4. And when the Lord faw that he drew 68. near to examine, the Lord called unto him out of the midst of the thicket, faying, Mofes, Mofes! And he faid, What is it?

5.

Καὶ εἶπεν· Μὴ ἐγγίσης ὧδε· λύσαι τὸ ὑπόδημα σε ἐκ τῶν ποδῶν σε· ὁ γὰρ τόπος, ἐν ᾧ σὺ ἕσηκας ἐπ' αὐτἔ, γῆ ἁγία ἐςίν.

5. And He faid, Do not approach near to this place. Loofe thy fandals from off thy feet*.

* It is well known, that the loofing the fandals from off the feet has ever been a mark of religious respect and reverence in the Eaft; and is fo to this hour: the Turks always performing this ceremony, when they either enter a mofque, or the apartment of any great man.

It is alfo well known, that most great mountains, in their wild flate, fuch as Ida, Teneriffe, and others, have generally a thicket of wood furrounding their base.

And Dr. Shaw informs us, (p. 443.) that the species of plants moft abundant in the defert, near Mount Sinai, are the tamarisk and acacia. Of these plants therefore, moft probably, the thicket did confist.

And this feems to be confirmed by what Dr. Pococke fays, (vol. I. p. 145.) that Horeb ftill abounds in small fhrubs, and aromatic herbs, where they feed their cattle. And that there are alfo, among them, feveral white thorn trees, fuch as he had not seen any where in the East, except about Antioch; (which were probably the fame kind of acacias as are described by Dr Shaw.)

For

69.

For even the spot whereon thou now ftandeft is facred ground.

Now, if fuch an appearance as this could exift, even upon earth; and if it could be feen in the midst of the thicket, and remain there without injuring the wood of the thicket; much more may fuch glorious appearances be conceived to exift on the fun, without caufing it to be an ignited body, burning with intolerable heat, according to vulgar apprehenfion. It may therefore well be conceived to be a glorious mansion of blifs, and even heaven itself.

Nor does fuch idea, of the fun being one of the heavens; and peculiarly our heaven; tend in the leaft degree to revive any idolatrous conceptions concerning the heavenly bodies, or the hofts of heaven; fince we may add to the fublime reflections in the book of Job, which have been already mentioned, that it leads us, on the contrary, to confider our fun, and all the other fixed stars, merely as fo many manfions*, and habitations of refidence; merely as fo many Islands (as it were) of Blifs, placed in the vaft ocean of space.

3

John, ch. xiv. ver. 2.

And

And leads us to true humility, when we confider our own prefent real fituation; as being merely upon a poor little wandering planet ; receiving only imperfect dawnings of light, and feint views of the works of the Almighty.

And at the fame time that this conception. is fo great, and perfectly confiftent with the Holy Scripture on the one hand, and with the most important of our philofophical difcoveries on the other; and accords most minutely with Mr. Herfchel's obfervations concerning the different colours of the fixed ftars: fo from hence also we may learn to account for that fingular circumftance, that fome of the fixed. ftars feem to have changed their colours; as is. remarked, in the Philofophical Transactions†, concerning the Dog Star; which is reported, by ancient authors, to have been taken notice. of for its redness; whereas it is now of a white colour. For the increase of objects emitting a radiant brightness (fimilar to that mentioned, in the Holy Scriptures, in the description of the garments of the angels at the fepulchre,) might occafion fuch a fort of change in the appearance of any star.

Hence, moreover, we may, in fome meafure, account for that different degree of brightness, on the different fides of fome ftars, 70. by means whereof the periodical revolutions 7༠. of each of them, round its own axis, become visible to us as in the cafe of Algol *; and of one in the conftellation Antinous : for if

* See the Philofophical Tranfactions, vol. LXXIII. P. 474. and vol. LXXIV. p. 1.

+ Ibid. vol. LXXV. p. 127. Another variable ftar in the constellation Lyra, is particularly described (by Mr. Goodricke, who made the first difcovery concerning Algol) in the Philofophical Transactions, vol. LXXV. p. 153 and still another, in the head of Cepheus, is as particularly defcribed, vol. LXXVI. p. 48.

And others, having fimilar changes, are mentioned, vol. LXXVI. p. 195, 199; as one in Hydra; and one in the Swan's neck. In which curious paper, alfo, feveral changes of appearance, of a different kind, are mentioned; which do not relate to the prefent fubject; but may justly lead astronomers to fufpect, that fome of the ftars there described, as becoming vifible only after long intervals of time, are poffibly comets, belonging to other funs, in their aphelia.

And amongst these remarkable records, concerning variable stars, we ought by no means to forget the account of that, in the neck of the whale, which appears and difappears periodically, feven times in fix years; continuing in the greatest luftre, for fifteen days together, and being never quite extinguished.

one

one fide of any star abounds with a multitude of individual objects, upon the whole emit ting more light in quantity, and more brilliant in its kind, than those on the other fide of that star, the effect must be just such as we perceive with regard to the ftars above mentioned.

The ideas intended to be conveyed by these remarks, may perhaps appear, to fome minds, who are greatly wedded to commonly imbibed prejudices, both novel, and extravagant but indeed the real ground for marvel is rather, that fuch kind of ideas should have efcaped notice hitherto; or the meeting with any acceptance fooner: when on the one hand, we find it almoft the uniform language of Scripture, really to call the fixed ftars the heavens; and to speak of them as being fuch: and when, on the other hand, our blessed 71. Lord himself leads us very frequently, by his difcourfes, to conceive that the existence of things in heaven, and in a future ftate, is, and will be, as real an appearance of confolidation, in its kind, as that of any fubftances on

earth.

Thus we read amongst the sublime expreffions of the royal Pfalmift :