off, as on this Side, and every one that fweareth SHALL BE CUT OFF, as on that Side, according to it, it is faid, Zech. v. 3.

There is yet another, and a very dreadful Sort of profaning the Name of God, that is, when a Man, on any Provocation from another, fhall pray to God to damn him, or that the Plague may take him, or that fome other Evil may befal him.

This is a profane Practice, which not only tranfgreffes the Laws of God, which requires us to love our Enemies, to love all Men, to pray for them which defpitefully use us, but it is a treating God as if he was to fulfil their malicious Defires, and to I make his Power to fubferve their immoral Wishes ; and fuch have abundant Reason to expect Punishment, when God vifits for Sin.

VII. PROFANERS of God's Sabbaths are another Sort of Sinners, which provoke God to fend deftroying Judgments.

The Sabbath is profaned, when People fall into a Diflike of it, and wilfully mifpend the Time of it, tranfgreffing those Laws, which require us to remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy, i. e. to employ it in religious Exercifes, except what Time must be taken up in the Works of Neceffity and Works of Mercy.

They who wilfully neglect the holy Convocation of People, appointed to be on the Sabbath, and will not give their Attendance on the Offices of the publick Worship of God, but tranfact their fecular Affairs, buy and fell, or receive or make Vifits of Entertainment, or take their Recreations and Pleafure on the Day, or spend the Time in Idleness, are Profaners of the Sabbath.

Six Days fhalt thou labour, and do all thy Work, (i. e. about thy worldly Affairs) but the feventh Day

is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God, in it thou shalt not do any Work, thou, nor thy Son, nor thy Daughter, nor thy Man-Servant, thy Maid-Servant, nor thy Cattle, nor the Stranger that is within thy Gates.

And the holy God fays, If thou turn away thy Foot from the Sabbath, from doing thine own Pleafure on my holy Day, and (fhalt) call the Sabbath a Delight, the Holy of the Lord, honourable, and shalt honour him, not doing thine own Ways, nor finding thine own Pleafure, nor Speaking thine own Words. Then fhalt thou delight thyself in the Lord, and I will caufe 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. Ifa. lviii. 13, 14.

It appears from thefe Paffages, that God does not allow us on the Sabbath, either to do any worldly Bufinefs, or to gratify ourselves even with thofe Recreations and Pleafures, which are lawful on other Days: It appears, that if we prize the Day of Sacred Reft, and take Delight in the religious Exercifes of it, and abstain from our own fecularWorks, and Words, and Pleasures, we fhall then please our moft gracious God, and have his Bleffing upon us, and have his Bleffing manifefted to us by kind Difpenfations of his Providence towards us: And it pears alfo, that if we allow ourselves to break his Laws concerning the Sabbath, we provoke his Wrath.

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God hath promised to them that keep his Sabbaths, and choose the Things that please him, and take hold of his Covenant, that he will give them an everlasting Name, that shall not be cut off: That them who join themselves to the Lord to ferve him, and to love the Name of the Lord to be his Servants, every one that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it, and taketh bold of his Covenant, even them will be bring to his holy Mountain, and make them joyful in his Houfe of Prayer. Read Ifaiah lvi.

But most tremendous are the Declarations of the righteous God against his own People for profaning his Sabbath.

That is an awful Declaration of the LORD of Hofts in Ezek. xx. 21.

They polluted my Sabbaths: Then I faid I would pour out my Fury upon them. And this Impiety is mentioned as one Caufe of deftroying Judgments, and of God's with-holding his Favour and Bleffing. V. 13, 10, 24.

This Irreligion is reckoned among the crying Sins of the Inhabitants of Jerufalem, (Ezek. xxii. 8.) Thou haft defpifed mine holy Things, and haft profaned my Sabbaths, laid the holy God.

And after the mentioning of their Provocations, God fays, (ib. v. 14.) Can thine Heart endure, or can thine Hands be ftrong in the Days that I shall deal with thee? I the Lord have spoken it, and I will do it. And I will fcatter thee among the Heathen, and difperfe thee in the Countries, and will confume thy Filthiness out of thee; ver. 1.6.

Many People break God's Sabbaths without Remorie, because they meet with no Punishments from Men, and because the Judgments of God are not speedily executed; but they must not think to efcape fo in the Day of God's Vifitation for Sin: The Threatnings mentioned plainly fhew, that they fhall not escape.

I have, in the foregoing Particulars, confidered the Declarations of the righteous God concerning fome Sorts of Perfons who are wilful, ftubborn Tranfgreffors of one or other of the four firft of the Ten Commandments, recorded in Exodus xx. and I intended to have related fome of the awful Things, which the Lord hath spoken in his Word of those, who live in wilful Difobedience to his other Commandments; but that what has been written may

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fooner get into the Hands of those whom it chiefly concerns, I thought it needful first to publish this Part of what I propofed to offer to the most serious Thoughts of People.

The DECLARATIONS of the Judge of the whole Earth, which have been related, are indeed full of doleful Tidings, Tidings which may justly fill the Minds of People with an awful Fear and Dread of provoking the Divine Anger, and excite them to forfake their Sins.

Are not the Threatnings mentioned, the Threatnings of Almighty God, against thofe Sorts of Perfons, who are the Objects of them! And is not the Great God able to execute them! And will he not do fo, in cafe the Guilty remain incorrigible!

And when, in Way of his Providence, he pro ceeds to fulfil his Threatnings, can the guilty Sinners, against whom they are pronounced, expect to escape them? Can they fly from God? Can they get out of the Reach of his almighty Arm? Can they hide themselves, where he cannot find them? Can any bide himself in fecret Places, that I shall not fee him? SAITH THE LORD. Jer. xxiii. 24. He fall not be able to hide himself, fays God, Jerem. xlix.

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Every one has Reason to fay unto God, as David did, Pf. cxxxix. 1. O Lord, thou hast searched me, and known me-thou understandeft my Thought afar off-and are acquainted with all my Ways-For there is not a Word in my Tongue, but lo, O Lord thou knoweft it altogether.Whither fhall I go from thy Spirit? or whither fhall I flee from thy Prefence? If I afcend up into Heaven, thou art there: if I make my Bed in Hell, behold thou art there. If I fay, furely the Darkness fhall cover me; even the Night shall be Light about me; yea, the Darkness bideth not from thee.

These are certain Truths: How vain and foolish is it then for guilty stubborn Sinners to feek by Flight a Safety from the Judgments God has denounced against them.

But is there no Hope? Is there no escaping the Wrath and Vengeance of the holy God? I anfwer, there is none by Flight, none by Riches, none by human Power or Policy.

Yet, bleffed be the merciful God, there is fome Hope remaining; there is a Door of Hope, opened by the gracious Declarations, and kind Invitations which Almighty God, infinite in Goodness, has made to those who provoked him to destroy them.

Wash ye, make you clean (fays our God who delights in Mercy, Ifaiah i. 16, &c.) Put away the Evil of your Doings from before mine Eyes, ceafe to do Evil, learn to do well, feek Judgment, relieve the Oppreffed, judge the Fatherlefs, plead for the Widow.

Come now, and let us reafon together, faith the Lord: Though your Sins be as Scarlet, they shall be as white as Snow; though they be red like Crimson, they Sball as Wool.

If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the Good of the Land. v. 19. Which implies not only that God would then pardon them, and forbear to inflict the Judgments threatened against them, but also that God would blefs them, and provide carefully for them.

It is added, ver. 20. But if ye refufe, and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the Sword: for the Mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. Signifying, that if they would not repent of their Sins, but go on in their Trefpaffes, and continue their Rebellion against God, they fhould certainly be destroyed.

In Jerem. xviii. 7, 8. our merciful God fays, At what Inftant I fhall Speak concerning a Nation, and concerning a Kingdom, to pluck up, to pull down, and

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