horfe, and one rider: The horfe and his rider hath he thrown into the fea.

The Lord is my ftrength and fong, &c. This is the amplification of the first words of the fong. I will fing. Let us obferve in what manner this is extended.

Of the several attributes of God, he praifes only his ftrength, because it was by that he had been delivered.

My ftrength. This figure is energetic, for, the caufe of my ftrength, which is flat and languid; befides that my ftrength fhews that God alone was to the Ifraelites, as courage, and difpenfed with their making any use of it.

"My fong. This is the fame figure, and equally emphatic. He is the only fubject of my praife: no inftrument divides it with him; neither power, wisdom, nor human induftry can be affociated with him: he alone merits all my gratitude, fince he alone performed, ordained, and executed every thing. The Lord is my Jang

The writers of the Auhath faved me, but the The Lord hath under

He is become my falvation. guftan ages would have writ, Scripture fays much more. taken to perform, himself, every thing that was requifite for my falvation; he made my falvation his own, his perfonal, affair; and what is much more emphatical, is become my falvation.

He is my God. He is emphatical, and fignifies much more than it is fuppofed to do at firft fight. He, not the Gods of the Egyptians and nations; Gods void of ftrength, fpeechless and livelefs; but he who performed fo many prodigies in Egypt and in our paffage, he is my God, and him will I glorify.

My God. This my may have a double relation, the one to God, the other to the Ifraelite. In the former, God appears to be great, powerful, and a God for me only. Unattentive to the rest of the univerfe, he is employed wholly on my dangers and on my fafety; and is ready to facrifice all the nations of the earth to my intereft. In the second relation, he is my God, I

will

will never have any other. To him only I confecrate all my wifhes, all my defires, all my confidence. He only is worthy my worship and love, and to him only will I for ever pay homagevoit cs & 9tis 90 970

My father's God, and I will exalt him. This repetition is inexpreffibly tender. He whole grandeur I exalt, is not a frange God, unknown till this day, a protector for a moment, and ready to aflift any other. No: "he is the ancient protector of my family his goodnefs is hereditary. I have a thoufand domestic proofs of his conftant love, perpetuated from father to fon, down to me. His ancient kindnesses were so many titles and pledges, which affured me of the like. He's the God of my father: he is the God who difplayed himfelf fo often to Abraham, Ifaac and Jacob. In fine, be is the God who but now fulfilled the mighty promies which he had made to my forefathers did la What has he done to effect this? The Lord is a man war. He might have faid, as he is the God of armies, he has delivered us from the army of Pha roah, but this was faying too little. He confiders his God as a foldier, as a captain, he puts, as it were, the fword into his hand, and makes him fight for the children of Jacob.M turli shufanoo blow on

مره

The Lord is a man of war; the Lord is his name, In the Hebrew it is Jehovah is a man of war, Jehovah is his name. Mofes infifts on the word Jehovah, the better to fhew, by this repetition, who this extraordinary warrior is, who defigned to fight for Harel. As though he had faid, Jehovah, the Lord, has appear ed like a warrior. Is what I now fay well underflood? Is this miracle comprehended in its full latitude? Yes I again repeat: It is the fupreme God in perfon, it is the only God; it is to fay all in one word, he who is called Jehovah, whofe name is incommunicable, who alone poffeffes all the fullness of being; he is become the champion of Ifrael. Himself has been to them dr okaz da vadi notiaza atotto

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* Qui eft Lo Ego fum, qui fum. Ai

instead

inftead of foldiers. He took upon himfelf the whole weight of the war. The Lord fhall fight for you, and ye fhall bold your peace, faid Mofes to the Ifraelites before the battle; as though he had faid, you shall be ftill and not fight.

1 Ver. 4 and 5. Pharaoh's chariots and his hoft bath be caft into the fea; his chofen captains are alfo drownin the Red-fea. The depths have covered them, they Jank into the bottom as a flone.

Obferve the pompous display of all that is contained in these two words, the horfe and his rider, evi

Pharaoh's chariots. 2. His hofts. 3. His chofen captains. A beautiful gradation.

t

How wonderful is this amplification! He caft into the fea. They are drowned in the Red-fea. The depths have covered them; they fank into the bottom as a ftone; all this to explain, He has thrown into the fea. We obferves in these words, a series of images, which fucceed one another and fwell by degrees. 1. He caft into the fea, 2. They are drowned in the Red-fea. They are drowned, improves on He caft... In the Red fea, is a circumftance which determinates more than fimply, the fea. (The Hebrew has it, in the fea Suph.) One would conclude that Mofes was defirous of heightning the greatness of the power which God exhibited in a fea which formed part of the Egyptian empire, and which was under the protection of the

Gods of Egypt. 3. His chofen captains, the greatest of Pharaoh's princes: that is to fay, the proudeft, and perhaps those who oppofed with greatest violence the laws of the God of Ifrael; in a word, thofe who were moft able to fave themselves from the fhipwreck, are fwallowed up like the meaneft foldiers. 4. The depths have covered them. What an image is here! They are covered, overwhelmed, vanifhed for ever. 5. To complete this picture, he concludes with a fimile, which is, as it were, the ftroke that animates and points out the whole; they fank into the bottom as a stone. • Exod. xiv. 14. map of Beelfophon." Lestias

Notwithstanding

Notwithstanding their pride and haughtinefs, they make no greater refiftance to rife up againft the arm of God who plunges them, than a stone that finks to the bottom of the waters.

After this what fhould Mofes think, what should he fay? One of the most important rules of rhetoric, and which Cicero never fails to obferve, is, that after an account of a furprizing action, or even of an extraordinary circumftance, the writer muft quit the calm and eafy air proper to narration, and deliver himfelf with more or lefs impetuofity, according to the nature of the fubject; this is commonly done by apoftrophes, interrogations, exclamations, which figures enliven both the difcourfe and the hearer. All this Mofes has done inimitably in the fong before us.

Thy right hand, O Lord, is become glorious in thy power: thy right hand, O Lord, hath dafhed in pieces the enemy.

There are feveral things to be observed here.

1. Mofes might have faid; God has difplayed his Strength by striking Pharaoh. But how faintly, in how languid a manner would that exprefs fo great an action! He springs towards God, and fays to him in a kind of enthusiasm, Thy right hand, O Lord, is become glorious, &c.

2. He might have faid, O Lord, thou haft displayed thy ftrength, &c. But this is not ftrong enough, and does not convey a fenfible idea to the mind; whereas in the expreffion of Mofes, we fee, we diftinguish as it were, the Almighty's hand, which extends itself, and crushes the Egyptians. Whence I conclude at once, that the true eloquence is that which perfuades ; that it commonly perfuades no other way than by moving; that it moves by things and palpable ideas only; and that for these feveral reafons; no eloquence is fo perfect as that of the holy Scriptures, fince the moft fpiritual and metaphyfical things are there reprefented by fenfible and lively images.

3. Thy right hand, O Lord, bath dafhed in pieces the enemy. A most beautiful repetition! and very neceffary to give a ftronger idea of the power of God's arm. The first member of the period, thy right hand is become glorious in power, having hinted only at the event in loose and general terms, the Prophet thinks he has not said enough; and to denote the manner of this action, he immediately repeats, thy right hand hath dafbed in pieces the enemy. It is the nature of great paffions, to repeat thofe circumftances which foment them, as appears from all the paffionate places in the beft authors; and as is feen in the Sacred Writings, particularly in the Pfalms.

4. In the greatness of thine excellency thou hast overthrown them that rofe up against thee. So many great beauties are concealed in the original text, that they

merit fome illustration.

I. By these words, in the greatness of thine excellency, the facred Writer would describe the action of a nobleman of figure, who affumes a haughty air; who rifes in proportion as an impotent inferior prefumes to rife against him, and is pleased to fink him the lower for that reason. The Egyptians looked upon themselves as very great; they even attacked God himself, and asked with a haughty tone, Who is then the Lord? But as these feeble, though infolent creatures rose, God rofe alfo, and affumed all the elevation of his in-, finite grandeur, all the height of his fupreme majefty against them: The proud he knoweth afar off. And it is from thence he overthrew his enemies who were fo full of themselves, and hurled them, not only againft the earth, but down into the most profound abyffes of the fea.

z. That rofe up against THEE. It was not against Ifrael that the Egyptians declared war, but it is You they prefumed to attack; it is You they defied. Our quarrel was yours; it was against You they warred

d Exod. v. 2.

R

VOL. II.

e Pfal. cxxxviii. 6.

against