1. It is the duty of every person to remember the Lord's-day, and to prepare for it before its approach. All worldly business should be so ordered, and seasonable laid aside, as that no one may be hindered from sanctifying the Sabbath, as the Holy Scriptures require.

2. The entire day is to be kept holy to the Lord, and to be employed in the public and private exercises of religion. Therefore, it is requisite that there be a holy resting, all the day, from unnecessary labors, and an abstaining from those recreations which may be lawful on other days; and also, as much as possible, from worldly thoughts and conversation.

3. Let the provisions for the support of the family on that day be so ordered that servants or others be not improperly detained from the public worship of God, nor hindered from sanctifying the Sabbath.

4. Let every person and family, in the morning, by secret and private prayer, for themselves and others, especially for the assistance of God to their minister, and for a blessing upon his ministry, by reading the Scriptures, and by holy meditation, prepare for communion with God in his public ordinances.

5. Let the people be careful to assemble at the appointed time, that, being all present at the beginning, they may unite with one heart in all the parts of public worship; and let none unnecessarily depart until after the benediction.

6. Let the time after the solemn services of the congregation in public are over be spent in reading, meditation, reading of sermons, catechising, religious conversation, prayer for a blessing upon the public ordinances, singing psalms, hymns, or spiritual songs, visiting the sick, relieving the poor, and in performing such like duties of piety, charity, and mercy.

7. When the time appointed for public worship has come, let the people enter the church and take their seats in a decent, grave, and reverent manner, and deport themselves as becomes the Lord's house. In time of public worship, let all the people attend with reverence.

8. The reading of the Holy Scriptures of the Old and the New Testament in the congregation is a part of the public worship of God, and ought to be performed by ministers and teachers in such a manner as that all may hear and understand.

9. It is the duty of Christians to praise God by singing psalms or hymns publicly in the church, as also privately in the family. In singing the praises of God, Christians are to sing with the spirit and with the understanding also, making melody in their hearts unto the Lord. It is also proper that they cultivate some knowledge of the rules of music, that they may praise God in a becoming manner with voices as well as with hearts.

10. After singing a psalm or hymn, it is proper that, before sermons, a full and appropriate prayer should be offered. Prayer after sermon ought generally to have a relation to the subject that has been treated in the discourse, and all other public prayers to the circumstances that give occasion for them.

11. The preaching of the word being an institution of God for the salvation of man, great attention should be paid to the manner of performing it. Every minister ought to give diligent application to it, and endeavor to prove himself a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

12. The subject of a sermon should be some verse or verses of the Scriptures, and its object to explain, defend, and apply some part of the system of divine truth, or to point out the nature and state the bounds and obligation of some duty. A text should not be merely a motto, but should fairly contain the doctrines proposed to be handled. It is proper, also, that large portions of the Scriptures be sometimes expounded and particularly explained for the instruction of the people.

13. The method of preaching requires much study, meditation, and prayer. Ministers ought, in general, to prepare their sermons with care, and not to indulge themselves in loose, extemporary harangues, nor to serve God with that which cost them naught. They ought, however, to keep to the simplicity of the gospel, expressing themselves in language agreeable to the Scriptures, and adapted to the understanding of all their hearers. They ought also to adorn by their lives the doctrine which they teach, and to be examples for believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity.

14. Ministers ought to be careful not to make their sermons so long as to interfere with or exclude the important duties of prayer and praise, but preserve a just proportion between the several parts of public worship.

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