hard to produce an instance of any one who has suffered in the least of his just rights; and it is the universal prayer of his loyal subjects, that Almighty God may be pleased to protect his valuable life, and prolong his venerable old age.

55

SERMON II.

MARK ii. 27, 28.

And he said unto them, The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath: Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath.

THE words of this text, relating entirely to the Sabbath, and explaining the spirit of the Divine institution, will perhaps be better understood when considered in connection with some other passages of Scripture, which belong to the same subject. For I purpose in this discourse to illustrate, in as plain a manner as possible, the Scripture history and doctrine of the great duty of observing the Sabbath day. And when I shall have put together the various lights which can be collected respecting it, it will be proper in the next place to exhort this audience, and enforce the duty on their minds in a practical manner.

The profanation of the Sabbath is so common, and so glaring; and the views of many persons concerning it are so low, and so limited to mere prudential considerations, and have in them so little of the fear of God, and so little recognition of the Divine authority; that it cannot be deemed inexpedient, by any pious character, to have the grounds of the duty reviewed from time to time from the pulpit.

The foundation of this institution we have in the second chapter of the book of Genesis. No sooner were the heavens and the earth finished, and God had completed his glorious work of six days, and had rested on the seventh day from all his work, than God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it, because that on that day he had rested from all his work which God had created and made. So that no institution can possibly carry more evidence of Divine authority than this does. The Sabbath is a blessed, holy day, made so by God himself. The Creator rested in it from his work; and man, his creature, is ordered to rest also, after His example, that he may commemorate the work of creation, and give himself entirely to the devout contemplation of

his Maker, and prepare himself for holding that communion with him in love and gratitude which is the true rest of the human soul.

Some have fancied that this institution was not to have its effect from the beginning; but that it was delivered only in anticipation, as it were, of the Jewish Sabbath published by Moses a long time afterwards. But I may well denominate such a notion by the term fancy, for there is not a syllable said to give countenance to it. And I could just as soon believe that the world was not created according to the Bible narrative, or that the sun did not shine as soon as it was made, as that the seventh day was not sanctified for the use of man. From the moment that there was a man upon earth, it was the will of God that a seventh part of his time should be immediately consecrated to His service.

God rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made, and blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it.-Take notice: the holy pen of inspiration perpetually condescends to speak in a way that may be intelligible to the poor limited comprehensions of our slender faculties. The work of creation was no labour to Almighty

God; and therefore the ending of it, strictly speaking, could be no rest to Him. Yet as the creation of the world is communicated to us in the view of an employment of six days' work, the idea is kept up and supported: so that the ceasing from what had been called the labour of creating, is of course called a resting from the labour.

4

Every word used on this occasion shews that the Sabbath was made for man. For God himself is eternally at rest in his own incomprehensible nature; and therefore, when He is said to have rested, blest and sanctified the seventh day, all this is to be understood as relative to man. Life and blessing will attend the man who observes the Sabbath. The Sabbath of rest is a continual lesson to him to turn his eye from all created objects, and look to that heavenly rest into which God is entered, and which is promised

to man.

These observations derive much additional strength from this reflection, that the Sabbath was given to Adam before his fall; when he was in paradise; when he stood before God in innocence and the perfection of his nature, and was pronounced very good. For, surely, when God