12. God having disposed and settled the Sabbath, as to the seventh day, and the manner of its observation, as a part of the covenant then made with that people, he hereon makes use of it in the same manner and unto the same ends with the residue of the institutions and ordinances which he had then prescribed unto them. This he doth, Exod. xxxi. 12-17, “And the Lorp spake unto Moses, saying, Speak thou unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily, my sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the Lorp that doth sanctify you. Ye shall keep the Sabbath therefore; tor it is holy unto you: every one that defileth it shall surely be put to death: for whosoever doeth any work therein, that soul shall be cut off from amongst his people. Six days may work be done; but in the seventh is the Sabbath of rest, holy to the Lorp: whosoever doeth any work in the Sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death. Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant. It isa sign between me and the children of Israel for ever: for in _ six days the LorD made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed,” This is the next mention of the
398 . OF THE JUDAICAL SABBATH. [EXERC. IV.
Sabbath amongst that people, wherein all that we have before laid down is fully confirmed. God had now by Moses appointed other sabbaths, that is, monthly and annual sacred rests, to be observed unto himself. With these he now joins the weekly Sabbath, in allusion whereunto they have that name also given unto them. He had sufficiently manifested a difference between them before: for the one he pronounced himself on mount Sinai, as part of his uni- versal and eternal law; the others he instituted by revelation unto Moses, as that which peculiarly belonged unto them. The one was grounded on a reason wherein they had no more concern or interest than all the rest of mankind,—namely, God’s rest in his works, and being refreshed thereon, upon the creation of the world, and the . establishment of his covenant with man; the others all built on rea- sons peculiar unto themselves and that church-state whereinto they were admitted. But here the sabbaths of both these kinds are brought under the same command, and designed unto the same ends and purposes. Now, the sole reason hereof lies in those temporary and cerémonial additions which we have manifested to have been made unto the original law of the Sabbath, in its accommodation to their church-state, with the place which it held therein, as we shall see yet further in particular.
13. The occasion of this renovation of the command was the build- ing of the tabernacle, which was now designed, and forthwith to be undertaken. And with respect hereunto there was a double reason for the repetition of this command :—First, Because that work was for a holy end, and so upon the matter a holy work, and whereon the people were very intent. Hence they might have supposed that it would have been lawful for them to have.attended unto it on the Sabbath days. This, therefore, God expressly forbids, that they might have no pretence for the transgression of his command; and therefore is the penalty annexed unto it so expressly here appointed and mentioned. Secondly, As the tabernacle now to be built was the only seat of that solemn instituted worship which God was now setting up amongst them, so the Sabbath being the great means of its continuance and performance, this they were now to be severely minded of, lest by their neglect and forgetfulness thereof they might come to a neglect and contempt of all that worship which was as it were built upon it. And, as we have observed before more than. once, the weekly Sabbath being inserted into the economy of their laws, as to the matter of works and rest, it is comprised in the _general with other feasts, called sabbaths also: “ Verily, my sab- baths ye shall keep.” And in this regard they are all cast together by our apostle, Col. ii, 16: “The sabbath days.” And they who, by virtue of this and the like commands, would bind us up to the
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Judaical Sabbath, do certainly lose both that and all other ground for the observance of any sabbath at all; for look in what respects it is joined with the other sabbaths by Moses, in the same it is taken away with them by the apostle.
14, There is a treble appropriation of the weekly Sabbath in this place made unto the church of the Israelites:—(1.) In that the observation of it is required of them in their generations,—that is, during the continuance of that church-state, which was to abide to the coming of Christ; for what was required of them in their generations, as it was required, was then to expire and be abolished. (2.) That they were to observe it as a perpetual covenant, or as a part of that covenant which God then made with them, which is called everlasting, because it was to be so unto them, seeing God would never make any other peculiar covenant with them. And whereas all the statutes and ordinances that God then gave them be- longed unto and altogether entirely made up that covenant, some of these, as this especial command for the Sabbath, and that for circum- cision, are distinctly called the covenant, and ceased with it. (3.) It was given unto them as an especial pledge of the covenant that God then made with them, wherein he rested in his worship, and brought them to rest therein in the land of Canaan, whereby they entered into God’s rest. Hence it is called “a sign” between them, Exod. xxxi. 13, 17; which is repeated and explained, Ezek. xx. 12. A sign it was, or an evident expression of the present covenant of God be- tween him and them; not a sacramental or typical sign of future grace in particular, any otherwise than as their whole church con- stitution and their worship in general, whereof by these means it was made a part, were so,—that is, not in itself or its own nature, but as prescribed unto them.