open and publick nature, and therefore the homage must be so too. Will any man be willing to have no bleffings or favors but fuch as are invisible. Then perhaps he may worship invifibly alfo. But if he wishes for favors of a publick nature, and enjoys them, why must they be acknowledged only in private? Is not thy exiftence O man, is not thy rank in the creation, and thy place in the scale of being, a visible honor and favor, and an open obligation? Why then muft the acknowledgment and homage be private and clandeftine ? If thou art willing to be, to live, to exift and be favored only invifibly, then there might be fome fort of reason that thou fhouldft worship fo. But thou art made by nature to to fupport the ftate and condition of a publick being, and art therefore bound to fhow thy face, and present thy person, and join in the publick praises and adorations.

Turn in upon thyfelf O man, and contemplate and view thyself, and confider that God has put thee in poffeffion of the marvellous and eternal

power of thought, reafon, judgment, comparison, recollection and difcernment; capable of rumaging

the

the univerfe in its vifible and invifible regions: thou art poffeffed of a foul deep and infathomable; capable of counfels, decrees, determination and refolves; of choice and rejection; of love and hatred; of election and reprobation; and many other properties, by which thou ftandeft forth as the glory and resemblance of thy creator: thou carrieft a visible body marvellously framed with parts and members, and endowed with fpeech, fight, hearing, touch, tafte and fmell; furrounded with innumerable creatures above and beneath, that ferve thee publickly. And is all this to be owned fculkingly in hidden corners and behind doors?. Will any man fay that this is just and reasonable? It is impoffible.

Many, indeed moft, give themselves little or no trouble about any worship at all, either publick or private. They spend the fabbath partly working and partly loitering, neither at their business, nor off it, but between both. But he that worships and adores in private only, yea he that worships in publick only now and then, as humor and fancy leads, and not conftantly and zealously, is a thief and a robber, let his private devotions be

as

as conftant and fervent as you are pleased to fancy them. He is worthy of no honor, for he dif honors himself. He robs God of his glory in making him to be what he is; and in fact declares to the world by his own conduct, that no refpect or honor is due to himself. He esteems his perfonal existence not worth publick thanks and praise, but only fomething private and clandeftine. He therefore who offers up only private adorations, offers up offences to heaven, and by his religion reproaches both his creator and himself.

Every man then is bound to adore the creator publickly by every principle of honor and honesty. Why, O vain man wilt thou lull thyfelf to fleep, or faunter, or gad about the streets on the great day of God? The day is confecrated and made facred that thou mayeft pay the debt due to God and thyfelf. Thy open exiftence, and the glory of thy rank in the creation, witness against thee that thou art under great

in debt. Thou wilt fay,

is it poffible? There is

obligations and deeply what need? And how nothing that He can

receive, or that I can give. That is the very thing that involves thee in debt, and binds thee.

Thou

Thou haft received fo much and haft nothing to pay; he is fo great that there is nothing that he can receive; therefore thy homage is due and neceffary. And thou art held bound to pay it, by every idea and principle of reason, equity and honefty.

Without a fabbath-day this cannot in the nature of things be done; and therefore the day must be continued and reverenced. He then who is on the fabbath-day drawn out of his house into the place of publick worship, by his reafon and confcience, to adore the Godhead for bestowing upon him a ftate of existence of fo much honor and credit; and to confefs that there is nothing that God can receive, or that he can give; fuch a man is an honest man. For he makes unto him all the return that can be made. More than

this, man cannot give, more than this God

cannot receive.

This is therefore truly honeft and honorable. For he pays all that can be paid. And he that will not pay this homage and confeffion unto God, would never, I dare engage for him, pay his neighbor any thing, if he could help it. He that will not be honeft here, Ff

Will

will never truly be fo in any thing.

Secondly, The fabbath and its worship muft be continued to commemorate the creation of heaven and earth, and to view and admire the power, wifdom and greatness of God therein manifested. This enters into the nature and defign of it, and the worship to be carried on in the fame. There is a neceffity of recollecting a fubject fo truly grand and glorious; of recollecting it frequently: and of calling often upon men to confider, remember, reafon upon and admire the wonderful event. Nor is there a person who may not hereby, be brought to do this with more or lefs profit and advantage, let his parts be ever fo fmall.

The fcripture is full of inftructions and obfervations upon the fubject. And as this is to be read and expounded in the publick worship, every one will be enabled to attain unto fome useful measures of knowledge and reflection upon the subject. For what man is there, who may not be made to fee, adore and admire, the manner in which the universe was brought into being; by a word fpoken: the time in which; fix days: the re

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