God, was a Confeffion or Declaration of his Supremacy in both States; as David, 1 Ch, xvi. 26. For all the Gods of the People ARE Idols, the Lord made the Heavens; When God had claimed, and feized the Power of the Air for his, the People had nothing left for Gods, but the Representatives or Idols, 2 Chron. xxxvi. 23. Thus faith Cyrus King of Perfia, All the Kingdoms of the Earth hath the Lord God of Heaven given unto me-Neh. i. 5. O Lord God of Heaven! Ibid. ix. 6, Thou, EVEN thou, art Lord alone; thou haft made Heaven, the Heaven of Heavens, with all their Hoft; the Earth, and all THINGS that ARE therein; the Seas, and all that is therein; and thou preferveft them all, and the Hoft of Heaven worshipeth thee. Pfal. lvii. 6. Ibid. Ver. 12. Be thou exalted, O God, above the Heavens. Ibid. xcvii. 7, 5. To him that by his Wifdom made the Heavens. Ver. 7. To him that made great Lights., Ver. 8. The Sun to rule the Day (Heb. FOR THE RULINGS BY DAY.) Ver. 9. The Moon and Stars to rule by Night.-Ver. 26. O give Thanks unto the God of Heaven. Ifai. xl. 26. Lift up your Eyes on high, and behold who hath created thefe THINGS, that bringeth out their Hoft by Number that calleth them all by Name, by the Greatness of his Might, for

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that HE is ftrong in Power, not one faileth. Jer. xxxi. 35. Thus faith the Lord, which giveth the Sun for a Light by Day, AND the Ordinances of the Moon and of the Stars, for a Light by Night-Ver. 36. If those Ordinances depart from before me. Dan. iv. 35.-And he doth according to his Will, the Army of Heaven. Amos iv. After God had reproved the People of the Mountain of Samaria for Idolatry, and enumerated the Punishments with which he had afflicted them, fuch as Famine, Drought, Blasting, Mildew, Palmerworm, Peftilence after the Manner of Egypt, Slaughter in War; and had overthrown fome of them, as Sodom and Gomorrah, he fays, Prepare to meet thy God, O Ifrael, Ver. 13. For lo, be that formeth the Mountains, and created the Wind, (or SPIRIT) and declareth unto Man what is in his Thought, that maketh the Morning Darkness, that treadeth upon the bigh Places of the Earth, the Lord the God of Hofts Is his Name: Where he claims the Place where they worship'd, and their God, in his Action and Appearance, and their Altars, and their Minds: Tobit viii. 5. Let the Heavens blefs thee, and all thy Creatures. Epift. of Jer. vi. 60. For Sun, Moon and Stars being bright, and sent VOL. I.

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to do their Office, are obedient, &c. Judith vi. 19. O Lord God of Heaven. Prayer of Maneffeh, For all the Powers of the Heavens do praise thee. Jonah i. 4. But the Lord fent out (or CAST FORTH) a great Wind into the Sea-Ver. 5. Then the Mariners were afraid, and cried every Man to bis God-Ver. 6. -Arife, call upon thy God-Ver. 8.-whence comeft thou-Ver. 9. And be faid unto them, I AM an Hebrew, and I fear the Lord, the God of Heaven. This was the God they wanted, the God that could command the Wind,-Ver. 15. -And the Sea ceafed from her raging. Ver. 16. Then the Men feared the Lord exceedingly, and offered a Sacrifice unto the Lord, and made Vows.

As the last Day, the Day of the Lord, the Day of Vengeance, Recompence, &c. refers fometimes to the Deftruction, and fo laft Day, of the Government of particular Cities, as Jerufalem; or Countries, as Paleftine, &c. fometimes to the laft Period of the Jewish Difpenfation, by the laft great Sacrifice ; fometimes to the laft Day, in this Syftem; and fometimes to two of them; and fince the Imaginers have charged the Prophets with lying, because there were no fuch Alterations in the Heavens,

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"t the Destruction of the Cities, Countries, &c. as mentioned in fome of the Texts next below, &c. this must ftill fall upon them; for though the Imaginers, as appears, Jer. x. 2, &c. difmayed the Heathens with their Accounts of the Signs of the Heavens, whether these be taken for, and are, perpetual Reprefentations, as they pretended, of the Power of the Heavens, but indeed of the Wisdom and Power of God in the Offices they execute in the great Machine, or in their different Situations or Appearances, by the respective Motions of fome of them; fuch as Conjunctions, Oppofitions, Changes of the Moon, Eclipfes, or &c. or for the Heathen Reprefentatives of them; yet the Ifraelites were required not to be afraid of them, by taking them for Prefages, or, &c. and though the Sun, Moon and Stars, or the Lights, never fince (except once) underwent any other Changes, and even thofe did not happen at the Deftruction of feveral Cities, &c. mentioned, yet the Prophets have spoken truly and properly, with refpect to the Times when the Cities, &c. were to be destroyed for worshiping them as Gods. This is not spoken to them as doing their Duty, giving Motion, Light, &c.

but mocking them, as fuppofing them to be accounted Gods: For if they had been fenfible, they need not have been afhamed, or have hidden their Faces, for doing their Duty But if they had been fenfible, they would have been afhamed, and would have been depreciated, in the Eyes of those who had taken them for Gods, when they fuffered the People to be deftroy'd, or led into Captivity for worshiping them; or indeed, for fuffering thofe to live who did worship them: For that was the Breach of the Covenant, which all the People, as a Nation, was guilty of, and which, if they had obferved, a few Examples would have prevented their Ruin, which they, as a City or Nation, all fuffered. The Heavens were then only strip'd of their false Glory, and fhone no more like Gods: But though I am only meddling with Miracles in this Operation, yet that leads (tho' 'tis not my Intent to enter into the Mysteries here) to obferve, that when the Law of Sacrifices ended, in the laft Day of the Jewish Difpenfation, when Vengeance was taken on all Men, and all Men fuffered in their Reprefentative Chrift, then Nature was at a Stand: This Operation durft not appear on the Earth; nay, the State of the

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