O Lord, how manifold are thy works! and how adorable art thou in all thy doings, O King of Saints! To Thee therefore, with the Son and Holy Ghoft, be ascribed, as is most due, all honour and glory, &c. Amen.

SERMON VIII.

GEN. xii. 1-3.

And the Lord faid unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's houfe, unto a land that I will fhew thee.

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 I will bless them that bless thee, and curfe him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.

T

HOUGH the last-mentioned dispenfation-the confufion of languages, and the difperfion of nations confequent thereupon-gave some check to the progress of vice and idolatry; yet is it evident, from

the

the accounts we have of the fucceeding ages, that it did not entirely stop it. The depravation had been, alas! fo warmly foftered, and had gained, as we have seen, fuch growth and vigour, under the government of Nimrod, that it ftill furvived this fignal judgment; and, fpreading itself with the spreading nations, foon prevailed over the whole world. For when the family of Shem, who had peculiar motives to attach them to God, are known to have deviated very early into the worship and service of false deities; what elfe can we think of the reft of the nations, who manifeftly enjoyed much fewer advantages, but, that they accordingly funk into groffer idolatries?

~ When mankind, thus univerfally immersed in idolatry, had loft the knowledge of God and his religion; how neceffary was it for their real happiness, that fome new measures should be employed, to bring them back to the recognition of his fovereignty, and the obfervance of his pure worship!

In about 400 years after the flood, for which we have accounted in the laft difcourfe, p. 167.

But

But to restore at once the true religion, and to preserve it in any degree of purity, among a world of people fo thoroughly depraved, would certainly have been a difficult, if not indeed an impracticable tafk. To facilitate therefore, and finally to fecure this neceffary point, God, in wisdom as well as kindness, called forth Abraham from his country and kindred, and made him the father of a new race and better generation: which was to be kept fequeftered from the rest of the nations: and trained up in the true knowledge and worship of Himself, and in the true faith of that fundamental principle of revealed religion, and powerful motive to virtuous obedience the promise of a Redeemer.

Now Abraham was fixed upon, not from any fondness or partial affection, but because he was a person of eminent character, and endowed with proper qualifications for the purpose: one who had already given sufficient teftimony of his averfion to idolatry, and of his firm attachment to the God of heaven. For he had boldly maintained against his own country-men, "that there was

but