begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift! We beseech thee, Lord, to give us that due sense of all thy mercies, and in particular, of this thy greatest mercy, that our hearts may be unfeignedly thankful, and that we may shew forth thy praise, not only with our lips, but in onr lives, by giving up ourselves to thy service, and by walking before thee in holiness and righteousness all our days, through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom with thee and the Holy Ghost be all honour and glory, world without end. Amen.

SERMON XXXI.

EXODUS XX. 8.

Remember the Sabbath-Day to keep it holy.

THIS is the commandment of the Great God. It is one of the ten words spoken with divine majesty on Mount Sinai, and also written by the finger of God on tables of stone. There is no commandment of the ten of greater consequence than this: yet scarcely any one is so much disregarded. Well, therefore, may it begin with the word, Remember!' seeing that thoughtless mortals are so prone to forget it.

We are by no means to suppose that this law was given to the Jews only. It is not of a ceremonial nature, but moral; as all the ten are. The Sabbath was not first instituted when the law was given to Moses; it was only renewed. We read of the Sabbath in the second chapter of Genesis. It began as soon as the world began; for on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made and God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it.' There can be no doubt that Adam, Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, and all the good men of old, observed the Sabbath; but when the descendants of Abraham became slaves in Egypt, it is probable that they could not observe it as they ought: but now, being delivered from bondage, the law was revived, and they are commanded to remember' the Sabbath Day, to keep it holy.

This law, then, is of perpetual obligation. And if God saw it needful for Adam to keep it, even in Paradise, and before he sinned, how much more necessary is it for us to keep it? He had no hard work to do, from which he required rest; his heart was full of the love of God, and every day was like a Sabbath: but, as for us,

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the labours of our bodies, and the cares of our minds, are such as to make a weekly rest absolutely necessary. Besides, we are so full of sin, so surrounded by temptation, and so apt to forget God and our souls, that we greatly need a weekly Sabbath to call away our affeetions from the world, and direct them to things above.

It is true that we do not keep the self-same day as the Jews did. They kept the seventh day of the week; but we, the first. But the morality of the Sabbath does not consist in its being the seventh day of the week; but in its being the seventh part of our time. Besides, we have the same authority for keeping the first day, as they had for keeping the seventh; for Jesus Christ is Lord of the Sabbath;' and his apostles, who acted by his direction, and under the influence of his Spirit, constantly met for divine worship on the first day of the week, which was called 'The Lord's Day :' Acts xx. 7; Rev. i. 10. This was kept because it was the day of his resurrection; and as the Sabbath was first of all kept because the work of creation was finished, and renewed when God had finished the great work of redeeming his people from bondage; so the Christian Sabbath is kept on the day when the Lord arose from the dead, having finished the great work of redeeming souls from sin, death, and hell.-There is also great reason to think that the creation-Sabbath was changed when the Jews came out of Egypt, so that they kept their first Sabbath in the wilderness, on the sixth day of the week, accounting it the seventh from their coming out of Egypt; and that this continued to be the Jewish Sabbath, typical, as all their ordinances were; and that, upon the resurrection of Christ, the Sabbath reverted to its original seventh day. Many learned men have been of this opinion and if they have not fully proved it, they have made it very probable. And this opinion seems to be countenanced by what St. Paul says, in his epistle to the Hebrews (ch. iv.); where, speaking of the Jews, he says, they entered not into the promised rest on aocount of their unbelief;' and that David, long after, speaks of another rest,' and of another day,' or season, in which he might be sought; he concludes that there remaineth a rest, or sabbatism, for the people of

God; that is, a New Testament Sabbath, or Christian Sabbath, in which believers rest in the finished work of Christ, and enjoy a foretaste of the heavenly rest.

The word Remember' seems to intimate the necessity of preparing for it. We should remember, on the Saturday, that the Lord's day is at hand. People in trade prepare for the market-day; and why should not Christians get ready for the Sabbath, which is the mar ket-day for their souls? It is a great sin that wages are paid, provisions bought, houses cleaned, perhaps linen washed on the Sunday morning. By these and other worldly employments, the best part of the day is lost, and perhaps only some of the last hours of it, if any at all, are devoted to God. We must ' remember the Sabbath Day, and so prepare for it, as to be ready for the service of God, and devote the whole of the day to it.

In the further consideration of this text, we shall, I. Show how the Sabbath is to be kept holy; and, II. Give some reasons why it should be kept holy. In keeping the Sabbath holy, we are to consider what ought not to be done, and what ought to be done.

What ought not to be done is expressed in these words: Thou shalt not do any work-thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy man-servant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor the stranger that is within thy gates.' Six days are allowed for labour; but the seventh is a day of rest. Our worldly business, whatever it be, must be laid aside. The whole family, as well as the master of it, must cease from worldly employments; and this commandment is directed particularly to masters of families, who are to take care that all persons under their roof keep the Sabbath.

We cannot suppose that only work, or manual labour, or trade, is here forbidden. Every thing is forbidden that is inconsistent with the design of the day, which is, to serve God, and edify our souls. Travelling, walking, or riding for mere pleasure; trifling visits, paying or receiving wages, frequenting public-houses, writing letters, settling accounts, reading books on ordinary subjects; yea, conversations of a worldly kind, are here forbidden. Many, who will not work on the Lord's

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Day, will play, and take their pleasure; but this is worse than working. St. Austin, long ago, observed, that it is better to plough on the Sabbath than to dance.'

The Sabbath is as much profaned by idleness as by business. Mere rest of body is the Sabbath of a beast, not of a man. We have immortal souls, and this is the day in which their eternal welfare is to be sought. We have the authority of God for these assertions (Isa. lviii. 13): If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath'from trampling upon it, or from travelling on it, or from walking at large, as if under no restraint from doing thy pleasure on my holy day'-that is, from carnal pleasure, doing that which is agreeable to thy corrupt inclinations; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, and honourable'-esteeming it above all other days, taking holy pleasure in the ways of God-' and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words'— not gratifying the flesh, nor indulging in trifling and impertinent conversation; then, saith the Lord, thou shalt delight thyself in the Lord,' &c.-thou shalt have the honour, profit. and pleasure of it; for God hath blessed this day.

But some will say-What! is nothing at all to be done on the Sabbath? I answer, Works of NECESSITY and MERCY are allowed; they were so by the Jewish law. Our Saviour healed the sick on that day, and reproved the Pharisees for their severity and rigour in their observance of it; showing that, if it were lawful to feed or water a beast, it was certainly lawful to do good to men on that day; observing, also, that the Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath :' -it was made for the good of man, both in body and soul; and therefore he is not to be prevented from that which is necessary to his comfortable support. Doubtless, the getting of food, clothing ourselves decently, visiting the sick, bestowing alms, taking care of children, and many other things, are lawful on the Sabbath. But great care must be taken that this indulgence is not carried too far. That cannot be accounted a work of necessity or mercy which may be done on Saturday,