think I have taken notice of all that can well be faid to be of much confequence. If any confiderable omiffion be pointed out to me, it shall be supplied. in future editions.

A PRAYER,,

RESPECTING THE PRESENT STATE OF

CHRISTIANITY.

ALMIGHTY GOD, the giver of all good, and especially the Father of lights, and the fountain of all wisdom and knowledge; we thank thee that thou? haft put a spirit in man, and that thine inspiration: giveth us understanding; that, being formed after thine own image, we find ourselves poffeffed of a nature fuperior to that of brute creatures; and being endowed with the faculty of reafon are capable of investigating important truth, and of governing our conduct, so as to attain to very. diftinguished degrees of excellence and happiness.

We thank thee that, in aid of this light of nature,. thou haft fuperadded the gift of revelation; having, from time to time, communicated to mankind, by thy fervants the prophets, the most useful information, concerning thy nature, perfections and government, concerning our duty here, and our: expectations hereafter. And we more especially

rejoice

rejoice that, upon every occafion of thy gracious intercourse with mankind, thou haft reprefented thyself to us as the proper object of our reverence, love, and confidence; as a being of boundless goodnefs, and the greatest compaffion to these frailties and infirmities, to which it has feemed. good to thy wifdom to fubject us; as one who expecteft no more of us than thou haft enabled us to perform; and who, upon our fincere return to our duty, art ever ready to extend the freeft mercy and forgiveness towards us, even after our moft aggravated and repeated offences.

We thank thee, more especially, for the last and most perfect revelation of thy will to mankind, in the gospel of Jefus Chrift, in whom it hath pleased thee, that all fulness fhould dwell; who has established upon the fureft foundations, the great and important doctrines of the proper unity and mercifulness of thy nature, and thy unrivalled supremacy with respect to himself, as well as to all other beings, and all other things; and who has likewife given to us the most fatisfactory affurance of a refurrection from the dead, confirmed to us by his own death and refurrection; whereby we are encouraged to expect, that, because he lives, we fhall live alfo.

It has feemed good to thy unfearchable wifdom, (which permits the rife and continuance of evil, in order, we doubt not, to bring about the greatest good)

good) that this moft excellent religion, so honourable to thee and fo beneficial to mankind, fhould, by means of the bafe artifices of fome, and the general ignorance which lately overspread the world, become grofsly corrupted; whereby fuch opinions have prevailed among the profeffors of christianity, as greatly dishonour thy nature, imply the most unjust reflections on thy righteous moral government, and are highly injurious to the virtue and happiness of men. How has the gold become dim, how is the most fine gold changed!

The great and important doctrine of thy divine unity has been generally abandoned, and objects of fupreme worship multiplied. Thy meffenger and fervant, the meek and humble Jefus, who, upon all occafions, referred his wisdom and mighty works to thee, his God and Father, fpeaking and acting by him, has been advanced to proper equality with thyfelf; and even his mother, Mary, and innumerable faints and angels, have likewise, been addreffed, as if they were omniprefent beings. By thus dividing thy being, robbing thee of thy effential attributes and perfections, and diftributing them among a multiplicity of inferior beings, depraved and unworthy notions of thy moral character have confequently prevailed, and many of the evils of idolatry have been introduced among the profeffors of that religion, which acknowledges but

one:

one living and true God, even thee our Father in heaven, and one mediator, the man Chrift Jefus.

Having divefted thee, in their imaginations, of the most amiable of all thy attributes, even the effential placability of thy nature, they have reprefented thy free mercy to penitent finners as purchased by the blood of thy innocent fon. Forgetting that thou art good to all, and that thy tender-mercies are over all thy works, and alfo that thou, the righteous Lord, loveft righteousness, they have ascribed to thee an arbitary and unreasonable partiality in favour of fome of the human race, and a moft cruel and unjust severity towards others, as condemning them to everlasting torments for crimes of which they could not be guilty, and expecting of them that which thou hadft not enabled them to do. And, having loft the idea of the purity of thy nature and thy regard to moral righteousness, as the only just ground of acceptance and favour with thee, they have had recourse to unmeaning and even base and mischievous superstitions as compenfations for their non-obfervance of thy holy commandments.

To confirm all thefe, and innumerable other corruptions of thy holy religion, fupreme authority has been openly ufurped by men over that church, In which thou haft given all power to our Lord and mafter Jefus Chrift; and thofe of thy faithful fervants, who have juftly refused to submit to their ufurpations

ufurpations, have by them been subjected to the greatest hardships, and even perfecuted unto death; fo that these temporal antichristian powers are drunk with the blood of thy holy martyrs.

We deeply lament this almost universal departure from the true faith of thy son's gospel, the stop that has by this means been fo long put to the propagation of christianity among jews, mahomedans, and heathens, and the prevalence which it has occafioned of infidelity and profaneness in christian countries.

But we thank thee, who, in thine own due time, wilt, we doubt not, bring light out of all darkness, and order out of all confufion, that, in feveral chriftian countries, many of these corruptions and abufes have been reformed, and that antichriftian tyranny is every where giving place to the power of truth, and the juft liberties of mankind, in thinking and acting for themselves in all matters of religion.

For thefe great and invaluable bleffings we are, under thee, indebted to the ftrenuous labours of thy faithful fervants, who have not accounted even their lives dear unto them; but, for the love of thy truth, have renounced all worldly advantages, boldly afferting their christian liberty, and holding themselves accountable to none but thee, the fole and immediate ford of confcience, and to the great

fhepherd