the Business of Religion; would we remember that it is * the Preparation, and that the Sabbath draws on. When Jacob was going to worship GoD at Bethel, he order'd his Family to † put away the ftrange Gods that were among them, and be clean, and change their Garments, and arife and go to Bethel. He knew that the GoD of Purity and Holiness was to be approached with the utmost Purity they could poffibly cloth themselves with. And would we, before we enter into the Prefence of GoD on his own Day, endeavour to purifie our felves from the Filth of the World we have contracted in the Days before; would we difperfe these bufy Swarms of Things, which so attract our Minds, and prepare our felves for the following Day; we should appear before GoD, lefs earthly and more heavenly, lefs finful and more holy; Our Prayers would be fet forth in his Sight as the Incenfe, and the lifting up of our Hands be an Evening Sacrifice: And like the Smell of Jacob's Garment in the Noftrils of his Father, the Smell of our Prayers would Sbe like the Smell of a Field which the LORD bath bleffed. And now what is this Preparation, but the Trimming of our Lamps against we meet *Luke xxiii. 54. + Gen. xxxv. 2. the the LORD on the next Day? Our Bodies fhould be refreshed by ceafing early from their Labour, that they may be active and vigorous; and our Souls wafhed with Sobriety and Temperance, and the private or public Prayer of the Evening. Thus fhould we meet the LORD at Bethel, and obtain thofe Mercies we fought of him there. Art thou then bleffed with an affluence of Things, and hath Providence placed Thee above the careful Sations of Life? What Reafon then can be fufficient for thy Neglect of this Cuftom? For neither canft thou plead the want of Time, neither doft thou dread the ftraits of Poverty. Or art thou involv'd in the Cares of Bufinefs? Doft thou carn thy Bread by the Sweat of thy Face, and the Labours of thy Hands? O well is Thee! And happy mayft thou be. Wouldst thou dedicate this fmall Time to the Service of GOD, it would be like the Widow's Mite, which was more than all that was thrown into the Treasury: But perhaps, thou wilt fay thou art under the Yoke, fubject to Servitude, and obliged to work even to the latter End of the Day. It may be fo, but yet, as GOD is every where present, fo wouldst thou Remember that it is the Preparation, and put up an Ejaculation at thy Work, GOD would accept it, and it would prove to thee, thee, an equal Good with the other Preparation. Caffian tells us, That the antient Monks whilst they were working in the private Cells, repeated their Religious Offices: And St. Jerom, when he is commending the pleafing Retirement of the Village of Bethlehem, fays, That in the Village of CHRIST, there is a fecure Rufticity: No Noise is heard there, but the Singing of Pfalms. Wherefoever you go, you have either the PloughMan finging Hallelujahs as he's holding the Plough, or the sweating Mower pleasing himfelf with Hymns; or the Vine-dreffer finging David's Pfalms. These without doubt were acceptable to GOD, and thine undoubtedly will be acceptable alfo. But if thou art not ty'd down by Neceffity, do not say that the common Neceffaries of Life require then thy Labour: For this is not lofing, but Redeeming the Time; what thou spendest in the Care of thy Soul, is not loft in the Care of thy Body. Never was Man poorer, for obferving the Duties of Religion. If thou lose any Thing of the Wages * Hæc officia per totum dici fpatium jugiter cum operis adjectione, fpontanea celebrantur. Caffian, Inftit. Lib. 3. Cap. 2. In Chrifti villa tuta rufticitas eft. Extra pfalmos, filentium eft. Quocunque te verteris, arator ftiuam retinens alleluia decantatur, fudans meffor pfalmis fe advocat, &c. Hierom, Ep. 18. ad Marcel. of of the Day, to do the Service of GoD, he will take care to fupply it, thou shalt be no lofer. Why then art thou fearful, O! Thou of little Faith! Why dost thou take fo much Thought for thy Life? Behold the Fowls of the Air, for they fow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into Barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them: Art thou not much better than they? And why takeft thou thought for Rayment? Confider the Lilies of the Field, they toil not, neither do they Spin; and yet I fay unto thee, that Solomon, in all his Glory, was not arrayed like one of thefe. And shall he not much more Cloath thee, O Thou of little Faith! Therefore take no Thought for what thou shalt Eat, or what thou fhalt Drink, or where withal thou shall be Cloathed; but feek thou first the Kingdom of GOD and his Righteousness; prefer the Care of thefe, to the Care of all other Things, and all thefe Things fhall be added unto Thee. Let not then the bufy Cares of this Life, be any hinderance to thy Care of the other; fet apart this fmall Time, for the Time of Preparation, and look on it, as an Emblem of the whole Time of Life: Which is our Day of Preparation, for the eternal Sabbath, the everlasting Rest, the undisturbed Quiet of the other Life. OB OBSERVATIONS ON CHAPTER XII. I HE religious Obfervation of the Saturday Afternoon is now entirely at an End fhould be happy, were I able to fay with Truth that the Conclusion of that of the Sunday too did not seem to be approaching. Mr. Bourne ufes great Affectation in tranflating the Quotation from Selden. He has printed the Latin erroneoufly too: It ought to be " in lunaris "diei diliculum, &c." The Sabbath was not to be observed from Saturday at Noon, but from three o'Clock on that Day in the Afternoon, and whatever Part of the Day might have been called Noon at the Time he alludes to, he might have hinted to us in a Note, without confounding it in his Text with the Mid-day of this Age. To our Author's Account of the Cuftom of the old Churches of England and Scotland, an Alteration may be added, of which he feems never to have heard. It is, that in the Year 1332, at a Provincial Council, held by Archbishop Mepham, at Magfield, after Complaint made, that inftead of fafting upon the Vigils, they ran out to all the Exceffes of Riot, &c. it was appointed, among many other Things relative to Holy Days, "that "the Solemnity for Sunday fhould begin upon Saturday in the Evening, and not before, to prevent the Misconstruction of keeping a Judai "cal |