Now, if we confult thofe facred Writers, we cannot, in the first place, avoid obferving how devout a Perfon our Saviour was; and that both in publick and private. Of his Devotions in publick he gave a very early Inftance, when being brought to Jerufalem by his Parents (which was when he was but twelve Years old) he constantly frequented the Temple: That was the Place where they found him after they had three Days miffed him, being in their Journey homewards. And when they told him how long they had been seeking him, and feemed to complain that he had abfented himself from them, his Answer is very remarkable, Luke ii. 49. How is it, faith he, that ye fought me? Wift ye not that I muft be in my Father's Houfe? Our Translation doth indeed render it, Wift ye not that I must be about my Father's Bufinefs? But this Sense, in the Judgment of the most learned Criticks, doth not fo well fuit with the Signification of the Words: The Phrafe ἐν τοῖς τὸ πατρίς με, being moft naturally to be expounded in my Father's Houfe; and fo fome of the beft Interpreters, both antient and modern, have tranflated it. This then is our Saviour's Answer: Ye needed not, O my Parents, have gone far to feek me; for if ye had well confidered either the Office I am defigned for, or the Duty I owe to my heavenly Father, ye might eafily have concluded that his Houfe, his holy Temple, was the Place where ye might have found me, it being there that my Business chiefly lies. And what he now declared, he made good in his Practice all his Life after.. He was conftantly present at the publick Affemblies appointed by Law for the Worship of God in all Places where he had his Abode. Nor do we ever find, that either he himself held separate religious Meetings from the eftablished Jewish Church, or encouraged others fo to do. On the contrary, when he was in the Country, he failed not to frequent the Synagogues on the Sabbath-day, which were the Places of publick Worship there. And when he was at Jerufalem, he was, as he himself tells us, daily in the Temple: tho' yet he knew that the Synagogue Worfhip was not commanded by any exprefs Law of God, but was only of human Institution. And as for the Temple, tho' it was a Place of Worship of God's own Appointment, yet he knew, and declared that the Service of it was juft upon the Point of expiring, and that the Time was coming when Men fhould no longer worship there, John iv. How religious was he in obferving all the folemn Festivals of the Jewish Church, not only those that were of God's Appointment, (as the Sabbaths, and the three great VOL. V. Feafts A a Feafts of the Paffover, Pentecoft, and the Tabernacles) but thofe alfo that had no other Authority but what the Laws of the Land could give them? As we have an Inftance in the Feaft of the Dedication, for the folemnizing of which we find our Saviour making a Journey to Jerufalem, tho' yet that Festival was only of human Appointment. John x. 22. How zealous an Afferter was he of the reverent Ufage of Places devoted to God's Service? for he would not endure that the House of God fhould be put to a common Ufe, but whipped out those that bought and fold in the Temple (tho' yet it was only fuch Things they bought and fold as were for Sacrifices and Oblations to God) declaring that the House of God was a House of Prayer to all Nations, and therefore ought not to be made a Place of Merchandize. How ready was he to fubmit to all the Rates and Taxes that were impofed for the Repairs of the Temple, and the defraying of the Charges of the publick Worship there? infomuch, that tho' he was very poor, and was befides a privileged Perfon, yet he would be at the Expence of a Miracle rather than not pay the half Shekel that was demanded of every Son of Ifrael, as a Tribute to the Houfe of God. Matt. xvii. 24. Any Any one now that reads and confiders thefe Paffages of our Saviour's Life, cannot but fee a wide Difference between his Principles, and Temper, and Carriage in thefe Matters, and thofe of many of his Followers in our Days. Several there are among us that would be thought Christians, who are fo far from being duly and constantly attendant on the publick Worship of God, that they rarely joyn in it at all, except invited by Curiofity, or to fave themselves from the Reproach of being Infidels, and of no Religion. Others are zealous for a publick Worship, and do conftantly attend it: But unhappy it is for them, and for us, that we cannot worship God in the fame Way, but are parcelled out into several Communions. Sure, every good Man fhould think, that it is not a little Thing that should divide us from the Established Church, when he confiders that our Saviour paid fuch Regard to the publick Establishments, that he made no Scruple of communicating in the Services and Liturgies of the Temple and Synagogue of his Time; which yet certainly were not the perfectest and most unexceptionable, fince the Scribes and Pharifees had the chief Management of them. I might go on in comparing our Saviour's Practices with fome Modern ones, and fhewing the Difference between them as to all the other Inftances I have mentioned out of his Life: But I take no Delight in fuch a Subject, and therefore will pursue it no further. All that I meant by the Paffages I have quoted, was, to give you fome kind of Tafte of what Nature our Saviour's publick Devotion was; from whence you may eafily gather, that if we mean to copy out our Saviour's Example, and to be devout as he was, it will concern us to take all Opportunities, that our Occafions will allow us, of worshipping God in publick, and not think it fufficient to fay our Prayers in private. It will concern us, especially on the folemn Days appointed for this End, never to absent ourfelves without very great Reafon. It will concern us likewife to worship God in publick, according to the Laws and Conftitutions of the Place where we live, unless it do plainly and evidently appear to us that there is fomething in the established Worship that we cannot joyn in without finning against God. It will concern us alfo, when we are at the publick Affemblies, to behave ourselves decently and reverently, as remembring we are in the Prefence of God; and at all other Times likewife to make a Difference between the Houfe of God and Houfes to eat and drink in, as St. Paul diftinguishes them. Laftly, it will concern us to contribute, ac cording |