tent upon accumulating Wealth and making a Family; his Head and Heart are quite full of it. A Third is wholly poffeffed with ambitious Defires; Places and Honours he must have, let the Means of acquiring Them be ever fo inconfiftent with the Precepts of his Religion, and his future Happiness and Glory. It is impoffible that fuch Men fhou'd think their Salvation the one Thing needful, when they take fo little Care to fecure it. And yet these narrow minded Creatures (I cannot call them Men) think themselves, and are thought by others to be, the only fhrewd People, because they value the poor, beggarly Concerns of this Life above those of Eternity. O gracious God! whence arifes this Sottifhnefs? It is thou only, the Searcher of Hearts, that knoweft the true Caufe. Do thou take the Veil from before our Eyes. Break the Charm that bewitches us. Convince us that nothing but Eternity deferves our Solicitude; that our Salvation is the one Thing needful, and that whatever does not tend to it is Vanity and Folly. Make us fee more clearly, and know more feelingly, these great Truths. Let them always be uppermoft in our Thoughts, and give them fuch Force and Energy, that they may bring forth in us the Fruits of good Living, to thy Honour, and the Salvation of our Souls.

HEBREWS,

HEBREWS, Chap. x. Ver. 25.

Not forfaking the Assembling of ourselves together, as the Manner of fome is, but exhorting one another.

T

HIS Precept was given by St. Paul in the Times of Perfecution; which occafion'd many to abfent themselves from religious Meetings, for the Preservation of their Lives, their Liberties, and Eftates. We are not under That Temptation to neglect our Duty; yet, in moft Places it is fhamefully neglected; and Men are fo far from exhorting, that they are more apt to difcourage, one another, by fpeaking lightly of it. It cannot, therefore, be unfeafonable, and I hope, it will not be unprofitable, if I difcourfe to you upon the Three following Heads.

First, That the forfaking of fuch Affem

blies is a virtual Defection from the Chriftian Faith, and a Renunciation of our Religion. Secondly, That it is a Neglect of the neceffary Means of Grace without which we shall not be able, or willing, to practise the other Duties of Religion, or long to preserve in our Minds any true Senfe of it.

Thirdly, To enforce the Duty of Exhorting

one another to Affemble ourselves.

First, The forfaking the Affembling of ourfelves together for publick Worship is a virtual Defection from the Christian Faith, and a Renunciation of our Religion.

For, what is the End of fuch Affemblies, but to make publick Profeffion of our religious Opinions; to acknowledge the Being, Attributes, and Difpenfations of That God, in whom we believe; our Relations, and Obligations to him for our Creation, Prefervation, and Redemption? And our refufing publickly to teftify This our Belief, is, in Effect, to declare that we do not believe them. There never was any People in the World, who believed a God, and yet did not publickly worthip him agreeably to their Notions of him.

The Heathens, however different in their Opinions concerning their Deities, in different Countries, agreed in this great Article, viz. to join together in a publick Acknowledgment of God and his Providence over them. As they all ow'd their Being and the Continuance of it to the Power of their Creator, they all, as many as conveniently could, affembled together to testify their common Dependance upon him. him. As they were confcious that they had all been guilty of many Things which were offenfive and difpleafing to the Deity, they united in offering up fuch Oblations and Sacrifices, as they thought might be the

Means

Means of appeafing God's Anger, and averting his Judgments. As they believ'd that he continually interpos'd to over-rule and govern the Affairs of the World, they offer'd up their joint and publick Requefts, that he wou'd protect and bless them. This was fo univerfal a Practice, and it is a Practice fo agreeable to natural Reafon, that if any one had been known wholly to withdraw himself from fuch religious Meetings, He wou'd have been deem'd an Atheist, who deny'd God's Being and Providence; he wou'd have been wonder'd at as a Monster; he wou'd have been detefted as an odious and dangerous Perfon; he wou'd have been executed, or banifh'd the Society, as one difqualified for it.

The Religion of the Jews was different from That of the Heathens, but they agreed with them in having Affemblies wherein they jointly and publickly worship'd their God, fuitably to their Faith. Befides the Truths of Natural Religion, they were favour'd with particular Revelations of God's Nature and Will, and they were enjoin'd particular Duties and Ordinances; in Confequence of which they had thofe particular Revelations publickly read before them, and their Laws publickly recited: they united, likewife, in the publick Obfervance of their peculiar Ordinances. And, can we imagine, that if any one among thefe Jews had totally, or generally, abfented himself from their religious Affemblies, never, or feldom, appear

E 4

appearing to hear the Word of their God read, and his Laws rehears'd to them; never, or feldom affifting at the common Rites and Ceremonies; never partaking with them of the common Ordinances of their Religion: Can we imagine, Ifay, that fuch an one wou'd not have been thought, and very juftly, to have thereby difown'd his Belief of the Jewish Religion?

WE

The Religion of us Chriftians is different from that of the Jews, as the Jewish Religion was different from that of the Heathens. have still more extraordinary Discoveries of the Nature and Will of God; our Duty in the New Testament is more particularly explain'd to us, and we have common Ordinances, tho' fewer in Number, appointed us. Whoever, therefore, after the Manner of too many nominal Chriftians, refufes to appear at our Chriftian Affemblies, there to hear the Scriptures read and expounded, there publickly to profefs the Doctrines, and attend upon the Intitutions, of our Religion; fuch an one St. Paul, the infpired Apoftle of Jefus Chrift; fuch an one the Nature and Reafon of the Thing, declare to be an Apoftate from the Faith, and to have rejected the Authority of our bleffed Saviour. If he never, or feldom goes to any Place of publick Worship, nor makes any Kind of publick Profeffion of fome Religion, we have no Room to believe that he has any religious Opinions at all, nor has he any Right to the Protection and Benefits

of