during this early period of the Christian religion? If Jesus Christ were really and truly God, he was undoubtedly a proper object of adoration.. In this point you act consistently, for, believing the deity of Jesus Christ and of the Holy Ghost, you properly pay religious adoration to them

both.

You contend that the creed of Jesus Christ and his apostles, was the same as your own. You give them credit for being consistent, and therefore they must have worshipped a Trinity in Unity. Well then, let us see what was the fact. Whom did Jesus Christ adore? That he adored the Father is universally admitted, and that he even spent whole nights in this exercise. Did he ever worship himself? Never. You will say this would have been absurd. Then it was equally absurd to worship the Father, for he was a part of himself. But remember, according to your own system, he was divided into two natures, one human, the other divine; Ought not then the human to have worshipped the divine; the man the God? Surely this is an omission of which the

man Jesus would never have been guilty. However, reconcile this difficulty how you may, it is sufficient you grant that he never did worship himself deified.

Did he then ever worship the Holy Ghost? Never. He talks indeed of sending the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth, and of praying to the Father to send him, but he never talks of praying to the Holy Ghost to come. And yet if the account in the 1st chapter of Luke be true, the Holy Ghost was his Father, (Luke i. 35). How will you reconcile this inconsistency? Can you really believe that Jesus Christ thought the Holy Ghost to be a person and a God? If then, he did not worship the persons separately, did he worship them collectively, as a Trinity in Unity? You know full well, that no such expression ever escaped his lips.

I would next ask, To whom did the apostles pay religious adoration ? We read of their "praising God" continually; of prayers "being made unto God by the church, without ceasing;" (Acts xii. 5) of Paul and Silas praying and singing praises to God; (xvi. 25) of his "giving

thanks to God in the presence of them all;" and of their being continually in the temple, praising and blessing God." (ii. 46, 47.) But where do we read of their paying religious adoration to Jesus Christ, to the Holy Ghost, or to the Trinity in Unity.

I do not mean to deny that the word worship is used in reference to Jesus Christ, but then the word so commonly means only respectful obeisance, and not religious adoration, that I think few will assign this as a reason, who are not greatly pressed for an argument.* The only two passages (as far as I recollect) which are urged as containing religious homage to Jesus, are those of Stephen and Thomas. That of Thomas has been already explained, p. 202-205. The expression of Stephen is said to have been, "Lord Jesus receive my spirit." You are aware that the word, Lord, is not synonimous. with that of God, meaning only Master. Stephen in his dying moments being full

* "And they worshipped the Lord and the King." 1 Chron. xxix. 20.

of thoughts and ideas of his Master, actually sees him personally present, it was therefore a natural expression, "Jesus my Master, receive my spirit," without his having any idea of addressing Jesus as the great Jehovah. Surely every one ought to be exceedingly cautious, how, from such expressions as these, which may so easily be differently explained, he engages in a practice of such infinite importance, as that of the solemn adoration of another being as God.

But it is to be expected that on such an occasion as a distinct revelation from the Almighty, his missionary should give a distinct statement upon so important a point, of what is the duty of human beings. Ye Trinitarian worshippers, if ye can shew us a single instance in which Christ says that your your devotions are to be presented to him, or to three persons in one God, we will yield. If your Saviour never did command you, in the name of God, by what authority do you consent to the practice?

Does our Saviour give no directions upon the subject? Out of several that

might be mentioned, I shall give three distinct directions, by our Saviour, to his disciples on three different occasions. One in his sermon on the mount. 66 When thou prayest, pray-to whom?-to thy Father, after this model, "Our Father who art in heaven." A second, just before his crucifixion, when he informs his disciples that he is going to his Father, "In that day, ye shall ask me, nothing, but the Father in my name." The third

is addressed to the woman of Samaria ; "The hour cometh, and now is," (that is, the Christian dispensation), " when the true worshippers, shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth; for the Father seeketh such to worship him."

At the bar of Almighty God, we are contented to be tried by the words of our Saviour. We claim to ourselves the character of true worshippers, for we do worship the Father only, agreeably to the express commands of our Saviour. By what express commands do you worship the Son; by what express command, the Holy Ghost; by what express command, three persons in one God? This