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386 ‘OF THE JUDAICAL SABBATH. [ EXERC. IV.
served in the state of innocency, wherein the law of it was given and declared; for it was no less necessary unto that state and con- dition than unto any other wherein God requireth covenant obedi- ence of men; nor, considering the nature and ends of a holy rest or Sabbath, can any reason be given why it should be thought accom- modated only to the administration of the covenant under the old testament after the giving of the law, whereunto by some it is ap- propriated.
2. It is true, indeed, that in the fourth commandment there is an explanation of the rest of the Sabbath, so far as it consisteth im a cessation from our own works that are of use and advantage to the outward man in this life, suited as unto the state and condition of mankind in general since the fall, so unto the especial state of the Jews at that time when the law was given; as there was also in the additional appendix of the first commandment. But, for the sub- stance of it, the same kind of rest was to be observed in the state of innocency, and was necessary thereunto, on the grounds before insisted on. Servile labour, with trouble, sweat, and vexation, was occasioned by the curse, Gen. iii. 17-19. The state also of servants and handmaids, such as was then and is still in use, followed on the entrance of sin; though merely to serve be no part of the curse, 1 Cor. vii. 20, 21, as having its foundation in that subordination which is natural; and the government of servants ought not to be despotical, but paternal, Gen. xviii. 19. In these things there was some variation supposed in the giving of the decalogue, as to their outward manner, from the original state of things amongst mankind. But there was also work required of man, or labour in the earth, with reference unto his natural life and subsistence in this world, in the state of innocency; for it is said expressly, that God put man into the garden, PNW A139, Gen. ii. 15,—to labour in it, and to preserve it by labour for his use. A cessation, therefore, from bodily labour was consistent with, and useful unto, that condition, that men thereby might be enabled to give themselves (in the season they were directed unto by the works and example of God) wholly unto the especial end of living unto him, according to the covenant made with them.
There is nothing, therefore, in the fourth commandment, directing unto six days of labour, and requiring a seventh unto rest, that is inconsistent or not compliant with the law of our creation, and the state of living unto God constituted thereby, although the manner. of that work and labour be varied from what originally it was. Likewise in that state of mankind there was to be a superiority of some over others. This the natural relation of parents and children makes manifest. And these latter were in the worship of God to
SECT. 2, 3.] OF THE JUDAICAL SABBATH. 387
be under the government and direction of the others. And unto this! natural equity is all subjection to magistrates in subjects, and to mas- ters in servants, reduced in the fifth commandment. So, then, the outward variations which are in these things supposed in the fourth commandment do not in the least impeach its morality, or hinder but that, for the substance of it, it may be judged a law natural and moral, and a true representation of a part of the law of our creation.
3. Seeing, therefore, that the moral law, as a covenant between God and man, required this sacred rest, as we have proved, we must inquire what place, as such, it had in the Mosaical economy, whereon the true reason and notion of the Sabbath as peculiarly Judai- cal doth depend; for the Sabbath being originally annexed to the covenant between God and man, the renovation of the covenant doth necessarily require an especial renovation of the Sabbath, and the change of the covenant as to the nature of it must in like man- ner introduce a change of the Sabbath. And we shall find that the covenant of the law, or of works, had a twofold renovation in the church of Israel, in the framing and constitution of it. These ren- dered it their especial covenant, although it was not absolutely a new covenant, nor is it so called, but is everywhere called the old, and hence the Sabbath became peculiarly theirs.
First, It was renewed unto them materially. It was originally written in the heart of man, or concreated with the faculties of his soul; where its light and principles, being excited, guided, and vari-
-ously affected with the consideration of the works of God (proposed
unto him with an instructive ability for that end, whose directions concurred to the making up of the entire law of creation), were :evi- dently directive unto all the duties which God in the first covenant required at ourhands. By the entrance of sin, with the corruption and debasing of the faculties of our souls which ensued thereon, — whereby the alteration in our nature, the principal seat and subject of this law, was so great as that we lost the image of God, or that light and knowledge unto our duty with respect unto him which was necessary for us in that covenant,—the law itself became insufficient, a lame and imperfect guide unto the ends of the covenant. Besides, the aspectable creation,—the outward medium of instructing man in the knowledge of the goodness, power, and wisdom of God,— being for our sin brought under the curse, and the creature into bon- dage, the contemplation of it would not so clearly, distinctly, and perfectly represent him unto us as formerly. Let men fancy what they please, and please themselves whilst they will with their fan- cies, all things both within and without, in the whole creation, were