10. When the unbelievers affirm that a just God could not punish Pharaoh for an hardness of heart of which he himself (God) was evidently the cause, we usually answer, that the potter has power over the day to fashion it as he lists; but when in reply, they take notice, that if the clay in the hands of the potter were capable of happiness or misery, according to the fashion impressed on it, the potter must be malevolent and cruel who can give the preference to inflicting pain instead of happiness, then we are obliged to be silent, in hopes that your Lordships will condescend to supply us with better arguments than any we are acquainted with at present.

11. Miracles must have been very common in Egypt, since there was a body of people whose trade it was to work them. When Aaron's rod was turned into a serpent,* Pharaoh, instead of being surprised at it, as an unusual phænomenon, sends for his magicians, who immediately perform the like with their rods. Your Lordships owe us some little explanation concerning this business: we know it is our duty to believe, that Aaron's miracle was performed by the power of God, but are at a loss to discover by what power the magicians performed theirs.

19. When** Aaron turned the waters of Egypt into blood, their streams, their rivers, their ponds, and all their pools, together with all the water throughout the land of Egypt, whether in Vessels of wood, or vessels of stone, the magicians of Egypt did so likewise with their enchantments. Here again our adversaries, who unfortunately have more curiosity than faith, take the liberty to enquire, whether the magicians formed water to practise their art upon, since Aaron had already turned it into blood?

* Exod vii. 3, 4. and ix. 9, 10.
** Exod. vii. 10.
*** Exod. vii. 10, &c.

13. Pharaoh still continuing inflexible, though successively exposed to the plagues of frogs, lice, and flies;* his cattle, namely, the horses, the asses, the camels, the oxen, and the sheep, were afflicted with a very grievous murrain, and all the cattle of Egypt died, except those of the children of Israel.** This producing no good effect with Pharaoh, the whole nation of Egyptians were plagued with boils and blains;*** notwithstanding which Pharaoh's heart continued as hard as ever.**** Moses was therefore sent early in the morning, to advise Pharaoh to send for his cattle, and all that he had in the field, and shelter them against a terrible hail storm, the approach of which he predicted. They among Pharaoh's servants who feared the word of the Lord, saved their cattle and servants, by removing them into houses; for the next day came on a storm of thunder, lightning, and hail, which broke the trees, destroyed the herbage, and killed every living creature that was in the field, excepting only that in the land of Goshen, where the children of Israel were, there was no hail. Divine truths are so different from those which carnal minds are used to contemplate, that it must be very difficult by the force of mere human reason to persuade mankind in general, that Pharaoh's cattle were in any great danger from the hail storm, since they were all previously dead by the murrain; and some people are so stupid, that they think killing them a second time was no punishment at all. There are not wonting some amongst the present perverse generation; who are at a loss to conceive how those of Pharaoh's servants, who feared the word of the Lord, could make their Cattle flee into houses, since they pretend to maintain, that cattle already dead, whether by the murrain or otherwise, are incapable of fleeing. Notwithstanding those people are so obviously in the wrong, yet we depend upon your Lordships, that you will expose their errors in more glaring colours than any in which they have yet appeared.

* Exod. viii.
** Exod. ix. 3, 6.
*** Exod. ix.
**** Exod. ix. 13, &c.

14. Some weak believers are in doubts whether so mean, so ungenerous, and so dishonest an act, as borrowing the jewels of the Egyptians* without any intention of returning them, did not rather originate in that disposition which characterizes the Jews to this day, than in the command of the just God, who certainly could need no such tricks to accomplish his intentions.

15. The plague of hail being succeeded by locusts, thick darkness, and the death of all the first-born of Egypt, cattle included, Pharaoh at length permitted the Israelites to depart; but afterwards repenting, he went in pursuit of them** with six hundred chariots and all the horses and chariots of Pharaoh, and his horsemen and his army, and overtook them by the sea, near Baal Zephon. The Red Sea was parted in two to afford a passage for the Israelites, the Egyptians followed them, and were punished for their rashness by the return of the waters, which swallowed them up. Here again our petulant and unsatisfied opposers demand how Pharaoh could pursue with chariots and horsemen, since his horses were all slain twice over, once by the murrain and once by the hail; not to mention that the first born of cattle were slain even a third time. They likewise add, that Egypt, which, to facilitate the dispersion of the waters of the overflowing Nile, is intersected by numberless canals, must have always been a very improper country either for cavalry or chariots.

* Exod. xi.
** Exod. xiv.

16. God came to Balaam at night and said unto him, "If the men come to call thee, rise up and go with them."* Balaam accordingly rose up, saddled his ass, and went with the princes of Moab. "But God's anger was kindled because he went," insomuch that he sent an angel to oppose him, who would certainly have slain him, if the ass he rode on had not exhibited a specimen of penetration and prudence, of which the asses of modern times seem to be divested. The infidels here insist, that it is better to reject the whole story, than to believe that the Supreme Being could be angry with Balaam, merely because he obeyed his command; but the true believers, the sons of the church, who think there would be no exercise for our faith, if we were required to admit nothing but what can be supported by argument, are not at all concerned in this difficulty; the more improbable the doctrine, the greater must be the merit in believing.