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    asserted , that moral evil destroys itself . I believe it sometimes does . We have an instance of it here . The same thought is probably applicable to the present state of things at Geneva . Calvin ' s burning the worthy Servetus has , no doubt , secretly operated to produce the change that has taken place in the religious views of the clergy of that city . He being dead yet speaketh . His innocent blood

    crieth from the ground- In many cases a small deviation from the straight line of duty is scarcely noticed by us ; but when , by slow degress , our aberration becomes notoriously great , our fears are alarmed , and we hasten back

    to the right path again . As to what is idolatry , and the difference between Jewish , Christian and Heathen idolatry , which A . Z . wishes to hear more of , it may be sufficient to observe , that it is said , 44 Thou shalt have no other gods before me : Thou shalt not make

    unto thee any graven image , ' &c , Exod . xx . It appears from these two commandments , that whoever worships any being , besides Jehovah , is an idolater ; and that whoever worships even Jehovah himself hy means

    of an image , is also an idolater . These precepts certainly extend to all mankind ; for the duties which they require of us , we all owe to our Creator . The ignorance of the person who breaks either of them cannot alter the

    nature of the act itself : still it is religious worship given to another person besides Jehovah , or given to him through a forbidden medium , and , therefore , it is idolatry . The Israelites

    called the worship of the golden calf a feast to Jehovah , but it was realty idolatry . Exod . xxii . 5 . Ignorance may diminish the degree of guilt that attends an idolatrous act , but that is

    all , for in all such cases God is robbed of his glory , and man of his comfort and edification . This is true of every kind of idolatry ^ but it is especially so of Heathen idolatry , as appears , most evident , from the late work of the Abbe Dubois , on the Civil and Religious Manners of the Hindoos . There the reader will see what will excite

    him to say , •* It is a shame even to speak of those things which are done erf them in secret . " Eph . v . 12 . But it is time to speak out , to put the Heathen and Infidel to the blush , and

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    to confirm tlie wavering Christian in his most holy faith . Some Unitarians , it seems , as"well as Trinitarians , have asserted that Trinitarians are not idolaters . But let us

    hear what certain Trinitarians themselves have said on this subject . Mr . Keach says , in his work on the Parables , p . 88 , " It is idolatry to give the same divine worship to him , that belongs to God only . But this worship is given * and ought to be given , to Jesus Christ , 1

    as Mediator / ' Mr . Proud says , " I have been a worshiper of Jesus Christ , as truly and properly God , for more than forty years ; but should it turn out , that the God I adore is but a man like myself , it is more than time for me to relinquish my idolatry . "—

    Mon . Repos . I . 588 . Mr . Wardlaw says , " If Christ be not God , then we who offer to him that homage of our heart which is due to God alone , are without doubt guilty of idolatry , as really guilty as the worshipers of the deified heroes of Greece and Rome . "

    —Mon . Repos . XII . 206 . And , Mr . Whitaker savs , " If the doctrine of the Trinity be false , then are all who worship Christ guilty of idolatry . "—Mon * Repos . XII . 456 . I wish those Unitarians , who were once Trinitarians , would copy the

    example of A . Z ., and give us an account of the means by which their change of sentiment was effected , with all the interesting circumstances that attended it » This would be very instructive , and would also greatly refresh the spirits of those sincere and

    worthy inquirers after truth , whose minds are cast down by the ill-treatment that they meet with from their former acquaintance and friends * The Psalmist says , " Come and hear , all ye that fear God , and I will declare

    what he has done for my soul . " Ps . cvi . And the prophet Malachi says , " Then they that feared Jehovah , spake often one to another , and a book of remembrance was written , " &c . Mai . iii .

    Hasten , O thou most high God , the time " when there shall be one Jehovah , and his name one , " Zach . xiv . ; when all thy rational creatures shall say " to us there is but one God , the Father , " 1 Cor , viii . 63 and when all shall worship thee in spirit and in truth , as the disciples and followers of thy beloved Son . the Lord Jesus

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    502 Mr . Jevans in Reply to A . Z . oft I&olatfy *

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1818, page 502, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2479/page/30/