Thirty-fourth. It certainly ought to satisfy God to torment a man for
four or five thousand years for insisting that it is but a small thing
for an infinite being to vanquish an Egyptian army; that it was rather a
small business to trouble people with frogs, flies, and vermin; that it
looked almost malicious to cover people with boils and afflict cattle
with disease; that a real good God would not torture innocent beasts
on account of something the owners had done; that it was absurd to do
miracles before a king to induce him to act in a certain way, and then
harden his heart so that he would refuse; and that to kill all the
firstborn of a nation was the act of a heartless fiend.
Thirty-fifth. Certainly one ought to be permitted to doubt that twelve
wells of water were sufficient for three millions of people, together
with their flocks and herds,1 and to inquire a little into the nature of
manna that was cooked by baking and seething and yet would melt in the
sun,2 and that would swell or shrink so as to make an exact omer, no
matter how much or how little there really was.3 Certainly it is not a
crime to say that water cannot be manufactured by striking a rock with a
stick, and that the fate of battle cannot be decided by lifting one hand
up or letting it fall.4 Must we admit that God really did come down upon
Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people; that he commanded that all
who should go up into the Mount or touch the border of it should be put
to death, and that even the beasts that came near it should be killed?5
Is it wrong to laugh at this? Is it sinful to say that God never spoke
from the top of a mountain covered with clouds these words to Moses, "Go
down, charge the people, lest they break through unto the Lord to gaze,
and many of them perish; and let the priests also, which come near to
the Lord, sanctify themselves, lest the Lord break forth upon them"?6