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existence, who made the world, and who governs it by perfect laws. And our perception of Deity, arifing from that fenfe, is fortified by an intuitive propofition, that there neceffarily must exist some being who had no beginning. Confidering the Deity as the author of our existence, we owe him gratitude; confidering him as governor of the world, we owe him obedience: and upon these duties is founded the obligation we are under to worship him. Further, God made man for fociety, and implanted in his nature the moral fenfe to direct his conduct in that fate. From thefe premises, may it not with certainty be inferred to be the will of God, that men fhould obey the dictates of the moral fense in fulfilling every duty of justice and benevolence? These moral duties, it would appear, are our chief business in this life; being enforced not only by a moral but by a religious principle.

Morality, as laid down in a former fketch, confifts of two great branches, the moral fense which unfolds the duty we owe to our fellow-creatures, and an active moral principle which prompts us to perform that

duty.

duty. Natural religion confifts alfo of two great branches, the fenfe of Deity which unfolds our duty to our Maker, and the active principle of devotion which prompts us to perform our duty to him. The universality of the fenfe of Deity proves it to be innate: the fame reafon proves the principle of devotion to be innate; for all men agree in worshipping fuperior beings, whatever difference there may be in the mode of worship.

Both branches of the duty we owe to God, that of worshipping him, and that of obeying his will with respect to our fellow-creatures, are fummed up by the Prophet Micah in the following emphatic words. "He hath fhewed thee, O man, "what is good: and what doth the Lord

require of thee, but to do justly, to love (6 mercy, and to walk humbly with thy

God?" The two articles first 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 reserved for a fecond

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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,

THE obligation we are under to wor

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-difpofed mind. But heart-worship is alone not fufficient: there are over and above required external figns, teftifying to others the fenfe 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 maft of our other principles, partakes the imperfection of our nature: yet, however faint originally, it is capable of being

greatly

greatly invigorated by cultivation and exercife. Private exercise is not fufficient. Nature, and confequently the God of nature, require public exercise or public worship for devotion is infectious, like 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 testimony to our Maker of our obedience to his laws: God, who knows the heart, needs no fuch teftimony *. I shall only add upon the general

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

*Arnobius (Adverfus gentes, lib., 1.) accounts rationally for the worship we pay to the Deity : "Huic omnes ex more profternimur, hunc collatis "precibus adoramus, ab hoc jufta, et honefta, et "auditu ejus condigna, depofcimus. Non quo ip"fe defideret fupplices nos effe, aut amet fubfterni "tot millium venerationem videre. Utilitas hæc "noftra eft, et commodi nostri rationem fpectans. "Nam quia proni ad culpas, et ad libidinis varios "appetitus, vitio fumus infirmitatis ingenitæ, pati

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neral head, that lawgivers ought to avoid with caution the enforcing public worship by rewards and punishments: human laws cannot reach the heart, in which the effence of worship confifts: they may indeed bring on a listless habit of worship, by feparating the external act from the internal affection, than which nothing is more hurtful to true religion. The utmost that can be fafely ventured, is to bring public worship under cenforian powers, as a matter of police, for prefer

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"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 "juftice and with honour, and suitable to the cha"racter of the Being whom we adore. Not that "he receives pleasure 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 "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."]

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