AD
THE LORD'S-DAY,
OR
CñRISTTAN SABBATH.
[SEAM.
v1.
pointed
the first day
of the
week
for a season
of
the wor-
ship
of God,
he
appointed it
also to be a season
of rest
from the cares and labours
of
this
life,
that
this
worship
might
be
better
performed, and
the
great ends
of
it best
secured.
Question
III.
"
When must
the
christian
begin his
sabbath,
or.
the
Lord's
-day,
how
must
it
be
spent, and
when must it end
?"
Here I
answer,
Answer.
That
whatsoever
is
the usual
and customary
beginning and ending of the
days
of
common
labour
and
business
in
the
nation
where
we
live,
such should be
the
beginning
and ending
of
the Lord's -day, or day of rest.
The
one
day
of rest
answers to the
six
days
of labour
in
the
words
of
the
fourth
command,
and
must
begin
and
end
like them.
The
Jews
began
their
day
at
the evening
er
setting
sub, and
it
ended
the
next
evening.
The
nations of
Eu-
rope
where
we
dwell begin
and
end
the day
at
twelve
o'clock
at
midnight. But
as
the design
of rest and
wor.
.
ship
on
the
Lord's-day
is
to
bear
a
proportion
of one in
seven to the business
and labours of
life
on
the
other
six
days,
we
may
reasonably suppose
that
the command ne-
ver requires
any thing more, than
that
the
same hours be
spent
at
home or abroad,
in
public or private, for
the'
general purposes of
religion
upon the Lord's
-day, which
are
spent
in
the common
affairs
of
life
on
other
days
;
and
consequently
that
the
time which
is
devoted to
eat-
ing,
and
sleeping,
and
the necessities
of nature and short
intervals
of
refreshment
on
other
days, may be
employed
to the
same
purposes
on this day also.
Public
worship
seems to be
the
chief
design
of the
day
;
but
when
we
are not
engaged
in
public
worship,
we
need not
be,
and
indeed
we
ought
not
to
be,
idle,
but
we
should
employ,
ourselves,
as
far
as
health and other circumstances
will
allow, in
reading
or
hearing
divine things
at
home, in
prayer,
singing psalms,
alone
or
in
families, in
medita-
tion,
in
holy conferences,
or any
of
those actions which
have a more
direct
and
immediate
tendency
to the know-
ledge
and
worship
of God,
to the
improvement of
reli-
gion and virtue, and to
our preparation
for the
everlast-
ing
rest and
worship
of
heaven.
Question
IV.
"
May
we
not labour
or work
on the
Lord's
-day to preserve
ourselves from
imminent dangers