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my engagements in this refpect, without reciting a confiderable number of paffages from the books both of the Old and New Teftament on this fubject, and more especially from the former, which relates to the times in which idolatry was peculiarly prevalent. To preferve in the world the knowledge and worship of the one true God, feems, indeed, to have been the principal object of the whole Jewifh difpenfation; and, therefore, we are not furprifed that our attention is conftantly kept up to it through the whole of the Old Teftament hiftory. Befides, we are apt to lofe our idea, not only of the relative, but alfo of the real importance of this doctrine, without recurring to, and reflecting upon what we read in the Old Teftament concerning it.

The firft of the Ten Commandments pronounced by an audible and fupernatural voice from mount Sinai, in the hearing of all the Ifraelites, relates to this fubject only, Ex. xx. 3. "Thou shalt have no other "gods before me." The fame doctrine

of the unity of God, and the fentiments

which refult from it, are alfo frequently inculcated in all the writings of Mofes; as Deut. vi. 4. Hear, O Ifracl, the Lord

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our God is one Lord; and thou fhalt "love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy foul, and with all thy might."

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This paffage of Mofes is alfo quoted by our Lord, as containing the first and the most important of all the commandments in the Law, Mark xii. 28---30, "And "one of the fcribes came and afked him, "Which is the firft commandment of all? "And Jefus anfwered him, The first of all "the commandments is, Hear, O Ifracl, "the Lord our God is one Lord; and thou "fhalt love the Lord thy God with all thy

heart, and with all thy foul, and with "all thy mind, and with all thy ftrength. "This is the first commandment."

The divine being himself, in a very cmphatical manner, afferts his fole title to divinity in If. xliv. 6. "Thus faith the "Lord, the king of Ifrael, and his re66 deemer,

"deemer, the Lord of hofts. I am the first, "and I am the laft, and befides me there is

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no God. Fear ye not, neither be afraid : "have not I told thee from that time, and "have declared it? Ye are even my wit"neffes. Is there a God befides me? yea, "there is no God, I know not any."

The fame doctrine is not only always fuppofed, but it is likewife frequently and very exprefsly inculcated in the New Teftament; as in 1 Tim. ii. 5. "There is one "God, and one mediator between God "and men, the man Chrift Jefus ;" and, 1 Cor. viii. 4. &c. "We know that an "idol is nothing in the world, and that there is none other God but one. For.

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though there be that are called gods, "whether in heaven or in earth, (as there "be gods many, and lords many) but to

us there is but one God, the Father, "of whom are all things, and we in him; "and one Lord Jefus Chrift, by whom are all things, and we by him." The Apofle James alfo mentions this doctrine in fuch a

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manner as plainly fhews that he confidered it as the moft inconteftable maxim in religion. Jam. ii. 19. "Thou believeft that "there is one God; thou doft well."

The worship of the true God by images, or fymbols, &c. is alfo moft exprefsly forbidden in the Old Teftament. This fpecies of idolatry was commonly practifed at the time of the promulgation of the Law, and the fecond of the Ten Commandments is appropriated to the prohibition of it. Ex. XX. 4. &c. "Thou shalt not make unto "thee any graven image, or any likeness of

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any thing, that is in heaven above, or that

"is in the earth bencath, or that is in the "waters under the earth. Thou fhalt not

"bow down thy felf to them, nor ferve "them: for I the Lord thy God am a

jealous God, vifiting the iniquity of the "fathers upon the children unto the third "and fourth generation of them that hate 66 me; and fhewing mercy unto thousands "of them that love me, and keep my com"mandments."

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To enforce this command, Mofes is particularly careful to remind the Ifraelites, that when God fpake to them from mount Sinai, they faw no refemblance whatever, but only heard a voice, Deut. iv. 12. &c. "And the Lord fpake unto you out of the "midft of the fire: ye heard the voice of "the words, but faw no fimilitude, only ye "heard a voice. Take ye, therefore, good "heed to yourselves, for ye faw no man"ner of fimilitude on the day that the Lord fpake unto you in Horeb, out of the "midft of the fire, left ye corrupt your“felves, and make you a graven image, "the fimilitude of any figure, the likeness "of male or female; the likeness of any "beaft that is on the earth, the likeness of

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any winged fowl that flieth in the air, "the likeness of any thing that creepeth on

the ground, the likeness of any fish that "is in the water beneath the earth. And "left thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven, "and when thou feeft the fun, and the moon, and the ftars, even all the host of heaven, fhouldeft be driven to worship them, and ferve them, which the Lord

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