of attention which is vulgarly denoted by the name of Worship. For if worship be properly an improvement on power and dominion by the addition of alacrity or a cordial acquiescence in the payment, it is not an uncommon case to find plenty of worship, or at least of its profession, without any concession of power, which forms its foundation or essence. That this is an abuse of expressions there can be no doubt; though there may be some respecting the sort or degree of worship due to the present subjects, that is angels or spirits; to determine which if possible, we should recollect 1, what a subject it is, or what the order proposed as an object of worship; and 2, what the tribute of worship implied in this proposition, comparing their joint effect on the question, e. g.

-1, Concerning the proposed Object of worship it has been intimated, that the order alluded to consists of good and evil spirits in the same manner as our own: and there can be no question with any one who has a becoming faith in divine Providence as to the wickedness and absurdity of worshipping the latter sort with a view either to conciliate their friendship, or to avert those evil offices of which they are thought capable. The question therefore must be confined to the first mentioned sort, or to the worship of good angels and we shall only have to inquire,

-2, Concerning the dueness or propriety of any worship, and of what sort to this class of subordinate intellectuals. Whereupon another distinction will likewise seem necessary between common or simple and holy or religious worship: when there being no question, that these excellent creatures are entitled to the same common or simple sort of worship as we owe generally to excellence in our own sphere, only more profound according to their greater degree therein, the question will chiefly regard the worshipping of the subjects with holy or religious worship, like what the Psalmist would intimate as due to the Highest in that exhortation, "Bring unto the Lord, O ye mighty, bring young rams unto the Lord: ascribe unto the

Lord worship and strength: give the Lord the honour due unto his Name: WORSHIP THE LORD WITH HOLY WORSHIP" (Ps. xxix. 1, 2). More especially it may be enquired with respect to prayer, Whether this highest sort of homage be due to angels?

And for answer; it may be said, that there does not appear any direct authority of Scripture to determine this point either way. We have this confidence in God, as observed by "St. John the divine," "that if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: and if we know that he heareth us; whatsover we ask we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him" (John I. v. 14, 15). Therefore our duty in this case is very obvious, "Ask and it shall be given" (Matt. vii. 7, &c.). This must be thought a lofty privilege that we enjoy, in being allowed the liberty of addressing the Almighty, as it were immediately, through the Image or Presence that he has given us of himself in his Son and Holy Spirit. And therefore, praying to intermediate objects, whether angels, saints, or demigods, may be thought both degrading and superstitious; degrading to our present licence and future destiny, which are both on a par with theirs; and superstitious, as exceeding perhaps the authority of divine revelation in this behalf. For if we admit the intervention of such agents, we must suppose them also to be influenced and controlled, either mediately or immediately by the First Cause, as well as we; and seeing that without his power and permission they can no more assist us than we can assist them, it may seem not only servile in us and degrading as aforesaid to address them, but injurious also to the authority of their Lord and ours. And thus it may be thought of their worship by some who believe in the existence of such objects: while others may think, that the worship of these intermediate authorities would be more tolerable, if we had more certain knowledge of their existence: but doubting the fact, or conceiving that it has never been sufficiently revealed to mankind, they conclude that such authorities can

only be worshipped hypothetically; which would be worshipping rather absurdly.

To some the general worshipping of saints departed for another world in whom the divine characteristics above mentioned are supposed to have been embodied, and whose present mode of existence may be inferred from the past, would not appear so absurd as the worshipping of a wooden image. But that too must be partly a mistake; seeing that in such a case the object of worship may be a fond notion, and no doubt a partial resemblance at best, a resemblance as unlike its original perhaps as the copy of a carver to what he thinks of imitating; who at most can only carve the outside. Making a saint first, and then worshipping him as the patron of a man, a woman, a town or a city, is just as absurd as making a wooden image and falling down to it. For the estimation of an idolater will go just as far towards his purpose, the making of a god, in one instance as in the other. Also to worship, and still more to invoke any particular angel by name; as Gabriel, or Raphael, or even the archangel specifically, would be going beyond our warrant, because we are not sufficiently certified of their person and character. It is little that we know of these objects, and therefore not much that we can think or feel concerning them particularly. And what if we should happen to worship the wrong angel, or the wrong saint by chance? For a man may be patronized all his life by some intellectual spirit, without knowing his particular patron: and what a cruel injustice it would be in the man to neglect one who had all the trouble of him, namely in counteracting his froward appetites and teaching him wisdom by experience, in favour of another who lay sleeping very quietly all the while in his native dust and had no more thought of the man than Baal of his false prophets; when "they called upon the name of Baal from morning even until noon, saying O Baal, hear us! but there was no voice nor any that answered" (Kings I. xviii. 26).

Of saints and holy angels we read generally, and are in

the same manner free to think, as we also do indeed with a mingled sense of shame and delight; of shame in respect of our own nakedness, of delight in respect of their righteous apparel; worshipping them with more glee and a better grace than we could worship kings. Also believing, as Christians, in the reality, perpetuity, freedom and ubiquity of these heavenly beings, we venture to invoke generally their company, protection and assistance; and would rather enjoy these benefits from them than from the greatest potentate, or any other rarity of the human kind. We do not conceive that it would be more inconsistent with the spirit of the catholic reformed than of the ancient catholic church, to call at any time on the angels and ministers of grace generally to defend us, subject as aforesaid to the will of their Lord and ours, and to the supposition of his presence with them; and have consequently no objection to their yearly commemoration in our liturgy with such terms of respect as may constitute at once an acknowledgement of their reality and of the light in which we regard them. We are far from wishing to beguile any man of his reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels" (Col. ii. 18) in a general indefinite way at the same time that, as Christians, for any thing farther, we should think it safest to leave the worshipping of angels perhaps, till we are better acquainted with them; lest an habit of worshipping these his creatures should subtract from our attention to the One Great and indubitable Object of universal worship and dependence, their and our Creator, in the same way that manworship is always found to do; and as they say it has done (UNFORTUNATELY, IF IT HAS) for some Christians.

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At any rate the propriety of this angel-worship may certainly be doubted; and if so, then also its wisdom; as no practice can be wise the propriety of which is doubtful. It was thus that some heathen sages of antiquity used to reason. If we cannot see the propriety of moving (said they) it will seem a matter of course, to

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be still; if not of doing any thing, to leave it undone; as every motive requires an action; but no motive, none. And the Christian mode of reasoning is similar only substituting an higher principle than private judgment, which can never avail for persons living in society and for futurity, and that higher principle is faith, referring every action or undertaking to the will of God. "For whatsoever is not of faith is sin" (Rom. xiv. 23), according to our creed; and such is saint or angel-worship.

The remarks that have been applied to the spirits of the deceased will apply also to those of the living with us; and if we consider it unworthy to be "having men's persons in admiration because of advantage," it is no more than we think likewise of a man's worshipping his own genius, or any other man's genius that may strike him as more adorable. For let a man's good genius, or any other man's befriend a man as it will on some occasions, the same must be as dependent at last as its charge, and may happen to disappoint him by chance in his greatest need. Which may be enough to observe on the duty or propriety of worship properly so called, that is with prayer and invocation as to any inferior beings whether absent or present, dead or alive. But of the worthiness

6, Or Blessing and Benediction FOR ANGELS, or of prayer and invocation to the Supreme Being in their behalf; as likewise of "giving of thanks unto the Father which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light" (Col. i. 12.) “for all his servants departed this life in his faith and fear"-there cannot be much doubt. Indeed we may generally be assured of the duty and propriety of such a practice: only PRAYERS FOR THE DEAD, we hold to be vain; as there is no work, nor device, nor consequently, alteration, "in the grave" (Eccles. ix. 10). And with regard to praying for souls in purgatory *;

* Of the existence of Purgatory one might venture to doubt; though one should not,-to deny the existence of such an intermediate state as the Millennium describes.