tells us, Exod. xiv. ver. 15. that upon his stretching out his rod, by God's command over the waters, a mighty wind arose and divided them; that they stood upon heaps, and were as a wall on the right hand and on the left, that the bottom of the sea was dried up, and that the Israelites marched through it as on dry land. The royal Psalmist speaks of God's dividing the sea into parts, and making Israel pass through the midst of it, Ps. cxxxvi. ver. 13, 14. and the prophet Isaiah says, that God led them by the right hand of Moses, dividing the waters before them to make himself an everlasting name, and that he led them through the deep as an horse through the wilderness, Isaiah Ixiii. ver. 12, 13. Is it not highly unreasonable to imagine, that such language as this was designed to represent a transaction wherein there was nothing wonderful, or contrary to the ordinary course of nature? Endeavour we next to shew, that the notion of Moses's leading the israelites along the shore or across some narrow point is contrary to reason and experience. We readily grant indeed, that the Red-sea ebbs and flows like other seas which have a communication with the ocean; but then we are told by those who have made the exactest observations, that the greatest distance to which it falls from the place of high-water is not 300 yards, and that these 300 yards, which the sea leaves uncovered during the time of low water, cannot continue so above half an hour at most, because then the sea begins to flow in again towards the shore, from which it had gradually retreated for six hours before; so that, upon a moderate computation, the greatest extent of time, and passable ground that can be allowed the Israelites for their march upon the coast, is about 200 yards during six hours. Now it is plain, that a multitude of people, consisting of more than two millions of men, women, and children, incumbered likewise with great quantities of cattle and houshold-stuff, could never be able to perform such a march, within so short a space of time, or even double that space, though we should allow them double breadth of ground for the purpose. This argament will be of equal weight against those who think the Israelites only coasted along some part of the sea, and those who maintain that they crossed a small arm or point of it; seeing that in either of these cases six or eight hours could not have been sufficient for the passage of so vast a multitude. Some, perhaps, may wonder that the Egyptians, when they saw such a miraculous passage opened for the Israelites, should venture to pursue them; but the reason of this seems to be intimated by the sacred historian, who says, that "The angel of God, which went before the camp of Israel, removed and went behind them, and the pillar of the cloud came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel, and was a cloud and darkness to the one, but gave light to the other, Exod. xiv. ver. 19, 20. so that, probably, when the Egyptians followed the Israelites into the midst of the sea, they knew not where they were till it was too late to retreat: they imagined, perhaps, that they were still upon the shore, from whence the water had retired; the darkness of the night, and the preternatural darkness of the cloud not suffering them to see the mountains of waters, till "the Lord looked upon them through the pillar of fire;" i. e. turned the bright side of the cloud towards them, and thereby made them sensible of their danger, at which time, had it been in their power, they would have fled from the face of Israel. Exod. xiv. ver. 24, 25. In the next place, to suppose there was nothing miraculous in the passage of the Israelites, is a notion repugnant to the known character of Moses as an historian, and calls in question not only his avowed modesty and veracity, but even his conduct, sense, and experience, for it is evident that Moses represents the whole affair as wonderfully carried on, from the beginning to the end, by God himself, who knew what passed in Egypt, and made his people unexpectedly take a new route, which brought them into a situation so apparently dangerous. It was then, as he assures us, that God interposed his miraculous power on their behalf, and divided the sea to make a free passage for them, and to overwhelm their enemies; and, accordingly, we find him making all Israel sound the praises of God as the sole author of their deliveranee; which he hardly would have done had it been entirely owing to his policy, or his superior knowledge of natural causes. On the other hand, if Moses did not act in this affair by divine direction, what idea must we frame of his conduct and experience, who could be guilty of such an oversight as to lead the Israelites in the mouth of the extremest danger? And again, if their deli verance verance from their enemies at the Red-sea, had nothing in it beyond the ordinary course of nature, by what artifice could Moses possibly persuade above two millions of people that God had wrought such a stupendous miracle in their favour, when they could not but know, as well as he, that no such thing had been transacted;if he had once endeavoured to foist a fable of this nature upon such a contumacious, and not over credulous set of people as the Israelites were, he would have made himself ridiculous, and exposed his authority to contempt. * Among those who acknowledge a divine power to have interposed in this memorable transaction, some have endeavoured to reduce the miracle into a very little.compass, whilst others, setting no bounds to their zeal, have added fond conceits of their own, and multiplied it in an unnecessary manner. Of the former sort are those who attribute the dividing of the sea, and the standing up of the waves, to a vehement cold wind, which froze the waves as fast as the wind blew them up; after which, being thawed by a warmer one, they naturally returned to their former station. This opinion seems grounded on a figurative expression in the song of Moses, which our translators have rendered "The depths were congealed in the heart of the sea." Many of the moderns have espoused this sentiment. Exod. xv. ver. 8. A Jewish Rabbi has conjectured, that the sea was not divided at all, but frozen hard enough for the Israelites to pass over it though it thawed and overwhelmed the Egyptians. On the other hand, Origen endeavours to magnify this miracle, having recourse to an ancient Jewish tradition, which says, that God opened twelve different passages through the sea according to the number of the twelve tribes of the Israelites, that each tribe might march separately this tradition, perhaps, took its rise from this expression of the Psalmist, "God divided the Red Sea into parts." Ps. cxxxvi. ver. 13. but such ill grounded fancies scarce deserve to be mentioned; much less those of some others, who imagine that God removed. the rocks, rooted up the plants that grew at the bot tom of the sea, levelled all uneven places, and made, as it were, a hard beaten road, in order to facilitate the passage of the Israelites. According to the Septuagint, heaped together. ΤΟ TO THE EDITOR OF THE ORTHODOX CHURCHMAN'S SIR, THE MAGAZINE. HE critique in the Antijacobin Review for August 1805, on Bingham's Answer to the rector of Long Critchill's defence of his conduct, as inserted at p. 428, and seq. hath suggested some ideas to my mind, which I much desire to have satisfied. Is the power of the Ordinary in matters of Resignation absolute, (as is generally taken for granted?)-is it judicial, in a certain bounded and restricted sense, (as some have conjectured,)—or is it only ministerial, in the same manner as his tendering subscription to articles, &c. &c ?-If judicial and absolute, as is the general opinion, will or can any of your readers favour me with a reference to those laws, (for if there be really such a power, it is presumed some express law or statute for it can be cited,) by which that power is confided to the ordinary. An early reply to this question will afford the greatest obligation to, Sir, Your very humble Servant, September 15, 1805. A CONSTANT READER. Original Letter of Bishop Warburton. I TO THE EDITOR OF THE ORTHODOX CHURCHMAN'S SIR, MAGAZINE. THANK you for your very early attention, and prompt insertion of the last letter of Bishop Warburton to my father, in your last month's magazine, p. 121, and, agreeably to your desire, now transmit you a copy of another letter from the same to the same; which, I believe, is the one I sent to you sometime ago, and which you stated to have been mislaid or lost. Besides this letter I have only one more, dated in the autumn of the year 1750, from the bishop to my father, which is very short, and solely relates to the unhappy circumstances of a Mr. a Mr. Hoyland, whom the bishop relieved; though, as appears from that letter, without any material benefit to the unhappy gentleman, who " went immediately to the gaming-table where he lost it all." I shall very willingly send you a sketch of my father's life and writings so soon as I shall receive either of the two copies which are at present in the hands of some near relatives, for the purpose of being revised by them. Please to let your printer correct a mistake of mine or his in the last printed letter of Bishop Warburton, p. 121 of your last magazine, for Angust 1805, by noting in some way or other as you shall judge most convenient, that the words "unfriendly motion," in the printed letter, are in the original letter "unfriendly motive." I am, Sir, Your most obedient THOMAS COMBER, Creech Saint Michael, DEAR SIR, I HAVE the favour of your's of the 6th inst. and truly feel with you in what you mention of your domestic afflictions*. I have had too large a share of these myself not to know that they strike the deepest in an ingenuous mind. But will you give me leave to tell you what I have always found my best relief, though if you take your idea of me from my adversaries, you will suspect to be my last. The remedy I mean is RELIGION, in a cheerful submission to all Providence decrees, and a full assurance that it always decrees for the best. I spoke my real sentiments when I said that the public had reason to entertain great hopes of you. from your early performances. To this you say, that the human mind has its allotted period, and that a short one, in which to exert its faculties; and therefore it amounts to the same thing whether it begins its literary course late or early. There are some examples that would make me think Not having my M S. by me, I am unable to state exactly what were the nature and cause of the domestic afflictions here alluded to, |