The Doctrine of the Sabbath, Thesis 20
Thesis 20.
Tis true that sin is the transgression of Gods law; there is nothing therefore sinfull but it is the transgression of some law, and hence there is no obedience good, but what is conformable unto some law. But wee must know that as transgression of any law doth not make a thing morally sinfull (for then to breake a ceremoniall law would be a morall sinne) so also obedience to every law doth not make a duty morally lawfull and good (for then obedience to a ceremoniall law, must be a morall obedience;) morall transgression therefore is a breach of such a law, which forbids a thing because it is evill, as morall obedience is our conformity to such a law which commands a thing because it is good: not that anything is morally evill in it selfe before it be forbidden, for then there should bee a morall sinne before, and without any law to forbid it, which is most absurd, but because a thing is evill in it selfe, and is therefore forbidden, it is therefore morally evill: God may and doth make it fundamentally evill before it be forbidden, but it is not morally evill untill it be forbidden. The like may be said concerning moral obedience according to any morall law: No man should therefore thinke, that this description given of a morall law, should give occasion to any to imagine, that some things are morally good or evill, before any law passe upon them, and that therefore there are some duties, and some sinnes, which are so without and before any law of God. For wee see that things good in themselves must be commanded, else they are not morall duties, yet withall they are therefore commanded because they are good in themselves. Its true that by the verdict of some of the Schoolemen, some duties are morally good, before any law commands them (as to love and magnifie God) and that some sinnes (as to curse and blaspheme God) are morally evill, before any law forbids them: but (to omit other answers) if such suppositions may bee rationally made (which some deny) yet it may bee upon good grounds denyed, that any duty can be morally good, or any sinne morally evill, untill some law passe upon them either to command or forbid the same. 'Tis indeed sutable and meet in nature for man to love God, and unsutable and unmeet to blaspheme and hate God; but such sutablenesse or unsutablenesse, as they make things fundamentally good or evill, so they cannot make any thing morally good or evill, unlesse we suppose some Law; for it would be in this case with man as 'tis in brute creatures, who doe many things unnaturall (as to eate up and destroy their owne young) which yet are not morally sinfull, because they are not under any morall law; and *Alex Hal. pa…t. 3. Q. 32. Art. 1.one of the most ancient and best of the Schoolemen, though he thinks that the observance of the Sabbath before Moses time was not secund…m rationem praecepti, or debitè fieri, i. was not actually commanded; yet that it was secundum rationem honesti, hoc est dignè steri. i. It was congruous, and a thing meet and worthy to bee observed even from the first creation: But will any of our Adversaries hence say, that because it was meet and worthy to bee observed, that therefore it was a morall law from the beginning of the world, while it had no command (as is by them supposed) to be observed? For it must be something meet and congruous, and worthy to be observed of man, which when it is commanded makes it to be a morall law, for then the Law commands a thing that is good, and because 'tis good i… is therefore commanded, which goodnesse wee must a little more narrowly now enquire into.