to fwear by God, Chrift, and the Holy Spirit, and the Majefty of the Emperor, which next to God is to be honoured, &c. *

In his Differtation on Epictetus, Arrian (as Bishop Wilkins observes) "affures us, "that in his time, (which was about an "hundred and tweny years after Christ,) it "was an ufual form in the prayers of the "heathen to fay Kugie eλevσov-Lord have

mercy upon us; whereby they did acknow

lege the unity of God, fays his Lordship; "which clause, he adds, is thought to have "been from that ufage taken into the Li66 turgy of Chriftians."

5

Now, if this be admitted, I would remark, that as the title of Lord confeffedly belongs to our Saviour, the Chriftians may fairly be fuppofed, in their triple form of ejaculatory address,—Lord, have mercy upon us; Christ, have mercy upon us; Lord, have mercy us; to invoke Chrift the Lord, as fupreme God: or if by Lord we are in the first

*Cave's Prim. Christ. P. 86. Vol. III. p. 2.

Echard's Roman History,

and

and third petition to understand God the Fa ther, still we must be presumed in the intermediate one to addrefs the Son as equal to the Father; because we shall else be abfurd enough to invoke the supreme God and a subordinate being with the fame fervour, and as it were in the fame inftant. You will fee the argument these pious ejaculations furnish us with, whether we do or do not credit the account of Arrian. ‡

In confirmation of what has been offered, I defire to add one or two more facts, which, if I mistake not, have more weight in them than is commonly apprehended; as, for instance, the appointment of the Lord's day; and the ftyle or title Kugisna тa oined by which churches were in the primitive times diftinguished. For can we do lefs in common reafon than worship him with the Supreme God, and as the fupreme God, to whose particular honour one day in the week is for ever to be kept holy; on whofe particular account the most facred obfervances of religion were trans

See Wilkins on Nat. Relig. B. I. ch. 8. p. 42.

ferred

ferred from the feventh day of the week to the firft; and whofe peculiar house is now the only boufe of prayer for all people?

I fhall conclude this difcourfe with reminding you of a circumftance, if poffible, ftill more decifive: I mean the Unitarian doctrine which is fo copiously, and so emphatically inculcated in the Koran of Mabomet.* Of the perfon of Jefus Christ, in his prophetical character, this arch impoftor speaks in terms the most respectable. "God, says he, gave miracles to Jefus, the fon "of Mary, and ftrengthened him with the

Holy Spirit, &c. Jefus faid in the cradle,

verily I am the fervant of God. This was

Jefus the fon of Mary, (s) the word of "truth, &c. Verily God promiseth thee a

son, named John, (fays the angel Gabriel "to Zechariah, according to the Koran,) "who fhall bear witnefs to the WORD, "which cometh from God, an honourable

perfon, chaste, and one of the righteous "prophets." To do honour to the author of

Christianity in this capacity, Mahomet pofitively afferts, that " they (the Jews) flew

"him not, neither crucified him; but that "he was represented by one in his likeness.

66

They did not really kill him, fays he, but "God took him up unto himself.”

But with respect to our Lord's Divinity, or equality with the Father, you have, among a thousand parallel ones, the fentiments fol lowing. They (viz. the Christians) fay, "God hath begotten children; God forbid. "It is not meet for God that he should have

66

66

any fon; God forbid. Bleffed be he that "hath revealed the Forkan, (Koran,) to "whom belongeth the kingdom of heaven "and earth; who hath begotten no iffue, "and hath no partner in his kingdom, &c. "Yet have they taken other Gods befides "him, which have created nothing, but are "themselves created, &c. Jefus is no other "than a fervant whom we favoured with the

gift of prophecy, &c. When Jesus came "with evident miracles, he faid, now am I "come unto you with wisdom, and to ex

"plain unto you part of those things "concerning which ye difagree; wherefore "fear God, and obey me. Verily God is my Lord, and your Lord; wherefore wor

"

ship him. He is God, befides whom there

" is no God, &c. Far be God exalted above "the idols which they affociate with "him. The 112th. ch. of the Koran is "entitled the declaration of God's Unity, and "the whole runs thus: Say God is one God;

(t) the eternal God; he begetteth not, "neither is he begotten; and there is not any like unto him. In the 6th. ch. is the following question: How fhould he have "iffue, fince he hath no confort?"

That these carnal fentiments, this grofs language, (the language of infidels and scoffers every day,) is directly levelled, not at a new or strange thing; not at a peculiar tenet of a few enthufiafts; or a particular fect of Christians; but at the leading article, the fundamental principle of our religion, may be affirmed in utter defiance of the united powers of effrontery and equivocation. The doctrine

K 2