the expression, that they served, necessarily imports no more than that they lived as subjects in countries where other gods were worshipped. In this sense it is said of the Jewish people in their dispersion, they should serve other gods; and yet the Jews in their dispersions have never been idolaters. In the sequel of this same speech the service which the fathers of the Israelites, while they dwelt beyond the flood, paid to other gods, is so expressly opposed to the worship of Jehovah now required of the Israelites, that little doubt can remain that the expression of serving other gods is to be taken here in its literal meaning,-that the ancestors of Abraham, and Abraham himself, before God's gracious call, were infected with the idolatry which in that age prevailed.

It is not to my present purpose to trace the progress of idolatry through all its dif

ferent stages, it will be sufficient for me to shew, that for many ages the worship of the true God subsisted, though preposterously blended with the superstitious adoration of fictitious deities and even of images. Just as at this day in the church of Rome, the worship of the ever-blessed Trinity subsists in preposterous conjunction with the idolatrous worship of canonized men and inanimate relics.

When Abraham took up his abode in Gerar the chief city of the Philistine, Abimelech the king of Gerar became enamoured of his wife. Upon this occasion God came to Abimelech, and the motive of his coming was in mercy to Abimelech, that he might not draw destruction upon himself and upon his family by the indignity which he was upon the point of offering to Abraham's wife. From this it has been with great probability concluded, that

this Abimelech and the people which he governed were worshippers of God; for it is not likely that such tenderness should have been shown to a wicked prince and a wicked nation. Sarah's purity might have been preserved by other means. Nor does the humility and submission with which Abimelech receives the heavenly warning, nor the severity with which he expostulates with the patriarch for his unjust suspicion of him and his subjects, suit the character of one who feared not God.

Again, in the days of Isaac another Abimelech, the son or grandson of the former, in an interview with Isaac (the object of which was to compose some quarrels that had arisen between Isaac's herdsmen and his own subjects), tells Isaac that he saw certainly that Jehovah was with him. That under this conviction he solicited his friendship and his peace; and he calls

Isaac the Blessed of Jehovah. This is the language of one who feared Jehovah and acknowledged his providence. In the days of Abraham therefore, and of Isaac, the worship of the true God was not yet extinguished among the idolaters of Palesline.

In Mesopotamia, in the same age, the family of Nachor, Abraham's brother, was not untainted with idolatry. Laban had certain images which he calls his gods, for which it should seem that his daughter Rachel entertained some degree of veneration. Yet two occasions are recorded, upon which Laban mentions the name of Jehovah, and acknowledges his providence. The first is when he receives Abraham's steward, who came as a suitor on the part of Isaac to Rebecca; the second, when he solemnly calls Jehovah to witness the reciprocal engagements of

friendship between Jacob and himself at

their parting.

In Egypt, the great workshop of Satan, where the molten images were cast which in later ages all the world adored,—in Egypt idolatry was in its infancy (if it had at all gotten ground) in the days of Joseph. For when Joseph was brought to Pharaoh to interpret his dream, the holy patriarch and the Egyptian king speak of God in much the same language, and with the same acknowledgment of his overruling providence.

It may be added that this dream, though perhaps the chief end of it was the elevation of Joseph and the settlement of Jacob's family in Goshen, is some argument of a care of providence for the Egyptian people; for by this merciful warning they were enabled to provide against the seven years of famine.