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A60369
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A preservative against atheism and error wherein some fundamental points in religion ... are by way of question and answer handled, and with much brevity and clearness proved ... : to which is added a brief answer to William Russel in a book of his entituled No seventh-day-Sabbath in Christs New Testament / by W. Saller.
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Saller, William, d. ca. 1680.
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1664
(1664)
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Wing S399; ESTC R37201
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26,787
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31
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the Heavens Brass and the Earth Iron or bring other severe judgements every considering man may clearly discern that the abounding Wickednesse of the Sons of Men have provoked the Giver of all Goodness to take his Mercy away and may well read in all his stroaks a loud call to repentance But further if men do but humble themselves under his hand and return from their evil wayes how graciously doth he return to his ordinary way of shewing Mercy Also if we do consider his governing the World it most wonderfully declares his infinite and eternal Being Take these instances first the Sun Moon and Stats keeping so constant a course ordinarily from Age to Age as also Day and Night Summer and Winter Seed-time and Harvest following each other in a setled course And if the Lord at any time alter the course of any of his Creatures as when the Sun and Moon stood still in Joshua's dayes and came back in Hezekiah's dayes ten degrees the Red-sea divided in Moses's dayes and the River of Jordan driven back or any like act done it alwayes was brought to pass at such times and for some such noble ends as that it did alway more abundantly preach forth the Power Grace Wisdom Justice and unspeakable Goodness of an Eternal God Quest But how know you that these wonderful Works were done Answ Manifest it is that in no age no not in this we now live in can any of the great Works of God get any credit in the world till they are manifest beyond all possibility of dispute therefore there can be no ground for a doubt Secondly Consider his Strength Wisdom and Goodness in governing the World so as that his poor People live in it It is most manifest to all that do consider it that of them that love and fear God and are the most conscionable in minding and observing his Word Works and Worship that they are very few few few in comparison of the multitudes numberless multitudes of blasphemous-Atheists Idolaters prophane unjust deceitful Covenant-breakers with other like workers of Iniquity all setting themselves with open mouth to devour this little Remnant and diging to Hell for deep Counsels to destroy them and yet for all their unjust and cunning policies and oft-times open violence exercised against them through the rich Goodness divine Wisdom and Providence of God they have never yet been rooted out of the Earth but although they have been almost blotted out with the rage and persecution of the World yet hath the Most High still preserved a little Flock of Lambs amidst a world of wolves who fain would but never yet could wholly devour them which plainly proves that there is a God that hath more Power Wisdom Goodness than all their Enemies have strength or malice who ever lives to take care of them Again the Signs that God often sheweth in the sudden and unexpected overturning of their Enemies from time to time is of a very convincing nature to prove that certainly there is a God that judgeth the Earth Quest Seeing you have proved the undoubted and certain Being of a God what is the next weighty Truth that stands in need of proof Answ The next Truth most needful to be cleared is the holy Scriptures to be the Words and Counsels of God Quest Is there any with us do deny them Answ Yes there is some do deny them and more would if fear or shame did not stop their mouths as appears by their works Quest What Books do you mean by holy Scriptures Answ The Writings of Moses and the Prophets till Malachies dayes committed to the antient Church of the Jews and received by them as also the Books of the New Testament from Matthew to the Revelation Quest And wherefore do you reject those Books commonly called Apocrypha do you think the Spirit of God had no hand in the writing of them Answ It seems too hard to conclude that those that wrote those stories had no Light or aid from the Spirit of God in the writing of them they might be good men and hand forth some truths and useful things as many doubtless have done both in former and latter Ages who although we may make good use of their Books yet may we not receive them as infallible Prophets writings but receive or reject or suspend our judgements as we see they agree or disagree with the Word of Truth and clear Reason or appear doubtful Quest But is there reason to take this liberty with those Books what are your grounds to doubt of their infallability Answ Clear it is that however there are good Counsels in some of those Writings yet they seem to be written by some Jews in or after the captivity when their light in all probability was much dimmed and not by the Prophets Also how far from the language and stile of the infallible Spirit of God those Writings are some of them is evident the Spirit of God useth not to acknowledge infirmity and a doing as well as he can for he is perfect and therefore doth nothing meanly Again as there be absurdities not fit to be put upon the holy Spirit as this for one to go about to make us believe the Devil will be frighted away with smoak so also there is one stark lie so rank that a fool may discern it the same person that saith in one place he is the Son of Ananias saith in another he is an holy Angel There be other exceptions I will not now spend time about these may suffice to let you see some ground wherefore I cannot own them to be of divine Authority Quest But how will you prove that those books known by the names of the Old and New Testaments are the infallible Words of God and so the safe Rule to lead men in the true Path of believing and obedience to Life everlasting Answ First They may be known by their noble stile as for example When you hear any persons express themselves judiciously acutely in excellent Language although you never saw them before yet may you safely conclude that they are persons of excellent breeding and quality although they should appear in never so mean a dress So may it much more be concluded concerning the Scriptures their dialect hath that Majesty Holiness Grace and high Wisdom in them most elegantly manifesting the perfections of a divine Being in them and declaring the judiciousness faithfulness and perfection of all his Intentions and Proceedings with the sons of men that it is not likely possible for any gracious considering man to call there Authority into question Secondly The blessed Intention and scope of them discover them to proceed from the holy Spirit all the Commandments Threatnings Promises Warnings Counsels Declarations contained in them unanimously tending to advance Godliness in the hearts and lives of men Thirdly The several Doctrines and points of Truth contained in them are so wisely and holily compacted standing in so sweet an Union together and so
14.12 Rom. 3.31 Ephes 6.1 2 3. with many other Again in particular to the Sabbath it self If our Lord did not intend it should continue after his Death but he nailed to the Cross with the other Ceremonies what reason could there be for him to advise his Disciples to pray that their flight might not fall out on the Sabbath or at the fall of Jerusalens seeing it fell out sorty years after his Death and wherefore should be tell us it was made for man and that He is the Lord of it if it have no being in his Dominions amongst the Children of men Mark 2.27 28. And besides all this doth not the holy Spirit call it Sabbath and how dare mortal worms call it working day For which way can it deserve the name of a Sabbath if it retain not the nature of a Sabbath But this is an Age in which men are bent to walk in their own wayes and neither believe nor do any thing that crosseth the flesh otherwise how were it possible for men to find so many evasions to keep off from so plain a Duty which was the constant practice of the Saints in the Primitive time as may be seen Acts 13.14 42 44. and 16.13 17.2 18.4 And it is observable that in the former of these Texts Acts 13. Paul keeps Sabbath with Gentiles and speaks not the least word against their Practice nor intimates nothing of a meeting any other day an evil that Paul would never have been guilty of had he known any thing of the abolishing or changing of the Sabbath-day for how earnestly Paul contended against the Gentiles observation of Ceremonies cannot be unknown Quest But is it not possible for the whole ten Commands to be observed although the Sabbath be transmitted from the seventh to the first day of the week Answ If the Lord or any other by his Authority had so done I would not have questioned his power or wisdom herein but seeing he did it not but it is meerly an invention of man I must condemn it for a wicked and ungodly Practice of which the old Serpent was the principal Author to cause the poor Jews to stumble at the Redeemer of the World to this day Quest Since Christ and his Apostles and Primitive Saints observed it what is the reason that the Jews do not believe in Jesus Christ seeing Sabbath-Prophanation is one of their greatest Arguments they commonly urge against Christ and the Christian Religion Answ There is no cause to wonder at their unbelief nor at the reason of it for how can we expect they should search the New Testament diligently to inform themselves what the mind and practice of Christ and his Primitive Saints was when they who profess it to be their Rule are so extream careless in this matter that they suffer themselves to be couzened some with another day and some with no day instead of the Sabbath now the poor Jews judging of the Religion of Christ by the lives of the generality of those that profess his Name cannot but stumble at him and abominate that Religion that alloweth such plain and notorious Wickedness committed against the express letter of God's most holy Law and it cannot be expected in reason that they should repent and believe till a more general Reformation be found in the lives of the Gentiles that profess to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ Quest Well if such prejudices as they take at the Lord Jesus should be removed how can it be clearly proved that Christ Jesus the Son of Mary who was crucified by Pilate is the true Messiah Answ There are many infallible proofs of it As first The certain Time of his coming being so fairly pointed at by the Scriptuies if Jesus be not he this will follow not only that we must with the Jews look for another but be constrained also to cast off the holy Scriptures received both by them and us and so shall be wholly at a loss to know what to believe or receive for truth in order to our eternal peace Quest Name some of those Texts and a little open them for the sakes of the poor Jews and the blind World who it is to be feared neither know Him nor in truth believe in Him but ignorantly confess him because it is the Religion of the Times and tradition and custom hath taught them so to do Answ The first Text is Gen. 49.10 The Scepter shall not depart from Judah and the Law-giver from between his feet until Shiloh come and unto him shal the obedience of the Peoples 〈◊〉 â—hiloh here is Christ or the Messiah and so understood by the Hebrew Doctors as well as by Christians See learned Ainsworth upon the place And that he was to come according to Jacobs Prophesie at or near the time that the Kings and Governours of Judah ceased to rule is the manifest scope and intent of the Text And although Judah had no King after the Captivity yet her Princes were still known and by Permission some of them bore Rule as appears Ezra 3.8 9. Hag. 1.12 And evident it is the Heirs of the Crown of Judah were well known to the coming of Christ and Christ known to be Heir apparent to the Crown of Judah so well that when he wrought that Miracle of feeding five thousand with five loaves and two fishes John 6.14 15. the people would by force have made him King if he had not by hiding himself avoided it and that was a charge against him at his death that he was King of the Jews but neither Pilate nor the Jews could deny but that so He was his right to the Crown may well be perceived by what his enemies on both parts say in that 18 19 chapters of John but since Christ the World nor the Jews themselves cannot find any Law-giver or Prince that so much as pretended a right to the Kingdom but are so dispersed and broken that they are like to find none till that Prophecy be fulfilled Zech. 12.10 that they look upon him whom they pierced to whom the Peoples that is the Gentiles do gather acknowledge or obey according to this Text and impossible it is that this Text can be fulfilled in any that is yet to come for the House of Judah hath been without a Governour or Law-giver this 1600 years at least and so long ago or longer the Messiah must be come or else this Text must be blotted out of the Book of God and if once Moses's writings come into question then farewel all Religion both among Jews and Gentiles Now as for our Lord Jesus we know that all Prophecies of the Old Testament are fulfilled in him He is a Prophet like to Moses most graciously opening and confirming all the moral Laws and in his own obedience unto the Death fulfilled all the ceremonial Laws and the Laws he hath added in the New Testament are so fully confirmed by many glorious Miracles and are so holy just