of the method of his operation with those to whom the Sacred Oracles are communicated but not so full a disclosure of it with others which are not admitted to a participation of that immunity That which is revealed is sufficient to demonstrate That God is not wanting to them and if they miscarry their destruction is chargeable only upon themselves It is manifest That they with all others are naturally so much under the power of that corruption which is contracted by the Fall That the Image of God is obliterated in them and they rendered unable to do any thing which is spiritually good The Second Adam has so far made a reparation That the light of Reason in some measure discovering their obligations to their Creator is impressed upon them He who is stiled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lighteth every Man that comes into the World That which may be known of God is manifest in them not so much upon the account of the remains of the Divine Image which they received in the state of innocency as a secondary discovery 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for God hath manifested it unto them There is a spirit in every man enclosed with darkness and the effects of the Primitive Apostasie but the inspiration of the Lord giveth understanding When men had benighted themselves it was the pleasure of the Lord to light a candle for them Prov. 20.27 This light is not only received but a power to comport with the meaning of it For it is plain they receive so much from God that for their defect in the glorifying of them they are rendered inexcusable Rom. 1.20 If light had been imparted to discover their obligations and a power denied to satisfie them no fairer excuse could have been devised than this That the Divine Benignity since their Primitive Apostasie whereby they lost their Light and Power has been pleased to give them some Light again to see their duty but withhold a Power to discharge it To all this we may add That the fault is in themselves that they enjoy no fuller a manifestation and those assistances which accompany it By not improvement of that which they have they are deprived of a just claim to that which is greater The Sound of the Gospel which went to the uttermost parts of the Earth was drowned with the clamour of their exorbitances Divine Providence notwithstanding these provocations has placed the Candlestick at no such distance from them as renders them uncapable of receiving benefit by it They traffick with those in temporal concerns which are acquainted with it And if their affection to him who is the desire of all Nations was not thro' a voluntary defect grown very languid they may do the same in Spirituals Tho' we are not able to delineate the manner of God's giving his aid to all in the concerns of Religion Yet we have no inferiour degree of assurance in the general That all do receive such an assistance as renders them inexcusable if they do not perform what he requires To assert That he withholds such help makes a very dishonourable reflection upon him It casts a cloud upon the glorious constellation of his Attributes in particular upon his Goodness as tho' he was less kind under the Second Covenant than under the First His Justice as tho' he did condemn men for that which it was never in their power to prevent His Mercy in offering external means to those who have no power to make use of them It has a tendency to deface that idea which we naturally have of God in our Souls and beget in the room of it very enormous conceptions As tho' he did require the Lame to walk and yet not furnish them with such supports as are of peremptory necessity to that motion It leaves no matter for the Worm of Conscience to breed out of If the damned knew That a sufficient power while they were upon the Theatre of this World was not given to them to escape the Torment they are in how can they reflect with indignation upon their own folly for the mis-spending their time and the loss of their opportunity to gain a more easie state No man is inclined to make pensive reflections upon himself for the not bringing to pass impossibilities It renders exhortation useless Counsel supposeth a power in him to whom it is directed to comply with it None will exhort a person to see who has irrecoverably lost his visive faculty or one who is dead to move It enervates the nature of repentance Who will believe himself concerned to grieve for the omission of that which was never in his power to do or for the doing of that which he never had power to omit As God created Angels with a Will confirmed to that which is Good brute Creatures with a Faculty determined to their proper Objects So he has made Man in a middle state not secured as the supernal Spirits are nor determined as inferiour Animals He has endued him with a sufficient power which he may use or abuse improve or neglect This is evident in the first Adam who undoubtedly had a power to persevere in his innocency and in those who are converted by the grace of the second Adam whom all confess to have a power to do more good than they do He who worketh after the counsel of his will is pleased to make man after his image and leave him in the hands of his own counsel Ecclus. 15 14. His concourse with him he adapts to his constitution As the sinite Spirit which animates the body has its several Organs by which its operations are modified So likewise the infinite Spirit who by his omnipotent interposal sustains the Universe All the Creatures are his Organs some free some necessary Every one he useth according to its Nature Those which are necessary he concurrs necessarily with Those which are free he ordinarily accommodates himself to their freedom and by this means keeps up the order which he has established This assertion is not prejudicial to his prescience It is manifest that he knows what Evil Men will do although they determine themselves to the doing of it By a parity of reason he must know the Good altho' they use their own freedom in the doing of it Neither is it injurious to his Sovereignty He has the hearts of all Men in his own hand He can interpose his determining influence He can take away the power whereby he inables them to determine themselves All their determinations he can so order as to make them subservient to the design of his Providence Neither doth it destroy the immediate dependence of the Will upon him It is dependent in its Being for conservation in its acts for his prevenient grace and simultaneous concourse Tho' God is the cause of every Being yet not of all the modes of a free Agent as is evident in the evil of sin which is such a mode and yet brought to pass without his efficiency
cannot be denied to him in this case which if it happens to be contrary to the sentence of the Judge he must bear without a tumultuous deportment the consequences of it 6. All the Testimony we have That such a Guide is intended is from the Church of Rome which is the party concerned and lays claim to this Dignity If we ask how it comes to be known that the is vested in this immunity Scripture-promises are presently alledged If we further demand How we shall know that this is the sence of the promise We are told That we must adhere to the interpretation of the Church which understands it so From which it evidently appears That the ultimate ground and reason of our belief in this particular is the Testimony of the Church of Rome For no Community is permitted to have the denomination of a true Church besides that which submits to the Papal Authority If our Blessed Lord the supreme Head of the Church says If I bear witness of my self my witness is not true Joh. 5.31 Much more may this be applied to the Body if it has no other evidence for this fundamental point but what is derived from her self The bare testimony of a party is not a sufficient foundation to build a legal determination upon in any Court of Law 7. The Primitive Constitution of the Church plainly intimates That no one Guide was designed to be Supreme over all the Churches in the World Our blessed Lord left the Apostles in a parity Nothing was spoken to S. Peter concerning any Ecclesiastical Power but what the others were equally concerned in These constituted Bishops over particular Churches in the same equality they themselves were left in Tho' in every Church there is a subordination of the Clergy and People to their own Bishop yet there is none to any which is foreign It is true There is one Catholick Church but the unity of it consists in having one Lord one Faith and one Baptism and not one Bishop and Head to interpret for all and impose what dictates he pleaseth upon them The antient Churches did maintain correspondencies by Communicatory Letters and when extraordinary cases did emerge send their prudential Expedients as the effects of their Charity But we no where read of the exercise of any pretended authority one over the other If there had been any one authorised Guide in controversie for all Churches known in those early times when Heresies and Schisms did arise no question a speedy application would have been made to him for the curing of what was amiss yet we read of no such matter But on the contrary Appeals were prohibited to any foreign Bishop and an express order established That differences should be decided within the Province where they did emerge S. Cyprian asserts so much in his Epistle to Cornelius Epist 55. Pamel Epist 59. Oxon. Nam cum statutum sit omnibus nobis aequum sit c. For when it is appointed to all of us and it is both equal and just That the cause of every one should be heard where the crime is committed and a portion of the Flock is assigned to particular Pastors which every one must rule and govern being under an obligation to give an account to the Lord of what he does It behoves those whom we are set over not to run up and down nor break the firm concord of Bishops by their subdolous and fallacious temerity but there to plead their cause where the Accusers may have witnesses of their crime c. The fifth Canon of the first Council of Nice is of the same importance and is so interpreted by the next General Council held at Constantinople in the second Canon As for the Canons of the Council of Sardica which seem to favour Appeals there is just reason to suspect that they are forged The Fathers of the sixth Council of Carthage knew nothing of them tho' about Forty African Bishops were present at that Convention as Athanasius testifies A matter of such moment could not have been concealed from them when so many of their own Countreymen were witnesses to what was transacted The attempt that was made to father them upon the Council of Nice argues That there was no fair dealing about them If the Canons are genuine it must be remembred That they were made not by a General but a Provincial Synod Tho' the Council was intended to be General yet it proved otherwise by the Oriental Bishops withdrawing themselves and refusing to act in it The decrees of such a Convention have not efficacy enough to rescind and annul what was done before in the Council of Nice An Inferiour Authority cannot abolish what is established by a Superiour If the Council had been General yet if we look well into the Canons pretended to be framed by it they will not amount to that which the Church of Rome thinks to make of them Three things are conceded to the Bishop of that See 1. A liberty in case of judgment already given to deliberate whether the matter ought not to be considered again 2. If he thought so whether he would send any to be present at the hearing of the Cause 3. A freedom to appoint Judges out of the neighbouring Provinces finally to determine Here is no bringing the cause to Rome but the judgment is to be ended where the difference did begin If all this was as real as it is pretended to be it cannot be looked upon as any more than a prudent Expedient in that present juncture The Arians very much prevailed The Orthodox were highly oppressed The Bishop of Rome favoured their cause And to put him into a greater capacity of succouring them such a determination might be condescended unto But the words of the Synod plainly represent it as a novel thing which the Church before was utterly unacquainted with Neither the Institution of Christ nor Primitive Tradition are alledged as the ground of it but an honorary respect to the memory of S. Peter the Bishop of Rome being at that time esteemed as his Successour and very stedfast in that faith which he sacrificed his life for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are the words of Hosius of Corduba who is represented as the person who did steer all matters under debate in that Convention 8. No provision is made of one infallible Guide in a case of like importance The whole World is one Community under God the Father as the Church is one under Christ All particular Kingdoms are united under some general Laws as the several Churches are in the same rules of Belief and Worship They have all the same light of Reason There is a jus Gentium to which all the Empires of the Universe are obliged to submit Peace is as desirable betwixt them as Unity amongst the several parts of the Church The records of every Nation give an account of the direful effects of Civil as well as Ecclesiastical discord From hence ariseth the most
If any difficulty arise about the manner of God's operating with the Will which we cannot comprehend we must not let go the belief of that which is clear for that which is obscure Things many times are very perspicous when the modes are concealed He would be accounted very vain who should attempt to deny That there is any such thing as light because it is difficult to explain the way of its emanation from the great Luminary of the World Every Man is sensible of a determining Power within himself That in the midst of his intellectual discussions he has a liberty to make his election of such an object as he apprehends to be most agreeable to himself To deny this because we are not fully satisfied about every mode in the doing of it is the same thing as if we should affirm That there is no such Sence as Seeing because it is not yet agreed whether the Eye perform its office by the entertainment of some Effluviums from the Object or by the help of some pressure only upon the Optic Nerve Now I have done with the second particular namely the strength whereby we are inabled to perform what we are directed to This we must expect from the Spirit of God And now I proceed to the last 3. The acceptance of what we perform is procured by the satisfaction and merit of Jesus Christ In order to the clearing up of this Truth the following steps must be taken 1. The acceptance of our Worship and Service is not upon its own account There are great defects in the best of our performances Our Faith tho' it be unfeigned yet it wants That firmness our Love tho' sincere That fervour which the Law requires The Law is natural and immutable and can no more abate in its demands than the fire can cease to be of a hot nature or the Sun to be a lucid Body If our most plausible actions were examined according to the rigour of it many flames would be discovered in them The Prophet tells us Isai 64.6 All our righteousnesses are as silthy rags The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tho' it be variously interpreted yet all the Glosses agree in charging our most valuable services with imperfection The precedent words justifie the Exposition We are all as an unclean thing The fountain being impure the streams which issue from it will carry with them some signatures of the same impurity The Apostle says We know but in part it is as sure That we love and obey but in part The Will being principally concerned in the Fall must necessarily lie under a depravation equal to that of the Understanding It is a saying among the Rabbins Buxt Rab. Lex rad 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 953. 1602. So long as the just live they are at war with concupiscence They affirm there are Three Sins which daily every man is guilty of Sinful Thoughts want of attention in Prayer evil words The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which they represent as the cause of these miscarriages they tell us That God will bring forth in the world to come and slay before the righteous and the wicked 2. Acceptance is not upon the account of the favour of God without the interposal of satisfaction for sin by satisfaction we must understand the doing of something which repairs the damage which is received by an injury and the quieting thereby the mind of the injured who is provoked by reason of the damage A great injury is done by Sin to the Supreme Rector of the World His Authority is trampled upon and the Majesty of his Law diminished his Government exposed to contempt publick Order unhinged and by this means he is justly incensed The ready way to repair the damage and atone his displeasure is to require That the penalties due to the transgression or such as are equivalent to them be suffered and in them to express his just indignation against Sin and impress upon all such a fear and reverence as the Laws of Heaven do challenge That this should be done antecedently to Pardon and Acceptance is evidently the Will of God declared in the Holy Scripture There we find That there is no acceptance without remission and there is no remission without the shedding of blood and that this blood is the blood of a Mediator thro' which we must have redemption Rom. 3.24 Eph. 4.7 This is the reason why the Divine Amnesty from the time of the Primitive Apostasie has had a constant aspect upon this blood When the Apostle asserts concerning the Mediator if he had been to offer up himself often as the High-Priest entred into the Holy of Holiest every year with the blood of others then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the World He plainly intimates That from the beginning the Father has had a regard to the blood and sufferings of his Son in the remission of Sins Tho' satisfaction was not then made yet it was promised Captives are frequently set free in consideration of the ransom promised before it be actually paid As satisfaction is certainly agreeable to the Will of God So it seems to be sutable to the propensity of his nature Supposing the Creation it is necessary that he have a Soveraignty and Dominion over it and if he be a Sovereign Lord over the Creation he must actually govern it It is a defect to be invested with Power and not to exercise it in relation to the Community and if he governs it must be by Law Government supposeth Obedience Obedience in the Intellectual part of Creation must be an act of the Understanding The Understanding cannot act except it has a knowledge of the Will of him who governs His Will published and made known is a Law If there be a Law it must be holy it being enacted by him who is infinite in purity and sanctity and if it be holy he cannot but love it the same necessity which doth oblige him to love himself will engage him to love the resemblance And if he love his Law he cannot but hate sin which is opposite to it Hatred to that which is contrary to Holiness must be as natural to him as to love and delight in Holiness And if it be natural to terminate his hatred upon sin by an equal necessity he is obliged to punish it For hatred is never found in any without a peremptory desire to do evil to that which is its object and such a desire when it is in one who wills nothing rashly who is armed with sufficiency of power to execute whatsoever he wills who cannot be diverted from execution by any unseen emergency must necessarily take effect and whatsoever evil is done to sin by him who cannot err in his administrations must have the formality of punishment all evil being either the evil of sin or the evil of punishment This penalty must either be inflicted upon the Offender and then there will be no place left for Pardon
any reasonable Man desire more than a clear revelation concerning the terms upon which God will be reconciled and an assurance given by miraculous operations That there 's no collusion in the Declaration The Exemplary Life of our Blessed Lord is sufficient to invite us to be agreeable in our Conversation to the conditions of the New Covenant His Death with all the terrifying circumstances attending it have a tendence to affright Men from embracing his Doctrin No Man is naturally inclined to espouse that way which may expose him to so much sorrow Was there no more intended in the Death of Christ than what Socinus asserts He might after his Immaculate Life spent in this World like Enoch and Elias have been immediately translated into Heaven and there with as much advantage as if he had suffered the pains of death have transacted all those things appertaining to our reconciliation which they attribute unto him He was above Thirty Years in this sublunary state contesting with the anxieties of humane Life and therefore must necessarily be touched with a fence of our infirmities His whole Life was meritorious and therefore there is no reason to think That the most easie way to Heaven would have been denied him had his sufferings imported no more than what our Adversaries in this Cause affirm The God of Nature and Grace doth not use to do any thing in vain Lastly The reasons of the sufferings of our Blessed Lord which must be granted to be of more importance than any thing which has been alledged by the Socinians the Holy Scripture resolves into our sin and represents his Passion as the Punishment of it Man violating the Law of his Creation if nothing did interpose to prevent the infliction of Punishment our condition would be a state of desperation destructive of that which is most essential to Religion and pleasing unto God No place would be left for the emanations of his benignity which he is eminently delighted with He being propense to pardon and his hatred to Sin and love to his Law inclining him not to do it without some severe expression of his detestation first made against the violation of his Command in order to the reconciling of these propensities and making way for his clemency to exert it self his eternal Son has freely offered himself to bear the penalty due to us upon the account of Sin For this reason he is said to be made a curse Gal. 3.13 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here is expounded by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That he might redeem us from the curse He has freely without any compulsion derived it upon himself Crellius tell us That the word here cannot be taken in this fence because he who is properly accursed is the object of Divine Hatred which cannot be asserted of the Son of God and the curse which he suffered was the death of the Cross but the curse of the Law is Eternal death To which I reply He which is accursed upon his own account is the object of Divine Hatred but he That is so upon the account of another freely bearing the curse in order to the satisfying Divine Justice and the vindicating the authority of the Law is not The hatred is terminated upon the Sin which is ours and not upon the Person who undertakes to bear the demerit of it and by so doing accomplish the ends which are highly agreeable to the desires of the Supreme Rector The Death of our Blessed Lord upon the Cross tho' it was not the same with Eternal Death yet it was equivalent The want of eternity was compensated by the dignity of the Person who was so contumeliously treated The degrees of suffering are usually estimated by the quality of the person who suffereth A Magistrate suffers more by a contumelious usage than a private Man The Supreme more than he who is subordinate Therefore if he who suffers be infinite in dignity as the Son of God is his punishment must have an infinity in it And an infinite punishment is equipollent to that which is eternal Parallel to this are the words of S. Peter Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree 1 Ep. 2.24 Christ is said to bear our sins that is The punishment of them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tulit sursum eundo When he was upon the Cross he had the burden of them upon his shoulders Crellius in order to the disappointing the force of this Text says That 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth not necessarily denote to bear it may as well be translated to take away but supposing it doth yet it does not follow That the pain he bore was a punishment one may be said to bear the sins of another who falls into any calamity occasioned by them altho' there be nothing of the formality of punishment in it To which I answer That to bear is the proper signification of the word and we are not to depart from the proper import except the circumstances of the place put a necessity upon us The Context is so far from obliging us to any such thing That in case it may be allowed to arbitrate it will determine us to the signification of bearing The scope of the Apostle is to exhort those to whom he writes to bear with patience the sufferings which the profession of the Gospel might expose them to In order to this end he draws an argument from the pattern of our Blessed Lord who did patiently bear the penalty of our sins in his Body on the Tree without any menacing returns to the Authors of his Crucifixion The word in conjunction with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is but once more found in the New Testament and there it has evidently the fence we contend for So Christ was once offered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to bear the sins of many and to them which look for him he shall appear the second time without sin Heb. 9.28 Here are two appearances of Christ set opposite one to the other the last without sin that is without bearing the burthen of it and therefore the first was with sin He was burdened with it and did bear the demerit This fence is favoured by the Context He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself v. 26. A Sacrifice did bear the punishment due to him for whom it was offered Crellius overthrows himself in saying That 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here signifies to take away for this taking away must be performed upon the Tree But Christ according to his notion did not take away Sin upon the Cross His suffering was but preparatory to his ingress into Heaven where he was first invested with a power to forgive sin S. Peter in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 has a manifest aspect upon the Prophecy of Esaias c. 53.11 He shall bear their iniquities 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a word too stiff to be bent into a compliance with the Socinian
to sit still on the Seventh day There is as much holiness in this as in offering a brute beast unto God being stamped with a divine Command and the Rest of the Body signifying the Rest of the Soul from sin as the Sacrifice did the holiness of Christ This is the substance of what is asserted by the learned Author of the Epilogue To which I reply 1. It is no good consequence because the Precept extends to Cattle which are in no capacity to do any thing appertaining to the Sabbath but only cease from bodily labour That therefore nothing but bodily rest is enjoyned in it The Decree of the King of Niniveh concerning the Fast did reach to Cattle yet it is not true That nothing was commanded the Inhabitants of the City but what might be performed by Cattle We must take notice That a part only of the Command extends to Cattle It is required of the Masters of them That they shall not be imployed in that usual work they are designed for in the week-time but not that they keep holy the Sabbath-day To assert That Cattle are concerned in the whole Precept because they are in one part is as if we should affirm That Jacob's sons Cattle had all Aegypt for their pasture because they had Goshen which was a part of it As for Strangers they were capable both of resting and sanctifying the Sabbath If we suppose they were tyed only to the Seven Precepts of the Sons of Noah how doth it appear That the Sabbath of the Fourth Command was not contained under one of them It is believed to belong to the Second Mede Diat p. 85. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Munster upon Jos 9.7 useth these words nec poterant Israelitae cum Gibeonitis inire foedus nisi hac conditione ut observarent septem praecepta filiis Noae data hoc est Eliminarent Idololatriam observarent Sabbatum abstinerent ab incestu execrarentur homicidium c. The Israelites could not enter in covenant with the Gibeonites but upon this condition That they would observe the Seven Precepts given to the Sons of Noah that is cast out Idolatry observe the Sabbath abstain from Incest execrate Murther c. Here the observation of the Sabbath is reckoned amongst the Seven Precepts of the Sons of Noah If the Sabbath was none of them yet it must be remembred That the Tye was made not by a divine but a humane appointment Tho' the Precepts materially considered are in the Scripture yet they are not in that form and order in which they are delivered by the Talmudists Nor is there any intimation given that it was the Will of God That Proselytes or Converts from Idols should be obliged to these and no other I doubt not but this was a decree of the Jewish Church and that it might have the greater reverence paid to it the Rabbins generally ascribe it to God If Proselytes or strangers were tied only to these Seven Precepts by the will of Men yet they might be obliged to the observation of others in particular the Sabbath of the Fourth Command by the Will of God A Stranger for the sin of ignorance was bound to offer up a she-goat of the first year Num. 15.27 29. which injunction is no part of the Seven Precepts of the Sons of Noah 2. It is not true That to keep holy the Sabbath signifies no more than sitting still upon the Seventh Day Besides the figurative holiness there is something discernable in a Sacrifice which is not to be found in such a slothful posture The earth being the Lord's and he granting the use of it to Men for a supply of their necessities the giving back some part of it by way of oblation was accounted a piece of Homage and an expression of their agnitions of his Soveraignty over the whole Judith c. 2. v. 7. Herodotus To this end the Persians use to present their Kings with Earth and Water to signifie and acknowledge That they were Lords of Land and Sea Aquinas was so well pleased with this reason 22. Q. 55. art 1. That he asserts sacrificing in general to be of the Law of Nature Tho' the determination of it to this or that species of things be variable and grounded only upon positive institution All this cannot be asserted of sitting still which gives nothing to God but implies the withholding and suppression of those actions whereby the Body is in any capacity to honour him If there had been nothing in Sacrifice but a figurative holiness no account can be given why it should meet with so general and ready entertainment among the Heathens who were strangers to the figure Porphyry De Abstin l. 2. p. 70. who applies himself to condemn the Sacrifice of Beasts yet acknowledgeth the universality of the custom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Inhabitants of Lystra are no sooner possessed with a belief of the divinity of S. Paul and Barnabas but they make an attempt to Sacrifice Oxen to them Act. 14.13 Whereas sitting still could never gain the least approbation among them The Jews who were grown into a very superstitious practice in this particular were rather made the object of their derision They represent them as persons who spent the Seventh part of their time in idleness Tho' I am far from believing That the oblation of material things unto God accompanied with a destruction of them is warranted by the Law of Nature as I have expressed in the first Section Yet it is manifest from what has been spoken That more reason may be alledged in savour of it than for sitting still 3. Sitting still on the Seventh day was never stamped with the authority of Heaven If this was the meaning of the Fourth Precept then God repeated it so soon as it was enacted by him in these particular Laws in which he appointed That upon the Sabbath there should be a holy Convocation and the offering up of Sacrifice The People could not convene nor the Priests Sacrifice without bodily motion When it is said Let no man go out of his place on the Seventh day Exod. 16.29 It must be understood with relation to the gathering of Manna and the doing such unnecessary work as might have been dispatched in the week-time 4. It doth not appear That the Rest of the Body enjoyned in the Fourth Command is designed as a figure to signifie the Rest of the Soul from sin There is no Text of Scripture which imports any such matter And if fancy be permitted to make Types and figures as it pleaseth where there is no direction from Heaven to steer our apprehensions by there will be no end of them a figure being the effect of a positive institution cannot be discovered without the knowledge of the cause of it If the Rest of the Body is a Type of the Rest of the Soul from sin then it signifies Rest from some or from all sins Not from some only The Bible gives no