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Egypt, is given as the reason, not why they should keep the Sabbath, as it was proposed as a motive unto the observance 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 every where 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 Mosaic 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 to themselves, and typical of spiritual mercies unto others, was the reason of the institution of the Sabbath as it was Mosaic; 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 observance 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 to certain ends reinforced 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 the 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 to bondage, Gal. iv. 24. For it begot a spirit of fear and bondage in all that were its children and subject to its power. In this condition of things, it was applied to 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 observance amongst them, whereof we have spoken. On all these accounts I doubt not but that the Mosaic Sabbath, and the manner of its observance, is under the gospel utterly taken away. But as for the weekly Sabbath, as required by the law of our creation, reinforced in the decalogue, the summary representation of that great original law, the observance of it is a moral duty, which by divine authority is translated unto another day.

The ancient Jews have a saying which by the later masters is abused, but a truth is contained in it, pn pawn

The Sabbath gives firmitude and strength to לכל דברי העולם

all the affairs of this world. For it may be understood of the blessing of God, on the due observance 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. xxii. 27. 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.

EXERCITATION

XXXIX.

Fifth Exercitation concerning the Day of Sacred Rest.

1. A summary of what hath been proved, a progress to the Lord's day. § 2. The new creation of all things in Christ, the foundation of gospelobedience and worship. § 3. The old and new creation compared. § 4. The old and new covenant. §5. Distinct ends of these covenants. §6. Supposition of the heads of things before confirmed. § 7. Foundation of the Lord's day on those suppositions. § 8. Christ the author of the new creation; his works therein. § 9. His rest from his works, the indication of a new day of rest. § 10. Observed by the apostles. § 11. Proof of the Lord's day from Heb. iv. proposed. § 12. The words of the text. §13. Design of the apostle in general. §14. His answer to an objection, with his general argument. § 15. The nature of the rests treated of by him. 16. The church under the law of nature, and its rest. § 17. The church under the law of institution, and its rest. § 18. The church under the gospel, and its rest. § 19. The foundation of it. § 20. Christ's works and his rest intended, Heb. iv. 10. § 21. This farther proved by sundry arguments. § 22. What were his works whereby the church was founded. 23. His entrance into his rest, not in his death, but in his resurrection. 24. The day of rest limited and determined hereby. § 25. The Sabbatism that remains for the people of God. § 26. The sending of the Holy Ghost. § 27. Church assemblies on the first day of the week. 28. The Lord's day, Rev. i. 10. § 29. The sum of the preceding discourse. 30. Necessity of the religious observance of one day in seven. § 31. Blessing of God 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 reinforced 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 to 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 Sabbatical rest, were for a season as it were defeated and disappointed, by the entrance of sin, which brake the covenant that was founded in the law of creation, and rendered it useless to those ends. For the law became weak through

sin, and the flesh, or the corruption of our nature that ensued thereon, Rom. viii. 5. Hence it could no more bring man to rest in God. But yet a continuation of the obligatory 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, in the church of Israel, with the special 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 thing contained in them, Isa. lxv. 17, 18. lxvi. 22. 2 Pet. iii. 13. 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

So Kimchi, amongst עתיד עולם and עולם הבא masters

other expositions of the title of Psalm xcii. A Psalm or song for the Sabbath day,' adds this, as that which the most

עלהעריך לבא לעולם שכולו שכת,,ancient Rabbins fixed on They interpreted it of the world to • ומנוחה והם ימי המשיח

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come, which shall be wholly Sabbath and 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 accomplished in Christ, 2 Cor. v. 17, 18. "Old things are past away, behold 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 in its renewed declaration on mount Sinai, all are gone, and antiquated. What now remains of them as to any usefulness in our living to God, doth not abide en the old foundation, but on a new disposition of them, by the renovation of all things in Christ. For in the dispensation of the fulness of times, God gathered unto an head all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth, even in him," Ephes. i. 10. The whole old creation, as far as it had any thing in itself, or its order, that belonged unto, or communicated any thing towards 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

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acceptable obedience unto God, and of his present worship, consists principally in the regeneration of the elect, making them new creatures, and in 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 to 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, consider 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 in their natures, with inclinations, natural, or moral, unto the observance of it. And thus must it be also in the new creation, as unto the subject of it, which is the church. This law of the old creation unto man, consisted 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 dependance upon him, which rendered it necessary and indispensable. But this law in the state of creation, fell under a double consideration, 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 principal 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 principle, it respected the ability that the whole man was endowed withal, to live to God according to his duty. As this law as to its first use, was 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 on tables of stone. In answer hereunto, a new law of obedience is introduced by the new creation in Christ Jesus. And this principally consisted 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 minds, and do put on that new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness," Eph. iv. 23, 24. This fully answers to the first law, as it was a principle of light, and power unto obedience. And it also in a great measure supplies the loss of it, as it was a rule. 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 into one head in Christ, all that was past, in the old creation, and in the law thereof, and in the continuation of it, by writing under the Old Testament. Wherefore he

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