ose 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.

24. There ought also to be but one temple for one God; for likeness is
the constant foundation of agreement. This temple ought to be common to
all men, because he is the common God of all men. High priests are to
be continually about his worship, over whom he that is the first by his
birth is to be their ruler perpetually. His business must be to offer
sacrifices to God, together with those priests that are joined with him,
to see that the laws be observed, to determine controversies, and to
punish those that are convicted of injustice; while he that does not
submit to him shall be subject to the same punishment, as if he had been
guilty of impiety towards God himself. When we offer sacrifices to him,
we do it not in order to surfeit ourselves, or to be drunken; for
such excesses are against the will of God, and would be an occasion of
injuries and of luxury; but by keeping ourselves sober, orderly, and
ready for our other occupations, and being more temperate than others.
And for our duty at the sacrifices [22] themselves, we ought, in the
first place, to pray for the common welfare of all, and after that for
our own; for we are made for fellowship one with another, and he who
prefers the common good before what is peculiar to himself is above all
acceptable to God. And let our prayers and supplications be made humbly
to God, not [so much] that he would give us what is good, [for he
hath already given that of his own accord, and hath proposed the same
publicly to all,] as that we may duly receive it, and when we have
received it, may preserve it. Now the law has appointed several
purifications at our sacrifices, whereby we are cleansed after
a funeral, after what sometimes happens to us in bed, and after
accompan