104 THE LORD'S-DAY. ployed 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 notto be idle, but we should employ ourselves, as far as health and othercircumstances will allow, in reading or hearing divine things at home, in prayer, singing psalms, alone or in families, in meditation, 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 religion and virtue, and tó our preparation for the everlasting rest and worship of heaven. Question IV. " Maywe not labour or work on the Lord's- day to preserveourselves from imminent dangers 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 this day, even under the rigours of Judaism, where rest seems to be the primary or most obvious design of the sab- bath ; and much less should those necessary 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 . pit whereinto they are fallen, relieving the distressed, nursing the sick, and taking care of children. In short, there is nothing of this kind forbidden, even though it may, in a great measure, sometimes hinder the proper work of the day, which is religion and worship; for God will have mercy andnot sacrifice: Mat. xii. 1 -7. Jesus healed the sick on the sabbath, verses 10-13. and his disciplesrubbed out the corn from theears 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 manfor 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 andwalk, verses 10-12. as a proof of his cure. TioSon of God is the Lorc1of the sabbath; Mark ii. 27, 28. and he still more abates the severities of it when the Jewish dispensation is finished. Under the New Testament wehave no such strict and severe prohibitions of every care and labour in the common returns of the Lord's-day, where theydo not interferewith the primary de- sign of it, that is, the worship of God and 0.ur best improvement thereby. As I would not bind new burdens 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
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