(Preached at Islington Church, London; 1T38.) Remember the sabbath-day to keep it holy. Exodus, xx. 8. " That the Sabbath was not ordained in the beginning of the world, nor ever observed from the creation till the time of Moses ; that being given by Moses to the Jews, it was not ob served as a moral precept, but, like other cere monies, was sometimes kept and sometimes not, as public or private business might occur ; that lastly, it was for ever repealed at the de struction of the temple :" such are the asser tions of those who would so remember the sabbath as not to keep it holy at all. In answer to so much of these objections as seem to require an answer, and to the conclu sions drawn from them, I shall endeavour to show, First, that the command for keeping the sabhath holy was given for wise ends, by such an authority as none but the same which gave can repeal it ; Secondly, that it has not been repealed by this authority, as the ends for which it was given are still in force ; and, Thirdly, what that keeping the sabbath holy is, by which we obey this command, and an swer the ends of it. First. The command ofkeeping the sabbath holy was given for wise ends, by such an au thority that none but the same which gave can repeal it. I dispute not here whether or not this command was given to Adam, or ob served before Moses ; nor yet whether we are to keep the sabbath upon the seventh day, as was the practice of the Jews ; or on the first » day of the week, according to the usage of the Christian church from our blessed Lord's re surrection to the present times ; my inquiry is this, What is the authority which commands us to keep one day in seven holy ? and what were the chief ends for which this command was given ?

The authority by which it was given was the authority of God : it was the supreme governor of the universe, who from the holy place of Sinai spake all those laws, among which was, " Remember the sabbath-day, to keep it holy." He it was, who declared again and again, " Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep (Exodus xxxi. 13, 14) : it is holy unto you ; every one that defileth it shall be put to death." Now who but the Almighty God hath power to repeal what the Almighty God hath once established ? seeing therefore that it was he who established this law, none but himself has power to repeal it; and till he repeals it, it must be the duty of all men to obey it, whether the reasons for which his wisdom hath esta- blished it be known to them or not. An incontrovertible reason for their obedi ence (if they know no other) is this, that God has given the command. But this is not the case : the wise reasons of this command are, or may be, known to all men; the chief designs of it are almost every where delivered, together with the law : the first we have in the second

chapter of Genesis, ver. 3 : " And God blessed the sabbath-day, and sanctified it, because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made ;" and again in the twen tieth chapter of Exodus: " In six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is : . wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath-day, and hallowed it." In these words, three things are plainly af firmed : first, that God is the creator of this world : secondly, that having created it in six days, he ceased from his work upon the seventh day, and hallowed or sanctified it ; ordaining that man, being made in the image, and for the imitation of God, should imitate him in this, in bestowing six days on the works be longing to this world, and resting from all these works on the seventh to meditate upon a better.' We perceive here the chief reason of this command ; the great end for which it was given, even that man might learn to imitate God, to fulfil the purpose of his creation, that he might ever remember who it was that created himself and heaven and earth ; that having finished his

six days, he might upon the seventh retire from this world, and ascend in heart and mind into the heaven of heavens, whither his adorable Creator rested from the works of his creation. Another end of this command God hath de clared, both on Mount Sinai and long after by his prophet Ezekiel : " I gave them my sab baths, that they might know I am the Lord which sanctifieth them." That these sacred days, so often as they returned, might confirm them in the important knowledge, that God was the author of their virtue and happiness as well as oftheir being ; that, should he withdraw his sanctifying power, they would as naturally sink into sin and misery, as, should he withdraw his animating power, they would fall into their native dust. Now as they were instructed by what means holiness was to be attained, so that they might actually attain it was a third wise end of the Almighty's command to keep one day in seven holy. This we learn from that other declaration of God, wherein after it is written, " Ye shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy ;" i follows in the very next verse, " Ye shall keep i

my sabbaths ;" plainly intimating that one reason why they were to keep his sabbaths was, that they might be holy as God is holy ; that by dedicating to him one day in seven, they might be enabled to spend the other six as became those who acknowledged their Creator and Sanctifier to be of purer eyes than to behold iniquity ; that they might ever be mindful of taking him for their example, not only on one particular day, but in the general course of their lives, which should be holy, just, and good. The sum of what has been hitherto observed is this : God who hath an unquestionable right to command his creatures, and prescribe what ever laws he is pleased to enforce ; who, though under no obligation of acquainting man with the reasons of his divine will, has not only been pleased to make it known, and bid him, " remember the sabbath-day to keep it holy," but has graciously condescended to acquaint him with several of the reasons for so doing ; the chief of which are these : first, that by imitating the sabbath of divine rest, man might retain a more lively and lasting sense of the Almighty Being, the Creator of himself and all things which exist : secondly, that he might constantly remember who it is that is his Sanctifier as well as Creator: thirdly, that he might be ever mindful it is the grand business of his life to imitate him in all his imitable perfections, and to make the mercy, justice, and holiness of God the pattern of all his thoughts, words, and actions. Secondly. The next question is, whether this command has yet been repealed by the authority which gave it, and whether these ends for which it was given are still in force or not. As to the former part of the question it is confidently affirmed that God did repeal it, when Jesus Christ was made man ; to prove which a famous controversialist gives us the strength of his cause in these words : " In these rigid vanities by which the Pharisees had abused the sabbath, our Saviour thought it requisite to detect their follies. They taught that it was unlawful on the sabbath-day either to heal the impotent, or relieve the sick, or feed the hungry ; but he confutes them both

by his actions and his disputations. Did they accuse his disciples of gathering corn upon the sabbath, being an hungred ? he tells them what David did in the same extremity. His commanding the impotent man to take up his bed, was it so great a toil as to lift up the ox or the ass out of the pit ? Nor had God so spoken the word, but that he could repeal it ; the Son of Man being Lord also of the sabbath. Nay, it is observable that our Lord wrought more works of charity upon the sabbath, than on all the other days ; and several of them, when there was no extreme necessity that the cure should be performed on that day, or the man perish. What then ? came our Saviour to destroy the law ? No but to let them un derstand the right meaning of it, that they might no longer be misled by the Scribes or Pharisees." Further, that the sabbath was to be repealed is by this apparent : . " First, that it was an institute of Moses ; Secondly, that it was an institute peculiar to th Jewish nation." (Dr. Peter Heylin's His tory of the Sabbath." 1st edit. p. 168.)

Thus far the historian, whose numerous as sertions it may be worth while to examine apart, beginning at that wherewith it ends, as being most important. The sabbath (he says) was first an institu tion of Moses ; second, an institution peculiar to the Jewish nation : now as every institute peculiar to the Jewish nation was an institute of Moses, we will inquire whether the hallow ing the sabbath was an institute of Moses, or not. I therefore think it was not, because it was instituted two thousand years before Moses was born ; so saith the text in Genesis ex pressly : " Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And 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." Indeed so soon as it shall be proved that there is an absurdity in taking this in the plain literal sense, we shall be obliged to take it in a less plain, in a figurative sense, and to affirm that, though this is related as done at the creation, it was not done till the distributing manna in the time of Moses, four or five and twenty hundred years after the creation ; but till this absurdity be shown, we have no pre tence for giving up the letter. We can have no pretence to interpret any scripture figuratively, but when an absurdity follows a literal inter pretation : this not being the case here, we may, we must, conclude that the sabbath was insti tuted at the creation ; therefore it was not an institute of Moses ; and consequently that from this supposition, which is obviously false, it can not be inferred that it was to be repealed at all. However, the objector avers, " it is inferred that it actually was repealed from the assertions before-mentioned, which are briefly these : " The Pharisees thought it unlawful to do even any works of necessity or mercy on the sabbath-day. ' Secondly, that our Saviour proved they thought wrong, such works being lawful on any day. " Thirdly, that the Son of God being made man could, if he pleased, set aside his own command .

" Fourthly, that himself performed more works on that than any other day : and, " Fifthly, that he came not to destroy but to fulfil the law, to teach men its right meaning." All and every one of these five propositions we allow to be perfectly true, and should be glad to know from which of the five we are to infer the conclusion. Are we to say the Pha risees having wrong views of the sabbath, therefore the sabbath is abolished ? or that our Lord proving their notions of it to be wrong, therefore it is disannulled ? or that the Almighty could if he pleased set it aside, therefore he did set it aside? or that our blessed Saviour performed works of necessity and mercy on the sabbath-day, therefore we may do works which belong neither to necessity nor mercy ? or lastly, that the Son of Man came to fulfil the law, therefore he destroyed this branch of it f I trust it will not appear presumption if, notwithstanding all the arguments of this learned author, I still conceive that the Al mighty hath not repealed his own command

respecting the sabbath ; nay, and that he never will, till the great sabbath begins ; both because he hath not done it yet, and because the rea sons for which he gave it are still in full force, and must remain so till the grand consum mation of all things. For, first, to preserve in man a lively and constant sense of God being the Creator of all things, this end of the sabbath must continue so long as men continue upon the earth : this reason for keeping it can never be wanting so long as any of those creatures are living, who, notwithstanding all the methods used to pre vent it, are so prone to forget their heavenly benefactor, who so readily lay hold on any ' pretence, nay, who are so willing without any pretence at all, if not to think they are the work of chance or their own hands, at least to act as ifthey thought so. And the second end of the sabbath can no more cease than the first. That man should be constantly and deeply sensible he can no more sanctify than he could create himself, must ever be of the last importance : it must be the highest concern to men to remember they are

usable to help themselves : to preserve the impression of this great truth ever strong upon their minds, that he who is born of a woman must be born again of God, or it is impossible to please him. Thirdly ; it is of equal concern to man to remember that it is the great business of life to imitate the divine example set before us. presume no one will venture to affirm that this end of the sabbath has lost any measure of its force ; that it does not hold full as strongly at this day, as it did on the birth-day of creation; it being therefore evident that God himself hath given this command, and that he hath not repealed it, and that it is sufficiently pro bable he never will, since the designs of the institution must ever remain in all their energy, all that remains is to show, thirdly, What it is to keep the sabbath holy so as to obey the command and answer the ends of it. To keep either a day or a place holy is simply this, to set it apart to religious pur poses ; this is both the proper and the common sense of the word. By saying this day or this place is kept holy, both the learned and the

unlearned mean, it is dedicated to God, it is appropriated to his service ; and to profane or unhallow a holy day or place is, not to set it apart to these uses ; to use it in the same manner with other things which are not dedi cated to God, not appropriated to his service ; to perform in the consecrated day, or in the holy place, the works of ordinary days and un hallowed places4 To keep the sabbath- day holy, as well in the proper or common sense of the word, is therefore to set it apart to religious uses, to dedicate it to the service of God : what is im plied in this we shall easily perceive, if we consider first, what we must secondly, what we may thirdly, what we may not do, on the sabbath of the Lord our God. First, We must, if we would obey this com mand at all, and answer the ends for which it was ordained, employ a considerable part of this day in prayers and praises to God ; we must retire with him from this lower world into those regions which are above the firma ment; to contemplate on the various works which he hath made, and on the goodness.

i 79 wisdom, and power of the Creator ; we must speak of his marvellous acts, and de light in the memorial of his abundant kindness. That branch of his kindness, particularly, whereby he daily renews the face of the earth, whereby he restores fallen man to pardon and peace, and gives him the second better life of holiness and happiness. That this his last no blest gift may not be in vain, we must now especially work together with him, labour to confirm ourselves in his likeness, by entreating the assistance of his Holy Spirit (for we have no power of ourselves to help ourselves) to be holy because he is holy : we must make it our especial aim that the Divine image in our souls may be perfected : to bind mercy and truth around our neck, to write them on the tablet of our heart. Secondly, Not that the human mind can be every moment uninterruptedly intent upon this, that might make even devotion a burden: no, we have bodies as well as souls ; and this our gracious Lord considered, though the Pha risees did not ; he therefore took away the in tolerable severity with which their traditions

had loaded the sabbath, and made it of no effect but to impede those designs, for the fur therance of which it was ordained. He brought it back to its original standard, to its just and natural extent; accordingly both his words and actions manifested that we may perform works of necessity and mercy on this day ; that we may do whatever cannot be done on another day, or not without manifest inconvenience ; such as enjoying the works of creation with me ditation and gratitude, feeding and watering cattle (for this is a work of necessity); we may relieve our sick or indigent neighbours (for this is a work of mercy) ; and visit the prisoners and the afflicted. Thirdly,This therefore we may do, butwe may not do any other work which can be done on another day, and done without much inconve nience ; the delaying of which a day longer, would not give either to ourselves or our neigh bours much loss or pain. Neither may we use any such recreation on the sabbath as does not further the ends for which it was ordained : some recreation connected with those ends is •flowed on this day, because few minds are

able to preserve a cheerful devotion and lively gratitude without it ; it is therefore a proper work of necessity as far as it conduces to both, but we must go no farther; we may not indulge ourselves in any recreation, I do not say which disqualifies, but which does not promote pious meditations. Here then is a short and certain rule ; whatever aids devotion we may use, whatever impedes or does not aid it we must avoid, as it defeats the end of this sacred institution. It is the same with the day as the house of God, and for this reason it is that the Almighty more than once mentions them together : " Ye shall keep my sabbaths and reverence my sanc tuary." We are not so to reverence the sanctuary as not to show mercy, not to save life therein : we may likewise do necessary works, such as cannot be done elsewhere, or not without great inconvenience, but we may not do ordinary works ; the former are not contrary to its holi ness, the latter unhallow, pollute, and profane it ; and when either the temple or the sabbath of God is made a day or a house of merchan

dise, it will not be long before truth itself will pronounce the one an abomination and the other a den of thieves. If from what has been said, it appears that this command, " Keep the sabbath holy," was promulgated to man by God, and that for wise ends, even to preserve in him a deep abiding sense that God is his creator, his sanctifier, and his pattern ; se condly, that as God has not yet repealed this command, so the ends of it are in full force; and lastly, that the only way of keeping the sabbath holy, of obeying this command, and answering its design, is to abstain from all works which neither necessity nor mercy re quires, that we may set apart the day of God for the service of God, which alone is to sanc tify or keep it holy ; then is the sabbath no institution of Moses, neither is it peculiar to the Jewish nation, but the command to observe it, as well as the reasons of that command, extend to all ages and nations. Then if we subtract from it the additions of the latter Jews, and this one circumstance peculiar to them, " Let no man go out of his place on the sabbath-day ;" whereby the Almighty guarded

it for a time, from the disobedience of their stiff-necked forefathers, we may safely affirm of the fourth commandment, as well as of the other nine, that Jesus Christ came not to de stroy, but to fulfil it; and till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from this law till all be fulfilled. Brethren, let me add one word of exhorta tion, and be ye assured of this, that those who watch over your souls as they that must give account would not wilfully lead you out of the way. If there be any here who will not keep the sabbath holy, who says he cannot submit to the rigour imposed, of so worship ping the great, the good, the holy God ; who, so far from estimating his high privilege, thinks prayer and praise, meditation and pious dis course, too heavy a burden to be sustained during a whole day, and so resolves to spend at least a part of this day, either in diversion or business. I exhort all such to work rather than play ! I exhort you that are parents, in particular, if ye care not to train up your chil dren to devotion, when they come from church not to send them to the streets or market

places, but rather of the two, to school : as to the innocence of either, it is no importance which you do, but the latter looks more like prudence : if ye disregard the other world, why should you neglect this ? why sell your own and your children's souls for nothing? Perhaps you may gain somewhat which you value by industry as to the command of God you throw that quite out of the question ; this is totally rejected either way ; you no more hallow that day when you play, than when you labour, and as to the ends, you destroy them alike : you are no more endeavouring to remember your Creator, to be thankful for his benefits, and conformed to his holiness, while ye pollute his holy day by diversion, than by work ; but in the latter case you may gain some earthly gain which you prize, and ex change conscience for money. If you lift up your hand against your God in labour rather than idleness, you may have this comfort in your rebellion, that ye did not serve the Devil for nought. Not that any who serve their heavenly Father, who keep his day wholly sacred, and neither pollute it by diversions nor work, have less reason to expect a reward from their divine master, even in this present world. For to these who would not be disobedient to his command, even to acquire riches, who love God better than pleasure, or gain, or reputation, to these saith the Most High, " If thou turn away thy foot from doing thy plea sure on my holy day, and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord honourable, and shalt honour him, not doing thy own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words ; then shalt thou delight thy self in the Lord, and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob, thy father: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it."'