The Sacred History uniformly attefts that there is but one God, and that this is JEHOVAH the God of Ifrael. The proof that JEHOVAH is God, and that this God is one, is indeed the fame. In many paffages of Scripture, these two are infeparably conjoined. But even where the unity of God is not exprefsly declared, the revelation of himself as JEHOVAH implies the doctrine of his abfolute unity. This name itself excludes every idea of an equal. He will not give the glory of it to another for it denotes his independence and selfexistence, and therefore the unity of his effence. Hence, all thofe operations by which he manifefts. that he is JEHOVAH, equally declare him to be the One God.

The law, given to God's peculiar people, is a key to their hiftory, and their history is a practical commentary on their law, and a continued proof of its divine origin. As feveral of the precepts of the moral law, and many of the pofitive injunctions, teach or guard the doctrine of the unity; when God would commit this law to the church, he infolds it in an historical narrative, which throws the greatest light on this fundamental doctrine.

1. He would not have the fons of Jacob to confider him merely as their Father, who had "made "them, and establifhed" them, as a people: for, like other nations, they might have believed this, however inconfiftently, without acknowledging. that he was the one true God. He therefore re

veals himself as "JEHOVAH, the creator of the "ends of the earth;" and addreffes his peculiar people in this language:" Thus faith JE"HOVAH thy redeemer, and he that formed theė "from the womb, I am JEHOVAH that maketh all things, and stretcheth forth the heavens alone, "that fpreadeth abroad the earth by myfelfm?? He accordingly prefaces the volume of revelation with a particular account of the work of creation, which none but himself could give and from this account, as well as from a great many other paffages, it is most evident that this was wholly the work of One Being. The idolatry of the Gentiles confifted in worshipping the creatures inftead of God. To prevent the imitation of this idolatry, and to illuftrate its abfurdity, he enumerates the various parts of creation, and fhews that they were all the works of his hands. The most of the heathen nations worshipped the hoft of heaven, either exprefsly, or under the difguife of different proper names or peculiar fymbols. But, in the hiftory of creation, the church is taught that the fun, moon, and ftars were all the workmanfhip of her God. For he who "created the "heaven and the earth "," "finifhed all the hoft "of them." On this fubject, Boffuet has an obfervation, which merits our attention. "It plea"fed the great Artificer," he fays, "to create the "light, even before he reduced it to the form he

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gave it in the fun and ftars: because he meant "to teach us, that thofe great and glorious lumi

eronaries,

2169 V

El. 28.

m Ifa. xliv. 24.

n Gen. i. I.

o Gen. ii. 2.

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

It was held in a great part of the East, that there were two first 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 history. 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 first principles, and with whom it feems to have originated. "I am JEHOVAH, " and there is none else, there is no God befides "me: I girded thee, though thou haft not known "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

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A 4

p Universal Hist. Vol. i. Part 2.

* Ifa. xlv. 5.-7.

q Gen. i. 3.-5.

s Rom. i. 23.

the

the Egyptians was uncommonly vile. They wor fhipped 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 quadru-, ped 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',”

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7

II. 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 uity: "Thou art great, and doft won"drous things: thou art God alone "." He appeals to the redemption which he fhould 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 ftretched-out arm, and with great judgment. And I " will

§ Gen. ii. 7.

t Ifa. xxxvii. 16.

u Pfal. lxxxvi. 19,

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

HOVAH your God, which bringeth you out from "under the burdens of the Egyptians"." It was his will that his unity fhould appear from these 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 wonders, and by war, and by a mighty hand, and by a "ftretched-out arm, and by great terrors, accord

ing to all that JEHOVAH your God did for you "in Egypt before your eyes? Unto thee it was "fhewed, that thou mighteft 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"."

1. With this view were those works recorded, which immediately difplayed the mercy of God towards his people. For they were recorded for the ufe of the church in all ages, with the very fame defign with which they were at first 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

v Exod vi, 6, 7.

w Deut. iv, 34, 35, 39: