GEN. 11. 2, 3:

And on the Seventh Day God ended his Work, which he had made: and he rested on the feventh Day from all his Work which he had made.

And God bleed the feventh Day, and fanctified it; because that in it he had refted from all his Work, which God created and made.

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SI purpose to difcourfe to you concerning what we Chriftians call the ·Sunday, or Lord's Day, I have chosen, for my Text, thofe Words of Mofes, wherein he gives an Account of the original Appointment of one Day in feven for religious Ufes ; intending, from thence, to lead you through a fhort Hiftory of its Inftitution, till it terminates in the Appointment of this our Chriftian Sabbath, by the Authority of the Apostles, in honour of Chrift's Refurrection. My main Defign is, to inftruct you in what manner the Sunday ought to be obferved by us; but, this cannot be done effectually, without giving you a right Notion of the Nature, and End of the Inftitution; any more than you could tell how to apply any Inftrument, properly, without knowing for what Ufes it was intended, and what it is capable of ferving.-To encourage

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you to give me the more patient Attention, I promife not to amufe you with doubtful and needles Points of Curiofity, which have been ufually introduced into this Subject; but only to lay before you fuch useful Matters as are plainly and exprefsly told Us in the Bible, or are obvious to Common Senfe.- -Before I enter upon the Hiftorical Part, by Way of Introduction, I fhall make two Remarks.

1. As we are manifeftly intended for Religious Creatures, it is impoffible that this Intention fhould be anfwer'd, unless Men employ Jome Part of their Time on Religious Subjects, and in Religious Offices; but, Experience fhews, that if Mankind were left at Liberty, when, and how often, they would perform these Duties, the Duties would not be perform'd at all by the Generality. This, I think, may convince any impartial Perfon, that there is all imaginable Reafon to believe that God did appoint an Inftitution for this Purpofe from the Beginning of the World. This, Ifay, would appear highly probable, from the Nature and Reafon of the Thing, were the Scriptures filent about it.

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2. It is, likewife, equally reafonable to fuppofe that God fhould have taken fome Method to preferve the Memory of the Creation, in order to preferve the Knowledge and Worship of Himfelf, the Creator. Now, what Method could fo effectually have anfwered this Purpofe, as the Appointment of one Day in feven for Men to reft from their daily Labours, that

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they might be at Leifure to worship God, and attend upon the Bufinefs of Religion, as God had refted from his Work of Creation? Thefe Confiderations fhew the Credibility of the Account, which Mofes gives us in the Words of my Text, of a feventh Day's Reft; and is a full Answer to the Conceit of fome Learned Men, who thought that, tho' it be mentioned here immediately after the Account of the Creation, and closely connected with it, yet the Sabbath was not actually inftituted till above Two Thousand Years after. It is fomewhat ftrange, that Men of Abilities fhould entertain fuch an abfurd Opinion. For, befides that it fuppofes a moft judicious and correct Writer to write after the most unnatural and inaccurate Man ner; it is morally impoffible that the Thing fhould be true. If it be, then the infinitely wife God fuffered the World, for fo long a Time, to be without an Inftitution highly expedient in itfelf, and as well fitted to anfwer the Purpofes intended by it from the Beginning of the World, as ever it would be afterwards. For thefe Reafons Mofes must be understood in the plain and obvious Senfe of the Words, when he tells us,

"That on the feventh Day God ended his Work which He had made, and refted from "all his Work that He had made; that God "bleffed the feventh Day, and fanctified it,

becaufe that in it He had refted from all "his Work which God created and made.”

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The former Chapter tells us the Order and Manner of the Creation of the World, which was finished in fix Days; and my Text tells that God, having thus finished the Heavens, and the Earth, and all the Hoft of them, He blessed the seventh Day, and fanctified it, becaufe that in it He had refted from all his Work of Creation. The Reafon of his bleffing and fanctifying the feventh Day we have in those Words because that in it He had refted from all his Work-The Nature of that Bleffing, or Sanctity, with which God honoured it, above the other fix Days, confifted in its being thus Separated from the reft, and fet a-part for the Worship of God, and for the Religious Improvement of Men. That this is the Meaning of thofe Words is evident from a great Variety of Places in the Bible, where we read, of God's fanctifying, that is, fetting a-part PERSONS, and BEASTS, and PLACES, and THINGS, for his particular Ufe-The Prophets and Priests under the Law, and the Apostles under the Gofpel, were not taken from among Men that They might spend their Time in Idlenefs, but that They might be employed for Men, in Things pertaining unto God; as have been all their Succeffors in the Miniftry.-Beafts were not fanctified, or feparated, that they might not be employed, but that They might be ufed in Sacrifices; nor were Places and Things separated from common Ufes, that they might not be used at all, but that they might be used in the Service of Religious Worship. In like Manner, the Seventh

feventh Day was not bleed that Men might not do any Thing on that Day, but that They might employ it to Religious Purposes. But, more of this hereafter. Let us now proceed in the Hiftory of the Inftitution.

From the FIRST Inftitution of the Sabbath, at the Creation, to the Deliverance of the Ifraelites out of Egypt, we find no direct Mention of it, neither does there appear to have been any neceffary Occafion for it; the taking Notice, even of its Obfervation by the People of God, either before, or after the Deluge, was needlefs after it had been fo exprefsly enjoined in the Beginning. But, after that great Deliverance, we find the Sabbath mention'd, toge-ther with the Reafon of its being mention'd, in the following Manner.

At the fourteenth Chapter of Exodus, Ver.30. we read, Thus the Lord faved Ifrael THAT Day. If we turn back to the twelfth Chap. Ver. 14. we fhall find that the Day here mentioned was the last of the Feast of Unleavened Bread; which Feaft lafted feven Days; the first and laft of which were kept Holy; the former, in Memory of the Deliverance of the Ifraelites out of Egypt; the latter, in Memory of God's overthrowing Pharaoh and his Hoft in the Red Sea. Bishop Patrick, upon the Authority of the great Mr. Mead, is of Opinion, that this last Day of the Feaft of Unleavened Bread was the very Day which was afterwards appointed by Mofes, for the Jewish Sabbath; becaufe, when the Decalogue is repeated in the A 4 fifth