SERMON LIII. 133 nor public honours paid to God in the name of Jesus." Now the worship of God in public assemblies is so necessary for his honour in all ages, and under all dispensations, and was so care- fully practised among the primitivechristians by the authority of Christ and his apostles, that we cannot be excused from it, if wé profess ourselves to believe in Christ. This has been made sufficiently evident Ma former disceursea. And if there be such a thing aspublic worship maintained, the light of nature shows us there must be some certain time, and somecertain place appointed by agreement among such worshippers, since no one christian that I know of has any authority given by the scripture to appoint precisely the times and places, and magisterially to impose them upon his brethren. As for the place under the Jewish dispensation, Gòd himself appointed the tabernacle in the days of Moses, and the temple in the time of Solomon as sacred places for public sacrifices, and some-peculiar solemnities of worship ; but the sacredness of place is now at an end, as our Lord informs us ; John iv. 21-24. and even during that dispensation, the synagogues throughout the land where God was weekly worshipped by the people, were built and frequented by the agreement or consent of the people, as the light of nature directed ; and the worship of christian churches is more akin to that of the synagogues than thatof the temple. As for the time, thefirst day ofthe week is the christian day ofworship by apostolic appointment : But christians must agree together upon the hour, as well as the day, in order to unite in the several parts of worship. Without such an agreement of christians among themselves, . there could be no celebration of public ordinances in a becoming manner, no united prayers and praises could ascend tp heaven, there would be no social attendance upon the word preached, no participation of the great ordinance of the Lord's-supper, which is a part of social religion, a sacred feast or representation of the blessed communion which christians have both with Christ their Lord, and with one another. For this reason they must agree upon the place to meet in, " That the whole church may come together in one place," as 1 Cor. xi. 20. and they must agree upon one hour, or f0 tarry for one another till they are come ;" 1 Cor. xi. 33. The second reason for such a practice is this, viz. " With- out an agreement to keep up such societies for worship, the doc- trines of Christ and his gospel could not be so constantly and so 4 See Sermon XLIX, of Berry- street Sermons, volume II. page 87. 13
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