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manner of work, neither thou, nor thine ox, nor thine ass."

I may here put the same question that St. Paul once put to the Corinthians, "Doth God take care for oxen?" No; but there is a constitutional sympathy, without which the heart is destitute of compassion. So is the import of a text in St. John, "No man hath seen God at any time: if we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfect in us.-If any man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar. For he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?" There is here an apparent defect in the argumentation, because the faults we may see in our brother, may obstruct our attachment, which cannot be the case with regard to God. But the apostle's meaning was, that if an object striking the senses, as our brother, does not excite affection, we cannot love an object that is abstract, as the Divine Nature. Now, those who are habitually cruel to animals, are generally less tender, and they insensibly lose that constitutional sympathy which produces the affections of the heart and the mind. This constitutional sympathy excites in us a painful impression, that on seeing a wounded man, we are spontaneously moved to succour the afflicted. This sympathy is excited not only by the sight of a man, but also by the sight of a beast, when treated with cruelty. Hence, on habituating ourselves to be cruel to animals, we do violence to our feelings, harden the heart, and extinguish the sympathy of nature. Ah! how suspicious should we be of virtues merely rational, and unconnected with the heart. They are more noble indeed, but they are not so sure. We may also remark, that those employed in slaughtering animals, are often wanting in tenderness and affection. And this very notion illustrates several of the Mosaic laws, which appear at first destitute of propriety, but which are founded on what we have just said. Such is the law which prohibits eating of things strangled; such is the law on finding a bird's nest, which forbids our taking the dam with the young: such also is that where God forbids our "seething a kid in his mother's milk," Gen. ix. 4; Deut. xxii. 6, 7; Exod. xxiii. 19. In the last, some have thought that God was wishful to fortify the Jews against a superstitious custom of the heathens, who after having gathered the fruits of the vine, seethed a kid in his mother's milk, and then sprinkled the milk to Bacchus, that he might cruelly kill this animal which presumes to browse on the vine consecrated to the god. But I doubt, whether from all the ancient authors they can adduce a passage demonstrative that this species of superstition was known to subsist in the time of Moses. This difficulty is obviated by the explication I propose: besides, it excites humanity by enjoining compassion to animals, a duty inculcated by the heathens. The Phrygians were prohibited from killing an ox that trod out the corn. The judges of the Areopagus exiled a boy, who had plucked out the eyes of a living owl; and they severely punished a man who had roasted a bull alive. The duty of humanity is consequently a third motive of the institution of the sabbath. Hereby God recalled to the recollection of the Jews the situation in which they had been placed in the land

of Egypt. "The seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God,-that thy man-servant, and thy maid-servant may rest as well as thou. And remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord thy God brought thee thence, through a mighty hand and outstretched arm: therefore the Lord thy God commandeth thee to keep the sabbath-day," Deut. v. 14, 15.

4. In a word, the design of God in the institution of the sabbath, was to recall to the minds of men the recollection of their original equality: he requires masters and servants alike to abstain from labour, so as in some sort to confound the diversity of their conditions, and to abate that pride, of which superior rank is so common a source.

There was among the heathens one festival very singular, which they call the Saturnalia. It was one of the most ancient festivals of paganism. MACROBIUS affirms, that it was celebrated in Greece long before the foundation of Rome. The masters gave the servants a treat; they placed them at their own table, and clothed them in their own raiment. The heathens say, that this festival was instituted by king JANUS, to commemorate the age of Saturn, when men were equal, and unacquainted with the distinctions of rank and fortune. The institution was highly proper, being founded on fact, and it may serve as an illustration of our text.

God in recalling to men the original equality of their condition, apprised them in what consisted the true excellence of man. It is not in the difference of rank, or what is called fortune. It consists in being men: it consists in the image of God, after which we were made: and consequently, the humblest of men made in his image, are entitled to respect.

This important reflection, I would inculcate on imperious masters, who treat their domestics as the brutes destitute of knowledge. We must not, I grant, disturb the order of society: the Scriptures themselves suppose the diversity of conditions. Hence they prescribe the duties of masters to their servants, and the duties of servants to their masters. But rank cannot sanction that haughty and disdainful carriage. Do you know what you do in mauling those whom certain advantages have placed in your power? You degrade yourselves; you renounce your proper dignity; and in assuming an extraneous glory, you seem but lightly to esteem that which is natural. I have said, that the glory of man does not consist in riches, nor in royalty, but in the excellence of his nature, in the image of God, after which he was made, and in the immortality to which he aspires. If you despise your servants, you do not derive your dignity from these sources, but from your exterior condition; for, if you derive it from the sources I have noticed, you would respect the persons committed to your care. This may suffice for the reasons of the institution of the sabbath, let us say a word on the manner in which it must be celebrated.

2. On this subject, the less enlightened rabbins have indulged their superstition more than on any other. Having distorted the idea of the day, they would ascribe to the sabbath the power of conferring dignity on inanimate crea

tures: they even assign this reason, that God prohibited their offering him any victim not a week old; and circumcising their children till that time; they assign, I say, this reason that no creature could be worthy to be offered to him, till he had first been consecrated by a sabbath!

They have distorted also the obligation imposed upon them of ceasing from labour. The Rabbins have reduced to thirty-nine heads whatever they presume to be forbidden on that day. Each of those heads includes the minutia, and not only the minutia, and things directly opposed to the happiness of society, but also to the spirit of the precept. Some have even scrupled to defend their own lives on that day against their enemies. Ptolemy Lagus, and Pompey after him, at the siege of Jerusalem, availed themselves of this superstition. Antiochus Epiphanes perpetrated an action still more cruel and vile. He pursued the Jews to the caves, whither they had fled to hide from his vengeance. There, on the sabbath-day, they suffered themselves to be slaughtered as beasts, without daring either to defend themselves or even to secure the entrance of their retreat.

tions and licentious customs have originated from an imaginary superstition, and not from the word of God.

Instead of the whimsical notions they had imbibed, God required a conduct consonant to the injunctions of his law. The import of the phrase, "doing thy own pleasure on my holy day," is, that thou follow not thy own caprice in the notions thou hast formed of religion, but what I myself have prescribed.

Instead of the imaginary excellence they attributed to the sabbath, God requires them to reverence it because it was a sign of communion with him; because in approaching him on this day, they became more holy; because they then renewed their vows, and became more and more detached from idolatry, and in fine, because on this day they became devoted to his worship in a peculiar manner. This is the import of the expression, "it is holy to the Lord;" I would say, it is distinguished, it is separated, from the other days of the week, for the duties of religion.

Instead of this rigorous sabbath, God required a cessation from all kinds of labour, which would tend to interrupt their meditations on Some others, the Dositheans, a branch of all the marvels he had wrought for their counthe Samaritans, imposed a law of abiding the try. He especially required that they should whole day in whatever place they were found abstain from travelling long journeys; so is the by the sabbath. We recollect the story of the gloss which some have given to the words, "If Jew, who having fallen into an unclean place, thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath," refused to be taken out on the sabbath-day; as though, perhaps, withdrawing the foot from also the decision of the Bishop of Saxony on the sabbath is a metaphorical expression for that point, who, after knowing his scruple," ceasing to profane it." But withal, they condemned him to remain there the whole of the Sunday also, it being just that a Christian sabbath should be observed with the same sanctity as the Jewish.

were allowed to do works of mercy, whether divine, or for the preservation of life. Hence the maxim of their wiser men, that "the dangers of life superseded the sabbath." And the celebrated Maimonides has decided the lawfulness of the Jews besieging and defending cities on the sabbath-day.. We see likewise in the history of the Maccabees, that Matthias and his sons defended themselves with resolution on that day. Besides, they were always allowed to walk what is called "a sabbath-day's journey;" that is, two hundred cubits, the distance between the camp and the tabernacle, while they were in the desert: every Jew being obliged to attend the divine service, it was requisite that this walk should be allowed.*This was the divine worship, which above all objects must engross their heart, and especially, the reading of God's word. This, perhaps, is the import of the phrase, which excites a very different idea in our version, "nor speaking thine own words," which may be read, that thou mayest attach thyself to the word.

They have likewise cast a gloom on the joy which the faithful should cherish on this holy day. It is a fact, that some of them fasted to the close of the day: to this custom the emperor Augustine alludes, when having remained a whole day without meat, he wrote to Tiberias, that a Jew did not better observe the fast of the sabbath, than he had observed it that day. But the greater number espoused the opposite side, and under a presumption that the prophet promised the divine approbation to those that make the sabbath their delight," they took the greater precaution to avoid whatever might make them sad. They imposed a law to make three meals that day. They regarded fasting the day which preceded, and followed the sabbath, as a crime, lest it should disturb the joy. They allowed more time for sleep than on the other days of the week; they had fine dresses for the sabbath; they reserved the best food, and the most delicious wines to honour the festival: this is what they called making the sabbath a delight!" this induced Plutarch to believe that they celebrated this festival in honour of Bacchus, and that the word sabbath was derived from the Greek sebazein, a word appropriate to the licentious practices indulged in the festivals of this false god. They affirm, on not attaining the sublime of devotion, that the cause is a deficiency of rejoicing. They even presume, that this joy * From the centre, the place of the Tabernacle, to the reaches to hell, and that the souls of Jews conextremities of a camp of nearly three millions of people could not be less than four miles. Hence the prohibition demned to its torments, have a respite on the of journeys of pleasure, and unholy diversions, seems to sabbath-day. Evident it is, that all those no-have been the object of the precept.

3. It remains to consider the promise connected with the observation of the sabbath. "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." This promise is susceptible of a double import, the one literal, the other spiritual.

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The literal refers to temporal prosperity; it couched in figures consonant to the oriental

style, and particularly to the prophetic. The high places of the earth, are those of Palestine; so called, because it is a mountainous country. The idea of our prophet coincides with what Moses has said in the xxxiid chapter of Deuteronomy. "He has made him to ride upon the high places of the earth: or to ride on horseback," as in our text, which implies the surmounting of the greatest difficulties. Hence, God's promise to those who should observe his sabbath, of riding on the high places of the earth, imports, that they should have a peaceful residence in the land of Canaan.

Plenty is joined to peace in the words which follow: "I will feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father." Here is designated the abundance which the descendants of the patriarch should enjoy in the promised land. Some presume that the name of Jacob is here mentioned in preference of Abraham, because Jacob had a peculiar reverence for the sabbathday. They say, that Isaiah here refers to an occurrence in the patriarch's life. It is recorded in the xxxiiid of Genesis, that Jacob, coming from Padan-aram, encamped before the city of Shechem: and they contend, that it was to hallow the sabbath, which intervened during his march. Reverie of the Rabbins. The promises made to Abraham, and Isaac, respecting the promised land, were renewed to Jacob; hence it might as well be called the heritage of Jacob, as the heritage of Abraham. This is the literal sense of my text.

has so long and so justly reproached us, which determined me on the choice of this text. We proceed therefore to some more pointed remarks, which shall close this discourse.

II. The whole is reduced to two questions, in which we are directly concerned. First, are Christians obliged to observe a day of rest; and secondly, in these provinces, in this church, is that day celebrated, I do not say with all the sanctity it requires, but only, is it observed with the same reverence as in the rest of the Christian world, even in places the most corrupt?

1. Are Christians obliged to observe a day of rest? This question has been debated in the primitive church, and the subject has been resumed in our own age. Some of the ancient and of the modern divines have maintained, not only that the obligation is imposed on Christians, but that the fourth commandment of the law ought to be observed in all its rigour. Hence, in the first ages, some have had the same respect for Saturday as for Sunday. Gregory Nazianzen calls these two days two companions, for which we should cherish an equal respect. The constitution of Clement enjoin both these festivals to be observed in the church; the sabbath-day in honour of the creation, and the Lord's-day, which exhibits to our view the resurrection of the Saviour of the world.

We have no design, my brethren, to revive those controversies, this part of our discourse being designed for your edification. You are not accused of wanting respect for the Saturday, but for the day that follows. Your defect is not a wish to observe two sabbaths in the week, but a refusal to observe one. It is then sufficient to prove, that Christians are obliged to observe one day in the week, and that day is the first. This is apparent from four considerations, which I proceed to name.

It has also a spiritual sense, which some interpreters have sought in this phrase, "the high places of the earth." They think it means the abode of the blessed. Not wishful to seek it in the expression, we shall find it in the nature of the object. What was this "heritage of Jacob?" Was it only Canaan properly so called? This St. Paul denies in the xith chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews. Speak- First, from the nature of the institution. It ing of the faith of the patriarchs, he positively is a general maxim, that whatever morality asserts, that the promised land was not its prin- was contained in the Jewish ritual; that whatcipal object. The "heritage of Jacob," ac- ever was calculated to strengthen the bonds of cording to the apostle, "is a country better than our communion with God, to reconcile us to that which the patriarchs had left;" "that is, our neighbour, to inspire us with holy thoughts, a heavenly country." This is the heritage of was obligatory on the Christians; and more so which the expiring patriarch hoped to acquire than on the Jews, in proportion as the new the possession; and of which he said in his last covenant surpasses the old in excellence. Apmoments, "O God, I have waited for thy sal-ply this maxim to our subject. The precept vation," Gen. xlix. 18. This Jerusalem, the apostle calls a high place, the "Jerusalem which is above," not because it is situate on the mountains, but because it really is above the region of terrestrial things. This is the Jerusalem which is the mother of us all, and to which the claims of Christians are not less powerful than the Jews.

under discussion has a ceremonial aspect, assortable to the circumstances in which the ancient church were placed. The selection of the seventh day, the rigours of its sanctity, and its designs to supersede the idolatrous customs of Egypt, were peculiar to the ancient church, and purely ceremonial; and in that view, not binding to the christian. But the necessity of having one day in seven consecrated to the worship of God, to study the grand truths of religion, to make a public profession of faith, to give relaxation to servants, to confound all distinction of rank in congregations, to acknowledge that we are all brethren, that we are equal in the sight of God, who there presides, all these are not comprised in the ritual, they are wholly moral.

This induces us, my brethren, to consider the text in regard to Christians, as we have considered it in regard to Jews. Perhaps you have secretly reproached us, during the course of this sermon, with having consumed, in less instructive researches, the limits of our time.But, my brethren, if you complain of the remote reference which the subject has to your state, I fear, I do fear, you will murmur against what follows, as touching you too closely. I 2. We have proofs in the New Testament, said in the beginning, that it was the dreadful that the first day of the week was chosen of excess into which we are plunged; the horrible God to succeed the seventh. This day is callProfanation of the sabbath, a profanation whiched in the Book of Revelation, "the Lord's

day," by way of excellence, i. 10. It is said in the xxth chapter of the Book of Acts, that the apostles" came together on the first day of the week to break bread." And St. Paul, writing to the Corinthians to lay by on the first day of the week what each had designed for charity, sanctions the Sunday to be observed instead of the Saturday, seeing the Jews, according to the testimony of Philo, and Josephus, had been accustomed to make the collections on the sabbath-day, and receive the tenths in the synagogues to carry to Jerusalem.*

3. On this subject, we have likewise authentic documents of antiquity. Pliny, the younger, in his letter to the emperor Trajan concerning the Christians, says, that they set apart one day for devotion, and it is indisputable that he means the Sunday. Justin Martyr in his Apologies, and in his letter to Denis, pastor of Corinth, bears the same testimony. The emperor Constantine made severe laws against those who did not sanctify the sabbath. These laws were renewed by Theodosius, by Valentinian, by Arcadius; for, my brethren, these emperors did not confine their duties to the extension of trade, the defence of their country, and to the establishment of politics as the supreme law; they thought themselves obliged to maintain the laws of God, and to render religion venerable; and they reckoned that the best barriers of a state were the fear of God, and a zeal for his service. They is sued severe edicts to enforce attendance on devotion, and to prohibit profane sports on this day. The second council of Macon,† held in the year 585, and the second of Aix-la-Chapelle, held in 836, followed by their canons the same line of duty.

4. But the grand reason for consecrating one day in seven arises from ourselves, from the in

finity of dissipations which was the ordinary course of life. Tax your conscience with the time you spend in devotion when alone. Do we not know; do we not see; do we not learn on all sides, how your days are spent? Do we not know how those grave men live, who, from a notion of superior rank, think themselves excused from examining their conscience, and attending to the particulars of religion? Do we not know how that part of mankind live, who apparently have abandoned the care of their soul to care for their body, to dress and to undress, to visit and receive visits, to play both night and day, and thus to render diversions, some of which might be innocent as recreations, if used with moderation, to render them, I say, criminal, by the loss of time? Is it solitude, is it reading God's word which excite those reveries which constantly float in your brain; and those extravagances of pleasures whereby you seem to have assumed the task of astonishing the church by the amusement you afford to some, and the offence you give to others? It was, therefore, requisite that there should be one day destined to stop the torrent, to recall your wandering thoughts, and to present to your view those grand truths, which so seldom occur in the ordinary pursuits of life.

These remarks may suffice for the illustration of the first question, whether Christians are obliged to observe one day in seven: our second inquiry is, whether this day is celebrated in these provinces, I do not say as it ought; but, at least, is it celebrated with the same decency as in the most corrupt parts of the Christian world?

Ah! my brethren, must every duty of Christianity suggest occasion to complain of your conduct, and furnish impeachments for your condemnation? I look round for one trait in morality, to which we have nothing but applause to bestow, and of which we may say, *Saurin is here brief on the reasons assigned for the go on, go on; that is well done, "Blessed is change of the sabbath, from the seventh to the first day that servant, whom when his Lord cometh he of the week. The reader, however, may see them at shall find so doing. I look for one period in large in the second volume of Dr. Lightfoot's works, and in the works of Mr. Mede. They are in substance as your life in which I may find you Christians in follow: that the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath; and reality, as you are in name. I watch you for the Supreme Lawgiver of his church. He has not only six days in the bustle of business, and I find changed the old covenant for the new, but he has superseded the shadows of the ritual law for the realities; bap- you haughty, proud, voluptuous, selfish, and tism for circumcision, and the holy supper for the pass-refractory to every precept of the gospel. PerThe sabbath was first instituted to commemorate haps, on this hallowed day you shall be found the creation; and the redemption is viewed at large as a irreproachable; perhaps, satisfied with giving new creation. Isa. lxv. The institution was renewed to to the world six days of the week, you will commemorate the emancipation from Egypt; how much more then should it be enforced to commemorate the re- consecrate to the Lord the one which is so peculiarly devoted to him. But, alas! this day, this very day, is spent as the others; the same pursuits, the same thoughts, the same pleasures, the same employments, the same intemperance!

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demption of the world? To disregard it would apparently implicate us in a disbelief of this redemption. Moses, who renewed the sabbath, was faithful as a ser vant, but Christ, who changed it, is the Son, and Lord of all. The sabbath was the birth-day of the Lord of Glory from the tomb: "Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee," Pa. ii. It was not less so the birth day of our hope; God hath begotten us again" unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead," 1 Pet. 1.3. And this was the day in which he began his glorious reign. He then affirmed, that "All power was given unto him in heaven and carth," Matt. xxviii. 18. And how could the church rejoice while the Lord was enveloped in the tomb? But on the morning of the resurrection, it was said by the Father to the Son, "Thy dead men shall live." The Son replies, "Together with my dead body shall they arise! Awake, and sing, ye that dwell in dust," Isa. xxvi. 19. "This is the day the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it." Psalms

exviii. 24. I. S.

+ Macon, Matisco, is situate 40 miles north of Lyons, and was a depot of the Romans.-Boiste's Dict. 1806

L. 8.

In other places, they observe the exterior, at least. The libertine suspends his pleasures, the workmen quit their trades, and the shops are shut: and each is accustomed to attend some place of worship. But how many among us, very far from entering into the spirit and temper of Christianity, are negligent of its exterior decencies!

How scandalous to see on the sabbath, the artificer, publicly employed at his work, profaning this hallowed festival by his common trade; wasting the hours of devotion in mechanical labours; and defying, at the same

time, both the precepts of religion, and the institutions of the church!

How scandalous to see persons of rank, of age, of character, live, I do not say whole weeks, I do not say whole months, but whole years, without once entering these churches, attending our devotion, and participating of our sacra

ments!

How scandalous that this sabbath is the very day marked by some for parties, and festivity in the highest style! How scandalous to see certain concourses of people; certain doors open; and certain flambeaux lighted: those who have heard a report that you are Christians, expect to find you in the houses of prayer: but what is their astonishment to see that those houses are the rendezvous of pleasure!

And what must we think of secret devotion, when the public is so ill discharged? How shall we persuade ourselves that you discharge the more difficult duties of religion, when those that are most easy are neglected? Seeing you do not sufficiently reverence religion to forego certain recreations, how can we think that you discharge the duties of self-denial, of crucifying the old man, of mortifying concupiscence, and of all the self-abasement, which religion requires?

What mortifies us most, and what obliges us to form an awful opinion on this conduct is, that we see its principle.-Its principle, do you ask, my brethren? It is, in general, that you have very little regard for religion; and this is the most baneful source, from which our vices spring. When a man is abandoned to a bad habit; when he is blinded by a certain passion; when he is hurried away with a throng of desire, he is then highly culpable, and he has the justest cause of alarm, if a hand, an immediate hand, be not put to the work of reformation. In this case, one may presume, that he has, notwithstanding, a certain respect for the God he offends. One may presume, that though he neglects to reform, he, at least, blames his conduct; and that if the charm were once dissolved, truth would resume her original right, and that the motives of virtue would be felt in all their force. But when a man sins by principle; when he slights religion; when he regards it as a matter of indifference; what resource of salvation have we then to hope? This, with many of you, is the leading fault. The proofs are but too recent, and too numerous. You have been often reproached with it, and if I abridge this point, it is not through a deficiency, but a superabundance of evidence, which obliges me to do it. And meanwhile, what alas! is this fortune; what is this prosperity; what is the most enviable situation in life; what is all this that pleases, and enchants the soul, when it is not religion which animates and governs the whole?

Ah! my brethren! to what excess do you extend your corruption? What then is the time you would devote to piety? When will you work for your souls? We conjure you by the bowels of Jesus Christ, who on this day finished the work of your salvation, that you return to recollection. When we enforce, in general, the necessity of holiness, we are lost in the multitude of your duties, and having too many things to practise, you often practise none at

all. But here is one particular point; here is a plain precept, Remember the Sabbath day.

A mournful necessity induces us, my bre thren, to exhort you to estimate the privilege God affords you of coming to his house, of pouring out your souls into his bosom, and of invigorating your love.

Ah! poor Christians, whom Babylon encloses in her walls, how are you to conduct yourselves in the discharge of those duties! O that God, wearied with the strokes inflicted upon you, would turn away from his indignation! O that the barriers which prohibit your access to these happy climates were removed! O that your hopes, so often illusive, were but gratified. I seem to see you, running in crowds: I seem to see the fallen rise again; and our confessors, more grateful for their spiritual, than their temporal liberty, come to distinguish their "hid from zeal. But these are things as yet, your eyes."

O my God! and must thy church still be a desolation in all the earth? Must it in one place be ravaged by the tyrant, and in another seduced by the tempter; an enemy more dangerous than the tyrants, and more cruel than the heathen? Must our brethren at the galleys still be deprived of the sabbath, and must we, by the profanation of this day, force thee to visit us, as thou hast visited them? Let us prevent so great a calamity; let us return to ourselves; let us hallow this august day; let us reform our habits; and let us sabbath our delight."

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It is requisite that each should employ the day in contemplating the works of nature; but especially the works of grace; and like the cherubim inclined toward the ark, that each should make unavailing efforts to see the bottom, and trace the dimensions, "the length and breadth, the depth and height, of the love of God, which passeth all knowledge," Eph. iii.

19.

It is requisite, that our churches should be crowded with assiduous, attentive, and welldisposed hearers; that God should there hear the vows that we are his people, his redeemed, and that we wish the sabbath to be a "sign between us and him," as it was to the Israelites.

It is requisite, on entering this place, that we should banish from our mind all worldly thoughts. Business, trade, speculations, grandeur, pleasure, you employ me sufficiently dur ing the week, allow me to give the sabbath to God. Pursue me not to his temple; and let not the flights of incommoding birds disturb my sacrifice.

It is requisite at the close of worship, that each should be recollected, that he should meditate on what he has heard, and that the company with whom he associates should assist him to practise, not to eradicate the truths from his mind.

It is requisite that the heads of houses should call their children, and their servants together, and ask them, What have you heard? What have you understood? What faults have you reformed? What steps have you taken? What good resolutions have you formed?

It is requisite wholly to dismiss all those secular cares and servile employments which have occupied us during the week; not tha

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