DISCOURSE I. 529 III. "To guard against all those inconveniences, assoon as God had made man, and set him to labour in the garden of Eden, he appointed him one clay in seven to be a day of rest from la- bour, and also a season of religion and worship ; Gen. ii. 3. God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it, because that in it God rested from his works. This secured our first parents from any doubts of this kind ; and had this been faithfully observed by their posterity, it would have maintained labour and rest, bu- siness and worship, in their due proportions, and have secured mankind also from many doubts and contentions on this subject. Reason teaches us to rest, and to worship ; and though we can- not determine, with any certainty, by our reasonings, the precise quantity of time which is necessary to relieve animal nature by rest, after its labours ; nor call we tell which is a just proportion of time to be assigned to God, and employed for worship and holy purposes; yet God in his infinite wisdom well knew the nature and relations of things, all the necessities of our animal natures, and the dues ofhis Worship, and by the same wisdomhe has ordained one day in seven for both these. And I am persuad- ed there is something perfectly proper, just and reasonable in the verynature ofthings in the appointment of this proportion of time, viz. one day in seven, for religious worship, as well as for bòdily rest, which divine reason sees plainly, and because man's reason cannot find it ont, God has revealed it to him from the beginning of the world. Reason teaches us to honour our parents, but which are our parents, must be told us by men, before we can honour them. It is a moral law, yet we need information of the object before the law can be obeyed : So it is with the sabbath. The chief thing expressly mentioned in the institutionof the sabbath, is a day of rest from thecommon labours and businesses of life ; and by comparing this with other texts of the Old and New Testament, it seems to be designed for these several ends : 1. To give our natures proper refreshment, as well as to relieve the cattle from their toils, which could not well bear incessant labour. 2. To imitate the great -God our Maker, who, after six days spent in creating the world, rested from his work on the seventh, and is represented as surveying the works of his hand, and pronouncing them good. And as man was made in the image of his Maker, so he was appointed to act like him in this respect, that is, to restfrom his labours, and spend that time incontemplat- ing, and honouring his Creator.-3. To preserve a lasting remembrance of the creation of the world in six days among .the followinggenerations of men, and hereby secure mankind against idolatry, or forgetting the true Godwho made the world.-4. To be a token and pledge to Adam, of the state of peace and rest VQL. I1I. L e
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