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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 infirm
man
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