wants and if we have hearts to weep over our week day sins and stir up our selves to take hold of Christ that we may make peace with God they that have any acquaintance with heart-work find it hard to have to do with a dusty world full of sins and snares and not be defiled or intangled with it earthly things are apt to leave a tincture upon the most holy and heavenly hearts There must therefore be a rubbing off this rust of the world a washing these dirty hearts and hands before we are fit to draw nigh to God in solemn Worship Exod. 19.14 What were those Ceremonial washings of old but emblematical predictions and documents of preparation to Gospel-worship and if I mistake not something to this purpose is prophesied concerning the purest times and Churches in these later days Rev. 15.2 3. Revel 15. We read of those that had gotten the victory over the Beast and his Image i. e. those that had shaken off the yoke of Anti-Christian Tyranny and Superstition standing upon a sea of glass with the harps of God in their hands those harps in their hands speak them in a posture of publike worship But what means their standing upon a sea of glass Why among other things I conceive it alludes to that Laver or * 1 Kings 7.23 sea in Solomons Temple in which the the Priests were wont to * 2 Chron. 4.6 wash when they went to worship and it may teach us thus much that the people of God under the Gospel as well as they under the Law must wash before they worship there must be some preparation Secondly the sanctification of the Sabbath follows and this also consists in two things Holy rest and holy work First we must keep it as a day of holy rest to the Lord resting from our own works our own words and our own thoughts 1. We are bound upon the Lords day to rest and cease from our own works whether works of labour or works of pleasure if I may so distinguish The Lords day must neither be our working-day nor our play-day both these are prohibited by the letter of the fourth Commandment and the analogy of that Text which seems to be written as a Commentary upon the Commandment Isai 58.13 14. If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath from doing thy pleasure on my holy day and call the Sabbath a delight the holy of the Lord honourable and shalt honour him not doing thine own ways nor finding thine own pleasure nor speaking thy own words c. In which words we have the lively Picture and Pourtraiture of a true Sabbath in both parts of it it must be celebrated with rest from our own ways works words pleasures and this rest must be accompanied with a spiritual rejoycing in God and delight in his Sabbath arising from an honourable esteem of the day considering whose day it is namely the Lords Now the scope of this Text is as applicable to our Christian Sabbath as ever it was to the Jews Sabbath ours being first a day of holy rejoycing in the Lord as well as theirs Psal 118.24 Secondly a day which hath the Lord for its author as well as theirs Thirdly a day every whit as honourable as theirs yea a degree above it being instituted upon a more noble account Viz. The most gracious and glorious work of Redemption Fourthly a day in all respects as holy as theirs holy I mean in respect of separation and dedication to holy duties as prayer preaching breaking of bread praise and thanksgiving Acts 2.1 and 20.7 Psal 118.27 28. Therefore it must be kept with rest from accustomed labour and pleasure as well as theirs and that by vertue of the fourth Commandment which requires the sanctifying of one day in seven of divine appointment as a Sabbath with rest from servile works and secular imployments And let it be further considered both the fourth Commandement and the Prophet Isaiah in commenting upon it do first and chiefly call for sanctity Secondarily for rest First Remember the Sabbath to sanctifie it then Thou shalt do no work Sanctification is required as the end cessation from labour as the means the one as principal the other as accessary Now both Prophets and Apostles have markt out the Lords day as a holy day to be spent in holy duties of solemn worship and that weekly therefore by the Law of God and nature we are bound to keep it as a day of weekly rest otherwise we separate the end from the means which cannot be rest from servile work being an inseparable adjunct to a day of solemn worship What then shall we say to those that afterwarning make the Lords day either a common working-day or a sporting day the former I may fitly call the Devils workmen who will one day pay them their wages the other the flesh's Bondmen whose pleasure in the end will prove torment without end The Lord awaken both to repentance better then that of Esau whose sin of the two is greater then his * Hebr. 12.16 there are prophane Esau's under the Gospel and they are the worst of Esau's there is also a sin called * Rom. 2.22 Sacrilege condemned in the Gospel and Sabbath-breaking is very like it when sinners lay sacrilegious hands upon that which is consecrated to the Lord for a sin much like to which Ananias and his wife were once stricken with sudden death and how many such dreadful strokes have been felt and heard in these later days I shall not repeat what has been already committed to record by others Mr. Bernard Mr. Byfield and sundry others have been serious observers of Gods heavy hand in this kind I could say something of what I have seen with my own eyes and heard with my own ears But I shall forbear Numb 10.1 2. when men are struck dead in the very act of their sin as Vzzah in touching the Ark Nadab and Abihu in offering strange fire when the sin and the judgement meet together and do one point at the other surely Gods hand is not to be slighted Mr. Byfield has related many such tremendous strokes upon those that have presumed to work on the Lords day and ended their lives and their work together having no more respit between their sin and their execution or expiration then with trembling lips to tell others the secret reflections of their own guilty Consciences and how many Malefactors have we heard at their execution bewailing their profanation of the Lords day as the leading-leading-cause of all their mischiefs and miseries Now the Conscience of the sinner smarting under Gods revengeful rod is many times like a finger to point out the sin for which God smites as we see in the case of a Judges 1.7 8. Adonibezek To be short the exemplary judgments of God against this sin of Sabbath-breaking falling in so great variety and happening so thick together in many places do call aloud to the
too dark to ground an institution upon We must have a Law written in God's book And there is no other that I know of but Gen. 2.3 which if I grant the Adversary to be a command for some do stiffly deny it yet I must be bold to tell him it is but a consequential command For although it be said God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it yet it is not said Let man sanctifie it Here is included God's example but no express command And if the New Testament do not afford us as much warrant for the Lord's day as this amounts to I will yield the Cause But of that hereafter Let the Reader onely take notice by the way how mortally T. T. hath wounded his own cause Pa. 36. by exclaiming so bitterly against Consequences He calls it Philosophie and the deceit of men to establish Ordinances by Consequences Why let me ask him Was the Patriarchal Sabbath for above two thousand years together an Ordinance of God for my part I never doubted of it But he can never make it good without a Consequence he must make a new Bible first for express command there is none onely God's example which without a precept is not alwayes binding And so to use his own words the Lord hath disappointed the devices of the crafty and snared him in his own wisdom he digged a pit for the Lord's day and his Saturdays Sabbath is fallen into it help it out how he can For his life he can find no more in Gen. 2. then an implicit command for that old seventh day And now the next question will be Whether it be a temporary or a perpetual precept If perpetual it must be moral But that it cannot be by his own rule for he has fairly granted That a Moral Law is not meerly good because commanded but therefore commanded because it is good understand it of a Moral natural Law Now I beseech you Sir what natural goodness was there in the seventh day more then in the sixth or fifth Is one day in it self any better then another as to God And as to man if any day had been naturally or morally good above the rest Gen. 1.28 Psal 8.56 in all reason it had been the sixth day on which God made man crowned him with his blessings and gave him dominion over his creatures or the first day in which he made the heavens the Angels and the elements Therefore his threefold mystery to the seventh-days morality is but a threefold miserable mistake to make the best of it 1. That it was written in innocent Adam's heart for which he cites Rom. 2. where there is not a word of any such thing â— 10.11 2. That it was afterwards written in Tables of stone for which he quotes Gal. 3.19 as little to his purpose as the other 3. That it is also written in the fleshly tables of renewed hearts which the experience of almost all renewed hearts in heaven and earth does contradict For to speak in the language of Eliphas Job 5.1 S. Paul Col. 2.16 17. Call now if there be any that will answer thee and to which of the Saints wilt thou turn either Scripture-Saints Cyprian cp ad Fidum 59. Chryso Tom de Res. or Church Saints Ask S. Paul S. Cyprian S. Chrysostom S. Augustine and they will tell you that your antiquated Sabbath was so far from being written in their hearts that they have written against it with their pens August de lit Spir. c. 14. Turn over the works of the eminent Fathers whose books neither you nor I are worthy to bear and their writings are so voluminous that we are not able to bear them Mr. Cawdrey Mr. Palmer Mr. Sheph. Mr. Byfield Mr. White of Dorch and the whole Assembly of Divines Confe of faith Chap. 21. Add to these the most judicious pious and zealous Ministers and Martyrs of Christ who have lived and died within the compass of these sixteen hundred years and most if not all of them will tell you That they never owned your Saturday-Sabbath they lived without it dyed without it and are I doubt not gone to their everlasting rest in heaven without it Besides how many faithful witnesses of late years has the Lord raised up to bear testimony against it of whom I suppose the greatest part are yet alive though some are fallen asleep In a word God has promised to write his laws in the hearts of all his people Jer. 31.33 Hebr. 8.10 Char. 16. But not one of ten thousand has the Saturday-Sabbath written in his heart therefore it is now none of Gods laws how many precious gracious and pious Christians are yet upon earth men and women redeemed from the earth and crucified to the world of whom the world is not worthy who look upon your Sabbath as a cypher can freely labour and travel upon it buy and sell upon it and that after accurate inquiries about it and to this day their consciences never reproched them their hearts never smote them for it what will you say all these are Hypocrites unrenewed unsanctified ones This were to condemn the generation of Gods Children and Canonize your self with your few misled associates for the only Saints in Christendome which I would hope you dare not do though I know you dare as much as another Well the adversary is brought to this Dilemma Either God has no people in the world but such as are of his perswasion or his moral and immutable Laws are not written in their hearts or the Saturday-Sabbath is none of those Lawes The last is the likeliest in the judgment of any indifferent Reader let his cause be tryed where he pleases either at Natures tribunal or the throne of Grace in the hearts of believers and he will be cast at both Nature is both blind and dumb in the business and if he plead the law of Grace which is rectifyed and refined nature the whole Christian world will give in evidence against him A Sabbath a day of holy rest indeed it will own and one day of seven in proportion but the particularity of the day the seventh from the Creation it utterly disclaims And where he will find advocates for it but either among the unbelieving Jews or a few misbelieving Christians Judaizing I know not Therefore surely it is no ingredient of Gods moral and immutable Lawes The conclusion then is that it was but a temporary precept by which it was established which some call ceremonial others had rather term it positive but none perpetual unless such as are more apt to say anything then able to prove it when then have said it We deny not the fourth Commandement to be a perpetual precept but we are now speaking of Gen. 2. which at most is but a positive Law and positive precepts are alterable at the law-givers pleasure yea though they were given in Paradise as the precept concerning the forbidden fruit though it
of this new creation As to persons it is plain for how is any man a new creature but by being in Christ And how are we in Christ but by h Gal. 2.20 faith And what is the object of this faith Let the same Apostle resolve us l Rom. 10.9 ch 4 24. See DeTwiss p. 97. S. 5. If thou confess with thy mouth the Lord Josus and shalt believe in thy heart that God raised him from the dead And so the Argument will hold good back again from persons to things still the resurrection of Christ carries the maine stroke in the work of the new creation which inevitably antiquates the old and introduces a new Sabbath Against this t is faintly objected T. T. Obj. p. 134. True all old sins are passed away and all old Ordinances curses and Covenants but the old Sabbath still remains He has fairely granted what he would have denyed Answ and wounded his cause in seeking to heal it For if all old ordinances be done away as he yeelds from 2 Cor. 5.17 let him shew where the old Sabbath is exempted that being also an old ordinance by his own confession For a conclusion of this argument I shall refer the learned Reader to that little but pithy Tractate of Athanasius concerning the Sabbath and circumcision where he may find the same thing argued in the same form as here for alledging the Scriptures speaking of a double world or a twofold Creation the first ending at our Saviours passion when the Sun without any eclipse went out of it self the second beginning with his resurrection he reasons thus about it As the old Sabbath was appointed to be kept in memory of the first Creation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so do we celebrate the Lords day as a monument of the second reparation b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 concerning which Paul speaks If any man be in Christ he is a new Creation indeed cas long as the first Creation was in force sayes he the Sabbath was observed c 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but a new generation succeeding according to that of the psalmist this shall be written for the generation to come it was now no longer necessary that this new people should observe the end of the first Creation but rather the beginning of the second he means the Lords day and what opinion he had of the Divine Authority of this day appears by that which followes d 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For this cause Christ having repaired the Creation made in six dayes instituted or set apart that day to this reparation that is to the memory and solemnity of it concerning which the Holy-Ghost forespake in the Psalm This is the day which the Lord hath made Thus good old Athanasius whose word I suppose will be of some weight with such as have but read his Creed And thus the first Argument concludes having both the seal of Scripture-Authority and the stamp of venerable antiquity upon it to warrant it for sound and good We proceed now to a second From the new Covenant it may be formed thus Argum 2 The old Covenant in the special at least in all the symbolical and shadowy branches of it was changed by Christ when the new Covenant was fully exhibited But the old Sabbath in respect of the day was a special yea a symbolical and shadowy branch of the old Covenant Therefore it was unquestionably altered and changed by Christ when the new Covenant was fully exhibited viz. at his resurrection from the dead This Argument how new soever it may seem at first upon trial will be found true I doubt not in every material term and tittle of it for that our blessed Lord Jesus has changed the old Covenant I mean the Covenant of grace as to the a Rom. 7.6 ◠Cor. 3.6 oldness of the letter and manner of dispensing it and that by erecting and exhibiting a new and a better Covenant is plainly avouched in the New Testament b Hebr. 8.13 in that he saith a new Covenant he hath antiquated or made the first old c. And that the old Sabbath was a special branch or ordinance appertaining to that antiquated Covenant may be clearly gathered from the old Testament not only as it grew at first out of the root of that old promise Gen. 3.15 but in that afterwards it symbolized with that old Covenant by the accession of a c Deut. 5.15 type and so visibly participated of the nature of it that it had the very d Exod. 31.16 name Covenant imparted to it and that in a e Gen. 17.13 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So in both places like notion with circumcision For thus sayes the Lord the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath for a perpetual Covenant throughout their generations perpetual as circumcision was throughout their generations only in respect of the particular sign and season throughout all generations in respect of the general substance and thing to wit Sabbath and Sacrament for so still we have the Sacrament of circumcision in Baptisme and the Sabbath of the old seventh day in the Lords day But that which I chiefly take hold of in Exod. 31. the term Covenant here the old Sabbath is called by the name of the old Covenant therefore sure it was neer akin to it a special branch yea a shadowy branch of it as we shall shortly see and being so how naturally will it follow that the Covenant being changed in respect of the form there must also of necessity be a change of the Sabbath in respect of the time or day and that by the same Authority that as the old Covenant had the old seventh day and old Sacrament-seals annexed to it See Widley's Treatise of the Sabb. p. 34. so the new Covenant might have new seals and a new day even as in contracts and Covenants renewed betwixt man and man 't is required that as they be new drawn so also new dated and new sealed To prevent mistakes by the way let this be hinted that I do not here intend any change of the Covenant in respect of the essence and substance of it for I grant that when the Holy-Ghost speaks of the new Covenant as distinct from the old it is not to be understood in respect of the matter and substance but circumstance and manner of expressure as the same Commandment is said to be both e 1 John 2.7 8. old and new and the same way to heaven both f Hebr. 10.20 new and g Hebr. 13.8 Rev. 13.8 old or as the same moon for substance is said to be new or old in respect of accidental changes only this must be added that the new Covenant h 2 Cor. 3.10 excels and out-shines the old in glory as far as the Sun at midday out-shines the moon at midnight and consequently it darkens all the ordinances of the old Covenant yea necessitates a change in them
Oracles of God Observation does imply obligation And how can this stand with the soveraignty of God But I suppose his meaning is that God rested the seventh day what then Therefore it was no rudiment had nothing Typical or ceremonial in it It followes not Psam 132.8 2 Chron. 6 41. How often is God said to rest in Types of Christ is not the Tabernacle stiled Gods rest And the Temple and the Temple Worship are not t Gen. 8.21 Exod. 29.18 Numb 15.3 Sacrifices and oblations called a Savour of rest unto God not that Gods soul rested in any of these rests properly nor the people of God neither But he rested in Christ and so did they in these things only as Types or prefigurations of Christ to come And thus he is said to rest on the seventh day We have proved before that man sinned and fell the sixth day and that Christ was promised and actually invested in the office of Mediatorship before the Sabbath was instituted And hereupon God rested the seventh day not only from the work of Creation but from the weight and burthen of Adams sin For God complains of sin as a heavy u Isai 1.14 Amos 5.2.13 burthen and as the sins of the old world are said to * Gen. 6.6 grieve him at his heart so no doubt did the sin of Adam But Christ interposing to make reconcilation God rested the seventh day and was refreshed Exod. 31.17 That the old Sabbath was instituted after the fall besides what has bin formerly alledged appears plainly from that of our Saviour x Mark 2.28 The Sabbath was made for man not man for the Sabbath For man that is for man in misery not man in innocency for the context speaks of necessitous indigent man man subject to hunger and thirst and want T is spoken upon the occasion of the hungry disciples plucking the ears of Corn and eating out of pure necessity on the Sabbath day The Pharisees presently censure them as Sabbath breakers Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath day having power to dispose of it at his pleasure but sayes the Lord of the Sabbath you quarrel without cause For the Sabbath was made for man not man for the Sabbath That is the Sabbath was made for the good and benefit of man in misery Principally for the good of his sick and sinfull soul but partly for the support of his weak and frail body also that it might rest and be refreshed with convenient food Physick and the like which clearly argues that the Sabbath was made ordained and instituted after man was in necessity and misery namely after Adams fall and therefore t is said That God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it Gen. 2.3 Blessed it how not with natural blessings that the Sun should shine brighter or the weather be fairer that day then another No the blessings of the Sabbath were of another nature spiritual blessings such as were suitable to the state of fain man such as God has pronounced Fallen man blessed withall otherwise the institution had never concerned any one man since the fall How could it if the blessings contained in it had bin nothing but Paradise blessings But we shall not inculcate former arguments only add one consideration more to make it further manifest that Gods rest on the seventh day was partly if not chiefly in relation to Christ the promised Messiah T is a saying of the Hebrew Doctors and it agrees well with the a Heb. 2.10 Rev. 5.11 12 13. Scriptures that the world it self had not bin made but for the Messiah For all things were made by him and for him and he is the b Heb. 1.2 heir of all things and that as Mediatour and we have reason to think that Gods heart were more set upon Christ when he set up this visible frame of Heaven and earth then upon all the world besides How unlikely therefore is it that the glorious Creator should set apart a day of rest till the grand design upon which his thoughts had run from all eternity and which was chiefly in his eye when he made the world the glorifying of himself in his Son by investing him with the government of the world and putting him as heir of all things into actuall possession of his hereditary Dominions had some actual inchoate existence 'T is cleare that God did not rest from his other works of Creation till he had made man because till then he had not attained his subordinate end of making the rest of his creatures and t is credible that he would not rest after he had made man till he had made Christ Mediatour and put the government of all upon his shoulders because till then he had not attained his ultimate end for which he made man and all the rest of the world besides Certain it is that the Creation was made but mutably perfect at first and therefore it cannot be conceived how God could keep a setled rest the seventh day till he had setled and established the Creation on Christ the rock c Deut. 32.4 whose work is perfect And this I conceive to be the true and undoubted sense of that saying Gen. 22. On the seventh day God ended Finished or perfected his work namely by establishing it upon Christ that sure foundation 1 Peter 4.18 hence he is styled a faithfull Creator in that he did not leave his work of Creation in a mutable estate as Masons and Carpenters when they have built their houses leave them without any further care what becomes of them but as a faithful Creator * God was not the author or approver of mans falbut only the orderer and over ruler of it to bring good out of evill he over ruled the Fall of Adam for a greater good namely for the establishment of his mutable work by bringing in Christ the right heir setting him as e Ps 8.6 He. 2.8 1 Cor. 15.24 Lord over all the works of his hands puting all things under his feet making him f Josh 3.11 Neb. 9.6 Dan. 10.14 15. Acts 10.36 Lord of the whole world and of all things therein to whom doth appertain the Dominion of the Heavens and the Heaven of Heavens the earth and all that is therein Thus on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made or perfected his work which he had made That which he had made perfect at first with mutable perfection he now perfected again by a further degree of supperadded perfection namely by the promise of Christ and his personall undertaking as Mediatour by whom all things g Col. 1.16 consist And accordingly God rested the seventh day not in the changeable Creature but in Christ the rock and so the Sabbath was stated on the seventh day upon the account of Christ in the promise upon the performance of which promise the seventh day ceases to be any longer a day of rest But
day an holy day Now to spend the Lords day throughout an holy day is not to spend any part of it in servilework but to sanctifie it as a Sabbath But in regard this Testimony touches but one half of the question I only touch upon it by the way and proceed to a fourth who speakes the truth and the whole truth Tertullian by name Tertullian 4. who flourished in the year of grace 200. or two hundred and four His African phrase is somwhat dark yet some light it affords us as to this controversy In his book of the souldiers Crown he speaks thus On i Die dominico jejunare nefas ducimus vel de geniculis adorare De Colon Mil. the Lords day we hold it unlawful either to fast or to pray kneeling And elswhere he seems to intimate the reason of it viz. k Diem solis laetitiae indulgemus alia longe ratione quam religione solis seeundo loco ab eis sumus qui diem Saturni otio viotui decernunt exorbitantes ipsi a Judaico more quem ignorant Apol. adv Gent. c. 16. â—And ch 3. de anima he speaks of the Lords dayes solemnities namely Scripturarum lectio Psalmi cantus adlocutiones petitiones reading the scriptures singing of Psams conference and prayer Dominica solennia Because it was a day of joy and gladness For upon the Sunday saies he we give our selves to joy or gladness Where note that in Tertullian's time also the title of Lords day Rev. 1.10 was appropriate to Sunday which the primitive Christians so universally observed that the Heathens began to calumniate them as worshippers of the Sun But Tertullian in this place clears them For saies he although upon the Sunday we give our selves to gladness yet it is for another farre wide reason than in honour of the Sun And again in the second place are we from them meaning the Jewes who appoint the Saturday to idleness and eating wandring from the Jewish custom which they know not In which words he gives us to understand that although the Christians then devoted the Lords day to joy and gladness yet they made it not a play-day or a day of pampering their bodies and riotous feastings as the degenerate Jewes did their Sabbath but they spent it in the spiritual exercises of prayer and praise they kept it as a solemn holy day but how often What once a year Nay once a week as he testifies in the 14. ch of his book concerning Idolatry where he speaks l Ethnicis sentel annuus dies quisque festus est tibi vero octavus Excerpe fingulas solennitates nationum in ordinem texe Pentecostem implere non poterunt de Idol p. 736. Edit Basil â—O melior fides nationum in suam sectam quae nullam Christianorum seleuitatem fibi vendicat non dominicam non Pentecostem etiam si nossent nobiscunt non communicassent ne Christiani viaerentur nos ne Ethnici pronunciemur non veremur Ibid. thus to the Christian who observed 52. Lords dayes every year whereas all the Annual festivities of Pagans came short of Pentecost or 50 To the Heathens every Festival is some annual day but to thee every eighth day c. and here he takes up a sad complaint against some Apostatizing Christians who kept heathenish holy-dayes as if there were not Lords dayes enough in the year O the Faith of the nations better than ours to Wards their own sect as who challenge not to themselves any Christian solemnity not that of the Lords day nor that of Pentecost Did they know it they would not communicate with us lest they should seem Christians we Christians are not afraid to be accounted Heathens Where two things are worthy of note First that he stiles the Lords day the Christians solemnity or solemn day Secondly that he makes it the Christians livery or badge of cognizance Therefore the Heathens would not keep it lest they should be taken for Christians and indeed so it was the keeping holy of the Lords day was ever the distinguishing Character of a true Christian Hence as we noted before the persecuting Pagans used to question the primitive Christians upon this interrogatory hast thou kept the Lords day Anno 303. Just as the bloudy Papists in Queen Maries time examined the Protestants about the Lords Supper and the common answer was I am a Christian I date not intermit it for the Law admonishes me of it Lex eos de eo agendo admonuisset seil lex dei ut ipfi martyres exponunt num 51. non ecclesia ut in Margine a Baronio annotatur Num. 48. vide Theoph. Philokur lib. ch 4. Namely The law of God of Christ and Christianity which answer cost many a Christian his life never were two truths more deeply dyed with the blood of Martyrs than the Lords Supper and the Lords day have been the one under Popish the other under Pagan persecution But to return to our Author Tertullian's Testimony is clear for the Christians keeping of the Lord's day But did they not keep the Saturday-Sabbath too in his time No he denies that once and again as in the fore-mentioned Book concerning Idolatry m Nobis quibus Sabbata extranea Sunt Neomenia seriae aliquando à Deo dilectae Saturnalia Januriae frequentantur c. Shall we says he frequent Heathenish Festivals to whom the Sabbaths new Moons and Holy days sometimes so dearly beloved of God are strange Strange through dis-use doubtless not through ignorance therefore 't is clear they did not keep them But more clear is that which he writes in his Apologetick against theGentiles where he acknowledgeth n Neque de victus exceptionibus neque de solennitatibus dierum neque de ipso signaculo corporis neque de consortio nominis cum Judaeis agimus p. 848. That the Christians had no correspondence with the Jews neither in difference of meants nor solemnities of days nor in signature of body meaning Circumcision nor in society of name Mark it they had nothing to do with the Jews in solemnities of dayes i e. Jewish days therefore not in the solemnization of the seventh day which Tertullian expressly calls * Lib. advers Iudaeos p. 125. Sabbatum temporale a temporary Sabbath thus we have the practice of the Church in his time adding further proof to the change of the day Our next Author is Origen whose testimony concerning the Lords day is not to be contemned however his judgement in all things-cannot be approved We are not now pleading his Orthodoxy but his veracity he might erre but sure he would not lie being so ready to die for Christ let us hear what he ha's to say to this Christian cause treating upon the story of the Israelites gathering a double portion of Manna on the sixt day because none was to be found on the seventh day o Quare ergo qua die caeperit Manna caelitus dari
were given before the fall and should undoubtedly have bound Adam and all his posterity if he had not fallen Gen. 2.17 yet now it binds none neither should it if the tree were known So also that positive law of keeping and dressing the Garden Mr. â—â— Strange which to Adam was a binding precept yet now it is wholly abrogated in the letter of it or else as one sayes we must all tag and rag turn gardeners True there was something moral and of the law of nature in that precept Yates Model of Divin Haec lex naturalis est conjunctam habens designationem diei ceremonialem quia verò partim naturalis partimque ut loquuntur Scholae positiva est Propterea discrimen oportet in eo ordine adhiberi quod enim naturale est puta diem septimum quemque Deo sacrum esse illud permanet quod positivum nempe illum diem qui septimus est creationis esse Diem Sabbathi hoc mutatum est Juni prae'ec in Gen. 2. p. 27. man must alwayes be exercised and imployed the earth his store-house must also be his work-house Idleness and happiness could never consist together But that his imployment must be limited to the culture of a Garden that was meerly positive The like may be said for the Law of the Sabbath supposing not granting it had been given in paradise that man should celebrate a Sabbath was moral and perpetual but that it must be on the seventh day from the Creation was meerly positive temporary and alterable at the law-givers pleasure And this may serve as a proper Engine to undermine that grand argument founded on the institution of marriage P. 155. The Sabbath is a precept saith he as ancient as Vniversal as marriage both were instituted in paradise for Adam and all his posterity Ans We grant that the institution of marriage was made in pure paradise which ever since has made it honorable amongst all men Heb. 13.4 And thus far we also grant the first institution is a perpetual obligation viz. That one man is bound to one woman yet I hope no man is tyed by that first institution to make choice of this or that particular woman but he is at liberty to marry whom he lists provided it be in the Lord so also admitting the Sabbath to be instituted in paradise yet I can see no reason why it should limit us to that particular day but that notwithstanding we may observe any other day that shall appear to be of the Lords appointment as the first day of the week infallibly is and therefore it bears the Lords name being styled the Lords Day by way of eminency Indeed now the day is fixed and we cannot chuse another nor change it to another Psa 118.29 Rev. 1.10 for reasons hereafter to be rendered But enough is said to prove the command whatever it was whereby the old Sabbath was instituted to be but temporary though it had been given in Innocency A positive precept given in innocency might suffer much alteration by mans apostasie Mr. Sheph. Thes 17.19 For to borrow the words of a reverend Author the sin of man made the Lord repent that ever he had made man and consequently that ever he made the world for man which might be a sufficient ground of the Law-givers pleasure to alter and change the day stated upon the worlds Creation to another day stated upon the worlds Redemption of which the Lord will never repent Now if a precept or institution given before the fall might be mutable at the Law givers pleasure how much more this of the seventh day which was rather imposed since the fall as the institution of Sacrifices the prohibition of blood c. Gen. 9.4 3. That the old seventh day was made alterable in the first institution of the Sabbath is most of all evident from the ground or occasion upon which it was instituted and this is hinted unto us in those words Gen. 2.2 See Ainsworth annot in Gen. 2.2 On the seventh day God ended his works which he had made and rested the seventh day wherefore he blessed and sanctified it Now it much concerns us to enquire in what sense the Lord is said to have ended his works on the seventh day since we must not imagine with Hierome and Catharinus that God made any new creatures on the seventh day for doubtless the creation was finished on the sixth day How then it is said on the seventh day God ended his works Why without resting and torturing the words as some do we may understand it in one or both of these two respects either 1. In respect of Providence or 2. In respect of the Promise 1. In respect of Providence So judicious Mr. White in Gen. 2. and why may not this be the meaning of the holy Ghost That on the seventh day God was pleased by a signal hand of Providence to perfect his works of Creations either by establishing them to continue as they do this day or at least by manifesting their accomplishment in his rest and cessation from Creating-work Take the word Ended in this sense and so it informs us that the ground of Gods sanctifying the seventh day was not simply his rest upon that day but also the reason of that rest Heb. 4. v. 3.4 namely the finishing of his works witnessed by his resting as the Author to the Hebrews plainly intimates And not only that but also the result and consequent of both namely the dignifying and honouring of that day above all other dayes for the time being by crowning it with the accomplishment of the greatest work then made or manifested to be made perfect Isa 58.3 Hence the seventh day was styled The Honorable of the Lord not that in it self one day is more honorable and observable then another but that which differences the one from the other and dignifies one above another is Gods casting honour upon it by some memorable work of Providence either begun or finished upon that day Upon which account most of the Jewes Festivals were instituted as their Passeover in the 14th of Abib Lev. 23.5 Esth 9.21 the Feast of Purim on the 14th of Adar like our Gunpowder-treason-day on the 5. of November because the noble acts of God have been done upon these dayes And this was a main ground of their weekly Sabbath upon the seventh day being a day crowned with the greatest work then visible a work manifested to be finished on the seventh day by Gods resting on that day Yet this must be noted that the finishing of Gods work did not make the day more honorable then others by any natural necessity but only by positive right and equity There was no necessary and natural cause why the seventh day on which the work was declaratively ended should be more honorable then the sixth day on which it was really ended and finished only it was Gods will and pleasure to have
the Law is abrogated I look upon them as words ' of course which in a Controversie weigh no more then a feather yea as beggerly fallacies for they all along begge the question taking that for granted which hath been soundly whipt with a denyal by sundry learned pens viz. that the seventh day from the Creation was ever an express tittle of the Commandment a seventh day in a week indeed is more then a tittle of the Law and this number is still continued in the observation of the Lords day all the Christian world over And I doubt not but it shall continue to the end of the world although the old day be changed as in the celebration of the Passeover the precise order of time was sometimes altered for whereas the fourteenth day of the first moneth was the time appointed at first Exod. 12.18 yet Hezekiahs great passeover was kept on the fourteenth day of the second moneth 2 Chron. 30.5 Where you see the precise individual day altered upon occasion yet the number the fourteenth day still observed See this illustration further cleared by Mr. G. Abbot p. 37. and Mr. Walker p. 49. So upon a greater and better occasion the Sabbath is altered as to the day yet the seventh day in number still kept intire in this as the fourteenth in the other And so the Sabbath now as well as the Passeover then for substance preserved notwithstanding the circumstantial and occasional change of the day And thus through the conduct of my gracious Guide leading me by Scripture light and the foot-steps of my dear companions in the cause of Christ I have safely passed the pikes of opposition and vindicated this royal law from the false glosses and erroneous discants of the adversary carrying this conclusion all along before me as a truth triumphing over all contradiction That the old seventh day was never propounded as the substance or special subject of any moral law I shall but touch upon the second 2. That it seems to be pointed at as a sign under the ceremonial law yea it does more then seem so if the text be impartially viewed Exod. 31. from v. 13. to v. 18. where we find a special charge imposed upon the Jews to observe the Sabbath and that upon sundry considerations 1. From the end of it Verily my Sabbath ye shall keep for it a sign between me and you V. 13. throughout your generations to know that I am Jehovah that sanctifieth you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for so the words run in the Hebrew And this is farther explicated v. V. 14. 14. ye shall keep the Sabbath therefore for it is holy or holiness to you thereby expounding what was meant by his sanctifying of them in the verse before 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As if the Lord had said the keeping of my Sabbaths shall be a distinctive badge and cognisance of your Covenant-holiness Sabbathum est signum quod Deus Israclem sanctificat ut Sabbathum sanctifionvit scil segregando eosex Gentibns profanls in peculiarem sibi popnlum Lavat in Exek Hom. 26. a sign that I do sanctifie you and separate you to my self above all the people of the earth for an holy and peculiar people for as the Lord is said to sanctifie the Sabbath so also to sanctifie Israel that is by separating it from all other dayes and them from all other nations to be holiness to himfelf And this is the first special reason why they should keep the Sabbath throughout their generations as a sign or mark of distinction to difference them from the rest of the profane world 2. From the perill of profaning it v. 14.15 Every one that defileth it shall surely be put to death for whosoever doth any work therein that soul shall be cut off from amongst his people c. A law shortly after executed in the letter of it by stoning to death one that gathered sticks on the Sabbath day Numb 15.36 which rigour for ought I can find to the contrary lasted no longer then the Israelites peregrination in the wilderness where as one sayes an extraordinary strict rest was imposed upon them because they were extraordinarily accommodated for it Being as the Saints in heaven are immediately at Gods finding having Mannah without means daily provided for them and hence it is said Numb 15.32 While the children of Israel were in the wilderness they found a man that gathered sticks on the Sabbath day and stoned him to death Note the Phrase while they wore in the wilderness not elsewhere for when they were out of the wilderness we never read of the like punishment inflicted It seems then that this strict kind of rest and rigour was restrained to that time and place only 3. Another argument to inforce their observation of the Sabbath is taken from the moral equity of it verse 15. Six dayes may work be done but the seventhis the Sabbath As if the Lord had said ye may well afford me one day in seven since I have given you six in seven And this again is reinforced by Gods example in the latter part of v. 17. For in six dayes the Lord made heaven and earth and rested the seventh day Now it concerns us to inquire in this context what was proper to the Jews and what common with them to us What is moral and perpetual what judicial or ceremonial and temporary For that morals and judicials are here mingled together none can deny and the difficulty will be how to sever the one from the other and to shew in what sense the Sabbath was made a sign what the significancy of it was and especially what kind of sign whether a permanent sign as the Rain bow or a transient sign as the cloudly pillar in the wilderness There are sundry sorts of signs spoken of in Scripture I shall onely instance in those that are of prime note and pertinency to resolve the case in hand 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Josh 4.6 7. So also the Passeover was and the Lords supper is a sign being both memorative Exod. 12.26 Mat. 26.26 1 Cor. 11.24 There are remembrancing signs as the twelve stones taken out of Jordan for every tribe one were set up as a sign to after-ages for a memorial to the childen of Israel that the waters of Jordan were cut off before the ark And such a kind of sign it is commonly thought the Sabbath was a memorial of the Creation But that it is so propounded or intended here cannot easily be proved since the Lord does not say I have given you my Sabbaths as a sign that I created the world but for a sign that I the Lord do sanctifie you And although it be added v. 17. It is a sign betwixt me and the Children of Israel for ever Ainach majoris distinctionis pausae est accentus Buxtorf Thes Gram. for in six dayes the Lord made heaven and earth c. Yet it
Man cannot make perfecter distributions of time then God himself hath made since therefore there must be a time or season of solemn worship it must of necessity be taken out of one of these it must be either a day out of a week or a day or week out of a moneth or a moneth out of a year less then a day out of a week I cannot yield since I cannot so much as pretend that lest is sufficient for God and my soul when more may conveniently be had Again a week out of a moneth or a moneth out of a year I cannot subscribe unto as either convenient or equal See Iren. philal uâ—â— plur since experience tells me that the necessities both of civil and soul-affaires require a mutual interchange of speedier dispatches and quicker returns therefore I must conclude Gods proportion is most just and equal when all is done viz. one day of seven and but one of seven ordinarily two dayes in a week or out day in two weeks I find no rule for in the written word Gods first division of time was into dayes and his first multiplication of dayes into weeks and ever since his select portion has been one day in the circle of every week This was the constant tribute paid him under the Old Testament on the last day and under the New Testament on the first day of the week this therefore is moral and perpetual being of Gods own assignation of the Churches constant observation and in it self the most exact proportion consequently the Commandment in this respect must needs be moral the rather because in all this there can beno ceremony the number of seven is generally taken for a number of perfection but who ere fancied it to be of a ceremonlous signification What type or ceremony can there be imagined in seven more then in six to make types of meer figures is such a kind of Cabalism as I suppose never came into any sober mind But here I must resolve a scruple or two The Jews seventh day was ceremonious Scrup. 1. See Dr. Willes on Exod. â—o Dr. Twiss p. 74. as the learned generally assert and if so why not one day in seven also If the particular day were shadowy why not the proportion also It followes not at all unless you will say Resol that those particular Sacraments under the law Circumcision and the Passeover being ceremonial make the like number of Sacraments under the Gospel viz. Baptism and the Lords Supper ceremonial too the reason is alike in both for the Ceremony stood not in the proportion or number but in the particularity or nature of that day and those duties But you have formerly granted Scrup. 2. that the fourth Commandment did point at that particular seventh day under the term seventh day therefore the fourth Commandment was in that respect ceremonial I have indeed granted Res that the Commandment did indirectly and occasionally point at that precise seventh day but not particularly only within the general scope of it or as a general rule equally communicable to that day as being elswhere appointed of God while it stood and to our day now it is substituted in the room of that by the same Divine appointment And if this were heedfully observed the scruple were soon answered But here lies the mistake men would fain scrue in the seventh day from that presixed period of creation into the heart of the Commandment and make that seventh day and a seventh day of equal dimensions which can never be unless they will render the Commandment ceremonial whereas to affirm as I do that the Commandment indirectly pointed at that day as being then under Divine Sanction does no more place a ceremony in the fourth Commandment then it does in the fifth to say that by Father and Mother were meant not only natural but civil and Ecclesiastical parents and occasionally such as were Typical as not only the Priests and Levites but Moses and Aaron also who were to be honoured by vertue of the fifth Commandment and that as Fathers in a figutative sense From which instance thus much is manifest that a moral precept may occasionally point at something ceremonial and yet retaine its own morality So that neither a Sabbath nor a weekly Sabbath were ever shadowes of things to come But Secondly That Sabbath and particular seventh day which the Jewes observed was certainly of a shadowy nature Dr. Tailour observes in his Christ revealed p. 4. 1. That as the body is the cause of the shadow so was Christ of the ceremonies 2. As the shadow represents the shape motions and actions of the body so did the legall shadows resemble Christ in his actions and passions and I add why may not both these be affirmed of the old Sabbath For 1. It was occasioned at first by Christ as the shadow is by the body B. Christ I say in the promise 2. It shadowed out something of Christ and the ancients generally understood it as a shadow of his rest that day in the grave being instituted at first with reference to Christ as all other shadowes were and having an accessory type afterwards affixed to it And of this we may safely expound that forementioned Text Colos 2.16 Let no man judge you in meat or in drink or in respect of an holy day or now moon or Sabbaths which were shadown of things to come but the body is of Christ The only question is whether their weekly Sabbath were here intended Some are jealous lest in pressing it so farr it should prove prejudicial to our weekly Christian Sabbath but this is meet causless jealously For let us but ponder the scope of the place and it will appear that the Apostles design is not to level Christian dayes and duties but such as the Jewes observed and would have intruded together with circumcision and other legal rites into the Church of Christ This is evident for he writes both against distinctions of meats and dayes Now under that clause of meats and drink shall we say he condemns all distinctions of meats and drinks in matters of religion What of bread and Wine in the Lords Supper too or in disputing against the Jewes Sacraments especially circumcumcision does Paul strike at all Sacraments what baptism and all no 't is aparent that in all those three Texts usually alledged Rom. 10.5 6 Gal. 4.10 Colos 2.16 He cryes down the Ordinances of the Law or old Testament not the institutions of the Gospel Look what the Jewish fals-teachers cryed up St. Paul cryes down i. e. their Sabbaths and their Sacraments 'T is not likely that they ever pleaded for the Christian Sabbath the first day of the week and therefore t is most improbable that the Apostle in opposing them should implead that In a word Dies Dominicus non est umbrae rerum futurarum sed rei praeterita viz. gloriosae Christi resurrectionis grata Recordatio Brochmand Syst Theol.
cannot with any colour of reason be denyed surely when he entred into his Kingdome he entred into his glory but by his resurrection from the dead he entred into his Kingdome being solemnly invested with Kingly power and soveraignty c Math. 28.18 Having all power in Heaven and earth put into his hands and f Rev. 3.7 the keys of David the Government of the Kingdom laid upon his shoulders to dispense lawes pronounce pardons pass sentence of life and death g John 20.23 to bind and loose at his princely pleasure In a word it was by his glorious resurrection from the dead that God h Psalm 2.6 7. set him as King upon his holy hill of Sion saying thou art my son this day have I begotten thee Christs resurrection-day was in a special manner his Coronation-day and as earthly Princes are wont on their Coronation-dayes to shew themselves to their subjects in all their royalty casting about their silver and gold so the Lord Jesus delights on this day to manifest himself to the souls of his people scattering his precious gifts and graces in the assemblies of his Saints for as this is the day which the Lord hath made so t is the day in which he himself was made i Rom. 14.9 Lord of the living and the dead k Acts 2.36 ch 3. 15. ch 5. 30 31. Lord and Christ Prince of life King of Heaven and earth a King indeed he was in the l Math. 2.2 cradle a King on the m ch 27. 37. Cross but never so much or so manifestly a King upon earth as when he conquered that King of terrours and carried away n 1 Tim. 6.16 that incomparable Title the blessed and only potentate the King eternal and immortal o Rom. 6.9 who dyeth no more death hath no more dominion over him He that shall deny Christs entring into glory by his resurrection will rob him of much of his glory t is true he entred not into the place of glory in his whole person till his ascention but into the state of glory he entred by his resurrection if the bodies of the Saints shall be raised in p 1 Cor. 15.43 glory how much more was the blessed body of Jesus Christ If the glory of the stars be such what is the glory of the rising Sun But I must not expatiate here a word more and I have done He that hath entred into his rest hath ceased from his works as God did from his whence I gather that it is not only Christs rest but the reason of that rest the consummation of the work of redemption which occasions our Sabbath as Gods finishing the work of Creation did the old Sabbath Hebr. 4.3 4. And this the word Rest implies being a demonstrative proof of the accomplishment of the work for even a wise man if he undertake a work will not rest till it be finished or if he do he is p Luke 14.29.30 laugh'd at for his lost labour and therefore much more when the all-wise God is said to rest may we conclude his work is perfected To speak properly if rest imply only a cessation from work we cannot say that God rested from his work of Creation on the seventh day more then he has done ever since or Christ from his work of redemption therefore we must take in the consummation of each work as the ground of each rest otherwise all the time after should be of equal account with the last day in respect of Creation and with the first day in respect of Redemption Now the question will be when the work of Redemption was consummate and complete Doubtless not till the top-stone was laid till Christ was made the head of the corner which the q Act. 4.10 11. Apostle assures us was by his resurrection from the dead for if this had not been done the work had been all to do again If Christ had suffered dyed and been swallowed up of death and corruption in the grave and never risen again then had we remained still in our sins and all our preaching of Christ and faith in Christ had been vain 1 Cor. 15.17 It was by our Saviours joyful resurrection therefore that the work of our Redemption was manifestly accomplished and hereupon Christ rested from his work as God did from his and as when God rested from the work of Creation he appointed a Sabbath although he did not rest from works of Providence in like manner Christ hath appointted a Sabbath upon his resting from the work of Redemption by price although he doth not rest from the work of Redemption by power till all his enemies by vanquished and all his elect saved as a * Dr. Cheynels Treatise of the blessed Trinity pag. 403. learned Author speaks And so much for this Argument on Hebr. 4. only some objections Treatise of the must be removed for T.T. takes this Text of Scripture and wofully wrests it to his own and others misguidance in countenance of the Saturday-Sabbath I shall briefly answer his several Arguments as objections against what has been spoken The polluting of Gods seventh-day-Sabbath was wofully Israels sin Obj. 1 T.T. p. 141. for which the Lord destroyed them in the wilderness as 't is plain Ezek. 20.13 And this being compared with the Apostles admonition to these Christians plainly points out the Sabbath which remains to the people of God he sets forth Israels sin and sorrow on this wise although God finished his work from the foundation of the world and thereupon speaks Gen. 2. Yet neither the glory of his wonderful Creation or authority of his institution could engage them to follow his Example but so highly did they provoke him especially in polluting his Sabbaths that he sware in is wrath they should not enter into his rest c. Wherefore the Apostle concludes in applying all to believers exhorting them in the use of that means which Israel neglected to enter into the eternal rest lest any should fall after the example of Israels unbelief or disobedience as the Greek signifies and then he concludes Magisterially Christians believe it this is the summe of the Apostles admonition But I must tell him they had need of a very strong faith that can believe such incongruous stuffe as this is For Although it be granted that Sabbath-breaking were one of I sraels sins in the wilderness Answ 1 yet it will not follow that this sin is here intimated by the Apostle as the cause of their ruine but rather the sin of unbelief For so 't is expresly affirmed ch 3. v. 18.19 To whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest but to them that believed not So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief So ch 4. v. 2. v. 6. v. 11. And whereas T.T. tells his Reader that the word signifies disobedience I must tell him it is his mistake to render it so in this place for
Holy Ghost I shall not determine where our Saviour had his usual residence during those 40. dayes betwixt his resurrection and last ascention whether in Heauen or on earth curiosity I abhorre in the mysteries of Christ and what I have here offered is in humility and sobriety of spirit with submission to better and riper judgments Let not this digression be counted a transgression or if it be pardon it To return to my answer this is most certain that although the body of Christ after his resurrection remained a real and true body yet it was a h Luke 24.37 spiritual a splendid and glorious body free from that corpulency that lumpishness that subjection to weariness and other infirmities that these vile bodies of ours are clogged and incumbred withall this is manifest by his marvellous apparitions upon earth and his glorious i Acts 1.9 10. 1 Pet. 3.22 assention into Heaven when he mounted himself in the Chariot of that cloud in which he rode in Triumph into glory now motion is no hindrance to the rest of a glorified body such as Christs was when he arose from the dead therefore although he were in action and motion on the resurrection day yet he did not labour His joyning with those two Disciples travelling to Emmaus was a work of Charity and Piety Ans 2 For their hearts were sad and ready to sink under their own fears Luke 24.17 And this blessed Physitian came to comfort them and confirm them in the belief and assurance of his resurrection They were his poor distracted dejected timerous disciples and whom should he visit but such Say they were going from Jerusalem that bloody City suppose they were straying like sheep without a Shepherd yet the Lord Jesus that great Shepherd of the sheep being now brought again from the dead Hebr. 13.20 would not leave them wandering in a wilderness but fetch them home to their fold again And it was no secular imployment but a Sabbath dayes work for he spent the time in opening Scripture preaching and proving his resurrection till their cold and dead hearts were so quickned and warmed that they did even burn within them in a word it was a Sabbath dayes journey But leaving the Adversary to solace himself with these sapless notions and trifling objections we proceed to a fourth Argument From the designation of a new day upon the discharge of the old Arg. 4 we shall couple both together and cast it into this form The old seventh day Sabbath is discharged from obligation or observation under the new Testament and a new day of the same number the first of the week designed deputed and determined for the Christians weekly day of Solemn worship under the Gospel and that by the Lord of the Sabbath Therefore the Sabbath is altered and changed from the last to the first of the week by no less then Divine authority The consequent cannot be denyed if the Antecedent be granted and granted it must be when proved by Scripture as it shall be in each particular I hope to full satisfaction 1. That the old seventh day is discharged disanulled and abolished for ever being a Sabbath more to the people of God in Gospel-times this we have proved in part already from Colos 2.16 to which may be added Gal. 4.10 11. See the new Annotations on this place Ye observe dayes and moneths and times and yees I am afraid of you c. See how zealously this great Apostle and Doctor about dayes decries all legal distinctions of dayes by four distinct phrases he enumerates all the solemn Festivals in use among the Jewes and opposeth the observation of them all in Christian Churches Read the words either backwards or forwards the first clause Ye observe dayes must in all reason referr to their observation of the Jewes weekly Sabbath day For if by years we are to understand either their Sabbaticall years or rather their yearly Sabbath called the day of atonement and by times or seasons their annual Feasts of Passover Pentecost and Tabernacles and by Moneths their monethly Feasts called New-moons what can be meant by dayes in this retrograde order but their weekly seventh day What dayes were in request among the Jewes of quicker return then their monethly dayes besides their weekly Sabbath day That which perswades me that the Apostle does here unquestionably intend the old seventh-day is 1. The Correspondency of this Text with that Kalendar or Chapter of dayes Levit. 23. where Moses sets down all their solemn Feasts or holy-dayes eight in number reckoning the weekly Sabbath among the rest of those Ceremonial Festivals and putting that first as the Apostle does here then proceeding to speak of the rest much after the same order here observed This Text comprehends all the dayes and times mentioned in that catalogue 2. The plain parallel betwixt this place and Colos 2. which may may be seen in the scope of both Epistles compared together These two Churches it seems were sick of one and the same disease as appears by the same Symptomes in both the disease was Judaism wherewith they were dangerously infected by the breath of false teachers crept in among them who beguiled them with a Colos 2.4 enticing words and sought to b Gal. 1.5 pervert the Gospel namely by perswading them to mingle Law and Gospel together by retaining the customes of Moses together with the commands of Christ Colos 2.12.16 Gal. 4.10 ch 5. 2 3 6 12 13. and that especially in two points viz. Circumcision and Observation of legal dayes and among other dayes the old seventh-day which together with circumcision was cryed up among the Colossians as was shewed above and therefore by good consequence among the Galatians also since they were men of the same gang that had bin tampering here as well as there I mean Jewish false teachers the Doctors of circumcision and their Doctrin was alike yea the dayes for which they contended were alike both here and there dayes or Sabbaths sorted out by themselves The old seventh day is here meant though it be not mentioned expresly and distinguished from new moons and other Festivals therefore undoubtedly the old seventh-seventh-day was the maine This together with circumcision were those legal and mosaical customes which the Jewish Zealots laboured tooth and nayl to propagate in all the primitive Churches especially where there were any convert Jewes But St. Paul like a resolute champion of Christs cause opposes himself against these growing errours wherever he came insomuch that he began to be voyc'd and cryed up or rather cryed down as the great stickler against Moses Therefore when he came to Jerusalem St. James tells him that the Judaizing weak brethren were c Acts 21.21 informed of him how that he taught the Jewes who were among the Gentiles that is the Christian Churches to forsake Moses and not to walk after the customes and by and by when to stay the Mouths of these
the first day of the week not directly indeed but by very good consequence as Mr. Cawdrey and Mr. Byfield do convincingly argue it For sayes the one our Saviour does here speak of a Sabbath indefinitely and a Sabbath to be observed long after his death even at the destruction of Jerusalem and this was spoken to his disciples apart from the multitude sayes the other v. 3. and the period of time here pointed at was forty years after his death when the Jewish Sabbath was gone and the Gospel sufficiently published whereby the ceremonial Law was evacuated and become not only dead but deadly Not that the old Law of a Sabbath the fourth Commandment was then out of force but the Law of the old Sabbath And then the conclusion is this Christ shewes a Sabbath to continue and a religious respect due to a Sabbath still after his death yet not the Jewes Sabbath therefore he intended the Christian Sabbath to be observed according to the fourth Commandment As for the Jewes Sabbath t is certain that it was void at this point of time yea long before this forewarned flight the Apostles and Christians had their assemblies apart from the other Jewes and kept the Lords day the first day of the week as on the Great day of Pentecost Acts 2. and at Troas Acts 20.7 And although sometimes the Apostles did preach on the seventh day yet as Mr. C. notes it was only before the time mentioned Acts 20 never after and only in other Cities abroad not at Jerusalem for there we never read a word of the Sabbath in all the story of the Acts. I conclude therefore with that reverend Author that no reason can be given why our Saviour in this prophetical caution should regard the Jewish Sabbath but altogether the contrary in regard the Christians inhabiting in Jerusalem and the Coasts about Judea preferred the Lords day before it and it would be grievous to gracious hearts to have their holy rest interrupted with the noise of warlike tumults and the hurry of a tumultuous flight well might the disciples be taught to pray Lord when ever we be driven from the place of our Residence let it not be on a day of holy rest for that would be as uncomfortable to our souls as a winters flight would be cumbersome to our bodies Not that it would be sinful or unlawful when life lay at stake to flye on the Sabbath for to save a mans life is a Sabbath-dayes duty and a matter of far greater moment then to leade a beast to the water or pull an oxe out of a pit both which are allowable it may therefore be scored down among the rest of T. T 's errors and oversights that he makes it a sin to flye on the Sabbath day when peril of life puts a man upon it for hâ— terms it a dishonor to God and prophaning his sacred season p. 77. and yet he sayes in the next page That had their flight bin on the Sabbath as long as they carried nothing they could not be counted Transgressors Which may pass for another of his contradictions But for a closure to this answer we have deliberately weighed our Saviours words and sayings concerning the Sabbath but cannot find that ever he spake one word or one syllable in countenance of the old seventh day as the Sabbath of Christians his words prove no such thing And lastly Whereas his workes are pleaded as the crown of that day Answ 4 I am content if the author think good to venture the whole weight of the cause in this bottom That day which Christ has crowned with his greatest wonders is to be most highly esteemed among Christians 'T is his own grant p. 78. and 't is a truth now let him have but a little patience and we shall prove by undeniable Arguments that in this respect the first day of the week carries away the Crown from all other dayes old Sabbath and all If Christs resurrection his often apparitions the mission of his Spirit the inspiration of his Apostles the conversion of three thousand souls ot once be worthy the name of wonders surely the first day of the week is a day of wonder a day of honor and renown above all the dayes that ever the Sun shone upon The most glorious day that ever God created the most solemn day that ever the Church celebrated a day that has crowned Christ and a day that Christ himself has crowned with the greatest glory of any day that ever dawned upon the world Rom. 1.4 I speak but the words of truth and soberness Luke 13.32 Psalm 118.24 Joh. 20.22 23. Cant. 3.11 the Lords day is no day of small things 't is the day of the Lords power the day of his perfection the day of his praise and glory the day of his bounty and blessing the day of his espousals and of the gladness of his heart which can be understood so properly of no day as of this the Resurrection day Let prophane Esaus despise it and proud Notionists oppose it at their peril Behold King Solomon with the crown wherewith his mother crowned him in the day of his espousals and in the day of the gladness of his heart never was Christ more visibly Crowned by his Church then on the Lords day which also was the day of his espousals when he was made sure to his Church by a sure Covenant even the sure mercies of David Hos 2.19 20. Acts 13.34 but let neither of them blame me if I honor and esteem it above all dayes till they can shew me another day which the Saviour of the world has honored and exalted above it Never tell me of one or two miracles wrought on the seventh day yet I desire to adore Christ in all his miracles but shew me such a confluence of wonders and wonderful transactions wrought by him whose name is wonderful on that day as on this and I will confess I have lost the day Alas It cannot be that one transcendent act the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus from the dead the finishing act of our Redemption weighs down all the honor of the seventh day with advantage 'T is objected that our Saviour was pleased to put forth his Divine vertue on the seventh day in sundry miracles miracles of healing and the like I answer 'T is very true and to him be all the glory But if it were an honor to that day that our Heavenly physitian healed the sick what a Crown of glory was it to his own day that he raised the dead Yea that being dead he raised himself from the dead so also if he dignified the seventh day by casting out unclean Spirits how much more the first day by sending his holy Spirit If his preaching in the Synagogues were an honor to the seventh day how much more his presenting himself in that great Assembly of Divines twice at least on the first day of the week Did Christ ever
but for the multitudes sake then met together he hasted thither to preach the word So here it was not out of any devotion either to the Jewes Sabbath or their Synagogue that he reasoned with them everly Sabbath-day as long as they would hear reason but because of the concourse of people then and there assembled As if there were a Synagogue of the Iewes in London a Minister of Christ might occasionally visit it on their Saturday-Sabbath to dispute with those infidels and convince them that Jesus is the Christ yet be far enough from owning either their Synagogue or their Sabbath and that Pauls practice among the Jewes and such Gentiles as the Text speaks of amounts to no more then this 1 Cor. 9.20 namely an occasional act or at most a prudentiall act Whereby to the Jewes he became as a Jew that he might win the Jewes and to them under the law as though he were under the Law is evident because when he saw no hope of winning them to the faith of Christ but they grew obstinate and refractory contradicting blaspheming and openly opposing the Gospel yea persecuting those that embraced it Paul and his converts now no longer frequent their Synagogues but separate themselves and joyn in Christian assemblies by themselves Acts 17.4 5. Acts 19 9. ch 18.17 Thus the beleeving Jewes and Proselytes of Thessalonica so also those at Ephesus and at Corinth when they opposed themselves and blasphemed Paul shook his rayment against them to signifie that God had now shaken them off and he would have no more to do with them and after this Acts 18.6 we hear no more of his preaching on the Jewes Sabbath For when the Churches of Christ were separated from the Synagogues they kept the first day of the week passing by the Jewish Sabbath The converted Gentiles we are sure did so Acts 20.7 And whereas t is objected That this was but once whereas t is clear that Paul preached every Sabbath day I answer if this were true yet the consequence that therefore the Jewes Sabbath was more respected by Paul then the Lords day is utterly false For one single instance of Apostolical practice in a Gentile Church will weigh down a hundred in a Jewish Synagogue since among the Jewes the Apostle became all to all that he might win some Whereas among the Gentiles his practice was purely Evangelical And to turn the point of the Argument against the Objector we must be followers of Paul as he was of Christ Now Christ celebrated the first day of the week in a pure Gospel Church John 20.26 And never the seventh day after his resurrection and as Christ did so did Paul Acts 20. and as he did so must we Himself grants that we must follow Paul only in such practices as were Evangelical and unrepealed Now the first day of the week is such Purely Evangelical and never yet repealed therefore he must eat his words or yield his cause As for the old seventh day it was both legal according to his principles it must be an appendix to the Covenant of works being instituted before the fall when there was no Gospel therefore purely legal and according to my principles partly legal as circumcision was therefore repealed among the rest of those legal dayes of worship Colos 2. for though he cannot read the repeal there yet through mercy I and others can Or if it be not repealed it is expired and was never revived by Apostolical practice or precept in any one Christian Church I have given him one instance of a Christian Church meeting on the first day of the week to worship Christ let him shew me but such another for the Jewes Sabbath among the Gentiles erit mihi magnus Apollo Ans 4 Pauls practice among the Jewes in things temporary is no pattern for the Gentiles a Acts 21.25 St. James telles him that whatever they did among the Jewes in respect of legal customes to win upon their weakness yet as toucking the Gentiles which beleeved they had written and concluded that they should observe no such thing And what if Paul did observe the seventh day among the Jewes must this needs conclude against the change of the Sabbath from the last to the first day of the week he may as well say the Apostles b Acts 16.3 circumcising of Timothy to gratifie the Jewes disproves the changing of circumcision into baptism If it be Objected that the consequence is not good because however Paul circumcised Timothy the better to win upon the Synagogue Jewes who c Acts 10 28. would have no familiar converse with uncircumcised Gentiles yet he would by no means yeild to have d Gal. 2.3 4 5. Titus circumcised in compliance with the Jewes in Christian Churches I answer the very same may I affirm touching the Jewes Sabbath which however it might be tollerated for a while in the Synagogues yet it was never allowed in the Churches of Christ among the Gentiles nor ever practiced without reproof as in Gal. 4. or if it were I desire to see the place and the proof which I confesse I am yet to seek T is no lesse notorious an untruth that not only Paul Answ 5 but all his companions kept the seventh day Some of them might possibly attend him to the Synagogue but few of that train which accompanyed him to Troas Acts 20.5 Where he celebrated the Lords day and Lords Supper among the disciples As for the women which on the Sabbath day resorted to the rivers side where prayer was wont to be made they were Jewish proselytesses witness their meeting on the Jewish Sabbath Lydia to be sure was so for she was a worshipper of God before Paul came there but unbaptized if not unconverted till then What he would make of this meeting by the rivers side I know not unless it be to furnish his Sabbath-keepers with meditations as he seems to speak in the close of his book p. 144. which shewes his high esteem of Rivers and ponds and such like watry places De bello Jud. lib. 7. ch 24. T is a wonder he forgot Josephus his story concerning that River in Palestina called the Sabbatical River which being dry six dayes used to fill up its channel and run very swiftly the seventh day from whence the Jewish Rabbins plead stoutly for their Saturday Sabbath But as one answers them wittily out of Galatinus in case that River whiles it was in being was a good Argument that the Jewes Sabbath was to be observed now since there is no such River to be found it is a better Argument that their Sabbath is not any where to be regarded Mr. Brabourn and he had best go on Pilgrimage to find out that famous river I dare say it would be a more taking Argument among simple people for the Saturday Sabbath then any they have yet alledged For his quarrell with the reverend Translators Ans 6 I tell him again t
as I noted before 't is built upon the foundation of the Prophets and Apostles Jesus Christ by his resurrection being the chief corner-stone And because nothing can ever fall out in this world comparable to Christs Resurrection in glory and power therefore no day can be set up like unto this neither can it be changed for any other See Dr. Bownd lib. 1. p. 47. No man can translate the work therefore no man can translate the day The like cause can never be offered to change this day which at first occasioned the choice of it Therefore it must and shall remain till the end of all things men do but kick against the pricks in opposing the Lords day they that would raze out the remembrance of this day must first pick out Christs mark which he ha's wrought into it by the work of Redemption and so blot out the testimony of all the four Evangelists concerning Christs Resurrection the first day of the week together with the prophecy of the Psalmist which if they dare do Yet 2. We have another conspicuous mark to note it by above all other dayes in the week namely our Saviours frequent apparitions on this day after his Resurrection from the dead Here let it be observed First That these glorious apparitions of our now glorified Redeemer were no common favours but choice and speciall evidences of his owning providence both as to persons and times For as he appeared not to all sorts of persons but to some select * Acts 10.41 chosen witnesses who were either eminently devoted to his service or designed to teach others so neither did he make his appearance to those persons every day but principally and most usually upon the day designed by the Prophets to his worship and service and now consecrated by his blessed Resurrection mostly vouchsafing his gracious visits to holy men in holy time such at least as were so or should be so Secondly Although it be * Acts 1.20 said that he was seen of his Apostles fourty dayes between his Resurrection and ascension yet it cannot be construed thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Theophyl that he was seen every day during those fourty dayes but only thus that there were so many dayes between his Resurrection and Ascension in which he was sometimes seen And this is all that the Greek will bear for it is not in fourty dayes but by fourty dayes that is by the space of fourty dayes at times for sometimes he disappeared Thirdly However it may be supposed that our Saviour did appear on other dayes as once he did upon a working day yet no other day of the week ha's the honour to be denominated as the day of his appearing but the first day of the week onely 'T is never said he appeared on the second or third day much less the last day of the week or the seventh day but the first day of the week is expresly and emphatically noted by name * John 20.19 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 t is not barely said the same day but the same day being the first of the week That same day that first day of the week came Jesus and stood in the midst of his disciples as if he would have it specially noted Fourthly T is evident that our Lord appeared often on this day gracing it with his beatifical presence above all dayes In the a Joh. 20.14 15.16 morning to Mary Magdalen and the rest of the holy b Math. 28.9 women who when they saw him fell at his feet and worshipped him and in the evening of the same day to the eleven disciples and c Lu. 24.33.36 them that were with them gathered together in a way of Church d John 20.19 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 assembly and this assembly convened it seemes by our Saviours own means who appearing to Mary commanded her to carry tidings to his disciples of his joyful Resurrection However a Christian assembly it was and the first that injoyed the presence of Christ after his death and Resurrection then it followes John 20.26 After eight dayes the disciples were within again and Thomas with them then came Jesus and stood in the midst after eight dayes that is as some would have it after the day-light of the eighth day was past or as the Geneva-translation reads it eight dayes after or after eight dayes were come that is on the eighth day Which reckoning the Resurrection-day inclusively was just that day seven-night or the next first day of the week there are six working-dayes in the week and Sabbath and Sabbath make eight now Christ appeared the first See Mr. L'strange p. 73. and the next succeeding which was the eighth day so the antients generally expound it It is necessary that this should be the Lords day sayes Cyrill and Nazianzen made an oration on purpose for it stiling it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the new Lords day because it was the first Lords day solemnized in the weekly revolution after the Resurrection-day We shall clear it by Scripture when we come to answer the Objections mean while let it be noted that this was the second solemn apparition of our blessed Saviour after he rose from the dead for the next mentioned by this Evangelist is said to be the third time that he shewed himself which what else can it signifie to us John 21.14 but that he appeared not between those two first dayes not on the seventh day nor on any of the other six he was absent all the week and appeared to none except to some single persons as Peter he made no publick apparitions at solemn assemblies but upon his own day Now methinks ingenous Christians should thus reason within themselves certainly 't is written for our instruction that the Lord Jesus rose from the dead on this day that in the morning of the day he shewed himself to the holy women that the same day at evening being the first day of the week the disciples were assembled and Jesus came and stood in the midst and after eight dayes again i.e. that day senven-night for though part of the former and part of the latter day made it eight dayes yet could it be but seven nights if we count it by nights according to the account of natural dayes such as the dayes of the week are surely these things are not written in vain that our Saviour should solemnly shew himself in a Christian assembly on the very day of his Resurrection and that there was no other apparition till that day seven night this no doubt was of purposed providence to give original to that Ordinance of the Lords day which accordingly ha's been observed ever since St. Paul makes it one Argument in conjunction with others of his Apostleship that Christ had appeared to him * 1 Cor. 9.1 ch 15. 8 9. Am not I an Apostle have not I seen Christ Jesus our Lord And may not I in consociation with
affirm with them sayes the Objector That this was the Sabbath Lev. 23. So that to make good his cross conceits he would have Christ Crucifyed two dayes together namely on the Passeover Sabbath and the morrow after it that is Friday and Saturday which exceeds the cruelty of the crucifying Priests themselves Secondly To salve this sore the coyns another conceit namely that the Passeover-day and the Passeover-Sabbath were all one Pag. 83.84 For thus he argues in his first book The Israelites were appointed to bring on the morrow after their Passeover-Sabbath a Sheaf of their First-fruits to be waved by the Priests before the Lord and from that day to count seven weeks And here let the believer who sees all Types ended in Christ with confidence behold his dying Redeemer as the undoubted Sheaf of First-fruits waved upon the Cross by the Crucifying Priests the very morrow after he had eaten the Passeover As if the morrow after the Passeover-Sabbath were all one with the morrow after the Passeover Whereas the Learned Authors whom he cites will tell him That the Passeover-day was no Sabbath but a half-holiday Ainsw Lev. 23.5 But here again he is at odds with himself for in his last book he boasts of his concurrence with the most Learned of this Age saying I affirm with them That the Sabbath Lev. 23. is not the weekly Sabbath but the first day of the Passeover-feast that is the fifteenth day as they affirm therefore it could not be the fourteenth day And if he wikll contradict himself who can help it Thirdly Another gross Error is this That he makes Christ the Anti-type of the First-fruits in reference to his Death and quotes 1 Cor. 15.23 to prove it which speaks expressely of his Resurrection What shameful abuse of Scripture is this The morrow after the Sabbath on which the account began Object 2 is known by three things First by the Sickles entring into the Corn Deut. 16 9. Secondly by the waving of the First-fruits Lev. 23.11 Thirdly by offering the same day a Lamb without Spot Lev. 23.12 Now all these were punctually fulfilled in Christ on the day caleld Good Friday Then the Sickle was put to him to cut him down then he was Waved on the Cros then this Lamb without spot was offered from which day the holy Sabbath is the first of the account and at the end of seven full weeks the same day that began did end the account All this may be answered in a word The Type and the time to use his own language hold no proportion For the Sickle must be put to the Corn the First-fruits Waved and the Lamb offered the morrow after the Sabbath Lev. 23.10.12 Whereas Christ suffered and dyed the day before the Sabbath and not upon that day which he counts the morrow after the passeover-Sabbath for then he must have been Crucifyed upon the Saturday but upon that which he calls the Passeover-Sabbath it self namely the fifteenth day of the Moneth And here let him see how he hath lost his Cause and his Credit too For I hope he will stand to the judgment of Mr. Ainsworth and the English Annotators else why does he cite them now they both affirm That the Passeover Sabbath must be the fifteenth of Nisan and the morrow after it from which they began to reckon must needs be the sixteenth day From which they reckoned Exclusively from the night of the sixteenth day sayes Mr. Ainsworth Law 23.15 Now Christ suffered upon the Friday which was the fifteenth day and the supposed Passeover-Sabbath The next day being the Sabbath was the sixteenth of Nisan from which day namely when the day was ended they must begin to reckon the fifty dayes to Pentecost and so it falls pat upon the first day of the week and thus T. T. reckons in his first book excluding the morrow after the Passeover-Sabbath from being one of the fifty dayes And so against his will he must be forced to begin upon the first day of the week and that day that begins the account must needs end it and so his confidence is utterly dismounted Indeed in his last book he begins to reckon the sixteenth day Inclusively but in the very next page he contradicts himself again leaving out the morrow after the Passeover-Sabbath as none of the number a just jugment of God to make men fight with themselves when they would fight against his Truth The Waving of the First-fruits Answ and putting the Sickle into the Corn are Erroneously and falsely applied to the death of Christ they do both more properly relate to his Resurrection The Resurrection of the Just at the last day is resembled to reaping Matth. 13.39 The Harvest is the end of the world and the Reapers are the Angels Now Christ by virtue of his Resurrection was the First-fruits of that harvest The First-fruits of them that sleep 1 Cor. 15. The waving of the First-fruits under the Law did Typifie Christs rising from the dead and presenting himself alive before God upon the day of his Resurrection Again the offering of the Lamb without Blemish Lev. 23.12 makes not that day a Type of our Saviours dying day for it was their daily offering and upon the last of the fifty dayes they were to offer seven Lambs without blemish Levit. 23.20 Yet Christ dyed but once and by that one offering hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified Heb 9.28 ch 10 14. But Mr. Jemison has prevented me in this Argument and to give him his due he has done worthily in it as to the substance of what he hath written To conclude after all attempts to the contrary the glory of the Spirit 's Mission rests upon the First day of the week This day the Church of Christ was visited from on high the promise of the Father was sent Acts 1.4 The blessed Spirit came the Disciples were assembled Peter preached thousands converted and Baptized Acts 2. and all this is written for our instruction Why the Church assembled as Mr. Sprint argues why on that day Why the holy Ghost Why Preaching Why Conversion and administration of Sacraments Why the Promise of Christ accomplished all on this day but still to declare the will and Ordinance of Christ in blessing and sanctifying this day to his Church and so marking it out for a day of publick solemn worship as a day in all its Prerogatives superlative above other dayes the day of our Saviours Resurrection by which we are Justified the day of the holy Spirits Descension by whom we are Sanctified Fifthly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Andr. Caesar Another signal mark is the inscription of his royal name upon it whose day it is Rev. 1.10 t is stiled the Lords day Surely 't is some additionall honour to this illustrious day that as it was the first day of time mentioned the beginning of the first book of the Bible so it is the last day of same noted in the beginning of
it so Having premised this by the way now let us see how the old Sabbath was founded upon the finishing of his works As thus That day which God hath honoured and crowned with the accomplishment of the greatest work must be the day of solemn worship or Sabbath-day But the seventh day from the Creation was thus honoured and crowned in the Cradle or infancy of the world Therefore that day must be the Sabbath day viz. till a greater work take place And then the argument will conclude as strongly for the change of the day as ever it did for the choice of it For we shall argue thus If the ground of stating the Sabbath on the seventh day were applicable to another day then the Sabbath in the first ground-work of it was alterable to another day But the ground of stating it upon that old seventh day was applicable to another day therefore c. The consequence is cleere as the Sun for as it is with duties so with dayes of worship the grounds upon which they are setled being applicable to other times and places the dayes and duties themselves have alwayes been moveable and circumstantially mutable also as that duty of reverencing of Gods Sanctuary which is mated and coupled with keeping his Sabbaths the ground of it being applicable to the Temple as well as the Tabernacle Levit. 19.30 the duty it self was also moveable from the Tabernacle to the Temple although the first were only in being when the precept was given And the like must be said of the Sabbath The consequence hath evidence enough in it self to every vulgar eye If the foundation be moveable so is the building If the Assumption be questioned viz. That the ground of fixing the Sabbath on the seventh day was moveable and applicable to another day we shall thus confirm it The ground of fixing the Sabbath on the old seventh day was Gods honouring and advancing that day above all other dayes for the time being by his most eminent work of Creation manifested to be accomplished on that day therefore when another day shall be crowned with the accomplishment of a more eminent Creation the same ground and reason which cast the Sabbath on the old day will unavoidably carry it to the new Now the work of Redemption is a new Creation 2 Cor. 5.17 and it was long ago prophesied that as the a Hag. 2.9 glory of the second Temple should out shine that of the first so the glory of this new Creation should excell that of the old and comparatively eate out the memory of it b Isai 65.17 Behold I create new heavens and a new earth sayes the Lord and the old shall not be remembered nor come into mind Not that the Lord would simply and absolutely have the memory of the Creation to be lessened but respectively and in comparison of Redemption it must not be obliterated but only subordinated retained and remembred it must be still but as a lesser work then Redemption and as a lesser good to us as the Law is to the Gospel or the Old Testament to the New Redemption must be owned as the greater and better work in as much as Spiritual things are better then Natural and Gods last works are his best the first being only preparative to the last as Dr. Sibbs excellently observes Mat. 16.26 Mark 8.36 And verily he that shall question whether Redemption be a greater and better work then Creation knows little what a Redeemer is or what the ransome of an immortal soul is worth See Mr. Phil. Goodw. Dies Dominic rediv. pa. 11.12 13. I should think as mans gaining the world cannot recompense the loss of his soul so Gods creating of the world doth not equalize Christs redeeming the soul In creating the world indeed the Lord has done much for me but in shedding his precious blood in conquering sin and death he hath done more then if he had created another world for me Let the redeemed of the Lord say so yea the work is not only better to me but greater in it self too In creation there was but a words speaking and the work was presently done 2 Cor. 5.21 Gal. 3.13 See more in Dr. Gouge Heb. 9. S. 63. but in Redemption there was doing and dying God must come down from heaven God must be made man yea God-man must be made sin and a curse for me Here was a work exceeding wonder Besides in the work of Creation there was nothing to with stand But in the work of Redemption here was Justice against Mercy wrath against pity In a word in the Creation God brought something out of nothing but in redemption he hath out of one contrary brought another good out of evil life out of death Is not thy soul ravished Christian at these discoveries of wisdome grace and power shining forth in thy souls Redemption Canst thou see the like in the worlds Creation Is there not more glory in one Christ then in many worlds What a sapless unsavory question therefore to a soul that knows any thing of Christ Pa. 130. is that which T. T. propounds Who told thee the work of Redemption was the greater work A question more beseeming a Jew then a Christian But the answer is ready at hand He that hath told me the heavens are the works of his a Psalm 8.3 fingers and Redemption the work of his b Isal 52.9 10. arm his out-stretched unbared arm hath sufficiently taught me that Redemption is the greater work a work of greater might I am sure of greater mercy And so for his next question If it be the greater work who told thee that it deserves the honour of the day I answer a wiser and better man then you or I that man after Gods own heart who was most likely to know the mind of the Lord he has foretold it in that 118th Psalm when by a prophetick spirit foreseeing the glory of the resurrection day as a day amongst the seven dayes like the Sun amongst the seven planets he accordingly salutes it with a magnificent Title This is the day which the Lord hath made yea magnified for the word signifies not only to make but to magnifie and advance above all others c 1 Sam. 12.6 And such was the power of God in raising Christ hat the Psalmist cryes our it is marvellous in our sight Acts 4.10.11 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 est vel imus vel summus lapis Arretius in 1 Pet. 2.7 Mat. 11.11 As by the same word the Lord is said to advance Moses and Aaron 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to lift them up in dignity and preeminency above the rest of the people Thus he foresaw that the Lord would magnifie and exalt the resurrection day and why Because on this day the most glorious work of redemption was to be accomplished the stone which the builders resused being made the head of the corner i. e. to perfect