in my name, he will give it to you. John xvi. 23. This is the Scripture rule of worship. We are to pray to God in the name of Chrift; that is, as his disciples, and with a regard to him as the Mediator between God and man. To this purpose St. Paul exhorts us in Col. iii. 16. Do every thing in the name of Chrift, giving thanks to God and the Father by him. The injunction to St. John, when he would have fallen down to worship the angel that thewed him the prophetical visions in the book of Revelation, we should confider as given to every Chriftian who is disposed to worship any being except the ONE SUPREME See thou do it not. Worflip God. All other worship is an idolatry which the Christian religion forbids. The proneness to it, however, among Chriftians, as well as Heathens, has been in all ages melancholy and fhocking. The religion of Heathens confifted chiefly in the worship of human spirits supposed to

have been elevated after their deaths into a participation with the Supreme Deity in the government of the world. The religion of Papifts is in a great degree the fame. Their prayers are directed much more to the Virgin Mary, and deified human fpirits called faints, than to God. -Nor are Protestants guiltless. For, if the doctrine of the Trinity is falfe, what muft, the worship be that is grounded upon it? How much must the reformed churches themselves want reformation ?— Even Socinians have not kept clear of this great error of Christendom". You have heard that, in former times, they contended zealously for the obligation to invoke and worship Chrift, though, in H 2 their

It is remarkable that Socinus, whofe geal on this point was fo great as to make him a perfecutor, at the fame time afferted that idolators could not be faved. How happy is it for us, that even our own sentences here shall not condemn us hereafter, provided we are fincere?

their opinion, not a creature only, but a

mere man.

Suffer me here to addrefs you in the words with which the apoftle John concludes his firft Epiftle-Little children keep yourfelves from idols. Adhere to the worship of the one living and true God, and admit no other beings to a fhare with him in your adorations. That grand apoftacy among Chriftians which is predicted in the New Teftament, confifts principally in their falling into idolatrous worship. This

i The learned Mr. Jofeph Mede, in the last century, has given an intimation of "Some fin which the

whole body of the reformation is guilty of, but "which is counted no fin." And Sir Ifaac Newton, in his Commentary on the Revelations, speaks of "all nations having corrupted the Chriftian religion, " and of a recovery of the long left truth which is to "be effected hereafter."-" I can by no means con"ceive (fays an excellent clergyman and valuable

writer) what it is these writers point at, except it "be the fupremacy of the God and Father of all, " which

This is that fpiritual fornication for which the Jews were so often punished;

and which, according to all the best commentators, has given the name of the mother of harlots to the church of Rome. Avoid it then carefully and anxiously. You cannot be wrong when you follow, in this and other instances, the example of Jefus Chrift.

It is the conviction that the true object of religious worship is God the Father only, that in a great measure makes us Proteftant Diffenters. Let us keep on

"which they might poffibly believe to be a truth "that has been denied and loft by the general decla"ration of the churches, that two other perfons are

his equals. This is fo far from being looked upon ་་ as a fin that it is a fign of orthodoxy, and is a "doctrine that pervades the whole reformation." See reflections on the 15th chapter of Mr. Gibbon's History, &c. p. 73, by the late Mr. Henry Taylor, Rector of Crawley, and Vicar of Portsmouth, Hants.

See Note E Appendix.

this ground. It is impoffible we should find better. There are probably fuperior invisible beings without number. But we have nothing to do with them as objects of our devotions. Our invocations in prayer must be confined to that one felf-exiftent being who governs all beings. There are other lords; but their authority is derived from him. There are other faviours, but they are his gifts; and of these the first and best is that Saviour who left heaven to deliver us from fin and death, and to lift us to a happy immortality. To this Saviour we owe an ardent gratitude; but the gratitude we owe to him is nothing compared with that which we owe to the God who gave him, and whom alone we know to be ever near us to hear and notice our prayers and praises.

Having made thefe previous obfervations, I fhall next proceed to set before you fome arguments which appear to me

to