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

Neither doth the superadded Institution in the Gospel derogate from the general Reason hereof, or change the nature of the Duty, but only direct its practice, and make Application of it, to the uses and ends of the Gospel itself.

§. 32 ⟨p. 166⟩I do not plead, that every Law that God prescribes unto me is Moral, because my Obedience unto it is a Moral Duty. For the Morality of this Obedience, doth not arise from, nor depend upon the especial Command of it, which it may be is Positive and Arbitrary, but from the respect that it hath unto our Dependence in all things which we have to do absolutely and universally on God. To obey God in all things, is unquestionably our Moral Duty. But when the substance of the Command it self, that is, the Duty required is Moral, the addition of a Positive Command doth no way impeach its Morality, nor suspend the Influence of that Law, whereon its Morality doth depend. It is therefore unduly pretended by some, that because there is a Positive Command for the Observation of the Sabbath, supposing there should be such a Command for the whole of it, which is nothing else but an Explanation and Enforcement of the Original Moral Precept of it, (as in every State of the Church something relating unto it, namely, the precise Determination of the Day it self in the Hebdomadal Revolution, depended on a Law Positive) that therefore the Law of it, is not Moral. It is not so indeed, so far and in that respect wherein it is Positive; but it is so from it self, for the substance of it, and Antecedently unto that Positive Command. The whole Law therefore of the Sabbath and its Observation may be said to be Moral Positive, which Expression hath been used by some Learned Divines in this case, and that not unduly. For a Law may be said to be so on a double Account. First, When the Positive Part of the Law is Declarative, and accumulative with respect ⟨p. 167⟩unto a Precedent Law of Nature, as when some Additions are made to the Duties therein required as to the manner of their Performance. Secondly, When the Foundation of a Duty only is laid in the Law of Nature, but its entire Practice is regulated by a Positive Law. From all the Instances insisted on, it is manifest that the Law of the Sabbatical Observation is Moral, a branch of the Law of Nature, however it be enforced, directed, and the especial Day in seven be limited and determined by Positive Commands.