the loathsome diseases, the painful maladies, the early and horrible deaths, which are often the result of it. So that, if this propensity is natural, the punishment of it is not less so. These are the more palpable demonstrations of nature against these practices. But, if we would enter into the many irregularities produced by them, and into the loss of character and fortune which they bring with them, the voice of nature would be heard still more distinctly against them. Even in the Pagan times, when man was not restrained by a divine Revelation, we find, in the works of Terence, Horace, and other writers, sufficient indications of the disquietudes and miseries which followed in the train of these indulgences. SECTION LV. 1 TIM. ii. 5.-" There is one God, and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus." REV. i. 5." Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, be glory and dominion for ever and ever." THE mediation of Christ has been much objected to; but the whole world proceeds on the mediation or instrumentality of others. This is indeed a truth which scarcely needs illustration. It has been, however, well stated by Bishop Butler in his Analogy, (Part ii. ch. 5,) and the reader will there find on the subject ample satisfaction, should he require any. But the real difficulty was how to pay honour and homage to this great Mediator, without entrenching on the worship of the One God. This difficulty, however, has been resolved with great ability by Doctor Watts, who has based his reasoning on the analogy of Nature, and has placed the subject in so interesting a view, that it will require no apology to introduce his argument here.* "There is something in the reason and nature of man, that inclines him to own and worship some God or some superior being, from whom himself and all his enjoyments are derived, and on whom his expectations depend. "Reason and Revelation conspire to teach us that there is but one God. "This one God has required expressly in His word, that He alone should be the object of our worship or religious homage. : "There is something in the nature of man, which inclines him to reverence the image of that being which he worships. And the reason is evident because the image is supposed to be something more within the reach of his senses, and therefore more suited to his bodily nature, than God who is the unseen object of his worship; or, at least, because he can have the image sensibly present with him, when he has not the original; and, the image being supposed to have the likeness of the original object of worship, it refreshes the memory, and brings to mind the excellences of the divine original. * Watts' Works, 4to. vol. vi. p. 581. "If we love and honour a friend, a father, or a king, we desire to have their pictures or images near us; we pay a sort of love and veneration to them on account of their likeness to the original persons; and we also pay our love and veneration to the absent original by the means or medium of these pictures. "It is from this principle that the heathens in all nations, who have worshipped the sun, moon, and stars, or their kings, heroes, and ancestors, have generally made pictures and images of them, and either reverenced and worshipped the images, or the originals in and by those images, or both. And for this reason, in the antichristian church, they did not only worship the beast, but they made an image thereof, and worshipped it. (Rev. xiii. 14.) "God has expressly forbidden men to make any image of Himself, and worship it, or even to make it a medium of paying their religious homage and worship to Himself. And one great reason of the prohibition is, because man kind is so prone to worship images which they have made themselves. "God has never given us any express image of Himself, but his Son, Jesus Christ; who is (Heb. i. 2) the brightness of his Father's glory, and the express image of his person. He is (2 Cor. iv. 4) the image of God, of the invisible God, (Col. i. 15). Now this expression seems to have a proper reference to his human nature, or must at least include his human nature in it; because everything that relates directly to the divine nature of Christ is as invisible as God the Father; and therefore his divine nature, considered alone, would never have been so particularly described as the image of the invisible God. "God himself has required us to make this His image the medium of our worship paid to Him. Through him we have access to the Father, Eph. ii. 18. Give thanks to the Father by him, Col. iii. 17. And He requires men and angels to worship this His image. John v. 23; Heb. i. 6. Thus far has God indulged or encouraged that natural inclination in man to reverence the image of that divine Being which he worships. "To this end it has pleased Him in a special manner to assume into the nearest union with Himself this His Son, and thereby to render him a more complete image of Himself. Thus the Son is one with the Father (John x. 30) by this union, as he expresses it: He that |