A SERMON PREACHED AT THE GRAVEL PIT MEETING, IN HACKNEY, APRIL 19TH, 1793, Being the day appointed for a General Faft. By JOSEPH PRIESTLEY, LL. D. F. R. S. &c. LONDON: PRINTED FOR J. JOHNSON, NO. 72, ST. PAUL'S CHURCH YARD. 1793. 2-21-33 Swe Graftore 1-4-33 27334 THE PREFACE. THE obferving of days appointed by civil governors for the purpose of religious acts, as of public humiliation or thanksgiving, being objected to by many of my brethren, I wish to inform them, in this Preface, of the light in which I confider it, as a vindication of my own practice. Since focieties of men are as dependant on the Supreme Being as individuals, public worfhip is as proper in itself as private, and if a whole nation could be affembled in one place, and a perfon could be heard as speaking for them all, this would be as proper as the worship of a fingle parish. But what cannot be done in one affembly may be done in many, and if any one time (which is on feveral accounts most proper) be fixed upon for any act of national worship, it must be done by perfons invested with civil authority, With us it is done by the King's proclamation, but as this has not, in this country, the force of law, it can only be confidered as an advice, or requifition, A 2 |