idolatry; is there not as much reason, that you fhould leave the communion of the church, as that your fon fhould avoid profane mufic-meetings? Act a confiftent part. Leave your hypocrify. Dare not any longer to trifle with men and with a heart-fearching God. Be not ashamed of the truth in an unbelieving and fcoffing age. "Be faithful to death, and you shall inherit the crown of life*."-But con fider, farther, FOURTHLY. Your obligations to the cause of truth and chriftianity. Do you not look upon it as defirable, my unitarian friends, that the truth fhould be generally known and received? But how is it poffible that this fhould ever be the cafe, if it be never profeed? Do you think there would have been at this day any chriftians in the world, if all the difciples of Jefus, in the earlier ages, had contented themselves with a filent acquiefcence in the truth of the gofpel, whilft they regularly frequented the temples of idol gods? Do you imagine that there would have been any reformation two hundred years ago, had the first proteftants never thought of withdrawing themselvesfrom the communion of the church of Rome, nor of forming focieties, whofe religious fervices fhould be conducted more agreeably to the scripture plan? Can it be expected, then, that the doctrine of the divine unity fhould gain ground, whilft unitarians remain quietly * See an Address to conforming arians, printed in 1735.; reprinted, at Cambridge, in 1788.. quietly in a trinitarian church? The experiment About an hundred years however, has been tried. He was fince, there was in England a body of very respectable unitarians. They were men of the best characters; they were zealous for the truth; but they did not fee that duty called upon them to absent themselves from the established places of worship. The confequence was, that, upon their deaths, the doctrine of the unity of GOD was nearly loft in this country. Mr. Firmin, a moft excellent unitarian chriftian of that period, became fenfible towards the end of his life that they had acted upon mistaken and pernicious principles. He began to fear that the true idea of GOD would be loft among chriftians. painfully apprehenfive, that unless unitarians formed themfelves into diftinct religious focieties, the continual ufe of terms which, in their ordinary fignification, are confeffed by all to imply three Gods, would paganize, at fome time, the whole chriftian church. The present flourishing state of the uni- · tarian caufe, is principally to be afcribed to the decifive and noble conduct of those honeft men, who have withdrawn themfelves from the established church, and facrificed to truth and confcience every profpect of intereft and emolument. Were all `of you, my brethren, to imitate their example, it would be an effectual means of ferving the caufe of truth. But nothing fhort of your feparation from every trinitarian fociety of chriftians, will be of any lafting avail. There There cannot be a plainer rule of life than this, that every man fhould do what he would with others to do, and what he is convinced would be beft, if all others would do. No man can tell what influence his own example may have to produce a good effect. Whatever comes of it, he by these means discharges his confcience, and (as far as following his duty in this inftance can do it) faves his own foul*. Perhaps it would be the means of relieving from a heavy burden the mind of many a minister of the lord Jefus, who is convinced that the offices of the church are very distant from the principles of the gofpel, but whofe apprehenfions of the diftreffes of poverty are a bar to his following the dictates of truth and confcience. Such would find congregations ready to receive them as their paftors. You would become their friends and patrons. What fatisfaction would it yield you; and how would you rejoice in the hope of sharing the rewards, as you had eafed the trials of those righteous men, who nobly facrificing every profpect of future advancement, and dignity, would readily put up with a scanty subsistence, rather than difobey the dictates of their confciences! Would it not afford much greater fatisfaction to your minds, than can ever refult from your prefent course of conduct, which encourages in their hypocrify those clergymen, who not only fubfcribe what they do not believe, * See a Letter to a layman on the fubject of Mr. Lindfey's propofal for a reformed church, p. 18. believe, but utter every day what they must confider as impious falfehoods, in the form of a folemn addrefs to almighty God. And can it be easy to you to be acceffary to other men's fins; and, thus, to be, in fome measure, the cause why fome perish, for whom Chrift died! By continuing in communion with a trinitarian church, you not only do your part to prevent a reformation, but you effentially injure the cause of Chrift, and take the most effectual ftep in your power to confirm and perpetuate the prejudices of unbelievers against the religion of Jefus. A clergyman (who had been a chaplain aboard a ship) writing to Mr. Whiston, fays, "I was forry that the turks, jews, &c. were fo very much offended with the christian religion, upon these two accounts, viz. the one the worshipping of images, the other the belief and worship of the trinity, which feemed to them to be the belief of three Gods." La Compte's hiftory of China fpeaks of the heathens, as deriding the chriftian doctrine of a mortal God, and upon that account confidering chriftianity as fabulous. Dr. Caufabon fays, that this doctrine has kept more people from embracing the chriflian faith than any thing he knows of. Mahomet, in his Koran, fays, "It is long fince the infidels (meaning the chriftians) have faid that there are three Gods; certainly there is but one." Thus does the doctrine of the trinity prove a ftumblingblock in the way of jews, mahometans, and heathens. Nor is it to be wondered at, that fome, even in this country, offended with the harsh founds and irreconcilable principles of the eftablished liturgy, forfake the affemblies of public worship, whilft others are prejudiced against chriftianity, and driven into infidelity. Will it not be a service to such, to set them an example of distinguishing between the gospel and the corruptions of it? Will it not afford them a fair opportunity to judge of its truth, if you exhibit it in its plain and native drefs? Let them fee what chriftianity is in itself. Your continued conformity mifleads them, and contributes to keep out of fight the real and genuine gcfpel. Every error retained, obfcures the light and glory of the gofpel. Peculiarly pernicious, then, muft be the influence of an error which beclouds the fundamental doctrine of revelation the unity of GoD, and multiplies the objects of religious adoration. ANSWERS TO OBJECTIONS. THOUGH the juftness of this representation be acknowledged; it may be objected, perhaps, by fome, (FIRST OBJECTION.) That it does not become common lay chriftians to bufy themselves about a reformation, and that this matter ought to be left to the bishops and the rest of the clergy. But let me requeft fuch perfons to remember, that the arguments and reafonings which have been adopted |