SECT. 2-4.] OF THE CAUSES OF THE SABBATH. 329
be altered by his authority; the latter he hath fixed a perpetuity and unchangeableness unto, during the state and condition of his church in this world. The other sort of laws are perpetual and un- alterable in themselves, so far as they are of that sort,—that is, moral. For although a law of that kind may have an especial in- junction, with such circumstances as may be changed and varied (as had the whole decalogue in the commonwealth of Israel), yet so far as it is moral,—that is, as its commands or prohibitions are neces- sary emergencies, or expressions of the good or evil of the things it commands or forbids,—it is invariable. And in these things there is an agreement, unless sometimes, through mutual oppositions, men are chafed into some exceptions or distinctions.
3. Unto these two sorts do all divine laws belong, and unto these heads they may be all reduced. And it is pleaded by some that these kinds of laws are contradistinct, so that a law of one kind can. in no sense be a law of the other. And this doubtless is true reduplicatively, because they have especial formal reasons. As far and wherein any laws are positive, they are not moral; and as far as they are purely moral, they are not formally positive, though given after the manner of positive commands. Howbeit this hinders not but that some do judge that there may be and are divine laws of a mixed nature; for there may be in a divine law a foundation in and respect unto somewhat that is moral, which yet may stand in need of the superaddition of a positive command for its due observation unto its proper end. Yea, the moral reason of things commanded, which ariseth out of a due natural respect unto God and the order of the universe, may be so deep and hidden, as that God, who would make the way of his creatures plain and easy, gives out express positive commands for the observance of what is antecedently neces- sary by the law of our creation. Hence a law may partake of both these considerations, and both of them have an equal influence into its obligatory power. And by this means sundry duties, some moral, some positive, are as it were compounded in one observance; as may be instanced in the great duty of prayer. Hence the whole law of that observance becomes of a mixed nature; which yet God can separate at his pleasure, and taking away that which is positive, leave only that which is absolutely moral in force. And this kind of laws, which have their foundation in the nature of things them- selves, which yet stand in need of further direction for their due observation, which is added unto them by positive institution, some call moral-positive.
4. According to these distinctions of the nature of the laws which God expresseth his will in and by, are men’s apprehensions different about the immediate and instrumental cause of the sabbatical rest.
330 OF THE CAUSES OF THE SABBATH. [ EXERC. OI. |
That God was the author of it is, as was said, by all agreed. But, say some, the law whereby he appointed it was purely positive, the matter of it being arbitrary, stated and determined only in the command itself; and so the whole nature of the law and that com- manded in it are changeable. And because positive laws did, and always do, respect some other things besides and beyond themselves, it is pleaded that this law was ceremonial and typical; that is, it was an institution of an outward, present religious observation, to signify and represent something not present nor yet come. Such were all the particulars of the whole system of Mosaical worship, whereof this law of the Sabbath was a part and an instance. In brief, some say that the whole law of the Sabbath was, as to its general nature, positive and arbitrary, and so changeable; and in particular, ceremonial and typical, and so actually changed and abo- lished. But yet it is so fallen out, that those who are most positive in these assertions cannot but acknowledge that this law is so ingrafted into, and so closed up with somewhat that is moral and unalterable, that it is no easy thing to hit the joint aright, and make a separation of the one from the other. But concerning any other law expressly and confessedly ceremonial, no such thing can be observed. They were all evidently and entirely arbitrary institutions, without any such near relation to what is moral as might trouble any one to make a distinction between them. For instance, the law of sacrifices hath indeed an answerableness in it to a great principle of the law of nature, namely, that we must honour God with our substance and the best of our increase; yet that this might be done many other ways, and not by sacrifice, if God had pleased so to ordain, every — one is able to apprehend. It is otherwise in this matter; for none will deny but that it is required of us, in and by the law of nature, that some time be set apart and dedicated unto God, for the obser- vation of his solemn worship in the world; and it is plain to every one that this natural dictate is inseparably included in the law of the Sabbath. It will therefore surely be difficult to make it abso- lutely and universally positive. I know some begin to whisper things inconsistent with this concession. But we have as yet the universal consent of all divines, ancient and modern, fathers, school- men, and casuists, concurring in this matter; for they all unanimously affirm, that the separation of some part of our time to sacred uses, and the solemn honouring of God, is required of us in the light and by the law of nature. And herein lies the fundamental notion of the law now inquired after. This also may be further added, that whereas this natural dictate for the observation of some time in the solemn worship of God hath been accompanied with a declaration of his will from the foundation of the world, that this time should