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SERM. it did, as it were, point out its Author, IV. and declare itself to fpring from Him, who alone knoweth, and ordereth the Times and the Seafons, and calleth the things that are not, as if they were,

Of Types, the most illuftrious, and moft worthy of our present Confideration, is That, which relates to the wonderful Increase of the Ifraelites in Egypt, concerning which the Sacred Story speaks in very expreffive and emphatical Language: They are fruitful (fays Moses) and increafed abundantly, and multiplied, and waxed exceeding mighty, and the Land Ex. i. 7. was filled with them; and this (it feems) notwithstanding the Arts that were us'd to leffen their Numbers, notwithstanding the great Hardships and Severities that were laid upon them: for again it is faid, The more the Egyptians afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew. A Ib. v. 12. livelier Image than which there cannot be of the thriving Eftate of the Christian Church, under all the Cunning and Malice of its Heathen Perfecutors. Were

the

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the Seed of Abraham few, when they firft SER M came to fojourn in Egypt? no more than Seventy Souls? The Number of the first Disciples of Chrift, on the Day of Pentecoft, when his Gofpel began to be propagated, was not much greater. Did the feveral Kings of Egypt keep a jealous Eye over the Children of Ifrael, and take all manner of unjust and cruel Methods to prevent their Increase? just so far'd it with the earliest Profeffors of the Gospel; the Rulers of the World harass'd and opprefs'd them, and did what they could to crush Christianity, in its first Seeds, by fevere Edicts, and Penalties, and fubtle Contrivances. Did the Ifraelites thrive nevertheless, and multiply exceedingly; fo as in the Space of 430 Years, from the time of the Covenant made with Abraham, to come out of Ægypt above 600000 ftrong, that were Men from twenty Years old and upwards, besides Women and Children, and a mixt multitude, not rank'd into diftinct Tribes and Families, that were without Number? The Increase of Christian Converts K 4

was

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SERM. was yet more wonderful; and attended with this remarkable Circumftance of Refemblance, that it came to its utmost Pitch, near the fame Period of Time, to wit, about 430 Years after our Saviour had begun to preach and to fay, Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. Such a ftrict Correspondence there was between these Events, that we may juftly reckon the one of them, as defign'd to prefigure and typify the other. Efpecially, fince the Promise made to Abraham, about the Fertility of his Descendants was fo worded by God, as at once to include the the Increase of his Natural and Spiritual Seed, and plainly to point out that Accefs of Converts from all Nations to the Church, which fhould happen in the Days of the Meffiah. In bleffing I will bless thee, faid God, and in multiplying I will multiply thy Seed, as the Stars of the Heaven, and as the Sand which is upon the Sea-shore, And in thy Seed (i. e. in Chrift, the promis'd Seed) shall all the Nations of the Earth be blessed. God begins, we fee, with the Affurance of a Tempo

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SER M.

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ral Bleffing, a numerous Off-fpring, according to the Flesh, and ends with the future Enlargement of the Spiritual Kingdom of Chrift; the former of these being indeed a Figure only, or Mystical Emblem of the latter, to which this Divine Promise cheifly referr'd, and in which it was finally and fully accomplish'd. For the Scripture, forefeeing that God would justify the Heathen through Faith,preached before the Gospel unto Abraham, faying, In Thee shall all Nations be bleffed. The fame Gal. iii.&. Promise was afterwards exprefly renew'd to Ifaac, and Jacob, but to none other of Gen.xxvi, the fucceeding Patriarchs: and from these 4 Gen. alone, therefore, God took his Title, and xxviii. 18. vouchfafed to be call'd the God of Abraham, Ifaac, and Jacob; becaufe to the fe alone he had made the Promise of that Seed, in whom all the Nations of the Earth should be blessed, by being ingrafted into his Church, and becoming the Subjects of his Spiritual Kingdom.

Many Predictions of the fame kind are to be met with in the Pfalms, and the Prophets; particularly in Isaiah. His LXth Chapter,

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:

SERM. Chapter, is nothing else but a Defcription w of the glorious State of the Chriftian Church, upon the abundant Access of the Gentiles and he closes that Prophecy as we have heard, with the Text, which in few Words comprizes the fmall Appearance the Gospel should make at first, the vaft Increase it fhould afterwards receive, and the speedy manner in which it fhould take place. A little one shall become a Thousand, and a small one a great Nation; I the Lord will haften it in His time: In the Meffiah's time this great Event fhall come to pafs; and, when it begins, it fhall be haftned; it fhall proceed with an astonishing and irrefiftible Swiftness, until it be fulfill'd.

If then the victorious Progrefs of the Chriftian Faith be in itself a fufficient Evidence of its Divine Original; that Argument must needs be somewhat heightned and improv'd, by confidering, that the Spirit of Prophecy had long before fignify'd and promis'd this Succefs: for from the fame Spirit, from which the

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