And a present sign between God and them it was upon a double account:—[1.] On the part of the people. Their assembling on that day for the celebration of the worship of God, and the avowing him alone therein to be their God, was a sign, or an evident express acknowledgment that they were the people of the Lord. And this doth not ih the least impeach its original morality, seeing there is no moral duty but in its exercise or actual performance may be so , madeasign. [2.] Onthe part of God,—namely, that it was he who sanctified them; for by this observance they had a visible pledge that God had separated them unto and for himself, and therefore had given them his word and ordinances as the outward means of their further sanctification, to be peculiarly attended to on that day. And on these grounds it is that God is elsewhere said to give them his Sabbaths, to reveal them unto them, as their peculiar privilege ’ and adyantage. And their privilege it was; for although, in com-
400 OF THE JUDAICAL SABBATH. [EXERC. IV.
parison of the substance and glory of things to be brought in by Christ, with the liberty and spirituality of gospel worship, all their ordinances and institutions were a yoke of bondage, yet consider- ing their use, with their end and tendency, compared with the rest of the world at that time, they were an unspeakable privilege, Ps. exlvii. 19, 20. However; therefore, the Sabbath was originally given before unto all mankind, yet God now, by the addition of his institutions to be observed on that day, whereby he sanctified the people, made an enclosure of it so far unto them alone.
Lastly, Here is added a peculiar sanction under the penalty of death: “ Every one that defileth it shall surely be put to death,” Exod. xxxi. 14, God sometimes threateneth cutting off or extermi- nation unto persons, concerning whom yet the people had no war- ranty to proceed capitally against them; only he took it upon him- self, as the supreme legislator and rector of that people, to destroy them and cut them off, as they speak, “by the hand of heaven.” But wherever this expression is used, “ He shall surely be put to death,” 2" niP, “Dying he shall die,” there the people, or the judges among them, are not only warranted but commanded to pro- ceed judicially against such an offender. And in this respect it belonged unto that severe government which that people stood in need of, as also to mind them of the sanction of the, whole law of creation as a covenant of works, with the same commination of death unto all transgressions. In all these regards the Sabbath was Judaical, and is absolutely abolished and taken away.
15. The command is renewed again, Exod. xxxiv. 21, “Six days thou shalt work, but on the seventh day thou shalt rest; in earing time and in harvest thou shalt rest.” Haring time and harvest are the seasons wherein those who till the ground are most intent upon their occasions, and do most hardly bear with intermissions, because they may be greatly to their damage. Wherefore they are insisted on or specified, to manifest that no avocation nor pretence can justify men in working or labour on that day; for by expressing earing and harvest, all those intervenings also are intended in those seasons whereon damage and loss might redound unto men by omitting the gathering in of their corn. And it should seem, on this ground, that on that day they might not labour, neither to take it away before a flood, nor remove it from an approaching fire. So some of the masters think, although our Saviour convinces them, from their own practice, in relieving cattle fallen into pits on that day, Luke xiv. 5, and by loosing them that were tied, to lead them to water- ing, chap. xiii. 15, that they did not conceive this universally to be the intendment of that law, that in no case any work was to be done, And it seems they were wiser for their asses in those days
SECT, 15-17.] OF THE JUDAICAL SABBATH. 401
than the poor wretch was for himself in a later age, who, falling into the jakes at Tewkesbury on that day, would not suffer himself to be drawn out,—if the story be truly reported in our chronicles. In general, I doubt not but that this additional explanation in a way of severity is in its proper sense purely Judaical, and contains some- thing more of rigidness than is required by the law of the Sabbath as purely moral.
16. Mentioned it is again, with a new addition, Exod. xxxv. 2, 3, “Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day there shall be to you an holy day, a Sabbath of rest to the LorpD: whoso- ever doeth work therein shall be put to death. Ye shall kindle no fire throughout your habitations on the Sabbath day.” Here again the penalty and the prohibition of kindling fire are Mosaical, and so on their account is the whole command as here renewed, though there be that in it which, for the substance of it, is moral. And here the seventh day precisely is made “IP, “holiness,” unto them (or, MIP "SPP, “a convocation of holiness,’ “an holy convoca- tion,” as it is expressed, Lev. xxiii. 2, where these words are again repeated); whose profanation was to be avenged with death. The prohibition also added about kindling of fire in their habitations hath been the occasion of many anxious observances among the Jews. They all agree that the kindling of fire for profit and advan- tage in kilns and oasts,’ for the making of brick, or drying of corn, or for founding or melting metals, is here forbidden. But what need was there that so it should be, seeing all these things are expressly forbidden in the command in general, “ Thou shalt do no manner of work?” Somewhat more is intended. They say, therefore, that it is the kindling of fire for the dressing of victuals; and this indeed seems to be the intendment of this especial law, as the manna that was to be eaten on the Sabbath was to be prepared on the para- sceue. But withal I say, this is a new additional law, and purely Mosaical, the original law of the Sabbath making no intrenchment on the ordinary duties of human life, as we shall see afterwards. Whether it forbade the kindling of fire for light and heat, I much question. The present Jews in most places employ Christian ser- yants about such works; for the poor wretches care not what is done to their advantage, so they do it not themselves. But these and the like precepts belonged unquestionably unto their pedagogy, and were separable from the original law of the Sabbath.