indeed, did their understandings become, by reason of their rejecting the knowledge of God, that although they professed themselves to be wise, they were guilty of the foolishness of changing the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things; and moreover, of changing the truth of God into a lie, and worshipping and serving the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. It was for this, that God gave them up to unnatural lusts and every species of vile affections. Growing worse and worse, "as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge," (v. 28,) "he gave them over to a reprobate mind," and, after their hardness and impenitent hearts, to treasure up wrath to themselves against the day of wrath and the revelation of the righteous judgment of God.* To prevent a declension to the ways of vice and the depths of sin so fatal, and to keep up in men's minds that strong conviction and deep sense of God, which is the root and branch of practical morals, and which the Scriptures call faith in him, we must rely on the conscientious performance of the duties which spring from the relation which we sustain to him; which duties are now to be examined and unfolded.

CHAPTER II.

THE GENERAL DUTY OF REVERENCING GOD.

WHEN submitted to a careful and exact analysis, reverence for the Deity comprises a deep sense of our own insignificance, of his divine majesty, his incomprehensible nature, his eternal existence, knowing equally no beginning and no end; of his Almighty power, to which all things are equally easy, and in whose operations all degrees of facility, whether in the creation of a world or of an atom, are unknown; of our ignorance, and of his omniscience and divine wisdom, unsearchable and past finding

* Rom. ii. 5.

out; a sense of our dependence, and of his absolute and perfect independence of time, place, circumstances, and events; a sense of our sinfulness, and of his immaculate and essential holiness, in whose sight the very heavens are unclean. *

Reverence for God includes, moreover, reverence for his name, which is holy and reverend, † and not to be used in vain ; for his attributes, his revelation of himself, his worship, and his ordinances. It comprises again, a respectful regard for his ministers who serve at the altar, for the edifices consecrated to his service, and for whatever else pertains to the celebration of his worship. It is not necessary to say, that levity in regard to these subjects, or any of them, and still more all sneering and scoffing, are totally inconsistent with the smallest degree of reverence for God. They indicate a heart destitute of every vestige of religious feeling, an understanding steeled against all conviction of religious truth, and both a heart and an understanding equally inaccessible to any religious impression. In such a state of the feelings, the truth can take no hold on the consciences of men, and no fair and candid estimate can be made of the all-commanding claims, sanctions, and evidences of religion. In this condition, they are beyond the reach of human aid; and there is, in truth, no aid for them, but in the awakening, enlightening, and sanctifying power and grace of that Holy Spirit, from whom "all holy desires, all good counsels, and all just works proceed." The fate of despisers of the truth and ordinances of God is, to wonder and perish. Their perdition shall be amazing and wonderful to themselves and all around them. They are men reprobate concerning the faith and to every good work. ‡

What has been said of ridicule, sneering, and scoffing, applies substantially to all sarcasms, jestings, and even pleasantry, when exercised upon the Scriptures, or upon the places, persons, and forms set apart for the service of religion. They are alike inconsistent with a religious frame of mind; for, as no one ever either feels himself disposed to pleasantry, or capable of being diverted with the pleasantry of others, upon matters in which he is deeply interested; so a mind intent upon the acquisition of

Job xv. 15.

+ Ps. cxi. 9.

Acts xiii. 41; 2 Tim. iii. 8; Tit. i. 16.

heaven rejects, with indignation, every attempt to entertain it with jests, calculated to degrade or deride subjects which it never recollects but with seriousness and anxiety. Nothing but stupidity, or the most frivolous dissipation of thought, can make even the inconsiderate forget the supreme importance of every thing which relates to the expectation of a future existence. Whilst the infidel mocks at the superstitions of the vulgar, as he chooses to consider them, insults over their credulous fears, their childish errors, or fantastic rites, it does not occur to him to observe, that the most preposterous device, by which the weakest devotee ever believed he was securing the happiness of a future life, is more rational than unconcern about it. Upon this subject, nothing is so absurd as indifference; no folly so absurd as thoughtlessness and levity. *

CHAPTER III.

THE DUTY OF WORSHIPPING GOD.

THERE is a distinction between reverencing and worshipping God. Both are external duties, and God is the immediate object of both; the distinction between them is, that the one is negative, the other positive; the one consists in abstaining from some impious act, the other in performing some act of piety. When, from a sense of duty to God, we rest on Sunday during a journey, we perform a duty of reverence; when, from the same motive, we attend church on Sunday, we perform an act of worship.†

The special object of worshipping God, is, to keep up that reverence for him in the mind, which cannot be preserved without habitual attendance on some external service, by which a habit of devotion and reverence, and their consequent moral influences may be maintained. The formation, preservation, and strengthening of this habit of devotion and reverence for

*

Paley's Moral and Political Philosophy, p. 270.

+ Idem, p. 230.

God and divine things, together with instruction in the doctrines and duties of Christianity, are the aim and end of divine worship, and in them its public and private benefit consists.

This subject is an important one, and comprises, the naturalness and reasonableness of divine worship, private and public; -the subject matter of which, prayer, thanksgiving, and praise ought to consist ;-a review of the part of public worship designed specially for instruction, consisting of the reading of the Scriptures, preaching, and catechetical instruction; and an illustration of the benefits, public and private, of divine worship, when attended with diligence and with a suitable temper and spirit.

1. The naturalness and reasonableness of divine worship, private and public. A conviction of the existence and influence, as has before been said, of "a power above us," which guides our destinies, to which we are responsible, to which we are bound equally by duty and interest to have regard, whose favor we may gain and whose displeasure we may propitiate, by some exertions which we may use and some sacrifices which we may make, seems, in all ages and among all nations, to have been irresistibly forced on the understandings of mankind. * Under the influence of this natural conviction, men have always raised their minds in prayer to some superior Being, or beings, as is attested by the literary remains of every nation under heaven. It is true that this natural sentiment has often been greatly obscured by ignorance, by neglect, and by great misuse and perversion of talents; but no debasement of savage life, of false religion, or even of settled habits of sin, formed, cherished, and persevered in amidst the bright shining of the Gospel itself, has been able entirely to suppress and drive it from the human mind.

Accordingly, the literature of Greek and Roman antiquity, and the Hindoo and Chinese literature of the present day, are filled with prayers and thanksgivings to the various deities which they acknowledged. These are the more cultivated forms of heathenism, but its ruder forms all contain evidences of the same natural sentiment and feeling. This may be called natural piety; and however obscured and perverted, it is still good proof of the natural conviction described by St. Paul, and of the natural sen

timent and feeling evinced by mankind. Some of these prayers, the offspring of this natural piety, and of an unperverted conscience, are not without pure and sublime conceptions of the Deity, and just views of human wants suitable to be expressed in prayer. Dr. Lowth says of the Hymn of Cleanthes, the Stoic, inscribed to Jove, "It is doubtless a most noble monument of ancient wisdom, and replete with truths not less solid than magnificent. For, the sentiments of the philosopher concerning the divine power, concerning the harmony of nature and the supreme laws, concerning the folly and unhappiness of wicked men, who are unceasingly subject to the pain and perturbation of a troubled spirit, and above all," continues he, "the ardent supplication for the divine assistance, in order to enable him to celebrate the praises of the Omnipotent Deity in a suitable manner, and in a perpetual strain of praise and adoration; all of these breathe so true and unaffected a spirit of piety, that they seem in some measure to approach the excellence of the sacred poetry.'

The Mahometan religion is partly derived from Judaism and Christianity, and is less absurd than any form of heathenism. The habit of public prayer among the Mahometans is well known. In such countries, the Mouzeens on the minarets † are accustomed,

"to proclaim the hour

For prayer appointed, and with sonorous voice,
Thrice in melodious modulation full,

To pronounce the highest name. 'There is no God

But God,' they cry; 'there is no God but God!

Mahommed is the Prophet of the Lord!

Come ye to prayer! to prayer! The Lord is great!
There is no God but God!'"'

It cannot be necessary to do more than merely advert, in this connexion, to the frequency and earnestness with which the Jewish and Christian Scriptures enjoin the same duty. Men of all climes, then, of all ages, and of all religions, have concurred in the propriety and the practice of lifting up the mind to God in prayer. This universality is the best of all proofs of the naturalness of Divine worship.

* Lectures on the Sacred Poetry of the Hebrews. Lect. XXIX. Gregory's Translation.

+ See Walsh's National Gazette, Nov. 7th, 1835.