with titles of preheminence To perfect this Catalogue Let us take in the Testimony of that renowned Austin yea his judgement too Augustine 12. 't is worth the while to take a view of each his testimony touching the Lords day is plain d Vos in dic quem dicunt Solis solem colitis ficut autem nos cundem diom Dominicum dicimus in eo quòd non solem sed Resurrectionem Domini veneramur Contra Faust Manich. lib. 18. cap. 5. You saith he speaking to the Manichees on the day called Sunday worship the Sun but we call the same day the Lords day because therein we honour not the Sun but the Lords Resurrection and how sound his judgement was in the Doctrine of the Christian Sabbath appears by that which he speaks of the divine Authority of it he assigns this as the reason why it is called the Lords day c Per Christum Factus est Dies Dominicus Ep. 86. because as it is in the Psalm the Lord hath made it and it was made the Lords day by Christ Jesus the Lord And that upon the occasion of his Resurrection as he telleth us twice over f Dies Dominicus Christi Resurrectione sacratus est De Cir. Dei Ep. 119. ad Januar The Lords day was consecrated saies he by the Lords Resurrection and concerning the Jews Sabbath he is as plain and peremptory quisque illus diem observat tanquam litera sonat carnaliter sapit who ever keeps that day as the letter soundeth he savoureth of the flesh And again Christs doctrine is the same with Moses's concerning the Sabbath but the time or day is different It were easie if it were not needless to add any more here is a complete Jury already yet let it not be thought superfluous if one Witness more be called in Eusebius by name Eusebius 13. whose Testimony concerning the universal observation of the Lords day all the Christian world over is worthy to be filed We have it towards the end of his Oration of the praises of Constantine where magnifying Christ above all the gods and grandees of the Heathens he speaks thus g 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Who of all the gods or Heroes of the Gentiles hath prescribed to all the Inhabitants of the world by sea and land that coming together into one place every week they should celebrate as Festival the Lords day and appointed that as they feed their bodies with food so they should refresh their soules with divine instruction Thus he testifies the Observation of the Lords day all the world over and that by theh appointment of Christ But does he not also tell us of some as the Ebionites who had a religious esteem of the Saturday-Sabbath still and accordingly kept both days Yes but he writes them down in the black Book among the Hereticks of that age and so does Epiphanius too Haeres 30. Let us a little attend Eusebius in his Historical description of these Hereticks he observes that their name was given them from the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies poor Lib 3. c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because of the poverty of their understandings h 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the men being very silly and their Heresie very senceless for they did saith he entertain very mean and poor thoughts and opinions of Christ holding that he was but a meer i 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and a common man Observe it well The high opinion they had of the Saturday-Sabbath was founded upon a low opinion of Jesus Christ I wish the new Ebionites of this age do not still build upon the same foundation Could men but see the Godhead and glory of Christ through the veil of his flesh me thinks the change of the Sabbath should be no such paradox to them especially to such as have felt his divine power in the change of their hearts But to close all let us briefly examine the opposite authorities produced in favour of this Ebionitish errour The first is Clemens Romanus or he that writ the constitutions called Apostolicall who is thus presented in great pomp by our Antagonist That blessed Clement saies he whose name is written in the book of life that elect vessel speaks thus Let us keep holy the Sabbath in memory of the Creation and the Lords day in memory of Christs Resurrection lib. 7. c. 24. Answ 1 The Author of those Constitutions was not that blessed Clement mentioned by Paul but some bastard Clement of a later extraction as our learned Dr. Fulk tells the Remish Annotators 'T is true the Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians is generally repoted the Legitimate issue of that elect vessel But let not this Author be angry if I let the reader see his Legal-demain in ascribing the book of Constitutions to the same Clement which none but Papists do our * Vide Chmenis de lectione patrum Perkins to Demont Praep. of the ptobl Protestant writers I am sure are of another mind 'T is a pitifull forlorn cause that flies so often for sanctuary to the Bulwarks of Popery But If he will needs build upon the authority of these constitutions let him take what followes in the same book Answ 2 Hebdomas una est insignis annus septimus mensis septimus Sabbatum c. iis omnibus praestat Dies Dominious Const lib. 7 c. 36. and much good may it do him Por ch 36. this elect vessel as he calls him prefers the Lords day before the Jewes Sabbath and all other Jewish Festivities whatsoever and herein he concurred with the rest of the antients whereas his Doctrine about the seventh day was but one Doctors opinion The next Testimony objected against us is that of Eusebius who reports a decree of Constantine the Emperour to establish the Lords day as the great holy-day Obj. 2 which the objector calls a presumptuous decree Year Anti-Christ prevailed with Constamine as he would make silly people beleive to change the Sabbath time into the first day Page 113. The Lord rebuke thee thou false tongue Answ That the day was changed by a greater than Constantine even Christ himself and his holy Apostles we have I think made good by Scripture-Argument and that this change was visible in the Church's practice long before Constuntine was born we have manifestly proved by the testimony of the most antient Fathers and eminent Martyrs What if the renowned Emperour Constantine made a decree to establish the Lords day Was he therefore the Author of the day or of the change Sozomen tells us that this Christian Emperour as a tender Nursing Father to the Church of Christ did also by a publick Edict establish the Christian religion in all his dominions Sozomen ib. 1. ch 7. But will any man in his right wits draw such a crack-braind Conclusion from hence viz. That therefore Constantine was the Author of the Christian Religion Understand presumptuous
circumstances considered it more then probable that this third Chapter is nothing but an history of what was done on the sixth day And so the mention of the Sabbath in the beginning of the second Chapter may well enough in order of things take place at the end of the third and then it will roundly follow That the first sin went before the first Sabbath As to that which is further alledged Exod. 31.17 Ans 3 That on the seventh day God rested and was refreshed I answer It is onely a Metaphorical expression for we may not think that the everlasting God the Lord the Creator of the ends of the earth fainted or was weary in the works of the Creation or that he needed any rest or respiration But when the Holy Ghost speaks to us men he delights to speak after the manner of men respecting more the weakness of our capacity than the exactness and propriety of the Phrase In a word suppose God's resting and being refreshed on the seventh day intimate some delightful satisfaction like that which men take in things that refresh their souls yet it follows not that this satisfaction was taken in the creatures but rather in Christ who had now undertaken God's satisfaction for man's transgression And this indeed is a sweet refreshing as to a guilty creature so to an angry God and in this sense the Scriptures do sweetly harmonize Isai 42.1 Mat. 3.17 Mat. 12.18 unanimously testifying that our blessed Redeemer is the person in whom the eternal God delighteth in whom the Father is well-pleased As for the other Scriptures which T.T. crouds in for company-sake in his Margin as Job 38.7 Luke 2.13 the one speaking of the Angels song at the Creation of the earth the other of their joyful Hymne at the birth of Christ I wonder how they make for his purpose to prove that man had not sinned before the Sabbath But impertinent quotations are no rarities in his book he would make a glorious shew of Scripture to dazle the eies of the simple when the Scriptures he cites are neither in sense nor sound applicable to his purpose which if it be not packing sophistry let the world judg Well his first tripartite argument is weighed and found to light And hitherto for ought appears to the contrary the first Sabbath was not before sin I proceed to the second 2. T. T s Argum. Some time sayes he must be allowed for the sin of Angels and after that for the parley with the woman and it was no little space wherein Adam gave significant names to the creatures For the Angels sin Ans 1 to guesse precisely at the time of it is neither easie nor necessary And in disputes of this nature we must be wise to sobriety not to curiosity a 1 Tim. 3.6 pride was a principal ingredient in their sin and b Job 4.18 God charged them with folly for their pride how much more folly shall sinful man be found guilty of who in the pride of his foolish heart shall presume to be wise above that which is written Some think that place Luke 10.28 may refer to the first fall of the Angels being mentioned as a check to the disciples ready to be lifted up with pride at the success of their ministry Ne factis miraculis superbirent discipuli adduxit Domiuus exemplum Satanae c. Stella in loc However it is most consentaneous to Scripture and Reason to conceive that the Angels being spiritual substances must in their actings whether good or evil be proportionable to their beings And sin being a spiritual evil how quick a progresse it might make in such creatures let any man judg who can but compare things spiritual with spiritual To me it is no great difficulty to apprehend that in a very few moments by an aspiring thought legions of Angels might become legions of Divels Especially being for ought I know linked together in a conjoyned apostasie For Adam's naming the creatures this also might soon be dispatched Answ 2 considering that not every individual creature as T.T. would have it but onely the birds and beasts were made to pass before Adam of which there are not many kinds Primi parentes insignes Philosophi Luther in Gâ—n Cap. 1. and not many of a kind created at first And doubtless it cost Adam no study to impose significant names upon them He had natural Philosophy enough concreated with him to know the properties and qualities of the creaures 1 Kin. 4.33 34 and he needed no dictionary to find out suitable names for them If Solomon after the Fall were so well read in the book of the creatures that he could write a complete Commentary upon it from the Cedar to the Hysop what shall we think of Adam before the Fall But to put all out of doubt Dr. Twisse moral of the Sabbath p. 51. that the naming of the Creatures took up no long time is evident for they were all named before Eve was formed Gen. 2.19 20. So as all this might be done before noon and time enough left before night for the acting of that fatal tragedy the Fall of Man as a judicious Writer concludes For the parley betwixt the Woman and the Serpent Answ 3 we have no reason to judge that long when the Scripture cuts it so short Questionless the Serpent was not onely a subtile but a nimble disputant and it was his policy to be as quick as he could that the woman might be conquered before she had time to recollect her self Besides in the judgment of most Interpreters she began to stagger and give ground at the first assault So that all this Authors conjectures laid together are too weak to bear the weight of that confident conclusion Nothing is more certain then that the Highest himself did both sanctifie and celebrate the first Sabbath and that before sin p. 11. I may well say nothing is more uncertain I have given some Scripture-arguments already to make it more then probable I shall add more in the third branch to make it little less then infallible that man fell on the sixth day For the present I shall onely cast in one Argument against the supposed institution of the Sabbath in Paradise If the Sabbath was instituted in Paradise Argu. then Adam did observe and was bound to observe the first Sabbath in Paradise But neither of these can be proved from Scripture Therefore c. 1. That Adam did unquestionably observe the first Sabbath in Paradise cannot be demonstratively proved from Scripture This is undeniable that whenever or where-ever he kept his first Sabbath he did it in imitation of God's example Now how could he rest a whole day by God's example till God had fully completed the first seventh dayes rest for his example Eph. 5.1 Imitation of God being a subsequent not a concomitant act a following of him as dear children not a fellow-acting with him I can therefore see
among Christians redeemed from the earth Obj 2 T.T. p. 61 62. To this I may easily answer without any great study Answ that the constant celebration of two dayes in a week is more then the Law requires or the Gospel allowes More then the law requires for that calls but for one day in seven Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy not Sabbath-dayes Exod. 20 8. Again six dayes shalt thou labour not five dayes Chrysostomes descant upon it is very pithy Tom. 5. p. 5 23. The week contains seven dayes sayes he Now see how the Lord hath distributed these dayes he hath not taken the greatest part to himself and left us the least neither has he taken half and left half requiring three for himself and leaving us but three no the Lord is more liberal he hath given thee six and taken but one for himself So he And indeed the Law saith the same I know it is disputed whether these words six dayes thou shalt labour be preceptive or permissive only but to me it is past dispute that they carry a preceptive force for the injunction of working six dayes is delivered in the same commanding terms v. 9. with the inhibition of work on the seventh day v. 10. T. T s gloss therefore falls to the ground Exod. 20.9 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Exod. 10.10 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Six dayes shalt thou labour that is God gives thee leave sayes he as if it were but a bare permission Or six dayes thou wilt labour pointing out the creatures earthly inclination as if there were a prediction in the words But let me advise him in the fear of God to read over the Commandement once more not as he would have it but as it is in the Original since he professes skill in the language of Canaan and then I shall ask him whether those words verse 10. On the seventh day thou shalt do no worke be not imperative If so why not also these Six dayes shalt thou labour since the forme of speech is one and the same It nothing helpes him that the word is otherwise translated Exod. 31.15 six dayes may worke be done for whatever the translation be the tense is the same and it may as well be rendred shall as may And so learned Ainsworth reades it And thus his Critical flourish proves but an empty flash For my part I look upon these words Six dayes shalt thou labour as having the force and vertue of a precept and command in them not directly injoyning us to labour upon any day for that belongs rather to the 8th Commandment but injoyning us such a proportion of time Eph. 4.28 Among the Jewes when holy dayes were so frequent there was never any weekly holy day ordained to go cheeke by jole with the Sabbath But their holy dayes were either monethly or yearly Mr. George Abbot p 118. Periculum mortis tollit Sabbathum necessitas non habet ferias six dayes together within the compass of which our labours must be confined 'T is as if the Lord had said Thou shalt not ordinarily labour more nor less then six dayes together nor rest more or less then one in seven ordinarily That God was pleased to appoint the Jews a greater number of holy dayes as Passeover Pentecost c. and so a lesser number of working-dayes was only in extraordinary cases as our fasting-dayes and thanksgiving-dayes are The fourth Commandment was to be the standing rule only for ordinary time both of weekly work and weekly rest And as those words on the seventh day thou shalt doe no work hinder not but souldiers in time of war may fight a battel and Citizens in case of fire breaking out may quench the flames upon the Sabbath day It was never the Apostles meaning nor in their power when God by a perpetual Law had given us six dayes for labour and destined a seventh for rest to turn it into five dayes labour and two dayes rest Idem ibid. the precept interdicting only the servile works of our ordinary callings In like manner these words six dayes shalt thou labour hinder not but in case of extraordinary judgements or unusual mercies we may set apart dayes of prayer and of praise but ordinarily and weekly to keep two dayes of rest and leave but five dayes for labour is utterly inconsistent with the fourth Commandment And here a word with our new Sabbath-keepers at Colchester you are erroneously taught to think you are bound in conscience to rest from labour two dayes every week else you are woful earth-wormes miserable worldlings dunghill drudges and what not Now I beseech you bring conscience to the rule hath not God said six dayes shalt thou labour and will you listen to man contradicting God and telling you nay thou shalt labour but five dayes only What Antichristian usurpation and Tyrannical imposing upon mens consciences is this to tell them in Print as T.T. does It is not one day in seven will serve your turn when the books shall be opened Why p 3. Why what are those books Shall not the book of the law be one of them And what is written there How readest thou Is it not plain six dayes shalt thou labour and do all thy work Blot this clause out of Gods book Deut. 12.32 or alter the figure and write five instead of six And be sure God will blot out thy name out of the book of life Consider this you that suffer your consciences to be mancipated and enslaved to the dictates of Man Either you must make the week longer by a day or confess in limiting conscience to five dayes only for labour you break the Law under a pretence of keeping it yea you totally make void the Commandment of the living God in subverting the equity of it this is one thing The letter of the Law will bear but one day in seven for holy rest yea the liberty of the Gospel will allow no more ordinarily Rom. 3.21 For do we by faith make void the law God forbid Nay rather we establish the law Yet if we allow but five dayes in the week for labour we must unavoidably make void the law in this particular And besides the observation of dayes legal dayes is disputed against by the great Apostle as contrary to Christian liberty It is but a poor evasion to say Col. 2.16 Gal. 4. â—0 compared with Gal. 5.1 The Apostle speaks only of festival dayes Passeover Pentecost and the like for if these were inconsistent with Gospel-liberty as the adversary grants how much more two dayes every week which amount to more at the years end then all those Jewish festivals twice told The Church in the Apostles time had no other holy day besides the Lords day And the fourth Commandment enjoyns the labour of six dayes Mr. Perkins in Galat. Let him therefore sadly consider the dangerous consequences of his errour forcing him at once both
this last book of the Bible to the praise of him who is our Alpha and Omega the very name speaks Christ the Author of it if not his Resurrection whereby he was declared both Lord and Christ the occasion of it The antients had it in singular esteem for the very name sake 't is an elegant and pious poem which I find written upon it by Sedlius an antient Christian Poet who was but a few years * Vid. Sixti Senesis Biblioth sanct p. 308. Jerome's Junior Caeperat intereà post tristia Sabbata felix Irradiare dies Libr. 5. Carm. Culmen qui nominis alti A domino dominante trahit primusque videri Promeruit nasci mundum atque resurgere Christum In English thus After sad Sabbaths th' happy day'gan dawn Whose lofty name from Lord of Lords is drawn A blessed day that first was grac'd to see Christs Rising and the worlds Nativity But we have more antient Records than this appropriating the title of Lords day to our Christian Sabbath Omnes ferè sacrae Scripturae interp etes tam veteres quam Recentiores de primo dïe hebdomadis intelligunt Wallaeus dissert de 4. prae cap. 6. p 150. Ignatius who lived in St. Johns time makes it a weekly holy day of the Christians observed in the room of the Jewes Sabbath So Tertullian Atharasius Hierom Austin who not By this title we may trace it down from the Apostles times through the Ocean of the Fathers Councills Schoolmen to this present age wherein we live And to come to Scripture there seemes to be much in that which Beza observes out of an antient Greek manu-script wherein that first day of the week 1 Cor. 16.2 is expresly called the Lords day and the Syriack translation tells us * Institut Theol loc 48. de cana Dom. that the Christians meeting together to receive the Lords Supper 1 Cor. 11.20 was upon the Lords day And Bucanus saith this Sacrament is called the Lords Supper as in respect of the institutor and the end of it I had rather interpret the Lords day by the Lords Supper than as Bucan does the Lords Supper by the Lords day so also in respect of the day on which it was wont to be administ viz. The Lords day citeing that Text Acts 20.7 and hence also the antients stiled it Dies panis the day of bread because the Churches of Christ ever used to break bread on this day But to end all disputes if Scripture may be safely interpreted by Scripture and dark places by plain ones then let us expound the Lords day Rev. 1.10 by the Lords Supper 1 Cor. 11.20 Here let the reader take notice that the blessed Spirit of God who had his choice of words and never spake any thing but upon admirable reason never vouchsafed this title of honour in the new Testament but only to the Supper and the day the Lords Supper and the Lords day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Cor. 11.20 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rev. 1.10 Neither can any third Text be produced where this Epithet is applyed to any thing else Now the phrase being the same and thus singular the sense must needs be the same Look therefore in what notion the Supper is the Lords Supper in the same sense is the day stiled the Lords day The supper is the Lords because the Lord Christ instituted it yea and substituted it in the room of the Passeover and why not the day His * So Mr. Perkins in his cases of conscience because he instituted and substituted it in the room of the old Sabbath T is evidently a day of Christs institution a day of the Lords own making and with reference to his Resurrection he made it such a day of the week not such a day of the year as we proved before in a word let any other day be set up in constitution with the first day of the week for the title of Lords day and we shall easily non-suit it Our Saviours birth-day bids fair for it Obj. 1 T.T. Answ Then it must be a day of divine institution which I hope he will not say But I answer further if the day of Christs nativity or any other day besides the first day of the week had been devoted to Christ and intended by John in this place he had spoken very obscurely to say I was in the spirit on the Lords day he would rather have said I was in the spirit on one of the Lords dayes Annot. ad loc But to put this fancy to flight observe the day here dignified with this magnificet title must needs be some noted day the circumstances of time place and person are set down as Beza observes the better to conciliate credit to the truth of these heavenly visions therefore all but that of the place have an eminent badge of cognizance upon them John was a known person and the Lords day with an emphatical Article 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a well-known day doubtless he that relates to others such a thing done such a day presupposes the day sufficiently and certainly known for a doubtfull circumstance darkens a story and drawes a curtain in stead of opening a casement to give light to the matter now let us put it to the question what day was more eminently and unquestionably known in all the Churches of Christ than the first day of the week Which the Secretaries of Christ all the four Evangelists had so exactly noted and the Psalmist so prophetically extolled as a day of the Lords making St. John could not but know that these seven Churches knew the first day of the week to be Christs Resurrection-day and neither he nor they could be ignorant that Christs Resurrection-day was the day which the Lord had made and what 's that but the Lords day As for our Saviours Birth-day although it were a day of wonderful mercy yet it is left in great obscurity not one of the Evangelists marking it out by name neither can it be so clearly resolved either what day of the * Unless the adversary will grant Mr. A. that it was the first day of the week week or what day of the month or what month of the year nor hardly what year of the world our Saviour was born in but it may be matter of controversie See divers disputes about it in Dr. Willets Hexapl. on Dan. chapter 11. If John intends any single day t is most likely to be the seventh day which was antiently stiled the Lords holy day Obj. 2 Isai 57.6 and is declared by Christ to be his day Mark 2. last and no other day throughout the Gospel does he declare to be his This he and Mr. Braburn in contradiction to the whole Christian world would fain perswade us that the Lords day which St. John speaks was the old Sabbath But He may as well say that the Lords Supper which St. Paul speakes of was the old Passeover Ans
affirm with them sayes the Objector That this was the Sabbath Lev. 23. So that to make good his cross conceits he would have Christ Crucifyed two dayes together namely on the Passeover Sabbath and the morrow after it that is Friday and Saturday which exceeds the cruelty of the crucifying Priests themselves Secondly To salve this sore the coyns another conceit namely that the Passeover-day and the Passeover-Sabbath were all one Pag. 83.84 For thus he argues in his first book The Israelites were appointed to bring on the morrow after their Passeover-Sabbath a Sheaf of their First-fruits to be waved by the Priests before the Lord and from that day to count seven weeks And here let the believer who sees all Types ended in Christ with confidence behold his dying Redeemer as the undoubted Sheaf of First-fruits waved upon the Cross by the Crucifying Priests the very morrow after he had eaten the Passeover As if the morrow after the Passeover-Sabbath were all one with the morrow after the Passeover Whereas the Learned Authors whom he cites will tell him That the Passeover-day was no Sabbath but a half-holiday Ainsw Lev. 23.5 But here again he is at odds with himself for in his last book he boasts of his concurrence with the most Learned of this Age saying I affirm with them That the Sabbath Lev. 23. is not the weekly Sabbath but the first day of the Passeover-feast that is the fifteenth day as they affirm therefore it could not be the fourteenth day And if he wikll contradict himself who can help it Thirdly Another gross Error is this That he makes Christ the Anti-type of the First-fruits in reference to his Death and quotes 1 Cor. 15.23 to prove it which speaks expressely of his Resurrection What shameful abuse of Scripture is this The morrow after the Sabbath on which the account began Object 2 is known by three things First by the Sickles entring into the Corn Deut. 16 9. Secondly by the waving of the First-fruits Lev. 23.11 Thirdly by offering the same day a Lamb without Spot Lev. 23.12 Now all these were punctually fulfilled in Christ on the day caleld Good Friday Then the Sickle was put to him to cut him down then he was Waved on the Cros then this Lamb without spot was offered from which day the holy Sabbath is the first of the account and at the end of seven full weeks the same day that began did end the account All this may be answered in a word The Type and the time to use his own language hold no proportion For the Sickle must be put to the Corn the First-fruits Waved and the Lamb offered the morrow after the Sabbath Lev. 23.10.12 Whereas Christ suffered and dyed the day before the Sabbath and not upon that day which he counts the morrow after the passeover-Sabbath for then he must have been Crucifyed upon the Saturday but upon that which he calls the Passeover-Sabbath it self namely the fifteenth day of the Moneth And here let him see how he hath lost his Cause and his Credit too For I hope he will stand to the judgment of Mr. Ainsworth and the English Annotators else why does he cite them now they both affirm That the Passeover Sabbath must be the fifteenth of Nisan and the morrow after it from which they began to reckon must needs be the sixteenth day From which they reckoned Exclusively from the night of the sixteenth day sayes Mr. Ainsworth Law 23.15 Now Christ suffered upon the Friday which was the fifteenth day and the supposed Passeover-Sabbath The next day being the Sabbath was the sixteenth of Nisan from which day namely when the day was ended they must begin to reckon the fifty dayes to Pentecost and so it falls pat upon the first day of the week and thus T. T. reckons in his first book excluding the morrow after the Passeover-Sabbath from being one of the fifty dayes And so against his will he must be forced to begin upon the first day of the week and that day that begins the account must needs end it and so his confidence is utterly dismounted Indeed in his last book he begins to reckon the sixteenth day Inclusively but in the very next page he contradicts himself again leaving out the morrow after the Passeover-Sabbath as none of the number a just jugment of God to make men fight with themselves when they would fight against his Truth The Waving of the First-fruits Answ and putting the Sickle into the Corn are Erroneously and falsely applied to the death of Christ they do both more properly relate to his Resurrection The Resurrection of the Just at the last day is resembled to reaping Matth. 13.39 The Harvest is the end of the world and the Reapers are the Angels Now Christ by virtue of his Resurrection was the First-fruits of that harvest The First-fruits of them that sleep 1 Cor. 15. The waving of the First-fruits under the Law did Typifie Christs rising from the dead and presenting himself alive before God upon the day of his Resurrection Again the offering of the Lamb without Blemish Lev. 23.12 makes not that day a Type of our Saviours dying day for it was their daily offering and upon the last of the fifty dayes they were to offer seven Lambs without blemish Levit. 23.20 Yet Christ dyed but once and by that one offering hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified Heb 9.28 ch 10 14. But Mr. Jemison has prevented me in this Argument and to give him his due he has done worthily in it as to the substance of what he hath written To conclude after all attempts to the contrary the glory of the Spirit 's Mission rests upon the First day of the week This day the Church of Christ was visited from on high the promise of the Father was sent Acts 1.4 The blessed Spirit came the Disciples were assembled Peter preached thousands converted and Baptized Acts 2. and all this is written for our instruction Why the Church assembled as Mr. Sprint argues why on that day Why the holy Ghost Why Preaching Why Conversion and administration of Sacraments Why the Promise of Christ accomplished all on this day but still to declare the will and Ordinance of Christ in blessing and sanctifying this day to his Church and so marking it out for a day of publick solemn worship as a day in all its Prerogatives superlative above other dayes the day of our Saviours Resurrection by which we are Justified the day of the holy Spirits Descension by whom we are Sanctified Fifthly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Andr. Caesar Another signal mark is the inscription of his royal name upon it whose day it is Rev. 1.10 t is stiled the Lords day Surely 't is some additionall honour to this illustrious day that as it was the first day of time mentioned the beginning of the first book of the Bible so it is the last day of same noted in the beginning of