A

SERMON

DELIVERED AT THE DEDICATION

OF THE

NEW CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH

IN

CHESHIRE,

AUGUST 1, 1827.

BY DAVID L. OGDEN,

PASTOR OF THE CHURCH IN SOUTHINGTON.

NEW HAVEN:

PRINTED BY HEZEKIAH HOWE.

SERMON, &c.

PSALM 1xxxix. 7.-God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints, and to be had in reverence of all them that are about him.

CHRISTIANITY is a social religion. Though its enjoyments are found in solitude; yet they spring from the influence which the assembly of the saints exerts. They who compose this assembly make a special approach to God. This truth the text affirms, according to the well known law of Hebrew poetry, called Parallelism. In the kind of parallelism which the text exemplifies, the latter clause of the verse answers literally and exactly to the former. "God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints," is a proposition of the same meaning exactly as the one which af firms that he is "to be had in reverence of all them that are about him." The former proposition is perfectly easy to comprehend, and must mean that God is to be feared in the public congregation of his people; and the latter, therefore, distinctly identifies that body with "them that are about him," or in other words, "them that are near him.”

Good men are always mentioned in the scriptures, not merely as worshipping God separately, but as associating themselves together for that service. In the first periods of the church, the father of a family was the minister of religion for his own household; and this was an assembly of the saints. Afterwards, when the world became corrupt, and there was likely to be an entire forgetfulness of the true God, Abraham was chosen to perpetuate the knowledge of him through all generations. In his family, by the institution of a covenant with an appropriate sign, the patriarchal church was continued to the time of Moses. Another dispensation then arose, in which the worship of the true God was conducted in larger assemblies. The whole congregation of the people

of Israel sang together of the wonderful works of the Lord; and partook together of the ordinances of his church. These ordinances were of a social nature, and were commanded to be celebrated from generation to generation. When this people became established in the land which the Lord God sware unto their fathers, they assembled, by divine appointment, once a year, either personally or by delegation, in one place, to acknowledge the providence of God, and to make mention of his holiness. At length Solomon built a splendid house in Jerusalem, their capital city; and thither the tribes went up, the tribes of the Lord, to the testimony of Israel. In times still subsequent, synagogues were built throughout the land, where those who lived in adjacent parts, assembled every sabbath for the worship of God; still continuing, however, the practice of going up to Jerusalem. When our Lord Jesus Christ came into the world, he united with the Jews in their social worship, and was an example of confor mity to all the ordinances of the church. His immediate followers did the same till the new dispensation was set up, when they met every first day of the week, to break bread and attend to all the duties of social worship.

With this idea of the facts existing during the periods in which the bible was written, the term "assembly of the saints" is sufficiently intelligible. The text then is no other than a distinct allusion to the public worship of God. This is the subject, therefore, to which I would call your attention. In doing this I shall endeavour to show,

I. That Public Worship is an appointment of God: II. The Manner in which it should be performed: and III. The Influence which it exerts.

In the first place--Public Worship is a divine appointment. Almost all Christendom have agreed in one principle, and that is, that every institution or appointment of the Old Testament, is in full force now, except such as have been set aside by divine authority. On this principle we affirm, that the

moral law is binding upon us, because it was once given to the church of God, and has never been revoked. On the same principle we place the sanctity of the sabbath, and the dedication of the infant children of believers to God, in the initiatory ordinance of the church. On the other hand, we affirm, that the church is released from the ceremonial law, not merely because it was of temporary use, for of this we are not always competent judges, but because it is repealed by the authority of the New Testament. We affirm, too, on the same principle, that the whole system of sacrifices, which prevailed from the beginning till the appearance of the Saviour, is of no obligation now, because God has set that system aside, Christ having offered up himself once for all, as, by way of eminence, "the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world."

Now, the public worship of God is, to say the least, an institution as early in its date as the time of Moses; for at that time the various ordinances of the Jewish form of the church were established. It will not be doubted that the whole congregation united together in the wilderness, in celebrating the praises of God, as an assembly of the saints; nor that they did so after their establishment in the promised land; nor that the ark of the covenant was deposited in a certain place, and that thither they went to inquire of the Lord; nor that they frequently, in the course of their history, stood before God with all their households, to engage themselves to be his. It will not be doubted, that the temple was built in conformity. to this institution, and that the worship therein conducted, was of divine appointment, and was that social worship which constitutes an assembly of the saints. Nor will it be doubted, that when every city, containing a thousand inhabitants, was furnished with a synagogue, the same institution is manifest.

Our Lord Jesus Christ, then, when he came into the world, found the people of God in the habit of assembling together for divine worship. His silence on the subject, and his constant example of assembling with them, amount to a positive precept in favour of the practice. It was already established,