made every man and woman a debtor herein :

every one owes

days' work.

to himself and the publick fix And he must endeavor honestly

to make himself rich, for the benefit of the publick or neceffitous individuals, as prudence and occafions may direct.

The keeping of this command has a direct tendency to bring in plenty and enlarge men's circumftances. For a man can hold fix days to labor with vigor, but if he exceeds that number of days without a pause, it will then hurt, and confequently hinder business. Lefs than fix days work is less than a man can do; and feven or eight is more than he can do. Either way will in the end prove injurious to private and public intereft. But befide the tendency that this has in itself to enrich us, by directing us where to move and ftop, and when to labor and rest as we ought, God does add a special bleffing to the labor fo conducted. He hates the awkward confounder of order, but he that works by this beautiful rule, pleases him, and will draw bleffings and tokens of approbation from him, God is a lover of order and will own all that do the

fame.

fame. But he who breaks the meafure, number and order of the week, is the author of confufion, and abhorred of the Lord.

And befide, the fabbath-breaker is under the curfe of all nature in general. For the fabbath is not made for man only, but also for the beasts: for the ox and afs; and even the land itself, and every plant that grows out of it. the twenty-fixth chapter, it appears, tion will keep the fabbath,

In Leviticus

that if a naand reverence the

fanctuary, the rain will come in due feason, the land will yield its increase, and the trees their fruit: the threshing shall reach unto the harvest, and the harvest unto the fowing: there will be fuch profufion of bleffings out of the earth, that there will be scarce time to dispatch the old to make room for the new crop; and the new crop fo great that it can hardly be gathered in, before

it is time to fow the next.

And in the fame

chapter we see also, that if a nation will not let the land enjoy the fabbath, it will refufe its crops and be barren and defolate.

And if the land had a right to the jewish sabbath

both the weekly and annual every feventh year, the earth now in its new created state has a greater right to the new fabbath, and the effects with regard to fertility and plenty will be far greater than in the former ftate. If our nation would let our island enjoy her fabbaths, we fhould be fed with the heritage of Jacob, and fet upon the high places of the earth. Our flocks, our herds, our pafture, our fields and rivers would abound, and crowd us with plenty, that we fhould be at a lofs for room to lay it up. This was the cafe with Jacob, who was the whole jewish nation radically and comprehenfively in his own person. That he was famous for his zealous regard for the fabbath, is evident from the paffage above in Isaiah, though it is not mentioned in his hiftory in Genefis. And by introducing his heritage as the general reward entailed upon honoring and fanctifying the fabbath here; which heritage was almost an incredible increafe of cattle and other bleffings from the earth, it is plain that the jewish nation were inftructed what to do, and what to expect in this particular, by what was done to Jacob their root and reprefentative. For though the abundance which nature threw into his hand, and the dif

tinction

tinction made in his favor, are to be confidered as a reward for his faithful fervice, and long fubmiffion to the oppreffions of a tyrant, yet it is clear, that herein, he is befide, a publick character and pattern, to teach the jewish nation, and by them every other, that would learn, that the fertility of the foil, and abundance of crops and ufeful creatures, will generally bear a propor. tion to the national regard paid to the fabbath.

The obfervation of the fourth command is the greatest improvement in husbandry. It also calls forth every person in the world to come and stand in his own place, points out to him, and ties him to his own proper bufinefs; measures his time, and directs infallibly how long he ought to be at it; tells him how much he ought to do; to wit, as much as he can in fix days; and also when he fhould ftop, and where the point and pause is, when working will be injurious to health and property, to himself and the publick. I appeal then to the reafon and confciences of all my fellow-creatures, if the fourth command is not abfolutely neceffary and binding. How can we lawfully reprove or cenfure the useless and indolent

lives of fome, the rapine or violence of others, if there is no law of God by which they are bound to be usefully and properly employed? If God has not bound us and measured our time of working, we have no right to bind one another; every perfon without it, is left to his own option to turn out either a drone or a robber, as his

man can legally

inclination may direct, and no convict him, because there is no law that obliges him to work. No man without this precept can prove to me that I ought to do any thing, nor could he guess how much I ought to do. But the command puts every thing out of doubt. It exprefsly tells a man that he is bound to work; and what work he should do, to wit, his own, which his character, place and condition call for; how much he ought to do, that is, as much as he can do in fix days fucceffivély; and alfo what he cannot do, that is, to work more than fix days: if he does more than fix days' work, he is not a workman, but a profane and ftupid drudge. This in the end, will not promote, but hinder bufinefs. In a word, without this precept, neither king nor fubjects, neither mafters nor fervants, neither rich nor poor, know what they

Owe