where present, and incessantly pervading his own work, it was naturally to be expected that some parts should be dedicated to his own peculiar service, to the humble adoration of his name, and the grateful recognition of his benefits: and it is remarkable that the heathen philosopher, whom I have before so largely cited, after his description of the creation, and the benevolent purposes visible in its construction, proceeds immediately to suppose, and argue upon as certain, some communication or intercourse between the Creator and his chief work, his only intelligent creature, man “. Hence, under the divine direction, originated altars, temples, churches; structures and places guarded from the profanation of vulgar use, consecrated to holy purposes, springing from a reverential awe of the Deity, and calculated to invigorate the feeling from whence they spring. Their origin and use is point

σε Τὸ δὲ καὶ, εἰ ἀδυνατοῦμεν τὰ συμφέροντα προνο“ εῖσθαι ὑπὲρ τῶν μελλόντων, ταύτῃ αὐτοὺς ἡμῖν συνεργεῖν, διὰ μαντικῆς τοῖς πυνθανομένοις φράζοντας τὰ ἀποβησόμενα, καὶ διδάσκοντας ᾗ ἂν ἄριστα γίγνοιντο *.”

Xenoph. Memorab. lib. iv. c. iii. § 5.

ed out and sanctioned in one of the first and the humblest of these fabrics: " And "Abram passed through the land unto the

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place of Sychem, unto the plain of Moreh: " and the Canaanite was then in the land. "And the Lord appeared unto Abram, "and said, Unto thy seed will I give this "land: and there builded he an altar unto "the Lord, who appeared unto him "."

It was, therefore, because the Lord deigned to appear or to be present with his faithful servant in some peculiar manner more than he is everywhere present, that the altar was built. And to this consecrated spot, as we find from the summary of Jewish history given by St. Stephen before his martyrdom, were the ashes of Abraham's direct descendants conveyed, even from Egypt, for interment : "So Jacob went "down into Egypt and died, he and our

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fathers, and were carried over into Sy

chem, and were laid in the sepulchre that “Abraham bought for a sum of money of "the sons of Emmor, the father of Sy"chem".

h Gen. xii. 6, 7.

i Acts vii. 15, 16.

The transfer of the body of Joseph to this holy receptacle, after a lapse of more than four hundred years, for so long the children of Israel abode in Egypt, from the time of the Patriarch's death, is particularly noticed in the sacred history: "And the "bones of Joseph, which the children of "Israel brought up out of Egypt, buried

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they in Shechem, in a parcel of ground " which Jacob bought of the sons of Hamor, "the father of Shechem, for an hundred

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pieces of silver: and it became the inherit

ance of the children of Joseph'. In such veneration were places held that had been once dedicated to the service of God, and hallowed by his peculiar presence. They were set apart for the interment of the dead, and the religious worship of the living.

As tribes increased, and were accumulated into nations, and the state of civil society was improved or renovated, temples were built around the altar, to guard the worshippers from the inclemency of the weather and the intrusion of the thought

* Exod. xii. 40.

1 Josh. xxiv. 32.

less.

"And they set the altar on its bases; "for fear was upon them: ... from the first

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day of the seventh month began they to "offer burnt-offerings unto the Lord: but “the foundation of the temple of the Lord

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was not yet laid"." And you will immediately recollect Solomon's sublime dedication of the first recorded edifice of this nature raised by the divine command: “Will "God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, "the heaven and heaven of heavens can"not contain thee; how much less this "house that I have builded! Yet have "thou respect unto the prayer of thy servant, and to his supplication, O Lord my

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God, to hearken unto the cry and to the

prayer which thy servant prayeth before "thee to-day; that thine eyes may be open "toward this house night and day, even

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toward the place of which thou hast said,

My name shall be there: that thou mayest hearken unto the prayer which thy ser"vant shall make toward this place. And hearken thou to the supplication of thy

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m Ezra iii. 3-6.

servant, and of thy people Israel, when "they shall pray toward this place; and “hear thou in heaven thy dwelling-place, "and when thou hearest forgive '."

It

Such is the origin, and such are the uses of consecrated ground and consecrated buildings. You see they are of divine authority. If there is a time appointed for the divine worship, an appointed place seems equally necessary, and that Being to whom the worship is addressed hath sanctioned both ". is, therefore, from just religious feeling that our churches are constructed, and are adorned in some instances with imposing magnificence. In all we hope they possess modest neatness and comely propriety: that they are secured from dilapidation or decay, and are entered with reverence. "Put off thy

11 Kings viii. 27.

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Though the devotion of the poet or of the philoso"pher may be secretly nourished by prayer, meditation, " and study, yet the exercise of public worship appears to "be the only solid foundation of the religious sentiments "of the people, which derive their force from imitation " and habit *.

Gibbon, vol. v. chap. xxvii.

P