Chap.4. The :R.eafons or f this'Conamindtnent. Com. 4. 279 drink water : not that God took any delight in the fatting of bealls, ;tor that it was acceptable to him ; but that the Ninivires Seeing their beans pined before ,them, might be moved the more to repentand-humble themfelves for their fins : fo here, the Jews fèeing their beafts_to keep ä kind of Sabbath, might the better remember to keep it themfelves. 5. The latt is , The firanger within thy.gates. Now thegates of a houfe orof -a 5, Strangers. city! in Scripture fignifie a jurifdi(tionor protection. He that is within anthers gates, is underhis jurifduhon; and as;he' enjoys thereby protection againft inju- ries by coming within anothcrs gates , fo alto he must be fubje ì to his jurifdiCti on: when God told Abraham , that his feed fhouldpoll'efsthe gates of his ene- Gen. s:. 17. mies, his meaning was,the fhouldconquer and be Lords of their cities. And when Lot told the 'Sodomites; that theAngels came under his roof he fignified that they 19. &- came thither tobe under his protection. ' So that if a ftranger come to remain with- in our gates, or under our roof, he is to beunder our government as well as he en- joys our proteftion, and therefore is tobe under our care in point. of religious duties. In cafe of jurifdiflion,._Nehemiati.as long as hehad hope to reclaim themen of Neh. Tyre and AJhdod, fuffered them to come within the gates of erufalemwith their wares: but when he found that (notwithftanding his threats) theywould come in; and make their markets upon the fabbath,he Phut the gatesagain(t them at the even- ing of the orf.ynxvrñ, or preparation of the fabbath. And thus we fee the meaning of this Conimandment for works and perfons in general and particular. Now there are three reafons for it. The fir(!, (which is the general and main reafon, is, [For in fix days the Lord Generatreq¡ons made heaven and earth, . &c.] The rule. (as we faid before) of difcerning pre- °f Ottprecept. cepts is, It maybe obferved, that a moral reafon is often given of a eeremonialprecept, be- caufe even in ceremonies there is a general,moral equity : divers inflames may be given in the Law, but when a reafon is given as a fall andadequate caufeof faith a precept, or as the immediate and effential caufe of it, it is true, that if flesh a reafon be moral and immutable, there the precept is fo too. Betides, it is obfcrved by Maimonides and others, that the caufe whya rsj it en- Annotation 24,, joined , and the caufe *by it was upon this day , are two different things. The firfi of. Ceremonies, which was the true and original caufe of the refi, is eeprefedDeut. 5, becaufe of their deliverancefrom the Egyptian bondage; to keep A memorial of it. The other Is et,- prefed'here, for whereas any other day might havebeen chofen for this refi, yet God thought fit to pitchupon this day, becaufe it had been confirmedfor a -day of joy and prate from the beginning, by agrateful remembrance of the Creation, and becaufe on that day Godgave over and finifhedhis work, So Aben-Ezra, prefat. in Decal. Ifaac. Araniaand others, and hence it was called the Sabbath. Butyet though it were gran, ted, that Gods refi from the Creation was the principal and immediate reafon of thi precept, yet this remakes it not fo fimply moral or immutable, as the Lawof Nature, for it remains full a pofieive precept, juredivino pofitivo, -which may. be clo ir:zed by the fame authority that made it, and fo its certain, that the day is defado changed, and that it was by divine authority is mrfl probable , as is formerly proved in the kdditional obfervations. Ratio £mmutabilis precepti, facit preceptum immurabile. If the reafonof the com- mandment be immutable,(as this is) then it makes thecommandment unchangeable for the fubfianceof it.. Becaufe I have refted (faith God) thereforefhalt thou cell in honour of me. Creator imitandtua creatura, the Creator is to be imitated by the creature, is a firm reafon and immutable. z. Another reafon may be gatheredout of the fame words, namely, the benefit that.accrews to mankind by that which the Lord did in thefe fix days. Other tea- Pons elfewhere God ufeth,. as proper and peculiar only to the Jews, but this benefit Exod.t by the creation being general , is moft fit for all, and may be a means to imploy iknt 4' and exercüe us in the meditation of Gods works, and in his praife for it, as the oz Pfaim fhews us, which Pfalm was made efpecially for the Sabbath day. , As alfó tá the continuingof the memory of the Creation, tokeep us from Paganifm ; for if the duty of the memorial df the Creation had been dulyand fuccelfivelykept from the
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