subjects of this grace, but real piety, virtue, and moral goodness. By the steady, uniform practice of these, we shall lay a foundation for comfort and honour in life, and a well grounded hope in death.

SERMON IV.*

THE RELIGIOUS OBSERVANCE OF THE SABBATH SHOWN TO BE A DUTY OF UNIVERSAL AND PERPETUAL OBLIGATION.

ADVERTISEMENT.

[While the author rejoices in the endeavours at this juncture exerted in different parts of the country to check the lamentable profanations of the Lord's Day, and offers his discourse in aid of such endeavours; he submits it to the consideration of his fellow-christians, whether it may not be prudent to limit the restraints of law to ordinary worldly occupations, teams, droves, parties of pleasure, and such other secular pursuits and amusements, as bear on the face of them a manifest desecration of the day, without extending said restraints to each solitary traveller who may have a just or plausible excuse. In numberless instances we are incompetent to judge one for another what things come under the denomination of necessity or mercy. Perhaps it is best in doubtful questions to leave our neighbours and brethren, each one to the decision of his own conscience.]

GENESIS ii. 2, 3.

On the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.

And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work, which God created and made.

In these words we have the original institution of the sabbath, attended with circumstances of the utmost solemnity. The earth itself and all the other

Preached when the Sabbath laws were revised by the General Court, and designed by the author to be published at that time.

creatures had been first produced, when man, for whose accommodation and use they were intended, appears the last and chief of all God's works in this lower creation. Of him alone it is said, that he was formed in the likeness, or after the image of his Maker. This resemblance to God could consist in nothing but his capacity for knowing and rationally serving the great Author of his being. As the offspring of God, raised above, and distinguished from the other creatures, by his intellectual and moral faculties; his chief happiness must, of course, result from his communion and intercourse with his Maker. True religion was from the beginning essential to his happiness, both in his individual and social capacity. As God intended his happiness, he created him under the obligations of religion, and, as a necessary means of religion, immediately ordained for him a sabbath. Our Saviour says explicitly, the "sabbath was made for man," that is, for the first man on his first creation, and through him, for all his descendants, who should, by the observance of it, become truly religious, and thereby ultimately happy. In this way to allure us to happiness, by alluring us to the means of happiness, it pleased our gracious Creator to set before us his own example for the sanctification of the sabbath. To Omnipotence, the creation of the world in one day or in one instant must have been as easy, and, for aught we can conceive, as eligible as the gradually continued operation through. six successive days, had not our instruction been the

object. After narrating the works done on each of the six days, the history adds in the text, " and on the seventh day God ended," meaning, "had ended his work-and he rested;" not as though weary, "for the Creator of the ends of the earth fainteth not, neither is weary ;" but he ceased from the work of creation, as having completed the model of his own infinite mind, and, from that day to this, has added to it no new species of animals, of vegetables, or of materials, not perhaps an atom of matter. This cessation from new productions is what we are to understand by his "resting on the seventh day from all his work." The word also imports his satisfaction in the review of what he had done, as being very good." And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it," that is, he separated and set it apart from the other days of the week, to be kept holy to himself to be regarded as sacred to his immediate service; a holy festival, on which the mind of man should find satisfaction and joy in meditating on God as discovering himself in his works, praising him for his goodness, and holding communion with him in the exercises of devotion. For these purposes, and to be spent in employments similar to these, the seventh day was blessed and sanctified. That man might be induced thus to regard it by the example as well as the authority of the Legislator, God marked and signalized the day, by wholly ceasing from his creating work. In imitation of him, man is enjoined to rest from his usual worldly

occupations, and regard the day as belonging to God, a time appropriated to his worship, to render him the homage due from his rational, moral subjects.

On the very birthday of the world, this ordinance was passed, and the knowledge of it was probably among the first communications which Adam received from his Creator. But as he could not have understood what was meant by the sanctification of the seventh day, unless he had been previously acquainted with many other principles of religion, we must suppose that he was, on his first creation, at once furnished with this knowledge, either by inspiration or some other mode of instruction. If he was made upright in a moral sense, and his first actions were consonant to rectitude, the truths of natural religion in general must have been known to him. With the knowledge of God and of his relation to him as his creature, he must have been sensible of his obligations to love and praise, serve and obey the Being who had given him existence with all its attendant comforts. He must have concluded, that, by these things, he would attain to the highest dignity, excellence, and perfection of his nature. Experience would soon teach him, that a proper sense of these things could not be retained without frequent and close application of thought,that, while providing for the subsistence of his body, and admitting those unavoidable cares and concerns attending such provision, he would be in constant danger of losing those views of God and devout