_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 over to the Enemy, overwhelmed in Idolatry, in a Word, were engag'd to the _Devil_; God Almighty, or as the Scripture distinguishes him, _the Lord_, the true GOD, was out of the Question; Mankind knew little or nothing of him, much less did they know any thing of his Worship, or that there was such a Being in the World.