the Sabbath Day to keep it HoLY: and it is faid in the conclufion of it, The Lord BLESSED the Sabbath Day, and HALLOWED it. GOD first gave a Bleffing to the laboring man and beast, by ordaining a Sabbath; and then he Hallowed or fanctified it to holy duties. In the divine mind mercy precedes facrifice; for it is not faid, he hallowed it, and blessed it, but, he blessed it, and hallowed it. Again, it is faid in the Commandment, The Lord blessed the SAB

clufion, I enquire not; yet, in my humble. opinion, the force and benevolent defign of the Commandment is much weakened by the tranfpofition and mistranslation. For Sabba:h doth not imply Holiness, though Holiness is enjoined on the Sabbath Day. Nor doth Sabbath denote Seventh, though the seventh day is the Sabbath day.

BATH Day, or the day of REST: for Sabbath denotes Reft: and the Sabbath, if GOD had so pleased, might have been every fixth or eighth day, or without any special Holiness. The Commandment indeed hath appointed the Sabbath or Reft to be on the seventh day; and the Reft of the Seventh day affords leisure for fpiritual duties; therefore GOD hath enjoined Sanctification as well as Reft on that day but the first motive to the appointment was Mercy to man and beaft; for the Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. Therefore if thou, who art a Mafter, workeft on the fabbath day, you fin, becaufe you do not Sanctify it according to the commandment: but if you

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do no work thyself, and yet fet your Servants and Cattle to work on that day, then you fin likewife, because you do not Bless it according to the defign of it. The Commandment is twofold in its fubject,-Bless it, and Sanctify it: and it is twofold in its object,-Do no work, and Require no work. Confequently, the most fcrupulous observance of the fabbath on thine own part, though you were to spend the whole day in acts of public and private de→ votion, and yet spare not the la bor of thy Servants and Cattle, would not be keeping the Day unto the Lord; it would be an imper→ fect and partial obfervance; it might be fanctifying it as to thyfelf, but it would not be bleffing

it, according to the inftitution of it, in mercy to the laborious man and beaft; I fay, man and beast, for they are both exprefly mentioned in the commandment: and the great Creator, having confidered them both, and having appointed a feventh day as a day of Bleffing, as well as of Sanctification, will not accept thy felffanctification of the day of Sabbath, unless thine OX, and thine ASS, and thy CATTLE, as well as thy children and fervants partake of the blessing of it.

I know indeed there may be cafes of neceflity, which require the labor of the cattle on the Sabbath day and I am not fo precife as to fuppofe it a fin, in fuch cafes,

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cafes, to make ufe of their labor; for as our Savior fays, the Son of Man is LORD of the Sabbath*. But then it is my duty to confider whether my beaft hath in the preceding week fulfilled his fix days tafk of labor. If he hath not fulfilled it, or has had fome day or days of reft therein, I do not fin in the ufe of him. If he hath done his full task in the week, I ought to spare him for another beast that hath not fulfilled his task. But,if neceffity compels me to fet the fame beast to a seventh day labor, who hath fulfilled his fix days work; then I fin, if I do not REMEMBER, as foon as my urgent bufinefs is over, to affign him another day for his Sabbath, in lieu of that which I have taken

*Matt. xii. 8.

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