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Actions of worship can no more be imagined to be done [ 130] without some time, then a body be without some place, and therefore in the three first Commandments, where Gods worship is enjoined, some time together with it is necessarily commanded; if therefore any time for worship be required in the fourth command (which none can deny) it must not be such a time as is connaturall & which is necessarily tyed to the
[ 128] action; but it must be some solemne and speciall time, which depends upon some speciall determination, not which nature, but which Counsel determines; Determination therefore by Counsel of that time which is required in this command doth not abolish the morality of it, but rather declares and esta∣blisheth it. God therefore who is Lord of time, may justly challenge the determination of this time into his own hand, and not infringe the morality of this command, considering also that he is more able and fit then men or Angels to see, and so cut out the most equall proportion of time between man and himself; God therefore hath sequestred a seventh part of time to be sanctified, rather then a fifth, a fourth, or a ninth, not simply because it was this seventh, or a seventh, but because in his wise determination thereof, he knew it to be the most just and equall division of time between man and himself; and therefore I know no incongruity to affirm, that if God had seen one day in three or four, or nine, to be as e∣quall a proportion of time as one day in seven, that he would then have left it free to man to take and consecrate either the one or the other (the Spirit of God not usually restraining where there is a liberty) and on the other side, if he had seen a third or fifth or ninth or twentieth part of time more equal then a seventh, he would have fixed the bounds of labour and rest out of a seventh; but having now fixed them to a seventh, a seventh day is therefore morall, rather then a fourth or sixt or ninth day, because it is the most equall and fittest propor∣tion of time (all things considered) between God and man; the appointment therefore of a seventh rather then a sixt or fourth▪ is not an act of Gods meer will only (as our adversa∣ries affirm, and therefore they think it not morall) but it was and is an act of his wisdom also according to a morall rule of justice, viz. to give unto God that which is most fit, most just and most equall; and therefore although there is no naturall justice (as Mr Primrose cals it) in a seventh simply and ab∣stractly considered, rather then in a sixth or tenth, yet if the most equall proportion of time for God be lotted out in a se∣venth, there is then something naturall and morall in it rather then in any other partition of time, viz. to give God that proportion of time which is most just and most equall; and in this respect a seventh part of time is commanded because it is good (according to the description of a morall law) and not only good because it is commanded.