worhl,  tocctlicr  with  diIkt  groat  tilings  llmt  God  (lltl   in  Canaan
when  tlu-  sun  stood  slill,  (which  was  a  miracle  done  in  the  presence
of  the  whole  world,)   and  Joshna  had   conquered   that  land,   and
nnillitudes  of  the  inh;iljil:uit>. were  driven   out,  and  went  some  to
Africa,   to  Cartliage,   and  other  |)arts  of  Africa,   and  to  the  isles
of  the  sea,  to   many  j):ii(s   of  Europe   as   well  as   Asia,  to   carry
the  tidings  of  those   iliinj^s,   and  to   interpret  ihe  miracle  of  tlie
sun's   standing   still. JSo   that,  in  a  manner,    the   whole  world
heard  of  these  great  things. See  Dent. ii. 25. "  This  day  will
I  begin  to  put  the  dreiid  of  thee  and  the  fear  of  thee  upon  the  na-
tions  that   are  under  the  whole  heaven,  who  shall  hear  report   of
thee,  and  shall  tremble  and  be  in  angui*h  because  of  thee."   And
the  memory  of  these  things  vvas  kept  up  a  great  while  among  the
nations,   as  appears   by  the   accounts  we   have  of  the  occasional
mention  which  the  neighbouring  nations  from  time  to  time  make
of  them,  till  about  David's  time,  when  the  memory  of  those  things
began  to   be  lost  among  them. And  then  God  did   new  things
to  mal<e  his  people  Israel,  w  ho  had  the  true  religion,  taken  notice
of  among  the  heathen,  viz,  his  subduing  all  the  nations  from  the
Euphrates  to  Egypt  under  David,  and  setting  Israel  at  the  head
of  the  greatest  empire  in  the  world,   in  his  days  and  the  days  of
his  son  Solomon. This  there  is  respect  to  in  many  such  passages
in  the  Psalms,  as  that  Ps. xcviii. 2,  though   there  be  also  a  pro-
phetic  respect  to  what  should  be  in  gospel  days  :   and  the  great
wisdom  and   prosperity  of  Solomon,  and   the   great  things  that
were  done  by  him,  the  fame  of  which   fdled  the  world  to  the  ut-
most bounds  of  it,   though   by  that  time   God  had  enlarged   the
bounds  of  their  habiiaiion. That  one  design   of  Providence  in
these  things  was,  that  the  heathen  nations  might  hear  the  fame  of
the  God  of  Israel,  and  so  have  opportunity  to  come  to  the  know-
ledge of  him,   is  confirmed   by  1  Kings  viii. 41,   42,  43. The
mecnory  of  these   things  kept  up  the   fame  of  that  nation  and  of
their  God  for  several    luindred  years. 