religion should be only a private business, might have made us without tongues, because He needs no language to acquaint Him with our desires; but hears our very thoughts, and perceives the most inward motions of our souls. Which we have power to express in words, not that He may understand us, but for the benefit of others, that they may understand our sense, and know that we are lovers of God, and be stirred up by our Prayers, and Praises, and Thanksgivings, to the same devotion towards Him. Whence David calls his tongue" his glory," (Psal. lvii. 8.) because therewith he glorified God; and, as it there follows, (ver. 9.) "Praised God among the people, and sung nnto Him among the nations."

Thus St. Paul supposes, when he saith Prayers ought not to be made in an unknown tongue, because if they were, he that was not learned in that tongue, would not be able to say "Amen," 1 Corinth. xiv. 16. which word, Amen," was then it seems pronounced, at the end of every Prayer, by the whole com

pany; for whom the public minister spake to God, and was as it were their mouth, in what he said. But though it was thus ordered to avoid confusion, and that it might be distinctly known by every body, what was said in the Church, (which had been impossible, if they had all spoken together) yet they thought themselves bound to signify and declare that he spake their sense, by saying, "Amen," at the conclusion of the Prayer he made. Which was as much in effect, as if they had said every word of it themselves; for it was as much as to say, they approved of, and consented to the whole. And this every one did so audibly, that a great multitude being gathered together in a church, it imitated the voice of thunder, as St. Hierom tells us.

And, verily, it is a great fault that we do not all thus join in the public Prayers at this day; not only by our bodily presence, but with our tongues, which ought to express our consent to those petitions and thanksgivings, which are offered up to God in the name of us all.

III.

And there is a farther reason for com

mon Prayer; because the blessings we enjoy in common together, are far greater than those we enjoy singly and distinct one from another. We all breathe in one common air, and enjoy the comfort of one common light; the heavens drop their fatness in common upon every man's fields and pastures: and, which is more than all the rest, the great blessings of order and government, (the benefits of which we all enjoy, by being knit in the same society, under the same governor,) make it highly reasonable, that we should join ourselves together, as one man, to acknowledge these common blessings, which make us all happy. For being made for society, and enjoying innumerable benefits thereby, (which this is not a place to mention particularly,) we have lost all sense of what we are, and what we have, if we do not think ourselves bound to give God thanks for them in one body, begging His pardon for their abuse, and beseeching their continuance.

I name not now the greatest blessing of all, which is the redemption of mankind by Jesus Christ, (in which not a few particular persons,

but all in general are concerned, it being the common salvation, as St. Jude calls it,) because it belongs to the next head; where we shall consider mankind, as a Church, bound to bless God above all things for His grace in the Lord Jesus.

Let us look at present only to the visible heavens, which encircle us all, and proclaim aloud, as the Psalmist speaks, the glory of God throughout the world. Behold the sun, that great minister of God, which preaches, as I may say, every where, and publishes, not to one place or country, but to the whole earth, the praises of the Lord. It is not a private whisper, but a public cry, which the heavenly bodies make; "there is neither speech nor language, but their voices are heard among them. Their sound is gone out into all lands, and their words into the ends of the world :" which tell us what we should do, and call upon us to make the voice of His praise to be heard, as much and as far as we are able; Who hath appointed such illustrious creatures, to do us perpetual service.

Which is the meaning of the holy Psalmist, when he calls upon all creatures in heaven and in earth, both visible and invisible, to praise the Lord. (Psalm cxlviii.) That is, he excites himself and others, to give God thanks for them; and to acknowledge the praises which they continually give Him; His most glorious perfections, that is, which they declare and set forth, in the most public manner. For they speak to all, as much as they do to one, the most excellent, immense greatness, and goodness of the Lord, who in wisdom also hath made them all; and this we ought as publicly to declare it being all that we can do for the honour of His name, but only live accordingly; which this also teaches us, and makes absolutely necessary, that we may eternally praise Him.

There is an excellent discourse I remember, in St. Chrysostom to this purpose, in his ninth Homily upon Genesis: where, shewing how God hath preferred mankind above all other creatures, he concludes with this exhortation. "Let us therefore give Him thanks for all