produces, they fancy the ocean to be a verdant, delightful field. Allured by these hallucinations to regale themselves in their imaginary field, they step from the deck and are lost forever.Where now are those young men, to whom Solomon directed the words in our text?—who rejoiced in their youth, and walked in the way of their heart, and in the sight of their eyes? Where now are those bold spirits, who in every period of the world, and in every country, have cast off the fear of God and of death? Were the pleasures of a dissolute life sufficient to compensate for all the remorse and anguish of soul, which they have already experienced, and which eternal ages have yet in reserve? Miserable pittance of sensual pleasure ;-criminal years, that have passed away as a tale which is told! Momentary joys, that are followed by an everlasting abode among the chains of darkness!

Were you assured that the present is the last day of your lives, and that this night would seal your destiny, would not your agitation and anguish be intolerable, both to yourselves, and to those whose compassion might not suffer them to desert you? You have no principles which would support you in such an hour. You are not the less immoral, because you disbelieve a God and a future state, however such infidelity might destroy remaining fears. You imagine that death is far distant, and will not arrive without sufficient warning. Your courage is precisely that of the poltroon, who boasts when he imagines that no danger is nigh.

2. There are others, and I hope a large proportion, of fair, unblemished morals; who, from the force of education and a general respect for religion, perceive something in open vice, at the same time infernal and brutish. The interest and delight with which your characters are viewed, must not however, induce you to believe, that any course of conduct, not grounded on real piety, affords a title to the divine favor. The Scriptures recognize no real goodness, but that which consists in the love of God, and results from renewing grace. Would you be content with any religion, but such as will abide with you at

death, and secure your salvation? Scrutinize your motives, and see whether you have ever performed a single action from real affection to the Supreme Being; and whether from a conviction of being justly condemned by the law, you have cordially assented to the terms of the new covenant. A good life, I acknowledge, proves the piety, and by consequence, the security of him who maintains it. But in a good life are comprehended repentance, faith, and submission. Without these, you may enjoy human applause, but can never attain to honor, glory and immortality.

3. Possibly there are a few individuals who are persuaded that religion is an internal principle, and that they do not possess it. Convinced that one thing is wanting, you cannot rest entirely satisfied either with a fair reputation, or with those acquisitions of knowledge, which are secured to you by application and perseverance. Between these, and the divine favor, you know there is no necessary connexion. As you expect forever to exist under the government of God, you feel some anxiety as to that part which never dies. When you witness persons of good information, and richly endowed with the gifts of nature, convinced that they have hitherto lived without God in the world, and afterwards maintain lives of active and conspicuous virtue, professedly under the influence of a new principle, you cannot bring your reason to ascribe this to fanaticisin or su perstition.

But remember, that to bestow praise on pious people, will not prove your own piety. God does not allow you to defer repentance, because you confess that repentance is your duty. By every hour's delay, you enlarge the mass of guilt previously contracted.

My Young Friends, I quit this address with reluctance, and with an overwhelming depression of spirits ;-a depression arising from the fear, that no permanent effects will be produced by it; but that you will still neglect religion, refuse the Saviour, and walk in the way of your heart, and in the sight of your eyes.

I will add one entreaty in the words of a well known poet.

“By silence, death's peculiar attribute ;

By darkness, guilt's inevitable doom;

By the long list of swift mortality,

From Adam downward to this evening knell,
Which midnight waves in fancy's startled eye;

And shocks her with a hundred centuries,

Round death's black banner throng'd, in human thought;

By thousands, now resigning their last breath,
And calling thee-wert thou so wise to hear!
By tombs o'er tombs arising: human earth,
Ejected to make room for human earth:

The monarch's terror! and the sexton's trade!
By groans, and graves, and miseries, that groan
For the grave's shelter! By desponding men,
Senseless to pains of death, from pangs of guilt!
By guilt's last audit: by yon moon in blood,
The rocking firmament, the falling stars,
And thunders' last discharge, great nature's knell !
By second chaos, and eternal night,

BE WISE."

Young. Consolation, 2093.

VOL. II.

27

SERMON VIII.

THE PERPETUITY AND IMPORTANCE OF THE

SABBATH.

GENESIS, 2: 2, 3.-And on the seventh day, God ended his work, which he had made, and rested on the seventh day from all his works, which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it.

THERE is no book, which may, with so much propriety as the Scriptures, be denominated the history of religion. This history is naturally divided into three parts, corresponding with the era preceding any written revelation, the era of the Mosaic law, and that of Christianity. Of the last period it is only the commencement, concerning which the sacred writings give us any historical information. In making preparation for this period, the divine attention seems to have been employed during those which preceded. The first age of the world is that, about which curiosity is peculiarly excited. We are earnest to know, whether religion existed; and, if it did, what form it assumed, when the succession of human beings commenced, and the world was new.

Nearly connected with religion is the appointment of a day to be appropriated to divine worship. That a seventh part of the time was once consecrated to this purpose by the direction of God, will be questioned by no one, who receives the writings of Moses, either as inspiration or authentic history.

Our present object is to show, First, the perpetuity; and, Secondly, the importance of this institution.

I. The perpetuity will be considered as proved, if it can be made to appear, that the consecrating of one day in seven to religious purposes, has been expressly required, or approved by

the Deity, under those three successive dispensations, which have been already mentioned.

1. That such an institution was established immediately after the creation, is obvious from the words of our text; in which it is said, that God rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it. By this benediction cannot be meant, that Deity spends the seventh part of the time differently from the rest.. To him all times and places are alike. The words must therefore have relation to the conduct and feelings of men. It is the will of God, that they should separate and devote to religious purposes a seventh part of the time.

It is material to notice, that, though this institution was binding on man previously to the Mosaic revelation, its obligatory power was not confined to that early age, nor to any period of the world. Much less was it confined to any nation in exclusion of others; for, as yet, national divisions, and civil compacts were unknown. If it were possible for Deity to give a command under such circumstances, as to show the universality of its obligation, he seems to have done it in the instance contemplated. It was given at creation. It was given not to a family, a church, or a nation, but to human beings. In addition to this, the reason assigned for the institution has in regard to all men the same applicability. The Lord rested from all the work, which he had made.

If, in opposition to this, it should be objected, that we have no evidence to prove, that the seventh day was religiously observed by the patriarchs, the reply usually made seems altogether pertinent ;* namely, that during a period of about twenty centuries, innumerable events of no inconsiderable importance must have occurred, which could not obtain a place in the short account, which is transmitted to us relating to that period.

That the seventh day was divinely designated, as a season for religious worship, we have the express testimony of Moses. If

# Argumentum a non dicto nullum est, quum in contrarium est ratio.-Capellus de sabbatho.