The duty of public worship, and its beneficial tendency.
_Then saith Jesus, get thee hence Satan, for it is written Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve._
It is becoming fashionable not only to disesteem, but to speak lightly of the worship of the supreme Being, the fountain of all existence and blessedness. It is to be deeply regretted, that, by many his name is profaned, his sabbaths disregarded, his ordinances neglected, and all worship of him habitually omitted. Nay, it is even with one class of people, whose number is not inconsiderable, growing into a maxim, or kind of aphorism, that all Religion consists in doing right between man and man, in promoting the temporal welfare, the order, and best civil good of society. This is openly affirmed by men who pretend to clearness of thought, eminence of abilities, and extensive reading; and echoed by their admirers and imitators. They earnestly contend that Moral Virtue, or doing good to man is the most acceptable offering to the divine Being, and not only the most acceptable, but the only rational and acceptable worship, which can be performed by us to our Maker, Preserver and Benefactor. Having gone this length, they are compelled to take one step more, and to assert that all other Worship, or what have usually been called exercises and acts of Piety, are of no worth, are mere superstition and folly, fit only for the vulgar, or to amuse the uninformed and unenlightened. They forget not, at the same time, to remind us, that this superstition, as they term it, is nursed by an interested and mercenary Priesthood. But the fact is, that a system of Religion, which leaves out the duties we owe to God, is an essentially defective system: and no man of reflection and discernment, who is not a disbeliever in the divine Excellence and revealed religion, can adopt it. For men of thought and good capacities to deny or object against the duties, due from us to the FIRST CAUSE OF ALL THINGS, is quite unaccountable, provided they, at the same time, pretend to give credit to any religion at all. But what is still more strange is, that any who pretend to love and fear God, should yet deny all stated worship of him, whether public, social or secret, and refuse to engage in any duties of devotion, until moved or impelled thereto by some supposed inward impression. This, all must see who exercise their reason, is in effect to deny, and virtually to renounce all divine worship.--And whatever such may profess or declare, so it is, has been, and always will be judged, by all rational men.