which came from God, the Father of man'kind, and was taught by Jefus Chrift his favoured and beloved creature and fervant, and confirmed by his holy fpirit, or the extraordinary divine power, which accompanied Jefus and his apoftles. Not to mention, that the apostles appear not to have laid any stress on this precife form of baptizing prescribed in Matthew, fince they ufually baptized in the name of Jefus only.

2. After thus making two new divine perfons, or Gods, without any authority from the scriptures, the bishop proceeds, as might be expected, of course, to talk of the duties to be paid to perfons in fuch a fituation, and standing in fuch a relation to us, the very fame with that of God, the Father almighty; and pronounces that the fame religious regards and inward worship are due to them,

as to HIM.

This unquestionably is, and has been the doctrine and the practice of too many chriftians, now and for many ages; but it was not fo from the beginning; nor is it the doctrine of fcripture, or the practice of holy men there recorded. For from the beginning to the end, the R 3 bible

bible knows only one perfon, who is the true and living God, nor ever fpeaks of religious regards, or inward worship, to be paid to any other perfon. No one that I have heard or read of, has ever produced, from fcripture, one example of prayer offered up to the Holy Spirit, or Holy Ghost, as a divine perfon, or God. And the instances wherein worship has been fuppofed to be paid to Jefus Christ, have been shewn, not to belong to him, or to confift only in fuch worship and respect, as is proper to be paid to a creature of fuch excellence and moral worth.

3. You perceive to what a degree this learned man overlooks the, fcriptures, and impofes upon himself: that he even makes the grand distinction and peculiarity of the gofpel, .to confift in the worship of these two new divine perfons, and objects of religious worship, whom no rational, unprejudiced reader, can find, either in the Old or New Teftament. For one perfon, Jehovah, the Father, is there fpoken of throughout as God alone; and no other befide him is ever named, worshiped, or recommended to be worship

ed,

ed, by Mofes and the prophets, or by Jefus

Christ.

4. Nay, he proceeds fo far as to make a new fin, unknown to the fcriptures, like the pope of Rome's fin of not fasting during the forty days of lent; and dwells upon the fad confequences and punishment that will follow hereafter, for not worshiping Jefus Christ as God. Surely he ought to have feen better to the establishment of fuch a doctrine on fcripture-grounds, before he had dealt out judgments against those who do not practice according to it. But he feems to have confidered the bible in many respects, as a book, that was to be regulated and interpreted, according to the creeds and liturgy of the church of England.

5. You will obferve the fame prejudice to prevail throughout the bishop's whole account of the chriflian dispensation. Without examining into their real meaning, he brings a heap of paffages of fcripture, to prove Chrift to have been a propitiatory facrifice; and intirely mistaking the defign of the epiftle to the hebrews, he afferts the legal facrifices to be an allufion to the great

R 4

and

1

and final atonement made by the blood of Christ, p. 298, &c. Whereas in fact, as you have seen, Chrift was fo far from interpofing in the redemption of the world, as he fpeaks, or offering himself as an expiatory victim, to make fatisfaction to divine juftice, or appease the displeasure of God, according to the heathen ideas with respect to their falfe Gods, a practice which bishop Butler thinks to have been well founded, though ill directed; that the Divine Being, of his mere goodnefs, appointed him to die, that through the confirmation thereby given to the gofpel, he might be his inftrument in bringing mankind to virtue and the happiness he intended for them: to which our Lord dutifully fubmitted, and with the most benevolent views for his fellow-creatures of mankind.

But then, Chrift herein did no more than we and all his followers, are commanded to be ready to do, if called out to it. Hereby perceive we love, because he laid down his life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren, 1 John iii. 16. He made not any fatisfaction or atonement for fin to God.

any

any more than other. martyrs and sufferers for the truth of the gofpel; for the heavenly Father neither needed nor required any. It is a dishonour and disparagement to his allperfect character and goodnefs, and contrary as you have seen to his own express declarations by his prophets, and by Jesus Christ laft of all, to imagine, that he is not always ready, of his own accord, without any one's interpofition, to receive his creatures to favour, upon their repentance alone.

To illuftrate the more this most important fubject, I would propofe to you the probable reason, as it appears to me, why pious, thoughtful men, fuch as bishop Butler, Dr. Price, and others, have fallen into, and adhered fo fixedly to this gloomy, unfcriptural doctrine, that repentance alone is not fufficient to, restore finful mortals to the favour of their Maker.

This I ascribe to their not keeping strictly to the doctrine of fcripture concerning the divine unity and the proper humanity of

Chrift,