work of six days God rested on the seventh. Without reference to this no reason can be given why the resurrection should be celebrated once in seven days, and not at any other fixed period. The fourth commandment, then, in everything essential, remains unchanged. In substance it continues precisely as before, commanding us to sanctify the seventh day; and the reason of enjoining this continues the same, with the difference only of God's having rested from the work of the new, as he formerly did from that of the old, Creation; on which account man is still to rest on the seventh day, after six days of labor. It is a part of that law which cannot be broken. Strict obedience to it continues to be the duty of every Christian; and in order to understand its proper and spiritual import, the inspired commentary of the prophet, Isaiah lviii., 13, on the obligation and observance of the Sabbath, referring to the times of the gospel, should be attentively considered. Some have scrupled to denominate the first day of the week the Sabbath day. But it should be remembered, that this is the name by which it is so often designated in the New Testament, according to the literal rendering of the passage quoted in a previous page.

The Sabbath, instituted for man, both in a state of innocence and of sin, displays in a remarkable manner the goodness of God, and forms a distinguished part of that law which is the law of love. It was appointed before the curse was pronounced, that in the sweat of his face man should eat bread; yet after he had sinned, it was not abolished, but continued as a permanent mitigation of that sentence. The fourth commandment is not a burden, like those institutions that were peculiar to the Jews. They were a yoke, Acts xv., 10, but this is a blessing. And man does not suffer by it, but is benefited. By our fall in Adam we became slaves to Satan, and God might have condemned us to labor all the days of the week. But he has given us a reprieve for one day. His providence so orders it, that men in all conditions shall participate in the curse, and eat the fruit of the earth in the sweat of their face. Is it not then a blessing, when he gives us one day of rest? Had he required us to labor the whole seven days, there would not have been more food than there is now. There is not more in those countries where the Sabbath is not observed, than where it is observed. Nor is any country benefited by its neglect. On the contrary, it would be political wisdom to give the full benefit of the Sabbath in every country to man and to beast. We see that, if the Israelites did not gather the manna on the seventh day, they gathered as much on the day preceding as supplied them on the Sabbath; and in allowing, in the sabbatical year, the land to rest, it produced for them as much in the sixth, as sufficed them both in that year and in the seventh.

This respite from toil ought, then, to be thankfully acknowledged as a high privilege bestowed on man, doomed to labor on account of sin. But the institution of the Sabbath confers on him a nobler privilege. It is set apart for our use, to be the means of calling our attention from interests merely temporal, to those that are spiritual and eternal. It is a day appointed for special communion with God; and the bodily rest is

chiefly to be prized as subservient to this end. Bodily rest is necessary on that day for its spiritual improvement; and its spiritual improvement is necessary, in order that we may not abuse it by indulging in sloth and idleness, and thus exposing ourselves to the seductions of Satan. The Sabbath, then, is a day to be devoted to the service of the Lord, and to our own spiritual edification in all those exercises connected with and contributing to these ends. It is a day of the greatest enjoyment that Christians have on earth; and God, in its institution, has shown his love for his Church. A great part of the vigor of the spiritual life, and of aptitude for the duty of growing in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, depends on our sanctifying this day, as well as our enjoyment of the manifestations of his love, exciting our longing and ardent desires for a better, that is a heavenly country.

Thanks be to God for the institution of the Sabbath, of binding obligation in every period of the world since its creation, and on all men, although so often and so much neglected. In the Old Testament, we see by its being so frequently and solemnly enjoined, as well as by the gracious promises annexed to its observance, the fearful threatenings pronounced, and the punishments inflicted in case of its infraction, how great was the importance which God attached to the Sabbath. Nehemiah imputes all the calamities which befell the Jews to their profanation of that day, and represents this as one of the principal causes which had brought on them the wrath of God. "In those days saw I in Judah some treading wine-presses on the Sabbath, and bringing in sheaves and lading asses; as also wine, grapes, and figs, and all manner of burdens, which they brought into Jerusalem on the Sabbath day; and I testified against them in the day wherein they sold victuals. There dwelt men of Tyre also therein, which brought fish, and all manner of ware, and sold on the Sabbath unto the children of Judah, and in Jerusalem. 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 your fathers thus, and did not our God bring all this evil upon us, and upon this city? Yet ye bring more wrath upon Israel, by profaning the Sabbath," Neh. xiii., 15. The observance of the sabbatical years having been neglected by the Jews, their captivity in Babylon endured seventy years, to "fulfil," it is said, "the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her sabbaths: for as long as she lay desolate she kept Sabbath, to fulfil three score and ten years," 2 Chron. xxxvi., 21; Lev. xxvi., 32, 43. In the prophecies of Jeremiah, chap. xvii., we observe on the one hand the signal blessings annexed to the sanctification of the Sabbath, while, on the other, the following awful threatenings in case of its desecration are subjoined. "But if ye will not hearken unto me to hallow the Sabbath day, and not to bear a burden, even entering in at the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day: then will I kindle a fire in the gates thereof, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and it shall not be quenched." We find, too, as stated in the preceding pages, that the observance of the holy Sabbath stands connected with, and is the grand support of our obedience to all the other commandments, both

of the first and second table of the law, which enjoin our duty to God and man.

Works of necessity that cannot be done on the day before, nor left undone till the day following, as well as works of mercy, are permitted on the Sabbath. But for a man on that day to employ himself in his ordinary labors, to speak of them, or even to allow them to occupy his thoughts, is to oppose the beneficent purpose of the Lawgiver in appointing it, and to contemn his authority; and if the business of the world, which on other days of the week is not only permitted, but enjoined as a duty, be on this day criminal, how much must it be profaned by those frivolous amusements and recreations which are often resorted to on this sacred day, or by spending it in sloth and idleness. "He that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul."

The day of rest is a weekly and solemn recognition of the authority of God. It ought to be employed in religious exercises, both public and private, for which it is set apart; and these exercises should be accounted the repose and refreshment of the soul. That which should occupy us on the Sabbath is the grand concern of our life. To serve and honor God is the end for which we were created; and with joy we should dedicate the seventh part of our time to his immediate and uninterrupted service, and so rest on "the Sabbath-day according to the commandment.”

As the day of rest is peculiarly destined to religious services, so it is the day in which they who seek God may expect his peculiar benediction, and the Divine communications of his grace. The ordinances of God are the means of grace, and in the observance of these ordinances he has promised his special blessing. This is the LORD'S DAY which bears his name, and he has said, "In all places where I record my name, I will come unto thee, and I will bless thee." If on this day God has specially commanded us to seek him, we may with confidence conclude that in a special manner on this day he will be found of us. The purpose of God to vouchsafe his blessings to those who observe the day of rest, is included in the declaration that "the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it." Not only, then, hath he sanctified that day, but he has blessed it. God has from the beginning given it his blessing, which he will bestow on all who consecrate it to his service. But if on account of finishing the work of the creation of the world the seventh day was blessed, how much more is it blessed, because of the completion of the work of redemption? On that day the Lord Jesus ceased from his work and entered into his rest. It was the day on which he was delivered from the chains of death, when he was declared to be the Son of God, in which the promises to him of his Father were accomplished, and all power was given to him in heaven and in earth. How much, then, may God be expected to honor this day, ay to bless his people in the observance of it with all spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The Sabbath, then, the day of rest, he forerunner of the eternal rest, Ought to be gratefully recognized, and fondly cherished; and the manner in which it should be observed is fully declared in the Scriptures.

God, to "sit alone and keep silence, to put his mouth to the dust, if so be there may be hope"? This kind of humbling a person's self is just as becoming the converted as the unconverted man. It will forever continue a fact that he has broken God's holy law, and had a thoroughly depraved nature; and the recollection of these facts, which affliction is intended to recall to the mind, should forever hide pride from the Christian's eyes.

(3.) As children under the hand of their Father.

But the Christian stands to God in the relation, not only of a creature to the Creator, not only of a subject to his sovereign, but also of a child to his father. This is the peculiar relation in which the Christian stands to God; and in this relation he ought, in the season of affliction, to "humble himself under the mighty hand of God." Of all men, it least becomes the Christian to question the wisdom, or righteousness, or kindness of the Divine afflictive dispensations, to be fretful or unsubmissive under the mighty hand of God. He knows the character of him who inflicts chastisement; he knows how richly he deserves chastisement; he knows how much he stands in need of chastisement; he knows the true nature and design of chastisement; and therefore he ought to be distinguished by the humility of reverence, the humility of acquiescence, the humility of gratitude. He should humbly acknowledge the right of him who inflicts; he has done nothing but what he has a good right to do. He should humbly acknowledge that the affliction was not uncalled for; he has got nothing but what he deserves; and that, however heavy, it might have been much heavier, without affording him cause either of surprise or complaint; and he should humbly acknowledge his obligations to his Father in heaven, both for afflicting him and afflicting him in measure; for sending the very afflictions in kind and degree, which infinite wisdom saw he needed, and which infinite faithfulness secures shall serve their purpose. I cannot conclude this part of the subject better than in the words of the apostle in his Epistle to the Hebrews, when he bids them not forget "the exhortation which speaketh unto them as to children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord"-that is, in other words, humble yourself under his mighty hand. "For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons. Furthermore, we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits and live?" 1

1

§ 3.-Motives to humbling ourselves under the mighty hand of God.

The motives which either implicitly or explicitly are here urged by the apostle for Christians thus humbling themselves under the mighty

1 Heb. xii. 5-9.

hand of God, come now to be considered. They are the following: We ought thus to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God, for this is just a particular form of that humility which God so complacently approves, and the opposite of which he so indignantly condemns. God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble. Humble yourselves therefore, for this reason, under the mighty hand of God. We should humble ourselves under the hand of God just because it is the hand of God. We should humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God, because it is the mighty hand of God. Finally, we should humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God, because this is the appointed way of being exalted in due time.

(1.) It is a part of the humility which God so complacently

approves.

We should humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God, for this is a course of which God complacently approves; while the opposite is a course which he indignantly condemns. "He giveth grace," he manifests favor, towards those who humble themselves under his mighty hand; while he resists, he treats as enemies, those who despise his chastening, and rebel under the rod. This is a most powerful motive. What makes anything duty but its being according to the will of God, made known to us; what makes anything sin but its being opposed to the will of God, made known to us? Besides, the conscious possession of the cordial love, the complacent approbation of the greatest, and wisest, and best Being in the universe, arising out of constant manifestations of his favor, is the highest happiness a creature can enjoy. It is the essence of the happiness of holy angels and the spirits of the just made perfect. On the other hand, to be resisted, opposed, treated as an enemy by Him, is the greatest evil a creature can be exposed to; it is the essence of the miseries of devils and lost human beings.

(2.) It is the hand of God we are called to humble ourselves

under.

We should humble ourselves under the hand of God, just because it is the hand of God. We should be humble in reference to God, because he is God, infinitely great, wise, and holy; because he is our Creator, our Governor, our Judge, our Father; because we are entirely dependent on him; because we are pensioners on his bounty; because we have incurred his displeasure, and are completely at his mercy. Humility should therefore be our habitual temper towards God; but when we are visited with affliction, when his hand is on us, these truths are more directly and powerfully presented to the mind. We are brought near God. He who despises the chastisement of the Lord, as it were, insults the Sovereign at a personal interview. He defies the Almighty even when he appears whetting his sword and bending his bow. He stretcheth out his hand against God, and strengtheneth himself against the Almighty. He runneth on him, even on his neck, on the thick bosses of his buckler."

1 Job xv. 26.