ftantly taught in fermons, incorporated with liturgies, or expressed in extempore prayer, as to imprint, by the very repetition, fome knowledge and memory of thefe fubjects upon the moft unqualified and careless hearer.

The two reafons above stated bind all the members of a community to uphold public worship by their prefence and example, although the helps and opportunities which it affords may not be neceffary to the devotion or edification of all; and to fome may be useless: for it is easily forefeen, how foon religious affemblies would fall into contempt and difufe, if that clafs of mankind, who are above feeking inftruction in them, and want not that their own piety fhould be affifted by either forms or fociety in devotion, were to withdraw their attendance; efpecially when it is confidered, that all who please are at liberty to rank themfelves of this clafs. This argument meets the only ferious apology that can be made for the abfenting of ourselves from public worship. "Surely (fome will fay) I may be excufed from going to church, fo long as

I pray at home, and have no reafon to doubt but that my prayers are as acceptable and "efficacious in my clofet, as in a cathedral; * ftill lefs can I think myfelf obliged to fit out a " tedious

4

"tedious fermon, in order to hear what is "known already, what is better learnt from "books, or suggested by meditation." They, whofe qualifications and habits best supply to themselves all the effect of public ordinances, will be the laft to prefer this excufe, when they advert to the general confequence of fetting up fuch an exemption, as well as when they confider the turn which is fure to be given in the neighbourhood to their abfence from public worship. You ftay from church, to employ the fabbath at home in exercises and ftudies fuited to its proper bufinefs: your next neighbour stays from church, to spend the feventh day lefs religiously than he passed any of the fix, in a fleepy, ftupid reft, or at fome rendezvous of drunkennesɛ and debauchery, and yet thinks that he is only imitating you, becaufe you both agree in not going to church. The fame confideration should over-rule many fmall fcruples concerning the rigorous propriety of fome things, which may be contained in the forms, or admitted into the adminiftration of the public worship of our communion; for it feems impoffible, that even

two or three fhould be gathered together," in any act of focial worthip, if each one require from the reft an implicit fubmiffion to his objec-

tions; and if no man will attend upon a religious fervice which in any point contradicts his opinion of truth, or falls fhort of his ideas of perfection.

Befide the direct neceffity of public worship to the greater part of every Chriftian community (fuppofing worship at all to be a Chriftian duty), there are other valuable advantages growing out of the ufe of religious affemblies, without being defigned in the inftitution, or thought of by the individuals who compofe them.

1. Joining in prayer and praises to their common Creator and Governor, has a fenfible tendency to unite mankind together, and to cherith and enlarge the generous affections.

So many pathetic reflections are awakened by every excrcife of fecial devotion, that most men, I believe, carry away from public worship a better temper towards the reft of mankind, than they brought with them. Sprung from the fame extraction, preparing together for the period of all worldly diftinctions, reminded of their mutual infirmities and common dependency, imploring and receiving fupport and fupplies from the fame great fource of power and bounty, having all one intereft to fecure, one Lord

Lord to ferve, one judgment, the fupreme object to all of their hopes and fears, to look towards; it is hardly poffible, in this position, to behold mankind as ftrangers, competitors, or enemies; or not to regard them as children of the fame family affembled before their common parent, and with fome portion of the tenderness which belongs to the most endearing of our domeftic relations. It is not to be expected, that any fingle effect of this kind should be confiderable or lafting; but the frequent return of fuch fentiments as the prefence of a devout congregation naturally fuggefts, will gradually melt down the ruggednefs of many unkind paffions, and may generate in time a permanent and productive benevolence.

2. Affemblies for the purpofe of divine worship, placing men under impreffions by which they are taught to confider their relation to the Deity, and to contemplate thofe around them with a view to that relation, force upon their thoughts the natural equality of the human fpecies, and thereby promote humility and condefcenfion in the higheft orders of the community, and inspire the loweft with a fenfe of their rights. The diftinctions of civil life are almoft always

E 4

always infifted upon too much, and urged too far. Whatever therefore conduces to restore the level, by qualifying the difpofitions which grow out of great elevation or depreffion of rank, improves the character on both fides. Now things are made to appear little, by being placed befide what is great. In which manner, superiorities, that occupy the whole field of the imagination, will vanish, or fhrink to their proper diminutiveness, when compared with the distance by which even the higheft of men are reinoved from the Supreme Being: and this comparison is naturally introduced by all acts of joint worfhip. If ever the poor man holds up his head, it is at church: if ever the rich man views him with respect, it is there and both will be the better, and the public profited, the oftener they meet in a fituation, in which the consciousness of diguity in the one is tempered and mitigated, and the fpirit of the other erected and confirmed. We recommend nothing adverfe to fubordinations which are established and neceffary; but then it fhould be remembered, that fubordination itfelf is an evil, being an evil to the fubordinate, who are the majority, and therefore ought not to be carried a tittle beyond what the greater

good,