First, He was made a rational creature, and thereby necessarily in a moral dependence on God: for being endowed with intellectual faculties, in an immortal soul, capable of eternal blessedness or © misery, able to know God, and to regard him as the first cause and last end of all, as the author of his being and object of his blessed- ness, it was naturally and necessarily incumbent on him, without any further considerations, to love, fear, and obey him, and to trust in him as a preserver and rewarder. And this the order of his nature, called “ the image of God,” inclined and enabled him unto. For it was not possible that such a creature should be produced, and not
SECT. 10.] OF THE CAUSES OF THE SABBATH. 337
lie under an obligation unto all those duties which the nature of God and his own, and the relation of the one to the other, made necessary. Under this consideration alone, it was required, by the law of man’s creation, that some time should be separated unto the solemn expression of his obedience, and due performance of the wor- ship that God required of him; for in vain was he endued with intellectual faculties and appointed unto society, if he were not to honour God by them in all his relations, and openly express the homage which he owed him. And this could not be done but in a time appointed for that purpose; the neglect whereof must be a de- viation from the law of the creation. And as this is generally acknowledged, so no man can fancy the contrary. Here, then, do we fix the necessity of the separation of some time to the ends of a sabbatical rest, even on the nature of God and man, with the rela- tion of one to the other; for who can say no part of our time is due to God, or so to be disposed?
Secondly, Man in his creation, with respect unto the ends of God therein, was constituted under a covenant. That is, the law of his obedience was attended with promises and threatenings, rewards and punishments, suited unto the goodness and holiness of God; for every law with rewards and recompenses annexed hath the nature of a covenant. And in this case, although the promise wherewith man was encouraged unto obedience, which was that of eternal life with God, did in strict justice exceed the worth of the obedience re- quired, and so was a superadded effect of goodness and grace, yet was it suited unto the constitution of a covenant meet for man to serve God in unto his glory; and, on the other side, the punishment threatened unto disobedience, in death and an everlasting separation from God, was such as the righteousness and holiness of God, as his supreme governor, and Lord of him and the covenant, did require. Now, this covenant belonged unto the law of creation; for although God might have dealt with man in a way of absolute sovereignty, requiring obedience of him without a covenant of a reward infinitely ~ exceeding it, yet having done so in his creation, it belongs unto and is inseparable from the law thereof. And under this consideration, the time required in general for a rest unto God, under the first general notion of the nature and being of man, is determined unto ‘one day in seven; for as we shall find that in the various dispen- sations of the covenant with man and the change of its nature, so long as God is pleased to establish any covenant with man, he hath _ and doth invariably require one day in seven to be set apart unto the assignation of praise and glory to himself, so we shall see after- wards that there are indications of his mind to this purpose in the. covenant itself.
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338 OF THE CAUSES OF THE SABBATH. [EXERC. III.
Thirdly, Man is to be considered with especial respect unto that covenant under which he was created, which was a covenant of works; for herein rest with God was proposed unto him as the end or reward of his own works, or of his personal obedience unto God, by absolute strict righteousness and holiness. And the peculiar form of this covenant, as relating unto the way of God’s entering into it upon the finishing of his own works, designed the seventh day from the beginning of the creation to be the day precisely for the obser- vation of a holy rest.
As men, then, are always rational creatures, so some portion of time is by them necessarily to be set apart to the solemn worship of God. As they are under a covenant, so this time was originally limited unto one day in seven. And as the covenant may be varied, so may this day also; which under the covenant of works was precisely limited unto the seventh day. And these things must be further illustrated and proved.
11. This was the state and condition wherein man was originally created. Our next inquiry is after the law of his creation, com- monly called the law of nature, with what belongeth thereunto, or what is required of us by virtue thereof. Now, by the law of nature most understand the dictates of right reason, which all men, or men generally, consent in and agree about; for we exclude wholly from this consideration the instinct of brute creatures, which hath some appearance of a rule unto them. So Hesiod of old determined this matter, speaking of them, ’Epy. xa/ ‘Hu. 278,—