this meflage; "thers, the God of Abraham, the God of Ifaac, "and the God of Jacob, hath fent me unto you: "this is my name for ever, and my memorial un"to all generations." As he ufes this language in the prefent time, especially in the ftricteft connexion with that wonderful name, I AM THAT I AM; while it proves the unchangeablenefs of his love to thefe patriarchs, as ftill exifting in a feparate state, it proclaims the fame unchangeable love to all their fpiritual feed. JEHOVAH, the God of your fa The Redeemer of his Church indeed affumed various defignations of the fame kind, according to her fituation, and the progrefs of his work. When by an awful difplay of his juftice he had feparated the family of Noah from all the other inhabitants of the earth, it appeared proper to his infinite wisdom to feparate one branch of this family from the reft. He therefore took the character of " JEHOVAH the God of Shem b;" as the promife was to run in the line of his pofterity. After being known by this character for feveral generations, when all the pofterity of Shem were more or lefs corrupted, he feparated one individual, not merely from the other families of this race, but from his father's family, as his true worfhipper, and the ancestor of that illuftrious perfonage in whom all the families of the earth fhould be bleffed. He revealed himself as "the God of "Abraham." Only one of all the fons of Abraham being the child of promife; he alfo called himfelf 66 himself "the God of Ifaac:" and with these two he conjoined the name of Jacob, as he loved him, while his brother Efau was rejected. In the hiftory of Jacob, we have a ftriking inftance of his zeal for preferving the doctrine of the divine unity. When Laban and he entered into a covenant, Laban used this form of fwearing; "The "God of Abraham, and the God of Nahor, the "God of their Father, judge betwixt us." But 'Jacob fware by the fear of his father Ifaac " that is, by the object of his fear. Jacob would not fwear in the terms ufed by Laban. For he mentioned" the God of Abraham," as at the fame time the God of Nahor, and of their father Terah. Now, we are told that Terah the father of Abraham, and the father of Nahor, "ferved "other gods, on the other fide of the flood," or great river Euphrates. Laban fware by "God of Abraham," before he was feparated from his father's houfe: Jacob would fwear only by that God of Abraham, who was worshipped by his immediate father Ifaac, who had called Abraham from idolatry, and given him the promife of falvation in the feed of Ifaac *. "the When d Joh. xxiv. 2. Here the remarks of a very ingenious writer merit our attention. Speaking of the pretenfions made by other nations, allied to the Ifraelites, to the promise of the Meffiah, he says: "It is these jealoufies, and these "pretenfions,—that gave rise to the custom of calling God, the God of "Abraham, the God of Ifaac, and the God of Jacob: for though he might "as well have been called the God of Adam, the God of Enoch, and the "God of Noah, forafinuch as all thefe patriarchs were alfo depofitaries of the promise of the Meffiah: yet it is probable that God was called fo, be 'caufe When God had separated a peculiar people for himself, to exprefs the nearness of their relation, the pleasure he had in them, especially as emblems of his fpiritual feed, and to diftinguish himself from all falfe gods, he took the name of "the "God of Ifrael." He did not borrow a new defignation from any individual among them: for he viewed Ifrael, in their collective capacity, as "his fon, his firft-born." He ftill delighted, however, in recognifing his relation to their pious progenitors; and in affuring them, that he would "perform the truth to Jacob, and the mercy to "Abraham, which he had fworn from the days of "old e." Thus was God pleafed to link one revelation with another; that he might, in the moft expreffive manner, teach his people the importance of the doctrine of the divine unity, and fhew them the neceffity of being on their guard againft impofture; while he at the fame time gave them the most fatisfying evidence that they had nothing of this kind to fear, when addreffed by the God of their fathers. Such care did he manifeft in this refpect, that, in different inftances, he in this manner connected thé diftinct revelations that he "caufe of the particular promifes that had been made to Abraham, fe"condly to Ifaac, and laftly to Jacob, and in oppofition to the pretenfions "of fome people near neighbours to the Ifraelites, and jealous of their hopes: The God of Abraham, and not of Lot, as the Ammonites and "Moabites, Lot's pofterity, pretended; the God of Ifaac, and not of Ib“mael, as the Ishmaelites pretended; the God of Jacob, and not of Efau, "as the Elomites, who were the offspring of Efau, pretended." Allix's Reflections upon the Books of the Holy Scriptures, Vol. i. p. So. e Mic. vii. 20. he made to the fame perfons. When he appeared to Abram in the plain of Mamre, he reminded him that, although his fituation was changed, he was ftill under the protection of the fame God. He faid to him; "I am JEHOVAH that brought "thee out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give thee this "land, to inherit it." When he commanded Jacob to leave Mefopotamia, and return to his own kindred; that he might have no doubt as to the certainty of the call, and that he might know that it was the fame God who had "fed him all "his life long," and that his power was the fame in all places, and at all times, he referred him to what had taken place many years before, faying; "I am the God of Bethel, where thou anointedst "the pillar, and where thou vowedst a vow unto "mes," Afterwards, he made himself known to Jacob by the fame peculiar character. He faid to him; "Arife, go up to Bethel,-and make there an altar to God that appeared unto thee, "when thou fleddeft from the face of Efau thy "brother "9 When the glorious confequences of the afcenfion of Christ are foretold, it is in this language; "The princes of the people are gathered toge"ther, even the people of the God of Abraham." In conformity to this, and to illuftrate the unity of the object of worship, and the unity of his work for the redemption of the Church, Peter declares to the Jewish council; "The God of "Abraham, f Gen. xv. 7. C 2 "Abraham, and of Ifaac, and of Jacob, the God "of our fathers, hath glorified his fon Jefus *." He had been known, for a long fucceffion of ages, as "the God of Ifrael," and as his Redeemer. He had claimed this character, as attefted by many temporal and typical redemptions; and efpecially as JEHOVAH, "who brought up the chil"dren of Ifrael out of the land of Egypt;" and afterwards, in reference to the deliverance from Babylon, as he "who led the feed of the house "of Ifrael out of the north country." In the language of prophecy, he had faid to his own Son, as the glorious Antitype, and as the Representative of that fpiritual Ifrael whom he had chosen to be his peculiar treafure; "Thou art my fer"vant, O Ifrael, in whom I will be glorified "." Now although, in the New Teftament, he is called" the God of Abraham, of Ifaac, and of Ja"cob," and alfo " the God of Ifrael," in order to illuftrate his unity both of effence and of operation; yet, the fpiritual redemption being accomplished, he is especially defigned in relation to this. The God, and the Father, of Ifrael efpecially delights to be known as "the God and Fa"ther of our Lord Jefus Chrift," that true Ifrael in whom he hath been fo fignally glorified. VIII. That JEHOVAH is the only true God, hath appeared from a variety of proofs, recorded in Scripture-history, of his power in changing the beart. He, even he only "knoweth the hearts " of Acts iii. 13. 1 Jer. xxiii. 7, 8, m Ifa. xlix. 3. n Luke i. 68. |