publicly upon such a weighty business, unto the most reverend deportment; which I have shown, is of itself alone a singular benefit we receive by Prayer to God. The sense of Whom, is the guide of our life, and the stay of our heart, which is both upheld, and raised to the highest degree by His public worship. Whereby, if we do not prevail for all those, whose welfare and happiness we seek; we maintain and increase nothwithstanding in our own minds a lively sense, a high esteem of those graces and blessings, which we earnestly desire and ask for all mankind. For whose good as we ought to be concerned; so we are made more sensible of it, more affected with it, and solicitous for it by the public service of God, than we are inclined to be in our private devotions. This will appear in the management of the second general argument, propounded in the beginning of this discourse, for which I design the next Chapter.

CHAPTER XIII.

PUBLIC PRAYERS MOST SUITABLE TO THE NA

I

TURE OF MAN.

PROCEED now to consider the nature of

Man, as I have done the nature of Prayer; from whence we shall more fully learn the necessity of God's public service, and that it is. to be preferred before all other.

Prayer being a natural duty (as I have proved in the beginning) arising from the necessity of our own being, which is precarious and dependent on another, who ought therefore to be continually acknowledged by us; it will easily appear from thence, that it ought to be public, and not only alone by ourselves; because nature hath formed us to society, without which we cannot be preserved in safety. From whence innumerable arguments may be deduced for our public assembling together, constantly to worship that Almighty Being;

who hath thus, by the very laws of our creation, disposed us to join together for our common preservation.

For,

I. We cannot but see, at the very first mention of this, that we being made to have society one with another, should above all things have society in Prayer to Him that made us, and continually maintains and pre

serves us.

For what can be more absurd than to have society in the lowest actions of human life, and not in the highest, which are of principal concern to us, for our conversation? It is such an absurdity, as if we should join together to save one another's houses, but not to save one another's lives. And yet there is far less difference between a building of wood or stone, and this excellent structure of our body, than there is between our worldly affairs, and those of our immortal souls. Which teach us, at the first thought of such things, that if we were made to live together in society, and not alone, it is a just reason that God should be acknowledged by us all together, who is the

common

founder of society; and as we transact all our common concerns together, by meeting in a body; so the business of religion especially (which is the cement of society, and the fountain of all justice and charity) should be thus transacted, and we should with a consent meet together in one place, to adore and acknowledge Him, which is the greatest concern we have in this world, even for this reason, because it supports, as you have heard, a sense of Him, without which all society I will be dissolved.

II. And there is the greater reason for this, because men are the only creatures here, that are endued with a sense of God and of religion : and therefore should above all things join in that, and study to promote it, which is most proper to them, and distinguishes them more than any thing else, from the brutes. In whom we see some faint imitation of reason and discourse, but not the least sign of religion. Which may well be looked upon as the discriminating property in man; and makes us think that he may be better defined, a religious,

than a rational creature. This, at least, should be joined with the other, and He defined, a rational religious creature. For all definitions are taken from that, which most peculiarly belongs to every being; and there is nothing so peculiar to us, as a sense of religion. Which if we do not exercise together, we do not act like men; who in all reason, should join to maintain and promote that which is most proper to them, (viz. religion) more than anything else in the world.

For which end God hath given to us alone the gift of speech, which no other creatures have besides ourselves; that we should proclaim His praises, and make it known that we honour Him, and excite one another to the love of Him, the Supreme Being. Who needs no words to tell Him our thoughts; but is acquainted with the very beginning of them, before they are formed and therefore hath bestowed upon us the faculty of speaking, that we may tell our thoughts unto others, and make them understand that we are religiously affected towards Him. Who, if He had intended