your further acquaintance with God, and things heavenly, to your greater delight in him, to the mortification of sin, and growth of holiness, if there were no time devoted to religion, but merely that hour or two in the morning, or afternoon, while you are at church? How would the words of the preacher run off from your souls, like a stream of oil gliding over a marble, if there were no recollection to fix it in your memory? How easily would Satan pluck up the good seed that was sown in the heart, if you join and assist him, by giving a loose immediately to the cares and delights of this life, and call them to break in upon you at the end of the sermon? How would all your good thoughts and holy desires vanish away like a cloud, and ascend and be lost like a vapour on the morning dew? A day of rest from the pleasures and toils of this life is necessary to render divine worship more effectual to our sanctification and salvation. We should therefore quit our heads and hands of worldly cares that day, that we may more easily converse with God and our own souls, and by secret and public devotion may be the better prepared for each other, in their turns, and improve more in religion by both of them. We may reasonably conclude then, if Christ appointed the first day of the week for a season of the worship of God, he appointed it also to be a season of rest from the concerns and labours of this life, that his worship might be better performed, and the great ends of it be best secured.

If it be enquired here, "why the first day of the seven was appointed for the christian sabbath, rather than any of the others?" It is usually answered, and with good reason, that when God rested from his work of creation, he appointed the seventh day for the ancient sabbath, to keep in mind the Creator of the world: and so when Christ rested from his works of redemption, he might appoint the first day, even the day, on which he arose from the grave, as most proper to keep the great work of our redemp tion in memory. That the first day of the week was observed by the apostles and first christians, in honour of the resurrection of Christ, is evident by its being called by a new and honourable name, the Lord's-day, as well as from other hints of scripture, and many plain and express assertions in the history of the primitive church.

You will say, why should not his birth, or his death, be as much a reason for pointing out a new sabbath, as his resurrection? I answer, because neither the day of his birth, nor his death, have such a name, or such honours put on it, as that of his resurrection: no apostles or churches have recommended it by their practice or example. Besides there are very great and learned men, who suppose that the apostle Paul in the fourth chapter to the Hebrews, proves a christian sabbath on this principle of Christ's finishing his work of redemption, and

his rising from the dead; verse 4. He spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, and God did rest the seventh day from all his works; verse 7. Again, he limiteth a certain day, saying in David, to-day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts: for if Jesus, that is Joshua, had given them rest, that is, if he had given them all that complete rest in the land of Canaan, which was typified by the Jewish sabbath, then he would not afterward have spoken of another day. There remaineth therefore a rest, or sabbatism, as the Greek word is, there remaineth the keeping of a sabbath to the people of God; for he that is entered into his rest, which they refer to Jesus Christ, in his work of redemption, he hath also ceased, or rested, from his own works, as God did from his. See Doctor Owen, in his treatise of the sabbath. Thus the Son of God, the Redeemer, is supposed to have appointed a day, or sabbath, to celebrate his rest from his labours and sufferings, as God the Father, the Creator, did, when he rested from his works.

I might add here also, that as the redemption, or rest from Egyptian bondage, given them by God, and Moses, is mentioned in Deut. v. 15. as one reason of the Jewish sabbath; so our greater redemption by Christ; or rest from the bondage of sin and Satan, being on this day completed, seems to be a proper reason for a christian sabbath. Consider also, that our redemption from sin and hell was typified by the Jews' redemption from Egypt, and as the type had its commemorative day of rest appointed, so should the antitype have its day of commemorative rest also. Besides it is worthy of our notice, that by appointing the first day of the seven for a sabbath, after the seventh day was abolished, there remains still one day in seven, to perpetuate the memory of the creation, and it is the first day of the seven, to perpetuate the memory of the work of redemption: Thus our Lord's-day includes both. And by the appointment of the first day also, it-come to pass, that as soon as ever the Jewish sabbath was ended, and buried with Christ in the grave, the christian sabbath arises, when he arose from the dead, The first day of the week is consecrated to God, and if duly celebrated, will spread a blessing over the following week, as the first-fruits did upon all the harvest; though we must remember that any publie promulgation or injunction of it upon christians, does not appear till a considerable time afterwards, and even this is manifested chiefly by example.

X. Upon the whole survey of things, it seems highly probable, "that there is some sort of subbath, or one day in seven

* I do not pretend to enter into this debate, or to support the argument drawn from the fourth of the Hebrews, as, sufficient to prove the christian sabbath; yet so many congruities between the creation and redemption, in this respect, deserve our notice.

divinely appointed for the rest of man, and for the worship of his God, which has run through all the dispensations both before and after Moses, and must remain to the end of the world," which will appear if we look back and consider,

1. The time of the first notice, and appointment of a sabbath, and the persons to whom it was given." It was in paradise, as soon as man was made: God having formed the world, and its inhabitants, in six days, and rested the seventh, he distinguished the days of the year into weeks, and claimed one day in seven for his own worship, as well as gave it unto Adam for his rest, or release from earthly business. He sanctified it and blessed it, he separated it for the purposes of rest and worship, and pronounced a blessing upon it, and upon them that observed it. Now there is as much reason, and as much need for all the sons of Adam, in all ages and nations, in their feeble and sinful state, to have a day appointed for their own rest, and for the worship of their God, as there was for Adam himself in paradise, and in a state of innocence; for his body was then in perfection of health and vigour, and his mind more inclined to remember God, and worship him.

2. "The original reason that is given for one day in seven to be sanctified, seems to confirm the perpetuity of it, viz. God's own rest from his work of creating the world in six days. The sabbath was given to man, to put him in mind of the creation of the world by the true God, and to do honour to God the Creator; but all mankind in all ages, should preserve this in memory, and the continual return of a seventh day of rest is an everlasting memorial of it, and gives new opportunities continually for paying this homage to that Almighty being that made us, and this habitable world.

3. "The place which this command of the sabbath bears in the law of God, when it was renewed and enjoined to the nation of Israel, doth," in the opinion of most divines, add considerable weight to this argument. It is one of the commands of the moral law, which was pronounced by the mouth of God himself on Sinai, with much glory and terror. It stands amongst those laws which are generally conceived to be moral and perpetual, except in some small limitations and accommodations to the Jewish state: It was written with the rest in tables of stone, which perhaps in that typical dispensation might denote perpetuity, and that it must last, like a rock, for ever. It was written by the finger of God himself, which gives a peculiar honour to it; and it was laid up in the ark of the covenant, on which God dwelt in

Though I have inserted most of the following particulars in a sermon on the Lord's day, published among many others; yet I thought it necessary to repeat the chief substance of them here also, because they are necessary to complete the argument.

a bright cloud, or a blaze of glory behind the cloud, and thus it was put under God's own eye and care. These considerations carry some weight in them, thought I must confess, I do not build my opinion and practice chiefly on the fourth commandment.

4. Consider the actual observance of one day in seven for christian worship, as appears by the practice of the apostles, and the church, from the earliest days of it, even when the Jewish ceremonies, and their absolute rest, in all the rigours and severities of it, were abolished." This is another probable proof, at least, of the appointment of the christian sabbath by our blessed Lord, to be observed by his church, as I argued before.

5. "The reasonableness, if not the necessity, of such appointment, in order to keep up religion in the world, as well as to give rest to the animal bodies of men and beasts, adds further proof of the morality or perpetuity of it." The seasons of worship which men would have chosen, and even of natural rest which some men would have allowed, would probably have been short and few enough, if God had not always devoted one day in seven to these purposes.

It is evident in common experience, and by observation made upon persons, and churches, and nations, that where no sabbath is observed, that is, where one day in seven is not separated to God, by a rest from the usual labours of life, and a dedication to his service, religion is in a very decaying state, and in' great danger to be lost. As it is a common confession of persons, who fall into the vilest crimes, and are executed by the public justice of the magistrate, that their disregard of the sabbath, was the beginning of their guilt and ruin, and made way to all iniquity; so a careful observation of one day in seven, for religious purposes, has been the great spring and support of virtue and piety amongst mankind, and the constant guardian of it, in its purity and power. And there is reason to believe, that the nations before the flood, as well as for many ages after it, had not run into such universal corruption, such a forgetfulness of the true God, and such vile idolatry, if they had not neglected and lost that one day in seven, which God appointed from the beginning, to be observed in memory of the creation of the world by himself, in six days.

6. I know not whether it be improper to add in the last place, "that the spiritual or prophetical signification of the sabbath, or of this appointed day for rest and worship, seems to run through every dispensation of God to men." There seems to be an emblematical promise contained in it, that is, a heavenly rest promised by God to man, after his labours and services here on earth, and an everlasting day of final joy and worship in his own presence; and this both under the covenant of innocency made with Adam in paradise, and under the covenant of grace

made with fallen man, in every dispensation of it. The language which the apostle uses in the iv. chapter to the Hebrews, seems to denote thus much, viz. That a sabbath day to commemorate God's ceasing from his works of creation, was appointed to be observed by the seed of Israel, as a figure, pledge and promise of the land of Cauaan, where the Jews should have rest, not only from the bondage of Egypt, but from their tiresome travels in the wilderness: And yet further it was a token and pledge of the rest which christians would enjoy under the gospel, that is, a release from the bondage of sin, as well as a figure of the final rest in the heavenly state, which all the people of God should be partakers of in the world to come. Now since the promise of this heavenly rest, and glorious state of divine worship, is not yet acccomplished, I have not yet met with sufficient reason why one day of worship and rest, after six days of labour, which is a figure and emblem of it, should entirely cease. There are some figures and emblems in every dispensation, till all the graces and blessings signified thereby are fulfilled.

Now, if all these considerations put together, will but go so far as to make it highly probable, that one day in seven has been always the proportion of time which God has appointed for a sabbath, that is, for rest from labour, and for divine worship, this probability, as to the time and manner of a duty, should go for evidence, where no further evidence can be procured, and where the duty itself seems clear and certain. And since some rest from Jabour, and some seasons for worship are necessary, we cannot do a more reasonable thing, than to separate that proportion of time, which the wisdom of God has certainly separated in some of his dispensations to men, and most probably in all of them: Nor can we chuse a fitter day than that, which, by very probable reasons, is recommended to us by the example of the apostles, and primitive churches, when all Jewish sabbaths are entirely abolished.

Yet here I ask leave to make this remark, That though both rest and worship run through the law of the sabbath in all ages; yet by diligent reading the Old Testament, and the History and Laws of the Jews, we find that rest from their own labours, and business, and pleasures, on the seventh day, is the grand point kept chiefly in view, in the commands and threatenings relating to the sabbath, and that not only as an advantage to spiritual worship, but as being in itself the most noted and visible part of their sabbatising. But in the New Testament, assembling for christian worship is most frequently represented as the design of the first day of the week, or Lord's-day. Which, of these two, is most noted and visible in the original and paradisaical sabbath, is doubtful. Now, may it not be inferred, that the Jews were required to worship God on their sabbath, because God had appointed it a day of rest from labour; and that christians should