' of domestic or social intercourse, does their con'versation manifest the subject of which their hearts ' are full? Do their language and demeanour shew 'them to be more than commonly gentle, kind, ' and friendly, free from rough and irritating pas'sions?

'Surely an entire day should not seem long ' amidst these various employments. It will be ' deemed a privilege thus to spend it, in the more ' immediate presence of our heavenly Father, in 'the exercises of humble admiration and grateful homage, of the benevolent, and domestic, and so'cial feelings, and of all the best affections of our nature, prompted by their true motives, conver'sant about their proper objects, and directed to 'their noblest end; all sorrow mitigated, all cares suspended, all fears repressed, every angry emo'tion softened, every envious or revengeful or malignant passion expelled; and the bosom, thus quieted, purified, enlarged, ennobled, partaking 'almost of a measure of the heavenly happiness, ' and become for a while the seat of love, and joy, ' and confidence and harmony.

"The nature, and uses, and proper employments ' of a Christian sabbath, have been pointed out 'more particularly, not only because the day will 'be found, when thus employed, eminently conducive, through the divine blessing, to the maintenance of the religious principle in activity and vigour; but also because we must all have had 'occasion often to remark, that many persons of 'the graver and more decent sort, seem not seldom to be nearly destitute of religious resources. 'The Sunday, is with them, to say the best of it, a

'heavy day; and that larger part of it, which is not claimed by public offices of the church, dully draws on in comfortless vacuity; or without improvement is trifled away in vain, unprofitable 'discourse. Not to speak of those who by their more daring profanation of this sacred season, openly violate the laws and insult the religion of ' their country, how little do many seem to enter into the spirit of the institution, who are not wholly inattentive to its exterior decorums! How glad are they to qualify the rigour of their religious labours! How hardly do they plead against being compelled to devote the whole of the day ' to religion, claiming to themselves no small merit 'for giving up to it a part, and purchasing therefore, as they hope, a right to spend the remainder ' of the day more agreeably! How dexterously do they avail themselves of any plausible plea for introducing some week-day employment into the Sunday, whilst they have not the same propensity 'to introduce, any of the Sunday's peculiar employments into the rest of the week! How often 'do they find excuses for taking journeys, writing letters, balancing accounts, or, in short, doing something which by a little management might probably have been anticipated, or which without any material inconvenience, might be postponed ! Even business itself is recreation compared with religion, and from the drudgery of this day of 'Sacred Rest, they fly for relief to their ordinary 'occupations.

'Others again, who would consider business as a profanation, and who still hold out against the 'encroachments of the card-table, get over much

248

A DISCOURSE UPON REPENTANCE.

' of the day, and gladly seek for an innocent re'source in the social circle or in family visits, 'where it is not even pretended that the con'versation turns on such topics as might render it in any way conducive to religious instruction or improvement. Their families meanwhile, are neglected, their servants robbed of Christian privileges, and their example quoted by others who cannot see that they are themselves less religiously employed, while playing an innocent game of 'cards, or relaxing in the concert room.

6

'But all these several artifices, whatever they may be, to unhallow the Sunday and to change its 'character, (it might be almost said " to relax its 'horrors,") prove but too plainly, however we may "be glad to take refuge in religion, when driven to

it by the loss of every other comfort, and to re'tain, as it were a reversionary interest in an asy'lum which may receive us when we are forced 'from the transitory enjoyments of our present 'state, that in itself it wears to us a gloomy and forbidding aspect, and not a face of consolation ' and joy; that the worship of God is with us a constrained, and not a willing service, which we are glad therefore to abridge, though we dare not ' omit it.'

6

TREATISE

ON

GROWTH IN GRACE.

GROW IN GRACE, AND IN THE KNOWLEDGE OF OUR LORD AND SAVIOUR

JESUS CHRIST.

2 PET. iii. 18.

ADVERTISEMENT.

The substance of this discourse was at first published, as an occasional sermon, in 1787: and, though the author has bestowed some pains to give it the form of a treatise, he is aware that he has in a measure failed in the attempt, and that the style and manner of a sermon still predominate. But, whatever be the form, he most cordially, after many years, sets his seal to the instruction: and he has neither health, spirits, nor leisure to new model it.

Aston Sandford, Feb. 9, 1811.