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this ornament of a meek, and a quiet spirit, and the expedients which suggest themselves for the subjugation of those passions which are unfriendly to its attainment; for it is ever our duty to promote the fruit of the spirit, which are joy, and peace, and rest; it has pleased God to try us here, with divers diseases, and sundry kinds of death; these we cannot strive with, and when God calls them away, we must part with children, and we must often bear miserable wants, and sorrows; but these are enough; let us not pour fresh bitterness into the bitter cup of life :-A little while and we shall be gone hence, and be no more seen; till then, peace, forgiveness of injuries, and tenderness to the infirmities of man. We may thus catch a few moments from the inclemency of fate, and open in our hearts those springs of love, and mercy, which will flow on, till they are swallowed up by the grave.

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ON THE

MODE OF PASSING THE SABBATH.

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SERMON XXI,

MARK II. VERSES XXIII. XXIV. XXVII,

And it came to pass that he went through the corn fields on the Sabbath day, and his disciples began to pluck the ears of corn. And the Pharisees said unto him, behold, Sabbath day, that

why do they, on the

which is not lawful; and he said unto them, the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.

As the Sabbath day is of divine institution, we are bound to keep it holy; and we should have been equally bound to have done so, if we were unable to discover the reasons for which its sanctification was ordained; but

the reasons for the law, and its utility, are so far from doubtful, that it probably would have originated with man, if it had not been commanded by his Creator; and the weary nations would have found a Sabbath for their toils, unhallowed by the structure of the globe, and by the rest of God.

The great importance of the Sabbath, not only for the promotion of righteousness, but even for our mere temporal welfare, is too generally admitted to need much discussion: If the duties of religion were left to be performed by every one, at the time, and : after the manner they thought best, there would be a considerable risk that they were not performed at all: The public, and periodical exercise of worship, is the best security for sound doctrine; the teachers of religion teach openly to the world, and artifice, fanaticism, and credulity, which begin always in obscurity, are subjected to the wholesome restraint of public opinion: We are so absorbed, also, in the business, the pleasure, and the vanities, of this world, that the recollection of any other, would, but for the institution of the Sabbath, be

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