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 grateful commemoration of the expiatory sufferings and death of Christ, converted into a splendid and complicated ceremony. In the church of Rome, one deviation produced another, till the Lord's supper ended in the idolatrous sacrifice of the mass. In Protestant countries it is still called a sacrament. It is observed so seldom by many calling themselves christian churches, and attended to with so many appendages of preaching days, &c. that every unprejudiced person, in comparing such, practices with what the New Testament says concerning it, would at once pronounce, in the words of Paul, "This is not to eat the Lord’s Supper."

They likewise continued stedfastly in the prayers. Prayer is also a solemn service, inasmuch as it is an address presented unto God in the name of Christ, the great High-priest and Advocate, through whose mediation alone there is access unto the throne of grace with acceptance. It is the duty of Christians every where, and in every situation, and a most important branch of public worship. As prayers are mentioned in the plural, there mast have been a number of them put up at every meeting of the church and it is probable they were distributed or interspersed among the other parts of divine service. But it does not appear that all the prayers in the public assembly were put up by the pastors only.

Singing praise to God in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, is another branch of public worship. Those who through the Spirit believe the gospel of the grace of God, are furnished with the most solid grounds of thankfulness, gratitude, and joy; and singing is not only the natural expression of these happy and devout affections, but also the appointed means of exciting and strengthening them; and in so far as believers attend to this and every duty He hath commanded, in the way appointed in His word, in so far will they experience the accomplishment of the Promise, "Lo I am with you alway."