178 SCRIPTURE NATURAL HISTORY. 



waters, because the river was supposed, by that deluded people, to 

 possess an uncommon degree of sanctity, and to deserve their re- 

 ligious veneration ; it was the object of their confidence, it was ac- 

 counted the grand source of their enjoyments, and was the constant 

 therne of their praise ; it was, therefore, just to pollute those waters 

 with an innumerable multitude of impure animals, to which the 

 respect and confidence which was due only to the true God, the 

 Father of the rain, had been impiously transferred. Turned at first 

 into blood, as a just punishment of their unfeeling barbarity to- 

 wards the male children of Israel, they were now 'a second 'time 

 polluted and disgraced, to the utter confusion both of their gods 

 and priests.' 



The writer from whom we have cited these observations, has 

 treated the entire subject in so admirable a manner, that we shall 

 enrich our pages with some selections. 



This loathsome plague extended to every place, and to every 

 class of men. The frogs came up, arid covered the land of Egypt; 

 they entered into their houses, and into their bed chambers ; they 

 crawled upon their persons, upon their beds, and into their kitchen 

 utensils. The whole country their palaces, their temples, their 

 persons all was polluted and hateful. Nor was it in their power 

 to wash away the nauseous filth with which they were tainted, for 

 every stream and every lake was full of pollution. To a people 

 who affected a most scrupulous purity in their persons, habitations, 

 and manner of living, nothing, almost, can be conceived more in- 

 sufferable than this plague. The frog is, compared with many oth- 

 er reptiles, a harmless animal ; it neither injures by its bite, nor by 

 its poison, but it must have excited on this occasion, a disgust, 

 which rendered life an insupportable burden. The eye was tor- 

 tured with beholding the march of their impure legions, and the 

 ear with hearing the harsh tones of their voices. The Egyptians 

 could recline upon no bed where they were not compelled to ad- 

 mit their cold and filthy embrace: they tasted no food which was 

 not infected by their touch ; and they smelled no perfume but the 

 fetid smell of their slime, or the exhalations emitted from their 

 dead carcasses. 



How much the Egyptians endured from this visitation, is evident 

 from the haste with which Pharaoh sent for Moses and Aaron, and 

 begged the assistance of their prayers: * Entreat, the Lord that he 

 may take away the frogs from me and from my people ; and I will 

 let the people go, that they may do sacrifice unto the Lord.' Re- 

 duced to great extremity, and receiving no deliverance from the 

 pretended miracles of his magicians, he had recourse to that God, 

 concerning whom he had so proudly demanded, ' Who is Jehovah, 

 that I should obey his voice to let Israel go ? ' Subdued and in- 

 structed by adversity, he implores his compassion, and acknowl- 

 edges the glory of his name ; but, as the event proved, not with a 

 sincere heart. 

 In answer to his entreaties, the frogs were removed. They were 



