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ON PUBLIC WORSHIP,

CONTAINING

OBSERVATIONS AND REMARKS

ON THE

DIFFERENT PARTS OF RELIGIOUS WORSHIP;

WITH SOME

HINTS AND DIRECTIONS FOR THE DUE PERFORMANCE OF THEM.

BY THE REV. JOHN JONES,

Minister of Cradley Chapel, Worcestershire, and Author of "Scripture Antiquities.”

Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God, and be more ready to hear, than to give the sacrifice of fools: for they consider not what they do. Eccles. vi, 1.

LONDON:

PRINTED FOR L. B. SEELEY & SON, FLEET-STREET ;

By J. Seeley, Buckingham.

1824.

D

2000 195/

CONTENTS.

ESSAY I.

CHURCH of Christ owes its existence to public
worship.-Wisest and best men publicly worshipped
God.-Line of distinction between the infidel and
believers. Saying of the Rabbins.-Necessity and
reasonableness of public worship.--A privilege as well
as duty.-Sentiments of David on public worship.-
Sabbath and its duties.-Advantages of public worship.
The employment of saints and angels. The public pro-
fession of our faith.-Neglect of public worship, and
its consequences.-Reasons for constant attendance at
public worship.---Example of the primitive Christians.-
Sabbath, a blessing.---Profanation of the sabbath for-
bidden by the law of God, and the laws of our country.
Grateful attendance on public worship recommended.

ESSAY II.

Inconsistencies and indifference during public wor-
ship.---Carelessness and irreverence.---Not uniting in
public prayer.-Erroneous notions of public worship.-
Wrong motives of attending public worship.---Propriety
of conduct in the house of God pointed out.-Prayers
to be offered up in the name of Christ.-Collects in the
Liturgy end in His name.---Sermon no part of the
immediate worship of God.-Serious attention proper.-
Sleeping in public worship exposed.-The heart to be
fixed on God.-Quotation from Dr. Doddridge's Life of

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House of God.-Its name.-Uniformity of worship
necessary. The expediency of forms of prayer.-
Advantages of our Liturgy.---Its tendency.-Its_excel-
lency.-Testimonies of Dr. A. Clarke, and Mr. Robert
Hall of Leicester.-Its prayers extant before popery
began.-Prayers not to be only said but prayed.---
Apparent conduct of many during public worship.-
Prayer and praise, essential acts of devotion.---Impro-
priety of sitting down in time of prayer.---Kneeling the
most proper posture.-Standing, a posture of prayer.-
Inconveniency in some churches to kneel.--No inde-
cencies of conduct should be seen in the house of God.
The act of public worship tends to elevate the mind.

ESSAY V.

The Law commanded to be publicly read every sab-
batical year.--Scriptures read in the synagogue service.
The Christian Church adopted the custom.--Excellency
of our Liturgy.---So large a portion of Scripture read
every sabbath day.-Doctrines of our Church, the doc-
trines of the Bible.-Directions of our Church to read
the Scriptures.-Scriptures to be read with the under-
standing. The privilege of possessing the Scriptures.-
The duty of profiting by them.

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ESSAY VI.

Origin of preaching from a text.-Preaching still
appointed as a means of grace.-Ministers of Christ
charged to preach the whole truth.-St. Paul's mode
of preaching.-Great plainness of speech expedient.-
The Christian minister is to preach scripturally.--The
sermons of the ancient fathers.-The modern method
of preaching different from the ancient --The mode of
preaching in the primitive times.-What is required of
the Christian preacher-Essential doctrines of the Gos-
pel to be brought forward.-Political preaching, the
impropriety of, and its bad tendency.-Extempore
preaching, from notes, and written sermons-difficult
to say which is the best.-Christian minister is to preach
faithfully, &c. evangelically, practically.—Directions to
the hearers.

APPENDIX.

Apostolical Canons for the regulating and conducting
of the Public Worship of God.

Christian Minister's Soliloquy in his way to the
Sanctuary.

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