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II. In this no less than in all the other precepts, love is the fulfilling of the law. He, who has no heart or relish for the appropriate exercises of this day, can never remember the Sabbath-day so as to keep it holy. All the characteristics of worship described in considering the second commandment, must enter into the services of the Lord's day.

III. Many able writers and more pious persons have remarked on the dreadful plagues, which God has often made to attend on the violation of holy time. Boston's last remark on the Fourth Commandment is this, "Many begin with the sin of profaning the Lord's day, and it brings them at length to an ill hour, both in this world and that which is to come." Calvin "The Lord is hardly so strict in his requisitions of obedience to any other precept. (Num. xiii. 22; Ezek. xx. 12, xxii. 8, xxiii. 38.) When he means to intimate, in the prophets, that religion is totally subverted, he complains that his Sabbaths are polluted, violated, neglected and profaned, Jer. xvii. 21, 22, 27; Isa. lvi. 2." Durham says, "No breach of any command hath more aggravations; for 1. It is against reason and equity. . . . 2. It is high ingratitude.. 3. It is against love. . . 4. It is cruelty against ourselves.". He adds, "that no sin doth more evidence universal untenderness and that it occasioneth and breedeth other sins." Indeed many writers do not hesitate to say that breaches of this commandment are generally to be regarded as more aggravated than breaches of the subsequent commandments; inasmuch as violations of them are primarily directed against man, and violations of this are directed against God himself. Stowell: "No

terms are strong enough to express the impiety of that man, whatever be his creed or his connexions, who wilfully absents himself from the public solemnities of the Sabbath."

IV. What shall those do who have not decent apparel for visiting the house of God? Shall they wholly stay away from public worship, or shall they be urged to attend in their rags? The correct answer seems to be this. Let the rich help the poor. Let them in a delicate way provide for them suitable apparel. But if this cannot be done, let the poor man reason thus: "Shall I stay away from a place of worship because my clothes are old, and worn, and patched? But do I go there to be looked at by others, to mind what others think and say? My business is with God; and if I bring with me a broken and contrite heart, no matter what my dress, God will not despise my sacrifice. Ps. li. 17."

V. Let us endeavour to cultivate more love for the sanctuary. It is a great reproach to the Christian religion that so many of its professors are for slight reasons detained from the house of God. Rather let us say with one, "Thither let me go, with willing feet, on the morning and evening of every Sabbath; thither a sense of guilt should urge me; thither the hope of mercy should draw me; there God the Father waits to be gracious; there God the Son exhibits his atoning blood, and God the Holy Ghost his sanctifying grace. With so much sin to confess, with so many mercies to acknowledge, with such darkness in my mind, and such hardness in my heart, how can I absent myself from the Lord's house on the Lord's day! There a crucified Saviour holds forth wisdom to the

ignorant, strength to the weak, comfort to the brokenhearted, pardon to the penitent, and salvation to the lost."

VI. Let us in a right spirit and in Christian fidelity reprove the profanation of the Lord's day. Even Sabbath-breakers often have consciences, capable of being roused, when faithfully warned.

VII. We should frequently remember that holy time will soon be gone for ever. Well may each one say, "Who can tell whether more Sabbaths are reserved for me in this world? Perhaps the next may be my last, and I may never again hear the glad tidings of salvation through Jesus Christ. And shall I then dare to stay away from public worship, with death and judgment at hand, with heaven or hell before me? Shall I let some trifling excuse, which I should be ashamed to make to any earthly friend, deprive me of the only remaining opportunity of meeting God in his own house? Oh what would many a soul give, one hour after death, for the Sabbaths and sermons that are now so slighted?" Two things will probably have a keener edge in wounding the lost soul than all others. One will be the recollection of Christ rejected; the other will be, the remembrance of TIME, especially HOLY TIME misspent.

VIII. The Sabbath is, and in Scripture is made to be a type of the glorious rest of the people of God in heaven. If men do not relish the type, it is proof positive that they are not prepared for the antitype. Let us all diligently ask for grace to prepare us for the employments, the society and worship of that SABBATH WHICH REMAINS FOR THE PEOple of god.' Thus we have considered the first commandment,

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which requires us to worship the true God and him. alone; the second commandment which prescribes how that worship shall be offered; the third commandment, calling for reverence in the heart and in the manner of worship; and the fourth commandment, which designates the time to be appropriated to God's service. Thus we conclude the first table of the law.

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CHAPTER XVIII.

THE SECOND TABLE OF THE LAW.

HE sum of the last six commandments is by our Lord given in these few words: "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." Matt. xxii. 39. He says of the second table of the law that "it is like unto the first." It is like unto it in these things: that it proceeds from the same divine authority; that in order to the fulfilling of it, we must have genuine love; that it is very comprehensive, involving many duties; that it requires our utmost care and vigilance to avoid transgression; that if we have a right spirit towards God, we shall not practise wickedness towards man; that the scope and aim of both are purity; that he who requires holiness in the church no less requires it "in the market, in the shop, at home, abroad; not only in prayer but at the plough.' The law would have been an imperfect rule for the government of human beings, existing in society, if it had not as clearly taught us our duty to man as our duty to God. Domat: "Man's first law is the spirit of his religion. .. This implies a second law which obliges men to unity among themselves, and to the love of one another." It was particu

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