"clothes are not waxen old upon you, and thy "shoe 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 priefts refted 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 perish; it is that "men may know, "that he whofe name alone is JEHOVAH, is the

moft 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 fervants, and upon thy people: that thou mayeft "know that there is none like me in all the "earth ." Is Nebuchadnezzar driven from his a. 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 men b."

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 ftrange ideas of divine power. They not only affixed limits to it; but supposed 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 benefit from one who was a ftranger to their country. If worshipped by a hoftile 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 difpleasure, and therefore of his power; but had no idea that this extended beyond the limits of Paleftine. They fuppofed that he had fent thefe lions to "flay them, be"cause they knew not the manner of the God "of the land."

c. 2 Kings xvii. 26.

Why

Why was the army of Sennacherib destroyed; 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 say, “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, because she had not an hoft of images to defend her and the ark, the only thing to which he could give the name, feemed unworthy of being compared with those he had already conquered. “As " my hands have found the kingdoms of the idols, " and whose 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 idols e?" He argues, in proof of the imbecility of the God of Ifrael, from his tamė fubmiffion to the infults that, as he fuppofed, Hezekiah had offered to him, in overthrowing his images, and impoverifhing 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

to

42 Chron. xxxii. 14. 17.

e Ifa. x. 10, II.

to fear from him.

the fervants of the

Thus he impiously addreffes king: "If ye fay unto me, "We truft in JEHOVAH our God is not that he, "whose high places, and whose altars Hezekiah "hath taken away, and hath faid,-Ye fhall wor'fhip before this altar in Jerufalem ?"

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Hezekiah, in his folemn addrefs to God, reprefents this as a controversy 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 said, "O JEHOVAH God of Ifrael, "which dwelleft between the cherubims, thou

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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 answer did he receive 2 "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 8." 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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f 2 Kings xviii. 22.

ga 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."

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 falfe 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 displayed 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 ." He deftroyed the frogs which he had fent, and fevered the land

ha Kings xix, 37.

i Exod. ix. 29.

of