A53694:154
Exercitations concerning the name, original, nature, use, and continuance of a day of sacred…
Exercitations concerning the name, original, nature, use, and continuance of a day of sacred rest wherein the original of the Sabbath from the foundation of the world, the morality of the Fourth commandment with the change of the Seventh day are enquired into : together with an assertion of the divine institution of the Lord's Day, and practical directions for its due observation / by John Owen.
London: printed by R.W. for Nath. Ponder, 1671
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
(4.) The Publication of Gods Commands, is to be stated from his giving of them; and not from the Instances of mens transgressing of them. Nor is it any Rule, that a Law is then first given, when mens sins against it are first reproved. For the Instance insisted on, of Nehemiah and the Tyrians, with his different dealing with them and the Jews about the breach of the Law of the Sabbath, Chap. 13. it is of no force in this matter. For when the Tyrians knew the Command of the Sabbath among the Jews, which was a sufficient Revelation of the Will of God concerning his Worship, it was their Duty to observe it. I do not say, that it was their Duty immediately, and abiding in their Gentilism to observe the Sabbath according to the Institution it had among the Jews; but it was their Duty to know, own, and obey the true God, and to join ⟨p. 98⟩themselves to his people, to do and observe all his commands. If this was not their Duty upon that Discovery and Revelation, which those had of the Will of God who came up to Jerusalem, as they did concerning whom we speak, then was it not their sin to abide in their Gentilism; which I suppose will not be asserted. It was therefore on one Account or other, a sin in the Tyrians to profane the Sabbath. It will be said, why then did not Nehemiah reprove them as well as he did the Jews? The Answer is easy. He was the Head and Governor of the State and Polity of the Jews, unto whom it belonged to see that things amongst them were observed and done according to Gods Law and Appointment: And this he was to do with Authority, having the warrant of God for it. With the Tyrians he had nothing to do; no care of them, no Jurisdiction over them, no intercourse with them, but according to the Law of Nations. On these accounts he charged not them with sin, or a Moral Evil, which they would not have regarded, having no regard to the true God, much less to his Worship; but he threatened them with War and Punishment for disturbing his Government of the people according to the Law of God.
(4.) The Publication of Gods Commands, is to be stated from his giving of them; and not from the Instances of mens transgressing of them. Nor is it any Rule, that a Law is then first given, when mens sins against it are first reproved. For the Instance insisted on, of Nehemiah and the Tyrians, with his different dealing with them and the Jews about the breach of the Law of the Sabbath, Chap. 13. it is of no force in this matter. For when the Tyrians knew the Command of the Sabbath among the Jews, which was a sufficient Revelation of the Will of God concerning his Worship, it was their Duty to observe it. I do not say, that it was their Duty immediately, and abiding in their Gentilisme to observe the Sabbath according to the Institution it had among the Jews; but it was their Duty to know, own, and obey the true God, and to joyn