the Deity, however qualified, to any medium or relation of inferior beings, has a direct tendency to polytheism and idolatry; and is about as derogatory to that glorious Object, as it would be to ascribe their name and notion or the name and notion of any one of them to Him. So that the difference would not be considerable between calling the Creator a great Creature, and one of his creatures a little god; seeing there can be no comparison either in name, notion, or substance, between God and his creatures of any degree.

But (it will be said) May we not pray supremely and independently to so much as this one Mediate? It is the Second, and there is no other like him: He is only one degree removed from the First Cause; nor yet so much, being one in fact with That.

The answer is, No; not so much as to one: "for it is written, THOU SHALT WORSHIP THE LORD THY GOD, AND HIM ONLY SHALT THOU SERVE” (Matt. iv. 10): the Subject's own words. "For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Eph. iii. 14). Let one man of the world worship another if he will, without any reference to the Author of both, and this is done every day; let them both worship the devil together if they will, and this is done every hour; a Christian man would not only once in his life, if he knew it, do either: no, not if his life depended on it; nor if the devil would make us a present of all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them (Ib. 8, 9), for this single compliance.

It may be argued, that to deny the supreme and independent worship of the Son, is to deny his divinity. But it does not appear, what affirming, or denying either, of one point can have to do with the other. We may believe the Son to be "God of God, and very God of very God;" but still see no rule, nor example, nor reason for worshipping him absolutely and independently as God; any more than we can for worshipping in that light the usurper foretold by St. Paul, who "as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God" (Thess. II. ii. 4);

but rather, "a confounding of persons;" and a case in which the Object of this undue worship would be very likely to tell his self-conceited friends as he once told a fond woman, "Ye worship ye know not what" (John iv. 22): or as he told his detractors, "I honour my Father, and ye do dishonour me" (Ib. viii. 49). For what credit do we really to the Son by forgetting his relation to God the Father Almighty? As "God hath exalted HIM with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour for to give repentance to Israel" (Acts v. 31), we should humbly and hopefully look to him for our conversion; not forgetting, that it is the goodness of God that leadeth us to repentance (Rom. ii. 4) as it is HE which was ordained of God to be the Judge of quick and dead (Acts x. 42), we should look to his decision with awe and reverence; not forgetting the authority by which he was so ordained: as "HE ever liveth, to make intercession for us" (Heb. vii. 25), we look to him for pardon, grace, and salvation; not forgetting the Throne of mercy, which is not otherwise to be thought of. But we must really be excused from seeing in the Son and our blessed Redeemer a peculiar object of worship on any account; as formerly one nation or one township was apt to choose one god, and another another for reasons best known to themselves.

One does not know, whether to call this RENDING NOTION which makes two gods of One, Orthodox, or not; for every abomination has borne this respectable name and degree in its turn: but certainly the Subject himself, who, as before intimated, is more injured and disparaged, than honoured and flattered by this awkward compliment, might tell its authors as he told the conceited Jews,-" I am come in my Father's name, and ye receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive" (John v. 43). So truly has it happened to him as David foretold, in a psalm almost entirely relating to him, "With the flatterers were busy mockers" (Ps. xxxv. 16): busy enough indeed! And if these mocking flatterers do not preferably receive one who comes in his own name, they will one who

is brought to them by a corrupt tradition; which began perhaps with singing hymns in praise of the Subject and grew by degrees to this idolatrous worship; as it might have happened before by the memory of Mars, Bacchus, Apollo, and other heathen deities;-a very innocent beginning for a very fraudulent and irreligious practice.

It may be owing to their disgust at this simple mistake of SOME high churchmen, (for if it be simple enough to be high, the high churchmen cannot all be so simple) that many sincere admirers of the character of the Subject, and among them some who also confess his divinity, are wont to run into the opposite extreme; disclaiming his worship entirely, as mere man-worship and tending to idolatry. But understanding by the Christian Object of supreme adoration, 1, One God particularly revealed to mankind in three Types or Notions of a personal denomination, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; 2, That the Son is not like a dead saint mingling with the dust of the earth, but confessedly ascended as God-man to the throne of the Father, at whose right hand he sitteth and ever liveth to make intercession for those who come unto God by him, as aforesaid: 3, And more than all, that the Father has ordained it, as before observed-for others, as Enoch and Elijah for example, have been different from dead saints; but the subject was different from all, in having this express commission (John v. 22, 23)-understanding therefore, and considering these several points only, without regarding others, one should think one's self, that no other person understanding and considering also with the like freedom and impartiality could feel any hesitation in addressing the subject with one as he is*, Jesus Christ the son of David, according to his humanity, Jesus Christ the son of God according to his divinity; not two persons, but the presence, présentation or single person, and heir also of two natures, in one fortune and constitution,—or in worshipping and invoking him personally; not as Chris

* More fully shewn hereafter in its place.

tum solum, nor as Christum humanum, but as CHRISTUM DEUM for that is our idea of the Mediator; as an object of supreme or highest, but not of independent, worship.

Worshipping clearly and decidedly with this idea, we cannot be accounted Polytheists: others may be polytheists; Christians cannot. For others are not ashamed to worship any man on earth from whom they may have any thing either to hope or fear, without thinking of One above: but what says the Christian? "My brethren; have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of persons. For if there come unto your assembly a man with a gold ring, in goodly apparel, and there come in also a poor man in vile raiment; and ye have respect to him that weareth the gay clothing, and say unto him, Sit thou here in a good place; and say to the poor, Stand thou there, or sit under my footstool,-are ye not then partial in yourselves, and become judges of evil thoughts?" And "who art thou, that thou shouldest be afraid of a man that shall die; and of the son of man that shall be made as grass; and forgettest the Lord, thy Maker, that hath stretched forth the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth and hast feared continually every day, because of the fury of the oppressor, as if he were ready to destroy?" "My brethren; these things ought not so to be" (Jam. ii. 1-4; Isai. li. 12, 13; Jam. iii. 10). So far from worshipping every formidable person,the true Christian while he gives every man, whether formidable or not, his due respect, will only worship one man in the world, and not him either without a regard to his divinity, if it be not always expressed; as one does not think of asking one's neighbour at table every time to help one in God's name, though it be clear that he could not do so much without the divine permission.

One would not worship or invoke the Son as Supreme Judge and Arbiter of the universe; but as God-man and Judge delegate, the Mediator, Advocate and Intercessor

with God the Father for all mankind: and one should not presume to invoke, nor ever to expect any good from the Father, but by his means and on his account. One would not worship the office of the Mediator alone any more than his divinity, nor his divinity without the office; but both together under one consideration, and referring to One Object in chief by one. For if he is to be addressed otherwise than in this manner; that is, not as Mediator, Advocate, Intercessor and Judge delegate, but as an absolute and independent Judge; we are yet to look for those relations: because, as St. Paul observes," a mediator is not a mediator of one" (Gal. iii. 20); but that the Son must be, if he were both Supreme Judge and Mediator without any superior relation on the one hand or inferior on the other for him to stand between. Again, if he is to be addressed as a Mediator only in office and pro tempore, we are still to seek for a regenerator,-we have no life here at present, nor any hope of life beyond the grave hereafter. But when one invokes the Son or names or worships him, it must be as a perfect Mediator between God and man, a Mediator in essence as well as in office, a Viceparent as well as Viceroy; acknowledging at once his human nature and subordinate capacity, as well as his eternal majesty and transcendent divinity, nat

Indeed it seems impossible either to worship the Subject singly as the High God without forgetting his alloy of humanity, or not to worship him relatively in that idea without insulting his divinity. This view of the important and highly controverted point before us seems an happy medium between extreme opinions; namely, such a view as will give the Subject a double relation to God and man, and entitle him to a corresponding worship in respect both to his office and divinity. For it is true, as he says, and as his people feel, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father but by me" (John xiv. 6). And it will be as David says, when