Word, the _Devil_ got what we may call an entire Victory over
Mankind, and drove the Worship of the true God, in a Manner quite out
of the World, forcing, _as it were_, his Maker in a new kind of
Creation, the old one proving thus ineffectual to recover a certain
Number by Force and meer Omnipotence to return to their Duty, serve him
and worship him; _But of that hereafter_.

CHAP. XI.

_Of God's calling a Church out of the midst of a degenerate World, and of
Satan's new Measures upon that Incident: How he attack'd them
immediately, and his Success in those Attacks._

_Satan_ having, as I have said in the preceding Chapter, made, as it
were, a full Conquest of Mankind, debauch'd them all to Idolatry, and
brought them at least to worshiping the true God by the wretched Medium
of corrupt and idolatrous Representations; God seem'd to have no true
Servants or Worshippers left in the World, but if I may be allow'd to
speak so, was oblig'd, in order to restore the World to their Senses
again, to call a select Number out from among the rest, who he himself
undertook should own his Godhead or supreme Authority, and worship him
as he requir'd to be worship'd; this, _I say_, God was oblig'd to do,
because 'tis evident it has not been done so much by the Choice and
Council of Men, _for Satan would have over-rul'd that Part_, as by the
Power and Energy of some irresistible and invincible Operation, and this
our Divines give high Names to; but be it what they will, it is the
second Defeat or Disappointment that the _Devil_ he met with in his
Progress in the World; the first I have spoken of already.

It is true, Satan very well understood what was threatn'd to him in the
original Promise to the Woman, immediately after the Fall, namely, _thou
shalt bruise his Head_, &c. but he did not expect it so suddenly, but
thought himself sure of Mankind, till the Fullness of Time when the
Messiah should come; and therefore it was a great Surprize to him, to
see that _Abraham_ being call'd was so immediately receiv'd and
establish'd, tho' he did not so immediately follow the Voice that
directed him, yet in him, in his Loins was all God's Church at that time
contain'd.

In the calling _Abraham_, it is easy to see that there was no other way
for God to form a Church, that is to say, to single out a People to
himself, as the World was then stated, but by immediate Revelation and a
Voice from Heaven: All Mankind were gone ove