’ on the church-worship on the first day. 32. Of the seventh-day Sabbath— Judaism restored in it—Of the Ebionites. 33. Schisms perpetuated by the opinion of the seventh-day Sabbath. 34. Penalty of the law re-enforced with it. 35. The whole legal.
1. How the creation of all things was finished, and how the rest of God and man ensued thereon, hath been declared. It hath also in part, and sufficiently as unto our present purpose, been evidenced how the great ends of the creation of all, in the glory of God, and the blessedness of man in him, with the pledge thereof in a sabba-
404 OF THE LORD'S DAY. [EXERC. V.
tical rest, were for a season as it were defeated and disappoited, by the entrance of sin, which brake the covenant that was founded in the law of creation, and rendered it useless unto those ends; for the law became weak through sin and the flesh, or the corruption of our nature that ensued thereon, Rom. viii. 8. Hence it could no more bring man to rest in God. But yet a continuation of the obli- gatory force of that law and covenant, with the direction of it unto other ends and purposes than at first given unto them, was under the old testament designed of God, and hath been declared also. Hence was the continuation of the original sabbatical rest im the church of Israel, with the especial application of its command unto that people, insisted on in the preceding discourse. In this state of things God had of old determined the renovation of all by a new creation, a new law of that creation, a new covenant, and a new sabbatical rest, unto his own glory, by Jesus Christ; and these things are now to be discussed.
2. The renovation of all things by Jesus Christ is prophesied of and foretold as a new creation of all, even of the heavens and the earth, and all things contained in them, Isa. lxv. 17, 18, Ixvi. 22; 2 Pet. iii. 18. Hence the state of things to be introduced thereby was under the old testament called “The world to come,” Heb. ii. 5. So it is still called by the Jewish masters, xan ndw, and pow ny. So Kimchi, amongst other expositions of the title of Ps. xcii., “A psalm or song for the Sabbath day,” adds this, as that which the most ancient rabbins fixed on, D7) ANI) Naw syow ndyyd sad senyn by mwnn 1;”—“ They interpreted it of the world to come, which shall be wholly sabbath or rest; and these are the days of the Messiah.” A spiritual rest it is they intend, and not a cessation of a Sabbath day in particular, seeing in the prophecy of the new temple, or church-state, in those days there is especial direction given for the service of the Sabbath day, Ezek. xlvi. 4.
And this renovation of all things is said, accordingly, to be accom- plished in Christ: 2 Cor. v. 17, 18, “ Old things are passed away; be- hold, all things are become new.” The old law, old covenant, old worship, old Sabbath, all that was peculiar unto the covenant of works as such, in the first institution of it and its renewed declara- tion on mount Sinai, are all antiquated and gone. What now re- mains of them, as to any usefulness in our living to God, doth not abide on the old foundation, but on a new disposition of them, by the renovation of all things in Christ; for “1 the fulness of times,” God gathered unto a head “all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him,”
in the dispensation of.
Eph. i. 10. The whole old creation, as far as it had any thing in —
itself or its order that belonged unto or contributed any thing to-
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SECT. 2, 3, OF THE LORD’S DAY. 405 2
wards our living unto God and his glory, is disposed anew in Christ Jesus unto that end.
But this renovation of all, which is the foundation of all our ac- ceptable obedience unto God and of his present worship, consists principally in the regeneration of the elect, making them new crea- tures, and the erection of a new church-state thereby, to the glory of . God. Now, this new creation of all must answer unto all the ends _ of the old, in reference unto the glory of God and the good of them who are partakers of it; otherwise it would not be so rightly called, nor answer the declared end of it, which was to gather all things to a head in Christ Jesus; for what was lost by sin, as to the glory of God in the old creation, in this was to be repaired and recovered.
3. We may, then, as the foundation of our present discourse, con- sider how these things answer unto one another:—First, The old creation comprised in it the law of the obedience of all creatures unto God. This was therein and thereby implanted on their natures, with inclinations natural or moral unto the observation of it. And thus must it be also in the new creation, as unto the subject of it, which is the church. The law of the old creation unto man con- sisted principally in the image of God in him and concreated with him; for hereby did he both know his duty and was enabled to perform it, and was acquainted with his relation unto God and dependence upon him, which rendered it necessary and indispen- sable. But this law in the state of creation fell under a double con- sideration, or had a double use,—first as a rule,and then as a principle. As a rule, the light that was in the mind of man, which was a prin- cipal part of the image of God in him, acquainted him with his whole duty, and directed him in the right performance of it. As a prin- ciple, it respected the ability that the whole man was endowed withal to live to God according to his duty. This law, as to its first use, being much impaired, weakened, and in a great measure made useless by sin, God was pleased to restore it in the vocal revelation of his will, especially in the decalogue, which with his own finger he wrote in tables of stone. In answer hereunto a new law of obe- dience is introduced by the new creation in Christ Jesus. And this principally consisteth in the renovation of the image of God in the new creatures, which was lost by sin; for they are “renewed in the spirit of their mind,” and do “ put on that new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness,” Eph. iv. 23, 24. And this fully answers the first law, as it was a principle of light and power unto obedience. And in a great measure it supplies the loss of it as it was a rule also; for there is a great renovation thereof, in God’s writing his law in our hearts, not here to be insisted on. But in this new creation God designed to gather up all that was past in