concluding for the fourth command against the Antifabbatarians.

III. A third argument for the morality of the fourth command, may be this: The reafons and grounds of this command are, in their nature, moral and perpetual, and as forcible upon Chriftians as Jews; confequently the command itfelf must be moral alfo.

The reafons included in the fourth command are various. 1. One reason, enforcing the fanctification of the Sabbath, is taken from the propriety of the day, "The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God;" it is the Lord's day, and the holy of the Lord," Ifa. lviii 13. the day, which the Lord hath reserved for him felf and his ufe, and therefore must be entirely dedicated to him; no man may incroach upon this confecrated time, without the guilt of facrilege. And doth not this reafon bind us as much as the Jews? Have we any power to alienate from God, what is his property, more than they had?

2 Another reafon is taken from the equity and rationality of this precept. God is good and liberal to us, in giving us fix days for our works: Wherefore it is highly reasonable and juft, that we should give him one day for his worship. : It aggravated David's fin, that he took the poor man's darling ewe-lamb, when he had a whole flock of his own: As it did our first parents fault in pulling the fruit of one tree that God had referved, when he gave them all the rest of the trees at their will; fo it heightens our crime, if we rob God of his one day, when he gives us no less than fix to ourselves. Moreover, it is highly reasonable and fit, when our dying bodies have fix days for their neceffities and occafions, that our immortal fouls fhould have one for theirs. Now, doth not the equity and justice of this command affect and oblige us as much as it doth the Jews?

3. A third reason is taken from the charitableness of this law; viz That our bodies and cattle should have a day allowed them for reft; charity faith, that they Thould have fome ease and relaxation from fore labour, and not be wearied out with continual toil; And

is not this as needful now as it was of old among the Jews?

3. Another reason is drawn from God's example, which is a rule to us: "For in fix days the Lord made heaven and earth, the fea, and all that in them is; and refted the seventh day." Here we have a twofold example, both of God's refting and working; and they are both fet before us for our imitation. As God employed fix days in the works of creation; fo we are to make use of fix days in the works of our lawful calling: And as he ceafed from his works, and rested on the feventh day; fo we are bound to imitate him in that refpect by quitting our weekly labours, and fanctifying of the Sabbath day. Now, can there any reafon be given, why we are not as much bound to follow God's example, in refting one day after fix days labour, as the Jews were?

A fifth is taken from the bleft advantages of it; it is a bleft day to them that keep it. And, is not God as able and willing to blefs the Sabbath to us now as he was of old? And, do not we need his bleffing as much as the Jews?

Now, if these arguments be moral, perpetual, and obligatory to us, as much as to the Jews; the command that is enforced by them must be so likewife.

IV. A fourth argument may be taken from the fpecial marks of honour and refpect that God puts on this command. It is not only engraven in tables of ftone by the immediate finger of God, as all the reft; but it is privileged above them, in feveral refpects.

1. It is placed in the first table of the law, and there. by preferable to thofe of the fecond table.

2. It is fituated in the midft of the Decalogue, in the close of the first table, and before the front of the fecond table; thereby teaching us, that the obfervation of both tables much depends on the right keeping of this one command. God hath placed it in the heart of the Ten Commands, because the keeping of it gives life to the keeping of all the reft. The fanctification of the Sabbath is an epitome of all religion; it virtually includes all the commands, and firongly engages men to

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keep them all. Hence it was, when the Ifraelites broke the fourth commandment by gathering of manna, that the Lord charges them with breaking all the commands, Exod. xvi. 28. "How long refufe ye to keep my commandments and my laws ?" Why fo? Because he that makes no confcience of keeping the Sabbath, will not much stick to break any of the reft.

3. It hath a folemn memento prefixed to it, which the reft have not; God ufhers it in with a remember, which is very emphatic, and is, as if he had faid, "Keep this command always in your minds: forget what you will, forget not this." God fpeaks, as a mafter that hath some special affair, among many others, to recommend to his fervant: Among all other injunctions, he bids him particularly remember fuch an affair; thereby fhewing a fpecial concern for it, more than the rest.

4. It is delivered both positively and negatively: All the rest of the commands are delivered only one of the ways, but this is both ways. It is not only faid pofitively, "Remember the Sabbath to keep it holy; but allo negatively, "In it thou fhalt do no mannet of work," &c.

5. The Lord preffeth obedience to this command, with more reasons and arguments than any of the rest, which were enumerated before. And this he doth because he knew the confcientious obferving of this command would engage us to make confcience of all the reft, and because he forefaw wicked men would attack it, and reafon against it more than any of the reft. Now, is it probable that God would fhew fuch a concern for a ceremonial law, that he would place it in the middle of the moral precepts, and prefs it with more reasons and arguments than any of them?

6. He makes the keeping of this command, and fanctifying of the Sabbath, one fpecial end of man's creation; because therein God is highly glorified. The Jewish Talhund propounds the question, "Why God made man on the evening before the Sabbath?" and gives this one reafon, that man might forthwith enter upon the obfervation of the command to keep the Sabbath, and begin his life with the worthip of God, which VOL. IV.

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was the chief end why it was given him, as if the keeping the Sabbath were the great end of his creation. And indeed there is folid reason for this affertion, if we confider that, as the end of the Sabbath day is to commemorate God's glorious works, and celebrate his praises for the fame, fo the chief end and design of man, whom God made on the fixth day, as his last and most consummate work of all, was, that he might be the tongue of the whole creation, to trumpet forth his praises for all the reft of his works. And accordingly, juft on the back of his creation, he entered upon the keeping of a Sabbath for that very end. So it n.ay well be faid, that God made man chiefly for this end, to keep the Sabbath day.

7. The Lord entails many fpecial bleffings upon the keeping of this command, and denounces many fad threatenings against the breaking of it. Read the 56th chapter of Ifaiah throughout, where the Lord not only pronounceth him bleffed that keeps the Sabbath, but promises to "give him a place and a name better than of fons and daughters," to fill his heart with " fpiritual joy," to give him a "spirit of prayer," and to "hear his prayer:" God will both give him ability to serve him, and then accept and reward his fervice when it is done. Alfo read Ifa. lviii. 14. Jer. xvii. 24. where bleffings, both spiritual and temporal, peace, wealth, plenty and profperity, are promised to fuch as keep the Sabbath. On the other hand, how terrible are the plagues he threatens against a land or people for breaking this command. Read Jer. xvii. 27. Ezek. xx. 21. to 26.

8. He hath feverely punished finners for the breach of this command, as if it were the fum of his whole fervice. He caufed a man to be put to a cruel death for "gathering fticks on the Sabbath," Numb. xv. The offence might be thought fmall, but God looks on the contempt of the Sabbath as an affront to the Creator who inftituted it, and to whofe honour it was dedicate, and an incurfion upon the whole law, about which God appointed the Sabbath for a hedge. It was the flighting of the Lord's Sabbaths that caufed Jerufalem

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to be burnt with fire, Jer. xvii. ult. Many inftances of judgments against Sabbath-breakers might alfo be brought from human hiftories

V. A fifth argument may be taken from the prophecies of the Old Teftament. We find Ifaiah, that evangelical prophet, pronouncing a bleffing on thofe that should keep the Sabbath, even in evangelical times, Ifa. lvi 1, 2. “Thus faith the Lord, keep ye judgment, and do justice; for my falvation is near to come, and my righteoufnefs to be revealed. Bleffed is the man that doth this,that ke-peth the Sabbath from polluting it." That is a plain prophecy of Chrift; yer, in his times he declares them bleffed who fhould keep the Sabbath: Yea, ver. 6. he puts "the keeping of the Sabbath" in a manner for the whole duties of the covenant. That this evangelical prophet is fpeaking there of the New Teftament times, there is no ground left to doubt; for he is fpeaking of the time when the ftranger and eunuch fhould be joined to the Lord, and when there fhould be no diftinction of perfons, Jews or Geltiles, but both fhould be alike welcome to God and his ordinances: And yet, in thefe times, there are many bleffings promifed to them that fhould keep the Sabbath; which demonftrates it to be a moral and perpetually binding duty.

VI. Chrift himielf plainly tells us, "That he came not to deftroy (or abrogate any part of) the moral law, but to fulfil it," feverely threatening thofe who would feek to invalidate the obligation of the leaft of thefe commands, Matth. v. 17, 18, 19. and, in confirmation hereof, he bids Chriftians "pray that their flight might not be on the Sabbath day," Matth. xxiv. 10. Now, the flight he there fpeaks of, was to happen in Vefpafian's time, about forty years after that all ceremonies were abolished, together with the Jewith Sabbath, as I fhewed before; and yet we fee Chrift plainly enough homolagates the morality and perpetual obligation of the law for the Sabbath, under the New Testament : for he ftill fuppofes that a Sabbath would be in being and in force, after all the ceremonies were abolished ;

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and