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naries, of which fome have thought fit to make deities, had, in themselves, neither that precious "and fhining matter, whereof they were compofed, nor the admirable form to which we fee "them reduced P."

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It was held in a great part of the Eaft, that there were two firft principles; the one, the cause of good; the other, of evil; the one prefiding over light, and the other over darknefs. But the facred hiftorian declares that light and darkness are equally under the power of the God of Ifrael 9. The language of God in his prophetical addrefs to Cyrus, contains a beautiful illuftration of this hiftory. Its force and beauty especially appear, when we reflect that Cyrus was the leader of that very people who zealously adhered to the doctrine of two firft principles, and with whom it feems to have originated. "I am JEHOVAH, "and there is none elfe, there is no God befides "me: I girded thee, though thou haft not known

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me that they may know from the rifing of the "fun, and from the weft, that there is none be"fides me, I am JEHOVAH, and there is none else. "I form the light and create darkness: I make peace and create evil: I JEHOVAH do all these things."

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The heathen nations "changed the glory of the "uncorruptible God, into an image made like to "corruptible man, and to birds and four-footed "beafts, and creeping things "." The worship of

A 4

p Univerfal Hift. Vol. i. Part 2.

r Ifa. xlv. 5.-7.

q Gen. i. 3.-5.

s Rom. i. 23.

the

the Egyptians was uncommonly vile. They worfhipped the ox, the lion, the dog, the cat, the goat, the ape, the crocodile, the ichneumon, &c. The Ifraelites, who had fojourned fo long among this idolatrous race, were deeply tainted with their pollutions. To pour contempt on this debafing worship, God carries his people back to the beginning of all things; and fhews them the fowl generated from the waters, and the quadruped and reptile rifing from the earth, at his command. If the body of man himself was formed from the duft, it must be a very unfit image of its Former as it afterwards appears, from the denunciation of the fentence of death, that nothing could be more abfurd than to deify and adore a dead man. Well, therefore, may we fay with Hezekiah; "O JEHOVAH of hofts,-thou art the "God, even thou alone of all the kingdoms of "the earth; thou haft made heaven and earth t."

11. He records the wonderful works which he performed, and the temporal deliverances which he gave to his Church, as proofs of his being the only true God. She, on this ground, acknowledges his unity: "Thou art great, and doft won"drous things: thou art GoD alone "." He appeals to the redemption which he should give his people from Egypt, in proof of his claim to the character of JEHOVAH, and of his peculiar relation to them; " I will redeem you with a stretch❝ed-out arm, and with great judgment. And I " will

$ Gen. ii. 7.

t Ifa. xxxvii. 16.

u Pfal. Ixxxvi. 10,

"will take you to me for a people, and I will be "to you a God: and ye fhall know that I am JE

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HOVAH your God, which bringeth you out from "under the burdens of the Egyptians"." It was his will that his unity fhould appear from thefe works. Therefore he thus addreffes Ifrael: "Hath God af"fayed to take him a nation from the midst of ano"ther nation, by temptations, by figns and by won"ders, and by war, and by a mighty hand, and by a "ftretched-out arm, and by great terrors, accord

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ing to all that JEHOVAH your God did for you "in Egypt before your eyes? Unto thee it was "fhewed, that thou mightest know that JEHO"VAH he is God; there is none elfe befides him? By the record of these illuftrious facts, he would have his people perpetually reminded of this fundamental doctrine, and confirmed in the belief of it. For he adds: "Know therefore this day, "and confider it in thine heart, that JEHOVAH he " is God in heaven above, and upon the earth be"neath there is none elfe "."

W

1. With this view were thofe works recorded, which immediately difplayed the mercy of God towards his people. For they were recorded for the use of the church in all ages, with the very fame defign with which they were at firft performed. Were the Ifraelites miraculously preferved in the defert? It was to prove, that their God alone was worthy of faith and adoration; "I "have led you forty years in the wilderness: your "clothes

▾ Exod vi. 6, 7.

w Deut. iv. 54, 35, 39.

"clothes are not waxen old upon you, and thy "fhoe is not waxen old upon thy foot. Ye have "not eaten bread, neither have you drunk wine, "or ftrong drink: that ye might know that I am "JEHOVAH your God." Did the waters of Jordan divide before them, as foon as the feet of the priests rested in them? It was that they might know, that "the living God was among them;" and that the ark which paffed over before them, was "the ark of the covenant of the LORD of all "the earth."

2. His works of judgment have the fame end. When he confounds his enemies, and troubles them for ever; when he puts them to fhame, and makes them to perifh; it is that "men may know, "that he whofe name alone is JEHOVAH, is the "most high over all the earth." It is his pleafure, that even his incorrigible adverfaries may have fuch ample evidence of this, that they fhall either acknowledge it, or be left without excufe. He therefore fays to Pharaoh; "I will fend all "my plagues upon thine heart, and upon thy fer"vants, and upon thy people: that thou mayeft "know that there is none like me in all the "earth a." Is Nebuchadnezzar driven from his dignity? Hath he a beaft's heart given unto him? It is "to the intent that the living may know "that the Moft High ruleth 'in the kingdom of

3. From the wonderful works recorded in Scripture, it is evident, that the power of JEHOVAH is alike in all the regions of the earth. The heathen had strange ideas of divine power. They not only affixed limits to it; but fuppofed that the power of one god was confined to one territory, and that of another to another. A people who, according to their vain imaginations, were perfectly fafe under the protection of their tutelar deity, could derive no bencfit from one who was a ftranger to their country. If worshipped by a hostile nation, they frequently viewed him as their enemy. They indeed confidered their deities in the fame light with their earthly princes, whofe dominions had certain boundaries, and who protected their fubjects at the expence of their neighbours. They feem to have imagined, that the power of particular deities bore an exact proportion to the comparative ftrength or weakness of the people that worshipped them; or to the grandeur or apparent meannefs of their worship. When God fent lions among the heathen who had been placed in the land of Ifrael by the king of Affyria, they confidered the vifitation as a token of his displeasure, and therefore of his power; but had no idea that this extended beyond the limits of Paleftine. They fuppofed that he had fent these lions to "flay them, be"cause they knew not the manner of the God "of the land."

© 2 Kings xvii. 26.

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