Exercitations concerning the name, original, nature, use, and continuance of a day of sacred…

§. 10 These being the proper Ends and Reasons of the Original Sabbatical Rest, which contain the true Notion of it, we may nextly enquire after the Law whereby it was prescribed and commanded. To this purpose we must first consider the state wherein man was created, and then the Law of his Creation. And for the state and condition wherein man was created it falls under a threefold consideration. For man may be considered either (1.) Absolutely as a Rational Creature; or (2.) As made under a Covenant of Rewards and Punishments; or (3.) With respect unto the especial nature of that Covenant.

First, He was made a Rational Creature, and thereby necessarily in a Moral Dependence on God. For being endowed with Intellectual Faculties, in an immortal soul, capable of eternal Blessedness or Misery, able to know God, and to regard him as the first Cause and last End of all, as the Author of his Being, and Object of his Blessedness, it was naturally and necessarily incumbent on him, without any farther considerations, to Love, Fear, and Obey him, to trust in him as a Preserver and Rewarder; and this the order of his nature, called the Image of God, inclined and enabled him unto. For it was not possible, that such a creature should be produced, ⟨p. 133⟩and not lye under an Obligation unto all those Duties, which the Nature of God, and his own, and the Relation of the one to the other, made necessary. Under this consideration alone, it was required by the Law of mans Creation, that some time should be separated unto the solemn Expression of his Obedience, and due Performance of the Worship that God required of him. For in vain was he endued with intellectual Faculties, and appointed unto society, if he were not to honour God, by them, in all his Relations, and openly express the Homage which he owed him. And this could not be done, but in a Time appointed for that purpose; the neglect whereof must be a deviation from the Law of the Creation. And as this is generally acknowledged; so no man can fancy the contrary. Here then do we fix the necessity of the separation of some time to the Ends of a Sabbatical Rest; even on the Nature of God and man, with the Relation of one to the other. For who can say, no part of our time is due to God, or so to be disposed.