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obferved, were they from being predispofed to receive and embrace it, that from the very first they discovered a dislike of it, and took every opportunity of deferting it, and revolting to the more alluring rites of the neighbouring nations, and this difpofition continued more than a thousand years.

Upon Mofes's ftaying in the mount longer than the people expected, and thinking they should hear no more of him (for he had been abfent forty days, and where he could not find any fuftenance) we read, Ex. xxxii. 1, the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and said unto him, Up, make us gods that shall go before us. For as for this Mofes, the man that brought us out of the land of Egypt, we ́ wot not what is become of him. After this, they made a golden calf, built an altar before it, offered burnt offerings, and peace offerings, when the people fat down to eat and drink, and rofe up to play, no doubt in the licentious manner in which the religious feftivals of the Egyptians were conducted.

A fevere judgment, and the return of Mofes, brought them back to the new religion. But after they had paffed forty years in the wildernefs, in which they had no opportunity of

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fhewing

fhewing their difpofition, on coming into the neighbourhood of the Moabites and Midianites, we read, Numb. xxv. 1, the people began to commit whoredom with the daughters of Moab, and they called the people to the facrifices of their gods, and the people did eat, and bowed down to their gods, and Ifrael joined himself unto Baal Peor. Another heavy judgment recovered them from this defection, but it is not probable that any reafoning, or expoftulation, would have done it.

The miraculous paffage of the river Jordan, the falling down of the walls of Jericho, and their conquering the warlike inhabitants of Canaan, devoted to the worship of idols, fatisfied the Ifraelites that their God was fuperior to the gods of that country, and therefore we read, Josh. xxiv. 31, that Ifrael ferved the Lord all the days of fofhua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, who had known all the works of the Lord, that he had done for Ifrael. But the very next generation fhewed a different difpofition. For we read, Jud. ii. 10, when that generation was gathered to their fathers, there arose another generation after them, which knew not the Lord, nor yet the works which he had done for Ifrael;

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and the children of Ifrael did evil in the fight of the Lord, and ferved Baalim, and they forfook the Lord God of their fathers, who brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods, of the gods of the people who were round about them, and bowed themselves unto them, and provoked the Lord to anger, and they forfook the Lord, and ferved Baal and Afhtaroth.

The hiftory of this people, till the time of Samuel, is nothing but a repetition of revolts, and punishments for them, by the invafion. and oppreffion of fome neighbouring nation. When they repented, as we read, Jud. ii. 16, the Lord raised up judges, who delivered them out of the hand of thofe that spoiled them, and yet they would not hearken unto their judges; but they went a whoring after other gods, and bowed themselves unto them. They turned quickly out of the way which their fathers walked in, obeying the commandments of the Lord, but they did not fo. And when the Lord raifed them up judges, then was the Lord with the judge, and delivered them out of the hand of their enemies, all the days of the judge. And it came to pass when that judge was dead, that they returned and corrupted themselves more

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than their fathers, in following other gods, to ferve them, and to bow down unto them. They

ceafed not from their own doings, and from their Stubborn way. And the anger of the Lord was hot against Ifrael, and be faid, Because this people has tranfgreffed my covenant, which I commanded their fathers, and have not hearkened unto my voice, I alfo will not henceforth drive out any from before them, of the nations which Joshua left when he died, that through them I may prove Ifrael, whether they will keep the way of the Lord, to walk therein, as their fathers did keep it, or not.

For these revolts they were reduced into fervitude, firft by Cufhan-rifhathaim, king of Mefopotamia, from whofe power they were rescued by Othniel; then by the king of Moab, from whom they were delivered by Ehud; then by the Philistines, when they were delivered by Shamgar. From Jabin king of Canaan, they were delivered by Deborah and Barak; from the Midiauites by Gideon, from the Ammonites by Jephtha, from the Philiftines a fecond time, in part by Samfon, but more completely by Saul and David, under whom the worship of Jehovah was rendered triumphant; and in that ftate it continued till

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the latter end of the reign of Solomon, when he had the weakness not only to indulge his wives, taken from the neighbouring nations, in the worship of the gods of their respective countries, but to join them in it.

Notwithstanding the very flourishing state of the affairs of the Ifraelites in the reigns of David and Solomon, which was always in those days, and long afterwards, afcribed to the power of the gods that they worshipped, the ten tribes which revolted from the house of David, revolted alfo from the religion of Moses, at first indeed by only setting up images at Dan and Bethel, in honour of the true God, but afterwards, and especially in the reign of Ahab, worshipping Baal, and all the hoft of heaven. And though by the judgment of a three years drought, in which they found that the worship of Baal could give them no relief, and the seasonable miracle of Elijah at mount Carmel, they were recovered, at least for fome time, from this fpecies of idolatry, they continued to worship the calves at Dan and Bethel, till their captivity by the Affyrians;. when they became fo mixed and incorporated with other nations, as not to be diftinguished; and whether they be now dif covered

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