to them which by nature were no gods: And the Gentiles a are censured for serving the creature, besides the Creator. Their idolatry did not lie in paying equal worship to creatures, and to their supreme God; but in giving religious worship to any other besides the true and living God: And even miracles could not be sufficient to introduce another object of religious worship, besides the true and living God: For God spake thus by Moses; If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder; and the sign or wonder come to pass, whereof he spake to thee, saying, Let us go after other gods, which thou hast not known, and let us serve them: Thou shalt not hearken to him, but thou shalt surely kill him b.’

I would beg leave to add here, that when it is said, 'Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve;' the words, The Lord thy God,' must be understood of the Godhead, and not of the person of the Father only; for then the Son must be excluded, to whom religious worship is due, according to command given both in the Old and New Testament; and if the Son is included in the Lord God who is to be worshipped, and who only is to be served, so also may the Holy Spirit be, and doubtless is; for he is of the number of the sacred Three c in heaven, who are expressly declared to be One.

Having thus stated the object of religious worship, I proceed to the next preliminary.

2. I shall explain the nature of religious worship, that so we may the better judge, whether such worship is ascribed to the Holy Ghost in scripture.

Divine or religious worship may be described, as an acknowledgment of the divine excellencies and perfections, according to the divine will.

The object of religious worship being fixed by God, and declared to be himself alone, on the account of his infinite

a Rom. i. 25.

b Deut. xiii. 1, &c.

c 1 John v. 7.

perfections, men are not left at liberty to vary or multiply the objects of it as they please. Nor is it consistent with the formal reason and ground of it, the infinite perfections of God, that he himself should allow, much less command it to be given to any other; because no other being but himself, is possessed of those perfections which are the ground and reason of homage and adoration.

When therefore the Father commands all men to honour the Son, even as himself a, the ground of it is not barely the Father's command, but also the Son's infinite perfections; for the Son has life in himself, and quickens whom he will; and it is not to be supposed that the Father would command divine worship to be given to a being not possessed of those infinite perfections; for he will not give his glory to another b. And seeing God claims, and is worthy to be loved, with all our hearts, souls, and strength, there is no room for higher and lower worship, or for men to offer supreme or inferior ·worship in the exercises of religion.

The worship itself may be either internal in the soul, such as esteem, reverence, love, trust, subjection, self-dedication ; For internal and external both, in some outward acts of worship, as prayer, praise, prostration, oaths, and vows; but still -it is, and must be, an acknowledgment and veneration of the divine perfections, regulated by the will of God, and not by -the intention and fancy of the worshipper..

The Psalmist thus called upon believers: O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before Jehovah our Maker for the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods c.' His supremacy and creating power are here as-signed as the reason of giving him religious worship; the external part of which is expressed by bowing down and kneeling before him, singing to him, and giving of thanks. Hence it appears, that religious worship is an acknowledgment of the divine perfections, with suitable reverence, subjection, love,

a John v. 23. comp. with ver. 21, 26. 6 Isa. xlii. 8.. c Psal. xcv. 6.,

thankfulness, and obedience. God's command to Israel was, You shall fear Jehovah, and him shall you worship, and to him shall you do sacrifice. And the statutes, and the ordinances, and the law, and the commandment which he wrought for you, you shall observe to do for evermore, and you shall not fear other gods a. Not only the internal, but also all ́external acts of religious worship are forbid to be given to any but the Most High God; for he has thus spoke; I am Jehovah thy God: Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, to any beings beside Jehovah, either in heaven, earth, or the waters, nor serve them b.' Hence Job said, If I beheld the sun when it shined, and the moon walking in brightness, and my heart hath been secretly enticed, and my mouth hath kissed my hand;-I should have denied the God that is above c.' We have here the internal part of worship, the engagement of the heart in that delight and reverence due to God: And the external part of worship is signified by his mouth's kissing his hand, in token of submission and subjection; as Samuel kissed Saul when he anointed him king; and as the Jews kissed the calves: And princes are required to kiss the Son in token of their adoration and worship of him d. Tertullian speaks of the heathens kissing the sun at its rising e; that is, as one explains it, they used to lift up their hands to the sun, and then kiss them with their mouths, in token of adoration. Bodily, as well as spiritual adoration, is reserved to God only, whom we are to glorify, and whose our bodies and spirits are.

f

I now proceed to shew, that religious worship is due, and has been given to the Holy Spirit.

In the ninety-fifth psalm g we have a solemn exhortation, to worship the Lord our Maker, and to bow down and kneel before him: But this Lord appears to be the Holy Ghost, by the apostle Paul's application of the psalm to him; Where

a 2 Kings xvii. 36, 37, b Exod. xx. 2-5.

d 1 Sam. x. 1.-Hos. xiii. 2.-Psal. ii. 12. f Caryl. in Job xxxi. 27.

6

c Job xxxi. 26-28. e Apol. cap. 16. g Ver. 6.

fore, as the Holy Ghost says, Harden not your hearts; I was grieved with that generation; your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works a.' Which expressions the Psalmist mentions as the words of that God whom we are to worship; and it appearing from the apostle, that they are the words of the Holy Ghost, speaking in his own name, it follows, that he is that God whom we are to worship, together with the Father and Son; for as all Three concurred in creation, so it is fit that all Three should be worshipped and adored by all their reasonable creatures. All the characters of the object of worship, mentioned by the Psalmist, as the Rock of salvation, a great God, and a great King, the Maker of the seas, dry land, and of men, belong to the Holy Spirit, as well as to the Father and the Son; The Spirit therefore, together with the Father and the Son, is to be worshipped and adored.

The same truth is not obscurely hinted, in those words of the prophet, concerning the Holy Spirit; Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor the beasts thereof sufficient for a burntoffering b. Hereby, as I conceive, is signified his right to the highest expressions of divine worship, and also how much he is exalted above them; for all the nations before him are as nothing, less than nothing, and vanity.

To what end

The apostle Paul having told the Corinthians, that they were the temple of the Holy Ghost, he adds, Glorify God in your bodies and spirits, which are God's c. does the Holy Spirit dwell in the saints, as in the temple, if not to be worshipped and glorified by them? The Jewish temple, to which there seems here to be an allusion, was a place of the most solemn religious worship of that God to which the temple was built and dedicated. Believers being the temple of the Holy Ghost, are bound to worship him, whose temple they are. None went into the temple with their shoes on, or used any irreverent posture there; they always. stood at their prayers: When they departed, they bowed low before the Lord, even falling on the ground; and when they

a Heb. iii. 7.

b Isa. xl. 16.

c 1 Cor. vi. 19.

went out, they went backwards, because they might not turn their backs upon the altar, as Dr. Lightfoot a tells us. These tokens of veneration and adoration were due to him who dwelt, and was worshipped in the temple. In like manner all the acts and tokens of a religious veneration, are due to God the Spirit, who dwells in his saints as in his temple.

6

We may be the more confirmed in this sentiment, when we find so great and so good a man, and one who lived so near the time of Christ, as Justin Martyr b, declaring, that with reason they worshipped and adored the prophetic Spirit: This he spoke as the sense and practice of the church, in the first and purest ages of Christianity, long before the Arian or Macedonian heresies appeared in the world. But a greater testimony than his, is that of the apostle, if the following reading of the text be right; For we are the circumcision which worship God the Spirit c;' as it may and has been rendered, agreeable to the original, var sy Largάorres. Thus Ambrose d renders the words; "We are the circumcumcision, who serve God the Spirit: if (says he) any one contends about the variety of the Latin copies, let him inspect the Greek copies, where it is thus written, i ☺sğ zvśvμarı zargśuovres; which is interpreted, who serve God the Spirit: Therefore, when he says, the Spirit is to be served, the same apostle who affirms, that not the creature, but the Creator is to be served, evidently shews the Spirit to be the Creator; and that he is to be worshipped with the honours of the eternal divinity, because it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve e." Augustine ƒ followed this reading, we worship God the Spirit: And Beza says, That he found it so in five manuscript copies,

f In loe.

e Serve and worship mean the same thing, according to him.-Vide

p. 263, 264.