" when I have been Negligent of the Du"ties of this Day, the Reft of the Week "has been Unfuccessful and Unhappy to

me in my own Secular Employments. So "that I could eafily make an Estimate of my Succeffes in my Secular Employments "the Week following, by the Manner of my paffing of this Day. And this (fays "he,) I do not write lightly or inconfide"rately, but upon a long and found Obfer"vation and Experience." [Div. Contemplat. Vol. I.]

sthly and Laftly, If we are Gainers even in our Temporal Intereft by the Confcientious Performance of the Duties of This Day, much more do we gain thereby in our Spiritual Intereft, which is fo directly advanced by it. This fhort Intermiffion in the Course of our worldly Affairs, ferves in fome Measure to loofen, and difengage, and take off our Thoughts from them. For we fhould be apt to forget and neglect God and our Souls, and fhould be in great Danger of being abfolutely swallowed up in Time, by the Troubles and Gares, and Business of this Life, if we were to go on in a Constant Course, and were not at certain Periods of Time to be taken off from them, to turn over ourselves to Thoughts and Bufinefs of another kind.

This I think does more especially concern Men of Bufinefs, who are conftantly engag'd and incumber'd with Worldly Affairs

and

(

and Concernments. Now is it not a Mercy of Providence to thefe Men that they have One Day to themselves, left them free to mind the great Concerns of Eternity? Such Men are at all other Times, (as our Saviour told Martha, Luke x.) cumbred and troubled about many Things, But (fays he) There is One Thing Needful, One Thing of abfolute Neceffity to make us truly and for ever happy, The Care of our Souls, and Provifion for another World. Therefore certainly Men of Business and Labour, that have but One Day, this One Opportunity to look after that One Thing Needful, have of all others the greateft Reafon to make good Use of it: And the well Spending of this Day, when they fhall come to review their Life, and caft up their Accounts on their Death-bed, fhall yield them more Satisfaction and Comfort than they fhall reap from the Fruits of all their Worldly Labours. Then will they furely fee and find, that This One Day Spent in the Courts of God's Houfe is better than a Thoufand.

And the Spiritual Employments of This Day, as they guide us in the Way to Heaven, fo do they beft Fit and Prepare Us for that Holy Place. They help to purify our Hearts, and cleanse us from our Sin, and to improve us in all Vertue and Holiness; They help to train us up to the noblest Exercises of our Mind, the Contemplating the Divine Excellencies,

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Excellencies, the Adoring and Loving, and Praising of our Maker: They help to wean Us from the World, and teach us by Degrees to converfe with God, and conform ourselves to his Image. In fhort the Holy Exercises of This Day will give us a Tafte and Relish of Heavenly Things; They will teach us the Rudiments of the Language of the Heavenly Canaan, and initiate us to those Employments Here, which shall for ever be the Employments of the other World, when we fhall come to keep an Eternal Sabbath with those Bleffed Spirits, who, St. John tells us, are constantly emRev.iv.10.ployed in Worshiping and Glorifying him that liveth for ever and ever. To whom all Angels cry aloud, the Heavens and all the Powers therein; To whom Cherubin and Seraphin continually do cry: Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of Sabaoth, (Lord of Hofts of Heaven and Earth ;) Heaven and Earth are full of the Majefty of thy Glory; Glory be to thee, O Lord moft High!

SERMON

SERMON VI.

How we are to come Prepared to the House of GOD.

The Second SERMON on this Text.

ECCLES. V. 1.

-Keep thy Foot when thou goeft to the House of God.

T

HE Sabbath being the Time fet apart, as well as the House of God the Place fet apart, for our Publick Worship of Him, as the Proper Time and Place to worship him in All his Holy Ordinances; on the Score of the Relation

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Relation that they have to each other, I thought it fit to treat of them together; and therefore proposed to confider,

I. The Inftitution of the Sabbath, both Jewish and Chriftian.

II. What Obligations and Reasons we Chriftians have Religiously to observe the Chriftian Sabbath.

Which having already spoken to, I now come in the

IIId Place, to fhew how we are to Prepare Ourselves for the Duties of it in the Houfe of God; the Publick Worship There being the Only Worship that my Text Obliges me to treat of.

III.

Confidering the prefent difordered Frame of our Nature, how our Heads and Hearts are fet upon other Matters; filled with Trifles and Follies, and a thousand Vanities of this Life; And, on the other Hand, how naturally Uninclined and Liftlefs we are to the Duties of Religion; it will commonly require fome Time and ferious Thought to work up ourselves into another Temper and Frame of Spirit, different from what we commonly carry about us, before we fhall be well Qualify'd and fit to go to the Houfe of God. Our other Bufinefs requires no Preparation of ourselves: Our Worldly Con

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cerns