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96
THE
LORD'S
-DAY,
OR
CHRISTIAN
SABBATH.
[SERI.
V!.
exercises
?
Let
us
enquire,
my
friends;
how
it
stands
with
us
in
this
respect. Are
we glad
of a
day
of
rest and
release from the
business
of
this
life,
that
we
may
be
more
at
leisure for God
?
Or
could
we
be
well
enough
pleased
if
there
were no
sabbaths
?
Are the
ordinances
of
worship
our
delight
?
Do
we
take pleasure
in
devotion
and practical
godliness
?
Do
the things
of
inward reli-
gion relish
well with us
?
Are they
our pleasure
and
our
joy?
What
shall
we
do
in
hei.ven
if
are
not
possessed
of
this temper,
if
our
spirits
are neither
suited to
the
bless-
edness
nor
business of
it;
and
if
this world with
the
cares
and pleasures
of it
be
our chief delight
?
And
how
can
we
expect
to
be
ever
fit
for heaven, which
is
a
state
of
everlasting
separation
from
the businesses
of
this
world,
and the perpetual enjoyment of God, and
Jesus
the Sa-
viour,
if
we
do
not
make some
advances towards this
temper
on every
Lord's
-day
that
returns,
which
separates
us
from the world,
and
is
designed to
bring us toward
God
?
In
the last
place,
I
would
add,
"
Let
every Lord's
-day,
every
christian sabbath,
lead
your
meditations, your faith
and
hope onward to the
eternal rest
in
heaven,
and
the
glorious worship
of
that
world:"
Amidst
all the fatigues
and cares of
this
life,
amidst
all
the
interruptions
you
feel in
your
devotions
here,
and the inroads
that
are
made upon
your religious employments
and
joys, even
on
God's
own day,
yet
still
rejoice
in
the
view
and hope of
that
state where
yeti
shall
find
everlasting rest,
a sabbath
which never ends,
and
be
for ever employed
in
divine
exercises without the weariness
of
flesh
and spirit.
Alas
!
how soon
are our
souls
tired
here, or
rather our
animal
natures, with
spiritual
exercises
?
How
dull and
drowsy
is this
flesh
of
ours
?
How do
we feel
our
hearts ever
wandering
from
our God
and
his Worship
?
But
there
you shall
behold
the
great
Cod
with
a
steady fixation
of
soul
on him, even
that
God
who
created
all things
in six
days,
and shall
give him
the
honour
of that
creation
in
an immortal sabbath.
There
you shall
see
the
blessed
Jesus
who
rose
from the dead on
the
first
christian sabbath
who fulfilled his
work of redeeming
you
from
worse
than
Egyptian
bondage,
and
laid
the foundation of
the
new
creation,
even
of
new
heavens
and
of
a
new
earth.
There