TRINITARIAN AND UNITARIAN SERMONS, ACCORDING TO THE THIRTY-NINE ARTICLES OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND: PREACHED IN NEARLY TWO HUNDRED CHURCHES OF THE ESTABLISHMENT. SERMON I. THE LORD HE IS GOD. PSALM XCV. 6, 7. O COME, LET US WORSHIP, AND FALL DOWN, AND IS THE LORD OUR GOD; AND WE ARE THE PEOPLE FROM the earliest records of the history of mankind, even urto the present hour, have been found, in all ages and in all nations, some ideas of a Supreme Ruler of the Universe. Accustomed to look up with reverence to the most expert hunter or warrior of his Tribe, during his daring life; even the unenlightened savage was convinced, by Death, that his Chieftain's power had come to an end. Hence, still conscious that he wanted a protector to shield, an example to guide him through this world's vicissitudes and perils; he began to hope that some all-powerful Being might exist beyond the skies, over whom Death had no control, and whose dominion over all creation might be, like himself, eternal. The sun, that most glorious object of the material world, naturally attracted his attention; and to the sun, the moon, and stars, we accordingly find the religious worship of the heathen, generally, directly, or indirectly, paid. Other Nations, as history informs us, fell down and worshipped stocks and stones, or hideous images of the gods whom they believed to have eternal power. Still, whatever was the object of their senseless adoration, it is plainly evident that some idea of a Deity was implanted in the breast of man ; an idea, whatever the pretended atheist may declare, never to be eradicated. But even the poor uncultured savage began to find that his prayers were unheard by the gods of his imagination; that the sorrows of this life were greater than its joys. He beheld fraud and violence prosper; he saw the unequal distribution of property and riches; he witnessed the inroads of sickness, and the encroachments of death. Sickening, he turned from the contemplation of such evils; and, in his affliction, lifting his thoughts above the earth, a bright beam of hope directed him to the eternal God of mercy and his immortal soul was filled with a longing to know, to see, to love, to worship him. For "God," as the great Apostle of the heathen tells us, "left not himself without a witness in every nation ;" and by granting to man, after his first creation, a knowledge of good and evil, has led the human soul to honour and to worship him. Moreover, we not only trace some idea of Divinity even in the most savage people, but we also plainly perceive, in the multiplicity of their gods, a trace of one Supreme Being ruling by, and from, his own exclusive power, over all other gods. This shews that the true God had wisely reserved to himself, in all the sheep of his hand, some clue by which he would, at his own good time, bring back the wanderer to the arms of his mercy. the Lord is gracious, his mercy is everlasting: and his truth endureth from generation to generation." "For |