PERIOD I, PART III

FROM THE CALLING OF ABRAHAM TO MOSES

I PROCEED now to show how the work of redemption was carried on through the third period of the times of the Old Testament, beginning with the calling of Abraham, and extending to Moses. And here,

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 until Christ should come, as he did in calling Abraham out of his own country, and from his kindred, to go into a distant country that God should show him, and bringing 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 idolatry. God therefore saw it necessary, in order to uphold true religion in the world, that there should be a family separated from the rest of the world. It proved to be high time to take this course, lest the church of Christ should wholly be carried away with the apostasy. For the church of God itself, that had been upheld in the line of Abraham’s ancestors, was already considerably corrupted. Abraham’s own country and kindred had most of them fallen off. Wthout some extraordinary interposition of Providence, in all likelihood, in a generation or two more, the true religion in this line would have been extinct. And therefore God saw it to be time to call 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. So the true religion might be upheld there, while all mankind besides were swallowed up in heathenism.

The land of the Chaldees, that Abraham was called to go out of, was the country about Babel (Babel or Babylon) which was the chief city of the land of Chaldea. Learned men suppose, by what they gather from some of the most ancient accounts of things, that it was in this land that idolatry first began, that Babel and Chaldea were the original and chief seat of the worship of idols, whence it spread into other nations. And therefore the land of the Chaldeans, or the country of Babylon, is in Scripture called the land of graven images, as you may see, Jer. 50:35, together with verse 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 be 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 until now, but were wont to dwell with them, without any bar or fence to keep them separate, the mischievous consequences of which had been found once and again. The effect before the flood, 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 that God took then to fence the church was, to drown the wicked world, and save the church in the ark. And now the world, before Abraham was called, was become corrupt again. But now God took another method. He did not destroy the wicked world, and save Abraham and his wife, and Lot, in an ark, but he calls these persons to go and live separate from the rest of the world.

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

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 needful to be given of Christ, to prepare the way for his coming, that to them might he committed the oracles of God, and that by them the history of God’s great works of creation and providence might be upheld, and that so Christ might be born of this nation, and that from hence the light of the gospel might shine forth to the rest of the world. These ends could not be well obtained, if God’s people, through all these two thousand years, had lived intermixed with the heathen world. So that this calling of Abraham may be looked upon as a kind of a new foundation laid for the visible church of God, in a more distinct and regular state, to be upheld and built up on this foundation from henceforward, until Christ should actually come, and then through him to be propagated to all nations. So that Abraham being the person in whom this foundation is laid, is represented in Scripture as though he were the father of all the church, the father of all them that believe, as it were a root whence the visible church thenceforward through Christ, Abraham’s root and offspring, rose as a tree, distinct from all other plants, of which tree Christ was the branch of righteousness, and from which tree, after Christ came, the natural branches were broken off, and the Gentiles were grafted into the same tree. So that Abraham still remains the father of the church, or root of the tree, through Christ his seed. It is the same tree that flourishes from that small beginning, that was in Abraham’s time, and has in these days of the gospel spread its branches over a great part of the earth, and will fill the whole earth in due time, and at the end of the world shall be transplanted from an earthly soil into the paradise of God.

II. There accompanied this a more particular and full revelation and confirmation of the covenant of grace than ever had been before. There had before this been, as it were, two particular and solemn editions or confirmations of this covenant, one at the beginning of the first period, which was that whereby the covenant of grace was revealed to our first parents, soon after the fall, the other at the beginning of the second period, whereby God solemnly renewed the covenant of grace with Noah and his family soon after the flood. And now there is a third, at the beginning of the third period, at and after the calling of Abraham. And it now being much nearer the time of the coming of Christ than when the covenant of grace was first revealed, it being, as was said before, about halfway between the fall and the coming of Christ’ the revelation of the covenant now was much more full than any that had been before. The covenant was now more particularly revealed. It was now revealed, not only that Christ should be, but it was revealed to Abraham, that he should be his seed, and it was now promised, that all the families of the earth should be blessed in him. And God was much in the promises of this to Abraham. The first promise was when he first called him, Gen. 12:2, “And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing.” And again the same promise was renewed after he came into the land of Canaan, chap. 13:14 etc. And the covenant was again renewed after Abraham had returned from the slaughter of the kings, Gen. 15:5, 6. And again, after his offering up Isaac, chap. 22:16, 17, 18.

In this renewal of the covenant of grace with Abraham, several particulars concerning that covenant were revealed more fully than ever had been before, not only that Christ was to be of Abraham’s seed, but also, the calling of the Gentiles, and the bringing all nations into the church, that all the families of the earth were to be blessed, was now made known. And then the great condition of the covenant of grace, which is faith, was now more fully made known. Gen. 15:5, 6, “And he said unto him, So shall thy seed be. And Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.” Which is much taken notice of in the New Testament, as that whence Abraham was called the father of them that believe.

And as there was now a further revelation of the covenant of grace, so there was a further confirmation of it by seals and pledges, than ever had been before. Particularly, God did now institute a certain sacrament, to be a steady seal of this covenant in the visible church, until Christ should come, viz. circumcision. Circumcision was a seal of this covenant of grace, as appears by the first institution, as we have an account of it in Genesis 17. It there appears to be a seal of that covenant by which God promised to make Abraham a father of many nations, as appears by Gen. 17:5, compared with verse 9 and 10. And we are expressly taught, that it was a seal of the righteousness of faith, Rom. 4:11. Speaking of Abraham, the apostle says, “he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of faith.”

As I observed before, God called Abraham, that his family and posterity might be kept separate from the rest of the world, until Christ should come, which God saw to be necessary on the aforementioned accounts. And this sacrament was the principal wall of separation. It chiefly distinguished Abraham’s seed from the world, and kept up a distinction and separation more than any other particular observance whatsoever.

And besides this, there were other occasional seals, pledges, and confirmations, that Abraham had of this covenant. Particularly, God gave Abraham a remarkable pledge of the fulfillment of the promise he had made him, in his victory over Chedorlaomer and the kings that were with him. Chedorlaomer seems to have been a great emperor, that reigned over a great part of the world at that day. Though he had his seat at Elam, which was not much if anything short of a thousand miles distant from the land of Canaan, yet he extended his empire so as to reign over many parts of the land of Canaan, as appears by Gen. 14:4, 5, 6, 7. It is supposed by learned men, that he was a king of the Assyrian empire at that day, which had been before begun by Nimrod at Babel. And as it was the honor of kings in those days to build new cities to be made the seat of their empire, as appears by Gen. 10:10, 11, 12 so it is conjectured, that he had gone forth and built him a city in Elam, and made that his seat, and that those other kings, who came with him, were his deputies in the several cities and countries where they reigned. But yet as mighty an empire as he had, and as great an army as he now came with into the land where Abraham was, yet Abraham, only with his trained servants, that were born in his own house, conquered, subdued, and baffled this mighty emperor, and the kings that came with him, and all their army. This he received of God as a pledge of what he had promised, viz. the victory that Christ his seed should obtain over the nations of the earth, whereby he should possess the gates of his enemies. It is plainly spoken of as such in the 41st of Isaiah. In that chapter is foretold the future glorious victory the church shall obtain over the nations of the world, as you may see in Isa. 41:1, 10, 15, etc. But here this victory of Abraham over such a great emperor and his mighty forces, is spoken of as a pledge and earnest of this victory of the church, as you may see in Isa. 41:2, 3, “Who raised up the righteous man from the east, called him to his foot, gave the nations before him, and made him rule over kings: He gave them as the dust to his sword, and as driven stubble to his bow. He pursued them, and passed safely; even by the way that he had not gone with his feet.”

Another remarkable confirmation Abraham received of the covenant of grace, was when he returned from the slaughter of the kings, when Melchisedec the king of Salem, the priest of the most high God, that great type of Christ, met him, and blessed him, and brought forth bread and wine. The bread and wine signified the same blessings of the covenant of grace, that the bread and wine do in the sacrament of the Lord’s supper. So that as Abraham had a seal of the covenant in circumcision that was equivalent to baptism, so now we had a seal of it equivalent to the Lord’s supper. And Meichisedec’s coming to meet him with such a seal of the covenant of grace, on the occasion of this victory of his over the kings of the north, confirms, that that victory was a pledge of God’s fulfillment of the same covenant. For that is the mercy that Melchisedec with his bread and wine takes notice of, as you may see by what he says in Gen. 14:19, 20.

Another confirmation that God gave Abraham of the covenant of grace, was the vision that he had in the deep sleep that fell upon him, of the smoking furnace, and burning lamp, that passed between the parts of the sacrifice, as in the latter part of the 15th chapter of Genesis (Gen. 15). The sacrifice, as all sacrifices do, signified the sacrifice of Christ. The smoking furnace that passed through the midst of that sacrifice first, signified the sufferings of Christ. But the burning lamp that followed, which shone with a clear bright light, signifies the glory that followed Christ’s sufferings, and was procured by them.

Another remarkable pledge that God gave Abraham of the fulfillment of the covenant of grace, was his giving of the child of whom Christ was to come, in his old age. This is spoken of as such in Scripture, Heb. 11:11, 12, and also Rom. 4:18. etc.

Again, another remarkable pledge that God gave Abraham of the fulfillment of the covenant of grace, was his delivering Isaac, after he was laid upon the wood of the sacrifice to be slain. This was a confirmation of Abraham’s faith in the promise that God had made of Christ, that he should be of Isaac’s posterity, and was a representation of the resurrection of Christ, as you may see, Heb. 11:17, 18, 19. And because this was given as a confirmation of the covenant of grace, therefore God renewed that covenant with Abraham on this occasion, as you may see, Gen. 24:15, etc.

Thus you see how much more fully the covenant of grace was revealed and confirmed in Abraham’s time than ever it had been before, by means of which Abraham seems to have had a more clear understanding and sight of Christ the great Redeemer, and the future things that were to be accomplished by him, than any of the saints that had gone before. And therefore Christ takes notice of it, that Abraham rejoiced to see his day, and he saw it, and was glad, John 8:56. So great an advance did it please God now to make in this building, which he had been carrying on from the beginning of the world.

III. The next thing that I would take notice of here, is God’s preserving the patriarchs for so long a time in the midst of the wicked inhabitants of Canaan, and from all other enemies. The patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, were those of whom Christ was to proceed. They were now separated from the world, that in them his church might be upheld. Therefore, in preserving them, the great design of redemption was upheld and carried on. He preserved them, and kept the inhabitants of the land where they sojourned from destroying them, which was a remarkable dispensation of Providence. For the inhabitants of the land were at that day exceedingly wicked, though they grew more wicked afterwards. This appears by Gen. 15:16, “In the fourth generation they shall come hither again; for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full,” as much as to say, though it be very great, yet it is not yet full. And their great wickedness also appears by Abraham and Isaac’s aversion to their children marrying any of the daughters of the land. Abraham, when he was old, could not be content until he had made his servant swear that he would not take a wife for his son of the daughters of the land. And Isaac and Rebecca were content to send away Jacob to so great a distance as Padanaram, to take him a wife thence. And when Esau married some of the daughters of the land, we are told, that they were a grief of mind to Isaac and Rebecca.

Another argument of their great wickedness, was the instances we have in Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zebojin, which were some of the cities of Canaan, though they were probably notoriously wicked.

And they being thus wicked, were likely to have the most bitter enmity against these holy men, agreeable to what was declared at first, “I will put enmity between thee and the woman. and between thy seed and her seed.” Their holy lives were a continual condemnation of their wickedness. And besides, it could not be otherwise, but that they must be much in reproving their wickedness, as we find Lot was in Sodom, who, we are told, vexed his righteous soul with their unlawful deeds, and was a preacher of righteousness to them.

And they were the more exposed to them, being strangers and sojourners in the land, and having no inheritance there as yet. Men are more apt to find fault with strangers, and to be irritated by anything in them that offends them, as they were with Lot in Sodom. He very gently reproved their wickedness, and they say upon it, “This fellow came in to sojourn, and he will needs be a ruler and a judge,” and threatened what they would do to him.

But God wonderfully preserved Abraham and Lot, and Isaac and Jacob, and their families, amongst them, though they were few in number, and they might quickly have destroyed them, which is taken notice of as a wonderful instance of God’s preserving mercy toward his Church, Psa. 105:12, etc. “When they were but a few men in number; yea, very few, and strangers in it; when they went from one nation to another, from one kingdom to another people; he suffered no man to do them wrong; yea, he reproved kings for their sakes, saying, Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm.”

This preservation was in some instances especially very remarkable, those instances that we have an account of, wherein the people of the land were greatly irritated and provoked, as they were by Simeon and Levi’s treatment of the Shechemites, as you may see in Gen. 34:30, etc. God then strangely preserved Jacob and his family, restraining the provoked people by an unusual terror on their minds, as you many see in Gen. 35:5, “And the terror of God was upon the cities that were round about them, and they did not pursue after the sons of Jacob.”

And God’s preserving them, not only from the Canaanites, is here to be taken notice of, but his preserving them from all others that intended mischief to them, as his preserving Jacob and his company, when pursued by Laban, full of rage, and a disposition to overtake him as an enemy. God met him, and rebuked him, and said to him, “Take heed that thou speak not to Jacob either good or bad.” How wonderfully did he also preserve him from Esau his brother, when he came forth with an army, with a full design to cut him off! How did God, in answer to his prayer, when he wrestled with Christ at Penuel, wonderfully turn Esau’s heart, and make him, instead of meeting him as an enemy with slaughter and destruction, to meet him as a friend and brother, doing him no harm!

And thus were this handful, this little root that had the blessing of the Redeemer in it, preserved in the midst of enemies and dangers, which was not unlike to the preserving the ark in the midst of the tempestuous deluge.

IV. The next thing I would mention is, the awful destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, and the neighboring cities. This tended to promote the great design and work that is the subject of my present undertaking, two ways. it did so, as it tended powerfully to restrain the inhabitants of the land from injuring those holy strangers that God hand brought to sojourn amongst them. Lot was one of those strangers, he came into the land with Abraham, and Sodom was destroyed for their abusive disregard of Lot, the preacher of righteousness, that God had sent among them. And their destruction came just upon their committing a most injurious and abominable insult on Lot, and the strangers that were come into his house, even those angels, whom they probably took to be some of Lot’s former acquaintance come from the country that he came from, to visit him. They in a most outrageous manner beset Lot’s house, intending a monstrous abuse and act of violence on those strangers that were come thither, and threatening to serve Lot worse than them.

But in the midst of this, God smote them with blindness, and the next morning the city and the country about it was overthrown in a most terrible storm of fire and brimstone, which dreadful destruction, as it was in the sight of the rest of the inhabitants of the land, and therefore greatly tended to restrain them from hurting those holy strangers any more, doubtless struck a dread and terror on their minds, and made them afraid to hurt them, and probably was one principal means to restrain them, and preserve the patriarchs. And when that reason is given why the inhabitants of the land did not pursue after Jacob, when they were so provoked by the destruction of the Shechemites, viz. “that the terror of the Lord was upon them,” it is very probable, that this was the terror that was set home upon them. They remembered the amazing destruction of Sodom, and the cities of the plain, that came upon them upon their abusive treatment of Lot, and so dared not hurt Jacob and his family, though they were so much provoked to it.

Another way that this awful destruction tended to promote this great affair of redemption, was, that hereby God did remarkably exhibit the terrors of his law, to make men sensible of their need of redeeming mercy. The work of redemption never was carried on without this. The law, from the beginning, is made use of as a schoolmaster to bring men to Christ.

But under the Old Testament there was much more need of some extraordinary, visible, and sensible manifestation of God’s wrath against sin, than in the days of the gospel, since a future state, and the eternal misery of hell, are more clearly revealed, and since the awful justice of God against the sins of men has been so wonderfully displayed in the sufferings of Christ. And therefore the revelation that God gave of himself in those days, used to be accompanied with much more terror than it is in these days of the gospel. So when God appeared at Mount Sinai to give the law, it was with thunders and lightning, and a thick cloud, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud. But some external awful manifestations of God’s wrath against sin were on some accounts especially necessary before the giving of the law. And therefore, before the flood, the terrors of the law handed down by tradition from Adam served. Adam lived nine hundred and thirty years himself, to tell the church of God’s awful threatenings, announced in the covenant made with him, and how dreadful the consequences of the fall were, as he was an eye witness and subject, and others, that conversed with Adam, lived until the flood. And the destruction of the world by the flood served to exhibit the terrors of the law, and manifest the wrath of God against sin, and so to make men sensible of the absolute necessity of redeeming mercy. And some that saw the flood were alive in Abraham’s time.

But this was now in a great measure forgotten. Now therefore God was pleased again, in a most amazing manner, to show his wrath against sin, in the destruction of these cities, which was after such a manner as to be the liveliest image of hell of anything that ever had been. Therefore the apostle Jude says, “They suffer the vengeance of eternal fire,” Jude 7. God rained storms of fire and brimstone upon them. The way that they were destroyed probably was by thick flashes of lightning. The streams of brimstone were so thick as to burn up all these cities, so that they perished in the flames of divine wrath. By this might be seen the dreadful wrath of God against the ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, which tended to show men the necessity of redemption, and so to promote that great work

V. God again renewed and confirmed the covenant of grace to Isaac and to Jacob. He did so to Isaac, as you may see, Gen. 26:3, 4, “And I will perform the oath which I sware unto Abraham thy father; and I will make thy seed to multiply as the stars in heaven, and will give unto thy seed all these countries; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.” And afterwards it was renewed and confirmed to Jacob, first in Isaac’s blessing of him, wherein he acted and spoke by extraordinary divine direction. In that blessing, the blessings of the covenant of grace were established with Jacob and his seed, as Gen. 27:29, “Let people serve thee, and nations bow down to thee; be lord over thy brethren, and let thy mother’s sons bow down to thee: cursed be every one that curseth thee, and blessed be he that blesseth thee.” And therefore Esau, in missing of this blessing, missed of being blessed as an heir of the benefits of the covenant of grace.

This covenant was again renewed and confirmed to Jacob at Bethel, in his vision of the ladder that reached to heaven, which ladder was a symbol of the way of salvation by Christ. For the stone that Jacob rested on was a type of Christ, the stone of Israel, which the spiritual Israel or Jacob rests upon. As is evident, because this stone was on this occasion anointed, and was made use of as an altar. But we know that Christ is the anointed of God, and is the only true altar of God. While Jacob was resting on this stone, and saw this ladder, God appears to him as his covenant God, and renews the covenant of grace with him, as in Gen. 28:14, “And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth; and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south; and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed.”

And Jacob had another remarkable confirmation of this covenant at Penuel, where he wrestled with God, and prevailed, where Christ appeared to him in a human form, in the form of that nature which he was afterwards to receive into a personal union with his divine nature.

And God renewed his covenant with him again, after he was come out of Padanaram, and was come up to Bethel, to the stone that he had rested on, and where he had the vision of the ladder, as you may see in Gen. 35:10. etc.

Thus the covenant of grace was now often renewed, much oftener than it had been before. The light of the gospel now began to shine much brighter, as the time drew nearer that Christ should come.

VI. The next thing I would observe, is God’s remarkably preserving the family of which Christ was to proceed from perishing by famine, by the instrumentality of Joseph. When there was a seven years’ famine approaching, God was pleased, by a wonderful providence, to send Joseph into Egypt, there to provide for, and feed Jacob and his family, and to keep the holy seed alive, which otherwise would have perished. Joseph was sent into Egypt for that end, as he observes, Gen. 50:20, “But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to save much people alive.” How often had this holy root, that had the future branch of righteousness, the glorious Redeemer, in it, been in danger of being destroyed! But God wonderfully preserved it.

This salvation of the house of Israel by the hand of Joseph, was upon some accounts very much a resemblance of the salvation of Christ. The children of Israel were saved by Joseph their kinsman and brother, from perishing by famine, as he that saves the souls of the spiritual Israel from spiritual famine is their near kinsman, and one that is not ashamed to call them brethren. Joseph was a brother, that they had hated, and sold, and as it were killed, for they had designed to kill him. So Christ is one that we naturally hate, and, by our wicked lives, have sold for the vain things of the world, and that by our sins we have slain. Joseph was first in a state of humiliation, he was a servant, as Christ appeared in the form of a servant. He then was cast into a dungeon, as Christ descended into the grave. Then when he rose out of the dungeon, he was in a state of great exaltation, at the king’s right hand as his deputy, to reign over all his kingdom, to provide food, to preserve life. Being in this state of exaltation, he dispenses food to his brethren, and so gives them life. So Christ was exalted at God’s right hand to be a prince and savior to his brethren, and received gifts for men, even for the rebellious, and them that hated, and had sold him.

VII. After this there was a prophecy given forth of Christ, on some accounts, more particular than ever any had been before, even that which was in Jacob’s blessing his son Judah. This was more particular than ever any had been before, as it showed of whose posterity he was to he. When God called Abraham, it was revealed that he was to be of Abraham’s posterity. Before, we have no account of any revelation concerning Christ’s pedigree, confined to narrower limits than the posterity of Noah. After this it was confined to still narrower limits. For though Abraham had many sons, yet it was revealed, that Christ was to be of Isaac’s posterity. And then it was limited more still. For when Isaac had two sons, it was revealed that Christ was to be of Israel’s posterity. And now, though Israel had twelve sons, yet it is revealed that Christ should be of Judah’s posterity. Christ is the lion of the tribe of Judah. Respect is chiefly had to his great acts, when it is said here, Gen. 49:8, “Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise; thy hand shall be in the neck of thine enemies: thy father’s children shall bow down before thee. Judah is a lion’s whelp; from the prey, my son, thou art gone up: he stooped down, he couched as a lion, and as an old lion. Who shall rouse him up?” And then this prediction is more particular concerning the time of Christ’s coming, than any had been before, as in Gen. 49:10, “The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be.” The prophecy here, of the calling of the Gentiles consequent on Christ’s coming, seems to be more plain than any had been before, in the expression, to him shall the gathering of the people be.

Thus you see how that gospel light which dawned immediately after the fall of man, gradually increases.

VIII. The work of redemption was carried on in this period, in God’s wonderfully preserving the children of Israel in Egypt, when the power of Egypt was engaged utterly to destroy them. They seemed to be wholly in the hands of the Egyptians. They were their servants, and were subject to the power of Pharaoh. And Pharaoh set himself to weaken them with hard bondage. And when he saw that did not do, he set himself to extirpate the race of them, by commanding that every male child should be drowned. But after all that Pharaoh could do, God wonderfully preserved them. And not only so, but increased them exceedingly, so that, instead of being extirpated, they greatly multiplied.

IX. Here is to be observed, not only the preservation of the nation, but God’s wonderfully preserving and upholding his invisible church in that nation, when in danger of being overwhelmed in the idolatry of Egypt. The children of Israel being long among the Egyptians, and being servants under them, and so not under advantages to keep God’s ordinances among themselves, and maintain any public worship or public instruction, whereby the true religion might be upheld, and there being now no written Word of God, they, by degrees, in a great measure lost the true religion, and borrowed the idolatry of Egypt, and the greater part of the people fell away to the worship of their gods. This we learn by Eze. 20:6, 7, 8. and by chap. 23:8

This now was the third time that God’s church was almost swallowed up and carried away with the wickedness of the world, once before the flood, the other time, before the calling of Abraham, and now, the third time, in Egypt. But yet God did not suffer his church to be quite overwhelmed. He still saved it, like the ark in the flood, and as he saved Moses in the midst of the waters, in an ark of bulrushes, where he was in the utmost danger of being swallowed up. The true religion was still kept up with some. And God had still a people among them, even in this miserable, corrupt, and dark time. The parents of Moses were true servants of God, as we may learn by Heb. 11:23, “By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three months of his parents, because they saw that he was a proper child; and they were not afraid of the king’s commandment.”

I have now gone through the third period of the Old Testament time, and have shown how the work of redemption was carried on from the calling of Abraham to Moses, in which we have seen many great things done towards this work, and a great advancement of this building, beyond what had been before.