But if, as we trust, and as we know, there ́is a Power that attends both to our devotions, and to our whole conduct; if, as we may reasonably believe, God is more particularly present in the places of public worship; shall we, on these most important occasions, bring with us the foibles of our lighter moments? shall we be idle or inattentive, censorious or impertinent? Believe me, negligence, mere negligence, would here be rashness, and levity would be the most audacious presumption. 66 How reproachful must it appear to a Christian congregation even to suppose that such admonitions as these could be necessary! to an assembly of Pagans they would not have been so. "We enter the temples of the gods," says one of their philosophers1, “ with "the utmost order and gravity; when we approach to sacrifice, we cast our eyes downward, in token of submission, and ob"serve every other circumstance that can be "expressive of modesty." Another of their writers', who bears the most respectable name in all the heathen antiquity, "would "have that person punished with death who should offend in the public worship of the gods." 66 66 a Sen. Nat. Quæst. lib. vii. c. 30. III. It is probable that the ancient Jews, from the great reverence they had for their temples and their worship, were not guilty of all those follies during divine service for which Christians are now so justly reprehensible. The principal fault that the Preacher seems to charge them with is want of attention. Be more ready to hear, says he, than to offer the sacrifice of fools. "When ye come into "the house of God for instruction, to hear "his word read and explained, what means 66 your negligence and inattention? It is not "so much worth your while to observe the "ceremonial, as to learn the moral part of "the law: for God will have mercy rather "than sacrifice. Be, therefore, more ready "to hear." Is it possible that we should assemble for the public worship of God, and at the same time refuse our attention either to his written word, to comments upon it, or to doctrines derived from it? Would not this be a species of mock-worship? Could we hope to pay our court to any earthly monarch, while we denied our attention to those laws or customs, those rules or manners, which he had appointed his ministers to lay before us? And yet during our presence in the courts of God's house, how very apt are we to be inattentive! inatten tive not only to the divine word, and to the illustration of that word, but to the very sense and signification of those prayers and praises, which we solemnly utter with our lips! How often are our thoughts wandering, while our voices are lifted up unto the Lord! How many unmeaning sentences! how many expressions, of which we have no idea, do we part with in the ordinary course of our devotions! Yet surely these prayers shall ascend in vain, and bring down no blessing on the head of him that uttereth them. While we are but the mere channel of words, while our organs are made to convey expressions to which we affix no meaning, what do we make of ourselves more than machines? Or, as St. Paul has it, what are we better than sounding brass, or than tinkling cymbals? One should think that the sense of our native dignity, the dignity of a reasonable being, might rouse us from such an unmanly, such an irrational indolence. What! has God given me these faculties of sense and intelligence, these powers of conception and apprehension, and shall I degrade my reasonable nature by uttering sounds, like some mimic bird, which are attended with no meaning? But, when I address myself to that Being who gave me this sense, this power of reason and reflection, shall I then make no use of them? Shall the Giver of these good gifts be the only one in whose service I neglect to employ them? Is it possible that I should be so stupid, or so ungrateful? Though nothing can be more to the purpose than such enquiries as these, perhaps there are no enquiries whatever that are so seldom made; and this, I take it, is in a great measure owing to want of consideration. IV. We consider not that we do evil. The human mind is so volatile and so various, and our thoughts are so accustomed to proceed from one object to another through the chain of ideas, that it requires the strictest attention and resolution to keep them fixed on the same subject for any considerable time. This I observe, not by way of excuse or palliation of the faults I have already mentioned, but that when you know, or when you consider, (for it could not be unknown to you,) how apt the thoughts are to wander, you should by a stricter attention, and a more zealous care, call them home to the duties of divine worship. It is but a weak apology for a being that is capable of thought and reflection, to say that he was led into error by want of consideration. For what purpose, think you, did God give us these faculties, but that we should employ them in his service? And shall they then lie dormant? Shall they then only be more particularly useless when we professedly meet to serve him? When our thoughts should be employed on his favours and on his mercies; when they should offer up those prayers, that ought to proceed both from the spirit and the understanding; or while they should be meditating on the human duties, or the divine promises, as either may happen to be the subject of the preacher, shall they meanly return to their secular employments, and go, some to their farm, and others to their merchandize. In one word, my friends, let us take the method of that prince who was well acquainted with the human heart, and knew how to govern it; let us endeavour to set God always before us. Without this awakening sense of the Divine presence, our assembling here will only be to offer the sacrifice of fools: our preaching will be vain, and your hearing will be vain also. |