what doth or doth not belong to the Principles and Condition of our Nature so far is it from being comprehensive of the whole Law thereof § 14 When therefore we plead any thing to belong unto or to proceed from the Law of Nature it is no impeachment of our Assertion to say that it doth not appear so to the common Reason of mankind or that right Reason hath not found it out or discovered it provided it contain nothing repugnant thereunto For it will never be universally agreed what doth so appear to the common Reason of all nor what is hath been or may be discovered thereby And although it should be true which some say that Moral and Natural Duties depend on and have their formal Reason from the Nature of God and Man yet it doth not thence follow that we do or may by the sole Light of Nature know what doth so arise with the due bounds and just consequences of it But there is as we shall see something yet farther required in and unto the Law of Nature which is the adequate Rule of all such Duties I shall not therefore endeavour to prove that the meer Dictates of Reason do evince a Sacred Hebdomadal Rest as knowing that the Law of Nature unto which we say it doth belong doth not absolutely consist in them nor did they ever since the Fall steadily and universally as acted in men possessed of Reason either comprehend or express all that belongs thereunto § 15 By the Law of Nature then I intend not a Law which our Nature gives unto all our Actions but a Law given unto our Nature as a Rule and Measure unto our Moral Actions It is Lex naturae Naturantis and not naturae naturatae It respects the Efficient Cause of Nature and not the Effects of it And this respect alone can give it the Nature of a Law that is an obliging Force and Power For this must be alwayes from the Act of a Superior seeing Par in Parem jus non habet equals have no Right one over another This Law therefore is that Rule which God hath given unto humane Nature in all the individual partakers of it for all its Moral Actions in the state and condition wherein it was by him created and placed with Respect unto his own Government of it and Judgement concerning it which Rule is made known in them and to them by their inward constitution and outward condition wherein they were placed of God And the very Heathens acknowledged that the common Law of Mankind was Gods Prescription unto them So Tully 2. de Legib. Hanc video sapientissimorum fuisse sententiam Legem neque hominum ingeniis excogitatam neque scitum aliquod fuisse populorum sed aeternum quiddam quod universum mundum regeret imperandi prohibendique sapientia Ita principem legem illam ultimam mentem dicebant omnia ratione cogentis aut vetantis Dei Take this Law therefore actively and it is the will of God commanding take it passively and it is the conscience of man complying with it take it instrumentally and it is the inbred notions of our minds with other Documents from the works of God proposed unto us The Supreme Original of it as of all Authority Law and Obligation is the Will of God constituting appointing and ordering the nature of things The means of its Revelation is the Effect of the Will Wisdom and Power of God creating man and all other things wherein he is concerned in their Order Place and Condition And the Observation of it as far as individual Persons are therein concerned is committed to the care of the Conscience of every man which natarally is the minds acting it self towards Gods as the Author of this Law § 16 These things being premised we shall consider what Light is given unto this Sacred Duty from the Law of our Creation The first End of any Law is to instruct direct and guide them in their duty unto whom it is given A Law which is not in its own Nature instructive and directive is no way meet to be prescribed unto Rational Creatures What hath an Influence upon any creature of any other kind if it be internal is Instinct and not properly a Law if it be external it is Force and Compulsion The Law therefore of Creation comprized every thing whereby God instructed man in the creation of himself and of the Universe unto his Works or Obedience and his Rest or Reward And whatever tended unto that End belonged unto that Law It is then as hath been proved unduly confined unto the ingrafted Notions of his mind concerning God and his Duty towards him though they are a principal part thereof Whatever was designed to give improvement unto those Notions and his natural Light to excite or direct them I mean in the Works of Nature not superadded positive Institutions doth also belong thereunto Wherefore the whole Instruction that God intended to give unto man by the Works of Creation with their Order and End is as was said included herein What he might learn from them or what God taught him by them was no less his Duty than what his own inbred Light directed him unto Rom. 1. 18 19 20. Thus the framing of the world in six Dayes in six Dayes of Work was intended to be instructive unto man as well as the consideration of the things materially that were made God could have immediately produced All out of Nothing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the shortest measure of Time conceivable But he not only made all things for himself or his glory but disposed also the Order of their Production unto the same End And herein consisted part of that Covenant Instruction which he gave unto man in that condition wherein he was made that through him he might have glory ascribed unto him on the Account of his Works themselves as also of the Order and Manner of their Creation For it is vain to imagine that the world was made in six Dayes and those closed with a Day of Rest without an especial respect unto the Obedience of Rational Creatures seeing absolutely with respect unto God himself neither of them was necessary And what he intended to teach them thereby it was their duty to enquire and know Hereby then man in general was taught Obedience and Working before he entred into Rest. For being created in the Image of God he was to conform himself unto God As God wrought before he rested so was he to work before his Rest his condition rendring that working in him Obedience as it was in God an Effect of Soveraignty And by the Rest of God or his Satisfaction and Complacency in what he had made and done he was instructed to feek Rest with God or to enter into that Rest of God by his complyance with the Ends intended § 17 And whereas the innate Light and Principles of his own mind informed him that some time was to be set apart to the solemn
Apprehension if besides sundry other invincible Reasons that lye against it I did not find that God had alwayes before in all States of the Church from the foundation of the world invariably required the Observation of one Day in seven and I know no Reason why what had been observed all along so far upon his own Authority he would have observed still but no longer on his Command but on the Invention and Consent of men Had the Religious Observance of one Day in seven been utterly laid aside and abolished it would and ought to to have been concluded that the Law of it was expired in the Cross of Christ as were those of Circumcision the Sacrifices and the whole Temple-Worship But to have this Observance continued by the whole Church in and under the Approbation of God whereof none ever doubted by a Reassumption of it through the Authority of the Church after God had taken off his own from it is a most vain Imagination § 39 I dispute not of what the Church may appoint for good Orders sake to be observed in Religious Assemblies But this I dare say confidently that no Church nor Churches not all the Churches in the World have Power by common Consent to ordain any thing in the Worship of God as a Part of it which God had once ordained commanded and required but now under the Gospel ceaseth so to do as Circumcision and Saorifices But this is the State of the Religious Observance of one Day in seven None can deny but that formerly it was ordained and appointed of God And it should seem according to this Opinion that he took off the Authority of his own Command that the same Observance might be continued upon the Authority of the Church Credat Apella Neither do the Footsteps of the Occasion of any such Ecclesiastical Institution appear any where on Record in the Scripture where all things of an absolute new and Arbitrary Institution whether occasional or durable are taken notice of There is indeed mention made and that frequently of the first day of the Week to be set apart for the Assembling of Believers for the Worship of God and a solid Reason is insinuated why that especial day in particular ought so to be But why one Day in seven should be constantly observed to the purpose mentioned no Reason no Account is given in the New Testament other than why men should not lie or stea ' Nor hath any man a Ground to imagine that there was an Intercision of a Sabbatical Observance by the interposition of any time between the Observation of the seventh Day and of the first of the Week for the same Ends and Purposes though not absolutely in the same manner If there be any Indications Proofs Evidences that the first Churches continued without the Observation of one Day in seven after they desisted from having a Religious Respect unto the seventh Day before they had the same regard to the first of the Week unto this purpose I wish they might be produced for they would be of good weight in this matter but as yet no such thing is made to appear For if the Obligation of the Precept for Observing one Day in seven as a Sacred Rest to God may be suspended in any change of the outward State and Condition of the Church it cannot be esteemed to be Moral I speak not of the actual Observance of the thing commanded which for many causes may occasionally and temporarily be superseded but of the obliging force and power in the Command it self which if it be Moral is perpetual and not capable of Interruption Now Testimonies we have that sundry persons not sufficiently instructed in the Liberty of the Gospel and the Law of its Obedience observed both the Dayes the seventh and the first yea it may be that for a while some observed the one day and some the other but that any Christians of old thought themselves de facto set at liberty from the Religious Observation of one day in seven this neither is nor can be proved This Practice then was Universal and that approved of God as we shall see afterwards and farther in another Discourse now more than once directed unto Now what can any man conceive to be the ground of this unvariableness in the commanded and approved Observation of one day in seven in all states conditions and alterations in and of the Church but that the Command for it is part of the Moral unchangeable Law Hereby therefore it is confirmed unto us so to be And indeed if every State of the Church be founded in an especial Work of God and his Rest thereon and complacency therein as a Pledge or Testimony of giving his Church Rest in himself as elsewhere shall be fully confirmed a Sabbatical Rest must be necessary unto the Church in every state and condition And although absolutely another Day might have been fixed on under the New Testament and not one in an Hebdomadal Revolution because its peculiar works were not precisely finished in six Dayes yet that season being before fixed and determined by the Law of Creation no Innovation nor Alteration would be allowed therein § 40 There is yet remaining that which is principally to be pleaded in this cause and which of it self is sufficient to bear the weight of the whole Now this is the Place which the command for the Observation of a Sabbath unto God holds in the Decalogue Concerning this we have no more to enquire but whether it have obtained a station therein in its own Right or were on some other occasion advanced to that Priviledge For if it be free of that Society in its own Right or on the Account of its Origine and Birth the Morality of it can never be impeached if it had only an Occasional Interest therein and held it by a lease of time it may ere this be long since disseized of it Now we do not yet dispute whether the seventh Day precisely be ordained in the fourth Commandment and do take up the whole nature of it as the only subject of it and alone required in it Only I take it for granted that the Observation of one Day in seven is required in the Command which is so because the seventh Day or a seventh Day in a septenary Revolution is expresly commanded § 41 It is indeed by many pretended that the Command firstly and directly respecteth the seventh Day precisely and one Day in seven no otherwise than as it necessarily follows thereon For where the seventh Day is required one in seven is so consequentially And they who thus pretend have a double Design the one absolutely contradictory to the other For those do so who from thence conclude that the seventh Day precisely comprizing the whole Nature of the Sabbath that day is indispensibly and everlastingly to be observed And those do so who with equal confidence draw their conclusion to the utter Abolition of the whole Sabbath and
is such a Determination of this Time unto one Day in seven as it must needs be the highest Impudence in any Person Persons or Churches to attempt any alteration herein And notwithstanding the pretences of some about their liberty none yet have been so hardy from the foundation of the World as practically to determine a Day for the Worship of God in any other Revolution of Dayes or Times to the neglect and exclusion of one Day in seven Yea the Light hereof is such and the use of it so great that those who have taken up with the worst of Superstitions instead of Religion as the Mahumetans yet complying in general with the performance of a solemn Worship to God have found it necessary to fix on one certain Day in the Hebdomadal Revolution for that purpose And indeed partly from the Appointment of God partly from the Nature of the Thing it self the Religious observation of such a Day is the great preservative of all solemn Profession of Religion in the World This the Law of Nature this the written Word directs unto and this Experience makes manifest unto all Take away from amongst men a conscience of observing a fixed stated Day of Sacred Rest to God and for the celebration of his Worship in Assemblies and all Religion will quickly decay if not come to nothing in this World And it may be observed though it be not evident whether be the Cause or the Effect that where and amongst whom Religion flourisheth in its power there and amongst them is conscience the most exercised and the most diligence used in the observation of such a Day I will not say absolutely that it is Religion or other Principles that teacheth men exactness in the observation of this Day nor on the other hand that a conscience made of this observation doth procure an universal strictness in other Duties of Religion But this is evident that they are mutually helpfull unto one another And therefore though some have laboured to divest this Observation of any immediate Divine Authority yet they are forced to supply such a Constitution for the Observation of one Day in seven as that they affirm that none can omit its Observation without Sin in ordinary cases whether they have done well to remove from it the command of God and to substitute their own in the room of it they may do well to consider § 31 Let then the state of things in reference unto the first day of the week with the presence of God in and his blessing upon the Worship of the Church therein be considered And this is a consideration as I think by no means to be despised It is manifest to all unprejudiced persons that the Apostles and Apostolical Churches did religiously observe this Day And no man can with any modesty question the celebration of the Worship of God therein in the next succeeding Generations In the possession of this practise are all the Disciples of Christ at this day in the World some very few only excepted who Sabbatize with the Jews or please themselves with a vain pretence that every Day is unto them a Sabbath Nor is it simply the Catholicism of this practise which I insist upon though that be such and hath such weight in things of this nature as that for my part I shall not dissent from any practise that is so attested But it is the blessing of God upon it and the Worship on this Day performed which is pleaded as that which ought to be of an high esteem with all humble Christians On this Day throughout all Ages hath the Edification of the Churches been carried on and that publick revenue of Glory been rendred unto God which is his due On this Day hath God given his presence unto all his solemn Ordinances for all the Ends for which he hath appointed them Nor hath he by any means given the least intimation of his displeasure against his Churches for their continuance in the observation of it On the other side not only have the wisest and holiest men who have complained of the Sins of their several times and Ages wherein they lived which procured the pouring out of the Judgements of God upon them constantly reckoned the neglect and prophanation of the Lords-day among them but such instances have been given of particular severities against them who have openly prophaned this Day and that upon unquestionable Testimonies as may well affect the minds and consciences of those who profess a Reverence of God in the holy dispensations of his Providence Nor can any of these things be pleaded to give countenance unto any other Day that should be set up in competition with the Lords-day or the first day of the week What of this nature can be spoken concerning the seventh Day now by some contended for and that which is grievous by some persons Holy and Learned Of what use hath it ever been to the Church of God setting aside the occasional Advantages taken from it by the Apostles of preaching the Gospel in the Synagogues of the Jews What Testimonies have we of the presence of God with any Churches in the Administration of Gospel-Ordinances and Worship on that Day And if any lesser Assemblies do at present pretend to give such a Testimony wherein is it to be compared with that of all the holy Churches of Christ throughout the World in all Ages especially in those last past Let men in whose hearts are the wayes of God seriously consider the use that hath been made under the blessing of God of the conscientious observation of the Lords-day in the past and present age unto the promotion of Holiness Righteousness and Religion universally in the power of it and if they are not under invincible prejudices it will be very difficult for them to judge that it is a Plant which our Heavenly Father hath not planted For my part I must not only say but plead whilst I live in this World and leave this Testimony to the present and future ages if these Papers see the light and do survive that if I have ever seen any thing in the wayes and worship of God wherein the power of Religion or Godliness hath been expressed any thing that hath represented the Holiness of the Gospel and the Author of it any thing that hath looked like a Proeludium unto the everlasting Sabbath and Rest with God which we aim through Grace to come unto it hath been there and with them where and amongst whom the Lords-day hath been had in highest esteem and a strict observation of it attended unto as an Ordinance of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Remembrance of their Ministry their Walking and Conversation their Faith and Love who in this Nation have most zealously pleaded for and have been in their persons Families and Churches or Parishes the most strict observers of this Day will be precious with them that fear the Lord whilst the Sun and Moon endure Their Doctrine also in