PHI LOS 0 P H Y . - Classic Works of Apologetics Online

Duty and Efficacy of Prayer. 273
~he seventh day less religiously than he passed any
of the six, in a sleepy, stupid rest, or at some rendezvous
of drunkeIlness and debauchery, and yet thinks
that he is only imitating you, because you both
agree in not going to church. The same considerationshould
overrule many small scruples concerning
the rigorous propriety of some things, which may be
~ontained in the forills, or adnutted into the administration
of the public worship of our conununion:
for it seems impossible, that even" two or three should
be gathered rogethcr," ill any act of social worship, if
each one l-eq uire from the rest an implicit submission
to his objections; alld if no man will att~nd
upon a
religiou~ service, \vhich in any point COlltradicts his o­
pinion of tntth, or falls short of his ideas of perfection.
Beside the dil-ect necessity of public \\:orship to the
greater part of every CIlrisrian conlffiunity (supposing
worship at all to be a CJlristian duty) there are other
valuable adval1tages gro\\'ing out of the use of religious
assemblies, without being designed ill the institution,
or thought of by the individuals \\Tho compose them.
1. Joining in prayer and praises to their common
Creator and Governor has a sensible tendency to
. unite mankind together) and to cherish and enlarge
the generous affection~
So many pathetic reflections are awakened by every
exercise of social devotion, that most nlen, I be ..
iieve,