PSALM XXVII. 4.

One thing have I defired of the Lord, which I will require: even that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the fair beauty of the Lord, and to vifit his temple.

OCIAL and public worship, as employing both

SOCIAL

the mind and the heart of man, and that with the important doctrines of religion, is a matter en tirely peculiar to chriftianity. Every religion had its rites, its folemnities, its feftivals; all of them affem / bled their confeffors at stated times, and on certain occafions, in their temples and at the altars of their gods; all of them spread fear and terror, more or `lefs, about them; all of them employed and dazzled the fenfes of their worshipers with more or lefs pomp and magnificence. But in none of them was found and wholesome nourishment administered to the mind and heart of thinking and fentimental perfons; none provided for their information and inftruction, for their moral improvement, for their comfort and repose. No where was man made acquainted with his end and origin, informed of his duties, and guided in his conduct; no where taught the rational worship and adoration of God; no where incited to virtue and directed to happinefs. All this is the peculiar boast of the religion of Jefus. And how

great are not these advantages! Who can eftimate all the good that has accrued from them, and still accrues? I am fenfible that public and congrega

tional worship, even where it is the leaft perverted from its proper object, is not always productive of what it might effect. It is administered by men; and who knows not how frequently the best and most excellent inftitutions of creatures, fo liable to fall into error, may be misapplied? And as it is dispensed by men, fo is it likewife attended and' ufed by men; and how eafily do we not lofe fight of the true end of things, and make them administer to our indolence or our paffions! But is it reasonable to deny any thing its value, because of eventual abuse? No; public and focial worship is undoubtedly of very great value, be it as frequently and as fhamefully abused as it may. It is, and will ever remain an excellent means of inftruction, of improve ment, of comfort, of awakening and exercising devotion and piety, of ferving the cause of hu manity, and of promoting univerfal and brotherly love. And, if the pfalmift in our text could justly fay: "One thing have I defired of the Lord, which I will require: even that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the fair beauty of the Lord, and to visit his temple," we, christians, have greater, far greater reafon to prize our national, established, focial wor fhip, and to frequent it with inward fatisfaction and delight! Of this I heartily hope to convince you in

my

my prefent difcourfe. To this end, let me examine with you, the value of focial and public worship. But let us, in the refearch proceed with the greater caution and impartiality, as we are very liable to be mifled in it by fuperftition and prejudice. Let us, therefore, at the same time fee, as well, wherein the value of worship cannot confift, as likewife wherein it actually does confift; or, as well what it cannot be and cannot perform, as what it really is and does afford.

Social and public worship, as well as all worship in general, has no value whatever as an ultimate end, but only as a means to fome higher purpose. As eating and drinking, bodily motion and exercise, are not ends, but means of preserving our terrestrial life, of eftablifhing our health, and of improving our faculties; fo likewise instruction and reflection, all worship and exercises of piety, are no more than means of nourishing our spirit, of inspiring us with defire and ability to goodness, and thereby of promoting our perfection and happiness. The fame holds good of private worship, and of all that we obferve and practise in divine fervice. We there worship God, not for the fake of worshiping him; for he wants not our homage and our fervice: but we worship him, from the deep and lively sense we have of his greatness and perfection, and our dependance upon him, to invigorate every pious fentiment, to vanquish every turbulent paffion, to difmifs every corroding care, and to increase our readiness

and aptitude to do what is juft and good, what is generous and great. We there pray, not for the fake of praying; for God knows what we want, and does continually what is beft: but we pray, for the fake of elevating our mind, of purifying and compofing our heart, and of rendering ourselves fitter for the mercy of God, and more fufceptible of the influence of his fpirit. We allow ourfelves to be inftructed there in our duties, in the defign of our existence, and in the will of the Moft High, not for the fake of being inftructed in these matters: but that we may the better fulfil our duties, more certainly answer the end of our being, and more faithfully comply with the will of our Lord. We there reflect upon the doctrines of religion and christianity, not for the fake of reflecting on them, but to experience their force to our tranquillity and amendment by these reflections. We there renew our most fa cred refolves, our most folemn vows, not fo much for the fake of renewing them, as to imprint them the deeper in our hearts, and to reduce them to practice with more fervour and zeal. We there make a public profeffion of our belief and our hope, not for the fake of making this profeffion, but there by to confirm ourselves in that faith, to strengthen our confidence in thofe promises, and to live more conformably to them both. And thus are the feveral acts of worship not ends but means. We use them, not on their own account, but for the good effects and confequences they may and ought to have.

In these, and not in thofe, confifts all the value of worship.

It poffeffes this value, fecondly, only in fo far as it is rational, so far as it is founded on truth, on just conceptions of God and his will and our relations towards him, and on fuch difpofitions as are confonant to thefe conceptions; only in fo far as it employs the understanding and the heart of the worshiper in a manner worthy of his nature, and the ends of his creation. The worship of the chriftian must be rational, his adoration of God must be in spirit and in truth. A worfhip which only occupies and amuses the senses, which dazzles or beguiles by art and ornament, by pomp and found, which confifts in empty ceremonies and rites, affords nothing for the mind to think on, and communicates no true, no generous, no noble feelings to the heart; fuch a worship can poffefs no higher value than other theatrical exhibitions, which attract the eyes of the multitude, and furnish them with entertainment or diftraction. Still lefs real value does a fuperftitious worship poffefs, which gives us low and falfe conceptions of the deity; which spreads fervile fears and flavish terror among its followers; conceals the Father of mankind from their fight, and fubftitutes in his place an auftere and implacable defpot, an inexorable judge; at the fame time flattering their paffions, emancipating them from indifpenfable duties, prefenting them with the palliatives of falfe repofe, and attributing a force and efficacy to mere