EXERCITATION III.
OF THE CAUSES OF THE SABBATH.
1. Of the causes of the Sabbath. 2. God the absolute original cause of it— Distinction of divine laws into moral and positive. 3. Divine laws of a mixed nature; partly moral, partly positive. 4. Opinion of some that the law of the Sabbath was purely positive—Difficulties of that opinion. 5,
SECT. 1.] OF THE CAUSES OF THE SABBATH. 327
Opinion of them who maintain the observation of one day in seven to be moral. 6. Opinion of them who make the observation of the seventh day precisely to be a moral duty. 7. The seeond opinion asserted. 8. The common notion of the Sabbath explained. 9. The true notion of it further inquired into. 10. Continuation of the same disquisition. 11. The law of nature, wherein it consists—Opinion of the philosophers. 12.-Not com- prised in the dictates of reason—No obliging authority in them formally considered. 13. Uncertainty and disagreement about the dictates of reason —Opinions of the Magi, Zeno, Chrysippus, Plato, Archelaus, Aristippus, Carneades, Brennus, ete. 14. Things may belong to the law of nature not discoverable to the common reason of the most. 15. The law of nature, wherein it doth really consist. 16. Light given unto a septenary sacred rest in the law of nature. 17. Further instances thereof. 18. The obser- yation of the Sabbath on the same foundation with monogamy. 19. The seventh day an appendage of the covenant of works. 20. How far the whole notion of a weekly sacred rest was of the law of nature. 21. Natural light obscured by the entrance of sin. 22. The sum of what is proposed. 23. The inquiry about the causes of the Sabbath renewed. 24, The command of it, in what sense a law moral, and how evidenced soto be. 25. To wor- ship God in associations and assemblies a moral duty. 26. One day in seven required unto solemn worship by the law of our creation. 27. What is necessary to warrant the ascription of any duty to the law of creation. 28. (1.) That it be congruous to the known principles of it. 29. (2.) That it have a general principle in the light of nature. 30. (3.) That it be taught by the works of creation. 31. (4.) Direction for its observance, by superadded revelation, no impeachment of it. 32. How far the same duty may be required by a law moral and by a law positive. 33. Vindication of the truths laid down from an objection. 34. Other evidences of the mo- rality of this duty. 35. Required in all states of the church. 36. These varied states. 37. Command for the Sabbath before the fall; 38. Before and at the giving of the law, and under the gospel. 39. Whether appointed by the church. 40. Of the fourth commandment in the decalogue. 41. The proper subject of it. 42. The seventh day precisely not primarily required therein. 43. Somewhat moral in it granted by all. 44. The matter of this command a moral duty by the law of creation. 45. The morality of the precept itself proved from its interest in the decalogue, in various in- stances. 46. The law of the Sabbath only preferred above all ceremonial and judicial laws. 47. The words of our Saviour, Matt. xxiv. 20, consi- dered. 48. The whole law of the decalogue established by Christ. 49. Ob- jections proposed. 50. The first answered. 51. The second answered. 52. The third answered. 53. One day in seven, not the seventh day pre- cisely, required in the decalogue. 54. An objection from the sense of the law. 55. Answered. 56, 57. Other objections answered, 58, 59. Col. ii. 16, 17, considered.
1. WE have fixed the original of the sabbatical rest, according to the best light we have received into these things, and confirmed the reasons of it with the consent of mankind. The next step in our ‘progress must be an inquiry into zfs causes. And here also we fall immediately into those difficulties and entanglements which the va- rious apprehensions of learned men, promoted and defended with much diligence, have occasioned. I have no design to oppose or
328 OF THE CAUSES OF THE SABBATH. [ EXERC. III.
contend with any, although a modest examination of the reasons of some will be indispensably necessary unto me. All that I crave is the liberty of proposing my own thoughts and judgment in this mat- ter, with the reasons and grounds of them. When that is done, I shall humbly submit the whole to the examination and judgment of all that call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, their Lord and ours.
2, First, it is agreed by all that God alone is the supreme, ori- ginal, and absolute cause of the Sabbath. Whenever it began, whenever it ends, be it expired or still in force, of what kind soever were its institution, the law of it was from God. It was from hea- ven, and not of men; and the will of God is the sole ruleand mea- sure of our observation of it, and obedience to him therein. What may or may not be done, in reference unto the observation of a day of holy rest, by any inferior authority comes not here under consi- deration. But whereas there are two sorts of laws whereby God requires the obedience of his rational creatures, which are commonly called moral and positive, it is greatly questioned and disputed to whether of these sorts doth belong the command of a sabbatical rest. Positive laws are taken to be such as have no reason for them in themselves,—nothing of the matter of them is taken from the things themselves commanded,—but do depend merely and solely on the sovereign will and pleasure of God. Such were the laws and institutions of the sacrifices of old; and such are those which con- cern the sacraments and other things of the like nature under the new testament. Moral laws are such as have the reasons of them taken from the nature of the things themselves required in them; for they are good from their respect to the nature of God himself, and from that nature and order of all things which he hath placed in the creation. So that this sort of laws is but declarative of the absolute goodness of what they do require; the other is constitutive of it, as unto some certain ends. Laws positive, as they are occa- sionally given, so they are esteemed alterable at pleasure. Being fixed by mere will and prerogative, without respect to any thing that should make them necessary antecedent to their giving, they may by the same authority at any time be taken away and abolished. Such, I say, are they in their own nature, and as to any firmitude that they have from their own subject-matter. But with respect unto God’s determination, positive divine laws may become eventu- ally unalterable. And this difference is there between legal and evangelical institutions. The laws of both are positive only, equally proceeding from sovereign will and pleasure, and in their own na- tures equally alterable; but to the former God had in his purpose fixed a determinate time and season wherein they should expire or