dies to the same Almighty cause.

"And God made two great lights; the greater to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night; and he made the stars also.".

This simple and dignified narrative of Moses, has been received as a fundamental article of the public faith, by the whole Jewish people, from their first existence as a nation, to the present hour. Through every change experienced by them, they have as a body preserved the one principle-that God is the creator of all things, immutably the same. Although a belief in the being of a great first Cause was professed in the earlier ages, preceding the existence of the Jewish œconomy, yet by this people alone did it continue to be acknowledged and preserved, for a series of ages. It was perpetually inculcated in every part of the Old Testament, in opposition to the idolatrous notions of the Gentile world, When the ten commandments were proclaimed from Mount Sinai, in a manner the most solemn and awful, they were introduced by the majestic declaration, "I am the Lord thy God who have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other Gods before me," &c. &c. While the sacred Historians uniformly maintain the infinite importance of this doctrine, and record the

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repeated prohibitions to worship the celestial bodies, or the most remote emblems of power and attributes of any kind, in imitation of the surrounding nations, and that under the most dreadful threatening, their Poets and Prophets proclaim and celebrate the great Creator of all things, in language the most solemn and sublime. "Praise him," exclaims the enraptured Psalmist," sun and moon; praise him all ye stars of light; praise him ye heaven of heavens! Let them praise the name of the Lord, for he commanded, and they were created." The prophet Jeremiah, speaking in the name of the Being who inspired him, declares, I have made the earth, and created man upon it. I, yea my own hand have stretched out the heavens, and all their hosts have I commanded." Expostulating with the Israelites for their propensities to idolatry, he reminds them that, "the Lord is the true God; he is the living God and an everlasting king. The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, they shall perish from the earth, and from under the heavens." "He hath made the earth by his power; he hath established the world by his wisdom; and he hath stretched out the heavens by his discretion."

As the existence of one God is uniformly

maintained, in opposition to every imagined deity, thus do these Scriptures repeatedly ascribe to him all those attributes, natural and moral, or relative, which we have shewn to be so conformable to the truest reason, and essential to the happiness of man:-Eternity, Omnipresence, Power, Wisdom, Knowledge, Holiness, Justice, Truth, and Goodness in its various branches. The passages in which these perfections are ascribed to the one God, are numberless. We shall select a very few under each head. Their interesting sublimity will prevent their appearing tedious to the devout reader.

ETERNITY.

"Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting thou art God." "A thousand years in thy sight, are but as yesterday when it is passed, and a watch in the night." "Of old thou hast laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of thy hands; yea all of them shall wax old like a garment; and as a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed;

but thou art the same, and thy years shall have no end."*

OMNIPRESENCE, AND OMNISCIENCE.

run to and fro "The eyes of

"The eyes of the Lord throughout the whole earth." the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good." "Whither shall I go from thy spirit, or whither shall I fly from thy presence ?"" If I ascend into heaven thou art there, if I make my bed in hades, behold thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. If I say surely the darkness shall cover me, even the night shall be light about me: Yea the darkness hides not from thee, but the night shineth as the day; the darkness and the light are both alike unto thee."

POWER.

"I am the Almighty God; walk before me.” "I appeared unto Abraham by the name of

* We omit the numerous references as tedious and unnecessary.

God Almighty." "The thunder of his power who can understand ?" "He ruleth by his power for ever." "He hath shewn his people the power of his works." "The Lord reigneth, he is clothed with majesty the Lord is clothed with strength, wherewith he hath girded himself." "The floods have lifted up, O Lord; the floods have lifted up their voice: the floods lift up their waves. The Lord on high is mightier than the noise of many waters, yea, than the mighty waves of the sea."

J

WISDOM.

"The Lord by wisdom hath founded the earth; by understanding he hath established the heavens; by his knowledge the depths are broken up, and the clouds drop down the dew." "Lord, how manifold are thy works; and in wisdom thou hast made them all." "He establishes the world by his wisdom." "Blessed be the name of God for ever and ever; for wisdom and might are his." "He giveth wisdom to the wise, and knowledge to them that know understanding."

PURITY; HOLINESS.

The moral perfections of God are represented, in these sacred oracles, under the characters of