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your hearts while the love of God, and the gifts of Christ are quite forgotten?

But stop a moment, and consider. What are you doing? You are committing the greatest sin in the world. Unbelief is a damning sin; "he that believeth not is condemned already; and this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil," so our Lord declares in this chapter. As the gift of Christ is the greatest proof that God could give of his love to the world, so, depend upon it, he will resent the contempt of it as the greatest crime. It is a crime greater than the devils in hell ever committed. They never had a Saviour to despise and reject. O beware of the fatal consequences! Death is approaching, and you must appear before Christ. But how will you face him, when you know you neglect him all your days? O, what would sinners give in the great day for an interest in Christ! Worlds! worlds! millions of worlds! would be counted cheap, could they purchase an interest in him. Well, sinner, as yet there is hope. Though you have neglected long, it is not too late yet. Turn now, even now, thy weeping eyes to the cross of Jesus. Behold God's dear Son, and the sinner's dear Saviour, with extended arms open to embrace thee. Hear him crying, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." O, let your heart reply, “ Behold I come unto thee, for thou art the Lord my God."

And, O believer, humble believer in Jesus, what thinkest thou of Christ? Is he not precious to thee, the pearl of great price, the chief of ten thousand, and altogether lovely? What praise and love are due from thee to the Father, who gave his Son to the Son, who gave him self; and to the Holy Spirit, who led thee to know and believe in him! Thou canst heartily say with St. Paul, Thanks be to God for his UNSPEAKABLE GIFT! This wonderful love of God in the gift of his Son convinces us, in the most striking manner, of the immense value of the soul, and of the exceeding sinfulness of sin, seeing that a sinful soul could not be redeemed but at such a vast expense. What an encouragement is here to him, who sees his sin infinite, that the blood of Christ, the blood e

God, is of infinite value and efficacy! And what encouragement is here for the believer, who has received this. greatest of gifts, that God will not withhold lesser gifts; for "he that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not, with him, freely give us all things." Yes, "all is ours," if Christ is ours. "He will give grace and glory, and no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly."

Blessed be God, for Jesus Christ. Amen.

SERMON XXXI.

ON THE SABBATH, OR LORD'S DAY.

Exodus xx. 8. Remember the Sabbath Day, to keep it holy.

THIS

HIS 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 in 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 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, 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 affections 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 directions, 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 the 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, and 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 account of their unbelief;" and that David, long after, speaks of "another rest," and of "another day," or season, in which it might be sought; he concludes that "there remained a rest, or sabbatism, for the people of God;" that is, a "New Testament Sabbath, a 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 market-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 reason 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, nor thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, 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, conversation of a worldly kind, are here forbidden. Many, who will not work on the Lord's 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 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, Is. 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; shewing, that if it was 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.

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