44, Here, therefore, we must have respect unto what hath been
ow :
SECT. 43-45. | OF THE CAUSES OF THE SABBATH. 365
discoursed concerning the subject-matter of the precept itself; for if that be not only congruous to the law of nature, but that also which, by the creation of ourselves and all other things, we are taught and obliged unto the observation of, the law whereby it is required must be moral. For the descriptive or distinctive term, “moral,” doth first belong unto the things themselves required by any law, and thence to the law whereby they are commanded. If, then, we have proved that the thing itself required in the fourth commandment, or the religious observation of a sacred rest unto God, for the ends mentioned, in the periodical revolution of seven days, is natural and moral, from the relation that it hath unto the law of creation, then there can be no question of the morality of that command. What hath been performed therein is left unto the judgment of the sober and judicious readers; for no man can be more remote from a pertinaci- ous adherence to his own sentiments, or a magisterial imposition of his judgment and apprehensions upon the minds, thoughts, or practice of other men, than I desire to be. For however we may please ourselves in our light, knowledge, learning, and sincerity ; yet, when we have done all, they are not constituted of God to be the rule or measure of other men’s faith, persuasions, appreheusions, and conversations. And others, whom, for some defects,—at least so supposed by us,—we may be apt to despise, may be yet taught the truth of God in things wherein we may be out of the way. That, then, which we have to do in these cases, is first to endeavour after a full persuasion in our own minds; then to communicate the principles of reason and Scripture testimony which we ground our persuasion upon unto others; labouring with meekness and gentle- ness to instruct them whom we apprehend to be out of the way; so submitting the whole to the judgment of all that fear the Lord, and shall take notice of such things. And these rules have I, and shall I attend unto, as abhorring nothing more than a proud, magisterial imposing of our apprehensions and inclinations on the minds and practices of other men; which I judge far more intolerable in par- ticular persons than in churches and societies,—in both contrary to that royal law of love and liberty which all believers ought to walk by. And therefore, as we said, what hath been spoken on this subject, or shall yet further be added, I humbly submit to the judg- ment of the sober and indifferent readers: only assuring them that I teach as I have learned, speak because I believe, and declare nothing but whereof I am fully persuaded in my own mind.
_ 45. The nature of the decalogue, and the distinction of its pre- cepts from all commands, ceremonial or political, comes now under consideration. The whole decalogue, I acknowledge, as given on mount Sinai to the Israelites, had a political use, as being made the
366 ; OF THE CAUSES OF THE SABBATH. [ EXERC. III.
principal instrument or rule of the polity and government of their nation, as peculiarly under the rule of God. It had a place also in that economy or dispensation of the covenant which that church was then brought under; wherein, by God’s dealing with them and in- structing of them, they were taught to look out after a further and greater good in the promise than they were yet come to the enjoy- ment of. Hence the decalogue itself, in that dispensation of it, was a schoolmaster unto Christ. But in itself, and materially con- sidered, it was wholly, and in all the preceptive parts of it, absolutely moral. Some, indeed, of the precepts of it, as the first, fourth, and fifth, have either prefaces, enlargements, or additions, which belonged peculiarly to the then present and future state of that church in the land of Canaan; but these especial applications of it unto them change not the nature of its commands or precepts, which are all moral, and, as far as they are esteemed to belong to the decalogue, are unquestionably acknowledged so to be. Let us, therefore, consider the pleas for morality in the fourth command upon the account of its interest in the decalogue, and the manifest evidences of that inte- rest. As, therefore, the giving, writing, use, and disposal of the de- calogue, were peculiar and distinct from the whole system of the rest of the laws and statutes, which, being with it given to the church of Israel, were either ceremonial or judicial; so the precept concern- ing the Sabbath, or the sacred observance of one day in seven, hath an equal share with the other nine in all the privileges of the whole; as,— *
(1.) It was spoken immediately by the voice of God, in the hear- ing of all the people, Exod. xx. 1, whereas all the other laws, whether ceremonial or judicial, were given peculiarly to Moses, and by him declared unto the rest of the people. What weight is laid hereon, see Exod. xix. 10, 11, 17, 18; Deut. iv. 33, 34, xxxiii. 2: in the former whereof the work itself is declared; in the latter, a distinguishing greatness and glory, above all other legislations, is ascribed unto it. And it is worth the inquiry what might be the cause of this differ- ence. No other appears to me but that God thereby declared that the law of the decalogue belonged immediately and personally unto them all and every one, upon the original light of the law of nature, which it did represent and express; whereas all the other laws and statutes given unto them by the mediation of Moses belonged unto that peculiar church-state and economy of the covenant which they were then initiated into, and which was to abide unto the time of the reformation of all things by Jesus Christ. And here it may be remembered, and so in all the ensuing instances, that we have proved the matter of this command to be, first, the separation of some time indefinitely ‘to the worship of God, and then the limitation of that