V. That the observation of the Sabbath immediately

HONOURS ALMIGHTY GOD, AND BRINGS HIS FAVOUR AND BLESSING upon a people; whilst the profanation of it provokes his highest displeasure.

For the Sabbath is God's day; it is the Lord's tribute; it is the acknowledgment which he requires for all his blessings, temporal and spiritual; it is the mark of regard and reverence which he demands from man. What, then, can so immediately touch his honour as the wilful profanation of this institution? It precisely demonstrates man's contempt and ingratitude, his pride and secularity, his secret enmity against the government, and dislike of the worship of his God.

The easier the observance of it is, the more grievous insult to the Majesty of heaven is its violation. The greater the benefit which it is calculated to confer upon man, both in body and soul, the more perverse and unreasonable is his disobedience.

The clearer, again, the light of that dispensation of the gospel under which he lives, the deeper becomes the moral criminality which the sin against so much light brings with it. The more free from false doctrines our creed, and the more favourable our position for a distinct view of our duty, the higher presumption is involved in our neglect of it.

It is not possible for the mind of man to measure the dimensions of that guilt, which the deliberate profanation of the Lord's day under the gospel dispensation, in a free Protestant country, involves.

To admit the truth of a divine revelation, and then reject the first and most remarkable feature which distinguishes that religion from every other-the only institu tion which includes all the worship, all the adoration, all the prayer, all the spiritual duties of that religion-is an inconsistency in itself, as well as an affront put upon our Almighty benefactor, which no words can adequately express. And this, when our country acknowledges a Sabbath, when the laws protect us in some measure in the observation of it, when the habits and usages of com

merce are suspended, when some ingenuity must be employed and some force done to our feelings, and some loss of reputation hazarded, in violating the command! A command which, were there no religious obligation, man would be glad enough to fulfil-which, if he could choose it for himself, and employ it to his own ends, and separate it from the authority of the Almighty, he would rejoice to celebrate-which his bodily powers demand, which his fatigue persuades, which his satiety with the uniformity of worldly pursuits invites, but which, because God requires it, because religion fixes her eye upon it, because his highest spiritual duties concur with his temporal interest in enjoining it, he spurns and contemns; thus demonstrating the bitter root of enmity against God, from which his rebellion springs.

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And yet men in Christian countries expect God to bless them; they affect to be his worshippers, they call themselves by his name, they profess a general reliance upon his providence, they allow that the affairs of empires, nations, families, individuals, only prosper by his favour and mercy. But how can they reasonably look for this favour and this mercy, if they profane the day which is the seal and pledge of both? Can a people thus insulting God in the institution which most immediately affects his honour, really believe that he will bless and prosper them? No, my brethren; let us first reverence his name, let us first" turn away our foot" from trampling upon his holy day, let us first put away from us "the accursed thing," which, like Achan, infects our camp; and then, and not before, may we hope for the abiding goodness of God to repose upon us, and for the Lord to delight himself in us.

But what are the excuses which men assign for the de

1 During the excesses of the French Revolution, at the close of the last century, Christianity and its Sabbath were abolishedbut the mere necessities of man's nature compelled that infidel and atheistical government to institute a day of rest of their own, what they called A DECADE, Occurring every tenth day. A confession this of the reasonableness of the divine command!

secration of the Sabbath—a sin against which such mighty reasons lie, and the guilt of which is of so aggravated a hue? Let us, in conclusion, 1, strengthen our argument by exposing the weakness of the opposing excuses: let us then, 2, urge you without delay to the full performance of your duty; let us lastly notice, 3, the additional bonds we are under to consecrate the Sabbath, from the immense honour which God has put upon it by the blessings of his grace and providence in every age.

I. For what are THE EXCUSES which men allege in extenuation of a neglect of the day of God?

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1. Do they say that every day under the gospel is to be kept holy? They say truly; but each in its own manner. The working days are kept holy, as we have already shown, by performing diligently the duties of our callings, and interweaving religious feelings and exercises therein; the Sabbath, by celebrating devoutly the express worship of God. The six days, if given up to religious acts, would be idleness, superstition, and tempting of God; the seventh, if not dedicated to them, is impiety, pride, and contempt of the Almighty. Nor does he who pretends the universal sanctity to which the Christian is called, as a palliation of Sunday violations, ever serve God at all. If he knew any thing of that delightful employment, all his affections would centre on that privileged day which God has given him for communion with himself, and for public and private acts of devotion.

2. But you charge the due observation of the Sabbath with pharisaical strictness; you say the demand is enthusiastic, precise, puritanical, intolerable.' But you forget then all the benignity of the blessed Saviour, which swept away the inventions of man, and recalled the institution from the austerities of the scribes to its primitive simplicity; and you feign a severity which does not exist, except you consider piety as a task, the love of your Saviour a yoke, the praises of redemption gloomy, the offices of prayer and supplication a weariness. And this is what you really mean-your thin disguises conceal not your dislike to religion and the name of Christ.

We understand you. You feel at home in the world of sin and folly; but religious repose is unwelcome. You are at ease in secular employs; spiritual are strange. You show, then, that all is to begin in the business of your salvation-enter heartily upon that, and the Sabbath will be honoured as it ought.

3. I make a similar reply to the plea of the EXCESSIVE HURRY OF AFFAIRS, of the ' impossibility of finding time to give a whole day to religion: besides, you only violate the Sunday occasionally, and, as you affirm, reluctantly! The plain meaning of all which is, that worldly things are so important, and eternal so trivial, that six days are too few for the first, and one too long for the second. The more lawful business any Christian has, the more is the necessity of a thorough religious interval on the Sabbath increased. Every man must find time to die, and ought to find time for devoting to God that day which prepares for death. Nor does worldly business ever proceed so prosperously, as when subordinated to religion.

4. And why should I pause to refute the miserable excuse, 'that you see not that persons who go so much to church are BETTER THAN OTHERS'-which is false in fact. Those who attend the house of God with any sincerity, are better than others; and those who do not, yet are acquiring habits of public reverence to the Almighty, and are kept out of a thousand temptations, which the breaking of the Sabbath would present. And if all attended the worship of God aright, all would become, not better than others would then be, but better than they now are-all would be true servants of God, and heirs of heaven.

5. You have still pleas in reserve-' the immediate sacrifice of your temporal interests, the rivalry of neighbours, the general example of persons of your trade or profession, THE NECESSITY OF THE CASE,-unwilling as you are to violate the Sabbath, and ready to agree to close your shops, your counting-houses, your offices, if others would do the same-the inutility of one in a circle acting without the concurrence of all' -excuses which

would overturn all morals and religion, and make every man a judge of his measure of obedience to God. If on the ground of an alleged necessity, or of waiting for the concert of others, we may violate an express command of God, where are we to stop? what commandment will retain its force? Why not break the second as well as the fourth? Why not plead against the sixth or eighth in the same strain? The very foundation of Christian faith is to obey God rather than man. Six days' work with the divine blessing, is infinitely better than seven without. The excuse is cowardice, the fear of man, unbelief. Venture, and God will bless you. You shall be recompensed a hundred-fold in this life, and "in the world to come shall have life everlasting."

6. But I am interrupted by another class of objectors, persons of better education as they consider themselves, and higher advantages of station in society, who allege

that public worship is for the poor and uninstructed— but that for themselves THEY HAVE LESS NEED OF ITthey have little to learn-it is enough that they venerate the Deity at home.' Vain and miserable pretexts! Who have so much need of the Sabbath as those, who from pride of intellect and luxurious indulgences and vicious example, are ordinarily further from God and practical religion than any other class? They have little to learn! when they prove, by the very excuse, that they "know nothing yet as they ought to know." And is not the Lord's day designed to honour God, to acknowledge his benefits, to celebrate his praises, to implore his grace, to enjoy, communion of spirit with him, to prepare for meeting him at the thorne of judgment? And are not these obligations strong in proportion to the divine benefits in providence, to our dangers and temptations, and the influence which our example might have upon others? Yes, the rich and great are most of all bound to the sanctification of the day of God.

II. Let us, then, cease from such wretched pleas, which cannot deceive ourselves, much less others, and which strengthen the argument they in vain attempt to