However, tho' the Triumph of the _Israelites_ over the _Egyptians_ must
needs be a great Mortification to the _Devil_, and exasperated him very
much, yet the Consequence was only this, _viz._ that _Satan_, like an
Enemy who is baulk'd and defeated, but not overcome, redoubles his Rage,
and reinforces his Army, and what the _Egyptians_ could not do for him,
he resolves to do for himself; in order then to take his Opportunity for
what Mischief might offer, being defeated, and provok'd, I say, at the
Slur that was put upon him, he resolves to follow them into the
Wilderness, and many a vile Prank he plaid them there; as first, he
straitens them for Water, and makes them murmur against GOD, and against
_Moses_, within a very few Days, nay, Hours, of their great Deliverance
of all.

Nor was this all, but in less than one Year more we find them, (at his
Instigation too) setting up a _golden Calf_, and making all the People
dance about it at Mount _Sinai_; even when God himself had but just
before appear'd to them in the Terrors of a burning Fire upon the Top of
the Mountain; _and what was the Pretence?_ Truly, nothing but that they
had lost _Moses_, who used to be their Guide, and he had hid himself in
the Mount, and had not been seen in forty Days, so that they could not
tell what was become of him. This put them all into Confusion; a poor
Pretence indeed, to turn them all back to Idolatry! but the _watchful
Devil_ took the Hint, push'd the Advantage, and insinuated that they
should never see _Moses_ again, that he was certainly devour'd by
venturing too near the Flashes of Fire in the Mount, and presuming upon
the Liberty he had taken before; in a word, that God had destroyed
_Moses_, or he was starved to Death for want of Food, having been forty
Days and forty Nights absent.

All these were, it's true, in themselves most foolish Suggestions,
considering _Moses_ was admitted to the Vision of God, and that God had
been pleased to appear to him in the most intimate manner; that as they
might depend God would not destroy his faithful Servant, so they might
have concluded he was able to support his Being without Food as long as
he thought fit; but to a People so easy to believe any thing, what could
be too gross for the _Devil_ to persuade them to?

A People who could dance round a Calf, and call it their God, might do
any thing; that could say to one another, that this was the Great
JEHOVAH, _that brought them out of the L