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and no otherwise. If any of them fell under any other consideration, so far as they did so, he designeth not to speak of them. Now, those things only were Mosaic, which being instituted by Moses, and figurative of good things to come, or the things which being of the same nature with the residue of his ceremonies, were before appointed, but accommodated by him to the use of the church which he built; such as sacrifices and circumcision. For they were all of them nothing else but an obscure adumbration of the things whereof Christ was the body. So far then as the weekly Sabbath had any additions made unto it, or limitation given of it, or directions for the manner of its observance, or respected the services then to be performed in it, and by all accommodated unto that dispensation of the covenant which the posterity of Abraham was then brought into, it was a shadow, and is taken away by Christ. Therewith falls its limitation to the seventh day, its rigorous observance, its penal sanction, its being a sign between God and that people; in a word, every thing in it, and about it, that belonged unto the then present administration of the covenant, or was accommodated to the Judaical church or state. But now if it be proved that a septenary sacred rest was appointed in paradise, that it hath its foundation in the law of creation, that thereon it was observed antecedently unto the institution of Mosaic ceremonies, and that God renewed the command concerning it, in his system of moral precepts manifoldly distinguished from all ceremonial ordinances; so far, and in these respects, it hath no concern in these words of the apostle.

3. It cannot be said, that the religious observance of one day in seven, as a holy rest unto God, is abolished by Christ, without casting a great reflection of presumption on all the churches of Christ in the world, I mean, that now are, or ever were so; for they all have observed, and do so observe such a day. I shall not now dispute about the authority of the church to appoint days unto holy or religious uses, to make holydays. Let it be granted to be, whatever any yet hath pretended or pleaded that it is. But this I say, that where God by his authority had commanded the observance of a day to himself, and the Lord Christ by the same authority hath taken off that command, and abolished that institution; it is not in the power of all the churches in the world, to take up the religious observance of that day to the same ends and purposes. It is certain that God did appoint that a Sabbath of rest should be observed unto him, and for the celebration of his solemn worship on one day in seven. The whole command of God to this effect is now pleaded to be dissolved, and all obligation

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from thence unto its observance to be abolished, în and by Christ. Then say I, it is unlawful for any church or churches in the world to reassume this practice, and to impose the observance of it, on the disciples of Christ. Be it that the church may appoint holydays of its own, that have no foundation in, nor relation to the law of Moses; yet doubtless it ought not to dig any of his ceremonies out of their grave, and impose them on the necks of the disciples of Christ. Yet so must it be thought to do by the constant practice and injunction hereof, on this hypothesis, namely, that the religious observance of one day in seven, is absolutely abolished by Christ, as a mere part of the law of commandments contained in ordinances, which was nailed to his cross and buried with him.

4. Herewith fall the arguments taken from the apostles calling the Sabbath in this place a shadow. For it is said, that nothing which is moral can be a shadow. It is true, that which is moral, so far as it is moral, cannot be a shadow. We there

fore say, that the weekly observance of a day of rest, from the foundation of the world, whereunto a general obligation was laid on all men unto its observance, the command whereof was a part of the moral law of God, was no shadow, nor is so called by the apostle, nor did typify good things to come. But that which is in its own nature moral, may in respect of some peculiar manner of its observance, in such a time or season, and by some adjuncts annexed to it, in respect whereof it becomes a part of ceremonial worship, be so far, and in those respects esteemed a shadow, and as such pass away. In brief, the command itself, of observing one day in seven as a holy rest unto God, hath nothing Aaronical or typical in it, but hath its foundation in the light of nature, as directed by the works of God and his rest thereon. For its limitation precisely to the last day of the week, with other directions and injunctions for and in the manner of its observance, they were Mosaic, and as a shadow are departed, as we shall manifest in our ensuing Exercitations.

§ 59. But yet neither can it be absolutely proved, if we would insist thereon, that the weekly Sabbath is in any sense intended in these words of the apostle. For he may design the Sabbatical years which were instituted among that people, and probably now pressed by the Judaizing teachers on the Gentile proselytes. Nor will the exception put in from some of the Rabbins, that the Sabbatical years were not to be observed out of the land of Canaan, from which Colosse was far enough distant, reinforce the argument to this purpose. For as men in one place, may have their consciences exercised and bound with the opinion of what is to be done in another, though they can

not engage in the practice of it whilst they are absent; so our apostle chargeth the Galatians, as far distant from Canaan as the Colossians, that when they began to judaize, they observed: years as well as days, and months, and times, which could respect only the Sabbatical years that were instituted by the law of Moses.

EXERCITATION XXXVIII.

Fourth Exercitation concerning the Day of Sacred Rest.

§1. The Sabbath how required by the law of nature, as a covenant. § 2. Explanations of the law of the Sabbath, in the fourth precept of the decalogue. § 3. The law of creation and covenant of works, renewed in the church of Israel, with what alterations. § 4. The Sabbath, why said to be given peculiarly to the Israelites. § 5. Change in the covenant, introduceth a change in the Sabbath. § 6. The whole nature of the Judaical Sabbath, and how it is abolished. § 7. The sense of the Jews concerning the original of the Sabbath rejected. § 8. The first appropriation of the law of the Sabbath to that people, Exod. xvi. § 9. Their mistakes about the observance of it. § 10. The giving of the law on mount Sinai, with the ends of it. § 11. Nature of the fourth commandment thereon; what ceremonial in it. § 12. Renovation of the command of the Sabbath, Exod. xxxi. 12, 13. § 13. Occasion hereof. § 14. Appropriations made of the Sabbath to the church of Israel in this renovation. § 15. The commandment renewed again, Exod. xxxiv. 21. New additions made to it. § 16. So also, Exod. xxxv. 2, 3. § 17. The whole matter stated, Deut. v. 13–15. § 18. The conclusion.

We have declared how the observance of a septenary

1. sacred rest, is required by the moral law, or the law of our creation. Now this is not absolutely and merely as it is a law; but as it contained a covenant between God and man. A law it might have been, and not have had the nature of a covenant, which doth not necessarily follow upon either its instructive or preceptive power. Yet it was originally given in the counsel of God to that end, and accompanied with promises and threatenings, whence it had the nature of a covenant. By virtue of this law as a covenant, was the observance of a Sabbath prescribed and required, as a token and pledge of God's rest in that covenant, in the performance of the works whereon it was constituted; and of the interest of man in that rest, as also a means of entrance into it. On this ground it should have been observed in the state of innocence, wherein the law of it was given and declared. For it was no less necessary unto that state and condition, than unto any other wherein God requireth

covenant obedience of men; nor, considering the nature and ends of a holy rest or Sabbath, can any reason be given, why it should be thought to be accommodated only to the administration of the covenant under the Old Testament after the giving of the law, whereunto by some it is appropriated.

§ 2. It is true indeed, that in the fourth commandment, there is an explanation of the rest of the Sabbath, so far as it consisteth in a cessation from our own works, that are of use and advantage to the outward man in this life, suited as unto the state and condition of mankind in general since the fall, so unto the especial state of the Jews, at that time when the law was given; as there was also in the additional appendix of the first commandment. But for the substance of it, the same kind of rest was to be observed in the state of innocence, and was necessary thereunto, on the grounds before insisted on. Servile labour, with trouble, sweat and vexation, was occasioned by the curse, Gen. iii. 17-19. The state also of servants and handmaids, such as was then, and is still in use, followed on the entrance of sin, though merely to serve, be no part of the curse, 1 Cor. vii. 20, 21. as having its foundation in that subordination which is natural. And the government of servants ought not to be despotical, but paternal, Gen. xviii. 19. In these things there was some variation, supposed in the giving of the decalogue, as to their outward manner, from the original state of things amongst mankind. But there was also work required of man, or labour in the earth, with reference unto his natural life or subsistence in this world, in the state of innocence. For it is said expressly, that God put man into the garden, 72, Gen. ii. 15. to labour in it; and to preserve it by labour for his use. A cessation therefore from bcdily labour was consistent with, and useful unto that condition that men thereby might be enabled to give themselves (in the season they were directed unto by the works and example of God,) wholly to the special ends of living unto him according to the covenant made with them.

There is nothing therefore in the fourth commandment, directing unto six days of labour, and requiring a seventh unto rest, that is inconsistent, or not compliant with the law of our creation, and the state of living unto God constituted thereby; although 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

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