Discourses upon the Existence and Attributes of God

And that corrupted both in the spring and in the Rivulets. Were they better than other Nations, when God first drew them out of their slavery? We have Joshua's Authority for it, that they had complied with the Egyptian Idolatry, and served other Gods in that place of their servitude. Joshua 24.14. Had they had an abhorrency of the superstition of Egypt, while they remained there, they could not so soon have erected a Golden Calf for Worship in imitation of the Egyptian Idols. All the rest of mankind had as inviting reasons to present God with, as those people had. God might have granted the same privilege to all the World, as well as to them, or denied it them, and endowed all the rest of the World with his Statutes: but the enriching such a small Company of people with his Divine showers, and leaving the rest of the World as a barren Wilderness in Spirituals, can be placed upon no other account originally than that of his unaccountable Sovereignty of his love to them: There was nothing in them, to merit such high Titles from God as his first born, his peculiar Treasure, the Apple of his Eye. He disclaims any Righteousness in them, and speaks a word sufficient to damp such thoughts in them, by charging them with their wickedness, while he loaded them with his benefits. Deut. 9.4.6. The Lord gives thee not this Land for thy Righteousness: For thou art a stiff-necked people. It was an act of God's free pleasure, to choose them to be a people to himself. Deut. 7.6.

And that corrupted both in the spring and in the Rivulets. Were they better than other Nations, when God first drew them out of their slavery? We have Joshua's Authority for it, that they had complyed with the Egyptian Idolatry, and served other Gods in that place of their servitude. Joshua 24.14. Had they had an abhorrency of the superstition of Egypt, while they remain'd there, they could not so soon have erected a Golden Calf for Worship in imitation of the Egyptian Idols. All the rest of mankind had as inviting reasons to present God with, as those people had. God might have granted the same priviledge to all the World, as well as to them, or denyed it them, and endow'd all the rest of the World with his Statutes: but the enriching such a small Company of people with his Divine showers, and leaving the rest of the World as a barren Wilderness in Spirituals, can be plac'd upon no other account originally than that of his unaccountable Soveraignty of his love to them: There was nothing in them, to merit such high Titles from God as his first born, his peculiar Treasure, the Apple of his Eye. He disclaims any Righteousness in them, and speaks a word sufficient to damp such thoughts in them, by charging them with their wickedness, while he loaded them with his benefits.