is the first express mention of the Sabbath unto and amongst that people And it sufficiently declares that this was not the absolute Original of a Sabbatical Rest. It is only an Appropriation and Application of the Old Command unto them For the words are not preceptive but directive They do not Institute any thing anew but direct in the Practice of what was before Hence it is affirmed v. 29. that God gave them the Sabbath namely in this new Confirmation of it and Accommodation of it to their present Condition For this new Confirmation of it by withholding of Manna on that day belonged meerly and solely unto them and was the especial limitation of the seventh Day precisely wherein we are not concerned who do live on the the true Bread that came down from Heaven In those words therefore to morrow is the Rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord there is a certain limitation of the Day a Direction for its Sanctification as confirmed by the New sign of withholding Manna all which belonged to them peculiarly For this was the first Time that as a People they observed the Sabbath which in Aegypt they could not do And into this Institution and the Authority of it must they resolve their Practice who adhere unto the Observation of the seventh Day precisely For that day is no otherwise confirmed in the Decalogue but as it had Relation hereunto § 9 The Jews in this place fall into a double mistake about the Practical Observation of their Sabbath For from those words Bake that which you will bake and seethe that which you will seethe and that which remaineth lay up for you to be kept untill the morning v. 23. They conclude it to be unlawful to bake or seethe any thing on the Sabbath Day whereas the words have respect only to the Manna that was to be preserved And from the words of v. 29. See for that the Lord hath given you the Sabbath therefore he giveth you on the sixth day the Bread of two Dayes abide you every man in his place let no man go out of his place on the seventh day they have made a Rule yea many Rules about what Motions or removals are lawful on the Sabbath Day and what not And hence they have bound themselves with many anxious and scrupulous Observances though the Injunction it self do purely and solely respect the people in the Wilderness that they should not go out into the Fields to look for Manna on that day which some of them having done v. 27. an occasion was taken from thence for this Injunction And hereunto do some of the Heathen Writers ascribe the Original of the Sabbatical Rest among the Jews supposing that the seventh day after their departure out of Aegypt they came to a place of Rest in Remembrance whereof they consecrated one day in seven to Rest and idleness ever after whereunto they add other fictions of an alike nature See Tacit Hist. lib. 5. § 10 Not long after ensued the giving of the Law on Sinai Exod. 20. That the Decalogue is a summary of the Law of Nature or the Moral Law is by all Christians acknowledged nor could the Heathens of old deny it And it is so perfectly Nothing belongs unto that Law which is not comprized therein Nor can any one Instance be given to the contrary Nor is there any thing directly and immediately in it but what belongs unto that Law Only God now made in it an especial Accommodation of the Law of their Creation unto that people whom he he was in a second Work now forming for himself Isa. 43. 19 20 21. Chap. 51. 15 16. And this he did as every part of it was capable of being so accommodated To this purpose he prefaceth the whole with an Intimation of his particular Covenant with them I am the Lord thy God and addeth thereunto the Remembrance of an especial Benefit that they and they alone were made partakers of That brought thee out of the Land of Aegypt out of the house of Bondage which he did in the pursuit of his especial Covenant with Abraham and his seed This made the Obligation to Obedience unto the Law as promulgated on Mount Sinai to belong unto them peculiarly to us it is only an everlasting Rule as declarative of the Will of God and the Law of our Creation The Obligation I say that arose unto Obedience from the Promulgation of the Law on Mount Sinai was peculiar unto the Israelites and sundry things were then and there mixed with it that belonged unto them alone And whereas the Mercy the consideration whereof he proposeth as the great Motive unto Obedience which was his bringing them out of Aegypt with Reference unto his setling of them in the Land of Canaan was a Typical Mercy it gave the whole Law a station in the Typical Church State which they were now bringing into It altered not the nature of the things commanded which for the substance of them were all Moral but it gave their Obedience unto it a new and Typical Respect even as it was the Tenor of the Covenant made with them in Sinai with Respect unto the promised Land of Canaan and their Typical State therein § 51 This in an especial manner was the condition of the fourth Commandment Three things are distinctly proposed in it 1. The Command for an Observance of a Sabbath Day v. 8. Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy This contains the whole substance of the Command The formal Reason whereof is contained in the last clause of it Wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath Day and hallowed it And upon the neglect of the Observance of the Sabbath in former Generations with a Prospect on the many Difficulties that would arise among the people in the Observation of it for the future as also because the Foundation and Reason of it in the Law of Creation being principally external in the Works and Rest of God that ensued thereon were not so absolutely ingrafted in the minds of men as continually to evidence and manifest themselves as do those of the other Precepts there is an especial note put upon it for Remembrance And whereas it is a positive Precept as is that which follows it all the rest being Negatives it stood more in need than they of a particular charge and special Motives of which Nature one is added also to the next Command being in like manner a Positive Enunciation 2. Secondly There is an express Determination of this Sabbath to be one Day in seven without which it was only included in the Original Reason of it v. 9 10. Six dayes shalt thou-labour and do all thy Work but the seventh Day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God And herein the Day originally fixed in the Covenant of Works is again limited unto this people to continue unto the Time of the full Introduction and Establishment of the New Covenant And this limitation of the seventh Day was
God provided in his services of old that he who was not able to offer a Bullock might offer a Dove with respect unto their outward condition in the world so here there is an allowance also for the natural temperaments and abilities of men Only whereas if Persons of old had pretended poverty to save their charge in the procuring of an offering it would not have been acceptable yea they would themselves have fallen under the curse of the Deceiver so no more will now a pretence of weakness or natural inability be any excuse unto any for neglect or profaneness Otherwise God requires of us and accepts from us according to what we have and not according to what we have not And we see it by experience that some mens natural spirits will carry them out unto a continuance in the outward observance of duties much beyond nay doubly perhaps unto what others are able who yet may observe an Holy Sabbath unto the Lord with acceptation And herein lyes the spring of the accommodation of these duties to the sick the aged the young the weak or Persons any way distempered God knoweth our frame and remembreth that we are dust as also that that dust is more discomposed and weakly compacted in some than others As thus the People gathered Manna of old some more some less 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 every man according to his appetite yet he that gathered much had nothing over and he that gathered little had no lack Exod. 16. 17 18. So is every one in sincerity according to his own ability to endeavour the sanctifying of the Name of God in the duties of this Day not being obliged by the examples or prescriptions of others according to their own measures § 9 Secondly Labour to observe this Day and to perform the duties required in it with a frame of mind becoming and answering the spirit freedom and liberty of the Gospel We are now to serve God in all things in the newness of the spirit and not in the oldness of the letter Rom. 7. 6. with a spirit of peace delight joy liberty and a sound mind There were three Reasons of the bondage servile frame of spirit which was in the Judaical Church in their observance of the duties of the Law and consequently of the Sabbath First The dreadfull giving and promulgation of it on Mount Sinai which was not intended meerly to strike a terror into that Generation in the wilderness but through all Ages during that Dispensation to influence and awe the hearts of the People into a dread and terror of it Hence the Apostle tells us that Mount Sinai gendered unto bondage Gal. 4. 24. that is the Law as given thereon brought the People into a spiritually servile state wherein although secretly on the account of the Ends of the Covenant they were children and heirs yet they differed nothing from servants Chap. 4. 1 3. Secondly The renovation and re inforcement of the old Covenant with the promises and threatnings of it which was to be upon them during the continuance of that state and condition And although the Law had a new Use and End now given unto it yet they were so in the dark and the proposal of them attended with so great an obscurity that they could not clearly look into the comfort and liberty finally intended therein For the Law made nothing perfect and what was of Grace in the administration of it was so veiled with Types Ceremonies and shadows that they could not see into the End of the things that were to be done away 2 Cor. 3. 13. Thirdly The sanction of the Law by death encreased their bondage For as this in it self was a terror unto them in their services so it was expressive and a representation of the original curse of the whole Law Gal. 3. 13. And hereby were they greatly awed and terrified although some of them by especial Grace were enabled to delight themselves in God and his Ordinances And in these things was administred a spirit of bondage unto fear which by the Apostle is opposed to the spirit of Adoption whereby we cry Abba Father Rom. 8. 15. Which where it is there is liberty where the spirit of the Lord is there is liberty 2 Cor. 3. 17. and there only And therefore although they boasted that they were the children of Abraham and on that reason free and never in bondage yet our Saviour lets them know that whatever they pretended they were not free untill the Son should make them so And from these things arose those innumerable anxious scrupulosities which were upon them in the observation of this Day accompanied with the severe nature of those Additions in its observation which were made unto the Law of it as appropriated unto them for a season Now all these things we are freed from under the Gospel For 1 We are not now brought to receive the Law from Mount Sinai but are come unto Mount Sion So the Apostle at large Heb. 12. 18 19 20 21 22 23 24. For ye are not come unto the Mount that might be touched that is which naturally might be so by mens hands though morally the touching of it was forbidden and that burned with fire nor unto blackness and darkness and tempest And the sound of a Trumpet and a voice of words which they that heard entreated that the Word should not be spoke unto them any more for they could not endure that which was commanded and if so much as a Beast touch the Mountain it shall be stoned or thrust through with a dart And so terrible was the sight that Moses said I exceedingly fear and quake which it seems were the words he used where it is on this occasion said of him And Moses spake but nothing is added of what he said Exod. 19 19. which things are insisted on by him to shew the Grounds of that bondage which the People were in under the Law whereunto he addes But you are come to Mount Sion unto the City of the living God the heavenly Hierusalem Hierusalem that is above which is free which is the mother of us all Gal. 4. 26. That is we receive the Law of our Obedience from Jesus Christ who speaks from Heaven to be observed with a spirit of liberty 2 The Old Covenant is now absolutely abolished nor is the remembrance of it any way revived Heb. 8. 13. It hath no influence into nor upon the minds of Believers They are taken into a Covenant full of Grace Joy and Peace For the Law was given by Moses but Grace and Truth came by Jesus Christ Joh. 1. 17. 3 In this Covenant they receive the Spirit of Christ or Adoption to serve God without legal fear Luk. 1. 74. Rom. 8. 15. Gal. 4. 6. And there is not any thing more insisted on in the Gospel as the principal priviledge thereof It is indeed nothing to have liberty in the Word and Rule unless we have it in the Spirit and Principle
the Red Heifer with whose ashes the water of sprinkling was to be mingled for which conjecture they want not such Reasons as are usual amongst them The two first they confirm from the Repetition of the Law Deut. 5. 14 15. For there those Words as the Lord thy God commanded thee are distinctly added to those two Precepts the Fourth and Fifth and to no other And this could arise from no other cause but because God had before given them unto the people in Mara where he said he had given them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is the Ordinance and Law of the Sabbath and the Judgement of Obedience to Parents and Superiors This is one of the principal wayes whereby they confirm their Imaginations And fully to establish the Truth hereof Baal Hatturim or the small Gematrical Annotations on the Masoretical Bibles adds that in those words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the final numeral Letters make up the same number with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Name of the Place where these Laws were given And this is the summ of what is pleaded in this case § 4 But every one may easily see the Vanity of these Pretences and how easie it is for any one to frame a thousand of them who knows not how better to spend his time Aben Ezra and Abarbinel both confess that the words used in the Repetition of the Law Deut. 5. do refer to the giving of it on Mount Sinai And if we must seek for especial Reasons of the inserting of those words besides the Soveraign Pleasure of God they are not wanting which are far more probable than these of the Masters 1 The one of these Commandments closing up the first Table concerning the Worship of God and the other heading the second Table concerning our Duties amongst our selves and towards others this Memorial as the Lord thy God commanded thee is on that account expresly annexed unto them being to be distinctly applyed unto all the Rest. 2 The Fourth Command is as it were Custos primae Tabulae the Keeper of the whole first Table seeing our owning of God to be our God and our Worship of him according to his mind were solemnly to be expressed on the Day of Rest commanded to be observed for that purpose and in the neglect whereof they will be sure enough neglected whence also a Remembrance to observe this Day is so strictly injoyned And the Fifth Commandment is apparently Custos secundae Tabulae as appointed of God to contain the means of exacting the observation of all the Duties of the second Table or of punishing the neglect of them and disobedience unto them And therefore it may be the Memorial is not peculiarly annexed unto them on their own distinct Account but equally upon that of the other Commandments whereunto they do refer 3 There is yet an especial Reason for the peculiar Appropriation of these two Precepts by that Memorial unto this people For they had now given unto them an especial Typical Concern in them which did not at all belong unto the rest of mankind who were otherwise equally concerned in the Decalogue with themselves For in the Fourth Commandment whereas no more was before required but that one Day in seven should be observed as a Sacred Rest they were now precisely confined to the seventh Day in order from the finishing of the Creation or the establishing of the Law and Covenant of Works or a day answering thereunto For the Determination of the Day in the Hebdomadal Revolution was added in the Law Decalogical to the Law of Nature And this was with respect unto and in the confirmation of that Ordinance which gave them the seventh Day Sabbath in a peculiar manner that is the seventh Day after six dayes raining of Manna Exod. 16. And in the other the Promise annexed unto it of prolonging their Dayes had peculiar respect unto the Land of Canaan There is neither of these but is a far more probable Reason of the annexing those words as the Lord thy God commanded thee unto those two Commandments than that fixed on by the Talmudical Masters Herein only I agree with them that both these Commands were given alike in Mara and one of them I suppose none will deny to be a principal Dictate of the Law of Nature For the words mentioned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Ordinance and a Statute the meaning of them is plainly expounded v. 26. God then declared this unto them as his unchangeable Ordinance and Institution that he would bless them on their Obedience and punish them upon their Unbelief and Rebellion wherein they had Experience of his Faithfulness to their cost The Reader may see this Fiction farther disproved in Tostatus on the place though I confess some of his Reasons are inconstringent and frivolous Moreover this Station of Mara was on or about the twenty fourth Day of Nisan or April And the first solemn Observation of the Sabbath in the Wilderness was upon the twenty second of Jiar the Month following as may easily be evinced from Moses Journal There were therefore twenty seven dayes between this Fictitious Institution of the Sabbath and the first solemn Observation of it which was at their Station in Alush as is generally supposed certainly in the Wilderness of Sin after they had left Mara and Elim and the Coast of the Red Sea whereunto they returned from Elim Exod. 16. 1. Numb 33. 8 9 10 11. For they first began their journey out of Aegypt on the fifteenth Day of Nisan or the first Month Exod. 12. 37. Numb 33. 3. And they passed through the Sea into the Wilderness about the nineteenth Day of that Month as is evident from their journyings Numb 33. 5 6 7 8 9. On the twentifourth of that Month they pitched in Mara and it was the fifteenth day of Jiar or the second Month before they entred the Wilderness of Sin where is the first mention of their solemn Observation of the Sabbath upon the occasion of the gathering of Manna Between these two seasons three Sabbaths must needs intervene and those immediately upon its first Institution if this Fancy may be admitted And yet the Rulers of the Congregation looked upon the peoples Preparation for its Observation as an unusual thing Exod. 16. 22. Which could not have fallen out had it received so fresh an Institution Besides these Masters themselves and Raski in particular who in his Comment on the place promotes this Fancy grants that Abraham observed the Sabbath But the Law and Ordinances hereof they say he received on peculiar Favour and by especial Revelation But be it so it was the great Commendation of Abraham and that given him by God himself that he would command his Children and Houshold after him to keep the Way of the Lord Gen. 18. 19. What ever Ordinance therefore he received from God of any thing to be observed in his Worship it was a part of his Fidelity to communicate the knowledge of
Command unto the Jews it was the Duty of the Nations to whom the knowledge thereof did come to take up the Observation of it For it was doubtless their Duty to joyn themselves to God and his people and with them to observe his Statutes and Judgements and their not so doing was their sin which as is pretended they were not reproved for or God was not displeased with them on that account 4. The Publication of Gods Commands is to be stated from his giving of them and not from the Instances of mens transgressing of them Nor is it any Rule that a Law is then first given when mens sins against it are first reproved For the Instance insisted on of Nehemiah and the Tyrians with his different dealing with them and the Jews about the breach of the Law of the Sabbath Chap. 13. it is of no force in this matter For when the Tyrians knew the Command of the Sabbath among the Jews which was a sufficient Revelation of the Will of God concerning his Worship it was their Duty to observe it I do not say that it was their Duty immediately and abiding in their Gentilisme to observe the Sabbath according to the Institution it had among the Jews but it was their Duty to know own and obey the true God and to joyn themselves to his people to do and observe all his commands If this was not their Duty upon that Discovery and Revelation which those had of the Will of God who came up to Jerusalem as they did concerning whom we speak then was it not their sin to abide in their Gentilisme which I suppose will not be asserted It was therefore on one Account or other a sin in the Tyrians to prophane the Sabbath It will be said why then did not Nehemiah reprove them as well as he did the Jews The Answer is easie He was the Head and Governour of the State and Polity of the Jews unto whom it belonged to see that things amongst them were observed and done according to Gods Law and Appointment And this he was to do with Authority having the warrant of God for it With the Tyrians he had nothing to do no care of them no Jurisdiction over them no entercourse with them but according to the Law of Nations On these accounts he charged not them with sin or a Moral Evil which they would not have regarded having no regard to the true God much less to his Worship but he threatned them with War and Punishment for disturbing his Government of the people according to the Law of God It is well observed that God reproved the Profane Feasts of the Heathens and therein unquestionably the neglect of them that were of his own Appointment For this is the Nature and Method of Negative Precepts and condemnatory sentences in Divine things that they assert what is contrary to that which is forbidden and recommend that which is opposite unto what is condemned Thus the Worship of God according to his own Institution is commanded in the prohibition of making to our selves or finding out wayes of Religious Worship and Honour of our own For whereas it is a prime Dictate of the Law of Nature that God is to be worshipped according to his own Appointment which was from the Light of it acknowledged among the Heathen themselves it is not any where asserted or intimated in the Decalogical Compendium of it unless it be in that prohibition It sufficeth then that even among the Gentiles God vindicated the Authority of his own Sabbaths by condemning their impious Feasts and abominable Practices in them § 20 By the same Learned Writer p. 52. The Testimony of the Jews in this case is pleaded They generally assirm that the Sabbath was given unto them only and not to the rest of the Nations Hence it is by them called the Bride of the Synagogue Nor do they reckon the command of it amongst the Noachical Precepts which they esteem all men obliged unto and whose Observation they imposed on the Proselytes of the Gate or the uncircumcised strangers that lived amongst them Nay they say that others were liable to punishment if they did observe it For that part of the command nor the stranger that is within thy Gate they say intends no more but that no Israelite should compell him to work or make any advantage of his Labour but for himself he was not bound to abstain from labour but might exercise himself therein at his own discretion for his advantage These things are pleaded at large and confirmed with many Testimonies and Instances by the Learned Selden and from him are they again by others insisted on But the Truth is there is not any thing of force in the conceits of these Talmudical Jews in the least to weaken the principle we have laid down and established For 1. As hath been shewed this Opinion is not indeed Catholick amongst them but many and those of the most Learned of the Masters do oppose it as we have proved already And others may be added to them whose Opinion although it be peculiar yet it wanteth not a fair probability of Truth For they say that the first part of the Precept Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy hath respect to the glorifying of God on the account of his Original Work and Rest. This therefore belongs unto all mankind But as for that which follows about the six dayes labour and the seventh dayes cessation or quiet it had respect unto the Bondage of the Israelites in Aegypt and their deliverance thence and was therefore peculiar unto them So R. Ephraim in Keli Jacar And hence it may be the Word Remember hath respect unto the Command of the Sabbath from the Foundation of the world And therefore when the Command is repeated again with peculiar respect to the Church of Israel as the Motive from the Aegyptian Bondage and deliverance is expressed so the Caution of Remembring is omitted Deut. 5. 12. and transferred to this other occasion Remember that thou wast a servant v. 15. 2. The sole Foundation of it is laid in a corrupt and false Tradition or conceit of the giving of the Law of the Sabbath in Mara which we have before disproved and which is despised as vain and foolish by most Learned men 3. The Assertors of this Opinion do wofully contradict themselves in that they generally acknowledge that the Sabbath was observed by Abraham and other Patriarchs as it should seem at least four hundred years before its Institution 4. It is none of the seven called Noachical Precepts for they contain not the whole Law of Nature or Precepts of the Decalogue and one of them is Ceremonial in their sense so that nothing can thence be concluded against the Original or Nature of this Law 5. That an uncircumcised stranger was liable to punishment if he observed the Sabbath is a foolish imagination not inferiour unto that of some others of them who affirm that all the
manner of that work and labour be varied from what originally it was Likewise in that state of mankind there was to be a superiority of some over others This the natural Relation of Parents and Children makes manifest And these latter were in the Worship of God to be under the Government and Direction of the other And unto this Natural Equity is all subjection to Magistrates in Subjects and Masters in Servants reduced in the fifth Commandment So then the outward variations which are in these things supposed in the fourth Commandment do not in the least impeach its Morality or hinder but that for the substance of it it may be judged a Law Natural and Moral and a true Representation of a part of the Law of our Creation § 3 Seeing therefore that the Moral Law as a Covenant between God and man required this Sacred Rest as we have proved we must enquire what place as such it had in the Mosaical Oeconomy whereon the true Reason and Notion of the Sabbath as peculiarly Judaical doth depend For the Sabbath being originally annexed to the Covenant between God and man the Renovation of the Covenant doth necessarily require an especial Renovation of the Sabbath and the Change of the Covenant as to the nature of it must in like manner introduce a change of the Sabbath And we shall find that the Covenant of the Law or of Works had a twofold Renovation in the Church of Israel in the framing and constitution of it These rendred it their especial Covenant although it was not absolutely a New Covenant nor is it so called but is every where called the Old and hence the Sabbath became peculiarly theirs 1. It was renewed unto them materially It was originally written in the heart of man or concreated with the Faculties of his soul where its Light and Principles being excited guided and variously affected with the consideration of the Works of God proposed unto him with an instructive Ability for that End whose Directions concurred to the making up of the entire Law of Creation was evidently directive unto all the Duties which God in the first Covenant required at our hands By the Entrance of Sin with the corruption and debasing of the Faculties of our souls which ensued thereon whereby the Alteration in our Natures the principal seat and subject of this Law was so great as that we lost the Image of God or that Light and knowledge into our Duty with respect unto him which was necessary for us in that Covenant the Law it self became insufficient a lame and imperfect Guide unto the Ends of the Covenant Besides the Aspectable Creation the outward Medium of instructing man in the knowledge of the Goodness Power and Wisdom of God being for our sin brought under the curse and the creature into bondage the contemplation of it would not so clearly distinctly and perfectly represent him unto us as formerly Let men fancy what they please and please themselves whilst they will with their fancies all things both within and without in the whole Creation were brought into such Disorder and Confusion by the Entrance of sin as that the Law of Nature was utterly insufficient to enable us unto or to guide us in our liveing unto God according to the Tenor of the first Covenant There were and are indeed general Notions of Good and Evil indelibly planted on the faculties of our souls with a power of judging concerning our Actions and Moral Practices whether they are conformable unto those Notions with respect unto the superiour Judgement of God But besides the impairing of the Principles of these Notions before mentioned they were of old variously obscured perverted and stifled by Customs Prejudices and the Power of sin in the world so as that they were of little use as unto a due performance of Covenant Duties indeed of none at all in reference unto any Acceptation with God Wherefore God erecting his Church and renewing the knowledge of himself and mans duty towards him in the Posterity of Abraham he gave unto them afresh in the first place the Precepts of the Law and Covenant of Nature for the Guide and Rule of their Obedience And that this might now be permanent he reduced the substance of the whole Law unto ten Words or Commands writing them in Tables of Stone which he appointed to be sacredly kept amongst them The Law thus declared and written by him was the same I say materially and for the substance of it with the Law of our Creation or the Original Rule of our Covenant Obedience unto God Yet in it as thus transcribed there was an Innovation both in its Form and Principle of Obligation For as to its form or directive power it was now made external and objective unto the mind of man which before was principally internal and subjective And the immediate Obligation unto its Observation among that people was now from the promulgation of it on Mount Sinai and the delivery of it unto them thereon Hence it was prefaced with Motives peculiar to their state and condition and its Observation continually pressed on them afterwards with Arguments taken from their peculiar Relation unto God with his Love and Benefits unto them This gave it a new Respect because there was nothing originally in it nor belonging unto it but what was equally common unto all mankind Now this Alteration in the Law and Covenant of Creation as applyed unto the Church of the Israelites did also affect the Law of the Sabbath which was a part of it It was now no more to them a meer Moral Command only equally regarding all mankind but had a Temporary Respect given unto it which was afterwards to be abolished and taken away So was it with the whole Law and so was it with the Sabbath in particular To take up therefore the Observation of it as appointed in the Decalogue not as a material Transcript of the Law of Nature meerly but as under its Renovation to the Church of Israel is a groundless and unwarrantable going over into a part of abolished Judaisme For § 4 Secondly The Law was renewed as an ingredient into that Oeconomy under which God was pleased to bring his Church at that time before the Exhibition of the Promise or the Accomplishment of it And sundry things are to be observed herein 1. That God did not absolutely bring that people under the Covenant of Works in all the Rigor of it according unto its whole Law and Tenor to stand or fall absolutely by its Promises or Threatnings For although the Law contained the whole Rule of the Covenant and on the considerations to be afterwards mentioned it is often called the Covenant of God with that people yet were they not absolutely tyed up unto it and concluded by it as to the eternal issue of living unto God This arose from the Interposition of the Promise For the Promise of Grace in Christ being given upon the first Entrance of sin
for the Relief and Salvation of the Elect and being solemnly renewed unto Abraham and his seed four hundred and thirty years before the giving of the Law unto his Posterity there was a blessed Relief provided therein against the Curse and Threatnings annexed to the first Covenant for all them that betook themselves unto it and made use of it Notwithstanding I say this Renovation of the first Covenant materially unto them they were so far freed from its Covenant Terms as that they had a Relief provided against what they could not answer in it with the consequences thereof 2. From the Nature and Tenor of the Covenant of Works so renewed amongst that people there was begotten in their minds such a Respect unto the Rigor of its Commands the manner of their Observance or of Obedience unto them with the dread of its Curse awfully denounced amongst them as brought a servile and bondage frame of Spirit upon them in all wherein they had to do with God by vertue of the Law and Rule of that Covenant This frame of Spirit as that which stands in direct Opposition unto the freedom and liberty purchased for us by Jesus Christ to serve God in Righteousness and Holiness without fear all our Dayes is much insisted on by the Apostle Paul especially in his Epistles to the Romans and Galatians And in their Observation of the Sabbath in particular they were under this bondage filling them with many scrupulous Anxieties which arose not from the Law of the Sabbath it self as originally given unto man in the state of Innocency but from the Accommodation of the Law thereof unto them after the Entrance of sin And hereby their Sabbath Rest became unto them a great part of their wearying burthensome yoke which is taken off in Christ. 3. This Law was yet proposed to that Church and People in the Manner and Form of a Covenant and not only materially as a Law or Rule This it had from the Promises and Threatnings which it was attended withall There was adjoyned unto it Do this and live and the man that doth these things shall live in them as also Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things written in the Law to do them Not that it was hereby absolutely constituted a Covenant which eventually and finally they were to live or dye by for as we shewed before there was a Relief provided against that condition in the Promise but God gave the Old Covenant an especial Revival though with respect unto other Ends than were originally intended in it Hence this Covenant Form given unto it rendred the Obedience of that people in a great measure servile for it gendred unto bondage 4. The Law being attended with various Explanations and many Ordinances of Judgement deduced from the Principles of Moral Right and Equity contained in it was made the Rule of the Polity and Government of that people as an Holy Nation under the Rule of God himself who was their King For their Polity for the kind of it was a Theocracy over which God in an especial manner presided as their Governour and King And hence he affirms that when they would choose another King over them after the manner of the Nations that they rejected him from reigning over them though they resolved to adhere to his Laws and the manner of Government prescribed to them And this was peculiar to that people Hence the Sabbath amongst them came to have an absolute necessity accompanying it of an outward carnal Observance the neglect whereof or acting any thing against the Law of it was to be punished with Death 5. Unto this Renovation of the Covenant in the manner and for the ends expressed there was added a Typical Church State with a great number of Religious Laws and Ordinances in themselves carnal and weak but mystically significant of spiritual and heavenly things and instructive how to use the Promise that was before given for their relief from the Rigor and Curse of the Law or Covenant now proposed unto them And in all these things did the Covenant of God made with that people in the Wilderness consist The Foundation Matter Manner of Administration Promises and Threatnings of it were the same with the Covenant of Works but they were all accommodated to their Ecclesiastical and Political Estate with especial Respect unto their approaching condition in the Land of Canaan only there was in the Promise new Ends and a new Use given unto it with a Relief against its Rigor and Curse § 4 On the Account of the Accessions that were thus made to the Law and especially unto the Observation of the Sabbath is it often mentioned in the Scripture as that which God had in a peculiar manner given unto the Israelites in whose especial Worship it had so great a place many of their Principal Ordinances haveing a great Respect unto it it being also the only means of keeping up the solemnity of Natural Worship in their Synagogues among the people Acts 15. 21. Thus God sayes concerning them that he gave them his Sabbaths in the Wilderness to be a sign between him and them Ezek. 20. 10 11 12. And it is said of the same time Nehem. 9. 14. That he made known unto them his holy Sabbath that is in the manner and for the Ends expressed Nor is there any need why we should say that he gave them intends no more but that he restored the knowledge of the Sabbath amongst them the memory whereof they had almost lost although that Interpretation of the Expression might be justified For he sayes no where that he then gave his Sabbaths but that he then peculiarly gave them unto that people and that for the Ends mentioned For the Sabbath was originally a Moral Pledge and Expression of Gods Covenant Rest and our Rest in God And now was it appointed of God to be a sign of the especial Administration of the Covenant which was then enacted Hence it is said that he gave it them as a perpetual Covenant Exod. 31. 16. that they might know him to be the Lord that sanctified them v. 13. that is their God according to the Tenor of that Covenant which was to continue throughout their Generations that is until the New Covenant should be brought in and established by Christ. Thus was it peculiarly given unto them and so far as it was so as it was a sign of their Covenant as it was then first given so it is now abolished For § 5 The Renovation and change of the Covenant must and did introduce a change in the Rest annexed unto it For a Sabbath or an holy Rest belongs unto every Covenant between God and man But as for the kind and nature of it as to its Ends Use and Manner of Observation it follows the especial kind or nature of that Covenant wherein we at any season walk before God Now the Original Covenant of Works being in this Representation of it on Sinai not
this matter with the Blessing that attended it was that which multitudes now at Rest do bless God for and many that are yet alive do greatly rejoyce in Let these things be despised by those who are otherwise minded to me they are of great weight and importance § 32 Let us now a sittle consider the Day that by some is set up not only in competition with this but to its utter exclusion This is the seventh Day of the week or the old Judaical Sabbath which some contend that we are perpetually obliged to the observation of by vertue of the Fourth Commandment The Grounds whereon they proceed in their Affertion have been already disproved so far as the Nature of our present undertaking will admit and such evidences given unto the change of the Day as will not easily be everted nor removed The consequences of the observation of the seventh Day should the practice of it be re-assumed amongst Christians is that which at present I shall a little enquire into when we have summed up somewhat of what hath been spoken 1 It was not directly nor absolutely required in the Decalogue but consequentially only by way of Appropriation to the Mosaical Oeconomy whereunto it was then annexed The command is to observe the Sabbath-day and the blessing is upon the Sabbath-day God blessed the Sabbath-day And the mention of the seventh day in the Body of the command fixeth the number of the Dayes in whose Revolution a Sabbatical Rest returns but determines not an everlasting Order in them seeing the Order relating to the Old Creation is inconsistent with the Law Reason and Worship of the New And if the seventh day and the Sabbath as some pretend are the same the sense of the command in the enforcing part of it is but the seventh day is the seventh day of the Lord thy God which is none at all 2 The state of the Church and the Administration of the Covenant whereunto the observation of this day was annexed are removed so that it cannot continue no more than an House can stand without a Foundation 3 The Lord Christ who was the Lord of the Sabbath and by assuming that Iitle to himself manifested his Authority as to the disposal of the Day whereon a Sabbatical Rest was to be observed hath in his own Rest from his works limited unto us another day of Sacred Rest called from his appointment of it the Lords-day his Day who is the Lord of the Sabbath 4 The Day so introduced by his Authority hath from the Day of his Rest been observed without interruption or any such difference about it as fell out among the Churches of God about other Feast dayes whose observation was introduced among them they knew not well how as of the Pascha and the like And whereas the due observation of it hath been enjoyned by Councils Edicts of Emperors Kings and Princes Laws of all sorts advised and pressed by the antient Writers amongst Christians and the practice of its observance taken notice of by all who from the beginning have committed the Affairs of Christianity unto posterity yet none of any sort pretend to give it any original but all mediately or immediately referr it unto Christ himself The observation then of this Day First is an evident Judaizing and a returnal unto those Rudiments of the World which the Apostle so severely cautioneth us against I know not how it is come to pass but so it is faln out that the nearer Judaism is unto an absolute Abolition and Disappearance the more some seem inclinable to its revival and continuance or at least to fall back themselves into its antiquated observances An end it had put to it morally and legally long ago in the coming Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. And we may say of it what the Apostle said of Idols when the World was full of Idolatry we know that Judaism is nothing in the world no such thing as by some it is esteemed The actual Abolition of it in the profession of the present Jews by the removing of the Veyle from their Hearts and Eyes and their turning unto God we hope is in its approach And yet as was said there seems in many an inclination unto their Rites and servile observances It is apparent in the Acts and Epistles of the Apostles especially that to the Hebrews that at the first preaching of the Gospel there were very many Jews who came over to the faith and profession of it Many of these continued zealous of the Law and would bring along with them all their Mosaical Institutions which they thought were to abide in force for ever In this weakness and mis-apprehension they were forborn in the patience of God and wisdome of the Holy Ghost guiding the Apostles and Disciples of Jesus Christ. In this state things continued unto the destruction of Hierusalem and the Temple when the chiefest cause of their contests was taken away In the mean time they carried themselves very variously according to the various tempers of their minds For it is apparent that some of them were not content themselves to be indulged in their opinions and practices but they endeavoured by all means to impose the observance of the whole Mosaical Law on the Churches of the Gentiles Their Circumcision their Sabbaths their Feasts and Fasts their Abstinences from this or that kind of meats they were contending about and thereby perverting the minds of the Disciples Some stop was put to the evil consequences hereof in the Synod at Hierusalem Acts 15. which yet determined nothing concerning the Jews own practice but only concerning the liberty of the Gentile-Believers After the destruction of Hierusalem City and Temple these professing Jews fell into several distinct wayes Some of them who as is probable had despised the heavenly warning of leaving the place took up their lot amongst their unbelieving Brethren relinquishing the profession of the Gospel which they had made not it may be with any express renuntiation of Christ but with a dis-regard of the Gospel which brought them not those good things they looked for of which mind Josephus the Historian seems to be one These in time became a part of that Apostate brood which have since continued in their enmity to the Gospel and into whose new and old superstitions they introduced sundry customes which they had learned among the Christians Some absolutely relinquished their old Judaism and compleatly incorporated with the new Gentile Churches unto whom the promise and Covenant of Abraham was transferred and made over These were the genuine Disciples of our great Apostle Others continued their profession of the Gospel but yet still thought themselves obliged unto the observation of the Law of Moses and all its institutions Hereupon they continued in a distinct and separate state from the Believers and Churches of the Gentiles and that for some Ages as some say to the dayes of Adrian These it may be were they whom Eusebius out