(2.) Rest in itself, absolutely considered, is no part of divine wor- ship, antecedently unto a divine positive command. Buta rest from our own works, which might be of use and advantage unto us, which by the law of our creation we are to attend unto in this world, that we may attend and apply ourselves to the worship of God, and solemnly express our universal dependence upon him in all things; a rest representing the rest of God in his covenant with us, and ob- served as a pledge of our entering into his rest by virtue of that covenant, and according to the law of it, such as is the rest here en- joined, is a part of the worship of God. This is the rest which we are directed unto by the law of our creation, and which by the moral reason of this command is enjoined unto us on one day in seven; and in these things consists the morality of this precept, on whose account it hath a place in the decalogue, which, on all the consider- ations before mentioned, could not admit of an association with one that was purely ceremonial.
(3.) Granting the dedication of some time or part of time unto the solemn worship of God to be required in this command, as is by all generally acknowledged, and let a position be practically advanced against this we insist on, namely, that one day in seven is the time determined and limited for that purpose, and we shall quickly per- ceive the mischievous consequents of it; for when men have taken out of the hand of God the division between the time that is allowed
‘SECT. 57, 58.] OF THE CAUSES OF THE SABBATH, 381
unto us for our own occasions and what is to be spent in his service, and have cast off all influencing direction from his example of work- ing six days and resting the seventh, and all guidance from that seemingly perpetual direction that is given us of employing ordi- narily six days in the necessary affairs of this life, they will find themselves at no small loss what to fix upon or wherein to acquiesce in this matter. It must either be left to every individual man to do herein as seems good unto him, or there must an umpirage of it be committed unto others, either the church or the magistrate. And hence we may expect as many different determinations and limita- tions of time as there are distinct ecclesiastical or political powers amongst Christians. What variety and changeableness would hence ensue, what confusion this would cast all the disciples of Christ into, according to the prevalency of superstition or profaneness in the minds of those who claim this power of determining and limiting the time of public worship, is evident unto all. The instance of “holy days,” as they are commonly called, will further manifest what of itself lies naked under every rational eye. The institution and observation of them was ever resolved into the moral part of this command for the dedicating of some part of our time unto God: but the determination hereof being not of God, but left unto the church, as it is said, one church multiplies them without end, until they grow an insupportable yoke unto the people; another reduceth this number into a narrower compass; a third rejects them all; and no two churches, that are independent ecclesiastically and politically one on the other, do agree about them. And so will and must the matter fall out as to the especial day whereof we discourse, when once the determination of it by divine authority is practically rejected. As yet men deceive themselves in this matter, and pretend that they be- lieve otherwise than indeed they do. Let them come once soberly to join their opinion of their liberty and their practice together, actually rejecting the divine limitation of one day in seven, and they will find their own consciences under more disorder than yet they are aware of.
Again, if there be no day determined in the fourth command but only the seventh precisely, which is ceremonial, with a general rule that some time is to be dedicated to the service of God, there is no more of morality in this command than in any of those for the obser- yation of new moons and annual feasts, with jubilees, and the like; in all which the same general equity is supposed, and a ceremonial day limited and determined. And if it be so, as far as I can under- stand, we may as lawfully observe new moons and jubilees as a weekly day of rest, according to the custom of all churches.
58. The words of the apostle Paul, Col. ii. 16, 17, are at large
382 OF THE CAUSES OF THE SABBATH. [ EXERC, III.
insisted on to prove that the Sabbath was only typical and a sha- dow of things future: “ Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holy day, or of the new moon” (4 oué- Cdrwy), “or of the sabbaths” (or, “sabbath days”), “which are a sha- dow of things to come; but the body is of Christ.” For hence, they say, it will follow that there is nothing moral in the observation of the Sabbath, seeing it was a mere type and shadow, as were other Mosaical institutions, as also that it was absolutely abolished and taken away in Christ. .