controled them. God might have chaftifed Egypt, by abandoning it to the voracity of lions, tygers, wolves, and other wild beafts; but he chofe to avenge himself by the vileft of animals; he chose that the Egyptians, who proftrated themselves before altars dedicated to infects, fhould fall under the fcourge of their own contemptible idols; he chose to confound the artifices of Satan, destroy his works, and teach Pharaoh, by the mouths of his own magicians, that there is nothing in the univerfe, that can withstand his almighty power.

The fourth plague of Egypt differs from the third, only in this, that inftead of one infect, there were various kinds. It is faid in ExOD. viii. 20. "And the Lord faid unto Mofes, rife up early in the morning and stand before Pharaoh, (lo, he cometh forth to the water,) and fay unto him, Thus faith the Lord, let my people go, that they may ferve me; elfe, if thou wilt not let my people go, behold, I will fend fwarms of flies upon thee, and upon thy fervants, and upon thy people, and into thy houfes; and the houfes of the Egyptians fhall be full of fwarms of flies, and alfo the ground whereon they are. And I will fever in that day, the land of Gofhen, in which my people dwell, that no fwarms of flies fhall be there; to the end that thou mayft know, that I am the Lord in the midst of the earth. And I will put a divifion between my people and thy people; tomorrow fhall this fign be. And the Lord did fo: and there came a grievous fwarm of flies into the houfe of Pharaoh, and into his fervants houses, and into all the land of Egypt: the land was corrupted by reafon of the fwarm of flies. And Pharaoh called for Mofes and for Aaron, and faid, Goye, facrifice to your God in the land. And Mofes faid, It is not meet fo to do; for we fhall facrifice the abomination of the Egyptians to the Lord our God;

Lo,

for me.

Lo, fhall we facrifice the abomination of the Egyptians before their eyes, and will they not ftone us? We will go three days journey into the wilderness, and facrifice to the Lord our God, as he fhall command us. And Pharaoh faid, I will let you go, that ye may facrifice to the Lord your God in the wildernefs; only you fhall not go very far away; intreat And Mofes faid, Behold, I go out from thee, and I will entreat the Lord, that the fwarms of flies may depart from Pharaoh, from his fervants, and from his people to-morrow; but let not Pharaoh deal deceitfully any more, in not letting the people go, to facrifice to the Lord. And Mofes went out from Pharaoh and entreated the Lord. And the Lord did according to the word of Mofes; and he removed the fwarm of flies from Pharaoh, from his fervants, and from his people; there remained not one." David alfo certifies this event, in these words of PSALM lxxviii. 46. ".He gave alfo their increase unto the caterpillar,and their labour unto the locust.” Jofephus confirms the fame truth, and fays, that God fent upon the Egyptians, a number of different infects, the like of which, no body before had feen, and that the whole country was filled with them. This calamity has all the characters of a miracle. 1. Mofes is informed, the evening before, of the time and place where he would find Pharaoh to fpeak to him, which fhews the prefcience of the Deity. 2. The punishment exactly followed the threat; every thing was overfpread with infects, except the land of Gofhen, which marks the abfolute power which God exercises over the earth. 3. The next day, Mofes delivered Egypt from this plague; an evident fign of the almighty power of God. 4. The infects were brought in the fpace of one night, to a place, in which they are not spontaneously generated, except by degrees. Their eggs must have a certain time before they are hatched, and the caterpillars

undergo

undergo different changes, at different intervals, and lye for many days in the ftate of a nymph, before they can become perfect flies. This fhews, that Nature was no way concerned in the working of this miracle. 5. To create millions of infects, and to destroy them, almost as foon as they were created, certainly could not be the work of men, but of that Being, in whom refides the power of annihilating the bodies, which he alone can bring into existence.

Locufts were the eighth plague which afflicted Egypt. We fhall relate it at length from the tenth Chapter of Exodus. "And the Lord faid unto Mofes, go into Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart, and the heart of his fervants; that I might thew thefe my figns before him: And that thou mayst tell in the ears of thy fon, and of thy fons fon, what things I have wrought in Egypt, and my figns which I have done amongst them; that you may know that I am the Lord. And Mofes and Aaron came in, unto Pharaoh, and faid unto him, Thus faith the Lord God of the Hebrews, how long wilt thou refufe to humble thy felf before me? Let my people go that they may ferve me. Elfe if thou refufe to let my people go, behold to morrow will I bring the locufts into thy coaft. And they fhall cover the face of the earth, that one cannot be able to fee the earth, and they fhall eat the refidue of that which is cfcaped, which remaineth unto you from the hail, and fhall eat every tree which groweth for you out, of the field. And they fhall fill thy houfes, and the houses of all thy fervants, and the houses of all the Egyptians, which neither thy father, nor thy father's father have feen, fince the day that they were upon the earth unto this day. And he turned himfelf, and went out from Pharaoh. And Pharaoh's fervants faid unto him, how long fhall this man be a fnare unto us? Let the men go, that they may ferve

the

the Lord their God: knoweft thou not yet that Eygpt is destroyed? And Mofes and Aaron were brought again unto Pharoah: and he faid unto them, go, ferve the Lord your God, but who are they that fhall go? And Mofes faid, We will go with our young, and with our old, with our fons, and with our daughters, with our flocks and with our herds will we go; for we must hold a feaft unto the Lord. And he faid unto them, Let the Lord be fo with you, as I will let you go, and your little ones: look to it, for evil is before you. Not fo, go now ye that are men, and ferve the Lord, for that you did defire. And they were driven out from Pharaoh's prefence. And the Lord faid unto Mofes, ftretch out thine hand over the land of Egypt for the locufts, that they may come up upon the land of Egypt, and eat every herb of the land, even all that the hail hath left. And Mofes ftretched forth his rod over the land of Egypt, and the Lord brought an east wind upon the land all that day, and all that night, and when it was morning the east wind brought the locufts, and the locufts went up over all the land of Egypt, and rested in all the coafts of Egypt, very grievous were they, before them, there were no fuch locufts, as they neither after them will be fuch, for they covered the face of the whole earth, fo that the land was darkened, and they did eat every herb of the land, and all the fruit of the trees, which they had left and there remained not any green thing in the trees, or in the herbs of the fields through all the land of Egypt. Then Pharaoh called Mofes and Aaron in hafte, and he faid I have finned against the Lord your God, and against you; now therefore forgive, I pray thee, my fin only this once, and intreat the Lord your God, that he may take away from me this death only. And he went out from Pharaoh, and entreated the Lord, and the Lord turned a mighty ftrong weft wind which took away M m

the

the locufts, and caft them into the Red Sea, there remained not one locuft in all the coafts of Egypt." What is there in all this that is not the effect of a power fuperior to that of nature? 1. Mofes and Aaron threaten the King, and in the fpace of a day, 'the threat is executed in every point. 2. Mofes only ftretches forth his hand, and all Egypt changes its appearance. 3. An eaft wind rifes in the evening, blows the whole day, and continues during the night, and yet the infects enter the country only at the appointed time. 4. Locufts appear, but of an extraordinary fpecies which never had been feen before; whereas according to the conftant laws of animated beings, it is impoffible that one kind can produce any thing but its like. 5. Armies of locufts have been feen ravaging one province or another of a king'dom; but have they ever been known all at once occupying the whole extent of a country? Have infects ever been found fo numerous, as to cover the face of the earth, and to obfcure the light of day? 6. Locufls quit one field, and light upon another: but here they attack Pharoah in his palace furrounded by his guards; they enter the cabinets of his minifters, they afflict his officers in their houfes; they encounter his foldiers in their quarters, and defolate his fubje&s in their cottages. 7. Those insects in their ravages, always leave what is not agreeable to their taste, or at least what they are unable to ufe, but in Egypt they devoured every green thing. 8. The author of the Book of Wisdom, Chap. xvi. 9. fays that "for them (the Egyptians) the bitings of grafshoppers and flies killed, neither was there found any remedy for their life, for they were worthy to be punifhed by fuch." 9. Pharaoh himself confeffes this in the prayer he addreffes to Mofes and Aaron, where he gives thefe infects the name of death. 10. Lastly, there arifes a west wind which purifies Egypt, fo that there remains nothing of what the contrary wind had brought. This laft fact perhaps may be attributed

to