preferve this Race, whofe Fathers had adhered to him, as the Imaginers had done, to feduce and keep thofe who adhered to them: They had pretended to juggling Tricks, to Correfpondence by foreseeing the Eclipfes, &c. God fhewed them convincing Miracles of his Power over their God, in all Forms. As the Imaginers had Sacrifices, and Feafts, &c. fo all the general Meetings of the Ifraelites before the Lord, their joint Sacrifices, their joint Feafts and Rejoicings together, encouraged, ftrengthned and united them in the fame Caufe. At their entring, and destroying the Inhabitants of Canaan, they were to burn all their Idols with Fire; and when any Crime of this Sort was committed in one of those which were afterwards their own Cities, they were to flay the Inhabi tants, and the Cattle, and gather the Stuff into the midst of the City, as Deut. xiii. 16. And shalt burn with Fire the City, and all the Spoil thereof, every whit, for the Lord thy God. And every Sacrifice was a publick Affront, and contemptuous Treatment of God's Rival, the higheft Operation of the Airs, Fire: the greateft of that kind, was Judges vi. 26. where God commands Gideon, not only to facrifice to him with Fire, but also a Bullock, one of its Reprefentatives,

sentatives, with the Wood of Baal's Grove, or Image. And all their Memorials and Commemorations, were of God's particular and eminent Conquefts, and of his Rival's Defeats. He, instead of Pillars and Heaps of Stone, and Tradition, or hear-fay Stories of the pretended Actions of their Gods, records his Actions; and firft, his making, contriving and forming their God, which he does in Writing; fo that not one Circumftance could be loft. When they attempted to burn those who would not worship their God, in Furnaces, with Fuel, he fufpended the Operation, and delivered them: But he made Fire, without Fuel, destroy those who worshiped it. As the Imaginers promised Success over their Enemies, fo. God promised, and performed, Succefs to his Followers, over theirs. All the Bleffings were to come from Mount Gerizim, and all the Curfings from Mount Ebal; Bleffings for hewing down, and Curfings for fetting up, Baal: Or, as Ifaiab expreffes it, Chap. xxvii. 9. By this therefore fhall the Iniquity of Jacob be purged, and this is all the Fruit, to take away his Sin; when he maketh all the Stones of the Altar as Chalk-Stones THAT ARE beaten afunder, the Groves and Images (or SUN-IMAGES) fhall not stand up. All his Threatnings for

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Difobedience, were long fufpended, but when the People were in a great Degree fallen from him, executed. And as each Nation of the Heathens, by this Vice grew ripe for Destruction, God, in Writing, foretold the Time when, and the Perfon who should lead each into Captivity, or destroy them. The Imaginers pretended that their God could give or withhold fruitful Seafons, Health, &c. and the Devil helped them to make fome blind uncertain Predictions or Gueffes: God by his Prophets, publickly, or in Writing, as they adhered to him at fixed Times, grants them Plenty, Health, or, &c. at other Times, when they followed the Imaginers, denounces Droughts, Famines, Peftilence, &c. and executes them. All God's Reprefentations by Dreams, Vifions, &c. to the Heathen Princes, were to fhew that the God of thefe Imaginers, and the Devil to help him, could foretel nothing: And to give an Opportunity to God's Servants (fometimes occafionally then made Prophets) to fhew that he faw into their very Souls, and could foresee all Things. The common Expence of Sacrifices, for Atonement of particular Men's Crimes, the Shame of having their Crimes publickly known, alf the particular Punishments for Breaches of

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Ceremonies, nay, for the greateft Crime, were all adapted to the fame End: And after all this, our Imaginers are continually railing against Prieftcraft; the Wolves may as well exclaim against Shepherds. And furely, as the World was then, and while the Ifraelites kept clear of Imaginers," Mofes faid right, Deut. iv. 6. For this Is your Wifdom, and your Understanding, in the Sight of the Nations which fhall hear of thefe Statutes, and fay, Surely this Nation is a wife and understanding People. Ver. 7. For what Nation IS THERE so great, who. HATH God fo nigh unto them, as the Lord our God is in all THINGS that we call upon him for? Ver. 8. And what Nation is THERE SO great, that hath Statutes and Judgments so righteous, as all this Law which I fet before you this Day?

Our Imaginers pretend, that the Prophets in the Old Teftament never thought of Immortality, or a future State, but only of Temporal Bleffings. The Anfwer which Jefus gave the Sadduces, when there was no other Scripture, muft ferve them, Matth. xxii. 29. Te do err, not knowing the Ye Scriptures, nor the Power of God. In all Difputes with those the Imaginers had feduced, the main Question was, Whether the Airs did every thing of themselves, or

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there was an intelligent Being, who created and commanded them? The future State, the general Judgment, &c. were Confequences which would be believed, or difbelieved, by that Iffue. Job, Mofes, David, &c. when they were upon the Point of a future State, expreffed it as fully as we can do now; nay, the very Heathens never difputed it, but did fomething for the Dead: But in this Difpute, it was not the Question, whether God was Lord of another System, another Place, or another State, which has fince been exprefs'd by the Word Heaven; but, whether the Heavens, or Airs, or God, was Lord here; that determined both. Preaching a future State, and expecting any Confeqences from that, then or now, to Men who have fuch Imaginations in their Heads, is to no purpose, till the oppofite Truth be eftablifhed; that is the Foundation of all; and the Heathen Nations will never be converted (humanly fpeaking) by any other means: So God of Heaven, God who made the Heaven, God of Glory, or the Firmament of Light, or any Word which expreffed him Lord of that Operation which he calls his Spirit, his Fire, &c. both as he had no other Rival, and as the creating and framing that Operation fhewed the

God,