250 THE ARIAN INVITED TO ORTHODOX FAITH. worship. Now it would be a tedious and difficult matter to con- vince the gentiles of the real difference between their own heroes and the christian hero ; and it would be hard to make it appear to them, that the christian's inferior god had a much juster title to worship than the heathen inferior gods, upon the supposition of having no God beside him who made all things. And while the apostles continually inculcated this doctrine of the unityof God ; and while the, gentiles themselvesas well as the apostles called every thing God which they worshipped, it would be very hard' to prove to them, that Jesus Christ, if he were a mere creature, had so much better pretence-and claim to their worship than their own heroes had without much labour ofdistinctions far above the reach of the multitudes; whereas the adorableness of Christ, on the account of the supreme in- dwelling godhead, sets all things right with ease and plainness ; He must be worshipped as supreme God, for he is one with God supreme. Indeed the appellant exclaims against this sort of reasoning. Would it not grieve one, says he, if it may not move one's indignation, to see christians representing the worship of Christ, the only true and proper worshipwhich the gospel directs us to pay unto him, as little better than Heathenish idolatry ; and thus in effect making the blessed Jesus no better than an idol ? "- "Appeal." Surely the appellant must needs know, that I am not singular in this reasoning; and that this is no new charge -against his doctrine; Dr. Cudworth, in his «Intellectual Sys- tem," Dr. Waterland in his '4 Defence of the Queries," Dr. Smallbroke, in his " Two Sermons against Arianism," and others, concur with the fathers writing on this subject, to charge the Arians with a restoration of idolatry, and support of poly- theism, like that of the Pagans, when they called Jesus Christ a mere creature, and yet pay him religious worship. And truly, if this argument move grief and indignation, it will fall heavy on the Arian scheme, and not on my argument For it is that scheme which represents the blessed Jesus as an inferior god, and thus brings him too near to the rank of those inferior gods or heroes in the sense of theheathens ; whereas the scripture places him in a vastly superior character, as God over all blessedfor ever, and as one with God the Father ; and though I believe from my heart, that several of these writers have a sacred and profound reverence forthe blessed Jesus, and adore, and love, and trust in him, yet this inferior or figurative godhead, which is all they usually allow him ; and upon which they build his worship, seems to bring him down down too near to those ideas and characters which the heathens attributed to their inferior gods. I a t well persuaded, that these gentle- men abhor the thought of such indignity offered to our bles- sed Lord, but their opinion -seems to draw such consequences
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