and the Lord's Day, the Time fet apart, for his Publick folemn Worship and Service. And God joyns them Both together, both the Time and Place of his folemn Worship Lev. xix. in the fame Command.-Te Shall Keep my Sabbaths, and reverence my Sanctuary; I am the Lord. Since then they have such a mutual Relation to each other, I think it best to treat of them together according to that Relation, and fhall therefore confider, 30. I. The Inftitution of the Sabbath, both Jewish and Chriftian. II. What Obligations and Reasons we Chriftians have Religiously to observe the Chriftian Sabbath. III. How we are to Prepare ourselves for the Duties of it in the House of God. And, IV. What thofe Duties are, and how we are to perform them there. I. I. We are to confider the Inftitution of the Sabbath, both Jewish and Chriftian. The feventh Day was firft fet apart as a Day of Reft and Religious Observance, in Remembrance of the Creation of the World, Gen. ii. 2. And God rested on the Seventh Day from all his Works which he had made, and God blessed the Seventh Day and Sanctified it, because that on it he When he had refted from all his Work, And this Day of Religious Reft, which God bleffed after He had ended all his Work, and refted from his Labours, the Apostle largely alludes to, as a Type and Emblem of that Heavenly Reft, which he will give his Faithful Servants after They have happily finished Their Work on Earth; that Zab- Heb. iv. Calouds in Heaven, that Reft which remaineth for the People of God: that after they 2 Tim. iv. have fought the good Fight, and finished 7. their Courfe in the Church-Militant, they may in the Church-Triumphant Reft from Rev. xiv. their Labours. The first Inftitution of the Sabbath was the very next Day after the Creation: to be obferv'd even by Adam in Paradise, in the State of Innocency and Uprightness. Tho' he had then no Sin to be pardoned, nor Troubles to be remov'd, nor Wants to be supply'd, and so had nothing to Pray for; yet 13. yet when he found himself in a New World, and fo happily plac'd in the highest Rank of Beings, and all the World about him Created for his Ufe, or Delight, it was fit that He, the Lord of all, and the only Rational Creature in it, fhould do Homage to the Great Creator, and fall down and Worfhip, and offer up Praises and Thanksgivings to him, as Prieft of the whole Creation. But when all his Pofterity, that is, All Mankind, had corrupted their Ways; when they had loft the very Knowledge of God Himfelf, much more muft they have loft fight of the Day that was requir'd to be fanctify'd, and fet apart for his immediate Service. Or if any thing of the Observation of the Sabbath was preferv'd by Noah and his Family, or, after him, by Abraham, Ifaac and Jacob, (which the Scriptures make no mention of,) it feems utterly to have been loft again by the Seed of Jacob, in the Egyptian Bondage, where their cruel Taskmasters, however they had been difpos'd, would have allow'd them no Rest. Therefore when God had brought them out by a mighty Arm, he was pleas'd to renew the Sabbath by a private Command, and to procure Authority to it by a Miracle, (Exod. xvi.) before the giving of the Law at Mount Sinai: and at the giving of the Law, he again folemnly injoin'd and inforc'd the Law of the Sabbath upon a new Account 3 on on account of his Deliverance of them out of their Egyptian Slavery, that thereby they might be always, from Generation to Generation, kept in Mind of the unmerciful Ufage which they had undergone in Egypt, where they were not fuffer'd to keep any Sabbath, nor any Day, or even Hour of Reft from their Labours; and might be always mindful to serve that God, who had so graciously deliver'd them from that hard State of Bondage: which is the very Reason given at the Repetition of the Law, Remember that thou waft a Servant in the Land Deut. v. of Egypt, and that the Lord thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty Hand; therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the Sabbath Day: So that the Sabbath was by this New Inftitution, to be kept not only in Memory of the Creation, but alfo in Memory of their Deliverance out of Egypt: And always from thenceforth on the Seventh Day from the Day of that Deliverance: Whether the Seventh from the Creation or not, we cannot tell. From what has been faid it appears, that That Commandment for the Sabbath is partly Ceremonial, and partly Moral. As it was to be kept precifely on the Seventh Day from their Deliverance, and with fome particular Niceties and Rigour, it con- 23, 29. cern'd the Jews only; and is therefore call'd Exo. xxxv. by Goda Sign of the Covenant betwixt } Exod.xvi. Numb. xv. Him 32. Exod.xxxi. Him and Them. But Their Redemption 13, 16. from their Slavery by Mofes was only a Type of Our much greater Redemption by Chrift: And therefore the Apostle reckons their Sabbath Days, which were to be kept as a standing Memorial of that Deliverance, Col. ii. 17.amongst the Shadows of Things that were to come; which therefore, when the Thing that they typify'd and prefigur'd, Our Redemption by Chrift, was truly come, were to be abolish'd, and done away in Chrift. But there is a Moral Part which is of Perpetual Obligation, and never to be done a way. Natural Reason and Equity require that fome Part of our Lives, fome proper Proportion of our Time, fhould be devoted to the Worship of Him who has given Us All; All our Time, and All we have and All we are; and does daily preserve and fuftain Us, and pour out his Benefits upon Us: But what Proportion of our Time it ought to be, had not been fo easy for bare Reason to have determin'd. Had it been left to the Reafon of Mankind to have fet the Proportion, whilft there was any thing of Goodness or Gratitude left among Men, They must have thought it fit to have dedicated a greater Part of their Time to their Creator, the Lord and Giver of All: But God himself has been pleas'd to determine the Proportion for Us, and graciously to accept of every Seventh Day for his Wor |