and of Egypt_; and that within
so few Days after God's miraculous Appearance to them, and for them; I
say, such a People were really fitted to be imposed upon, nothing could
be too gross for them.

This was indeed his first considerable Experiment upon them as _a
People_, or as _a Body_; and the Truth is, his Affairs requir'd it, for
_Satan_, who had been a Successful Devil in most of his Attempts upon
Mankind, could hardly doubt of Success in any thing after he had carried
his Point at Mount _Sinai_: To bring them to Idolatry in the very Face
of their Deliverer, and just after their Deliverance! It was more
astonishing in the main than even their passing _the Red Sea_: In a
Word, the _Devil_'s whole History does not furnish us with a Story
equally surprising.

And how was poor _Aaron_ bewilder'd in it too? He that was _Moses_'s
Partner in all the great Things that _Moses_ did in _Pharaoh_'s Sight,
and that was appointed to be his Assistant and Oracle, _or Orator
rather_, upon all public Occasions; that he, above all the rest, should
come into this absurd and ridiculous Proposal, he that was singled out
for the sacred Priesthood, for him to defile his holy Hands with a
polluted abominable Sacrifice, and with making the Idol for them too,
(for 'tis plain that he made it,) how monstrous it was!

And see what an Answer he gives to his Brother _Moses_, how weak! how
simple! _I did so and so, indeed_, I bad them bring the Ear-rings, _&c._
and I cast the Gold into the Fire, and _it came out this Calf_.
Ridiculous! as if the Calf came out by meer fortuitous Adventure,
without a Mould to cast it in; which could not be supposed: And if it
had not come out so without a Mould, _Moses_ would certainly have known
of it; had _Aaron_ been innocent, he would have answered after quite
another manner, and told _Moses_ honestly that the whole Body of the
People came to him in a Fright, that they forced him to make them an
Idol; which he did, by making first a proper Mould to cast it in, and
then taking the proper Metal to cast it from: That indeed he had sinn'd
in so doing, but that he was mobb'd into it, and the People terrified
him, perhaps they threatned to kill him; and if he had added, that the
_Devil_ prompting his Fear beguil'd him, he had said nothing but what
was certainly true; for if it was in Satan's Power to make the People
insolent and outrageous enough to threaten and bully the old venerable
Prophet (_for he was not yet