If the ten commandments be in force, every jot and tittle of them, it must necessarily follow that the seventh day is the Sabbath, and is to be observed according to the commandment. But because there is much opposition against this truth, I shall offer something in particular to it, which may tend to the clearing of it. 1. It was instituted by God before the fall of man, as appears in Gen. 1:31--_And God saw every thing that he had made, and behold it was very good._ But when man sinned, God changed his voice, and then the ground was cursed for his sake. Gen. 3:17. Farther, God was six days upon his work of creation, and rested not until the seventh day. Now, betwixt the end of the sixth day and the beginning of the seventh day, there is no interval or space of time, (chap. 1:31, 2:2;) then why should it be thought that the Sabbath was a shadow to hold forth rest by faith, and why should we run into such imaginations concerning the cause of God's instituting the Sabbath, seeing God so plainly declared it himself, namely, _that he blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because that in it he rested, from all his works which God created and made_. Gen. 2:3. 2. The reason that the Lord gave when he commanded the observance of the seventh day, was as before, _because that 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_, (Exod. 20:11;) and it is as a motive to provoke man to follow the Lord's example from the beginning, both in work and rest. _Six days,_ saith the Lord, _thou shalt labor and do all thy work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God; in it thou shalt do no manner of work._ And if thou wouldest know a reason why thou shouldest do so, it is because I the Lord thy God did so. And truly, to me it is clear, that one main reason why the Lord took so much time as six days to create all things in, and rested the seventh day, was to show man an example, and what he ought to do. Doubtless God could have made all things in a moment; but six days he works, and rests the seventh day, that man might do the same, and thereby not only hold forth the creating power of God, and the method that he was pleased to take in the creation, but also his great mercy in instructing and commanding man to work six days and rest the seventh, that he might be refreshed.