the Patriarchs did so some Hundreds of Years before the Law of the Sabbath was given to the Children of Ifrael, we have sufficient Evidence from fundry Texts of Scripture: That all the ancient Nations, of whom we have any History, both Egyptians, Chaldeans, Greeks, Romans, nay, and the barbarous Nations too; I say, that they did so likewise, is proved to us from the ancientest Records that are about them.

extant

This Practice now, that had no Foundation in Nature, obtaining thus universally throughout the whole World, and that from Time immemorial, is to me a Demonstration that they had it from the first Parents of Mankind, and that it was founded in God's Institution of the Seventh-day being fet apart to his Service.

I do grant, indeed, they did not know the true Reason why they thus counted their Days by Sevens: For the Tradition of the Creation of the World, and the Institution of the Sabbath, was, in Time, and by Degrees, loft among them: But yet thus still they computed their Time; and we that have the Scriptures, know upon what Grounds that Computation was begun: But thus much of this Point.

Two Things now, I think, we have established.

VOL. IV.

T

First,

First, That God, in the Creation of the World, did direct to the Observation of one Day in Seven to his Service.

Secondly, That he did exprefly declare to our first Parents, that it was his Mind that this Sabbath should be observed: And these, I think, are very good Foundations to build our Structure upon.

But there is a great deal more to be added, as, namely, in the Third Place, it is very observable, that when God came to give his Body of Laws to the Jews 2400 Years after the Creation, and by them to repair the Ruins that Idolary and the evil Customs of the World had brought upon that People, he had fo great a Regard to this first Law of the Creation concerning the Sabbath, that he took care to put it among the Ten Words (as they are call'd in Deuteronomy) I mean the Ten Commandments, which he himself diftinguished from the rest of the Laws he gave by Mofes, by pronouncing them with his own Voice from Heaven.

Fourthly, When our Saviour came to give a new Law, though he did abolish all the Ceremonial Laws of Mofes, yet the Law of the Ten Commandments he seems to have ratified and confirmed, and confequently that Law which concerns the Observation of a Sabbath.

Fifthly, In pursuance of this, the Apostles, and the first Christians, though they threw out of the Fourth Commandment all that was perfectly Jewish and Ceremonial, yet they retained the Substance of it, and accordingly did conftantly charge it upon themselves to fet apart one Day in Seven for the publick Worship of God: And this Practice, thus begun by the Apostles, hath ever since continued in all Ages, and in all Churches of the Christian World.

Whether now all these Things taken together do not evince that the Law of the Sabbath is more than a mere human Ecclesiastical Constitution, and that it is not in the Power of the whole Church to abrogate or to alter it, (which was the Thing to be proved) I will leave you to be Judges of.

But I cannot now fill up these Three last Heads: I must refer that, with the rest of my Discourses upon this Argument, to fome other Opportunity.

Confider what ye have heard, &c.

1

276

SERMON XIII.

EXODUS XX. 8.

Remember to keep holy the Sabbath
Day.

Have entred upon this Argument
already, and made one Discourse
upon it: I now design to go on
with it.

The Method I proposed, was to discourse upon these Four Heads.

First, Of our Obligation to observe the Sabbath in general, taking that Word as signifying no more than fetting apart one Day in the weekly Revolution for the Worship of God.

Secondly, Of the Change of the Sabbath from the Seventh Day of the Week to the First.

Thirdly, Of the Importance of this Duty, and great Advantage of strictly observing the Lord's-day.

Fourthly, Of the Manner of observing I begun with the first of these Heads; namely, concerning our Obligation to observe the Sabbath in general: And the first Thing I urged was this, That if we take the lowest Hypothesis that is laid down in this Matter, and proceed only upon such Grounds as are allowed by those that talk the most loosely in this Matter, yet by this Way of Reasoning we may sufficiently infer an everlasting Obligation upon our Confciences to observe the Sabbath: For admitting that there is no particular Law of God that concerns us, which requires our Observation of a Sabbath, yet it is granted, on all Hands, that there is a general Law of God, which requires that some Portions of that Time he hath given us, fome Days of those many that he affords us, should be folemnly confecrated to his more immediate Worship and Service, and there ought to be a very frequent Return of those Days. Now if God hath not, by any immediate Revelation, set out those Times or Days, and the Return of them, it falls to the publick Authority, in every Country, that hath the Management of the Affairs of Religion, to take Care of it, and what they establish in this Case suitable to the Principles of Reason, and the other Notices we have of God's Will, doth bind the Confciences of all the Subjects, to its Observance, even as if it was a Divine Law. Though there be no particular Law