A53694:268
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. God himself separates this Command from them which were Ceremonial in their Principal Intention, and whole subject matter, when he calls ⟨p. 190⟩the whole System of Precepts in the Two Tables by the name of the Ten Words or Commandments, Deut. 10. 4. [Greek or Hebrew]; Those ten Words which the Lord spake unto you in the Mount out of the midst of the fire, in the Day of the Assembly. No considering Person can read these words, but he will find a most signal Emphasis in the several parts of them. The Day of the Assembly; [Greek or Hebrew]; is that which the Jews so celebrate, under the Name of the Station in Sinai; the Day that was the foundation of their Church State, when they solemnly covenanted with God about the Observation of the Law. Deut. 5. 24, 25, 26, 27. And the Lord himself spake these words, that is, in an immediate and especial manner, which is still observed where any mention is made of them, as Exod. 20. Deut. 5. & 10. and saith Moses, he spake them unto you; that is immediately unto all the Assembly; Deut. 5. 22. where it is added, that he spake them out of the midst of the Fire, of the Cloud, and of the thick Darkness, with a great Voice, (that every individual Person might hear it) and he added no more. He spake not one Word more, gave not one Precept more immediately unto the whole people, but the whole solemnity of Fire, Thunder, Lightning, Earthquake, and sound of Trumpet immediately ceased and disappeared; whereon God entered his Treaty with Moses, wherein he revealed unto him, and instructed him in the Ceremonial and Judicial Law, for the use of the people who had now taken upon themselves, the Religious Observance of what he should so reveal and appoint. Now as the whole Decalogue was ⟨p. 191⟩hereby signalized, and sufficiently distinguished from the other Laws and Institutions which were of another Nature; so in particular, this Precept concerning the Sabbath, is distinguished from all those which were of the Mosaical Pedagogy, in whose Declaration Moses was the Mediator between God and the people. And this was only upon the Account of its Participation, in the same Nature with the rest of the Commands, however it may and do contain something in it, that was peculiar to that people, as shall be showed afterwards.