public fervice, against their confciences; while many, many more, remain behind, groaning and oppressed by their conformity, being yet unable wholly to withdraw themselves. Notwithstanding which, the fame corrupt forms are ftill kept up in the midft of light and knowledge; and, therefore common chriftians are, with the highest reafon, called upon to examine, judge, determine, profess, and proteft;— to difregard all public authority, when it ftands in competition with the express declarations of Christ and his apoftles.

We are daily praying to our heavenly Father, that his name may be hallowed, that is, that he may be worshipped and adored, as the fupreme and only object of the highest reverence and love of all rational creatures;' and yet, at the fame time, we obftinately continue in fuch falfe worship as eclipses his fupreme honour and glory, in exprefs contradiction to his holy word. We are conftantly interceding with almighty God, for the good eftate of the catholic church, or, that the church of Chrift may be univerfal; that it may be fo guided and governed by his good fpirit, that all who profefs and call themselves christians, may be led into the way of truth; and, at the fame time, we feem determined to hold faft important errors regarding God and his holy worship, notwithstanding the strongest and clearest light. Upon fome occafions, more especially in one of the collects for Good-Friday, we earnestly

pray

pray for the converfion of jews, turks, and infidels, and at the end of the very fame collect, we inconfiftently keep up a religious practice, that is one of the greatest obstacles to their converfion. For it is extremely evident, by all accounts, that neither jews, nor mahometans, who are believers of ene fupreme God, can be converted whilft they are taught to think, that the doctrine of three persons in one God, and the worship practifed in confequence of it, are effential parts of the chriftian religion. This can be deemed little lefs than a folemn mockery of the almighty, unless we employ our fincere endeavours to effect whatever we pray for; and, I am afraid, will finally demonftrate the infincerity of this church and nation, if no alterations can be obtained from the governing powers.

Since my conviction, I have been naturally led to reflect on the lamentable state of mankind, in almost all ages and countries, with respect to the knowledge of the one true God. Not a great many years after the flood, whereby the immediate power of the almighty creator was fo remarkably displayed, there was a general revolt of the nations of the earth into a ftate of grofs idolatry: upon which account, almighty God chofe a particular people, for the glorious purpose of keeping up the knowledge and worfhip of himself; as this grand principle of all religion, though established by demonstrative evidence in the works of creation, would have been certainly loft,

without

without an extraordinary revelation. And even this chofen people, the hiftory of the old Teftament faithfully informs us, frequently fell into idolatry, before the Babylonifh captivity, and very feldom continued any confiderable time in a steady obedience to the Lord their God. And, happy had it been for the chriftian world, if they themselves had never departed from the plain and fundamental article of all true religion, viz. the unity of God, fo frequently inculcated in the fcripture. Mofes, the jewish lawgiver, delivers this important truth in the moft folemn manner. Hear, O Ifrael! the Lord our God, is one Lord. (Deut. vi. 4.) And our lord when he was asked by one of the scribes-which was the first com→ mandment of all? confirms the fame doctrine by his express authority: Jefus anfwered him, the first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Ifrael! the Lord our God, is one Lord. (Mark xii. 28 and 29.) And that ́ this one God, is the Father only, exprefsly diftinguished from the son and holy spirit, is as plainly and ftrongly declared by Chrift and his difciples as it is poffible for words to fet it forth. Yet, in oppofition to the authority of both, who derived their commission from God, it was determined by fallible and prefumptuous mortals, between four and five hundred years after Chrift, that there are three fupreme Gods, and, at the fame time that these three fupreme Gods, are che God: and whoever will not believe this grofs nonfenfe, and impious contradiction, is doomed to

eternal torments *. In confequence of this abfurd doctrine, it was decreed, that it is the duty of chriftians to worship God, under the character of three co-equal perfons, without even the leaft colour of evidence taken from scripture. If this be not such a departure from God and his holy worship, as calls aloud for a reformation, I must despair of underftanding the plaineft cafe in matters of religion. But, whether the governing powers will regard their duty in this grand affair, or whether they will not, every particular person, who has gained right notions of God and his holy worship, is indifpenfibly obliged

to

* The creed of the athanafian chriftian is very accurately described by lord Bacon, one of the wifeft and greatest men this country ever produced. (See his Works, 4to. vol. iii. p. 129.) " He believes," fays his lordship, "three to be one and one to be three; a "father not to be older than his fon; a fon to be equal

with his father; and one proceeding from both to "be equal to both; as believing three perfons in one 'nature; and two natures in one person.

"He believes a virgin to be the mother of a fon; "and that very fon of hers to be her maker. He believes him to have been fhut up in a narrow cell, "whom heaven and earth could not contain. He be

lieves him to have been born in time, who was, " and is from everlasting. He believes him to have "been a weak child, and carried in arms, who is al

mighty; and him once to have died who alone has "life and immortality."

to profess and practise in exact conformity to the folemn determination of Chrift and his apoftles, without regarding any worldly inconveniences that may arife from the rejection of false notions and unfcriptural worship*. This is an effential character of Chrift's disciples, and required, as an express condition, by our lord himself. Whosoever shall be afhamed of me, and of my words, of him shall the fon of man be ashamed, when he shall come in his own glory, and in his Father's, and of the holy angels. (Luke ix, 26.)

But, let it be always remembered, and deeply fixed in our hearts, that right notions of God, and his holy worship, were not intended to amufe our minds with empty fpeculations; but, to establish a rational correspondence between God and our own minds, that we may be effectually influenced to reduce to practice, the pure and holy laws of Jefus Christ. If we have gained better, and more rational fentiments of religion than we had before, we are called

For forms of public prayer for the use of unitatarian christians, confult "The Book of Common Prayer, "reformed," ufed in the unitarian chapel in Effex. ftreet, London; and Dr. Priestley's very late, and very excellent Forms of Prayer and other Offices, for "the use of unitarian focieties; both printed for J. Johnfon, No. 72, St. Paul's Church-yard. Alfo Forms of prayer, for the use of a congregation of proteftant diffenters in Manchester, 1789.