those who have learned it. Even all the false religions in the world that we know of especially in every nation that is civilized, have some particular days or seasons set apart for the practice of some public ceremonies, or the performance of sacred things. The common light of reason shews men the necessity of it, where any religion is to be maintained; and why then should not the true religion enjoy the same advantage? Why should God be supposed so regardless of a matter of such importance? And I would add,-5. That even in very ancient times, there was a knowledge of the sacredness of one day in seven among the heathens, who would not borrow their religion from the Jews whom they hated, and would never knowingly reverence any of their ceremonies; and therefore these heathen notices of it, and regards to it, must be originally derived from some more ancient tradition of the divine institution of it. See the instances hereof in Dr. Owen of the Sabbath, page 74, &c. Days and nights, lunar months and solar years, are distinctions of nature, and therefore are in the general appearance and succession of them evident to all men by the sun, moon and stars; but how the weekly period of just seven days should make its entrance, can hardly be well accounted for, but by this tradition of a sabbath. The ancient Chaldeans had this distinction of seven days; Gen. xxix. 27. Fulfil her week, said Laban to Jacob at his marriage with Leah. And the Philistines had seven days festival at a wedding; Judges xiv. 12, 15, 17. But the instances cited out of heathen writers, viz. Homer, Hesiod, Callimachus, &c. concerning their days divided by sevens, are much plainer, as well as concerning the sacredness of a seventh day.

The silence of scripture, or the doubtful notices, of an actual observation of the sabbath by the patriarchs, are no sufficient proof that it was not observed: Or if they had forgot and lost it in any age, through the crimes and apostacy of their fathers, this does not prove it was not instituted at first to be always observed. The law of monogamy, or having but one wife, was lost among the patriarchs as well as the sabbath; and yet it was an original constitution from the beginning of the world. I will readily grant it very probable in some few ages before the flood, as well as in some ages after it, there was a degeneracy in this, as well as other parts of religion: The one day in seven might be lost among many nations, and it much wanted to be renewed among men.

V. "As soon as God set apart a nation to be a peculiar church and people to himself in the world, he appointed again one day in seven for a day of rest and of public worship." If the day of rest was utterly lost, as probably it was among the slaveries of Egypt or before, yet what day God would have them keep for a sabbath was pointed out by the manna not falling.

Ex. xvi. 23, 26. The Lord hath said, to-morrow is the rest of the holy sabbath unto the Lord. Six days shall ye gather it, but on the seventh day, which is the sabbath, there shall be none. The notion of a sabbath seems to be mentioned here not as a new thing, or a thing utterly unknown, though the particular seventh day might be unknown and forgotten.

Let it be observed here, that in the appointment of the sabbath to the Jews, a day of rest seems to be the prime end of the institution; rest from labour seems to be the most obvious original design of it; this appears from the very name sabbath, which is a hebrew word and signifies rest. It appears also from the frequent repetition of the law of the sabbath peculiarly as a day of rest, both in the books of Moses and the writings of the prophets. See the words of the fourth commandment: Ex. xx. 8, 9, 10, 11. Remember the sabbath-day to keep it holy: Sir days shalt thou labour and do all thy work, but the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: In it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy man servant, nor thy maid servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day, wherefore the Lord blessed the seventh-day, and hallowed it. Ex. xxiii 12. Six days shalt thou do all thy work, and on the seventh day thou shalt rest; that thy ox and thy ass may rest, and the son of thy handmaid, and the stranger may be refreshed. And Ex. xxxi. 15. The seventh is the sabbath of rest, holy to the Lord; whosoever doth any work on the sabbath-day, shall surely be put so death. And in the lvi. and lix. chapters of Isa. Promises of mercy are made to those who keep the sabbath from polluting it, and do not their own pleasure on the holy day of God. The Jews were sent into captivity for neglecting and profaning the sabbath-day; Neh. xiii. 17, 18. And therefore in the History of Nehemiah's Reformation, after the return of the Jews from captivity in Babylon, you find frequent mention of his care, that they might rest from the labours of the week, and thus keep the sabbath; Neh. xiii, 16, 16, 19, 21.

The reason which is mentioned; Ex. xx. 11. for the institution of the sabbath, is, because God rested from his work of creation on the seventh day. This was written on the tables of stone, and pronounced on mount Sinai. And in Deut. v. 14, 15. Moses gives another reason, viz. because Israel was then delivered out of bondage, and rested from Egyptian slavery. The Lord thy God brought thee out with a mighty hund, therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the sabbathday. Thus it appears, that rest as a memorial of God's resting from his works of creation, and of Israel's rest and release from bondage, were the grand points kept in their view

in the institution of their sabbath, or of the restoration of it to that people.

But the design of God herein was not that the Jews should wear away the day in lazy idleness; but since they rested and were released from common work, there were other sacred services appointed them; they were obliged to celebrate the worship of God: it was a day of holiness: Remember the sabbath-day to keep it holy. God ordained on that day there should be a holy convocation or assembly; Lev. xxiii. 3. The seventh day is a sabbath of rest, a holy convocation; and therein the people were required to meet together for religious purposes, that is, to offer up prayers and praises to God. Thus, saith the Lord, in Isa, Ivi. 6, 7. Every one that keepeth my sabbath from polluting it, I will make them joyful in my house of prayer. And in Acts xvi. 13. On the sabbath we went to a river-side, where prayer was wont to be made. And the xcii. Psalm, wherein God is greatly praised, is called a Psalm or Song for the Sabbath-day, The law also was to be read and explained on the sabbath, and all this not only at the tabernacle or temple, but in every place where they dwelt: Lev. xxiii. 3. It is a holy convocation, ye shall do no work therein, it is the sabbath of the Lord in all your dwellings. And the scripture assures us, in following times this was constantly done; Luke iv. 16. Jesus went into the synagogue, as his custom was, and stood up to read. Verse 31. He taught them on the sabbath-days. Acts xiii. 21. The prophets are read every sabbath-day; and xv. 21. Moses of old time hath in every city them that preach him, being read in the synagogue every sabbath-day. And this practice was perhaps more ancient than some learned men allow for it. Ps. lxxiv. 4, 8. there is mention made of synagogues more than once.

There were also several sacrifices prescribed on that day expressly by Moses; Numb. xxviii. 9, 10. whereas there was one lamb offered morning and evening, every day, as a continual burnt-offering: On the sabbath-day two lambs of the first year, and two tenth deals of flour and oil for a meat-offering, and drink-offering: This is the burnt-offering of every sabbath, besides the continual burnt offering with its meat and drink-offering. Thus it is sufficiently proved, that both rest and worship were included among the designs of the sabbath, as renewed to the Jews by Moses.

VI. "The Jewish sabbath had many peculiarities in it, or a peculiar Judaical holiness, which did not belong to a sabbath, before or after the Jewish dispensation, and which made it a special part of their covenant at Sinai, or the political or national covenant between God and that people, which belonged to them chiefly, if not to them only. Exod. xxxi. 13-17. "Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep, &c.

Israel shall keep the sabbath, it is a sign between me and you in all your generations.

We may give, for instance, these things following, which seem to be peculiarly appointed to the Jews, and to belong to the Jewish sabbath, viz. That seventh day precisely, which indeed might be, or might not be, the same which the patriarchs had, viz. the seventh from the creation; but that seventh day, or sabbath, which they should keep, was pointed out to them only by the manna withheld; Exod. xvi. 23, 25. Let me add here, the addition of numerous sabbaths, which were appointed them, besides the seventh day of every week; Lev. xxiii. And that absolute and universal rest, which was enjoined them on their sabbath, beyond what the necessity of the relief of nature, or the worship of God required, commemorates their resting from slavery, and may justly be reckoned the ceremonial holiness of the Jewish sabbath; for there was contained in it a rigorous severity of abstinence from all common affairs: traffic and labours whatsoever, even for the conveniences of life; Exod. xxxi. 15. And also, the not making fires, or dressing victuals on that day; Exod. xxxv. 3. and xvi. 23. Not walking or travelling above one or two miles at most, which is called a sabbath-day's journey; Exod. xvi. 29. Acts i. 12. Not bearing any burdens whatsoever; Jer. xvii. 21, 22. The punishment of the profanation of the sabbath with death; Exod. xxxi. 14. and xv. 35. and the double sacrifice of lambs on that day; Numb. xxviii. 9, 10. These things, in their strict observance, do not belong to the natural and original law of God, they are not absolutely necessary either for giving due natural rest to creatures, or for the weekly worship of God, and improvement in religion; and therefore they may be reckoned among the peculiar laws of the Jews. As these things are plain scripture, so it would take up too much time to prove all this at present by citing particular texts at large.

VII. "The New Testament, or the dispensation of Christ by his apostles, seems to have abolished every thing of the sabbath which was purely Jewish, and which belonged to the ceremonial or the political laws given to the nation of Israel by Moses." This is the evident meaning of those texts wherein christians are forbid to subject themselves to the bondage of Jewish rites and formalities; Gal. iv. 3, 9, 10. When we were children, that is, in the state of Judaism, we were in bondage under the elements of the world, that is, the rudiments and discipline of the Jewish state; but when the fulness of time was come, God sent forth his Son,-to redeem them that were under the law. But now after that ye have known God, in the revelation of the gospel, how turn ye again to those weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?

Ye observe days and months, and times and years, that is, the Mosaical appointments concerning all their sabbath-days, and new moons, and sabbatical years, which were appointed to the Jews. To the same purpose speaks the same apostle to the Colossians, chapter ii. verses 14, 16, 17, that God, or Christ, had blotted out the hand writing of ordinances which was against us, and took it out of the way: Let no man therefore judge you in meat or in drink, or in respect of a holy-day, in Greek a festival, or of the new moons, or of the sabbath-days, in Greek sabbaths, of which the law of Moses had many besides the seventh day of the week, which are a shadow of things to come, but the body is of Christ. And verse 20. he speaks here in the same language which he uses to the Galatians, Ye christians are dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, The Jewish manner of observation of the several sabbaths appointed in the law of Moses, with all these rigours and severities mentioned in the last proposition, is a mark of the state of the childhood of the church under strict discipline, and of the bondage of it under a yoke of ceremonies and numerous prescribed forms; but under the gospel or New Testament, the church is grown to a maturer age, as the apostle, Gal. iv. describes it; and therefore christians are released from such yokes of bondage; and the apostle forbids christians to return to them again, but charges them to stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made them free; Gal. v. 1. Now that it is the sabbaths and festivals of the Jews only which are here abrogated, appears from the words used both in the epistles to the Galatians and Colossians, which describe their sacred times, festivals, newmoons, sabbatical years, &c. But the original sabbath-day, as appointed to the patriarchs, is not expressed or included therein; for that was out of sight here, being not the matter of contest or imposition.

VIII. "Notwithstanding the abolition of all Jewish sabbaths, and of that rigorous observance of an absolute rest on the seventh orsabbath-day; yet under the christian dispensation one day in seven, that is, the first day of the week, has been always observed from the beginning as a day of assembling for pious and religious purposes; and it is very reasonably supposed, to be appointed by Christ himself." Christians under the liberty of the gospel, are not to suppose themselves released from the stated returns of a day of worship. When the Jewish dispensation ended, the paradisiacal command seems still in force to all the race of Adam. Yokes of bondage were broken, but natural religion and moral laws are of everlasting obligation. Christians must have a day to worship their God as well as the patriarchs; and therefore they must rest from the common works of men. The evidences which persuade us of the truth of this practice among the first christians are such as these: