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THE
LORDS -DAY,
OR
CHRISTIAN SABBATH.
[SERM. VI.
time,
but
which
should
be
appointed
and sanctified and
blessed
among the Jews
two
thousand four hundred years
afterwards.
It
is
probable
that
the most ancient
patri-
archs
did,
according
to this
early appointment,
observe
it
as a day
of rest
from
labour
and of the worship of
God,
their Creator.
And
it
is
very
evident
that if
it
Were
lost among the nations,
it
was
renewed again
by
Moses
to the
people
of
Israel,
with many
particular
sanctions
:
and
there
is
still
one day
in seven
continues
in the New
Testament
to
be
a day
of
christian
worship,
observed
by
the apostles and
first
disciples.
So
that
upon
the
whole
survey
of
the dispensations
of God
to
men, as they
are recorded
in
the
bible,
"
it
seems highly
probable,
that there
is
some
sabbath
or one
day in seven
divinely
appointed both
for the
rest of
man and the wor-
ship of God,
which has
run through
all dispensations
both before and
after
Moses,
and
which
must remain tó
the end
of
the world."
It
is
impossible, in
the compass
Of
one short sermon,
to run
through
all
the reasonings*
that
are necessary
to
confirm
this
doctrine
;
yet
that
I may
give
some
short
hints toward the
proof of
a
sabbath running through
all
ages, I desire you
will
consider
the following
particulars
1.
"
What
was
the time
when
the,
first
appointment
of a
sabbath
was
given to men,
and
who
were the persons
to
whom it
was
given
?"
Was it
not
in
paradise as soon
as ever man
was
created
that God
claimed one day
in
seven for
his own worship, as well as gave
it
'unto Adam
for
his
rest and release
from
labour
in
the
garden
of
Eden
?
Now
there
is
at
least
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
inno-
cence
;
for
his
body
was
then
in
perfection
of
health
and
vigour, and
his
mind more inclined
to
remember God
and worship
him.
2.
"
Consider the
original 'reason
that
is
given
for
one
day
in seven
to be
sanctified," and
this seems
to
confirm
the
perpetuity
of
it.
God rested
on the
seventh
day
For these reasonings
see
"
The
Holiness of Times, Places and
Persons
under the
Jewish and
Christian
Dispensations Considered and Compared."