_Ante urbem in luco falsi Simoëntis ad undam_,
observes, _Virgil_ never mentions a grove without a note of religion. Again, _Æneid_ IX. _ver._ 4. _Strabo_ says, the poets call temples by the name of groves. And this is frequently done in the scripture. But it is natural for our classic writers, when speaking of the Druids and their great attachment to religious rites, so different from what they were acquainted with, to insist much upon their groves; overlooking our monuments, which they would scarce dignify with the name of temples, because not covered like their own. Yet if with some, we would from hence conclude, that they were the only temples of the Druids, and therefore _Stonehenge_ and the works we are upon, were none of theirs, we should err as much, as if we asserted _Abraham_ only made use of groves, and not of the other temples erected on plains and open places.
Thus far I premis’d with brevity, as an introduction to our discourse, shewing the origin of temples among mankind; a necessary provision for that duty we owe to our sovereign author and benefactor. For unless we can prove ourselves self-sufficient and independent, all nature cries aloud for our acknowledgment of this duty. Private and domestic prayer is our duty as private persons and families, that we have life, and subsistence, and the common protection of providence: but the profession and exercise of publick religion is equally necessary as we are a community, a part of the publick, a parish, a city, a nation, link’d together by government, for our common safety and protection; in order to implore at the hands of God almighty the general blessings of life, wanting to us in that capacity. And that person who secludes himself from his share in this duty, is a rebel and traitor to the publick, and is virtually separated from the common blessings of heaven. But _time_ is equally necessary to this publick duty as _place_, as every one’s reason must dictate. Therefore was the sabbath instituted; the very first command of our maker, even in the happy seat of _Paradise_, and before our fatal transgression. ’Tis the positive institution of God, and founded upon the strictest reason. So that if we allow the patriarchs to have built these temples, wherein to assemble for publick devotion, and disallow of the sabbath, because not particularly mention’d in the scripture that they did celebrate it, we think absurdly, and err against common sense and reason. The scriptures were given to teach us religion, but not to inform us of common sense and reason.