a hundred years ago, that it may serve for a lexicon of the Hebrew language, as well as for a translation."

21. Of our present English Bible the learned and critical Dr. Clarke remarks: "Those who have compared most of the European transla tions with the original have not scrupled to say, that the English translation of the Bible, made under the direction of King James I., is the most accurate and faithful of the whole. Nor is this its only praise; the translators have seized the very spirit and soul of the original, and expressed this almost everywhere with pathos and energy.

22. Besides, our translators have not only made a standard translation, but they have made their translation the standard of our language; the English tongue, in their day, was not equal to such a work, but God enabled them to stand upon Mount Sinai,' to use the expression of a learned friend, and crane up their country's language to the dignity of the originals, so that after the lapse of two hundred years the English Bible is, with very few exceptions, the standard of the purity and excellence of the English tongue. The original from which it was taken is, alone, superior to the Bible translated by the authority of King James.' This is an opinion in which my heart, my judgment, and my conscience, coincide."

CHAPTER III.

PENTATEUCH.

1. Moses is, without doubt, the author of the first five books of the Bible, called the Pentateuch, from two Greek words, pente, five, and teuchos, volume.

2. The BOOK OF GENESIS, which may be considered as an introduction to the rest of the Pentateuch, contains the history of 2,369 years, according to the common chronology. It commences with the creation of the world, and ends with the death of Joseph. It has received the name of Genesis because it describes the creation of the world, the generation of man, and of all other creatures.

3. The BOOK OF EXODUS (or of the departure, so called, as recounting the deliverance of Israel from Egypt) relates the tyranny of Pharaoh, the bondage of the Israelites under him in Egypt, and their miraculous escape under Moses. It describes also the entrance of the Israelites into the wilderness of Sinai, the promulgation of the law, and the building of the tabernacle. It comprehends a period of about one hundred and forty-five years.

4. The Book OF LEVITICUS has its name from its giving an account of the Jewish service and worship, the offices of the Levites, and the whole Levitical order. It embraces only the space of a month.

5. The Book OF NUMBERS relates several remarkable incidents in the passage of the Israelites through the wilderness. It has its denomination from the numbering of the tribes by Moses, according to the command of God. It records the events of about thirty-eight years.

6. The BOOK OF DEUTERONOMY, which signifies a second law, contains a summary repetition of the moral, ceremonial, and judicial laws, which had been before delivered by Moses, accompanied by certain additions and explanations. It contains many admonitions, exhortations, and warnings addressed to the Israelites, with a view of inciting them to obedience. The period comprised in this book is, according to some, five lunar weeks, and according to others about two months.

7. "The Book of Deuteronomy and the Epistle to the Hebrews contain the best comment on the nature, design, and use of the law: the former may be considered as an evangelical commentary on the four preceding books, in which the spiritual reference and signification of the different parts of the law are given, and given in such a manner as none could give who had not a clear discovery of the glory which was to be revealed. It may be safely asserted that very few parts of the Old Testament scriptures can be read with greater profit by the genuine Christian than the Book of Deuteronomy."

8. Moses derived his name from the circumstances attending his infancy, being composed of two words signifying delivered from the water,

referring to his rescue from exposure in the ark of bulrushes by Pharaoh's daughter.

9. The history of his education, life, labors, and death, are so fully given in the sacred record that a biographical sketch is unnecessary. A divine Providence watches over his birth and infancy, and in the very palace of the king, who had commanded that every male Hebrew child should be destroyed, in all the learning of the Egyptians, he is educated, and by the superior advantages he there enjoys, as well as by his own remarkable strength of character, is prepared to become the liberator of his ignorant and enslaved people from Egyptian bondage.

10. He left Egypt, with his nation, to journey toward Canaan in the eightieth year of his age, but did not enter the promised land on account of his sin, which consisted, as far as can be drawn from the concise accounts given of it,1. In that he distrusted, or disbelieved, that water could be produced from the rock only by speaking to it, (Num. xx, 1-13; xxvii, 14,) which was a higher miracle than he had before performed at Rephidim. Exod. xvii, 6. 2. He unnecessarily smote the rock twice, thereby betraying an unwarrantable impatience. 3. He did not, at least in the phrase he used, ascribe the glory of the miracle wholly to God, but rather to himself and his brother. "Must we fetch you water out of this rock?" And he denominated them "rebels" against his and his brother's authority, which, although an implied act of rebellion against God, ought to have been

stated, as on a former occasion, "Ye have been rebels against the Lord, from the day that I knew you." Deut. ix, 24.

11. At the age of one hundred and twenty years he ended his labors. His faculties of mind and body were unimpaired. 66 His eye

was not dim, nor his natural strength abated." Having delivered his final counsels, admonitions, and warnings; and having bound them all, from the prince to the hewer of wood and drawer of water, in a covenant of perpetual obedience to almighty God-committing the law to the custody of the Levites, and appointing Joshua as his successor-he poured forth his soul in a prophetic ode worthy of him who composed the hymn of triumph by the Red Sea, and one of the noblest compositions in the sacred volume.

12. He then ascended the loftiest eminence in the vicinity, and from the summit of Mount Abarim, or Nebo, cast his eye over the land of promise. "Gazing on the magnificent prospect, beholding in prophetic anticipation his great and happy commonwealth, occupying its numerous towns and blooming fields, Moses breathed his last. The place of his burial was unknown, lest, perhaps, the impious gratitude of his followers might ascribe divine honors to his name, and assemble to worship at his sepulchre."