Thus have we traced the several stages of the life of man, and in each of them we have found that life might be a blessing, and the ground of every blessing; and that God, ever gracious, ever merciful, might crown with some word of benediction the closing days of each such term or period of the life of man, just as He did the six glorious days of the creation. The morning and the evening (for so we reckon time) were followed by a solemn benediction, but with a special blessing for the Sabbath-day, the crown of all that stupendous work, the day sanctified by the Creator’s rest; the day claimed for Himself, with a marked reserve, such as the true Proprietor of all that He had made, and of all the bounties which distinguished man’s first abode in Paradise, was pleased to attach to one tree in the garden, by which the first pair might be reminded of the homage due to God, and might fulfil it by a strict regard to his commandment. The Sabbath-day! With what joy must its regular returns have been hailed in the first scenes of an unblemished world; and how good and gracious was the Author of that first hallowed institution, so that in the day of forfeiture, not only was the first pledge of salvation given, but the welcome respite from increasing labours by returning Sabbaths was continued. It had no limitation or exception in its first appointment, nor should we presume to put such; much less was there any intimation given in that hour that the appointment of this day, with its solemn benediction, was but an anticipated notice of the Jewish Sabbath, together with what was indeed peculiar to it, when, after long intermissions or neglects, it was revived. Can we think that when “for every thing there is a season,” there was to be none more especially provided, in all times, for religious observation? and that, too, when the Sovereign Lord had set his seal to such provision, without one word which could affect its perpetuity? Accordingly we find a set time for religious exercises mentioned in that new scene of discipline and trial to which man was removed; for, indeed, he was not cast out as an alien and an enemy, a wanderer and a wretch.