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able to avert. Herein were verified the words of God to Moses—Against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment. Exodus xii. 12.

I thought it might be attended with some utility to shew, what appeared to me to be the purpose of divine wisdom in this judgment displayed upon the Egyptians. For I cannot help thinking that without this explanation we see neither the extent nor the propriety of the punishment.

THE SECOND PLAGUE.

FROGS.

Ch. viii. Ver. 1.

And the Lord spake unto

Moses, Go unto Pharaoh, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord, Let my people go, that they may

serve me.

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V. 2. And if thou refuse to let them hold, I will smite all thy borders with frogs: V. 3. And the river shall bring forth frogs abundantly, &c.

V. 5. And the Lord spake unto Moses, Say unto Aaron, Stretch forth thine hand with thy rod over the streams, over the rivers, and over

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the ponds, (or lakes) and cause frogs to come up upon the land of Egypt.

V. 6. And Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt; and the frogs came up, and covered the land of Egypt.

V. 13. And the Lord did according to the word of Moses: and the frogs died out of the houses, out of the villages, and out of the fields.

V. 14. And they gathered them together upon heaps; and the land stank.

This evil, like the former, arose from their sacred river, in which they so much confided; and of whose sanctity and excellence they were so much persuaded. Its streams by these means became a second time polluted, and disgraced, to the utter confusion both of their gods and priests. The land also was equally defiled, and their palaces and temples rendered hateful so that every native was infected, and had no way to perform any lustration, and to cleanse himself from the filth, with which he was tainted. Every stream, and every lake, was in a state of pollution. Whether the frog among the Egyptians was an object of reverence, or of abhorrence, is' uncertain:

1 The wolf, Auxos, was sacred to the God of Light, because at the appearance of the sun he retires.

2

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or whether it were not at the same time both hated and reverenced, as many objects are known to have been among particular nations. Of this we may be assured, both from the examples of the Greeks and of the Romans. They worshipped many deities out of dread; such as Ate, Proserpine, and the Furies: and there were others, which they must have hated and despised: witness, Priapus, Fatua, Vacuna, Cloacina, and Mephitis. By this last was signified stink in the abstract: which had a temple at Cremona. Add to these Fear, Fever, Dread Force, * Calumny, Envy, Impudence: all abhorred, yet personified and worshipped. The Egyptians held serpents in great veneration, yet they reverenced the ibis, which destroyed' them. them. Whether the frog was held in this twofold predicament

15

5

'See Lucian de Calumniæ non temere credendo.

* See Lilius Gyraldus de Miscellaneis Deis, p. 47.

3 Ibid. p. 59.

4 Calumnia, quam Græci Abon nominant, et Impudentiæ, aras Athenienses consecrâsse, testis est Theophrastus apud Diogenianum. Lilius Gyraldus, Syntagm. 1. p. 37. 5 Herod. 1. 2. c. 74. p. 138.

• Ibid. c. 75.

7 Invocant etiam Ægyptii ibes suas contra serpentum morsus. Pliny, 1. x. c. 26, 27. p. 559.,

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may not be easy to determine. Thus much is certain, that it was very consistent with divine wisdom and justice, to punish the Egyptians either by what they abominated, or by what they idly revered. We know, that the Sun, or Apollo, was the same as 'Osiris; and we are informed by Plutarch, that no animal was so little acceptable to this deity as a frog. Yet he acknowledges that it was an emblem of the Sun in Egypt. And in the same treatise he tells us, that the brazen palmtree at Delphi, which was a representation of that tree under which Apollo was supposed to have been born, had many of these animals engraved at its basis. It was the gift of Cypselus, an ancient king of Corinth and Plutarch mentions, that he and many others wondered, how these symbolical representations could have any relation to the deity. And in his banquet of wise 3 men, he makes Pittacus ask Periander the son of Cypselus-T

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Plut. Isis et Osiris, vol. 2. p. 372. Diod. 1. 1. p. 10. 2 -παντα μαλλον, η ταυτα, είναι προσφίλη τα θηρια νομιζο

γηγενές ζωον (βατραχον) η φυτον ελειον αποφαινετε τον Ήλιον, εἰς Cargaxar πaτgida, n idwę syyga portes. vol. 1. de Pyth. Orac p. 400.

3 Vol. 1. P. 164.

αιτιαν των βατραχων εκείνων, τι βέλονται περί τον πυθμένα τα φοινικος ενετετορνευμένοι τοσετοί,---the reason, why those frogs were engraved in such numbers at the bottom of the palm. To this no answer is given: yet we may be sure, that both the tree and the animals had a relation to the deity, by their being of old dedicated to him. Of this we may be certain, that the frog, like the tortoise, crocodile, &c. was an emblem of preservation in floods and inundations: also of lymphatic prophecy. And Philastrius Brixiensis tells us, that it was held sacred by the Egyptians. As to the palm itself, we may suppose it, on account of its beauty and utility, to have been made an emblem of this god, the same as Osiris: and that it was originally an hieroglyphic imported from Egypt. For we learn from Hesychius, Παλμυτης Θεος Αιγυπτιος, that there was an

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1 Some would alter it to Пaauvans: but that term had been taken notice of by Hesychius before, and the place, in which the word Пaλurns is introduced, shews that it is rightly expressed. Whence the Romans got the term Palma, for the Dow of the Greeks, is uncertain. The tree may have been so stiled among other nations; and perhaps by the Egyptians. Even among the Greeks Пavs signified a prince; or, as I should suspect, a conquerour. It came probably from an old word Пμn, Palma: and from thence

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