public worship with respect to God, let us SERMON

now,

II. CONSIDER its importance in another view, as it respects the world. When we survey the general state of mankind, we find them continually immersed in worldly affairs; busied about providing the necessaries of life, occupied in the pursuits of their pleasures, or eagerly prosecuting the advancement of their interests.

In

If it

such a situation of things, a small measure
of reflection might convince any one,
that without some returns of sacred days,
and some solemn calls to public worship,
it were impossible to preserve in the
world any sense of objects, so foreign to
the general current of thought, as an in-
visible Governour, and a future state.
be of importance to the peace and good
order of society, that there should prevail
among men the belief of One in the hea-
vens, who is the protector of righteousness
and the avenger of crimes; if it be of im-
portance that they be taught to look for-
ward to a day of judgment, when they
are to be brought to account for their

XI.

SERMON most secret actions, and eternally rewardXI. ed or punished, according as their con

duct has been good or evil; if such principles as these, I say, be of consequence to the public welfare, they certainly enforce the authority of public worship, and prove the necessity of religious instruction.

I speak now particularly with a view to the multitude, the great mass and body of the people. We all know, how seldom from education, or private instruction, they have the advantage of deriving sentiments of feligion or morality. Early obliged to labour for their bread, they would remain all their days in gross ignorance of every moral or sacred principle, were it not for those public assemblies in which they hear of God, and Christ, and judgment, and heaven, and hell. Shut up those temples to which they resort with reverence; exclude them from the opportunities they now possess of receiving religious instruction, and imbibing religious ideas; and what can you expect them to become? No other than a ferocious rabble, who, set free from checks of conscience,

XI.

conscience, and fears of divine vengeance, SERMON would be prone to every outrage which they could commit with impunity. It is well known, that in the early ages of the world, sages and legislators who endeavoured

to tame and to associate the barbarous hordes of men, found it necessary for this purpose to have recourse to religion. By bringing the rude multitudes to worship together, and, at stated times and places, to join in hymns and songs to their deities, they gradually restrained them from violence, and trained them to subordination and civilized life.

During the progress of society in afterperiods, religious assemblies at church continue, I am persuaded, to have a very considerable influence on the civilization and improvement of the people. Even independent of effect upon the moral principles, by leading numbers of them to meet together in an orderly way, and in their most decent appearance, they tend to humanize and polish their manners. They strengthen the social connections, and promote friendly intercourse among those who are in the same neighbourhood, and in the

SERMON same lines of life. It must, at the same

XI.

time, be agreeable to every humane mind to think, that one day in seven is allotted for rest to the poor from their daily labours, and for such enjoyments of ease and comfort as their station affords. It is the only day which gives them occasion to feel themselves as belonging to the same class of beings with their superiours; when joining with them in the same acts of worship, and recognizing a common Lord. Amidst those distinctions which the difference of ranks necessa→ rily introduces into human society, it is surely fit that there be some occasions. when man can meet with man as a brother, in order that the pride of the great may be checked; and the low may be taught that, if they discharge properly their appointed part, they have reason to expect from the Lord of the universe, the same rewards with the rich and the mighty,

It will, I believe, be generally admitted, that forms of public worship, and means of religious instruction, are important, on several accounts, for the body of

the

the people, and belong to the maintenance SERMON of public safety and order. But many

who admit this, are apt to think, that to the common people alone they may be left. To persons of liberal education and enlarged minds, what benefit can arise from hearing what they already know; and what, perhaps, is to be inculcated on them by those who are of inferiour capacity to themselves?—Admitting this plea of superiority which their vanity forms, and setting aside for the present any personal obligation they are under to worship God, I must ask such persons, how they can expect that religious assemblies will be long respected by the lower ranks of men, if by men of rank and education they are discountenanced and forsaken? Do not they know, that those lower ranks are ready to copy the manners, and to follow the example, of their superiours in all things; but assuredly in nothing more than in what appears to set them free from restraint, and to gratify licentiousness? While they acknowledge the importance, and even the necessity, of public religion to certain classes of men, do they

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