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this new view of the subject, to read once more the history of Abraham, and also that of his descendants as it was connected with this event; to follow these into Egypt; to stop and examine their civil and religious condition there; to observe their proceedings in the wilderness and the promised land; to visit them afterwards during their captivity in Babylon; and to see in what manner they conducted themselves after their return to Jerusalem till the coming of Jesus Christ. This I did, and on a review of what I had thus done it appeared that several of those nations, which were found to be idolaters in the time of Moses, had become so, as early as in the days of Abraham, and that others were then going off in the same way, Abraham's own family not having escaped the infection, so that the prospect was, even in these early times, that the religious light, which all the families possessed when they lived together in Shinar, would have become progressively extinct. It pleased God therefore at this critical juncture, while a glimmering of the true light remained, to interpose to

prevent this appalling calamity, as well as to forward at the same time some of his other gracious designs to men. This he did by the call of Abraham, whose descendants in a legitimate line were to be his own chosen or peculiar people. With this view they were to be kept distinct and separate, by means of particular customs and ceremonies, from the rest of the world. God was also to take them under his own especial care for the object just mentioned, namely, the preservation of his truths, so that there might be one nation upon earth to know and perpetuate them. This appears to have been the first part of the divine plan on this occasion. The second appears to have been that at a future distant time, when this nation should have been reclaimed from idolatry, Jesus Christ, a legitimate descendant of Abraham, should appear among them, and should not only restore the knowledge of God to all the nations of the earth, whose ancestors had lost it through unbelief, but should restore it with additional light, and should be also the bearer of a gracious message of salvation

to all who should receive him. These are the contents of the first part of this little work.

With respect to the second part it was not thought of till long after the first had been written. It originated thus. Having finished the manuscript of the first part I laid it by for nearly a year. I then opened it that I might read it again, hoping that at this distance of time I might see it as it were with new eyes, and thus be enabled the better to judge of its contents. It seemed to me after a careful perusal of it that much was yet wanted to complete it, indeed I thought, if justice were to be done to the subject, it ought not to have been closed here. There were facts most intimately connected with it, which ought not to be passed over. Thus for instance the coming of Christ into the world, according to the second part of the divine plan just mentioned, was considered in Heaven itself as such a blessing to mankind, that God was pleased to give intimations of the event many ages before it took place, as well as of the time at which it was to take place, in order that there might be

a general expectation of some such personage when he came. Here then a wide field was opened for enlarging on the subject, such as of trying to find out what these expectations were; what particular nations entertained them; how these nations acquired them; and whether Jesus Christ, when he had finished his mission on earth, had fulfilled all the objects for which he had been sent, so that it might be said that he, and he alone, answered the character of the personage, who had been thus expected. I thought therefore that if something like a statement explanatory of the preceding particulars should be added in a second part, the little work would be rendered more complete. It would thus contain a history of God's interference with men for their spiritual welfare, and of its effects, in one unbroken chain, from the days of Adam to the time when christianity was established under Constantine as the religion of the state, and therefore that it might be acceptible as well as useful to many.

Playford Hall, Suffolk, May 10th, 1836.

RESEARCHES

ANTEDILUVIAN, PATRIARCHAL, &c.

IN

TWO PARTS.

PART I.

OUR first question is, how the Antediluvians or first men acquired any true notion of God and of their duties towards him or any true notions of a system of morality and religion. Was this knowledge intuitive? or did they acquire it by the light of nature? or by the strength of their reasoning powers? or did God first reveal it to them himself?

When God had made Man and Woman, it was necessary, absolutely necessary, that he should give them information on a variety of subjects for they could have known nothing of themselves. They could not have known how

B

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