that they took their Authority for the highest and their judgement for infallible and therefore received their writings as Canonical and Divine 3. The Churches professed to observe the Lords day as an Apostolical Ordinance And they cannot be all supposed to have conspired in a lie yea to have belyed the Holy Ghost 4. The Apostles themselves would have controlled this course if it had not been by their own appointment For I have proved that the usage was in their own daies And they were not so careless of the preservation of Christs Ordinances and Churches as to let such things be done without contradiction when it is known how Paul strove to resist and retrench all the corruptions of Church-order in the Churches to which he wrote If the Apostles silently connived at such corruptions how could we rest on their authority Especially the Apostle John in an 99 would rather have written against it as the superstition of Usurpers as he checkt Diotrephes for contempt of him than have said that he was in the Spirit on the Lords day when he saw Christ and received his Revelation and message to the Churches 5. And if the Churches had taken up this practice universally without the Apostles it is utterly improbable that no Church writer would have committed to memory either that one Church that begun the custome or the Council or means used for a sudden Confederacy therein If it had begun with some one Church it would have been long before the rest would have been brought to an agreeing Consent It was many hundred years before they all agreed of the Time of Easter And it was till the middle of Chrysostomes time for he saith it was but ten years agoe when he wrote it that they agreed of the time of Christs Nativity But if it had been done by Confederacy at once the motion the Council called about it the debates and the dissenters and resistances would all have been matter of fact so notable as would have found a place in some Author or Church History Whereas there is not a Syllable of any such thing either of Council letter messenger debate resistance c. Therefore it is evident that the thing was done by the Apostles Prop. 12. They that will deny the validity of 〈◊〉 Historical evidence do by consequence betray the Christian faith or give away or deny the necessary means of proving the truth of it and of many great particulars of Religion I suppose that in my Book called The Reasons of the Christian Religion I have proved that Christianity is proved true by the SPIRIT as the great witness of Christ and of the Christian Verity But I have proved withall the necessity and certainty of historical means to bring the matters of fact to our notice as sense it self did bring them to the notice of the first receivers For instance I. Without such historical Evidence and Certainty we cannot be certain what 〈◊〉 of Scripture are truly Canonical and of Divine authority and what not This Protestants grant to Papists in the Controversie of Tradition Though the Canon be it self compleat and Tradition is no supplement to make up the Scriptures as if they were iâ— suâ— genere imperfect yet it is commonly granted that our Fathers and Teachers Tradition is the hand to deliver us this perfect Rule and to tell us what parts make up the Canon If any say that the Books do prove themselves to be Canonical or Divine I answer 1. What man alive could tell without historical proof that the Canticles or Esther are Canonical yea or Ecclesiastes or the Proverbs and not the Books of Wisdome and Ecclesiasticus 2. How can any man know that the Scripture histories are Canonical The suitableness of them to a holy soul will do much to confirm one that is already holy of the truth of the Doctrines But if the spirit within us assure us immediately of the truth of the History it must be by Inspiration and Revelation which no Christians have that ever I was yet acquainted with For instance that the Books of Chronicles are Canonical or the Book of Either or the Books of the Kings or Samuel or Judges And how much doth the doctrine of Christianity depend on the history As of the Creation of the Israelites bondage and deliverance and the giving of the Law and Moses miracles and of Chronologie and Christs Genealogie and of the History of Christs own Nativity Miracles and Life and the History of the Apostles afterward To say that the very History so far proveth its own truth as that without subsequent History we can be sure of it and must be is to reduce all Christs Church of right believers into a narrow room when I never knew the man that as far as I could perceive did know the History to be Divine by its proper evidence without Tradition and subsequent History 3. And how can any man know the Ceremonial Law to be Divine by its proper evidence alone Who is he that readeth over Exodus Leviticus and Numbers that will say that without knowing by History that thâ—â— is a Divinâ— Record he could have certainly perceived by the Book it self that all these were indeed Divine institutions or Laws 4. And how can any meer Positive institutions oâ— the New Testament be known proprio lumine by their own evidence to be Divine As the institution of Sacraments Officers Orders c. What is there in them that can infallibly prove it to us 5. And how can any Prophecies be known by their own evidence to be Divine till they are fulfilled and that shall prove it I know that the whole frame together of the Christian Religion 〈◊〉 its sufficient Evidence but we must not be guilty of a peevish rejecting it The 〈◊〉 part 〈◊〉 its witness within us in that state of holiness which it imprinteth on the soul and the rest are witnessed to or proved partly by that and partly by Miracles and those and the records by historical evidence But when God hath made many things necessary to the full evidence and wranglers through partiality and Contention against each others will some throw away one part and some another they will all prove destroyers of the faith as all dividers be If the Papist will say It is Tradition and not inhaerent Evidence or if others will say that it is inhaerent evidence alone and not history or Tradition where God hath made both needful hereunto both will be found injurious to the faith II. Without this historical evidence we cannot prove that any of the books of Scripture are not maimed or depraved That they come to our hands as the Apostles and Evangelists wrote them uncorrupted It is certain by History that many Hereticks did deprave and câ—rrupt them and would have obtruded those Copies or Corruptions on the Churches And how we shall certainly prove that they did not prevail or that their copies are false and ours are true I know not without the help
THE Divine Appointment OF THE Lords Day Proved As a separated Day for Holy Worship especially in the Church Assemblies And consequently the Cessation of the Seventh day Sabbath Written for the satisfaction of some Religious Persons who are lately drawn into Error or doubting in both these Points By Richard Baxter Rev. 1. 10. I was in the Spirit on the Loras Day Col. 2. 16 17. Let no 〈◊〉 judge you in Meat or in Driak or in respect of an Holy day or Feast or of the New 〈◊〉 or Sabbaths which are a shadow of things to come but the Body is of Christ. LONDON Printed for Nevil Simmons at the three Crowns near Holborn Conduit 1671. THE PREFACE Reader IF thou think this Treatise both superfluous and Defective when so many larger have better done the work already I shall not at all gainsay the latter nor much the former The reason of my writing it was the necessity and request of some very upright Godly persons who are lately faln into doubt or Errour in point of the Sabbath day conceiving that because the fourth Commandment was Written in Stone it is wholly unchangeable and consequently the seventh day Sabbath in force and that the Lords day is not a Day separated by God to holy Worship I knew that there was enough written on this Subject long agoe But 1. Much of it is in Latine 2. Some Writings which prove the abrogation of the Jewish Sabbath do withal treat so loosly of the Lords day as that they require a Confutation in the latter as well as a commendation for the former 3. Some are so large that the persons that I write for will hardly be brought to read them 4. Most go upon those grounds which I take to be less clear and build so much more than I can do on the fourth Commandment and on many passages of the old Testament and plead so much for the old Sabbatical notion and rest that I fear this is the chief occasion of many peoples Errours who when they find themselves in a wood of difficulties and nothing plain and convincing that is pleaded with them do therefore think it safest to stick to the old Jewish Sabbath The friends and acquaintance of some of these persons importuning me to take the plainest and nearest way to satisfie such honest doubters I have here done it according to my judgement not contending against any that go another way to work but thinking my self that this is very clear and satisfactory viz. to prove 1. That Christ did Commission his Apostles to Teach us all things which he commanded and to settle Orders in his Church 2. And that he gave them his spirit to enable them to do all this Infallibly by bringing all his words to their remembrance and by leading them into all truth 3. And that his Apostles by this spirit did de facto separate the Lords day for holy Worship especially in Church-Assemblies and declared the cessation of the Jewish Sabbaths 4. And that as this change had the very same Author as the Holy Scriptures the Holy Ghost in the Apostles so that fact hath the same kind of proof that we have of the Canon and the integrity and uncorruptness of the particular Scripture Books and Texts And that if so much Scripture as mencioneth the keeping of the Lords day expounded by the Concent and Practice of the Universal Church from the dayes of the Apostles all keeping this day as holy without the dissent of any one Sect or single person that I remember to have read of I say if all this History will not fully prove the point of fact that this day was kept in the Apostles times and consequently by their appointment then the same proof will not serve to evince that any text of Scripture is Canonical and uncorrupted nor can we think that any thing in the world that is past can have Historical proof I have been put to say somewhat particularly out of Antiquity for this evidence of the fact because it is that which I lay the greatest stress upon But I have not done it so largely as might be done 1. Because I would not lose the unlearned Reader in a Wood of History nor overwhelm him instead of edifying him 2. Because it is done already in Latine by Dr. Young in his Dies Dominica under the name of Theophilus Loncardiensis which I take to be the moderatest soundest and strongest Treatise on this subject that I have seen Though Mr. Cawdry and Palmer joyntly have done well and at greater length and Mr. Eaton Mr. Shephard Dr. Bound Wallaeus Rivet and my dear friend Mr. George Abbot against Broad have said very much And in their way Dr. White Dr. Heylin Bishop Ironside Mr. Brierwood c. 3. I chose most of the same Citations which Dr. Heylin himself produceth because he being the man that I am most put to defend my self against his confessions are my advantage 4. And if I had been willing I could not have been so full in this as the Subject will bespeak because I have almost eleven years been separated from my Library and long from the neighbourhood of any ones else I much pitty and wonder at those Godly men who are so much for stretching the words of Scripture to a sense that other men cannot find in them as that in the word Graven Images in the second Commandment they can find all set Formes of Prayer all composed studyed Sermons and all things about Worship of mans invention to be Images or Idolatry and yet they cannot find the abrogation of the Jewish Sabbath in the express words of Col. 2. 16. nor the other Texts which I have cited nor can they find the Institution of the Lords day in all the Texts and Evidences produced for it But though Satan may somewhat disturbe our Concord and tempt some mens Charity to remissness by these differences he shall never keep them out of Heaven who worship God through Christ by the Spirit even in spirit and truth Nor shall he I hope ever draw me to think such holy persons as herein differ from me to be worse than my self though I think them in this to be unhappily mistaken much less to approve either of their own separation from others or of other mens condemning them as Hereticks and inflicting severities upon them for these their opinions sake THE CONTENTS CHAP. 1. THE state of the Question with the summary proof of the Divine separation of the Lords Day page 1. CHAP II. That Christ commissioned his Apostles as his principal Church-Ministers to teach the Churches all his Doctrine and to deliver them all his Commands and Orders and so to settle and guide the first Churches p. 5. CHAP. III. Christ promised his Spirit to his Apostles to enable them to do what he had commissioned them to do by leading them into all truth and bringing his words and deeds to their remembrance and by guiding them at his Churches Guides p. 9.
of History Mahomet and his followers more numerous than the Christians pretend that Mahomets name was in the Gospel of John as the Paraclet or Comforter promised by Christ and that the Christians have blotted it out and altered the Writings of the Gospel And how shall we disprove them but by Historical Evidence As the Arrians and Socinians pretend that we have added 1 John 5. 7. for the Trinity so others say of other Texts And how shall we confute them without Historical Evidence III. Therefore we cannot make good the Authority of any one single Verse or Text of Scripture which we shall alledge without historical evidence Because we are not certain of that particular text or words whether it have been altered or added or corrupted by the fraud of Hereticks or the partiality of some Christians or the oversight of Scribes For if a Custome of setting apart one day weekly even the first for publick Worship might creep into all the Churches in the World and no man know how nor when much more might one or a few corrupt Copies become the exemplar of those that follow For what day all the Churches meet men women and children know Learned and unlearned know the Orthodox and Hereticks know and they so know as that they cannot choose but know But the alterations of a Text may bâ— uâ—â—nown to all save the Learned and the observing â—iligent part of the learned only and 〈◊〉 that they tell it to And besides Origen 〈◊〉 a Heretick and Hierome alas how few of the Fathers were â—ble and diligent Examiners of such things Therefore in the case of various Reâ—dings such as Ludov. Capellus treats of in his 〈◊〉 Sacra contradicted in many things by Bishop Vsher and others who are those Divines that have hitherto appealed either to the Spirit or to the proper light of the words for a decision Who is it that doth not presently fly to historical evidence And what that cannot determine we all conâ—ess to be uncertain And if Copies and History had delivered to us as various Readings oâ— every Text as they have done of some every Text would have remained uncertain to us Let none say that this leaveth the Christian Religion or the Scriptures uncertain I have fully answered that elsewhere 1. Christian Religion that is The Material parts of the Scripture on which our salvation lyeth hath much fuller evidence than each particular Text or Canonical Book hath And we need not regard the perverse zeal for the Scriptures of those men that would make all our Christianity as uncertain as the authority of a particular Text or book is And therefore God in mercy hath so ordered it that a thousand Texts may be uncertain to us or not understood no not by any or many Divines and yet the Christian faith be not at all shaken or ever the more uncertain for this When as he that understandeth not or believeth not every essential Article of the faith is no Christian. 2. And those books and Texts of Scripture are fully certain by the subservient help of History and usage which would be uncertain without them Therefore it is the act of an enemy of the Scriptures to cast away and dispute against that History which is necessary to our knowledge of its certainty and afterwards to plead that they who take in those necessary helps do make it uncertain Even as if they should go about to prove that all writings are uncertain and therefore that they make Christs doctrine uncertain who rest upon the credit of writings that is the Sacred Scriptures IV. Without historical notice how should we know that these Books were written by any of the same men that bear their names As Matthew Mark Luke John Paul Peter c. Especially when the Hereticks did put forth the Gospel of Thomas Nicodemus the Itinerary of Peter and many Books under venerable names Or when the name of the Author is not notified to all Christians certainly either by the spirit within us or by the matter And though our salvation depend not on the notice of the Pen-man yet it is of great moment in the matter of faith V. And how should we be certain that no other Sacred Books are lost the knowledge of which would tell us of that which these contain not and would help us to the better understanding of these I know that a priore we may argue from Gods Goodness that he will not so forsake his Church As a Jew might have done before Christs incarnation that the Gospel should be written because it is best for the world or Church But when we consider how much of the world and Church God hath forsaken since the Creation and how dark we are in such Prognosticks and how little we know what the Churches sins may provoke God to we should be less confident of such reasonings than we are of Historical Evidence which tells us de facto what God hath done So much of the use of the History as to the Cause of the Scriptures themselves Next you may observe that the denyal of the certainty of humane History and usage doth disadvantage Christianity in many great particular concernments As 1. Without it we should not fully know whether de facto the Church and Ministry dyed or almost dyed with the Apostles And whether there have been any true Churches since then till our own dayes Christs promise indeed tells us much but if we had no History of the performance of it we should be ready to doubt that it might be yet unperformed as far as the promise to Adam Gen. 3. 15. and to Abraham in thy seed shall all the Nations of the earth be blessed were till the coming of Christ. Nor could we easily confute the Roman or any hereticall Usurpation which would pretend possession since the Apostles daies and that all that are since gone to Heaven have gone thither by their way and not by ours II. Nor could we much better tell de facto whether Baptism have been administred in the form appointed by Christ In the name of the Father of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Indeed we may well and truly argue a priore Christ commanded it Ergo the Apostles obeyed him But 1. That Argument would hold good as to none or few but the Apostles And 2. It would as to them be though true yet much more dark than now it is because 1. We read that Peter disobeyed his command in Gal. 2. And 2. That after he had commanded them to Preach the Gospel to every Creature and all the World Peter scrupled still going to the Gentiles Act. 10. And 3. That when he said to them Pray thus Our Father c. yet we never read that they after used that form of words so when he said to them Baptize in the name of the Father c. yet the Scripture never mentioneth that they or any other person ever used that form of words But yet usage and