accounts of every poetical piece in the Old Tes tament, but they have only provoked more learned antagonists to expose their weakness. It has been asserted that the songs of Moses were written in heroic verse; and that the psalms were of a mixed sort, trimeters, pentameters, and sometimes hexameters; but the generality of moderns suppose that the greatest part of them were of the lyric kind, composed and set to music, and performed with dances and instrumental melody.

Of the music, with which they enlivened their poetical recitations, little is known but from conjecture. Mention is made, in the sacred volume, of ten-stringed instruments, of the nebel and kinor, which, probably, resembled the late and harp; and of several wind instruments, as the flute, trumpet, and what modern versions call the organ.

Should the reader judge of the excellence of the Hebrew music from the surprising effects it had upon the distempered mind of Saul, and the souls of the prophets, he must naturally suppose t possessed a superior energy to any composition of the moderns. Similar effects have, indeed, been ascribed to the Grecian music; and the most barbarous nations are still transported by species of music equally harsh and defective. The style of several of the psalms, and the frequent transition from the first to the third person, afford a strong presumption that the music was performed alternately, one part of the chorus answering to the others at proper stanzas, like the choirsin European cathedrals.

Such of their dances as appertained to religious services were more grave and solemn, than

those

those which merely expressed the satisfaction of a happy people; but whether confined to rules, or directed only by custom and imitation, whether circular, or of any other particular form, can only be conjectured from the practices of other ancient nations.

With respect to commerce. it appears that they received rich stuffs, linen, gold, &c. from Tyre, in exchange for their coru, balm, and other excellent commodities: but they were totally ignorant of navigation; for the maritime tribes contented themselves with receiving merchants into their harbours, without attempting to extend their trade; and when Solomon resolved to send some ships into foreign countries, he was compelled to have them manned with foreign sailors.

SECT. III.

The Jewish History, from Abraham to the Death

B. C.

of Joseph.

BRAHAM, the progenitor and founder of the Jewish nation, was

A 1921. about seventy-four years of age when he quitted the place of his nativity with his aged father, Terah, and removed into Haran, where he had not been long settled before Terah died. Immediately after the performance of his obsequies, Abraham was commanded, by God, to depart into another land where he should enjoy the protection of Heaven, and experience so feli

citous an increase that in his seed all the nations of the earth should be blessed. He readily obeyed the divine call, by migrating with his wife, his nephew, and his servants, into the Land of Promise, where he pitched his tents in the vicinage of Sichem, and built an altar unto the Lord.

1920.

Here God vouchsafed to appear to him B. C. again, confirming the former promise, and assuring him that his posterity should, at a future day, possess the country in which he was now a stranger. In a short time, however, Abraham was obliged to remove from Egypt, to elude the dreadful effects of a great famine, which occurred in Canaan. The fear he was in upon account of Sarah his wife, whose beauty was sufficiently striking to endanger the man's life who should pass for her husband, made him resolve that she should style herself his sister in every place where they might sojourn. From this descent into Egypt, the generality of chro nologers compute the space of four hundred and thirty years mentioned by St. Paul, agreeably to the assertion of Moses in another place, that Israel dwelt in Egypt four hundred and thirty years.

The patriarch had not long resided in B. C. Egypt before Pharaoh became enamour- 1919. ed of Sarah's charms, and took her to his court, shewing extraordinary favours, for her sake, to her pretended brother. The Almighty was, however, pleased to interpose on behalf of his servants, and Pharaoh was made so sensible of the anger of Heaven that he voluntarily restored Abraham's wife, free from violation, and issued

issued out orders for their safe departure from his dominions.

Abraham immediately quitted Egypt, and, directing his steps to Bethel, where the famine had now ceased, offered a sacrifice of thanks for his safe return. In the mean time, the herds of Lot, his nephew, increased so considerably that sharp contentions arose between the herdsmen, and Abraham resolved to separate in a friendly manner, as is already related in the history of Moab. Upon Lot's departure to the fertile plains of Sodom, Abraham removed to the land of Moreh in Hebron, where he contracted a friendship with three of the greatest men of the place; viz Mamre, Aner, and Eshcol, who, in process of time, rendered him some important services, and assisted him in rescuing Lot from Chedorlaomer.

He afterward removed to Ilebron, where God appeared to him the fifth time in a vision, and encouraged him with fresh assurances of especial favour, adding that he would be his exceeding great reward. Abraham now ventured to expostulate, for the first time, with his Creator, observing that he could not comprehend how those reiterated promises could be fulfilled, while he continued childless, and, to all appearance, should leave his substance to his steward, one Eliezer, of Damascus. God vouchsafed to answer that not Eliezer, but a son of his own, should inherit his property, and promised to make his posterity like the stars of Heaven for multitude. Abraham was, at this time, eightyfive years old, and Sarah, turned of seveny tfour, was deemed barren. Circumstances which might have staggered an ordinary faith, but the volume

volume of Holy Writ informs us, " he believed in God, and it was imputed to him for righte ousness." He, however, presumed to demand a sign, and God granted his request. Abraham having killed a young heifer, a goat, and a ram, with a pigeon and turtle dove, in obedience to the Divine injunction, divided the beasts in the middle, and then, joining the pieces, laid the birds upon them, while he himself staid to drive away the fowls from the sacrifice. As soon as the sun began to set, a deep sleep fell upon him, succeeded by a horror of great darkness; during which it was revealed to him that his descendants should sojourn and be allicted in a strange land, for the term of four hundred years; but that God would afterward punish their oppressors, and bring them safely into the promised land. After this revelation, Abrahami beheld a smoking furnace and a burning lamp pass between the victims, as a token of the ratification of God's covenant.

B. C.

Sarah, not suspecting that she was to bear the promised child at an age which 1911. seemed to preclude the possibility of gestation, resolved to become a mother by proxy, according to the custom of that age and country. She therefore persuaded her husband to take her hand-maid Hagar to him: but, finding herself insulted by the slave whom her kindness had raised, she could not refrain from uttering some bitter complaints. Abraham, being anxious to convince his wife that he still loved her with unabated tenderness, gave her free permission to act in what manner she thought proper. She immediately adopted so harsh a mode of behaviour that Hagar fled from

4

her