doned but unlike his kinsman Abraham, he was called to no important services. His early promises of usefulness were blasted by one fatal step, and as his life had been without credit, so his end was without glory.

The whole history of this unhappy man warns us in the most serious manner against a worldly spirit, bids us beware how in any single instance we abandon our religious interests for the sake of temporal advantages. We know not what may be the bitter consequences of one such fault. Can worldly gain compensate for the loss of inward peace? "What then will it profit a man if he should gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" Lot was saved. But how was he saved? Was it not by a miracle? Was he not plucked like a brand out of the fire? If you venture in his steps, can you presume to hope that similar grace and mercy will be vouchsafed to you. What in him was criminal indiscretion, in you, who have his example before your eyes, will be impious presumption. Survey the numbers that perished through his rashness; his wife, children, servants: and can you dare to build on the solitary instance of his preservation? Indulge not such a hope. So long So long as you are conscientiously walking in the path of duty, you may steadily rely on divine grace for support. But you are forbidden to tempt the Lord your God. You are forbidden to put yourselves into situations and places dangerous to your spiritual interest, and then to expect that he will preserve you in them. Much less can you have any well-grounded hope of divine assistance, if you are acting thus in order to live more comfortably in this world, or to lay up an increase of perishable treasures for your children. Dismiss all such vain imaginations. Make religion what it must be, your chief concern. "Seek first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness." To religion let every thing else be sacrificed: otherwise you in fact give up religion altogether. You cannot serve God and mammon. If you are resolved to make this world your grand object, you will forsake God; and probably he will forsake you; will abandon you to the lusts of your own heart; will leave you to perish in the Sodom which you have chosen. If to you however, as to Lot, he should at length return in mercy, how severely shall you be taught the folly of the

choice which you have made. "Your own wickedness shall correct you, and your backslidings shall reprove you. Choose ye therefore this day whom ye will serve." In God alone is safety, peace, and happiness; "the promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.' Choose then the Lord. Take him for your portion. Leave worldly people to their worldly gains. Come

ye out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord and touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you. And I will be a father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty."

Hitherto we have set forth this history for admonition; let us also apply it for encouragement. It teaches us that the Lord doth not forsake his people. Where grace displays its fruits, he will not overlook them. He observed, that Lot in Sodom was vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked, and owned him for his servant. He saw that the heart of Lot was very different from that of his ungodly neighbours, and distinguished him accordingly. He would not condemn the righteous with the wicked. Lot was but one, yet when Sodom was to be destroyed, an exception was made in his favour. Nay, the Almighty describes himself as unable to execute the fierceness of his wrath till Lot should be in safety. "Haste thee; escape thither; for I cannot do any thing till thou be come thither." What an abundant consolation to every sincere servant of God; to all who serve him faithfully in the station in which he has placed them, and cleave to him with full purpose of heart! Men may mistake their character, but God notices and approves it. The true Christian may be in poverty and obscurity, but the Lord does not overlook him. Surrounded by the ungodly and profane, he may stand single in his religious sentiments; but he is not alone, for God is with him. He may be involved in difficulties and troubles, but the Lord will deliver him out of all. He may fear that he is forgotten and deserted, and shall at last be left to perish. But what says our Lord? It is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish. No man is able to pluck them out of my hand." Be then of good courage, all ye servants of the Lord. Ye, who love Christ and his salvation, be not cast

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down, neither be ye dismayed. When the Lord shall come in righteous anger to execute judgment on a guilty world; when the wicked shall be swept into hell, to suffer the vengeance of eternal fire; then shall ye be saved with an everlasting salvation. Not a hair of your heads shall be touched. "Your sun shall no more go down, neither shall your moon withdraw itself; for the Lord shall be your everlasting light, and the days of your mourning shall be ended."

SERMON X.

ON THE DESIGN AND DUTIES OF THE SABBATH.

And he said unto them, the Sabbath was made for man, and not man 'for the Sabbath.-Mark ii. 27.

THE influence of the sabbath in restraining public immorality, and in promoting individual piety and holiness, is a fact capable of the fullest demonstration. If to the practical good effects of this institution we add on the one hand the many express promises given in Scripture to the observance of this holy day, and on the other the repeated threatenings denounced against the violation of its sacred duties; to every serious mind a generally increasing disregard of the Sabbath must prove a source of real concern and apprehension. Yet such an increasing disregard we are daily compelled to witness. Not only do numbers openly cast off all peculiar restraint on the Lord's day, and avowedly convert it into an occasion of worldly pleasure, or occupation; but even too many of those who profess to retain a religious respect for the sabbath, shew by their general conduct and spirit throughout the day, that they entertain at best very defective and inadequate conceptions of the design and duties of this holy institution.

To direct your attention then to this subject, may prove, by the blessing of God, an interesting and useful employment of the present opportunity. With this view I have made choice of a text, which contains the declara

tion of One, who in the following verse assumes to himself the title of the Lord of the sabbath: of One, therefore, from whose declaration on this point there can be no appeal. "He said unto them, the Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath." In discoursing on these words,

I. I shall state the information which they convey concerning the Nature and the End of the Sabbath.

II. From this statement I shall deduce some inference, which respect both the Obligations to observe this holy day, and the Manner of observing it.

I. We are taught by the text, that the Sabbath, or the appropriation of one day in seven, for a day of holy rest, is a positive institution. It was made. It did not result, like the precepts of the moral law, from the nature of things. To love the Lord our God with all our heart; to worship him in spirit and in truth; to devote to him our time, our talents, our services, are duties which the perfections of God, and our relation to him must ever have required. But that any particular portion of our time should be more immediately assigned for the discharge of religious duties, or what that particular portion of our time should be, are points which nothing but a positive iustitution could determine. Nor is this an human institution. The Sabbath, we learn from the text, was made not by man but for him. It was a divine appointment. God made the Sabbath. He prescribed the duty, and specified what particular portion of time should be allotted to the performance of it. No sooner was the work of creation finished, than he "blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it."* He enjoined it as a law, that one day in seven should be set apart from all other occupations, and should be consecrated in a peculiar manner to his service. And on whom did he enjoin this law? On man. "The Sabbath was made for man." Not for a single individual: not for one generation: not for one particular family or nation: but for man, for the whole human race. Hence, in after times, when it pleased the Almighty to vouchsafe a written revelation of his moral law, the law of the Sabbath was incorporated into it. The commandment to keep holy the Sabbath day,

*Genesis ii. S.

though essentially differing from the other precepts of the decalogue, yet because of its universal and immutable obligation on all the intelligent creatures of this lower world, formed a part of that law, which was written on two tables of stone by the finger of God himself.

Such is the statement in the text respecting the Nature of the Sabbath. Let us next inquire into the End of this institution. What was the object which the Almighty had in view, when he appointed this day of holy rest? Did he bless the seventh day, and sanctify it; and then create mankind to keep this instituted Sabbath? No. "The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath." God first created man, and then for man appointed the Sabbath; for his advantage, for his happiness. The commandment to observe the Sabbath-day, like every other precept of the divine law, is not only just and holy, but also good; beneficial in its consequences to those who keep it: for their good always.

Man created in the image of his Maker, had no conception of happiness in which his Maker was not associated. God was in all his thoughts; the object of all his affections: the centre of all his desires. The holy law was written in the tables of his heart. Obedience to that holy law, contemplation of the divine perfections, the spiritual exercises of prayer and praises, formed the very joy of his heart. To man thus constituted, what a glorious privilege was the appointment of the Sabbath! While occupied on the six days in dressing the garden in which God had placed him, under the sense of the divine presence, love, and favour, he would experience uninterrupted felicity. Communion with his Maker would sweeten and sanctify all his occupations. Every day would be a day of happiness. But the Sabbath would be his supreme delight. On that blessed day his soul would return unto its rest." On that day, above all days, disengaged from every other employment, he would rejoice in the Lord, "with joy unspeakable and full of glory." With what transport would he welcome the recurring season, what thankfulness would he feel for the institution of a season, in which his heart, released from the performance of other duties, might give full vent to its liveliest emotions; might bestow an undivided atten