the greatest Exceffes; and Men, grown giddy with their Iniquities, are not ashamed to ask, How Should God perceive it? is there Knowledge in the most High? When they glory in crucifying the Son of God afresh, and in putting him to an open Shame, it must be matter of great Satisfaction to the faithful Chriftian to have frequent Opportunities of proclaiming his Innocence in the Sight of God and Man.-Since as with the Heart Man believeth unto Righteoufnefs, fo with the Mouth Confeffion is made unto Salvation; fince he that denieth the Son of God before Men will infallibly be denied by him before his Father which is in Heaven; it must give inward Delight and Pleasure to those that fincerely love him, to be able to declare in the moft publick Manner, that they are not either afraid or ashamed to confefs him; and they must think it their Duty to acquit themselves of partaking of thefe Sins of others, by an open Disavowal of them.-And if this be at all proper or neceffary for them, when can they do it with so much Justice to themselves, or fo much Advantage to their Chriftian Bre thren, as at those Times, and in those Places, which are immediately dedicated to God's Honour and Service? When can they fo properly declare their Belief in the Word of God, as after it has been folemnly read to them? And when can that holy Word be so usefully read and explained, as when they assemble in the Courts of the Lord to pay their Vows unto him?

T3

him?-Befides, Facts are the beft and the most authentick Interpreters of Words; and when publick Worship is joined to publick Confeffion, and Men adore that God and Saviour in whom they profess to believe; they give one of the strongest and best Proofs of their Sincerity in that Profeffion; they pay their Vows of adoring and confeffing their Redeemer in the wifeft and beft Manner; and they ought to rejoice in thofe Opportunities of doing publick Honour to him, and of edifying and comforting one another.And therefore I confider it as a

IIId great Benefit of the publick Affemblies of the Chriftian Church, that it gives them an Opportunity of powerfully exciting others to follow fo good and laudable an Example.-It is much to the just Praise and Credit of Chritianity, that it confiders the whole human Race as one great Family; and Christians only as diftinguished from the reft by the peculiar Bleffings of Heaven, and as under greater Ties and more indifpenfable Obligations to confult and promote on all Occafions the mutual Benefit of each other, and of all Mankind. It is the fartheft from any narrow and felfifh Views of any Inftitution that ever was received in the World; and is therefore the more worthy of its Divine Author, and may be the more evidently proved to come from him.-Its first Principle is an univerfal Love

for

for all Sorts and Conditions of Men, as founded in, and derived from, a Love of their common Parent; and, in Confequence of this, the ftrictest Tenderness and Affection for one another, as incorporated in the fame mystical Body, and united to the fame Head, the Lord Chrift Jefus.-Hence it is, that Christians are represented in Scripture as being, though many in Number, yet all one Body in Chrift, and every one Members one of another, Rom. xii. 4. as being all Members of the Body of Chrift, 1 Cor. xii. 17. who is the Head over all things in the Church, Eph. i. 23; and more particularly, even as Members of Chrift's natural Body, of his Flef and of his Bones, Eph. v. 30. And the Inference from hence is very plain and conclufive, that we ought therefore to have the fame Concern and the fame Tendernefs for each other; or, in the Words of Holy Writ, that we should have the fame Care one for another; and whether one fuffer, all the reft fhould fuffer with it; or if one of them be honoured, all the rest should rejoice with it, 1 Cor. xii. 25, 26.-And hence that noble and magnanimous Precept of St. Paul to his Philippians, Look not every Man on his own Things, but every Man alfo on the Things of others, ii. 3.-That is, don't imagine that you can discharge your Duty by confulting your private Interest and Advantage only; but remember, that, as Chriftians, you are become Members of a great Community, and are indifpenfably

T 4

difpenfably obliged by the Laws of that Communion to ftudy and promote, as far as in you lyes, the Happiness of all that partake of it, as well as your own.-And in order to prefs this upon them in the ftrongest and most affecting manner, the Apoftle commands them in the following Words to recollect the moft aftonishing Example of Love to others, that ever did or could be given to the World; and to imitate that Example in the fame Kind of Love, though not in the Degree of it.-Let the fame Mind be in you, that is, let the fame Kind of Affection for each other rule in your Hearts, which was also in Christ Jesus; who, though in the Form of God, took upon him the Form of a Servant, in love to the Souls of Men, and for their Sakes became obedient to Death, even the Death of the Cross.-And if then we are obliged, as Chriftians, to have a Regard for each other's Welfare, this Concern. ought furely to be first employed in what relates to the Salvation of their Souls.-And if we are obliged to promote each other's fpiritual Happiness, one most proper Means of doing that must be to rouze and ftir them up to discharge their Duty to God by frequent and folemn Addreffes to him.-And therefore I efteem it one Benefit of our publick Worship, as publick, that good Chriftians have frequent Opportunities given them thereby powerfully to awaken and excite others to their Duty, by their own Examples.-For there is something

very powerful and very awakening in the Behaviour of an humble devout Christian, when he approaches the Throne of Grace.-There are great Beauties in his Devotion and Deportment, which difcerning Eyes cannot well miss obferving, and which when obferved cannot but affect them.-Not in noisy Clamours and extatick Raptures, which are generally offenfive to good Men, but in the quiet and still Voice with which he breathes out his Prayers, and in the Struggle and Contention which is in his own Breaft, between the Fear of offending others by too great an Appearance of Devotion, and the Fear of offending his God by too little a Sense of it.-Such is the Behaviour of good Men in the Discharge of this great and important Duty; and it is their Benefit to excite, it is the Benefit of others to be thus excited, to seek the Graces of a meek and bumble Spirit, which in the fight of God are of great Price. This is literally letting their Light fo fhine before Men, as that they may fee their good Works; and may be led, by good and affecting Motives, to glorify their Father which is in Heaven.

IV. A fourth Benefit of paying our Vows to the Lord in the fight of all his People is this, that we are thereby in fome measure intitled to the Success of their Prayers, at the fame time that we offer up our own.-Prayer in general has ever been esteemed by good Men,

not