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VI. The dispersing of the nations, and dividing the earth among its inhabitants, immediately after God had caused the building of Babel to cease. This was done so as most to suit the great design of redemption. And particularly, God therein had an eye to the future propagation of the Gospel among the nations. They were so placed, their habitation so limited, round about the land of Canaan, as most suited that design. Deut. 32: 8. "When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel." Acts, 17:26, 27. “And hath made of one blood all nations of men, for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; that they should seek the Lord, if haply they might find him." The land of Canaan was situated the most conveniently of any place in the world, for the purpose of spreading revealed light among the nations in general. The Roman empire, the chief part of the civilized world, in the apostolic age, was in the countries round about Jerusalem. The devil seeing the advantage of this situation of the nations for promoting the great work of redemption, and the disadvantage of it with respect to the interests of his kingdom, afterwards led away many nations into the remotest parts of the world, to get them out of the way of the Gospel. Thus he led some into America; and others into cold northern regions, almost inaccessible.

VII. Another thing I would mention in this period, was God's preserving the true religion in that line from which Christ was to proceed, when the

world in general apostatized to idolatry, and the church was in imminent danger of being swallowed up in the general corruption: Though God had lately wrought so wonderfully for the deliverance of his church, and had shown so great mercy towards it, as for its sake even to destroy all the rest of the world; and though he had lately renewed and es tablished his covenant of grace with Noah and his sons; yet so prone is the corrupt heart of man to de part from God, and to sink into the depths of wickedness, darkness, and delusion, that the world soon after the flood fell into gross idolatry; so that before Abraham it was almost universal. The earth had become very corrupt at the time of the building of Babel: even God's people themselves, that line of which Christ was to come, were corrupted in a measure with idolatry. Josh. 24: 2. "Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood in old time, even Terah the father of Abraham, and the father of Nahor; and they served other gods." "The other side of the flood" means beyond the river Euphrates, where the ancestors of Abraham lived.

We are not to understand that they were wholly drawn off to idolatry, to forsake the true God. For God is said to be the God of Nahor. Gen. 31:53. "The God of Abraham, and the God of Nahor, the God of their father, judge betwixt us." But they partook in some measure of the general and almost universal corruption of the times; as Solomon was in a measure infected with idolatrous corruption; and as the children of Israel in Egypt are said to serve other gods, though there was the true church of God among them; and as there were images kept for a considerable time in the family

of Jacob; the corruption being brought from Padan-Aram, whence he obtained his wives.

This was the second time that the church was almost brought to nothing by the corruption and general defection of the world from true religion. But still the true religion was continued in the family from which Christ was to proceed; which is another instance of God's remarkably preserving his church in a time of a general deluge of wickedness; and wherein, though the god of this world raged, and had almost swallowed up God's church, yet he did not suffer the gates of hell to prevail against it.

CHAPTER

III.

FROM THE CALLING OF ABRAHAM TO MOSES.

I. It pleased God now to separate that person of whom Christ was to come, from the rest of the world, that his church might be upheld in his family and posterity till that time. He called Abraham out of his own country and from his kindred, to go into a distant country that God should show him; and brought him first out of Ur of the Chaldees to Charran, and then to the land of Canaan.

It was before observed, that the corruption of the world with idolatry was now become general; mankind were almost wholly overrun with it. God therefore saw it necessary, in order to uphold true religion in the world, that there should be a family separated from all others, lest the church of Christ

should wholly be carried away with the apostacy. For Abraham's own country and kindred had most of them fallen off; and without some extraordinary interposition of Providence, it seemed that, in a generation or two more, the true religion in this line would have been extinct. And therefore God called Abraham, the person in whose family he intended to uphold the true religion, out of his own country, and from his kindred, to a far distant country, that his posterity might there remain a people separate from all the rest of the world; that so the true religion might be upheld there, while all mankind besides were swallowed up in Heathenism.

The land of the Chaldees, whence Abraham was called, was the country about Babel: Babel, or Babylon, being the chief city of Chaldea. Learned men suppose, that it was in this land idolatry first began; that Babel and Chaldea were the original and chief seats of the worship of idols, whence it spread into other nations. And therefore the land of the Chaldeans, the country of Babylon, is in Scripture called the land of graven images. Jer. 50:35, 38. "A sword is upon the Chaldeans, saith the Lord, and upon the inhabitants of Babylon, and upon her princes, and upon her wise men. A drought is upon her waters, and they shall be dried up; for it is the land of graven images, and they are mad upon their idols." God calls Abraham out of this idolatrous country, to a great distance from it; and when he came there," he gave him no inheritance in it, no, not so much as to set his foot on;" but he remained a stranger and a sojourner, that he and his family might be kept separate from all the world.

This was a new thing: God had never taken

such a method before. His church had not in this manner been separated from the rest of the world till now; but were wont to dwell with them, the mischievous consequences of which had been found repeatedly. Before the flood the effect of God's people living intermingled with the wicked world, without any remarkable wall of separation, was, that the sons of the church joined in marriage with others, and thereby almost all soon became infected, and the church was almost brought to nothing. The method God then took to protect the church was, to drown the wicked world, and save the church in the ark. Before Abraham was called, the world had again become corrupt. But now God took another method; he did not destroy the wicked world, and save Abraham, and his wife, and Lot, but called these persons to go and live separate from the rest of the world.

This was a new and great thing that God did towards the work of redemption. It was about the middle of the space of time between the fall of man and the coming of Christ; about two thousand years before the great Redeemer was to appear. But by this calling of Abraham, the ancestor of Christ, a foundation was laid for upholding the church in the world till Christ should come. For the world having become idolatrous, there was a necessity in order to this, that the seed of the woman should be thus separated from it.

And then it was needful that there should be a particular nation separated from the rest of the world, to receive the types and prophecies that were to be given of Christ, to prepare the way for his coming; that to them might be committed the oraRedemption. 6

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