Chosen People

I realized I never got a chance to comment on Robinson Crusoe, so in order not to totally bore you all, I found a way to relate it to “The Mysteries of Udolpho” because of a particular passage that I found very interesting.
On page 47-48, Emily has a spiritual moment while she is sitting by herself, staring out at the landscape before her. The author describes her ascension to a higher plane of devotion in this moment. “Such devotion as can, perhaps, only be experienced, when the mind, rescued, for a moment, from the humbleness of earthly considerations, aspires to contemplate His power in the sublimity of His works, and His goodness in the infinity of His blessings.”
This makes me think about how Defoe made it so that Crusoe’s shipwreck became a spiritually purging experience. The shipwreck and all of the struggles that Crusoe went through were punishment for his disrespect of his parents. But through his repentance and his remembrance of God throughout his island-stranded life, he was able to redeem himself. God “chose” Crusoe to be freed from material considerations by putting him on the island, enabling him to reach this higher state of worship. All Crusoe could think about that whole time was God’s might, will, bounty and beneficence as he struggled to survive.
It’s as if Defoe is making it so that Crusoe is the head of a new kind of chosen people. I don’t have much experience with the Biblical versions of the stories I know from the Quran (although I’ve been told that the narrations are very similar) but it sort of reminds me of the people of the prophets, especially those of Moses who suffered on Earth, perhaps for their prior sins, but were promised Heaven if they persisted in their true worship. In this sense, Defoe makes Crusoe like one of these people who suffers hardships to redeem himself from his sins but because of his faith he is rewarded by money.
Perhaps Defoe was trying to say that the people who were like Crusoe (the middle class) were the chosen ones for wealth in this life and the hereafter if they persisted in their worship.