_ given unto it, it follows that the day of the sabbatical rest could not be changed. And therefore was the observation of the seventh day precisely continued, because it was a moral pledge of the rest of God in the first covenant; for this the instructive part of the law of our creation, from God’s making the world in six days, and resting on the seventh, did require. The observation of this day, therefore, was still continued among the Israelites, because the first covenant was again presented unto them. But when that covenant was ab- solutely, and in all respects as a covenant, taken away and disan- nulled, and that not only as to its formal efficacy, but also as to the
392 OF THE JUDAICAL SABBATH. [EXERC. IV.
manner of the administration of God’s covenant with men, as it is under the gospel, there was a necessity that the day of rest should also be changed, as I have more fully showed elsewhere. [I say, then, that the precise observation of the seventh day enjoined unto the Israelites had respect unto the covenant of works, wherein the foundation of it was laid, as hath been demonstrated. And the whole controversy about what day is to be observed now as a day of holy rest unto the Lord, is resolved fully into this inquiry, namely, what covenant we do walk before God in.
6. And that we may understand the whole nature of the Judaical Sabbath, it must moreover be considered, that the law in general, and all the precepts of it, were the instrument of the polity of the people under the government of God, as we before observed; for all the judgments relating unto civil things were but an application of the moral law to their state and condition. Hence was the sanction of the transgression of it to be punished with death. So was it in particular with respect unto the Sabbath, Num. xv. 32-36, partly that it might represent unto them the original sanction of the whole law as a covenant of works, and partly to keep that stubborn people by this severity within due bounds of government. Nor was any thing punished by death judicially in the law but the transgression of some moral command. own 1, “the hand of heaven,” is threat- ened against their presumptuous transgression of the ceremonial law, where no sacrifice was allowed: “I the LorpD will set my face against that man, and cut him off.” This also made the Sabbath a yoke and a burden, that wherein their consciences could never find perfect rest. And in this sense also it is abolished and taken away.
Again, it was made a part of their law for religious worship in their typical church-state; in which and whereby the whole dispen- sation of the covenant which they were under was directed unto other ends. And so it had the nature of a shadow, representing the good things to come, whereby the people were to be relieved from the rigour and curse of the whole law as a covenant. Andon these reasons new commands were given for the observation of the Sab- bath, and new motives, ends, and uses were added thereunto, every way to accommodate it to the dispensation of the covenant then in force, which was afterwards to be removed and taken away, and therewithal the Sabbath itself, so far as it had relation thereunto; for the continuation of the seventh day precisely belonged unto the new representation that was made of the covenant of works. The representation of that covenant, with the sanction given unto it amongst the judgments of righteousness in the government of the people in the land of Canaan, which was the Lord’s, and not theirs,
‘ SECT. 6-8.] OF THE JUDAICAL SABBATH. 393
made it a yoke and burden; and the use it was put unto amongst ceremonial observances made it a shadow: in all which respects it is abolished by Christ. To say that the Sabbath as given unto the Jews is not abolished, is to introduce the whole system of Mosaical ordinances, which stand on the same bottom with it. And particu- larly, the observation of the seventh day precisely lieth as it were in the heart of the economy. And these things will the more clearly appear if we consider the dealing of God with that people about the Sabbath from first to last.
7. The Jews, some of them at least, as was before discoursed, would have not only the first revelation of the Sabbath unto them, or the renovation of its command, but its first institution absolutely, to have been in their station at Marah, Exod. xv. The vanity of this pretence we have before sufficiently discovered. And whereas this was the opinion of the Talmudical masters of the middle ages since Christ, they seem to have embraced it on the same account whereon they have invented many other fancies; for observing that a Sabbath was in esteem amongst the Christians, in opposition unto them they began to contend that the Sabbath was, as they called it, “the bride of the synagogue,” and belonged to themselves alone, being given secretly to them only. The vanity of this pretence we have before laid open, and so shall not again insist upon it.
8. The first peculiar dealing of God with them about the Sabbath was evidently in their first station at Alush, Exod. xvi. The occa- sion of the whole is laid down, verses 4, 5, “Then said the Lorp unto Moses, Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day, that I may prove them, whether they will walk in my law, or no. Andit shall come to pass, that on the sixth day they shall prepare that which they bring in; and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily.” Here is no mention of the Sabbath, nor any reason given why they should gather a double portion on the sixth day. This command, therefore, must needs have seemed somewhat strange unto them, if they had before no notion at all of a seventh day’s sacred rest. They must otherwise have been at a great loss in themselves why they must double their measure on the sixth day. However, it is apparent that either they had lost the true day they were to observe, through their long bondage in Egypt, or knew not what belonged to the due observation and sanctification of it; for when the people had observed this command, and gathered a double portion of manna, to keep one part of it for the next day,—although they had experience that if at another season it were kept above one day it would putrefy and stink, verse 20,—the rulers of the congregation, fearing some mistake in the matter, go and acquaint Moses with