quired, that as God is to be worshipped not only internally, but externally, not only privately, but publicly; fo there must be some special time defigned and fet apart for this, without which it cannot be done. And fo the very Pagans had their fabbaths and holy days. This is the firft thing imported here, That a fabbath is to be kept.

Another thing imported here is, That it belongs to God to determine the fabbath, or what day or days he will have to be kept holy. He fays not, Remember to keep holy a fabbath-day, or a day of reft, leaving it to men what days shall be holy, and what not; but, Remember the fabbath day, &c. fuppofing the day to be already determined by himself. So that we are bound to the fet time appointed in his word.

And this condemns mens taking on themfelves, whether churches or ftates, to appoint holy days to be kept, which God has not appointed in his word. Confider,

1. This command puts a peculiar honour on the fabbath above all other days, Remember the fabbath-day, &c. But when men make holidays of their own to be kept holy, the day appointed of God is fpoiled of its peculiar honour, and there is no peculiar honour left to it, Ezek. xliii. 8. Yea, in practice they go before it; for mens holidays, where they are regarded, are more regarded than God's day.

2. This command fays, Six days halt thou labour. Formalifts fay, there are many of these fix days thou fhalt not labour, for they are holy days. If thefe words contain a command, who can countermand it? if but a permiflion, who can take away that liberty which God has left us? As for faft-days or thankf giving-days occafionally appointed, they are not holy days; the worship is not made to wait on the days, as on fabbaths and holy days, but the days on the worship which God by his providence requires; and confequently there must be a time for performing these exercifes.

3. It belongs only to God to make a holy day; for who can fanctify a creature but the Creator, or time but the Lord of time? He only can give the bleffing: why fhould they then fanctify a day that cannot blefs it? The Lord abbhors holy days devifed out of mens own hearts, 2 Kings xii. 33.

4. Lastly, What reafon is there to think that when God has taken away from the church's neck a great many holy days appointed by himself, he has left the gofpel church to be burdened with as many, nay and more of mens invention, than he himself had ap pointed?

Secondly, This command requires one day in feven to be kept as a holy fabbath unto the Lord: Six days fhalt thou labour, and do all thy work: but the feventh day is the fabbath of the Lord thy God. Thus the Lord determines the quantity of time that is to be his own in a peculiar manner, that is, the seventh part of our time. After fix days working a feventh is to be a fabbath. This is moral, binding all perfons in all ages, and not a ceremony abrogated by Chrift.

1. This command of appointing one day in feven for a fabbath is one of the commands of that law, confifting of ten commands, which cannot be made out without this; was written on tables of ftone, to fhew the perpetuity of it; and of which Chrift fays, Matth. v. 17. 18. 19. Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets: I am not come to deftroy, but to fulfil. For verily I fay unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wife pass from the law, till all be fullfiled. Whofoever therefore fhall break one of these least commandments, and ball teach men fo, he shall be least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do, and teach them, the fame fhall be called great in the king, dom of heaven.

2. It was appointed and given of God to Adam in innocency, before there was any ceremony to be taken away by the coming of Chrift, Gen. ii. 3.1

3. All the reafons annexed to this command are moral, refpecting all men as well as the Jews, to whom the ceremonial law was given. And we find strangers obliged to the obfervation of it as well as the Jews; but they were not fo to ceremonial laws.

4. Lastly, Jefus Chrift fpeaks of it as a thing perpetually to endure, even after the Jewish fabbath was over and gone, Matth. xxiv. 20. And fo although the fabbath of the feventh day in order from the creation was changed into the first day, yet ftill it was kept a feventh day,

Thirdly, The day to be kept holy is one whole day. Not a few hours while the public worship lafts, but a whole day. There is an artificial day betwixt fun-rifing and fun-fetting, John xi. 9.; and a natural day of twenty-four hours, Gen. i, which is the day here meant. This day we begin in the morning immediately after midnight; and fo does the fabbath begin, and not in the evening, as is clear, if ye confider,

1. John xx. 19. The fame day at evening, being the first day of the week: where ye fee that the evening following, not going before this firft day of the week, is called the evening of the first day.

2. Our fabbath begins where the Jewish fabbath ended; but the Jewish fabbath did not end towards the evening, but towards the morning, Matth. xxviii. 1. In the end of the fabbath, as it began to dawn towards the first day of the weeek, &c.

3. Our fabbath is held in memory of Chrift's refurrection, and it is certain that Chrift rose early in the morning of the firft day of the week.

Let us therefore take the utmost care to give God the whole day, fpending it in the manner he has appointed, and not look on all the time befides what is fpent in public worship, as our own; which is tco much the cafe in thefe degenerate times wherein we live.

II. I come now to fhew which day of the feven Gcd

hath appointed to be the weekly fabbath. According to our catechifm, "From the beginning of the world' to the refurrection of Chrift, God appointed the

feventh day of the week to be the weekly fabbath; "and the first day of the week ever fince, to conti "nue to the end of the world, which is the Chri"ftian fabbath."

We have heard that this command requires a fabbath to be kept, and that one whole day in feven; we are now to confider what day that is. The fcripture teaches us, that there are two days which have by divine appointment had this honour, the feventh day, and the first day of the week.

First, As to the feventh day, it is acknowledged by all, that that was the Jewish fabbath. And concerning it confider,

1. Who appointed the feventh day to be the fabbath. It was God himself that appointed the seventh, which is the laft day of the week, by us called Saturday, to be the fabbath; The Seventh day is the fabbath of the Lord thy God. He that was the Lord of time made this defignation of the time at firft.

2. Wherefore did God at first appoint the feventh? The reafon of this was, that as God refted that day from all his works of creation, men might after his example reft on that day from their own works, that they might remember his, and celebrate the praises of the Creator. For in fix days the Lord made heaven and earth, and rested the feventh day. The work of creation was performed in the fix days, and nothing was made on the feventh day; fo that the first new day that man faw, was a holy day, a fabbath, that he might know the great end of his creation was to ferve the Lord.

3. How long did that appointment of the feventh day laft? To the resurrection of Chrift. This was its laft period, at which time it was to give place to a new inftitution, as will afterwards appear. The day of Chrift's refurrection was the day of the finishing of

the new creation, the restoration of a marred world: 4. When was the fabbath of the feventh day appointed firft? Some who detract from the honour of the fabbath, contend that it was not appointed till the promulgating of the law on mount Sinai, and that its firft inftitution was in the wilderness. We hold that it was appointed from the beginning of the world. For proof whereof confider,

(1.) Mofes tells us plainly, that God, immediately after perfecting of the works of creation, bleffed and hallowed the feventh day, Gen. ii. 2. 3. Now, how could it be bleffed and hallowed but by an appointing of it to be the fabbath, fetting it apart from common works to the work of God's folemn worship? The words run on in a continued history, without the leaft fhadow of anticipating upwards of two thousand years, as fome would have it.

(2.) The fabbath of the seventh day was observed before the promulgation of the law from Sinai, and is fpoke of, Exod. xvi. not as a new, but an ancient inftitution. So, ver. 5. preparation for the fabbath is called for, before any mention of it is made, clearly importing that it was known before. See ver. 236 where the fabbath is given for a reason why they fhould prepare the double quantity of manna on the fixth day; which fays that folemn day had not its inftitution then firft. And the breach of the fabbath is, ver. 28. expofed as the violating of a law formerly given.

(3.) In the fourth command, they are called to remember the fabbath-day, as a day that was not then first appointed, but had been appointed before, altho it had gone out of ufe, and had been much forgotten when they were in Egypt. Befides, the reafons of this command, God's refting the feventh day, and bleffing and hallowing it, being from the beginning of the world, fay, that the law had then place wher the reafon of the law took place.

(4.) This is evident from Heb. iv. 3.-9. The as pottle there proves, that there remains a fabbath or re VOL. II. 4 B