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the flocks of Jethro his father-in-law, when A. M. B. C. he saw the burning bush in the desert, and heard the voice of the God of his fathers, who sent him back into Egypt to bring his brethren out of bondage. Then appear the humility, the courage, and the miracles of that divine lawgiver; the hardness of Pharaoh's heart, and the terrible chastisements God sends upon him; the passover, and next day the passage of the Red Sea; Pharaoh and the Egyptians buried in the waters, and the complete deliverance of the Israelites.

IV. Epoch. Moses, or the written Law.

HERE begin the times of the written law. It was given to Moses 430 years after the calling of Abraham, 856 years after the deluge, and in the same year that the Hebrew people came out of Egypt. This date is remarkable, being made use of to denominate all the time from Moses to Jesus Christ. All that time is called the time of the written law, to distinguish it from the preceding, called the time of the law of nature, wherein men had nothing to direct them but natural reason, and the traditions of their ancestors.

God then having set his people free from the tyranny of the Egyptians, in order to conduct them into the land where he had chosen to be served, before he settles them in it, dictates to them the law by which they are to live. He writes with his own hand

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A. M. B. C. upon two tables, which he gives to Moses on the top of mount Sinai, the foundation of that law, that is, the decalogue, or ten commandments, which contain the first principles of the worship of God, and of human society. To the same Moses he delivers other precepts, by which he appoints the tabernacle, a figure of the time to come*; the ark, where God manifested his presence by his oracles, and in which the tables of the law were deposited; the promotion of Aaron the brother of Moses; the high-priesthood, or pontificate, a dignity solely appropriated to him and his sons; the ceremonies of their consecration, and the form of their mysterious dress; the functions of the priests, the sons of Aaron; those of the Levites, with other religious rites; and, what is still more excellent, the rules of good morals, the polity and government of his chosen people, of whom he determined to be himself the lawgiver. This is what is signified by the epoch of the written law. Then we see the journey continued in the wilderness; the revolts, idolatries, chastisements, and consolations of the people of God, whom that almighty lawgiver gradually forms by these means; the consecration of Eleazar the high-priest, and the death of his father Aaron; the zeal of Phineas, son of Eleazar, and the priesthood confirmed to his descendants by a particular promise. During these times the Egyptians continue settling their colonies

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* Heb. ix.

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in different parts, especially in Greece, A. M. B. C. where Danaus, an Egyptian, makes himself 2552 king of Argos, and dispossesses the ancient kings of Inachus's line. Towards the end of the journeyings of the people of God in the wilderness, we see the beginning of the wars which the prayers of Moses render successful. He dies, and leaves the Israelites their whole history, which he had carefully digested, from the origin of the world down to the time of his death. That history is continued by the command of Joshua, and his successors. It was afterwards divided into several books, from which we have received those entitled Joshua, Judges, and the four books of Kings. The history which Moses had written, and wherein the whole law was contained, was also parted into five books, called the Pentateuch, which are the foundation of religion. After the death of the man of God, we find the wars of Joshua, the conquest and division 2559 of the holy land, and the rebellions of the people, who are at various times chastised and re-established. Here are to be seen the victories of Othniel, who delivers them from the tyranny of Chushan, king of Mesopotamia; and fourscore years after, that of Ehud over Eglon, king of Moab. About 2679 this time Phrygian Pelops, son of Tantalus, reigns in the Peloponnesus, and gives his name to that famous country. Bel, king of the Chaldeans, receives divine honours from that people. The ungrateful Israelites fall again into servitude. Jabin, king of Canaan, subjects them; but Deborah the prophetess, 2719

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A. M. B. C. who judged the people, and Barak, the son of Abinoam, defeat Sisera the general of 1245 that king's armies. Thirty years after, Gideon, victorious without fighting, pursues and overthrows the Midianites. Abimelech his son usurps the sovereign power by murdering his brothers, exercises it tyrannically, and loses it at last with his life. Jephthah stains his victory by a sacrifice, which cannot be excused except by a secret command from God, of which he has not been pleased to communicate any thing to us. During this age there happened some very considerable events among the Gentiles; for if we follow the computation of Herodotus*, which seems the most exact, we must place in these times, 514 years before Rome, and in the time of Deborah, Ninus the son of Bel, and the foundation of the first empire of the Assyrians. The seat of it was established at Nineveh †, an ancient and already famous city, but beautified and adorned by Ninus. Those who give 1300 years to the first Assyrians, go upon the antiquity of the city; and Herodotus, who allows them but 500, speaks only of the duration of the empire, which they began, under Ninus, the son of Bel, to extend into Upper Asia‡. A little after, and during the reign of that conqueror, ought to be placed the founda1252 tion or rebuilding of the ancient city of Tyre§, rendered famous by its navigation and colonies. As we go on, some time after

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*Herod. L. 1. C. 26.
Josh. xix. 29.

+ Gen. x. 11.
§ Joseph. Antiq. 8. 21.,'

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Abimelech we meet with the famous com- A. M. B. C. bats of Hercules, son of Amphitryon, and those of Theseus, king of Athens, who made but one city of the twelve towns of Cecrops, and gave a better form to the government of the Athenians. In the days of Jephthah, while Semiramis, widow of Ninus, and guardian of Ninyas, enlarged the empire of the Assyrians by her conquests, the celebrated city of Troy, before taken once by the Greeks in the reign of Laomedon, its third king, was again reduced to ashes by the Greeks, in that of Priam, son of Laomedon, after a siege of ten years.

V. Epoch. The taking of Troy.

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THIS Epoch of the destruction of Troy, which happened about the 308th year after the departure out of Egypt, and 1164 years after the deluge, is of consequence, both on account of the importance of so great an event, celebrated by the two greatest poets 2820 of Greece and Italy; and because to this date may be referred whatever is most remarkable in the times called fabulous, or heroic; fabulous, on account of the fables, in which the histories of those times are enveloped; heroic, on account of those whom the poets have styled heroes, and sons of the gods. They lived near to this period: for in the days of Laomedon, the father of Priam, appear all the heroes of the Golden Fleece; Jason, Hercules, Orpheus, Castor and Pollux, and the rest, whom you very

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