John Warton

“ In truth, the ordinance of a Sabbath, to be kept holy to the Lord, is of the same age and antiquity with the creation of the world itself. It was not first established amongst the Jews; it was only renewed and re-established amongst them, when they themselves, like the heathens, had forgotten, or neglected it. It was established as early as with Adam, the first man, even in Paradise; and, therefore, all the sons of Adam—that is, the whole race of mankind, and not the Jews only, are equally bound to keep it. ”

“ Of the rest, how few come here with so much regularity as to show that it is an essential part of their system of life—an established principle of conduct never to be departed from but upon the most urgent, extraordinary occasions! And how will God judge of them, who think that they do sufficient honour to his Sabbath by coming once only, and forget that God may construe their coming but once as a proud assumption on their parts, that they want no more of his sanctifying grace than once a day may be likely to bestow! ”

“ We, your ministers, I trust, amidst all the discouragements with which we are surrounded, the entire absence of so many, the apparent lukewarmness of others, preach, nevertheless, with the same zeal as if we preached to multitudes athirst for the word of God, and do not abate one tittle in our fervent desire for your everlasting salvation. The more, indeed, men neglect themselves, the more should the ministers of Christ care for them, and stir up every faculty which they have to rescue them from their dream of false security. Let not this labour of ours be in vain! ”

“ But how will God judge even of the most exemplary in any congregation, who never forsake his house, either for pleasure, or for business, or for any of those plausible reasons by which men are too willing to delude themselves to their own ruin; if they spend the rest of the day, nevertheless, as they spend the other days of the week, and do not remember the Sabbath, to keep it holy throughout; if they do not devote the whole of it with a sober, religious awe to God; if they do not send their children and servants to church with the same punctuality as they go themselves ”

“ But the same impious means have been industriously used to produce the same subversion of principle here amongst us at home; and, God knows, they have but too well succeeded with too many; so that we can scarcely exult any longer with our former honourable pride, that our country is as renowned for religion, for piety and virtue, for good order and submission to authority, and for the deep abhorrence of all atrocities, as she is for freedom, for wealth, for victory, and for power. ”

“ But the seventh day, then, if we will use it thus, is ours as well as his; it is ours more than all the six which go before: it is ours in its own sublime, peculiar sense, to give us a foretaste of eternity by withdrawing us from temporal things; in short, it is one of the best gifts of God to man. O taste and see how gracious the Lord is! The Sabbath is to his own glory; but what would man be without it? The most wretched of beings in every way ”

“ God was not satisfied that He had done enough, even when He had uttered this command with his own voice, and with all that show of his terrible power and majesty; He wrote it also on a tablet of stone with his own finger; and He ordered the sacred tablet to be preserved with the utmost care, in the most sacred place—in the very ark where his whole covenant with his chosen people was preserved also. One generation alone could have heard that voice, and have seen those miraculous signs ”

“ Do you think it likely that the same God, who, under the law, ordained a Sabbath, even for the miserable brute creation, that the poor cattle might rest from their labours as well as their rich owners, should abolish it under the gospel? ”

“ So that now all the reasons which could ever have operated amongst mankind for the keeping of a Sabbath, and still more reasons, operate upon us Christians. We keep one day in seven in memory of the creation, as the rest of men should do; but we keep that day, in preference to all others, which reminds us, more forcibly than any other, of our second creation ”

“ The Sabbath-day, then, is ours more especially; God, in consecrating and hallowing it to himself, has done so to our present and eternal profit. By means of it we perform the better all the business of men, all the business of Christians, all the business of those who aspire to heaven. ”

“ The nightly incendiary, who prowls about in darkness (but God sees him) and destroys the fruits of the earth, which should have been for the food of man; the open rioter, who, in broad day-light, levels with the ground the temple of God, the marts of commerce, the mansions of the great, and puts to the hazard even the life of his beneficent neighbour; the wide-wasting pestilence, which, with havoc and death in its train, has reached the opposite shores, and now only waits the signal to cross the sea to ours ”

“ We have heard, we have read, we have thought much about our blessed Redeemer—about our own salvation—about the bliss and glory of heaven. We have put ourselves into every way, private and public, of receiving every grace of which we stand in need, and which God, through Christ, has promised to bestow. We have prayed more at home than the business of the world will permit us to do on any other day; we have assembled in the church, as often as the church was open, to receive p. 17the mercies to which we are entitled, by God’s gift, only as we are members of the church ”

“ As Christians, we are still the posterity of Adam; and, if we partake, alas! of all the evils that sprung from Adam, at least we partake of this one benefit. Sin has not deprived us of it, but made it the more necessary for us. Again, as Christians, we are not indeed the posterity of Abraham, according to the flesh; and, therefore, we are not necessarily under any part of the law given to the Jews ”

“ Come to God’s house, and you will hear discourses, it is to be hoped, as well as striking passages of scripture, which will awaken and arouse you; keep heaven always in your sight; fill you with heavenly affections ”

“ This is a very reasonable question, and it may have a very satisfactory answer; namely, that the same causes for a Sabbath-day, and for remembering it, to keep it holy for ever, concern alike all the rest of mankind as well as the Jews; and that we Christians, above others, have especial cause for hallowing our own Sabbath-day; such as neither p. 13the Jews, nor the rest of mankind, until they become Christians, can have for hallowing their’s. If it were their bounden duty to hallow Saturday, or any other day, much more is it ours to hallow Sunday. ”

“ Now, there can be no doubt, but that God, being infinitely wise, and also most intimately acquainted with the peculiar wants and infirmities, and with the whole nature of man, whom he himself created, and upon whom he bestowed what nature he pleased, foreknew, and therefore decided p. 18from the very first, that one-seventh of man’s time was necessary to be, and consequently should be, released from labour, and devoted to a holy rest. ”

“ He himself, in his mighty work of the creation of this world, tasked himself to a six-days’ labour, and rested on the seventh day, in order that man, following his example, might use the same proportion of labour and rest. ”

“ Labour for yourselves as we labour for you; all p. 32of us alike, however, trusting to a greater strength than our own. And I pray God, that, under the influence of the Divine strength, and guided by his Holy Spirit, you may become the crown of our labours, and enable us to give up the account of our stewardship over you with joy. ”

“ Much, indeed, very much is it to be feared, that he will visit, with some terrible calamity too, and soon also, this country of ours, so dear to us all, so much our boast and pride, which he has hitherto guarded with an extraordinary protection, and exalted above other nations with unparalleled renown and power. ”

“ He has himself, in his infinite wisdom, determined what is fit and proper both for us and for him. He has not put us under the necessity of reasoning upon so important a matter at all; from the very beginning He appointed it for an everlasting law, that the portion of time to be dedicated to his especial service and worship should be one day out of every seven days: that six successive days should be ours for labour of body and of mind, and for all the needful business of this present life ”

“ If the help of the Holy Spirit alone can fit them for salvation, and this help is chiefly given by the ministry of the church, how can they be perfectly satisfied with themselves, and think that they have done enough, when they neglect, once a day, an opportunity of partaking of the spirit, which the church is the instrument to p. ”

“ But no individual could have determined for himself, and still less were all men likely to agree with each other, what the portion of time to be set apart for this purpose should be; how much the beneficent Author of their being, and of all their enjoyments, would expect of them to consecrate to him ”

“ Of all incredible things this would be the most incredible, that God should care so much for beasts, p. 20which perish, as to provide them a temporary repose from bodily toil, and none for man, who has an immortal soul to be saved, or lost, for ever ”