and whatsoever thou haft in the city, bring them out of this place; for we will deftroy this place, because the cry of them is waxen great before the face of the Lord; and the Lord hath fent us to deftroy it. And Lot went out, and fpake unto his fons-in-law which. married his daughters, and faid, up, get you out of this place, for the Lord will deftroy this city. But he feemed as one that mocked unto his fons-in-law.

7....And when the morning arofe, then the angels haftened Lot, faying, Arife, take thy wile, and thy two daughters which are here; left thou be confumed in the iniquity of the city. And while he lingered, the men laid hold upon his hand, and upon the hand of his wife, and upon the hand of his two daughters! the Lord being merciful to him; and they brought him forth, and fet him without the city.

8....And it came to pafs, when they had brought them forth abroad, that he laid, Efcape for thy life; look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain, efcape to the mountain, left thou be confumed. And Lot faid unto them, Oh! not fo, my Lord; behold, now thy fervaat hath found grace in thy fight, and thou haft magnified thy mercy, which thou haft fhewed unto me, in faving my life; and I cannot escape to the mountain, left fome evil take me, and I die.

9....Behold now, this city is near to flee unto, and it is a little one: Oh! let me escape thither ? is it not a little one ? and my foul fhall live. And he faid, See I have accepted thee concerning this thing alfo, that I will not overthrow this city for the thing which thou haft fpoken. Hafte thee, efcape thither; for I cannot do any thing till thou be come thither. Therefore the name of the city was called Zoar.

10...The fun was rifen upon the earth when Lot entered into Zoar. Then the Lord rained upon Sodom,

a

Gemorrah, brimftone and fire from the Lord out of heaven; and he overthrew the cities and all the plain, and all the inbabitants of the cities.

11... And Abraham got him up early in the morning to the place where he flood before the Lord: and he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward, all the plain, and beheld, and, lo, the fmoke of the country went up as the fmoke of a furnace.

REMARKS.

The ground where Sodom and Gomorrah flood, and the whole vale of Siddin, was funk, and is overflown by the lake called Afphattites, on account of the Biru. men with which it abounds. It is alfo called the Dead Sea, by reafon that it contains neither animal, not vegctable life.

Volney affirms that there is no verdure to be seen on its banks, nor a fish to be found within its waters. Thus the place, whofe inhabitants were miraculously deftroyed nearly four thousand years ago, for their abominable wickednefs, feems fill to bear the evident marks of the divine difpleafure.

CHAPTER VIII.

AN ANCIENT SPECIMEN OF POLITENESS.

1....

Ir

A. M. about 2145

T came to pafs that Sarah (Abraham's wife) died, and Abraham came to mourn for Sarah, and to weep for her. And Abraham stood up from before his dead, and fpake unto the fons of Heth, faying, I am a

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ftranger and a fojourner with you; give me a poffelfion of a burying place with you, that I may bury my dead out of my fight.

2....And the children of Heth answered Abraham, faying unto him, Hear us, my Lord: thouart a might ty prince among us; in the choice of our fepulchres bury thy dead: None of us fhall withhold from thee his fepulchre, but that thou mayeft bury thy dead. And Abraham flood up and bowed himfell to the people of the land, even to the children of Heth,

3....And he communed with them, faying, If it be your mind that I fhould bury my dead out of my fight, hear me, and intreat for me to Ephron, that he may give me the cave of Machpelah which he hath; for as much money as it is worth fhall he give it me,' for a poffeffion of a burying-place among you. And Ephron anfwered Abraham in the audience of the children of Heth, faying, Nay, my Lord, hear me :

4. .....The field I give thee, and the cave that is there, in Igive it thee; in the prefence of the fons of my people give I it thee; bury thy dead. And Abrahamn bow. ed down himfelf before the people of the fand; and he Ipake unto Ephron, in the audience of the people of the land, faying. But it thou wilt give it, I pray thee hear are: I will give thee money for the field, take it of me, and I will bury my dead there.

5....And Ephron anfwered Abraham, faying unto him, My Lord hearken unto me; the land is worth four hundred fhekels of filver; what is that betwixt me and thee? bury therefore thy dead. And Abraham hearkened unto Ephron, and Abraham weighed unto Ephron the filver which he had named in the audience of the fons of Heth, four hundred fhekels of filver, current money with the merchant.

6....And the field of Ephron, and the cave which was therein, and all the trees that were in the field, were made fure unto Abraham, for a poffeffion, in the prefence of the children of Herb. (This is the earliest record extant of the transfer of land, and of the use of money in commerce)

1.

CHAPTER IX.

A REMARKABLE DREAM.

Now

A. M. 2244.

OW Ifaac called Jacob, his fon, and bleffed him, and charged him, and faid unto him, thou fhalt not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan. (Becaufe the daughters of Canaan were wicked and worShipped idols.) Arife, go to Padan-Aram, to the house of Bethuel, thy mother's father, and take thee a wife from thence and God Almighty bless thee.

2....And Jacob went out from Beersheba, and went toward Haran: and he lighted upon a certain place, and tarried there all night, becaufe the fun was fet, and he took of the ftones of that place, and put them for his pillows, and lay down in that place to fleep.

3.... And he dreamed, and behold, a ladder set upon the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and, behold, the angels of God afcending and defcending upon it. And behold the Lord food above it, and faid, I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Ifaac; the land whereon thou lieft, to thee will I give it, and to thy children.

4....And thy children fhall be (numerous) as the dust of the earth: and in thy feed (meaning the Meffiah,

of the earth

and in thy feed (meaning the Meffiah,

or Chrift, who fprang from Jacob) fhall all the nations of the earth be bleffed. And behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest; and will bring thee again into this land.

* This divine promife of multiplying the poflerity of Jacob has been fulfilled to a most astonishing extent : for his defcendants already, at a moderate computation, have exceeded two hundred millions of people. They have exifted more than three thousand five hundred years; and will probably continue to exift, as a diftinct clafs of people, to the end of the world. And the time may come, when the number of Jacob's pofterity fhall exceed the whole number of the inhabitants of the earth at any one period fince the creation.

The hiftory of this people, from their origin down to the prefent day, is filled with wonders. While the whole world befides, was funk into grofs idolatry, they all along preferved the knowledge and the worship of the one true God. They have always been hated by other nations; and frequent attempts have been made to root them out of the earth; and yet they have long furvived the utter ruin of the Affyrians, the Grecians, the Romans, and their other mighty conquerors and oppreffors.

Though faithlefs as to their general character, they have preferved with wonderful fidelity and zeal, the ve ry books wherein their aggravated crimes are recorded, and which reprefent them to have been, through fucceffive generations, an ungrateful and rebellious race of people. They have now, for more than feventeen hundred years, been difperfed over the whole world, and have fuffered every kind of indignity, infult and mifery. And all this was predicted with astonishing exactness, by their great prophet Mofes, more than

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