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SER M. Comprehended likewife thofe Duties which more particularly refpect mens Selves, fuch as are Sobriety, Temperance, Humility, and the like. The former Branch, the Duty of loving God with our whole Heart, is by our Saviour expreffed in Other words in the Text now read unto you, Thou shalt worShip the Lord thy God and Him only fhalt thou ferve. In difcourfing upon which important Words, I fhall obferve the following Method. ist, I shall confider the Suppofition laid down in the Text; that there is One, and One Only, True God or Supreme Lord of all things; The Lord thy God. 2dly, I fhall fhew What That Duty towards, him is, which is expreffed in these words, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God. And 3dly, it being added, Him only shalt thou ferve; I fhall thence take occafion to explain diftinctly, the nature of the several Species of Idolatry: Which confifts, either in fetting up Idol-Gods, in oppofition to, or in conjunction with, the True God; or in worshipping the True God himself, after an idolatrous manner; either reprefenting him under visible and corporeal Images, or applying to him through falfe and IdolMediators, in diminution of the Honour of

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the One True Mediator, whom God him-SER M. self has expreffly appointed to be Alone our Advocate, Interceffor, and Judge. The

I. Ift, THING to be obferved, is the Suppofition laid down in the Text; that there is One, and One Only, True God or Supreme Lord of all things; The Lord thy God. One God: That is, One Eternal and Infinite, One Supreme and Independent, One Allpowerful and All-wife, One perfectly Juft and Merciful and Good Being. The God who created all things for his Own good pleasure, and on whofe Will depends every Moment the continuance of their Being: By the word of the Lord were the Heavens made, and all the Hoft of them by the Breath of his Mouth, Pf. xxxiii. 6. The God by whose Providence every thing is governed, fo that without him not a Sparrow falls to the ground, but even the very hairs of our head are all numbred, Matt. x. 29. The God who hath made of one blood, all nations of men, for to dwell on all the face of the Earth, and bath determined the times beforeappointed, and the bounds of their habitation. Acts xvii. 26. The God who, in times paft, particularly manifested himself to our Fathers, to Abraham, Ifaac and Jacob, and

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SER M. the Patriarchs: Who brought the children of Ifrael out of Egypt, with an high hand and with an out-ftretched Arm: Who delivered the Law to Mofes: Who, in a Succeffion of Ages, inftructed his people from time to time by the Prophets: and who, in thefe last days, hath Spoken unto us by his Son. According to That declaration of St Peter; in his difcourfe to the Jews, Acts iii. 13. The God of Abraham, and of Ifaac, and of Jacob, the God of our Fathers, bath glorified his Son Jefus: And That of St Paul, 2 Cor. i. 3. God, even the Father of our Lord Jefus Chrift, the Father of Mercies, and the God of all comfort; and ch. xi. 31. The God and Father of our Lord Jefus Chrift, which is Blessed for ever

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THIS Doctrine, of the whole World being under the Government of One God, is the Natural Notion, which the Light of Reafon it felf has univerfally implanted in the Minds of Men. And had not perfons of vain and conceited Imaginations, profeffing themfelves Wife, become Fools: Had not men of corrupt Manners, difliking to retain God in their Knowledge, and having their foolish heart darkned; Deifying the Souls of

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their deceased Kings, out of Flattery to the SER M. Living; filled the minds of the ignorant and deluded Vulgar, with a fuperftitious Belief of many Gods having Rule over particular Places and Countries; The True Notion of God, fo agreeable to the plain and natural Dictates of unprejudiced Reason, might well have been preferved among the Nations of the Earth. For the plain connexion, and dependence of one thing upon another, through the whole material Univerfe; through all parts of the Earth, and in the vifible Heavens: The Difpofition of the Air, and Sea, and Winds; The Motions of the Sun, and Moon, and Stars; and the useful Viciffitudes of Seafons, for the regular production of the various Fruits of the Earth; have always been fufficient to make it evidently appear even to mean Capacities, (had they not been perpetually prejudiced by wrong inftruction,) that all things are under the Direction of One Power, under the Dominion of One God, to whom the whole Universe is uniformly fubject. And in fact, notwithstanding the strongest Prejudices of long-established Superstitions and inforced Idolatry, yet the wifeft and Beft Men, in All heathen-nations,

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SERM. have ever feen and in good measure maintained this Great Truth; as a Testimony to a degenerate and corrupt World, that God never left himself wholly without Witness, notwithstanding all the provocations of Idolaters; but continually manifefted himself to all reasonable Understandings, in that he did good, and gave us rain from beaven, and fruitful Seafons, filling our hearts with Food and Gladness. But 'tis with greater Clearzefs from all appearance of Doubt, and with greater Affurance of Authority confirming the Dictate of Reason, that the Scripture fets forth to us This First Principle of Religion. Deut. vi. 4. Hear O Ifrael, The Lord our God is One Lord; [ch. iv. 39.] He is God in Heaven above, and upon the Earth beneath; there is none elfe. Again, IJ. xliv. 6. I am the First, and I am the Laft, and befides me there is no God; --Is there a God befides me? yea, there is no God; I know not any.] And in the New Teftament, I Cor. viii. 4. We know that there is none other God but One: For though there be that are called Gods, whether in Heaven or in Earth (as there be Many Gods;) yet to Us there is but One God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in Him; and

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