DISC. "mities, that the power of Christ may rest mei:" upon

VII. 66

-The power of Christ,—that is, plainly, of the Lord whom he befought, and who faid, My ftrength is made perfect in weakness.-I would intreat your attention to the following paffage in 1 John v. 13, &c. "These things have I written unto "" you- -that ye may believe on the name "of the Son of God. And this is the "confidence we have in him, that if we

"ask any thing
any thing according to his will, he
"heareth us. And if we know that he
"hear us, whatsoever we afk, we know
“that we have the petitions we defired of
"him." In another part of the epistle,
the fame precept is repeated, but the word
God is used, inftead of the word Christ—

We have confidence toward God, and "whatsoever we afk, we receive of him. Can a man read these two paffages, and doubt, for a fingle moment, whether his Saviour be the God that heareth prayer?

2 Cor. xii. 8.

* Chap. iii. 22.

The

VII.

The bleffed martyr Stephen, just before D IS C. he expired, preferred the following prayer to his Saviour, "Lord Jefus, receive my fpirit." Can a departing foul be thus folemnly committed into the hands of one, but of him, who is " the God of the

any

fpirits of all flesh ?" Does not St. Stephen here worship Chrift, in the very fame manner, in which, a little before, Christ himself had worshipped the Father? Where is the difference between, "Father, "into thy hands I commend my fpirit"— and Lord Jefus, receive my fpirit?" Does not the martyr likewife addrefs Chrift, as the person who could forgive fins? Where is the difference, again, between-" Father, "forgive them, for they know not what "they do"-and- -"Lord, lay not this fin "to their charge ?" Or fhall a dying Chrif tian fcruple to fay what St. Stephen faid, becaufe Chrift does not appear to the one, as he was pleased to do to the other? It is a cavil not fit to proceed from the mouth of a serious man.

DISC.

VII.

We read of many perfons, who, when Chrift was upon earth, falling down upon their faces, and worshipping him, were never checked or reproved for fo doing, as St. John was, when he offered to worship the angel, and Cornelius, when he made the fame offer to St. Peter.

The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, evincing the fuperiority of the Son of God over all created fpirits, produces the following teftimony: "When he bringeth in

his first begotten into the world, he faith, "And let all the angels of God worship "him1." If you afk what kind of worship the apostle may be fuppofed to intend, let us turn to the Revelation. There, upon the exaltation of our Lord, after his fufferings, St. John reprefents to us the church univerfal in heaven and earth, with the parts of created nature, and all the angelic intelligences, afcribing the very fame bleff❝ing, and honour, and glory, and

power,

! Heb. i. 6.

to

VII.

"to him that fitteth on the throne, and to D IS C. "the Lamb," in conjunction. In heaven, the will of God is duly performed, and all "honour the Son, even as they honour the "Father"." Why fhould it be otherwise on earth?

That it ought not to be otherwise, but that equal honour should be paid to both Father and Son, with the Holy Spirit,, is evidently implied by the baptifmal form running in the name of all the Three. If the Holy Spirit were a property only, as the Socinians pretend, could a property be thus joined with the Father and the Son ? They are not properties; they are perfons, certainly. If the Son and the Spirit were creatures, could they be joined with the Father, in the folemn act of baptifm? Baptifm is the confecration of him, who is baptifed, to the fervice-of whom? Of God, and two creatures? No, furely, but of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit ;

m Rev. v. 13.

" John v. 23.

and,

0 4

DISC. and, whether St. John hath faid it, or not, vií. if there be any meaning in words, THESE THREE ARE ONE; they are the one object of our faith and our love, of our prayers and our praises. While this form continues to be used in the Church, the doctrine of the TRINITY cannot perish from it; and he who denies glory and worship to be due to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, does, in effect, renounce his baptism; and ought to be initiated, by a new form, into a new religion.

Thus ftands the scripture evidence: and we find the practice of the primitive Christians entirely conformable to it. A remarkable inftance offers itself, very early, in the cafe of Polycarp, bifhop of Smyrna. He fuffered in the year 167. He joins God the Father and the Son together in his prayers for and benediction upon grace

men, conceived in the following manly and exalted ftrain of piety and charity

66 The

"God and Father of our Lord Jefus Chrift, "and Christ himself the eternal High Prieft,

"the