beget amendment.

of Solomon,

So true is the obfervation Train up a child in the way "he fhould go, and when he is old, he will "not depart from it."

III. Let me, in conclufion, juft obferve, that fuccefs, in every family, will depend on the religious conduct of both the Parents: let them be just and honeft in all their actions; let them fhew the utmost reverence for the truth; let them avoid, not merely the commiffion, but the approbation, of all profaneness and impiety; let them be regular in offering up their family, and private devotions; let them devoutly obferve the day dedicated to the Lord; let them attend the most folemn of all Ordinances-the Commemoration of the death of our Redeemer in the holy Sacrament; thefe duties, exemplified in their own conduct, attended with innocent cheerfulness, and recommended by patience, tendernefs, and encouragement, will enforce their inftructions: the parents, will communicate the influence of religion infenfibly to their children, and excite in them an inftinctive emulation of imitating themselves, “in what"foever things are honeft, juft, and of good E 66 report.

report.

ren

Thofe things which their child "have learned, and received, and seen in their

parents, they will do." The duty of the parents, and the obedience of the children will receive one and the fame reward, "the God of peace will be with them" both.

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That all Parents may feel this real, this unequivocal affection towards their children; • and all children, in confequence, be trained up in the way wherein they fhould go, do thou, Holy Jefus, fhed upon us all the influences of thy Grace, and heavenly Benedic• tion. May the feed fown, the religious inftruction of all mafters, parents, and teachers, produce fixty, and an hundred fold; that when the harvest, the day of Judgment, shall come; and the reapers, the Angels of God, fhall be employed to feparate the wheat from the tares, the righteous from the wicked, every parent may thus thankfully addrefs himfelf to God, Lo! here I am, and the children which thou haft given me; and their offspring re-echo in joyful acclamations,' "Bleffed be he that begat, and her that bare me, and bleffed be the Lord for ever, Amen and Amen!"

SERMON

SERMON ÍV.

ISAIAH LVIII. 13, 14.

If thou turn away thy foot from the fabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day, and call the fabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable, and fhalt honor him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor Speaking thine own words:

Then fhalt thou delight thyself in the Lord, and

I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father; for the mouth of the Lord hath Spoken it.

THA

HAT the day, which Almighty wifdom hath fet apart for the commemoration of the wonderful works of his creation and providence, as well as of his mercy and love, in the redemption of our fouls, fhould be regarded as a day of indolence or amusement, of business or diffipation, which it confeffedly is, by a great part of, even the Chriftian, world, is a circumftance we cannot too deeply lament, nor labor

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labor too urgently to correct. If the defign of the Lord's Day is, to imprefs on our minds our own weakness and infufficiency, our dependence upon God for every bleffing of both this life and another; if it be to wean our affections gently from this earthly scene, and to prepare us for an eternal abode, to celebrate an everlasting fabbath, fhall we fruftrate its merciful design, by doing our own ways, by finding our own pleasure, or speaking, our own words," prostituting it to trifling amufements, unneceffary vifits, or fervile occupations? No.. Remember," fays the Commandment, whofe writing is the writing "of God, remember the fabbath day to keep "it holy."

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My purpose in this difcourfe is, to confider in what manner the Sunday ought to be kept, together with the advantages arising from the inftitution; after which I fhall earnestly ex-. hort you to the devout, and religious obfer vance of it.

I. Now" to keep holy the fabbath," or in the words of the text, to "call the fabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord," it is not fufficient merely to attend public worship, and

then

then to think the business of the day over. No. To call the fabbath a delight, the "holy of the Lord," is to put our fouls into a heavenly frame and temper; to meditate on the dreadful state of man without a Redeemer, and on the stupendous method by which our Redemption was accomplished; to return our devout thanksgivings to Almighty God for his fuperabundant love expreffed towards us; to make our wants known unto him, both temporal and fpiritual; to befeech him to be always with us to protect us, and blefs us; to devote fome part of the day to the ferious perufal of the Holy Scriptures, that we may know, and understand, and feel, in how peculiar a manner we Chriftians are the objects of his love, and may thereby endevor, more and more, to please him. This is to be done in our clofet, and our family. But to keep holy the fabbath day, we are likewise to attend the public worship of God, in the congregation. There we are to diveft ourselves of every thought which would withdraw our affections from spiritual objects, and prevent, in any degree, our E 3

worfhipping

"God