twentieth because of the Belief of the Lords Resurrection which the Church truly believed was on the first day of the week for the hope of our Resurrection and which they believed will fall out on the same first day of the week which is now called the Lords day So cap. 25. the King and the Queen kept Easter on several Lords dayes and the difference made the stir And Wilfrid in his Speech there saith the same that the Scots kept Ester only on the Lords day by whom the King at that time was changed And li. 3. c. 26. Beda saith that Tuda another holy follower of the Scots being made Bishop On the Lords daies the people flockt by crowds together either to the Church or to the Monasteries not to refresh their bodies but to learn the word of God and if any Priest hapt to come into a Village presently the Inhabitants Congregati in unum gathered together took care to seek from him the word of life Cap. 2. li. 4. Theodorus his Consecration on the Lords day is mentioned Lib. 4. cap. 5. In the Synod at Herudford the first Canon is that all keep Easter on the Lords day next after the fourteenth Moon of the first Month. Lib. 5. cap. 22. Ceolfridus sendeth an Epistle to the King of the Picts in which are these words Postquam verò Pasâ—ha nostrum immolatus est Christus Diemque nobis Dominicam quae apud antiquâ—t una 〈◊〉 prima Sabbati sive Sabbatorum vocatur gaudio suae Resurrectionis fecit esse solennem ita hanc nunc Apostolica traditio festis Paschalibus inseruit that is But when Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us and by the Joy of his Resurrection made the Lords day which by the Ancients was called one or the first of the Sabbath or Sabbaths to be a solemn day to us so now Apostolical Tradition hath ingraffed it into the Paschal Festivals Where you see that the Lords day settled as solemn by the Resurrection he taketh for uncontroverted but the graffing it into the Easter Festivals he ascribeth to Apostolical Tradition meaning St. Peters And after in the same Epistle Qui tertia post immolationem suae passionis die resurgens à mortuis hanc dominicam vocari in eâ nos annuatim Paschalia ejusdem Resurrectionis voluit festa celebrare that is Christ rising from the dead the third day after the Sacrifice of his passion would have this called the Lords day and would have us on it to Celebrate the Paschal Feast of his Resurrection The like is after again in that Epistle with this addition that we hold that our own Resurrection will be on the Lords day By this Epistle the King of the Picts was brought to Conformity in that day and made Laws for it And Cap. 23. The Scots of Hy who stood out so long were brought to it by the perswasion of Eigbertus Judge now of your Historical note of England But that you may see more of this you may Read Beda's mind that lived in England in other of his Works On Act 20. In una Sabbathi eum convenissemus ad fraugendum pâ—nem id est Die Dominico qui est primus a Sabbate cum ad mysteria celebrandae Congregâ—ti essemus that is On the Lords day which is the first from the Sabbath when we were Congregated to Celebrate the Mysteries And he thinks it called The Lords day because it is the Remembrance of the Lords Resurrection or ours And on Luc. 6. fol. 78. he saith The observation of the Legal Sabbath ought of it self to cease and the natural liberty of a Sabbath to be restored which till Moses time was like other dayes That as it is not circumcision or the Ceremonies of the Law that save the Church but the faith of Abraham working by Love by which being uncircumcised he was justified so he calleth the second Sabbath after the first no other but the spiritual Sabbath in which as on other daies it is lawful to do any profitable work for distinction from the Jewish Sabbath in which it was not lawful to travel to gather Wood nor to do other needful things Pardon his Errour about that word I only cite it for the historical use And on Luc. 24. 1. fol. 143. One of the Sabbaths or the first of the Sabbaths is the first day after the Sabbath which the Christian custome hath called the Lords day because of the Lords Resurrection And ibid. fol. 143. Whence Ecclesiastical custome hath obtained that either in memory of Christs Resurrection or for the hope of ours we Pray not with bended knees but only with faces declined towards the Earth on every Lords day and all the quadragesimae And in Act. 2. 1. The Holy Ghost sent the example of the ancient sign returning did himself by his own coming most manifestly Consecrate the Lords day And on Col. 2. fol. 308. he sheweth that the Sabbath was a shadow and Christ that made it was Lord of it and ended it and that to abstain from sin is now our Sabbath See him also on Rev. 1. 10. Heb. 4. fol. 308. 2 Cor. 3. fol. 176. D. And because he was a Scot I will adde Sedulius who lived 430. In Col. 2. fol 91. The Sabbath being a shadow ceased when the Body came because the Truth being present the Image is needless And on Heb. 4 9. There remaineth a Rest that is The Eternal Rest which the Jewish Sabbath signified See Philastrius Hâ—res 8. Abundance more of this kind I might Cite but for making the Book tedious to those that need it not And so much of the History to satisfie your Objections and Mistakes CHAP. II. An Answer to more Arguments for the seventh day Sabbath Reasons 1. THat the Lord Jesus Christ is Jehovah Zach. 11. 13. 12 4 10. Gen. 19. 24. Act. 2. 25. compared with Psal. 16. 8 c. The Lord our Righteousness Jer. 23. 6. Answers 1. THis is no Controversie among us meaning of Christs Divine Nature and his person in respect thereof Reasons 2. That the World was made by Jehovah Christ Joh. 1. 3 10. Heb. 1. 2 3 10. Col. 1. 14 15 16 17. Eph. 3. 9. Psal. 102. 22 24 25. Heb. 3. 4. Rom. 11. 36. 1 Cor. 8. 6. Gen. 2. 4 c. Answers 2. Nor is this any Controversie if meant of the second person in the eternal Trinity not yet Incarnate nor in the flesh Annointed Christ. Reasons 3. The seventh day Sabbath was instituted by Jehovah Christ and kept by him Gen. 2. 2 3 4. whilest man was in innocency before the Fall Gen. 3. 6. and before any Types Answers 3. Though this have long been doubted in the Church some thinking it mentioned but by Anticipation yet I deny it not but believe that it was Sanctified and kept from the beginning because the Reason of the Consecration was from the beginning But 1. The second Person is not called Christ before the fall nor without respect to his
day And for the most part they Celebrated not the Lords Supper on that day And they abhorred the keeping it as a day of Rest. 2. They met on that day for all these Reasons 1. Because having been used in the beginning to meet every day in the Week when they had all things common and were to shew the power of the Evangelical Doctrine to the height Act. 2. 44 45 46. 4. 33 34 35. as they found cause to retrive their community so did they to meet seldomer and yet not so seldome as once a Week And therefore as we now keep other meetings for Lectures and Prayers besides the Lords day so did they then on Wednesdayes Fridayes and Saturdayes 2. Because the Conversion of the Jews was a great part of their work and hope And therefore to win them they would with Paul become Jews that is not affect an unnecessary distance but come as neer them as Lawfully they could 3. Because Converted Jews were no small part of the Eastern Churches who could not easily be quite brought off from Jewish Customes And the rest were unwilling to offend them being taught not to despise the weak that observed meats and days Rom. 14. 15. Gal. 2. 4. Because the Assemblies on the seventh day were taken as fit preparatories to the sanctifying of the Lords day on which account the Church of England now appointeth them These things one that is acquainted with Church History needeth no proof of And they are sufficiently proved before Ignatius words before cited are full And those of the Council of Laodicea Can. 29. are more full who do at once appoint meetings on the seventh day and yet Anathematize them that Judaize thereon by bodily rest and would have men labour on it and preferr the Lords day before it Justin Martyr in his Dialogue with Trypho doth largely shew that Circumcision and the Sabbath are ceased by the coming of Christ and his Institutions and are not now to be used by Christians And what writer have we of full reputation and credibility more ancient than Justin from whom any testimony in this case might be sought Tertullian one of the next li. 2. against Marcion saith that the Sabbath was for that Time and present occasion or use and not for perpetuity Athanasius was one that was for meeting on the Sabbath And yet writeth his Book de Sab. Circum purposely to prove that the Sabbath is ceased with Circumcision as a Shadow and that now the Lords day is the sanctified day And the like he hath most expresly in Homil. de Semente as is cited before saying that The Master being come the Vsher was out of use and the Sun being risen the Lamps are darkened Basil Ep. 74. Writeth against Apollinaris for holding that after the Resurrection we should keep Sabbaths and Judaizeâ— As if that were the perfection to which Christ would restore men See Greg. Nazianz. Orat. 43. And Chrysoft Hom. 19. in Mat. 12. against the use of the Sabbath Cyril Hieros cat 4. Epiphan against the Nazaraei condemn them for keeping the Sabbath and Circumcision though withal they kept the Lords day The same doth Epiphanius li. 1. Haer. 30. nâ— 2. and before him Eusebius Hist. li. 3. say of the Ebionites Augustine oft telleth us that the observation or keeping of the seventh day Sabbath is ceased and not to be done by Christians Qu. ex N. Test. 69. Ad Bonif. l. 3. Contr. Faust. Manich. li. 6. c. 4. De Genes ad lit l. 4. c. 13. de spir lit c. 14. de util Cred. c. 3. 3. And as for the Abassians keeping the Sabbath It s true they keep that day in some sort But it is as true that they use Circumcision and many other Jewish Ceremonies besides oft Baptizings And that they profess not to use these as the Jews do but only as ancient Customes and as Paul did while he complyed with them using the outward action for other ends than Judaizers do And the rather because they think their Emperours descended from Solomon But the Lords day they keep on the same account as other Christians And if this instance make any thing for Sabbatizing it will make as much for Circumcising and other Jewish rites but nothing against the Sanctifying of the Lords day 4. And as for the matter of Fasting on the Sabbath the Churches greatly varyed in their Customes The Eastern Churches and Millan in the West were against Fasting on the Sabbath on two accounts 1. Because as is said they would not offend the Jewes Even as many peaceable Non-Conformists who are against many Holy dayes now established do yet forbear labouring and opening their Shops on those dayes because they will not give offence Yea and go to hear the Sermons on those dayes though they keep them not Holy as such dayes 2. Because there were many sorts of Hereticks in those times who held that the World was made by an evil God and thence came evil and so they Fasted on the seventh day on that reason Which made the Christians avoid it lest they should Symbolize with those Hereticks And therefore the real or pretended Ignatius speaketh so severely against Fasting on the Sabbath as well as on the Lords day And so do the Constitutions called the Apostles yea and the Canons called theirs Can. 65. But in the Western Churches as is aforesaid both Jews and Hereticks were more distant or less considerable for numbers and therefore they fasted on the seventh day and that the rather lest they should seem by Sabbatizing to Judaize Which was before Antichrists appearing unless you think all the holy Doctors before cited and all the Western Churches to be Antichristian Having gone thus far I here add two more Scripture Arguments to prove the abolition of the Jewish Sabbath The first is because it is frequently made as Circumcision is a sign of the particular Covenant between God and that Nation as they were a political body and peculiar people Therefore if their Policy cease and Gods relation to them as a Political body and peculiar people and so that Political Covenant with them then also the signe of the Covenant and Relation ceaseth And though the word for ever is sometime added it is no other than is oft added also to the Jewish Law and Ceremonies 2. From Act. 15. Where the case is determined by a Council of Apostles Elders and Brethren yea by the Holy Ghost V. 28. It appeareth by V. 24. that the thing asserted by the false Teachers was that the Gentiles must be Circumcised and keep the Law that is of Moses V. 1. Now the seventh day Sabbath was part of that Law As Sacrificing was though it was a Law before But the Holy Ghost determineth the case to lay on them no greater burden than these necessary things after named where the Sabbath is none of them and therefore hereby shut out The precepts given to Noah are named of which the Sabbath was not
places for them that doubt of it Now let us peruse the particular Testimonies 1. I begin with Ignatius though Dallaeus have said so much to prove the best Copy of him of latter date and spurious because others think otherwise and that Copy is by him thought to be written Cent. 3. who saith Let us not keep the Sabbath in a Jewish manner in sloth and idleness but after a spiritual manner not in bodily ease but in the study of the Law not eating meat drest yesterday or drinking warm drinks and walking out a limited space but in the contemplation of the works of God And after the Sabbath let every one that loveth Christ keep the Lords day Festival the Resurrection day the Queen and Empress of all daies in which our life was raised again and death was overcome by our Lord and Saviour Either these Epist. of Ignatius ad Philip. c. are genuine or spurious If genuine than note how clearly it is asserted that the Lords day was to be observed as the Queen of all daies by all that were lovers of Christ. And that the seventh day Sabbath was kept with it then and there in Asia so near the Apostles daies no wonder when it was but the honourable gradual receding from the Mosaical Ceremonies with an avoiding the scandalous hinderance of the Jews Conversion And Dr. Heylin well noteth that it was only the Eastern Churches next the Jews that for a time kept both daies but not the Western who rather turned the Sabbath to a fast But if Ignatius Ep. be spurious written Cent. 3. then as Dallaeus would prove they were written by some heretical or heterodox person And so it will be no wonder that holy dayes are pleaded for when as Dr. Heylin observeth Cerinthus and his followers in the Apostles times stood up for the Jewish Sabbath and Ceremonies and so were for both daies But it will be our Confirmation that even the Hereticks held with the universal Church for the Lords day 2. The great Controversie about the Day of Easter which spread so early through all the Churches is a full Confirmation of our matter of fact For when the Western Churches were for the Passover day the better to content the Jews saith Heylin the Eastern thought it intollerable that it should not be kept on a Lords day because that was the weekly day observed on the same account of the Resurrection The Eastern Churches never questioned their supposition of the Lords day And the Western after Victors rash excommunicating the Asian Bishops never rested till they brought them to keep it on the Lords day Pius Anicetus Victor c. prosecuting the cause 3. The Book though perished which Melito wrote of the Lords day Euseb. l. 4. c. 25. by the title may be well supposed to confirm at least the matter of fact or usage 4. All those little Councils mentioned by Heylin p. 48. held at Osroena Corinth in Gaul in Pontus in Rome prove this The Canons of them all saith Heylin being extant in Eusebius ' s time and in all which it was concluded for the Sunday But saith Heylin by this You see that the Sunday and the Sabbath were long in striving for the Victory p. 49. Answ. I see that some men can out-face the clearest light Here was no striving at all which day should be the weekly day set apart for holy worship but only whether Easter should follow the time of 〈◊〉 or be confined to the Lords day 5. Justin Martyrs Testimony is so express and so commonly cited that I need not recite the words at large Vpon the Sunday all of us assemble in the Congregation Vpon the day called Sunday all within be Cities or in the Countrey do meet together in some place where c. He proceedeth to shew the worship there performed Now 1. Here being mention of no other day no man can question but that this day was set apart for these holy assemblies in a peculiar manner as the other week dayes were not 2. This being the writing of one of the most Learned and antient of all the Christian Writers 3. And being purposely written to one of the wisest of all the Emperours as an Apologie for all the Christians 4. And being written at Rome where the matter of fact was easily known deserveth as much credit as any Christian History or Writing since the Apostles can deserve Nor hath Heylin any thing to say against it 6. The next remembred by Heylin is Dionysius Corinth who lived 175. cited out of Eusebius Hist. l. 4. c. 22. To day we keep the Holy Lords day wherein we read the Epistle you wrote to us c. Against this Heylin saith not a word 7. The next is Clemens Alexander who expresly asserteth the matter of fact that the Lords day was then kept by Christians Yea Heylin derideth him for fetching it as far as Plato Strom. l. 7. But Heylin thinks he was against keeping any dayes But he that will examine his words shall find that he speaketh only against them that would be Ceremonious observers of the day more than of the work of the day and would be religious on that day alone And therefore he saith that He that leadeth his life according to the Ordinances of the Gospel doth keep the Lords Day when he casteth away every evil thought and doing things with knowledge and understanding doth glorifie the Lord in his Resurrection This is not to speak against the Day but to shew how it ought to be sincerely kept But if he had been against it it s all one to my cause who only prove that de facto all Christian Churches kept it 8. The next witness is Tertullian who oft asserteth this to be the holy day of the Christians Church-Assemblies and holy Worship His testimony in Apolog. cap. 16. is so commonly known that I need not recite it It is the same in sense with Justin Martyrs and written in an Apology for the Christians purposely describing their custom of meeting and worshipping on the Sunday as he calls it there as Justin did And that it was not an hours work only he shews in saying that The day was kept as a day of rejoicing and then describeth the work And de Idolol c. 14. he saith that every eighth day was the Christians festival And de Coron Mil. c. 3. and oft he calleth it the Lords day and saith it was a crime to fast upon it And the work of the day described by Justin and by him Apolog. c. 39. is just the same that we desire now the day to be spent in we plead for no other But most grosly saith Heylin pag. 55. But sure it is that their assemblies held no longer than our Morning Service that they met only before noon for Justin saith that when they met they used to receive the Sacrament and that the service being done every man went again to his daily labours Answ. Is this a proof to conclude a
To call them together before they go to the solemn Assembly and to Pray with them and praise God and if there be time to read the Scripture and tell them what they have to do in publick 3. To see that Dinner and other common employments make no longer an intermission than is needful And to advise them that at their meat and necessary business they shew by their holy speeches that their minds do not forget the day and the employments of it 4. To sing Gods praises with them if there be time and bring them again together to the Church-assembly 5. When they return either to take some account of them what they have learned or to call them together to pray for a blessing on what they have heard and to sing praises to God and to urge the things which they have heard upon them 6. At Supper to behave themselves soberly and piously And after Supper to shut up the day in Prayer and Praise And either then or before either to examine or exhort inferiours according as the case of the persons and families shall require For in some Families it will be best on the same day to take an account of their profiting and to Catechize them And in other Families that have leisure other daies may be more convenient for Catechising and Examinations that the greater works of the Lords day may not be shortened IV. So much of the day as can be spared from publick and family worship must be spent in secret holy duties such as are 1. Secret Prayer 2. Reading of the Scriptures and good Books 3. Holy Meditation 4. And the secret Conference of bosome friends Of which I further adde 1. That where publick or family worship cannot be had as in impious places there secret duties must be the chief and make up the defect of others And it is a great happiness of good Christians who have willing minds that they have such secret substitutes and supplies That they have Bibles and so many good Books to read That they may have a friend to talk with of holy things But much more that they have a God to go to and a Heaven to Meditate on besides so many Sacred Verities 2. That my judgement is that in those places where the publick Worship taketh up almost all the day it is no sin to attend on it to the utmost and to omit all such Family and secret exercises as cannot be done without omission of the publick And that where the publick exercises allow but a little time at home the Family duties should take up all that little time except what some shorter secret Prayers or Meditations may have which will not hinder family duties And that it is a sinful disorder to do otherwise Because the Lords day is principally set apart for publick worship And the more private or secret is as it were included in the publick Your Families are at Church with you The same Prayers which you would put up in secret you may usually put up in publick and in Families And it is a turning Gods Worship into a Ceremony and Superstition to think that you must necessarily put up the same Prayers in a Closet which you put up in the Family or Church when you have not time for both Though when you have time secret prayer hath its proper advantages which are not to be neglected And also what secret or family duty you have not time for on that day you may do on another day when you cannot come to Church Assemblies And therefore it is an Errour to think that the day must be divided in equal proportions between Publick Family and Secret Duties Though yet I think it not amiss that some convenient time for Family and Secret duties be left on that day but not so much as is spent in publick nor nothing neer it If any shall now object I do not believe that we are bound to all this ado nor so to tire out our selves in Religious exercises Where is all this ado commanded us I answer 1. I have proved to you that in Nature and in Scripture set together as great a proportion of time as this for holy exercises is required 2. But O what a Carnal unthankful heart doth this objection signifie What do you account your Love to God and the Commemoration of his Love in Christ a toile What if God had only given you leave to lay by your worldly business and idle talk and Childish play for one dayes time and to learn how to be like Christ and Angels and how to make sure of a Heavenly Glory should you not gladly have accepted it as an unspeakable benefit O what hearts have these wretched men that must be constrained by fear to all that is good and holy and spiritual and will have none of Gods greatest mercies unless it be for fear of hell And they shall never have them indeed till they love them What hearts have those men that had rather be in an Ale-house or a Play-house or asleep than to be in heart with God That can find so much pleasure in jesting and idle talking and foolery that they can better endure it than to peruse a Map of Heaven and to read and hear the Sacred Oracles Who think it a toile to praise their Maker and Redeemer and a pleasure to game and dance and drink Who turn the glass upon the Preacher and grudge if he exceed his hour and can sit at a Tavern or Alehouse or hold on in any thing that 's vain many hours and never complain of weariness Do they not tell the world what enemies they are to God who love a pair of Cards or Dice or Wanton Dalliance better than his Word and Worship Who think six dayes together little enough for their worldly work and profit and one day in seven too much to spend in the thoughts of God and life Eternal Who love the dung of this present World so much better than all the joyes above as that they are weary to hear of Heaven above an hour at a time and long to be wallowing in the dirt again Is it not made by the Holy Ghost a mark not only of wicked men but of men notoriously wicked to be Lovers of pleasures more than of God 2 Tim. 3. 4. O Sinners that in these workings of the wickedness and malignity of your hearts you would at last but know your selves Is it not the Carnal mind that is thus at enmity to God and neither is nor can be subject to his Law Rom. 8. 6 7 8 Which will you take to be your friend Him that loveth your company or him that is a weary of it and is glad when he hath done with you and is got away What would you think of Wife or Child or Friend if they should reason as you do and say What Law doth bind 〈◊〉 to be so many hours in the House or Company or 〈◊〉 of my Husband my Father or my Friendâ—
for a word or action about wordly things that falls in on the by without any hinderance to his spiritual work And if another speak not a word of any common thing and yet do little in spiritual things for his own or others edification I shall think him a great abuser or neglecter of the Lords day A few words about a common thing that falleth in the way may be spoken without any hinderance of any holy duty But still we must see that it be not a scandalous temptation to others If I see a man that unexpectedly findeth some uncomely hole or rent in his Cloaths either pin it up or few it up before he goeth abroad I will not blame him But if he do it so as to embolden another who useth needlesly to mend his Cloaths on the Lords day it will be a sin of scandal If I see one cut some undecent stragling haires before he go forth I will not blame him But if he do it before one who will be encouraged by it to be barbed needlesly on that day he will offend And so in other cases VI. By these same Rules also we may judge of Recreations on the Lords day The Recreations of the mind must be the various holy employments of the day No bodily Recreations are lawful which needlesly waste time or hinder our duty or divert our minds from holy things or are a snare to others Unless it be some weak persons whose health requireth bodily motion few persons need any other than holy recreations on that day I know no one man that so much needeth it as my self who these twenty years cannot digest one dayes meat unless I walk or run or exercise my body before it till I am hot or sweat And therefore necessity requireth me to walk or fast But I do it privately on that day left I tempt others to sin But I will not censure one whom I see walking at fit houres when for ought I know he may be taken up in some fruitful Meditation But if persons will walk in the Streets or Fields in idleness or for vain delight or discourse as if the day were too long for them and they had no business to do for their souls this is not only a sin but a very ill sign of one that is senseless of his souls necessity and his duty VII To read History Philosophy or common things unnecessarily on the Lords day is a sinful diversion from the more spiritual work of it and unsuitable to the appointed uses of the day much more Romances Play Books or idle stories Yea or those parts of Divinity it self which are less practical and useful to the raising of Thankful and Heavenly affections But yet sometimes such other matter may fall in at a Sermon or Conference or in Meditation which will require a present satisfaction in some point of History Philosophie or controversal Divinity which may be subserviently used to Edification without sin Here therefore we must judge prudently VIII A thing that may be lawful singly in it self unless it be of great necessity is unlawful when he that serveth us in it is drawn or encouraged to make a trade of it As to use a Barber to cut your hair or a Tailor to mend your Cloaths or a Coblar to mend your Shooes Because if you may use him so may others as well as you and so he will follow his Calling on the Lords day And yet I dare not say if when you are to travel to Church you find your Shooes or Boots by breaking something to make you uncapable of going out but you may get them mended privately where it may be done without this inconvenience And though Cooks and Bakers should not be unnecessarily used in their trade yet is it not alwaies unlawful but sometimes very well Because as one servant in the Kitchin may be used to dress meat for all the family so one Baker or Cooke may serve many families and save ten times as many persons the labour which else they must be at And perhaps with easier and quicker dispatch than others The trade of the Apothecary Surgeon and Physician is ordinarily used but for necessity IX There is no sufficient avoidance of such abuses but by careful foresight and prevention and preparation the week before which therefore must be conscionably done CHAP. XII Of what importance the due Observation of the Lords day is THese singular benefits of keeping the Lords day aright should make all that Love God or holiness or the Church or their own or other mens souls take heed how they grow into a neglect or abuse of it much more that they plead not for such negligence or abuse I. The due observation of the Lords day is needful to keep up the solemn worship of God and publick owning and honouring him in the world If all men were left to themselves what time they would bestow in the worshipping of God the greatest part would cast off all and grow into Atheisme or utter prophaneness And the rest would grow into confusion And if all Princes and Rulers or Churches in the world were left to their own wills to appoint the people on what dayes to meet some Kingdoms and Churches would have one day in eight or nine or ten or twenty and some only now and then an hour and some one day and some another and some next to none at all For there is no one universal Monareh on Earth to make Laws for them all whatever the Pope or his nominal-General Councils may pretend to And they would never all come to any reasonable agreement voluntarily among themselves Therefore the Light of Nature telleth us that as a day is meet and needful to be stated so it is meet that God himself the true Universal Monarch should determine of it which accordingly he hath done And this is the very hedge and defensative of Gods publick Worship When he hath made a Law that one whole day in seven shall be spent in it men are engaged to attend it O what a happy acknowledgement of God our Creatour and Redeemer is it and an honouring of his blessed name when all the Churches throughout all the World are at once praising the same God with the same praises and hearing and learning the same Gospel and professing the same faith and thankfully commemorating the same benefits The Church is then indeed like an Army with Banners And were it not for this dayes observation alas how different would the case be And what greater thing can man be bound to than thus to keep up the solemn acknowledgement and worship of God and our Redeemer in the world II. The due Sanctification of the Lords day doth tend to make Religion Vniversal as to Countreys and individual persons which else would be of narrower extent When all the world are under a Divine obligation to spend one day every week in the exercises of Religion and superiours see to the performance of their
humane Nature 2. It is uncertain whether it was before the fall because we know not whether man fell on the same day in which he was Created which is the commonest opinion though unproved Whereupon Mr. ◠Walker in his Treat of the Sabbath maintaineth that the fall and promise went before the Sabbath and so that Gods rest had respect to Christ promised as the perfection of his works and that the Sabbath was first founded on Christ and the promise But because all this is unproved Opinion I incline to the Objectors and the common sense Reasons 4. The seventh day Sabbath was kept by Abraham Gen. 26. 5. by the Israelites Exod. 5. 5. The Law for the seventh day was repeated Exod. 16. 22 23. Answers 4. I am of the same opinion but it is uncertain so far as it is uncertain whether it was instituted actually at first But the rest Ex. 5. 5. seemeth plainly to referr to no Sabbath but to the peoples neglect of their tasks while Moses kept them in hope of deliverance and treated for them And their tasks with their desire to go into the Wilderness to Sacrifice maketh it probable that Pharaoh never allowed them the Sabbaths rest Reasons 5. The Decalogue was spoken by Jehovah Christ Exod. 20. 1. see the Assemblies lesser Catechisme on the Preamble in the Commands Because the Lord is our God c. Redeemer c. therefore we are bound to keep c. Exod. 19. 3. compared with Act. 7. 38. Esa. 63. 9. Ex. 19. 17. The Decalogue written by his Finger Ex. 31. 18. On Tables of Stone Ex. 32. 15 16 19. 34 1 28. and kept by all the Prophets Answers 5. All true and uncontroverted with these suppositions 1. That the Father as well as the Son gave the Decalogue 2. That the second person was not 〈◊〉 Incarnate Christ. 3. That the Law was given by the Ministration of Angels who its like are called the Voice and Finger of God 4. That God our Redeemer did variously Govern his Kingdom by his Law and Covenant in various Editions of which more anon Reasons 6. The Decalogue was confirmed by Jehovah Christ Ma◠5. 17 18 19. Luk. 16. 17. Mat. 28. 20. Joh. 14. 15. 15. 14. Rom 3. 31. 7. 12. Jam. 2. 8 12. NewCovenant Heb. 8. 10. 1 Joh. 3. 22 24. 1 Joh. 5. 3. 2 Ep. Joh. 5. 6. Rev. 12. 17. 14. 12. 22. 14 18. compared with Mal. 4. 4. Answers 6. Here beginneth our fundamental difference I shall first tell you what we take for the truth and then consider of what you alledge against it 1. We hold that every Law is the Law of some one some Law-maker or Soveraign power And therefore Christ being now the Head over all things to the Church Eph. 1. 22 23. whatever Law is now in Being to the Church must needs be the Law of Christ. 2. We hold that Christs Redeemed Kingdom hath been Governed by him with variety of Administrations by various Editions of his Law or Covenant That is I. Universally to Mankind viz. 1. Before his Incarnation which was first To Adam and secondly to Noah and to mankind in them both 2. After his Incarnation II. Particularly to the seed of Abraham even the Jews as a particular Political society chosen out of the World not as the only people or Church of God on Earth but for peculiar extraordinary mercies as a peculiar people 3. We believe that each of these Administrations was fittest for its proper time and subject according to the manifold Wisdom of God But yet the Alterations were many and great and all tended towards perfection so that the last Edition of the Covenant by Christ Incarnate and his Holy Spirit much excelled all that went before in the Kingdom of the Mediatour And all these changes were made by God-Redeemer himself 4. As it was the work of the Redeemer to be the Repairer of Nature and recoverer of man to God so in all the several Administrations the great Laws of Nature containing mans duty to God resulting from and manifested in our Nature as related to God and in the Natura rerum or the Works of God was still made the chief part of the Redeemers Law so that this Law of Nature whose summe is the Love of God and of his Image is ever the Primitive unchangeable Law and the rest are secondary subservient Laws either Positive or remedying or both And no tittle of this shall ever cease if nature cease not 5. But yet there are temporary Laws of Nature which are about Temporary things or where the Nature of the thing it self is mutable from whence the Natural duty doth result As it was a duty by the then Law of Nature it self for Adams Sons and Daughters to Marry Increase and multiply being made a natural Benediction and the means a natural Duty And yet now it is incest against the Law of Nature for Brother and Sister to Marry So it was a Natural duty for Adam and Eve before their Fall to love each other as innocent but not so when they ceased to be innocent For cessanie materiâ cessat obligatio 6. So also some Positive Commands made to Adam in Innocence ceased on the fall and sentence As to dress that Garden And some positives of the first Administrations of Grace did cease by the supervening of a more perfect administration As the two Symbolical or Sacramental Trees in the Garden were no longer such to man when he was turned out so no positive Ordinance of Grace was any longer in force when God himself repealed it by the introduction of a more perfect Administration 7. Accordingly we hold that a change is now made of the sanctified day Where note 1. That we take not the seventh day no nor one day in seven though that be nothing to our Controversie to be a Duty by the proper Law of Nature but by a Positive Law 2. That the seventh day is never called a Sahbath till Moses time but only a Sanctified and blessed day the word Sabbath being ever taken in Scripture for a day of Ceremonial Rest as well as of spiritual Rest and Worship 3. That Christ himself hath continued a seventh day but changed the seventh day to the first not as a Sabbath that is A day of Ceremonial Rest for he hath ended all Sabbaths as shadows of things that were to come even of rest which remained for the people of God Heb. 4. 9. Col. 2. 16. And this is it which is incumbent upon us to prove and I think I have fully proved already 4. That having proved the thing done the positive Law of the seventh day changed by the Holy Ghost to the first day it concerneth us not much to give the reasons of Gods doings But yet this reason may secondarily be observed That God having made the whole frame of Nature very good did thereby make it the glass in which he was to be seen by man and the Book
which he would have man chiefly study for the knowledge of his Maker and his Will But sin having introduced disorder confusion and a curse upon part of the Creation for mans sake God purposed at once both to notifie to man what he had done by sin in bringing disorder and a curse upon the Creature and blotting the Book of Nature which he should have chiefly used and also that it was his good pleasure to set up a clearer Glass even Christ Incarnate in which man might see his Makers face in a representation suitable to our need not now as smileing upon an Innocent man nor as frowning on a guilty man but as reconciled to Redeemed man and to Write a Book in which his will should be more plainly read than in the blotted Book of Nature Yea in which he that in the Creature appeared most eminently in Power might now appear most eminently in LOVE even redeeming reconciling adopting justifying and saving Love So that though God did not change the day till the Person of the Incarnate Mediator with his perfect last edition of the Covenant was exhibited and set up as this clearer Glass and Book yet then as the seasonable time of Reformation Heb. 9 10 11. he did it To teach man that though still he must honour God as the Creator and know him in the Glass and Book of the Creature yet that must be now but his secondary study for he must primarily study God in Christ where he is revealed in Love even most conspicuous wonderous Love And how suitable this is to man after sin and curâ—e and wrath may thus evidently appear 1. We were so Dead in sin and utterly deprived of the spiritual Life that the Book of the Creatures was not a sufficient means of our reviving But as we must have the QUICKNING SPIRIT of Jesus the Mediator so we must have a suitable means for that Spirit to work by which that the cursed mortified Creature is not appeareth in the experience of the case of Heathens 2. We were so Dark in sin that the Creature was not a sufficient means of our Illumination But as we must have the ILLUMINATING SPIRIT of Jesus so we must have a Glass and Book that was suited to that illuminating work 3. We were so alienated from God by Enmity and malignity and loss of LOVE that as it must be the spirit of Jesus which must regenerate us unto LOVE so it must be a clearer demonstration of LOVE than the Creature maketh in its cursed state which must be the fit means for the spirit to work by in the restitution of our LOVE Where further note 1. That LOVE is Holiness and Happiness it self and the operations of Divine Love are his Perfective operations and so fit for the last perfective act 2. That man had many wayes fallen from LOVE As he had actually and habitually turned away his own heart from God and as he had fallen under Gods wrath and so lost those fullest emanations of Gods Love which should cherish his own Love to God and as he had forfeited the assistance of the spirit which should repair it and as he was fallen in Love with the accursed Creature and lastly as he was under the Curse or threatning himself and the penalties begun It being impossible to Humane Nature to Love a God who we think will damn us and feel doth punish us in order thereunto So that nothing could be more suitable to Lapsed man or more perfective of the Appearance and Operations of God than this demonstration of Reconciling saving Love in our Incarnate Crucified Raised Glorified Interceding Redeemer All which sheweth that Gods removal of the sanctified day from the seventh to the first of the Week and his preferring the Commemoration of Redemption and our use of the Glass and Book of an Incarnate Saviour before that of the now accursed Creature is a work of the admirable wisdom of God and exceeding suitable to the nature of the things II. Now I come to consider of what you say against all this You Cite the numbers of many Chapters and Verses contrary to your grand principles these divisions being Humane Inventions in all which there is nothing about the Controversie in hand The Texts speak not of the Decalogue only but of the Law and of Gods Commandments and Christs Commandments Now I must tell you before-hand that I will take no mans word for the Word of God nor believe any thing that you say God speaketh without proof Prove it or it goeth for nothing with me For as I know that adding to Gods Word is Cursed Rev. 22. 18. as well as taking away so it I must once come to believe that God saith this or that without proof I shall never know whom to believe For twenty men may tell me twenty several tales and say that God saith them all I expect your proof then of one of these two assertions for which it is that you hold no man can gather by your own words or citations 1. That all the Law which was in being at Christs Incarnation was confirmed and continued by him which yet I do not Imagine you to hold 〈◊〉 all Pauls Epistles and especially the Ep. to the Heb. do so fully plead against it 2. Or else that by the Law in all those Texts is meant all the Decalogue and the Decalogue alone The Texts cited by you prove no more than what we hold as confidently as you viz 1. That all the Law of Nature where the Matter or Nature of the things continue is continued by Christ and is his principal Law 2. That the Decalogue as to that matter of it is continued as it is the Law of Nature which is almost all that is in it but not as the Jewish Law given by Moses hands to the Political body 3. That the Natural part of all the rest of Moses Law is continued as well as the Decalogue 4. That all Moses Law as well as the Decalogue shall be fullfilled and Heaven and Earth shall sooner pass away than one jot or tittle of it shall pass till it be fulfilled 5. That the Elements Shadows Predictions Preparations c. are all fulfilled by the coming of Christ and by a more perfect Administration For Christ fulfilled all Righteousness Mat. 3. 15. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is sometimes put materially for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 6. That a change may be two waies made 1. By destroying a thing 2. By perfecting it And that by the Law in Matth. 5. 17 c. Christ meaneth the whole body of Gods Law then in force to the Jews considered as one frame consisting of Natural and Positive parts Of which he saith that he came not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to dissolve pull in pieces or destroy the Law as a licentious Teacher that would take off Gods obligations and leave the Wills and Lusts of men to a Lawless liberty which was it that the Pharises imputed to such as were