SERM. these words, Thou shalt worship the Lord III. thy God. And 3dly, it being added, Him Only halt thou ferve, from thence I propofed to take an occafion of explaining diftinctly, the nature of the feveral Species of Idolatry: Which is the Great Breach of this fundamental Command

ment.

THE two Former of these Heads I have already gone through; Having largely shown, that there is One, and One Only, True God, or Supreme Lord of all things; ftiled here by our Saviour, The Lord thy God: And that our Duty towards him, expreft in these words, Thou shalt worfhip the Lord thy God: denotes every religious, every virtuous Act or Habit, by which Regard is shown to God, either in the Affections of our Minds, or in the Expreffions of our Mouths, or in the Actions of our Lives.

It remains, that I proceed at this time from the latter part of the Text, And him Only fhalt thou ferve, to explain diftinctly the Nature of the feveral Species of Idolatry. Which Sin confifts, either in fetting up Idol-Gods, in oppofi

tion to, or in conjunction with, the True SER M.

God;

.

or in worshipping the True God III. himself, after an idolatrous manner; either representing him under visible, and corporeal Images, or applying to him through falfe and Idol-Mediators, in diminution of the Honour of the One True Mediatour, whom God himself has expreffly appointed to be Alone our Advocate, Interceffor and Judge.

1. THE First and Higheft Degree of Idolatry, is, when men totally cafting off all Belief of the True God, fet up, in direct oppofition to Him, fome imagination of their own, if not as a formal Object of Worship, yet at leaft as That to which Alone they afcribe all thofe great Effects, which are indeed the Bountiful Gifts of God to Mankind, and the fovereign Benefits of his Government over the World. Of This kind are the Notions which Some men frame to themselves, of Nature, Fate, Chance, and the like; when they afcribe the Being and Order, the Beauty and Ufefulness of the World and all things that are therein, to These as their real Causes;

III.

SERM. which in Truth are nothing but mere empty words, mere abstract Notions, mere Fictions or Idols of the Imagination, which have no real Existence, or (as St Paul expreffes himself in a like cafe) are Nothing in the World. For, What is Nature? What is Fate or Chance? Are they any real Beings, or Agents? or can That be truly the Cause of any thing, which itfelf has really no Subfiftence? or are not thefe Notions plainly the mere Refuges of Ignorance, and the thin Cover of affected Perverseness? Lefs unreasonable of the two, were those antient Idolaters, who stopping fhort at the immediate and visible Caufes of the Life and Food and Plenty they injoyed, worshipped the Sun and Moon and Stars of Heaven, as the Authors of That Good, whereof they were really and undeniably the Inftruments. Lefs unreasonable, I fay, was even This, than to attribute the causes of all things, to the efficiency of a mere abftract Nothing. And yet the worfhipping these glorious and most noble parts of the vifible Universe, was a Folly altogether without Excufe, even in the darkest Times of heathen-ignorance; Be

caufe

cause Reason itself, without Any Revela- SER M. tion, was abundantly fufficient to lead III, men from the wonderful operations of unintelligent and lifelefs Matter, to the Knowledge of an Intelligent, Living, and All-wise Caufe. For, the invifible things of God from the creation of the World are clearly feen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal Power and Godhead, Rom. i. 20. So that Job (who appears not to have had any knowledge of the Jewish religion) could say: If I beheld the Sun when it shined, or the Moon walking in brightness; and my Heart hath been fecretly inticed, or my mouth hath kiffed my hand: This alfo were an iniquity to be punished by the judge; for I should have denied the God that is above. Which natural knowledge of God, when men had once fuffered to be corrupted; and had changed the Truth of God into a Lye, worshipping and ferving the Creature instead of the Creator, who is Blessed for ever; Idolatry quickly fpread itself into Many Branches: And as Some worshipped the Hoft of Heaven, the Sun and Moon and Stars, because of Vo L. I. E their

SER M. their Beauty and Usefulness; fo Others, III. carried away with Flattery towards their

Kings and Governours, deified and worfhipped, after their Deaths, those who in their life-time, for exercifing Lordship over them, had been ftiled Benefactors. This latter, was the Idolatry of the Antient Greeks and Romans; thofe Learned Nations, who in all other refpects improved and civilized themselves to fuch a degree, and cultivated all Arts and Sciences to fo high a Pitch, that all Countries in the World, in comparison of Them, were ftiled and juftly accounted barbarous. But their Religion, thefe Learned and Famous Nations received in blindest and most stupid manner, by Tradition from their ignorant and barbarous Ancestors; their Jupiter himself, the Object of their most folemn Worship, being no other than a King, who, in the antient dark and fabulous Ages, had reigned in the Ifle of Crete. Of the fame kind, seems to have been the idolatry of the Chaldeans, at the time when Abram, in order to fet up the worship of the True God, departed out of bis Country, and

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