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Why was the army of Sennacherib deftroyed; and why was this fignal deftruction recorded? That it might be known, that the God of Ifrael was the only true God. That haughty conqueror, when he came againft Judah, imagined that he had to do with a deity like thofe of the conquered countries. "Who was there," does he fay, "among "all the gods of the nations that my fathers ut"terly deftroyed, that could deliver his people "out of mine hand, that your God fhould be able "to deliver you? As the gods of the nations of "other lands, have not delivered their people out "of mine hand, fo fhall not the God of Hezekiah "deliver his people out of mine hand d." Jerufalem, he concluded, must become an easy prey, becaufe fhe had not an host of images to defend her and the ark, the only thing to which he could give the name, feemed unworthy of being compared with thofe he had already conquered. "As "my hands have found the kingdoms of the idols, "and whofe graven images did excel them of Je"rufalem and of Samaria: fhall I not, as I have "done to Samaria and her idols, fo do to Jerufa"lem and her idolse?" He argues, in proof of the imbecility of the God of Ifrael, from his tame fubmiffion to the infults that, as he fuppofed, Hezekiah had offered to him, in overthrowing his images, and impoverishing his worship: evidently infinuating, that if he could not avenge himfelf on fo poor a prince as Hezekiah, one who had vanquished fo many nations could have nothing

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d 2 Chron. xxxii. 14. 17.

e Ifa. x. 10, II.

to fear from him. Thus he impiously addreffes the fervants of the king: "If ye fay unto me, "We truft in JEHOVAH Our God is not that he, "whofe high places, and whofe altars Hezekiah "hath taken away, and hath faid,-Ye fhall wor"ship before this altar in Jerufalem ?"

Hezekiah, in his folemn addrefs to God, reprefents this as a controverfy in which the honour of deity is peculiarly concerned. He pleads for deliverance, and he obtains it, as a proof of the fupreme dominion of JEHOVAH, of his abfolute unity as God. He faid, "O JEHOVAH God of Ifrael, "which dwelleft between the cherubims, thou "art the God, even thou alone, of all the king"doms of the earth, thou haft made heaven and "earth. Now therefore,-fave thou us out of "his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth "may know that thou art the LORD God, even "thou only." And what anfwer did he receive? "Thus faith JEHOVAH God of Ifrael, That which "thou haft prayed to me against Sennacherib king "of Affyria, I have heard. This is the word "that JEHOVAH hath spoken concerning him,"Because thy rage against me, and thy tumult is "come up into mine ears, therefore I will put my hook in thy nofe, and my bridle in thy lips, " and I will turn thee back by the way by which "thou cameft s." This arrogant ravager is defcribed as a wild beaft, muzzled and managed at the will of his keeper: and, as if God would give him the most humiliating proof of his folly, he is faved

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f2 Kings xviii. 22.

g 2 Kings xix. 15. 19. 20. 21. 28.

faved from the ftroke of the deftroying angel, and fuffered to return into his own land, that even there he might be a monument of the impotency of his idol, and of the power of JEHOVAH, the God of Ifrael, whom he had blafphemed. For he was flain by his fons, while "worshipping in the "houfe of Nifroch his god b."

4. The fame wonderful works afford a demonftration of the unity of God, as they difplay his abfolute power over all nature. The heathen not only divided the nations, but made a partition of nature itself among their false gods. One prefided over the thunder, another over the wind. The power of one was greateft on earth, the dominion of another was confined to the fea. One was lord of heaven, another reigned in hell. They had their gods of the hills, and their gods of the valleys; their gods of the woods, and their gods of the waters. But JEHOVAH hath manifefted his dominion over all the creatures, and made every part of nature obedient to his word. As he had difplayed his fovereignty over the thunder, in rendering it the inftrument of deftruction in Egypt, he did fo in like manner in caufing it to ceafe. Thus Mofes faid to Pharaoh ; "I will spread out my hands to JEHOVAH, "and the thunder fhall ceafe, neither fhall there "be any more hail, that thou mayeft know how "that the earth is JEHOVAH'S i." He deftroyed the frogs which he had fent, and fevered the land

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of Goshen, where his people dwelt, from the rest of Egypt, fo that there were no fwarms of flies. there; that he might fhew that the meaneft and minuteft creatures were his hofts, and that the Egyptians might know that there was "none like "unto JEHOVAH," that he was "the LORD in the "midst of the earth." The Egyptians learned to their coft that the wind and fea obeyed him. After they ventured into the channel of the Red Sea, they cried out in defpair, "Let us flee from "the face of Ifrael; for JEHOVAH fighteth for "them against the Egyptians." The Syrians, when defeated by the Ifraelites, gave this as the reafon; "Their gods are gods of the hills, there"fore they were ftronger than we; but let us

fight against them in the plain, and furely we "fshall be stronger than they." But even under the wicked Ahab, God crowned Ifrael with victory, to vindicate his claim to univerfal dominion. "There came a man of God, and fpake unto the

king of Ifrael, and faid, Thus faith JEHOVAH, "Because the Syrians have faid, JEHOVAH is God "of the hills, but he is not God of the vallies; "therefore will I deliver all this great multitude "into thine hand, and ye fhall know that I am JEHOVAH m."

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In the antediluvian age, the pofterity of Cain had openly apoftatized from the worship of God, and even the profeffors of the true religion almost univerfally lived as if there had been no God. He was therefore pleased, in the most awful manner,

k Exod. viii. 10. 22.

1 Chap. xiv. 25.

m 1 Kings xx. 23. 28.

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ner, to affert his exclufive claim to the rights of deity, and to difplay his univerfal dominion. This he did by the deluge. No one could deftroy the earth, but its Creator and Lord. "JEHOVAH faid, I will deftroy man whom I have created, "from the face of the earth, both man and beast. "-Behold I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth.-Every living fubftance that I "have made will I deftroy "." This tremendous difpenfation was efpecially defigned as a leffon to fucceeding generations. Noah and Shem, in whofe line the promise ran, lived for centuries after the flood, as witneffes of the truth of this judgment, and thus of the divine unity and dominion. They could appeal to this awful proof, in contending against the corruptions of the new world, and particularly against the first appearances of idolatry. In fucceeding ages, a fimilar appeal was made, by the profeffors of the true religion, to the deluge as a fact that could admit of no difpute, and as a decifive evidence of the power and providence of the God whom they adored. Did the wicked fay," How doth God "know? can he judge through the dark cloud??? His fervants had this reply in readinefs; "Haft "thou marked the old way which wicked men "have trodden? which were cut down out of "time, whofe foundation was overflown with a

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flood; which faid unto God, Depart from us "and what can the Almighty do for them?"

5. By

n Gen. vi. 7. 17.; vii. 4.

o Job xxii. 13. 15.-17.

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