weeks having yet to elapse before the firstfruits 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, not being yet bolled. 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 moment 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 hailstorm 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 --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 common cases, even in judicial cases of life and death, the corroboration of the evidence of an unimpeached witness in one

or two particulars is enough to decide a jury that it is worthy of credit in every other particular--that it may be safely acted upon in the most awful and responsible of all human decisions.

XVII.

THE argument which I have next to produce has been urged by Dr. Graves,* though others had noticed it before him; 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

*On the Pentateuch, vol. i. p. 111.

† See Dr. Patrick on Numbers, vii. 7, 8.

he

of the tribes made an offering consisting of six waggons and twelve oxen. These are accordingly assigned to the service of the Tabernacle:" And Moses gave them unto the Levites; Two waggons and four oxen gave unto the sons of Gershon according 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, separated however from the one which has 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

* Numbers, vii. 7, 8.

L

had severally to take in removing the Tabernacle from place to place, I find that the sons of Gershon had to bear "the curtains," and the "Tabernacle" 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 instruments;"† in short, all the cum* Numbers, iv. 25. + Ibid. iv. 32.