of Tongues, and Praying by the Spirit, or Immediate Inspi∣ration: For these being given to those that had them, to profit with∣al, or (as the same St. Paul elsewhere more expresly declares) for the work of the Ministry, for the edifying of the Body of Christ, suppose the meeting of that Body to receive profit by them, and consequent∣ly (because that is the End of those Gifts) for Publick Instruction and Prayer.
2. My second Argument for the necessity of the Publick Worship of God, shall be taken from the Rules St. Paul often gives for the right management of Christian Assemblies; such as are, That no man should speak in an unknown tongue, if there were not one by to inter∣pret; That when they spake, they should do it by two, or at the most by three; and in fine, That all things should be done decently and in order. For what need were there of all this stir about the manage∣ment of Christian Assemblies, if the Author of our Religion had not at all enjoyn'd them, but left Men to their own Private Worship? Neither will it avail to reply, as possibly it may be, That the Rules laid down for the management of Assemblies, do rather suppose them useful, than necessary to be held: For, as what is so hugely useful, can∣not be suppos'd to be other than necessary, if we consider the many Precepts that enjoyn us the edifying of one another: so he that shall consider St. Paul's Accuracy in laying down Rules concerning Christian Assemblies, will not doubt of their being necessary to be held: it be∣ing not to be thought, that he who is so careful elsewhere to distinguish between his own Advices, and the Commands of the Lord, would take so much pains in prescribing Rules for the management of Christian Assemblies, without so much as taking notice, that those Assemblies, concerning which he gave Rules, were no other than Advices of his own. Add hereunto,
3. The perpetual Practice of the Church, and that too at such times when those Assemblies were perillous to those that held them: For that shews plainly, that the holding of Assemblies had some higher Ori∣ginal, than onely the usefulness thereof: It being not to be thought, that the Christians of all Times, and even of the most dangerous ones, would have held such Assemblies, if they had not look'd upon themselves as straitly obliged to them.
4. But to come up yet more closely to the Ground of holding As∣semblies, which I think I may not without cause establish in that of our Blessed Saviour, Mat. 18.20. to wit, That where two or three were gathered together in his Name, he would be in the midst of them. For, as those Words of his are an assurance to those who should be so gathered, that Christ would be in the midst of them, that is to say, (as the foregoing Words import) to grant them the Petitions they should ask, and more particularly such as were of Publick concern; so the same Words do imply, that he would not be so present to those who should not so assemble together. Otherwise the Reason where∣with he recommends the Assembling in his Name, would be weak and null; because so it might be affirm'd, that they might have Christ present to them without. Now, forasmuch as Christ not onely pro∣mises that he would be in the midst of those who should so assemble, but insinuates also, and that clearly enough, that he would not be so present to those that did not; he thereby lays a necessity upon Chri∣stians