DISCOURSE 1. 53$ those who have learned it. Evan all the false religions in the world that we -know of especiallyin every nation that is 'civilized, have someparticular days or seasons set apart for the practice of some public ceremonies, or the performance,of sacred things. The common light of reason shetgs men thenecessity of it, where any religion is to be maintained ; and why then should not the truereligion enjoy tjte-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 somemore 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 natnre, 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 hismarriage with Leali. 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, 13esiod, Callimachus, &c. con- cerning their days divided,by sevens, are much plainer, as well as concerning the sacredness of a seventh day. The silence of scripture, or the doubtfulnotices, of an actual observation of the sabbath by the patriarchs, are no sufficient proof that it was not observed: Or if theyhad forgot and lost it in any age, through thecrimes and apostacy of their fathers, this does not prove it was not instituted at first to bealways 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 amongmen. 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 slav-eries of Egypt or before, yet what day God would have them keep for a sabbath was pointed out by the manna not failing. L13
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