&tice: for, if it be not moral and perpetually binding, it is not neceffary either to explicate it, or to ftudy and prefs the practice of it; but, if it be found to be moral, then no doubt it concerneth us, and requires the fame moral fanctification of a day now, as it did before. Our affertion then, in reference to this, is, That the duty of fetting apart and fanctifying of a portion of time, as it is limited in the fourth command, for God's fervice as it recurreth, is moral, and the obligation thereunto perpetual, even as in the duties of the other commands; the obligation to this being no more diffolved than thofe, tho' there may be difference in the degree of the obligation which they lay on in refpect of the matter contained in them: My meaning in a word is, That a day, or one of feven, is as neceffary to be kept holy unto God now (upon fuppofition of his determining the particular day) as it is neceffary to hold and keep up the worship prescribed by God; neither without fin can another day be put in the room of it, more than other worfhip can be fubftituted in the place of divinely prescribed worship; for the time is fet and fixt by the fourth command (pointing at a folemn and chief time) as the worship itself is by the fecond. For clearing of this, confider, 1. That we mean not here moral-natural, as without any pofitive law fuch a thing had been binding; no, but moral-pofitive, that is laid on by a command which is ftanding unrepealed, and fo bindeth by vertue of the authority of the Lawgiver, as feveral other commands and precepts do: as namely thofe concerning facraments, belonging to the fecond command, and thofe concerning one wife, and forbidden degrees of marriage, belonging to the feventh; which being fo often broken by many faints, and difpenfed with in fome cafes, cannot be thought to be moral-natural, fince the Lord difpenfeth not fo in thefe, nor can it be thought in reason that his fervants would have been ignorant of fuch a natural thing: It is then moral-pofiti that we mean,to wit, that which is binding by a pofitive law. 2. Confider in this queftion, that there is a great difference betwixt these two, to fay the feventh-day fabbath which the Jews kept is moral, and to fay the fourth command is moral: The one may be,and is abolished, because another is brought in its room; the other, to wit, the command, may ftand, and doth stand, because it tieth morally to a feventh day, but fuch fuch a feventh day as the Lord fhould fucceffively discover to be chofen by him; and tho' the seventh be changed, yet one of feven is ftill reserved. 3. There is need to diftinguish betwixt the moral fubftance of a command, and fome ceremonial appendices belonging to it: fo the fourth command might then poffibly have had fomething ceremonial in that seventh day, or in the manner ufed of fanctifying that feventh day, which now is gone, as double facrifices, &c. or in its reafons whereby it is preffed (as there is fomething peculiar to that people in the preface to all the commands) as there was in the facraments of the old law belonging to the fecond command; yet both a fabbath-day and facraments may be, and are very neceffary and moral in the church. It is not then every thing hanging on this command, as proper to that adminiftration, and fo but accidental to the fanctifying of a fabbath, that we plead for; but this is it we plead for, that the command is, as to its main fcope, matter and fubftance, moral-pofitive, and that it ftandeth as ftill binding and obliging unto us, and cannot without fin be neglected or omitted. It might be enough here to fay, that if this command were never repealed in the fubftance of it, nor did ever expire by any other thing fucceeding in its place, then it muft needs be still binding; for certainly it was ance, as obligatory, proclaimed by the Lawgiver himself, and was never fince in its fubftance repealed, nor is it expired or found hurtful in its nature, but is as neceffary now as then. It is true, the feventh-day fabbath is repealed by inftituting and fubftituting the firstday fabbath, or Lord's day, in its place; but that doth rather qualify the command than repeal it: For, 1. It faith, that a day is moral and neceffary. 4. It faith, a day of feven is moral and neceffary, which is all we say; and why neceffary? as agreeable to this command no doubt. Whence we may argue, If the fubftance of this command be kept even when the particular day is changed, then is the command moral (which this very change confirmeth) but the former is true, as is clear in experience; therefore it followeth, that the law ftands unrepealed: for 'tis palpable, that the day, as to its number or frequency, and duration, with the manner of fanctifying of it, belongs to the fubftance of the commandment; but what day as to its order, first, fecond,or feventh,doth not,because the firft cometh in immedi M 2 ately ately upon religion, God's honour and the good of fouls, which the other doth not. This argument will ftand good against all who acknowledge this law to have been once given by God, till they can evidence a repeal. To speak fomewhat more particularly to this, the way we fhall make out the morality of it is, by confidering, 1. How the scripture speaketh of it in general. 2. How it fpeaketh of the decalogue. 3. How it fpeaketh of this command in particular. 4. By adducing fome fcriptural arguments for it: As for the First, to wit, the fcripture's fpeaking of it ingeneral, we fay, If the fcripture fpeak as frequently in clearing the fourth command, or the fabbath (which is the morality of it) and press it as seriously, and that in reference to all times of the church, as it doth any other moral duty; then for fubftance this command is moral and perpetually binding (for that feemeth to be the character whereby moft fafely to conclude concerning a command, to confider how the scripture fpeaketh of it) but the fcripture doth as often mention, and is as much, and as ferious in preffing of that command, and that in reference to all ftates of the church, as of any other; Ergo, &c. We fhall make out this by fhewing, 1. Its frequency in mentioning of it. 2. Its seriousness in preffing it. 3. Its afferting of it as belonging to all times and ftates of the church. 1ft, Look through all the fcriptures, and ye will find the fanctifying of a fabbath mentioned; as firft, Gen. 2. beginneth with the very first feventh after the creation; then it is fpoken of, Exod. 16. before the law was given; then, Exod. 20. it is contained exprefly in the law, and that by a parti cular and special command in the firft table thereof, and is often after repeated, Exod. 31. and Lev. 23. 3. where it is fet down as the first feaft before all the extraordinary ones; which preference can be for no other reafon, but because of its perpetuity: yea, it is made a rule or pattern, by which the extraordinary fabbaths, or feafts, in their fanctification, are to be regulate. Again, it is repeated, Deut. 5. with the reft of the commands; and in the historical part of fcripture, as Neb. 9. 13. It is alfo mentioned in the Pfalms, the 92. Pfalm being peculiarly intituled, A pfalm or fong for the fabbath-day. The prophets, again, do not forget it; fee Ifa. 52. 58. Fer. 17. and Ezek. 20. 22. In the new teftament the fanctifying of a day or fabbath is mentioned in the evan gelifts, 18 gelifts, Mat. 24. 20. Luke 33. 56. Acts 13. 14, 15, 21. and 20. 7. in the epiftles, as, 1 Cor. 16. and in the Revel. chap. J. 10. as if all had purposely concurred for making out the concernment and perpetuity of this duty. 2dly, Confider how weightily, ferioufly and preffingly the fcripture fpeaketh of it. 1. It is fpoken of, Gen. 2. as back'd with a reafon. 2. Through the law the fanctification of it in particular is defcribed. 3. It is fpoken of as a mercy and fingular privilege that God gave to his people, Exod. 16. 29. Neb. 9. 14. and Ezek. 20. 12. 4. Many promifes, containing many bleffings, are made to the confcientious and right keepers of it, Ifa. 56. 58. 5. The breach of it is feverely threatned and plagued, Numb. 15. Neb. 13. Jer. 17. and Ezek. 20. 6. Many examples of the godly, their care in keeping it, are fet down; fee Neb. 13. Luke 23. 56. Acts 20. 7. and Rev. I. 10. 7. The duties of it are particularly fet down, as hearing, praying, reading, delighting in God, works of mercy, &c. 8. It is, in the old teftament, claimed by God as his own day, not ours; My holy day, Ifa. 58. 13. and Neb. 9. 14. it is acknowledged by the people to be his, while they fay, Thine boly fabbath; which property is afferted of that holy day, as being God's, befides other days, Rev. 1. 10. And this is afferted also in this fame command, where it is called, the Sabbath of the Lord, in oppofition to, or contradiftinction from, the other fix days: All which feemeth to fpeak out fomething more than temporary in this duty of fetting a seventh day apart for God, for we fpeak not yet of the particular day. 3dly, Look to it in all times and ftates of the church, and ye will find it remarkably characterized with a special obfervation; as, 1. In innocency it is inftituted and let apart from others, and bleffed; and, Heb. 4. it is called the reft from the beginning of the world. 2. Before the law was given, the fanctification of it was intimated as neceffary. 3. In the giving of the law, it is remembred, and a command given to us for remembring it. 4. After the law, it is urged by the prophets, Ifaiah and Feremiah, and kept by the godly, Pfal. 92. 5. In the time, or after the time of the captivity, the breach of it is reproved, Ezek. 20. and its jobservation reftored by godly Nehemiah. Hitherto there is no difficulty; the pinch will ly in this, If the fcriptures fpeak of it as belonging to the days of the go M 3 fpel: Com. 4. fpel: In which (for making of it out) 1. We have thefe hints, As 20. 7. 1 Cor. 16. 2. where chriftians going about the moral duties of the fabbath, is especially obferved to be upon one day peculiarly. 2. That title of the direct appropriating of a day to the Lord, Rev. 1. 10. Which places will fall in to be confidered particularly when we come to the last queftion. Befides thefe, we may produce three places to prove a fabbath as belonging to the new teftament, tho' not the very day used or obferved for the fabbath in the old; and this will be enough to make out the affertion; two of them are prophecies,the third of them is in the gofpel. The firft prophecy is in the 66. chap. of Isaiah, v. 23. the fecond is in Ezekiel's defcription of the new temple, chap. 43, 44, 45, 46, &c. Where, (1.) It is clear, that thefe places relate to the days of the gofpel, as none can deny but they do fo eminently. (2.) It is clear, that tho' they prophesy of the fervices of the gofpel under the names of facrifices, &c. proper to the old-teftament administration, and of the fanctified and fet apart time of the gospel, under the name of Sabbath, which then was determined, and whereto men were then bound by the fourth command, as they were to facrifices by the fecond; yet thefe prophecies infer not, by vertue of the fourth command, the very fame day to be under the gofpel, which was under the law, more than the fame fervices by vertue of the fecond, which none will deny to be in force, notwithstanding of the change of fervices: and there is as little reafon to deny the fourth to be ftill in force as to its fubftance, notwithstanding of the change of the particu lar day. Yet, (3.) It is clear, that from the mentioning of thefe fervices this will follow, That there fhould be fet and fixed ordinances, and a way of worship in the new teftament, as well as in the old; and that there should be a folemn chief fet time for the fabbath, which men ought to fanctify; and that they fhould no more admit any other times, nor fo fet apart, into a parity with it, than they were to admit any fervice or worship not allowed by God, or that was contrary to the fecond command; for, if any thing be clear in them, this is clear, that they fpeak firft of fervices, then of folemn times and fabbaths, and of the one after the other; which muft certainly infer, that both external services, and a folemn chief time for them, doth belong to the new teftament. Hence it is, that many divines (from that prophecy of |