The sixth and last consideration to evince the beneficial tendency of public worship is, that it serves to train us up for the worship and employments of the celestial kingdom. Pious worshippers cannot but rejoice, to think that the institution of public worship is, as it were, a concert of prayer—that all Christians in past ages have loved to engage in it, and left their testimony in its favour by their constant attendance upon it. They recorded their sweet experience of its pleasure. And all sincere friends to the cause of the Redeemer, over the Countries where the Gospel is known, make conscience of assembling together to honour God in public worship. When we address ourselves to the various parts of it, we are animated, we are consoled, with the thought that we are not alone, but that all God’s people are joining with us. How has my heart been enlarged with this idea! But what is the worship of God here on earth compared to the heavenly! Here sin stains our best duties. Imperfections cleave to all our warmest devotions. Clouds of error obstruct the clear and full view of truth. We know but in part, we prophesy but in part. Our harps are hung on the willows. A dead languor rests on all our religious performances. But in heaven there will be no cold hearts—no dissenting voices.—Perfect love will animate all the worshippers in the realms of eternal day. They are before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple. Their joy is one. Their happiness is one. And their worship is the perfection of ardour, sublimity and purity.—How can we behold worshipping Assemblies joined in prostrate adorations before the throne of grace, and uniting their voices in hallelujahs of praise to the Eternal King, without having our thoughts led forward to that delightful scene of heavenly worship, where mingled choirs of angels and saints, whose number is ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands, are continually saying with a loud voice, worthy is the Lamb! blessing, and honour, and glory, and power be unto him that sitteth upon the throne. Do not the crouded Assemblies of Christian worshippers bear some distant resemblance to the Zion above?—Let it be our supreme concern, to be fitted and trained up by the humbler forms of devotion in the Church militant, for the exalted services and work of the Church triumphant.——Such are the happy effects of stated public worship and instructions, prayers and praises. “Prayers,” says a mahometan writer, “are the pillars of Religion; and they that forsake prayer, forsake Religion.”—The public devotions of God’s house, how advantageous: how useful: how beneficial in their tendency!—“To thee, O devotion, we owe the highest improvement of our nature, and much of the enjoyment of our life. Thou art the support of our virtue, and the rest of our souls in this turbulent world. Thou composest the thoughts. Thou calmest the passions. Thou exaltest the heart. Thy communications, and thine only are imparted to the low, no less than to the high, to the poor as well as the rich. In thy presence worldly distinctions cease; and under thy influence worldly sorrows are forgotten. Thou art the balm of the wounded mind. Thy sanctuary is ever open to the miserable; inaccessible only to the unrighteous and impure. Thou beginnest on earth the temper of heaven. In thee hosts of angels and blessed spirits eternally rejoice.” So important is the duty of public worship to the world and the interest of moral Virtue, that we can hardly be too zealous in recommending it, or exceed in our encomiums upon it. For it is impossible a man should be good, while he altogether omits the duties of Piety. The neglect of them shews that we have no right notions of God, no sense of his presence, no hearty desires of his mercy, and no solid hope of his favour.—
We will here, at the proper place to insert the remark, and as a further proof and powerful recommendation of the duty of public worship, see what the views, and opinions, or feelings and practice of the scripture-saints were in regard to it. How the Apostle Paul viewed it, we learn from the following direction of his. Not forsaking the Assembling yourselves together as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another. These words teach us that there were, in the days of the Apostles, and should be in all ages, Christian Assemblies for the public worship of God and mutual edification: and that it ever was, and ever will continue to be the duty of all Christians to frequent these Assemblies in obedience to the command of God, to perpetuate and maintain his worship in the world, and for the confirmation of their faith, and their mutual edification unto life eternal. To the Corinthian christians, he says, In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together: He speaks of their being convened for public worship, as their stated custom. And in his salutation to them as a Church, he mentions those that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ. Unto the Church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are Sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Those in every place that call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ are all worshipping Assemblies of Christians. Our Lord himself promises, in a most tender and affecting manner, his gracious notice, presence, and blessing with ever so small a number of his worshipping disciples or followers. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. His calling his followers a church implies necessarily their assembling statedly for worship and mutual edification. Public worship directly honors Jesus Christ, and is a most expressive way of owning him before men; and denying it or neglecting it, is denying him and being ashamed of him. He that denyeth me, and is ashamed of me and my words before men, him will I deny before my father which is in heaven and his angels. The Psalms are full of expressions of warm affection and attachment, as all know who read them, to the courts of the Lord, to public worship. All good men love the ways of Zion, esteem and value exceedingly the word of God—the house of God—the ordinances of God—the Sabbaths of God.—Man never appears in so amiable an attitude as when on his knees before his Maker. The pleasure of engaging cordially in public worship is noble. How often too does God honor his worshipping Assemblies by his favorable presence—by communicating his grace—mercy—peace, and pardon to pious worshippers. What delight! what joy! what sweet experience! what comfort—what transport in joining “in work and worship so divine.” As a specimen of the esteem for the public worship of God, of delight in it—of ardent desires after it—of the profitableness of it—I have selected from the Psalms, the following passages—How amiable are thy Tabernacles, O Lord of hosts! my soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the Courts of the Lord.—Blessed is the man whom thou chusest to approach unto thee, that he may dwell in thy Courts. We shall be satisfied with the goodness of thy house, even of thy holy temple. My soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee, to see thy power and glory so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary. My soul shall be satisfied with marrow and with fatness, and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips. For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand: I had rather be a door-keeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.—One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord; and to enquire in his temple; for those that be planted in the house of the Lord, shall flourish in the courts of our God; they shall bring forth fruit in old age, they shall be fat and flourishing. Again—I was glad, when they said unto me, let us go into the house of the Lord, whither the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord, unto the testimony of Israel to give thanks unto the name of the Lord. If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth, if I prefer not Jerusalem to my chief joy.
I have now, my Hearers, largely argued the duty and beneficial tendency of public worship. Better reasons I cannot offer. More powerful inducements to a constant attendance upon it, unless real necessity may be pleaded, as your excuse, cannot be laid before you, that are contained in those considerations which prove its beneficial tendency, above illustrated. If by those you will not be convinced, and reformed, if heretofore negligent of the duty, you must remain unconvinced and unreformed. Divine power and grace alone can awaken, convince, and reform you. Remember, if you neglect or deny public worship, you provoke God—you neglect a plain duty—you set a bad example—you dishonor Jesus Christ—you injure religion—you disserve the cause of morality—you contribute your proportion of influence to extirpate from the earth the christian religion—and must be responsible for all the evils you are the occasion of. Let us all, then, make conscience of so plain and so important a duty as public worship, that by it, we may be trained up for the worship of heaven, for there, they are before the throne of God and serve him, day and night, in his temple.
DISCOURSE VIII.
The Ordinance of the Lord’s Supper not a human invention, but a divine Institution.
MATTHEW xxvi. 26–31.
And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said take, eat, this is my body.—And he took the Cup and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, drink ye all of it. For this is my blood of the New Testament which is shed for many for the remission of sin. But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day, when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.—And when they had sung an hymn, they went out into the Mount of Olives.
It affords peculiar satisfaction to the thinking mind, in attending any duty of Religion, to be well assured that it hath either a divine warrant, as thus saith the Lord, or is supported by the clear light of Reason. If we make that a duty which God hath not enjoined upon us, either taught us by the light of nature, or the light of Revelation, we are guilty of will-worship or superstition. In this case, it may justly be said to us, who hath required this at your hands: bring no more vain oblations. To worship God in a way not appointed in his word, or by rites and ceremonies not authorised by him is to presume to interfere with the kingly office of the Saviour. He is king in his Church, and alone had power to make laws and appoint ordinances of worship. It is an infallible mark of an apostate and antichristian Church to pretend to institute sacraments or ordain modes of worship. Our Lord, knowing the proneness of human nature to err, and to adopt modes of worship of their own, has left his people this needful warning and excellent advice. But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. We reject, with abhorrence, all human inventions or commandments in things divine. We glory in being guided solely by plain scripture, and not by the opinions or decrees of any men—body of men, or venerable ecclesiastical councils, however wise, or learned, or pious. Superstition and impiety are two extremes, in Religion, which ought to be shunned with equal care. We are not to turn aside to the right hand or to the left. While we anxiously flee from superstition, we should tremble lest we run to the opposite extreme of irreligion. Excellent is the advice of the wise man on this head. Put away from thee a froward mouth, and perverse lips put far from thee. Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids look straight before thee. Ponder the path of thy feet, and let all thy ways be established. Turn not to the right hand nor to the left; remove thy foot from evil. The right-hand errors of superstition, and the left-hand errors of irreligion are to be avoided with the utmost solicitude.
As worshipping God in more ways than he has appointed, or in unauthorized ways is superstition; so neglecting the ways and ordinances of worship, which he hath most obviously appointed is irreligion. If we refuse, under any pretence whatever, to attend upon that, as duty, which he hath most expressly commanded, and which is altogether reasonable in itself, we are guilty of impiety, or despising his authority, breaking his laws, and rising up in rebellion against him; and of course shall be dealt with accordingly. For to retrench is no less criminal than to add. We are as strictly prohibited from taking away from, as adding to, the revealed will of God. The conscientious mind, therefore, would wish above all things to avoid both crimes, taking from or adding to, going beyond or stopping short of duty. To determine which crime of the two is most heinous, is perhaps beyond our abilities. It is enough for us to know that both are very aggravated Sins, and to be avoided with the utmost solicitude.