he was rebuked in the fame manner, Rev. xix. 10. xxii. 9. "See thou do it not: I am thy fellow“fervant, and of thy brethren that have the tes"timony of Jefus: worship God."

Confidering how ftrongly this great article, the worship of one God only, is guarded in all the books of fcripture, it would feem impoffible that it should ever be infringed by any who profefs to hold the books of the Old and New Teftament for the rule of their faith and practice; and yet we fhall fee, that this very article was the subject of one of the firft and the moft radical of all the corruptions of christianity. For upon the very fame principles, and in the very fame manner, by which dead men came to be worshipped by the antient idolaters, there was introduced into the christian church, in the first place, the idolatrous worship of Jefus Christ, then that of the Virgin Mary; and laftly, that of innumerable other faints, and of angels alfo; and this modern christian idolatry has been attended with all the abfurdities, and with fome, but not all the immoralities, of the antient heathen idolatry. It has, however, evidently promoted a very great neglect of the duties we owe both to God and man.

SEC

11

SECTION II.

Of the moral attributes of God.

HAT God is a being of the greatest purity and

THAT

rectitude is another important doctrine of revealed religion; and though, like the doctrine of the divine unity, it may be faid to be the dictate of nature, it was a doctrine which mankind had in a great measure overlooked, and never fufficiently attended to. Entertaining low notions of the beings on whom they supposed that they immediately depended, and afcribing to them a great variety of objects and pursuits, fome of which were exceedingly trifling and unworthy,, they had recourse to a variety of methods by which they thought to recommend themfelves to their favour, many of which had no connection with moral virtue, and fome of them were grofs violations of the most fun damental rules of it.

Judging of their Gods as having been, many of them, men no better than themselves, but subject to envy and jealoufy, they were in general more especially prone to that kind of fuperftition which confifts in mortifying themselves, in order to recommend them to God. If any great calamity be

fel

fel them, imagining the wrath of their God was to be appealed, like that of revengeful and unreafon. able men, with something that coft them very dear, they fometimes did not fpare their own children, but put them to a cruel death in their facrifices; and they made dreadful havock of the rest of their fpecies on much lefs occafions.

In the Jewish and chriftian revelations, on the contrary, we see the moral character of the divine being fet in the cleareft, the strongest, and most amiable light. We find that the God with whom we have to do loves all his creatures; that if he chaftifes them it is with reluctance, and only for their good, and especially for their improvement in virtue; that he ftands in no need of any of his creatures, and has no pleasure either in the compliments they pay him, or the gifts and facrifices which they make to him, though, as an expreffion of their homage, dependence, and gratitude, he may think proper to require fuch things.

The proper feat of virtue and folid happiness being in the heart, the divine being, as his character is revealed to us in our books of fcripture, appears to be most folicitous that our hearts and affections be right, and not to pay much attention to mere external actions, which was every thing that the heathen Gods were imagined to trouble themselves about. On the contrary, the God of the Jews and chriftians is always reprefented as fearching

the

the hearts, and as attending to the inmost thoughts, inclinations, and purposes of the mind; fo that no fecret or intended iniquity can escape his animadverfion.

In order to exhibit the doctrines of the fcriptures concerning the moral attributes of God, I fhall, firft confider his purity or holiness, including his regard to moral virtue in general, and then his goodnefs, mercy, and veracity, in the order in which they are here mentioned.

Paffages which exprefs the purity or holiness of God in general, are exceedingly numerous, and many of them very emphatical; as Lev. xix. 2. "Ye fhall be holy: for I the Lord your God am holy." The angels, in the vifion of Isaiah, vi. 3. are reprefented as crying one to another, "Holy holy, holy is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth " is full of his glory." Mofes, in that remarkable fong which he composed for the Ifraelites, in order that they might commit it to memory, fays, Deut. xxxii. 3. "I will publish the name of the Lord: "afcribe ye greatnefs unto our God. He is the "rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are

judgment: a God of truth, and without iniquity,

just and right is he." Habbakuk, addreffing himself to God, fays, ch. i. 12: "Art thou not "from everlasting, O Lord my God, mine holy " one? Thou art of purer eyes than to behold "evil, and canft not look on iniquity." Wher

David enumerates the particulars which conftitute the character of the man who is moft in favour with God, he draws a picture of the moft diftinguished moral virtue," Pf. xv. 1. &c. "Lord

"who fhall abide in thy tabernacle? who fhall "dwell in thy holy hill? He that walketh up"rightly, and worketh righteousness, and speaketh "the truth in his heart, &c." Laftly, the apoftle James fays, ch. i. 13. "Let no man say when "he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God "cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he 86 any man."

A thousand paffages in the fcripture express the pleasure which God takes in good men, and the happiness which he referves for them, Pf. cxlvii. II. "The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear him, "in those that hope in his mercy." Pf. xxxvii. 23, 24. "The fteps of a good man are ordered by "the Lord: and he delighteth in his way. Though "he fall, he fhall not be utterly caft down: for "the Lord upholdeth him with his hand." Pf. ciii. 13. Like as a "father pitieth his children: "fo the Lord pitieth them that fear him." Pf. lxxxiv. II. For the Lord God is a fun and

fhield: the Lord will give grace and glory: no 66 good thing will he with-hold from them that "walk uprightly. O Lord of hofts, bleffed is the 66 man that trusteth in thee." On the other hand, the wicked are always represented as the fole objects

of