SERM. thine Enemies turn their Backs unto thee. XIII. And I will fend Hornets before thee, which fhall drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite, from before thee. I will not drive them out from before thee in one Year; left the Land become defolate, and the Beafts of the Field multiply against thee. By little and little will I drive them out before thee, until thou be increafed and inberit the Land. And I will fet thy Bounds from the Red Sea, even unto the Sea of the Philistines, and from the Defart unto the River: For I will deliver the Inhabitants of the Land into your Hand; and thou shalt drive them out before thee: Thou shalt make no Covenant with them, nor with their Gods, They shall not dwell in thy Land, left they make thee fin against me: For if thou ferve their Gods, it will furely be a Snare unto thee, Exod. xxiii. 27-33. These are plainly the Bounds of the People which Mofes meant: And they were not only fet, you fee, according to the Number of the Children of Ifrael, but were alfo divided and given up to them, as faft as their Number increased and wanted them. For, as the Hebrew Original and the Greek Translation both agree in the Words following, The

Lord's

Lord's Portion is his People, Jacob is the s ERM. Lot of his Inheritance. Notwithstanding there- XIII. fore the Greek Verfion of the foregoing Verfe, the Hebrew Reading, and Hebrew Senfe is ftill to be retained. How it came to be tranflated by the LXX to another Sense, there are feveral Conjectures *: But it will be of no use to examine them here: I shall therefore omit them, especially when it is my Business to contend for the Doctrine which that Translation expreffes, but which I would confirm from more uncontested Texts of Scripture.

The most indisputable, as well as clearest Text of Scripture we have to this Purpose, is in the Book of Exodus, where Mofes relates the Anger of God, upon Aaron's setting up the molten Calf. Upon this Account he was fo highly displeased with them, that he threatens he would no longer prefide over them himself, but fubject them to the Guidance and Governance of an Angel. I will fend (faith he) an Angel before thee-for I will not go up in the midst of thee (for thou art a

*See GALE's Notes on JAMBLIC de Myfteriis Ægyptiorum, p. 279, 280. CARPZOV. Defence of the Hebrew Bible, p. 68. SCOTT's Chriftian Life. Part 2. Vol. II. p. 316, 317.

SER M. ftiff-necked People) left I confume thee in thy XIII. Way; Exod. xxxiii. 2, 3. At this the Peo

ple were much disheartened, and Mofes earneftly befeeched God, that he would not withdraw his Prefence from them, but fuffer it ftill to accompany and lead them. If thy Prefence (faith he) go not with me; carry us not up hence; ver. 15. which is much the fame with what he repeats in the Chapter following: O Lord, let my Lord I pray thee go amongst us and pardon our Iniquity, and our Sin, and take us for thy Inheritance: Ch. xxxiv. 9. God, being graciously moved by this Humiliation of Mofes and of the People, vouchfafes to grant their Request, and fays to Mofes, My Prefence fhall go with thee, ch. xxxiii. 14. meaning the Angel of his Prefence, as he is called in the fixty-third Chapter of Isaiah; or as God himself declares to Mofes, the Angel in whom is the Name of God, Exod. xxxiii. 21. i. e, in whom the Godhead itself dwells: For which Reafon he is all along stiled the Lord, or Jehovah.

This Angel many great Men have supposed to be the Pre-existing Soul of the Meffias or Christ *; which having been created the first

* See Dr KNIGHT's fecond Letter to Dr LEE, p. 85, &c. and his Scripture Doctrine vindicated, p. 65 and 103.

of

of all Creatures, the Logos or Word, or Sons ER M. of God had before all Worlds affumed, and XIII. perfonally united to himself, that through it he might form and govern his Church, and then become incarnate, and die to redeem it. This pre-exifting Soul, I fay, (the Hypothefis of which folves many very difficult Texts of Scripture) is fuppofed by many very learned Men, to have been the Angel of the Covenant mentioned by Malachi, Mal. iii. 1. and the Angel whom Mofes continually fpeaks of through the whole Pentateuch, as guiding and conducting the Children of Ifrael; who confequently were under the immediate Guidance of God himself, the Godhead in the Perfon of the Divine Word, or Son, being hypoftatically united with that Soul, as after the Incarnation it was with his Soul and Body both. Accordingly WISDOM (by which in the Poetical Books Chrift, or the Meffiab is to be understood, as being the Wisdom, as well as the Word of the Father) speaks of herself in the 24th of Ecclefiafticus in the following Manner: Wisdom fhall praife herself, and shall glory in the midst of her People. In the Congregation of the most High shall she open her Mouth, and triumph before his Power. I came out of the Mouth of the most High, and covered the Earth

X 4

XIII.

SEK M. Earth as a Cloud. I dwelt in high Places, and my Throne is in a cloudy Pillar. I alone compaffed the Circuit of Heaven, and walked in the Bottom of the Deep. In the Waves of the Sea, and in all the Earth, and in every People and Nation I got a Poffeffion. With all these I fought Reft, and in whofe Inheritance fhall I abide? So the Creator of all Things gave me a Commandment, and he that made me caufed my Tabernacle to reft; and faid, Let thy Dwelling be in Jacob, and thine Inheritance in Ifrael. He created me from the Beginning before the World, and I fhall never fail. In the Holy Tabernacle I ferved before him, and so was I established in Sion. Likewife in the Beloved City he gave me Reft, and in Jerufalem was my Power. And I took Root in an honourable People, even in the Portion of the Lord's Inberitance; Ecclus. xxiv. 1-12.

Now here we see Wisdom, who (as I have faid) is alfo the Word of the Father, and who accordingly declares of herself, that the came out of the Mouth of the most High. This Wisdom, I fay, or Word, who dwelt in the High Places, and whofe Throne was in a cloudy Pillar, who alone compaffed the Circuit of Heaven, and walked in the Bottom of the Deep, who had originally a Poffeffion in all the

Ear th