that sits upon the throne having spoken the word, "Behold, I make all things new," God shall for ever rest with complacency upon all his works which He hath created and made; when every heart shall feel, and every tongue shall confess, that all the "works of His hands are very good," that " for His pleasure they are and were created."

Oh how intensely does the renewed soul long and thirst for this, its proper element; this, the fulness of time for displaying the fulness of creation, as the perfect instrument to accomplish the purpose and exhibit the glory of God! when the new creation shall be headed up in the renewed image of God; and in "the general assembly and church of the first-born" the highest form of being shall be shewn completed in Christ and his members-they one with Christ as he is one with the Father, exhibiting the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person. Then the morning shall dawn of an eternal sabbatism for the sons of God: in the midst of them Jehovah shall for ever dwell, dispensing the effluence of his own inexhaustible fulness of joy-HE delighting in his children, and they in HIM -"pleasures for evermore " from the hand of the Father of love. With a joy like this, man's being began; when Adam, the image of God, held unabashed communion with his Creator, and saw in every object of creation the perfect impress of God; reading in each some lesson; seeing in every one some index directing him to the Source of all good, in whom his best affections centred; teaching him to “ love the Lord his God with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his might." And this primeval joy we delight to contemplate, and instinctively crave, not only when the soul is vexed with the storms of a fallen world, and driven by its miseries to desire a place of refuge "where the wicked cease from troubling, and where the weary shall be at rest;" but we feel it also in the most prosperous circumstances, and in the purest and noblest exercises of the soul; proving that a destiny of higher dignity than the present is the proper end and appointment of man. "O thou Sun and Life of souls, shed abroad thy light and vital heat-the belief of the truth of unseen things, and the love of their superlative goodness-in the minds and hearts of men; that they may not frame to themselves an imaginary happiness in the enjoyments of this perishing life, but with all zeal and vigour in their affections. and actions seek after the real blessedness of the world to come, as becomes an object so glorious and eternal."

The "Rest" we treat of has to be considered in its nature, and in its time; in both of which respects the Sabbath was its type: not, however, the Jewish Sabbath, as now corrupted, and encumbered with modern superstitions; not even the Mosaic Sabbath, a bondage and a restraint, analogous to the whole of

the Law," added because of transgression;" but the original Creation Sabbath, ordained before the fall of man, and probably retained by the Patriarchs in its festal character till the giving of the Law. To the Creation Sabbath we have inadvertently attached that character of bondage and restraint which was superinduced by the Mosaic Law; and have preposterously associated the rest from slavery in Egypt with God's rest from the work of creation, and with the "rest that remaineth for the people of God." It is true, that, when God renewed the ordinance of the Sabbath at Sinai, he derived a fresh motive for its observance from having delivered the children of Israel from Egypt; saying (Deut. v. 15), “Remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord thy God brought thee out thence, through a mighty hand and by a stretched-out arm; therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the Sabbath-day :" but this did not destroy its original character, derived from creation, and retained in Exod. xx. 11: "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 hallowed it." This, the original ordinance, derived from an universal motive, is binding upon every creature; and to despise it, is to rebel against the Creator: but the fresh motive, derived from deliverance out of Egypt, can only influence the people who were so delivered; can only be local and national; cannot be universal. The Mosaic Sabbath, as distinguished from the Creation Sabbath, must follow the other Mosaic laws and as we found, in our last examination, that these laws were local and temporary, and their observance rendered impossible to the Jewish people now, banished from the land of Canaan, and without temple and priesthood and sacrifices; so we might dismiss this part of our argument by a reference to our last Number (p. 255). But the subject is of such importance, and is liable to such mistake, that we have thought it right to discuss it separately; and shall endeavour to shew, that the Creation Sabbath was festal and joyous in its design, typifying the rest and joy of the kingdom of heaven: that the Mosaic Sabbath was a part of the Law, added because of transgression, till the Seed should come" (Gal. iii. 19): and that the Christian Sabbath is a solemn feast-day, "a delight," "holy, and honourable," the antepast of heaven, the first-fruits of" the REST that remaineth for the people of God."

The Sabbath of Creation was the conclusion of God's work, but it was the beginning of man's. Man's life began by devoting the first of his days to the best work-to the service of God. Man, the image of God and the head of creation, began his time by separating its first portion, at the command of God, to hold communion with him, and by leading the worship of creation to

HIM for whose pleasure all things are and were created. We mistake in the outset, when we regard the Sabbath as the end of a period, for it is in fact the beginning-the contrast of the finished work, no part of it-the earnest of new joy. The work of creation finished on the sixth day; but the seventh day was Adam's first day, the first of his life, and the first day of the week in his reckoning and for all succeeding time. The rest, too, which the Sabbath was ordained to commemorate, was God's rest, not man's; and must be understood and observed with reference to God's work, not man's. The creation work of God was no servile toil, no weary exhaustion of creature power; neither was sabbath rest the opposite of labour, nor the recruiting of wasted strength the proper end of its institution: these ideas were introduced by the sin and folly of man, and formed no part of the original appointment. Every work of God is a fresh display of himself: the completion of a work is the commencement of a manifestation in the finished work. The first Sabbath was God's creationday: his work exhibited completed, and all manifesting the true end of their being in the work of praising and glorifying their bountiful Creator. The first Lord's-day was God's redemptionday Christ, having finished his work in flesh, then exhibited its completion in the new form of being, resurrection flesh; and began resurrection life in man, resurrection work in the church. And the first Millennial day shall be God's glorification-day; when, resurrection work being finished in Christ and his members, their glorification work shall begin and never end.

God the Creator retains his right over all things, and claims a portion as his own for a testimony of his right. When the garden of Eden was planted, God reserved from Adam one of its trees; forbidding him to eat of its fruit, and proving that this tree at least was not made for the use of man, but for the higher end of shewing the purpose of God. When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance, he again shewed his sovereignty, by reserving the land of Canaan, "the glory of all lands," purposing therein to plant his people (Deut. xxxii. 8). And when, in process of time, he brought the children of Israel into this land, he claimed for himself the first-fruits of their increase in every kind, and the tenths of its produce, to be set apart for his service. In analogy with all this, the Lord God had at the beginning blessed, and sanctified, and dedicated to his service, the first day of man's life, and every succeeding seventh day till time shall cease and eternity begin *.

* Nec docet natura ut potius die ultimo, quam primo, Deo vacetur; quod si naturæ relinquendum esset, natura ipsa potius dictaret suo lumine, primo die, et non ultimo, esset Deo vacandum : et sic potius dies Dominicus, qui est primus, quam dies Sabbati, qui est ultimus, fuisset præscribendus; nam primitiæ sunt Deo tribuendæ, et a Deo incipiendum est.

The Creation Sabbath was the firstling of Adam's time, the first and best of his days, his prime of vigour, energy, and joy ; devoted to the ALL-GOOD ONE, whose perfect image he bare, with all the freshness of new being, and the entire singleness and concentration of a soul undistracted by care, unassailed by sin, unwearied by toil: he rejoiced before the Lord his God with all his heart, and mind, and soul, and strength. And as the Sabbath was set apart, and sanctified, and blessed, not only to commemorate the finished creation, but to typify the Christian and the Millennial Sabbaths, which mark the completion of redemption and new creation (John v. 17; Heb. iv. 4); so must the antitypes answer in character to the type: and we take not the right view of the Christian Sabbath, and "the rest which remaineth for the people of God," when we merely contrast them with the Fall and its consequences; when we content ourselves with excluding sin and sorrow from intrusion, and enter not into the glorious contemplation of our privileges and our joys. The Sabbath of which we treat is not mere peace, but it is joy : it cannot, therefore, resemble any bondage to a ritual, or slavery of duty, or meritorious drudgery; still less can it be considered as idle vacancy, or gloomy self-denial, or Rabbinical penance-work : these notions are the sinful consequences of the Fall, or the ridiculous inventions of man; and their intrusion prevents the mind from entering with commensurate fulness of affection and concentration of faculty on the primary, proper, and ultimate end of the Sabbath, which is, to hold communion with God at his own time and in his own way, to attune body, soul, and spirit for the blissful intercourse with the Father of love, the Source of all good and of all joy. Even under the bondage of the Law, this primary, this proper service of God is retained, and the people are commanded to rejoice before the Lord their God (Deut. xxvi. 11; xxvii. 7): and the true character of our Sabbath is declared by the Prophets, saying "to the sons of the stranger that join themselves to the Lord, to serve him, and to love the name of the Lord; every one that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it, and taketh hold of my covenant; even them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer" (Isai. lvi. 6, 7); and again, “If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the Sabbath a Delight, The holy of the Lord, Honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words; then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord” (Isai. lviii. 13, 14).

The change of dispensation to the Jews, and the new covenant under which they shall be brought on their final restoration to the land promised to the fathers, is continually implied in all those prophecies which speak of times yet future. They had a continual

memorial of the deliverance from Egypt in their feasts and various ordinances of Moses, and many of them were given for this sole end; but a future time is spoken of, when "they shall no more say, The Lord liveth which brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; but, The Lord liveth which brought up the seed of the house of Israel out of the north country," &c. (Jer. xxiii. 7, 8; xvi. 14, 15; xxiv. 5; xxxii. 37). But the change of the deliverance to be commemorated requires a change in the memorials, one of the chief being the Sabbathday (Deut. v. 15). And that the change of the Sabbath was made by our Lord, is shewn by his teaching it to be made for man, and not man for the Sabbath; by his styling himself Lord of the Sabbath day (Matt. xii. 8); by his continually disregarding the Mosaic Sabbath (Matt. xii.; Mark ii. 23; Luke vi., &c.); by his resurrection, frequent appearances to his disciples, and the gift of the Holy Ghost, on the first day of the week, hence called the Lord's-day ;-events in the Christian church more memorable and important in the spiritual life, than the double portion of manna, which fixed the Jewish Sabbath, was in the history of the Jews (Matt. xxvi. 61; xxvii. 63, comp. John xx. 26: see Matt. xxviii. 9; Luke xxiv. 15, 25, 26; John xx. 14, 19, 20; Acts ii. 1, 42, 46; xx. 6, 7; 1 Cor. v. 4; xvi. 12; Rev. i. 10). "Declared to be the Son of God with power, by the resurrection from the dead" (Rom. i. 4). But the restoration of the Jews is called their resurrection, Ezek. xxxvii. 12; and being not only the type, but the accompaniment, of the resurrection of the saints, and effected by Him who has already become the first-fruits of them that slept (1 Cor. v. 7; xv. 20); all together shall keep the one, the original, the eternal Sabbath, in remembrance of their Creator, their Redeemer, their Restorer, and their everlasting Strength. "This is the day which the Lord hath made; wherein we are invited to rejoice and be glad" (Psa. cxviii. 24): when the Stone which the builders refused shall become the head-stone of the corner; when the house is no longer left desolate, but Israel, at Jerusalem, shall say, "Blessed be he that cometh in the name of the Lord" (Psa. cxviii. 26, Matt. xxiii. 39); when Jah, who is the Strength and the Song of his people, becomes their Salvation also; and the right hand of the Lord is exalted (Exod. xv. 2; Isai. xii. 2; xxvii. 3).

The Sabbath at its first institution had reference to God alone, who hallowed and blessed the day to Adam it was a delight, and therefore a privilege rather than a duty, or a duty which he needed no command to perform, but desired and enjoyed. Under the Law every thing took the form of a duty, and was enforced by command; its institutions having reference to man as well as to God: and the Sabbath now became a command, affecting our conduct, not only towards God, but towards