THE CHRISTIAN JOURNAL OF A * I SABBATH-DAY. HAVE awaked, but too late for the day: "this world hath fix parts of her time allowed "her by God, yet ftill cries, GIVE, GIVE: how vio"lently hath the urged me to encroach on the "Sabbath, by fitting too late the night before, or "rifing too early on the day after?" Alas, my foul! is this world fix times more precious than Jefus, than JEHOVAH, that I fhould rob him of his feventh part of my time for her fake?Bleffed Redeemer, come up higher in my heart; and ye worldly concerns, get you down, and fit below his footftool. "When yesternight I retired to fleep, my "mind was bufied with ten thousand earthly cares; "and to-day I have waked with vain and carnal "thoughts unnumbered, crowding in my heart." Lord, why fhould these trouble me, but efpecially on thy day? Vain thoughts are fin's advocates, and thy adversaries: O forgive their wickedness; and, as fire melts wax away, fo let them perish at the rebuke of thy countenance.-How long fhall vain, fhall vile thoughts lodge within me? how long fhall the auguft, the everlasting state of things, be to my foul as a dark fhadow, as the image of a dream?On this facred morning, why do not I live as if juft entering into eternity? as if beholding the the glorious appearance of the great God my Sa viour:-Are not eternal things as certain now as they will be hereafter? Why then live I not alway in the believing view, and under the deep impreffion of the heavens vanishing; the elements melting; the carth flaming; the angels every where difperied, to gather the elect from the four winds of heaven; and of their afcending to meet the Lord in the air, and be for ever with the Lord?- What a trifle, will the pleasures, honour, or wealth of this world,, -nay, of ten thousand worlds, be to me then?. "BUT what divine authority have I, for the pe-: "culiar fanétification of this day?" Reafon herself, informs me, that men being made for eternity, their time fhould be partly fequeftrated to the contempla-. tion of eternal things; that, being of a focial nature, they ought to affociate in their principal business, the worship of their God; and that to avoid diffrac tion, it is proper that their fhould be one fixed. feafon of public devotion, common to all. -In the well-known precept, which, to mark its per petuity, and moral obligation, was written by God. himfelf, on a table of stone; and was inserted in the very centre of that universal, that permanent rule of righteoufnefs, divinely published from Sinai's top, and into which ceremony never entered,-js. not the feventh part of our time, peremptorily challenged for the religious fervice of God?-Is not the divine mandate there eftablifhed, on the moral, the extenfive grounds of God's own example, and his bleffing the Sabbath-day -Was not this facred feafon inftituted in paradife: made for man, while no typical ceremony had yet commenced?-- In Exod. xx. 8,-11. Deut. x. 4. In fix days the heavens, and the earth, and all their hofts, were finished: on the feventh, God refted from all his work; he bleffed the Sabbath-day, and fanctified it: How?-he fet it apart for his fpecial fervice; and for the bestowing of his peculiar favours on men †-When redemption was published, was the privilege of the Sabbath revoked? was the duty of obferving it fuperfeded? Surely no: On that day, the patriarchal fons of God jointly prefented themselves before the Moft High . Nor had the thunders of Horeb uttered their voice, when the Hebrew lawgiver fpoke of the obfervation of the Sabbath as a well known custom; and to honour it, the manna was divinely reftrained and preferved f. Of the Jewish religion, how great a part the obfervance of the Sabbath was, the law and the prophets do clearly flew.-What veftiges of the feventh-day Sabbath, for many ages, remained with = the ancient Heathens, their hiftories ftill mark.Derived they this obfervance from the Jews, whom they fo heartily despised and abhorred? Surely not; but from their own moft ancient progenitors. The outward obferval was partly remembered; the true defign was forgotten.-Was not the obfervation of the Sabbath among the nations, when ceremonies should be no more plainly foretold ? Is it not divinely demonftrated, that there remaineth a Sabbatifm, a keeping of the Sabbath, for the New-Teftament people of God tt? Had not Jefus, the Lord of the Sabbath, a power to change the feafon thereof, at his pleasure?Did not his refurrection, his refting from the laborious purchase of our falvation, more richly deserve a weekly memorial, than his reft from creation did?- Was it not proper, + Gen. ii. 2, 3. i, 6. and ii, Ifa. lxvi, 23. tt Heb. iv. 9. that § Exod. xvi. 23, 30% that the time of the New-Teftament Sabbath, facred to the memory of a finished redemption, should fuggeft that we Chriftians are not to labour for life, and then inherit our reftful reward; but our privilege precedes our duty, and our labour of gospelholinefs follows our entrance into a ftate of newcovenant reft? Was it not divinely predicted, that the eighth day, the day immediately fucceeding the Jewith Sabbath, fhould, with Chriftians, be the stated feafon of public devotion †?-Did not Jefus' glorious refurrection; his repeated vifits to his affembled difciples; his noted effufion of the Holy Ghost at Pentecoft, on the first day of the week; confeerate the fame to the honour of his finished work †? and, for this reafon, is it not, by infpiration honourably termed, the Lord's day §-On it, did not the infpired apoftles, and their followers, for our example, ordinarily affemble for hearing the word; for facramental breaking of bread, and for public prayer-On it, were not the Chriftian churches divinely commanded to collect for their poor t†? And where is now the profeffor, who, contemning the obfervance of the Sabbath, any while retains the leaft fhadow of a Chriftian practice?Bleffed queen of days, on thee may I be always in the Spirit may I count thee my delight, the holy of the Lord, bonourable. Be fhut, my heart, to every vain thought; let no idle, no evil communication pro ceed from my lips; let me reft from my fervile, reft from my finful, my legal works. "What a mercy for man is the Sabbath!" What weary pilgrims, wandering in pathlefs defarts, were we, but for this pledge of immortality, whereon, from inexhaufted + Ezek. xlii. 27. ‡ Mark xvi, 1, 2. 9. 8 John xx. 19, 26, Acts ii. Rev. i. 1-Q | Acts xx. 7. tti Cor. xvi. 1, 2. inex haufted ftores, God pours down his fpiritual bleifings on us; and whereon we fit basking in the rays of his countenance, forget things below, and, with angels and faints, converse with him, are warmed with love to him, live on him, and in him; and express our joy in fongs of grateful praife! But how transcendant their felicity, who celebrate the everlafting Sabbath above! who, being far removed from weariness and pain, and rid of every vile, every impertinent thought, enjoy God and the Lamb, to the utmoft ftretch of their boundless wishes. "AWAKE, my foul, the wings of the mourning "have begun their rapid course; the early fun, the "warbling birds, fing their Creator's praife." Al. mighty Father, all things thy name refound, thou eternal Cause, Supporter, End of all. Wake up, my foul, and join the choir: thy Maker s praife proclaim. -But foft! a Maker's praife is not the half thou woweft: praife thy REDEEMER; praife:-On this = bleffed day, thy Jefus rofe; rofe early, for thy good. -Up, fleeper, from thy bed: at carlieft hour, from fadder bed, for thee the SAVIOUR rofe.- -On this great day he finished the purchase of my blifs; then early burft the bonds of death;-early forfook the manfions of the dead: and fhall the bands of floth, of sin, or fleep, forbid my early feafting on his love? -prevent my early triumphs in his praife?—Wake, wake, my foul, praife thy righteous, thy rifen, thy exalted Lord: at the loved name awake."But why may not I, with others fleep till eight or nine "o'clock?" What others, my foul, are thofe? canft thou believe them Chriftians, who rife early on their labouring days, and loiter on the Sabbath? Art thou willing to hazard an eternity with them?-For a few hours of rest to thy body, a few delicious hours of |