36 SERMONS upon Senn 4: SERMON IV JOHN XVII.3. rind this is Life Eternal, that they might know thee the only true god, and jefws Chris whom thou halt fent. D O C T. II. H E next Propofition is, That this God is but one ; Thee the only trite Gad. Deut. 6. 4. Hear, 0 Iliad, the Lord thy God is one Lord. The Heathens multiplied Gods according to their own Fancies ; They had Lords many, and Gods many. .ifeflin in one of his Epiftles, fpeaketh of one Maximies a Heathen, who excufeth the Polytheifm of the Gentiles, that they worfhipped but one Supream Effence, though under divers Names. Ejus giaf go.edam membra varüs fepplicationibes profegiimir, ut totem celere valeamus. That they had feveral Deities, that they might, as by fo many feveral Parcels, adore the whole Divine Effence. The Truth is, Nature bath fome fenfe of it; for as it (heweth there is a God, fó it Iheweth there is but one God. So- crates was a Martyr to this Truth. The Platonicks worfhipped one Supream Effence, whom they called ö ßauXtús. The Philefophers Cometieses called God ró öv, that Being ; fometimes zè $v, that one thing. Tertellian proveth, that the Soul was naiuraliter Chri- fllana, as he fpeaketh, Oh tejlimonium Anime naturaliter Chr f iane ; which he proveth from the Forms of Speech then in ufe. Dens videt, &c. ' What God Ihall award, God feeth, let God determine of me, and for me : And in Troubles they cryed out, Q 'God 1 and in Straits they did not look to the Capitol, the imagined Seat of fuck ' Gods as the 77omans worfhipped, but to Heaven, the Seat of the Living God. Thus it ' it is with the Soul (faith he) when recovered out of a Diftemper. The Truth is, it was the dotage and darknefs of their Spirits, to acknowledg many Gods, as Drunkards and Madmen ufually fee things double, two Suns for one. But befides the confent of Nations, to give you Reafons. There is a God, and therefore but one God : there can be but one firft Caufe, and one Infinite, one Beft, one molt Perfeer, one Omnipotent. If one can do all things, what need more Gods ? If both be Omnipotent, we muff conceive them as agreeing, or difagreeing ; if difagreeing, all would be brought to nothing; if agreeing, one is fuperfluous. God hath decided the Controverfy, Ifa. 44. 8. Is there a God befides me ? Tea, there is no God, I know not any. As if he Paid, If any have Caufe to know, I have, but I know none. This Point is ufeful, not only to exempt the Soul from the anxious fear of a falfe Deity, and to confute the Manichees, Marcion, Cerdo, and others, that held two forts of Gods, and thofe that parted the Godhead into three Eflences, and the Pagan Fry. But Praftically. t. It checketh thofe that Cet up other Gods betides him in their Hearts. If there be but one God, why do we make more, and give Divine Honour to Creatures ? A Worldling maketh his Mony his God, and a Senfualift his Belly his God. Covetou(- nefs is called Idolatry; and, Phil. 3. t9. Whofe God is their Belly. How is Covetouf- nefs, Idolatry ? and how can any make their Belly their God ? Who ever was fees praying to his Pence, or worfhipping his own Belly ? I anfwer, Though it be not done corporally and grofly,yet it is done fpiritually : That which ingroffeth our Love, and Confidence, and Care, and Choice, and Delight, that is fet up in the room and place of God ; and this is to give Divine Honour to a Creature : Now this is in Worldlings and Senfualifts. For Confidence, they truft in their Riches for a fupply, do
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