SERM.

V. of

From this may be infer'd the whole duty of man, fumm'd up by our Saviour in these two branches, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy foul, and with all thy mind; and thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy felf. The obligation of the latter, the love of our neighbour, or every one of mankind, arifes from the law of our creation. Since we are children of the fame family, the offspring of one father, and plac'd under a conftitution which is wifely and graciously intended for the greatest and most extenfive good of the whole kind, what can be more natural and reasonable, than that we fhould do all the good offices in our power to each other? This is to answer the end of our being, and to work together with God. The inanimate creatures ferve the purpofes for which they were made, without any thought; and the brutal fpecies act according to their instincts, without difcerning the defign of them. But fince God has indued us with a capacity of understanding the end of his own works, and of our own powers and affections, is it not evident that we ought to fulfil that end, in a nobler manner, not by an unintelligent neceffity, but voluntarily? It is true, we have a principle of felf-love planted in us, which, far from thwarting the defign of the

every

V.

focial affections, is perfectly confiftent with SERM. it, and minifters to it; for the care of individual, is for the good of the whole species. But to confine our affections and our cares to ourselves, neglecting the offices which arise from the relation we have to men, as our brethren, is to trespass against the established order of the world, and to violate the respect which we owe to the one God and Father of all, who is the Author of it.

2dly, The principal duty of mankind is to love the Lord their God and to ferve him. This follows directly from the acknowledgment of his unity. And accordingly Mofes having, in the text, called upon Ifrael to hearken to this important truth that the Lord our God is one Lord, immediately adds in the following verfe, and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy foul, and with all thy might. The fame duty is otherwise express'd at the 13th verfe, refer'd to and thus quoted by our Saviour, * Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only halt thou ferve. The conftitution of our minds leads us directly to that honour and service God requires, so that we need not say who shall afcend to heaven for us, or defcend to the deep, to bring us inftruction

M 2

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* Matt. iv. 10.

V.

If we

SERM. concerning our duty to him: The knowledge of it is near us, even in our hearts. look attentively into ourselves, we shall find that intelligence neceffarily attracts our esteem, and that gratitude to a benefactor is the natural growth of our minds: an inward veneration arifes for wifdom difplay'd in a variety of works wherein one noble end is regularly pursued; and good communicated with design, produces warm affections in every heart which deliberately attends to it, and is not under a ftrong unnatural prepoffeffion. Now fince our reafon convinces us that all the wisdom of the universe centers in one mind; that all the effects of intelligence which we behold in the universal system of nature, are to be attributed to one Cause; that all the fcattered rays of intellectual light which we difcern in limited, dependent understandings, are but emanations from one eternal fountain of wisdom, and all the good we poffefs, or fee, flows from one never-failing, bountiful Spring; then in all reason, according to the direction of our intelligent nature, our highest esteem and most intense affection fhould be plac'd on that eternal Mind, that glorious, perfectly wife and benevolent Cause of all things. He is intitled to a peculiar honour from us, fuch as no other being can claim; we ought to have the great

eft

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est respect for him in our hearts, and carry it SERM. always with the humbleft reverence towards him in our whole behaviour. So reasonable is that rule of revealed religion, and which is one principal defign of it, that men laying afide all fuperftition and idolatry, should worfhip and ferve the true God, the fupreme Being alone; and have no other gods before him; ftill remembring that he is a Spirit, and they that worship him acceptably, must worship him in spirit and truth, not with outward forms of devotion, which, when feparated from good difpofitions of mind and the obedience of our lives, cannot please him, but with the imitation of his holiness and goodness, and obeying his precepts of eternal and immutable righteousness, according to that excellent declaration of the Apostle St. John, * This is the love of God that we keep his commandments.

SERMON VI.

Abfolute Eternity explain'd, and fhewn to be a peculiar Attribute of GOD.

SERM.

VI.

Pfal. xc. 2.

From everlasting to everlasting thou art God.

A

LL men, who believed the being of God, have ever agreed in afcribing eternity to him as an abfolute perfection of his nature, tho' 'tis impoffible for our minds to comprehend it. We have very clear notions of intelligence and activity, which, being conscious of them in ourselves, we can eafily afcribe to other beings in a greater or leffer degree. But a prefent existence which was from everlasting or without beginning, that is, an infinite duration now actually past, this at the first propofal overwhelms our feeble understandings, and our ideas of it must be inadequate. It becomes us therefore to enter on the confideration of this fubject with a sense of our own weak

nefs,