According to the text, we are to worship God, because he is God: and we are to serve him alone, because there can be but one God—one true God. For all Idols, are a vanity and a lie. And not to worship him, statedly, is to neglect him, to forget him, to forsake him, to be hostile to religion. He has always had a church and people in the world who have faithfully served him. He reared the frame of nature, as a kind of spacious and august Temple, and placed man at first in it, as a Priest to the mouth of creation to offer prayers and praises continually before him. All inanimate things, as it were, silently worship him. It is man’s business to render vocal their homage. He is not to be mute, but to speak forth the divine praises. In the earliest times, God had public worship offered to him, Gen. iv. 26. Then began men to call upon the name of the Lord. Then, began they, as soon as their numbers were adequate, to worship God publicly. A day for solemnizing public worship was instituted in Paradise. Gen. ii. 1, 2, 3. Thus the heavens and earth were finished, and all the hosts of them. And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made: and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it, he had rested from all his work which God had created and made. The appointment of a Sabbath implies the appointment of public worship. A Sabbath, or seventh part of time to be kept holy, necessarily includes the worship of God. For if he were not to be publicly honored and served by his people, in a collective capacity, why need there be a day of rest to be weekly celebrated by religious adoration and praise? And that the Sabbath was observed, and public worship performed by the Saints of the old world cannot be doubted by any, who believe that God had a seed to serve him, in that early age of the world. After the flood, we know that men publicly worshipped God. For we read of their erecting altars, in one place and another, where they removed or resided, and offered sacrifices and praises. Noah, who lived several hundred years before the deluge, and was the father of the new world, was a Preacher of righteousness. But the office of a Preacher cannot be executed without hearers. People must have assembled therefore at stated seasons, to hear him, and to join in worshipping God with him.
When the moral law was given, God commands all to worship and serve him. The moral law was given to Israel as a people, and they were absolutely ordered to worship and serve, as a people, the true God, in distinction from all Idols. The first commandment points out the object of all religious prayer and praises. Thou shalt have no other God before me. They were to forsake all Idols. They were to own, acknowledge, and serve the God of heaven and earth. They were publicly, or as a people, to own, cleave unto, and worship him.—The second Commandment forbids all image-worship—all corruptions and mixtures of human invention in the worship of God. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them. For I the Lord thy God am a jealous God. The reason which God gives, for prohibiting all Idol or image worship is his being jealous for his own honour. He will not give his glory to another, or have any competitor in worship. To worship Idols is directly to forsake and disown him. The third commandment prohibits all profaning the name of God, or his word, or works, or attributes, or any thing whereby he makes himself known. The fourth specifies the proportion of time, the stated season, and appoints the sabbath—or rather renews the appointment of it, for the original appointment was, at the close of Creation, when the six days of labour were ended. All these four commandments relate to the right worship and service of God—the true God; and are honoured with the name of the First table of the law. The moral law begins with our duty to God. It is altogether fit and reasonable that it should begin with our duty to him, who is the sum of all being and blessedness. Divine revelation puts every duty in its proper place. It does not let a less important one occupy the place of a more important one. Our first duty—is with him who is the first of all beings, and infinitely the most glorious.—Can any deny that the worship of God is a moral duty, when so much of the moral law is taken up in commanding it, and regulating it? Then one of them which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him and saying, Master which is the great commandment of the law: Jesus said unto him, thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. Our Lord thought that the first duty of man was to love and serve God.—And that person must have a very perverted mind who can suppose, that the neglector of divine worship can be said, with any propriety, to love God.
Again, The tabernacle was erected for the public worship of God. It was fashioned by divine order. The very form of it was given to Moses in the mount. Speaking of the various articles used in that wonderful structure, the command to Moses, is, And look that thou make them after their pattern, which was showed thee in the mount. The Tabernacle was the appointed place of public worship for the people of Israel, or God’s visible professing people, in their travels through the wilderness. It continued to be the place of public worship for the nation, till the temple, one of the wonders of the world, was built by Solomon. Here God recorded his name. Here the people were commanded to come. The symbols of his divine presence were in this place. And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light: to go by day and night. He took not away the pillar of the cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night from before the people. The glory of the God of Israel filled the Tabernacle, was over the mercy-seat. He promised them his blessing in the place of public worship. In all places where I record my name, I will come unto thee, and I will bless thee. After the people had gotten possession of the promised land, the Ark of the covenant was lodged in Shiloh, and there for a long time, the people celebrated divine service. When the temple was finished, Jerusalem was fixed upon as the permanent seat. Three times a year all the males were to appear before the Lord in Zion. After the captivity in Babylon the privileges of the sanctuary were again restored. A second temple was built by Zerubbabel, and Israel continued to worship, at Jerusalem, until the Messiah came.
On every Sabbath day, the law of Moses was read and explained by the appointed Teachers, and Songs of Zion were sung. When our Saviour was on earth, in Judea, there were Synagogues, at convenient distances, for public worship, and he honored the Sabbath and public worship by his punctual and constant attendance. And Jesus came to Nazareth where he had been brought up; and as his custom was, he went into the Synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up for to read. And even unto this day, the Jews continue the same practice of worshipping God publicly on their Sabbath-days. Isaiah prophesying of Gospel times says, It shall come to pass that from one Sabbath to another all flesh shall come to worship before me saith the Lord.—On the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, St. Paul preached unto them ready to depart on the morrow, and continued his speech until midnight. In places too numerous to be particularly cited, all men are directed to hear the word preached—to attend to it—to obey it. Jesus Christ called and sent his Apostles to proclaim the good news of Salvation. They universally attended the worship of God—prayed—preached—and in religious songs, celebrated the divine praises. And we find it has been the invariable custom of Christians, from the times of the Apostles, down through all ages, and in all countries to the present day, to convene for public worship, in God’s sanctuaries and houses of prayer, from week to week, on the Lord’s day. And we are now, this day, in God’s house, for the same purpose. It is more indeed owing to the institution of public worship, than any thing else, that we now enjoy the Christian Religion; that it has not long ago been lost. Upon the whole, by public worship the interest of the Gospel is supported—the communion of saints preserved—and the kingdom of the Redeemer enlarged.——
DISCOURSE VI.
The duty of public worship, and its beneficial tendency.
MATTHEW iv. 10.
Then saith Jesus, get thee hence Satan, for it is written Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.
As the stated public worship of the supreme being is the great support of Virtue and Religion in the world, and the means of strengthening and increasing them in particular souls, my design was, with the divine assistance, to give you, in as short a compass as may be, a general view of the subject, an account of what the scripture says and requires, concerning our obligation constantly to attend upon it, on the Lord’s day, unless real necessity may be pleaded; or such an excuse may be offered as will justify us, at the bar of Conscience, and at the bar of the final Judge.