God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels; to the general assembly and church of the first-born, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant." With all these, with this great body, this high and holy company, the faithful Christian has fellowship in public worship. His act of public prayer, his open confession of his Saviour, his solemn appeal to the Father, in union with his brethren of the congregation, vindicates his claim to the privileges of this favoured family', and to membership in this glorious body. He comes to God's house; he comes to join Christ's brethren; he is found as a member of Christ's body, partaking of the spiritual life of the Head, and professing a common interest with all the members. He is in communion with his fellow Christians, he is in communion with Christ, he has the fellowship of the Holy Ghost, he shares, and humbly imitates, the love of God. Public prayer is the communion, not only of man with man, not only of the individual with the Church, but the communion of man, and of the Church itself, with God. These are the privileges and operations of public prayer. A real Christian cannot separate himself from it; he cannot be destitute of interest in it, and so satisfy himself with only private prayer. The congregation

1 See Sermon III.

is part of the body of Christ. Separation from the body, is separation from the head. A solitary selfish Christian, unconnected with, and uninterested in, the common welfare and salvation, is a contradiction in terms. The Gospel cannot contemplate such a character; none such is acknowledged there: he has thousands who share his prayers, and whose prayers he desires. He has, with his brethren, a common interest in the sacraments, and in all the means of grace, and a common trust in the mercies of God, and the merits of the Redeemer. All must join in confessing the sins of the congregation, all in prayer for general pardon and assistance, all in thanksgiving for general blessings.

Can we be surprised, then, that St. Paul should be earnest in exhorting all the members of such a Church not to forsake "the assembling themselves together;" or that Jesus should give them the promise, that where two or three should be gathered together in His name, there He would be in the midst of them? No, a more reasonable counsel than that of the Apostle could not have been suggested; nor could a more gracious promise have been given by Jesus, to cherish the union of His Church, and to make them feel their mutual dependence, and their obligations to love one another. If grace and salvation be offered, and covenanted to the Church of Christ, what pretension then can that man have to the name of a Christian, who despises public worship, and forsakes the assembling of the

congregation? How can he, with any consistency, satisfy his conscience, and persuade himself that he belongs to the body of Christ's Church, when his acts show that he takes no interest in the general welfare of that Church? How can he expect that his own wants will be supplied, his own blessings continued, or his own sins forgiven, when he feels, or at least acts as though he felt, no concern in those of others; and chooses to stand aloof, in solitary and selfish indifference, from the other members of the spiritual body? How can he expect to be included in that Church, to which the unmerited mercies in Jesus are covenanted, if he cannot rejoice with the whole body when it rejoices in the prosperity of its members; nor suffer with it, when it suffers either generally, or in any of its members? This is one very important, though not often well considered, ground of the duty of public prayer; it is social, it is the act of the society, or body, of the Church. The man who refuses to take part in this social act of the body, appears to deny his connexion with it; shows that he has no sympathy with it, or, at least, refuses that manifestation of his sympathy, which the Church requires by the authority of its Head. Indeed, if he denies, in word or in deed, his connexion with the body, upon what pretence do the Scriptures warrant his claiming connexion with the Head? If he has no part with his brethren, how does he assure himself that he has part with Christ? If he shall not confess Christ before men,

will Christ acknowledge him before the holy angels?

Say not, therefore, brethren, I can pray at home as well as at church; you are directed to pray both at home and at church. The same Saviour who directed you to pray in private, also taught you that belong to a holy family, and are members of a spiritual body, and promised to be with that family when gathered together, His promise was not to the mere solitary worshipper, but to His Church; and that Church is as much dependent upon His mercy, and has as many blessings to thank Him for, as any of us individually. And every member of that Church, who refuses to pray for those mercies on the Church, and to return thanks to God for His benefits conferred on it, is just as perverse and ungrateful, as he who refuses to ask for what he personally needs, or to be thankful for what he has personally received at the hand of God.

"How harsh," says Bishop Wilson, "would it sound to hear a man say, I have nothing to ask of God, I have nothing to thank Him for, I do not owe Him any service, I can live without His blessing, I desire not the knowledge of His ways! The most careless sinner would tremble to repeat these words; and yet this, in effect, is the language of those that wilfully neglect and despise the public worship of God; this is the language of their actions, though not of their tongue.

"Remember, good Christians, that, as such, you

all pretend to be of the household of faith. Now, can any of you, with any pretence say, that you are of the household of faith, when you are seldom or never seen at God's house, and with His family. Think seriously of this, and you will esteem it the greatest blessing to have churches to go to, and you will close with every opportunity of going to your Father's house, lest you lose the inheritance of his obedient and dutiful children."

Every man's heart will, on reading this appeal, at once acknowledge the reasonable and just grounds on which it puts the question of his attachment to that body, of which Christ is the head. The act of neglecting of social worship is an evidence of inconsistency with his Christian profession, which cannot be disputed. Although the constant attendance at public worship may not be always a proof of the sincerity or vitality of his faith, the habitual and wilful neglect of it is an undeniable one of his practical unbelief. Every Christian Church ordains. its public ministrations upon the principle of every member communicating with the body. And the more closely we approach the purest and earliest periods of the Church, the more jealous do Christians appear to have been of this duty and privilege.

Not one example," says Archbishop Potter, "of any Christian Church can be produced through the whole world, where the Sacraments were not administered, the Gospel preached, and the worship