much for religious truth. " Any man would "be deemed an ideot, who did not instantly part "with a farthing, as foon as he faw only a "small probability, that by so trifling a deposit "he fhould obtain millions of pieces of gold. "So no one in his right fenfes, who has even a "flight belief that, if I may use the expreffion,

66

by depositing all the advantages of this life, "and even life itself, in obeying God accor

ding to the precepts of JESUS of Nazareth, "he shall secure another and an immortal life, "attended with the highest and never-ending

felicity, (as may be the cafe, if those things are "true which are related by the facred hiftorians) "would not immediately resolve to do it.'

Is this fuppofition, my Chriftian friends, ftated too strongly? Is there not, in the evidences of our faith, and the recompense it fets before us, a juft foundation for it? But, bleffed be GOD, we are not often called to make such a sacrifice for the hope of our calling. In the general course of things, faith in CHRIST hath the promise of this life as well

Memoirs of the Life of Fauftus Socinus, p. 19, 20. Or Socinus's Argument for the Authority of the Holy Scriptures, tranflated by Combe, p. 125. Or, F. Socini Opera: tom. i. p. 276, 277.

Can words be

as of that which is to come. wanted,-need perfuafions be urged,--must exhortations and entreaties be used, to engage our attention to, to excite our pursuit of, so great and noble an object as ETERNAL LIFE? Rather, without constraint, with a willing mind, let each of us, for himself, adopt the words of Peter, when " many forfook CHRIST, " and walked no more with him."

LORD,

to whom shall we go; THOU haft the words of ETERNAL LIFE? Amen.

SERMON VI.

THE DOCTRINE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT CONCERNING THE UNITY OF GOD, AND THE CHARACTER OF JESUS CHRIST.

IN THREE PARTS.

PART I.

ON THE UNITY OF GOD.

1. TIM. II. 5.

For there is ONE GOD; and ONE Mediator between God and Men, the Man CHRIST JESUS.

HE hiftory of ancient times, as far as

TH

religious principles and practices are concerned, is the hiftory of idolatry, of its fuperftitions and crimes. Egypt, Athens, and Rome, those celebrated feats of literature. and refinement, had their "Gods many, and "Lords many." The hills and the vallies throughout the world had their numerous and peculiar divinities. The plains, the

rivers, and the feas, had their Gods. In no region, in no corner of the earth, except in Judea, do we find a temple to the true and living GOD. The wisdom of philosophy was stained with the guilt, and obscured with the darkness of polytheism. The religion of Mofes alone taught and preferved the doctrine of the divine unity, of one only God, the fole object of worship, among a felect people, till JESUS CHRIST appeared, promulgated it with new and peculiar evidence, and commiffioned his Apostles to preach it through the world. "It is certain, wherever Chriftianity spread, "it entirely demolished polytheism and all "its appendages. So that now for more than "a thousand years incenfe has not been "offered, or a libation made, to any heathen

deity, through the greatest part at least of "the Roman empire. If we candidly com"pare this change, which Christianity has

introduced, with the change made by any "fect of philofophy, any inftitution of religion or civil government, we shall be at no lofs "to determine which is the greateft." This

* Leechman's Sermon on "The Wisdom of GOD in the Gofpel "Revelation." p. 30, 31.

revolution reflects glory on the religion of JESUS. It was the natural, genuine effect of its principles, produced on those only who embraced it, but arifing wherever it was embraced and it has been not a tranfient but permanent effect of the gospel. The statement of this fact, while it evinces the importance and utility of Christianity, is a powerful inducement to study this its leading and efficacious doctrine with care, and to preserve it with purity. "There is ONE GOD, and one Mediator between GoD and men, the MAN "CHRIST JESUS."

This declaration ftands opposed to the polytheism of the pagan world, as it included the worship both of superior heavenly beings, who were eternal, and of inferior, earthly deities, or mediators, who had been men. Of these Gods, of thefe Lords, there were many. But the Scriptures, both of the Old and New Testament, agree in inculcating, that there is but ONE GOD; and Chriftianity teacheth that "there is one Mediator between GoD and men, "the MAN CHRIST JESUS." On these two effential principles of religion it is our design

y See Locke on 1 Cor. viii. 6.