than any other nation mentioned in history, did Egypt prove how soon the knowledge of the true God was lost after the deluge; notwithstanding Noah survived that event three hundred and fifty years, as did Shem five hundred, and, doubtless, continued to call upon the name of the Lord, and to proclaim it unintermittingly. But although men forgot and abandoned the true God, they could never rid themselves of a sense of their dependence upon some superior Being. They felt the need of having a God at hand to aid them in their necessities; but then they wished that such a God might hinder, as little as possible, the gratification of their lusts and selfish desires. Thus they devised the expedient of adoring a host of natural objects, and of making for themselves gods at pleasure, out of carved images. Though at first they merely intended to regard such things as representatives of the invisible God, and thus to make it the easier for their fleshly mind to ascend to what is invisible, by shortening the vast distance between the creature and the Creator; yet even this vain intention of idolatry was soon forgotten, and the visible object alone became regarded. Such was the commencement of idolatry, which appears to have been a thing unknown to the antediluvian world; for before the flood man's self-sufficiency had chosen to have no God at all.

Now was "the glory of the incorruptible God changed into an image like unto corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things," Rom. i. 19, etc. Pre-eminently is this true of Egypt, where animals of all

kinds were held sacred and were worshipped, and where the madness of idolatry was exhibited in every stage of the disease. The history of that country has but too evidently shown, how easily compatible with the utmost refinement of mere earthly intellect, and with scientific cultivation of every sort, is the utmost obscuration and debasement of all the nobler faculties of the human mind. While the remains of Egyptian architecture, and its other works of art, serve to testify, that in very early ages astonishing progress was made in mechanics, geometry, and astronomy; they show, at the same time, that in respect to the knowledge of the true God, the Egyptians were upon a level with the wildest savages: indeed, it may truly be said, that the worship of the Great Spirit among the North American Indians, is even better than all the complex idolatry of ancient Egypt. Are we to suppose that its priesthood had any purer knowledge of God, and that they only kept the people in ignorance for the purpose of rendering them the more abjectly instrumental to their craft? If so, what real worth can possibly be attributed to their purer notions, when these could permit them to debar their fellow men from obtaining the dearest treasure of this life, a belief in the one living and true God! Their case, however, suggests an important remark; namely, that the neologians, and others of our own days, have no cause to boast of their own cultivation and refinement, as long as their religion shows itself to be nothing better than the more refined idolatry of the Egyptian priests; that is, as long as

they do not cordially own and serve the true God, who was manifest in the flesh in the person of our Saviour Jesus Christ.

The least offensive form of idolatry was that of Shem's posterity, in Chaldea and Persia, where the sun, stars, and fire were worshipped as emblems of the invisible God. But this species of worship is of somewhat later date; for, even in Jacob's time, we find that Laban, who was a descendant of Shem, had idols in his possession. The nations of southern Asia, especially of India, went to the very opposite extreme of gross idolatry, in which they have persisted to this day, and have disclosed all its abominations and horrors to the full, in their professed worship of devils; but the earliest accounts of those countries are enveloped in fable. It is in comparatively modern times that we descry among them a beam of that light which sprung up in Palestine, and gradually found its way to distant countries.

V.-ISRAEL AND THE KINGDOM OF GOD.

(a.) Abraham and his Family.

AT about the middle period between the creation and the birth of Christ, was born, in Ur of the Chaldees, Abraham, the son of Terah, of the posterity of Shem. He was one of the remaining few who retained the knowledge of the true God, which was continued from Noah by

individual descendants. It is very probable that Abraham's family resided in the near neighbourhood of Noah's own settlement; and that the time of Noah's death, which was in Abraham's sixtieth year, was the very season in which the Lord appeared unto Abraham, "and said unto him, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and come into the land which I shall show thee," Acts vii. 3. Abraham accordingly went, with his wife, his father Terah, and his nephew Lot, into the land of Haran, where he abode until Terah's death. Hereupon a fresh command appears to have been given to him, to emigrate farther, that is, into Canaan; and a promise was added, that God would make him a great nation, Gen. xii. 1. Then went Abraham forth, not knowing whither he went; but, having faith in the Divine word, he obeyed; and his eyes were always open to observe the leadings of God's providence, or the least intimation of his will. Herein consisted that pre-eminence which is given him even in the New Testament; a pre-eminence which will ever belong to him, on account of his remarkable faith in God. Abraham believed God; he staggered not at the promise, but against hope believed in hope. The great reason assigned, 1 Pet. iii. 20, for the severe punishment of the antediluvian world is, that they believed not; that men were so sunk in things visible, that they totally disregarded the invisible things of God. This infidelity, though it were not as it commonly is, united with peculiarly evil practices, is sufficient of itself to blight every bud of

human happiness, and to render us obnoxious to Divine wrath: whereas, real faith in God contains within itself the very germ of blessedness, and will ever bring forth its fruit in its season. Therefore it is written of Abraham, that his faith was counted unto him for righteousness, Rom. iv. 3. For faith is an obedience to the truth, which involves a renunciation of self; and being also the most beautiful work of God in the inner man, no wonder it is so well pleasing in his sight.

True religion became, after Noah's death, limited to a very few. Hence it was necessary that it should be guarded and cherished by extraordinary Divine superintendence, to prevent its utter extinction. God therefore provided for its preservation in one branch of mankind, until Christ himself, the Light of the world, should come. For this purpose he appointed Abraham to be the forefather of a nation which, as his peculiar people, it pleased him to keep separate from other nations, so as to fence out from them the world's unbelief and idolatry. He committed to them the knowledge of the truth as unalienable property; that, in the very midst of all the idolatrous and apostate nations, one place at least might be found, from which, after a lapse of ages, at the period of redemption, his light and truth might shine forth upon the rest of mankind. He condescended to take this people under his special protection and discipline, that they might ultimately prove a blessing to the whole world. Thus he gave them his law, his ordinances, his worship, and a certain acquaintance with that