almost invincible objection to the cordial reception of the gospel by many ferious welldifpofed perfons, in every rank of life, and ftate in christendom.

in every

Many worthy perfons, to whom the trinitarian doctrine appears utterly indefenfible, are yet inclined to believe, that the prayers of christians may with propriety be directed to Jesus Christ, and imagine that they may be vindicated in this practice by the command of their faviour, and the example of his apoftles.

With the most perfect charity for those who entertain thefe fentiments, I profefs myself to be of a different opinion. I am ftedfaftly perfuaded that the creator of the world; the God of Abraham, of Ifaac, and of Jacob, who is in the new Teftament alfo ftiled "the God and father of our Lord Jefus Chrift," is therein represented as the only proper object of religious adoration.

I nevertheless acknowledge that a very high degree of refpect and veneration is due to the character of Jefus, as the anointed prophet of the most high, far excelling in dignity and power every prophet who pre

ceded

ceded him. I honour him as the "fon of God," in what appears to me the scripture acceptation of that term; as the common Lord of chriftians; as the appointed judge of the living and the dead. But, at the fame time, I am convinced, that the distance between him and deity is infinite; that prayer to him is no where commanded in the fcriptures; and, confequently, that the addreffes of chriftians may with the fame propriety be directed to the virgin Mary, as to the perfon of our Lord.

Moft of the claufes of the litany, and fome other prayers and invocations in the established liturgy of the church of England, are immediately addreffed to our faviour; and honour and glory are frequently afcribed to the holy fpirit, as to a divine agent, distinct from the perfon of the father; an idea, in my opinion, not warranted by the oracles of God.

While I held preferment, it certainly was my duty to officiate in the established service of the church. But, oppreffed by the consciousness that my fentiments, refpecting the object of devotion, were diametrically oppofed

opposed to thofe doctrines, upon which her form of worship is founded, I have not been able, for fome time paft, to discharge this part of my function without great difquiet. My anxiety hourly increased. I, therefore, at length found it neceffary to embrace the only measure that feemed to promise me tranquillity. The event hath corresponded with my expectation. Having refigned my preferment, and with it having divested myfelf of the character of a minifter in the church of England, I have recovered that ferenity of mind to which I had been long a stranger.

Having now explained the immediate motive of my refignation with fufficient precifion, I turn to the confideration of fome other points, not wholly unconnected with the present fubject.

Religious controverfy, in confequence of the long prevalence of fyftem, appearing abfolutely neceffary to the establishment of scriptural truth; and yet, through the heat and violence of the contending parties, being too frequently productive of diffenfions, which diffolve the bonds of chriftian cha

II.

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rity,

rity, it may poffibly conduce to edification, if the following circumftances be confidered with a due attention.*

It will appear, I truft, to every serious inquirer into the nature of our religion, that a person is strictly entitled to the appellation of a christian, when, believing in the divine miffion of Jesus, he explicitly declares that he fubmits to his authority in every point of religious faith and doctrine; at the fame time, expreffing a fincere disposition to adorn his profeffion by a fuitable life and converfation.

With respect to the nature of the particular doctrines that are contained in the

gofpel,

* It is painful to obferve, that the present age has afforded a melancholy inftance of this unchriftian fpirit, in the treatment, which the truly candid and very learned Mr. Lindfey has received from fome of his opponents.

The worthy author of the "Remarks on Mr. Burgh's fcriptural confutation" has, in his "Addenda" to that tract, ably rebuked this illiberal spirit; and, in both his publications, has evinced, by a train of reasoning which appears to me irrefiftible, the inconclufiveness of the various objections urged against thofe fubftantial arguments, which are advanced in the "Apology" in favour of the proper unity of God.

gofpel, it should be efteemed as a funda mental principle of proteftantifm, that every christian is poffeffed of an indefeasible right of judging for himself, and of avowing that judgment, in whatever manner he thinks proper. He is to receive the comments of learned perfons, the decifions of churches, the decrees of councils, not as authorities, but as helps, if it may fo chance, to his more ready comprehenfion of the word of God. Where he imagines these interpretations to be juft, he admits them, because his own understanding, aided by found criticism, approves them. Where he conceives them to be erroneous, confcious of his intire right to interpret for himself, he rejects them; and if he apprehends that the fubject is of fufficient importance, uniting the fpirit of a Luther with the mildness of a Melancthon, he controverts them openly, though countenanced by the concurrent approbation of whole generations of men, and established by the civil inftitutions of his country.

The right, which the proteftant claims for himself, he permits to be exercised by others,

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