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commandment (d); which he never would have done, had the Sabbath been an ordinance that was to die in a little time with the Jewish' difpenfation. On the contrary, this demonftrates, that he regarded the juft fanctification of the Sabbath as of perpetual obligation, and as of very great importance in religion. 56

II. He removed the Sabbath from the feventh to the first day of the week. For we find in the Apoftolic Hiftory that the Difciples met tor gether on that day, (called the Lord's Days Revi. 10.) to break bread, or to celebrate the Lord's Supper, which is the proper and peculiar worfhip of Chriftians, its xx. 7. Now this could not be done without the exprefs injunction of the Apoftles; mor could the Apostles do this without a commiffion from Chrift. And as our Lord rofe from the dead on the first day, we fuppofe the Chriftian Sabbath hath relation to his Refurrection; and fo the Lord's Day hath been kept holy by the univerfal Church from the Apoftles days to this time.

Thus there have been three epochas, or dates, from which the Sabbath has been counted, namely, (1.) From the first day of the creation. (2.) From the first day of the falling of the manna... (3.). From the first day of the Gofpel Difpenfation. But ftill it is the feventh day makes the Sabbath, which God bleffed; and the feventh, which we now obe serve, is as much, and as truly the Sabbath, which God fanctified, as ever it was from the beginning of the world. ↑ endow

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The primary notion of the Sabbath, is a reft or ceffation from the ordinary bufinefs of life. The defign of it is to preferve true religion; which would never have been loft in the world, had the Sabbath been duly obferved from the first inftitution of it. And therefore we find in Scripture, both ander the old and new difpenfations, it was applied to the purposes of religion. It is reprefented as a holy convocation, on which the Ifraelites were to affemble for divine worship, Lev. xxiii. 3. David wrote the 92d Pfaim for the Sabbath-Day, and therein gives us just ideas of the work of it. On this day the Jews met together in their fynagogues for religious exercifes; and there our Lord honoured and fanctified the Sabbath by his prefence and inftructions. Mark i.:21, 22. vi. 2. Luke iv. 16, 31. xiii. io. And all Chriftians, in all times and places, have affembled on the Sabbath to hear the word of God, to offer up prayer and thanksgiving, and to celebrate the Lord's Supper, in order to employ their thoughts in pious meditations, and furnish their minds with the beft principles and difpofitions A work rexceeding pleasant and profitable, which demands and deferves the whole of our thought and attention. Therefore, for this good purpose, we are to rest from ordinary bufinefs, and to avoid whatever may diffipate our thoughts, or indifpofe our hearts for the heavenly work of the day.

Our Lord hath taught us fo to understand this, as not to mix any thing fuperftitious with the obfervation of the Sabbath, nor to conceive of it as fuch a fcrupulous reft, that we may not do any thing fit and reafonable, and which otherwife is a duty; works of neceffity and mercy he exprefsly allows. Whatever cannot be deferred to another day, without

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(d) See Mat. xii. 1-12. Luke vi. 10, 11. xiii. 11—17. xiv. 1—7. John v. 9-19. vii. 19-23. ix. 14, 15, 16.

lofs or damage, may be taken care of on the Sabbath. And in general he hath pronounced, That the Sabbath (alluding probably to the first inftitution of it) was made for man, to be fubfervient to his virtue and happiness; not man for the Sabbath. Man was made for duties of moral and eternal obligation, and is bound to observe them in whatever.extremity or neceffity he may be; but man is not made for the rigorous obfervation of the fabbatical reft, or any other pofitive inftitution, fo as thereby to embarrass or diftrefs his life, or to neglect any opportunity of doing good.

I conclude with a few reflections upon Ifai. lviii. 13, 14. Having, in the name of God, recommended goodness, charity, and compaffion, in the preceding verses, and pronounced a fingular bleffing upon those who exercise them, the Prophet adds, by the fame authority, If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day. q. d. "If you confcientiously fufpend the ordinary bufinefs of life, and forbear to please and gratify your own inclinations, that with a free and com"pofed mind you may attend upon the fervices of religion, for which I have fanctified the Sabbath; and if thou] call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable, and shalt honour him; if you have such a sense "of the excellency and benefit of the Sabbath, that you take delight "therein, accounting it a pleasure and happinefs, as being confecrated "to the worship of the most high God, and therefore honourable and glo❝rious in itself; and honourable alfo to you, as it is a mark of the dig"nity of your nature, a token of your intereft in the divine favour, "(Exod xxxi. 13. Ezek. xx. 12.) and of your being admitted to com"munion with him; if in this perfuafion you fhall fincerely endeavour "to honour God by employing the day in the offices of devotion, not

doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine • own words'; not doing the ordinary works of your calling, nor fpend"ing the time in amufements or diverfions, or in impertinent converfation; then fhalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; then thou shalt become fuch a proficient in piety, and gain fuch a fenfe of God and religion, as will establish in your heart a fund of holy pleafure, comfort, joy, "and good hope towards God." The Prophet, in this chapter, is in culcating real, vital, acceptable religion, goodness and compaffion to our fellow-creatures, and piety towards God in keeping the Sabbath; promifing the like bleffings to both thofe branches of true religion, namely, the favour of God and the conftant care of his Providence. We may therefore take this from the Spirit of God, as a just descrip tion of the right manner of fanétifying the Sabbath, and affure our felves, that he who bleffed the Day, will blefs us in keeping it holy.

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NONCERNING the fituation and rivers of the country of Eden, as here defcribed by Mofes, Bp. PATRICK, in his Commentary upon this place, gives an account which feems to be not altogether improbable. The Garden lay in the country of Eden; out of, or through, which country a river went unto the Garden to water it (ver. 11.); and from thence, from the country of Eden, it parted, or was divided, and became into four heads; namely, two above, before it entered Eden, called Euphrates and Hiddekel, or Tigris; and two below, after it had paffed through Eden, called Pifon and Gihon, which compaffeth, or runneth along by, the whole land of Cufb. ver. 13.

In the eastern part of Eden the Lord God planted a Garden furnished with all pleasant and useful fruits. And there he placed Adam to dress and keep it; for man was made for business, ver. 8, 15. Two trees in this Garden were remarkably distinguished from the reft, perhaps in appearance and fituation, as well as in ufe, namely, the Tree of Life, and the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Thefe, I conceive, were appointed for inftruction and religious meditation; to preferve in Adam's mind a fenfe of the confequences of virtue and vice, or of obedience and difobodience. In this view, while he continued obedient, he was. allowed to eat of the Tree of Life, as a pledge and affurance on the part of God, that he should live for ever, or be immortal; after his tranfgreffion he was denied accefs to it, chap. iii. 24. For the fame purpose, as a pledge of immortality reftored in Chrift, it is used, Rev. ii. 7. xxii. 2. On the contrary, the other Tree was defigned to give him the knowledge, the fenfe or apprehenfion of good and evil, or of good connected with evil, i. e. of pernicious enjoyment, deftructive gratification, vicious pleasure, or fuch as cannot be enjoyed without tranfgreffing the law of God. Good and Evil, I apprehend, is an bendiadys, like that Gen. xix. 24. brimstone and fire, i. e. fired or burning brimftone. 1 Chron. xxii. 5. the house must be of fame and glory, i. e. of glorious fame. Pateris libamus et aura, i. e. aureis pateris.

may fignify pleasure or profit. [See the explication of it in the Heb. Engl. Concordance.] Thus Good and Evil may denote pernicious pleasure or profit. Of the fruit of this Tree, though it appeared pleafant and inviting, Adam was forbidden to eat upon pain of death. This was to make him underftand, that unlawful enjoyment of any kind would be his deftruction."

These two Trees may be confidered as Adam's books. He was in a kind of infantile ftate, void of all learning, without any theorems or general principles to govern himself by. God was therefore pleased, in this fenfible manner, to imprefs upon his mind juft conceptions of the very different confequences of obedience and difobedience. And it will VOL. I.

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