Besides, If you would reasonably hope for the blessing of God to succeed your labours, it is certainly your interest, as well as your duty to obey his commands. And this in particular, Keep the sabbath day holy. If, in direct opposition to this plain, precept, you will work and labour, as on other days, what ground can you have to expect that God will bless and prosper your undertakings? You have much greater cause to fear that his curse will follow you in your affairs, and blast and disappoint all your wishes and prospects.
Let then the misconduct and fatal ends of others, and the calamities and troubles that you have brought upon yourselves—Let the gracious promises of God, on the one hand, and his awful threatenings on the other, induce you, in future, to remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy!
And let me offer you a few plain directions, as to the observance and improvement of the sabbath:
Begin the day with prayer; and for this purpose seek some place of retirement, if you find it impracticable to meditate or pray, from the interruptions you are exposed to in your dwellings*, from those who ridicule and scoff at every appearance of religion. Retire from them, and pray to him who seeth in secret; and praise him for the many mercies you have received. Consider with yourself, how little you have improved them. Humble yourselves before God, under a sense of your sins and imperfections, and pray for pardon and repentance. Intreat him, to enable you to watch over your hearts, words, and actions, throughout the day, and that you may not be hindered or hurt by the snares and temptations around you. Intreat God to assist your minister, and to accompany what you may hear from him, with a blessing to your soul, and to all who shall be present with you.
[*Footnote: Many complaints have been made to me on this head.]
If you have families, you should call them together, and pray with them, and for them. There are many promises made to worshiping families, and to those who, like Abraham, endeavour to teach their children and household to know and serve the Lord. [Gen. xviii. 19.; Prov. iii. 33.] And the neglect of this is one reason, why many families live uncomfortably. They live without prayer, and therefore without peace.
Having thus endeavoured to impress your minds with serious thoughts, in secret or at home; attend constantly upon the public worship, and there pay a close attention to every part of the service. Remember that the eye of God is particularly upon you there. He has promised to be with two or three that meet together to call upon his name [Matt. xviii. 20.; John iv. 24]. He is to be worshipped in spirit and in truth; and whether they assemble in a church, or in the open air, he can give them cause to say with Jacob, This place is surely the house of God, and the gate of Heaven [Gen. xxviii. 17.]. Attend the public worship again in the afternoon, with your hearts lifted up to God, that you may not hear in vain; and accustom yourself in the evening to recollect what you have heard, concerning the miseries which sin has brought into the world, the love of God in sending his own Son to redeem sinners from those miseries; the sufferings, life, death, and resurrection of the Saviour; and that eternal rest, which remaineth for the people of God—FOR YOU, and FOR ME, if we are believers in Christ.
If, by the blessing of God, I can happily persuade you thus to observe and improve the Lord's day, I am sure it will promote both your pleasure and your profit. Can it be a question with you, whether the God who made heaven and earth, or Satan, the god of this world, is the best master? Indeed I too well know the indisposition and averseness of the carnal mind to God and his ways. Hence the thought of many is, What a weariness is it? And, When will the sabbath be ended? Hence that open contempt and scorn, which is cast upon the sabbath, and upon public worship by many, both high and low, rich and poor, bond and free, old and young, men and women. To them the worship of God is tedious and disagreeable. They neither find pleasure in it, nor expect benefit from it. And therefore their attendance is not from choice, but from constraint.
But the thoughts and the conduct of true Christians are very different. No day is so welcome to them as the Lord's day; not merely considered as a day of rest from labour; but because, having their heads and hearts freed from the cares and incumbrances of the world, it affords them opportunities of waiting upon God. And, brethren, you must allow that these persons are best qualified to judge of the question I have proposed, Whether is best, to walk in the ways of God, or in the ways of sin? For they have experienced both sides of the question. They have tried the pleasures of the world, and they have also tried the pleasures of religion. And they will readily assure you, that in their deliberate judgment, one day thus spent in devotion, and the exercises of religion, is preferable to a thousand days wasted in the vain and unsatisfying pleasures, which they sought in their former wicked practices [Ps. lxxxiv. 10.].
I have written thus largely upon the due observance of the Lord's day, because of that shameful, open, and general neglect, that daring profanation of the Sabbath, which abounds amongst us. It is well known, and it is matter of great grief and concern to me, that numbers of you pay not the least regard to this day. Numbers of you will not come to public worship at all, others but seldom, and then with much reluctance. And when spoken to, different persons frame different excuses, all which, when examined, amount to little more than a want of inclination.