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blessing to others; and all that can qualify us for the enjoyment of God, and fit us for immortal honour and glory. We cannot keep a due and prevailing sense of these things upon our minds, without close and repeated application of thought; and therefore, as the affairs and neceffities of this present life make such constant and importunate demands upon us, that our hearts and thoughts would be unavoidably ingrossed by them, it is in the nature of things neceffary, that some certain time should be publickly appropriated to the exercises of religion, instruction, prayer and praise, to fortify our minds against temptations, and to season them with piety and virtue. And doubtless, God alone hath wisdom and authority sufficient to affign that portion of time which is proper and generally competent for those good purposes.

The Sabbath is perfectly suited to our nature and circumstances, and therefore was very properly inftituted at the creation. But fome of the learned pretend, that Mofes here speaks, by anticipation, of the Institution of the Sabbath a long time after this, when he was law-giver in Ifrael. This is a fiction without any foundation in the text. The historian exprefsly relates, that God blesled and fanctified that day on which he rested, or ceafed, from creation; which, in all fair conftruction, must be understood of his fanctifying it, at the time when he rested from creation. That we find no other mention of the Sabbath in the summary and very comprehenfive history of Genesis, is no proof that the Patriarchs did not observe it; much less that the law thereof was not all that time in force. We find not the leaft mention, or intimation, of the Sabbath in all the book of Joshua, nor in Judges, Ruth, I Samuel, II Samuel, I Kings, till we come to II Kings, iv. 23. a far more particular hiftory than the book of Genesis; and yet it is very certain that the law of the Sabbath was all that time in force, and without doubt was observed too. There are very clear intimations of regard to the Sabbath in the book of Genesis, chap. viii. 8-13. Thrice Noah sent the dove out of the ark, after he had every time waited feven days. Jacob (Gen. xxix. 27, 28.) fulfilled Leah's week. This plainly shews the Patriarchs, long before Mofes was born, reckoned time by seven days, or weeks; which can be referred to no other supposable original bue the institution of the Sabbath, at the creation.

The Ifraelites indeed, during their long continuance and fervitude in Egypt, upwards of 200 years, seem to have lost their reckoning of the Sabbath, when they were constrained by perpetual and most servile labour to neglect the observance of it. However, it certainly was the appointment of God, that they should begin a new reckoning of the seventh day, and form a new epocha, namely, the falling of the manna. Exod. xvi. 5. And it fball come to pass on the fixth day, they shall prepare that manna which they bring in; and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily. And when the people had done so, the rulers of the congregation came, and told Moses; probably inquiring into the reason, why God had given fuch an order, ver. 23. And Mofes faid unto them, This is that which the Lord hath faid, or, this is the meaning of the Divine Command; To-morrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord. Ver. 25, 26. Ге Shall not then find it in the field; fix days shall ye gather it, but on the seventh day, which is the Sabbath, there shall be none. And this course continued for for forty years, till they came into the land of Canaan. Now this was devised in much wisdom to fettle and determine the day, which, otherwise, having loft their reckoning, during their long servitude in Egypt, they possibly would not easily have been brought to agree upon. For thus, for forty years together, they would be under a neceffity of distinguishing the Sabbath, and of refting upon it; having little else to do, the greatest part of the time, but to gather and dress manna; and no manna falling upon that day, they must of course be affured of the day, and obliged to rest upon it. Note - the restoring and ascertaining the Sabbath, was the first point of religion that was settled, after the children of Ifrael came out of Egypt, as being of the greatest moment 3 and this, in relation to the original institution; for the law at mount Sinai was not then given.

Afterwards the ordinance of the Sabbath was inserted into the body of the moral law, under a particular emphasis, Remember the SabbathDay to keep it holy. And the few is reminded of the antiquity of this inftitution, in the reason annexed to this commandment, For in fix days the Lord made heaven and earth, &c. And being thus ranked among the other great articles of our duty, which are of moral obligation, and are always referred and appealed to, by our Lord and his Apostles, as binding to us Christians, it must stand upon the same ground, and lay the fame obligations upon our confciences. For the fame truth and authority, which enacted the reft, enacted this precept also. He that faid, Thou shalt have no other gods before me-thou shalt not bow down to any graven image thou shalt not take the name of God in vain-honour thy father-thou shalt do no murder-&c. faid also, Remember the SabbathDay to keep it holy.

The Jewish feftivals, new-moons and fabbaths, as they were shadows and figures of good things to come under the Gospel, our Lord did abolish. When the substance was come, the shadow vanished. And it is of fabbaths in this sense the Apostle speaks, Col. ii. 16. Let no man judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of a holy-day, or of the newmoon, or of the fabbath-days. But the feventh-day Sabbath was no part of the Levitical law; it existed long before that, and therefore was not abolished with it. On the contrary, our Lord claims dominion over the Sabbath. Luke vi. 5. He faid unto the Pharisees, that the Son of Man is Lord alfo of the Sabbath. Therefore the Sabbath must be an ordinance belonging to our Lord's kingdom, otherwise he could not be Lord of it. He never pretended to be Lord of circumcifion, or of facrifices; these belonged to a difpenfation of which he was not Lord. But he is Lord of the Chriftian Dispensation, and its ordinances, and among the rest, of the Sabbath. In consequence of which Lordship,

I. He rectified the fuperftitious abuse of the Sabbath, and reduced it to the original standard. He reformed the traditionary corruptions of several of the commandments of moral and eternal obligation (c). But of all others, most signally, remarkably, and constantly, by words and by deeds, at the hazard of his life, he reformed the abuse of the fourth commandment;

(c) Mat. v. 21, 27, 33. XV. 4, &c.

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 demonstrates, that he regarded-the just sanctification of the Sabbath as of perpetual obligation, and as of very great importance in religion.

II. He removed the Sabbath from the seventh to the first day of the week. For we find in the Apoftolic History that the Disciples met together on that day, (called the Lord's Day, Rev. i. 10.) to break bread, or to celebrate the Lord's Supper, which is the proper and peculiar worship of Christians, Acts xx. 7. Now this could not be done without the express injunction of the Apostles; nor could the Apostles do this without a commission from Christ. And as our Lord rose from the dead on the first day, we suppose the Chriftian Sabbath hath relation to his Refurrection; and so the Lord's Day hath been kept holy by the universal Church from the Apostles 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 Gospel Dispensation. But still it is the seventh day makes the Sabbath, which God blessed; and the seventh, which we now observe, is as much, and as truly the Sabbath, which God sanctified, as ever it was from the beginning of the world.

The primary notion of the Sabbath, is a rest or cessation from the ordinary business of life. The design of it is to preserve true religion; which would never have been loft in the world, had the Sabbath been duly observed from the first institution of it. And therefore we find in Scripture, both under the old and new dispensations, it was applied to the purposes of religion. It is represented as a holy convocation, on which the Ifraelites were to afssemble for divine worship, Lev. xxiii. 3. David wrote the 92d Pfalm for the Sabbath-Day, and therein gives us just ideas of the work of it. On this day the Jews met together in their synagogues for religious exercises; and there our Lord honoured and fanctified the Sabbath by his prefence and instructions. Marki. 21, 22. vi. 2. Luke iv. 16, 31. xiii. 10. And all Christians, in all times and places, have assembled 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 best principles and dispositions. A work exceeding 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 business, and to avoid whatever may diffipate our thoughts, or indispose our hearts for the heavenly work of the day.

Our Lord hath taught us so to understand this, as not to mix any thing fuperftitious with the observation of the Sabbath, nor to conceive of it as such a scrupulous rest, that we may not do any thing fit and reafonable, and which otherwise is a duty; works of neceffity and mercy he expressly allows. Whatever cannot be deferred to another day, without lofs

(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.

loss or damage, may be taken care of on the Sabbath. And in general he hath pronounced, That the Sabbath (alluding probably to the first institution of it) was made for man, to be subservient 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 necessity he may be; but man is not made for the rigorous observation of the fabbatical rest, or any other positive inftitution, so as thereby to embarrass or distress 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, recomiended goodness, charity, and compaffion, in the preceding verses, and pronounced a fingular blessing upon those who exercise them, the Prophet adds, by the same authority, If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day. q. d. "If you confcientiously suspend the ordinary business of life, and forbear "to please and gratify your own inclinations, that with a free and com" posed mind you may attend upon the services of religion, for which I " have sanctified 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 fense " of the excellency and benefit of the Sabbath, that you take delight "therein, accounting it a pleasure and happiness, as being confecrated " to the worship of the most high God, and therefore honourable and glo"rious in itself; and honourable also to you, as it is a mark of the dig"nity of your nature, a token of your interest 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 shall 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 spend"ing the time in amusements or diversions, or in impertinent conversa"tion; then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; then thou shalt becoine " such a proficient in piety, and gain fuch a sense of God and religion, " as will establish in your heart a fund of holy pleasure, comfort, joy, " and good hope towards God." The Prophet, in this chapter, is inculcating real, vital, acceptable religion, goodness and compaffion to our fellow-creatures, and piety towards God in keeping the Sabbath; promifing the like blessings to both those branches of true religion, namely, the favour of God and the constant care of his Providence. We may therefore take this from the Spirit of God, as a just description of the right manner of sanctifying the Sabbath, and affure ourselves, that he who blessed the Day, will bless us in keeping it holy.

CHAP. VII..