under the law, there were fet portions of every day confecrated to divine worship, in the tabernacle and temple. Nor,

2. Doth he mean that no whole day befide the Sabbath may be fet apart for imploring God's mercy in time of diftrefs, or returning thanks to God for fome fpecial favour or deliverance, when the providence of God calls us to it: For we find God himfelf injoining the observation of other days befide the feventh, Exod. xxxiv. Lev. xxiii. Numb. xxviii. and commanding ceffation from labour on thefe days. It is not the defign of the fourth command to lay us under a peremptory or indifpenfible obligation of labouring in all the fix days throughout: but only to injoin us not to labour on any other day but these fix days, and to do all our works upon them, fo as we be not hindered from ferving God in a folemn manner on the feventh.

SECTION I.

Concerning the holy reft requifite on the Sabbath.

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HIS holy reft upon the Sabbath confists in a total abstinence from all worldly employments and recreations; and from whatever work, business or action, that may any wife prove a hindrance to the worfhip and fervice of God upon that day. This is plain, not only from the fourth command itself, but from many other fcriptures, particularly Jer. xvii. 24. Ifa. Iviii. 13.

I fhall here propose some questions upon this subject to be answered.

Quest. 1. Are no fort of works lawful on the Sabbath day?

Ans. There are three forts of works ordinarly excepted, as not prohibited by the fourth command, viz. the works of piety, of mercy, and of neceffity.

i. The works of piety, that is, fuch bodily actions or labour as are neceffary and fubfervient to the performance of divine worthip, or contribute to order or decency therein; these are lawful and neceffary on the Sabbath day: Such were "the killing of beasts, washing and preparing of facrifices; the convocating people to worship by blowing of trumpets, making fhort journeys to attend worship, &c" under the law. So now, under the gospel, ministers toiling their bodies in preaching and praying, people travelling to church, the ringing of bells, and the like, are lawful on the Sabbath day.

2. Works of mercy and charity are lawful this day, yea, and neceffary alfo; for, feeing the Sabbath is intituted as a memorial of God's great love and mercy to us, we are bound upon it to fhew charity both to the fouls and bodies of men, and mercy to the very beafts alfo So that "the feeding our bodies, our beasts, and using means for the help of man or beast in distress, and preferving of their lives, the vifiting the fick, making collections for the poor," and the like, are lawful on the Sabbath day: For the Jews had allowance for these under the law, fo have we now under the gofpek.

3. Works of neceffity and great conveniency, which could not be foreseen, nor provided against the day before, nor cannot be delayed to another day; fuch as "fleeing from enemies, or defending ourselves against them; quenching of fire, dreffing of meat, putting on our cloaths," and the like; thefe are alfo lawful on the Sabbath. The Maccabees of old did not decline to fight on the Sabbath day, nor did the Jews long before their days: For the Jewish writers tell us, that the overthrow of Jericho was on the Sabbath, which alfo feems to be founded upon Josh. v1. 3. 4. where it is faid, "They fhall compafs the city fix days; and on the feventh day the walls of the city thall fall down, and the people fhall afcend up every man ftraight before him." Only take thefe cautions concerning fuch works: See that the neceffity be real and not pretended, and that ye have no fecret complacency in its falling out. Take heed that

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it be not a neceffity of your own bringing, and which you might have forefeen and prevented the week before. And, when ye are doing these works of neceflity and mercy, endeavour to keep your hearts in a fpiritual frame as much as you can, and ftudy to do them without giving fcandal or offence to others, and then dispatch them as foon as poffibly you can, that ye may attend the main work of the day.

Quest II. What are thefe works and actions, then, from which we must rest and abstain upon the Sabbath?

Anf We must not only take special care this day to abstain from all fuch finful works and actions as are un lawful upon any day; but we must also reft from all worldly bufinefs and actions, whether employments or recreations, altho' they be such as are lawful on other days.. But, more particularly,

I. We muft reft from all forts of fervile work or worldly employments that tend to our profit or advan tage; fuch as, making of journeys, merchandizing, or travelling to markets, carrying of burdens, fishing, going of mills, ploughing, fowing, reaping, &c. and, in a word, all parts of mens ordinary callings. See Nehem., xiii. 15. 16. 17. and downwards: "In thofe days faw I in Judah fome treading wine preffes on the Sabbath, and bringing in fheaves, and lading affes; as also winegrapes, and figs, and all manner of burdens, which they brought into Jerufalem on the Sabbath-day: And I teftified against them in the day where they fold victuals. There dwelt men of Tyre also therein, which brought fith, and all manner of ware, and fold on the Sabbath unto the children of Judah and in Jerufalem. Then I contended with the nobles of Judah, and faid unto them, What evil thing is this that ye do, and profane the Sab bath day? Did not your fathers thus, and did not our God bring all this evil upon us, and upon this city? yet ye bring more wrath upon Ifrael by profaning the Sabbath," &c. The Jews were ftrictly prohibited to do any work this day, even the leaft work of any fort; manna muft not be gathered, nor a few sticks to a fire; nay, the materials for the tabernacle must not be pre pared this day, Exod. xxxi. nor any thing that might

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be delayed or done upon another day. This ceffation was fhadowed forth by that river in Judea, called the Sabbatical river, because it dried up and ceafed from running every Sabbath day: which not only Jofephus fpeaks of, but alfo Pliny, Auguftus Cæfar in his letter to Tiberius, and others. Let none think that fuch a total ceffation from fecular business would tend to their worldly disadvantage; for none were ever lofers in this refpect, by laying afide their own labours to attend God's worship and fervice upon his own day. As God took care of Ifrael's fafety, while they came up to Jerufalem three times a year to attend the folemn feasts which he had inftituted; fo that at these times none of their enemies fhould make any attack upon them, or fo much as defire their cities, according to his promife in Exod. xxxiv. 24. So will that fame God, by his kind and watchful providence, take care that his people fustain no damage in their worldly affairs through their dutiful obfervation of this holy day. Nay, on the contrary, they have found this practice to be even profitable to them, with refpect to their outward temporal eftate: And there is good ground to think it will always be fo; for, the more confcientious any man is in fanctifying the Sabbath-day, the greater bleffing he may expect from God upon his labour on the fix days: And it is not your own labour or toil, but the "bleffing of God that maketh rich," Prov. x. 22. Judge Hale, and other godly perfons, have attefted the truth of this point from their own experience, as I have fhewed before.

The Lord, in his word, is very peremptory and particular in injoining this ceffation from labour on the Sabbath; and because he knows the eagerness of mens hearts upon the world, and their readiness to encroach upon his holy day with their worldly labour, he condefcends upon these seasons wherein they have most tentation thereto, and requires them in "earing time and in harveft" to reft on the Sabbath, Exod. xxxiv. 21. Though those be the times when we are moft throng with worldly bufinefs, yet he will have us in mida thereof punctually to obferve the Sabbath, and prefer VOL. IV.

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the pleasure of commuion with God in his ordinances to the joy of harvest, and to expect that harv-ft-work will profper the better for our religious obfervation of the Sabbath in harvest time. Alfo the Lord fpecifies thefe feafons, because then we are under greater cbli-gations to ftrict keeping of the Sabbath, than at other times; because,

T. The bodies of fervants and cattle are more toiled the, than at other times; and fo have the more need of reft.

2. People then have lefs time to worship God in their families and closets on week days, because of the greatnefs of their labour; and therefore have need to improve the Sabbath the more diligently.

3. In harveft we partake more of the fruits of God's bounty, than at other times; and therefore fhould be the more thankful to God for his mercies, and efpecially for Chrift, the mercy of mercies, who alone doth both purchase and fweeten all our mercies

to us.

Now, is it not matter of deep regret that (notwithftanding God's fpecial command, and our manifold obligations to the contrary) our churches in many places fhould be thinner, and fields thronger with idle people wandering therein in time of harveft, than at other times of the year?

Object." When the weather is unfeasonable and tempeftuous through the week, doth it not become a work of neceffity to fow or reap on the Sabbath, for preferving of food to man and beast?"

Anf. If fome particular mens corns were in hazard of being carried away, or loft by the inundation of a river, or the like, it were a work of neceflity to endeavour the preservation of them upon the Sabbath; because the difpenfation is extraordinary, the cafe not common nor general, and the damage irrecoverable in any ordinary way. But, as for fowing, reaping, or gathering in upon the Sabbath, (whatever be preten ded from the feafon or weather for it) I judge it unlawful, because the cafe is common and general; the hazard proceeds from the ordinary providence of God;

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