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a great variety of amiable virtues fo much as our Lord's method of inculcating them. by example and pertinent parables.

Befides, what men really want, is not fo much to know what is their duty, as proper views and motives to induce them to practise it. It is, therefore, in general, very properly taken for granted, in the fcriptures, that men know what it is that God requires of them; and almost all the admonitions to virtue go upon that fuppofition, enforcing the practice of what is acknowledged to be right, by motives adapted to peculiar fituations and circumstances,

SECTION

SECTION VI.

Of pofitive inflitutions.

ESIDE the duties of ftrictly moral

BESI

obligation, on the obfervance of which our moral character, and happiness, chiefly depend: we find, in revelation, that the divine being has been pleafed to enjoin feveral obfervances, which are not in themselves of a moral nature, but which ultimately tend to promote good morals, and that just state of mind, which makes the practice of our duty in other refpects easy to us. These are the obfervance of one day in feven for the purpose of reft from labour, which is obligatory on all mankind; the obfervance of a large ritual of ceremonies by the Jews, and of baptism and the Lord's fupper by the chriftians. Of each of thefe, in the order of which I have now mentioned them, I fhall give a general account, with a view to explain the nature and ufe of them.

SI.

§ 1. Of the obfervance of the fabbath.

WE are exprefly told, in the books of

Mofes, that the obfervance of the fabbath, or of reft from labour every feventh day, was appointed in commemoration of the day on which God refted from the creation of the heavens and the earth, which was completed in fix days. This injunction being laid upon Adam, neceffarily affects all his pofterity. Gen. ii. 2. "And on the "feventh day God ended his work which "he had made: and he refted on the fe"venth day from all his work which he "had made. And God bleffed the feventh

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day, and fanctified it: because that in it "he had refted from all his work which "God created and made." But we have a more particular account of the reft to be obferved on this day, in the fourth commandment, Ex. xx. 8. "Remember the fabbath-day, to keep it holy. Six days fhalt "thou labour, and do all thy work. But "the

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"the feventh day is the fabbath of the Lord

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thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy fon, nor thy daugh"ter, thy man-fervant, nor thy maid- fer"vant, nor thy cattle, nor the stranger that "is within thy gates. For in fix days the "Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and "all that in them is, and refted the feventh day: wherefore the Lord bleffed the fabbath-day, and hallowed it."

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Befides this reafon for keeping the fabbath, which equally affects all mankind, we fometimes find other arguments insisted upon, which respect the Jews only, as Deut. v. 15. "Remember that thou waft a fer“vant in the land of Egypt, and that the "Lord thy God brought thee out thence

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through a mighty hand, and by a stretched "out arm: therefore the Lord thy God "commanded thee to keep the fabbathday." It appears from these paffages, that the proper purpose of the fabbath is reft from bodily labour. But, on this account, it is alfo peculiarly feasonable for serious reflection of mind, and devout meditation on

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the works of God; and by this means it is exceedingly useful for correcting the unfavourable influence, which a clofe and uninterrupted attention to the bufinefs of this life naturally has upon our minds; impreffing us with juft fentiments, and thereby preparing us for good conduct in life. cordingly, we find in the Old, but more efpecially in the New Teftament, that this ufe was made of the fabbath, both by the Jews and chriftians, there being stated afsemblies on this day for reading the fcriptures and public prayer.

The fabbath was alfo diftinguished under the law of Mofes by an additional facrifice of two lambs, befides the daily burnt-offering, Numb. xxviii. 9. And the ninety-fecond Pfalm being intituled, "a Pfalm or

fong for the fabbath-day," was probably compofed, in order to be fung in the templefervice of that day.

As we find, 2 Kings iv. 23, that it was cuftomary with the Jews of old to refort to their prophets on the fabbath-day, and alfo

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