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lefs, great Reafon have they to thank God, both for his appointing thefe weekly Days for his Worship, and likewise for his keeping them from that Impudence in finning, that they do not defpife Sundays, but will on those Days come to Church, and do as their Neighbours do: For, certainly, tho' they do not grow better hereby; yet, by using thefe Means, they are kept from growing worse. And if they should give themselves over to the total Neglect or Disuse of these publick Exercises of Piety, good God! to what a deplorable Condition would they, in time, reduce themfelves? Whoever therefore hath any ferious Defire, either that Men fhould grow better, or that they should not grow worse; whoever hath any hearty Concern for Religion and Piety, and would not have it quite banished out of the World; every fuch Man must needs be convinced, that it is of infinite Concernment, that the ftrict Obfervation of the Lord's Day fhould be most religiously kept up among us.

I have one Thing more to add upon this Point, and I have done.

In the Fifth Place; If thefe Arguments I have infifted on will not prevail with you, to make a Confcience of strictly obferving the Lord's Day, yet, I beg of you let other Peoples Experience do it. When Reafon doth not prevail, we appeal to Expe

Experience; and in this Matter I appeal to all Men that have made Trial of it.

And these two Things I account all Men, that have made Trial, will give their Affent to.

First of all; Whoever makes a Confcience of strictly observing the Lord's Day (fuppofing he doth it not out of Hypocrify, but bears an honest Mind towards GOD; I fay, every fuch Perfon) never failed to grow in Virtue and Goodness. GOD always accepted his Services; and he finds the good Effects of them in the greater Measure of Grace and Strength that is afforded to him for the living a holy and virtuous Life.

Nay, fome devout Perfons have extended this Point farther; they will tell you, That they have always obferved, that, as they kept the Lord's Day more or lefs carefully, fo has their Bufinefs profper'd more or lefs fucceffully all the Week after: and that they have particularly experienced, over and over again, that when they have moft fervently fet themselves to obferve, GOD on Sunday, they have been remarkably blessed the following Week.

But, Secondly; It hath been hardly known, that any one that was a notorious Sabbathbreaker (which is the Word we usually exprefs fuch Offenders by) ever came to good. Those Perfons that make no Confcience of obferving the Lord's Day, as they VOL. IV. rarely

Y

rarely ever attain to a true Sense of Virtue and Piety; fo, moft commonly, they are given over to a reprobate Mind, and do grow

worfe and worse.

And this Thing is very obfervable, that most of these lewd and profligate People, that have run into all forts of Extravagancies, when they come, at their Death, to reflect on their Lives paft, and to give an Account of what led them into all thofe Exceffes and Wickedneffes, the most common Thing that they impute all to, was, their not obferving the Lord's Day; but, when they should have been at the Church, they gave themselves up to idle and vicious Company, that, by degrees, perverted their Manners, and drew them into these Mischiefs, which it is now too late to redrefs.

These Things, I think, may be sufficient to poffefs you all with a hearty Sense of the Obligation that is upon us, ftrictly to obferve the Lord's Day. I dare not stay to inforce this farther.

I pray God give us all Grace, that we may fo ferve him here, both on this Day, and all the other Days of our Life, that hereafter we may be Partakers of his eternal Glory.

SER.

SERMON XV.

HEBR. IV. 11.

Let us labour therefore to enter into that
Reft.

TAKE it for granted, that all that now hear me do believe a future State; and that we do not ceafe to be, when we leave this World, but that we must live for ever, either in Happiness or Mifery. I take it for granted, that none here doubts, but that there doth remain a Rest for the People of GOD in the other World; and therefore this Point I wholly wave, and fhall not trouble you with offering at a Proof of it.

My prefent Bufinefs is, to do what I can to perfuade you all to the Practice of the Apostle's Exhortation in my Text; to wit, to labour to enter into that Reft, in fhew

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ing you that it is a Reft exceedingly worth our labouring for; that it doth richly deferve all the Diligence, and Pains, and Application, that we can poffibly bestow towards the obtaining of it; because, when it is obtained, it will abundantly compensate for them all.

Now you fee, that, in order to the fpeaking juftly to this Point, I am obliged to enter into a Difcourfe of the Excellency of this Reft, and to give fome Account of the many Bleffings that are contained in it.

And I hope nobody will think this to be an improper Argument at this Seafon; fince it was the great Bufinefs and End of our Saviour's Death and Paffion (which we commemorate this Week) to procure this eternal Reft for us, and the great Business of our Lord's Refurrection (which we are to commemorate the next Week). to affure us that he hath effectually done it; and that he will one Day raife us up to partake of that Glory, which he now poffeffes at the Right-hand of God.

To come then to my Bufinefs, to give fome Account of the many Bleffings that are contained in that Reft, which our Saviour hath purchased for us: And, Oh! that I could do it fo effectually, that we might all fall in Love with it; that we could fo affect our Minds with the folid Happiness of the other World, that we

might

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