"six days shalt thou labour and do all thy "work; but the seventh day is the sabbath "of the Lord thy God;" are words which can neither be mistaken or perverted; and in addition to the repeated exhortations of Moses and the Prophets, to this effect, in the Old Testament, we have in the New one the holy example of the Saviour, and that of his disciples, sanctifying the Sabbathday, by joining in the customary services of public social worship.

The sanctions, moreover, by which the ordinance for keeping holy the Sabbathday is enforced, are of a deeply impressive kind. To the Jews, in the most direct terms, and with a frequent repetition, a blessing was promised, and a curse denounced, on the hallowing or profaning of God's holy day; and when the ritual law of Moses was abrogated by the rending of the "veil of the temple," and the first day "of the week" was sanctified in lieu of the seventh, as a perpetual memorial of the resurrection of HIM who was Lord also "of the Sabbath," the same holiness became attached to the Sunday, as had hitherto been connected with the original day of rest; the same sanctions were transferred to it; a similar blessing rested on its

sanctification, and a like certainty of God's sore displeasure followed its profanation.

Such, my Christian brethren, is the sacred character of the Sabbath, or Lord's day. Let us now consider, more particularly, the uses and ends for which it was instituted, and the manner in which it ought to be observed.

The first great use, as it was the primary intention, of the Sabbath day, is to keep alive in the hearts of God's rational crea tures the principle of Religion-a constant sense of their unspeakable obligations to, and dependence upon Him, as their Creator, Preserver, Redeemer, and Judge-as the great Being, who originally gave them

life and breath," and who supports and protects that life by his never-ceasing providential care-who remits to them, for the sake of Jesus Christ, the punishment which they have justly incurred by their wilful sin who hath promised them an happy immortality, on the equitable and easy conditions of repentance, faith, and obedience to his laws; but who, at the same time, is prepared to inflict at the day of wrath," on those who will not comply with these conditions," indignation and wrath, tri"bulation and anguish, upon every soul of "man that doeth evil."

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One should naturally suppose, indeed, that this principle of religion, which I have just described, would require no positive or formal institution, in order to secure its hold on the human heart, and to render it the great rule and guide of man's conduct in life; because every thing which we see around, and experience within us, must necessarily, if properly attended to, remind us of God, and our obligations to him.

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But the misfortune is, that man does not pay a proper attention to "the things that belong" either "to his duty or his peace. We are creatures endowed with passions, as well as with reason and conscience-passions, which, ever since the Fall of Adam, have triumphed over the rational part of our nature, and rendered us disinclined to holy thought and considerate conduct. The world, too, makes loud demands (to which we are too prone to listen) upon our time and attention; and either by its interests, its pleasures, or its business, so chains us down to the things of this life, as to leave us little power, and less desire, for the contemplation or pursuit of the things which are above."

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Such being the case with our fallen nature, it is sufficiently obvious, that had not the Almighty, in his wisdom and good

ness seen fit to ordain at the creation, that a certain, periodical portion of man's time should be exclusively devoted to the purposes of religion, and the concerns of the soul, the human race would, long ere this day, have been without a spark of piety, or a ray of spiritual light-or, as the scriptures more forcibly express it," without God in "the world." We should utterly have forgotten HIM" who made us ;" on whom we altogether depend for "life, and breath, "and all things;" and to whom we must account hereafter for the manner in which we have employed every hour of our temporal being. We should have passed through this fleeting scene of existence, with the recklessness of "the wild ass's "colt;" and dropped at last into the grave, with as little hope as "the beasts that perish."

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The original institution and stated recurrence of the Sabbath-day, however, have prevented the world from thus becoming an universal moral desert; and saved mankind from such utter degradation. The day "which the Lord has made," hath ever acted, and still continues to act, as a charm the human character; and in proporupon tion as it is more or less sanctified, restrains the spread of irreligion and profligacy:

checks the growth of moral error; "cleanses "from the secret fault;""keeps from pre "sumptuous sins;" and saves us from thinking, or saying "with the fool, there "is no God."

The very name of the Sabbath, indeed, has holy and pleasing associations connected with it, while the stillness of the day-the open House of God-the solemn forms of worship-and the sympathy of social devotion, are all calculated to improve, soften, and spiritualize the human heart: to recal perpetually to our minds the relations in which we stand, to God and his provi dence, to Christ and his cross; and to inspire the soul with those glowing principles of piety, which inflamed the heart of David, when he exclaimed, "I will sing "unto the Lord as long as I live; I will praise my God, while I have my being"

my mouth shall speak the praise of the "Lord, and let all flesh give thanks "unto his holy name for ever and ever."

Another merciful intention of the Sabbath is, that man should have the privilege and enjoyment of periodical, salutary, and necessary rest from his daily labour and burthensome worldly employments.

It was one of the grievous consequences of the Fall of Adam, and a part of the curse