spects the same advantages, that some have. It suffices, that of each shall be required according to what he hath, not according to what he hath not*. But as to every thing beyond this, God is master of his own gifts and we are incompetent judges how he ought to dispose of them. Yet in the disposal, of which I am speaking, we may trace evident footsteps of wisdom, and extensive mercy. While the rest of the world was falling into superstition and idolatry, Abraham distinguished himself by a faithful practice of true religion: and therefore was properly a distinguished object of divine favour. He was careful also to educate his family in the same principles; as God himself bears him witness. For I know Abraham; that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment. It was therefore no groundless preference, but a most reasonable proceeding; to build on the foundations already laid and remaining; and reward persons, found to be so well disposed, by conferring on them further privileges; of which, with all their faults, they were much likelier to make a good use, than any of their more corrupted neighbours.

Yet to these likewise, and to all men, God had gracious intentions in every thing, which he did for his peculiar people. One of the first promises made to Abraham, was, that in him and in his seed should all the nations of the earth be blessed. This indeed received not its full accomplishment, till our Saviour, the great blessing of all nations, came. But it was in some measure verifying continually, from the day it was made. Had all men been left to themselves * 2 Cor. viii. 12. + Gen. xviii. 19. Gen. xii. 3. xviii. 18. xxii. 18.

at that time, the knowledge of true religion might have been every where lost. But securing the profession of it amongst the descendants of Abraham, was preserving a witness for God upon earth, and that in a part of it, perhaps as well peopled and as well esteemed, as any then known. There they shone forth first in Canaan, then in Egypt, as lights in a dark place*, to attract the eyes and direct the steps of the well-disposed. And this is a benefit of great consequence. For truth proposed is much more easily perceived, than without such proposal it is discovered. And when the Almighty brought them back from Egypt to Canaan again, by such amazing miracles as the Scripture relates, these were so many loud declarations from Heaven to mankind, concerning their duty: nor have we reason to doubt, but many were alarmed and convinced by their means: which indeed is expressly mentioned, as one end proposed by them: And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lordt. Accordingly there went out, we read, a mixed multitude with the Israelites: and who could they be, but such as were brought to believe in the true God? for worshippers of false Gods they were not to suffer amongst them. Again, soon after this, Jethro, a man of high rank, and therefore probably of great influence, amongst the Midianites; how strongly doth he declare, what effect these wonders had on him? And Jethro said, Blessed be the Lord, who hath delivered you out of the hands of the Egyptians-Now I know that the Lord is greater than all gods §. Further still: wherever we find în the law, as we do very frequently, mention of the strangers, that should sojourn in the land of Israel;

* 2 Pet. i. 19.

+ Exod. xii. 38.

+ Exod. vii. 5.

Exod. xviii. 10, 11.

these were many of them indeed no proselytes to the whole of the Jewish covenant, but all of them worshippers of the Maker of Heaven and earth only. And though by the wise direction of God, Moses prohibited the admission of idolaters amongst the people; yet by the same direction he enjoined the utmost humanity and tenderness to all, that preserved the religion of the children of Noah or of nature, in any tolerable degree uncorrupted. In the same spirit, Solomon too puts up an earnest petition for such in his prayer at the dedication of the Temple. Moreover concerning a stranger, that is not of thy people Israel, but cometh out of a far country, for thy name's sake: (for they shall hear of thy great name, and of thy strong hand, and of thy stretched out arm: when he shall come, and pray towards this house; hear thou in Heaven thy dwelling-place, and do according to all that the stranger calleth to thee for: that all the people of the earth may know thy name, to fear thee, as do thy people Israel*.

Nor were the Jews of service only in their flourishing state, to support true religion in the world; but under their afflictions and captivities they spread it much further, than they could before. Whilst they were their own masters in their own land, the peculiar institutions of their law considerably lessened the freedom of their intercourse with strangers. And these restraints, though extremely necessary, as it very plainly appeared, to preserve the purity of their religion, were otherwise great hindrances to the propagation of it. But when they were led captive into the lands of their enemies, and the punishment of their sins had given them a steadier zeal for their duty; then they became extensively useful to the

* 1 Kings viii. 41-43.

nations, amongst whom necessity mixed them; as both the reasonableness of their faith, compared with heathenism, was easy to be seen: and as prophecies fulfilled, or miracles performed in their favour, could not but recommend the worship of that Being, whom they served. By these means, their conqueror, Nebuchadnezzar, was brought to declare him, God of gods, and Lord of kings, all whose works are truth, and his ways judgment *. On these accounts did Darius the Mede decree, that in every dominion of his kingdom, men should tremble and fear before the God of Daniel: for he is the living God, and stedfast for evert. And Cyrus, whom Isaiah had foretold by name, above one hundred years before his birth, for the restorer of the people from their captivity, acknowledged by a written proclamation, sent through his whole empire, that the God of the Jews had given him all the kingdoms of the earth.

Nor is there sufficient ground to think, that these notices of true religion were soon lost again. On the contrary, from them proceeded very probably the great reformation made in the notions of the eastern part of the world, by Zoroaster: whose doctrine and form of worship, was the purest that the heathen knew. And many have apprehended, not without specious appearances of reason, that almost the whole knowledge of God, which the Greek philosophers had, was derived to them, ultimately, if not immediately, from the revelations made to the Jews. But however that might be; it is certain, that after the time of Alexander, this nation was diffused wider through the world; and, in every city which they inhabited, erected synagogues for divine worship, and for reading and explaining the holy Scriptures; to * Dan. ii. 47. iv. 37. † Dan. vi. 26. Ezra i. 1, 2.

which resorted, as we find in the New Testament, many devout persons amongst the Gentiles, who had learned from the Jews to fear God. And thus, as Isaiah foretold, did the law go forth from Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem*, conveying such degrees of light to all nations around, as prepared them to receive the Sun of righteousness, when in the fulness of time he arose, with healing in his wings t.

But though they were instruments of good to the world, they fell at length themselves into pernicious errors. Being distinguished by the observances of their law from other nations, they grew so wrongly vain of those distinctions, which in reality were mortifying proofs of their unfitness to be trusted without restraints, that they placed all the value of their religion in the outworks of it; and despised and hated the rest of mankind, whom this separation of theirs was intended to instruct and serve. Again, having promises made to them of a prince of the house of David, whom all people were to obey, they absurdly imagined, notwithstanding many evidences in their own Scriptures to the contrary, that this was to be, not a spiritual kingdom, influencing men's hearts, and protecting them from sin, and rewarding them with eternal happiness: but a temporal one, like those of this world, the honours and profits of which they should share, and tyrannize over the earth. So that when their expected Messiah came, finding him not to answer these vain and wicked hopes, they rejected and crucified the Lord of glory‡ Thus then did the Jews, after preaching for so many ages to others, become themselves cast-aways §: and

Isaiah ii. 3. + 1 Cor. ii. 8.

+ Mal. iv. 2.

§ 1 Cor. ix. 27.