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respect! The servants of Christ are "the true circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh." They succeeded to the spiritual privileges of the Jewish church, and enjoy them in a still higher degree. They are the salt of the earth; they are, through the illuminations of the Sun of Righteousness, the "light of the world," the "city set on a hill, which cannot be hid."

The love of God will never fail to manifest itself, by saving those, in every sect and denomination, who appear to be partakers of his holiness. "Every one that loveth him that begat, loveth him also that is begotten of him." With all their imperfections, true Christians will invariably be esteemed by a good man as the excellent of the earth. Having contemplated the attachment which the centurion displayed to the people of God, let us next consider in what manner his attachment was evinced. It was not an empty profession, productive of no fruit.

II. He "hath built us a synagogue." The original words are more emphatic : "It is he who built us a synagogue." Synagogues were places of worship, where the Jews were wont to assemble on their Sabbath, to hear the law and the prophets read and interpreted, accompanied with suitable exhortations to the people, and to present prayer and praise to God. Wherever ten Jews resided who were at leisure to attend the worship of God at ordinary times, as well as on the Sabbath, it was the opinion of the Jewish rabbies a Synagogue ought to be erected. Thither the people resorted, not only to hear the law, but also to offer up their supplications; the times of prayer, which were at nine in the morning, at noon, and at three o'clock in the evening, corresponding to the times of presenting the morning and evening incense. These buildings for public worship were very much multiplied at Jerusalem there were many hundreds of them; at Alexandria they were also prodigiously numerous; and there was scarcely a town where any number of Jews resided where there was not one or more. They were governed by a council of elders, over whom presided an officer called the angel of the synagogue, whence the title of angel is supposed to be given in the Revelation to the presiding elder or bishop in the Christian church.

In each synagogue a discipline was established for the support of purity of manners: and punishments were sometimes inflicted on notorious transgressors of the law. Thus we read of Saul, afterward named Paul, scourging men and women in the synagogues.

These places of worship are supposed to have taken rise among the Jews after the return from the Babylonish captivity; at least, we find no distinct traces of them before, though it was customary, even in the days of Elisha, to resort for instruction to the prophets, on the new moons and the Sabbaths.

They were a most important appendage to the temple-worship, and a principal cause of preventing the Israelites from relapsing into idolatry, to which they were before so strongly addicted. Instead of assembling at Jerusalem three times a year, where no public instruction was

delivered, but sacrifices and offerings only presented by the priest, the people, by means of synagogues, had an opportunity of listening to the writings of Moses and the prophets every Sabbath-day, the officiating ministers publicly harangued the people, and the persons who frequented the synagogue were united in religious society. While the temple-service was admirably adapted to preserve the union of the nation, and to prevent innovations in the public solemnities of religion, the synagogues were equally calculated for an increase of personal piety, and to perpetuate in the minds of the people the knowledge of revealed truth. After these were established, degenerate as the sons of Israel became, we never read of their relapsing into idolatry. The denunciations of the law were so often thundered in their ears, the calamities which their fathers had suffered for this offence were too familiar to their recollection, ever to allow them thus "to tempt the Lord to jealousy."

There is undoubtedly a great resemblance between the edifices erected for public worship among us and those of the Jews. They appear to me to bear a much greater analogy to the synagogues than to the temple. The temple was a single building, which the Israelites were forbidden to multiply, it being designed to be a centre of union to the whole nation, as well as the immediate seat of the Divine presence, which was confined to that spot: synagogues might be built at pleasure, and were spread over the whole land. The very idea of a temple is that of an immediate habitation of the Deity, who manifests himself there in a supernatural manner, or, at least, is believed so to do by his votaries. In the heathen temples, after they were duly consecrated, the gods in whose honour they were erected were supposed to take an immediate and preternatural possession of them. What was mere

pretence or delusion among the heathen was at the temple of Jerusalem an awful reality: the Lord visibly "dwelt between the cherubim." In places set apart for Christian worship, there were no such visible tokens of the presence of God. The manner of his presence is spiritual, not local; he dwells in the hearts of his worshippers. St. Stephen taught the Jewish nation, that it was one of the distinctions of the Christian dispensation that the Highest no longer "dwelleth in temples made with hands." An altar, a sacrifice, and a priest were the necessary appendages of the temple. But, among Christians, we have no altar so called but the cross; no priest but the Son of God, who remaineth "a priest for ever;" and no sacrifice but the sacrifice "once offered for the sins of the world." The priestly office of Christ put an end to the typical priesthood of the sons of Aaron. It is an everlasting priesthood, and admits of no rival or substitute. In popular language, indeed, we give the appellation to that order of men who are set apart to minister in sacred things; and it is of no consequence, providing we recollect that it is but figurative language, not designed to be rigorously exact for the apostolic definition of a priest, in the strict sense of the word, is one "taken from among men, and ordained for men in things pertaining to God, that may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins." In the temple-service no provision was made for the regular instruction VOL. III.-L

of the people in the principles of religion beyond what the more serious attention might call out from the typical import of its services, which were indeed" a shadow of good things to come," and obscurely pointed to the Saviour. It was erected as a place of national rendezvous, where God gave audience to the people as their temporal sovereign, and received their sin-offerings and peace-offerings, as an acknowledg ment of their offences and tokens of their allegiance. The ceremonial institution was then in the highest degree pompous and splendid. Synagogues were established, it has already been observed, for the worship of individuals, for the instruction of the people in religious principles, and for the exercise of prayer and devotion every Sabbath, as well as on other suitable occasions. The mode of worship was plain and simple, and more corresponding to the genius of Christianity.

To this we must add, that the platform of the church was framed, in a great measure, on the plan of the Jewish synagogues, as is generally acknowledged by the most learned men. The Scriptures were read and interpreted in both, which was the origin of preaching; prayer was addressed to God in the name of the congregation; each was governed by a council of elders, over which one presided, which gave birth to the title of bishops; and irregularities of conduct and errors in doctrine were the subjects of censure and animadversion. Excommunication in the Christian church was similar in its effects to an expulsion from the synagogue. So great was the resemblance between Christian assemblies and synagogues, that they are sometimes, in Scripture, used as synonymous terms. "If there come into your assembly," says St. James, a man with a gold ring, or goodly apparel:" in the original it is synagogue. We need not be surprised at that close analogy we have traced, when we reflect that the first converts to Christianity were principally Jews, who, incorporating themselves into societies, adopted, as far as they were permitted by the Holy Ghost, the usages and forms to which they had so long been accustomed.

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III. The passage which is the ground of this discourse represents the conduct of the centurion as highly praiseworthy and exemplary. "He is worthy," say the Jewish elders, " for whom thou shouldst do this; for he loveth our nation, and hath built us a synagogue."

To assist in the erection of places of worship, providing it proceed from right motives, is unquestionably an acceptable service to the Most High. Whatever extends his worship, in facilitating the means of it, is directly calculated to promote his glory and the salvation of men, with which the worship is inseparably connected. The service and worship of God is the very end of our creation; the perfection of it constitutes the glory of heaven; and its purity and spirituality, in whatever degree they subsist, are the chief ornaments of earth.

The increase of places dedicated to public worship ought surely to be no matter of lamentation or offence. They are rendered necessary by the increase of population. It is this which renders that accommodation quite inadequate at present which was sufficient in former times.

The edifices devoted to the established religion in our country

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are plainly too few, and the accommodation afforded to the poor espe cially too scanty, were the people ever so well disposed, to accommodate all who might wish to resort to them. Were I to advance this on my own [authority,] I am well aware it would be entitled to little weight. I must be allowed to corroborate it by the testimony of one of the most distinguished ornaments of the Church of England, a clergyman, a man of elevated rank, of enlarged and profound observation, and of exalted piety, who notices this evil in the following terms:"Where are the poor in our large towns, where are the poor in the metropolis to find room? One of the consequences obviously resulting from this deficiency, wherever it subsists, of accommodation in a parochial church for the poor is this, that they are reduced to the alternative of frequenting no place of worship, or of uniting themselves with some of the Methodists or dissenters. Each branch of the alternative has been adopted within my knowledge. That those who cannot obtain admittance into our places of worship should frequent the religious assemblies of some of our brethren in Christ who differ from us, ought to be a subject of thankfulness to ourselves. But are we justified in driving them from truth which we regard as simple, and as taught under very favourable circumstances, to truth blended with error, or presented under circumstances of disadvantage?" The preference this writer avows for his own denomination is such as becomes every honest man; while the favourable opinion he avows of the designs of others does honour to his head and heart.

Till the legislature will exert itself, by adopting some effectual measure for the more extensive accommodation of the people in parochial churches, no enlightened friend of religion will complain of the supply of this deficiency by the exertions of persons out of the pale of the establishment. It is above all things necessary to the welfare of the state, to the salvation of souls, and the glory of God, that public worship should be supported and upheld: in what edifices, or with what forms, providing heresy and idolatry are excluded, is a consideration of inferior moment. We do not differ from our brethren in the establishment in essentials; we are not of two distinct religions: while we have conscientious objections to some things enjoined in their public service, we profess the same doctrines which they profess; we worship the same God; we look for salvation through the blood of the same Mediator; we implore the agency of the same blessed Spirit by whom we all have access to the Father; we have the same rule of life; and maintain, equally with them, the necessity of that "holiness without which none shall see the Lord."

The increasing demand for new places of worship, or for enlarging the old, arises, in a great part, from the increased attention paid to the concerns of religion.

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XXXIII.

ON THE REWARD OF THE PIOUS IN HEAVEN.

MATT. v. 12.-Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven.

THE gospel of Christ is not intended to extinguish or impair the natural sensibility of the human mind; but to purify and refine it, rather, by directing it to its proper objects. It proposes to transfer the affections from earth to heaven,-from a world of shadows and illusions to a world where all is real, substantial, and eternal. By connecting the present with the future, by teaching us to consider every event in its relation to an hereafter, it presents almost every thing under a new aspect, and gives birth to such views of human life as, on a superficial observation, appear false and paradoxical. What can appear more so than to call upon men to "rejoice and be exceeding glad," when they are persecuted and reproached, and loaded with every kind of calumny? Yet such, we find, is the language of that Teacher who, "coming from above, is above all."

Nor is there any difficulty in admitting the justness and propriety of the sentiment contained in this injunction, when it is added, "for great is your reward in heaven." A consummation so glorious throws a lustre over all the preparatory scenes, and turns into an occasion of joy and exultation that from which we should otherwise recoil with horror. We may reasonably be expected to welcome the short-lived pains which are to be followed by eternal pleasures, and those temporary reproaches which will be compensated with everlasting glory. rary

I. The felicity which awaits those who persevere, through good and evil report, in a steadfast adherence to Christ, is frequently expressed in the Scriptures by the name of reward. It is almost unnecessary to remind you that this term is not on such occasions to be taken in its most strict and proper sense, as though the patience and perseverance of the saints deserved eternal felicity. Nothing is more opposed to the doctrine of Scripture, and the feelings of a real Christian, than such an idea. It is true, the inspired writers evince no reluctance to employ this term. Our Lord declares, "He that receiveth a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet's reward; and he that receiveth a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man's reward; and whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water in the name of a disciple, he shall in no wise lose his reward."* "Love your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be called the children of the Highest." St. Paul assures us, " Every man shall receive his own reward: if any man's work abide, he shall receive a

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