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we may be well affured, namely, that they were not difturbed in the Enjoyment thereof, as long as they continued obedient to their God; as alfo, that no fooner did they revolt from him, than he feverely chaftifed them, by delivering them again into the Hands of their Enemies.

Accordingly we find them foon after groaning under the Tyranny of the Midianites, who almoft ftarved them, having utterly deprived them of all Manner of Suftenance, and not fuffering them to enjoy even the Fruits of the Earth in Peace; infomuch that, after having threshed their Corn, they were forced to hide it, for fear of their rapacious Ene: mies. Under this fevere Scourge did they groan Seven Years; the Midianites coming upon them every Seafon with innumerable Flocks and Herds, and devouring the Increase of the Land for which the poor Ifraelites had toiled, as fast as the Earth gave it. At the End of that Time, upon their cry. ing to the Lord, he had Mercy upon them, and fent them Deliverance by the Hands of Gideon, who' with no more than Three Hundred Men, gave an intire Overthrow to the united Powers of Midian and Amalek, putting to the Sword One Hundred and Twenty Thoufand, with Oreb and Zeeb, two of their Princes, as also Zebab and Zalmannah, two of their Kings.

After fo fignal a Deliverance from fo cruel a Slavery, one would have imagined the Jews would not foon forget their Divine Benefactor; and yet we find that, even during the Life of Gideon, they were drawn away to worship an Ephod, of Gideon's fetting up in Ophrah; and which is yet more ftrange, that he himself, with his Family, fet them the wicked Example: It was no Wonder, therefore, that after his Decease, they revolted-yet more, and went a whoring, as the Scriptures exprefs it, after Baalim, and made Baal berith their God. Notwithstanding

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withstanding which, fó long fuffering is the Almighty, that we do not find that he vifited their Sins upon them for fome Time, not even during all the Days of Abimelech, or of Tola, and Jair, who judged Ifrael after him, the former Twenty-three, and the latter Twenty-two Years. One Reafon indeed may have been that he left them to be punished by their wicked King Abimelech, the Baftard of Gideon, whom they had ungratefully preferred to his lawful Sons, God fuffering him to be advanced to the Throne, that he might be a Scourge to his Brethren, (feventy of whom he flew upon one Stone,) for having been the firft to worship the Ephod, fet up by their Father in Ophrah.

However that be, certain it is, that it was not till after the Death of fair the Gileadite, when If rael, revolting abfolutely from the Worship of the Living Gop, ferved not only Baalim, but Afhta. roth, and the Gods of Syria, Zidon, Moab, the Amonites, and the Philistines, that the Lord, whom they had fo highly provoked by this Complication of Abominations, thought fit to fcourge them again feverely by the Hands of their Enemies; and accordingly fuffered them to become the Servants of thofe who bore a tyrannous Hate against them, and vexed and oppreffed them grievously, namely, the Philifines and Ammonites.

Being thus diftreffed, they bethink themfelves at laft, grow fenfible of their Folly and Wickednefs, and turn again to their merciful Father; who being always more ready to forgive than they were to repent, again received his rebellious Children with open Arms, though not without a fevere Exро ftulation with them, and reminding them of their incorrigible and frequent Backflidings, "Did not "I deliver you, faid the LORD, from the Egyptians,

and from the Amorites, and from the Children of "Ammon, and from the Philiftines? The Zido

" nians

"nians alfo, and the Amalekites, and the Maonites "did oppress you, and ye cried to me, and I deli.

vered you out of their Hands. Yet ye have for"faken me, and ferved other Gods, wherefore I "will deliver you no more. Go, and cry unto the "Gods which you have chofen; let them deliver you in the Time of your Tribulation.

How cutting was this Reproof! What could the guilty Ifraelites anfwer thereunto, felf-condemned as they were? Nothing certainly. They were therefore now in an evil plight, being thus feemingly abandoned by their only Friend and Protector. They take however the wifeft Courfe; they do not offer at juftifying themselves, that they well know would be in vain; but putting away their Arange Gods, and returning fincerely to the Lord, they confefs their Sins, throw themfelves upon his Mercy, and refign themselves wholly to his Will. "We have finned, fay they, do thou unto us what "feemeth good unto thee; deliver us only, we

pray thee, this Day." And foon did they find the falutary Effect of fo prudent a Conduct; for we are immediately told, " And his Soul was griev. "ed for the Mifery of Ifrael." In effect, the Almighty, who had only feemed to turn his Back upon them, that he might try the Sincerity of their Repentance, and humble them thoroughly, foon fhews them he has not forgot to be gracious, and fends * them Deliverance by the Means of Jepthah.

Ever prone however to revolt, forgetful of the Hand that fed them, and equally unmoved either by Mercies or Sufferings, we foon find that ftiff-necked People again forfaking their GOD, and again enflaved by their old Enemies the Philiftines: Nevertheless, he did not utterly abandon them for his own Sake, but raised them up a Deliverer in the Person of Sampson, who fmote the Philiftines from Time to Time, and prevented their oppreffing

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oppreffing Ifrael as they might otherwise have done, though the Jews fill continued to ferve them, because the Lord would not intirely refcue them from Bondage, till they had fincerely returned to him: But no fooner do we find them folemnly repentig, as they did at Mizpah in the Days of Samuel, than he faved them intirely out of their Hands, and flew the Philiftines with a great Slaughter. In fhort, were we to go through the whole Hiftory of the Children of Ifrael, under their Kings afterwards, even to the Time of their Captivity in the Days of Nebuchadnezzar, who carried them away with him to Babylon, we shall find both those of the Kingdom of Judah, and thofe of the Ten Tribes, to have conftantly enjoyed all Manner of Profperity and Bleffings, whilft they continued to worship the true GOD, and to have undergone all Manner of Misfortunes and Mifery, immediately after their falling into Idolatry.

Such having always been the Fate of the Jews, is it not amazing, that any who call themselves Chriftians, and pretend to profefs a purer Religion, having alfo the Hiftory of their Sufferings before their Eyes, and being apprized how heavily the Almighty was fure conftantly to vifit this Sin upon his own peculiar People; is it not most amazing, we fay, that any who take upon themfelves the venerable Name of Chriftians, should dare to fall thereinto, and tranfgrefs a Command, over the Obfervance of which, he hath ever fhewn himfelf fo particularly watchful? And yet this is what the whole Body of Roman Catholicks, to a Man, are egregioufly and enormously guilty of; not only worfhipping the true God in a falfe Manner, and under divers Reprefentations, as of a Human Body with three Faces; an Old Man, a Lamb, and a Pidgeon, as alfo of an Old Man, with a Child in his Arms, and a Dove over the latter's Head, as has been already obferved; but alfo adoring the Ima.

ges

ges of the Virgin Mary, and their Saints, many of which, and especially thofe canonized of latter Ages, it is to be feared, will never have their Portion among the Children of Light.

Nay, to fuch Extremes have they carried thefe their Profanations, that in Imitation of the ancient Heathens, who had their particular Demigods for particular Occafions and Purposes, they have their particular Saints for particular Cafes, and even for particular Nations, Profeffions, and Trades; infomuch that there never were greater Abominations committed, nor groffer Idolatries countenanced and practifed in Pagan Rome formerly, than are now in Rome Chriftian, or rather Antichriftian. Thus they have St. Anthony for Inflamations, St. Sigifmund for Fevers, St. Roch for the Plague, St. Margaret for Women in Labour, St. Petronilla for the Ague, St. Lucia for Sore-Eyes, St. Apollonia for the ToothAch, St. Ottilia for Deafnefs, &c. They have likewife St. Cofmo and Damian the tutelar Saints of Phyficians, Surgeons, Apothecaries, and Chymifts; and St. Luke for Painters; as well as St. George for England, St Andrew for Scotland, St. Patrick for Ireland, St. Dennis for France, St. Jago for Spain, St. Antonio for Portugal, &c.

In short, there would be no End of reckoning up the Enormities of this Kind, whereof they are guilty, nor yet of the Follies and Indecencies, to call them no worfe, into which they are thereby betrayed; one whereof, which happened about ten Years ago at Marfeilles, we fhall fuccinctly relate, as it may ferve to give every serious Reader an utter Abhorrence of a Religion, wherein fuch Abominations are openly tolerated and practifed.

It is well known, that in all Roman Catholick Countries, they have fome particular Days called Anniverfaries, whereon they make folemn ProcefF 5

fions,

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