SERMON L. " 103 'even though we have a day appointed for this purpose ? How hard itis to shake off all the dust of this earth when we would arise to God in devotion ? And though we have bid farewell to oursecular concerns the night before, and havehad a long inter- val of sleep to divide our thoughts from this vain and busy life, yet how do the weighty cares of it hang continually uponour spirits, or the trifles and amusements of it hover and play about our souls, and divert our hearts from the exercise of godliness! And let us thinkwith ourselves, how much harder it would be to fulfil the duties of the sanctuary with any good success, to im- prove public worship to our further acquaintance with God and things heavenly, to our greater delight in him, our mortification of sin and our growth in holiness, if there were no time devoted to religion but only that hour or two while we are at church? Hew would the words of the preacher run off from our souls, like a stream of oil gliding overa marble,if there were no recol- lection to fix it in our memory ? How easily would Satan pluck up the good seed that was sown in the heart, if we join to assist him by giving a loose immediately to the cares or delights of this life, and call them to break inupon us when the sermon isended ? We may reasonably conclude, if Christ appointed the first day of theweek for a season of the worship of God, he appointed it also to be a season of rest from the cares and aboi rs 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, howmust it be spent, and when must it end ?" Here I answer, Answer. That whatsoever is the usual and customary be- ginning 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 fourthcom- mand, and must begin and end like them. The Jews began their day at the evening or setting sun, and it ended the nextevening. Thenations of Europe where we dwell begin and end the dayat twelve o'clockat midnight. But as the design of rest and worship do 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, wemay reasonably suppose that the command never 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 of tirs of life on other days ; and consequentlythat the time which is devoted to eating and sleeping, and the necessities of nature and short intervals of refreshment on other days, may be ein-
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