tranfports, will find himself at last fatally deceived by a vain confidence. For the dictates of a heated fancy, be they ever fo pofitive, can do nothing to counterbalance the guilt of a finful life; and all perfuafions to the contrary, are not from the Divine Comforter, but our own bad hearts, or the wicked one. For the Holy Spirit of difcipline will remove from thoughts that are without understanding; and will not abide, when unrighteoufnefs cometh in*. He never leads us to any fentiment or action but what reafon and fcripture warrant; nor can any affurance that we may imagine he communicates to us, of our belonging to God, continue well-founded one moment longer than we continue keeping God's commandments which therefore that we may all do always, he of his infinite mercy grant, &c. • Wifd. i. 5. SER SERMON CXII. ON THE PROPER OBSERVANCE OF THE SABBATH, GEN. ii. 3. And God bleed the feventh day, and fanctified it; becaufe that in it he had refted from all his work, which God creat ed and made. TH HESE words contain the account of that original appro priation of one day in seven to the purposes of religion, from which all fubfequent appointments of the same nature have been derived. And therefore I fhall take occafion from them to fhew, God willing, in three difcourfes, I. On what authority the obfervation of a weekly day of public devotion and reft is founded. II. In what manner that day ought to be spent. I. On what authority it is founded. It is not only our duty to addrefs God in private prayer, but alfo to affemble ourselves together, in order to offer up to him our united devotions. As we are by nature formed for fociety, we ought to be focial in religion as well as in other inftances. As we are all dependent for every thing we have or hope for on the fame Almighty Being, the Creator and Governor of the Universe, we ought all to join in openly acknowledging that dependence, in begging, with one voice, the fupply of our common wants, the forgiveness of our common offences, the removal of our common calamities, and in returning thanks for the various mercies which we have in common received from our heavenly benefactor. But befides this, public worship is of all other things the best calculated both to cherish in ourselves, and by the powerful force of sympathy and example, to excite in others the warmest senti ments ments of piety and virtue. Indeed without it (as both reafon and experience prove) mankind would gradually lofe all fense of religion; and without that, the lower part of them would quickly fink into the groffeft depravity of mind, and profligacy of manners. : Joining in family-devotions might indeed, in fome degree, guard against these mischiefs, and answer the other good ends above-mentioned and large families may be confidered almost in the fame light with small parishes. But family-devotions are shamefully neglected; and, were they univerfally kept up, they could feldom be expected to convey fo much knowledge, and would fcarce ever produce in the mind fo ftrong a feeling, that whole neighbourhoods and nations are members of one body, as the offices performed in more numerous affemblies do. : Since therefore, on these accounts, there must be public worship and inftruction, it is not only useful, but neceffary, that there should be alfo fixed times appointed for it by fufficient authority for were it left at large to be performed at any time, there is but too much reafon to fear that it would be frequently delayed or neglected, and at last perhaps wholly thrown afide. But how much and what time fhould be devoted to this employment, if God had given no intimation of his will, every fociety must have determined for themselves; and in all likelihood would have determined very differently. For the imagined mysteries and excellencies of the number feven, would probably have been no more regarded than those of other numbers, which have as good a claim; at least they would never have influenced even the fpeculative part, much lefs the bulk of mankind, to any fuch purpofe as this. And even fuppofing they could have known farther (which, without revelation, they could not), that God had ceafed on the seventh day from his work of creation, that alone had been no evidence, that man ought to cease every seventh day from his ordinary labour, and spend it in religious exercises. A divine direction therefore must be extremely serviceable, both to prevent all doubts how much time would be enough, and to secure a general agreement in the particular time. For if feveral forts of perfons obferved perhaps all the several days of the week, this diverfity, were it to obtain only in different nations, I have been For when nations, would be inconvenient; but in the fame, would obftruct business to a degree almost infupportable. Now, fuch a direction from above feems to vouchfafed in the very beginning of the world. we read in the text, and the verse preceding it, that on the Seventh day God ended his work, and therefore blessed the day, and fanctified it; that is, affigned to it the honourable distinc tion of preferving the memory of his having created all things, the obvious interpretation is, that this appointment took place from the time that the reason for it took place, from the time at which it is introduced in the facred hiftory, and not from that of the Jewish deliverance from Egypt, two thousand five hundred years after. For it is quite improbable, that Mofes would both mention the inftitution of the fabbath so very long before he needed, and mention it in terms that naturally imply its being inftituted at the crea tion, if it was not. Nor is the contrary opinion of fome ancient fathers of any weight in this cafe, and much less that of modern Rabbins. For neither of them had better opportunities for knowing the truth than we have now. And both of them had prejudices to biafs their judgment. The former, in difputing against the Jews of that time, were tempted to defend their own practice of not obferving the Jewish fabbath, by alleging, that the patriarchs before the law did not obferve it. Yet fome of them appear to have been of a different opinion*. As to the Rabbins, (though Philo the Jewt, far ancienter than any of them, and some of their own number ‡, thought the obfervance of the fabbath as old as the world, yet in general) they magnified themselves in after ages, by pretending that this excellent ordinance was first established in the Hebrew nation. And it is very true, we find no inftance of keeping the fabbath before the days of Mofes. But then, on the other hand, we find not even the name of the fabbath for almost five hundred years after Mofes, that is, till David's reign, and then only once §, and but once again for above one hundred years more. Yet no one * Novatian de Cibis Judaicis, c. 3. faith, Decem fermones illi in tabulis nihil novum docent, fed quod obliteratum fuerat admonent. † De Vit. Mof. 1. 3. p. 175. § 1 Chron, xxiii. 31, Seld. de In. & G. 1. 3. c. 13. 2 Kings iv. 23. doubts of its being appointed, and in the main observed. through that time; and therefore why not in the preceding times alfo, fince there is the same reason to be given for omitting the mention of it in both cafes, that the history is fhort, and comprehends no particulars that made speaking of it neceffary? ; But ftill, between the creation and Mofes, we find not only feven-fold vengeance threatened in the cafe of Gain*, and Noab taking seven pairs of every clean beast into the ark †, and Jacob bowing before Efau seven times ‡, and both years § and days counted by fevens, and a very particular notice taken of the interval of feven days in the hiftory of the deluge ¶. Nay, we find the very name of weeks used ** which could not well have any other original, than from the inftitution of keeping the feventh day holy. For there is no obvious foundation in nature for dividing time into weeks, as there is into months and years, from the course of the fun and moon; nor any manner of probability, that in those early ages the period of feven days was introduced from regard to the feven planets, a number which doth not appear to have been known then. For the patriarch Jofeph reckons eleven principal stars tt; and feven are not once named throughout the Old Teftament. Indeed, the prophet Amos, in our tranflation, fpeaks of the feven ftars ‡‡; but the Hebrew word expreffes no number, and certainly doth not mean the planets; and what it doth mean is doubtful; and befides, Amos lived feven hundred years after Mofes. Now, fuppofing the appointment of observing this day to be made at the creation, it would bind all men, to whofe knowledge it came, till it was either in form repealed, or tacitly superfeded, by substituting another in its room. Accordingly we find Job, who is plainly not reprefented as a Jew, and is by many thought as early as Mofes, offering facrifices at the end of every seven days ff. And perhaps the feventh was that day, on which the fons of God (who, we read, fang together and shouted for joy at the foundation of the earth ||||), are faid in his history FOL. III. E e * Gen. iv. 15. to ¶ Gen. vii. 4, 10. viii. 10, 12. ↑ Gen. xxxvii. 9. Amos v. 8. §§ Job i. 2, 4, 5. |