tions wander after them; if we are cold, or lukewarm, with respect to our religious duties; if we are negligent of a serious and cordial attention to them; if we regard with impatience the interruption, occasioned to our secular concerns; if we wish the institution had not been appointed, or the time, in which it is to be kept, lessened; then, plainly, we do not esteem the Sabbath a Delight, nor abstain from finding our own pleasure. So long as this is the state of our thoughts; all our outward conformity to this precept; (for such is really the nature of the text) will be merely hypocritical. Every oblation from such a mind will be vain; and all its incense an abomination. The Sabbaths, and the calling of assemblies, among persons who act in this manner, will be such, as God cannot away with; and their solemn meeting will be iniquity. The heart gives birth to all the movements of the tongue. We profane the Sabbath, whenever we employ the time in Worldly Conversation. Such conversation is, in the text, denoted by the phrase, speaking thine own words: thine own being supplied by the translators. I think this supplement rational; since in the two preceding clauses we find doing THINE OWN ways, and finding thine own pleasure. Bishop Lowth, from similar phraseology in the ninth verse, supposes it should be vain words. The meaning, however, will differ immaterially.

Such conversation is, like our thoughts, directed indifferently to subjects of business, and of pleasure; and in both cases the Sabbath is subverted, and so far as this conversation extends, is changed from a holy, into a secular, day. God is robbed of his rights, and of his service: and we are prevented from attaining, and from a disposition to attain, the holiness, which is indispensable to salvation.

There is no way, in which the Sabbath is more easily, more insensibly, more frequently, and more fatally violated, than this. Temptations to it are always at hand. The transgression always seems a small one; usually a dubious one at the worst; and, often, no transgression at all. Multitudes of persons, of sober and wellmeaning dispositions, nay, multitudes, as there is but too much reason to fear, of professing Christians, beginning with religious subjects, slide imperceptibly towards those, which are considered as moral in such a degree, as scarcely to differ from religious ones; thence to secular themes, bordering upon these; and thence to mere matters of business, or amusement. Such persons, before they are aware, find themselves occupied in conversing about the affairs of the neighbourhood; the strangers, who are at Church; the new dresses; fashions; business; diversions; news, and politics. To these they are led by mere worldly conversation concerning the prayers; the psalmody; or the sermon; as having been well or ill devised, written, spoken, or performed; by a history, merely secular, of the sickness and deaths in the neighbourhood, or elsewhere, or of the dangerous or fatal accidents, which

have lately happened; the state of the weather; the season; the crops; the prospects; the affairs of the family; and by innumerable other things of a similar nature. The next step is, ordinarily, an habitual employment of this holy day in open, cool, and selfsatisfied, conversation about business; schemes of worldly pursuits; bargains; gains, and losses. It is not to be understood, that Christians go all these lengths. It is my real belief, however, that they go much farther, than they can justify; and fail, in this manner, of their duty; their improvement in the Christian life; their proper exemplariness of character; the evidence of their piety, which would spring from these sources; the hope, which it would inspire; the peace, which would accompany them; and the joy, in which they would delightfully terminate. Many sober men, however, who but for this very conduct might probably become Christians, go all these lengths; and thus lose, insensibly, their tenderness of conscience; their soberness of mind; and their desire, as well as their hope, of eternal life. Men less well-principled start, originally, at the end of this career; and thus annihilate the Sabbath at once: bidding, without anxiety, a final adieu to the Sabbath itself, and to its rich, exalted, and immortal blessings. The profanation of the Sabbath by Actions is seen, and acknowledged, by all decent men, who acknowledge it as a day, consecrated by God to himself. Actions are so open to the view of mankind; are so definitive a proof of the disposition; and, when violations of a known rule of duty, constitute so gross a proof of impiety; that all doubts concerning the true construction, to be given of them, vanish whenever they appear. The common and favourite modes of profaning the Sabbath, in this way, are spending our time in dress; in ministering to a luxurious appetite; in walking, or riding, for amusement; in writing letters of friendship; in visiting; and in reading books, which are not of a religious, but merely of a decent, character; and, ultimately, those which are formed to be the means of amusement and sport. The end of this progress, generally esteemed more gross, though perhaps in many instances not more, and in others less, sinful; is the devotion of this sacred day to downright business. Persons, who go this length, occupy the time in writing letters of business; posting their accounts; visiting post-offices; making bargains; transmitting money to their correspondents; going or sending to markets; making journeys, at first with, and afterwards without, pretences of necessity; and, ultimately labouring openly in the ordinary employments of life. This is what is called in the text doing our own ways. A man's way, in scriptural language, is the customary course

of his life.

All these things, whether existing in thought, word, or action, are called our own, in contradistinction to those which are God's: that is, to those, which are required of us by God: and every one of them is prohibited in the text.

2. We are required to abstain from Idleness.

Although the Sabbath is never to be spent in secular business, or amusement; it is still to be, invariably, a day of industrious exertion. There are some persons, who feel too much regard to the dictates of their consciences, to public opinion, to the commands of God, or to all of them, to consume the Sabbath in business, or amusement. Still, having no relish for the duties of the day, they spend it in idleness: satisfied with abstaining from those, which they esteem the grosser, and more direct, violations of this divine Institution. Accordingly, they lounge about their houses, gardens, or farms; and waste the season of salvation in sloth, sleep, or such a course of existence as resembles that of the oyster: a state, bordering upon the line which separates animated beings from those which are inanimate. This course of conduct is an annihilation of the Sabbath; the death of the day; and a frustration of all the designs, and blessings, of God, connected with this heavenly Institution. The Sabbath was intended to be the means of honouring God, and of saving the souls of men. But idleness is always dishonourable to God, and hostile to the salvation of the soul. Both of these great objects are accomplished by him only, who is not slothful in business, but fervent in spirit, serving the Lord.

3. We are bound to abstain, with peculiar caution, from acknowledged sins upon this holy day.

The abstinence, which I have hitherto specified, regards business and amusement, ordinarily lawful on other days. From that conduct, and those thoughts, which are universally sinful, we are bound to abstain, with peculiar care, upon the Sabbath; because, then, they are peculiarly henious. The sacred nature of this day, and the solemn consecration of it by God to himself, together with all the advantages, which we enjoy for religious instruction, and for all the duties of piety, furnish such a body of motives to our abstinence from sin, as cannot be resisted without peculiar guilt, Every sin, committed upon this day, is aggravated by the fact, that we have resisted these motives. At the same time, we are, by its very nature, so withdrawn from the world, so secured against temptation, and so much at leisure for solemn meditation, and for the establishment of firm resolutions of obedience in our minds, that, if we sin upon this day, we sin with fewer inducements to the iniquity, than upon other occasions. He, who indulges his wickedness on the Sabbath, will be in danger of rioting in it on the other days of the week.

It hardly needs to be remarked, that sinful ways are peculiarly our own, and eminently opposed to those, which are required by God.

In all the above recited particulars, those, who are guilty of them, openly violate the law of God; squander the accepted time; waste, and abuse, the means of grace; and lessen, Sabbath by Sabbath, their hopes of eternal life.

The Duties which we are to perform, are, generally, all the various offices of Religion. Good men, in ancient times, entered, on the Sabbath day, into the house of the Lord with praise and prayer. The Law, the Psalms, and the Prophets, were read in the Synagogues every Sabbath day. They feared God in the assembly of his saints: they praised him for his mighty acts; uttered abundantly the memory of his great goodness; and sung of his righteousness. They went on from strength to strength; every one of them in Zion appearing before God. They esteemed a day in his courts as better than a thousand. Their souls longed, yea, even fainted, for the courts of the Lord; their heart and their flesh cried out for the living God. Accordingly, the Lord God was to them a sun, and a shield. He gave them grace and glory; and withheld from them no good thing. In the same manner the early Christians esteemed the Sabbath a delight, and the holy of the Lord honourable. In the times of the Apostles, they continued in fellowship, in prayer, and in breaking of bread. They sung psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs. They prophesied; taught the doctrines of the Scriptures; uttered, and interpreted, Revelation; and collected alms for such saints as were in peculiar circumstances of distress. All these examples abundantly show us, that good men, during the ages of Inspiration, steadily accorded, and thought it their duty to accord, with the requisitions, contained in the text. What was their duty All these solemn services, therefore, and others connected with them, it is incumbent on us to perform in spirit, and in truth. We are to join our clves to the Lord, to serve him, according to the prediction of Isaiah concerning us, and the other Gentiles; to love the name of the Lord; to keep the Sabbath from polluting it ; and to take hold of his covenant. Particularly,

is ours.

1. We are to perform all the duties of Public Worship.

The Sabbath, as has been observed, was originally appointed for the commemoration of the divine glory, manifested in creating the world; and for the attainment, and improvement, of holiness in man. The manner, in which we should commemorate the glory of God in the work of Creation, on this day, is sufficiently taught us by the manner, in which the first Sabbath was celebrated. Then, we are informed, the Morning Stars sang together, and all the Sons of God shouted for joy. In the same manner was the work of the New Creation, and the divine glory displayed in it, celebrated by the same illustrious beings, according to the prophetical account, given in the sixty-eighth Psalm, of this wonderful event: an account, expressly applied to it by the Apostle Paul in the third chapter of the Epistle to the Ephesians. The Chariots of God are twenty thousand; even thousands of Angels. The Lord is among them, as in Sinai; as in the holy place. The very hymn, which they sung, seems to be transmitted to us in the following words: Thou hast ascended on high; thou hast led captivity captive; thou VOL. III.

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hast received gifts for men; yea, for the rebellious also; that the Lord God might dwell among them.

The manner, in which holiness and salvation are to be obtained, is every where taught in the Gospel. The truth of God, in the hands of the divine Spirit, is the great instrument, by which we are made free from the bondage of corruption. Faith, we know, cometh by hearing; and hearing, by the Word of God. This Word is, therefore, to be faithfully explained, and enforced, by the Preacher; and faithfully received by those who hear him. The prayers, and the praises, of every religious assembly, are to spring from the heart; and are to ascend up before the throne of infinite mercy, with dependence, with confidence, with love, with reverence, with gratitude, with hope, and with joy. Our prayers, and our praises, are also to be presented in the name of Christ, as the great and glorious Propitiation for the sins of men, and the true and living way of access to God. They are to be presented with faith in his name; that faith which occupies the whole heart, and alone interests us in the blessings of Redemption.

Christians, at the same time, are to unite in the administration, and celebration, of the Evangelical ordinances; Baptism and the Lord's Supper: and are thus in a peculiar and most affecting manner to commemorate the glory of Christ, manifested in the wonderful work of the new Creation.

All these things are to be done decently, and in order. At the same time, they are to be performed with plainness, simplicity, and no unnecessary rites. The Jewish worship was intended by its ceremonious magnificence to strike the imagination during the early and ignorant periods of society. To this end it was perfectly fitted. All its services were calculated to affect the senses in the deepest manner, and to find, through them, access to the heart. The Gospel, on the contrary, is addressed directly to the Understanding; and makes its way to the heart by means of the power of Conscience. Unnecessary rites are, here, both useless and noxious: since they allure the thoughts away from the doctrines and precepts, which are inculcated, to the ceremonies by which they are surrounded. In this manner, the spiritual worship of the Gospel is ever in danger of becoming a mere bodily exercise, unprofitable in itself, and destructive of piety. The ceremonies of the Romish Church exterminated its devotion; and became, extensively, the cause, as well as the effect, of that corruption, which by men of real religion has been justly regarded as a prodigy.

2. On this holy day, also, we are bound to perform the various Private duties of Religion.

The worship of the family, and that of the closet, are the duty of all families, and of all individuals, every day they live. Equally is it the duty of all men to spend a part of every day in selfexamination; in religious meditation; and in contemplation on the