Sermons, on the following subjects

THEREFORE, by the institution of the christian sabbath, there is no change from the fourth command; but the change is from another law, which determined ⟨p. 241⟩the beginning and ending of their working days. So that those words of the fourth command viz. Six days shalt thou labour and do all thy work; but the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy GOD; afford no objection against that which is called the christian sabbath; for these words remain in full force still. Neither does any just objection arise from these words following, viz. For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day and and hallowed it. These words are not made insignificant to christians, by the institution of the christian sabbath: they still remain in their full force as to that which is principally intended by them. They were designed to give us a reason why we are to work but six days at a time, and then rest on the seventh, because GOD hath set us the example. And taken so, they remain still in as much force as ever they were. This is the reason still, as much as ever it was, why we may work but six days at a time. What is the reason that christians rest every seventh, and not every eighth, or every ninth, or tenth day? It is because GOD worked six days and rested the seventh.

IT is true, these words did carry something further in their meaning, as they were spoken to the Jews, and to the church before the coming of CHRIST: it was then also intended by them, that the seventh day was to be kept in commemoration of the work of creation. But this is no objection to the supposition, that the words, as they relate to us, do not import all that they did, as they related to the Jews. For there are other words which were written upon those tables of stone, with the ten commandments, which are ⟨p. 242⟩known and allowed not to be of the same import, as they relate to us, which they were of, as they related to the Jews, viz. these words in the preface to the ten commands, I am the LORD thy GOD which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.—These words were written on the tables of stone with the rest, and these words are spoken to us, as well as to the Jews: they are spoken to all, to whom the commandments themselves are spoken, for they are spoken as an enforcement of the commandments. But they do not now remain in all the signification, which they had as they respected the Jews. For we never were brought out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, except in a mystical sense.—The same may be said of those words which are inserted in the commandments themselves,