her, to acknowledge and worship him in a social capacity. God has
made us social beings; and all the institutions of his appointment
contemplate us as such. The public worship of the Sabbath is
preeminently calculated to cultivate the social principle of our nature.
It brings people of the same community regularly together, every week,
for the same general purpose. In the house of God all meet upon a level.

2. If we look forward from the institution of the Sabbath to the
organization of the Jewish church, we find that God did actually
establish a regular system of public worship. An order of men was
instituted whose special business was to conduct the public worship of
God. After the return of the Jews from captivity, social meetings, held
every Sabbath, for public religious worship, became common all over the
land. They were called _synagogues_.[I] Although we have no particular
account of the divine origin of these assemblies, yet they were
sanctioned by the presence of Christ, who often took part in the public
exercises.

Under the gospel dispensation, the plan of synagogue worship is
continued, with such modifications as suit it to the clearer and more
complete development of God's gracious designs towards sinful men. A new
order of men has been instituted, to conduct public worship and teach
the people. As religion consists very much in the exercise of holy
affections, God has appointed the preaching of the Word as a suitable
means for stirring up these affections. Our desires are called forth,
our love excited, our delight increased, and our zeal inflamed, by a
faithful, earnest, and feeling representation of the most common and
familiar truths of the Bible, from the pulpit. It is evident, then,
that the private reading of the best books, though highly useful, cannot
answer the end and design of public worship.

[Footnote I: The term _synagogue_ was applied both to the place of
meeting and to the congregation assembling for public worship, as the
term _church_ is now used.]

3. The duty of public worship may be inferred from the fitness and
propriety of a public acknowledgment of God, by a community, in their
social capacity.

4. This duty is enforced by the example of holy men of old; but
especially of Christ and his apostles. David took great delight in the
public worship of God's house. "My soul thirsteth for thee; my flesh
longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is, to see
thy p