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SERMON V.

Preached at Court.

MARK ii. 27, 28.

And he faid unto them, The Sabbath was made for Man, and not Man for the Sabbath.

Therefore the Son of Man is Lord alfo of the Sabbath.

W

HEN the Son of God, by whom the Worlds were made, (Heb. i. 2.) created the Heavens and the Earth by the Word of his Power, it pleased him to difplay that Power, not only in one instantaneous Exertion of it, but in several fucceffive Acts. It pleased him, I fay, to fuffer fix feveral Succeffions of Night and Day to intervene, before he finished the Work of the Creation. And that perhaps for this, among other wife and gracious Reasons to us unsearchable, that he might teach his Creature Man, the Lord of this lower World, a proper Method of dividing his Time between civil and facred

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and advance the only true Happiness of reafonable Creatures, either here or hereafter.

And the Reasons why thefe Means were appointed in order to thefe Ends; why Holiness and Piety are enjoined in order to our Happinefs; and why one Day in feven is required to be fet apart for the Duties of Religion, in order to our attaining that Holiness and Piety; thefe Reasons, I fay, will be very plain, if we confider the Tendency, Expediency, and even moral Neceffity of our obeying this Commandment, if we would obtain thofe Purposes.

If Men confider themselves as reasonable Creatures, the most folid Satisfactions, they can as fuch enjoy, muft proceed from the Perfuafions, Confcioufness, and Reflections of their own Minds: from firm Perfuafions of their being under the Care, the Government, and the Guidance of the God who made them; from the Consciousness of doing what is acceptable and well-pleafing in his Sight; and from Reflections on what may justly and certainly be expected from his Goodness to those who love and obey him.If the profperous Man would be uninterrupted, or continued in what he enjoys, or the afflicted Man 'would be fupported under, or delivered from, the Evils he suffers; the most proper Recourfe for either is to that fupreme Being, who for wife and good Reasons has placed them in fuch different Stations; to him who raiseth up and pulleth down, who maketh poor and maketh

rich. But how can they have any Expectation from him, or Dependance upon him, if they are utter Strangers to him? Or how can they be otherwise than utter Strangers to him, if they never apply themselves to his Worship and Services? Or how can they regularly apply themselves to his Worship, without fetting apart proper Times and Seafons for it? If every Day is to be spent in worldly Cares or Amusements, and no one fet apart for religi ous Purposes; present Concerns and Diverfions, how trifling foever in themselves, will foon engross the whole Man, and make him. forget, or keep him from ever learning, what be is.--The Successful will facrifice to their own Pride and Vanity, if to any thing at all and the Distressed will grow defperate and defponding; and both will lofe the enlivening Comforts which they might juftly have received from an affured Hope and Dependance on the Power and Wisdom, and Goodness of him, who is infinite in all these, and is with regard to his Creatures Love itself.--And therefore the Injunction of the Text was plainly one Inftance of that Love; and the Sabbath was made for Man in Mercy to him; to bring him often to the true Fountain of all his Joys, and teach him that Truft in him, and Affection for him, in which confifts the most rational Enjoyments, which he is here capable of attaining.

Again; If Men confider themselves as focial Creatures, the due Obfervance of the Sabbath is one of the wifest and best Methods that can poffibly be taken to promote their Happiness, as fuch.-There can be no civil Society without Government; no Government can well fubfift without the publick Profeffion of Religion; no Religion can be publickly profeffed without ftated Times and Places for publick Worship.-All Property, and indeed the Security of Life itself in Society, greatly depend on the religious Regard Men pay to Oaths: this religious Regard can no otherwise be preferved, than by keeping up in their Minds juft and awful Sentiments of that God, whofe Vengeance is invoked, in cafe of Perjury; and thefe Sentiments can no otherwise fo well, if at all, be infused or preferved in Multitudes, as by regular publick Affemblies, where all meet together in a folemn Manner to pay their Adorations to God, and openly testify their Dependance upon him.-The private Benefits of Society do alfo greatly depend on mutual Confidence and mutual Benevolence. This Confidence is greater, or lefs, according to every one's Opinion of the Honefty, Integrity, and real Piety of his Neighbour; and this Benevolence will ever be more or lefs diffufive, in proportion to the real Senfe Men have of their Duty to God and to one another.What Means then fo proper or neceffary to these Ends, as the employing one Day in seven