they should cast away every man the abominations of his eyes, and not defile themselves with the idols of Egypt any more; for that he himself was the Lord their God. But although the thunder of divine wrath so dreadfully roared throughout all the land of Egypt among the Egyptians, and God was now, in a miraculous manner, working their deliverance, yet, even now, they rebelled against the Lord, and would not hearken unto him. “They did not every man cast away the abominations of their eyes, neither did they forsake the idols of Egypt." Wherefore God said, "I will pour out my fury upon them, to accomplish mine anger upon them, in the midst of the land of Egypt." But then God considered what the Egyptians would say to such a dispensation of providence, and how it would be misinterpreted through all nations and ages. Wherefore he wrought for his great name's sake, that it might not be polluted before the heathen, among whom they were, and in whose sight God intended to make himself known to the Israelites by bringing them out of the land of Egypt. (Ezek. xx. 5—9.) And therefore, instead of the destruction they deserved from his hands, for their stupid attachment to Egyptian abominations, God let loose Pharaoh to increase their burdens, to make their bondage absolutely intolerable, that he might force them from their idols, and drive them out of Egypt. And to bring them still more to their senses, God let Pharaoh loose to pursue them with chariots, and horsemen, and a great army; and contrived that he should overtake them, shut in among the mountains, unable to make their escape; that he might have opportunity to let Israel see his mighty power, in dividing the sea, and make them feel their dependence upon and obligations to him; and that, having led them through the sea, he might have them in a barren wilderness, where there was neither bread, nor flesh, nor water, as the fittest scene for those transactions, and

If, when God met with such infinite provocations at the hands of the Hebrews, he could yet find in his heart to prosecute his design, and accomplish his promise to Abraham, that to his seed he would give the land of Canaan, we cannot have the least reason to doubt but that, notwithstanding all the present wickedness of his professing people in the world, whereby he is infinitely provoked to resign all Christendom to destruction, he will yet prosecute his designs and accomplish all his promises, give to his Son the heathen for his inheritance, and the utmost parts of the earth for his possession; and bring every people, nation, language, and tongue, to serve him; and Satan shall be bound, and Christ shall reign on earth for a thousand years." obstacles, no discouragements, no provocations, no difficulties, of whatever kind, or however great, can hinder God from the accomplishment of the glorious designs of his grace. He redeemed Israel out of Egypt, although he saw what they were then and what they would be in all future times. Yea, he has given his Son, and that to the death of the cross, in order to carry on his designs. And what will not God Almighty then do? Almightiness, so infinitely engaged, cannot and will not be frustrated.

grand events, belonging to the infinitely wise plan which God had laid out.

Israel had been in Egypt two hundred and fifteen years; and the latter part of the time, for above a hundred years, in a state of bondage and slavery. They had almost forgotten the true God, and the true religion; were habituated to the idolatry and manners of Egypt; well pleased with the country; and, but for their oppressions, would never have entertained any thoughts of leaving it. Yea, notwithstanding their severe bondage, were hardly prevailed upon to hearken to Moses, to whom they said, "Let us alone, that we may serve the Egyptians," as they afterwards upbraided him in their distress at the Red Sea. (Ex. xiv. 12.) And they were of so mean and dastardly a spirit, as to be unfit to march against their enemies. God, who knew their temper, judged that if he had led them from Egypt straight to Canaan, which was not a hundred miles distant, the approach of their enemies, prepared for war, would have frightened them back again to Egypt. (Ex. xiii. 17.) Yea, such was their attachment to Egypt, their coldness to Canaan, their cowardice, and their stupid infidelity, even after a year's discipline in the wilderness, and notwithstanding their solemn profession and promises to God at Mount Sinai, that, upon the ill tidings of the spies, they were for stoning Caleb and Joshua, and making to themselves a captain, and returning to their beloved Egypt.

Now, such were the people God had to manage, so every way distempered, that they needed all their old notions, tastes, and tempers, to be eradicated; and to have their minds wholly framed anew, in order to be fit inhabitants for the holy land.

They must be thoroughly weaned from Egypt; from their idolatry and their manners; and be brought to know the true God, and to be sensible of his infinite abhorrence of their tempers and ways, and have their hearts effectually broken under a sense of their vileness, that they might loathe themselves, and

From the covenant with Abraham to the giving of the law was (as St. Paul asserts, Gal. iii. 17) four hundred and thirty years. And this will give light to Gen. xv. 13, and to Exod. xii. 40, 41. For the law was given soon after they came out of Egypt.

Joseph was seventeen years old when he was sold, and it is supposed he was soon imprisoned, perhaps the very same year, and so that he lay in prison about thirteen years; for he was thirty at his advancement. After which, in about nine years, Jacob and all his family came down into Egypt. After which Joseph lived seventy-one years. And so, in all, was in the greatest honor eighty years, to counterbalance thirteen years of sorrow. Israel came out of Egypt one hundred and forty-four years after Joseph's death; the greatest part of which time they were under oppression. Moses was born sixty-four years after Joseph's death; spent forty in Pharaoh's court, and forty in the land of Midian.

turn to the Lord, and love him, and be prepared to understand and fall in with the religion he gave them from Mount Sinai, that they might be a holy people to the Lord, a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation; that they might be to his praise and glory, in the midst of an idolatrous, benighted world; and that they might receive the promised land, not as a reward of their righteousness; for they were a stiff-necked people; but as a mere free gift from the God of Abraham, their father; and feel themselves, by the means, laid under the strongest obligations to love him, and fear him, and walk in all his ways, and keep all his commands: and at the same time, be so inured to hardship, and so thoroughly confirmed in the belief of the being and perfections of God, as that, in an entire dependence on the Lord, they might march into the promised land, and behave like valiant soldiers, and execute God's vengeance on those idolatrous nations whom he had doomed to destruction, break down their altars, cut down their groves, burn their gods, and extirpate both them and their religion from off the face of the earth.

And what method, better suited to answer these noble ends, could possibly have been devised, than that which the Lord their God took for the space of forty years in the wilderness? wherein he humbled them, and proved them, and tried them, that it might appear what was in their hearts; and he left them to hunger and to thirst, and to murmur and rebel, and to commit idolatry, that their hearts might be turned inside out before their eyes; and, by a long course of discipline, he trained them up to a sense of his being, and perfections, and government, and to feel their dependence on him, and obligations to him, and by experience learn the dreadful nature of sin. He fed them with angels' food, and gave them water out of the flinty rock; he led them by day in a cloud, and in the night by a pillar of fire; but when they rebelled, the earth opened its mouth, and swallowed up hundreds, and the plague swept away thousands at a stroke; yea, at last, the whole congregation of six hundred thousand were doomed to fall in the wilderness.

Nothing impresses the heart of a human creature like facts. Nor could any series of facts have been better contrived than these to reach their hearts, and make them feel what they were in the sight of infinite holiness, and to bring them to fear the glorious and fearful name of the Lord their God.

At the side of the Red Sea they were, to appearance, full of love to God, and there they sang his praise; and had things gone to their minds, they might never have suspected the secret hypocrisy of their hearts. But, as God had contrived the

plan, in three days their religious affections were gone, and their corrupt hearts, like the troubled sea, cast up mire and dirt. God knew what they were before, and it was wise in him to take this method to bring them to know it too.

At Mount Sinai they were again deeply affected, when the law was given in a manner so solemn and divine; and there they promised, that whatsoever the Lord their God should command them, that would they do. But in less than forty days they made them a calf after the manner of Egypt, and ate and drank, and rose up to play, after the Egyptian mode. God knew before that all this was in their hearts; and now he wisely permitted it to break out, that they might know it too, and that he might have a good opportunity to let them see how exceedingly he hated their ways. He had tried words, but these would not do. He had used the plainest and strongest expressions in the first and second commandments, but they were not effectual. Now, he proceeds to facts. Three thousand are slain by the sword at his command, to let the whole congregation know how detestable their conduct was in his eyes. (Ex. xxxii. 28.

And so, again, while the tabernacle was building, and at the time of its dedication, they appeared very forward in religion, as though they loved God, and loved his worship, and were determined for the future to be an obedient people. And this lasted for about a year. And doubtless they thought themselves sincere, and always might have thought so, had no new trials come on. But no sooner did the spies return from view`ing the land of Canaan, and bring ill tidings, but their old Egyptian temper all revived. Now Joshua and Caleb must be stoned for pleading the Lord's cause, and a new captain chosen to conduct them back to Egypt, which they left with reluctance about a year ago; willing, it seems, forever to part with their God, their tabernacle, and their religion; and turn back to the idols, and manners, and leeks, and onions of Egypt; and make their peace with the Egyptians as they could. And had not the Almighty suddenly interposed, no doubt dreadful deeds would soon have been done. God knew all this was in their hearts before; and now he wisely permitted it to break out, that they might know it too, and that, by his future conduct toward that people, he might let them know that he was the Lord, and fill the whole earth with his glory. (Num. xiv.)

And while that generation was doomed to wander forty years in the wilderness, and their carcasses there to fall, as the just punishment of their crimes, their posterity, by the means, had their Egyptian notions and tempers eradicated, and were trained

up in the knowledge of God, and of the true religion; and prepared to enter, conquer, and possess, the holy land. Nor could they ever, to their dying day, forget the works of the Lord their God, which they had seen in Egypt, at the Red Sea, in the wilderness, etc. Nor could they have had stronger inducements to tell these things to their sons, and sons' sons. Nor could a better method have been taken to lay a lasting foundation for a firm belief and steady practice of the true religion.

It was most for the honor of God, and most for the interest of religion, and so really for the best good of the Israelites, that they should be thus tried; left to act out their hearts, and then punished, subdued, humbled, and brought into subjection to the divine authority, before they entered into possession of the promised land, although it cost them six hundred thousand lives, and many a dreadful day. For to what purpose had it been for God to have brought them straight from Egypt, with all their Egyptian notions and tempers, into the holy land, there to have polluted it, and to have dishonored him with their abominations ? *

Besides, from the murmurings and rebellions of the Israelites in the wilderness, there was the fullest demonstration of the divinity of the Jewish religion. For, had not Moses been sent of God, and supported, too, by the interposition of almighty power, it had been impossible he should have accomplished the design. They would surely have deserted him, and returned to Egypt again. Nor could the children of Israel, how degenerate soever they were, and how apt soever to fall into idolatry in after ages, ever once scruple whether Moses were indeed sent of God, after such a scene of wonders for forty years together. Nor does it appear that the divine legation of Moses was ever called in question by that people.

And whenever they read over the law of Moses, together with the history interspersed in those sacred books, they might not only learn the nature of God and man, and see God's right to command; their obligations to obey; and the great evil of sin, from the law of Moses, as being therein held forth; but

If it was wise in God so to order that the Israelites should be oppressed above a hundred years before their deliverance, and then pass through such great trials forty years more, before their entrance into the holy land, how know we but it may be wise that the Christian church in general, and we in New England in particular, should pass through very dark and trying times, for a long season, before God begins to work deliverance in that remarkable manner which may be expected at the ushering in of the glorious day. To be sure, there seems to be a foundation laid for great distresses, and of long continuance, for our sinful land. Better so than to be left to sleep on, secure in sin. Nothing so dreadful as to be given up to carnal security, and suffered to go on in wickedness and prosper.