1a
The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob is our God; this is His name forever, and this is His memorial unto all generations.
1b
He created the heavens and the earth, and all things that are in them are the workmanship of His hands.
1c
He created man in his own image, that he might have dominion over the earth, and over the beasts of the field, and over the fowls of the air, and over the fishes of the sea.
2a
¶ Man, being in the likeness of God's person, they all recognize him as their Lord, and fear Him as a God.
2b
And notwithstanding his degeneracy, he has retained so much of the divine likeness; that beasts, birds, and fishes, fear him, and his power is over them as a mighty one.
2c
It is diminished as he has departed from the likeness and perfections of his Creator:
2d
And that spirit of rebellion, which man has received so redundantly, he has communicated to them also, that they rebel against him, as he rebels against God.
2e
Yet the fear of man is on them continually; and his dominion is over them throughout the earth.
3a
¶ God conversed with Adam as a familiar friend; and walked with Enoch, who was faithful unto him in the midst of a corrupt race:
3b
He communed with Noah, the father of a new world; and covenanted by His own oath, with Abraham the faithful.
4a
¶ He commanded a fiery law, with a voice of thunder, in Sinai:
4b
The earth quaked at the tread of his foot:
4c
The rustling of His garment was as low thunder; and His voice as a mighty thunderbolt:
4d
The beaming of His face was as the sun in the morning; and the flash of his eye as the fierce lightning.
4c
The nations trembled at his presence; and the tribes said: Not unto us; not unto us, O Lord God, but unto Moses, be thy voice known.
5a
¶ For they heard the voice of God, as the voice of a trumpet; and as loud thunder:
5b
And they saw the lightning: and the mountain smoking; and they felt the earth tremble;
5c
And they fled far away, crying, Not unto us; not unto us:
5d
But unto Moses, declare thy Law, O God, and we will obey his voice, and live, for, who shall abide in thy presence?
6a
¶ His Word was made known to the Prophets, and His sacraments were established in Israel.
6b
Kings ruled in His glorious name; and the nations who forgot Him were destroyed.
7a
He hath appointed everlasting life in the Lord Jesus;
7b
And given the keys of death and of hell unto Him who alone among mortals, hath kept His glorious word in all things.
7c
He hath chosen Him the first born among many brethren;
7d
For He is the first begotten of the dead, and hath the keys of the resurrection, and of life forevermore.
8a
¶ He maketh His Apostles the witnesses of His Law, unto the nations; and of His Gospel unto every kindred, and tongue, and people.
8b
His Word is among men; and the revelation of His power, in the midst of the earth.
9a
¶ The Lord our God is glorious in His perfections; there is none like Him.
9b
The gods of the heathen have no voice; neither do they see, nor understand.
9c
The god of Babylon the Great, the Mother of Churches, before whom all her daughters bow down, is naught;
9d
He is as wind, and vanity; he can neither be seen nor heard, nor felt;
9e
He hath no dwelling place: where shall any abide with him?
9f
Passionless, is he; and can neither love the good, nor hate the evil: who shall adore him, or fear him?
10a
¶ Without members and parts; he cannot hear, see, feel, smell, or taste.
10b
Neither can he speak, nor come unto those that worship him, nor smite the disobedient and rebellious.
10c
Handless, footless, mouthless, eyeless, and earless; a shapeless chaos, conceived in the imagination of the vain:
10d
Ye shall not fear him, nor bow down unto him, nor adore him.
11a
¶ The Lord our God hath an incommunicable name;
11b
Never polluted by the breath of the ungodly, which none can know, but he who ministereth in His holy sanctuary;
11c
By which He revealed himself unto Moses; and in which He establisheth this Law, for an everlasting covenant.
12a
¶ God alone hath immortality.
12b
Adam, the first of men, the Ancient of Days, the great Prince; Abraham, to whom God gave an everlasting possession; David, whose throne was established as the days of heaven, forever; all died.
12b
Enoch, who walked with God, and was not found, because God took him; and Elijah, who ascended to the throne of God, in his own fiery chariot; shall return to the earth to sleep with their fathers.
12c
The change which is sealed upon all the sons of Adam, shall come upon the faithful, who stand on the earth, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven, in flaming fire, taking vengeance on those who know not God, and obey not the Gospel.
12d
And He, the Prince of the Kings of the earth; who in the days to come, shall speak with the voice of a trumpet, and the dead shall hear His voice and live; died once, that He might live forevermore.
12e
He praised God, who alone hath immortality, that He would not leave him in the place of the dead:
12f
He preached the gospel to the spirits in prison, and obtained the key of life everlasting:
12g
But God alone liveth forever: the eternal ages are unto Him as moments to us: infinities, as units to the mathematician.
12h
Our God alone hath immortality.
12i
Thou shalt love Him with all thy heart, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength.
13a
¶ God alone hath omniscience.
13b
He clotheth himself in light as a robe:
13c
His ministers, who at midday, are as a flaming fire in the dark night, are blind before him;
13d
He apprehendeth the motion of the atom which floateth in the invisible element, and discerneth the speck in the centre of the star,
13e
Which the light of the sun hath not reached since the day that the sons of God shouted for joy that the earth was created, as a mountain in the eye of mortals.
13f
He never sleepeth; His eye closeth not; and there is no darkness before Him.
13g
Our God alone hath omniscience.
13g
Thou shalt love Him with all thy heart, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength.
14a
¶ God alone hath omnipotence.
14b
He looketh upon the nations, and they melt in the fury of his countenance:
14c
He frowneth, and the mountains dissolve to smoke; the vallies are consumed in the breath of His nostrils.
14d
He spoke, and worlds were created: He thought, and they were lost in space.
14e
Earthquakes are but the whisperings of His voice; the rustling of His attire causeth lightning, and thunder; and with the shadow of His garment He blotteth out the sun.
14f
The Prince of the kings of the earth; by whom the world was created; and who liveth and reigneth forever; receiveth power from Him, and rendereth it unto Him.
14g
Who shall stand before Him? Our God alone hath omnipotence.
14h
Thou shalt love him with all thy heart, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength.
15a
¶ God alone is omnipresent.
15b
His presence filleth the immensity of space as a point.
15c
In the midst of the bottomless pit, is He; the pavilion of His feet, is the face of the earth:
15d
The stars, are His home: His breath, is fragrant odour to the blessed, in the highest heaven; and it enliveneth the crumbling frame of the dead.
15e
The rays of the sun, have not found His bourn; nor the light of the stars, the place He inhabiteth not.
15f
His rest outspeedeth the lightning; it leaveth the morning ray behind it; and His speed is more rapid than the thought of angels.
15g
Our God alone is omnipresent.
15h
Thou shalt love Him with all thy heart, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength.
16a
¶ God alone is one.
16b
There are choirs of angels; hosts of spirits; and multitudes of men: but God hath no fellow.
16c
A great king is to Him as the unseen spawn before the monsters of the deep;
16d
Methuselah, as the ephemera of a day: the most glorious spirit, is bodiless, and a breath.
16e
And the Lord Jesus, who created the earth, and redeemed it; whose kingdom filleth the earth, and the heavens; possesseth but a speck, amid the stars he made.
16f
He alone is one.
16g
Thou shalt love Him with all thy heart, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength.
16h
Thou shalt adore Him, and serve Him, and obey Him; and beside Him, thou shalt have no other God:
16i
For He alone hath immortality, and omniscience, and omnipotence, and omnipresence.
16h
He alone is one; and they who obey His Law, shall be like Him.