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[188]
What form of government then can be more holy than this? what more
worthy kind of worship can be paid to God than we pay, where the entire
body of the people are prepared for religion, where an extraordinary degree
of care is required in the priests, and where the whole polity is so ordered
as if it were a certain religious solemnity? For what things foreigners,
when they solemnize such festivals, are not able to observe for a few days'
time, and call them Mysteries and Sacred Ceremonies, we observe with great
pleasure and an unshaken resolution during our whole lives. What are the
things then that we are commanded or forbidden? They are simple, and easily
known. The first command is concerning God, and affirms that God contains
all things, and is a Being every way perfect and happy, self-sufficient,
and supplying all other beings; the beginning, the middle, and the end
of all things. He is manifest in his works and benefits, and more conspicuous
than any other being whatsoever; but as to his form and magnitude, he is
most obscure. All materials, let them be ever so costly, are unworthy to
compose an image for him, and all arts are unartful to express the notion
we ought to have of him. We can neither see nor think of any thing like
him, nor is it agreeable to piety to form a resemblance of him. We see
his works, the light, the heaven, the earth, the sun and the moon, the
waters, the generations of animals, the productions of fruits. These things
hath God made, not with hands, nor with labor, nor as wanting the assistance
of any to cooperate with him; but as his will resolved they should be made
and be good also, they were made and became good immediately. All men ought
to follow this Being, and to worship him in the exercise of virtue; for
this way of worship of God is the most holy of all others.
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