of God's own rest, by faith and through Baptism,—I put the question, Is it fitting that you and I should have a day set apart for the peculiar profession of our enjoyment? And I answer, It is right. And I give you this plain reason why it is right. It is most true this is our standing; we have sacramentally entered into rest; but are we not still partakers of the avocations of life? Are we not dwelling amongst those who are partakers of like avocations? And what will be the consequence? I ask, what will be the consequence? I ask, what in principle is to be expected, and what in practice is seen to be the result? There is a mystery in religion; there is a secret in the state of a Christian. He is a man of this world, and he is a man of the next world; he is a man in Christ and in God, and he is a man in Adam, liable still to the assaults of the devil, liable to be ensnared by this world, of which the devil is declared to be the god and the prince. This is the reality of man's state. He has sacramentally entered into his rest: and that sacrament is not mere shadow,— that sacrament is not mere sound and name; it has conveyed to him a benefit which he by faith is continually seeking to enjoy and does enjoy. But then, mixed as we are in our state and form,-being still sons of Adam, and still inhabitants of this vain world, with the devil as its great destroyer, corrupter, seducer, the cause of abounding misery amongst us,-such, I say, being our form and condition, there is a fitness in our maintaining a portion of time for the purpose of

especially recognizing this which is our state, and moreover of recognizing the hope which is in us of its future consummation and perpetuation without interruption.

Now, beloved, I think a few words may make this matter plain. I would by no means invalidate or obscure your blessed state of privilege and enjoyment, to be entered into by you, to be seized and rested in by you at every moment of your life. But I would at the same time ask you,—or rather would put you upon asking yourselves,—whether this is not your state,—a compound? Have you ceased from Adam? Whence arose the breath of this morning? Whence arises the provision for your body,—your clothing, your food? Are not all these derived to you through your connection with Adam? Why, your Adam connections then, and your Adam state and form, have not yet ceased. And the world is not yet Christ's world in manifestation and in enjoyment, though by right it is his, and though He enables you in your measure to enjoy it and to use it as his. And this being so, is it not palpable that there ought to be some expression of our future expectation, and some aspiration of our souls after that peculiar enjoyment unto which God of his goodness hath brought us,-that we may shake off, for one day at least, the cares and solicitudes of this world, and may separate ourselves from every thing which impairs and counteracts the rest to which we have been brought? I am sure, beloved, I am sure, if you

enter into the right consideration of this subject, you will see its fitness; you will see that it becomes persons situated as every Christian is, with his complex being, his compounded state and form,-it becomes such an one to have and maintain such an observance as the Lord's day.

And now you perceive the beauty of the change of the day. Why, if we had gone on with the seventh day, we should have rendered ourselves justly liable to those suspicions which I have suggested,—we should have rendered ourselves liable to the imputation that we were still Jews, and still expectants. And again, do we not by this change of the day manifest, what I have already insisted upon, that it is our constant possession; and that our only meaning in separating one day for this particular office is, that we are so circumstanced that we cannot have that enjoyment of every day which is the desire of our hearts, and are therefore glad to seize such a portion of time which we can appropriate to such exercise?

This is a consideration, as you perceive, derived from the nature of things. When I next address you upon this subject, my object will be to show you that nothing has truly fallen from the lips of the Lord Jesus Christ, and that nothing has truly passed under the pen of his apostles, to invalidate the propriety of such an observance when put upon its proper principle. I would abjure the sabbath, if it were to be rested on the ground on which many rest it; but

placing it on its true and proper ground,—as an expedient which becomes persons situated, circumstanced, related, constituted as we are,-in Christ, yet in Adam ; in heaven, yet on earth; released from the devil, yet having the devil continually at our right hand,—I say, in this complex state and form of ours, I see the fitness of such a celebration as that to which you are continually called. And my object will be, when I address you again on this subject, to show you, more fully than I have done, that not a word escaped the Lord's mouth, and that not a word passed under the pen of his apostles, to invalidate such an observance. And now may God bless the word which has been spoken, to your edification.

Sunday Morning, September 13, 1829.

SERMON XXIII.

MATTHEW Xxii. 11, 12.

AND WHEN THE KING CAME IN TO SEE THE GUESTS, HE SAW THERE A MAN WHICH HAD NOT ON A WEDDING GARMENT: AND HE SAITH UNTO HIM, FRIEND, HOW CAM EST THOU IN HITHER NOT HAVING A WEDDING GARMENT? AND HE WAS SPEECHLESS.

THE subject which I have to propose to you is of a very interesting nature,-a plain teacher of the truth of God. May it please God to give me utterance, and you a patient and an intelligent hearing.

The subject then is a parable which the Lord Jesus Christ proposed to the people. The parable of the marriage feast, as a whole, must be considered as one story, though there is a story like it in the Gospel by St. Luke which does not convey the whole of the instruction here afforded. The substance of the parable is an annunciation of the calling of the Gentiles in consequence of the Jews' rejecting the Gospel. And the latter part of it exhibits the judgment which shall take place upon the Gentiles,—that is, upon all those indi