they are not fit to be imposed on Christians CHAP. III. Of Ceremonial Laws Why God expressed a dislike of them before they were abrogated Of the dissolving of them and particularly of the Sabbath by Christ Why Christ dissolved the Sabbath The judgment of the Fathers therein That it is now pernicious to Sabbatize as the Jews did and yet do That Christ appointed no new sabbath-Sabbath-day instead of the old CHAP. IV. Of Laws Moral and why they are so called More of Sunday-Sabbatizing Of Origen and of his Christian Sabbath That Saturday was a church-Church-day for Sermons Sacraments and Scripture-Lessons and a Fasting-day long after Origen's time That Christians did more reverently keep Saturday then the Jews did that Sabbath That Sunday is not to be called Sabbath Why easter-Easter-day was altered from the Jewish paschal-Paschal-day The Author 's reverent esteem of the christian-Christian-Sunday CHAP. V. Of the fourth Commandment what part of it is Morall and what is Ceremonial Why a Ceremonial is taken into the ten Commandments Of the Memento and some other prerogatives proper to this fourth Commandment The excellent benefit of this Sabbath-Law Why it is placed in the midst of the Commandments How the whole Law by it is performable by men CHAP. VI. That Christ is the true Morall Sabbath Why he is concealed under the word Sabbath That the Scriptures do declare him to be the Sabbath The difference of the Lord of Sabbâ—oth and the Lord of the Sabbath Of that Sabbatism mentioned Heb. 4. 9. A passage of Isaiah and another of St. Paul applied to Christ's Sabbathship That Sabbath-breaking is not called a sin in the New Testament CHAP. VII The doctrine of the Primitive Church concerning the Sabbath shewed out of Tertullian and other Father How the Patriarks kept the Sabbath before the daies of Moses The doctrine of the Church herein The meaning of the Prayers at the rehear sing of the ten Commandments How the Law may be written in our hearts and how it is so performable CHAP. VIII That Christ is called a Day Why Christ and the seventh day are both called Sabbath The first institution for keeping holy the seventh day Why the first seventh day of the world is described without mention of evening and morning The Sabbath described by Philo the Jew That the Sabbath and Melchisedech were parallel types of Christ CHAP. IX The sanctifying of the Sabbath How thâ— Godhead is said to be sanctified How the human nature of Christ is sanctified Of the name of God That it signifies God himself That the name Jesus signifies the Person of Jesus How God sanctifieth us and how we sanctifie God How Christ being the Sabbath is to be sanctified or kept holy CHAP. X. Of God's Resting That it is not acessation from working Nor meant of his ending the Creation Nor of layiâ—â— aside his care and providence in Government That his Rest and Working do consist together Something concerning the Originall of human Souls Of Universalls what they are and where to be found A Question discoursed Whether God created any new kinds of Creatures since the first seventh day Two Queries propounded CHAP. XI That the Rest of God is fixed on the seventh day onely although he did intermit Creation for some time in every former day That his Rest did not consist in any meer creature Of the Rest of God before the Creation That God performed part of the Creation on the seventh day and what that was Jewish Fables concerning the creation of Adam and Eve CHAP. XII Why the Rest of God is not mentioned untill the seventh day Why it is fixed on the Creation of mankind rather than of any other of the Creatures Answers to certain Enquiries That the consideration of Christ to be propagated from the man and the woman was the onely cause of this expression of the Rest of God CHAP. XIII That the Rest of God consisted in his purpose of producing Christ is proved by Scripture and Reason Of the Image of God Why the Woman was taken out of the Man Of the union of Christ with Mankind That this union was shewed by Christ in the Sacramentall Bread and Wine That the Soul of Christ was derived or propagated from the first man Something concerning Universall Redemption CHAP. XIV Of Adam's solitude and something concerning Monastick life with the reasons thereof That the help by the Woman consisted not in respect of Society nor of Child-bearing simply considered but onely in respect of the propagation of Christ Of Child-bearing and that it is not salvificall without faith in Christ Of Good and Evill occasioned by the Woman Why she was called Vita or Life Why God permitted the Woman to occasion the Fall CHAP. XV. An Answer to the Question How God can be said to Rest That the Rest of God is onely in Christ and Why That the Tabernacle and Temple are called God's Resting place onely as they were figures of Christ That the Ark is called God's strength in the same respect That God's Rest in Sion is also meant of Christ That the union of God and Man in Christ was ordained onely in order to man's Salvation and everlasting Rest That man's Rest is called God's Rest Certain Conclusion concerning this Rest of God CHAP. XVI That the Rest of Man is called God's Rest is shewed by other like passages of Scripture That Christ is called the Rest of God Onely because he is the Rest of Mankind An Answer to the second Querie above mentioned viz. Why God is said to Rest onely on the first seventh day and not before The Conclusion of the Doctrine of God's Rest and St. Austin's judgement therein CHAP. XVII An exposition of the Ceremoniall part of the fourth Commandement begun That the six dayes labour is not a Precept but onely a Permission That the seventh day is called a Sabbath onely because it was a figure of the true Sabbath That the seventh-day-Sabbath was not changed by Christ to the eighth day but utterly dissolved That it was never instituted till the daies of Moses St. Jerom's translation and our English examined The Jewish Sabbath and Christian Festivalls compared Of works on the Jewish Sabbath That their corporall Rest was but a figure of our spirituall Rest in Christ CHAP. XVIII The Exposition continued Why the Woman is not here mentioned That sons or servants sinned not by working upon command The miseries of servants Why Cattle might not be wrought on Sabbath daies That strangers were not obliged to Sabbatize except they resided within the Jewish pale Why cattle are mentioned before strangers Why servants cattle and strangers are not mentioned at the beginning of this Law with the Memento That by these circumstances the seventh-day-Sabbath is proved to be meerly Ceremonial and Judaical CHAP. XIX The Exposition continued How God is said to have made all in six daies and yet that he ended not his work untill the seventh day Why the Creation was prolonged six daies Of the order of Creatures
first Heaven then Earth When the Heaven of Angels was made That their Heaven was intended principally for mankind Why Heaven and Earth are mentioned together Why the making of Hell is not mentioned although it was prepared within the first six daies Why the Creation is mentioned in this fourth Commandment and not in any of the other nine That the Morall Sabbath doth signifie the Creator which is God the Son That he is called the Beginning the Word and the Wisdom of God and is therefore here commanded to be sanctified CHAP. XX. The Exposition continued That all the divine persons co-operated and joyned in Creating Resting Blessing and Sanctifying How the Second Person or Son of God is the Rest or Sabbath of the same Son of God How he resteth in himself Of the divers considerations of God the Son in respect of his Godhead and Manhood Of his severall Appellations respectively Why the seventh day was preferred above the former six That the seventh-day-Sabbath was instituted for a memoriall of the Resting and 〈…〉 of God CHAP. XXI The Exposition concluded The meaning of blessing and hallowing the Sabbath day The difference of hallowing God's Name and hallowing of Creatures The differences of Holinesse When the seventh day was first hallowed How and when it was dis-hallowed Something of Sacriledge How the Prophets spake truly of things to come although they spake as if they had been past Of the Propheticall figure called Anticipation The directions of the Fathers and Scripturall examples thereof applied to this Sabbath CHAP. XXII Reasons why God having conferred honours on the seventh day did also lay some slurs upon it as 1. That this Day-Sabbath was not made known till Moses time nor at all mentioned by zealous David nor this Sabbath-Law by Christ 2. In that God expresly commanded some works on that day 3. That no Manna fell on it 4. That Christ lay dead on that whole day 5. That God called it but a signe and that it was nothing else 6. That it is said to be made for man 7. That it was impossible to be generally kept and also inconvenient occasionally to the Jews The Conclusion That the impossibility both of the seventh-day-Sabbath and also of the Morall Law was designed by God on purpose to drive man to seek for Rest and Salvation onely in the Lord Jesus Christ Errata PAg. 5. line 8. read force and necessity p. 8. l. 3. tell us p. 13. l. 27. Judaical p. 25. l. 6. Onera p. 26. l. 23. Judaical p. 32. l. 31. We are p. 34. l. 16. Judaico p. 37. l. 6. Speaketh p. 41. l. 23. Pharisaical p. 46. l. 34. killing law p. 48. l. 5. Law of God p. 65. l. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 89. l. 17. intermundium l. 18. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 107. l. 6. God added p. 134. l. ult And in him p. 166. l. 16. judicial l. 20. judicial p. 168. l. 1. 10 act a part p. 227. l. 1. Jeremie In the Margin p. 13. l. 1. Ignatius p. 125. l. 3. Laertius in Diog. De minutioribus viderit lector The Mystery of the Sabbath Discovered The Sabbath Morall CHAP. I. The Church disturbed about the Doctrine of the Sabbath Of Sunday-Sabbatism Of works practised therein and Recreations forbidden That the celebration of Sunday is pious although not commanded by the Fourth Commandment How the Antient Patriarks did Sabbatize yet kept not a Seventh day That the ten Commandements are still in force A passage in St. Austin and Isychius explained and an abuse of the Commandements in the Roman Catechism shewed THE various opinions of men in the Doctrine of the Sabbath as it is delivered in the Fourth Commandment of the Morall Law hath more disturbed the Christian Church in these latter times then they did the Fathers the Zealous Christians in the Church Primitive yet then was the Doctrin of the Sabbath mistaken and perverted by Ebion who taught that Christians should necessarily keep the Jewish Hebdomarie or seventh-day Sabbath as some among us have done and is therefore by a Epiph. haer 30. Epiphanius and b Theod. haer fab Lib. 2. Theodoret branded with the mark of a Judaizing Heretick And now although the rejection of the Jewish Seventh-day-Sabbath is almost generally agreed among us yet a new Sabbath is set up on the Eighth day or first day of the week to be observed with as great strictnesse as the old Sabbath was on the Seventh day by the Pharisees for now not only labouâ—s are forbidden but also honest recreations such as we do not find to have been forbidden by those very Jewish zelots Which late strictnesse hath given an occasion or pretence to some to think it to be required rather in opposition to former permissions then for any new light or religious zeal because they have observed that by order of the same Superiors who forbad Recreations Souldiers have been commanded to march and the utensils and luggage of War Carts Wagons Artillary have been drawn out and most cruell bloody battells fought on that very new Sabbath-day and all this upon pretence of either private personall necessity or necessity publik which is now called Reason of State whereupon some of the approved Preachers of these times have openly in the Pulpit declared their dislike and said that now the State Civil is become like a Ship and the Church like a Cock-boat which must follow the motions and turnings of that Ship of State intimating hereby that our Religion must be reformed so as to be subservient to the interest and accommodations of the Civill governors which is quite contrary to the desires of those men who hoped and expected that their Kyrk should have bin made the Ship and the State should have bin the Cock-boat Mose and Aaron were brethren and agreed that Moses might be directed by Aaron in Spiritualls and Aaron Supported by the Brachium temporale or civill authority of Moses for stablishing true Doctrine and godly Discipline which formerly was the happy and peaceable usance of this kingdome wherein the state civill was supreme because as Optatus truly said against the disturbing Donatists c Optat. lib. 3. p. 83. Non est Respublica in ecclesia sed ecclesia in Republica est i. e. The Commonwealth is not included in the Church but the Church is in the Commonwealth And yet the civil power will not excuse those governors before God which authorise the breaking of the Commandments and Moral law of God For if the Seventh-day Sabbath practised in the Jewish Commonwealth or the Eighth among Christians which some yet call the Sabbath were indeed one of the ten Commandments of God which certainly are moral and perpetual then did the Jewes sin in performing the works of Warr and of Circumcision and Midwifery and Sacrificing at the Tabernacle and Temple on their Sabbath day And if our Sunday be really commanded by this morall law of
God or grounded thereon by a moral equity as some have untruly affirmed then neither private necessities nor publick reason of State can quit us from the guilt of Transgression thereof The Rule of Divines is which I firmly beleeve to be true Non licet in quavis necessitate leges Dei morales seu naturales violare i. e. It is not lawfull in any case of necessity to violate the moral or naturall lawes of God For example In the times of Persecution the ordinary commands of Persecutors were a Optat. lib. 3. Nega Deum Incende Testamentum Thus pone i. e. Deny thy God Burn the Book of God Worship the idol And these were injoyned upon pain of present torment and death And what greater necessity can be imagined then these and yet the Martyrs refused life upon such unlawfull conditions Joseph would not yield to adultry with his lady though he knew the consequence of imprisonment nor the 3 Hebrews Gen. 39. Dan. 3. worship the golden imâ—ge though they were assured of the fiery furnace All inconveniences dangers and necessities must submit to the moral law of God better it is to buâ—n or die then to deny Christ or blaspheme God and bear false witnesse There is a necessity to obey God but no necessity of continuing our naturall life by ungodly means In times of Persecution the Martyrs might have escaped torment if Necessity might have excused them But it is far otherwise in lawes meerly Ceremonial whether Jewish or Christian the transgression of this sort of lawes is excusable by necessity if it be a true real and pressing necessity in this case the Proverb will take place Aug. in Soliloq c. 2. To. 9. Necessitas non habet legem i. e. Necessity hath no law and Inter arma silent leges Lawes humane are dumb in time of Warr. Therefore because the Seaventh day Sabbath of the Jewes was meerly a law Ceremonial it might without sin upon necessity be slighted Upon this reason it was that Mattathias the wise and zealous Macchabean priest with his associates decreed and first taught the Jewes that they might upon necessity fight and repell their enemies on the Sabbath day as we read both in b Ios Antiq l. 12. cap. 9. 1 Mac. 2. 41. Josephus 1 Maccab. 2. 41. So likewise the Jewes of Antioch when they were by force of necessity compelled refused not to Work on their Sabbath day as the same Josephus reporteth And our Saviour excuseth his disciples for plucking eares of corne and causeth c Jos de Bello lib. 7 Mat. 12. Iohn 5. the impotent man to cary his bed and declareth that the priests who by their great labours about sacrifices in the Temple do profane the Sabbath yet are blamelesse Thus David did in necessity of hunger eat the holy Shewbread and the people of Israell for 40 yeares together in the wildernesse abstained from Circumcision as being very dangerous in their marches although it was imposed on them with great 2. Chron. 30. 2. Ex. 12. charge And in the dayes of Good Hezekiah the Passeover was celebrated in the second month which was otherwise then the law prescribed Ex. 12. All these things were done upon necessity or some usefull convenience without any offence to God * because the Sabbath day and Circumcision and Shewbread Num. 9. 11. and Passeover were but Ceremonialls and not morall lawes I doubt not but aged Eleazar the 7 brethren mentioned both by h Josephus d Iosep de Maccab. 2 Mac. c. 6. 7. and in 2 Macchab. cap. 6. 7. who were put to cruel tortures and death for refusing to eat Swines-flesh offered to Idols might have eaten thereof in that necessity and have saved their lives without offence to God because that law was but Ceremonial Only they knew their eating might have given Scandal or offence to their brethren the Jewes and therefore they abstained just as St. Paul saith in the like case 1 Cor. 10. 27. 28. Whatsoever is seâ— before you eaâ—e asking no question for conscience sake But 1 Cor. 10. 27. if any say unto you This is offered in sacrifice unto Idols eat not for his sake that shewed it Just so it is with our Christian Ceremonies whereof Sundâ—y is one and therefore the Solemnity and celebration therof in case of pressing dangers and necessities may be omitted But let us be sure that the said necessities be so indeed and not sinfull or contracted by our own faults or only pretended and then God will excuse us though some men will not Thus some Christians in time of Persecutions were condemned to the mines and listed under the title Metallicae Condemnationis and were forced there to sore work every day Sunday all as we read in Eusibius Hilarie Chrysostome â— Eus Hist l. 8. c. 13. Hil. cont Constant lib. â— Chrys de laudibus Martyrum hom 70. So at this day those Christians who are in Slavish captivity under the Turks are compelled to undergo hard labours even on Sundays and yet thereby neither the former Christian Confessors nor these do offend God which yet they would if our Sunday were a branch of the moral law of God There is not I think any good and prudent christian that doth not approve of most willingly submit to an holy celebration of our Christian Sunday although they do not think it to be enforced by virtue of the 4th CoÌ„mandment of the moral law or any equity thereof but upon another reason and ground because the equity pretended must be derived not from the Moral Sabbath but from the Jewish Ceremoniall Seaventh-day-Sabbath the equity whereof is only this That as God under the law required one day in seaven to be Sanctified as a figure and shadow of his people's rest in their Messiah to come So the Christian Church hath ordained one day in Seaven to be a memoriall of our rest in the same Messiah our Saviour who is come and our Sunday may also be called a kind of shadow as the Jewish Seaventh day was only their shadow went before the body as shadows somtimes do and our shadow followeth after the body for the body of both is Christ The Sabbath which is truly Moral and perpetual and which is intended meant and injoyn'd in the 4th Commandment is another manner of Sabbath much differing from the Jewish seventh day Sabbath or the Christians Sunday and is not such a sabbath as is by many now adayes supposed neither is the vigor and force of that Sabbath-Commandment as yet antiquated or expired but standeth in as full strength and in an obliging power as much or rather more then it had during the Jewish Synagogue or before the incarnation of our Lord. And I trust I shall make it appear that this Sabbath-law is written in our hearts evidently and convincingly as much or rather more than any other of those Moral Lawes and that this Sabbath was to be kept
his Sermon on the Paralytick c Chrys Serm. 7. Tom. 5 Christus quando solvebat Sabbatum maximum aliquod meraculum edebat ut sic Sabbatismum auferret When Christ dissolved the Jewish Sabbath he did withall perform some great miracle that it might appeare that Sabbatizing was dissolved by Divine authority The ancient and grand Heretick Marcion upon this truth of Christs dissolving the Saturday Sabbath took occasion to ground his false heresie denying Christ to be the Son of that God who made the World and Ordained the Law supposing that the true son of the Creator would not null the law of the same Creator By this it appeares that even this Heretick so farr agreed with the Catholick Church as to acknowledg the dissolution of that Sabbath by Christ as Tertullian also doth in his writings against that Heretick whereof he gives this reason d Tert. Cont. Mar. Lib. 4. Quia Deus est Dominus Sabbati ergo destruere potuit i. e. Because our Lord Jesus is the Lord of the Sabbath therefore he might dissolve it The same Father saith again in another book c De Idololatria c. 4. Nobis Christianis Sabbata extranea sunt sicut Neomen ia To us Christians Sabbatizing is a stranger as much as New-Moon dayes are This he wrote because he knew that Sabbath-keeping was a fading and temporary Ceremony as much as the feasts of New-Moons In some Epistles yet extant which passed between St. Austin and St. Jerome concerning their differing opinions in some Judiciall ceremonies St. Austin thus writeth and faith a Hier. Epist 97. Tom. 2. That after the death Resurrection of Christ â—hose Ceremonies also dyed but that they were to be allowed some convenient time for buriall and an honourable funerall And indeed the publick Preaching up of Christianity was their Funerall Oration and the Burning of the Temple was their Funerall pile But when these Sepulture-offices were once performed then those Typicall Ceremonies became not only dead but deadly pernicious and mortiferous To this St. Hierome addeth this aggravation b August In Barathrum Diaboli devolvunt eum qui observat to which St. Austin also consenteth To use those Ceremonies now is the ready way to drive men into Hell So St. Chrysostom having in his Sermons often forbidden the people under his charge to use Sabbatizing as the Jewes then did at Antioch where Chrysostome then was a preacher he adds c Chrys Homil Antioch 34. That after his admonition if any did Sabbatize himselfe was innocent of their blood So deadly did he think it And before him Origen had both affirmed and preached d Orig. in Jeremi Hom. 9. That now to observe Sabbaths is to return to those beggerly Elements of Ceremonies-Quasi nondum descenderat Christus That the Sabbatizer thereby declareth that he doth not beleeve that Christ is come who is the true Sabbath which now is to be kept For this cause it may reasonably be thought that our Lord Jesus neither at the dissolution of the Old Jewish Sabbath day nor at any time after did command or so much as intimate any new Sabbath day for Christians lest Christians also like the Jewes should erroneously think that the Moral precept for Sanctifying the Sabbath confisted only in the strict observation of a day and thereby utterly neglect the most holy most necessary and Grand Sabbath which is Christ who is the Only Sabbath that wee Christians can or ought to have For at this day we see that the Sabbath which is Commanded in the Fourth precept of the law Moral is by the greater number of people thought to be meant only of Sanctifying a day for so they are now taught by the greater number of our Preachers But herein the People deceive themselves and the Preachers deceive others for that Commandment hath a more noble excellent and beneficiall meaning then so as I trust will appear anone To the judgment of the Ancients before mentioned I crave thy patience good Reader that I may add one more of a late Writer the learned Mr. Mede which I esteem ponderous who in one of his books thus writeth a Mede Diatrib 15 We may not now keep the Jewish Sabbath lest we should thereby seem not to acknowledg our Vbi Bene Nemo meliùs Cassiâ—d de Orig. Redemption performed but expect still Their Sabbath was but a shadow Thus he most truly and correspondently with the Primitive Church It was indeed but a Shaddow of our Redemption by our Redeemer which being performed as the Psalmist speaketh it is passed away like a Shaddow By what hath bin said I trust the Reader Psal 144. 4. apprehends that the weekly Jewish Sabbath is no more but a branch of the Ceremoniall Law now Antiquated and by the authority of Christ himself totally abrogated So that I may for certain conclude that neither the Jewish seaventh-seaventh-day nor any morall equity deduced from it can be that Sabbath which is injoyned to be Sanctified by the Moral Law of God Of which we are next to Consider CHAP. IV. Of Lawes Moral and why so called Of Sunday-Sabbatizing Of Origen and his Christian Sabbath That Saturday was a church-Church-day for Sermons Sacraments and Scripture-lessons and then also a fasting day long after Origens time Christians did more reverently keep Saturday then the Jewes themselves did that Sabbath Sunday not to be called Sabbath Easter day why altered from the Jewes Paschall day The author's reverend esteem of the Christian Sunday 3 The Morall Law THe third Sort of lawes recorded in the Scripture and imposed upon Gods People are the laws of the Decalogue the Ten Commandments Which Divines commonly call though improperly The law Moral So called because they were ordained as rules to guide and direct us in our demeanours or Manners for therin we find precepts Ethicall for our private persons against Murther Adultrey Theft Coveting And Oeconomicall for our deportment in a family as honouring of Parents Mercifullnesse to servants and poor Cattle And Political against Idolatry and for Reverencing superiors as Magistrates and especially Kings who are the Publick Parents of Subjects All these Ten Commandments are lawes Moral And more also they are lawes Naturall they are written in our hearts And more yet they were lawes and binding too before they were written in stone and so would be to the end of the World although they never had binne written therefore they are perpetuall all and every one of those Ten never to be abrogated or antiquated I say there are Ten of them although I do not beleeve or affirm that all the words in the fourth Commandment are so viz. the words which mention the seaventh day Sabbath of which I shall give an account anon for we shall find Ten without them The reason why I said that these Ten lawes are but Improperly called Moral is Because if we speak critically and Logically All laws whatsoever are Moral for all are but Rules for
mens manners and demeanours So are the lawes Judiciall and Ceremoniall before handled So are the Evangelicall precepts And all Politik both Imperiall and Municipall lawes So are the Edicts of Supream Magistrates So were anciently the Roman Senatus-consulta Plebâ—scita Consular Tribunitial and Praeterian Edicts and even the Canons and Constitutions of Councells and Synods were Moral but with his difference The Ten Commandements are Moral 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. by nature though they never had binne openly Commanded either by Word or Wrting The other Morals most of them are so Only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. by Constitution Nor could they have the appellation or the force and power of lawes except they had binne inacted Of the Ten Commandements Nine are confessedly still in full force and vigour whereof no doubt or question is made among prudent and sober Christians but only by another gang of those that are Leavened with the Antinomian dotage Only the fourth Commandement concerning the Sabbath is that which many good men stumble at which hath occasioned much distraction and trouble and bitterness and also many unprofitable written books by some that would have the Seaventh day kept literally on our Saturday as the Jewes did And by others who would ground the Christian Sunday upon this fourth Commandement and thereupon press the Jewish and Pharisaical strictness of Sabbatizing on the Sunday as if all the Scriptural admonitions for keeping of the Jewish seaventh day did by a kind of moral equity as they say require the same to be performed on our Sunday and therefore both themselves and their proselytes call Sunday The Sabbay day Nimiùm patienter as one saith too tamely and unadvisedly For in Horace all the New Testament they cannot find that our Sunday which is the first day of the week is ever called Sabbath unless they will call every day a Sabbath because the Gospels do in their account reckon several week-dayes by the Sabbath For they call our Sunday 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. the first day from the Sabbaths we translate it The first day of the week Mat. 28. 1. And so it is Joh. 20. 1. 1 Cor 16. 2. Act. 20. 7. again Mar. 16. 2. So the Pharisee is brought in boasting that he fasted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Twice in a Sabbath we translate it Twice in the week so that any week-day might be named Sabbath as well as the first day or Sunday But this is so weak an argument for their Sabbath that the Learned Sabbatarians do not vouchsafe so much as to mention it Neither can they find that our Sunday or first day of the week was ever called the Sabbath day by any of the Ancient Fathers but only by Origen as is pretended by him but once that I could find His words are these â— Sabbatum Christianum observare est desinere ab operibus secularibus ad ecclesiam convenire lectionibus tractatibus aures praebere c. i. e. The observation of the Christian Sabbath is by laying aside our worldly business to assemble in the Church and there to give attention to what is readd out of the Scriptures and to what is delivered by the Preacher This is pretended to be spoken of our Sunday but it is not certain whether he said it of the old seaventh day of the Jewes or of the eighth day of the Christians for it is affirmed by our greatest Sabbatarians That Christians did assemble in Churches on the Jewish Saturday-Sabbath long after Origen's time And the Fathers do also acknowledg that Saturday and Sunday were for a long time Church dayes and so they were with us in England in mine own remembrance in Citties Corporations so had continued until this day if the Long-Parliament had not disturbed us yet even that Parliament dated their Saturday-Orders under the title of Die Sabbati That Christians did so assemble are we assured by Sozomen And â—even in the dayes Soz. Hist lib. 7 c. 19. of Theodosius the Elder long after Origen was dead for he thus writeth Sabbato Postridie Sabbati Constantinopoli Conventus Ecclesiasticus erat In multis civitatibus Aegypti lib. 7. c. 9 vespere in Sabbato mysteriorum participes fiâ—nt Just so saith Socrates also in the reign of the same Theodosius e Soc. Hist lib. 5 cap. 21. Licet omnes ubique Ecclesiae singulis septimanis die sabbati mysteria celebrent tamen Alexandrini Romani id facere â—enuunt Aegyptii finitimi Alexandriae synaxin sabbato exequuntur i. e. On the Sabbath or Saturday at Constantinople and in many Cities of Aegypt the Church assembled and communicated in the holy Sacrament in the Evening and Although all other Churches do weekly on the Sabbath celebrate the holy Communion as also those Aegyptians which border upon Alexandria do notwithstanding the Alexandrians and Romans refuse to observe that Order Sâ— Austin also mentioneth the Custome of Preaching on the old Sabbath-day even there and then when that day was made a fasting day d Aug. de verb. Dom. Ser. 43. Sermo in die Sabbat non erattum prandium eo die venâ—ebant maxime qui esuriebant verbum D there was preaching on the Sabbath day wherin no dinner was on that day came most of all those who hungred after the word of God This he said of the Saturday Besides it is very likely that Origen in using those words of christian Sabbath did only compare the holy practises of Châ—istians with the evil customes of the Jewes which lived in his time shewing that christians did more reverently use the Jewish Sabbath then the Jews themselves did for christians did on that day go to Church hear Scriptures Sermons Communicate But the Jews spent that day a Aug Ps 91. luxurioso ocio i. e in idleness luxury as Austin saith and in dancing also The Jewes of Alexandria spent their sabbath in Theaters or Play-houses in beholding Stage-playes and Pageantry as b Soc. Hist lib. 7. Cap. 12. Socrates affirmeth So Christians were better Sabbath-keepers than the Jewes were This doth not in the least prove that Christians called their own Sunday a Sabbath 〈◊〉 that Origen did so mean For the same Origen had before called our Sunday Diem Dominicum i. e. The Dominical or Lords day and quite distinguished it from the Sabbath day as c Orig in Ex. Hom. 7. Manna non descendebat in Sabbato sed primùm in Dominico die In Nostrà Dominica Dominus semper pluit Manna Intelligant Iudaei etiam tum praelatam esse nostram Dominicam Iudiaco Sabbato i. e. Manna never came down on the Sabbath day but God first rained it on our Sunday The Jewes may hereby take notice that our Sunday was even then so early preferred before their Sabbath And though we should grant that those words Christian Sabbath do there signify our Sunday yet this will not amount to any solid proof of the
Sunday-Sabbath because Origen's authority is invalid having bin condemned by the Church as erronious and his Sectaries are put into the Catalogue of Hereticks by d Epiph. Haer. 64. Epiphanius under the title of Origianistae and yet that book of Origen is now not extant in that Language wherein he wrote it but was translated into Latin by Ruffinus who is generally noted to Deteriorare as St. Ambrose speaketh i. e. to be a depraver of all books that he took in hand to translate or reform Notwithstanding I have Intituled this book Sabbatum By which word I mean that Sabbath which is Moral and natural and is commanded in the fourth Commandement which is still in force and binding both Jewes and Christians and all men in the world and so it was before any Law was written and should have so continued although it had never bin written in stone or although no Day-Sabbath had bin commanded For this fourth Commandment injoyneth and obligeth us to a more noble and needfull Sabbath than ever any seaventh-day Sabbath was or could be which surely the holy Patriarks did apprehend before the dayes of Moses but the Scribes and Pharisees and vulgar Jewes after Moses did not nor yet do to this day The true substantial and moral Sabbath intended in that Law is their Mâ—ssiah our Christ who is the Jesus i. e the Saviour and therefore the perfect and only and everlasting Sabbath or Rest of all believers Which truth I trust will hereafter clearly appear But if our Brethren do indeed believe that our Sunday is that Sabbath which is literally or but equitably as they say commanded in the Moral Law then verily they should perform all those duties and services which the Law giver commanded to be done on the Sabbath day then they must offer bloody Sacrifices two Lambs for the Sabbath besides the two which were for every week-day and Bâ—ke 12 great loaves or cakes of Shew-bread which was to be done on the Sabbath and in order heerunto they should joyn 1 Chron. 9. 32. with the Jewes and help them to build their Temple once more at Jerusalem where these duties are to be performed and with them set up the Fifth Monarchy or Earthly Kingdome of Saints If it be said that the Sunday-Sabbath differs from the Jewish in that theirs was on the last day of the week but this on the first This will not help because other festivals of the Jewes were Sabbaths and all required sacrifices and might fall on any day of the week as the Passover and Pentecost and the rest for they were moveable feasts depending on the Moon But the performance of such shadowie ceremonies now would be a real denyal of Christ as if he were not come and were not the grand Sacrifice of which the former were but meer Figures which figures now are but Cyphers All good and prudent Christians do believe and confess that the Jewish Ceremonial Saturday-Sabbath is now quite gone expired and vanished and that since the true body of them and the true light is come the Jewish figures and shadowes are not to be any longer used by us among which shadowes the Sabbath was one and the most principal of all Surely we ought to abstain from applying the appellation of Sabbath to our Sunday lest therein we should seem to Judaize Justin Martyr saith a just Dialog cum Tryph. Gentes Christiani non observant Sabbata ne Judaei putarentur i. e. The Gentiles or Nations which are Christians do now abstain ftom observing the Sabbath lest they might thereby be thought to be of the Jewish infidelity and seeing that the thing it self is gone there is no cause why we should retain the name For the very word Sabbath applyed to our Sunday is not only a sign of our ignorance in Religion but it is moreover Scandalous in that it hudwinketh the people with a Mosaical Jewish vaile as the Apostle sepaketh 2 Cor. 3. 15. And thereby hindereth them from discerning the true Sabbath which is Christ and leadeth them into the Jewish error so as to think that the whole duty required in the fourth Commandment consisteth in keeping holy one day of the week as if that were the only or principal and ultimate duty thereof which is not only untrue but dangerous also And this error of Sabbatarians mixed with their too hot and ignorant zeal therein and in some other Judaizing practises hath given our adversaries occasion to detest our Persons and also to blaspheme our Religion and as a Luther an once did some Calvinists to call us Baptized Jewes For this reason it was in all probability that the Ancient-fathers most learned Christians in the very primitive times of the Church did so warily cautiously abstain from putting the appellation of Sabbath upon the Christian Sunday lest they should be thought to Judaize And the same reason also moved the Church to alter the Jewish day of the old Passover for the solemnity of our Easter is the remembrance and confession of the Easter that is the Rising or Râ—surection of Christ from the precise fourteenth day of the Moon to the Sunday and this lest Christians should be thought to celebrate only a Typicall Passover as the Jewes did as if Christ the true Passover were not come and therefore Tessares-cae-de catitae the Church adjudged and condemned those that held to the fourtenth day for Hereticks under the appellation of Tessares-cae-decatitae or Quarâ— adecimani as we find in b Epiph. H ar 50 Epiphanius The same reason also moved the holy Apostles themselves to meet in Council on purpose against the errors of some Pharisees and Judaizing Christians in their dayes who said that the Converted Gentiles ought to be Circumcised and to be commanded to keep Moses law they meant the law Ceremonial as we read Act. 15. 5. So early did they decree against the danger of Judaizing This is not said by me as in dislike or in the least to disparage the Christians godly and zealous care in Sanctifying the Sunday devoutly and seriously to the service of our God and by joyning in our holy assemblies in praying and praising God and hearing his Word readd and opened to us and also privately meditating theron Far be it from me so to â—ilipend the godly usance of the Church in all ages thereof and the sacred lawes and decrees of Christian Princes upon which as on two pillars the Authoritative sanctification of our Sunday standeth and not otherwise Onely in all humility I offer this caution to the less learned and more credulous Brethren Rem tene linguam corrige Good Christian keep the Sunday or as now it is in England called of late though not by the Church of England the Lords-day and keep it holy in the name of God but abstain from calling it a Sabbath day Because the Sabbath was but a figure and is gon and because neither the old Jewish Sabbath nor the Christian Sunday are that
Church-prayer both in behalf of my self and others Lord Incline our hearts to keep this Law Amen Amen Thus much concerning the Sabbath Moral Next of the Sabbath Ceremonial Macrobius Saturnaliorum lib. 6. cap. 9. Quia seculum nostrum ab omni Bibliothecâ vetere descivit Multa ignoramus quae non laterent si Veterum lectio nobis esset familiaris A Discourse of the Jewish Hebdomarie or Ceremonial Sabbath wherein is contained an Exposition of the Later and Ceremoniall Part of the 4th Commandment CHAP. XVII An Exposition of the Ceremonial Part of the 4th Commandment begun That the 6 dayes labour is not a Precept but onely a Permission That the 7th day is called a Sabbath onely because it is a figure of the true Sabbath That the 7th day Sabbath was not changed by Christ to the 8th day but utterly dissolved That it was never instituted till the dayes of Moses St. Jerom 's Translation and our English compared The Jewish Sabbath and Christian Festivalls compared Of VVorks on the Jewish Sabbath That Corporall Rest was but the figure of our Rest in Christ HAving thus far proceeded in the search of the Sabbath Morall which is commanded in the fourth Precept of the Morall Law of God in these words Remember the Sabbath day to sanctifie it In the next place we are to consider the other words of that Law which we have declared to be meerly Typicall Ceremoniall and Temporall and obliging the Jews onely and not other Nations and to be now antiquated ever since the manifestation of the Son of God in the flesh Which ceremoniall part taketh up all the words of this Law except onely those few above mentioned the severall branches whereof we will now endeavour to expound as they are in order laid down Six dayes shalt thou labour and do all thy work 1. These words are no Command so as to require our labour all the other six dayes but they are onely a Permission by which the Jews were invited to a diligent and cheerfull celebration of their Sabbath in regard God had given them six dayes for their own occasions and reserved but one in the seven to himself when he might have left them but one in the seven which yet was not for any need that God had of it but onely for the benefit of his people just as be permitted all the Trees of Paradice to Adam except onely one Thus far Calvin and other Divines generally agree 2. For if these words were a Command to work all the other six dayes they would contradict other Laws whereby the Jews were commanded to Rest as at the Feast of the Passeover 〈◊〉 12. 16. and at Pentecost Levit. 23. 21. and at the Atonement Levit. 23. 28. at the Feast of Trumpets Levit. 23. 25. and at the feast of Tabernacles Levit. 23. 35. These Feasts did all depend upon the Moon and therefore might and did fall on any and every one of the other six dayes respectively 3. If this Law were Morall how could we Christians lawfully abstain from working on our Sundayes and fasting-Fasting-daies and daies of Thanksgiving and other Festivalls commanded by lawfull Authority It followeth But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God These words as I conceive are not rightly rendred by our English Translators of which we will enquire anon and for present take them as they are presented In what sense the seventh day is here said to be the Sabbath of the Lord our God we have shewed before namely That it is therefore called the Sabbath because it was appointed to be a ceremony and figure to represent to the Israelites the true and reall Sabbath or Rest in the Messiah So that it is called a Sabbath just as we call Pictures by the names of those things which they represent as the Painter in Aelian wrote over his pictures * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lib. 10 c. 10 This is an Ox this is an Horse this is a Tree So in Scripture the Ark is often called JEHOVA as †Catech. part 2. p. 45. Beza observeth the Altar is also so called Exod. 17. 15. and the Dove is called the Spirit Joh 1. 33. the seven Kin◠are seven years Gen. 41. and the Rock i◠Christ 1 Cor. 10. 4. For if the seventh day were the onely Sabbath intended in this Commandment we Christians should at this day be bound to keep it as much as the Jews were That Christ or the Apostles changed the seventh day to the eighth or Saturday to Sunday is often too boldly affirmed by our Sabbatarian Writers and too tamely swallowed by their followers which as yet they never have or ever can solidly prove But to say that Christ utterly dissolved the Ceremoniall or seventh-day Sabbath and yet left the true Sabbath unaltered to us which is our firm Rest in himself and that the Church first then Christian Magistrates also assumed another day even our Sunday instead of the Jewish seventh day for their holy Assemblies is true and easily proved although they never called this Sunday a Sabbath Nor can the Jewish seventh day possibly be that Morall Sabbath which is meant and intended in this fourth Commandment because it is here said The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God For we are well assured that the seventh day is not so to be accounted the Rest of God as if God ceased from his operation on every or on any one seventh day but his Rest was onely in consideration of the Saviour of Mankind because on the first seventh day of the world he formed the Woman as is before shewed and even then on that seventh day and ever since upon every seventh day he hath been operative in governing the world and co-operating with every creature therein without any intermission at all But he is said to rest on that seventh day because then our first parents were compleatly and fully finished and in them was laid the foundation of the future Church that is Christ who together with his holy Members was to be propagated joyntly from the Man and the Woman So that Christ onely was and is the Sabbath or Rest of God and men Upon this reason it was that the seventh day was long after sanctified or set apart for a day of bodily rest that thereby it might be a type figure and ceremoniall remembrance or commemoration of Christ the great and mysterious Sabbath Therefore the Seventh day and the Sabbath day are two distinct and severall things and differ as much as the shadow and the body or as Christ and the Lamb that is as much as Type and Anti-type For as the Lamb literally was not Christ but his figure so the seventh day literally considered was not the Sabbath here meant but typically the shadow or representation thereof Just so the Apostle saith of this seventh-day-Sabbath and of other such like ceremonies that they are a shadow of things to come but the body is Col. 2.
these thy Lawes in ouâ— hearts we beseech thee This prayer is grounded on the promise of God recorded both in the Prophets and also in the Gospel Jer. 31. 33. Heb. 18. 10. I will put my law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts If we enquire what that Law is and how God doth write it in our hearts and to what intent it is done The Answer is That this Law is Christ The putting or writing of it in our hearts is the mission of the Spirit of Jesus into us The intent or purpose thereof is that by a spiritual union of Christ with us we may fulfill the Law For because Christ and his Members are united by this Spirit and so become one mystical body therefore what Christ hath done in obedience to the Law must be accounted as our obedience and so imputed to us that because he hath performed the Law we also in him have performed it The Apostle tels us a 2 Cor. 13. 5. Jesus Christ is in you and b Gal. 2. 20. Christ liveth in me and c Eph. 3. 17. Christ may dwell in our hearts And Christ himself saith d Matth. 28 20. I am with you alway even unto the end of the world And the Apostle again e Gal. 3. 28. Ye are all one in Christ Jesus And that we may know that when we have the Spirit of Jesus in us then we have also the Lord Jesus himself in us Another Apostle tels us f 1 John 4. 13. Hereby know we that we dwell in him and he in us because he hath given us of his Spirit But how shall it appear That the putting of Christ into us is the putting of the Law of God into our hearts The Answer is That Christ is the Law there meant and he is called the Law and is really the Law * Moses is called by Phâ—lo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 much more is Christ so and not only so but he is moreover The Law with all advantages to us for he is the Law fulfilled That Christ is called the Law the Psalmist tels us a Psal 2. 7. Rom. 8. 2. I will preach the Law whereof the Lord hath said unto me Thou art mâ— Son Here the Son is called the Law or Precept of the Lord. Then that Christ is the Law fulfilled or the fufilling of the Law Of him it is said in another Psalm b Psal 40 10. Heb. 10. 7 In the volume of thy Book it is written of me that I should fulfill thy will O my God I am content to do it yea thy Law is within my heart And this Christ himself professed c Mat. 5. 17. I am not come to destroy but to fulfill the Law This also was signified by his Type the Ark wherein d Heb 9. 4 the Law was put for the Ark represented Christ and the Law in it signified that Christ should keep that Law and this he did perform only to our behoof that his obedience might be accounted ours Upon this reason only it is that the Apostle so confidently saith e Phil. 4. 13. I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me If he can do all things then he can do all the works of the Law But we are well assured that he could not in his own proper person alone considered perform the Law but it must needs be thus only performed by him in and through Christ And in this consideration only Christ is our Rest and Sabbath For this reason our Church prayeth that God would incline our hearts to keep this Sabbath-law which is Christ That by keeping him the whole Law of God may be kept by us through and in him so as is here expressed by having the Law thus written in our hearts Thus this Moral Law which as Divines acknowledge is altogether impossible to the Natural man especially as it is exegetically aggravated and heightened in the Gospel is by this Sabbath made possible and easie to the Matth. 5. Spiritual man so the Apostle tels us a Rom. 10 4. Christ is the end or perfect on of the Law for righteousness to every one that believeth that is He that believeth in Christ hath the benefit of performance of the Law brought home to him So St. Ambrose tels us b Ambr. in loc Perfectionem leg is habet qui credit in Christum CHAP. VIII That Christ is called a Day Why Christ and the seventh day are both called Sabbath The first Institution for keeping holy the seventh day Why the first seventh day of the World is described without Evening and Morning The Sabbath described by Philo Parallel'd with Melchisedech and both Types of Christ IF Jesus Christ be the only Sabbath which is mysteriously covered and spiritually meant and really and ultimately intended in the Moral part of this fourth Commandement as certainly he is because he only is our Redeemer our Mediator and the Peace-maker of God with man We must next enquire how this Sabbath if it be so understood can be called a Day as here it is Remember the Sabbath day for by this word Day a man may reasonably-imagine that the principal intendment of this Precept was only for the Celebration or Sanctifying of a day as the Jewes do yet think and many good Christians among us do still though erroneously believe although they agree not in the self same day with the Jews Their reason is because not only in this former part of the fourth Commandement which I have shewed to be a Morall Natural and an everlasting Law but also in the latter words annexed which are a part of the Law ceremonial and therefore but temporal and transient it is also said The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God by which words a man at first hearing would think that the Sabbath in both parts of this Law is nothing else but a day for if the seventh day be a Sabbath why may not the Sabbath be thought to be a Seventh day 1. Our Answer is That the seventh day is called a Sabbath because it was a type and figure of our true Sabbath and Rest which is Christ as the Jews corporal rest was but a figure of our spiritual rest in Christ And because it was so appointed for a figure or sign therefore it hath the name of the thing figured or signified thereby as other signs and types have for so the Paschal Lamb is called the Passover yet we know Christ only is the true Passover as the Apostle tels us 1 Cor. 5. 7. So the Rock is called Christ 1 Cor. 10. 4. So of the Eucharistical bread it is said This is my body though it was but a Sacrament or holy sign of the body of Christ And the seven Eares are seven Yeares Gen. 41. 26. Just so the seventh day is the Sabbath that is the sign type and figure of the mysterious Sabbath which is Christ 2. As the sign hath
be of things indifferent onely or though against some Laws of God which are but meerly ceremoniall as working on the Jewish Sabbath was then servants must obey actively but if their commands be against the Morall Law of God the servant must in no wise perform his master's command nor obey him therein otherwise than passively by bearing his punishment patiently In this case we have Christ's own direction concerning parents He that loveth father or mother more Mat. 10. 37. Luk. 14. 26. than me is not worthy of me And If any man come to me and hate not his father and mother yea and his own life also he cannot be my disciple For although it is not lawfull in any case to hate the persons of our parents otherwise than we must hate or sleight our own lives or souls yet in obedience to God we may and must hate and detest their pernitious commands 4. If this seventh-day Sabbath had been in force from the first seventh day of the world as some have too hotly and unadvisedly affirmed and if the Israelites in their Aegyptian bondage had been thereby obliged to Sabbatize as they must have been if it had been a Morall Law they must have obeyed God rather than men notwithstanding the Aegyptian rigour towards them But surely they had never heard of such Sabbatizing untill they were delivered out of Aegypt For when they petitioned Pharaoh by Moses to have leave to go into the desart three daies journey to sacrifice Exod. 5. 3. it seemed but a pretence for idlenesse and much more would their weekly Sabbatizing have been accounted by him who never had heard of any such thing For surely neither Jacob nor Joseph nor any of those other Patriarks Sabbatized while they continued in Aegypt which they might have done at their first comming and also during the great authority of Joseph and also would if any such morall Law had been imposed on them Therefore if they had neglected their Exod. 5. 4. Bricks upon an allegation of Sabbatizing not onely the inferiour Israelites but even Moses himself and Aaron also had been relegated as one saith Plaut in Asin Apud Fustitudinas Ferri-crepinas insulas Ubi v. vos homines mortu◠incursant boves But in the Babylonish Captivity when this seventh day-Sabbath was actually in force although no doubt the captive Jews were commanded and forced and therefore did work on this seventh day yet they did not offend God thereby because that Law was but ceremoniall and so must give place to necessity and to the great inconvenience of force and stripes In that book intituled Quaestiones Vet. Novi Testamenti which goes under the name of St. Austin The Author very judiciously thus writeth a Aug. parte 2. quaest 23. To. 4. Quod semper non licet non habet excusationem Sabbatum non observare quand que excusationem habet sed Adulterium c. nunquam i. e. That which to do is alwayes unlawful cannot be excused from sin upon any colour whatsoever but the breaking of the Jewish Sabbath-day in some cases is excusable whereas the transgression of the Moral Lawes of God as by Idolatry Perjury Murder Adultery c. is not at all to be excused in any case Thus this Writer evidently sheweth that the Jewish Seventh-day Sabbath was none of the Moral Lawes of God 5. Finally Let it be considered that these words Thou thy Son Servant Cattel and Stranger are not placed at the beginning of this fourth Commandement as Remember is nor mentioned until the Moral part of this Law was described and finished But they are with great wisdome warily reserved to be put into the Ceremonial part thereof because they do not belong to the Moral Sabbath which commandeth the keeping holy or the sanctifying of the Messiah for Cattel cannot sanctifie this Moral Sabbath Nor was there any need of requiring Parents or Masters to cause their Sons or Servants so to do because the Son and Servant were by themselves bound to it and if they did not the sin was in themselves and not in the Parent or Master For the Moral Sabbath which is Christ the Messiah might be kept holy or sanctified by Servants even in the midst of their sorest labours As our Christian Martyrs did keep this Sabbath even in the time when they laboured in the Mettal-mines and also in the midst of flames and other agonies Whereas the Ceremonial or Seventh-day-Sabbath is here appointed to be kept by resting from ordinary works without any mention of any other kind of sanctification which not only Servants and the most ignorant Ideots but Cattel also might keep For so the Heathen Romans had a Festival which they called a Ovid. Fast l. 2. Festum Stultorum And at Syracusa in Sicilie there was a Festival called b Plut. in Nicia Dies Asinarius And among the Greeks a Ovid. Fast l. 2. Feast which they called c Athaeneus l. 3. Porcalia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And another they called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i e. The Feasts of Fools Asses Swine and Dogs So indeed the Jewish Seventh-day Rest or Sabbath was not only for Masters and Servants but also for Cattel as requiring only bodily Rest which therefore Bishop Andrews doubted not to call d B. Andr. Cat. on the 4th Com. Sabbatum Boum Asinorum In a word the Ceremonial Sabbath belonged not only to Men but to Cattel also who had their interest therein Therefore those words Servants and Cattel are joyntly placed in the ceremonial part of this Commandement and not in the morall part thereof with the Memento But the true Moral and Mysterious Sabbath which is Christ belongeth only to Mankind which the great Prophet doth therefore thus describe e Isa 58. 13. Si vocaveris Sabbatum Delicatum Sanctum Domini gloriosum glorificaveris eum i. e. If thou call the Sabbath a Delight the holy of the Lord Honourable and shalt honour him Here the Sabbath is described as a Person and not as only a day as is before observed And these Titles of Delight and Holy of the Lord and Honourable belong only to Christ who is indeed the only true reall and substantiall Sabbath both of God and Man The Stranger or Gentile includeth all other Nations besides the Jews even us Christians also and so the Jews at this day account us but as Gentiles and Strangers although the wall of partition between them and us is broken Eph. 2. 14. down But we Gentiles do at this day keep the true Moral Sabbath which is Christ so do not the Jews And the Jews keep the Saturday shadowie and ceremonial-Sabbath unseasonably now when it is out of date but so do not we Christians except there be any left among us that judaize CHAP. XIX The Exposition continued How God is said to have made all in six dayes and yet that he ended his Work on the Seventh day Why the Creation was
put the appellation of Sabbath upon Christ for as the Son of God considered in his pure Divinity and without and before his incarnation is called The Lord of hosts Isa 1. 9. Jer. 11. 20. which in the New Testament is rendered The Lord of Sabaoth Rom. 9. 29 Jam. 5. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which word Sabaoth is by some Divines a Polan p. 140. affirmed to be one of the names of God So the Church of England accounteth it and ascribeth it to every one of the Three Persons in the Hymn singing Holy Holy Holy Lord God of Sabaoâ—h And so it was heretofore esteemed in this Kingdome as we perceive by an odd story of one of the Bishops of London reported by Bâ—shop Godwin out of Matthew Paris thus As this Bishop lay musing in his Bed he heard an unknown voyce saing to him O Gilberte Foliot Dumrevolvis tot tot Deus tuus est Astarot The Bishop presently and undantedly replyed Menâ—â—ris Daemon Deus meus est Deus Sabaoth If therfore the Lord of Sabaoth were the name of the Son of God before his commng in the flesh which name signifieth the Lord of Armies as if by this name it were signified that the Godhead was at defiance and warr with mankind before our Peace-maker appeared for us Then why should we doubt to affirm that The Lord of the Sabbath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mat. 12. 8. Mar. 2. 28. Lu. 6. 5. is the name of the same Son of God since he is become The Son of man and God incarnate and Emmanuel And this in order to be a person fitly prepared and qualified to perform the law for us and to suffer for our Transgressions as a Redeemer a Saviour and procurer of an everlasting Sabbath and Rest to our otherwise unquiet restless and troubled souls and consciences As also himself professeth Mat. 11. 28. Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you Rest And ye shall find Rest unto your souls Surely every good Christian will find that to be true which one said to the same purpose a Aug. confess Inquietum est Domine cor meum doneâ— requiescat in te i. e. My heart is unquiet O Lord until it may find rest in thee Now if that Sabbath mentioned in this Commandment be not meant of Christ then there is no precept in all the Decalogue of faith in Christ without which the Law is to us impossible we should be Restless And further also If that Sabbath do not signify Christ then have we Christians no Sabbath at all and if so what will become of us But we are assured by the great Apostle that although the Jewish Ceremonial Seaventh-day-Sabbath be quite gon yet Heb. 4. 9. There remaineth a Rest to the people of God This rest is there called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. a Sabbath or Sabbatism And that it may appear to what people of God this Sabbath appertaineth he tels us before Vers 3. We which have believed do enter into Rest Therefore this Sabbath or Rest belongeth to us Christians He further addeth vers 6 They to whom it was first preached entred not in because of unbeleif The Rest or Sabbath here mentioned must needs signify Christ The Jews are they to whom this rest was first preached that is to whom the Gospel of Christ was preached as Christ commanded Luk. 24. 47. to begin at Jeâ—usalem The Jews entred not into this Rest because of their unbelief i. e. they could not be received into the body mystical of Christ as members thereof because they did not believe in him but rejected him But the Apostles other faithfull Chrisians do enter into this Rest through faith as it is said We which have believed do enter that is they enter into Christ they are united with him thereby obtain this Râ—st so partake in the benefits which Christ merited by his most holy life and precious death And those benefits are indeâ—d our everlasting Sabbath For what can be so truly called a Rest and Sabbath as our repose resting in the Lord which leadeth us to an everlasting Sabbath in heaven For all our restings or Sabbatizings which are Earthly are but as dreams in respect of our Rest in Christ for he is that Sabbath whose Rest is called Blessedness and his after this mortal life is ended as we read Rev. 14. 13. Blessed are the dead which dy in the Lord-that they may rest from their labours The Apostle in that place Heb. 4. useth two several words for Rest 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Rest and Sabbath This he did because he was to speak of two several Rests 1. The Earthly Rest of the Israelites after they were put into quiet possession of Canaan by Joshuah who is there called Jesus 2. The everlasting Rest of Gods People by entring into Christ through Faith and this Rest is called Sabbatism so that Sabbath and Sabbatism do plainly signifie Christ and our Rest in him For confirmation hereof it is worth our observation That the great Prophet Isaiah c. 58. v. 12. speaketh of the Sabbath as of a Person If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath from doing thy pleasure on my holy-day and shalt honour him He calls the Sabbath Him which must signifie a Person and cannot be said of a meer Day Who is meant by this Him is declared in the next verse to be the Loâ—d for so it followeth Then shalt thou delight thy self in the Lord. So that the Sabbath here meant is the Lord even the same Lord who in the Gospel calls himself The Lord of the Sabbath whereas other typical Sabbaths whether weekly or annual were but signs of this grand Sabbath as we are taught by another great Prophet Ezek. 20. 12. I gaâ—e them my Sabbaths to be a sign between me and them that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctifie them St. Paul to me seemeth to make this Doctrine evident and past exception when he saith Col. 2. 16. Let no man judge you in meat or drink or in respect of an holy-day or of the new-moon or of the Sabbath-days which are a shadow of things to come but the body is of Christ What can be more plainly said then this to shew That Christ is the true real and substantial Sabbath And that all other Sabbaths are but signs types figures and meer shadows of Christ who is the Body that projecteth these shadows for God himself had so said before concerning the seventh day Sabbath which only is that type which is mentioned in this fourth Commandment Exod. 31. 13. Verily my Sabbath ye shall keep for it is a sign between me and you that ye may know that I am the Lord So this which was the principal and most frequent Sabbath of all was no more but a sign and what the signatum i. e. the signification of it was is shewed to