Answ. 1. As to the former part of the objection, taken from the difficulty of persons subsisting their families, it may be replied; that God is able to made up the loss of the seventh part of time, so that their not working therein, shall not be a real detriment, to those who are in the fewest circumstances in the world, God has ordered it so, that our observing his holy institutions, shall not, in the end, prove detrimental to us. Thus when Israel was commanded to rest, and not to cultivate their land for an whole year together, every seventh year, providence so ordered it, that they were not sufferers thereby, inasmuch as the year before brought forth enough for three years, Lev. xxv. 20-22. and when they were not to gather manna on the seventh day of the week, there was a double quantity rained upon them, which they gathered the day before, Exod. xvi. 22-24. Therefore, why may we not conclude, that, by the blessing of God, what is lost by our not attending to our secular callings on the Lord’s day, may be abundantly made up, by his blessing succeeding our endeavours on other days.

As to that part of the objection, in which it is pretended that the Lord’s day is their market-day, in which they expect more advantage than on other days; it may be replied, that if this is true, it arises from the iniquity of the times; and it should be a caution to us, not to encourage those who expose their wares to sale on the Sabbath-day; since if there were no buyers, there would be no sellers; and this public and notorious sin would be hereby prevented. We have a noble instance of this in Nehemiah, whose wisdom, zeal, and holy resolution, put an effectual stop to this practice, in his dealing with those who sold fish on the Sabbath-day, Neh. xiii. 16-21. First, he shut the gates of the city against them; and when he saw that they continued without the walls, hoping, by some means or other, to get into the city, or to entice some to come out to buy their merchandize; then he testified against them, and commanded them not to continue without the walls, and by this means, gave a check to that scandalous practice. Moreover, this gain of iniquity is not to be pretended as a just excuse for the breach of a positive commandment; since, what is gotten in a way of presumptuous rebellion against God, it is not like to prosper, whatever pretence of poverty may be alleged, to give countenance thereunto.

2. Another reason annexed to enforce our observation of the Sabbath-day, is taken from God’s challenging a special propriety in it. Thus it is called the Sabbath of the Lord thy God; a day which he has consecrated, or separated to himself, and so lays claim to it. Therefore it is no less than sacrilege, or a robbing of him, to employ it in any thing but what he requires to be done therein.

3. God sets his own example before us for our imitation therein. Thus it is said, In six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and rested the seventh day, and hallowed it. It is observed, that God was six days in making the world; whereas, had he pleased, he could have created all things with the same beauty and perfection in which they are at present, in an instant; but he performed this work by degrees, that he might teach us, that whatever our hand finds to do, we should do it in the proper season allotted for it; and as he ceased from his work on the seventh day, he requires that we should rest from ours, in conformity to his own example.

4. The last reason assigned for our sanctifying the Sabbath, is taking from God’s blessing and sanctifying it, or setting it apart for an holy use. To bless a day, is to give it to us as a particular blessing and privilege. Accordingly we ought to reckon the Sabbath as a great instance of God’s care and compassion to men, and a very great privilege, which ought to be highly esteemed by them. Again, for God to sanctify a day, is to set it apart from a common, to an holy use; and thus we ought to reckon the Sabbath as a day signalized above all others, with the character of God’s holy day; and as such, it is to be employed by us in holy exercises, answerable to the end for which it was instituted.

III. It is observed in the last answer we are explaining, that the word Remember is set in the beginning of the fourth Commandment; from whence we may observe, our great proneness, through worldly business, and Satan’s temptations, to forget the Sabbath. We may also learn from hence, the importance of our observing it; without which, irreligion and profaneness would never universally abound in the world; and, on the other hand, in our observing this day as we ought to do, we may hope for grace from God, whereby we may be enabled to keep his other commandments. Again, the word Remember, prefixed to this Commandment, not only imports that we are to call to mind, that this particular day which God has sanctified, is a Sabbath, or to know what day it is, in the order of the days of the week; but we ought to endeavour to have a frame of spirit becoming the holiness of the day, or, to remember it, so as to keep it holy. It is certain, that it is an hard matter, through the corruption of nature, to get our hearts disengaged from the vain amusements and entanglements of this present world; by which means we lose the advantage that would redound to us, by our conversing with God in holy duties. Therefore we are to desire of him, that he would impress on our souls a sense of our obligation to duty, and of the advantage which we may hope to gain from it. And to induce us hereunto, let it be considered,

1. That the profanation of the Sabbath is generally the first step to all manner of wickedness, and a making great advances to a total apostasy from God.

2. The observing of it is reckoned as a sign between God and his people. It is, with respect to him, a sign of his favour; and with respect to man, it is a sign of their subjection to God, as their King and Lawgiver, in all his holy appointments.

3. We cannot reasonably expect, that God should bless us in what we undertake, on other days, if we neglect to own him, on his day, or to devote ourselves to him, and thereby discover our preferring him, and the affairs of his worship, before all things in the world.

From what has been said in explaining this Commandment, we may infer,