are, at once, condemned, however adorned by the brilliances of fancy, or the fascinations of genius. To whatever extent an author of such productions gratifies his own taste, and promotes his own objects by the employment of such language, he is obviously "taking the name of the Lord in vain ;" and, besides this, he encourages, sanctions, and palliates the same impiety in every mind that can be influenced by his sentiments or his example.

Is not the eager appetite for this mental stimulus an alarming symptom?

We may just remark here, to witness theatrical representations, in which the name of God is so commonly and awfully insulted, is to be “ a partaker of other men's sins."

Thirdly. This commandment has annexed to it the declaration of a truth involved in the announcement of all the rest: but it is added here, either to intimate that there is something peculiarly aggravated in the sins forbidden, or to detect in the human heart the thought, or hope, that such sins are comparatively trifling: "The Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain." To be held guilty is to be judged, and punished, according to the sentence of the law. The sentence pronounced on transgressors of the law, is the curse of God; and whether you have transgressed in one or other of the ways we have pointed out as breaches of this commandment, you are guilty. The laws of the community, having nothing to do with personal character but as it affects the community, may not recognize these transgressions of the law of God. To the taste of society, in some of its circles, many of the habits denounced may be perfectly congenial. The maxims of the age may excuse them. Your conscience may be so dark or obtuse, or so unheeded, as to leave you in undisturbed indulgence. The deserved and threatened wrath of God may not be speedily executed. The goodness that ought to lead you to repentance may only harden you. Be not

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deceived by these flattering circumstances: "the Lord will not hold you guiltless." He marks your crime. Already he has condemned. You will shortly appear before him in judgment. There, when all delusions shall have vanished for ever, you will acknowledge that you deserve perdition. Reader! do you acknowledge this now? How, then, are you to escape the perdition you deserve? You must feel the truth of your individual case. You must flee from "the wrath to come." You must see the necessity, and feel the value of "the atonement,"-the blood which cleanseth from all sin. You must be led to that Spirit who alone can thoroughly enlighten you, and guide you to the Saviour, and purify your heart.

For these purposes,-humbly imploring, on your behalf, the influence of that Spirit,-the commandment is now laid before you, that you may be “shut up unto the belief of the gospel," that you may obtain an inheritance among all them that are sanctified through faith that is in Christ!

LECTURE V.

FOURTH COMMANDMENT.

EXODUS, XX. 8–11.

Remember the Sabbath-day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the seventh day, and hallowed it.

THE Sabbath is announced, in this commandment, as having been already known and honoured. It is noticed for the first time in the history of the Hebrews, in the sixteenth chapter of this book, in connexion with the gathering of the manna; where it is evidently adverted to in a similar style,-as an institution that had been previously understood.

The reason assigned in the commandment for keeping the Sabbath-day, refers us, unquestionably, to the period, and to the primary ground, of its appointment: the Lord rested on the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath-day, and hallowed it. In the inspired account of the creation, therefore, we find a simple statement of the fact to which the reference is made,-God blessed the seventh day, the day on which he rested, and sanctified it.

The obligations of the Sabbath were made known and regarded, then, before the promulgation of the law on Sinai. Whether it was kept holy by our first parents in Paradise,-by the patriarchs before and after the flood, by the Hebrews while in Egypt, we are not positively informed: no argument to the contrary has been adduced. The silence of the Scriptures on the subject could, at most, furnish but a dubious presumption. The sacred history is equally silent on the same subject during a period of five hundred years; and on other subjects, of which no doubt is entertained, for a much longer period.

The reason adduced for the religious observance of a seventh day was, in itself, as powerful, and, for aught that can be shown to the contrary, as well known in the earlier as in the later periods. The first account of the Sabbath, to which all the repeated injunctions concerning it have an obvious reference, more than intimates its existence to be coeval with the birth of time; when, with this condition, the appropriation of a seventh portion to the service of God, its moments were measured out to man. The probability, therefore, is, that, in Eden our first parents rested on the seventh day from their ordinary labours; that it was observed in their family after their expulsion; that the patriarchs, who walked with God, and worshipped him, and observed the division of time into weeks, revered the Sabbath; that the profanation of it was a leading feature in the wickedness of the Antediluvians; and that the Hebrews were not strangers to its obligations while in Egypt, though they were likely, from native depravity, earthly-mindedness, and the degraded habits of Egyptian slavery, to forget them.

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A fact of some importance, as discrediting the theory so ingeniously supported both in ancient and in modern times, that the Sabbath was not known till the period referred to in the sixteenth chapter of Exodus, is the early and general prevalence of a

similar institution among nations unconnected with the Hebrews. By several ancient writers a seventh day is mentioned as peculiarly sacred. It was consecrated to the sun. On that day hymns were sung in honour of Apollo; philosophers repaired to their contemplations; pupils ceased from learning; labourers rested from their toil; the temples were visited; festivities were observed. "In the most ancient writers," we are told, "in Homer, Linus, Orpheus, Callimachus, there are extant various testimonies of a seventh day recurrent observed by the Ethnics as sacred, which observance seems to have been derived to them by tradition from the fathers, and long usage. 'The Heathens,' says Usher, “ had their knowledge of God and of the Sabbath from the first fathers, which lived before the dispersion, by tradition.""

The giving, and especially the repetition of this commandment to the Hebrews, must be regarded in several distinct points of view. It was given to them, in the first instance, as a part of God's moral law, binding on them as individual subjects of his government. Having been thus given, there were connected with its celebration some important lessons of practical instruction, involving references to spiritual and eternal things. It then became a sign of the covenant between God and the nation, and was, therefore, incorporated in their political jurisprudence.

It is necessary to bear in mind these separate uses and significations of the Sabbath: inattention to them has led to great perplexity; and the remembrance of them may serve to illustrate some striking facts in the history of the church, and to elucidate numerous passages of Scripture. The national covenant is abandoned: the sign no longer exists. The events, of which the ritual observances of the ancient church were typical, have transpired: the type is no longer needed. The political government of one nation, by the special providence of God, has