SERMON V.

THE PRACTICAL DUTIES OF THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH.

EZEKIEL XX. 12.

Moreover also, I gave them my Sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctify them.

THE divine authority and perpetual obligation of a day of holy rest and religious worship, have been abundantly proved. Every thing conspires to impress us with its supreme importance to man in all ages, and under all dispensations. Such is its antiquity, that it was instituted in Paradise. Such its essential moral nature, that it was inserted in the Ten Commandments. Its dignity is so great, that it lifts its head high above the ceremonies of Moses, whilst under that economy. Such is its spirituality, that the holy prophets and reformers insist upon it, as a point of fundamental duty, and as about to form a part of the gospel kingdom. Its perpetual force and native majesty, are so distinguished, that our Lord, after explaining what the comments of the Jewish doctors had obscured, leaves it in more than its original glory; transfers the day of its celebration to that of his resurrection, and erects it into a trophy of his victory. Such, in a word, is its paramount authority upon the human conscience, that the Christian

church in every age, including the Apostolical, has confessed its claims, and made it the occasion of their delight and joy.

It is in truth, "a sign of the covenant" between God and man; a badge of our Christian profession; the acknowledgment we publicly make of the God who created, and the Savior who redeemed us; a chief means of that dedication and sanctification of man to his Almighty Lord, which creation and redemption are designed to produce.

And this leads us to the second, and practical division of our whole subject. How is this holy day to be observed under the Gospel?--What is the importance of observing it, and the evils of the opposite neglect?* What is the necessity of personal and national repentance for our violation of it-Grave questions these, and demanding all our attention. For why the accumulated proofs of the institution, stretching from the creation of man to the rest of heaven, but to enforce its practical duties? And what is the true source of almost all the objections to its divine authority, but the dislike which fallen man has to its spiritual worship, and holy demands? Let the rest be admitted to be external and civil merely-let the public duties of the worship of God be confined to a brief and cursory service-let the private hours of the Sabbath be spent in worldly, or intellectual, or festive indulgences-and all objections to its authority would cease. But if we maintain, that the great end of the appointment is to be a sign of God's covenant, and a means of sanctification-if we maintain the duties of it to extend to all classes of persons, and during the whole of the sacred day--if we maintain that the spirit in which these are to be performed is the filial temper of joy and delight in God-if we maintain that the mighty blessings, which are to be especially commemorated are no other than creation, redemption, heaven —if, in a word, we show that the Sabbath, practically considered, is Christianity embodied-revelation set forth visibly in its simple and majestic features-the sign and representation of the covenant of grace,-the means of sanctification exhibited and set before our eyes, then the corrupt reason and perverted affections of man unite to in

* Sermon VI.

+ Sermon VII.

vent objections to its authority, that they may escape its

unwelcome bonds.

These, then, are the very points which in the present discourse we shall endeavor to illustrate: the GREAT END of the institution-its PUBLIC AND PRIVATE DUTIES-the SPIRIT AND TEMPER WHICH it cherishes-the ESPECIAL BLESSINGS which it commemorates.

And here let two remarks be premised. We enforce not the duties of the Jewish, but of the Christian Sabbath. The ceremonial and civil appendages of the Mosaic law, the spirit of bondage, the terrors of Mount Sinai, are passed. It is the gospel in all its grace and loveliness which we maintain that mild and merciful institution, cleared from the traditionary yoke of the Jewish masters, which our Lord confirmed as the boon and gift originally granted to man. Every thing in the Christian Sabbath is tender, and considerate on the one hand, every thing is spiritual and elevated on the other; and is, in both views adapted and suited to the real state and exigencies of our nature, under the last and most perfect dispensation of religion.

But then the determination of what is really spiritual, of what is really for the welfare of man, of what are the real duties and employments of the day, must be taken from the Scriptures themselves, and not from the opinions, much less from the inclinations and fashions, of a corrupt world. We must rise to the standard of the Sabbath as set forth in the Bible, not sink the Bible to the level of our wayward passions. This is the second remark. The doctrine of the institution, like the counsel of a skilful physician, is designed to produce a cure of our moral maladies by wholesome medioines, not to foment the disease by cordials, or hide its worst symptoms by opiates and palliatives.

And do Thou, Almighty God and Father, who madest the Sabbath for man, assist us to rise up to its true demands! May thy Spirit teach us what thy revelation really imports, and what the day which Thou callest thine own, is designed to become! That, knowing our own misery, and receiving with humble faith the redemption of thy Son, we may delight in the services of that season which is one chief means of communicating the blessings procured by it to our souls!

In considering, then, the practical duties of the Lord's day, we must,

I. Keep ever in view THE GREAT END OF THE INSTITUTION—which is to be a visible sign of the covenant between God and us, and a principal means of that sanctification which it is one object of that covenant to produce. For it is not merely in the words of the text that this express end is assigned to it; almost a thousand years before, the Lord had declared by Moses, "Verily my Sabbaths ye shall keep; for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you.' Thus we learn that this is an essential design of the institution. It received, indeed, especial sanctions, and was connected with particular observances, during the continuance of the national covenant with the people of Israel. But, as in SANCTIFICATION the whole human race are interested, the Sabbath becomes a SIGN to every nation in every age, where Revelation with its weekly rest reaches. It is accordingly immediately connected in the passage above cited with the original appointment in paradise: "Six days may work be done; but on the seventh is the Sabbath of rest, holy to the Lord-for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed." And so Moses, after reciting the decalogue, and the two commands which form the summary of it, pronounced in another place, "Thou shalt bind them for a SIGN upon thine hand."+

The holy day of rest is, then, to be regarded as the sign, badge, or profession of the God whom we serve, and of the covenant of his grace, of which we profess to be members. We testify our allegiance to the Lord who rose again from the dead "through the blood of the everlasting covenant." The Sabbath, interrupting our secular pursuits, and calling us off to the spiritual duties of religion, is a symbol whereby we declare what God it is we worship, acknowledge that the Lord revealed in the Bible is our God and no other; proclaim ourselves the vassals and servants of that only God who created the heavens and the earth in six days and rested the seventh, and commanded us to * Exodus xxxi. 13. t Ver. 15 & 17. + Deut. vi. 8.

observe this suitable distribution of time as a badge and livery that we worship him alone.* And we keep it under the gospel on the Lord's day, to avow our belief that on the morning of that day, the first of the week, redemption, like a second creation, was accomplished, our Lord rose from the dead, and ceased from his work, and rested and was refreshed; and that we are the servants and worshippers of that adorable Savior. Thus the covenant of grace in Christ Jesus is set forth in our Christian celebration of this festival. We are not Jews but Christians; and wherever the religion of Christ is established, the symbol and cognizance of the Resurrection comes with it.

And this not for the mere avowal of our allegiance, or the manifestation of the attributes and glory of our Creator and Redeemer, but also for the purpose of promoting that SANCTIFICATION which it is the end of the covenant to produce. The expression of the text and of the similar passage just cited, is most remarkable, "Moreover, I gave them my Sabbaths to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord that SANCTIFY them.' What an exalted end and design of the institution! Sanctification is the work of God's Holy Spirit by his secret but effectual influences upon the heart, separating man from the love and service of sin, and turning him to God and holiness. The idea is that of setting apart, separating, consecrating for certain holy purposes. Thus, when applied to sacred persons, times, services, garments, buildings, it imports the separation of them from profane uses, and the dedication of them to the honor of God. So the Sabbath was in Paradise sanctified by the Almighty, that is, separated from ordinary employments, and set apart for the service and worship of God. And how im

portant is the thought, that the design of the Almighty in sanctifying and hallowing a day of Sabbath, was, that man, his moral and accountable creature, might be sanctified and dedicated by means of it--that the external consecration of the season ends in the internal consecration of the heart of man to his Creator and Redeemer!

All the designs of the institution terminate here. The Sabbath, was made, granted, vouchsafed to man, as the

* J. Mede.