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not possible for a state long to subsist in splen- | says, "healed the hurt of his people slightly, dour which presumes to derive its prosperity from the practice of crimes. For,

saying, peace, peace, when there was no peace;"
vi. 14; and who were so far from suppressing
the licentiousness of the wicked, as to make it
their glory to surpass them! It would be re-
quisite to describe the awful security which in
the midst of the most tremendous visitations
infatuated them to say,
"We have made a co-
venant with death, and with hell we are at
agreement," Isa. xxviii. 15. It would be re-
quisite to trace those sanguinary deeds, which
occasioned that just rebuke, "In the skirts of
thy robe is found the blood of the innocent
poor," Jer. ii. 34. It would be requisite to ex-

prophet say, "Lift up thine eyes on the high
places, and see where thou hast been lien with.
O Juda, thy gods are as many as thy cities,"
ii. 28; iii. 2. It would be requisite to speak of
that paucity of righteous men, which occasion-
ed God himself to say, "Run ye to and fro
through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now
and know, and seek ye in the broad places
thereof, if ye can find a man, if there be any
that executeth judgment, that seeketh truth,
and I will pardon it," v. i.

Who is he that will dare to exclaim against a proposition so reasonable, and so closely connected with the grand doctrines of religion; and which cannot be renounced without a stroke at the being of a God, and the superintendence of a Providence? a man admitting those two grand principles, and presuming to make crimes subservient to the support of society, should digest the following propositions. There is indeed a God in heaven, who has constituted society to practise equity; to maintain order; and to cherish religion; he has con-hibit those scenes of idolatry, which made a nected its prosperity with these duties; but by the secrets of my policy, by the depths of my counsels, by the refinement of my wisdom, I know how to elude his designs, and avert his denunciations. God is indeed an Almighty Being whose pleasure has a necessary connexion with its execution; he has but to blow with his wind on a nation, and behold it vanishes away; but I will oppose power to power; I will force his strength;* and by my fleets, my armies, my fortress, I will elude all those ministers of vengeance. God has indeed declared, that he is jealous of his glory; that soon or late he will exterminate incorrigible nations; and that if from the nature of their vices there proceed not a sufficiency of calamities to extirpate them from the earth, he will superadd those unrelenting strokes of vengeance which shall justify his Providence; but the state, over which I preside, shall be too small, or perhaps too great to be absorbed in the vortex of his commanding sway. It shall be reserved of Providence as an exception to this general rule, and made to subsist in favour of those very vices, which have occasioned the sackage of other nations. My brethren, there is, if I may presume so to speak, but a front of iron and brass that can digest propositions so daring, and prefer the system of Hobbs and of Machiavel to that of David and of Solomon.

But what awful objects should we present to your view, were we wishful to enter on a detail of the proofs concerning the equity of the strokes with which God afflicted the Jews; and especially were we wishful to illustrate the conformity found in this second head, between the desolations of those ancient people, and

those of our own churches?

To justify what we have advanced on the first head, it would be requisite to investigate many of their kings, who were monsters rather than men; it would be requisite to describe the hardness of the people who were wishful that the ministers of the living God, sent to rebuke their crimes, might contribute to confirm them therein; and who, according to the expression of Isaiah, "said to the seer, see not; and to those who had visions, see no more visions of uprightness; speak unto us smooth things, prophecy deceit. Get you out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us," xxx. 10, 11. It would be requisite to exhibit the connivance of many of their pastors, who, as Jeremiah

*The versions vary very much in reading; Isaiah xxvii. 5. Vide Poh Synopsis Crit. in loc.

But instead of retracing those awful recollections, and deducing from them the just application of which they are susceptible, it would be better to comprise them in that general confession, and to acknowledge when speaking of your calamities what the Jews confessed when speaking of theirs: "The Lord is righteous, for I have rebelled against him. Certainly thou art righteous in all the things that have happened, for thou hast acted in truth, but we have done wickedly. Neither have our kings, our princes, our priests, nor our fathers, kept thy law, nor hearkened unto thy commandments, and to thy testimonies wherewith thou didst testify against them," Lam. i. 18; Neh. ix. 34.

III. But it is time to present you with objects more attractive and assortable with the solemnities of this day. The calamities which fell upon the Jews, and those which have fallen on us; those calamities which had a character of justice; yea, even a character of horror, had also a character of mercy; and this is what is promised the Jews in the words of my text: "Although I have cast them far off among the heathen, and among the countries; yet I will be to them as a little sanctuary in the countries where they are come." Whether you give these words, "as a little sanctuary," a vague, or a limited signification, all resolves to the same sense. If you give them a limited import, they refer to the temple of Jerusalem, which the Chaldeans had destroyed, and which was the emblem of God's presence in the midst of his people. "I have dispersed them among the heathen;" I have deprived them of their temple, but I will grant them supernaturally the favours I accorded to their prayers once offered up in the house, of which they have been deprived. In this sense St. John said, that he "saw no temple in the new Jerusalem, because God and the Lamb were the temple thereof," Rev. xxi. 22. If you give these words an extended import, they allude to the dispersion. "Although I have cast them off among the heathen, and put them far

It

away" from the place of their habitation; yet | Scripture seems to favour this notion; and I will be myself their refuge. Much the same though Tertullian and Eusebius presume to is said by the author of the xcth psalm; Lord, say that Esdras had retained the sacred books "thou hast been our retreat, or refuge, from in memory, and wrote them in the order in one generation to another." But without a which they now stand; notwithstanding all minute scrutiny of the words, let us justify the this, we think ourselves able to prove that the thing. sacred trust never was out of their hands. appears that Daniel read the prophets. The end of the second book of Chronicles, which has induced some to conclude that Cyrus was a proselyte, leaves not a doubt that this prince must have read the xlivth and xlvth chapters of Isaiah, where he is expressly named, and to this knowledge alone we can attribute the extraordinary expressions of his first edict. "The Lord God of heaven hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth; and he has charged me to build him a temple in Jerusalem," 2 Chron. xxxvi. 23.

1. Even amid the carnage which ensued on the taking of Jerusalem, many of the principal people were spared. It appears from the sacred history, that Jeremiah was allowed to choose what retreat he pleased, either to remain in Babylon,* or to return to his country. He chose the latter; he loved the foundations of Jerusalem, and of his temple, more than the superb city; and it was at the sight of those mournful ruins, that he composed those Lamentations, from which we have made many extracts, and in which he has painted in the deepest tints, and described in the most pathetic manner, the miseries of his nation.

2. While some of the Jewish captives had liberty to return to their country, others were promoted in Babylon to the most eminent offices in the empire. The author of the second Book of Kings says, that Evil-merodach "lifted up the head of Jehoiachin out of prison-and set his throne above the throne of the kings that were with him in Babylon." Jeremiah repeats the same expression of this author, 2 Kings xxv. 28; Jer. lii. 32; and learned men have thence concluded, "that Jehoiachin reigned in Babylon over his own dispersed subjects." Of Daniel we may say the same; he was made governor of the province of Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar, "and chief of the governors over all the wise men," Dan. ii. 48. Darius conferred many years afterward the same dignities on this prophet; and Nehemiah was cupbearer to Artaxerxes.

3. How dark, how impenetrable soever the history of the seventy years may be, during which time the Jews were captive in Babylon, it is extremely obvious, that they had during that period some form of government. We have explained ourselves elsewhere concerning what is meant by the Achmalotarks; that is, the chiefs or princes of the captivity. We ought also to pay some attention to the book of Susanna: I know that this work bears various marks of reprobation, and that St. Jerome, in particular, regarded it with so much contempt as to assure us, in some sort, that it would never have been put in the sacred canon had it not been to gratify a brutish people. Meanwhile, we ought not to slight what this book records concerning the general history of the Jews: now we there see, that during the captivity, they had elders, judges, and senators; and if we may credit Origen, too much prejudiced in favour of the book of Susanna, it was solely to hide the shame of the princes of their nation that the Jews had suppressed it. 4. God always preserved among them the ministry, and the ministers. It is indubitable that there were always prophets during the captivity; though some of the learned have maintained, that the sacred books were lost during the captivity; though one text of

It appears, below, that Saurin thought Jeremiah and others returned from Babylon!

5. God wrought prodigies for the Jews, which made them venerable in the eyes of their greatest enemies. Though exiles; though captives; though slaves of the Chaldeans, they were distinguished as the favourites of the Sovereign of the universe. They made the God of Abraham to triumph even in the midst of idols; and aided by the prophetic Spirit, they pronounced the destiny of those very kingdoms in the midst of which they were dispersed. Like the captive Ark, they hallowed the humiliations of their captivity by symbols of terror. Witness the flames which consumed their executioners. Witness the dreams of Nebuchadnezzar, and of Belshazzar interpreted by Daniel, and realized by Providence: witness the praises rendered to God by idolatrous kings: witness the preservation of Daniel from the fury of the lions; and his enemies thrown to assuage the appetites of those ferocious beasts.

6. In a word, the mercy of God appeared so distinguished in the deliverance accorded to these same Jews, as to convince the most incredulous, that the same God who had determined their captivity, was he also who had prescribed its bounds. He moved in their behalf the hearts of pagan princes! We see Darius, and Cyrus, and Artaxerxes, become, by the sovereignty of Heaven over the heart of kings, the restorers of Jerusalem, and the builders of its temple! Xenophon reports, that when Cyrus took Babylon, he commanded his soldiers to spare all who spake the Syrian tongue; that is to say, the Hebrew nation; and no one can be ignorant of the edicts issued in favour of this people.

Now, my brethren, nothing but an excess of blindness and ingratitude can prevent the seeing and feeling in our own dispersion those marks of mercy, which shone so bright in the dispersion of the Jews. How else could we have eluded the troops stationed on the frontiers of our country, to retain us in it by force, and to make us either martyrs or apostates?

What else could excite the zeal of some Protestant countries, whose inhabitants you saw going to meet your fugitives, guiding them in the private roads, and disputing with one another who should entertain them; and saying, "Come, come into our houses, ye blessed of the Lord?" Gen. xxiv. 31.

Whence proceeds so much success in our

trade; so much promotion in the army; so plishment of that which follows. "I will gather much progress in the sciences; and so much you from among the people, and assemble you prosperity in the several professions of many of from the countries where ye have been scatterus, who, according to the world, are more hap-ed." When is it that so many Christians, who

py in the land of their exile, than they were in their own country?

Why has God been pleased to signalize his favours to certain individuals of the nations, and have extended to us a protecting arm? Why, when indigence and exiles seemed to enter their houses together, have we seen affluence, benediction, and riches emanate, if we may so speak, from the bosom of charity and beneficence?

By what miracle have so great a number of our confessors and martyrs been liberated from their tortures and their chains?

From what principle proceeds the extraordinary difference, God has put between those of our countrymen, who, without consulting "flesh and blood, have followed Jesus Christ without the camp, bearing his reproach," and those who have wished to join the interests of mammon with those of heaven? Gal. i. 16; Heb. xiii. 13.

We are masters of whatever property with which it pleased Providence to invest us on our departure; but our brethren cannot dispose of theirs but with vexatious restrictions and imposts.

We have over our children the rights which nature, society, and religion have given us; we can promise both to ourselves and to them the protection of the laws, while we shall continue to respect the laws, which we teach them to do. But our countrymen, on leaving their houses for a few hours, know not on their return, whether they shall find those dear parts of themselves, or whether they shall be dragged away to confinement in a convent, or thrown into a jail.

Whenever the sabbaths and festivals of the church arrive, we go with our families to render homage to the Supreme; we rise up in a throng with a song of triumph in the house of our God; we make it resound with hymns; we hear the Scriptures; we offer up our prayers; we participate of his sacraments; we anticipate the eternal felicities. But our countrymen have no part in the joy of our feasts; they are to them days of mourning; it is with difficulty in an obscure part of their house, and in the mortal fear of detection, that they celebrate some hasty act of piety and religion.

We, when conceiving ourselves to be extended on the bed of death, can call our ministers, and open to them our hearts, listen to their gracious words, and drink in the sources of their comfort. But our countrymen are pursued to the last moments of their life by their enemies, and having lived temporizing, they die temporizing.

We find then as the captive Jews, the accomplishment of the prophecy of my text; and we enjoy, during the years of our dispersion, favours similar to those which soothed the Jews during their captivity.

But can we promise ourselves that ours shall come to a similar close? The mercy of God on our behalf has already accomplished the promise in the text, "I will be to them as a little sanctuary in the countries where they are come." But when shall we see the accomVOL. II.-47

degenerate as they are, still love religion; when is it that they shall repair the insults they have offered to it? When is it, that so many chil dren who have been torn from their fathers, shall be restored; or rather, when shall we see them restored to the church, from whose bosom they have been plucked? When is it that we shall see in our country what we see at this day, Christians emulous to build churches, to consecrate them, there to render God the early homage due to his Majesty, and to participate in the first favours he there accords? "Oh! ye that make mention of the Lord, keep not silence; give him no rest till he establish, and till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth," Isa. Ixii. 5, 6. "Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, thou that leadest Joseph like a flock, thou that dwellest between the cherubim shine forth. Before Ephraim and Benjamin, and Manasseh, stir up thy strength, and come and save us," Ps. lxxx. 1, 2. O Lord God of hosts, how long wilt thou be angry against the prayer of thy people?" ver. 4. "Thou shalt arise, and have mercy on Zion: for the time to favour her, yea, the set time is come. For thy servants take pleasure in stones, and favour the dust thereof. Then the heathen shall fear the name of the Lord, and all the kings of the earth thy glory. When the Lord shall build up Zion; when he shall regard the prayer of the destitute, this shall be written for the generation to come; and the people which shall be created shall praise the Lord; for he hath looked down from the height of his sanctuary," Ps. cii. 13, &c. May this be the first subject of the prayers we shall this day offer to God in this holy place.

But asking of him favours so precious, let us ask with sentiments which ensure success. May the purity of the worship we render to God in the churches he has preserved, and in those he has also allowed to build, obtain reedification of those that have been demolished. May our charity to brethren, the companions of our exile, obtain a re-union with the brethren, from whom we have been separated by the calamities of the times. And while God shall still retard this happy period, may our respect for our rulers, may our zeal for the public good, may our punctuality in paying the taxes, may our gratitude for the many favours we have received in these provinces, which equalize us with its natural subjects; and compressing in my exhortations and prayers, not only my countrymen, but all who compose this assembly, may the manner in which we shall serve God amid the infirmities and miseries inseparable from this valley of tears, ensure to us, my brethren, that after having joined our voices to those choirs which compose the militant church, we shall be joined to those that form the church triumphant, and sing eternally with the angels, and with the multitude of the redeemed of all nations, and languages, the praises of the Creator. God grant us the grace. To whom be honour and glory henceforth and for ever. Amen.

SERMON XCV.

ON FESTIVALS, AND PARTICULARLY ON THE SABBATH-DAY.

ISAIAH lviii. 13, 14.

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 shall honour him, not doing thy own ways, nor finding thy own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words; then thou shalt delight thyself in the Lord, and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father; for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. "WHEN Will the new moon be gone, that we may sell corn? and the sabbath, that we may set forth wheat?" This was the language that the prophet Amos put into the mouth of the profane men in his own time. It is less expressive of their presumptive speeches, than of the latent wickedness which festered in their hearts. Religion and politics were closely connected in the Hebrew nation. The laws inflicted the severest penalties on those that violated the exterior of religion. The execrable men, of whom the prophet speaks, could not absent themselves from the solemn festivals with impunity; but they worshipped with constraint; they regretted the loss of their time; they reproached God with every moment wasted in his house; they ardently wished the feasts to be gone, that they might return, not only to their avocations, but also to their crimes; they said in their hearts, "When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell corn? and the sabbath, that we may set forth wheat?" Amos viii. 5.

Against this disposition of mind, God has denounced by the ministry of this same prophet, those very awful judgments, which he has painted in the deepest shades. The Lord hath sworn: "I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation. Behold the day cometh, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land; not a famine of bread, not a thirst of water, but of hearing the words of the Lord. And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east; they shall run to and fro to hear the word of the Lord, and shall not find it."

My brethren, are you not persuaded, that the impious men, of whom the prophet speaks, have had imitators in succeeding times? whence is it then that some among us have been struck precisely with the same strokes, if they have not been partakers of the same crimes? whence comes this famine of God's word, my dear countrymen, with which we have been afflicted? Whence comes the necessity imposed upon us to wander from sea to sea, to recover this divine pasture, if we have not slighted it in places where it existed in so much abundance and unction? Whence comes those awful catastrophes that have changed our solemn feasts into mourning, if we celebrated them, when it was in our power, with joy? Whence comes

those lamentations heard in one part of the church for forty years, and which awful melody has latterly been renewed, if we sung our sacred hymns with a devotion that the praises of the Creator require of the creature? "O Lord, righteousness belongeth unto thee, but unto us confusion of faces. The Lord is righteous, though we have rebelled against him," Dan. ix. 7. 9. Happy those who groan under the strokes for the sins they have committed, provided the school of adversity make them wise. Happy those of you, my brethren, who are simply the spectators of those calamities, provided you abstain from the sins which have occasioned them, and become wise at the expense of others.

This is the design of my discourse, in which I am to address you on the respect due to the solemn feasts, and to the sabbath-day in particular, leaving conscience to decide whether it be caprice, or necessity, which prompts us to choice; whether it be inconsideration, or mere accident; or whether it has been compulsion, through the dreadful enormities into which we are plunged, in regard of the profanation of religious festivals, and of the sabbathday in particular, that people have for so long a time justly branded us with reproach: profaneness alone, unless we make efforts to reform it, is sufficient to bring down the wrath of God on these provinces. May Heaven deign to avert those awful presages! May the Almighty engrave on our hearts the divine precept inculcated to-day, that we may happily inherit the favours he has promised! May be enable us so "to make the sabbaths our delight," that we may be made partakers of "the heritage of Jacob;" I would say, that of "the finisher of our faith. Amen."

"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 thy ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine words; then thou shalt delight thyself in the Lord, and I will cause thee to ride on the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father, for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it." This is our text, and here is our design. We shall consider the words,

I. With regard to the Jewish church;

11. With regard to the Christian church; or to be more explicit, God has made two very different worlds, the world of nature, and the world of grace. Both these are the heritage of the faithful, but in a very different way. The Jews contemplating the world of grace as a distant object, had their imagination principally impressed with the kingdom of nature. Hence, in their form of thanksgiving, they said, "Blessed be God who hath created the wheat; blessed be God who hath created the fruit of the vine." Christians, on the contrary, accounting themselves but strangers in this world, place all their glory in seeing the marvels of the world of grace. Hence it is the common theme of their thanksgivings to say, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his abundant mercy, hath begotten us again unto a lively hope, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. from the dead," 1 Pet. i. 3, 4. Thus it was in

a point of order that the difference of dispensa-moon, to whom they gave the name of Isis." tions was apparent in the two churches. The God, to preserve his people from these errors, Jew in his sabbath, celebrated the marvels of instituted a festival which sapped the whole nature; but the Christian, exalted to sublimer system, and which avowedly contemplated views, celebrated the marvels of grace: and this every creature of the universe, as the producmemorable day of the Saviour's resurrection, tion of the Supreme Being. And this may be the day in which he saw the work of redemp- the reason why Moses remarked to the Jews on tion finished, and the hopes of the church leaving Egypt, that God renewed the institution crowned; two objects to which we shall call of the sabbath. The passage I have in view is your attention. in the fifth chapter of Deuteronomy. member that thou wast a servant in the land of "ReEgypt, and the Lord thy God brought thee out, therefore he commandeth thee to keep his sabbath."

I. We shall consider the words of the text with regard to the Jews. With that view we shall state, 1. The reasons of the institution of the Sabbath; 2. The manner in which the prophet required it to be celebrated; 3. The promises made to those who worthily hallow the sabbath-day.

We must consequently regard the sabbathday as a high avowal of the Jews of their detestation of idolatry, and of their ascribing to God alone the origin of the universe. An expression of Ezekiel is to the same effect: he calls the sabbath a sign between God and his people: "I gave them my sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctify them," Ezek. xx. 12. It is for this very reason, that the prophets exclaim so strongly against the violation of the sabbath: it is for the same reason that God commanded it to be observed with so high a sanction: it is for the same reason that the sabbath-breakers were so rigorously punished; even that one for gathering a bundle of sticks, was stoned by the people. The law expressly enjoins that those who profane the festival should be awfully anathematized. The passage is very remarkable.

Four considerations gave occasion for the institution of the sabbath-day. God was wishful to perpetuate two original truths on which the whole evidence of religion devolves; the first is, that the world had a beginning; the second is, that God is its author. You feel the force of both these points, without the aid of illustration, because, if the world be eternal, there is some being coeval with the godhead; and if there be any being coeval with the godhead, there is a being which is independent of it, and which is not indebted to God for its existence: and if there be any being which is not dependant on God, I no longer see in him all the perfection which constitutes his essence: our devotion is irregular; it ought to be divided between all the beings which participate of his perfec-"Ye shall therefore keep the sabbath; for it is tions.

2. But if the world have not God for its author, it is requisite to establish the one or the other of these suppositions, either that the world itself has a superintending intelligence, or that it was formed by chance. If you suppose the world to have been governed by an intelligence peculiar to itself, you fall into the difficulty you wish to avoid. You associate with God a being, that, participating of his perfections, must participate also of his worship. On the contrary, if you suppose it was made by chance, you not only renounce all the light of reason, but you sap the whole foundation of faith: for, if chance have derived us from nothing, it may reduce us to nothing again; and if our existence depend on the caprice of fortune, the immortality of the soul is destitute of proof, infidelity obtains a triumph, religion becomes a pun, and the hopes of a life to come are a chimera.-It was therefore requisite, that there should remain in the church this monument of the creation of the universe.

The second reason was to prevent idolatry. This remark claims peculiar attention, many of the Mosaic precepts being founded on the situation in which the Jews were placed. Let this general remark be applied to the subject in hand. The people, on leaving Egypt, were separated from a nation that worshipped the sun, the moon, and the stars. I might prove it by various documents of antiquity. A passage of Diodorus of Sicily, shall suffice: "The ancient Egyptians (he says,) struck with the beauty of the universe, thought it owed its origin to two eternal divinities, that presided over all the others: the one was the sun, to whom they gave the name of Osiris; the other was the

holy unto you: every one that defileth it shall surely be put to death; for whosoever doeth any work therein, that soul shall be cut off from amongst his people," Exod. xxxi. 14. This expression is appropriate to the great anathema, which was always followed by death. Whence should proceed so many cautions, so many rigours, so many threatenings, so many promises? You cannot account for them, if the sabbath be placed among the ceremonial institutions of the Hebrew code."

3. God was wishful to promote humanity. With that view he prescribed repose to the servants and handmaids; that is, to domestics and slaves. Look on the situation of slaves: it is as oppressive as that of the beasts. They saw no termination of their servitude but after the expiration of seven years: and it might happen, that their masters seeing the servitude about to expire, would become more rigorous, with a view to indemnify themselves beforehand for the services they were about to lose. It was requisite to remind them, that God interests himself for men whose condition was so abject and oppressive. This reminds me of a fine passage in PLATO, who says, "that the gods, moved by the unhappy situation of slaves, have instituted the sacred festivals to procure them relaxation from labour." And CICERO says, "that the festivals are destined to suspend the disputes between freemen, and the labours of slaves." For the motives of humanity, it is subjoined in the precept, "Thou shalt do no

*It is to be regretted that several writers in our own country have latterly attempted to class the sabbath among the ceremonial institutions, which is a perversion of its design.

+ De legibus lib. 2

* De legibus.

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