If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words. Then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord, &c. Isa. lviii. 13, 14. A promise to the observance of the Sabbath-day, and a threatening against those who do not keep it holy. Jer. xvii. 22-27. Hallow my Sabbaths. Ezek. xx. 20; xliv. 24. What part of our time are we commanded thus to keep holy? One day in seven. On what day was the Jewish Sabbath kept? On the seventh day of the week, because on that day God rested or ceased from the works of creation, and because on that day he brought his people Israel out of the land of Egypt. This was a type or figure of that great redemption or deliverance from sin and Satan, wrought out by Christ, and which is ensured to all true Christians by his resurrection. God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work. Gen. ii. 3. Hence it is reasonable to suppose that this precept was delivered to Adam; for we find in Exod. xvi. 23-26, directions for the observance of the day, before the law of the two tables was given. Remember thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt; and that the Lord brought thee out thence, through a mighty hand: therefore the Lord commanded thee to keep the Sabbath-day. Deut. v. 15. On what day do Christians keep the Sabbath? On the first day of the week, called the Lord's day, because on that day the Saviour rose from the dead. "The first day of the week, being the day of his resurrection, was appointed, in thankful remembrance of it, for the time of public worship amongst Christians, and therefore is called by St. John the Lord's day;' though in common language it be more usually called Sunday; as it was even before our Saviour's time, and may be for a better reason since, because on it Christ, the Sun of Righteousness, arose. Accordingly, some of the earliest fathers give it that name."-Secker on the Catechism, p. 183. Now when Jesus was risen very early the first day of the week. Mark xvi. 1, 2. 9. Now upon the first day of the week, &c. Luke xxiv. 1—8. John xx. 1. What authority have Christians for observing the first day of the week as their Sabbath? They have the sanction of Christ himself, and the example of his apostles.* The same day, being the first day of the week, &c. John xx. 19. After eight days again--came Jesus. John xx. 26. The Holy Ghost fell on the apostles on this day. Acts ii. Upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them. Acts xx. 7. Upon the first day of the week, let every one of you lay by him in store, &c. 1 Cor. xvi. 2. In what manner was the Sabbath-day directed to be kept holy by the Jews? They were not to gather manna. Exod. xvi. 26. "No man was to go out of his place. Exod. xvi. 29. Whosoever doeth any work therein shall be cut off. Exod. xxxi. 14. They were not to gather in harvest on that day. Exod. xxxiv. 21. They were forbidden to kindle a fire throughout their habitations. Exod. xxxv. 3. They were not to gather sticks. Num. xv. 32-36. They were not to tread wine-presses, nor to bring any burden into Jerusalem. Neh. xiii. 15. In what manner should we keep holy the Sabbath-day? We must not only cease from all worldly business, and abstain from indulging worldly thoughts, and engaging in worldly amusements; but we must devote the whole of the day to acts of private and public worship. We should be engaged in prayer to God in private, as well as in our families and in public; in attentively reading and hearing his word; and in singing his praises, "making melody unto him in our hearts." Our Lord's custom was to go into the synagogue on the Sabbath-day. Luke iv. 16. Paul and his company did the same. Acts xiii. 14. Paul and Silas went out of Philippi on the Sabbath, to a place where prayer was wont to be made. Acts xvi. 13. Paul reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath. Acts xviii. 4. We must not trifle in the house of God, but remember that "we meet together to render thanks to Almighty God for the great benefits that we have received at his hands to set forth his most worthy praise, to hear his most ho word, and to ask those things which are requisite and n cessary as well for the body as the soul." * See note at the end of this section, page 147. Many persons buy and sell, or settle their accounts, and write letters on common subjects, on this sacred day; others spend it in travelling or feasting; and others walk, or loiter, or engage in trifling occupations, rising later, and retiring to rest earlier, than on any other days; as if it were a weariness to them. Mal. i. 13. These are all so many ways of breaking the Sabbath, and are exceedingly displeasing to God, who considers such conduct as a gross insult offered to himself. When will the Sabbath be gone? Amos viii. 5. Pray that your flight be not on the Sabbath-day. Matt. xxiv. 20. Diligently attend to the discharge of your duty in that state of life in which God has placed you; and do not, by your loitering and imprudence, make it necessary to do any work, or engage in any business, on that day which the Lord has set apart for himself. May no other works but those of piety be done on the Sabbath? Yes: works of necessity and of charity. But we must be careful to know that they are really such. Those are not works of necessity which will admit of being done at another time; and it is only such works of charity as cannot be deferred, or which have an immediate reference to our religious duties, which are lawful. If a sheep fall into a pit on the Sabbath-day, &c., wherefore it is lawful to do well on the Sabbath-days. Matt. xii. 11, 12. Mark iii. 4. Jesus healed the infirm woman on the Sabbath. Luke xiii. 14. Which of you shall have an ass or an ox fall into a pit, and will not pull him out. Luke xiv. 5. Jesus healed the impotent man on the Sabbath. John v. 8, 9. We must not only keep holy the Lord's day ourselves, but take care, as far as we can, that all belonging to us do the same. I know Abraham, that he will command his children and his household after him, &c. Gen. xvii. 19. That thine ox and thine ass may rest, and the son of thy handmaid, and the stranger may be refreshed. Exod. xxiii. 12. The Sabbath of the land shall be meat for thee, for thy servant, and for thy maid, and for thy hired servant, and for thy stranger that sojourneth with thee. Lev. xxv. 6, 7. Ye shall rejoice, ye and your households. Deut. v. 14; xii. 7. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Josh. xxiv. 15. In what light will the true Christian consider the Sabbath? It will be his delight; for he loves the house and worship of God, and he considers this day of rest is a figure One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord, &c. Ps. xxvii. 4. A day in thy courts is better than a thousand. Ps. lxxxiv. 1, 2. 10. This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it. Ps. cxviii. 24. I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord. Ps. cxxii. 1. There remaineth a rest for the people of God. Heb. iv. 9. They rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, &c. Rev. iv. 8. Pray for and expect a blessing on this day; for though the Christian endeavours to serve God truly all his days, yet on this day his service is more especially delightful to him. Consider what a blessing is the institution of the Sabbath. If it were not for this day, religion would soon disappear, and all its ordinances be neglected. Duties which men are at liberty to discharge when they please soon come to be utterly neglected. The very people who complain of want of time to attend to the concerns of eternity on other days, grudge giving the Sabbath to this purpose. Is the care of the soul, then, so trifling, that one day in seven is too much to devote to it? God has allotted us a sufficient portion of time for all our worldly business, without interfering with his own day. "Six days shalt thou labour, and do all that thou hast to do." Sabbath-breaking is a very hardening sin: it frequently leads young persons to keep bad company, and prepares the way to the commission of all sorts of crimes. Many persons whose offences have brought upon them the punishment of death, have attributed their dreadful end to Sabbath-breaking! Beware how you suffer yourselves to be drawn into so dangerous a course! May the Lord of the Sabbath keep us from incurring that punishment with which he visits those who profane it, and teach us to call and feel it a delight. Then I contended with the nobles of Judah, and said unto them, What evil thing is this that ye do, and profane the Sabbath-day? Did not our fathers thus, and did not God bring all this evil upon us, and upon this city? yet ye bring more wrath upon Israel, by profaning the Sabbath. Neh. xiii. 17, 18. NOTE. THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH. THE following most striking and able remarks on the perpetual ob tion of the fourth commandment, and the propriety of Christian u in relation to the day for its observance, are from a sermon of the F Church History. The view which he presents appears to be beyond the reach of reasonable objection, while it "leaves in their full force," as has been remarked, "all those subsidiary considerations which have usually been chiefly relied on,-such as the uniform practice of the Christian Church from the primitive times-their meetings on the first day of the week, recorded in the New Testament-and the remarkable expression of the last of the canonical writers, who calls it the Lord's day." "The Jews," says Dr. Milner, "could never have determined from the fourth commandment on what day their first Sabbath was to be kept. It says, Six days shalt thou labour, and on the seventh thou shalt rest: which implies no more than that, after six days' labour, the seventh was to be a day of rest, and to be kept holy. Therefore I maintain, that in the sense of the fourth commandment, the Christian Sabbath is as much the seventh day as the Jewish Sabbath was the seventh day. It is kept after six days' labour, as that was: and it is the seventh day, reckoning from the beginning of our first working day, as well as their Sabbath was the seventh day, reckoning from the beginning of their first working day. "Moreover, the reason given in the fourth commandment why there should be six working days and then a resting day, is a reason which remains in full force under the Christian dispensation; namely, because God himself set the example of working six days in the creation of the world, and then resting on the seventh day. It is in the proportion of our time -namely, one part out of seven-dedicated to rest and to sacred purposes, in which the essence of the commandment consists: the day when we begin to compute, abstractedly considered, is of very little consequence. There may, indeed, be circumstances sufficient for the deterinination of the commencement of the Sabbath-day; nor can any thing be conceived more satisfactory than the account I have just given of the commencement of the Jewish Sabbath, at its revival, on account of the passage of the Israelites through the Red sea. They adhered to the divine original institution of six days of labour and one of rest; and on their first day of rest they commemorated their deliverance from slavery. The real day being lost, in all probability, it must then have undergone a change. The shadow was of no moment, when the substance was preserved. "The very same things may be said of the Christian Sabbath: The real day of the week, reckoning from the creation, had long been utterly unknown, and was probably irrecoverably lost; and it was changed again, for reasons worthy of being engraved on the heart of every grateful, rejoicing Christian-namely, the resurrection of our Lord from the dead-his victory and triumph over death and sin, and his rising again for our justification. But never forget, that no change whatever was made in the principle on which the original commandment rested; which commandment, by its appointment, was divine, substantial, reasonable, and important in its very essence, and evidently founded on the relation in which man, as a dependent creature, stood to his Maker and Benefactor from the first moment of his existence." ON THE COMMANDMENTS. $ 6. FIFTH COMMANDMENT. THE first four commandments, which we have already considered, make up the first table, and instruct us in our |