same religion. _Melchizedek_ was a Priest of the most high God, and
_Abraham_ voluntarily paid tythes to him; which he would scarce have done
had they not been of one and the same religion. The first inhabitants of
the land of _Canaan_ seem also to have been originally of the same
religion, and to have continued in it 'till the death of _Noah_, and the
days of _Abraham_; for _Jerusalem_ was anciently [234] called _Jebus_, and
its people _Jebusites_, and _Melchizedek_ was their Priest and King: these
nations revolted therefore after the days of _Melchizedek_ to the worship
of false Gods; as did also the posterity of _Ismael_, _Esau_, _Moab_,
_Ammon_, and that of _Abraham_ by _Keturah_: and the _Israelites_
themselves were very apt to revolt: and one reason why _Terah_ went from
_Ur_ of the _Chaldees_ to _Haran_ in his way to the land of _Canaan_; and
why _Abraham_ afterward left _Haran_, and went into the land of _Canaan_,
might be to avoid the worship of false Gods, which in their days began in
_Chaldea_, and spread every way from thence; but did not yet reach into the
land of _Canaan_. Several of the laws and precepts in which this primitive
religion consisted are mentioned in the book of _Job_, chap. i. ver. 5, and
chap, xxxi, _viz._ _not to blaspheme God, nor to worship the Sun or Moon,
nor to kill, nor steal, nor to commit adultery, nor trust in riches, nor
oppress the poor or fatherless, nor curse your enemies, nor rejoyce at
their misfortunes: but to be friendly, and hospitable and merciful, and to
relieve the poor and needy, and to set up Judges_. This was the morality
and religion of the first ages, still called by the _Jews_, _The precepts
of the sons of _Noah__: this was the religion of _Moses_ and the Prophets,
comprehended in the two great commandments, of _loving the Lord our God
with all our heart and soul and mind, and our neighbour as our selves_:
this was the religion enjoyned by _Moses_ to the uncircumcised stranger
within the gates of _Israel_, as well as to the _Israelites_: and this is
the primitive religion of both _Jews_ and _Christians_, and ought to be the
standing religion of all nations, it being for the honour of God, and good
of mankind: and _Moses_ adds the precept of _being merciful even to brute
beasts, so as not to suck out their blood, nor to cut off their flesh alive
with the blood in it, nor to kill them for the sake of their blood, nor to
strangle them; but in killing them for food, to l