view of this admirable Design of the Divine Wisdom, which will enable us the better to underftand, and to give a more intelligible and fenfible account of the various Providences of God towards Ifrael,

Now we muft confider the World at that time as over-run with Idolatry, as we may easily conclude, when Abrabarn's Family is charged with it, as Joshua told the People of Ifrael at Shechem; Thus faith the Lord God of Ifrael, Your fathers dwelt on the other fide of the flood in old time, even Terab the father of Abraham, and the father of Nachor, and they ferved other Gods, 24. Jofhua 2.

Now all Men muft confefs, That it became the Divine Wisdom to reftore and preferve the Faith and Worship of the One Supreme God, and to keep it alive in the World, that it might in time, though by flow degrees, prevail over Idolatry and the Kingdom of Darkness, and reduce Mankind to their natural Obedience and Subjection to God. And fince Experience had proved, that neither the Creation of the World, nor the Universal Deluge, nor the Confufion of Languages, could preferve the belief of one Supreme God, the Maker and Governor of the World; but the New World was as univerfally over-run with Polytheism and Idolatry, as the Old World was with Violence; and that the very difperfion of Mankind, and their divifion into diftinct Kingdoms and Societies, which was a good Remedy against fome other Immoralities, had probably occafioned a multiplicity of Gods, while every Nation defired a God, as well as a King of their own, to protect and defend them; I fay, this fhews what abfolute Neceffity there was, that the Divine Wisdom should find out fome more effectual and lasting means

to

to convince the World of the Power and Providence of one Supreme God: What other effectual means God might have chofe for this purpose, does not belong to us to enquire; but it becomes us very much to contemplate the Divine Wisdom in that method which he did take to reclaim the World.

Now the way God took was this. He chofe Abraham and his Pofterity for his peculiar People, whom he governed in as visible a manner, as any Temporal Prince governs his Subjects: He forbad them to own any other God befides himself, and separated them from the rest of the World by peculiar Laws and Ceremonies of Worship, to fecure them from the Idolatrous Practices of their Neighbours: He made himself known, and distinguished himself from all other Country Gods, by the Name of the God of Ifrael, the God of Abraham, and Ifaac, and Jacob; not that he was only the God of that Nation,as other Nations had their peculiar Gods, but the God of the whole World, though he was known and worshipped only in Ifrael; and by this Name he triumph'd over all the Heathen Gods, and wrought fuch Signs and Wonders as might have convinced all Men, if they would have been convinced, that there was no God but the God of Ifrael; none like him, none that could be compared to him.

Confider then, what more fenfible Proof the World could poffibly have of one Supreme God, and of a Sovereign Providence, than to fee a whole Nation worshipping this one Supreme God; which at leaft would not fuffer them to be wholly ignorant of fuch a Being, but was a juft Reason to examine their Natural Notions of a Deity, and the Pretences of their feveral Gods. Especially

Especially when they fee this Nation planted in a particular Country allotted them by their God; and the old wicked Inhabitants deftroyed, and driven out from before them, by fuch a feries of Miracles as were an undeniable Evidence of fuch a Divine Power, as all the Gods of these Countries were not able to oppose. And that this Nation received their Laws both for Worfhip, and Polity, and Converfation, immediately from God; were govern'd by Men appointed by God, and directed in all great Affairs by Divine Oracles and Prophets, with fuch a certainty of Event as never failed: That while they adhered to the Worship of this One Supreme God, they were always profperous, as he promised they fhould be; but when they declined to Idolatry, and worshipped the Gods of the Countries round about them, then they were either oppreffed by their Enemies at Home, or carried Captive into Foreign Countries. This was a visible Proof, that there was a God in Ifrael, and fuch a God as would admit of no other Gods, nor allow them to worship any other, but punished them severely whenever they did; and all their other Gods could not help them, nor deliver them out of his Hands.

This gave fufficient notice to the World of the Glory and Power of the God of Ifrael; but fome will still be apt to ask, Why God did not as fenfibly manifeft himself to all the rest of the World, as he did to Ifrael? why he had not his Oracles and Prophets in other Nations? And they may, if they pleafe, as reasonably ask, why he does not immediately infpire every particular Man with a Supernatural Knowledge, and force the Belief of his Being and Providence upon their Minds? Or why he did not by a Miracu

lous

lous Power convert the old wicked World, but destroyed them all, and preferved only that one Righteous Family, which had escaped the general Corruption?

12. Gen.

For much like this was the State of Mankind with respect to Idolatry, when God called Abrakam out of Ur of the Chaldees; there was not one Nation left, that worshipped the One Supreme God, and him only; nay, not one Family; for Terab, Abraham's Father, 24. Josh. 2. was an Idolater, and probably all the rest of the Family, excepting Abrabam; for tho' he be not exprefly excepted in the Text, yet neither is he neceffarily included; and God's commanding him to leave his Countrey, and his Kindred, and his Father's House, and his ready Compliance with this Command, is reafon to believe that he was the only Perfon in the Family who had preferved himself from all Idolatrous Worship: However, it appears that he was a Man of that extraordinary Piety and Virtue, and so easily curable if he had been an Idolater, that God thought him the fitteft Perfon to reveal himself to, and to begin a new Reformation of the World. And therefore as in the days of Noah God destroyed all that wicked Generation of Men by the Flood, and only preferved Noah and his Sons to new people the Earth, and to inftill the Seeds and Principles of Piety and Virtue into their Pofterity; fo the New World being now univerfally corrupted by Idolatry, and God having promised Noah never again to deftroy every living thing, as he had done, he takes another courfe, and in a manner creates a new People to be the Worshippers of the One Supreme God, and in them to make

his own Glory and Power known to the World; and chofe Abraham, a Man of admirable Faith and Piety, to be the Father of this new People, which fhould defcend from his Loins in his Old Age, not by the mere Power of Nature, but by Faith in God's Promife, 11. Heb. 11, 12.

The plain State then of the Cafe is this; When that new Generation of Men had univerfally corrupted themselves with Idolatry, notwithstanding all the means God had fed to poffefs them with a lafting Senfe of his Being and Providence, God gives them up to their wilful Blindness, and leaves them to the Cheats and Impostures of thofe wicked Spirits whom they had made their Gods, till he could recover them from this Apoftacy by fuch methods as were agreeable to Human Nature, and became the Divine Wisdom. The most effectual way to do this, was to establish his Worship in fome one Nation, which should be a vifible Proof both of the Unity of the Godhead, and of a Divine Providence; and because there was no fuch Nation then in the World, he made a Nation on pur pofe, and allotted them a Countrey to dwell in, and fignalized them by extraordinary Providences, as the Worshippers of the One Supreme God. This was a kind of a new beginning of the World, which did not put an end to the Idolatrous World, as Noah's Flood put an end to that wicked Generation, but yet did propagate a new Generation of Men in it, who fhould in time put an End to that Univerfal Idolatry, and make a new World of it.

And this is a new Advance the Divine Wifdom made towards the Recovery of Mankind. When Adam had finned, he and his whole Pofterity became mortal, and were condemned