6. We must here suppose what hath been before proved and con- - firmed,—that there was a day of holy rest unto God necessary to be observed, by the law, and by the covenant of nature or works; neither was nor could either of them be complete without it, looking on them as the rule and means of man’s living unto God, and of his coming to
408 OF THE LORD’S DAY. [EXERC. V.
the enjoyment of him: and that this day was, in the innate light of nature, as directed by the works of God, designed and proposed unto it for that purpose, to be one day in seven. This was it to learn, and this it did learn, from God’s creating the world in six days, and resting on the seventh; for God affirms everywhere that because he did so, therefore it was the duty of man to labour on six days, as his occa- sions do require, and to rest on the seventh. This, therefore, they were taught by those works and rest of God, or it could not be pro- posed as the reason of their suitable practice; and for this end did God so work and rest. The law, therefore, of this holy rest he re- neweth in the decalogue, amongst those other laws, which being of the same nature and original,—namely, branches of the law of our creation,—were to be unto us moral and eternal; for God would no longer intrust his mind and will in that law unto the depraved nature of man,—wherein if he had not, in the best, often guided and directed it by fresh extraordinary revelations, it would have been of little use to his glory,—but committed it, by vocal revelation, to the minds of the people, as the doctrinal object of their consideration, and recorded it in tables of stone. Moreover, the nature of the first covenant, and the way of God’s instructing man in the condition of it, by his works and rest, had limited this holy day unto the seventh day, the observation whereof ~was to be commensurate unto that covenant and its administration, however the outward forms thereof might be varied.
7. On these suppositions we lay, and ought to lay, the observation of the Lord’s day under the new testament, according to the insti- tution of it, or declaration of the mind of Christ, who is our Lord and Lawgiver, concerning it. (1.) A new work of creation, or a work of a new creation, is undertaken and completed, Isa. Ixy. 17, 18, lxvi. 22; 2 Pet. iii, 13; Rev. xxi 1; Rom. viii 19, 20; 2 Cor. v.17; Gal. vi. 15. (2.) This new creation is accompanied with a new law and a new covenant, or the law of faith and the covenant of grace, Rom. iii. 27, viii 2-4; Jer. xxxi. 31-34; Heb. vill. 8-13. (3.) Unto this law and covenant a day of holy rest unto the Lord doth belong; which cannot be the same day with the former, no more than it is the same law or the same covenant which were ori~ ginally given unto us, Heb. iv. 9; Rev.i 10. (4) That this day was limited and determined to the first day of the week by our Lord Jesus Christ, is that which shall now further be confirmed. Only I must desire the reader to consider, that whereas the topical argu- ments whereby this truth is confirmed have been pleaded, improved, and vindicated, by many of late, I shall but briefly mention them, and insist principally on the declaration of the proper grounds and foundations of it.
SECT. 7-9.] OF THE LORD’S DAY. 409
8. As our Lord Jesus Christ, as the eternal Son and Wisdom of the Father, was the immediate cause and author of the old creation, John i. 3, Col. i 16, Heb. i. 2, 10, so as Mediator he was the author of this new creation, Heb. iii. 3, 4. He built the house of God; he built all these things, and is God. Herein he wrought, and in the _ accomplishment of it “saw of the travail of his soul, and was satisfied,” ' Isa. lili. 11; that is, “he rested, and was refreshed.” Herein he gave a new law of life, faith, and obedience unto God, Isa. xlii. 4; not by an addition of new precepts to the moral law of God not virtually comprised therein, and distinct from his own positive institutions of worship, but in his revelation of that new way of obedience unto God in and by himself, with the especial causes, means, and ends of it,—which supplies the use and end whereunto the moral law was at first designed, Rom. viti. 2, 3, x. 3, 4,—-whereby he becomes “the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him,” Heb. v. 9, This law of life and obedience he writes by his Spirit in the hearts of his people, that they may be “willing in the day of his power,” Ps. ex. 3, 2 Cor. iii. 3, 6, Heb. viii. 10; not at once and in the foun- dation of his work actually, but only in the causes of it. For as the law of nature should have been implanted in the hearts of men in their conception and natural nativity, had that dispensation of right- eousness continued, so in the new birth of them that believe in him is this law written in their hearts in all generations, John iii. 6. Hereon was the covenant established and all the promises thereof, of which he was the mediator, Heb. viii. 6. And for a holy day of rest, for the ends before declared, and on the suppositions before laid down evincing the necessity of such a day, he determined the ob- servation of the first day of the week; for,—