be surely put to death And if a man lie not in wait but God deliver him into his hands then I will appoint thee a place whither he shall flee Where God's delivering him into his hands is opposed to him that smiteth a man so that he die and to him that comes presumptuously upon his neighbour to slay him 15. verse and therefore signifies one who kills his Neighbour by meer Accident As it is explained in 19. Deut. 4 5. And this is the case of the slayer that shall flee thither i. e. to the City of Refuge Whoso killeth his neighbour ignorantly whom he hated not in time past As when a man goeth into the wood with his neighbour to hew wood and his hand fetcheth a stroke with the axe to cut down the tree and the head slippeth from the helve and lighteth upon his neighbour that he die he shall flee unto one of these cities and live What can be more accidental than this And yet we are assured that this is appointed by the Divine Providence that God delivers the man who is killed into the hands of him that killed him Is any thing more casual than a Lot and yet Solomon tells us The lot is cast into the lap but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord 16. Prov. 33. Which is not confined to the Case of Lots but to signify to us That nothing is so casual and uncertain as to be exempted from the disposal of Providence For what seems accidental to us is not Chance but Providence is ordered and appointed by God to bring to pass what his own Wisdom and Counsel has decreed As is very evident from some remarkable Instances of Providence which are recorded in Scripture By how many seeming Accidents and casual Events was Ioseph advanced to Pharoah's Throne His Dreams whereby God foretold his Advancement made his Brethren envious at him and watch some convenient opportunity to get rid of him and so confute his Dreams Iacob sends Ioseph to visit his Brethren in the Fields where they were keeping their Sheep this gave them an opportunity to execute their Revenge and at first they intended to murther him but the Ishmaelites accidentally passing by they sold Ioseph to them and they carried him into Egypt and sold him to Potiphar Potiphar's Wife tempts him to Uncleanness and being denied by Ioseph she accuses him to his Lord who cast him into the King's Prison Whilst he was there the King's Butler and Baker were cast into the same Prison and dreamed their several Dreams which Ioseph expounded to them and the Event verified his Interpretation The Butler who was restored to his Office forgat Ioseph till two years after Pharaoh dreamed a Dream which none of the Wise-men could interpret and then Ioseph was sent for and advanced to the highest place of Dignity and Power next to Pharaoh The years of Famine brought Ioseph's Brethren into Egypt to buy Corn where they bowed before him according to his Dream this occasioned the removal of Iacob and his whole Family into Egypt where Ioseph placed them in the Land of Goshen by which means God fulfilled what he had told Abraham Know of a surety That thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs and shall serve them and they shall afflict them four hundred years 15. Genes 13 How casual does all this appear to us but no man will think that Prophesies are fulfilled by Chance and therefore we must confess that what seems Chance to us was appointed by God Thus God intended to deliver Israel out of Egypt by the hands of Moses Moses was born at a time when the King of Egypt had commanded That every Son that was born to the Israelites should be cast into the River His Mother hid him three months and being not able to conceal him any longer exposed him in an Ark of Bulrushes among the Flags by the River-side Pharaoh's Daughter came down to wash her self in the River and finds the Ark with the Child in it puts him to his own Mother to nurse whereby he came to know his own Kindred and Relations and to be instructed in the Knowledge and Worship of the God of Israel Afterwards Pharaoh's Daughter takes him home and breeds him up as her own Son whereby he was instructed in all the Learning of Egypt and in all the Policies of Pharaoh's Court which qualified him for government When he was forty years old he had lived long enough in Pharaoh's Court and God thought fit to remove him into better Company and to accustom him to a more severe life and this was done by as strange an Accident He slew an Egyptian in defence of an oppressed Iew and was betrayed by his own Brethren and forced to flie from Pharaoh to save his own Life till the time was come for the Deliverance of Israel and then God sent him back into Egypt to bring his people out from thence with Signs and Wonders and a Mighty Hand Thus God had foretold Ahab by the Prophet Micaiah that if he went up against Ramoth-Gilead he should perish there and this was accomplished by a very great Chance For a certain man drew a bow at a venture and smote the king between the joynts of the harness of which he died 1 Kings 22. 34. The Blood which came from his Wound ran into the Chariot and one washed the chariot in the pool of Samaria and the dogs licked up his blood which was a very Casual thing and little thought of by him who did it and yet fulfilled God's threatning against Ahab In the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth shall dogs lick thy blood even thine 21. ch 29. v. I shall add but one example more of this nature and it is a very remarkable one God's deliverance of the Iews in the days of Esther from the wicked Conspiracy of Haman This Haman being advanced to great Power and Authority by King Ahasuerus took great offence at Mordecai the Iew who refused to reverence him as others did and for his sake obtained a Decree from the King to destroy all the Iews in the Provinces of his Dominions Mordecai sends to Queen Esther to go to the King and to petition him about this matter This was a very hazardous Attempt it being Death by the Law for any Person Man or Woman to go to the King without being called unless the King held out his Golden Scepter to them But the Queen at last after three days fasting ventured her own Life to save her People and obtained Favour in the King's sight who held out the Golden Scepter to her All that she requested at that time was That the King and Haman would come to the Banquet which she had prepared and being then asked What her Petition was with an assurance that it should be granted she begged That the King and Haman would come the next day also to her Banquet and then she would declare it Haman was much
That the Worship of the One Supreme God should be preserved entire among them or that if they did decline to Idolatry they should be visibly punished for it 4. That the Fame of this People and of their God should by degrees be known over all the earth Now not to take notice of the Mystical Reasons of God's Providences towards Israel which is a very large and nice Argument and not so proper to my present Design if most of the Remarkable Providences wherewith they were exercised did manifestly serve some one or more of these ends we have a visible Reason of them not only sufficient to justify Providence but to give us a ravishing Prospect of the Divine Wisdom I shall begin with the Removal of Iacob and his Family into Egypt the Occasion of which is well known but the Reason of it is not so well considered For it may seem strange that when God had promised Abraham to bestow the Land of Canaan on his Posterity for an Inheritance he should remove them out of the Land of Canaan into Egypt there to continue many years under grievous Oppression before he thought fit to deliver them and to give them Possession of the Promised Land But to understand the wise Design of this we must remember That God was to give a visible Demonstration to the world that he had chosen Israel for his peculiar People and given them the Land of Canaan for their Inheritance and it was not so agreeable to this Design that they should increase insensibly in Canaan and by degrees dispossess the old Inhabitants for there had been nothing singular and remarkable in this and therefore they were to be a great Nation before God so publickly and visibly owned them for his People and visibly bestowed an Inheritance on them and it was necessary they should have some place to encrease and multiply in till God thought fit to transplant them into the Promised Land For this purpose God chose the Land of Egypt and sent Ioseph before-hand thither and advanced him to Pharaoh's Throne to prepare a Reception for them And a very quiet and easy Retreat they found there for many years till Ioseph was dead and all the good offices he had done both for King and People forgot and the prodigious encrease of Israel made the Kings of Egypt jealous of their Numbers and Power and then they began to oppress that People with hard labour and cruel bondage till the time appointed for their Deliverance was come This Oppression of Israel may seem a very severe Providence but there were some very Wise Ends it served 1. To make the People willing to leave Egypt where they suffered such hard Bondage for whoever observes how ready they were upon all occasions to talk of returning into Egypt how they longed after the Onions and Garlick and Flesh-pots of Egypt notwithstanding all the hardships they suffered there will be apt to think that had they enjoyed Ease and Prosperity all the Miracles which Moses wrought would no more have persuaded Israel to have left Egypt than they could persuade Pharaoh to let them go 2dly The Advantage Pharaoh made of the Service of Israel made him obstinately resolve not to part with them and his cruel Oppression made it very just for God to punish him and all Egypt with him and this occasioned all those Signs and Wonders which God wrought in Egypt by the hands of Moses whereby he visibly owned Israel for his People and made his own Power and Glory known 3dly The great proneness of Israel to Idolatry even when God had delivered them out of Egypt is too plain a proof that they had learnt the Egyptian Idolatries while they lived there the Golden Calf being as some Learned Men not without reason conclude an imitation of the Egyptian Apis And this made it very just for God to punish their Egyptian Idolatry with an Egyptian Bondage especially considering that this was the most likely way to give check to their Idolatry and to make them hate the Egyptian Gods like their Egyptian Task-masters and to remember the God of their Fathers and his Promise and Covenant to bestow the Land of Canaan on them 4thly The Oppression of Israel in Egypt was an effectual means to keep them a distinct and separate People This was absolutely necessary when God had chosen them for his peculiar People that they should be preserved from incorporating with any other People and this God took early care of by placing them by themselves in the Land of Goshen where they grew up into a distinct Body from Egypt which made Pharaoh so jealous of them when they began to multiply and that made him oppress them and that oppression preserved the distinction which a kind and friendly usage might in time have destroyed for it is rarely seen that two People can live amicably together in the same Countrey and under the same Prince without mingling and incorporating with each other till they forget all distinction between Nations and Families These are wise Reasons why God suffered the hard Bondage of Israel in Egypt and those mighty Signs and Wonders which God wrought in Egypt were the most effectual means both to convince the Israelites of God's peculiar care of them and to convince the world that Israel was God's peculiar People and that the God of Israel was the Supream Lord and Governor of the World This account God himself gives of it 6. Exod. 6 7 8. Wherefore say unto the children of Israel I am the Lord and I will bring you out from under the burthens of the Egyptians And I will take you to me for a people and I will be to you a God And ye shall know that I am the Lord your God which bringeth you out from under the burthens of the Egyptians And as for the Egyptians God tells Moses I will harden Pharaoh's heart and multiply my signs and my wonders in the Land of Egypt But Pharaoh shall not hearken unto you that I may lay my hand upon Egypt and bring forth mine armies and my people the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt by great judgments And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord when I stretch forth my hand upon Egypt and bring out the children of Israel from among them 7. Exod. 3 4 5. This is the first time we read of such Signs and Wonders as these and probably they are the first Miracles of this nature that ever were wrought and it becomes us to contemplate the Wisdom of Providence in it for the wisdom of Miracles and the surprize and wonder of them are two very different things Miracles offer violence to the order of Nature and would be no commendation of the Wisdom of Providence should we consider them as Causes not as Signs It would be a reproach to the Wisdom of Providence to say that God wrought all those Miracles in Egypt because he could not have punished the Egyptians nor
never become a Holy God to infuse hardness into mens hearts yet when men have hardened themselves and will abuse all the Wise methods of Providence to harden themselves and are now ripe for destruction it very much becomes a Just and Righteous God to exercise them with such Providences as he knows will still harden them till they make themselves such infamous examples of Wickedness as may deserve a more glorious and exemplary Vengeance Which is another thing to be considered in the case of Pharaoh and very necessary to the full understanding this difficult case of God's hardening mens hearts God had peremptorily decreed not only to deliver Israel but to punish Egypt both King and People for the cruel oppression of Israel And therefore he might without any more solemnity have destroyed Pharaoh his People and Land and have carried Israel out of Egypt with a mighty hand But when they had deserved to be Punished and Destroyed and God had resolved to Punish them the manner of their Punishment was at the free disposal of the Divine Wisdom and therefore he chose to Punish them in such a way as might make the Glory and Power of the God of Israel known to the World And this is the very account which God himself gives why he took such a course with Pharaoh as he foresaw would harden and confirm him in his resolutions of not parting with Israel when he could have forced him at the expence of fewer Miracles to have sent them away if he had so pleased I will harden Pharaoh's heart and multiply my signs and wonders in the land of Egypt But Pharaoh shall not hearken unto you that I may lay my hand upon Egypt and bring forth mine armies and my people the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt by great judgments And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord when I stretch forth my hand upon Egypt and bring out the children of Israel from among them 7. Exod. 3 4 5. The same thing he tells Pharaoh I will at this time send all my plagues upon thy heart and upon thy servants and upon thy people that thou mayest know that there is none like me in all the earth For now I will stretch out my hand that I may smite thee and thy people with pestilence and thou shalt be cut off from the earth And in very deed for this cause have I raised thee up have all this time preserved thee and not cut thee off for to shew in thee my power and that my name may be declared throughout all the earth 9. Exod. 14 15 16. And this reason God gives why he hardened Pharaoh's heart to pursue Israel I will be honoured upon Pharaoh and upon all his host that the Egyptians may know that I am the Lord 14. Exod. 4. This is diligently to be observed to vindicate the Holiness and Justice of Providence For though God infuses no hardness into mens hearts yet if he exercise them with such Providences as he foresees will harden them and does this with an intention and design to harden them this signifies his Will to harden them and such a moral Efficiency in using hardening Providences as will as certainly harden them as if he had infused hardness into them And this makes little difference whether God hardens men by external Providences or by an internal Operation on their minds when he intends such Providences to harden them and knows that they will effectually do it Now I readily grant that tho God infused no hardness into Pharaoh's heart nor did any thing which unbecomes a holy God to do yet he did intend to harden him and did intend to harden him on purpose to multiply his Judgments on Egypt and to destroy him and all his Host in the Red Sea for this is so plainly expressed that we cannot deny it Nay I readily grant that the Providence of God would be justly chargeable with mens Sins did he without any respect to the merit and desert of the Persons by such insensible methods betray them into sin with an intention to harden them For what man is there of such a firm and constant vertue as to be able to resist all Temptations which a long series of Providences chosen and directed for that purpose by a Divine Wisdom could bring him into But yet when men have sinned themselves into such a hardened state as to deserve to be destroyed and when God is so far provoked by their Sins as to resolve to destroy them it becomes the Wisdom and the Justice of God without any impeachment of his Holiness to harden men by external Events and Appearances not in Sin which can never become a Holy God but in such ruinous Courses as their own wicked hearts betray them to and as will bring inevitable ruin on them And this is the true resolution on this Case 1. That God never hardens any men till they have deserved and he is resolved to destroy them 2. That then he does not harden them in Sin but in such Ruinous Counsels as their own Sins betray them to 3. That all this is done not by the natural or moral efficacy but by their own wicked abuse of the Divine Providence 4. To compleat all When God has thus determined to destroy any Person or People he many times inflicts on them a penal blindness and infatuation not to see the things which concern their peace These four Particulars contain a full and easy account of this perplext Doctrine of God's hardening mens hearts and therefore I shall speak distinctly but briefly to them 1. That God never hardens men till they have deserved and he is resolved to destroy them This must be laid as the foundation of all for by what means soever God hardens men how innocent soever they may appear if he intends to harden them not because they deserve and he has determined to destroy them but only that they may deserve to be destroyed and that he may with some fair appearance of Justice destroy them it would be impossible to satisfy equal and impartial Judges of the Justice and Holiness of Providence But if men have hardened themselves in Sin beyond all the ordinary methods of recovery and have so provoked a good and merciful God that he gives them over to ruin and destruction then by what means soever they are hardened which are not directly sinful there can be no just reason to question either the Justice or Goodness or Holiness of God upon this account For when men have sinned to that degree as to deserve immediate destruction and to provoke God to pass a final Sentence on them God may either immediately destroy them or keep them in that hardened state like condemned Malefactors reserved in Chains for a more publick and solemn Execution And this is all that is meant by God's hardening men and this all mankind must allow to be just and holy This was the case of Pharaoh and the Egyptians who
to conclude that it is only our ignorance of the Eastern Language and Phrase which makes them obscure and difficult to us than to expound them to such a sense as contradicts all the rest of the Bible But I do not intend this for an Answer or as some will call it an Evasion but shall consider these Texts particularly And the first place relates to God's hardening Pharaoh's heart that he should not let the People of Israel go notwithstanding all the signs and wonders which Moses wrought in Egypt 4. Exod. 21. Where God expresly tells Moses that he would harden Pharaoh's heart and in the Story it self it is several times expressed that God did harden Pharaoh's heart and he who hardens the heart seems to be the efficient Cause of all those Sins which such a hard heart commits Now rightly to understand this which has given so much trouble to Divines there are many things to be considered Hardness of heart is a Metaphorical expression and signifies such a firmness and obstinacy of temper or resolution as will yield to no motives or perswasions that will no more receive any impressions than a hard and impenetrable Rock And therefore to harden the heart is to give it such a stiffness and obstinacy as will not yield But then there are several ways of hardening mens hearts and some of them very Innocent and Holy as well as Just and before we charge the Divine Providence upon this account we must know in what way God hardens immediately to infuse into mens hearts an unrelenting hardness and obstinacy in a sinful course is inconsistent with the Holiness of Providence and would in the most proper sense make God the Author of Sin but though God says he would harden Pharaoh he does not say that he would infuse hardness into Pharaoh's heart For we may observe That men who have first hardened themselves take the most innocent occasions to grow harder nay are hardened by such usage as would either break or soften other men And those who treat them in such a manner as their wicked hearts abuse to harden themselves may be said to harden them as in common speech we charge those with undoing and hardening their Children and Servants who have spoiled them by too much indulgence or by too great severity and this is the account that Origen gives of it And indeed when men are said to harden themselves as Pharaoh is often said to harden his own heart and yet God is said to harden them there can be no other account given of it but this that men take occasion from what God does take occasion where no occasion was given to harden themselves as St. Paul observes the Iews did from God's patience and long-suffering 2. Rom 4 5. Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and long suffering not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance i.e. should lead thee to repentance not harden thee in Sin though it have another effect through thy own wickedness But after thy hardness and impenitent heart growest more hard and impenitent by God's forbearance and treasurest up unto thy self wrath against the day of wrath and the revelation of the righteous judgment of God And thus God hardened Pharaoh or thus Pharaoh took occasion to harden himself from those Judgments which ought to have softened him and God foreseeing that this would be the effect of it says I will harden Pharaoh's heart not I will infuse hardness into him but I will do such things as I certainly know his hard and wicked heart will improve into new occasions and new degrees of hardness For it is no reason either for God or men to forbear doing what Wisdom and Justice and Goodness direct to be done because hardened Sinners will harden themselves the more by it And that this is the truth of the case appears from the whole Story That which hardened Pharaoh and made him so resolved not to part with Israel was the great advantage he made of their Service and Bondage which made him impatient to think of sending away a people which were so useful to him To conquer this obstinate humour God sends Moses to deliver Israel with a mighty arm and out-stretched hand Moses wrought such mighty Wonders and inflicted such miraculous and terrible Judgments on Egypt as any one would have thought the most proper means not to have hardened but to have broken and subdued the most hardened hearts but this had a contrary effect upon a hardened Pharaoh and it is visible what it was that hardened him Some of these Signs and Wonders were imitated by the Magicians as turning their Rods into Serpents and Water into Blood and bringing Frogs upon the Land and upon this he hardened his heart though the Plague of Frogs was so grievous that it made him somewhat relent and promise to let the People go and Sacrifice unto the Lord if the Frogs might be removed but then God's goodness in removing this Plague hardened him as it is expresly observed That when Pharaoh saw there was respite he hardened his heart 8. Exod. 15. And thus it was in the succeeding Judgments while any judgment was upon him he yielded and promised fair to let the people go that had any one of those Judgments continued on him till he had parted with Israel he had certainly sent them away long before but when he saw one Judgment removed after another he thought there would be an end of them at last and it were better to endure a while than to part with Israel and thus God hardened his heart and he hardened his own heart till the Death of all the First-born put him and his Servants and all the People into such a terrible fright that they were glad to get rid of Israel to save their own Lives And to compleat all God still hardened Pharaoh's heart to pursue after Israel that he might overthrow him and all his Host in the Red Sea And for that end God led the people about through the way of the wilderness of the red sea that Pharaoh might say They are intangled in the land the wilderness hath shut them in and it was told the king of Egypt that the people fled and the heart of Pharaoh and of his servants was turned against the people and they said Why have we done this that we have let Israel go from serving us 14. Exod. 2 3 4 5. The report of their flying and the apprehension of their being intangled in the Wilderness made Pharaoh and his Servants quickly forget what they had suffered in Egypt and think of nothing but the loss of the Service of Israel which hardened them to a new pursuit and was ordered by God to that end that he might be honoured upon Pharaoh and upon all his Host. This is the account the Scripture gives us of God's hardening Pharaoh's heart which contains nothing that unbecomes a Wise and a Holy Being For though it can
cover the Mountain had heard the Thunder and the Trumpet and at last a Voice delivering the Law with an unimitable Terror and Majesty what would they then have thought of this Or what farther evidence would they have desired that it was God who spoke to them This could be no Dream nor melancholy Apparition or disturbed Fancy for they had timely notice of it three days before and were commanded to sanctify themselves to meet their God and if a whole Nation had been imposed on after such fair Warning it had been as great a Prodigy and Miracle as the Appearance on Mount Sinai and would have argued some Divine and Supernatural Infatuation and that would have proved a God This then was as visible a Demonstration as could be given of the Presence and Power and Majesty of God who rejected all other gods from any share in his Worship and declares himself to be the Maker of Heaven and Earth for I 'm sure the Wit of man cannot invent a more effectual Conviction than this Let us then consider the Wisdom of Providence in this both with respect to the Israelites and to the rest of Mankind He that cometh to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him And therefore when God intended to restore his own Worship again in the world and to make Israel a Pattern and Example of it to the rest of Mankind it was necessary to give them as visible and ocular a demonstration of the Power and Glory of God as it was possible for Creatures to have When the whole World was over-run with Idolatry and the Israelites themselves so strongly inclined to it nothing less than such an Appearance from Mount Sinai was likely to establish the Faith and Worship of the One Supreme God and we see that this it self could very hardly do it for immediately after they had heard God speak to them while Moses was in the Mount they made them a Golden Calf and worshipped it and as soon as they mingled with any other people they joined in their Idolatrous Worship a sad Example of which we have in their worship of Baal Peor 25. Numb But this was the highest evidence God could then give them of his Power and Glory and it did in time prevail and in them all Mankind who know their Story have a visible demonstration of One Supreme God But not to insist on every Particular which would be endless it may seem strange that when God brought Israel out of Egypt to give them Possession of the Promised Land he should make them wander in the Wilderness forty years till all that generation of men which came out of Egypt were dead excepting Ioshua and Caleb The Apostle to the Hebrews gives us the general Account of this matter 3. Heb. 7. to the end which resolves it into their Idolatry and Infidelity Wherefore as the Holy Ghost saith To day if ye will hear his voice harden not your hearts as in the provocation in the day of temptation in the wilderness when your fathers tempted me proved me and saw my works forty years Wherefore I was grieved with that generation and said They do alway err in their heart and they have not known my ways so I sware in my wrath They shall not enter into my rest Which he makes an admonition to Christians Take heed brethren lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God that is in forsaking the True God and declining to Idolatry as the Israelites in the Wilderness did And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest but to them that believed not So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief The plain state of the Case is this That Generation of men which came out of Egypt and remembred the Customs and Practices of that People were so strangely addicted to Idolatry that all the Signs and Wonders they saw in Egypt in the Red-Sea and in the Wilderness could not perfectly cure them but whenever they had opportunity they joined themselves to the Heathen gods ate of their Sacrifices and bowed themselves before them that had these men gone into Canaan which was then a Land of Idolaters they would certainly have worshipped their gods instead of destroying them and have mingled themselves with the People of the Land and have learnt their Manners for they who so often tempted God and disobeyed Moses while they were in the Wilderness in expectation of the Promised Land what would they have done had they been once possessed of it So that to have given that Generation of men Possession of Canaan would not have answered God's orginal Design in chusing Israel for his peculiar People for in all likelihood they would have proved a Nation of Idolaters like the other Nations round about them And therefore God deferred the final Accomplishment of his Promise till that Generation was all dead and a new Generation sprung up which knew not Egypt nor had conversed with Idolatrous Nations but had seen the Wonders of God in the Wilderness and had learnt his Statutes and Judgments and were sufficiently warned by the Example of their Fathers whose Carcasses fell in the Wilderness to fear and reverence the Lord Iehovah and to make him their Trust. This is the very Account the Scripture gives of it and thus accordingly it proved for that new Generation of men were never charged with Idolatry but we are expresly told That Israel served the Lord all the days of Ioshua and all the days of the Elders that overlived Ioshua and which had known all the works of the Lord that he had done for Israel 24. Josh. 31. All this we see was designed by God with admirable Wisdom to make his own Glory and Power known and to publish his Choice of Israel for his peculiar People and to prepare them for himself and to establish his Name and Worship among them And now God had made them fit Inhabitants of the Land of Promise without any longer delay he gives them the actual Possession of it and therefore let us now follow them into the Land of Canaan The History of the Wars of Canaan is sufficiently known which presents us with new Wonders and Miracles not inferior to those which God wrought in Egypt and in the Red Sea for God so visibly fought the Battels of Israel that they and all the world might know that it was he that gave them possession of that good Land and drove out those wicked Inhabitants before them which declared his Glory and made his Power known And what I have already discoursed concerning the Wonders and Miracles in Egypt is equally applicable to this and I need add no more Let us then consider Israel in possession of the Land of Promise And there are but two things more I shall observe in the Iewish History till the coming of our Saviour 1. Their frequent
Relapses into Idolatry for which they were as frequently and severely punished 2. Their Captivities and Dispersions among the Nations whereby God made himself and his Laws more universally known in the world 1. As for the first nothing could be more directly contrary to God's original Intention in chusing the Posterity of Abraham for his peculiar People than their falling into Idolatry and yet God foresaw that this they would do and threatens to punish them severely when they did which is the subject of Moses his Prophetick Song 32. Deut. and the whole History of the Iewish Nation may satisfy us that though God many times spared them when they were guilty of other great Sins yet they never fell into Idolatry but Vengeance soon pursued them and they were either oppressed by their Enemies at home or carried Captive into Foreign Countries When Ioshua was dead and all that Generation which Ioshua led into Canaan There arose another generation after them that knew not the Lord nor yet the works which he had done for Israel And they soon declined to Idolatry and served Baalim they forsook the Lord and served Baal and Ashtaroth 2. Judges 10 11 12 c. And what follows gives us a summary account of God's dealings with them all the time of the Judges And the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel and he delivered them into the hands of spoilers that spoiled them and he sold them into the hands of their enemies round about them Whithersoever they went out the hand of the Lord was against them for evil as the Lord had said and as the Lord had sworn unto them and they were greatly distressed Nevertheless the Lord raised up Iudges which delivered them out of the hand of those that spoiled them And yet they would not hearken unto their Iudges but they went a whoring after other gods and bowed themselves unto them They turned quickly out of the way that their fathers walked in obeying the commandments of the Lord but they did not so And when the Lord raised them up Iudges then the Lord was with the Iudge and delivered them out of the hands of their enemies all the days of the Iudge For it repented the Lord because of their groanings by reason of them that oppressed them and vexed them And it came to pass when the Iudge was dead that they returned and corrupted themselves more than their fathers in following other gods to serve them and to bow down unto them they ceased not from their own doings and from their stubborn way For this reason as it follows in the Text God resolved not to drive out any from before them of the nations which Ioshua left when he died God had promised to put out those nations by little and little not consume them at once lest the beast of the field should increase upon them 7. Deut 22. But withal Ioshua assured them That if they did in any-wise go back that is relapse into Idolatry and cleave unto the remnant of those nations even those which remain among you which Ioshua had not driven out know for a certainty that the Lord your God will no more drive out any of these nations from before you but they shall be snares and traps unto you and scourges in your sides and thorns in your eyes until ye perish from off this good land which the Lord your God hath given you 23. Joshua 12 13. And thus accordingly God dealt with them for he left the five lords of the Philistines and all the Canaanites and the Sidonians and the Hivites that dwelt in mount Lebanon from mount Baal-Hermon unto the entring in of Hamath and they were to prove Israel by them to know whether they would hearken unto the commandments of the Lord which he commanded their fathers by the hand of Moses 3. Judges 1 4. This was a wise provision God made to correct and punish Israel whenever they should decline to Idolatry for these Idolatrous Nations who still lived among them or round about them were not more ready to tempt them to Idolatry than they were to oppress and afflict them when God thought fit to chastise Israel The whole Book of Iudges is a manifest proof of this and the Story is so well known that I need not insist on Particulars Let us then briefly contemplate the Wisdom of Providence in those severe Judgments God executed on Israel for their frequent Idolatries God had chosen Israel for his peculiar People to be the Worshippers of the One Supream God and a visible confutation of the Heathen Idolatries but their great propensity to Idolatry after all the Signs and Wonders which God wrought in Egypt and in the Red-Sea and in the Wilderness and in giving them possession of the promised Land did threaten the final Apostacy of Israel which would have defeated God's wise and gracious Design in chusing them for his peculiar People For had they turned Idolaters like the rest of the Nations the Worship of the One Supream God had been totally lost in the world To prevent this God never suffered their Idolatries for any long time to escape unpunished and if we would understand the true reason of this we must not consider these Judgments merely as the punishment of their Idolatries but as the wise Methods of Providence to preserve his own Worship among them notwithstanding their Idolatrous Inclinations and to make his Name and Power and Glory known to the world The whole world were Idolaters but God did not punish other Nations for their Idolatry as he did Israel which shews that the punishment of Israel was not merely for the punishment of Idolatry but for the cure of it For God having chosen Israel for his peculiar People the world was to learn from them from their Examples and from their Rewards and Punishments the knowledge and worship of the One Supream God And could there be a more sensible confutation of Idolatry than to see a Nation which had been visibly consecrated to the Worship of the One Supream God as visibly punished whenever they declined to Idolatry That new generation which sprung up after the days of Ioshua who had not seen God's Wonders in Egypt and in the Wilderness nor known the Wars of Canaan soon forgot the God of their Fathers and wanted some new experiments of God's Power and Presence among them and whenever they declined to Idolatry God took care they should not want them though they paid very dear for them for he delivered them into the hands of their Enemies and brought many evils on them till they should remember the God of their Fathers This account God himself gives of it 31. Deut. 16 17. And the Lord said unto Moses Behold thou shalt sleep with thy fathers and this people will rise up and go a whoring after the gods of the strangers whither they go to be amongst them and will forsake me and break my covenant which I have made with them Then
my anger shall be kindled against them in that day and I will forsake them and I will hide my face from them and they shall be devoured and many evils and troubles shall befal them so that they will say in that day Are not these evils come upon us because the Lord our God is not amongst us This the Psalmist tells us was the effect of such Judgments though not always so lasting as it ought to have been When he slew them then they sought him and returned and enquired early after God and they remembred that God was their rock and the high God their redeemer 78. Psal. 34 35. By these means God made them sensible of his Justice and Power and reclaim'd them from their Idolatries and restored his own Worship among them for they certainly knew by the threatnings of their own Law for what reasons they were thus punish'd and indeed their own experience was sufficient to satisfie them in this for they no sooner forsook the God of their Fathers and worshipped others gods but they were Oppressed by their Enemies and when they repented of their Idolatries and returned to God he raised up Saviours and Deliverers who vanquished their Enemies and restored them to Liberty and Peace Especially since those wonderful Deliverances which God wrought for them by the hands of their Judges gave that Generation of men which knew not the Wars of Canaan new and visible proofs of God's Power and Presence among them And we know what effect this Discipline had It did not wholly prevent their Idolatries which they were very prone to when the memory of such Judgments was worn out by a long Peace and Prosperity but then the repetition of such Judgments as they repeated their Provocations joined with the admonitions of their Prophets whom God raised up in several Ages did generally bring them to Repentance and restore the Worship of God amongst them till at last the Ten Tribes grew incurable and were therefore utterly rejected by God and carried into a perpetual Captivity never to return more into their own Land and Iudah who would not take warning by the Punishment of Israel was carried Captive into Babylon for Seventy years which so perfectly cured their Idolatry that we hear no more complaints of that after their return from Captivity And this answered God's design with respect to the rest of the World as much as if they had never been guilty of Idolatry For notwithstanding their several relapses into Idolatry it was well known that Israel was Consecrated to the Worship of the Lord Iehovah and when the Nations round about were witnesses of God's Judgments against Israel when they forsook the Lord their God and of their Happy and Prosperous State while they kept his Covenant it was a convincing proof of the Power and Justice of the God of Israel especially when they should see the Ten Tribes utterly rooted out for their Idolatry and Iudah carried Captive into Babylon and the City and Temple of Ierusalem destroyed and the Land laid waste and desolate without Inhabitants the Justice and Power of God in driving them out of their Land would then be as much taken notice of as his wonderful Providence in Delivering them out of Egypt and placing them in that good Land was as God himself tells Solomon in answer to his Prayer at the Dedication of the Temple 2 Cor. 7. 19 20 21 22. But if ye turn away and forsake my statutes and my commandments which I have set before you and shall go and serve other gods and worship them Then will I pluck them up by the roots out of my land which I have given them and this house which I have sanctified for my name will I cast out of my sight and will make it to be a proverb and a by-word among all nations And this house which is high shall be an astonishment to every one that passeth by it so that he shall say Why hath the Lord done thus unto this land and unto this house And it shall be answered Because they forsook the Lord God of their fathers which brought them forth out of the land of Egypt and laid hold on other gods and worshipped them and served them therefore hath he brought all this evil upon them For we must observe That God had as well chose the Land of Canaan to be the Seat of his Worship as Israel to be his Worshippers and the Inheritance of the Land of Canaan was bestowed on them in vertue of God's Covenant to be their God and they to be his People that is that they should worship no other Gods besides him And the breach of Covenant on their part by declining to Idolatry was a Forfeiture of their Right to the Promised Land and the proper Punishment of it was either Oppression at home which made them servants and strangers in their own Land or Captivity in Foreign Countries and this was so publickly known that when any such evils befel Israel the Nations round about were able to give the Reason of it Because they forsook the Lord God of their fathers So that the very Oppression and Captivity of Israel published the Supreme Power and Glory of the God of Israel who is a Jealous God and will admit of no Partners in Worship but when his own People forsake him and serve strange gods in the land which he had given them and separated to his own Worship he makes them serve strangers in a land which is not theirs 5. Jer. 19. 2dly These Captivities and Dispersions of Israel especially the long Captivity of Iudah in Babylon served other ends besides the Punishment and the Cure of their Idolatry for into what Country soever they were carried Captive they carried the Knowledg of the God of Israel along with them While they lived at home in their own Countrey and had little Commerce with any other people the very Name of Israel was known only to their Neighbours and the God of Israel could be known no farther than Israel was But when they were carried Captive to Babylon and dispersed through all the Provinces of that vast Empire this spread the Knowledge of God too who by many wonderful Providences owned these Captives for his People and made the Heathens see and confess his Glory and Power But the better to understand this we must consider that wise Preparation God made for it in those great Revolutions of States and Empires which began about this time To prevent the general Corruption of Mankind as I observed before God confounded their Languages and thereby separated them from each other and formed them into several distinct Independent Societies and Kingdoms which was an effectual means to prevent the spreading of the Infection and to force them to the practice of a great many Moral and Political Virtues But when the whole world was corrupted by Idolatry and God saw a proper season to begin a Reformation to make the Cure more easy and universal it