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all his works and refted: and fo it is in the new creation-work, Jefus ceased from his work and entered into his reft.

God then refted the feventh day after creationwork was finished, and left it for others to enter in after him. All men were invited, but they moftly refused and flighted it; and provoked, and fo perished. This is represented again in the next verse, As therefore it was left for fome to enter into that, and thofe who were formerly admonished enter not, because of unbelief. So this verse ought to be read, After God kept the day himself, he left it open for others, that is, all men, to enter in; and keep a fabbath as he had done. But as he had faid before, the word preached did not profit, because of unbelief. And having faid this much of the nature of their reft, he comes now to make the parallel, fhewing that our reft is of the fame nature: we have a day as well as they. Verse the seventh introduces it thus, Again he limiteth a certain day, SEMERON in David, faying, after fo long time, as was faid, SEMERON, if ye will hear his voice harden not your hearts. For if Jefus had given them

reft

reft, then would he not have spoken of another day. There remaineth then a fabbath for the people of God. For he entering into his reft, hath ceafed from those works of his, as God from his

own.

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In the ninth verfe we see that for the people of God there remains, not only a reft indefinitely, but a fabbath, for fo the Greek is; it is a fabbath that remains for them. It remains after the former is paffed by and gone. this is a referve which God made for them. This fabbath is a

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day: not the difpenfation of the gospel here on earth nor a state of glorification in heaven; but a fabbath day to be kept holy as in the former dispensation. And this remaining fabbath-day, has the fame principles belonging to ith at the forme had; which naturally and neceffarily makes it a fabbath-day. He, Jefus mentioned just before, entering into his reft, hath ceafed from those works of his, as God from his own. Jefus ex ercised godhead in ceafing from his works, ftopping when they were finished, because nothing could be added to make them more perfect, which therefore unavoidably terminated in a fabbath-day. Thus

Thus far the cafe of the inhabitants of the old world and of the new ftand parallel.:

But in fome respects they differ. our day is another day than theirs.

For instance,

Ours is to

day, theirs was yesterday, that is, as the hiftory shows, ours is the first day of the week, and theirs the laft. The four evangelifts fix the date of the new creation upon the first day of the week, and affert it to be our fabbath; and therefore it is faid of it, not yefterday, that is over for ever, and to-day remains as our only fabbath. Another day, and it is to-day, yefterday is excluded and forbidden, There never will nor. can be a fabbath either upon yesterday or to-morrow; for the old creation is gone for ever, and the new is correct to the utmost pitch of perfection, and leaves no poffibility of another. To-day therefore if you will hear his voice. Today if you will hear at all, for another day is impoffible.

This leads to obferve another inftance wherein we differ from the old world, That their day did admit of another day, but ours does not.

If Jefus

had

had given the fathers a day of reft, then would he not have spoken of another day, for the day of Jesus can never be changed. Their day was fanctified, cut off, detached and separated, as the word fignifies, from the other days of the week: but our day is a limited day; ORISIE, he encircleth, encloseth and boundeth a certain day, leaving no place to alter it backward or forward. It is made, as it were, with a divine compafs, inclosed within a drawn circle. It is a compleat fabbath, containing every thing of the kind, and leaving no poffibility of fuch a thing without the circle. and being thus bounded and encircled, it is thrown into an immoveable ftate, like the rock of falvation, to which it belongs.

Another thing which makes a confiderable difference between the two days, is the space between the confecration and commencement of the day. The first fabbath was brought in fuddenly, without a previous pause or counsel, the day, and its confecration came on together, and was set up abruptly as a temporary thing, in that administration of it, to serve while things were in their initial ftate, and to be fhifted as circumstances

ftances might require, previous to the commencement of the fulness of time: but the new fabbath was confecrated about a thousand years before it came on. He limited in David a certain day, calling it SEMERON, after fo long time. That is, he named and ordained the day which was so long after before it fhould take place. David, famous for receiving by inspiration, the models of divine things, is as plain in the matter of the temple, I say David had the honor to confecrate our fabbath: even to confecrate and name it. For it is evident that SEMERON is here most emphatical. And this is the reafon that the apoftle repeats it fo often. To-day, whereupon Christ was begotten from the dead; SEMERON the first of fabbaths; not yesterday the Jewish fabbath, which among other old things is passed by; not to-morrow, for that can never become a fabbath, for the works of God are finished, and the corner ftone is put on, and no more to be added to the building; to-day therefore hear his voice.

SEMERON has been founded through the old and new worlds, and has paffed under a double

inspiration

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