"of your gods, and I will call on the name of Je"HOVAH and the God that anfwereth by fire, "let him be God." They all approved of this as a moft equitable condition. The falfe prophets "called on the name of Baal from morning " even until noon, faying, O Baal, hear us. But "there was no voice, nor any that anfwered."When mid-day was paft, and they prophefied "until the time of the offering of the evening fa"crifice, there was neither voice, nor any to an"fwer, nor any that regarded." For the gods of the nations" have ears, but they hear not." The fire from heaven having confumed the facrifice offered by Elijah, the multitude were convinced, that the God whom he worshipped was the only true God.

"When all the people faw it, they "fell on their faces: and they faid, JEHOVAH he "is the God; JEHOVAH he is the God P." In like manner, the deliverance which God gave the Jews from Sennacherib, when he fent forth his angel, and flew an hundred and eighty-five thoufand of the Affyrians, was in anfwer to the prayer of Hezekiah. This good king fought deliverance, exprefsly as an evidence that JEHOVAH alone had a right to adoration. The plea was accepted, and the deliverance was given as the answer of his prayers. Hezekiah faid, "O JEHOVAH our God, "I befeech thee, fave thou us out of his hand, "that all the kingdoms of the earth may know "that thou art JEHOVAH God, even thou only." And this was the gracious apfwer: "Thus faith JEHOVAH

p 1 Kings xviii. 24. 26. 29. 39.

66

JEHOVAH the God of Ifrael, That which thou "haft prayed to me against Sennacherib king of Affyria, I have heard 9." On this striking part of the character of her God, that he heareth prayer, the Church grounds her confidence as to the converfion of all nations to the faith: "O thou "that heareft prayer, unto thee fhall all flefh come. By terrible things in righteoufnefs wilt thou anfwer us, O God of our falvation; who "art the confidence of all the ends of the earth, "and of them that are afar off on the fea "."

66

Often hath our God vindicated his claim to this character, by answering the prayers of his Church in the time of her neceflity, even when his operation hath been nowife miraculous. Hence Jeremiah uttered this language, during a famine occafioned by a great drought; "Are there any

66

among the vanities of the Gentiles that can "cause rain? or can the heavens give fhowers? "art not thou HE, O JEHOVAH our God?" HE, who alone can give rain? "therefore we will "wait upon thee, for thou haft made all these things." He fignally manifefted his power in this refpect, in anfwer to the prayer of Elijah, both in judgment and in mercy. "He prayed earnestly that it might not rain; and it rained "not on the earth by the space of three years and "fix months. And he prayed again, and the "heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit."

66

VI. The

q 2 Kings xix. 19, 20. t James v. 17, 18.

r Pfal. lxv. 2. 5.

s Jer. xiv. 22.

VI. The LORD hath ftill manifefted that he is the only living and true God, by his faithfulness to his Church, and by remembering his covenant, efpecially when the hath turned to him. Therefore Solomon thus addreffes him; "JEHOVAH God "of Ifrael, there is no God like thee, in heaven "above, or in earth beneath, who keepeft cove"nant and mercy with thy fervants, that walk "before thee with all their heart "." Of this faithfulness the Jews were ftanding witneffes, while they adhered to him. In various refpects, it was fucceffively attefted by miraculous operation. As long as the land, according to the divine commandment, enjoyed her Sabbaths, they received a double harveft; and while all the males, who were able to travel, were affembled at Jerufalem during the folemn feafts, the enemy never "defired their land." The heathen could boast nothing of this nature. Their gods made no difference between obedience and difobedience.

VII. The history of the work of redemption, in its various ftages from the fall downwards, is one continued demonftration of the unity of God. It difplays an evident unity of defign and operation. The eye, that views the divine difpenfations partially, may oppose one to another. It may oppofe the patriarchal difpenfation to that of the law, and both these to the gospel. Hence fome of the early heretics reprefented the God of the Jews as quite a different being from the God of the Chri

u x Kings viii. 23.

ftians.

ftians. But thofe who view this matter fairly and impartially, difcern the most beautiful harmony. They perceive that the one illuftrates and confirms the other; that while the Mofaic difpenfation derives its perfection from the Chriftian, the Chriftian derives its evidence from the Mofaic and that both hinge on that given to the patriarchs. Thus the Church finds the most abundant reafon for this fong; "He is the Rock, his work "As for God, his way is perfect.

" is perfect "."

"For who is

;

God fave JEHOVAH ? and who is "a rock fave our God w?"

As there is the most beautiful harmony in all the parts of divine revelation, although written in a great variety of ages; as they have all one great fubject, the redemption of the Church by the Son of God in the nature of man; as one fpirit evidently pervades and animates the whole, uniformly "teftifying the fufferings of Chrift, and "the glory that should follow;" a fimilar harmony is difcernible in the operations of Providence. Of these we have an almoft uninterrupted record for more than four thousand years. But they all evidently concentrate in one point. They are all directed to the work of redemption. They all confpire towards its accomplishment; fome of them immediately, and others more remotely. The firft gofpel-promife, concerning the feed of the woman bruifing the head of the ferpent, is a key to all the fucceeding history of Providence, in reference to individuals or to nations, to the Church

v Deut. xxxii.

w 2 Sam. xxii. 31, 32.

Church or the world. We fee the earth peopled, and in a little almost entirely ftript of its inhabitants; cities built, and razed; empires founded, and brought to ruin; all in relation to that kingdom which fhall never have an end, and that dominion which fhall not be given to another people. "When the Moft High divided to the na"tions their inheritance, when he feparated the "fons of Adam, he fet the bounds of the people, according to the number of the children of If"rael." It was for the fake of his Church, and as her Redeemer and Holy One, that he "fent to Babylon, and brought down all their nobles." When he warns her not to be "afraid of the Af

66

66

66

fyrian," her intereft in the Meffiah is pointed out as her fecurity and confolation; "It fhall come to pass in that day, that his burden fhall "be taken away from off thy fhoulder, and his yoke from off thy neck, and the yoke fhall be destroyed because of the anointing "."

46

It was doubtlefs with a defign to imprefs the Ifraelites with a fenfe of the unity, both of his effence, and of his love to the Church, that God fo frequently defigned himfelf from the relation which he bore to their fathers. He was pleafed to take fuch names in fucceffion; as if he meant to inform them, that notwithstanding the lapfe of time, and the change of perfons, he is ftill the fame. When he appeared to Mofes, and gave him a commiflion to proclaim liberation to his captives in Egypt, he commanded him to deliver this

x Deut. xxxii. 8.

y

Ifa. xliii. 14.

2 lia. x. 27.