World made known in every Nation to the Gentiles as well as to the Jews all Mankind being concerned therein as to their Eternal Estate so that if as Adversaries have confessed it were the Gentiles Duty to observe the Law of the ten Words as soon as these were made known unto them which have so much of self-evidence in them commending themselves to every man's conscience at first view we take then their own concession and would improve what they grant for their own conviction that seeing besides what was made manifest to Gentile Nations of these Laws before Moses's time there were many present at the very time of Promulgation of the Decalogue of Mount Sinai and who knows how many more might hear the sound of Christ's Voice at that time and there was one and the same Law to Israelite and to Gentile and seeing in the after-dispersions of the Israelites and Jews unto the several Nations into all Nations these Laws were published abroad among the Gentiles that therefore the Gentiles also who had or at least might have had the knowledge of these Laws were under the obligatory power of them Come we now to the New Testament This doth not run in the stile nor carry the form of enacting new Laws which were never before but as to the Matter in hand it doth confirm and established the Old Law of the ten Word This was the constant Doctrine of Christ when he spake to this subject This Decalogical Doctrine and Rule of Life was not at all disanulled or any way dissolved by this Lawgiver but he made it to stand firmly in his place and to preach the good old Gospel of Reconciliation through his Name he being that very Messiah who was foretold of should come in the flesh born of a Virgin and to declare the sound old Doctrine of Faith for the comfort of such converted Souls as turned from sin to a Saviour and so obtained Justification and Salvation by Faith in Christ which was the same in all ages of the Church under the several dispensations of Grace unto all and upon all that believe which Truth hath Testimony from the Law and from the Prophets This Law of the ten Words the Apostles by Commission from the LORD Jesus Christ commend and command to all rational Creature as a Rule of Life in their Preaching and Uniting to the Gentile Nations not as by way of new constituting and re-enacting of Laws as if they had been no Laws to them before but reviving and re-inforcing of these old Laws upon their Conscience and this they often bring in especially Paul sometimes to prove a Doctrine othertimes convincingly to reprove for a sin or reformingly to correct some Error or Vice or chastizingly to instruct some Duty of Holiness and Righteousness according as the particular occasions for these were taking it for granted that they were a Directory for the Gentiles as well as for the Jews The Apostles when they preached to Jew or Gentile before the New Testament was written were it a Doctrine or a Duty or what else which they pressed upon the hearers still they proved what they taught out of the Scriptures of the Old Testament as that which did and doth bind I speak of the Law of the ten Words both Jew and Gentile this was a part of that word-foundation on which all the Jewish and Gentile Churches were built Examine we some passages in the Epistles to this end There were Gentiles in the Church at Rome and Paul in his writing to them doth evidently declare That they were under the Obligation of those Commandments which were delivered from God by Moses giving particular instances in several of the Laws of the ten Words as the Marginal references will inform And commending of this Law in the general at large There were Gentiles in the Church at Corinth and Paul in his first Epistle to them doth convince them both of sin and duty from what was written in the Law of Moses There were Gentiles in the Church of Galatia yet Paul doth convince them of their guilt and cursedness whilst they were in their sinful state from those things which were written in the Book of the Law and sheweth them the necessity of Faith as to Justification which he proveth out of the writings of an Old Testament Prophet and as for Love he declares unto them that all the Law is fulfilled in one Word Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self which was the same Doctrine with that of Moses and of Christ There were Gentiles in the Church at Ephesus yet was that Church built upon the foundation of the Prophets of the Old Testament whose writings were much of them a Commentary upon the Law of the ten Words as well as under the Apostles of the New he urgeth upon them obedience to the Decalogical Law and particularly doth single one out of the Ten about honouring of the Father and the Mother which was the first Commandment of the second Table with promise An industrious Reader and a diligent observer may quickly carry this through the New Testament and spare me the further labour by his own unprejudiced ingenuity The Gentiles as well as the Jews are in their natural corrupt state in Sin and under the Curse which sin is a Transgression of this Law The Light of Nature in the Gentiles especially when rightly and throughly informed by the Word of God approves of every one of the Laws of the ten Words There is but one only Lawgiver who has mere and direct Empire over the consciences of all Mankind even Jehovah Aelohim who is able to save and to destroy according as men obey him or not And there is one only perfect Rule of Life to which all thoughts words and actions should be conformed and by which we shall be judged at that last Great Day even the Word of God the ten Words summarily this is the chief the principle the supreme Directory Whatsoever is written in the heart of the Pagans so far as it is right is concordant unto this Law The Will of the LORD concerning what is or is not to be done which way soever he has revealed it to all or to any of Mankind is still the same with this holy righteous Law when ever he has signified to man what his requirements from man in these matters are Unto his Will must the will of all Mankind be conformed all Mankind is always bound to will that which God would have them to will all Mankind who have the use and the exercise of right Reason cannot but acknowledge that the two great comprehensive Summaries of the ten Words do bind them all which are To love the LORD our God with all our heart and with all our soul and with all our mind and to love our neighbour as our selves all are reduced to this bipartite Universal Law Though the LORD variously reveal his Will and his Word for
some particular known day Do not Commissions to Judges and to other Officers meet with this sense by their Dates Do not Charters to Corporations express some special day of Grants Are not Fairs and Markets held upon certain days of the week agreeing with the present Accompt as the reckoning now is Search the records of Marriages Nativities Deaths Burials in Ecclesiastical register-Register-books and is not the memory of Days preserved there Do not Compacts Covenants Agreements between party and party Wills and Testaments speak the certain knowledg of Days Do not Day-labourers keep to this Accompt Do not Ephemeries Diaries Hemerologies Calendars Almanacks Astronomies assent and consent to this same What further Evidence is now needful in this case of a matter of Fact for the satisfying of them who will keep a Weekly-Sabbath-day Holy unto Jehovah As an act of Faith with an eye to his Promise as an Act of Fear with an eye to his Threatning Sandys in his Travels being a narrow inquirer into the state of other Nations and Kingdoms doth relate this concerning the matters of Religion in the Eastern parts that there is a Christian Empire of the Aethiopians that did still in his time Celebrate Saturday as well as the Sunday as he useth the old Ethnick Phrases and Purchas writes of the Abyssines as Subject to Peter and Paul and especially to Christ that they observed the Saturday Sabbath The Melchites or Syrians are said to Celebrate Divine Service as solemnly on the Sabbath day as on the Dominical day as they call the First day Some Christian Churches have forbid Fasting on both these days Many more Historical records of this may an Ingenious Industrious Reader of such books Collect that would further Inform himself about this Sufficient to me is Scripture Authority warranted in created Nature Having now gone thorow my great Task and undertaking in asserting and proving thorow the whole Scriptures by Aelohim's own assigned Reasons by other Scripture Arguments and by Created Nature and Established Order the Seventh-day which is the last day of the week to be the Weekly Sabbath-day should not every Mouth be stopped from gain-saying of it Yet the plainests clearest Truths have been opposed and so is this Some rise up against it and object that no special Honour is put by the LORD and by his Word upon the seventh day more than upon any other day of the week and that it is but A seventh not The seventh And that that part of time that is and will be accepted with God is declared and determined to be the seventh part of it or one day in seven and that one day in seven hath and must have a natural priority unto the seventh-day because say such the seventh day is one of the seven Whereas such should have more deliberately considered that one day of seven was not before the seventh day in order of time It could not be truly affirmed of any one day that it was one of seven before the seventh day was Created For when the one day was so named there was but that one day so but two on the second day but three on the third day but four on the fourth but five on the fifth but six on the sixth day till the seventh had its natural Existence and it s created being and untill then no one of the fore-going days of the Week could be called one in seven For till then there were not seven and the seventh day is the last number of days and the only seventh in the days of the Week So that here is a stop made and we go no further forward As to the natural created Order and accompt of a Week and therefore that exception and objection which some do bring in against this from ten Lambs any of which may be the tenth according as they may run out is nothing pertinent and applicable to the present matter For the days of every week do not run voluntarily at their pleasure which can be before or behind as they will to go backward or forward when they list but they keep their created order in this successive continued weekly course by a well-established natural unalterable Law although in the exception and objection this should be noted that when the ten Lambs were run out they had each distinct names and the last was the only tenth and no other but the last That particular day of the week is the Weekly Sabbath-day which alone As to this of the weekly-Sabbath has proper marks of Note and of Honour put upon it As Jehovah's own peculiar day which he has culled out from all the rest of the days of the week for his created ends and instituted purposes There is not any one Insignificant word or letter in the whole Book of God All that he has spoken and given to his people is of good use The LORD Jesus Christ has confirmed his Law of the Ten Words to a Letter a Consonant a Vowel a Particle a Point These things amongst others I have commended to their serious Observation who do understand the Original or will take so much pains as to learn the notes of Demonstration and their Significancy which may the LORD blessing it be gotten with a little Industry one is to observe well the first place in the Scriptures where the Doctrine and Law of the Seventh-day-Sabbath is taught here is a Note of Demonstration importing The This or That and it is three times joyned to the word Seventh which particular day of the Week the Last day Aelohim Rested on Blessed and Sanctifyed as the Weekly-Sabbath-day The seventh and a second time The Seventh and a third time The seventh and three times there is a Letter an Inseparable joyned Preposition signifying In Which would carry the discerning obedient Observer of the Weekly-Sabbath-day into the Possession and enjoyment the Duties and Priviledges of that set Seventh-day Besides another Particle there which doth here put a great force upon the signification as That day That Seventh The Note of Demonstration in this Place doth point out a certain known Determinate Fixed Particular Unchangeable day in every Week in that First Created Week and in the after Successive Returns of that last day in every Week as the Weekly Sabbath-day Because this is the First place in the Holy Scriptures where this Note of Demonstration is put to this word Seventh And this was an Eminent Remarkable thing pointed at this seventh day as the day of Weekly Rest And all and every of the foregoing daies of the Week of this Created World have a distinct observable put upon them and therefore so has this also Especially the Seventh day being the most remarkable day in divers respects that was in all the Week Here was a thing certain to be known and to be taken special notice of that was thus Demonstrated and Notificated The Subject matter compared with that which doth go before doth eminently point out as it
to Restrain or to Retain Every one of those seven days was a Solemnity or Solemn Feast a distinct Day in a day by themselves in which Jehovah was praised with Great Joy Each day was a Solemn Assembling This shews plainly that those Passover-days were to be kept Holy to Aelohim as so many Sabbath-days There is one Opposer of the weekly seventh-day-Sabbath who to establish his first day in the room of the seventh doth urge Levit. 23. 39. where the eight day is called a Sabbath which he affirmeth from John 7. 37. to be the last day the Great day of that Feast of Tabernacles from whence he would infer a first day Sabbath Whereas there were but seven days in that Feast Deuter. 16. 13 15. Besides that Feast of Tabernacles or of Booths was not a weekly Feast and so cannot have a weekly Antitype directly answering to it The weekly Sabbath was spoken of before and settled upon the seventh day Levit. 23. 3. A Learned Adversary of the seventh-day-Sabbath doth acknowledge that about the time of the writing of the Books of the New Testament both the Jews themselves and all the Heathen which took notice of all these Feasts and solemn Assemblies did call them Sabbaths and not only so But by God himself from their Analogie which I shall have further occasion after a few leaves to make some use of In Luk. 6. 1-10 compared with Mat. 12. 1-14 we may read of Sabbaths in the Plural number as in many other places of the First Sabbath a second Sabbath another Sabbath which if they be applyed to the Sabbaths of either of the Typical Feasts then it is an evident proof that the days of those feasts had the name of Sabbaths in the Scripture if they refer the expressions to the weekly Sabbaths then it doth afford a testimony for the Weekly seventh-day-Sabbath Upon one of these Sabbaths our LORD Jesus Christ did arise from the Dead And now let the Considering-Reader bethink himself whether this do give any the least intimation of any Change of the weekly-Sabbath from the seventh to the first day of the week Where nothing either in the words themselves or in the Coherence or Context or design of those Scriptures or expressed or implyed or intended sense of them doth meddle at all with any change of the Weekly-Sabbath Where there is no either Blessing or Sanctifying either Name or Thing either Institution or separation either Command or promise relating to the first day of the Week as the weekly Sabbath-day under the New-Testament-Administration Yet notwithstanding all this so clear and express which is either not understood or not pondered men rise up against it to the troubling of us and to disturb us if they could in our seventh-day-Sabbath of weekly Rest For say they The Hebrew word for One hath sometimes the sense of First and the New Testament doth Hebraize in this particular that if the sense were one of the Sabbaths then the word should be in the Neuter Gender not in the Feminin to agree with its Substantive which is of the Neuter Gender and that it is expresly said in one place the first of the Week which word is never used for One but First or Chief Thus it is Objected My Reply unto these is as followeth As for the Hebrew word which doth properly signify One What satisfying reason can there be given why any other Tralatitious sense should be assigned to it in these particular places which have so plain and familiar so obvious and pertinent a sense in their propriety of meaning where these Objectors would have it bear such a sense as that of First I shall examine the places usually alledged after a few Lines more Or if it could be evidenced that in some one place it be convenient to translate it First what cogencie of Inference can there be drawm from thence that therefore it must be so in the Greek word in the Scriptures fore-quoted What necessity doth there appear of this Where the Circumstances of the Text do so well and fitly admit of such a rendring interpretation and construction of the Original Words as is according to their true certain and proper signification which has been already Demonstrated What satisfactory-spiritual-convincing-Reason is there to fasten such an Interpretation upon them in the Translation as gives them a sense improper and a meaning unusual to which no necessity doth urge and drive either the Translator or the Annotator Words are to be understood according to the propriety of them unless we be otherways unavoidably forced by some evident Absurdity Of which there is no Colourable appearing shew here How can convincing Demonstrations and Infallible Conclusions be drawn from Scripture-expressions if a contrary liberty be assumed and granted Why should we yield our selves to flee to a pretended double Hebraism of One for First and of Sabbaths for Week where the plainness and expressness of the Letter and the Propriety and significancy of the Words is so Consistent with and adapted to the Context and the Analogy and Harmony of other Scriptures upon that Subject-matter I would know yet further of these men whether the Evening of the Sabbaths mentioned Mat. 28. 1. did belong to that which they call the First day of the Week or not If they judg not then they go quite contrary to all the Scriptural-Accompt which doth begin the day at Evening If they acknowledg it to belong to that Day then I further enquire how when that Evening and the Day-part which belonged to it when these were over and gone How it could be said of the Evening next following of this Day John 20. 19. that it was the Evening on the same First-day of the Week as they mis-interpret it For one and the same day cannot have two such Evenings at such a distance As for the Hebrew word One of the most punctual and exact in the Hebrew-Tongue in his Lexicon both as to the root of it in the Verb in all the Conjugations thereof in which it is used and in the Nouns derived from thence doth render its significancy to be He was One and One and particularly on that place which is most alledged by the Objectors it is by him translated One He has a Passage in his Epistle to the Reader before that Lexicon worth the Noting a certain proper and alonely or only-one signification is attributed to All to every of the words Another Learned Hebrician in that place cited by our Gain-sayers doth render it One He is the Corrector of another's Translation of the Hebrew Bible But here in these places it needed not because it is the true meaning of the word and so properly rendered there by both of them One in Greek signifies only One a Numeral Cardinal doth signify a Number Absolutely from which as from a Fountain other numbers do flow forth and they are called Cardinals that is Principals because from these
the context or any necessary unavoidable consequence present any such thing to an impartial unprejudiced understanding which doth report a matter of fact done upon another day not medling with any state of this question about this matter of Right Has the First day of the Week either the name of the Weekly Sabbath or the substance and essence of it Is there any one word of Command found here requiring beleiving Christians to observe the First Day as the Weekly Sabbath Is there any Promise made over to the weekly observers of it As such Is there any threatning denounced here against the not-observers of it As such Is there any mention made of Christs being the Author of it As such Is there any one expression of its being instituted by Christ As such Is there any one word or Phrase against the the Seventh daies being now any longer the Weekly-Sabbath-day Can this Objector satisfie and establish thee upon any firm ground such as is Scriptural by any contrary arguing wherein nothing of all this can befound The plain Historical Narration doth inform us that Paul abode at Troas seven daies in the sixth verse And whether he came to Troas on the First day of the week search may be made Troas standing near the Sea of Hellespont in Asia the less whether Paul came from Philippi that was scituated in Greece which was on the other side of Hellespont or of the Euxine Sea which Sea did lie between Europe and Asia the less Macedonia whence Paul came was a Province in Graecia There at Troas Paul stayed seven daies inclusively in the fifth and six verses of this twentyeth Chapter spending a Seventh-day-Sabbath amongst them and then went away from them the next Week in the Seventh and eleventh verses after the Weekly-Seventh-day-Sabbath The Objector therefore mistaking the day to be the first day of the week whereas It was the weekly Seventh-day-Sabbath all that which he doth wrongly build upon that mistake falleth to the Ground together with that mistake This answer drawn up from the true proper translating of the words one of the Sabbaths I mainly stick to as plain convincing and self Evidencing though I have elsewhere drawn up much more about it We are not hurried away with noise and multitude But that which swayes with us and keeps our hearts in an awesul fear and trembling-joy and believing establishment with sweet satisfaction nourishing delight and great complacency is the Word of the adored Almighties clearly opened well-agreeingly-collated soundly understood and rightly applyed Christ and his word have their Authority with us beyond any man or men whatsoever or any or all of their sayings to the contrary His words do always best express things according to the true Nature of them in their own familiar sense which the Holy Spirit doth give of them in their respective places The same Genuin significancy has this Phrase in that passage to the Corinthians where also it is in true propriety of speech not the first day of the Week but one of the Sabbaths meaning according to the proper significancy of the words phrase and thing either one of the Sabbaths between Passover and Pentecost inclusively as in the former place of which two Feasts he makes express mention in the same Epistle and of one of them in the same Chapter or else one of the Sabbaths of one or other of those Three great Festivals spoken of else where The Feast of Unleaveneds The Feast of Sevennies and the Feast of Booths or leaf-hutts especially at the time of ingathering the yearly Fruits and increase of the Earth at which time they were able by such a revolution of a year to pass a Judgment upon Jehovahs Blessing of them which cannot be so well estimated on every Weekly return for then all the Males that appeared before the Faces of Jehovah were not to appear empty but every man according to the gift of his Hand or according to the Blessing of Jehovah his God which is much the same with the expression in this Epistle which he had given him And this reply has consent and agreement with other Scriptures and with the nature of the Duty of Charitable Relieving and is evident upon the same place It is the confession and acknowledgment of an adversary as was Noted a few leafs before that about the time of the writing of the Books of the new-New-Testament both the Jews themselves and all the Heathen that took notice of them called all their Feasts and solemn assemblies their Sabbaths Because they did no servile work in them they had the general Nature of the weekly Sabbath in a cessation from Labour It is known and confessed saith he that at that time when Paul wrote to the Church at Colosse which they suppose to be about twenty and nine years after Christs Ascension into Heaven all Iudaical observation of daies or the daies which they religiously observed whether Feasts or Fasts Weekly Monthly or Annual were by themselves and all other called their Sabbaths They were so called by God himself from their Analogy Thus he And this First Epistle to the Corinthians is reckoned by some to be sent unto that Church about two and twenty years after Christs ascension So that to translate the words one of the Sabbaths is the most proper significant Rendring the most pertinent to the drift and Scope and the most Harmonious in consent with the whole Scripture that treats of this matter The believing Corinthians were to lay a way by themselves somewhat of their income proportionable to the LORD 's prospering of them in a way or Journey of their particular Trades Functions and callings Thus gathering some Treasure that they might have in a readiness that which might afford a necessary supply of the poor Saints at Jerusalem that the collection might be in a preparedness against that time when Paul was to call for it and to carry and distribute it to that End Let the Reader here observe that Corinth to the Church in which City Paul did write this Epistle out of one passage of which the Adversary would raise an objection was that city where Paul had been a publick preacher according to all or every Sabbath So that Paul did keep the Seventh-day-Sabbath there in that Particular place constantlyin this City of Achaia A City Scituate near the Sea where he taught the word of God one whole year and six months and that by a special Call and encouragement from the LORD Jesus Christ So far was he from setting up the First day in the room of the Seventh Day as to the weekly-Sabbath that even there he was a diligent Observer of every Seventh-day-Sabbath For so the Holy Spirit himself calls that day the Sabbath Here is therefore no firm bottom in this place objected to ground a transferring of the weekly Sabbath from one day to another which is nothing at all the design of this place as neither is it
several of the Ecclesiastical Historians have been examined by me upon this subject matter and I have some Collections by me about it enough to shew how little credit is to be given unto those kind of Authorities which are so fallible and sometimes so self-contradicting and so altogether unsatisfying when the matter of Right comes to be Inquired after and determined any further than they do speak the mind of Christ in his word For either in these Cases of Conscience they write and speak according to the word or not If they do let these Scriptures be particularly pointed to with which they accord If not they are not to be received or followed Yet in regard that my design is to bring all to the Scriptures of truth referring this and all else under Aelohim to their Judgment I shall therefore now debate the Principle with this objector So much of matters of fact as do relate to matters of right and as are necessary for us to believe in order unto Salvation is Recorded in the word of truth Whereunto the whole Scripture is profitable which is enough for us if no more were written by me concerning this particular question in hand For that Scripture referred to is proper and pertinent to this purpose about Christ and his Resurrection and his appearing to his Disciples and his Blessing of them and conference with them as is plain in the foregoing part of the same Chapter and other Scriptures collated and compared with this do evidently speak it But we have yet much more to say about this To assert the perfection of the Scriptures is one of the great truths of the present Age The forces of Earth and of Hell are now joyning together and putting forth their strength to assault and to attempt the overthrow of this useful Doctrine As it was in the daies of Christs Flesh when he was familiarly Conversant here on Earth the Roman Power the Grecian Wisdom the Jewish Traditions Ethnick Philosophers and Diabolical possessions all the humane and devilish Force and Art and invention was called together to War against Christ and against his word So in the latter daies the Worldly might Old and New Philosophy Institutions and Impositions Histories and Traditions Inventions and Authorities of men unwritten pretended necessary verities Generall Councils sayings of those whom they call Fathers Articles of Faith composed by men Confessions and practise of Protestant Reformed Churches the judgment and practice of Learned and Godly men these and such like Extra-scriptural places are the swaying Authority with many whereby Antichristianism and Antiscripturalism in a many of particulars are still held up and maintained against the LORD and against his word who in this Providential day is pouring contempt upon all Flesh upon men and upon their sayings bringing a Blast upon them so far as they are contrary to sound Doctrine and do oppose the mind of Christs Revealed in the written word and is putting a Crown on Christ and an Honour upon his word the Testimony of men may be and often is in Fact Erring and Fallible uncertain and lying self-contradicting and unsatisfying Into which therefore the Christian Doctrine Faith and Religion is not to be resolved either in whole or in part For the word of Jehovah is like himself who is the Author of it of invaluable veracity and of unchangeable truthfulness He truth it self and his word The Truth He a God that is true and that cannot lye and his word That which is truly purely such the word of truth His Law is the truth The asserters of the Seventh day to be the Weekly Sabbath for which we have the whole Scripture are charged with Errour because we will not be resolved by humane Authorities to own the First day in the Room of it Whereas if men do err greatly err it is therefore because they know not the Scriptures nor the Power of God put forth in a word-way To assign somewhat else for a cause of this which is not a cause is a by-way of paralogizing-deception of sophistical-arguing and of Fallacious disputing The LORD Jesus Christ doth not in his word and where else as from him shall we look for it assign this as a cause of mans erring that they do not know the magistral dictates of humane Rabbies It is the proud Arrogance of the Antichristian usurper to impose his own placits upon the Churches as if he were imperial Dictator to mens Souls and vniversal Monarch over their Consciences Neither is their Erring from hence that they know not the Antient Records of uncanonicall Church Histories which do sometimes write Contrary to themselves and to one another as those do understand who have been faithfull diligent comparers and collectors of such passages and this both in matters of Fact and in matters of Right and this Objector himself doth confess he Judgeth that some of the writings of these Antients are spurious and corrupt And how few are there of those to whom the Gospel is preached and upon whose Hearts that word of Grace and of Truth doth take most saving holds to which word the LORD himself doth bear witness are versed and read in this kind of Ecclesiastical History And which way shall they be ascertained that it has been all of it read over by others by their Guides and teachers particularly or that the report is faithfully brought to them or if that were whether they ought to be swayed by it Were Church-Histories unerringly inspired Who is so bold as downright to assert this Or if any were so daring how can he prove it Who of our plain Converted People had humane Histories in his thoughts when he was thorowly Regenerated and gratiously visited from Christ and from the Father of Christ by the Spirit of Christ in the word of Christ What a kind of Faith is that which doth ultimate it self into humane Church Histories He that would have judged of the state and Case of Jehovah's Church and people in the daies of Ezra by making search in the book of those Ecclesiastical Records and have judged according to what was Historifyed there would have brought in an hard Charge of Rebellion and of Sedition against them and have been ready to have irritated the powers that were over them against them as their Adversaries did Neither do men therefore err because they know not the Tradition of the Elders which has long obtained by common Custom and by little Controlled usage so as to plead prescription unscriptural Customes and Tradition is a part of that Redemption which our LORD has wrought out for his People And it is a choice Mercy to be throughly delivered from them For in the event and effect they would un LORD Christ and the word of Christ of his and of its due Autority For which he condemned those Scribes and Pharisees of his daies who would have obtruded these upon him and upon his Disciples but he confutes them by his
the Western Churches did Further as in Low-Dutch the seventh Day is named Rust-dagh that is the Day of Sabbath or of Rest so in Teutonick or High Dutch or the German Tongue which is an ancient Nation and Language the last Day the seventh Day of the Week is called Samstag as if Schemtag that is the LORD's Day or the Day of the LORD It is further yet observable as to this that the Visions of Ezekiel and those of John well agreeing in many particulars which a diligent comparer may easily observe Ezekiel's Visions were on the fifth day of the fourth Moon which some affirm to have been the Seventh day Sabbath Jehovah's Day But upon the whole it is the first answer that I more stick unto namely that the Lordly Day is that great Providential Day when he will more visibly appear as King and LORD Whereas some do object that this word in Greek Lordly is applyed but to one thing more in the New Testament which is the Supper called the Lordly Supper or LORD's Supper or the Supper of the LORD What can there rationally necessarily convincingly be inferred from thence as to any establishing of the first day of the week in the room of the seventh as the weekly Sabbath in this place of the Revelation The Lordly Supper or Lordy Supper is expresly mentioned Whereas here is no express mention of the first Day as a Sabbath day not either of the words First or Sabbath nor their sense and meaning in the Text or Context nor any where else in all this Book or in the whole Scripture The Lordly Supper is so called in that it was instituted by our LORD It is to his Honour a Lordly Feast one great design and end of it being to exalt Christ in his Lordship and to shew forth the Death of this LORD till he came in his Lordly appearance in the later Day This Ordinance was received of the LORD by Paul It was the LORD who Instituted it It sets out the LORD's Death The Cup is called the Cup of the LORD The LORD's Body we read of also there Which Supper is not fixed to the first day of the Week The first Institution Administration and Participation of it was on another Day of the Week on the Passion Day on the Passover Day which is called a Sabbath For a further discovery that a Day in some Scriptures is used for a larger space of time than from one going in of the Sun on one day to the next going in of the Sun on the next day consider that in the Scriptures day doth sometimes set out the time of Christ's Reign and glorious Power The day of judging of his grand Adversaries John saw this in the Vision as if the time had been then present Will not that be a Lordly Day when Christ will glorifie and magnifie his Office of King and of LORD in the utter destruction of Enemies and in the eminent salvation of Friends It is called the Day of Christ the Day and Kingdom of God the presence of coming of Christ Do not these expressions significantly declare some glorious shining season of Christ's Lordly appearing It is named the Day of Jehovah about six and twenty times and in some of those places the Day of the Vengeance and of the Anger of Jehovah and the Day of Jehovah's Battel The great and terrible and dreadful Day of Jehovah the same expressions which are used in this Book of the Revelation And the Day of the LORD is mentioned five times expresly in the New Testament In which also it is set out by divers words that doth intend the same thing as his Day that is the Day of this LORD Christ who will then be revealed in his Lordly Power and Glory That Day pointing out that Age when these things should be The Day that Day The Days in the plural Number as being more than one and of longer continuance That great conspicuous Day of the LORD The Day of the LORD Jesus The times and the seasons which do relate to this Day of the LORD The Day approaching the last hour It is observed that in all Languages this Word Day doth sometimes signifie judgement here on Earth Hence a Days man or Umpire to judge between party and party Mans day and the Judgement of Men The Day that is the Judgement or trial shall declare Hence Day is sometimes put for the time of destruction Day doth sometimes denote a long continued duration as the Day of the Age or the Day of Eternity Other times Day points out the time of Grace and of Salvation And now upon this occasion having shewn that Day doth not always in all Scriptures point out any one particular Day of the Week distinctly from and in opposition to the rest of the Days of the Week I have here some fair opportunity to write a little about one other Scripture which some do urge to put a colour upon their first Day as if it did point out the first Day of the Week as the eminent transcendent determinate definite day of Christ's compleating the Work of Redemption on his Resurrection Day which say they was then and from thenceforth to be observed as the weekly Sabbath day in the room of the Seventh Thus they As to what doth concern Christ's Resurrection as also how and when he compleated the Work of Redemption I have written already and I am now to consider this Scripture which is mentioned by all and every of the four Evangelists In which Historical-fulfilling it is evident that much and the main of this Prophetical passage was fulfilled according to the Letter before Christ's Resurrection and upon another Day of the Week than that first Day of the Week for which it is so brought and pressed although if it could be proved to be otherwise yet doth it no way determine this Case about a pretended change of the weekly Sabbath from one Day of the Week to another from the Seventh to the First The chief men of the Jews who were counted the Builders did more notoriously refuse Christ the Head Corner Stone when being put to their choice they actually openly declaredly preferred a Barabbas who was a seditious Murderer before an innocent holy Jesus and this on a Day of solemn Judicature when the Judge Pilate sat upon Christ either for life or for death which also was by a joynt consent of chief Priests and Rulers and People who cry out all at once Away with this man and release unto us Barabbas This was before that Christ was crucified Also after his Death before his Resurrection the chief Priests and the Pharisees do call him a Deceiver and this before Pilate which was another refusing and rejecting of Christ Thus according as was Prophesied in that Psalm that the Builders would refuse that Stone which was to become for Head to the Corner so accordingly did they act as at many
former dispensation which some way or other had not some Figures and shadows annexed to it There was blood of a Bull sprinkled on the Altar Christ and the Book of the Covenant it self and what shall we therefore lay aside Christ and his Book The particular commands of the ten words had some Types and Figures annexed to them Doctrines Duties Graces and Priviledges relating to the first and second words were set out by the Ark the Altars the Burnt offerings the Incense the Fire on the Altar and such like as any spiritual discerner may discover by comparing the Epistle to the Hebrews with the pattern in the Mount The third word or command in several duties of it had annexed Ceremonials as particularly about an Oath about a Vow Thus also about the sixth word or command as in a case of Murther about the seventh command as in a case of Jealousie about the eight word or command as in a case of Restitution and generally when a Soul did sin in omitting of some duty or in committing of a Trespass when it was ignorantly or in some other cases there were peculiar offerings that were appointed So that if this carnal reasoning did hold it would lay aside all and every of the other ten words This Epistle to the Colossians doth establish the Law of the ten words in the several particulars of it and the first word by forbidding the worshipping of Angels the second by condemning of Will-worship The third by taxing of Balsphemy especially when against the Holy Name of God The fourth word by shewing the accomplishment of the Ceremonials annexed to Sabbaths if it were admitted that the Seventh-day Sabbath were here included The fifth word by pressing to a discharge of Relation-duties The sixth by declaring against Anger Wrath and Malice The seventh by threatning of Fornicators and unclean Persons with the Wrath of God The eight by for bidding of wrong and commending of Justness and Equality in dealing The ninth by prohibiting of lying and evil speaking The tenth by charging of inordinate lusting to be Idolatry Which is also a breach of the first command Thus is the Decalogue confirmed in this Epistle The next premise is that the LORD Jesus Christ was Administrator under the Old as well as New Testament dispensation of Grace I take it to be one great occasion of many misapprehensions not only in the common sort of professing Christians but even in many who have gotten a name for Learning and for Godliness that they eye Christ as Christ and Redeemer only under the New Testament and God as Creator only under the Old Whereas Christ says of himself that he was anointed from the beginning before the Earth was as yet made and the Father speaks of this his Son under the Old Testament that he had anointed him Aelohim anointed him by pouring out of the Oyl of his Spirit upon him with an effusion of a fulness of Gifts and of Graces and of Joys mentioning it expresly as a matter of Fact done Mashiach or Christ or Anointed is one of the Mediators names often used in the Old Testament This is attributed to his substance The Father had ordained him to his Mediatoral Office of Priest King and Prophet even then It was Christ who was tempted by the unbelieving Israelites of old It was by Christ that all things were created Christ was the same under all Dispensations of Grace The Fathers purpose and election concerning his people was in Christ The whole Word is the Word of Christ Believers were reproached for Christ in Moses's time It was the Spirit of Christ who was in the Prophets and the Jews and Samaritans acknowledged the Messias before they knew who was the very person and this Christ acted as Mediator under the Old as well as under the New Testament Though his being born of a Virgin and so taking the Humane Nature to his Godhead were a great part of the New Testament Dispensation when in the days of his flesh here on earth he familiarly conversed with men For he had a way of appearing as Man to several Believers upon several occasions under the Old Testament as a forerunning discovery of this latter It was the Messiah or Christ who made himself known by open manifestation visibly audibly to Abraham to Isaac to Jacob to Moses and to several of the Prophets and to some others It was he who proclaimed the Law of the ten Words at Mount Sinai and who afterwards upon the same Mount gave the typical pattern for that Dispensation privately to Moses It was he who was with the Israelitish Church in the Wilderness he was the Mediator between God and Man even then he was the Reconciler even in those Ages This and more to this purpose I have already proved from the Scripture in this Book and therefore if the Reader would be further informed and inlightned in it I refer him to the Pages cited in the Margin This is he to whom all observe all It was the received and delivered Doctrine of them all the Prophets do give Witness that through the Name of the LORD Jesus Christ whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins A great full word this But a remark and observand a special one upon it It is acknowledged by this learned Man that it was the Son who from the Foundation of the World immediately in his own person transacted the Affairs of God with Men yet he opposeth the Seventh day Sabbath whereas it was a Law of Christ's giving to Mankind from the beginning Come we now unto the proofs of the several particulars forementioned whereof this is one that this New Heaven and this New Earth spoken of in prophetical Scripture this Renovation by a New Creation is not finished and completed but that it is yet to come in the large fufilling and accomplishing of it There will be New Heavens and a New Earth This we believe because the Scriptures have foretold it and we rejoyce in Hope of their Appearing For they are not as yet come These glorious Creatures are antedated by such Objectors by many hundreds of years For although there were some beginnings of a New Creation in the Days of Christ's Flesh here on Earth and after Christ's Ascension in the Apostle's time in Regenerations and Conversions as there were also in the Old For even there we may read of the creating of a clean Heart and of the renewing of a right constant Spirit Christ's name was filiated even under that Dispensation and there were Sons and Daughters new createdly born unto him even then and Believers were instated in the Messiah then As for that place in the second Epistle to the Corinthians If any man be in Christ he is a new creature Old things pass away beheld all things become new It doth speak a wonderful change in the New Creature The old carnal State the
from Heaven and they drank of Christ in their Water from the Rock By the Grace of the LORD Jesus Christ they did believe to be saved the same way as Believers do now Peter put no difference between them and us but only in the manner of dispensing What shall I say more of all the Signs and Seals under that Administration of the free favour of Jehovah Aelohim towards his Covenant people What was all this but a Gospel-Teaching an applying of the Covenant Take but off the Veil from them and they appear much with a face of shining Grace Was not the Virtue and Efficacy of Christ's death under that dispensation of Grace He was the Lamb slâ—in from the Foundation of the World so he is said to be in the Revelation Christ's satisfaction and intercession was available for his Covenant people in Moses's time The Book it self wherein Moses did write all the Words of Jehovah is called The Book of the Covenant This Book on the Altar was sprinkled with blood to be sanctified thereby which blood is also called The blood of the Covenant The people also were sprinkled with the blood of the Covenant in the sprinkling of the twelve Pillars which did represent them that is the twelve Tribes This Covenant or Testament at Horeb as the Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews hath observed and declared was not dedicate without blood These were Patterns Anti-types and the Types must answer the one to the other of the heavenly things and they were purified by the blood of those Sacrifices signifying that the LORD Christ by his death should sanctifie his people unto himself by the blood of the New Testament in a clearer manner of dispensing and fuller measure of accomplishing though otherways one and the same Covenant of Grace Moses called upon the people to behold this which Scripture is explained in what is written to the Hebrews this is the Blood of the Covenant or of the Testament which God hath commanded unto you Thus was the Covenant of Grace under the Old Testament confirmed by the Blood of Beasts exactly answering unto the same Covenant of Grace under the New Testament which was confirmed by the Blood of Christ There was free remission of sins acceptation of the person and of the service for in the through Christ then as there is now All the Prophets do give witness unto Christ that through his Name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins This doth further appear in Moses's repeating over in the latter part of his Book the same Covenant which Jehovah Aelohim made with his people at Sinai wherein he doth at large discover how much rich Grace and free Love a God in Christ had manifested towards that people in Covenant with him The Book commonly called Deuteronomy is a second Declaration of the same Covenant of Grace repeated renewed with their Children renewed with Israel the same made before only with some clearer Revelation of Christ and of Blessings by him and of inlarged explained promises It was the same Covenant of Grace which was also solemnly renewed with and by the people of God at their return from the Captivity of Babylon as may be seen in the Records of Ezra and of Nehemiah The same Covenant of Grace also which the LORD makes with his people in Christ now And the same which he will revive and renew with the new formed created people in the latter days Who shall not so break Covenant as those Israelites in the Wilderness of old did but shall be more stedfast and faithful to God who will be so graciously in Covenant with them Those promises in Jeremiah repeated in the Epistle to the Hebrews are if not peculiarly yet at least chiefly made to the house of Israel the ten Tribes as well as Judah have their part in them Ephraim setting out the Israelites of the ten Tribes They shall come from the North and be generally called an innumerable multitude they shall dwell in their Cities in their own Country their City of Jerusalem shall be re-edified their Estate shall be flourishing and happy to perpetual continuance with such other things as were never yet throughly fulfilled Which cannot be meant of their coming out of the Captivity at Babel The promises relating to the New Testament Dispensation And all this shall be in the last days by which words this great Mystery is usually expressed This will yet further be evidently demonstrated in that this Prophetie and Promise was renewed and revived several years after Christs Ascension into Heaven as is clear by the mention of it in that Epistle to the Hebrews and in several places of the Revelation For the contrary to all this was some few years in the same generation or age after Christ's death the Jew 's were unchurched the City and the Temple were destroyed according to Christ's foretelling in what is written in that Book of his Generation All and every of the particulars expressed in the renewed Covenant were before under that Dispensation in Moses's time They are also now made good unto this present Dispensation according to the manner and measure of Administration as the All-wise God saw and sees fit which will be more clearly manifested and more fully accomplished in the last times And with this Prophetie both the Old and New Testament are closed Let all and every of the Particulars pass under a Scripture-Examination Will Christ give his Laws in the mind of his people and write them in their hearts So he did under the Old Testament-dispensation The same thing was fulfilled towards and in a Covenant-people then Thus in Moses's Writings Jehovah Aelohim speaks to his People these words The Ten Words written in the Two Tables of Stone which I commanding thee this day shall be in thy heart These are the fleshly Tables wherein they shall be written Thus the Psalmist in his time in his describing the Just man saith The Law of his God is in his heart it shall not stagger his steps The Prophet Isaiah thus sets out the people of God They are a People in whose heart is this Law It was Solomon's advice in his Proverbs My Son forget not my Law but let thine heart keep my Commandments Write them upon the table of thine heart And again a second time in another place My Son keep my sayings and lay up my Commandment with thee Keep my Commandments and live write them upon the table of thine heart Hath the LORD promised that he will be for or to a God to his people This was performed under the Old Testament I have already shewed that it is expresly put into the Ten Words several times In Moses's time Jehova's people had avouched or had made to say him to be unto them for a God They owned and acknowledged him to be thus in Covenant with them for the confirming of their Faith and for the increase of their Obedience I
great Church Assembly did he not teach in that Sermon of his at the Mount the same true Christian Doctrine which was delivered of old to his faithful Messengers from him the which to bring to his people And did he not vindicate the verity and purity of it from those corrupt wrong Interpretations that false Teachers had given of it Did not Christ who lay in the bosom of his Father declare and reveal the whole of the Will of his Father under that former dispensation of Grace so far as concerned that Dispensation And is it not one and the same Will still the difference in the manner of dispensing only well observed Were not they then taught all things and all Truths whatsoever that were necessary to Salvation Were not they fully and perfectly directed the true right way to Eternal Life Were not they strictly charged from Christ by his Servant Moses not to add to the words that he gave them in commandment nor to take from them And must not that Word then be a complete Directory and comprehensive sum of all Doctrinals as well as of other matters O who will give that this Word of Christ may ind wel in us copiously abundantly in all Wisdom O let it not stand as a stranger without doors but let us receive it in and find a place for it in our inmost parts That it may be as well known and familiar to us as the most dear delightful companions and the most near beloved Relations with whom we dwell and converse Let us be well acquainted with the whole of it and diligently compare it in the several parts of it Be we much and mighty in the Scriptures of both the Prophets and also of the Apostles receiving the whole as a Doctrine revealed from Heaven by Christ O that this were more found in our Hearts and Minds In our Memory and Conscience in our Wills and Affections That all the good Fruits thereof may abound and be more visible in the whole of our Life There we may learn all saving Wisdom There is the perfect Knowledge to be had of all things to be both believed and done that Eternal Life may be obtained There are Universal Principles of this Law of the ten Words which do pertain to Faith and Manners and these Practical Dictates which every one of these Laws doth include is a Fundamental Truth and Doctrine necessary to be believed as that we must have Jehovah Aelohim for our God and him alone that we must worship him according to his Institutions in his Word and not in any other way of Humane Inventing and imposing that we ought to have an holy reverent use of his Name That the Seventh day is his Sabbath in which we may not do the servile works of our particular calling that the Father and Mother are to be honoured and so of the rest Whoever doth believe the contrary to these is guilty of erring in Decalogical Fundamentals Have I not already demonstrated and proved by the whole Scriptures those great Doctrines concerning the Jehovahship the Christship the Mediatorship the Lordship the Lawgivership the Creatorship of the LORD Jesus Christ Would the Reader have more Doctrines thus manifested The Doctrine of Regeneration was preached of old The first Creation of Man was an exact Patten and a lively Samplar of this when man was made in the Image according to the likeness of his Makers he having a concreated resemblance unto his Creators in Knowledge in Righteousness in Holiness in Dominion in Glory this was defaced by the Fall of Man and is again restored to Sons and Daughters of God in Spiritual Recreation which is a new man renewed unto acknowledgement according to the Image of him who created him in Righteousness and Holiness of Truth As Paul doth speak David acknowledgeth in the Book of Psalms that a new heart is Creation-work So glorious and excelling a piece as that it is the making of a new World of Men and of Women A Work that none but the Almighty-creating power can do and therefore all the Honour and Glory of it must be given to him alone This is the humble confession called for Know ye that Jehovah he God he made us and not we his people and sheep of his pasture This is variously expressed in the Old Testament in very significant Words Moses sets it out by the circumcision of the heart So doth Jeremiah David by Creation and Renovation Isaiah by Jahovah's creating a people for his Glory for his Forming of them or Framing them anew by the Spirit of Regeneration Ezekiel by a Resurrection a Life from the Dead he calleth it a new Heart a new Spirit an Heart of flesh Jehova's giving of his Spirit in the innermost of the Covenant-people The Prophets often by conversion or turning from sin to Jehovah Aelohim What Spiritual Discerner doth not here see the same Doctrine which Christ preached to Nicodemus when he discovered to him the necessity of being born again from above otherwise there could be no seeing no entring into the Kingdom of God Affirming once and again and the third time that this must be Which when this great Doctor understood not what this Spiritual Regeneration was what that was which was born of the Spirit The LORD Christ reproves him for and convinceth him of his Ignorance Art thou a Teacher in Israel and knowest thou not these things Whereby he evidently shews that this was no such new unheard of Doctrine before but the same that was taught in Moses's Book and by the Prophets Wouldst thou be led to some other great Truth Consider that Doctrine about Justification Hath not Habakkuk declared that The Righteous by faith he shall live And is not this three if not four several times mentioned in the New Testament Hath not Paul confirmed the same shewing that The Righteousness without the Law only by faith in Jesus Christ unto all and upon all that believe hath testimony from the Law and the Prophets Doth not Jeremiah call Christ by this name Jehovah-tzidkenu Our Righteousness Did not Noah preach the same true sound Doctrine Was not that which was said of Abraham that He believed and it was imputed to him for Righteousness Was not this written not for his sake alone that it was imputed to him but for our sakes also to whom it shall be imputed even to them that believe in him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead who was delivered over for our sins and was raised up for our Justification Were not Believers of old well instructed in the Doctrine of free Remission of sins O how kindly was David's heart affected herewith when he tasted the sweetness and enjoyed the good of this Truth O the blessedness the happy goings on of him whose trespass is forgiven whose sin is covered O how Blessed the man to whom Jehovah imputeth no iniquity and in whose spirit no deceit Thou O
distinguish that which the Objector did tumble into a confused heap and then from thence he drew wrong inferences He should better have bethought himself that when he would speak of the nature and Essence of a thing as particularly of a Sign or Ceremony and doth so define it that according to his own philosophical way all definitions of any thing should be universal or universally agreeing to the thing defined where-ever it is found it must be universally affirmed of that thing where-ever it hath a Being Whereas it is discovered that there is a Sign of Sanctification which yet is not so in his sense There are some natural Signs of this of sanctified Seasons separate for holy Services The Heavenly Luminaries were are and will be such Signs There is a notifying testifying-certifying Sign of Sanctification Both these the Weekly Seventh-day Sabbath has been is and will be It doth bespeak Holiness in the Nature and Being in the Name and Thing of it to the due observers of it and therefore doth widely differ from that which is meerly Ceremonial And both these Signs are Signs to all mankind O how special a gift was this Law of the k Seventh day Sabbath A choice favour One of the precious Mercies as to the Law To have all holy Rest even here in and with the LORD For unto this doth it Call To lodge in the bosom and heart of the Messiah O how delightful O how good O how pleasant I now return unto a further passage in a former another from this last Objector The next Particular to be demonstrated is that the new Worship was Typically signified in the figuring Pattern of old So that neither doth this make any change at all upon the weekly Sabbath to make it pass from one day of the Week unto another from the seventh to the first For as for that Typical Figuring Worship which was a part of the Pattern under that Administration in Types Shadows Figures and Rites which was performed on the Seventh-day Sabbath that way of Worship by Sacrifices of Lambs by Meat and Drink offerings Incense and such like as to this part these were perfected and accomplished in and by Christ when born of the Virgin Mary when living dying rising ascending But the Seventh-day Sabbath stands firm as one of the ten Words which are another sort of Laws that do abide for ever This Epistle to the Hebrews doth expresly affirm that the Spiritual Heavenly things of this New Testament of Glory were in the Pattern under the Old The parts of Worship now were then only in a more shadowy figuring manner and therefore you may find the same things as well as words transferred out of the Old into the New Testament Only spiritualized in the new As Priest Propitiatory Altar Sacrifices Offerings Incense and many such like Had this Ingager on the side for the cause of the first Day given instances in any particulars of VVorship in the place where he speaks of new VVorship it might have been discovered that the same was in the Pattern of Old to which Types then the Antitypes now do directly exactly answer If a skilful experienced Believer would write an exact Commentary upon the first second third fourth fifth and sixteenth Chapters of Levitious not now to mention much more in that Book and in Exodus Numbers and Deuteronomy and take off the Veil from them and give forth the true intended spiritual significant meaning of them by a collating of other suitable Scriptures particularly in the New Testament Every spiritual Discerner may quickly see there was Gospel-worship even then only differently for the manner dispensed The Ceremonies of old were Types and Figures and Shadows instituted of Jehovah Aelohim for these ends amongst others to be signifying Seals of the assurance of Christ's coming in the fulness of time to accomplish them and of those good things which Believers had then have now and shall have in after time in and by him whether they were Administrators of holy Things or particular Saints or the Saints generally all of them These were of old Signs and Seals of Regeneration of Justification of Sanctification of Acceptaon of Salvation and of eternal Life they were shadows of good things to come which shadows did continue until the time of correction at the coming of Christ in the Flesh born of the Virgin Mary which Christ was the Body of these things themselves the express form the summary substance of them They were now to pass into the spiritual things signified as those Typical Figuring signifying sealing Ordinances and Institutions of the New Testament Dispensation of Grace Baptism and the Supper of the LORD do really to believing partakers of them represent glorious things and will do so till Christ come to make all things new The forementioned time of correction did then eminently begin when Christ first openly shewed himself to be the same Messiah the same God manifested in the flesh for he was born a Saviour Of whom all the Prophets had foretold And it had still a further progress as he passed further on in his life fulfilling all Righteous Observances as afterwards by his Death and Resurrection The thorough perfection of which time of correction was when he ascended up into the Heavens The Holy of Holies there So that if we speak of God thus manifested in the flesh thus was Redemption Work in the Antitype carried on the complete finishing thereof was upon Christ's going up to his Father from Earth to Heaven For then and not till then was the thorough completed consummation of the Old Testament Administration and then and not till then was the full perfect initiation of the New Testament Dispensation as the Author of this Epistle to the Hebrews doth expresly declare it If men will lay any more stress and weight in their arguing about this to any particular time and day then the very form and the true Existence and real Essence and the consummating Consecration of that Priesthood of Christ which did set an end to and did put down the Aaronical and Levitical Priesthood before which the whole of the Antitypical Work of Redemption so far as it did relate to the Priestly Office of Christ the Mediator between God and Man was not perfectly filled up This doth stand and consist in those things which do belong unto the Ascension of our LORD Jesus Christ into Glory For whilst Christ was on Earth there were other Priests which offered gifts according to the Law of the Pattern who did serve unto the Pattern and Shadow of Heavenly things of Heaven it self and so long Christ had not the former typical Priesthood so unchangeably unpassingly to any other passing into him as the Antitype so long as he remained on Earth he was not such an High Priest as the Author of this Epistle doth plainly word it into which Heaven Christ did therefore ascend to