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respecting Christ. The incarnation, miracles, resurrection, and ascension, of the Holy One of Israel were events which no human power could either hasten or delay. And his sufferings and atoning death were brought about through the instrumentality of his enemies-persons who were so far from rightly applying the prophecies, that they utterly disregarded and despised the truths which many of them contained. When the Jews refused to believe in Jesus, and rejected their only Saviour; when they led him as a lamb to the slaughter; when they pierced his hands and his feet; when they gave him vinegar mingled with gall to drink; when they mocked him as he was hanging on the cross; when they consigned his body to the rich man's tomb, they little thought that they were affording to the church in all generations, unquestionable proofs that he was the true Mes

siah.

Since then, the prophecies respecting Christ and the events of his history precisely correspond, and since it is certain that the events did not produce the prophecies, nor the prophecies the events, no alternative remains but to ascribe them both to the wisdom and power of God.

SECTION III.

ON THE SUPREME BEING.

EVERY man who reasons fairly from the premises with which nature furnishes us, will confess that the contrivances with which we are surrounded prove the existence of an all-wise contriver; that their uniform tendency shows the benevolence of God; that the moral character of his government is made known to a considerable extent, in the perceptible order of his providence; and that his holiness may be inferred from the very nature of that law which he has written on the hearts of all men. Yet it must be allowed, that it is chiefly through revelation that we are thus led to reason from creation and providence, and that merely natural religion, even with the additional light of tradition, has left the heathen world in all ages, in a state of great darkness respecting the Supreme Being.

Surely then it is a convincing evidence of the divine origin of the Holy Scriptures, that this darkness is removed wherever the sacred volume is known; and that prophets and apos

tles have supplied us with an account of the Deity, so luminous and complete that philosophy itself can demand no addition to it. The several particulars of that account must be familiar to the mind of every serious Christian, and ought to be the frequent subject of his thoughts and contemplation. They may be briefly summed up as follows:

God is one.

Hear, O Israel, the Lord our

God is one Lord."

"There is no God else

beside me; a just God and a Saviour; there is

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which denotes that he exists absolutely and independently. "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is and which was and which is to come." "Even from everlasting to everlasting thou art God."+

He created the universe - formed it out of

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nothing. "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." "By the word of the Lord were the heavens made, and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth."‡

Isa. xlv. 22.

Comp. Matt. iv. 10. 1 Cor. viii, 5, 6. † Ps. xc, 2. Comp. Isa. xliv, 6. James i, 17. Exod. iii, 14. Comp. Isa. xl, 12. xlv, 7. Ps. cxlviii, 1-5.

Ps. xxxiii, 6-9.

He is therefore omnipotent. "I know that thou canst do every thing." "The invisible things of God, from the creation of the world, are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and godhead." He is also infinitely skilful. "He hath made the earth by his power; he hath established the world by his wisdom, and hath stretched out the heavens by his discretion." The same attributes he displays in reproduction, in supplying the wants of his creatures, and in maintaining the perpetual order of nature. "He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle, and herb for the service of man." "Thou sendest forth thy Spirit, and they are created; and thou renewest the face of the earth." "In him we live and move, and have our being."

God is the sole Ruler and Disposer of the universe which he has made; and he conducts the order of all events with perfect wisdom. He is the "blessed and only potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords." "The Lord hath prepared his throne in the heavens, and his kingdom ruleth over all."* "Blessed be the name of God forever and ever, for wis* Ps. ciii, 19. Comp. Dan. vii, 9, 10.

dom and might are his; and he changeth the times and the seasons; he removeth kings and setteth up kings." "O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out !"*

"God is a Spirit," " dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto, whom no man hath seen nor can see."+ He is also omnipresent. "Do not I fill heaven and earth, saith the Lord?" "Whither shall I go from thy Spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there; if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there,"&c.

He knows all things-the past, the present, and the future; "known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world." "His understanding is infinite." "God is light, and in him is no darkness at all." He perceives the secret thoughts and intentions of his intelligent creatures. "The Lord searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts," &c.; "neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight."

* Rom. xi, 33. Comp. Eph. i, 7, 8.

† 1 Tim. vi, 16.

Comp. 1 Tim. i, 17.

John i, 18.

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