be members. We testify our allegiance to the Lord who rose again from the dead" through the blood of the everlasting covenant." The Sabbath, interrupting our secular pursuits, aud calling us off to the spiritual duties of religion, is a symbol whereby we declare what God it is we worship, acknowledge that the Lord revealed in the Bible is our God and no other; and proclaim ourselves the vassals and servants of that only God who created the heavens and the earth in six days, and rested the seventh, and commanded us to observe this suitable distribution of time as a badge and livery that we worship him alone. And we keep it under the gospel on the Lord's day, to avow our belief that on the morning of that day, the first of the week, redemption, like a second creation, was accomplished, mortality was swallowed up of life, our Lord rose from the dead, and ceased from his work, and rested and was refreshed; and that we are the servants and worshippers of that adorable Saviour. Thus the covenant of grace in Christ Jesus is set forth in our Christian celebration of this festival. We are not Jews but Christians; and wherever the religion of Christ is established, the symbol and cognizance of the Resurrection comes with it.

And this not for the mere avowal of our allegiance, or the manifestation of the attributes and glory of our Creator and Redeemer, but also for the purpose of promoting that SANCTIFICATION which it is the end of the covenant to produce. The expression of the text and of the similar passage just cited, is most remarkable, "Moreover, I gave them my Sabbaths to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord that SANCTIFY them." What an exalted end and design of the institution! Sanctification is the work of God's Holy Spirit by his secret but effectual influences upon the heart, separating man from the love and service of sin, and turning him to God and holiness. The idea is that of setting apart, separating, consecrating for certain holy purposes. Thus, when applied to sacred persons,

1 J. Mede.

times, services, garments, buildings, it imports the separation of them from profane uses, and the dedication of them to the honour of God. So the Sabbath was in paradise sanctified by the Almighty, that is, separated from ordinary employments, and set apart for the service and worship of God. And how important is the thought, that the design of the Almighty in sanctifying and hallowing a day of Sabbath, was, that man, his moral and accountable creature, might be sanctified and dedicated by means of it-that the external consecration of the season ends in the internal consecration of the heart of man to his Creator and Redeemer !

All the designs of the institution terminate here. The Sabbath was made, granted, vouchsafed to man, as the principal season when all the means of sanctification should have their effect-when man's immortal nature should be restored to its true elevation-when his spiritual and accountable powers should be especially exercised when his relation to God, his dependance upon him, his obligations, his gratitude and love, his offerings of praise, his prayers and aspirations for future blessings, should be declared and presented.

To rise up to the dignity of the Sabbath, and perform any of its duties aright, we must understand what sanctification is, who the great God is, to whose service we are to be devoted, what that Creator and Redeemer claims of us who on this day rose from the dead, what are the terms of that covenant of which he is the Mediator and Lord.

Even before the fall, man in paradise, as we have seen, needed a Sabbath, a day of religion; and for the like ends-to be a sign between God and him-to be a means of exercising and carrying on that sanctification, the principles and habits of which he already possessed. He was permitted to cease, he was commanded to cease, one day in seven from the gentle toil of dressing the garden of Eden, that he might devote the time more immediately to his Almighty Creator-to his glory-to the meditation on his perfections and works-to the duties of holy worship and praise-that thus the sanctifi

cation of all his powers to his service might be confirmed and heightened.

How much more, then, must man since the fall need this holy day, both as a sign of the covenant and a means of sanctification! He has now not merely to carry on and strengthen habits of holiness, like his first parent, but to acquire them. The covenant, as it respects him, is not a covenant of creation, but of restoration; not of works, but of grace; not to show his obedience by observing a law to which his will is already conformed, but to obtain redemption by believing in the divine Mediator of a new and better covenant. Sanctification as to man since the fall, is the recovery of the soul to the lost image of God, the illumination of a darkened understanding, the giving a right direction to the will, the changing of the whole bias and course of his affections and conduct, the bringing him back to God, his great end, and the preparing him for the enjoyment of God, his ultimate felicity.

And this answers the objection which is sometimes absurdly or ignorantly made, "that under the gospel every day is a Sabbath-all we do is to be done to the glory of God-a spiritual and perfect dispensation claims all we have and are." And yet in paradise, where man walked before God in his original uprightness, he was called on to keep a Sabbath. How idle then is the plea, now that man is fallen! Those who urge it, know little of the nature of true sanctification, and of the difficulties under which it is attained in this world of conflict. Even if entire holiness could be reached in this imperfect state, a day of rest would be indispensable for the honour of God's name, for the more immediate duties of public and private devotion, and for the carrying out into full exercise the principles of holiness. But it is folly, it is presumption to talk thus, whilst man in his best attainments is full of defects and errors, full of corrupt tendencies-needs a day of sanctification to remind him of his dangers, to bring him out from the snares of life, to lift his heart more entirely towards heaven. Those who talk of every day being a Sabbath, mean in fact

that no day should be such. Besides, the expression keeping holy," as it applies to the ordinary days of the week, and as it fixes itself on the day of God, has a different force and application. To keep holy the six days of the week, means only that we intermingle family and private devotions with our lawful labour and work on those days that we direct our secular calling to God's glory-that we implore his blessing upon all our occupations. But "to keep holy" the seventh day is to suspend those occupations, to forbear all our ordinary works, to renounce all our secular business, and to devote all the hours of the day to the immediate care of our souls, and the immediate worship of God. We are as much called to work the six days, as we are to rest on the seventh.

This is, then, the first practical duty of the Lord's day, to keep ever in view its great end. The sanctification of it begins, as to us, when our dedication to God begins. We hallow the Sabbath when we ourselves are hallowed to God. We awake to the true importance of the institution, when we feel our fallen and sinful state, when we receive the covenant of grace as proposed in the gospel, when we seek to be sanctified, body, soul, and spirit, to be the Lord's. A divine life infused into the soul of man-a perception of the nature and excellency of spiritual things-a view of the glory and majesty of the great Redeemer-a reliance upon his death and resurrection-a dependance upon the influence of his Holy Spirit, these bring the Sabbath and the human heart together. The Sabbath is born to man when he is born to God. Then it recalls, revives, strengthens, all the principles of sanctification. Then it not only gives him the time, and affords him the means, and calls him to the duties of sanctification; but it leads him to employ all these to their proper end. And thus the Lord is pleased to sanctify man; thus the day is a sign between him and us; thus the final ends of all religion are advanced.

And here lies the fundamental defect in so many of our cases—we do not feel the unspeakable importance of

holiness-we do not desire sanctification-we stop in the external and official parts of the sabbatical institution : we have lost the due sense of what consecration of heart to God means, and therefore of what we should aim at on the day with which it is connected.

Consider, then, I entreat you, my dear brethren, the only manner in which you can enter on the practical duties of the Lord's day aright. Examine your state before God. Have you any desire to be made holy, to be pardoned, to be separated from sin, to be dedicated to God? Do you wish really to know the demands which Christianity makes upon you? Do you seek earnestly the way of salvation ?-Behold, then, what you want. There is the day when all this is to be learned. There is the covenant of which that day is a sign. There is the sanctification which all the ordinances and exercises of that day are calculated to produce. Implore, then, the grace of the Holy Spirit to affect your heart seriously with these truths, and thus will all the other directions we may offer fall into their due place. For sanctification being proposed as the

great end of the Sabbath,

II. THE PUBLIC AND PRIVATE DUTIES OF IT will follow most naturally.

These will demand of us less time, because the main design being comprehended and felt, the details of particular rules will be easy; and yet we must not omit them. They relate to the public worship of the Almighty; the care of our family; our personal and private communion with God; a due attention to all dependant on us, extending even to our cattle; together with such necessary offices of charity as arise in the course of the sacred duties of the day.

and

1. THE PUBLIC EXERCISES OF GOD'S WORSHIP, the fellowship of Christians with each other in common acts of prayer and praise, are the leading business of this holy season. The rest from temporal employments is in order to perform the solemn services of the sanctuary in the first place. A holy convocation was a