DISCOURSE I. 545 divinely appointed for the rest of man, and for the worship ofhis God, which has run through all the dispensationsboth before and after Moses, and must remain to the end of the world*," which will appear if we look back and consider, 1. The time of the first notice, and appointment of a sab- bath, and the persons to whom it was given." It was in para- dise, as soon as man was made: God having formed the world, and its inhabitants, in six days, and rested the seventh, he distin- guished the days of the year into weeks, and claimed one day in seven for his own worship, as well as gave it unto Adam for his rest, or release from earthlybusiness. Hesanctified it and bles- sed it, he separated it for the purposes of rest and worship, and pronounced ablessing upon it, and upon them that observed it: Now there is 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 innocence ; for his body was then in perfection of health and vigour, and his mind more inclined to remember God, and worship him. 2. " 'The original reason that is given for one day in seven to be sanctified, seems to confirm the perpetuity of it, viz. God's own rest front his work of creating the world in six days. The sabbath was given to man, to put him in mind of the creation of the world by the true God, and to do honour to God the Cre- ator ; but all mankind in all ages, should preserve this in me- mory, and tire continual return of a seventh day of rest is an everlasting memorial of it, and gives newopportunities continu- ally for paying this homage to that Almightybeing that made'us, and this habitable world. 3. " The place which this command of the sabbath bears in the law of God, when it was renewed and enjoined to the nation of Israel, doth;" in, theopinion of most divines, add considerable weight to this argument. It is one ofthe commands of the moral law, which was pronounced by the mouth of God himself on Sinai, with much glory and terror. Itstands amongst those laws which are generally conceived to be moral and perpetual, except in some small limitations and accommodations to the Jew sh state : It was written with the rest in tables of stone, which per- haps in that typical dispensation might denote perpetuity, and that it must last, like a rock, for ever. It was written by the finger of God himself; which gives a peculiar honour to it ; and it waslaid up in the ark of the covenant, on which God dwelt in Though I have inserted most of the following particulars in a sermon on the Lord's day, published among many others; yet I thought it necessary to repeat the chief substance of them here als' because they are necessary to com- plete the argument. Voz.. III. MlVI
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