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CHAPT

CHAPTER VI.

SPECIMENS OF THE SUBLIMITY OF SCRIP.

1....

GOD

TURE.

OD faid, Let there be light, and there was light. The Lord came from Sinai, and rose up from Seir unto them; he fhined forth from Mount Paran, and he came with ten thoufand of his faints: from his right hand went a fiery law. There is none like the God of Jefhurun, who rideth upon the heaven in thy help, and in his excellency in the sky. MOSES.

2....The earth fhook and trembled; the foundations: of the heaven moved and fhook becaufe he was wroth. He bowed the heavens alfo and came down and dark

nefs was under his feet. And he rode upon a Cherub, and did fly; and he was feen upon the wings of the wind. And he made darkness pavilions round about him. Through the brightnels before him were coals of fire kindled.

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3....The Lord thundered from heaven, and the most high uttered his voice. And the channels of the fea appeared, the foundations of the world were discovered at the rebuking of the Lord, and at the bat of his breath.

4....Clouds and darknels are round about him; a fire goeth before him, and børneth up his enemies round about. His lightnings enlightened the world; the earth faw, and trembled; the hills melted like wax at the prefence of the Lord, at the prefence of the Lord of the whole earth.

5....When Ifrael went out of Egypt, the fea faw it, and fled; Jordan was driven back. The mountains fkipped like rams, and the little hills like lambs. What ailed thee, O thou fea, that thou fleddeft? Thou Jor

dan, that thou waft driven back? Ye mountains, that ye fkipped like rams; and ye little hills like lambs ?Tremble, O earth, at the prefence of the Lord.

DAVID.

6....I faw the Lord fitting upon a throne, high and lified up, and his train filled the temple. Above it flood the feraphim: each one had fix wings; with two wings he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he did fly.

7....And one cried unto another, and faid, Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of Hofts: the whole earth is full of his glory. And the pofts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke.

ISAIAH.

8.... God came from Teman, and the holy one from mount, Paran. His glory covered the heavens, and the earth was full of his praise; and his brightness was as the light. Before him went the peftilence, and burning coals went forth at his teet. He flood and mealured the earth: He beheld, and drove afunder the nations; and everlasting mountains were scattered, and the perpetual hills did bow; His ways are everlasting.

9....I faw the tents of Cufhan in affliction; and the curtains of the land of Midian did tremble. Thou didft ride in thy chariots of falvation. Thou didst cleave the earth the mountains faw thee, and they trembled : the deep uttered his voice, and lifted up his hands on high. The fun and moon flood ftill in their habitation at the light of thine arrows they went, and at the faining of thy glittering fpear.

HABAKKUK.

10....I beheld till the thrones were caft down, and the ancient of days did fit, whofe garment was white as fnow His throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire. A fiery stream iffued and came

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forth from before him; thoufand thousands miniftered unto him, and ten thou fand times ten thousand flood before him.

REMARKS.

DANIEL.

The foregoing paffages, and others alfo which might be drawn from the fame fource, are fublime beyond all parallel. They foar above the writings of the immortal Homer himfelf, even as the flight of the eagle is above the orbit of the most daring among ordinary birds.

Milton, the boaft of English poets, was a chriftian believer, and a close studier of the beauties of the bible from hence he happily drew much of his beautiful imagery-his noble conceptions, bis aftonifhing grandeur.

He feized the mantle of the Scripture bards; he caught their facred enthufiafm, their etherial fire and this circumftance, added to the aftonishing genius of Milton, produced in his Paradife Loft, a poem, which, exclufive of the Scripture writers, has no equal in point of fublimity.

CHAPTER VII.

DIVINE ATTRIBUTES.

THE SUPREMACY AND SELF-EXISTENCE OF THE GOD

1....

HEA

HEAD.

EAR, O Ifrael, the Lord our God is our Lord. The Lord is God, and there is none else. 1 am the Lord, and there is no God befide me. Who hath measured the water in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven as a fpan, and comprehended the duft

of the earth in a meafure, and weighed the mountains in fcales, and the hills in a balance?

2.... Who hath directed the fpirit of the Lord, or, being his counfellor, hath taught him? With whom took he counfel, and who inftructed him, and taught him in the path of judgment, and taught him knowledge?

3....Behold, the nations are as a drop of the bucket, and are counted as the fmall duft of the balance: behold, he taketh up the ifles as a very little thing. All nations before him are as nothing; and they are count. ed to him less than nothing and vanity.

THE

ETERNAL AND UNCHANGEABLE EXISTENCE OF

GOD.

4....Art thou not from everlasting, O Lord my God? His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and his domin. ion is from generation to generation. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, from everlafting to everlasting thou art God. Thou changest not.

5....Of old haft thou laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the works of thy hands: they fhall perifh; but thou fhalt endure; yea, ail of them fhall wax old like a garment; as a vefture fhalt thou change them, and they fhall be changed; but thou art the same, and thy years fhall have no end.

THE INFINITE KNOWLEDGE, AND OMNIPRESENCE OF THE DIVINE MIND.

6....Thine understanding, O Lord, is infinite; for thou telleft the number of the flars, and calleft them all by name. How manifold are thy works, in wisdom haft thou made them all. Am I a God at hand, faith the Lord, and not a God afar off? Can any bide himfell in fecret places, that I fhall not fee him? faith the

Lord do not I fill heaven and earth? faith the Lord.

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7....The eyes of the Lord are in every place beholding the evil and the good; they run to and fro through the earth. God fearcheth the heart, that he may give to every man, according to his ways. O Lord, thou baft fearched me and known me: Thou knoweft my down-fitting, and mine up-riling; thou under ftandeft my thoughts afar off. Thou art acquainted with allmy ways and there is not a word in my tongue, but lo, O Lord, thou knoweft it altogether.

8....Whither shall I go from thy fpirit? Or, Whither fhall I flee from thy prefence? It I afcend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in the depths of the earth, behold thou art there. If I take the wils of the morning, and dwell in the uttermoft parts of the fea; even there fhall thy hand lead me.

9....It I fay, Surely the darkness fhall cover me; even the night fhall be light about me. Yea, the darknefs hideth not from thee; but the night fhineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee.

ALL CREATURES ARE GOD'S PROPERTY.

10.... The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they who dwell therein. In his hand is the foul of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind. Behold, all fouls are mine, faith the Lord:: as the foul of the father, fo alfo the foul of the fon is mine. Behold, as the clay is in the hand of the potter, fo alfo are ye in mine hands. Whatfoever is under ⚫ the whole heaven is mine.

GOD SEEN IN HIS WORKS.

11.... The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament fheweth his handy work. Day unto day uttereth, fpeech, and night unto night fheweth knowledge of him. When I confider thy heavens,

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