AN ESSAY I89 also imply and demand, some public veneration or worship to be paid to himat certain seasons, that the world may see, as far as outward actions can manifest it, that we believe and reverence a Divine Power? This was supposed to be so necessary to the establishment of a state upon proper foundations, that Mr.' Locke, that 'great patron of liberty, in the laws which he drew up for Carolina, appointed, that no man should have any estate or habitation in it, that does not acknowledge a God, and that this God is publicly and solemnly to be worshipped. Article 95. II. Now the most natural, obvious and necessary parts of worship, are praise and adoration of this God, on account of his powers and perfections, the invocation of him by prayer for the blessings we stand in need of, and thanksgiving for the blessings we have received, acknowledging all that we have, even our being and our comforts, to be derived originally from him. III. May not then every civil government appoint certain persons to offer up public prayers and praises unto the great God at certain stated seasons, and require the attendance of the peo- ple on this worship, since this is an act of natural religion, and some public worship seems necessary for every subject of the state to approve himself a believer in a God ? I answer, It is difficult to find how this may be done in any nation without en- trenching upon the liberty of mankind, and imposing upon the consciences of some of the inhabitantsof the land; and that for these reasons : IV. Reason I. First, It has been already granted that all the people or inhabitants Of the land may not have learned to acknowledge the one true God, and if they happen to be hea- thens or polytheists, they may think it hard, to be constrained by a magistrate to worship, as the Athenians did, an unknown God; Acts xvii. 23. at least till they have been all so far taught and instructed as to know, believe, and profess the true Godalone. V. Reason H. Again, If the one true God, be thus publicly worshippedmerely according to the dictates of the light of na- ture, there may he several sects in the nation who may think it necessary to worship him with the addition or mixtureof their peculiar rites and ceremonies, which they suppose divine, when- ever theycome before him ; and therefore they 'should never be compelled to attend this mere natural worship. Christianswould say, they are particularly required to worship the true God, in the name and by the mediation of Jesus Christ, according as our Lord has taught them. John xiv. 6. No man cometh to the Father but by me. John xvi. 24. Hithertoye haveasked nothing inmy -name, ask . and ye shall receive. And St. Paul tells us, that whatever we do, and especially in divine worship, of which he is there speaking; it should be all in the name of Christ;
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