THE HOLINESS OF TIMES, PLACES, AND PEOPLE, tic. DISCOURSE I. The Perpetuity of a Sabbath, ' and the Observation of the Lord's-day. IT is an unhappy thing indeed, that that very day, which God originally designed for a sacred rest here on earth, and appointedit to be a pledge and emblem of eternal rest in heaven, should become a matter of noisy dispute and contention in his church ; but God bath seen fit to exercise our faith and patience with some darknesses and difficulties even in his own worship in this world, that we may breathe and long after the light and glory of the future state, with that more perfect rest, and more exalted worship, which is enjoyed and practised in the world above. Several of the controversies which have risen, with regard to the sàbbath, whether Jewish or christian, and the holiness of it, though they are not of the highest importance among the doc- trines and duties of Christianity, yet neither are they mean and trifling ; for as we ought not to release the souls and consciences of men from any of the obligations which God and Christ have laid on them ; so neither should we lay anyyokes on the necksof disciples, from which Christ hath released them. However, since there seems to have been one day inseven appointed for rest from labour, or separated for divine worship, from the beginning of the world, through every dispensationof God to men, I can- not but think there is somethingof a moral nature in it. ; and on this account, I suppose God was pleased to begin a sabbath, as soon as he had made acreature who could observe it, and that he designed there should be a sabbath as long as the creature con- tinued on earth Gen. ii. 2. God rested on the-seventh day.from all his work, which he had made, and God blessed theseventh day, and sanctified it, or pronounced it holy. But that we may go on in a regular train of .atgument, and yet be as brief as possible, I 'shall sum up my best thoughts on this subject, in the following propositions : 1. "Though man beplaccd on the earth for labour, or business
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