SERM. VI.i THE LORDS-DAY, OR CHRISTIAN SABBATH. 91 or threatening calamities, or to do good to the miserable or to the helpless ?" &c. I answer, Answer. That works of necessity and of mercy were not excluded on th'is,dav, even under the rigors of Juda- ism, where rest seems to be the primary or most obvious design of the sabbath ; and much less should these ne- cessary and merciful works be excluded in the christian dispensation, where the chief design is not bodily rest but worship ; such works, I mean, as leading cattle to drink, giving them fodder, sailing a ship, quenching a fire, stopping inundations of water, defending a town or city that is invaded by enemies, resisting an assault, raising cattle out of a pat whereinto they are fallen, re- lieving the distressed, nursing the sick, and taking care of children. In short, there is nothing of this kind for- bidden, even though it may, in a great measure, some- times hinder the proper work of the day, which is religion and worship; for God will have mercy and not sacri- fice ;" Mat. xii. 1 -7. " Jesus healed the sick on the sabbath ;" verses 10-13. and his " disciples rubbed out the corn from the ears when they were hungry ;" Mark ii. 23-28. and though the Pharisees reproved them, yet the Lord pronounced them blameless. " The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath ;" Luke vi. 1 -11. John v. 8, 9. Even the infirmman who was healed, was ordered by our Saviour " to take up his bed and walk," verses 10-12, as a proof of his cure. The Son of God is Lord of the sabbath ;" Mark ii. 27, 28. and he still more abates the severities of it when the Jew- ish dispensation is finished. Under the New Testament we have no such strict and severe prohibitions of every care and labour in the common returns of the Lord's-day, where they do not interfere with the primary design of it, that is, the wor- ship of God and our best improvement thereby. As I would not bind new burthens on the servants of Christ, so neither would I release what Christ has bound. And therefore I say, where the necessary labours of a few in some part of the Lord's-day, by providing food and other conveniences of life, render many more persons capable of spending the day in religion, I cannot find that the New Testament forbids it. I say, in some part of the Lord's -day, for I think none ought to be so constantly
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