, should it be thought 
 strange that the institution of the Sabbath 
 should be mentioned as if for the first time 
 in the 16th chapter of Exodus, and yet 
 that it should have been in fact founded at 
 the creation of the world, as the language 
 
 * Numbers xxxii. 41. 
 
FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES. 27 
 
 of the 2nd chapter of Genesis,* taken in its 
 obvious meaning, implies ; and as St. Paul's 
 argument in the 4th chapter of the Epistle 
 to the Hebrews (I think) requires it to 
 have been ? — Nor is such a case without a 
 parallel. " Moses gave unto you circum- 
 cision," says our Lord ; yet there is added, 
 " not because it is of Moses, but of the 
 Fathers;"^ — and the like may be said of the 
 Sabbath ; that Moses gave it, and yet that 
 it was of the Fathers. And surely such 
 observance of the Sabbath from the begin- 
 ning is in accordance with many hints which 
 are conveyed to us of some distinction or 
 other belonging to that day from the begin- 
 ning — as when Noah sends forth the dove 
 three times successively at intervals of seven 
 days ; as when Laban invites Jacob to fulfil 
 his week, after the marriage of Leah, the 
 nuptial festivities being probably terminated 
 * Genesis ii. 3. t John vii. 22. 
 
 c 2 
 
28 THE VERACITY OF THE 
 
 by the arrival of the Sabbath ;* these and 
 other hints of the same kind being, as ap- 
 pears to me, pregnant with meaning, and 
 intended to be so, in a history, of the rapid 
 and desultory nature of that of Moses. 
 Neither is there much difficulty in the pas- 
 sage of Ezekiel,t with which those, who 
 maintain the Sabbath to have been for the 
 first time enjoined in the wilderness, sup- 
 port themselves. " Wherefore," says that 
 Prophet, " I caused them to go forth out 
 of the land of Egypt, and brought them 
 into the wilderness — and I gave them my 
 statutes, and showed them my judgments, 
 which if a man do, he shall even live in 
 them — moreover also I gave them my Sab- 
 baths." Here, then, it is alleged, Ezekiel 
 affirms, or seems to affirm, that the Al- 
 mighty gave the Israelites his Sabbaths 
 when he was leading them out of Egypt, 
 * Genesis xxix. 27. f Ezekiel xx. 10, 11, 12. 
 
FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES. 29 
 
 and that He had not given them till then. 
 Yet His statutes and judgments are also 
 spoken of as given at the same time, 
 whereas very many of those had surely 
 been given long before. It would be very 
 untrue to assert, that, until the Israelites 
 were led forth from Egypt, no statutes or 
 judgments of the same kind had been ever 
 given : it was in the wilderness that the 
 law respecting clean and unclean beasts 
 was promulgated, yet that law had cer- 
 tainly been published long before ; * and 
 the same may be said of many others, 
 which I will not enumerate here, because 
 I shall have occasion to do it by and by. 
 My argument, then, is briefly this : — that 
 as Ezekiel speaks of statutes and judgments 
 given to the Israelites in the wilderness, 
 some of which were certainly old statutes 
 and judgments repeated and enforced, so 
 * Genesis vii. 2. 
 
30 THE VERACITY OF THE 
 
 when he says that the Sabbaths were given 
 to the Israelites in the wilderness, he can- 
 not be fairly accounted to assert that the 
 Sabbaths had never been given till then. 
 The fact, indeed, probably was, that they 
 had been neglected and half forgotten 
 during the long bondage in Egypt, (slavery 
 being unfavourable to morals,) and that the 
 observance of them was re-asserted and 
 renewed at the time of the promulgation 
 of the Law in the Desert. In this sense, 
 therefore, the Prophet might well declare, 
 that on that occasion God gave the Israel- 
 ites his Sabbaths. It is true, that in addi- 
 tion to the motive for the observance of 
 the Sabbath, (hinted in the 2nd chapter of 
 Genesis, and more fully expressed in the 
 20th of Exodus,) which is of universal 
 obligation, other motives were urged upon 
 the Israelites specially applicable to them — 
 as that tc the day should be a sign between 
 
FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES. 31 
 
 God and them " * — as that it should be a 
 remembrance of their having been made 
 to rest from the yoke of the Egyptians.! 
 Yet such supplementary sanctions to the 
 performance of a duty (however well 
 adapted to secure the obedience of the 
 Israelites) are quite consistent with a pre- 
 vious command addressed to all, and upon 
 a principle binding on all. 
 
 I have now attempted to show, but very 
 briefly, lest otherwise the scope of my ar- 
 gument should be lost sight of, that there 
 were among the Patriarchs places set apart 
 for worship — persons to officiate — a decent 
 ceremonial — an appointed season for holy 
 things : I will now suggest, in very few 
 words, (still gathering my information from 
 such hints as the Book of Genesis supplies 
 from time to time,) something of the duties 
 and doctrines which were taught in that 
 
 * Exodus xxxi. 17. -j- Deuteronomy v. 1 5. 
 
32 THE VERACITY OF THE 
 
 ancient Church ; and here, I think, it will 
 appear, that the Law and the Prophets of 
 the next Dispensation had their prototypes 
 in that of the Patriarchs — that the Second 
 Temple was greater indeed in glory than 
 the First, but was nevertheless built up 
 out of the First — the one body " not un- 
 clothed," but the other rather " clothed 
 upon." 
 
 5. In this primitive Church, then, the 
 distinction of clean and unclean is already 
 known, and known as much in detail as 
 under the Levitical Law, every animal 
 being arranged by Noah in one class or 
 the other.* The blood, which is the life of 
 the animal, is already withheld as food.f 
 Murder is already denounced as demanding 
 death for its punishment. J Adultery is 
 already forbidden, as we learn from the 
 
 * Genesis vii. 2. t Ibid. ix. 4. 
 
 X Ibid. ix. 6. 
 
FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES. 33 
 
 cases of Pharaoh and Abimelech.* Oaths 
 are already binding.f Fornication is al- 
 ready condemned, as in the case of She- 
 chem, who is said " to have wrought folly 
 in Israel, which thing ought not to be 
 done." J Marriage with the uncircumcised 
 or idolater is already prohibited. § Puri- 
 fications are already enjoined those who 
 approach a holy place, for Jacob bids his 
 people " be clean and change their gar- 
 ments" before they present themselves at 
 Bethel. || The brother is already com- 
 manded to marry the brother's widow, and 
 to raise up seed unto his brother.^" The 
 daughter of the Priest (if Judah, as the 
 head of his own family, may be considered 
 in that character) is already to be brought 
 
 * Genesis xii. 18 ; xxvi. 10. f Ibid. xxvi. 28. 
 t Ibid, xxxiv. 7. 
 
 § Ibid, xxxiv. 14, and compare Exodus xxxiv. 16. 
 ]| Ibid. xxxv. 2. % Ibid, xxxviii. 8. 
 
 c 3 
 
34 THE VERACITY OF THE 
 
 forth and burned, if she played the harlot. * 
 These laws, afterwards incorporated in the 
 Levitical, are here brought together and 
 reviewed at a glance; but as they occur 
 in the Book of Genesis, be it remembered 
 they drop out incidentally, one by one, as 
 the course of the narrative happens to turn 
 them up. They are therefore to be reck- 
 oned fragments of a more full and complete 
 code, which was the groundwork in all 
 probability of the Levitical code itself; for 
 it is difficult to suppose that where there 
 were these, there were not others like to 
 them. 
 
 But this is not all — the Patriarchs had 
 their sacrifices, that great and leading rite 
 of the Church of Aaron. Their sacrifices, 
 how far regulated in their details by the 
 injunctions of God himself, we cannot de- 
 termine ; yet it is impossible to read in the 
 
 * Genesis xxxviii. 24 
 
FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES. 35 
 
 15th chapter of Genesis the particulars of 
 Abraham's offering of the heifer, the goat, 
 the ram, the turtle-dove, and the pigeon — 
 their ages, their sex, the circumspection 
 with which he dissects and disposes them — 
 whether all this be done in act or in vision, 
 without feeling assured that very minute 
 directions upon all these points were vouch- 
 safed to the Patriarchal Church. 
 
 Then as she had her sacrifices, so had 
 she her types — types which in number 
 scarcely yield to those of the Levitical Law, 
 in precision and interest perhaps exceed 
 them. For we meet with them in the 
 names and fortunes of individuals whom 
 the Almighty Disposer of events, without 
 doing violence to the natural order of 
 things, exhibits as pages of a living book 
 in which the Promise is to be read — as 
 characters expressing His counsels and 
 covenants writ by His own finger — as ac- 
 
36 THE VERACITY OF THE 
 
 tors, whereby he holds up to a world, not 
 yet prepared for less gross and sensible 
 impressions, scenes to come. 
 
 It would lead me far beyond the limits 
 of my argument were I to touch upon the 
 multitude of instances, which will crowd, 
 however, I doubt not, upon the minds of 
 my readers. I might tell of Adam, whom 
 St. Paul himself calls " the figure" or type 
 " of Him that was to come."* I might 
 tell of the sacrifice of Isaac (though not 
 altogether after him whose vision upon this 
 subject, always bright though often base- 
 less, would alone have immortalized his 
 name) — of that Isaac whose birth was pre- 
 ceded by an annunciation to his motherf — 
 whose conception was miraculous J — who 
 was named of the angel before he was 
 
 * Romans v. 24. 1 Corinthians xv. 45. 
 
 t Genesis xviii. 10. J Ibid, xviii. 14. 
 
FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES. 37 
 
 conceived in the womb, # and Joy, or 
 Laughter, or Rejoicing was that name f — 
 who was, in its primary sense, the seed in 
 which all the nations of the earth were to 
 be blessed J — whose projected death was a 
 rehearsal (as it were), almost two thousand 
 years beforehand, of the great offering of 
 all — the very mountain, Moriah, not chosen 
 by chance, not chosen for convenience, for 
 it was three days' journey from Abraham's 
 dwelling-place, but no doubt appointed of 
 God as the future scene of a Saviour's 
 passion too § — a son, an only son, the vic- 
 tim — the very instruments of the oblation, 
 the wood, not carried by the young men, 
 not carried by the ass which they had 
 brought with them, but laid on the shoul- 
 ders of him who was to die, as the cross 
 
 * Genesis xvii. 19. t Ibid. xxi. 6. 
 
 § Ibid. xxii. 18. 
 
 % Ibid. xxii. 2. 2 Chronicles iii. 1. 
 
38 THE VERACITY OF THE 
 
 was borne up that same ascent of Him, 
 who, in the fulness of time, was destined 
 to expire upon it. 
 
 But indeed I see the Promise all Genesis 
 through, so that our Lord might well begin 
 with Moses in expounding the things con- 
 cerning Himself;* and well might Philip 
 say, " We have found Him of whom Moses 
 in the Law did write." f I see the Promise 
 all Genesis through ; and if I have con- 
 structed a rude and imperfect Temple of 
 Patriarchal Worship out of the fragments 
 which offer themselves to our hands in that 
 history, the Messiah to come is the spirit 
 that must fill that Temple with His all- 
 pervading presence — none other than He 
 must be the Shekinah of the Tabernacle 
 we have reared. For I confess myself 
 wholly at a loss to explain the nature of 
 that Book on any other principle, or to 
 * Luke xxiv. 27. f John i. 45. 
 
FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES. 39 
 
 unlock its mysteries by any other key. 
 Couple it with this consideration, and I see 
 the scheme of Revelation, like the physical 
 scheme, proceeding with beautiful unifor- 
 mity — an unity of plan connecting (as it 
 has been well said by Paley) the chicken 
 roosting upon its perch with the spheres 
 revolving in the firmament; and an unity 
 of plan connecting in like manner the 
 meanest accidents of a household with the 
 most illustrious visions of a prophet. 
 
 Abstracted from this consideration, I see 
 in it details of actions, some trifling, some 
 even offensive, pursued at a length (when 
 compared with the whole) singularly dis- 
 proportionate * while things which the an- 
 gels would desire to look into are passed 
 over and forgotten. But this principle 
 once admitted, and all is consecrated — all 
 assumes a new aspect — trifles, that seem 
 at first not bigger than a man's hand, 
 
40 THE VERACITY OF THE 
 
 occupy the heavens ; and wherefore Sarah 
 laughed, for instance, at the prospect of a 
 son, and wherefore that laugh was rendered 
 immortal in his name, and wherefore the 
 sacred historian dwells on a matter so 
 trivial, whilst the world and its vast con- 
 cerns were lying at his feet, I can fully 
 understand. For then I see the hand of 
 God shaping everything to his own- ends, 
 and in an event thus casual, thus easy, thus 
 unimportant, telling forth his mighty design 
 of Salvation to the world, and working it 
 up into the web of his noble prospective 
 counsels,* I see that nothing is great or 
 little before Him who can bend to his 
 purposes whatever He willeth, and convert 
 the light-hearted and thoughtless mockery 
 of an aged woman into an instrument of 
 his glory, effectual as the tongue of the 
 
 * Genesis xxi. 6. 
 
FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES. 41 
 
 seer which He touched with living coals 
 from the altar. 
 
 Bearing this master-key in my hand, I 
 can interpret the scenes of domestic mirth, 
 of domestic stratagem, or of domestic wick- 
 edness with which the History of Moses 
 abounds. The Seed of the Woman, that 
 was to bruise the Serpent's head,* however 
 indistinctly understood, (and probably it 
 was understood very indistinctly,) was the 
 one thing longed for in the families of old, 
 was " the desire of all nations," as the Pro- 
 phet Haggai expressly calls it;f and pro- 
 vided they could accomplish this desire, 
 they (like others when urged by an over- 
 powering motive) were often reckless of 
 the means, and rushed upon deeds which 
 they could not defend. Then did the wife 
 forget her jealousy, and provoke, instead 
 of resenting the faithlessness of her hus- 
 * Genesis iii. 15. t Haggai ii. 7. 
 
42 THE VERACITY OF THE 
 
 band;* then did the mother forget a mo- 
 ther's part, and teach her own child trea- 
 chery and deceit ;f then did daughters turn 
 the instincts of nature backward, and deli- 
 berately work their own and their father's 
 shame ; J then did the daughter-in-law veil 
 her face, and court the incestuous bed ; § 
 and to be childless was to be a by-word ; || 
 and to refuse to raise up seed to a brother 
 was to be spit upon ;^[ and the prospect of 
 the Promise, like the fulfilment of it, did 
 not send peace into families, but a sword, 
 and three were set against two, and two 
 against three;** and the elder, who would 
 be promoted unto honour, was set against 
 
 * Genesis xvi. 2 ; xxx. 3 ; xxx. 9. 
 
 t Ibid. xxv. 23 ; xxvii. 13. 
 
 I Ibid. xix. 31. § Ibid, xxxviii. 14. 
 
 || Ibid. xvi. 5 ; xxx. 1. 
 
 H Ibid, xxxviii. 26. Deuteronomy xxv. 9. 
 
 ** Genesis xxvii. 41. 
 
FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES. 43 
 
 the younger whom God would promote,* 
 and national differences were engendered 
 by it, as individuals grew into nations ;f 
 and even the foulest of idolatries may be 
 traced, perhaps, to this hallowed source; 
 for the corruption of the best is the worst 
 corruption of all .J 
 
 It is upon this principle of interpretation, 
 and I know not upon what other so well, 
 that we may put to silence the ignorance of 
 foolish men, who have made those parts of 
 the Mosaic History a stumbHng-block to 
 many, which, if rightly understood, are the 
 very testimony of the covenant ; and a prin- 
 ciple, which is thus extensive in its appli- 
 cation and successful in its results, which 
 explains so much that is difficult, and 
 answers so much that is objected against, 
 
 * Genesis iv. 5 ; xxvii. 41. 
 t Ibid. xix. 37 ; xxvi. 35. 
 J Numbers xxv. 1,2,3. 
 
44 THE VERACITY OF THE 
 
 has, from this circumstance alone, strong 
 presumption in its favour, strong claims 
 upon our sober regard.* 
 
 Such is the structure that appears to me 
 to unfold itself, if we do but bring together 
 the scattered materials of which it is com- 
 posed. The place of worship — the priest to 
 minister — the sacerdotal dress — the ap- 
 pointed seasons for holy things — preachers 
 — prophets — a code of laws — sacrifices — 
 types — and a Messiah in prospect, as a lead- 
 ing feature of the whole scheme, as he now 
 is in retrospect of a scheme which has 
 succeeded it. Complete the building is 
 not ; but still there is symmetry in its com- 
 ponent parts, and unity in its whole. Yet 
 Moses was certainly not contemplating any 
 description of a Patriarchal Church. He 
 
 * See Allix, " Reflections on the Books of Holy- 
 Scripture," where this interesting subject is most inge- 
 niously pursued. 
 
FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES. 45 
 
 had other matters in his thoughts : he was 
 the mediator, not of this system, but of 
 another, which he was now to set forth in 
 all its details, even of the Levitical. Hints, 
 however, of a former dispensation he does 
 inadvertently let fall, and these we find, on 
 collecting and comparing them, to be, as 
 far as they go, harmonious. 
 
 Upon this general view of the Book of 
 Genesis, then, do I found my first proof of 
 consistency without design in the writings 
 of Moses, and my first argument for their 
 veracity — for such consistency is too uni- 
 form to be accidental, and too unobtrusive 
 to have been studied. Such a view is, 
 doubtless, important as far as regards the 
 doctrines of Scripture, I, however, only- 
 urge it as far as regards the evidences. I 
 shall now enter more into detail, and bring 
 forward such specific coincidences amongst 
 independent passages of the Mosaic writ- 
 
46 THE VERACITY OF THE 
 
 ings, as tend to prove that in them we have 
 the Word of Truth, that in them we may 
 put our trust with faith unfeigned. 
 
 II. 
 
 In the 18th chapter of Genesis we find 
 recorded a very singular conversation which 
 Abraham is reported to have held with a 
 superior Being, there called the Lord. It 
 pleased God on this occasion to commu- 
 nicate to the Father of the Faithful his 
 intention to destroy forthwith the cities of 
 Sodom and Gomorrah, of which the cry 
 was great, and the sin very grievous. Now 
 the manner in which Abraham is said to 
 have received the sad tidings is remarkable. 
 He does not bow to the high behest in 
 helpless acquiescence— the Lord do what 
 seemeth good in his sight — but with feel- 
 ings at once excited to the uttermost, he 
 
FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES. 47 
 
 pleads for the guilty city, he implores the 
 Lord not to slay the righteous with the 
 ivicked ; and when he feels himself per- 
 mitted to speak with all boldness, he first, 
 entreats that fifty good men may purchase 
 the city's safety, and, still encouraged by 
 the success of a series of petitions, he rises 
 in his merciful demands, till at last it is 
 promised that even if ten should be found 
 in it, it should not be destroyed for ten's 
 sake. ^ 
 
 Now was there no motive beyond that 
 of general humanity which urged Abraham 
 to entreaties so importunate, so reiterated ? 
 None is named — perhaps such general 
 motive will be thought enough — I do not 
 say that it was not; yet I think we may 
 discover a special and appropriate one, 
 which was likely to act upon the mind of 
 Abraham with still greater effect, though 
 
48 THE VERACITY OF THE 
 
 we are left entirely to detect it for our- 
 selves. For may we not imagine, that no 
 sooner was the intelligence sounded in 
 Abraham's ears, than he called to mind that 
 Lot his nepkeWj with all his family, was 
 dwelling in this accursed town,* and that 
 this consideration both prompted and quick- 
 ened his prayer? For while he thus made 
 his supplication for Sodom, I do not read 
 that Gomorrah and the other cities of the 
 plain f shared his intercession, though they 
 stood in the same need of it — and why not ? 
 except that in them he had not the same 
 deep interest. It may be argued too, and 
 without any undue refinement, that in his 
 repeated reduction of the number which 
 was to save the place, he was governed by 
 the hope that the single family of Lot (for 
 he had sons-in-law who had married his 
 
 * Genesis xiv. 12. f Ibid. xix. 28. Jude 7. 
 
FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES. 49 
 
 daughters, and daughters unmarried, and 
 servants,) would in itself have supplied so 
 many individuals at least as would fulfil 
 the last condition — ten righteous persons 
 who might turn away the wrath of God, 
 nor suffer his whole displeasure to arise. 
 
 Surely nothing could be more natural 
 than that anxiety for the welfare of rela- 
 tives so near to him should be felt by 
 Abraham — nothing more natural than that 
 he should make an effort for their escape, 
 as he had done on a former occasion at his 
 own risk, when he rescued this very Lot 
 from the kings who had taken him captive 
 — nothing more natural than that his family 
 feelings should discover themselves in the 
 earnestness of his entreaties ; yet we have 
 to collect all this for ourselves. The whole 
 chapter might be read without our gather- 
 ing from it a single hint that he had any 
 
 D 
 
50 THE VERACITY OF THE 
 
 relative within ten days' journey of the 
 place. All we know is, that Abraham 
 entreated for it with great passion — that he 
 entreated for no other place, though others 
 were in the same peril — that he endea- 
 voured to obtain such terms as seemed 
 likely to be fulfilled if a single righteous 
 family could be found there. And then 
 we know, from what is elsewhere dis- 
 closed, that the family of Lot did actu- 
 ally dwell there at that time ; a family 
 that Abraham mio'ht well have reckoned 
 on being more prolific in virtue than it 
 proved. 
 
 Surely, then, a coincidence between the 
 zeal of the uncle and the danger of the 
 brothers son is here detailed, though it is 
 not expressed ; and so utterly undesigned 
 is this coincidence, that the history might 
 be read many times over, and this feature 
 
 
FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES. 51 
 
 of truth in it never happen to present it- 
 self. 
 
 And here let me observe — an observa- 
 tion which will be very often forced upon 
 our notice in the prosecution of this argu- 
 ment — that this sign of truth (whatever 
 may be the importance attached to it) 
 offers itself in the midst of an incident in. 
 a great measure miraculous ; — and though 
 it cannot be said that such indications of 
 veracity in the natural parts of a story 
 prove those parts of it to be true which 
 are supernatural, yet, where the natural 
 and supernatural are in close combination, 
 the truth of the former must at least be 
 thought to add to the credibility of the 
 latter; and they who are disposed to be- 
 lieve, from the coincidence in question, 
 that the petition of Abraham in behalf 
 of Sodom was a real petition, as it is; 
 
 D 2 
 
52 THE VERACITY" OF THE 
 
 described by Moses, and no fiction, will 
 have some difficulty in separating it from 
 the miraculous circumstances connected 
 with it — the visit of the angel — the pro- 
 phetic information he conveyed — and the 
 terrible vengeance with which his red right 
 hand was proceeding to smite that adul- 
 terous and sinful generation. 
 
 III. 
 
 The 24th chapter of Genesis contains a 
 very beautiful and primitive picture of 
 Eastern manners, in the mission of Abra- 
 ham's trusty servant to Mesopotamia, to 
 procure a wife for Isaac from the daughters 
 of that branch of the Patriarch's family 
 which continued to dwell in Haran. He 
 came nigh to the city of Nahor — it was 
 the hour when the people were going to 
 
FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES. 53 
 
 draw water. He entreated God to give 
 him a token whereby he might know which 
 of the damsels of the place he had ap- 
 pointed to Isaac for a wife. " And it 
 came to pass that behold Rebekah came 
 out, who was born to Bethuel, son of 
 Milcah, the wife of Nahor, Abraham's bro- 
 ther, with her pitcher upon her shoulder" — 
 '" Drink, my Lord," was her greeting, <c and 
 I will draw water for thy camels also." 
 This was the simple token which the ser- 
 vant had sought at the hands of God ; 
 and accordingly he proceeds to impart his 
 commission to herself and her friends. 
 
 To read is to believe this story. But 
 the point in it to which I beg the attention 
 of my readers is this, that Rebekah is said 
 to be " the daughter of .Bethuel, the son of 
 Milcah, which she bare unto Nahor" It 
 appears, therefore, that the grand-daughter 
 of Abraham's brother is to be the wife of 
 
54 THE VERACITY OF THE 
 
 Abraham's son — i.e. that a person of the 
 third generation on Nahor's side is found 
 of suitable years for one of the second gene- 
 ration on Abraham's side. Now what could 
 harmonize more remarkably with a fact 
 elsewhere asserted, though here not even 
 touched upon, that Sarah, the wife of 
 Abraham, was for a long time barren, and 
 had no child till she was stricken in years?* 
 Thus it was that a generation on Abraham's 
 side was lost, and the grandchildren of his 
 brother in Haran were the co-evals of his 
 own child in Canaan. I must say that this 
 trifling instance of minute consistency gives 
 me very great confidence in the veracity of 
 the historian. It is an incidental point in 
 the narrative — most easily overlooked — I 
 am free to confess never observed by my- 
 self till I examined the Pentateuch with 
 a view to this species of internal evidence. 
 * Genesis xviii. 12. 
 
FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES. 55 
 
 It is a point on which he might have 
 spoken differently, and yet not have ex- 
 cited the smallest suspicion that he was 
 speaking inaccurately. Suppose he had 
 said that Abraham's son had taken for a 
 wife the daughter of Nahor, instead of the 
 grand-daughter, who would have seen in 
 this any thing improbable ? and to a mere 
 inventor would not that alliance have been 
 much the more likely to suggest itself ? 
 
 Now here, again, the ordinary and ex- 
 traordinary are so closely united, that it is 
 extremely difficult indeed to put them 
 asunder. If, then, the ordinary circum- 
 stances of the narrative have the impress 
 of truth, the extraordinary have a very 
 valid right to challenge our serious consi- 
 deration too. If the coincidence almost 
 establishes this as a certain fact, which 
 I think it does, that Sarah did not bear 
 
56 THE VERACITY OF THE 
 
 Isaac while she was young, agreeably to 
 what Moses affirms ; is it not probable 
 that the same historian is telling the truth 
 when he says, that Isaac was born when 
 Sarah was too old to bear him at all ex- 
 cept by miracle ? — when he says, that the 
 Lord announced his future birth, and 
 ushered him into the world by giving him 
 a name foretelling the joy he should be to 
 the nations ; changing the names of both 
 his parents with a prophetic reference to 
 the high destinies this son was appointed 
 to fulfil? 
 
 Indeed the more attentively and scru- 
 pulously we examine the Scriptures, the 
 more shall we be (in my opinion) con- 
 vinced, that the natural and supernatural 
 events recorded in them must stand or fall 
 together. The spirit of miracles possesses 
 the entire body of the Bible, and cannot 
 
FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES. 57 
 
 be cast out without rending in pieces the 
 whole frame of the history itself, merely 
 considered as a history. 
 
 IV. 
 
 There is another indication of truth in 
 this same portion of patriarchal story. It 
 is this — The consistent insignificance of 
 Bethuel in this whole affair. Yet he was 
 alive, and as the father of Rebekah was 
 likely, it might, have been thought, to have 
 been a conspicuous person in this contract 
 of his daughter's marriage. For there was 
 nothing in the custom of the country to 
 warrant the apparent indifference in the 
 party most nearly concerned, which - we 
 observe \ in Bethuel. Laban was of the 
 same country and placed in circumstances 
 somewhat similar ; he too had to dispose of 
 a daughter in marriage, and that daughter 
 
 d 3 
 
58 THE VERACITY OF THE 
 
 also, like Rebekah, had brothers;* yet in 
 this case the terms of the contract were 
 stipulated, as was reasonable, by the father 
 alone ; he was the active person through- 
 out. But mark the difference in the in- 
 stance of Bethuel — whether he was inca- 
 pable from years or imbecility to manage 
 his own affairs, it is of course impossible 
 to say, but something of this kind seems 
 to be implied in all that relates to him. 
 Thus, when Abraham's servant meets with 
 Rebekah at the well, he inquires of her, 
 " Whose daughter art thou ? tell me, I pray 
 thee, is there room in thy father s house 
 for us to lodge in?"f She answers, that 
 she is the daughter of Bethuel, and that 
 there is room ; and when he thereupon 
 declared who he was and whence he came, 
 " the damsel ran and told them of her 
 
 * Genesis xxxi. 1. t Ibid. xxiv. 23. 
 
FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES. 59 
 
 mother s house " (not of her fathers house, 
 as Rachel did when Jacob introduced him- 
 self*) " these things." This might be ac- 
 cident ; but " Rebekah had a brother," the 
 history continues, and " his name was La- 
 ban, and Ltaban ran out unto the man " 
 and invited him in.f Still we have no 
 mention of Bethuel. The servant now 
 explains the nature of his errand, and in 
 this instance it is said, that Laban and 
 Bethuel answered ;J Bethuel being here 
 in this passage, which constitutes the sole 
 proof of his being alive, coupled with his 
 son as the spokesman. It is agreed that 
 she shall go with the man, and he now 
 makes his presents, but to whom ? " Jewels 
 of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment, 
 he gave to Rebekah." He also gave, we 
 
 * Genesis xxix. 12. f Ibid. xxiv. 29. 
 
 1 Ibid. xxiv. 50. 
 
60 THE VERACITY OF THE 
 
 are told, " to her brother and to her mother 
 precious things,"* but not it seems to her 
 father; still Bethuel is overlooked, and he 
 alone. It is proposed that she shall tarry 
 a few days before she departs. And by 
 whom is this proposal made ? Not by her 
 father, the most natural person surely to 
 have been the principal throughout this 
 whole affair, but " by her brother and her 
 mother "\ In the next generation, when 
 Jacob, the fruit of this marriage, flies to 
 his mother's country at the counsel of Re- 
 bekah, to hide himself from the anger of 
 Esau, and to procure for himself a wife, 
 and when he comes to Haran and inquires 
 of the shepherds after his kindred in that 
 place, how does he express himself: " Know 
 ye," says he, " Laban the son of Nahor"% 
 
 * Genesis xxiv. 53. f Ibid. xxiv. 55. 
 
 | Ibid. xxix. 5. 
 
FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES. 61 
 
 This is more marked than even the former 
 instances, for Laban was the son of Bethuel, 
 and only the grandson of Nahor ; yet still 
 we see Bethuel is passed over as a person 
 of no note in his own family, and Laban, 
 his own child, designated by the title of his 
 grandfather, instead of his father. 
 
 This is consistent — and the consistency 
 is too much of one piece throughout, and 
 marked by too many particulars, to be ac- 
 cidental. It is the consistency of a man 
 who knew more about Bethuel than we do, 
 or than he happened to let drop from his 
 pen. It is of a kind, perhaps, the most 
 satisfactory of all for the purpose I use it, 
 because the least liable to suspicion of all. 
 The uniformity of expressive silence — re- 
 peated omissions that have a meaning— no 
 agreement in a positive fact, for nothing is 
 asserted ; yet a presumption of the fact 
 
62 THE VERACITY OF THE 
 
 conveyed by mere negative evidence. It 
 is like the death of Joseph in the New 
 Testament, which none of the Evangelists 
 affirm to have taken place before the Cru- 
 cifixion, though all imply it. This kind 
 of consistency I look upon as beyond the 
 reach of the most subtle contriver in the 
 world. 
 
 On the return of this servant of Abraham, 
 his embassy fulfilled, and Rebekah in his 
 company, he discovers Isaac at a distance, 
 who was gone out (as our translation has 
 it) " to meditate j or (as the margin has it) 
 to fray in the field at eventide."* 
 
 Now in this subordinate incident in the 
 narrative there are marks of truth, (very 
 
 * Genesis xxiv. 63, rft&> W& NtfTl 
 
FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES. 63 
 
 slight indeed it niay be,) but still, I think, 
 if not obvious, not difficult to be perceived 
 and not unworthy to be mentioned. Isaac 
 went out to meditate or to pray — but the 
 Hebrew word does not relate to religious 
 meditation exclusively, still less exclusively 
 to direct prayer. Neither does the cor- 
 responding expression in the Septuagint 
 (aSoXeo-^<rai) convey either of these senses 
 exclusively, the latter of the two perhaps 
 not at all. The leading idea suggested 
 seems to be an anxious, a reverential, a 
 painful, a depressed state of mind — <f out 
 of the abundance of my complaint " (or me- 
 dilation, for the word is the same here, only 
 in the form of a substantive,) " out of the 
 abundance of my meditation and grief have 
 I spoken," are the words of Hannah to 
 Eli. # " Who hath woe, who hath sorrow, 
 who hath contentions, who hath babbling" 
 
 * 1 Samuel i. 16. 
 
64 THE VERACITY OF THE 
 
 (the word is here still the same, and evi- 
 dently might be rendered with more pro- 
 priety melancholy,) " who hath wounds 
 without cause, who hath redness of eyes?'* * 
 Isaac therefore went out into the field not 
 directly to pray, but to give ease to a 
 wounded spirit in solitude. Now the occa- 
 sion of this his trouble of mind is not 
 pointed out, and the passage indeed has 
 been usually explained without any refer- 
 ence to such a feeling, and merely as an 
 instance of religious contemplation in Isaac 
 worthy of imitation by all. But one of the 
 last things that is recorded to have hap- 
 pened before the servant went to Haran, 
 whence he was now returning, is the death 
 and burial of Sarah, no doubt a tender 
 mother (as she proved herself a jealous 
 one) to the child of her old age and her 
 only child. What more likely than that 
 * Proverbs xxiii. 29. 
 
FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES. 65 
 
 her loss was the subject of Isaac's mournful 
 meditation on this occasion ! But this 
 conjecture is reduced almost to certainty 
 by a few words incidentally dropped at the 
 end of the chapter; for having lifted up his 
 eyes and beheld the camels coming, and the 
 servant, and the maiden, Isaac " brought 
 her into his mother Sarah's tent, and took 
 Rebekah, and she became his wife, and he 
 loved her, and was comforted after his mo- 
 thers death." * 
 
 The agreement of this latter incident 
 with what had gone before is not set forth 
 in our version, and a scene of very touch- 
 ing and picturesque beauty impaired, if not 
 destroyed. 
 
 * Genesis xxiv. 69. 
 
66 THE VERACITY OF THE 
 
 VI. 
 
 We have now to contemplate Isaac in a 
 different scene, and to remove with him 
 (after the fashion of this earthly pilgrim- 
 age) from an occasion of mirth to one of 
 mourning. 
 
 Being now grown old, as he says, and 
 " not knowing the day of his death" he 
 prepares to bless his first-born son, " before 
 he dies." # So spake the Patriarch. This 
 looks very like one of the last acts of a life 
 which time and natural decay had brought 
 near its close ; yet it is certain that Isaac 
 continued to live a great many years after 
 this, nay, that probably a fourth part of his 
 whole life yet remained to him — for he was 
 still alive when Jacob returned from Meso- 
 potamia ; when even many of Jacob's sons 
 
 * Genesis xxvii. 2, 4. 
 
FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES. 67 
 
 were grown up to manhood who were as 
 yet in the loins of their father ; * and even 
 after that Patriarch had repeatedly migrated 
 from dwelling-place to dwelling-place in 
 the land of Canaan. For " Jacob/' we read 
 when all these other events had been re- 
 lated in their order, l< came unto Isaac his 
 father, unto Mamre, unto the city of Arbah, 
 which is Hebron, where Abraham and Isaac 
 sojourned." f 
 
 How then is this seeming discrepancy to 
 be got over? I mean the discrepancy be- 
 tween Isaac's anxiety to bless his son before 
 he died, and the fact of his being found 
 alive perhaps forty or fifty years after- 
 wards ? My answer is this — that it was 
 probably at a moment of dangerous sickness 
 when he bethought himself of imparting 
 the blessing — and I feel my conjecture sup- 
 
 * Genesis xxxiv. 5. Ibid. xxxv. 27. 
 
€8 THE VERACITV OF THE 
 
 ported by the following minute coincidences. 
 That Isaac was then desirous to have 
 " savoury meat such as he loved," as though 
 he- loathed his ordinary food; that Jacob 
 bade him " arise and sit that he might eat 
 of his venison," as though he was at the 
 time stretched upon his bed ; that he 
 " trembled very exceedingly" when Esau 
 came in and he was apprised of his mis- 
 take, as though he was very weak ; that the 
 words of Esau, when he said in his heart 
 " the days of mourning for my father are -at 
 hand," are as though he was thought sick 
 unto death ; and that those of Rebekah, 
 when she said unto Jacob (i should I be 
 deprived of you both in one day," are as 
 though she supposed the time of her widow- 
 hood to be near. 
 
 I will add that the prolongation of Isaac's 
 life unexpectedly (as it should seem) may 
 have had its influence in the continued pro- 
 
FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES. 69 
 
 tection of Jacob from Esau's anofer, the 
 latter, even in the first burst of his passion, 
 retaining that reverence for his father which 
 determined him to put off the execution 
 of his evil purposes against Jacob till he 
 should be no more. And this affection 
 seems to have been felt by him to the last ; 
 for wild and wandering as was his life, the 
 sword or the bow ever in his hand, we 
 nevertheless find him anxious to do honour 
 to his father's grave, and assisting Jacob at 
 the burial.* The filial feelings, therefore, 
 which had stayed his hand at first, were 
 still tending to soothe him during Jacob's 
 absence, and to propitiate him on Jacob's 
 return ; for the days of mourning for his 
 father were still not come. 
 
 * Genesis xxxv. 29. 
 
'O 
 
 70 THE VERACITY OF THE 
 
 VII. 
 
 My next coincidence may not be thought 
 in itself so convincing as some others ; yet, 
 as it at once furnishes an argument for the 
 truth of Genesis and an answer to an ob- 
 jection, I will not pass it over. When 
 Jacob is about to remove with his family 
 to Beth-el, a place already consecrated in 
 his memory by the vision of angels, and 
 thenceforward to be distinguished by an 
 altar to his God, he gives the following 
 extraordinary command to his household 
 and all that are with him : " Put away the 
 strange gods that are among you, and be 
 clean, and change your garments ;"* or, as 
 it might be translated with perhaps more 
 closeness, " the gods of the stranger" Had 
 Jacob, then, hitherto tolerated the worship 
 
 * Genesis xxxv. 2. 
 
FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES. 71 
 
 of idols among his own attendants? Had 
 he connived so long at a defection from the 
 God of his fathers, even whilst he was 
 befriended by Him, whilst he was living 
 under His special protection, whilst he was 
 in frequent communication with Him ? This 
 is hard to be believed ; indeed it would 
 have seemed incredible altogether, had it 
 not been remembered that Rachel had 
 Images which she stole from her father 
 Laban, and which he at least considered as 
 his household gods. Those images, how- 
 ever, might be taken by Rachel as valu- 
 ables — silver or gold perhaps, a lair prize 
 as she might think, serving to balance the 
 portion which Laban had withheld from her, 
 and the money which he had devoured. 
 That she used them herself as idols does 
 not appear, but rather the contrary— and 
 that Jacob was perfectly unconscious of 
 their being at all in his camp, whether as 
 
72 THE VERACITY OF THE 
 
 objects of worship or as objects of value, is 
 evident from his giving Laban free leave 
 to put to death the party on whom they 
 should be found.* He therefore was not 
 an idolator himself; nor, as far as we know, 
 did he wink at idolatry in those about him. 
 "Whence then this command, issued to his 
 attendants on their approach to Beth-el, 
 that holy ground, " to put away the strange 
 gods that were amongst them, and to make, 
 themselves clean ?" 
 
 Let us only refer to an event of a former 
 chapter,f and all is plain. The sons of 
 Jacob had been just destroying the city of 
 the Shechemites — they had slain the males, 
 but " all their wealth, and all their little 
 ones, and their wives took they captive, 
 and spoiled all that "was in the house. " 
 These captives, then, so lately added to 
 
 * Genesis xxxi. 32. t Ibid, xxxiv. 
 
FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES. 73 
 
 the company of Jacob, were in all proba- 
 bility the strangers alluded to, and the 
 idols in their possession the Gods of the 
 strangers, which accordingly the Patriarch 
 required them to put away forthwith be- 
 fore Beth-el was approached. Moreover, 
 it may be observed that the terms of the 
 command extend to " all that were with 
 him,' which may well have respect to the 
 recent augmentation of his numbers, by the 
 addition of the Shechemite prisoners; and 
 the further injunction, that not only the 
 idols were to be put away, but that all 
 were to be clean and change their garments, 
 may have a like respect to the recent 
 slaughter of that people, whereby all who 
 were concerned in it were polluted. 
 
 Yet surely nothing can be more inci- 
 dental than the connexion between the 
 sacking of the city and the subsequent 
 
74 THE VERACITY OF THE 
 
 command to put the idols of the stranger 
 away- — though nothing can be more na- 
 tural and satisfactory than that connexion 
 when it is once perceived. Indeed so little 
 solicitous is Moses to point out these two 
 events as cause and consequence, that he 
 has left himself open to misconstruction by 
 the very unguarded and artless manner in 
 which he expresses himself, and has even 
 placed the character of Jacob, as an exclu- 
 sive worshipper of the true God, uninten- 
 tionally in jeopardy. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 In the character of Jacob I see an indivi- 
 duality which marks it to belong to real 
 life ; and this is my next argument for the 
 veracity of the writings of Moses. The 
 particulars we read of him are consistent 
 
FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES. 75 
 
 with each other, and with the lot to which 
 he was born, for this more or less models 
 the character of every man. The lot of 
 Jacob had not fallen upon the fairest of 
 grounds. Life, especially the former part 
 of it, did not run so smoothly with him as 
 with his father Isaac — so that he might be 
 tempted to say to Pharaoh towards the 
 close of it, naturally enough, that " the 
 days of the years of it had been evil." 
 The faults of his vouth had been visited 
 upon his manhood with a retributive jus- 
 tice not unfrequent in God's moral govern- 
 ment of the world, where the very sin by 
 which a man offends is made the rod by 
 which he is corrected. Rebekah's undue 
 partiality for her younger son, which leads 
 her to deal cunningly for his promotion 
 unto honour, works for her the loss of that 
 son for the remainder of her days — his own 
 unjust attempts at gaining the superiority 
 
 £ 2 
 
78 THE VERACITY OF THE 
 
 over his elder brother entail upon him 
 twenty years' slavery in a foreign land — 
 and the arts by which he had made Esau 
 to suffer are precisely those by which he 
 surfers himself at the hands of Laban. Of 
 this man, the first thing we hear is his 
 entertainment of Abraham's servant when 
 he came on his errand to Rebekah. Hos- 
 pitality was the virtue of his age and 
 country ; in his case, however, it seems to 
 have been no little stimulated by the sight 
 of " the ear-ring and the bracelets on his 
 sister's hands," which the servant had 
 already given her * — so he speedily made 
 room for the camels. He next is pre- 
 sented to us as beguiling that sister's son, 
 who had sought a shelter in his house, and 
 whose circumstances placed him at his 
 mercy, of fourteen years' service, when he 
 
 * Genesis xxiv. 30. 
 
FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES. 77 
 
 had covenanted with him for seven only- — 
 endeavouring to retain his labour when he 
 would not pay him his labour's worth — 
 himself devouring the portion which he 
 should have given to his daughters, count- 
 ing them but as strangers.* Compelled at 
 length to pay Jacob wages, he changes 
 them ten times ; and in the spirit of a crafty 
 griping worldling, makes him account for 
 whatever of the flock was torn of beasts or 
 stolen, whether by day or night. When 
 Jacob flies from this iniquitous service with 
 his family and cattle, Laban still pursues 
 and persecutes him, intending, if his in- 
 tentions had not been over-ruled by a 
 mightier hand, to send him away empty, 
 even after he had been making, for so long 
 a period, so usurious a profit of him. 
 
 I think it was to be expected that one 
 
 * Genesis xxxi. 15. 
 
78 THE VERACITY OF THE 
 
 who had been disciplined in such a school 
 as this, and for such a season, would not 
 come out of it without bearing about him 
 its marks ; and that oppressed first by the 
 just fury of his brother, which put his life 
 in hazard, and drove him into exile, and 
 then oppressed still more by the continued 
 tyranny of a father-in-law, such as we have 
 seen, Jacob should have learned, like mal- 
 treated animals, to have the fear of man 
 habitually before his eyes. Now that it was 
 so, is evident from all the latter part of his 
 history. 
 
 He is afraid that Laban will not let him 
 go, and therefore takes the 'precaution to 
 steal from him unawares, when he is gone 
 to a distance to shear his sheep. He ap- 
 proaches the borders of Edom, but here 
 the ancient dread of his brother revives, 
 and he takes the precaution to propitiate 
 him or to escape him by measures which 
 
FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES. 79 
 
 breathe the spirit of the man in a singular 
 manner. He sends him a message — it is 
 from " Jacob, thy servant " to " Esau, my 
 lord." Esau advances, and he at once 
 fears the worst. Then does he divide his 
 people and substance into two bands, that 
 if the one be smitten, the other may escape ; 
 he provides a present of many cattle for 
 his brother — he commands his servants to 
 put a space between each drove, apparently 
 to add effect to the splendour of his pre- 
 sent — he charges them to deliver severally 
 their own portion, with the tidings that he 
 was behind who sent it — he appoints their 
 places to the women and children with the 
 same prudential considerations that mark 
 his whole conduct : first the hand-maids 
 and their children ; then Leah and her 
 children ; and in the hindermost and least 
 exposed place, his favourite Rachael and 
 Joseph. Such are his precautions. They 
 
80 THE VERACITY OF THE 
 
 are all, however, needless — Esau owes him 
 no wrong — he even proposes to escort him 
 home in peace, or to leave him a guard 
 out of the four hundred men that were with 
 him. But Jacob evades both proposals ; 
 apprehending, most likely, more danger from 
 his friends than from his foes ; and dis- 
 misses his brother with a word about " fol- 
 lowing my Lord to Seir" — an intention 
 which, as far as we know, he was in more 
 haste to express than accomplish. 
 
 All this ended, the honour of his house 
 is violated by Shechem, a son of a prince 
 of that country. Even this insult does not 
 throw him off his guard. He heard it, 
 " but he held his peace" till his sons, who 
 were with the cattle in the field, should 
 come home. They soon proceed to take 
 summary vengeance on the Shechemites. 
 The fear of man, however, which had 
 restrained the wrath of Jacob at the first, 
 
FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES. 81 
 
 besets him still, and he now says to his 
 sons — " Ye have troubled me to make me 
 to stink among the inhabitants of the land, 
 and I being few in number, they shall 
 gather themselves together against me and 
 slay me, and I shall be destroyed I and 
 my house."* Jacob would have been bet- 
 ter pleased with more compromise and less 
 cruelty — he was not prepared to give ut- 
 terance to that feeling of turbulent indig- 
 nation, reckless of all consequences, which 
 spake in the words of Simeon and Levi — 
 " Shall he deal with our sister as with an 
 harlot?" Here again, however, his fears 
 proved groundless. 
 
 Many years now pass away, but when 
 we meet him once more he is still the same 
 —■the same leading feature in his character 
 continues to the last. His sons go down 
 
 * Genesis xxxiv. 30. 
 
 E 3 
 
82 THE VERACITY OF THE 
 
 into Egypt for corn in the famine — they 
 return with an injunction from Joseph to 
 take back with them Benjamin, or else to 
 see his face no more. This is urged upon 
 Jacob, and the reply it extorts from him is 
 in strict keeping with all that has gone 
 before: — " Wherefore dealt ye so ill with 
 me, as to tell the man whether ye had yet a 
 brother?"* Still we see one whom suf- 
 fering had rendered distrustful — who would 
 lend many his ear, but few his tongue. 
 The famine presses so sore, that there is 
 no alternative but to yield up his son. 
 Still he is the same individual. Judah is 
 in haste to be gone — he will be surety for 
 the lad — he will bring him again, or bear 
 the blame for ever. But Jacob gives little 
 heed to these vapouring promises of a san- 
 guine adviser, and as stooping before a 
 
 * Genesis xliii. 6. 
 

 FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES. 83 
 
 necessity which was too strong for him, he 
 prudently sets himself to devise means to 
 disarm the danger ; and " if it must be so 
 now," says he, " do this, take of the best 
 fruits of the land in your vessels, and carry 
 down the man a present, a little balm and a 
 little honey, spices and myrrh, nuts and 
 almonds — and take double money in your 
 hand ; and the money that was brought 
 again in the mouth of your sacks, carry it 
 again in your hand, peradventure it was an 
 over-sight." * 
 
 I cannot persuade myself that these are 
 not marks of a real character — especially 
 when I consider that this identity is found 
 in incidents spread over a period of a hun- 
 dred years or more — that they are mere 
 hints, as it were, out of which we are left 
 to construct the man ; hints interrupted by 
 
 * Genesis xliii. 12. 
 
84 THE VERACITY OF THE 
 
 a multitude of other matters ; the genea- 
 logy and adventures of Esau and his Arab 
 tribes ; the household affairs of Potiphar ; 
 the dreams of Pharaoh ; the polity of Egypt 
 — that the facts thus dispersed and broken 
 are to be brought together by ourselves, 
 and the general induction to be drawn from 
 them by ourselves, nothing being more 
 remote from the mind of Moses than to 
 present us with a portrait of Jacob ; nay, 
 that of Isaac, who happens to be less 
 involved in the circumstances of his his- 
 tory, he scarcely gives us a single feature. 
 Surely, with all this before us, it is impos- 
 sible to entertain the idea for a moment of 
 any studied uniformity. Yet an uniformity 
 there is; casual, therefore, on the part of 
 Moses, who was thinking nothing about it 
 — but complete, because, without .thinking 
 about it, he was by some means or other 
 drawing from the life. 
 
FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES. $5 
 
 And now am I thought to disparage the 
 character of this holy man of old ? God 
 forbid ! I think that in the incidents I have 
 named his conduct may be excused, if not 
 justified. But were it otherwise, I am -not 
 aware that any of the Patriarchs have been 
 set up, or can be set up, as a genuine 
 pattern of Christian morals. They saw the 
 Promise, (and the more questionable parts 
 of Jacob's conduct are to be accounted for 
 by his impatience to obtain the Promise, 
 and by his consequently using unlawful 
 means to obtain it,) but " they saw it afar 
 off"— "they beheld it, but not nigh." 
 They lived under a code of laws that were 
 not absolutely good, perhaps not so good 
 as the Levitical ; for as this was but a pre- 
 paration for the more perfect Law of Christ, 
 so possibly was the Patriarchal but a pre- 
 paration for the more perfect Law of Moses. 
 Indeed I have already observed, that many 
 
86 THE VERACITY OF THE 
 
 scattered hints may be gathered from this 
 latter Law, which show that it was but the 
 Law under which the Patriarchs had lived 
 re-constructed, augmented, and improved 
 — and I apprehend that such a scheme of 
 progressive advancement — first the dawn, 
 then the day, then the perfect ,day — is 
 analogous to God's dealings in general. 
 But the broad light in which the Fathers 
 of Israel are to be viewed is this, that they 
 were exclusive worshippers of the One 
 True Everlasting God, in a world of ido- 
 laters — that they were living depositaries 
 of the great doctrine of the Unity of the 
 Godhead, when the nations around were 
 resorting to every green tree — that they 
 u were faithful found among the faithless." 
 And so incalculably important was the pre- 
 servation of this Great Article of the Creed 
 of man, at a time when it rested in the 
 keeping of so few, that the language of the 
 
FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES. 87 
 
 Almighty in the Law seems ever to have 
 a respect unto it : fury, anger, indignation, 
 jealousy, hatred, being expressions rarely, 
 if ever, attributed to him, except in refer- 
 ence to idolatry — and, on the other hand, 
 enemies of God, adversaries of God, haters 
 of God, being there — chiefly and above all, 
 idolaters. But in this sense God was em- 
 phatically the God of Abraham, the God 
 of Isaac, and the God of Jacob : none of 
 them, not even the last, (for the only pas- 
 sage which savours of the contrary admits, 
 as we have seen, of easy explanation,) 
 having ever forfeited their claim to this 
 high and glorious title ; however, such title 
 may not be thought to imply that their 
 moral characters and conduct were fault- 
 less, and worthy of all acceptation. 
 
88 THE VERACITY OF THE 
 
 IX. 
 
 Tpie marks of coincidence without design, 
 which I have brought forward to prove the 
 truth of the Books of Moses, as succes- 
 sively presenting themselves in the history 
 of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, I shall 
 now follow up by others in the history of 
 Joseph. 
 
 By the ill-concealed partiality of his fa- 
 ther, and his own incaution in declaring 
 his dreams of future greatness, Joseph had 
 incurred the hatred of his brethren. They 
 were feeding the flock near Shechem — 
 Jacob desires to satisfy himself of their 
 welfare, and sends Joseph to inquire of 
 
 them and to brins* him word a^ain. Mean- 
 er o 
 
 while they had driven farther a-field to 
 Doth an ; and Joseph, informed of this by a 
 man whom he found wandering in the 
 
FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES. 89 
 
 country, followed them thither. They be- 
 held him when he was yet afar off ; his 
 dress was remarkable,* and the eye of the 
 shepherd in the plain country of the East, 
 like that of the mariner now, was no doubt 
 practised and keen. They take their coun- 
 sel together against him. They conclude, 
 however, not to stain their hands in the 
 blood of their brother, but to cast him into 
 an empty pit, which, in those countries, 
 where the inhabitants were constantly en- 
 gaged in a fruitless search for water, was a 
 very likely place to be on the spot. There 
 he was to be left to die, or, as Reuben 
 intended, to remain till he could rid him 
 out of their hands. 
 
 Nothing can be more artless than this 
 story. Nothing can bear more indisputable 
 signs of truth than its details. But the cir- 
 
 * Genesis xxxvii. 3. 
 
90 THE VERACITY OF THE 
 
 cumstance, on which I now rest, is another 
 that is mentioned. The brothers, having" 
 achieved their evil purpose, sat down to eat 
 bread — possibly some household present 
 which Jacob had sent them, and Joseph 
 had just conveyed, such as on a somewhat 
 similar occasion, in after-times, Jesse sent 
 and David conveyed to his elder brethren 
 in the camp — though on this, as on a 
 thousand touches of truth of the like kind, 
 the reader of Moses is left to make his 
 own speculations. And now " they lifted 
 up their eyes and looked, and behold a 
 company of Ishmaelites came from Gilead 
 with their camels, bearing spicery and balm 
 and myrrh, going to carry it down to 
 Egijpt."* Now this, though by no means 
 an obvious incident to have suggested it- 
 self, does seem to me a very natural one 
 
 * Genesis xxxvii. 25. 
 
FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES. 91 
 
 to have occurred ; and, what is more, is an 
 incident which tallies remarkably well with 
 what we read elsewhere, in a passage, how- 
 ever, having no reference whatever to the 
 one in question. For have we not reason 
 to know, that at this very early period in 
 the history of the world, this first of cara- 
 vans upon record was charged with a cargo 
 for Egypt singularly adapted to the wants 
 of the Egyptians at that time ? Expunge 
 the 2nd and 3rd verses of the 50th chapter 
 of Genesis, and the symptoms of veracity 
 in the narrative which I here detect, or 
 think I detect, would never have been dis- 
 coverable. But in those verses I am told 
 that " Joseph commanded the physicians 
 to embalm his father — and the physicians 
 embalmed Israel — and forty days were ful- 
 filled to him ; for so are fulfilled the days 
 of those which are embalmed, and the Egyp- 
 tians mourned threescore and ten days." 
 
92 THE VERACITY OF THE 
 
 I conclude, therefore, from this, that in 
 these very ancient times it was the practice 
 of the Egyptians (for Joseph was here 
 doing that which was the custom of the 
 country where he lived) to embalm their 
 dead — and we know from the case of our 
 Lord that an hundred pounds' weight of 
 myrrh and aloes was not more than enough 
 for a single body.* Hence, then, the camel- 
 loads of spices which the Ishmaelites were 
 bringing from Gilead would naturally 
 enough find an ample market in Egypt. 
 
 Now is it easy to come to any other 
 conclusion, when trifles of this kind drop 
 out, fitted one to another, like the corre- 
 sponding parts of a cloven tally, than that 
 both are true ? — that the historian, however 
 he obtained his intelligence, is speaking of 
 particulars which fell within his own know- 
 
 * Johnxix. 39. 
 
FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES. 93 
 
 ledge, and is speaking of them faithfully ? 
 Surely nothing can be more incidental than 
 the mention of the lading of these camels of 
 the Ishmaelites — it has nothing to do with 
 the main fact, which is merely this, that 
 the party, whoever they were, and whatever 
 they were bent upon, were ready to buy 
 Joseph, and that his brethren were ready 
 to sell him. On the other hand, no one 
 can suspect that when Moses relates Joseph 
 to have caused his father's body to be 
 embalmed, he had an eye to corroborating 
 his account of the adventure which he had 
 already told concerning the Ishmaelitish 
 merchants, who might thus seem occupied 
 in a traffic that was appropriate. 
 
 I think that this single coincidence 
 would induce an unprejudiced person to 
 believe that the hrdiriary parts of this story 
 are matters of fact fully known to the his- 
 torian, and accurately reported by him. 
 
94 THE VERACITY OF THE 
 
 Yet it is an integral portion of this same 
 story, uttered by the same historian, that 
 Joseph had visions of his future destinies, 
 which were strictly fulfilled — that the whole 
 proceeding with regard to him had been 
 under God's controlling influence from be- 
 ginning to end — that though his brethren 
 " thought evil against him, God meant it 
 unto good," to bring to pass, as he did at a 
 future day, " to save much people alive."* 
 
 Nor is this all, with regard to Egypt, 
 wherein is seen the image and superscrip- 
 tion of truth. An argument for the Vera- 
 city of the New Testament has been found 
 in the harmony which pervades the very 
 many incidental notices of the condition 
 
 * Genesis 1. 20. 
 
FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES. 95 
 
 of Judea at the period when the New 
 Testament professes to have been written. 
 A similar agreement without design may 
 be remarked in the occasional glimpses of 
 Egypt which open upon us in the course of 
 the Mosaic History. For instance, I perceive 
 in each and all p,f the following incidents 
 indirect indications of this one fact, that 
 Egypt was already* a great com country — 
 though I do not believe that such a fact is 
 directly asserted in any passage in the whole 
 Pentateuch. Thus, when Abram found a 
 famine in the land of Canaan, " he went 
 down into Egypt to sojourn there." # There 
 was a second famine in a part of Canaan 
 in the days of Isaac : he, however, on this 
 occasion went to Gerar, which was in the 
 country of the Philistines; but it appears 
 as though this was only to have been a 
 
 * Genesis xii. 10. , 
 
96 THE VERACITY OF THE 
 
 stage in a journey which he was projecting 
 into Egypt; for we read, that iC the Lord 
 appeared unto him and said, Go not down 
 into Egypt; dwell in the land which I shall 
 tell thee of." # There is a third famine in 
 Canaan in the time of Jacob, and then 
 " all countries came unto Egypt to buy 
 corn, because the famine was so sore in all 
 lands."f Again, I read of Pharaoh being 
 wroth with two of his officers — they are 
 spoken of as persons of some distinction in 
 the Court of the Egyptian King — and who 
 were they ? One was the chief of the 
 Butlers, but the other was the chief of the 
 Bakers.\ Still I see in this an indication 
 of Egypt being a corn country ; of bread 
 being there literally the staff of life, and. 
 the manufacturing and dispensing of it an 
 
 * Genesis xxvi. 2. t Ibid. xli. 57. 
 
 % Ibid. xl. 1. 
 
 
FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES. 97 
 
 employment of considerable trust and con- 
 sequence. 
 
 So again I find, that in the fabric of the 
 bricks of Egypt straw was a very essential 
 element ; and so abundant does the corn- 
 crop seem to have been — so widely was it 
 spread over the face of the country, that 
 the task-masters of the Israelites could 
 exact the usual tale of the bricks, though 
 the people had to gather the stubble for 
 themselves to supply the place of the 
 straw, which was withheld.* Still I per- 
 ceive in this an intimation of the agricul- 
 tural fertility of Egypt — there could not 
 have been the stubble-land here implied 
 unless corn had been the staple crop of 
 the country. Then when Moses threatens 
 to plague the Egyptians with a Plague of 
 Frogs, what are the places which at once 
 
 * Exodus v. 7. 
 
98 THE VERACITY OF THE 
 
 present themselves as those which are 
 likely to be defiled by their presence ? — ■ 
 " The river shall bring* forth frogs abund- 
 antly, which shall go up and come into 
 thine house, and into thy bed-chamber, 
 and upon thy bed, and into the house of 
 thy servants, and upon thy people, and 
 into thine ovens, and into thy kneading- 
 iroughs."* And of these kneading-troughs 
 we again read, as utensils possessed by all, 
 and without which they could not think 
 even of taking a journey — for on the deli- 
 very of the Israelites from Egypt, we i find 
 that u they took their dough before it was 
 leavened, their kneading - troughs being 
 bound up in their clothes upon their 
 shoulders." f 
 
 Now it may be said, that we all know 
 Egypt to have been a great corn-country — 
 
 * Exodus viii. 3. f ^id. xii. 34. 
 
FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES. 99 
 
 that the thing admits of no doubt, and 
 never did ■ — I allow it to be so — and if 
 such a fact had been asserted in the writ- 
 ings of Moses as a broad fact, I should 
 have taken no notice of it, for it would 
 then have afforded no ground for an argu- 
 ment like this ; in such a case, Moses 
 might have come at the knowledge as we 
 ourselves may have done, by having vi- 
 sited the country himself, or by having 
 received a report of it from others who had 
 visited it, and so might have incorporated 
 this amongst other incidents in his history ; 
 but I do not observe it asserted by him 
 in round terms ; it is not indeed asserted 
 by him at all — it is intimated— intimated 
 when he is manifestly not thinking about 
 it, when his mind and his pen are quite 
 intent upon other matters; intimated very 
 often, very indirectly, in very various ways. 
 
 f 2 
 
100 THE VERACITY OF THE 
 
 The fact itself of Egypt being a great corn- 
 country was no doubt perfectly well known 
 to Dr. Johnson ; but though so much of 
 the scene of Rasselas is laid in Egypt, I 
 will venture to say, that there are in it 
 no hints of the nature I am describing ; 
 such, I mean, as would serve to convince 
 us that the author was relating a series 
 of events which had happened under his 
 own eye, and that the places with which 
 he combines them were not ideal, but those 
 wherein they actually came to pass. 
 
 Surely, then, it is very satisfactory to 
 discover concurrence thus uniform, thus 
 uncontrived, in particulars falling out at 
 intervals in the course of an artless nar- 
 rative which is not afraid to proclaim the 
 Almighty as manifesting himself by signal 
 miracles, and which connects those miracles 
 too in the closest union with the subordi- 
 
FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES. 101 
 
 nate matters of which we have thus been 
 able to ascertain the probable truth and 
 accuracy. 
 
 XL 
 
 Before we dismiss this question of the 
 Corn in Egypt, we may remark another 
 trifling instance or two of consistency with- 
 out design, declaring themselves in this 
 part of the narrative and tending to 
 strengthen our belief in it. Joseph, it 
 seems,* advised Pharaoh before the famine 
 began, to appoint officers over the land, 
 that should " take up the fifth part of the 
 land of Egypt in the seven plenteous 
 years." After this we have several chap- 
 ters occupied with the details of the history 
 of Jacob and his sons — the journey of the 
 
 * Genesis xli. 34. 
 
102 THE VERACITY OF THE 
 
 latter to Egypt — their return to their fa- 
 ther — the repetition of their journey — the 
 discovery of Joseph — the migration of the 
 Patriarch with all his family, of whom the 
 individuals are named after their respective 
 heads — the introduction of Jacob to Pha- 
 raoh, and his final settlement in the land 
 of Goshen. Then the affair of the famine 
 is again touched upon in a few verses, 
 and a permanent regulation of property in 
 Egypt is recorded as the accidental result 
 of that famine. For the people, who had 
 sold both themselves and their lands to 
 Pharaoh for corn to preserve life, are now 
 permitted to redeem both on the payment 
 of a fifth of the produce to the King for 
 ever. " And Joseph made it a law over 
 the land of Egypt unto this day, that 
 Pharaoh should have the fifth part."* Now 
 
 * Genesis xlvii. 26. 
 
FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES. 103 
 
 this was, as we had been told in a former 
 chapter, precisely the proportion which 
 Joseph had " taken up " before the famine 
 began. It was then an arrangement en- 
 tered into with the proprietors of the soil 
 prospectively, as likely to ensure the sub- 
 sistence of the people ; the experiment was 
 found to answer ; and the opportunity of 
 perpetuating it having occurred, the ar- 
 rangement was now made lasting and com- 
 pulsory. Magazines of corn were hence- 
 forth to be established, which should at 
 all times be ready to meet an accidental 
 failure of the harvest. 
 
 Can anything be more natural than this ? 
 anything more common than for great civil 
 and political changes to spring out of pro- 
 visions which chanced to be made to meet 
 some temporary emergency? Has not our 
 own constitution, and have not the con- 
 stitutions of most other countries, ancient 
 
104 THE VERACITY OF THE 
 
 and modern, grown out of occasion — out 
 of the impulse of the day ? 
 
 Further still. Though Joseph possessed 
 himself, on his royal master's account, of 
 all the land of Egypt besides, and disposed 
 of the people throughout the country just 
 as he pleased,* " he did not buy the land of 
 the priests, for the priests had a portion 
 assigned them of Pharaoh, and did eat 
 their portion which Pharaoh gave them, 
 wherefore they sold not their lands." The 
 priests then, we see, were greatly favoured 
 in the arrangements made at this period 
 of national distress. Now does not this 
 accord with what we had been told on a 
 former occasion, — that Pharaoh being desi- 
 rous to do Joseph honour, causing him to 
 ride in the second chariot that he had, 
 and crying before him, bow the knee, and 
 
 * Genesis xlvii. 22. 
 
FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES. 105 
 
 making him ruler over all the land of 
 Egypt,* added yet this as the final proof 
 of his high regard, that " he gave him to 
 wife Asenath, the daughter of Poti-pherah, 
 Priest of On ? " | When, therefore, the 
 priests were thus held in esteem by Pha- 
 raoh, and when the minister of Pharaoh, 
 under whose immediate directions all the 
 regulations of the polity of Egypt were at 
 that time conducted, had the daughter of 
 one of them for his wife, is it not the most 
 natural thing in the world to have happened, 
 that their lands should be spared? 
 
 XII. 
 
 I have already found an argument for the 
 veracity of Moses in the identity of Jacob's 
 character, I now find another in the iden- 
 tity of that of Joseph. There is one quality 
 
 * Genesis xli. 43. f Ibid. xli. 45. 
 
 F 3 
 
106 THE VERACITY OF THE 
 
 (as it has been often observed, though with 
 a different view from mine,) which runs 
 like a thread through his whole history, 
 his affection for his father. Israel loved 
 him, we read, more than all his children — 
 he was the child of his age — his mother 
 died whilst he was yet young, and a 
 double care of him consequently devolved 
 upon his surviving parent. He made him 
 a coat of many colours — he kept him at 
 home when his other sons were sent to 
 feed the flocks. When the bloody gar- 
 ment was brought in, Jacob in his affec- 
 tion for him_, (that same affection which 
 on a subsequent occasion, when it was told 
 him that after all Joseph was alive, made 
 him as slow to believe the good tidings as 
 he was now quick to apprehend the sad,) 
 in this his affection for him, I say, Jacob 
 at once concluded the worst, and u he rent 
 his clothes and put sackcloth upon his 
 
FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES. 107 
 
 loins, and mourned for his son many days, 
 and all his daughters rose up to comfort 
 him ; but he refused to be comforted ; and 
 he said, for I will go down into the grave 
 unto my son, mourning." 
 
 Now what were the feelings in Joseph 
 which responded to these ? When the 
 sons of Jacob went down to Egypt, and 
 Joseph knew them though they knew not 
 him, for they (it may be remarked, and 
 this again is not like fiction,) were of an 
 age not to be greatly changed by the lapse 
 of years, and were still sustaining the cha- 
 racter in which Joseph had always seen 
 them, whilst he himself had meanwhile 
 grown out of the stripling into the man, 
 and from a shepherd-boy was become the 
 ruler of a kingdom — when his brethren 
 thus came before him, his question was, 
 " Is your father yet alive?"* They went 
 
 * Genesis xliii, 7. 
 
108 THE VERACITY OF THE 
 
 down a second time, and again the ques- 
 tion was, " Is your father well, the old man 
 of whom ye spake, is he yet alive?" More 
 he could not venture to ask, whilst he was 
 yet in his disguise. By a stratagem he 
 now detains Benjamin, leaving the others, 
 if they would, to go their way. But Judah 
 came near unto him, and entreated him for 
 his brother, telling him how that he had 
 been " surety to his father " to bring him 
 back — how that " his father was an old 
 man," and that this was the " child of his 
 old age, and that he loved him," — how it 
 would come to pass that if he should not 
 see the lad with him he would die, and his 
 grey hairs be brought with sorrow to the 
 grave ; for " how shall I go to my father, 
 and the lad be not with me, — lest, perad- 
 venture, I see the evil that shall come on 
 my father." Here, without knowing it, 
 he had struck the string that was the ten- 
 
FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES. 109 
 
 derest of all. Joseph's firmness forsook him 
 at this repeated mention of his father, and 
 in terms so touching — he could not refrain 
 himself any longer, and causing every man 
 to go out, he made himself known to hi& 
 brethren. Then, even in the paroxysm 
 which came on him (for he wept aloud so- 
 that the Egyptians heard), still his first 
 words uttered from the fulness of his heart 
 were, " doth my father yet live ? " He 
 now bids them hasten and bring the old 
 man down, bearing to him tokens of his 
 love and tidings of his glory. He goes to 
 meet him---he presents himself unto him, 
 and falls on his neck, and weeps on his 
 neck a good while — he provides for him 
 and his household out of the fat of the 
 land — he sets him before Pharaoh. By 
 and by he hears that be is sick, and 
 hastens to visit him — he receives his bless- 
 ing — watches his deathbed — embalms his 
 
110 THE VERACITY OF THE 
 
 body — mourns for him threescore-and-ten 
 days — and then carries him (as he had de- 
 sired) into Canaan to bury him, taking with 
 him as an escort to do him honour " all 
 the elders of Egypt, and all the servants of 
 Pharaoh, and all his house, and the house 
 of his brethren, chariots and horsemen, a 
 very great company." 
 
 How natural was it now for his brethren 
 to think that the tie by which alone they 
 could imagine Joseph to be held to them 
 was dissolved, that any respect he might 
 have felt or feigned for them, must have 
 been buried in the Cave of Machpelah, 
 and that he would now requite to them the 
 evil they had done ! " And they sent a 
 message unto Joseph, saying, Thy father 
 did command before he died, saying, so 
 shall ye say unto Joseph, Forgive, I pray 
 thee now, the trespass of thy brethren and 
 their sin, — for they did unto thee evil." 
 
FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES. Ill 
 
 And then they add of themselves, as if well 
 aware of the surest road to their brother's 
 heart, " Forgive, we pray thee, the tres- 
 pass of the servants of the God of thy 
 father." In every thing the father s name 
 is still put foremost ; it is his memory 
 which they count upon as their shield and 
 buckler. Moreover it may be added, that 
 though all intercourse had ceased for so 
 many years between Joseph and his family, 
 still the lasting affection he bore to a 
 parent is manifested in the name which he 
 gave to his son born to him only two 
 years before the famine, even Manas seh or 
 Forgetting — for God, said he. " hath made 
 me forget all my toil and all my father s 
 house ;" as though instead of his father he 
 must have children to fill up the void in 
 his heart which a parent's loss had created. 
 . It is not the singular beauty of these 
 scenes, or the moral lesson they teach, 
 
112 THE VERACITY" OF THE 
 
 excellent as it is, with which I am now 
 concerned, but simply the perfect artless. 
 consistency which prevails through them 
 all. It is not the constancy with which 
 the son's strong* affection for his father 
 had lived through an interval of twenty 
 years' absence, and what is more, through 
 the temptation of sudden promotion to the 
 highest estate — it is not the noble-minded 
 frankness with which he still acknowledges 
 his kindred, and makes a way for them, 
 " shepherds " as they were, to the throne of 
 Pharaoh himself — it is not the simplicity 
 and singleness of heart, which allow him 
 to give all the first-born of Egypt, men 
 over whom he bore absolute rule, an op- 
 portunity of observing his own compara- 
 tively humble origin, by leading them in 
 attendance upon his father's corpse, to the 
 valleys of Canaan and the modest cradle 
 of his race — it is not, in a word, the grace, 
 

 FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES. 113 
 
 but the identity of Joseph's character, the 
 light in which it is exhibited by him- 
 self, and the light in which it is regarded 
 by his brethren, to which I now point as 
 stamping it with marks of reality not to be 
 gainsaid. 
 
 XIII. 
 
 I will now follow the Israelites out of 
 Egypt into the wilderness, on their return 
 to the land from which their fathers had 
 wandered, and which they, or at least their 
 children, were destined to enjoy. 
 
 In the 10th chapter of Leviticus we are 
 told that " Nadab and Abihu, the sons of 
 Aaron, took either of them his censer and 
 put fire therein, and put incense thereon, 
 and offered strange fire unto the Lord, 
 which he commanded them not. And 
 there went out fire from the Lord and de- 
 
114 THE VERACITY OF THE 
 
 voured them, and they died before the 
 Lord." Now it is natural to ask, how- 
 came Nadab and Abihu to be guilty of this 
 careless affront to God, lighting their cen- 
 sers probably from their own hearths, and 
 not from the hallowed fire of the , altar, as 
 they were commanded to do ? Possibly we 
 cannot guess how it happened — it may be 
 one of those many matters which are of no 
 particular importance to be known, and 
 concerning which we are accordingly left 
 in the dark. Yet when I read shortly af- 
 terwards the following instructions given 
 to Aaron, I am led to suspect that they 
 had their origin in some recent abuse 
 which called for them, though no such 
 origin is expressly assigned to them. I 
 cannot help imagining, that the offence of 
 Nadab and Abihu was at the bottom of the 
 statute, " do not drink wine nor strong 
 drink, thou, nor thy sons with thee, when 
 
FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES. 115 
 
 ye go into the Tabernacle of the congrega- 
 tion, lest ye die — it shall be a statute for 
 ever throughout your generations : and 
 that ye may put difference between holy 
 and unholy, and between clean and un- 
 clean ; and that ye may teach the children 
 of Israel all the statutes which the Lord 
 hath spoken unto them by the hand of 
 Moses." Thus far at least is clear, that a 
 grievous and thou gthless insult is offered 
 to God by two of his Priests, for which 
 they are cut off — that without any direct 
 allusion to their case, but still very shortly 
 after it had happened, a law is issued for- 
 bidding the Priests the use of wine when 
 about to minister. I conclude, therefore, 
 that there was a relation (though it is not 
 asserted) between the specific offence and 
 the general law ; the more so, because the 
 sin against which that law is directed is just 
 of a kind to have produced the rash and 
 
 
116 THE VERACITY OF THE 
 
 inconsiderate act of which Aaron's sons- 
 were guilty. If, therefore, this incidental 
 mention of such a law at such a moment, a 
 moment so likely to suggest the enactment 
 of it, be thought enough to establish the 
 law as a matter of fact, then have we once 
 more ground to stand upon ; for the enact- 
 ment of the law is coupled with the sin of 
 Aaron's sons ; their sin with their punish- 
 ment ; their punishment with a miracle. 
 Nor, it may be added, does the unreserved 
 and faithful record of such a death, suffered 
 for such an offence, afford an inconsidera- 
 ble argument in favour of the candour and 
 honesty of Moses, who is no respecter of 
 persons it seems ; but when God's glory 
 is concerned, and the welfare of the people 
 entrusted to him, does not scruple to be 
 the chronicler of the disgrace and destruc- 
 tion even of the children of his own bro- 
 ther. 
 
FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES. 117 
 
 XIV. 
 
 Another coincidence suggests itself, arising 
 out of this same portion of history, whether 
 however founded in fact or in fancy, be my 
 readers the judges. From the 9th chapter 
 of Numbers, v. 15, we learn that the Ta- 
 bernacle was erected in the wilderness pre- 
 paratory to the celebration of the first 
 Passover kept by the Israelties after their 
 escape from Egypt. From the 40th chap, 
 ter of Exodus we find, that it was reared 
 on the first day of the first month, (v. 2,) 
 pr thirteen days before the Passover,* and 
 that at the same time Aaron and his sons 
 were consecrated to minister in it (v. 13.) 
 In the 8th and 9th chapters of Leviticus 
 are given the particulars of their consecra- 
 
 -* Leviticus xxiii. 5. t See ch. ix. 8. 12: x. 19. 
 
118 THE VERACITY OF THE 
 
 tion, (8th, 6, 12, 30.) and the ceremony is 
 said to have occupied seven days, (v. 33,) 
 during which they were not to leave the 
 Tabernacle day or night. On the eighth 
 day they offered up sin-offerings for them- 
 selves and for the people. It was on this 
 same day, as we read in the 10th chapter,f 
 that Nadab and Abihu were cut off because 
 of the strange fire which they offered, and 
 their dead bodies were disposed of as folr 
 lows : — " Moses called Mishael and Elza- 
 phan, the sons of Uzziel the uncle of 
 Aaron, and said unto them, Come near, 
 carry your brethren from before the sanc- 
 tuary out of the camp. So they went near, 
 and carried them in their coats out of the 
 camp." (x. 4.) All this happened on the 
 eighth day of the first month, or just six 
 days before the Passover. 
 
 Now in the 9th chapter of the Book of 
 Numbers, which speaks of this identical 
 
FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES. 119 
 
 Passover, (v. 1,) as will be seen by a refer- 
 ence to the first verse of that chapter, (in- 
 deed there is no mention of more than this 
 one Passover having been kept in the 
 whole march,*) in this 9th chapter I am 
 told of the following incidental difficulty : 
 — that " there were certain men who were 
 defiled by the dead body of a man, that 
 they could not keep the Passover on that 
 day — and they came before Moses and be- 
 fore Aaron on that day — and those men 
 said unto him, We are defiled by the dead 
 body of a man, wherefore are we kept back 
 that we may not offer an offering to the 
 Lord in his appointed season among the 
 children of Israel." (v. 6, 7.) The case is 
 spoken of as a solitary one. 
 
 Now it may be observed, by way of li- 
 miting the question, that the number of 
 
 * s 
 
 ee also Joshua v. 9, 10. 
 
120 THE VERACITY OF THE 
 
 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 ex- 
 cepted* — 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 anions; the children of 
 Israel. f- 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 Ta- 
 bernacle had been set up (for it was at the 
 beginning of the second month of the se- 
 cond 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. f See Numbers i. 47, 49, 
 
 i Numbers i. 46. and xxvi. 62. 
 
FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES. 121 
 
 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 conse- 
 quence, 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 Elzaphan, who had carried 
 out the dead bodies of Nadab and Abihu. 
 Neither can any thing be more likely than 
 
 G 
 
122 THE VERACITY OF THE 
 
 that, with the lively- impression on their 
 minds of God's wrath so recently testified 
 against those who should presume to ap- 
 proach 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 ex- 
 ample of consistency without design can- 
 not well be conceived. Indeed after it had 
 been suggested to me by a hint to this 
 effect, thrown out by Dr. Shuckford, un- 
 accompanied by any exposition of the ar- 
 guments which might be urged in support 
 of it, I had put it aside as one of those gra- 
 tuitous conjectures in which that learned 
 Author may perhaps be thought sometimes 
 to indulge — till by searching more accu- 
 rately through several detached parts of 
 
FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES. 123 
 
 several detached chapters in Exodus, Levi- 
 ticus, 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 con- 
 fess, 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, ac- 
 cording to the commandment of the Lord, 
 and pitched in Rephidim : and there was n& 
 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. 
 
 G 2 
 
124 THE VERACITY OF THE 
 
 us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our chil- 
 dren, 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 the 
 people may drink. And Moses did so in 
 the si^ht of the elders of Israel. And he 
 called the name of the place Massah, and 
 Meribah, because of the chiding of the 
 people of Israel, and because they tempt- 
 ed the Lord, saying, Is the Lord among us, 
 or not?" " Then came Amalek^ the nar- 
 rative continues, u 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 
 than a reference of date, i It was " then " 
 
FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES. 125 
 
 that Amalek came.. It is the beginning of 
 another adventure which befel the Israelites, 
 and which Moses now goes on to relate. 
 Accordingly in many copies of our English 
 version a mark is here introduced indi- 
 cating the commencement of a fresh para- 
 graph. Yet I cannot but suspect, that 
 there is a coincidence in this case between 
 the production of the water, in an arid wil- 
 derness, and the attack of the Amalekites 
 ■ — -that though no hint whatever to this 
 effect is dropped, there is, nevertheless the 
 relation between them of cause and conse- 
 quence. For what in those times and 
 those countries was so common a bone of 
 contention as the possession of a well? 
 Thus we read of Abraham reproving Abi- 
 melech because, of the well of water which 
 Abimelech's servants had violently taken 
 away."* And again we are told, that 
 
 * Genesis xxi. 25. 
 
126 THE VERACITY OF THE 
 
 41 Isaac's servants digged in the valley, and 
 found there a well of springing water. — 
 And the herdmen of Gerar did strive with 
 Isaac's herdmen, saying, the water is ours ; 
 and he called the name of the well Esek, 
 because they strove with him. And they 
 digged another well, and strove for that 
 also ; and he called the name of it Sitnah. 
 And he removed from thence, and digged 
 another well : and for that thev strove not: 
 and he called the name of it Rehoboth ; 
 and he said, For now the Lord hath made 
 room for us ; and we shall be fruitful in 
 the land."* In like manner when the 
 daughters of the Priest of Midian "came 
 and drew water, and filled the troughs to 
 water their father's flock, the shepherds," 
 we find, u came and drove them away : but 
 Moses stood up, and helped them, and wa- 
 
 * Genesis xxvi. 19 — 22. 
 
FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES. 127 
 
 tered their flock."* And again, when Moses 
 sent messengers to the King of Edom with 
 proposals that he might be permitted to 
 lead the people of Israel through his ter- 
 ritory, the subject of water enters very 
 largely into the terms. " Let us pass, 
 I pray thee, through thy country : we will 
 not pass through the fields, or through 
 the vineyards, neither will we drink of the 
 ivater of the ivells : we will go by the king's 
 highway — we will not turn to the right 
 hand, nor to the left, until we have passed 
 thy borders. And Edom said unto him, 
 Thou shalt not pass by me, lest I come out 
 against thee with the sword. And the 
 children of Israel said unto him, we will go 
 by the highway : and if I and my cattle 
 drink of thy ivater, then I will fay for it."f 
 Again, on a subsequent occasion, Moses 
 
 * Exodus ii. 17. t Numbers xx. 17. 
 
128 THE VERACITY OF THE 
 
 sent messengers to Sihon,. king of the Amo- 
 rites, with the same stipulations : — •" Let 
 me pass through thy land; we will. not turn 
 into the fields, or into the vineyards, we will 
 not dri?ik of the waters of the well : but we 
 will go along by the king's highway, until we 
 be past thy borders.''* And when Moses 
 in the Book of Deuteronomy recapitulates 
 some of the Lord's commands, one of them 
 is, as touching the children of Esau, u Med- 
 dle not with them ;, for I will, not give 
 you their land, no not so much as a foot 
 breadth; because I have given Mount Seir 
 unto Esau for a possession. Ye shall buy 
 meat of them for money, that ye may eatj 
 and ye shall also buy water of them for 
 money, that ye may drink. ,"£ Indeed the 
 well is quite a feature in the narrative of 
 Moses, brief as that narrative is. It unob- 
 
 * Numbers xxi. 22. f Deuteronomy ii. 6. 
 
FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES. 
 
 129 
 
 trusively but constantly reminds us of our 
 scene lying ever in the East — just as the 
 Forum could not fail to be perpetually mix- 
 ing itself up with the details of any history 
 of Rome which was not spurious. The 
 well is the spring of life. It is the place of 
 meeting for the citizens in the cool of the 
 day — the place of resort for the shepherds 
 and herdmen — it is here that we may 
 witness acts of courtesy or of stratagem- 
 acts of religion — acts of civil compact- 
 acts commemorative of things past- — it is 
 here that the journey ends; it is by this 
 that the next is regulated- — hitherto the fu- 
 gitive and the outcast repair— here the 
 weary pilgrim rests himself — the lack of it 
 is the curse of a kingdom, and the pro- 
 spect of it in abundance the blessing which 
 helps forward the steps of the' stranger 
 when he seeks another country. It enters 
 as an element into the language itself" of 
 
 g3 
 
130 THE VERACITY OF THE. 
 
 Holy Writ, and the simile, the illustration, 
 the metaphor, are still telling forth the 
 great Eastern apophthegm, that of " all 
 things water is the first." Of such value 
 was the well — so fruitful a source of con- 
 tention in those parched and thirsty lands 
 was the, possession of a well ! 
 
 Now "applying these passages to the 
 question before us, I think it will be seen, 
 that the sudden gushing of the water from 
 the rock, (which was the sudden discovery 
 of an invaluable treasure,) and the subse- 
 quent onset of the Amalekites at the very 
 same place — for both occurrences are said 
 to have happened at Rephidim, though 
 given as perfectly distinct and independent 
 matters, — do coincide very remarkably with 
 one another; and yet so undesigned is the 
 coincidence, (if indeed coincidence it is 
 after all,) that it might not suggest itself 
 even to readers of the Pentateuch whose 
 
FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES. 131 
 
 lot is cast in a torrid clime, and to whom 
 the value of a draught of cold water is 
 therefore well known : still less to those 
 who live in a land of brooks, like our own, 
 a land of fountains and depths that spring 
 out of the valleys and hills, and who may 
 drink of them freely without cost and with- 
 out quarrel. 
 
 If then it be admitted, that the issue of 
 the torrent from the rock synchronises very 
 singularly with the aggression of Amalek, 
 yet that the narrative of the two events 
 does not hint at any connection whatever 
 between them, I think that all suspicion of 
 contrivance is laid to sleep, and that what- 
 ever force is due to the argument of con- 
 sistency without contrivance as a test, and 
 as a testimony of truth, obtains here. Yet 
 here, as in so many other instances already 
 adduced, the stamp of truth, such as it is, 
 is found where a miracle is intimately con- 
 
132 THE, VERACITY OF THE 
 
 cernecj,; for if the coincidence in question 
 be thought enough to satisfy us that Moses 
 was relating an indisputable matter of fact, 
 when he said that the Israelites received a 
 supply of water at Rephidim, it adds to our 
 confidence that he is relating, an indisputa- 
 ble matter of fact, too, when he says in the 
 same breath, that it was a miraculous 
 supply — where we can prove that there is 
 truth in a story so far as a scrutiny of 
 our own, which was not contemplated by : 
 the party whose words we are trying, ena- 
 bles us to go, it is only fair to infer, in the 
 absence of all testimony to the contrary, 
 that there is truth also in such parts of the 
 same story as our scrutiny cannot attain 
 unto. And indeed it seems to me, that the 
 sin of Amalek on this occasion, a sin which 
 was so offensive in God's sight as to be 
 treasured up in judgment against that race, 
 causing Him eventually to destroy them 
 
FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES. 133 
 
 utterly, derived its heinousness from this 
 very thing, that the Amalekites were here 
 endeavouring to dispossess the Israelites of 
 a vital blessing which God had sent to 
 them by miracle, and which he could riot 
 so send without making it manifest even to 
 the Amalekites themselves, that the chil- 
 dren of Israel were under his especial care 
 — that in fighting therefore against Israel, 
 they were fighting against God. And such, 
 I persuade myself, is the true force of an 
 expression in Deuteronomy used in refer- 
 ence to this very incident — for Amalek is 
 there said to " have smitten them when 
 they were weary, and to have feared not 
 God;"* that is, to have done it in defiance 
 of a miracle, which ought to have im- 
 pressed them with a fear of God, indicating 
 as, of course it did, that God willed not the 
 destruction of this people. 
 
 * Deuteronomy xxv. 18. 
 
134 THE VERACITY OF THE 
 
 XVL 
 
 Amongst the institutions established or 
 confirmed by the Almighty whilst the 
 Israelites were on their march, for their 
 observance when they should have taken 
 possession of the land of Canaan, this 
 was one — " Three times thou shalt keep 
 a feast unto me in the year. Thou shalt 
 keep the Feast of Unleavened bread : thou 
 shalt eat unleavened bread seven days, as 
 I commanded thee, in the time appointed 
 of the month Abib : for in it thou earnest 
 out from Egypt : and none shall appear 
 before me empty : — And the Feast of Har- 
 vest, the first-fruits of thy labours, which 
 thou hast sown in thy field : and the 
 Feast of In-gathering, which is in the end 
 of the year, when thou hast gathered in 
 thy labours out of the field."* 
 
 * Exodus xxiii. 14.' 
 
FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES. 135 
 
 Such then were the three great annual 
 feasts. The first, in the month Abib, 
 which was the Passover. The second, 
 which was the Feast of Weeks. The 
 third, the Feast of In-gathering, when all 
 the fruits, wine and oil as well as corn, 
 had been collected and laid up. The sea- 
 son of the year at which the first of these 
 occurred is all that I am anxious to settle, 
 as bearing upon a coincidence which I 
 shall mention by and by. Now this is 
 determined with sufficient accuracy for 
 my purpose, by the second of the three 
 being the Feast of Harvest, and the fact 
 that the interval between the first and 
 second was just seven weeks* " And ye 
 shall count unto you from the morrow after 
 the Sabbath," (this was the Sabbath of the 
 Passover,) " from the day that ye brought 
 
 * Leviticus xxiii. 1 5. 
 
136 THE VERACITY OP THE 
 
 the sheaf of the wave -offering ; seven* Sab- 
 baths shall be complete ; even unto the 
 morrow after the seventh Sabbath shall ye 
 number fifty days ; and ye shall offer a new 
 meat-offering unto the Lord. Ye shall 
 bring out of your habitations two wave- 
 loaves of two tenth-deals: they shall be of 
 fine flour ; they shall be baken with leaven ; 
 they are the first-fruits unto the Lord/' 
 
 At the Feast of Weeks, . therefore, the 
 corn was ripe and just gathered, for then 
 were the first-fruits to be offered in the 
 loaves made out of the new corn. . If then 
 the wheat was in this state at the second 
 great festival, it must have been very far 
 from ripe at the Passover, which was seven 
 weeks earlier ; and the wave-sheaf, which, 
 as we have ,seen, was to be offered at the 
 Passover, naust have been of some grain 
 
 which came in before wheat — it was in 
 
 v .7 .ii i - ■ '■ ■ - ' 
 
 il 3 ■ 
 
FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES. 137 
 
 fact barley* Now does not this agree, in 
 a remarkable but most incidental manner, 
 with a circumstance mentioned in the de- 
 scription of the Plague of Hail ? The hail, 
 it is true, was sent some little time pre- 
 vious to the destruction of the first-born, 
 or the date of the Passover, for the Plague 
 of Locusts and the Plague of Darkness in- 
 tervened, riut it was evidently only a little 
 time, for Moses being eighty years old when 
 he went before Pharaoh,f and having walked 
 forty years in the wilderness,]; and being 
 only a hundred and twenty years old when 
 he died,§ it is plain that he could have 
 lost very little time by the delay of the 
 plagues in Egypt, the period of his life 
 being filled up without any allowance for 
 such delay. I mention this, because it will 
 be seen that the argument requires the 
 
 * See Ruth ii. 23. t Exodus vii. 7. 
 
 % Joshua v. 6. § Deuteronomy xxxiv. 7. 
 
138 THE VERACITY OF THE 
 
 time of the hail and that of the death of 
 the first-born (or in other words the Pass- 
 over) to be nearly the same. Now the 
 state of the crops in Egypt at the period 
 of the hail, we happen to know — was it 
 then such as we might have reason to ex- 
 pect from the state of the crops of Judea 
 at or near the same season ? — i. e. the 
 barley ripe, the wheat not ripe by several 
 weeks ? 
 
 It is fortunate, inasmuch as it involves a 
 point of evidence, that one of the Plagues 
 chanced to be that of Hail — for it is the 
 only one of them all of a nature to give 
 us a clue to the time of year when they 
 came to pass, and this it does in the most 
 casual manner imaginable, for the mention 
 of the hail draws from the historian who 
 records it the remark, that " the flax and 
 the barley were smitten, for the barley was 
 in the ear and the flax was boiled ; but the 
 
FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES. 139 
 
 wheat and the rye were not smitten, for 
 they were not grown up/' (or rather per- 
 haps, were not out of sheath.*) Now this 
 is precisely such a degree of forwardness 
 as we should have respectively assigned to 
 the barley and wheat — deducing our con- 
 clusion from the simple circumstance that 
 the seasons in Egypt do not greatly differ 
 from those of Judea, and that in the latter 
 country wheat was ripe and just gathered 
 at the Feast of Weeks, barley just fit for 
 putting the sickle into fifty days sooner, or 
 at the Passover, which nearly answered 
 to the time of the hail. Yet so far from 
 obvious is this point of harmony, that 
 nothing is more easy than to mistake it ; 
 nay, nothing more likely than that we 
 should even at first suspect Moses himself 
 to have been out in his reckoning, and ' 
 
 * Exodus ix. 32. 
 
140 THE VERACITY OF THE 
 
 thus to find a knot instead of an argument. 
 For on reading- the following- passage,* 
 where the rule is given for determining 
 the second feast, we might on the instant 
 most naturally suppose that the great wheat- 
 harvest of Judea was in the month Abib, 
 at the Passover-r-" Seven weeks shalt thou 
 number unto thee : begin to number the 
 seven weeks from such time as thou be- 
 ginnest to put the sickle to the corn." Now 
 this " putting the sickle to the corn " is at 
 once perceived to be at the Passover when 
 the wave-sheaf was offered, the ceremony 
 from which we see the Feast of Weeks was 
 measured and fixed. Yet had the great 
 wheat harvest been here actually meant, it 
 would have been impossible to reconcile 
 Moses with himself, for he would then 
 have been representing the wheat to be 
 
 * Deuteronomy xvi. 9. 
 
FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES. 141 
 
 ripe in Judea at a season when, ; as we had 
 elsewhere gathered from him; it was riot 
 grown up or out of the sheath hi Egypt. 
 But if the sickle was to be put into some 
 grain much earlier than wheat, such as^ 
 barley, and if the barley-harvest is here 
 alluded to as falling in with the Passover 
 and not the wheat-harvest, then all is clear, 
 intelligible, and free from difficulty. 
 
 In a word then my argument is this — 
 that at the Passover the barley in Judea 
 was ripe, but that the wheat was not, seven 
 weeks having yet to elapse before the first- 
 fruits of the loaves could be offered.' This 
 I collect from the History of the Great 
 Jewish Festivals. Again, '< that at the 
 Plague of Hail (which corresponds with 
 the time of the Passover to a few days) 
 the barley in Egypt. was smitten, being in 
 the ear, but that the wheat was not smitten, 
 
142 THE VERACITY OF THE 
 
 not being yet boiled. This I collect from 
 the History of the Great Egyptian Plagues. 
 The two statements, on being compared 
 together, agree together. 
 
 I cannot but consider this as very far 
 from an unimportant coincidence — tending, 
 as it does, to give us confidence in the 
 good faith of the historian, even at a mo- 
 ment when he is telling of the Miracles of 
 Egypt, " the wondrous works that were 
 done in the land of Ham." For, supported 
 by this circumstantial evidence, which, as 
 far as it goes, cannot lie, I feel that I have 
 very strong reason for believing that a 
 hail -storm there actually was, as Moses 
 asserts ; that the season of the year to 
 which he assigns it, was the season when 
 it did in fact happen ; that the crops were 
 really in the state in which he represents 
 them to have been — more I cannot prove, 
 
FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES. 143 
 
 for further my test will not reach. It is 
 not in the nature of miracles to admit of 
 its immediate application to themselves. 
 But when I see the ordinary circumstances 
 which attend upon them, and which are 
 most closely combined with them, yielding 
 internal evidence of truth, I am apt to think 
 that these in a great measure vouch for 
 the truth of the rest. Indeed, in all com- 
 mon cases, even in judicial cases of life and 
 death, the corroboration of the evidence of 
 an unimpeached witness in one or two par- 
 ticulars is enough to decide a jury that it 
 is worthy of credit in every other parti- 
 cular — that it may be safely acted upon 
 in the most awful and responsible of all 
 human decisions. 
 
144 THE VERACITY. OF THE 
 
 XVII. 
 
 The argument which I have next to pro- 
 duce has been urged by Dr. Graves,* 
 though others had noticed it before him ;f 
 I shall not, however, scruple to introduce 
 it here in its order, connected as it is with 
 several more, all relating to the economy 
 of the camp. The incident on which it 
 turns is trifling in itself, but nothing can 
 be more characteristic of truth. On the 
 day when Moses set up the Tabernacle 
 and anointed and sanctified it, the princes 
 of the tribes made an offering consisting of 
 six wagons and twelve oxen. These are 
 accordingly assigned to the service of the 
 Tabernacle : " And Moses gave them unto 
 
 * On the Pentateuch, vol. i. p. 111. 
 
 t See Dr. Patrick on Numbers, vii. 7, 8. 
 
FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES. 145 
 
 the Levites ; Two waggons and four oxen 
 he gave unto the sons of Gershon accord- 
 ing to their service, and four waggons and 
 eight oxen he gave unto the sons of Merari 
 according to their service."* Now whence 
 this unequal division ? Why twice as 
 many waggons and oxen to Merari as to 
 Gershon? No reason is expressly avowed. 
 Yet if I turn to a former chapter, sepa- 
 rated however from the one which hag. 
 supplied this quotation by sundry and 
 divers' details of other matters, I am able 
 to make out a very good reason for myself. 
 For there, amongst the instructions given 
 to the families of the Levites as to the 
 shares they had severally to take in re- 
 moving the Tabernacle from place to place, 
 I find that the sons of Gershon had to bear 
 " the curtains," and the " Tabernacle " 
 
 * Numbers vii. 7, 8. 
 
 H 
 
146 THE VERACITY OF THE 
 
 itself, (i.e. the linen of which it was made,) 
 and " its covering, and the covering of 
 badger's skins that was above upon it, 
 and the hanging for the door," and " the 
 hangings of the court, and the hanging 
 for the door of the gate of the court," and 
 " their cords and all the instruments of 
 their service ;" * in a word, all the lighter 
 part of the furniture of the Tabernacle. 
 But the sons of Merari had to bear " the 
 boards of the Tabernacle, and the bars 
 thereof, and the pullies thereof, and the 
 sockets thereof, and the pullies of the court 
 round about, and their sockets, and their 
 pins, and their cords, with all their instru- 
 ments;'^ in short, all the cumbrous and 
 heavy part of the materials of which the 
 frame-work of the Tabernacle was con- 
 structed. And hence it is easy to see why 
 
 * Numbers iv. 25. t Ibid. iv. 32. 
 
FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES. 147 
 
 more oxen and waggons were assigned to 
 the one family than to the other. Is chance 
 at the bottom of all this ? or cunning con^ 
 trivance ? or truth, and only truth ? 
 
 XVIII. 
 
 In the tenth chapter of the Book of Num- 
 bers we have a particular account of the 
 order of march which was observed in the 
 Camp of Israel on one remarkable occa- 
 sion, viz., when they broke up from Sinai. 
 " In the first place went the standard of 
 the Camp of Judah according to their 
 armies" (v. 14). Does this precedence of 
 Judah agree with any former account of 
 the disposition of the armies of Israel ? In 
 the second chapter of the same book I 
 read, " on the East side, toward the rising 
 of the Sun, shall they of the standard of 
 the camp of Judah pitch throughout their 
 
 h 2 
 
148 THE VERACITY OF THE 
 
 armies " (v. 3). All that is to be gathered 
 from this passage is, that Judah pitched 
 East of the Tabernacle. I now turn to 
 the tenth chapter, (v. 5 5 ) and I there find 
 amongst the orders given for r the signals, 
 "when ye blow an alarm, (i.e. the first 
 alarm, for the others are mentioned suc- 
 cessively in their turn,) then the camps 
 that lie on the East parts shall go for- 
 ward." But from the last passage it ap- 
 pears that Judah lay on the East parts, 
 therefore, when the first alarm was blown, 
 Judah should be the tribe to move. Thus 
 it is implied from two passages brought 
 together from two chapters, separated by 
 the intervention of eight others relating to 
 things indifferent, that Judah was to lead 
 in anymarch. Now we see in the account 
 of a specific movement of the camp from 
 Sinai, with which I introduced these re- 
 marks, that on that occasion Judah did in 
 
FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES. 149 
 
 fact lead. This, then, is as it should be. 
 The three passages agree together as three 
 concurring witnesses — in the mouth of 
 these is the word established. Yet there 
 is some little intricacy in the details- 
 enough at least to leave room for an inad- 
 vertant slip in the arrangements, whereby 
 a fiction would have run a risk of being 
 self-detected. 
 
 Pursue we this inquiry a little farther, 
 for the next article of it is perhaps rather 
 more open to a blunder of this description 
 than the last. It may be thought that the 
 leading tribe, the van-guard of Israel, was 
 an object too conspicuous to be overlooked 
 or misplaced. In the 18th verse of the 
 same chapter of Numbers it is said, that 
 after the first division was gone, and the 
 Tabernacle, " the standard of the camp 
 of Reuben set forward according to their 
 armies." The camp of Reuben, therefore^ 
 
150 THE VERACITY OF THE 
 
 was that which moved second on this occa- 
 sion. Does this accord with the position 
 it was elsewhere said to have occupied 1 
 It is obvious that a mistake might here 
 most readily have crept in; and that if 
 the writer had not been guided by a real 
 knowledge of the facts which he was pre i 
 tending to describe, it is more than pro- 
 bable he would have betrayed himself. 
 Turn we then to the 2nd chapter, (v. 10,) 
 where the order of the tribes in their tents 
 is given, and we there find that il on the 
 south side was to be the standard of the 
 camp of Reuben, according to their armies." 
 Again, let us turn to the 10th chapter, 
 (v. 6,) where the directions for the signals 
 are given, and we are there told, " When 
 ye blow the alarm the second time, then 
 the camps on the south side shall take their 
 journey ;" — but the passage last quoted 
 (which is far removed from this) informs 
 
FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES. 151 
 
 us that Reuben was on the south side of the 
 Tabernacle ; the camp of Reuben therefore 
 it was which was appointed to move when 
 the alarm was blown the second time. 
 Accordingly, we see in the description of 
 the actual breaking-up from Sinai, with 
 which I set out, that the camp of Reuben 
 was in fact the second to move. 
 
 The same argument may be followed up, 
 and the same satisfactory conclusions ob- 
 tained in the other two camps of Ephraim 
 and Dan ; though here recourse must be 
 had to the Septuagint, of which the text 
 is more full in these two latter instances 
 than the Hebrew text of our own version, 
 and more full precisely upon those points 
 which are wanted in evidence.* On such 
 a trifle does the practicability of establish- 
 ing an argument of coincidence turn ; and 
 
 * Septuagint, Numbers x. 6. 
 
.152 THE VERACITY OF THE 
 
 so perpetually, no doubt, (were we but 
 aware of it,) are we prevented from doing 
 justice to the veracity of the writings of 
 Moses, by the lack of more abundant' de- 
 tails. 
 
 In all this it appears to me, that without 
 any care or circumspection of the historian, 
 as to how he should make the several parts 
 of his tale agree together — without any 
 display on the one hand, or mock conceal- 
 ment on the other, of a harmony to be 
 found in those several parts — and in the 
 mean time, with ample scope for the ad- 
 mission of unguarded mistakes, by which a 
 mere impostor would soon stand convicted, 
 the whole is at unity with itself, and the 
 internal -evidence resulting from it clear, 
 precise, and above suspicion. 
 I 
 
 A 
 
FIVE BOOKS* OF MOSES. 153 
 
 ,T[IIfijjteqi9q ' 
 
 i xiX /f 9ia (<*' "*° • vrfiA 
 
 k ££niJfr« IOX51S7 9lfa OJ 35>ii8U(; 
 
 1. The arr^g^m^nt^ of ^e^ri>B provide 
 us with another coincidence, no less satis- 
 factory , than the last— for it may be < here 
 remarked, that in proportion as the history 
 of Moses descends to particular!, >(which4t 
 does in the camp,) in that propGrtionrlis it 
 fertile in the arguments. of which I am at 
 present in search. } It is in generaluthenex* 
 treme brevity of the history, #nd nothing 
 else, that baffles us in,, pur inquiries; often 
 affording (as it does) a hint whicfe we? can- 
 not pursue for want of details,., and exhibit- 
 ing ia glimpse of some corroborative < fact 
 which it is vexatious to , be so mfear grasping^, 
 and still to be compelled to relinquish it®sq 
 In the 16th chapter of the Book of Num- 
 bers we read, <c Now Korah the son of Iz- 
 har, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi,. 
 
 H 3 
 
154 THE VERACITY OF THE 
 
 and Dathan and Abiram the sons of Eliab, 
 and On the son of Peleth, sons of Reuben, 
 took men, and they rose up before Moses 
 with certain of the congregation of Israel, 
 two hundred and fifty princes of the assem- 
 bly, famous in the congregation, men of 
 renown. And they gathered themselves 
 together against Moses and against Aaron, 
 and said unto them, Ye take too much upon 
 you, seeing all the congregation are holy, 
 every one of them, and the Lord is among 
 them ; wherefore then lift ye up yourselves 
 above the congregation of the Lord ? " # 
 Such is the history of the conspiracy got 
 up against the authority of the leaders of 
 Israel, The principal parties engaged in 
 it, we see, were Korah of the family of Ko- 
 hathf and Dathan, Abiram, and On, of the 
 family of Reuben. Now it is a very curious 
 
 * Numb. xvi. 1. 
 
FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES. 155 
 
 circumstance that some thirteen chapters 
 before this, chapters occupied with matters 
 of quite another character, it is mentioned 
 incidentally that " the families of the sons 
 of Kohath were to pitch on the side of the 
 Tabernacle southward."* And in another 
 chapter yet farther back, and as indepen- 
 dent of the latter as the latter was of the 
 first, we read no less incidentally, " on the 
 south side (of the Tabernacle) shall be the 
 standard of the camp of Reuben, according 
 to their armies."f .The family of Kohath, 
 therefore, and the family of Reuben, both 
 pitched on the same side of the Tabernacle 
 — they were neighbours, and were therefore 
 conveniently situated for taking secret coun-r 
 sel together. Surely this singular coinci- 
 dence comes of truth — not of accident, 
 not of design ;— not of accident, for how 
 
 * Numb. iii. 29, t Ibid. ii. 10. 
 
156 THE VERACITY OF THE 
 
 great is the improbability that such: a pe- 
 culiar propriety between the relative situa- 
 tions of the parties in the_ conspiracy should 
 have been the mere result of chance ; when 
 three sides of the Tabernacle were occupied 
 by the families of the Levites, and all four 
 isides by the families of the tribes, and when 
 combinations (arithmetically speaking) to 
 so great an extent might have been formed 
 between these in their several members, 
 without the one in question being of the 
 number. It does not come of design, for 
 the agreement is not obvious enough to 
 suit . a designer's purpose — it might most 
 easily escape notice : — it is indeed only to 
 be detected by the juxtaposition of several 
 unconnected passages falling out at long 
 intervals. Then, again, had no such coin- 
 cidence been found at all ; had the conspi- 
 rators been represented as drawn together 
 from more distant parts of the camp, from 
 
FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES. 157 
 
 such parts as afforded no peculiar facilities 
 for leaguing together, no objection whatever 
 would have lain against the accuracy of the 
 narrative on that account. The argument 
 indeed for its veracity would then have 
 been lost, but that would have been all ; 
 no suspicion whatever against its veracity 
 would have been thereby incurred. 
 
 2. But there is yet another feature of 
 truth in this same most remarkable i por- 
 tion of Mosaic history; and this has been 
 enlarged upon by Dr. Graves. # I shall 
 not however scruple to touch upon it here, 
 both because I do not take quite the same 
 view of it throughout, and because this in- 
 cident combines with the one I have just 
 brought forward, and thus acquires a value 
 beyond its own, from being a second of its 
 
 kind arising out of one and the same "event 
 
 n n\ &iofm 
 
 * On the Pentateuch, vol. i. p. 1 55. 
 
158 THE VERACITY OF THE 
 
 —the united value of two incidental marks 
 of truth being more than the sum of their 
 separate values. Indeed, these two in- 
 stances of consistency without design, taken 
 together, hedge in the main transaction on 
 the right hand and on the left, so as almost 
 to close up every avenue through which 
 suspicion could insinuate the rejection of 
 it. 
 
 On a common perusal of the whole his* 
 tory of this rebellion, in the 1 6th chapter 
 of Numbers, the impression left would be, 
 that, in the punishment of Korah, Dathan, 
 and Abiram, there was no distinction or 
 difference ; that their tents and all the men 
 that appertained unto Korah, and all their 
 goods, were destroyed alike. Nevertheless, 
 ten chapters after, when the number of the 
 children of Israel is taken, and when in the 
 course of the numbering, the names of Da- 
 than and Abiram occur, there is added the 
 
FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES. 159 
 
 following incidental memorandum — " This 
 is that Dathan and Abiram who were famous 
 in the congregation, who strove against 
 Moses and against Aaron, in the company 
 of Korah, when they strove against the 
 Lord." Then the death which they died 
 is mentioned, and last of all it is said, 
 <c Notwithstanding the children of Korah 
 died not."* This, at first sight, undoubtedly 
 looks like a contradiction of what had gone 
 before. Again, then, let us turn back to 
 the 16th chapter, and see whether we have 
 read it right. Now, though upon a second 
 perusal I still find no express assertion that 
 there was any difference in the fate of these 
 several rebellious households, I think upon 
 a close inspection I do find (what answers 
 my purpose better) some difference implied. 
 For, in verse 27, we are told, " So they gat 
 
 * * Numb. xxvi. 11. 
 
160 THE. VERACITJ OF THE 
 
 up from the Tabernacle of Koran., Da.than, 
 and Abiram, on every side ;"— ^.^ %£&& 
 Tabernacle which these men in their politi- 
 cal [rebellion .. and religious dissent (for they 
 went together) .had set up in common for 
 themselves, and their adherents, in opposi- 
 tion to the great Tabernacle of the congre- 
 gation. "And Dathan and Abiram," it is 
 added, "came out and stood in the door of 
 their tents ; and their wives, and their sons,, 
 and their little children." Here we per- 
 ceive that mention is made of the sons of 
 Dathan and the sons qf Abiram, but not of 
 the sons of Korah. So that the victims of 
 the catastrophe about to happen, it should 
 seem from this account too, were indeed 
 the sons of Dathan and the sons of Abiram, 
 but not (in t aJL appearanpe) the sons of Ko- 
 rah. Neither is this difference difficult to 
 account for. The Levites pitching nearer 
 to the labernacle than the other tribes, 
 
FIVE B60KS OF MOSES. 161 
 
 forming, in fact, three sides of the inner 
 square, whilst the 'others formed the four 
 sides of the outer, it would necessarily fol 
 low that the 'dwelling-tent of Korah, a Le- 
 Vite, would be at some distance from the 
 dwelling-tents of Dathan and Abiram, Reu- 
 benites, and, as brothers, probably contigu- 
 ous ; at such a distance, at least, as might 
 serve to secure it from being involved in 
 the destruction which overwhelmed the 
 others: for that the desolation was very 
 limited in extent seems a fact conveyed 
 by the terms of the warning---" Depart 
 from the tents of these wicked men," (i. *e; 
 the tabernacle which the three leaders had 
 reared in common, and the two dwelling* 
 tents of Dathan and Abiram,*) as if the 
 danger was confined to the vicinity of those 
 tents. 
 
 ■ ■ .■'... i \\ j • i .. h ' 
 
 * See chap. xvi. v. 27. An attention to this verse, 
 shows these to have been the tents meant. ' 
 
162 THE VERACITY OF THE 
 
 In this single event, then, the rebellion 
 of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, I discover 
 two instances of coincidence without de- 
 sign, each independent of the other — the 
 one, in the conspiracy being laid amongst 
 parties whom I know, from information 
 elsewhere given, to have dwelt on the same 
 side of the Tabernacle, and therefore to have 
 been conveniently situated for such a plot 
 — the other, in the different lots of the 
 families of the conspirators, a difference of 
 which there is just hint enough in the di- 
 rect history of it, to be brought out by a 
 casual assertion to that effect in a subse- 
 quent casual allusion to the conspiracy, 
 and only just hint enough for this — a dif- 
 ference, too, which accords very remark- 
 ably with the relative situations of those 
 several families in their respective tents. 
 
 But if the existence of a conspiracy be 
 by this means established, above all dispute, 
 
FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES. 163 
 
 as a matter of fact — if the death of some 
 of the families of the conspirators, and 
 the escape of others, be also by the same 
 means established, above all dispute, as 
 another matter of fact — if the testimony of 
 Moses, after having been submitted to a test 
 which he could never have contemplated or 
 been provided against, turn out in these 
 particulars at least to be quite worthy of 
 credit — to what are we led on? Is not 
 the historian still the same; is he not still 
 treating of the same incident, when he in 
 forms us that the punishment of this" rebel- 
 lious spirit was a miraculous punishment? 
 that the ground clave asunder that was 
 under the ringleaders, and swallowed them 
 up_, and their houses, and all the men that 
 appertained unto them, and all their goods ; 
 so that they, and all that appertained unto 
 them, went down alive into the pit, and 
 the earth closed upon them, and they 
 perished from among the congregation ? 
 
164 THE VERACITY OF THE 
 
 XX. 
 
 .<• 
 The arrangements of the camp suggest 
 one point of coincidence more, not per- 
 haps so remarkable as the last, yet enough 
 so to be admitted amongst others as an in- 
 dication of truth in the history. 
 
 In the 32d chapter of Numbers, (v. 1,) 
 it is said, f • Now the children of Reube?i, 
 ^nd the children of Gad, had a very great 
 multitude of cattle ; and when they saw the 
 land of Jazer and the land of Gilead, that 
 behold the place was a place for cattle, the 
 children of Gad and the children of Reuben 
 came and spake unto Moses, and to Eleazar 
 the priest, and unto the princes of the con- 
 gregation, saying, Ataroth, and Dibon, and 
 Jazer, and Nimrah, and Heshbon, and Ele- 
 aleh, and Shebam, and Nebo, and Beon, 
 
F*I YE BO O KS O F MO SE S . 105 
 
 even the country which the Lord smote 
 before the congregation of Israel, is a land 
 for cattle, and thy servants have cattle; 
 wherefore, said theyV^if we have received 
 grace in thy sight, let this land be given 
 unto thy servants for a possession, and 
 bring us not .oyer Jordan." 
 
 Here was a petition from the tribes of 
 Reuben and of Gad, to have a portion as- 
 signed them on the east side of Jordan, 
 rather than in the land of Canaan. But 
 how came the request to be made con- 
 jointly by the children of Reuben and the 
 children of Gad ? — Was it a mere acci- 
 dent?— Was it the simple, ckelumstance 
 that these two tribes being rich ej\ sin ^atltle 
 than the rest, and seeing that the pasttirage 
 was good on the,qasf^ide of Jordan^ desired 
 On that account only to e^t^Mish. themselves 
 there together, and to sep_ar#e> f$®&%d$ 
 
 .J f>j [foddaaH htm . i il/l bins ? i9sb! 
 j . , • | : ;, . t w ■ ■ " bnB 
 
166 THE VERACITY OF THE 
 
 brethren ? Perhaps something more than 
 either. For I read in the 2d chapter of 
 Numbers, (v. 10, 14,) that the camp of 
 Reuben was on the south side of the taber- 
 nacle, and that the tribe of Gad formed a 
 division of the camp of Reuben. It may- 
 very well be imagined, therefore, that after 
 having shared together the perils of the 
 long and arduous campaign through the 
 wilderness, these two tribes, in addition to 
 considerations about their cattle, feeling 
 
 the strong bond of well-tried companion- 
 
 * 
 
 ship in hardships and in arms, were very- 
 likely to act with one common council, and 
 to have a desire still to dwell beside one 
 another, after the toil of battle, as quiet 
 neighbours in a peaceful country, where 
 they were finally to set up their rest. 
 Here again is an incident, I think, beyond 
 the reach of the most refined impostor in 
 
FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES. 167 
 
 the world. What vigilance, however alive 
 to suspicion, and prepared for it — what 
 cunning, however bent upon giving credi- 
 bility to a worthless narrative, by insidi- 
 ously scattering through it marks of truth 
 which should turn up from time to time 
 and mislead the reader, would have sug- 
 gested one so very trivial, so very far 
 fetched, as a desire of two tribes to obtain 
 their inheritance together on the same side 
 of a river, simply upon the recollection that 
 such a desire would fall in very naturally 
 with their having pitched their tents sidg 
 by side in their previous march through 
 the wilderness ? 
 
168 THE VERACITY OF THE 
 
 XXI. 
 
 Some circumstances in the history of Balak 
 and Balaam supply me with another argu- 
 ment for the veracity of the Pentateuch. 
 But before I proceed to those which I have 
 more immediately in my eye, I would ob- 
 serve, that the simple fact of a King of 
 Moab knowing that a Prophet dwelt in 
 Mesopotamia, in the mountains of the 
 East, a country so distant from his own, 
 in itself supplies a point of harmony favour- 
 ing the truth and reality of the narrative. 
 For I am led by it to remark this, that 
 very many hints may be picked up in the 
 writings of Moses, all concurring to esta- 
 blish one position, viz., that there was a 
 communication amongst the scattered inha- 
 bitants of the earth in those early times, 
 
FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES. 
 
 169 
 
 a circulation of intelligence, scarcely to be 
 expected, and not easily to be accounted 
 for. Whether the caravans of merchants, 
 which, as we have seen, traversed the 
 deserts of the East — whether the unsettled 
 and vagrant habits of the descendants of 
 Ishmael and Esau, which singularly fitted 
 them for being the carriers of news, and 
 with whom the great wilderness was alive 
 — whether the pastoral life of the Patri- 
 archs, and of those who more immediately 
 sprung from them, which led them to 
 constant changes of place in search of 
 herbage — whether the frequent petty wars 
 which were waged amongst lawless neigh- 
 bours — whether the necessary separation of 
 families, the parent hive casting its little 
 colony forth to settle on some distant land, 
 and the consequent interest and curiosity 
 which either branch would feel for the for- 
 tunes of the other — whether these were the 
 
170 THE VERACITY OF THE 
 
 circumstances that encouraged and main- 
 tained an intercourse among mankind in 
 spite of the numberless obstacles which 
 must then have opposed it, and which we 
 might have imagined would have inter- 
 cepted it altogether ; or whether any other 
 channels of intelligence were open of which 
 we are in ignorance, sure it is that such 
 intercourse seems to have existed to a 
 very considerable extent. Thus, far as 
 Abraham was removed from the branch of 
 his family which remained in Mesopotamia, 
 " it came to pass that it was told him, say- 
 ing, behold, Milcah, she hath also borne 
 children unto thy brother Nahor ; " and 
 their names are then added.* In like man- 
 ner Isaac and Rebekah appear in their 
 turn to have known that Laban had mar- 
 riageable daughters ;f and Jacob, when he 
 
 * Genesis xxii. 20. f Ibid, xxviii. 2. 
 
FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES. 171 
 
 came back to Canaan after his long sojourn 
 in Haran, seems to have known that Esau 
 was alive and prosperous, and that he lived 
 at Seir, whither he sent a message to him ; # 
 and Deborah, Rebekah's nurse, who went 
 with her to Canaan on her marriage, is 
 found many years afterwards in the family 
 of Jacob, for she dies in his camp as he 
 was returning from Haran, f and therefore 
 must have been sent back again meanwhile, 
 for some purpose or other, from Canaan to 
 Haran ; and at Elim, in the desert, the 
 Israelites discover twelve wells of water and 
 three-score and ten palms, the numbers, no 
 doubt, not accidental, but indicating that 
 some persons had frequented this secluded 
 spot acquainted with the sons and grand- 
 sons of Jacob ; J and Jethro, the father-in- 
 
 * Genesis xxxii. 3. t Ibid. xxxv. 8. 
 
 X Exodus, xv. 27. 
 
 i 2 
 
172 THE VERACITY OF THE 
 
 law of Moses, is said " to have heard of all 
 that God had done for Moses and for Israel 
 his people." * And when Moses, on his 
 march, sends a message to Edom, it is 
 worded, " thou knowest all the travail that 
 hath befallen us — how our fathers went 
 down into Egypt, and we have dwelt in 
 Egypt a long time,"t together with many 
 more particulars, all of which Moses reck- 
 ons matters of notoriety to the inhabitants 
 of the desert. And on another occasion 
 he speaks of " their having heard that the 
 Lord was among his people, that he was 
 seen by them face to face, that his cloud 
 stood over them, and that he went before 
 them by day-time in a pillar of cloud, and 
 in a pillar of fire by night." % And this 
 may, in fact, account for the vestiges of so 
 
 * Exodus xviii. 1. f Numbers xx. 15. 
 
 % Ibid. xiv. 14. 
 
FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES. 173 
 
 many laws which we meet with throughout 
 the East, even in this very early period, as 
 held in common — and the many just notions 
 of the Deity, mixed up, indeed, with much 
 alloy, which so many nations possessed in 
 common — and the rites and customs, whe- 
 ther civil or sacred, to which in so many 
 points they conformed in common. Now 
 all these unconnected matters hint at this 
 one circumstance,^ that intelligence travelled 
 through the tribes of the Desert more 
 freely and rapidly than might have been 
 thought ; and the consistency with which 
 the writings of Moses imply such a fact, 
 (for they neither affirm it, nor trouble them- 
 selves about explaining it,) is a feature of 
 truth in those writings. 
 
/ 
 
 174 THE VERACITY OF THE 
 
 XXII. 
 
 Through some or other of the channels 
 of information enumerated in the last para- 
 graph, Balak, King of Moab, is aware of 
 the existence of a Prophet at Pethor, and 
 sends for him. It is not unlikely, indeed, 
 that the Moabites, who were the children 
 of Lot, should have still maintained a com- 
 munication with the original stock of all 
 which continued to dwell in Aram or Meso- 
 potamia. Neither is it unlikely that Pethor, 
 which was in that country,* the country 
 whence Abraham emigrated, and where 
 Nahor and that branch of Terah's family 
 remained, should possess a Prophet of the 
 true God. Nor is it unlikely again, that, 
 living in the midst of idolaters, Balaam 
 
 * Numbers xxiii. 7. 
 
FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES. 175 
 
 should in a degree partake of the infection, 
 as Laban had done before him in the same 
 country ; and that whilst he acknowledged 
 the Lord for his God, and offered his vic- 
 tims by sevens, (as some patriarchal tradi- 
 tion perhaps directed him,)* he should 
 have had recourse to enchantments also — 
 mixing the profane and sacred, as Laban 
 did the worship of his images, with the 
 worship of his Maker. All this is in cha- 
 racter. Now it was not Balak alone who 
 sent the embassy to Balaam. He was but 
 King of the Moabites, and had nothing to 
 do with Midian. With the elders of 
 Midian, however, he consulted, they being 
 as much interested as himself in putting a 
 stop to the triumphant march of Israel. 
 Accordingly we find that the mission to 
 the Prophet came from the two people 
 
 * See Job xlii. 8. 
 
176 THE VERACITY OF THE 
 
 conjointly—" the elders of Moab and the 
 elders of Midian departed, with the rewards 
 of divination in their hand." # 
 
 In the remainder of this interview, and 
 in the one which succeeded it, all mention 
 of Midian is dropped, and the ■" princes of 
 Balak," and the " servants of Balak," are 
 the titles given to the messengers. And 
 when Balaam at length consents to accept 
 their invitation, it is to Moab, the kingdom 
 of Balak, that he comes, and he is received 
 by the King at one of his own border-cities, 
 near the river of Arnon. Then follows the 
 Prophet's fruitless struggle to curse the 
 people whom God had blessed, and the 
 consequent disappointment of the King, 
 who bids him u flee to his place, the Lord 
 having kept him back from honour ;" " and 
 Balaam rose up," the history concludes, 
 
 * Numbers xxii. 7. 
 
FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES. 177 
 
 " and went and returned to his place, and 
 Balak, also, went his way."* So they 
 parted in mutual dissatisfaction. 
 
 Hitherto, then, although the Elders of 
 Midian were concerned in inviting' the Pro- 
 phet from Mesopotamia, it does not appear 
 that they had any intercourse whatever 
 with him on their own account— Balak 
 and the Moabites had engrossed' all his 
 attention. The subject is now discontin- 
 ued : Balak disappears, gone, as we may 
 suppose, to his own country again^ to Pe- 
 thor, in Mesopotamia^ for he had expressly 
 said on parting, "Behold, -I go unto my 
 people" f Meanwhile the historian pur- 
 sues his onward course, and details, through 
 several long chapters, the abandoned pro- 
 fligacy of the Israelites, the numbering of 
 them according to their families 3 , the me- 
 thod by which their portions were to be 
 
 * Numbers xxiy. 25. '''* f Ibid. xxiv. 14. 
 
 i 3 
 
178 THE VERACITY OF THE 
 
 assigned in the land of promise, the laws 
 of inheritance, the choice and appointment 
 of a successor, a series of offerings and 
 festivals of various kinds, more or less im- 
 portant, the nature and obligation of vows, 
 and the different complexion they assumed 
 under different circumstances enumerated, 
 and then (as it often happens in the his- 
 tory of Moses, where a battle or a rebellion 
 perhaps interrupts a catalogue of rites and 
 ceremonies) — then, I say, comes an account 
 of an attack made upon the Midianites in 
 revenge for their having seduced the people 
 of Israel by the wiles of their women. So 
 " they slew the kings of Midian, beside the 
 rest of them that were slain, viz., Evi, and 
 Rekem, and Zur, and Hur, and Reba, five 
 kings of Midian ; " and lastly, there is 
 added, what we might not perhaps have 
 been prepared for, " Balaam also, the son of 
 Beor, they slew with the sword"* , 
 * Numbers xxxi. 8. 
 
FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES. 179 
 
 It seems, then, but how incidentally ! that 
 the Prophet did not, after all, return to 
 Mesopotamia, as we had supposed. Now 
 this coincides in a very satisfactory manner 
 with the circumstances under which, we 
 have seen, Balaam was invited from Pethor. 
 For the deputation, which then waited on 
 him, did not consist of Moabites exclu- 
 sively, but of Midianites also. When dis- 
 missed, therefore, in disgust by the Moab- 
 ites, he would not return to Mesopotamia 
 until he had paid his visit to the Midianites, 
 who were equally concerned in bringing 
 him where he was. Had the details of 
 his achievements in Midian been given, 
 as those in Moab are given, they might 
 have been as numerous, as important, and 
 as interesting. One thing only, however, 
 we are told, that by the counsel which he 
 suggested during this visit concerning the 
 matter of Peor, and which he probably 
 
180 THE VERACITY OE THE 
 
 thought was the most likely counsel to 
 alienate the Israelites from God, and to 
 make Him curse instead of blessing them, 
 he caused the children of Israel to commit 
 the trespass he anticipated, and to fall into 
 the trap which he had provided for them. 
 Unluckily for him, however, his stay 
 amongst the Midianites was unseasonably 
 protracted, and Moses coming upon them, 
 as we have seen, by command of God, 
 slew them and him together. The unde- 
 signed coincidence lies in the Elders of 
 Moab and the Elders of Midia?i going to 
 Balaam ; in Midian being then mentioned 
 no more, till Balaam, having been sent 
 away from Moab, apparently that he might 
 go home, is subsequently found a corpse 
 amongst the slaughtered Midianites, 
 
FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES. 181 
 
 f 
 
 I i , - ■ ■ . ■ • . 
 
 xxiii. .... 
 
 In the consequences which followed from 
 this evil counsel of Balaam, I fancy I dis- 
 cover another instance of coincidence with- 
 out design. It is this. — As a punishment 
 for the sin of the Israelites in partaking of 
 the worship of Baal-Peor, God is said to 
 have sent a Plague upon them. Who were 
 the leaders in this defection from the Al- 
 mighty, and in this shameless adoption of 
 the abomination of the Moabites, is not 
 disclosed — nor indeed whether any one 
 tribe were more guilty before God than 
 the rest — only it is said that the number 
 of " those who died in the Plague was 
 twenty and four thousand." * I read, how- 
 ever, that the name of a certain Israelite 
 
 * Numbers xxv. 9. 
 
182 THE VERACITY OF THE 
 
 that was slain on that occasion, (who, in 
 the general humiliation and mourning, de- 
 fied, as it were, the vengeance of the Most 
 High, and determined, at all hazards, to 
 continue in the lusts to which the idolatry 
 had led,) I read, I say, that " the name of 
 this Israelite that was slain, even that was 
 slain with the Midianitish woman, was 
 Zimri, the son of Salu, a prince of a chief 
 house among the Simeonites"* And very 
 great importance is attached to this act of 
 summary punishment — as though this one 
 offender, a prince of a chief house of his 
 tribe, was a representative of the offence of 
 many — for on Phinehas, in his holy indig- 
 nation, putting him to instant death, the 
 Plague ceased. " So the Plague was stayed 
 from the children of Israel." f 
 
 Shortly after this a census of the people 
 
 * Numbers xxv. 14. f Ibid. xxv. 8. 
 
FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES. 183 
 
 is taken. All the tribes are numbered^ and 
 a separate account is given of each. Now 
 in this I observe the following particular — 
 that, although on comparing this census 
 with the one which had been made nearly 
 forty years before at Sinai, it appears that 
 the majority of the tribes had meanwhile 
 increased in numbers, and none of them 
 very materially diminished,* the tribe of 
 Simeon had lost almost two-thirds of its 
 whole body, being reduced from " fifty -nine 
 thousand and three hundred,"f to " twenty- 
 two thousand and two hundred." J No 
 reason is assigned for this extraordinary 
 depopulation of this one tribe — no hint 
 whatever is given as to its eminence in 
 suffering above its fellows. Nor can I 
 pretend to say that we can detect the 
 reason with any certainty of being right, 
 
 * Compare Numbers, 1, and Numbers, 26. 
 t Ibid. i. 23. % Ibid. xxvi. 14. 
 
184 THE VERACITY OF THE 
 
 though the fact speaks for itself that Lie 
 tribe of Simeon must have experienced dis- 
 aster beyond the rest. Yet it does seem 
 very natural to think, that, in the recent 
 Plague, the tribe to which Zimri belonged, 
 who is mentioned as a leading person in 
 it with great emphasis, was the tribe upon 
 which the chief fury of the scourge fell — 
 as having been that which had been the chief 
 transgressors in the idolatry. 
 
 Moreover, that such was the case_, I am 
 further inclined to believe from another 
 circumstance. One of the last great acts 
 which Moses was commissioned to perform 
 before his death, has a reference to this 
 very affair of Baal-Peor. " Avenge the 
 children of Israel," says, God to him, "of 
 the Midianites, afterwards thou shalt be 
 gathered uiito thy people."* Moses did so : 
 
 -sjJoaicijiail id 
 
 * Numbers xxxi. 2. 
 
FIVE B © OK S O Ft M O S ES. 1 SSi 
 
 but before he < actually was gathered to his 
 people, and while the recent extermination 
 of this guilty nation must have been fresh 
 in- his mind, he proceeds' to pronounce a 
 parting blessing on the tribes. Now it is 
 singular,' and except upon some such sup- 
 position as this I am maintaining, unac- 
 countable, that whilst he deals out the 
 bounties of earth and heaven with a prodi- 
 gal hand upon all the others, the tribe of 
 Simeon he passes over in silence, and none 
 but the tribe of Simeon — for this he has no 
 blessing* — an omission which should .seem 
 
 * Deuteronomy xxxiii. 6. It is nothing but fair to 
 state that the reading of the Codex Alexandr. is t,r\T^ 
 'Povfirjv koci jjirj cnroSciverit), kat ^vfxetbv eario ttoXvq kv 
 api$n<j). " Let Reuben live and not die, and let Simeon 
 be many in number." This reading, however, the Codex 
 Vaticanus, the rival MS. of the Alexandrine, and at 
 least its equal in authority, does not recognise : neither 
 is it found in the Hebrew text, nor in any of the various 
 readings of that text as given by Dr. Kennicott — nor in 
 
186 THE VERACITY OF THE 
 
 to have some meaning, and which does in 
 fact, as I apprehend, point to this same 
 matter of Baal-Peor. For if that was pre- 
 eminently the offending tribe, nothing could 
 be more likely than that Moses, fresh, as I 
 have said, from the destruction of the 
 Midianites for their sin, should remember 
 their principal partners in it too, and should 
 think it hard measure to slay the one, and 
 forthwith bless the other. Nor can I help 
 remarking, in further support of this con- 
 jecture^ that the little consideration paid to 
 
 the Samaritan — nor in the early Versions. It is difficult 
 to believe that the name of Simeon should have been 
 omitted in so many instances by mistake ; whilst it is 
 easy to suppose that it might have been introduced in 
 some one instance by design, the transcriber not aware 
 of any cause for the exclusion of this one tribe, and say- 
 ing, " Peradventure, it is an oversight." Moreover, the 
 blessing of Reuben thus curtailed, " Let Reuben live, 
 and not die," seems tame, and unworthy the party and 
 the occasion. 
 
FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES. 187 
 
 this tribe by their brethren shortly after- 
 wards, in the allotment of the portions of 
 the Holy Land, implies it to have been in 
 disgrace — their inheritance being only the 
 remnant of that assigned to the children of 
 Judah, which was too much for them;* 
 and so inadequate to their wants did it 
 prove, that in after-times they sent forth a 
 colony even to Mount Seir. 
 
 Admitting, then, the fact to be as I have 
 supposed, it supports (as in so many other 
 cases already mentioned) the credibility of 
 a miracle. For the name of the audacious 
 ofTender points incidentally to the offending 
 tribe — the extraordinary diminution of that 
 tribe points to some extraordinary cause of 
 the diminution — the pestilence presents 
 itself as a probable cause — and if the real 
 
 * Joshua xix. 9. 
 
188 THE VERACITY OF THE 
 
 cause, then it becomes the judicial punish- 
 ment of a transgression, a miracle wrought 
 by God (as Moses would have it), in token 
 that his wrath was kindled against Israel. 
 
FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES. 189 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 Here, then, I make an end ; not that I 
 believe the subject exhausted, for I doubt 
 not that many examples of coincidence 
 without design in the writings of Moses 
 have escaped me, which others may detect, 
 as one eye will often see what another has 
 overlooked. Still I cannot account for the 
 number and nature of those which I have 
 been able to produce on any other principle 
 than the veracity of the narrative which 
 presents them ; — accident could not have 
 touched upon truth so often — design could 
 not have touched upon it so artlessly; the 
 less so, because these coincidences do not 
 discover themselves in certain detached and 
 isolated passages, but break out from time 
 
190 THE VERACITY OF THE 
 
 to time as the history proceeds, running- 
 witnesses (as it were) to the accuracy not 
 of one solitary detail, but of a series of 
 details, extending through the lives and 
 actions of many different individuals, re- 
 lating to many different events, and dating 
 at many different points of time. For, I have 
 travelled through the writings of Moses, 
 beginning from the history of Abraham, 
 when a sojourner in the land of Canaan, 
 and ending with a transaction which hap- 
 pened on the borders of that land, when 
 the descendants of Abraham, now numerous 
 as the stars in heaven, were about to enter 
 and take possession. I have found in the 
 progress of this chequered series of events, 
 the marks of truth never deserting us — I 
 have found (to recapitulate as briefly as 
 possible) consistency without design in the 
 many hints of a Patriarchal Church inci- 
 
FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES. 191 
 
 dentally scattered through the Book of 
 Genesis taken as a whole — I have found it 
 in particular instances ; in the impassioned 
 terms wherein the Father of the Faithful 
 intercedes for a devoted city, of which his 
 brother s son was an inhabitant — in the cir- 
 cumstance of his own son receiving in 
 marriage the grand- daughter of his brother, 
 a singular confirmation that he was the 
 child of his parent's old age, the miraculous 
 offspring of a sterile bed — I have found it 
 in the several oblique intimations of the 
 imbecility and insignificance of Bethuel — in 
 the concurrence of Isaac's meditation in the 
 field, with the fact of his mother's recent 
 death — and in the desire of that Patriarch 
 on a subsequent occasion to impart the 
 blessing, as compared with what seem to be 
 symptoms of a present and serious sickness 
 — I have found it in the singular command 
 
192 THE VERACITY OF THE 
 
 of Jacob to his followers, to put away their 
 idols, as compared with the sacking of an 
 idolatrous city, and the capture of its idola- 
 trous inhabitants shortly before — I have 
 found it in the identity of the character of 
 Jacob, a character offered to us in many 
 aspects and at many distant intervals, but 
 still ever the same — I have found it in the 
 lading of the camels of the Ishmaelitish 
 merchants, as compared with the mode of 
 sepulture amongst the Egyptians — in the 
 allusions to the corn-crop of Egypt, thrown 
 out in such a variety of ways, and so inad- 
 vertently in all, as compared one with ano- 
 ther — I have found it in the proportion of 
 that crop permanently assigned to Pharaoh, 
 as compared with that which was taken up 
 by Joseph for the famine ; and in the very 
 natural manner in which a great revolution 
 of the state is made to arise out of a tern- 
 
FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES. 193 
 
 porary emergency — I have found it in the 
 tenderness with which the property of the 
 priests was treated, as compared with the 
 honour in which they were held by the 
 king, and the alliance which had been 
 formed with one of their families by the 
 minister of the king — I have found it in the 
 character of Joseph, which, however and 
 whenever we catch a glimpse of it, is still 
 one: and whether it be gathered from his 
 own words or his own deeds, from the lan- 
 guage of his father or from the language of 
 his brethren, is still uniform throughout — 
 I have found it in the death of Nadab and 
 Abihu, as compared with the remarkable 
 law which follows touching the use of wine 
 — and in the removal of their corpses by 
 the sons of Uzziel, as compared with the 
 defilement of certain in the camp about the 
 same time by the dead body of a man — I 
 have found it in the gushing of water from 
 
 K 
 
194 THE VERACITY OF THE 
 
 the rock at Rephidim, as compared with the 
 attack of the Amalekites which followed 
 — in the state of the crops in Judea at the 
 Passover, as compared with that of the crops 
 in Egypt at the plague of Hail — in the pro- 
 portion of oxen and waggons assigned to 
 the several families of the Levites, as com- 
 pared with the different services they had 
 respectively to discharge — I have found it 
 in the order of march observed in one par- 
 ticular case, when the Israelites broke up 
 from Mount Sinai, as compared with the 
 general directions given in other places for 
 pitching the tents and sounding the alarms 
 — I have found it in the peculiar propriety 
 of the grouping of the conspirators against 
 Moses and Aaron, as compared with their 
 relative situations in the camp — consisting, 
 as they do, of such a family of the Levites 
 and such a tribe of the Israelites as dwelt 
 on the same side of the Tabernacle, and 
 
FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES. 195 
 
 therefore had especial facilities for clan- 
 destine intercourse — I have found it in an 
 inference from the direct narrative, that the 
 families of the conspirators did not perish 
 alike, as compared with a subsequent most 
 casual assertion, that though the households 
 of Dathan and Abiram were destroyed, the 
 children of Korah died not — I have found it 
 in the desire expressed conjointly by the 
 Tribe of Reuben and the Tribe of Gad to 
 have lands allotted them together on the 
 east side of Jordan, as compared with their 
 contiguous position in the camp during their 
 long and trying march through the wilder- 
 ness — I have found it in the uniformity with 
 which Moses implies a free communication to 
 have subsisted amongst the scattered inha- 
 bitants of the East — in the unexpected dis- 
 covery of Balaam amongst the dead of the 
 Midia?iites, though he had departed from 
 
 k2 
 
196 THE VERACITY OF THE 
 
 Moab apparently to return to his own coun- 
 try, as compared with the united embassy 
 that was sent to invite him — and, finally, I 
 have found it in the extraordinary diminu- 
 tion of the Tribe of Simeon, as compared 
 with the occasion of the death of Zimri, a 
 chief of that tribe, the only individual whom 
 Moses thinks it necessary to name, and the 
 victim by which the Plague is appeased. 
 
 These indications of truth in the Mosaic 
 writings, (to which, as I have said, others 
 of the same kind might doubtless be added,) 
 may be sometimes more, sometimes less 
 strong ; still they must be acknowledged, I 
 think, on a general review, and when taken 
 in the aggregate, to amount to an argument 
 of great cumulative weight — an argument 
 of a nature,, I confess, which carries more 
 satisfaction to my mind, than one perhaps 
 of greater learning and more extensive re- 
 search. 
 
FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES. 197 
 
 I. It is popular, intelligible, independent 
 ^—springing out of the documents, the truth 
 of which it is intended to sustain, and ter- 
 minating in them ; so that he who has 
 these, has the defence of them. 
 
 II. It is an argument which combats with 
 success many captious objections, such for 
 instance as may arise out of the alleged 
 corruption of a text ; out of the difficulty 
 of determining the precise nature of inspi- 
 ration, and the vlike — for, suppose a few 
 passages in the Books of Moses have been 
 added by a later hand, (perhaps only one 
 such can be pointed out with any cer- 
 tainty,*) or suppose the specific mode of 
 the Spirit's guidance of the sacred penman 
 may be a question ministering strife, still 
 the argument which I have been handling 
 
 * Deut. xxxiv. See Appendix to Dr. Graves, on 
 the Pentateuch, vol. i. 367 ; and Bishop Kidder on the 
 Author of the Pentateuch. 
 
198 THE VERACITY OF THE 
 
 replies to such difficulties by one broad 
 consideration — here undoubtedly are un- 
 designed coincidences presenting themselves 
 everywhere; marks of truth which nothing 
 can gainsay. How the truth was commit- 
 ted to the sacred writings in the first in- 
 stance ; or being committed to them, how 
 it has been preserved uncorrupt, I am little 
 concerned about — the truth, on the whole, 
 I feel that I have, and that suffices. 
 
 III. It is an argument which has the ad- 
 vantage of consisting of parts, one or more 
 of which (if they be thought unsound) may 
 be detached without any dissolution of the 
 reasoning as a whole. 
 
 IV. And lastly, though it cannot be said 
 to establish the truth of the Scripture mi- 
 racles, it goes very near it, by establishing 
 the truth in very many instances of ordinary 
 circumstances which involve the miracles, 
 which compass the ^miracles roundabout, 
 
FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES. 199 
 
 which cannot be separated from the mi- 
 racles without the utter laceration of the 
 history itself. 
 
 The argument of coincidence without de- 
 sign, then, is that on which I should not 
 fear to rest the veracity of the Books of 
 Moses — an argument the more valuable in 
 the present instance, because the extreme 
 antiquity of the documents precludes any 
 evidence arising out of contemporary his- 
 tory — but this, though the only one here 
 urged, is very far from the only one of 
 which the subject admits. For example — 
 
 I. There is a minuteness in the details of 
 the Mosaic writings, which bespeaks their 
 truth ; for it often bespeaks the eye-witness, 
 as in the adventures of the wilderness ; and 
 often seems intended to supply directions 
 to the artificer, as in the construction of the 
 Tabernacle. 
 
200 THE VERACITY OF THE 
 
 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 Egyp- 
 tians, are the first to sigh for the cucum- 
 bers 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 f '. 
 
 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 
 
 * Numb. xi. 4. t Exod. xxxii. 24. 
 
FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES. 201 
 
 man who is found gathering sticks oil the 
 sabbath-day * — (Could an impostor have 
 devised such a trifle?) - How the inherit- 
 ance of the daughters of Zelophehad is to 
 be disposed of, there being no heir-male -f\ 
 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 be- 
 speaks 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 in- 
 stance, of the passage through the Red 
 Sea J, of the murmuring of the Israelites 
 and the supply of quails and manna, with 
 
 * Numb. xv. 32. t Numb, xxxvi. 2. 
 
 % Exod. xiv. Joseph. Antiq. b. 2. c. xvi. 
 
 K 3 
 
202 THE VERACITY OF THE 
 
 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 f 
 —his own want of faith, which prevented 
 him from entering the promised land J — 
 the idolatry of Aaron his brother § — the 
 profaneness of Nadab and Abihu, his ne- 
 phews || — the disaffection - and punishment 
 of Miriam, his sister ^[ — the relationship 
 which Amram his father bare to Jochebed, 
 his mother, which became afterwards one 
 of the prohibited degrees in the marriage 
 tables of the Levitical law ## . 
 
 * Exod. xvi. Joseph. Antiq. b. 3. c. 1. 
 
 f Ibid. iv. 10. J Numb. xx. 12. 
 
 § Ibid, xxxii. 21. || Levit. x. 1. % Numb. xii. 1. 
 
 ** Comp. Exod. vi. 20, and Levit. xviii. 12. 
 
FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES. 203 
 
 VI. There is a disinterestedness in his 
 conduct, which bespeaks him to be a man 
 of truth ; for though he had sons, he ap- 
 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 pas- 
 sages in the writings of Moses, which be- 
 speak their truth : as several respecting the 
 future Messiah ; and the very sublime and 
 literal one respecting the final fall of Jeru- 
 salem *. 
 
 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 
 
 * Deut. xxviii. 
 
204 THE VERACITY OF THE 
 
 truth — as, the golden age- — the garden of 
 the Hesperides — the fruit-tree in the midst 
 of the garden which the dragon guarded — 
 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 "I — the seventh day a 
 sacred day J — with many others : all con- 
 spiring to establish the reality of the facts 
 which Moses relates, because tending to 
 show that vestiges of the like present them- 
 selves in the traditional history of the world 
 at lar^e. 
 
 IX. The concurrence which is found be- 
 tween the writings of Moses and those of 
 the New Testament, bespeaks their truth : 
 the latter constantly appealing to them, 
 
 * Ovid, Met. i. 327. t Horn. II. xi. 27, 28. 
 
 J See Grot, de Verit. Rel. Christ. I. 1. xvi. 
 
FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES. 205 
 
 being indeed but the completion of the 
 system which the others are the first to 
 put forth. Nor is this an illogical argu- 
 ment — for, though the credibility of the 
 New Testament itself may certainly be 
 reasoned out from the truth of the Penta- 
 teuch once established, it is still very far 
 from depending on that circumstance ex- 
 clusively, or even principally. The New 
 Testament demands acceptance on its own 
 merits, on merits distinct from those on 
 which the Books of Moses rest — there- 
 fore (so far as it does so) it may fairly give 
 its suffrage for their veracity — valeat quan- 
 tum valet — and surely it is a very impro- 
 bable thing, that two dispensations, sepa- 
 rated by an interval of some fifteen hun- 
 dred years, each exhibiting prophecies of 
 its own, since fulfilled — each asserting mi- 
 racles of its own, on strong evidence of its 
 
206 THE VERACITY OF THE 
 
 own — that two dispensations, with such in- 
 dividual claims to be believed, should also 
 be found to stand in the closest relation to 
 one another, and yet both turn out impos- 
 tures after all. 
 
 X. Above all, there is a comparative 
 purity in the theology and morality of the 
 Pentateuch, which argues not only its 
 truth, but its high original; for how else 
 are we to account for a system like that of 
 Moses, in such an age and amongst such a 
 people ; that the doctrine of the unity, the 
 self-existence, the providence, the perfec- 
 tions of the great God of heaven and earth, 
 should thus have blazed forth (how far more 
 brightly than even in the vaunted schools 
 of Athens at its most refined era! from 
 the midst of a nation, of themselves ever 
 plunging into gross and grovelling idolatry ; 
 and that principles of social duty, of bene- 
 
FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES. 207 
 
 volence, and of self-restraint, extending 
 even to the thoughts of the heart,* should 
 have been the produce of an age, which 
 the very provisions of the Levitical Law 
 itself show to have been full of savage and 
 licentious abominations? 
 
 Such are some of the internal evidences 
 for the veracity of the Books of Moses. 
 
 XI. Then the situation in which the 
 Jews actually found themselves placed, as 
 a matter of fact, is no slight argument for 
 the truth of the Mosaic accounts ; reminded, 
 as they were, by certain memorials observed 
 from year to year, of the great events of 
 their early history, just as they are re- 
 corded in the writings of Moses — memo- 
 rials universally recognised both in their 
 object and in their authority. The Pass- 
 
 * Exod. xx. 3. Deut. vi. 4. Exod. iii. 14. 
 
 Deut. xi. 14. Levit. xix. 2. Levit. xix. 18. 
 
 D&it. xxx. 6. Exod. xx. 17. 
 
208 THE VERACITY OF THE 
 
 over, for instance, celebrated by all— no 
 man doubting its meaning, no man in all 
 Israel assigning to it any other origin than 
 one^ viz. that of being a contemporary 
 monument of a miracle displayed in favour 
 of the people of Irsael ; by right of which 
 credentials, and no other, it summoned 
 from all quarters of the world, at great 
 cost, and inconvenience, and danger, the 
 dispersed Jews — none disputing the obli- 
 gation to obey the summons. 
 
 XII. Then the heroic devotion with which 
 the Israelites continued to regard the Law, 
 even long after they had ceased to culti- 
 vate the better part of it, even when that 
 very Law only served to condemn its wor- 
 shippers, so that they would offer them- 
 selves up by thousands, with their children 
 and wives, as martyrs to the honour of 
 their temple, in which no image, even of 
 an emperor, who could scourge them with 
 
FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES. 209 
 
 scorpions for their disobedience, should be 
 suffered to stand, and they live* — so that 
 rather than violate the sanctity of the Sab- 
 bath Dav, the bravest men in arms would 
 lay down their lives as tamely as sheep, 
 and allow themselves to be burnt in the 
 holes where they had taken refuge from 
 their cruel and cowardly pursuers. •(* All 
 this points to their Law, as having been 
 at first promulgated under circumstances 
 too awful to be forgotten even after the 
 lapse of ages. 
 
 XIII. Then again, the extraordinary de- 
 gree of national pride with which the Jews 
 boasted themselves to be God's 'peculiar 
 people, as if no nation ever was or ever 
 could be so nigh to Him ; a feeling which 
 the early teachers of Christianity found an 
 insuperable obstacle to the progress of the 
 
 * Joseph. Bell. Jud. b. 2. c. x. § 4. 
 t Antiq. Jud. b. 12. c. vi. § 2. 
 
210 THE VERACITY OF THE 
 
 Gospel amongst them, and which actually 
 did effect its ultimate rejection — this may- 
 well seem to be founded upon a strong 
 traditional sense of uncommon tokens of 
 the Almighty's regard for them above all 
 other nations of the earth, which they had 
 heard with their ears, or their fathers had 
 declared unto them, even the noble works 
 that He had done in the old time before 
 them. 
 
 XIV. Then again, the constant craving 
 after " a sign," which beset them in the 
 latter days of their history, as a lively cer- 
 tificate of the prophet ; and not after a sign 
 only, but after such an one as they would 
 themselves prescribe, " What sign showest 
 thou that we may see and believe, our 
 fathers did eat manna in the desert ;" # this 
 desire, so frequently expressed, and with 
 
 * John vi. 31. 
 
FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES. 211 
 
 which they are so frequently reproached, 
 looks like the relic of an appetite engen- 
 dered in other times, when they had en- 
 joyed the privilege of more intimate com- 
 munion with God — it seems the wake, as 
 it were, of miracles departed. 
 
 XV. Lastly, the very onerous nature of 
 the Law — so studiously meddling with all 
 the occupations of life, great and small — 
 this yoke would scarcely have been en- 
 dured, without the strongest assurance on 
 the part of those who were galled by it, of 
 the authority by which it was imposed. 
 For it met them with some restraint or 
 other at every turn. Would they plough? 
 • — Then it must not be with an ox and an 
 ass. Would they sow? — Then must not 
 the seed be mixed. Would they reap? — 
 Then must they not reap clean. Would 
 they make bread? — Then must they set 
 apart dough enough for the consecrated 
 
212 THE VERACITY OF THE 
 
 Joaf. Did they find a bird's nest ? — Then 
 must they let the old bird fly away. Did 
 they hunt? — Then they must shed the 
 blood of their game, and cover it with dust. 
 Did they plant a fruit tree? — For three 
 years was the fruit to be uncircumcised. 
 Did they shave their beards ? — They were 
 not to cut the corners. Did they weave 
 a garment? — Then must it be only with 
 threads prescribed. Did they build a house? 
 — They must put rails and battlements on 
 the roof. Did they buy an estate? — At 
 the year of Jubilee, back it must go to its 
 owner. All these (and how many more of 
 the same kind might be named !) are en- 
 actments which it must have required ex- 
 traordinary influence in the Lawgiver to 
 enjoin, and extraordinary reverence for his 
 powers to perpetuate. 
 
 Still, after all, unbelievers may start dif- 
 ficulties, — this I dispute not; difficulties, 
 
FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES. 213 
 
 too, which we may not always be able to 
 answer, though I think we may be always 
 able to neutralize them; it may be a part 
 of our trial, that such difficulties should 
 exist and be encountered, for there can be 
 no reason why temptations should not be 
 provided for the natural pride of our un- 
 derstanding, as well as for the natural lusts 
 of our flesh ; to many, indeed, they would 
 be the more formidable of the two, perhaps 
 to the angels who kept not their first estate 
 they proved so ;* with such facts, however, 
 before me, as these which I have submitted 
 to my readers, I can come to no conclusion 
 but one — that when we read the writings 
 of Moses, we read no cunningly devised 
 fables, but solemn and safe records of 
 great and marvellous events, which court 
 examination and sustain it — records of that 
 
 *" See Hooker, Eccles. Pol. b. 1. iv. 
 
214 FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES. 
 
 apparent veracity and faithfulness, that I 
 can understand our Lord to have spoken 
 almost without a figure, when he said, that 
 he who believed not Moses, neither would 
 he be persuaded though one rose from the 
 dead. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 William Clowes and Sons, Stamford-street. 
 
MR. BLUNT'S WORKS. 
 
 rpHE VERACITY of the BIBLE, Argued from 
 undesigned Coincidences to be found in it, when compared 
 in its several parts. 
 
 By the Rev. J. J. Blunt. 
 
 I. VERACITY of the FIVE BOOKS of MOSES. 
 
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 " We think Mr. Blunt's clever and very ingenious web of argu- 
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 Monthly Review. 
 
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M. 
 
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