mercy

their way to thee, and all right knowledge of thee, thou didst in remember us; and by thy prophets of old, and lastly by our Lord Jesus Christ, didst declare thy being and perfections, that thou, O righteous and holy Father, art the only true God! and none other besides thee; that all might know thee, from the highest to the lowest, and render unto thee that homage and worship which is due to thee alone.

O Father of light! shine into our dark minds, that we may in some degree see thee as thou art! and may never give to another that honour and glory which belongeth solely to thee.

And as thou art the God from whom alone cometh our help in time of need; and from whom all our comforts flow; dispose us evermore to look up unto thee, and put our whole trust and confidence in thee, as the one supreme governor and judge of thy creatures, and dispenser of happiness or misery to them, in the different stages of their being, according to the laws of thy wise and merciful administration, to bring all to virtue and to thyself at last.

Hasten, we beseech thee, O Lord, the times promised by thy holy prophets, when thy

true

true religion, as taught by Jesus, shall be every where preached, when men shall come under the blessed influence of it, and the voice of war and discord be no more heard; and when thyself alone, O Father! who art the only true God, shalt be acknowledged as the only object of worship and adoration, of prayer and praise.

And in the mean while check and restrain, O God, all our vain and idle researches into things that do not belong to us and cannot profit, till we are brought to the true knowledge of thee, and a settled obedience to thy sacred will; and sanctify and direct all our humble and modest inquiries after thee, O thou most High! that they may not be fruitless to us, but may raise and purify our natures, and fit us for those visions of thy glory, and the unspeakable happiness of virtuous men, thy chosen servants, in thy future eternal world, which of thine immense goodness thou hast promised our Lord Jesus Christ to bestow upon thy creatures.

August 30, 1778.

SERMON

SERMON XIII.

MARK Xii. 30.

Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.

THESE words form a part of a short dialogue between our Lord and a Jewish doctor. With seriousness, and a becoming deference and respect, the man desired him to resolve him, Which was the first commandment of all? Thus called upon, this heavenly teacher would by no means decline the opportunity of teaching important truths. But before he gives a reply to his question, he judged it fitting to inculcate a doctrine strictly connected with it; the primary article and foundation of all religion, the doctrine of the divine unity; which he delivered in the words of Moses, his predecessor, the Hebrew lawgiver, on whose foundation he built the Gospel, (Deut. vi. 4.) "Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is

VOL. I.

R

one

one Lord!" or, Jehovah our God is one Jehovah: not two or more Jehovahs, but one only.

Concerning this point, that the Father is the only true God, which was one great part of our Saviour's commission to teach, it is not necessary now to dwell on its just foundations in Nature and revelation: though we cannot help mentioning the very commendable adherence of the whole Jewish nation to it, now in their dispersion, from our Saviour's time to the present day to the great reproach of the whole Christian world, who have almost universally departed from it.

And if so plain a matter needed any further illustration, you cannot but perceive it in our Lord's manner of delivering this, which he calls the first commandment of all: that we are to love God with all our heart: for, if we are to love the Lord our God with all our heart; if we are to give our whole heart to one person, we cannot give it to another person, or to a third.

But to proceed with our subject. In this precept, then, of the love of God, of which I am now to treat, we have a subject of the first and highest importance in morality; but