SERMON III. JOHN iv. 24. God is a Spirit, and they who worship him, muft worship him in spirit and in truth. HAV III. VING already made fome few ob- SERM. fervations on the nature of God as a Spirit, and given a fhort account of the moft confiderable modes of worship which have been practised by mankind in different ages, we are now to review our present fyftem of faith and practice. SERM. · III. In pursuing this subject, I shall not enter into a minute and frivolous detail of the various fects and perfuafions among us; ftill lefs am I inclined to weary you with a tedious and useless refutation of the errors, or an indecent derifion and contempt of the opinions, of others; though there are fome fchifms which should be oppofed by divines with all the force of argument and authority of fcripture, because the tenets they hold are evidently deftructive of virtue and morality, the great end and aim of true religion. The Reformers, when they engaged in the important and arduous defign of shaking off the chains with which the Romish ufurpation had fettered mankind, could not be expected to overcome every prejudice, that had fo long misled the world, and establish at once a complete and univerfal reformation. Man by flow, and almost imperceptible degrees, approaches perfec tion, but never attains it. The mist which bigotry, ignorance, or cunning had spread over the world, was too great to be foon diffipated, and permit the benignant light of the Gospel to shine forth in all its genuine and unfullied luftre. Though much was done at first, fomething remained for fucceeding generations to improve; but perhaps it may now be faid, that we have acquired as juft and pure ideas of theology, as the blindness and infirmity of human nature are capable of entertaining. Our divines feem to have abandoned the dry and unprofitable debates of school-divinity, and, instead of perplexing themselves with arguments totally unintelligible to the bulk of their impatient hearers, and disgusting and unedifying to the few who might poffibly comprehend them; instead of thus wasting their time and talents, they now call the attention of their auditors to plain and neceffary SERM. III. |