fellow-creatures, are fummed up by the Propet Micah in the following emphatic words. "He hath fhewed thee, O man,

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what is good: and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy "God?" The two articles firft mentioned, are moral duties regarding our fellow-creatures and as to fuch, what is required of us is to do our duty to others; not only as directed by the moral fenfe, but as being the will of our Maker, to whom we owe abfolute obedience. That branch of our duty is referved for a fecond fection at prefent we are to treat of religious worship, included in the third article, the walking humbly with our God.

SECT. I.

Religious Worship refpecting the Deity fingly.

HE obligation we are under to wor

THE

fhip God, or to walk humbly with him, is, as obferved above, founded on the two great principles of gratitude and obedience; both of them requiring fundamentally a pure heart, and a well-difposed mind. But heart-worship is alone not fufficient: there are over and above required external figns, testifying to others the fense we have of thefe duties, and a firm refolution to perform them. That fuch is the will of God, will appear as follows. The principle of devotion, like. most of our other principles, partakes of the imperfection of our nature: yet, however faint originally, it is capable of being greatly invigorated by cultivation and exercife. Private exercife is not fufficient. Nature, and confequently the God of nature, require public exercise or public worfhip for devotion is communicative, like

joy

joy or grief (a); and by mutual communication in a numerous affembly, is greatly invigorated. A regular habit of expreffing publicly our gratitude and refignation, never fails to purify the mind, tending to wean it from every unlawful purfuit. This is the true motive of public worship; not what is commonly inculcated, That it is required from us, as a teftimony to our Maker of our obedience to his laws: God, who knows the heart, needs no fuch tefti

(a) Elements of Criticifm, vol. 1. p. 180. edit. 5.

The

*Arnobius (Adverfus gentes, lib. 1.) accounts rationally for the worship we pay to the Deity: "Haic omnes ex more profternimur, hunc collatis "precibus adoramus, ab hoc jufta, et honesta, et "auditu ejus condigna, depofcimus. Non quo ip"fe defideret fupplices nos effe, aut amet fubfterni

tot millium venerationem videre. Utilitas hæc "nostra eft, et commodi noftri rationem fpectans, "Nam quia proni ad culpas, et ad libidinis varios "appetitus, vitio fumus infirmitatis ingenitæ, pati

tur fe femper noftris cogitationibus concipi: ut "dum illum oramus, et mereri ejus contendimus munera, accipiamus innocentiæ voluntatem, et ab

omni nos labe delictorum omnium 'amputatione "purgemus."-[In English thus: "It is our cu"ftom, to proftrate ourselves before him; and we "afk of him fuch gifts only as are confiftent with "justice

The fetting apart one day in feven for public worship is not a pious institution merely, but highly moral. With regard to the latter, all men are equal in the prefence of God; and when a congregation pray for mercy and protection, every one must be inflamed with good-will and brotherly love to every one.

In the next place, the ferious and devout tone of mind infpired by public worship, fuggefts naturally felf-examination. Retired from the bustle of the world in that day of rest, the errors we have been guilty of are recalled to memory: we are afflicted for these errors, and are firmly resolved to be more on our guard in time coming. In fhort, Sunday is only a day of rest from worldly concerns, in order to be more ufe

"justice and with honour, and suitable to the cha"racter of the Being whom we adore. Not that "he receives pleafure or fatisfaction from the "humble veneration of thousands of his creatures. "From this we ourselves derive benefit and advan"tage; for being the flaves of appetite, and prone 66 to err from the weakness of our nature, when "we addrefs ourselves to God in prayer, and study "by our actions to merit his approbation, we gain

"at least the wifh, and the inclination, to be vir"tuous."]

fully

man.

fully employed upon thofe that are internal. Sunday accordingly is a day of account; and a candid account every feventh day, is the best preparation for the great day of account. A person who diligently follows out this preparatory difcipline, will seldom be at a loss to answer for his conduct, called upon by God or This confideration leads me neceffarily to condemn a practice authorised among Christians with very few exceptions, that of abandoning to diverfion and merriment what remains of Sunday after public worship, parties of pleasure, dancing, gaming, any thing that trifles away the time without a serious thought; as if the purpose were to cancel every virtuous impreffion made at public worship.

Unhappily, this falutary inftitution can only be preserved in vigour during the days of piety and virtue. Power and opulence are the darling objects of every nation; and yet in every nation poffeffed of power and opulence virtue fubfides, felfishness prevails, and fenfuality becomes the ruling paffion. Then it is, that the most facred inftitutions, firft, lose their hold,