kingdom, to the armies of the stars, and embrace both the lowliest soldier and the loftiest commander they all indicate selfevidently the existence of an absolute sovereignty and a universal authority.

There is then a truth of absolute sovereignty, and there can be no truth of assigning partners to God. For according to the decisive truth of the verse,

if numerous hands all engage assertively in the same task, the result will be confusion. If there are two kings in one country, or even two headmen in one district, order will disappear, and administration be replaced by anarchy. But on the contrary we see everywhere such order, from the wing of the fly to the lamps of the heavens, from the cells of the body to the signs of the planets, that there is no possibility for the intervention of any partner in God’s affairs.

Sovereignty is, moreover, a station of dignity; to accept a rival would flout the dignity of sovereignty. The fact that man, who needs the assistance of many people on account of his impotence, will kill his brothers and offspring in the cruellest fashion for the sake of some petty, apparent and temporary