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house with reverence and godly fear, and there with unaffected fervour join with the congregation of the faithful in all the sacred offices of the church, in prayer and praise, and eucharist, and diligent, awful attention to the word of God, and then ruminate and reflect upon it, laying it up in honest and good hearts, resolving to square our lives and actions by that holy rule: if we thus celebrate this Christian festival, we shall in the best sense sanctify and hallow it, and do far more honour to it, and advantage to ourselves, than by all the nice observances of a bodily rest. For though all kinds of work should then be abstained from, unless the works of necessity and mercy, yet that is chiefly intended for the better performance of this spiritual employment; and that we be as industrious in making provision for our souls on the first day of the week as we are the six days after for our bodies, and feed them plentifully with that bread of life, which whoso eateth of shall live for ever.

And if men will be so unnatural to their better part, as to deny it that wholesome sustenance, that heavenly food, which the church in great plenty provides for them, and invites them to partake of, and under pretence of resting from their labours, spend that holy day in laziness and idleness, in sottishness and intemperance, and wickedness of all sorts; it concerns those officers and magistrates, whose business it is to regulate such disorders, as they will answer it to God at the great day of account, to oblige them by such methods as our good laws direct, to come to the house of God, and join with their brethren in the public duties of that day. And let such as do frequent the places of divine

worship, and make a show of keeping the Christian Lord's day holy, see that they do it in sincerity; for be not deceived; God is not mocked: and whatsoever a man sows, that shall he also reap. He that sows an empty, formal religion, shall receive as little of reward; he that draws near to God with his body and his lips, but permits his heart to wander from him, is an abomination to him; and not the hearers, but the doers of the word shall be justified. In vain will it be to name the name of Christ, unless we depart from iniquity; in vain to keep a day in remembrance of our Saviour's resurrection, unless we likewise arise from the death of sin to a new and holy life and in vain, utterly in vain, to trouble ourselves with a form of godliness, unless we have the power of it; for without real holiness no man shall see the Lord: and it is not bodily rest, but a ceasing from the works of iniquity, that will procure us admission into God's eternal rest above, in his holy mountain the heavenly Jerusalem.

But those good persons who truly reverence God's sanctuary, and keep the day of their blessed Lord from polluting it, and perform the sacred duties of it with a spirit of true devotion; these will God make joyful in his house of prayer; they shall enjoy the ineffable pleasures that spring from sincere religion, and all their burnt-offerings and sacrifices shall be accepted upon his altar. And as a great good man of our own nation has declared to the world, from his own experience, "No better way to prosper in our honest undertakings all the week, "than seriously and conscientiously to keep the first day of it holy "."

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r Lord Chief Justice Hale.

Wherefore to conclude, the sabbath, as our Lord said, was made for man, not man for the sabbath. The stated times of God's more solemn worship are designed for our spiritual benefit and advantage, and will conduce very much to it, if we please, and are not wanting to ourselves; but it was not God's design we should rest in formalities, and be enslaved to the strict letter of his positive laws, now especially under the gospel of his Son, but pay him a rational and manly service: so that, in a word or two, the best way to enjoy the full benefit of days set apart for religious duties, is to steer the middle course between superstition and profaneness; neither to behave ourselves like Jews, nor irreligious libertines, and always to prefer mercy before sacrifice, substantial virtue before outward appearances, and the religion of the heart before all things: for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh at the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the hearts. And what then is the hope of the hypocritet?

I shall only transcribe a few lines out of our book of Homilies, to shew that what has been said is agreeable to the doctrine of the church of England, and then have done. In the beginning of the first part of the sermon, Of the Place and Time of Prayer, we have these words; "Albeit this com"mandment of God (meaning the fourth) doth not “bind Christian people so straitly to observe and keep the utter ceremonies of the sabbath day, as it "was given unto the Jews, as touching the forbearing of work and labour in time of great necessity, "and as touching the precise keeping of the se

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8 I Sam. xvi. 7.

t Job xxvii. 8.

"venth day, after the manner of the Jews; for we

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keep now the first day, which is our Sunday, and "make that our sabbath, i. e. our day of rest, in the "honour of our Saviour Christ; who, as upon that

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day rose from death, conquering the same most triumphantly: yet notwithstanding, whatsoever is "found in the commandment, appertaining to the "law of nature, as a thing most godly, most just, "and needful for the setting forth of God's glory, it

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ought to be retained and kept of all good Chris"tian people."-And so on to the end, which is very well worth perusing. So that we see in what sense it is, that, after the recital of the fourth commandment in our public service, the people are to make this short prayer, “O Lord, incline our hearts to "keep this law."

VI.

Our Saviour's Transfiguration.

MATT. xvii. 1, &c.

Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John his brother, and bringeth them up into an high mountain apart, And was transfigured before them: and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light.

WHEN the time of our Lord's last sufferings began to approach, and in a few months more would be fully come, he thought it needful to prepare his disciples beforehand for so sad a scene, and which would give so great a shock to their faith, and the greater if it should surprise them without some previous notice of it.

Therefore he first asks them, Matt. x. 13, Whom do men say that I the Son of Man am? What opinion have the people of me, who take upon me thus publicly to instruct them, and so freely and openly reprove their rulers, and those that are of greatest esteem among them, and work so many and great miracles, as no man ever did before me? To this they answer, Some say that thou art John the Baptist risen again from the dead: (as Herod, chap. xiv. 2.) some say thou art Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets, come again into the world, as a harbinger to prepare the way for the reception of the great Messias; of whose coming the whole people of the Jews were then in great expectation.

a Matt. xvi. 14.

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