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I. ITS ORIGIN. Days and nights, lunar months, and solar years, are natural divisions of time; and may be easily supposed or accounted for, by the diurnal revolution of the earth, the appearance of the moon, and the annual course of the sun; but weeks of seven days cannot have the shadow of a reason assigned for their observance, except on the ground of the primeval institution of the Sabbath on the seventh day of the creation, and banded down by tradition to all parts of the world.

II. ITS PERPETUITY.

1. It was enjoined upon Adam, as the federal head and common parent of all mankind, and not given to Abraham, as the father of the Jewish nation.

2. It was introduced and enforced in the decalogue as a moral precept, and not a mere ceremonial institution.

3. The same, and even stronger reasons, may be assigned for the perpetuity of the Sabbath, than those expressed as the design of its original appointment. There is the same God to adore; there are the same works to contemplate; and we are the same dependent creatures as were our first parents, with this great disadvantage on our parts, that we are ever prone to forget the Almighty, and require more means to keep us in remembrance of the Lord than ever Adam needed in primeval innocence.

4. When the Gentiles were brought into the Church of Christ by the preaching of the gospel, their observance of the Sabbath is mentioned by the prophet Isaiah, as positive proof of their conversion to God (chap. Isaiah 56:6, 8). By this they testified their faith, affection, and obedience, in the great cause which they had espoused; they thus observed the command, exalted the goodness, and magnified the grace of that Supreme Being, whose name they were destined to profess and to honour in the world.

5. The last book of the inspired volume emphatically terms it, "the Lord's day."

III. ITS SCRIPTURAL OBSERVANCE.

1. A complete cessation of our secular employments.

2. Holy meditation of the Divine Being and works.

3. Fervent prayer.

4. A close attention to the Word of God.

5. Public worship.CONCLUSION:

1. Regard the Sabbath as a merciful appointment.

2. Lament the abuse of the Sabbath amongst us.

3. Observe the day thus blessed and sanctified.

(Thomas Wood.)

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KJV: And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.

WEB: On the seventh day God finished his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.