1. The Sabbath, how required by the law of nature as a covenant. 2. Explanation of the law of the Sabbath in the fourth precept of the decalogue. 3. The law of creation and covenant of works renewed in the church of Israel; with what alterations. 4. The Sabbath, why said to be given peculiarly to the Israelites. 5. Change in the covenant introduceth a change in the Sabbath. 6. The whole nature of the Judaical Sabbath, and how it is abolished. 7. Jews' sense of the original of the Sabbath rejected. 8. The first appropriation of the law of the Sabbath to that people, Exod. 16. 9. Their mistakes about its observation. 10. The giving of the law on mount Sinai, with the ends of it. 11. Nature of the fourth commandment thereon; what Mosaical in it. 12. Renovation of the command of the Sabbath, Exod. 31:12–17. 13. Occasion hereof. 14. Appropriations made of the Sabbath to the church of Israel in this renovation. 15. The commandment renewed again, Exod. 34:21—New additions made to it. 16. So also Exod. 35:2, 3. 17. The whole matter stated, Deut. 5:15. 18, 19. The conclusion.
1. WE have declared how the observation of a septenary sacred rest is required by the moral law, or the law of our creation. Now, this is not absolutely and merely as it is a law, but as it contained a covenant between God and man. A law it might have been, and yet not have had the nature of a covenant, which doth not necessarily follow upon either its instructive or preceptive power. Yet it was originally given in the counsel of God to that end, and accompanied with promises and threatenings; whence it had the nature of a covenant. By virtue of this law as a covenant was the observation of a Sabbath prescribed and required, as a token and pledge of God's rest in that covenant, in the performance of the works whereon it was constituted, and of the interest of man in that rest, as also to be a means of entrance into it. On this ground it should have been observed in the state of innocency, wherein the law of it was given and declared; for it was no less necessary unto that state and condition than unto any other wherein God requireth covenant obedience of men; nor, considering the nature and ends of a holy rest or Sabbath, can any reason be given why it should be thought accommodated only to the administration of the covenant under the old testament after the giving of the law, whereunto by some it is appropriated.
2. It is true, indeed, that in the fourth commandment there is an explanation of the rest of the Sabbath, so far as it consisteth in a cessation from our own works that are of use and advantage to the outward man in this life, suited as unto the state and condition of mankind in general since the fall, so unto the especial state of the Jews at that time when the law was given; as there was also in the additional appendix of the first commandment. But, for the substance of it, the same kind of rest was to be observed in the state of innocency, and was necessary thereunto, on the grounds before insisted on. Servile labour, with trouble, sweat, and vexation, was occasioned by the curse, Gen. 3:17–19. The state also of servants and handmaids, such as was then and is still in use, followed on the entrance of sin; though merely to serve be no part of the curse, 1 Cor. 7:20, 21, as having its foundation in that subordination which is natural; and the government of servants ought not to be despotical, but paternal, Gen. 18:19. In these things there was some variation supposed in the giving of the decalogue, as to their outward manner, from the original state of things amongst mankind. But there was also work required of man, or labour in the earth, with reference unto his natural life and subsistence in this world, in the state of innocency; for it is said expressly, that God put man into the garden, וּלְשָׁמְרָהּ לְעָבְדָהּ, Gen. 2:15,—to labour in it, and to preserve it by labour for his use. A cessation, therefore, from bodily labour was consistent with, and useful unto, that condition, that men thereby might be enabled to give themselves (in the season they were directed unto by the works and example of God) wholly unto the especial end of living unto him, according to the covenant made with them.
There is nothing, therefore, in the fourth commandment, directing unto six days of labour, and requiring a seventh unto rest, that is inconsistent or not compliant with the law of our creation, and the state of living unto God constituted thereby, although the manner of that work and labour be varied from what originally it was. Likewise in that state of mankind there was to be a superiority of some over others. This the natural relation of parents and children makes manifest. And these latter were in the worship of God to be under the government and direction of the others. And unto this natural equity is all subjection to magistrates in subjects, and to masters in servants, reduced in the fifth commandment. So, then, the outward variations which are in these things supposed in the fourth commandment do not in the least impeach its morality, or hinder but that, for the substance of it, it may be judged a law natural and moral, and a true representation of a part of the law of our creation.
3. Seeing, therefore, that the moral law, as a covenant between God and man, required this sacred rest, as we have proved, we must inquire what place, as such, it had in the Mosaical economy, whereon the true reason and notion of the Sabbath as peculiarly Judaical doth depend; for the Sabbath being originally annexed to the covenant between God and man, the renovation of the covenant doth necessarily require an especial renovation of the Sabbath, and the change of the covenant as to the nature of it must in like manner introduce a change of the Sabbath. And we shall find that the covenant of the law, or of works, had a twofold renovation in the church of Israel, in the framing and constitution of it. These rendered it their especial covenant, although it was not absolutely a new covenant, nor is it so called, but is everywhere called the old, and hence the Sabbath became peculiarly theirs.
First, It was renewed unto them materially. It was originally written in the heart of man, or concreated with the faculties of his soul; where its light and principles, being excited, guided, and variously affected with the consideration of the works of God (proposed unto him with an instructive ability for that end, whose directions concurred to the making up of the entire law of creation), were evidently directive unto all the duties which God in the first covenant required at our hands. By the entrance of sin, with the corruption and debasing of the faculties of our souls which ensued thereon,—whereby the alteration in our nature, the principal seat and subject of this law, was so great as that we lost the image of God, or that light and knowledge unto our duty with respect unto him which was necessary for us in that covenant,—the law itself became insufficient, a lame and imperfect guide unto the ends of the covenant. Besides, the aspectable creation,—the outward medium of instructing man in the knowledge of the goodness, power, and wisdom of God,—being for our sin brought under the curse, and the creature into bondage, the contemplation of it would not so clearly, distinctly, and perfectly represent him unto us as formerly. Let men fancy what they please, and please themselves whilst they will with their fancies, all things both within and without, in the whole creation, were brought into such disorder and confusion by the entrance of sin, as that the law of nature was utterly insufficient to enable us unto, or to guide us in, our living unto God according to the tenor of the first covenant.
There were and are, indeed, general notions of good and evil indelibly planted on the faculties of our souls, with a power of judging concerning our actions and moral practices, whether they are conformable unto those notions with respect unto the superior judgment of God. But besides the impairing of the principles of these notions, before mentioned, they were of old variously obscured, perverted, and stifled, by customs, prejudices, and the power of sin in the world, so as that they were of little use as unto a due performance of covenantduties, indeed of none at all in reference unto any acceptation with God.
Wherefore, God erecting his church, and renewing the knowledge of himself and man's duty towards him, in the posterity of Abraham, he gave unto them afresh, in the first place, the precepts of the law and covenant of nature, for the guide and rule of their obedience. And that this might now be permanent, he reduced the substance of the whole law unto "ten words," or commands, writing them in tables of stone, which he appointed to be sacredly kept amongst them. The law thus declared and written by him was the same, I say, materially, and for the substance of it, with the law of our creation, or the original rule of our covenant obedience unto God. Yet in it, as thus transcribed, there was an innovation both in its form and principle of obligation. For as to its form or directive power, it was now made external and objective unto the mind of man, which before was principally internal and subjective. And the immediate obligation unto its observation among that people was now from the promulgation of it on mount Sinai, and the delivery of it unto them thereon. Hence it was prefaced with motives peculiar to their state and condition, and its observation continually pressed on them afterwards with arguments taken from their peculiar relation unto God, with his love and benefits unto them. This gave it a new respect, because there was nothing originally in it nor belonging unto it but what was equally common unto all mankind. Now, this alteration in the law and covenant of creation, as applied unto the church of the Israelites, did also affect the law of the Sabbath, which was a part of it. It was now no more to them a mere moral command only, equally regarding all mankind, but had a temporary respect given unto it, which was afterwards to be abolished and taken away. So was it with the whole law, and so was it with the Sabbath in particular. To take up, therefore, the observation of it, as appointed in the decalogue, not as a material transcript of the law of nature merely, but as under its renovation to the church of Israel, is a groundless and unwarrantable going over into a part of abolished Judaism; for,—
Secondly, The law was renewed as an ingredient into that economy under which God was pleased to bring his church at that time, before the exhibition of the promise, or the accomplishment of it. And sundry things are to be observed herein:—
(1.) That God did not absolutely bring that people under the covenant of works in all the rigour of it, according to its whole law and tenor, to stand or fall absolutely by its promises or threatenings; for although the law contained the whole rule of the covenant, and on the considerations to be afterwards mentioned it is often called the "covenant of God" with that people, yet were they not absolutely tied up unto it and concluded by it, as to the eternal issue of living unto God. This arose from the interposition of the promise; for the promise of grace in Christ being given upon the first entrance of sin, for the relief and salvation of the elect, and being solemnly renewed unto Abraham and his seed four hundred and thirty years before the giving of the law unto his posterity, there was a blessed relief provided therein against the curse and threatenings annexed to the first covenant for all them that betook themselves unto it and made use of it. Notwithstanding, I say, this renovation of the first covenant materially unto them, they were so far freed from its covenant terms as that they had a relief provided against what they could not answer in it, with the consequences thereof.
(2.) From the nature and tenor of the covenant of works, so renewed amongst that people, there was begotten in their minds such a respect unto the rigour of its commands, the manner of their observance, or of obedience unto them, with the dread of its curse, awfully denounced amongst them, as brought a servile and bondage frame of spirit upon them in all wherein they had to do with God, by virtue of the law and rule of that covenant. This frame of spirit, as that which stands in direct opposition unto the freedom and liberty purchased for us by Jesus Christ, to serve God in righteousness and holiness without fear all our days, is much insisted on by the apostle Paul, especially in his epistles to the Romans and Galatians. And in their observation of the Sabbath in particular they were under this bondage, filling them with many scrupulous anxieties, which arose, not from the law of the Sabbath itself, as originally given unto man in the state of innocency, but from the accommodation of the law thereof unto them after the entrance of sin. And hereby their Sabbath rest became unto them a great part of their wearying, burdensome yoke, which is taken off in Christ.
(3.) This law was yet proposed to that church and people in the manner and form of a covenant, and not only materially as a law or rule. This it had from the promises and threatenings which it was attended withal. There was adjoined unto it, "Do this, and live;" and, "The man that doeth these things shall live in them;" as also, "Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things written in the law, to do them." Not that it was hereby absolutely constituted a covenant, which eventually and finally they were to live or die by (for, as we showed before, there was a relief provided against that condition in the promise), but God gave the old covenant an especial revival, though with respect unto other ends than were originally intended in it. Hence the covenant form given unto it rendered the obedience of that people in a great measure servile, for it gendered unto bondage.
(4.) The law, being attended with various explanations and many ordinances of judgment, deduced from the principles of moral right and equity contained in it, was made the rule of the polity and government of that people, as a holy nation under the rule of God himself, who was their king; for their polity, for the kind of it, was a theocracy, over which God in an especial manner presided, as their governor and king. And hence he affirms, that when they would choose another king over them, after the manner of the nations, they rejected him from reigning over them, though they resolved to adhere to his laws and the manner of government prescribed to them. And this was peculiar to that people. Hence the Sabbath amongst them came to have an absolute necessity accompanying it of an outward, carnal observance, the neglect whereof, or acting any thing against the law of it, was to be punished with death.
(5.) Unto this renovation of the covenant, in the manner and for the ends expressed, there was added a typical church-state, with a great number of religious laws and ordinances, in themselves carnal and weak, but mystically significant of spiritual and heavenly things, and instructive how to use the promise that was before given, for their relief from the rigour and curse of the law or covenant now proposed unto them. And in all these things did the covenant of God, made with that people in the wilderness, consist. The foundation, matter, manner of administration, promises, and threatenings of it, were the same with the covenant of works; but they were all accommodated to their ecclesiastical and political estate, with especial respect unto their approaching condition in the land of Canaan: only there was, in the promise, new ends and a new use given unto it, with a relief against its rigour and curse.
4. On the account of the accessions that were thus made to the law, and especially unto the observation of the Sabbath, it is often mentioned in the Scripture as that which God had in a peculiar manner given unto the Israelites, in whose especial worship it had so great a place, many of their principal ordinances having a great respect unto it, it being also the only means of keeping up the solemnity of national worship in their synagogues among the people, Acts 15:21. Thus God says concerning them, that he gave them his Sabbaths in the wilderness, to be a sign between him and them, Ezek. 20:10–12; and it is said of the same time, Neh. 9:14, that he "made known unto them his holy Sabbath,"—that is, in the manner and for the ends expressed. Nor is there any need why we should say that "He gave them" intends no more but that he restored the knowledge of the Sabbath amongst them, the memory whereof they had almost lost, although that interpretation of the expression might be justified; for he says nowhere that he then gave his Sabbaths, but that he then peculiarly gave them unto that people, and that for the ends mentioned. For the Sabbath was originally a moral pledge and expression of God's covenant rest, and of our rest in God; and now was it appointed of God to be a sign of the especial administration of the covenant which was then enacted. Hence it is said that he gave it them as "a perpetual covenant," Exod. 31:16, "that they might know him to be the LORD that sanctified them," verse 13,—that is, their God according to the tenor of that covenant, which was to continue throughout their generations; that is, until the new covenant should be brought in and established by Christ. Thus was it peculiarly given unto them; and so far as it was so, as it was a sign of their covenant, as it was then first given, so it is now abolished: for,—
5. The renovation and change of the covenant must and did introduce a change in the rest annexed unto it; for a Sabbath, or a holy rest, belongs unto every covenant between God and man. But as for the kind and nature of it, as to its ends, use, and manner of observation, it follows the especial kind or nature of that covenant wherein we at any season walk before God. Now, the original covenant of works being, in this representation of it on Sinai, not absolutely changed or abolished, but afresh presented unto the people, only with a relief provided for the covenanters against its curse and severity, with a direction how to use it to another end than was first 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 absolutely, and in all respects as a covenant, taken away and disannulled, and that not only as to its formal efficacy, but also as to the 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. 15:32–36, 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. השמים יד, "the hand of heaven," is threatened against their presumptuous transgression of the ceremonial law, where no sacrifice was allowed: "I the LORD 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 dispensation 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. And on these reasons new commands were given for the observation of the Sabbath, 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, 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 particularly, 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. 15. 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. 16. The occasion of the whole is laid down, verses 4, 5, "Then said the LORD 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. And it 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 what was done amongst them, verse 22. Hereon Moses replieth unto them, verse 23, "This is that which the LORD hath said, To-morrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the LORD: bake that which ye will bake," etc.
This is the first express mention of the Sabbath unto and amongst that people; and it sufficiently declares that this was not the absolute original of a sabbatical rest. It is only an appropriation and application of the old command unto them; for the words are not preceptive, but directive. They do not institute any thing new, but direct in the practice of what was before. Hence it is affirmed, verse 29, that God gave them the Sabbath,— namely, in this new confirmation of it, and accommodation of it to their present condition; for this new confirmation of it, by withholding of manna on that day, belonged merely and solely unto them, and was the especial limitation of the seventh day precisely, wherein we are not concerned who do live on the "true bread" that came down from heaven. In these words, therefore, "To-morrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the LORD," there is a certain limitation of the day, a direction for its sanctification, as confirmed by the new sign of withholding manna, all which belonged to them peculiarly; for this was the first time that, as a people, they observed the Sabbath, which in Egypt they could not do. And into this institution and the authority of it must they resolve their practice who adhere unto the observation of the seventh day precisely; for that day is no otherwise confirmed in the decalogue but as it had relation hereunto.
9. The Jews in this place fall into a double mistake about the practical observation of their Sabbath; for from these words, "Bake that which ye will bake, and seethe that which ye will seethe, and that which remaineth lay up for you to be kept until the morning," verse 23, they conclude it to be unlawful to bake or seethe any thing on the Sabbath day, whereas the words have respect only to the manna that was to be preserved. And from the words of verse 29, "See, for that the LORD hath given you the Sabbath, therefore he giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days, abide ye every man in his place, let no man go out of his place on the seventh day," they have made a rule, yea, many rules, about what motions or removals are lawful on the Sabbath day, and what not. And hence they have bound themselves with many anxious and scrupulous observances, though the injunction itself do purely and solely respect the people in the wilderness, that they should not go out into the fields to look for manna on that day; which some of them having done, verse 27, an occasion was taken from thence for this injunction. And hereunto do some of the heathen writers ascribe the original of the sabbatical rest among the Jews, supposing that the seventh day after their departure out of Egypt they came to a place of rest, in remembrance whereof they consecrated one day in seven to rest and idleness ever after; whereunto they add other fictions of a like nature. See Tacit. Hist. lib. v.
10. Not long after ensued the giving of the law on Sinai, Exod. 20. That the decalogue is a summary of the law of nature, or the moral law, is by all Christians acknowledged, nor could the heathens of old deny it. And it is so perfectly. Nothing belongs unto the law which is not comprised therein; nor can any one instance be given to the contrary. Nor is there any thing directly and immediately in it but what belongs unto that law. Only God now made in it an especial accommodation of the law of their creation unto that people, whom he was in a second work now forming for himself, Isa. 43:19–21, 51:15, 16. And this he did, as every part of it was capable of being so accommodated. To this purpose he prefaceth the whole with an intimation of his particular covenant with them, "I am the LORD thy God;" and addeth thereunto the remembrance of an especial benefit, that they, and they alone, were made partakers of, "that brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage,"—which he did in the pursuit of his especial covenant with Abraham and his seed. This made the obligation to obedience unto the law, as promulgated on mount Sinai, to belong unto them peculiarly. To us it is only an everlasting rule, as declarative of the will of God and the law of our creation. The obligation, I say, that arose unto obedience from the promulgation of the law on mount Sinai was peculiar unto the Israelites; and sundry things were then and there mixed with it that belonged unto them alone. And whereas the mercy, the consideration whereof he proposeth as the great motive unto obedience,—which was his bringing them out of Egypt, with reference unto his settling of them in the land of Canaan,—was a typical mercy, it gave the whole law a station in the typical church-state which they were now bringing into. It altered not the nature of the things commanded, which, for the substance of them, were all moral; but it gave their obedience unto it a new and typical respect, even as it was the tenor of the covenant made with them in Sinai, with respect unto the promised land of Canaan, and their typical state therein.
11. This in an especial manner was the condition of the fourth commandment. Three things are distinctly proposed in it:—(1.) The command for an observance of a Sabbath day: Exod. 20:8, "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy." This contains the whole substance of the command; the formal reason whereof is contained in the last clause of it: "Wherefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it." And upon the neglect of the observance of the Sabbath in former generations, with a prospect of the many difficulties that would arise among the people in the observation of it for the future; as also because the foundation and reason of it in the law of creation, being principally external, in the works and rest of God that ensued thereon, were not so absolutely ingrafted in the minds of men as continually to evidence and manifest themselves, as do those of the other precepts, there is an especial note put upon it for remembrance. And whereas it is a positive precept, as is that which follows it, all the rest being negatives, it stood more in need than they of a particular charge and special motives; of which motives one is added also to the next command, being in like manner a positive enunciation. (2.) There is an express determination of this Sabbath to the seventh day, without which it was only included in the original reason of it: Verses 9, 10, "Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD thy God." And herein the day originally fixed in the covenant of works is again limited unto this people, to continue unto the time of the full introduction and establishment of the new covenant. And this limitation of the seventh day was but the renovation of the command when given unto them in the way of an especial ordinance, Exod. 16, and belongs not to the substance of the command itself. Yea, take the command itself without respect unto its explications elsewhere, and it expresseth no such limitation, though virtually, because of the precedent institution, Exod. 16, it be contained in it. Hence, (3.) There is a prescription for the manner of its observance, accommodated unto the state and condition of that people; and that two ways,—[1.] In comprehending things spiritual under things carnal, when yet the carnal are of no consideration in the worship of God, but as they necessarily attend upon things spiritual. Hence that part of the command which concerns the manner of the observation of the Sabbath, to be kept holy, is given out in a prohibition of bodily labour and work, or a command of bodily rest. But it is the expression of the rest of God and his complacency in his works and covenant, with the sanctification of the day in obedience to his command, in and by the holy duties of his worship, that is principally intended in it. And this he further intimates afterwards unto them, by his institution of a double sacrifice, to be offered morning and evening on that day. [2.] In the distribution of the people into the capital persons, with their relations, servants, and strangers, that God would have to live amongst them and join themselves unto them. On the whole, it appears that the Sabbath is not now commanded to be observed because it is the seventh day, as though the seventh day were firstly and principally intended in the command, which, as we have showed, neither the substance of the command nor the reason of it, with which the whole of the precept is begun and ended, will admit of; but the seventh day is commanded to be observed, because by an antecedent institution it was made to be the Sabbath unto that people, Exod. 16 (whence it came to fall under the command, not primarily, but reductively), as it had been on another account from the foundation of the world. The Sabbath, therefore, is originally commanded as one day in seven to be dedicated unto a holy rest; and the seventh day, if we respect the order of the days, is added as that especial day which God had declared that he would have at that time his Sabbath to be observed on.
Now, all these things in the law of the Sabbath are Mosaical,—namely, the obligation that arose unto its observation from the promulgation of the law unto that people on Sinai; the limitation of the day unto the seventh or last of the week, which was necessary unto that administration of the covenant which God then made use of, and had a respect unto a previous institution; the manner of its observance, suited unto that servile and bondage frame of mind which the giving of the law on mount Sinai did ingenerate in them, as being designed of God so to do; the ingrafting it into the system and series of religious worship then in force, by the double sacrifice annexed unto it, with the various uses in and accommodations it had unto the rule of government in the commonwealth of Israel;—in all which respects it is abolished and taken away.
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. 31:12–17, "And the LORD 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 LORD that doth sanctify you. Ye shall keep the Sabbath therefore; for 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 LORD: 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 is a 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 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 universal 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 reasons 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 ceremonial 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 building 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 sabbaths ye shall keep." And in this regard they are all cast together by our apostle, Col. 2:16: "The sabbath days." And they who, by virtue of this and the like commands, would bind us up to the 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 belonged unto and altogether entirely made up that covenant, some of these, as this especial command for the Sabbath, and that for circumcision, 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. 31:13, 17; which is repeated and explained, Ezek. 20:12. A sign it was, or an evident expression of the present covenant of God between him and them; not a sacramental or typical sign of future grace in particular, any otherwise than as their whole church constitution 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.
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 in the least impeach its original morality, seeing there is no moral duty but in its exercise or actual performance may be so made a sign. [2.] On the 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 advantage. And their privilege it was; for although, in comparison 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 considering their use, with their end and tendency, compared with the rest of the world at that time, they were an unspeakable privilege, Ps. 147:19, 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. 31:14. God sometimes threateneth cutting off or extermination unto persons, concerning whom yet the people had no warranty to proceed capitally against them; only he took it upon himself, 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," יוּמָת מוֹת, "Dying he shall die," there the people, or the judges among them, are not only warranted but commanded to proceed 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. 34:21, "Six days thou shalt work, but on the seventh day thou shalt rest; in earing time and in harvest thou shalt rest." Earing 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 14:5, and by loosing them that were tied, to lead them to watering, chap. 13:15, 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 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 something 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. 35:2, 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 LORD: whosoever 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 קֹדֶשׁ, "holiness," unto them (or, קֹדֶשׁ מִקְרָאֵי, "a convocation of holiness," "an holy convocation," as it is expressed, Lev. 23:2, 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 advantage 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 parasceue. 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 servants 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.
17. Lastly, The whole matter is stated, Deut. 5:15; where, after the repetition of the commandment, it is added, "And remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the LORD thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm: therefore the LORD thy God commanded thee to keep the Sabbath day." The mercy and benefit they had received in their deliverance from Egypt is given as the reason, not why they should keep the Sabbath, as it was proposed as a motive unto the observation of the whole law in the preface of the decalogue, but wherefore God gave them the law of it, to keep and observe: "Therefore the LORD thy God commanded thee to keep the Sabbath." Now, the reason of the command of a sabbatical rest absolutely, God had everywhere declared to be his making the world in six days, and resting on the seventh; the mention whereof in this place is wholly omitted, because an especial application of the law unto that people is intended. So that it is evident that the Mosaical Sabbath was, on many accounts and in many things, distinguished from that of the decalogue, which is a moral duty. For the deliverance of the people out of Egypt, which was a benefit peculiar unto themselves, and typical of spiritual mercies unto others, was the reason of the institution of the Sabbath as it was Mosaical, which it was not, nor could be, of the Sabbath absolutely, although it might be pressed on that people as a considerable motive why they ought to endeavour the keeping of the whole law.
18. From all that hath been discoursed, it appears that the observation of the seventh day precisely from the beginning of the world belonged unto the covenant of works, not as a covenant, but as a covenant of works, founded in the law of creation; and that in the administration of that covenant, which was revived, and unto certain ends re-enforced unto the church of Israel in the wilderness, it was bound on them by an especial ordinance, to be observed throughout their generations, or during the continuance of their church-state. Moreover, that as to the manner of its observance required by the law, as delivered on mount Sinai, it was a yoke and burden to the people, because that dispensation of the law gendered unto bondage, Gal. 4:24; for it begot a spirit of fear and bondage in all that were its children and subject unto its power. In this condition of things it was applied unto sundry ends in their typical state; in which regard it was "a shadow of good things to come." And so also was it in respect of those other additional institutions and prohibitions which were inseparable from its observation amongst them, whereof we have spoken. On all these accounts I doubt not but that the Mosaical Sabbath, and the manner of its observation, are under the gospel utterly taken away. But as for the weekly Sabbath, as required by the law of our creation, and re-enforced in the decalogue, the summary representation of that great original law, the observation of it is a moral duty, which by divine authority is translated unto another day.
19. The ancient Jews have a saying, which by the later masters is abused, but a truth is contained in it, העולנז דברי לכל והוזק קיום נתן השבת;—"The Sabbath gives firmitude and strength to all the affairs of this world;" for it may be understood of the blessing of God on the due observation of his worship on that day. Hence it was, they say, that any young clean beast that was to be offered in sacrifice must continue seven days with the dam, and not be offered until the eighth, Lev. 22:27, and that a child was not to be circumcised until the eighth day, that there might be an interposition of a Sabbath for their benediction. And it is not unlikely that the eighth day was also signalized hereby, as that which was to succeed in the room of the seventh, as shall be manifested in our next discourse.
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