tion of the Meffias or Chrift, the promised Seed who was to defcend from him.

Secondly, this Faith in the Promise of God made to Abraham's Seed was ftrengthened and more clearly fet forth in the Law itself, in thefe Words: The Lord thy God will raise up unto Thee a Prophet from the midst of Thee, of thy Brethren, like unto me, unto him ye shall hearken.

And I will put my Words in his Mouth, and be fhall speak unto them all that I shall command bim. And it fhall come to pass that whosoever will not hearken unto my Words, which he shall Speak in my Name, I will require it of him. Deut. xviii. 15, 18, 19.

The Knowledge of this Promise of the Meffias and of a future and eternal Life to be obtained thro' him, which the Jews always believed and hoped for, is an unquestionable Evidence that under the Law they looked farther than to the carnal and temporal Promises of it; and expected a spiritual and future heavenly State, which God had promised to be revealed by the Meffias, thro' Faith in whom all were to be justified and faved.

It was evident that the Promises made to A braham could not be completed by the temporal Bleffings of the Land of Canaan given to the Jews only; because they were Promises in which other Nations befides the Jews were equally concerned; they were Promises by the full Completion of which all the Nations or Families of the Earth were to be blessed: and therefore they were not Promises made to the Doers of the Law

only,

only, which was given to the Jews, and to no other Nation; but they ftill fubfifted under the Law, and were to be an everlasting Covenant made with that Seed of Abraham in whom all the Nations of the Earth were to be blessed; that is, the promised Meffias, who was to be the Author and Dispenser not of temporal but eternal Felicity.

Therefore as the Jews did undoubtedly believe the Promises of God made unto Abraham, and that they were to be fulfilled at the coming of the Meffias who was to defcend from him; they must consequently believe that the Bleffings promised to be confer'd thro' him were not the carnal and temporal Bleffings promised to the Doers of the Law, and which Abraham and the Patriarchs never received; but the Participation of that spiritual Happiness of a future and eternal Life which Abraham, Ifaac and Jacob enjoyed with God, as the Reward of their Faith and Righteoufnels; and with which all the Nations of the Earth were to be bleffed by Faith in God, and Obedience to his Word and Commandments deliver'd in the Gospel of Christ.

So that Faith in the promised Meffias always confequentially inferr'd the Belief of eternal Life and Happiness. And as the Belief of a future and immortal Life was the natural Confequence of Faith in God, as the Rewarder of all his faithful Worshippers, and was common to the Jews with the reft of Mankind, and drawn from the Principles of natural Reafon; fo this Faith was render'd ftronger in the Jews than in any other

People

People who had not a divine Revelation by the Promife of the Meffias who was to be the Author of this Life and Immortality.

All this is evident, unless we fuppofe that Abraham and his Pofterity believed the Promifes of God which were to be fulfilled in the Meffias, not to be of a spiritual but of a meer carnal Nature, like thofe of the Law; and that he and they were juftified in the fight of God by fuch a meer carnal Faith: which Suppofition is highly abfurd in itself, and alfo directly contrary to St. Paul's whole Reafoning. But as the Reafoning of the Apostle is highly agreeable to the natural Notions of God, as well as to the Revelations given by Mofes and the Prophets; fo it throws a great and ftrong Light upon all the facred Scriptures of the Old Teftament. It fhews how the Law was a Shadow of the future good Things more fully and clearly revealed by the Gospel; as reprefenting them under the Promises of God made to Abraham and the Jews; and alfo under the Sacrifices and ritual Inftitutions of the Law itself. But on Suppofition that the Bleffings of the future State were not promised, represented, or known to the Jews under the Law, there is no ground to call the Law a Shadow or imperfect Reprefentation of them. A Shadow or firft Draught of a Picture is a Similitude and faint Resemblance of the Subftance or Body from whence it is taken, and to which it refers; as the Image is the perfect and finish'd Portraiture of it. And this is the Difference between the Law and the Gopel: the first is an imperfect Delineation of

thofe

thofe heavenly Things, of which the latter is the express Image. In the former, the Author of eternal Salvation is only promised, and veil'd under Types and Ceremonies; but in the latter, he is exhibited in Perfon, and manifested to the World.

The whole History of the Jewish or Hebrew Nation from the Beginning is fufficient to convince any who confider it, that as they were brought up in the Worship of the true God, by whole extraordinary Providence Abraham their Father and the Founder of their Nation was brought out of an idolatrous Country into the Land of Ganaan; fo they liv'd under the con ftant Senfe of his governing Providence, and the Hope and Belief of receiving the final Reward of their Obedience in another Life after this.up

As it cannot be doubted but this was the Faith of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob concerning the di→ vine Providence, and the Meaning of the Promife of Blessedness made to them, and which they were told not to expect in the Land where they lived only as Strangers and Sojourners; so it can as little be doubted but that it was their principal Care to teach and inculcate into their Defcendants and Families the fame Faith in God as their great Protector here, and Rewarder hereafter.

It was therefore the grand fundamental Principle of the Abrahamic Religion to depend only on the divine Providence both for temporal and fpiritual Bleflings: for the Happiness of this Life and alfo of that which is to come.

Under

Under this Faith and Truft in God the Ifraelites were by divine Providence conducted into Egypt, and preferved there by the fame Providence till they became a great and a numerous People. During their Abode in Egypt under the Patriarchs and Heads of their Tribes and Families the Worship of the true God was preserved amongst them; and continued, at least, so long as Jofeph was Governor of the Land of Egypt. So that if it can be fuppofed that the Ifraelites ever loft the Knowledge of the true God, and with it the Belief of a future State received from their Forefathers, it must have been after the Death of their Patriarch Jofeph, when they were reduced into a State of Slavery and hard Bondage, and fell into the Egyptian Idolatry; and, instead of the God of Ifrael, worshipped the great Egyptian God Ofiris, whofe Symbol was a living Bull call'd Apis at Memphis, and another call'd *Mnevis

at

Thefe Bulls had been confecrated and worfhipped as the Symbols of Ofiris before the Days of Abraham. And it is a grofs Error in fome learned ancient, as well as mo dern Chriftian Writers, to fancy that Jofeph was worshipped by the Egyptians under the Apis. The Scripture tells us, that the Memory of Jofeph was not regarded after his Death; and fo it is not in the leaft probable that Pharaoh, who is faid not to know him, as he really did not, should make him an Object of Worship. It may eafily be proved that Ofiris reign'd in Egypt above a Century before the Birth of Abraham; and tho' Diodorus Siculus hath from lefs ancient and from falfe Accounts afcrib'd to Ofiris the real Actions and Exploits of Sefoftris who reigned about nine Centuries after Ofiris; yet the more ancient and credible Writers Herodotus and Manetho, and Strabo after them, did not confound either their Perfons, Times, or their Actions. But it is a ftill greater Error to confound Sefoftris