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The Duty of external Worship.

A

SERMON

Preach'd at the

ROLLS,

187

PSALM XCV. 6.

O come let us worship, and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord our Maker.

HESE Words are taken SERM. from an Hymn, which is VII. very fitly placed at the Entrance of the Morning

Devotions of the Church.

It being a folemn and earnest Invitati

On

SERM. on to the publick Worship of God that VII. follows; and probably employed to that Purpose at the Beginning of the Service used in the Jewish Temple.

In that Hymn we are called upon to pay all the Parts of our internal and external Homage.

The Words, which I have chofen, mention only the latter of these, outward Adoration; which they do, by expreffing the several Modes of it; as Worshipping, Bowing down, and Kneeling before God: Terms, which those who are skilled in the Original have been at fome Pains to explain, so as to fettle the diftin&t Meaning of each of them. I fhall wave that Enquiry, as not very useful, and confider the Words in their more free and general Senfe; as they imply all thofe devout Poftures of Body, in which outward Worship may be supposed to confift.

To prefs upon you, as effectually as I can, the Exercise of thefe, when we thus meet together in God's Sanctuary,

fhall

shall be the Business of my prefent Dif-SER M. course. VII.

In which I fhall endeavour to fhew, how requifite, a reverent and pious Demeanour in the publick Service of the Church is, in order to render our Devotions acceptable to God.

This perhaps, at firft Sight, may seem too plain a Propofition to need any Proof: And it will be thought, that there is no good Christian in the World, who is not very well fatisfied of the Truth of it. And yet, certain it is, that there are, among those who aim at a more than ordinary Purity in the Worship of God, many fincere but deluded Perfons, who difapprove and deny it: Who think external Modes of Worship, not only unneceffary, but fuperftitious, now under the Gofpel Difpenfation, when, they fay, all bodily Service is done away, the Law of outward Rites and Ceremonies is abolished, and the true Worfhippers of God are to worship him only in Spirit and John iv. Truth.

And

24.

SERM. And even among those who admit VII. the Neceffity of bodily Worship in the Theory, yet how many are there that deny it in their Practice, and fo behave themselves in the publick Service of the Church, as to make it appear, that this Truth has not yet in good Earneft reached their Hearts, or not funk very deep into them. Or if it has, the Impreffions it once made upon their Minds, are now grown so faint and weak, that they operate but little, unless by proper Arguments and Motives they be continually excited and kept alive in them.

In order therefore to convince thofe who seem not to have fufficiently con fidered the Importance of this Duty; and in order alfo to raise the Devotion of fuch as are remifs and careless in the Discharge of it, I fhall, in what follows, confider external Worship, as a fit and reasonable Duty, upon these three feveral Accounts. Either as one Part of that natural Homage, which the whole Man, Soul and Body, does, by the

first Principles of Reason, and Law ofSER M. his Nature, owe to his fovereign Lord, VII. his great Creator and Preferver. Or as an Help and Affiftance towards promoting the Spiritual Worship of our Souls. Or laftly, as an outward Sign, by which we express to others the religious Efteem and Veneration that dwells in us: That is, (in a Word) it may be confidered with Relation to God, our felves, or our Neighbour.

I. Then external Adoration may be confidered as a Part of that natural Homage, which the whole Man, Soul and Body, owes to God, upon the Account of his Creation and Preservation of us; and his fovereign Dominion over us.

If we are to worship God for the Being, and the Benefits which we receive at his Hands, as the plain Rules of Reason inform us; then does it seem agreeable to the fame Reason, that we fhould make Ufe of all those several Ways of Worship, which do best exprefs the total and entire Dependance we

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