some of her offspring. Those people who kept close to the worship and service of God, were the posterity of Seth; but in process of time they became infected by the ungodly posterity of Cain, insomuch, that at length, such was the wickedness of mankind, as to occasion God to send a flood of water upon the old world, Noah and his family being preserved therein, and the creatures which he carried with him into the ark; somewhat above a thousand six hundred years from the creation".

Period II. The new world was peopled by Noah's sons, and their posterity, which was the sooner effected by their language being divided: but of all Noah's offspring, God was pleased to make a peculiar covenant with Abraham and his posterity, both in respect to their inheritance in the land of Canaan, and the promise of the Messiah to come from his seed, according to the flesh; which Messiah, when come, should be their Saviour, and also of all other nations of the earth. Those of Abraham's issue, whom God ordained to be the heirs of the promise, and the members of his church on earth, were his son Isaac, and grandson Jacob, called also Israel, with Jacob's twelve sons and their posterity, who made up the people called the children of Israel. Joseph, one of them, being envied by the rest, (when sojourning together with their father in Canaan,) was sold by them into Egypt; where at length he became the second man in the kingdom, next to king Pharaoh, which was occasioned by his advising to lay up provision against a seven years' scarcity and famine, which God enabled him to foretel. In the time of the famine he succoured and settled in Egypt his father Jacob, and all his brethren, which came to pass a little more than six hundred years after the flood".

Gen. i. to ix.

Gen. ix, to the end of the book,

Period III. After some time a new king arose in Egypt, (called also Pharaoh,) who knew not Joseph; but being both unmindful of what he had done for that nation in the time of the famine, and also being jealous of the increase and strength of the children of Israel, grievously afflicted them for above fourscore years; but at length God delivered them, by the hands of Moses and Aaron, having wrought many wonderful works; and at last conducted them through the Red sea, wherein Pharaoh and all his host were destroyed, and brought them into the wilderness or desart of Arabia, on their way towards Canaan, in order to settle them therein, according to his covenant with Abraham their ancestor; in the mean time supplying them in a miraculous manner with manna, which he gave them from heaven, and with water out of the rock. And when they had journeyed so far in Arabia as to mount Sinai, he instructed them by Moses in his laws, which they should observe when they came to inhabit Canaan : but upon their murmuring and distrust in God's pro mises, many of them were destroyed, and their entrance into Canaan was delayed for the space of forty years, in which they wandered in the wilderness of Arabia; but at the end of that space, by God's assistance, and under the conduct of Joshua, they were brought to Canaan, and enabled, in seven years, to conquer the old inhabitants of the land, and possess their country which was, by God's appointment, divided amongst them into twelve parts, according to the number of Jacob's twelve sons, whose offspring were esteemed as so many tribes, or families, four hundred and seventy-seven years after the covenant made with Abraham their forefather".

*

Period IV. After the death of Joshua, and soine

• Exod. i. &c. and Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, to the end of Joshua..

of their elders, an evil generation succeeded, who, for their idolatry, and other sins, were at sundry times given up by God into the hands of their enemies, some of the old inhabitants of Canaan, especially the Philistines, who were still left in the outparts of the land: but, upon their repentance, as often delivered by the Judges, whom God raised up for that purpose. At length, notwithstanding a long experience of God's immediate protection, and being provoked by the ill management of Samuel's sons, whom he (their last judge, and immediate ruler under God) had in his old age taken for his assistance in the government, they desired a king to be set over them, like the kings of other nations. Accordingly God, by his providence, caused first Saul, then David, to be anointed their king. After David, his son Solomon succeeded, in whose reign the first temple was built, and their state and glory was at the highest, four hundred and forty-seven years after their entrance into Canaan P.

Period V. After Solomon's death, Rehoboam, his son, being anointed their king, and giving a harsh answer to the people, addressing him for the removal of some grievances, alienated the hearts of ten of the twelve tribes; so that they chose Jeroboam to be king over them, and forsook the house of David. Upon which the kingdom was divided between that of Rehoboam and his successors, kings over the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, and who were of the house of David, (whose chief seat was at Jerusalem,) and that of Jeroboam, and his successors, kings over the other ten tribes of Israel, (whose chief seat was at Samaria.) The former was called the kingdom of Judah, the latter the kingdom of Israel. This di vision lasted, till at length (by reason of their idolatry and other impieties, notwithstanding the con

P Judges ii. to 1 Kings xii.

stant admonition of the prophets, whom God sent among them from time to time) the ten tribes of the kingdom of Israel were carried away captive into Assyria; and somewhat above an hundred years after that, the other two tribes of Judah and Benjamin were likewise carried captive into Babylon, the city of Jerusalem, and the temple therein being destroyed, four hundred and sixteen years after their highest state, and the finishing of Solomon's temple, and eight hundred and sixty-three years after their entrance into Canaan.

Period VI. The great body of the ten tribes, or those of the kingdom of Israel, who were carried into Assyria, never returned; but the chief part of their country was possessed by those whom the Assyrian kings had sent thither, called Samaritans, from Samaria, the chief city of the country: but the tribe of Judah, with that of Benjamin, (which made up the kingdom of Judah, from thence afterwards called Jews,) according to God's promise, and by his wonderful providence, were permitted by the Persian kings, who had conquered the Babylonians, to return into their own land, and to rebuild their city Jerusalem, and the temple, (which is from thence called the second temple,) and to settle themselves again in Canaan, after seventy years captivity". [Here the history of the Old Testament ends.]

Period VII. The Jews, after returning into their own country, had various changes in their government, which was managed by the high priest and great council; but in subjection, first to the Persians, then to Alexander the Great, (the Grecian or Macedonian king,) and next to the kings of Egypt and Syria; by one of whom, viz. Antiochus Epiphanes, they were grievously oppressed; but delivered by

1 Kings xii. to 2 Kings xxv. 22. Esther.

Ezra i. to the end of

some among themselves, called Maccabees, till at length they became subject to the Romans: and now, the fulness of time being come, the promised Seed, the Messiah, our Lord Jesus Christ, appeared in the world he was born of the Virgin Mary, (one of Abraham's posterity, as God promised him,) and suffered under Pontius Pilate, then deputy-governor of Judæa, and was crucified, but rose again the third day, and ascended triumphantly into heaven. He was first manifested to the Jews, and then, according to the tenor of the covenant with Abraham, to the other nations of the earth, called Gentiles: this Gospel being made known up and down the world by the Apostles, and other first publishers thereof, God bearing them witness, and assisting them with the miraculous gifts and power of his holy Spirit, against all opposition, either of Jews or Gentiles. The Romans, being the last masters of the Jews, at length were the instruments, in God's hands, of destroying their city Jerusalem, and their second temple, and of putting an end to their state and nation, fulfilling upon them all that the prophets and our Lord Jesus Christ had foretold; which came to pass about thirty-seven years after his passion, six hundred and two years after their return from the Babylonian captivity, and about one thousand five hundred years after their first settlement in Canaan.

CHAPTER II.

General remarks for the better understanding of the Pentateuch.

THE first part of the Bible is called, from the Greek language, the Pentateuch, that is, a five-fold volume, because it consists of five books; as, 1. Genesis, which signifies the original, or first beginning, as giving an account of the original or creation of the