for forty years till they came into the land of Canaan. Now this was devised in much wisdom to settle and determine the day, which, otherwise, having loft their reckoning, during their long servitude in Egypt, they poffibly would not easily have been brought to agree upon. For thus, for forty years together, they would be under a neceffity of diftinguishing 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 fettled, after the children of Ifrael came out of Egypt, as being of the greatest moment; 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 Jew 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 refered and appealed to, by our Lord and his Apostles, as binding to us Christians, it must stand upon the fame ground, and lay the fame obligations upon our confciences. For the same truth and authority, which enacted the rest, 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-honor thy father-thou Shalt do no murder-&c. faid also, Remember the Sabbath-Day to keep it holy.

The Jewish festivals, 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 seventh 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 Pharifees, 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 dispensation of which he was not Lord. But he is Lord of the Chriftian Dispensation, and its ordinances, and among the reft of the Sabbath. In consequence of which Lordship,

I. He rectified the superftitious 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 *. 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

* Mat. v. 21, 27, 33. xv. 4, &c.

commandment †; 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 to gether 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, Atts 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 Christian Sabbath hath relation to his Resurrection; 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 sanctifyed, as ever it was from the begining 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 îm Scripture, both under the old and new dispensations, it was applyed to the purposes of religion. It is represented as a holy convocation, on which the Ifraelites were to assemble 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 honored and fanctified the Sabbath by his presence and instructions. Mark i. 21, 22. vi. 2. Luke iv. 16, 31. xiii. 10. And all Christians, 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 ora der to employ their thoughts in pious meditations, and furnishistheir minds with the best principles and dispositions. A work exceeding plea fant 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 superstitious with the observation of the Sabbath, nor to conceive of it as such a fcrupulous reft, that we may not do any thing fit and reasonable, and which otherwise is a duty; works of neceffity and mercy he exprefly allows. Whatever cannot be defered to another day, without lofs

+ 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 neceffity he may be; but man is not made for the rigorous observation of the fabbatical reft, or any other positive institution, so as thereby to embarass 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, recommended goodness, charity, and compaffion, in the preceding verses, and pronounced a fingular blessing 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 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, honorable, and shalt honor him; if you have fuch a sense " 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 honorable and glo" rious in itself; and honorable also to you, as it is a mark of the dig"nity of your nature, a token of your interest in the divine favor, " (Exod. xxxi. 13. Ezek. xx. 12.) and of your being admitted to com<< munion with him; if in this perfuafion you shall fincerely endeavor " to honor 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 amusements or diversions, or in impertinent conversa" fation; then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; then thou shalt become " such a proficient in piety, and gain such 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 favor of God and the conftant 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.

1

CHAP. VII.

Of a STATE of TRIAL.

Gen. ii. 8-18.

ONCERNING the situation and rivers of the country of Eden, as here described 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 passed through Eden, called Pifon and Gihon, which compaffeth, or runneth along by, the whole land of Gufh. 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 diftinguished from the rest, perhaps in appearance and fituation, as well as in use, namely, the Tree of Life, and the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. These, I conceive, were appointed for instruction and religious meditation; to preserve in Adam's mind a sense of the consequences of virtue and vice, or of obedience and disobedience. In this view, while he continued obedient, he was allowed to eat of the Tree of Life, as a pledge and afsurance on the part of God, that he should live for ever, or be immortal; after his tranfgreffion he was denied access to it, chap. iii. 24. For the fame purpose, as a pledge of immortality restored in Chrift, it is used, Rev. ii. 7. xxii. 2. On the contrary, the other Tree was designed to give him the knowledge, the sense 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 hendiadys, like that Gen. xix. 24. brimstone and fire, i. e. fired or burning brimstone. I Chron. xxii. 5. the house must be - of fame and glory, i. e. of glorious fame. Pateris libamus et auro, i. e. aureis pateris. טוב 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 pleasant and inviting, Adam was forbidden to eat upon pain of death. This was to make him understand, that unlawful enjoyment of any kind would be his destruction.

These two Trees may be confidered as Adam's books. He was in a kind of infantile state, void of all learning, without any theorems, or general principles to govern himself by. God was therefore pleased, in this sensible manner, to impress upon his mind just conceptions of the very different consequences of obedience and disobedience. And it will

VOL. I.

C

be

be of great use even to us, at this day, to look into, and to meditate upon these two books of our first father.

What requires our particular attention is this, that Adam's obedience is put upon Trial by the prohibition, ver. 17. But of the Tree of Knowledge, of Good and Evil, thou shalt not eat of it; for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt furely die. Adam had not gained the habits of obedience and holiness, but was put under this instance of discipline in order to his acquiring of them. As soon as God had made Man a moral agent, he put him upon Trial. And it is universally allowed, that all mankind are in the same state, in a State of Trial. It must therefore be of importance to have right notions of such a State.

In order to this, let it be well confidered,

I. That God hath erected a kingdom for his honor, and the felicity of his rational creatures. This kingdom, our Lord informs us, was prepared from the foundation of the world. Mat. xxv. 34. There we men shall be equal to the angels, Luke xx. 36; and probably, like them, shall be placed in posts of honor and power, in some part of the universe; as is plainly intimated Mat. xxiv. 45-47. xxv. 21. Luke xix. 17. 1 Cor. vi. 2, 3. Rev. ii. 10. iii. 21.

II. Without holiness, or an habitual fubjection of the Will to Reafon, or to the Will of God, none can be fit to be members of this kingdom. Wickedness, in its very nature, stands directly opposed to the peace and well-being of the universe; for it is error in the mind, rebellion against God, and mischief to all within its influence. And the most benevolent of all Beings will not take error, rebellion, and mischief into his kingdom, erected for the purposes of goodness and enjoyment. Rev. xxi. 27. And there shall in no wise enter into it, the holy City, new Jerufalem, (ver. 2.) any thing that defileth, any impure, vicious persons; neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie; all idolaters, all that practise iniquity and deceit, are excluded out of it. But they shall bring the glory and honor of the nations into it; the excellent of the earth, who have purged themselves from all ungodliness and fin, and so are Vessels unto honor, fanctified and fit for the Master's use, and prepared unto every good work. Nothing but fubjection to the Will of God, in all duty and obedience, can qualify us for the honors, felicity, and employments of the kingdom of heaven. Therefore,

III. No moral Agents, merely on account of their natural powers, how excellent foever, are worthy to be admitted into the kingdom of God. Natural powers, in angels as well as worms, are the workmanship and gift of God alone; and therefore, not being the virtue, nor the effect of the virtue of the beings that are poffefssed of them, can be no recommendation to the continued favor and esteem of God. In order to that, the natural powers of moral Agents must, not only be capable of right action, but also actually exerted in acting rightly. Otherwise, their powers, though of the noblest kind, are useless and infignificant. It is one thing to be born, or produced into the kingdom of nature, and another to be born to the habits of virtue, whereby we are rendered fit to be admited into the kingdom of heaven. The former depends entirely upon God's fovereign pleasure, in giving life and powers, in any kind or degree, as he chooseth; the other depends upon a right use and application of the powers