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 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 verfes, 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 fhalt honour him; if you have fuch a fenfe "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 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 ipending the time in amufements or diverfions, or in impertinent converfa"tion; then halt thou delight thyself in the Lord; then thou shalt becoine fuch a proficient in piety, and gain fuch a fenfe of God and religion, as will eftablish in your heart a fund of holy pleafure, 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 bleffings to both those 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 juft defcription of the right manner of fan&tifying the Sabbath, and affure ourfelves, that he who bleffed the Day, will blefs us in keeping it holy.

CHAP. VII.

CON

ONCERNING the fituation 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 paffed through Eden, called Pifon and Gihon, which compasseth, or runneth along by, the whole land of Cufb. ver. 13.

In the eaftern 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 diftinguifhed 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 sense 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 restored 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 such as cannot be enjoyed without tranfgreffing the law of God. Good and Evil, I apprehend, is an bendiadys, like that Gen. xix. 24. brimftone and fire, i. e. fired or burning brimftone. I 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 pleasant 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.

C

be

be of great ufe 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 eateft thereof, thou shalt furely die. Adam had not gained the habits of obedience and holiness, but was put under this inftance of difcipline in order to his acquiring of them. As foon as God had made Man a moral agent, he put him upon Trial. And it is univerfally allowed, that all mankind are in the fame ftate, in a State of Trial.. It must therefore be of importance to have right notions of fuch a State.

In order to this, let it be well confidered,

I. That God hath erected a kingdom for his honour, 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 fhall be equal to the angels, Luke xx. 36; and probably, like them, fhall be placed in pofts of honour and power, in fome part of the univerfe; as is plainly intimated, Mat. xxiv. 45-47. xxv. 21. Luke xix. 17. Cor. vi. 2, 3. Rev. ii. 10. iii. 21.

11. 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, if its very nature, ftands directly oppofed to the peace and well-being of the univerfe; for it is error in the mind, rebellion against God, and mifchief to all within its influence. And the most benevolent of all Beings will not take error, rebellion, and mifchief into his kingdom, erected for the purpofes of goodnefs and enjoyment. Rev. xxi. 27. And there fhall in no wife enter into it, the holy City, new Jerufalem, (ver. 2.) any thing that defileth, any impure, vicious perfons; neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie; all idolaters, all that practile iniquity and deceit, are excluded out of it. But they fhall bring the glory and honour of the nations into it; the excellent of the earth, who have purged themfelves from all ungodliness and fin, and fo are Veffels unto honour, fanctified and fit for the Mafter's ufe, and prepared unto every good work. Nothing but fubjection to the Will of God, in all duty and obedience, can qualify us for the honours, 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 poffeffed of them, can be no recommendation to the continued favour and esteem of God, In order to that, the natural powers of moral Agents must not only be capable of right action, but alfo actually exerted in acting rightly. Otherwife, their powers, though of the nobleft kind, are ufeleis 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 admitted into the kingdom of heaven. The former depends entirely upon God's fovereign pleafure, in giving life and powers, in any kind or degree, as he choofeth; the other depends upon a right use and application of the

powers