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at least, as much as we can poffibly be fuppofed to be authorised in the Ufe of them by the Appointment of Cherubims, &c. under the Jewish Oeconomy?

But to proceed; the Arguments we have urged against the Use of Images in religious Worship, will, I conceive, in a great Measure, hold good likewise against addreffing our Prayers to the Creator through the Mediation of any created Being. For in this Cafe too, if we duly confider the Frailty of our Nature, there is great Danger that our Worship will be transferred oftentimes from the Creator to the Creature. Granting which, I know it is said by those who are concerned in this Argument, in Behalf of fuch Service as this, that the Honour paid by it to the mediating Being is ultimately to be referred to God himself; and that the Fitness and Propriety of it is evident from this, that hereby we express a fuitable Reverence, and Chriftian Humility in the Divine Presence, and duly acknowledge our utter Unworthiness perfonally, and immediately to approach the great Sovereign of Heaven and Earth. But to the first Part of this Plea we may reply, that if the prime End of Divine Worship be confeffedly the Glory of God, this End feems to be beft confulted by a direct and immediate Application to him; for the very Application to an Interceffor

implies

implies fome Honour done to that Interceffor; and furely as much Honour as is ascribed to any other Being is deducted from that which is wholly due to God.-Do we then, it may be asked, leffen the Dignity, and injure the Honour of earthly Princes and Potentates, by applying to them through the Mediation of their Minifters and Fayourites ?—No. But then there is in this Cafe a Neceffity for fuch indirect Application; a Neceffity, plainly importing much Defect and Imperfection on the Part of the Power applied to. For earthly Potentates cannot poffibly be acceffible to all their Subjects, or be made acquainted with their several Wants, and Pretenfions. If they could, Addreffes and Applications, humbly made to their Creatures and Dependents, would certainly reflect little Honour upon themselves. Now with refpect to God, it is acknowledged, there is no Neceffity of this Kind; and therefore our whole Homage, Worship, and Adoration, is immediately and directly his own original and unalienable Right.-And if so, we are so far from being unworthy personally and immediately to approach the Divine Majefty, (which was the fecond Branch of the above Plea) that it is not only our Privilege, but our Duty fo to do. It is our natural Privilege, because in whatever Relation Man is fupposed to stand towards God, whether in that of a Son to a Father, a Subject to a King, a Servant to

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a Mafter,

a Master, or a Creature to the Creator, there is an immediate, though distant Connection between them; and it is our Duty, because we thereby best confult the Glory of God, who is every represented to us as a Judge extremely jealous of of it; though it should at the same Time be remembered, that we cannot expert this Privilege, or discharge this Duty in too humble or reverential a Manner.-To these Confiderations we may further add, that if the Mediation of Angels, or any created Beings, be really neceffary and expedient for us, we may no doubt depend upon their charitable Interceffion, without making any previous Application to them; and again, that there is one known, appointed, and univerfally acknowledged "Mediator between God and Man, the Man Chrift

Jefus," to him therefore, and through him, as he is both God and Man according to the Belief of those I am at present concerned with, we are fure fafely and effectually to apply; and confequently all other Application, in Point of Prudence as well as Neceffity, is clearly superseded, and at best must be resolved into the Principles of a mistaken Piety.—These Doctrines I have confidered here as they feem to be Corollaries in a Manner founded upon the very firft Ideas of the Divine Nature; to the farther rational Inquiry into which it is now Time to proceed.

SSCT.

W

SECT. II.

HEN we confider the many irrefragable Proofs that may be produced to evince the Existence of God, the Principles of Atheism can only be refolved into a certain Degree of Infenfibility, or into a ridiculous Affectation of fingular Discernment, or more probably into a Dread of the Confequences of the Truth of that Existence. Men profess to believe there is no God, because it is their vifible Intereft there fhould be none; for the Divine Existence is a fimple, abstracted, and natural Truth, on which many other moral and practical Ones immediately and neceffarily depend. The very Existence of a fuperior, independent Being from all Eternity, fuppofes and implies all poffible Perfection in that Being: In the Idea of Perfection the great Attributes of the Deity, his Justice, his Goodness, his Wisdom, his Truth, are most manifeftly involved; and in these Attributes are plainly founded the great Obligations of all Natural Religion.

And yet it is with Astonishment to be observed, that Difficulties are raised even on this Head by Men whose Profeffions are very far from being atheistical; and that from a Pretence of our Incapacity to form an adequate Idea of what are called the moral Attributes of God, a System of universal Scepticism,

Scepticism, and practical Atheism has been introduced into the World. Nay every rational Attempt to vindicate these Attributes has been moft preposterously interpreted into a Combination of Divines with Atheists themselves. The natural Attributes of the Deity are, it is faid, felf-evident, and his Power is particularly demonstrated from the Works of his Hands: But for Men to affect to regulate the Divine Proceedings, to ascertain the Measures of God's Juftice, and upon certain Occafions to refer us to a future State, is at best confidered as unwarrantable Folly and Prefumption. It is to no Purpose to oppose the Authority of the Scriptures to fuch a Theory as this, the Tendency of which is but too visible, 'till that Authority be fully evinced; because the Scriptures are by this Cafuiftry exploded as mere human Inventions; at present then let us briefly inquire whether it will bear a rational Examination.

Now this fantastical Theory unluckily depends upon a Distinction, that has itself no Foundation but in the Weakness of the human Understanding. There is really no Distinction of Natural and Moral in the Divine Being; for though the bare Idea of Power, as fuch, does not neceffarily convey to us that of Justice, or Goodness, yet when applied to God, it evidently supposes the Concurrence of both; unless we can imagine the Divine

Power

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