DISCOURSE IIT. ggg fall of our first parent that he has given so many rich andpre- cious promises for our encouragement to attend his habitation, and that he has ordained institutions of solemn worship for us to maintain any communion with himself. Bless him, that he has sent his gospel to Great Britain, to enlighten us from heaven, while other nations lie in gross darkness and death ; that he has taught us his name and his grace, and the forms of his worship ; that he has called the inhabitants of our islands to assemble toge- ther in churches ; that he has raised these dwelling-places for himself in the midst of us, for every church of Christ, even in . the heathen nations, is a little Sion, a sanctuary where God dwells. Wecannot say, God has his name at all recorded in the large nations of heathenism and idolatry, where the true God is not worshipped, nor his Son Jesus known ; Jesus, in whom his name dwells for ever. We canhardly say, his name is recorded in popish countries, though there is abundance of blasphemous and superstitious use of it there; but idolatry and antichristian worship are powerful and prevalent over every thing that is evan- gelical and divine. It is the name of Babylon and antichrist that are recorded there, rather than the names of God and his Son. Blessed be God, from our very souls, that our lot is not cast in such a land, where gods of wood and stone are wor- shipped, where the name of the true God is not recorded, and where we canhave no special promises, no reasonable expectation and hope, that he should meet and bless us. Let us again give thanks to our God, who has so formed our civil constitution and government, at this day, that we have liberty to worship God, through Jesus Christ the Mediator, in his own appointed ways ; that we are not persecuted from corner to corner, but in every place we are permitted to erect syna- gogues for divine service, and to attend on our God in those or- dinances, on which he has stamped his own name. How many scattered christians are there up and down in the popish nations, where they are forbid to meet in any place for the solemnizing of true christian worship ? Howmany nations are there where the placesof protestant worship are utterly demolished, and christi- tians are not suffered to unite their prayers and praises to the God whom they adore, in spirit and in truth ? Let us yet again give thanks unto God, that, in the course of his providence, we have convenient places to assemble for his pure religion ; that we are provided with so many advantages, that we are not exposed to the inconveniences of wind, or rain, or sultry seasons, and are secured from the disturbances of a sinful world. Let us bless God, that he has so plentifully stored the provinces of this land with such buildings, that we are not exposed to the labour and hardships of long travel, which was a burdensome ceremony im- posed on the Jews, who were required towait upon their God
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=