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and in the ftone a new name written, which no man knoweth, faving he that receiveth it.It feems to me, if fuch declarations, invitations, and promises as thefe, do not encourage and authorize us to pray to the Lord Jefus for fuch bleflings of grace and glory as we want, and He, the faithful and true Witnefs, fo folemnly and repeatedly teftifies he can and will give to all that properly apply to him for them, there are no paffages in Scripture that encourage or authorize us to pray even to the Father: For there neither are, nor can be paffages more exprefs and full, than thefe are. But if thefe and fuch like paffages do authorize and encourage us to apply to the Lord Jefus in prayer, then how comes Dr. Priestley, and other Socinians, to take upon them to forbid us to do fo? And how will they answer it to Him who fays, If any man fhall take away from the words of the Book of this Prophecy, God fhall take away his part out of the Book of Life, and out of theholy city, and from the things which are written in this Book?

21. As we have clearly feen that prayer has been, and is to be made to the Lord Jefus,--fo we fhall fee that Praife has been, is, and is to be addreffed to him.-And this certainly is another aft of proper, religious worship. St. Peter, in his two fhort Epiftles, furnishes us with a full proof that this is to be offered to the Son as well as to the Father. For he concludes his firft Epiftle with afcribing it to the Father, and his fecond Epistle with afcribing it to the Son, in language of exactly the fame import. Speaking of the Father as the God of all grace who hath called us to his own Eternal Glory by Chrift Jefus, he fays,TO HIM BE GLORY AND DOMINION FOR EVER AND EVER! AMEN! And speaking of the Son, in whose grace, and in the knowledge of whom he exhorts us to grow, he says,TO HIM BE GLORY NOW AND FOR EVER! AMEN!--Similar to this, is the language of St. John, Rev. i. 5, 6. Unto Him that hath loved us, and washed us from:

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our fins in his own blood, and hath made us Kings and Priefts unto God and his Father,-To HIM BE

GLORY AND DOMINION FOR EVER AND EVER !-----

And well might St. John afcribe glory to his Lord; for he had feen him worshipped, and had heard glory afcribed to him by Angels and Archangels, and all the company of heaven. Thus, Rev. v. 11-14. And I beheld, and heard the voice of many Angels round about the Throne, and the number of them was ten thoufand times ten thoufand, and thoufands of thoufands, faying with a loud voice, Worthy is the LAMB that was flain to receive power and riches, and wifdom and ftrength, and honour and glory and bleffing. And every creature which is in heaven and on earth, and under the earth, and fuck as are in the fea, and all that are in them, heard I, faying, Bleffing and honour, and glory and power, be unto Him that fitteth upon the Throne, and unto THE LAMB, for ever and ever!.

22. Now let it be observed, that Prayer and Praife imply every other act of worship, whether internal or external. Prayer, when it is fincère, neceffarily implies defire, confidence, and hope; and Praife implies gratitude and love. If, therefore, Prayer is to be addressed to the Lord Jefus, this implies that our defire is to be to him, our confidence in him, and our expectation from him, for fuch bleffings as we ftand in need of. And if Praife is to be offered to him, this fignifies that he is to be the greatest object of our love and gratitude. Accordingly, we find this was the cafe with the Apostles and primitive Chriftians : their defire was directed unto the Lord Jefus, and their confidence and hope were placed in him, for the greatest of all bleffings, even for Eternal Salvation; and He, in union with his Father, was the great object of their unlimited gratitude and love. If I were to quote all the Scriptures that would be to my purpofe, I might transcribe a great part of the New Teftament. The Epiftles of St. Paul, efpecially, abound with inftances of it. A few paffages I fhall produce,

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as fpecimens of the reft.--Behold, I lay in Zion. for a foundation, a fione, a tried ftone, a precious corner ftone, a fure foundation: he that BELIEVETH fhall not make hafte, Ifaiah xxviii. 16.-Whofoever. BELIEVETH in him fhall not be afhamed, Rom. x. 11.

XV. 12.

He that BELIEVETH in him fhall not be confounded, 1 Pet. ii. 6.--Ye BELIEVE in God, BɛLIEVE alfo in ME, John xiv. 1.-There fhall arife: a root of Feffe, and He that fhall arife to reign over the Gentiles, in Him fhall the Gentiles TRUST, Rom. That we should be to the praife of his glory who first TRUSTED in Chrift, in whom ye alfo TRUSTED, Eph. i. 12, 13.— Jefus Christ our hope, 1.Tim. i. 1.—Chrift in you, the HOPE OF GLORY, Col. i. 27.—I THANK Chrift Jefus, our Lord who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the miniftry, 1 Tim. i. 12.-Simon," fon of Jonas, LOVEST thou me? Lord, thou knowest all things, thou knoweft that I LOVE thee.-Grace be with all thofe that LOVE our Lord Jefus Chrift in fincerity, Eph, vi. 24.—If any man LOVE not the Lord Jefus, let him be anathema, maranatha,

1 Cor. xvi. 22.

23. Now all these, and fuch like paffages, fhew that the Lord Jefus was worshipped, and that in the highest fenfe, viz. in fpirit and in truth, and with the best and pureft worship, the worship of the heart. They fhew that he was the object of the religious confidence and hope, gratitude and love of his ancient fervants, and that in an unlimited degree, which furely no mere creature ever was, or could be. And as a fruit of this, their whole life was dedicated to him;-the love of Chrift contrained them fo, that they lived not unto themfelves, but unto Him that died for them and rofe again, 2 Cor. v. 14, 15. Yea, none of them lived to himself, and none of them died to himfelf; but whether they lived, they lived unto the Lord (Chrift) or whether they died, they died unto the Lordi Living or dying, therefore, they were the Lord's. Confidering themselves as his fervants, Phil. i. 1. James i. 1. 2 Pet. i, 1. they were wholly devoted 0 3

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to do his will, and promote his glory, not accounting their lives dear unto themfelves, fo that they might finish their courfe with joy, and Chrift might be magnified by their bodies, whether by life or death.

24. "Had we, then, hitherto doubted whether Jefus Chrift would have men regard him as God, we could doubt of it no more, when we see him permitting and requiring men to worship him.If he is God by Nature, he has reafon to claim adoration. But if he is not, we cannot pay it him without a kind of facrilege. Certainly were all the reft fupportable, this could not be borne or excused in any wife: for a creature to make himself equal with the Moft High, not by words only, but actions too.

25. It is pretended, indeed, that there are two forts of worship: a fubaltern, or inferior kind, which may be paid to creatures, and a fupreme, which can be paid to the Supreme God only. But this avails nothing; for, firft, we fee that Chrift laid claim to the highest adoration, and would have us to do for him what was never done but for the Moft High. We ought to give our hearts to God, to love him above all, and it is to God alone that we owe this. But we owe it to Jefus Chrift. We ought to love him above what we love most, even our life. If any man hate not his own life (faith he) for my fake, he is not worthy of me. We owe to God, not the facrifice of bullocks and lambs, but the facrifice of our blood, and of our life-a spiritual facrifice, worthy of a religion, and a covenant more perfect than that of the law. But Jefus Chrift requires us to pay. him this; which was never done for any but God. It is, therefore, every way plain, that he would have us worfhip him as (in union with the Father) the Moft High God.”

26. That inferior, or fubaltern kind of (religious) worship, of which fome love to fpeak, was not known either by our Lawgiver, or the Prophets, or Chrift himfelf, or his Apoftles, or the holy Angels.

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"Two confiderations fhew that this fubaltern, worfhip was not known to the Lawgiver.-The firft is, that he forbids, in general, all worfhip but that of the Supreme God. Now this he would not have done, if there had been a fort of fubaltern (religious) worship, which was ftill lawful; left he should lay a fnare for men, by so am-. biguous an expreffion as would naturally entangle them in error. He would not have forbidden: us, in general, to worship any but God; but to worship any other with fupreme worship.-The fecond is, that the Lawgiver manifeftly defigned. to ftop the courfe of Heathen idolatry. Now, the idolatry of the Heathens properly lay, in paying this fubaltern worship to many gods: for: they, alfo, generally, as well as the Jews, acknowledged one Supreme Being.

27. "I fay, in the fecond place, that the Prophets knew nothing of this fubaltern worship. For they had no example of it before their eyes. They had never heard it spoken of. They never mentioned it themselves. They fcoff at those fubaltern gods of the Heathens, as not being able to comprehend how they could regard or worship, as gods, any other being than Him who governs the world, and who created heaven and earth. But this they certainly could not have done, had they known that there was, or would be, in the fulness of time, a fubaltern and dependant God, who ought to be worshipped, though he did not make or govern the world.

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28. Thirdly, the Apostles knew nothing of this diftinction between fupreme and. fubaltern worship. They thought that all, even outward worship paid to a creature, was an injury to the Creator. When Cornelius fell down at Peter's feet, he did not take him for God. He knew him well to be but a man: this, therefore, could be but a fubaltern worship. Yet, as even this outward worship was an action confecrated by cuftom, to denote the honour paid to the Supreme Being, St. Peter could not fuffer that to

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