Directions) I say, where no express Law of God hath interposed, there it is the wisest Way to comply with our own Inclinations, and not needlesly to cross and teaze our selves. By this Means we shall make Religion and Devotion, by degrees, natural, and easy, and pleasant to us, and in a great measure avoid that Coldness of Affection, those Wandrings of Thought, that Tediousness, and Dulness, and Driness of Spirit, which the unnecessary Restraint and Obligations that Men lay upon themselves in these Matters, are oftentimes the Occafion of. And this is all that I have to say upon this Cafe. Confider what ye have heard, and the Lord, &c. 254 SERMON XII. EXODUS XX. 8. Remember the Sabbath-day, to keep it holy. IS Majesty, in his late Letter to H the Bishops, requires, That all the Clergy be ordered to preach frequently against those particular Sins which are most prevailing in this Realm ; as namely, against Blafphemy, Swearing and Curfing, against Perjury, against Drunkenness, and against Profanation of the Lord's Day: And that they do also read to their People, such Statute Law, or Laws, as are provided againft that Vice or Sin which is their Subject on that Day. I intend, at this Time, to treat of one of these Arguments; namely, that which concerns the Obfervation of the Lord's-day; and for that Reason the Statute that concerns this Matter was now read to you, and I shall go on with the rest of the Things as I have Opportunity. cerns The Text I have chosen is the Beginning of the Fourth Commandment, which all we of this Church must needs own to be a Law that obligeth us, because at the Repetition of it by the Minifter, which is done every Sunday and Holy-day, we do all make this Response: Lord have Mercy upon us, and incline our Hearts to keep this Law. Now, if there be any thing obliging in that Commandment, it is this, Remember the Sabbath-Day, to keep it holy; for that is the Sum and Substance of the Commandment: All the other Things there mention'd are but either an Account of the Reason why the Seventh-day is thus to be kept holy, or else an Account of the Manner how it was to be kept holy. My Argument then is the Sabbath-day, and in treating of it, I shall divide my Discourse into Four Parts. The First shall be about our Obligation to observe the Sabbath in General. The Second shall be about the Translation of the Sabbath from the Seventh-day of the Week to the Firft. The Third shall be about the great Neceffities and Advantages of strictly observing the Lord's-day, which is our Sabbath. The 1 The Fourth shall be about the Manner of observing it. I begin with the First Head concerning our Obligation to observe the Sabbath in General, and this will be more than enough to entertain our Meditations at this Time. And here I am sensible I am entring into a Field of Controversy, where my Bufiness will not so much be to warm your Affections, as to dispute and argue; but tho' my Argument leads me to talk drily, yet I shall endeavour to talk as plainly as I can. For the preventing and avoiding Disputes, as much as can be, I defire to premise these Three Things. First of all, When we talk of our Obligation to obferve the Sabbath, we own that we use the Word Sabbath in a very improper Sense: For the Sabbath, as it is always used, both in Scripture and Ecclefiaftical Writers, is constantly appropriated to the Jewish Sabbath, or Saturday; and therefore it is with some Absurdity that a great many among us do call our Lord's-day by the Name of the Sabbath-day. If any Foreigner heard us express our felves so, they would verily believe we meant Saturday, and not Sunday: But however, since it is customary among us to call our Lord's Day by the Name of the Sabbath-day, I do not refrain the Use of it, especially at this Time, when I am not treating of the particular cular Day we are to observe, but of a Day of Reft in general, which may properly enough be called a Sabbath, on what Day foever it fall; for Sabbath signifies no more than a Day of Reft. There are two Things to be diftinguished in the Sabbath, as it is used in Scripture. First, That Portion of Time in general, that is to be fet apart for the more folemn Worship of God; and that is, one Day in the weekly Revolution, or one Day in Seven. Secondly, That precise particular Day in the Seven, that was thus to be fet apart. Now under the Jewish Difpenfation, that was the last Day of the Week; but under the Christian Dispensation, it is the first Day of the Week: So that we may properly enough, when we speak in general, of a Day of Rest in a weekly Revolution, call it a Sabbath; tho' the particular Day, on which we Christians rest, is not so properly the Sabbath as the Lord's Day. Secondly, whatever Weight I lay upon the Obfervation of the Sabbath, yet I do not fetch it from any Obligation that is upon us from any of Mofes's Laws in this Matter. The Laws that God gave upon Mount Sinai by Mofes, did never concern any but the Children of Ifrael, and those that dwelt among them: Nor were they ever designed or intended to be Laws to any other Nation, and therefore the Ten Commandments themselves, as they were VOL. IV. S deliver'd |