SABBATUM The Mystery of the Sabbath DISCOVERED Wherein The Doctrine of the Sabbath according to the Scriptures and the Primitive Church is declared The Sabbath Moral and Ceremonial are described and differenced What the Rest of God signified and wherein it consisted The fourth Commandment expounded What part of the fourth Commandment is Moral and what therein is Ceremonial Something occasionally concerning the Christian Sunday By EDM. PORTER B. D. Somtime fellow of St John's Colledge in Cambridge and Prebend of Norwich Aug. Cont. Adimant c. 2. Tom 6. Sabbatum non repudiatum est sed intellectum à Christianis Epiphan Haer. 30. Christus est magnum illud Sabbatum perpetuum Cuius figura erat parvum Sabbatum quod inserviebat usque ad ipsus adventum Prudent in Apotheosi En tibi Christum Infelix Judaea deum qui Sabbata solvens Terrea Mortales aeterna in Sabbata sumpsit Origen in Math. Tract 29. Venient autem Dominus noster Sabbatum nostam requies nostra attulit nobis requiem Sabbati sui c. London Printed for Charles Webb and are to be sold at the Bore's Head in St Paul's Church-yard To the Right Honourable THOMAS Lord Richardson Baron of Cramond AND To the truly Noble and Vertuous Lady the Lady ANNE Richardson his right worthy Consort PEACE and TRUTH RIGHT HONOURABLE OF all the mistakes and misunderstandings of men in the grand Mysteries of our Religion there is none that may more deservedly be put into the catalogue of popular and almost universall errors then the erroneous conceivings and misapprehensions of the doctrine of the Sabbath wherein not onely the Antient and Modern Jews but also many Christians both learned and lewd did and do alike erre Insomuch that now of late the old saying is come to passe Communis error facit jus for we have lived to see Sabbatarian errors to be grown up into a Law and to be confirmed And the very appllation of Sabbath which in the Moral part of the fourth Commandment signifies Christ our Redeemer and in the latter or Ceremonial part of the said Commandment signifies the seventh day from the Creation or last day of the week to be applied to our Sunday which is the first day of the week and the eighth from the Creation And this even by many Preachers some of them being very learned whereby the lesse learned sort of Christians are misled into the same error with the Jews who would see no further into the great mystery of the Sabbath than onely the consecrating of the seventh day as ours at this time do the eighth day And neither of them will be as yet perswaded to look more deeply into that most divine and gracious Law of the Sabbath The principall misleader into these errours in our daies is I conceive that otherwise pious and learned Book entituled The Practise of Piety the right Author whereof I think is concealed A late a Advice to a Son Writer thinketh that it hath been too oft printed because as he saith it is contrary to the Church Protestant in the doctrine of the Sacrament b pag. 513. 515. Edit 32. I think it far more contraâ—y to â—he Church Catholick in the Doctrine of the Sabbath which word Sabbath this Writer not onely applies to our Sunday but also labours vehemently with multitudes of Arguments unnecessary uncogent and also untrue to prove it the Sabbath meant in the fourth Commandment Seneca saiâ—h c Sen. lib 3 Cont. 22. Suspectus est judici qui plus quam se defendit Verily his over-many vain prooss and superfluous pleadings may to a judicious Reader make his cause to be suspected the more either of error or which is worse of designe and collusion For some of our own learned Writers have long ago declared in their printed Books that the late or yesterday use of calling our Sunday The Sabbath was set on foot by that sort of men who have made it their trade to asperse both the Doctrine and the Discipliâ—e of this Church on purpose to please and accommodate those turbulent spirits that have for a long time waited for an opportunity to make a prey thereof And these their instruments may justly be suspected to carp at this Church for their own designes as Politian saith of one of his opposits d Polit. l. 7 Epist 2. Non ideò me carpit ut carpat sed ut victum quaerat And indeed our Zelot Sabbatarians by such practises have of late well feathered their nests though with the ruine of the most renowned Church in the world but alitèr non fiunt Floralia And they have moreover abused the present State with this word Sabbath whereby our Sunday is of late re-baptized or Turkened into a Sabbath which our former Parliaments in their Statutes in the daies of our fore-fathers and untill the reign of our late gracious King Charls of blessed memory and inclusively and the Church of England also for weighty reasons called by none other name but Sunday But such things need not seem strange when the Nobles and Worthies of David and also the Sage and Reverend Aaronites and their Learned Levites are excluded from the Sanedrim As for the appellation of Sabbath so misapplied to our Sunday no authority of Scripture can with any colour of right reason be alledged either directly or derivatively from thence The Jews that were converted and made up a Body of the Primitive Church and first began the celebration of this day did never call it Sabbath nor did any Apostle so call it nor indeed any of the antient Fathers nor was this day meant by * Sabbatum Christianum Origen who is untruly said to have called it The Christian Sabbath as will appear in this a Chap. 4. Book As for the other late and new name of Lord's Day which they would derive from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Apocalyps Rev. 1. 10. because our English Translation doth so render those words which yet they will not bear the right reddition whereof is not The Lord's Day but The Dominicall day as our Englishmen generally ever did before and yet do call the Sunday-Letter not The Lord's day Letter but The Dominicall Letter And the Western Church in all Ages called this day either Dies Solis or Dominica For in Scriptures the Lord's Day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are all one and are often used by St. Paul and St. Peter and are 1 Cor. 5. 5 Phil. 1 10. 2 Pet. 3. 10. rightly rendred The Day of the Lord and The Day of Christ but in a far different signification from that which these men now call the Lord's Day for those words signifie The Great Day of Universall Judgment Besides a judicious Reader will consider how harshly and uncouthly this appellation sounds for when they speak of many Sundayes they call them Two Three or Four Lord's Dayes as if we had more Lord's daies than
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-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-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-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-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
also Secondly Rest Spirituall which consisteth in the quiet and tranquillity of our minds and consciences when we are freed and quitted from the disturbing perturbations of our Consciences and turbulent horrors of our Souls upon consideration of our sinns and fear of divine vengeance This Spirituall rest is not confined to a Seaventh day only but is a continuall Rest or Sabbath to every holy Christian St. Austin saith a Aug. de Genesi ad lit l. 4. c 13. Fidelium perpetuum Sabbatum observatur i. e. The faithfull keep a continuall Sabbath And again he saith b Ibid. in Psal 91. Nostrum Sabbatum est in tranquillitate conscientiae est gaudium spei nostrae-intus est in corde Sabbatum nostrum i. e. The Christian mans Sabbath consisteth in the quietnesse and tranquillity of his conscience-It is the joyfulnesse of our hope Our Sabbath is inward residing in our heart We are also taught by St. Jerom that the Jewish Seventh day Rest was but a meer figure of the Christians Rest c Hieron Tom. 9. 11. n. 40. Judaeis Sabbatum in ocio corporali significabat sanctificationem in requie Spiritâ—s sancti i. e. The Sabbath which the Jews observed by a corporal rest did signify a Sanctification of the rest wrought by the Holy-ghost And Origen tells us d Orig. in Math. â—ract 29. Qui vivit in Christo semper sabbatizat a peccato i. e. He that doth live or abide in Christ doth alwayes Rest from sin His meaning is not that a Christian is alwaies without sin but that the infirmities of holy men do not discontinue or extinguish their resting in the mercies of God through Christ that they are freed from the dispairing terror of Damnation This is the true real and spirituall Sabbath or rest in Christ to which we are exhorted by old Ignatius e Inat ep ad Magnesianos Non Sabbatizemus Judaico mâ—râ—-sed Sabbatizemus spiritualiter i. e. That we should not deceive our selves by keeping a Sabbath day only as the Jewes did but to apprehend thereby a more excellent spirituall Sabbath viz. the true rest of our souls in Christ So bâ— these pâ—ssâ—ges we learn that there is not only a day Sabbath of externall and corporall rest to be considered in the Scriptural doctrine of Sabbaâ—hs but moreover principally a secret mysterious and spiritual Rest or Sabbath which is the Grand Sabbath whereof the other Sabbaths are but meer figures and shadows For the more clear understanding of the difference of these two sorts of Sabbaths we must inquire of the Originall of them as when and by what law they were inacted And this we cannot with plainness set forth but by examining the severall kinds of lawes imposed upon the Jewes whereby the Sabbath was both established in the judiciall commonwealth and is also binding to us Christians Wherein I shall not need to meddle with the Sabbath of years which was every Seaventh year wherein the whole land rested from husbandry Nor with the Jubilean Sabbath which was every fiftieth yeare when old owners returned to their ancient inheritances But our inquiry must must only be for the authority of the Saturday weekly or 7th-day Sabbath with the signification meaning and mystery thereof and what that true reall substantiall and spirituall Sabbath is which was but only typified by the Seventh-day Sabbath For the Jewish lawes we find 3 several diferent sorts of them viz. 1 Morâ—l 2. Ceremonial 3. Judiciall by all which the Sabbath is established all which lawes are distinctly mentioned as Expositors say by those words of Moses Deut. 6. 1. Now these are the Commandments the Statutes and the Judgments which the Lord your God commanded to teach you The ancient Latine Translation thus renders them 1. Praecepta to signifie the ten commandments 2. Ceremoniae to signifie the ceremoniall or Leviticall lawes 3. Judicia to signify the lawes Judiciall My designe of discoursing of them requires that I begin with the lawes Judiciall 1 The judicial Law 1. The Judicial law of the Jewes is such as we now call the law Politick Civill Common or Statute-law ordained for the ordering and governing of the commonwealth by this law punishments were enacted to be inflicted on the transgressors both of these judicial laws and also upon them that transgressed other lawes for by it Sabbath-breakers were punished with death Ex. 31. 14. And Ex. 35. 2. The gatherer of sticks on the Sabbath day is stoned to death Num. 15. 35. Idolaters are adjudged to be utterly destroyed Ex. 22. 20. To curse Father or Mother was death Levit. 20. 10. Bearing false witnes in matters capital was death Deut. 19. 18. 19. This judiciall I say appointed punishments for the transgressors of the other sorts of lawes when in those other lawes no punishment was mentioned for transgressours As in the ten commandments we find no visible nor temporal penalty mentioned for the sins of Idolatry Sabbath-breaking Dishonorers of Parents adulterers or falsewitnesses the punishment being either reserved to God or referred to the laws Judiciall or Politick There are some that have thought fit that these judicial laws of Moses should with some additions be made the laws Politick of Christians But I conceave that those laws are now most unfit for any Christian kingdome or State nor can they now have any binding power over us by vertue of that authority which they had from Moses or through him from God for these resons 1. Because they were ordained only for the Jewes commonwealth whilest it stood without any intention to continue them any longer 2. Many of them were enacted purposely to serve for the discovery of the Messiah to be an evidence of the fulfilling of some Prophecies which concerned the Tribe genealogy of Christ before his actuall manifestation in the flesh 3. Many of them are but Typicall therefore not to be used now since the Types are fullfiled by Christ the Antitype so that now they must needs be antiquated and quite out of date as well as all the other Leviticalls or ceremonialls which are typicall lawes are and ought to be disused such as Circumcision Sacrifices and New-moons c. 4. These judicialls would not be convenient for the very Jewes themselves now since the Death of Christ although they had to this day continued a People and State in their owne Country and City because the practise of these lawes would still harden them in their infidelity against the true Messiah as we see their Sabbatizing and Circumcising yet do Much lesse can they be fit for us Christians because of many and great inconveniences which would ensue thereupon Such as these 1. If the Jewish 7th year-year-Sabbath were in force with us wherein the whole land was to rest from Tillage and Husbandry as is commanded Ex. 23 11. and Levit. 25. 4. how many thousands of poor people would be famished and the richer people undone Indeed God did extraordinarily provide in such years
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-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
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-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-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
Sabbath which in the fourth Commandment is so strictly required and that with a Memento also more than any other Commandment as being indeed the greatest of them all and most nearly concerning our everlasting Rest and Happiness as hereafter will appear CHAP. V. Of the Fourth Commandment what part of it is moral and what 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 middle of the Commandments How the whole law is performable by men FOr the right understanding of this great mysterious Sabbath we must first diligently examin the words of the fourth Commandment which I here set down fully as I find them recorded Ex. 20. 8. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy Six dayes shalt thou labour and do all thy work But the seaventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God in it thou shalt not do any work thou nor thy Son nor thy Daughter thy man-servant nor thy maid-servant nor thy Cattel nor the stranger that is within thy Gates For in six dayes the Lord made heaven and earth the sea and all that in them is and rested the seaventh day wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it All our learned Divines generally agree thus farr that this Commandment is partly Moral so that the Moral part thereof is to be obeyed and kept at this day and also during the continuance of the world They also agree that part of it is Ceremonial appertaining only to the Jewes and binding them to the observation thereof until their Mâ—ssiah came in the flesh and was made known unto that people or during the Pedagogie of them or at most during the Judaical state and politie All this I conceive to be very true But the main difficulty consisteth onely in the right dividing this Commandment by seperating the Moral and everlasting part from that part which is but Ceremonial and temporal and typical Which that I may truely and Christianly perform I here most earnestly implore the assistance and illumination of thy Divine spirit O gratious Lord Jesus that in this needfull and concerning mystery I may appeare to thee and to thy Church as thy servant Paul exhorted Timothie a workman rightly dividing the word of truth For the understanding whereof I here present â— Tim. 2. 15. to the Consideration of the pious and learned Reader What after much labour of mind and long deliberation and after diligent and serious Consulation with the Ancient Fathers I have conceived to be the true and most necessary meaning of this Commandment and what is the right Division or Seperation of the Moral Mysterious and Perpetuall part thereof from that which is only Typicall Ceremoniall and Temporall And what part of that precept bindeth us Christians to observe it as it did also the Ancient Israelites and the Patriarks and Prophets and even Adam himselfe and all his posterity And also what part thereof was proper to and concerned only the Mosaicall or Judaical people and doth not at all concern the Christians or Gentiles nor did in the least oblige the Patriarks which lived and died before the dayes of Moses The want or neglect of a right distinction of these differing parts of this Commandment in our later Theological Writers hath occasioned much trouble heart-burnings and Schisms among Christians and also many Phraisaicall curiosities in the observation of an eighth day Sabbath Which was never intended to be put upon the people of God by this 4th Commandement And moreover it hath also obscured the most needfull most holy and Mysterious Sabbath Spirituall by which we only can expect an eternall and heavenly Sabbath and salvation of our Souls and bodies For many good pious and well-meaning Christians are hereby mislead into the same arror and mistake that the Jews were in by thinking that the whole and ultimate duty commanded and intended in this 4th Comandement consisteth only in keeping holy One day of Seaven Which is but a very mean and low conceipt and far short of the High and Weighty intendment of that Precept and is also a very stumbling Block in the way to retard men from apprehending the true Sabbath therein secretly and mysteriously Veiled Which is Christ Who only is the everlasting Sabbath or Rest both of the Godhead and also of us Men. It is now time that I set down plainly what I conceive to be the Moral part of this Commandment and in what words it is contained that so it may appear how much of that long Precept concerneth us at this day and is an everlasting Law and a law Naturall and Written in Mans heart and binding not only Christians and Jews but Heathens and even all Nations as also it did all the Patriarchs before Moses was born and before it was written in stone These are the words Ex. 20. 8. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy In these few words is contained the whole Morality of that Law So that no more of the words are to be accounted Moral or binding us for all the following words are but a branch of the Ceremoniall law And although they are here joyned with the truly Moral Sabbath and also by the same God written in the same Tables of Stone Notwithstanding this will not make them to be a Moral law because they are so annexed for this reason only to serve as a Type and figure of the Grand Sabbath To keep the Israelites mindfull by a weekly Sabbath or rest of that everlasting Rest which they were to expect in their Messiah and not otherwise For now we see that all learned Divines have rejected and the whool Christian world have long since disused the old Jewish Typical or seaventh-Seaventh-day Sabbath These later words which are so annexed to the fourth Morall Law are to be considered by themselves in their proper place but for present we must insist only on the former words which I have affirmed to be truly moral and an everlasting law For the understanding whereof the Reader may observe divers things Considerable and some of them proper and peculiar to this Commandment so as not to be found in any other of the Nine 1. In those words recited There is no mention of the Seaventh day for that was meerly Typical and Ceremonial but the Sabbath-day Therefore surely there must be understood some other Sabbath day besides the Seventh day Sabbath for otherwise it had bin enough to have said Remember the Seaventh day to keep it holy But the Seaventh day is one thing and the Sabbath day is another They differ as much as Shadow and Substance as Type and Antitype as Signum Signatum i. e. as the bare signe from that which is signified thereby for the Jewish Seaventh-day-Sabbath which was but only a signe and shadow of the Substantial Mysticall and Spiritual Sabbath which is Christ 2. To this
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
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-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.
17. Christ The Reader may further observe that it is not here said The seventh day was the Sabbath but Is in the present tense and this because God never declared that the seventh day should be observed untill the daies of Moses although the Godhead did ever from the first seventh day acquiesce in Christ and not onely upon the seventh day but every day and every minute and so will do to eternity when no distinction of daies shall be any more but one everlasting day Therefore they are mistaken that think the seventh day to have been appointed to be observed on the first seventh day of the world as a Sabbath for in all the Histories of the Patriarks before the Flood and also after the Flood in the Mosaicall History of Noah Abraham Isaac and Jacob the Reader will never find the word Sabbath so much as once mentioned untill Moses wrote the History of his own time which was about 24 hundred years after the creation of the world We observe also that in St. Jerom according to the Originall and generally in all the Latin Writers Calvin and all these words are otherwise read than our English Translation hath rendred them for we read them thus The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God but they Septimo die Sabbatum Domini Dei tui est i. e. On the seventh day the Sabboth of the Lord thy God is By these words it may appear that the seventh day was not the true and reall Sabbath here meant but that the celebration and memoriall of the Morall Sabbath was to be performed on the seventh day so that the Sabbath and the seventh day are two distinct things and differ as much as substance and shadow For the Rest of God in Christ is the true Sabbath both of God and men and the corporall rest of men was no more but onely the memoriall and celebration thereof Just so the Fathers spake concerning the great Christian Festivall of the Nativity of Christ on the 8th of the Kalends of January or 25th of December a Cyp. n. 99 Adest Christi Nativitas And b Orig. n. 46. Hieron n. 41. Hodie verus Sol mundo ortus est And c Chrys n. 61. Deus hodie factus est homo And d Aug. de Temp. Ser. 16. Hodie natus est Christus i. e. Now is the Nativity of Christ come This day the true Sun is risen This day was God made Man To day was Christ born In all which passages every one knows that these Fathers meant not that Christ was really born on that very particular day wherein they spake or wrote these words but onely that the celebration of his Nativity was performed on that day So it is here the seventh day was not the true reall and morall Sabbath but onely the day appointed for the memoriall and celebration of that Sabbath for the true Sabbath was the rest of God and men in Christ and the seventh day was the time appointed for the celebration thereof Nazianzen saith of Christian Festivalls e Naz. O. rat 39. Festi celebratio est memoria Dei i. e. Christian Festivals are but memorials of God So God himself said of the Sabbath-Feast Verily my Sabbath ye shall keep for it is a signe between me and you that ye may know that I am the Lord JEHOVA that doth sanctifie you In it thou shalt not do any work First this branch doubtlesse belongeth onely to the Ceremoniall Jewish or seventh-seventh-day Sabbath but not at all to the true substantiall Sabbath and therefore it doth not in the least concern us Christians by vertue of this Law because the seventh day or saturday-Saturday-Sabbath is antiquated and quite gon 2. If this branch did belong to the Morall Sabbath or if the sanctifying of the seventh day were the onely Sabbath meant in this Commandment surely it would be a great sin to do any of the prohibited works on that day in any case of necessity or inconvenience because the Morall Law of God is indispensable and so may not be transgressed upon any pretence whatsoever as is before shewed 3. If this branch were Morall it must needs be in force at this day and then No fire must be kindled Exod. 35. 3. No sticks gathered Numb 15. 32. Nor Manna Exod. 16. 26. No burden carried Neh. 13. 19. Jer. 17. 21. No journeying or going out of our place Exod. 16. 29. No harvest-work Exod. 34. 21. In a word we might not feed our Cattle or milk our Kine or draw a Beast out of a pit nor perform the works of Surgery of Midwifery or quench a burning house But if we can shew that such works were done on the seventh day and also that they are sufficiently warranted to be inoffensive to God then I trust the Reader will perceive that this prohibition of works doth not at all belong to the keeping of the true morall and everlasting Sabbath but onely to the Jewish sanctifying of their ceremoniall and temporall Sabbath And therefore this Law was dispensable in case of necessity or of charitable convenience as may thus appear 1. The Israelites performed the works of Journeying and War in their marching about â—ericho seven daies together one of them must be the Sabbath day This was done by God's expresse command in the Old Testament And in the New Testament there is also expresse mention of a Sabbath day's journey Act. 1. 12. 2. The Priests in the Temple carried fuell and kindled fires offered Sacrifices and baked bread and so as Christ said they profaned Mat. 12. 5. the Sabbath that is the seventh day or ceremoniall Sabbath and yet were blamelesse And this because there was a necessity laid on them even the commandment of God who yet would not have so commanded against his own morall Law 3. As for carrying burdens we know Christ commanded the impotent man to take Joh. 5. 8. take up his bed And for Cures himself performed many on the Sabbath day on set purpose to undeceive the Jews in their Sabbaticall and Pharisaicall superstitions And also excused his own Disciples for gathering corn on the Sabbath 4 As for the works of mercy and charity towards our brethren and even to our poor cattle how many generall precepts have we A righteous man regardeth the life of his Prov. 12. 10. Mat. 12. 11 beast It is Christ's own orgument If a sheep may be lifted out of a pit on the Sabbath day much more may a man in danger be holpen This he grounded on the Word of God by his Prophet Hos 67. I will have mercy and not sacrifice That is God will rather dispense with his own due for a while then thereby retard the works of mercy and compassion The Psalmist saith O Lord thou preservest â—sal 36. 6. man and beast Thus As Moses cast the two Tables of the Law out of his hands and brake them and yet Exod 32. 19. thereby brake
from the very Creation of man or from that very time when God commanded man to abstain from the Tree of knowledg And yet in this Assertion I shall not in the least gainsay the Doctrine of those Ancient and most learned Fathers as a Iust dial cum Tryph. Tert. Adv. Iudaeos Euseb de Demonst lib 1. c. 6. Justin Martyr and Tertallian and Eusebius who tells us that neither Adam nor Enoch nor Noah nor Melchisdeck did ever Sabbatize And b Athanas in Synopst Athanasius also who affirmed very truely That the observation of the 7th day sabbath be an not untill the dayes of Moses All which I firmly beleeve to be true provided that we understand their Assertion in the same sense that they meant it viz of the hebdomary weekly or 7th day Sabbath which verily is not that Sabbath which is meant mysteriously implied in the fourth Commandment For the Sabbath which in the fourth commandment is required to be Sanctified is the true substantiall mysticall and eternall Sabbath which is the Son of God the Messiah the great Peace-maker even the Lord Jesus Christ of which true Sabbath the Jewish Leviticall Ceremoniall or seaventh-day Sabbath was but a meer shadow type or figure which shadow is now vanished as other legal shadows are such as Circumcision and Sacrifices both which were farr more ancient then the weekly Sabbath was whereas the Sabbath meant and intended commanded in this 4th commandement was in force and kept by all the holy Patriarks before Moses was born and before it was written in stone it was written in man's heart as all other Moral lawes were and it was and is to last untill the end of this world and in the next world also and not to be Antiquated at all as the seaventh-day Sabbath was and is For the Moral law which was written by the finger of God consisteth of ten Commandments just so many no more nor lesse which number the holy Scripture mentioneth Ex. Ex. 34. 2◠34. 28. Ten commandments or Decem verba Foederis Tenn words And so again Deut. 4. 13. Tenn words or Commandments And God wrote them on two Tables of Stone to signifie the durablenesse of them all and therefore the Moral Sabbath there meant must continue as long and as firmly as any of the other nine We must still have Ten Commandments which is the reason that St. Austin and generally all our Divines to this day call this Moral law Decalogum as consisting of Ten words or Commandments The same Father in his book intituled a Aug. Tom 3. Speculum reciting the Moral law out of Ex. 20. doth quite omit the fourth commandment which is of the Sabbath and this he did because 1. He knew that the Seaventh-day Sabbath was none of the Moral laws of God but that it is totally antiquated and expired 2. Because he perceived that men did mistake the meaning of the true Moral Sabbath by fixing the duety thereby required only on the keeping holy of a day whereas they should have known that the Sabbath there meant is only Christ So that by this misconceit men slighted the Substance and magnified the Shadow for the same Father had said before b Aug. epist 86. Judaeus si sabbatum observando Dominum negat c. i. e. If the Jew by observing his Sabbath day doth thereby deny that his Lord Messiah is come how can the Christian safely observe the Sabbath day And again in his 119. Epistle to c Epist 119. cap. 12. Januarius cap. 12. he thus writeth c. Praeceptum de Sabbato solùm figuratè praecipitur de requie quae in solo Deo certa invenitur-ergo non ad literam jubemur observare diemillum nam nisi aliam Spiritualem requiem significet lex ridenda judicatur i. e. The law of the Sabbath day is only figurative signifying that Sabbath or rest which is no where to be found sure and certain but only in our God Therefore we are not hereby to observe a day as it is literally set down for unlesse some other Spiritual rest be thereby meant that Sabbath law might seem ridiculous Thus he Upon the same reason Isychius of Jerusalem affirmeth That the sabbath day which the Jewes observe is none of the Ten Commandements although it was written among them for the Sabbath there meant signifies d Isych in Levit. lib. 7. c. 26. Requiem intelligibilem saith he i. e. not a Corporal but a spiritual or intelligible Rest which rest is only in our God He added that if we will take the words going before viz I am the Lord thy God that brought thee out of the land of Aegypt for one of the commandments we shall still have Tenn Indeed The mysterious Sabbath which is really meant and intended in the morality of the 4th Commandement is only that God which delivereth us out of not only Egyptian but also Hellish Slavery which deliverance is implied and couched in this word Sabbath so that we need not put out one of the commandments and in the room of it take in a new for preserving the number of of Ten for that number will be found therein without such chopping and we are offended with the Romanists for such practises about these commandments who to hide the second commandement which forbiddeth image-worship have in their Catechisms quite omitted it although it continueth perfectly in their Bibles and to supply the defect they have obtruded the fallacy of Composition in making but one Commandment of the two first And the fallacy of Division in making two of the last as is apparent in their books and particularly in Ledesma's dial p. 81. Ferus libell precat p. 59. 60. the Catechism of Jacobus Ledesma a Jesuite and also of Ferus CHAP. II. The word Sabbath That it signifieth Rest Of the Rest of God and the Rest of man Of our rest Corporal and Spirituall The diffferences of Sabbaths The severall sorts of Jewish lawes which command or enforce the Sabbath The Judicial lawes of the Jewes not fit to be imposed on Christian WHat this word Sabbath signifieth we are certified by two learned Jewes first a Philo. de cherubin Philo saith Sabbatum interpretatur Quies i. e. The interpretation of Sabbath is Rest With him b Ioseph Antiq. l. 1. c. 2. Josephus agreeth Sabbatum significatrequiem i. e. that it signifieth quiet or Rest With them our Christian writers generally consent as Eusebius Nazianzen Epiphanius Jerome Austin The Rest which is signified by this word Sabbath is 1 The Rest of God mentioned Gen. 2. 2. God rested on the 7th day from all his works And so again Ex. 20. 11. How the most blessed Godhead can be said to rest which never laboured or was weary we shall inquire hereafter Secondly The Rest of man and this Rest is of two Sorts First Rest Corporal by ceasing from worldly servile labours on the 7th day both himself his family and his poor beasts
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-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
be the Lord. The Scriptures often mention Sabbaths in the plural number as Lev. 19. 3. Keep my Sabbaths and also Sabbath in the singular numbâ—r and I doubt not but the Jews were charged to keep other Sabbaths as that which is appointed in the Feast of Trumpets Levit. 23. 24. and that in the Feast of Tabernacles Levit. 23 39. and that in the Feast of Atonement Levit. 23. 32. as well as the weekly Sabbath because we find that transgressors of the yearly Sabbath are threatned with destruction as well as the breakers of the weekly Sabbath Levit. 23. 29. But now all these Ceremonial Sabbaths are vanished This being granted it will follow in regard of the authority and perpetuity of the Moral Law of God That there must needs be some one special singular and mysterious Sabbath of greater necessity and concernment to be still kept than all those Hebdomarie or Annual Sabbaths and that surely is Christ The Lord Paramount of all Sabbaths which were but shadows of him Whosoever therefore shall imagine that the keeping of any weekly or yearly Day Sabbath is the principal or only duty required in this Moral Law he is such an one as the Psalmist describeth Psal 397. A man that walketh in a vain shadow It is very considerable and surely for some weighty reason That our Saviour very often in the Evangelical Histories occasionally mentioning these Moral Laws and many of them distinctly and severally yet never spake in the least expresly and openly of the Sabbath Law although that fourth Commandment so far as it is Moral is as necessary to be pressed and rather more than any one or indeed then all the other as is shewed before And yet it is not to be doubted but that he meant and also did covertly press this very Sabbath Law in the true intent and meaning thereof to be for ever carefully observed and sanctified I do not take upon me to render a full account of what moved Christ to forbear the reciting of that Law so openly as he did other Moral Laws of the Decalogue yet it may reasonably be thought that he on design and purpose omitted that Law and indeed all the particular Laws of the first Table because he saw that the Jews did misunderstand that Commandment of the Sabbath and that they were zealously obdurate for keeping the seventh day Sabbath as if that had been the full and only intendment and duty required by that Commandment for if Christ had urged it the Jews had been by him countenanced in their erroneous Sabbatizing which he came to dissolve therefore he forbare the naming of that particular Law and for the same cause he abstained from mentioning any of the other Laws of that Table lest if amongst them this Law should be omitted without any mention the Jews would have been more exasperated against him before his time was come to suffer This omission of the Sabbath Law the Reader may observe Mat. 19. 17. Where Christ said If thou wilt enter into life keep the Commandements And when he was asked Which Commandments he answered Thou shalt not murther nor commit adultery nor steal nor bear false witness and Honour thy Father and Mother and Love thy Neighbour as thy self See the same again Mark 10. 19. and Luke 18. 20. In all which places there is no express mention of the Sabbath Law or of any other Law of the first Table But when he was more strictly questioned by a knowing-man a Lawyer or Scribe being a Professor of the Law Mat. 22. 36. Master which is the greatest Commandment in the Law Yet then he answered him but in general terms including the Laws of both Tables without mentioning any one particular Law of either Table thus Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart c. This includeth all the four precepts of the first Table Sabbath and all He that performeth this doth thereby keep the Sabbath Therefore to love honour and sanctifie our Lord Jesus Christ who is our only Lord God our God Incarnate the Emmanuel our Creator Redeemer and Saviour is to keep this Moral Sabbath for he only is that Sabbath which is mysteriously commanded to be sanctifyed in that Law this Sabbath Law continueth in full force and vigour at this day and so shall to the end of this world and for ever when all other observations of seventh-Days or any other worldly Sabbaths are quite forgotten and vanished for the true intended Sabbath is a Person Christ the Son of God and the Son of man Finally This Commandment which I have set down in these words Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy is certainly a Moral and an everlasting Law This Sabbath if it be confessed to signifie Christ we have what we desire but if it should signifie only the keeping of a Day whether the last day of the week as the Jews think or the first day as some Christians suppose then surely the not keeping of one at least of these two days is a sin and must be so accounted now under the Gospel for the Apostle tells us 1 Ioh. 34. Sin is the transgression of the Law He means the Law Moral But we are well assured that the Gospel doth not account the Not-keeping of both or either of those days to be a sin against the fourth Commandment or against any other of those ten Moral Laws except indirectly and by consequence for in all the New Testament we cannot find such Sabbath-breaking to be so much as once mentioned in any of the black Rolls of sins as other transgressions of all those Commandments are particularly and often by the great Apostle See 1 Cor. 6. 9 Neither Fornicators nor Idolaters nor Adulterers nor effeminate nor abusers of themselves with mankinde nor Theeves nor Covetous nor Drunkards nor Revilers nor Extortioners shall inherit the kingdom of God See more Gal. 5. 19. Uncleanness lasciviousness wiâ—chcraâ—t hatred variance emulations wrath strife seditions heresies envyings murthers revilings and such like See more 1 Tim. 1. 9. Lawless disobedient ungodly and sinnâ—rs unholy and prophane murtherers of fathâ—rs and of motherâ— man-slayers men-stealers such as are now called Spirits â—yars perjured persons Among all this Rabble we find not Sabbath-breakers Yet the abusers or neglecters of the true Moral Sabbath which is Christ are deeply threatned as Judas for betraying him the Jews for crucifying him and All that shall deny him So the Sanctifiers of him are gloriously promised as the confessors of him the believers in him the relievers of him or of his poor Members for his sake to be rewarded with the kingdom of Heaven This is the Scriptural Doctrine concerning the Sabbath-ship of Christ What the Church Catholick conceived thereof is next to be enquired CHAP. VII The Doctrine of the Primitive Church concerning the Sabbath shewed out of Tertullian and other Fathers How the Patriarks kept the Sabbath before the days of Moses The Doctrine of the Church of England
therefore most worthily account and call our Sabbath Yet this is not all for we shall find that Christ is not only the Rest of men but that he is also the Rest of God which is next to be considered CHAP. X. Of Gods Resting That it is not a cessation from working Nor meant of his ending the Creation Nor his laying aside his care and Providence in Government This Rest and Working doe consist together Something concerning the Creation of Humane Souls Of Vniversals what they are and where to be found A Question discoursed Whether God hath created any new kinds of Creatures since the first Seventh day CHrist is our Christian Sabbath we know none other Sabbath besides him for none but he can give sure and lasting Rest to our Souls he only hath wrought our peace with God and appeased the just displeasure of the Godhead he hath effected our Reconciliation and he is that Atonement by which God and man are reunited or set at one By his mediation it is that a Quietus est or Acquittance of our debts is signed by God so that if we can keep this Sabbath holy and persevere therein we may with true comfort and cheerfulness say with the great Apostle Who shall Rom. 8. 33. lay any thing to the charge of Gods Elect It is God that justifieth it is Christ that died Those that teach others or that do imagine That the only duty required by this Sabbath-precept is the sanctifying of a day whether the last day of the week as the Jews do or the first day as some Christians think and therefore presume to call it not only the Lords day which is but a novelty with us in England as is said before but also the Sabbath day They are farre short and beneath the great purpose and intendment of this fourth Commandement and conceive too meanly and lowly of that most high and mysterious Sabbath which signifieth not only the Rest of man from bodily labours but also our rest from labours and terrors of our Conscience and moreover it representeth to us the Rest of God as it is said both in this Commandement and before also Gen. 2. 2. He rested on the Seventh day For to say that God laboured in these six dayes of Creation is a weak and heathenish conceit such as we read in that Epicurean Dispute in Tully a Tull. de Nat. Deor. lib. 1. Si in mundo Deus inest aliquis qui regat qui gubernet qui cursus astrorum muta ionesque temporum rerum vicissitudines or dinesque conservet terrasque maria contemplans hominum commoda vitasque tâ—eatur nae ille est implicatus molestis negotiis operosis If there be a God in this World ruling and ordering it and continuing the motions of the starres and seasons of the years and the various order and changes of times and taking cognisance of the Land and Sea for support of mans life and welfare surely he is a God incumbred with many troublesome and stirring businesses As if the Almighty Demiurgus could not both create and govern this World except he took great pains and labour therein And yet those Christians which say that Gods resting on the Seventh day signifieth only his cessation from that great Work do in a manner affirm the same But the resting of God hath a more high and more noble signification than so as I trust we shall anon make evident In order whereunto these two Queries are to be discoursed 1. What is here meant by Gods resting 2. Why he is said to rest on the Seventh day and not on any of the former six dayes To the first Querie VVhat is meant by 1. Querie Gods resting We say this resting doth not at all signifie or intend any cessation of the Godhead or any suspension or intermission of his operation or working for although it be said He ended his work which he had made and also That he rested from all his works which God had created Gen. 2. 2. yet it is not said that he ceased resting and ceasing are not all one Nor can this Rest be meant of any ease or refreshment of God as after some motion or stirring work or labour for such a rest was needless to him who never laboured at all Nor can it be meant of any weariness of God that were impossible St. Austin saith truly b Aug. de Civit. lib. 12. c. â—â—â— In opere Dei non est labor nec in quiete desidia quiescens agit agens quiescit And again Deus nec creando defessus nec cessando refectus i. e. In Gods working there is no labour nor in his resting any cessation he resteth working and working resteth he was neither weary in creating nor refreshed by ending it Nor can this Rest of God be so understood as if he then laid aside and cast off all care and providence for his Creatures which he had newly made This cannot be imagined by us for all Christians and Heathens also do acknowledge Gods perpetual management and government of the World for he did even that very Seventh day and all other dayes since co-operate with his Creatures by his assistance it is that these great wheels of Heaven are continually turning Nazianzen saith God is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for his perpetual operation Both Divines and Philosophers call God Actum Purum and the Schoolmen call him Natur am natur antem i. e. God is purely Active and he that continually supplieth his Creatures with the ability of Operation which we call Nature for in him we live and move and have our being Of him Act. 17. 28. it is said in St. Austin c De Civ l. 4. c. 12. Deus est anima mundi Mundus est corpus Dei e. i. God is operative in the World so as our souls are in our bodies And the Poet saith of the divine Spirit Spiritus intus alit totamque infusa per artus Virg. Aeâ— 6. Mens agitat molem magno se corpare miscet All which is signed for a Scriptural-truth by St. Paul 2 Cor. 12. 6. God worketh all in all So then this Rest cannot signifie Gods cessation from working nor the withdrawing his Providence from his Creatures But our Neoterick Theologs have found out another Answer and do generally expound this Rest of God to signifie only a cessation from the work of Creation for they say that although God doth continually work or operate or co-operate with his Creatures which are already made yet he doth not create or produce any new Creatures indeed he daily maketh individual or particular Creatures as Men Beasts Fishes Plants and Hearbs hut all these new productions are of the same Species i. e. sort and kind that God made at the first 1. In this Answer we observe two things First It is confessed that this Rest of God is not an absolute cessation from Work but only a cessation
Tacitus reporteth But most barbarously cruell was that fact of Parrhasiâ—s a Painter which is related by k Sen. lib. 5. cont 35. Seneca either as a true History or at least as a case in Law which then was casus dabâ—lis who toâ—tured his captive-servants in flames to death that so he might have a pattern to paint Prometheus by Nor was this all but for an aggravation of their miseries they were so far from being pittied that Poets and Players made them a common argument of publick mirth and derision in open Theaters wherein they were described as l Plautus catenarum coloni ulmorum Acharuns verberea statua Gymnasium flagri Plagipatidae Plagigeruli Sexcentoplagi c. And sometimes were forced to a part in some Tragedy of Phaeton or Hercules burning or of one crucified and in stead of dying in jest they were in earnest really put to death as appeareth by the Spectacula of m Mart. Spect. Ep. 7 Martial And this was done to please the people Thus were the Jews and Heathen-Gâ—ntiles cruell but God was and is mercifull and therefore in consideration of the hard-heartednesse and power of masters over their servants whereby they might by tortures compell them to work on forbidden daies he hath by this Law in such cases laid the transgression and consequently the punishment thereof not on the compelled servant but on the masters own head And there is no doubt but the equity of this ceremoniall Law of the Jews doth also reach the Christians and Gentiles All men are but servants and fellow-servants under one Master who in his Gospell hath thus threatned That servant which shall smite his fellow-servants shall be cut in sunder and shall have his portion with Mat. 24. 49. hypocrites Nor thy Cattle The mercifull Godhead by his Law taketh care even for poor cattle more then the Heathen Laws did for mankind as * Philo de Charitate Mosis p. 710 Philo observeth in imitation whereof the Jews had a Tradition belike from some of their holy Ancestors concerning mercy to be shewed to dumb creatures in distresse as Eusebius reports in these words †Euseb de Praep. l. 8. cap. 2. Nuilius animalis preces cum ad te lamentanti simile refugiat contemnas The meaning was that if a poor beast or bird pursued by ravenous beasts or birds or birds of prey shall fly to a man for safeguard he should protect it from the pursuer This provision for cattle is annexed to this Sabbath-Law for two reasons 1. Because the Jewish-Sabbath was a type or figure of Rest not onely of mankind after the end of this world but also of the rest and freedom of other worldly and domestick creatures which are now subservient to man and toiled with labours as the Ox and Asse the Horse and Mule and Camell c. A mercifull man cannot chuse but many times to pitty and commiserate the excessive labours and daily slaughterings of the creatures of which the Apostle saith that one day They shall be delivered from the bondage under Rom. 8. 21 which the whole creation groaneth 2. Because the working of domestick cattle must needs require the assistance and co-operation of man Therefore it is here forbidden Nor the stranger that is within thy gates By this Law other Nations are not restrained from working on the Jewish Sabbath which did not at all concern them Onely if aliens or forrainers did sojourn within the Jewish-gates that is within the jurisdiction either Domestick or Politick of the Jews then the Jews are required to cause them to forbear working on their Jewish Sabbath day So that this restraint of aliens or strangers was confined to be onely within the Jewish limits and territories for strangers or aliens abiding in other places out of the Jewish pale were at liberty to work and for so doing the Jews are not by this Law required to forbid or hinder them That sons servants and even cattel are here placed before strangers the reason is 1 Because they are the Jews own peculiars of nearer relation and more subject to their commands than strangers are 2. To intimate that the Jews should first practise and obey the Law in their own persons and families for otherwise it would seem vanity pride or hypocrisie to require obedience or compliance from others There is a woe to such as lade other men with burdens which themselves will Luk. 11. 46. not touch with one of their fingers which may concern those which lay the restraint of Jewish Sabbatizing on others under the penalties of pecuniary mulcts or the Stocks or Sequestration which yet themselves sleight by marching travelling fighting and killing on the same day Certain Observations arising from this Exposition By what hath been said it may evidently appear to a diligent Reader that this seventh-day Sabbath was meerly Ceremoniall and concerned onely the Jews or Israeliticall people and not other Nations as may be collected from the premises for these reasons following 1. Because the transgression or violation of this Sabbath-Law by sons or servants by command or compulsion of their Rulers is here declared to be the sin of the commander onely and not of the son or servant which could not be if this Law were Morall 2. If this seventh-day Sabbath-keeping were a Law Morall then it must follow that whosoever transgressed therein whether by his own will and election or by command or fear or compulsion greatly sinned Otherwise the Christian Martyrs might have been as well excused if they had worshipped the Heathen-Idolls when they were commanded by their lawfull Princes and moreover terrified by excessive torments and death But they knew that Idolatry was forbidden by a Law Morall and therefore refused to obey But this seventh-day Sabbatizing is not commanded by a Morall but onely by a Law Ceremoniall 3. These words Thou and thy son and thy daughter thy man-servant c. are not said of any other of these morall Laws Not of having other gods nor of Idols nor Perjury nor dishonouring Parents nor Murder nor Aduliery nor Theft c. Because sons daughters and servants transgressing any of these truly Morall Laws though by any command or terrour of their Governours yet the sin must be their own But if sons or servants did work on this Ceremoniall Sabbath by command and compulsion the sin was in the commander and not in the obeyer Therefore this must needs be a Ceremoniall Precept and not Morall and it is imposed on Parents Masters and Governours because the fault is not in the servants obedience to his Master but in the Masters disobedience to God The Apostle saith Children obey your Parents but Eph. 6. 1. Col. 3. 18. 20. 22. he addeth in the Lord. And again Wives submit your selves to your own husbands he addeth as it is fit in the Lord. And Children obey your parents in all things Servants obey in all things your masters he addeth Fearing God So that if their commands
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
one If they wil needs use the name of the Lord in calling that day 't were far more consonant with the phrase of Scripâ—ure and Euphony to call iâ— The Day of the Lord which yet will not come home to their purpose Therefore those prudent Sâ—atesmen and learned Prelates which were interessed both in composing our Statutes and also in compiling and authorising our Leiturgie did with great caution decline this appellation and call'd it Sunday as some of the most antient Fathers did before both in the Greek and a Iustin. Mart. Tertul. Latine Church and this in likelyhood before the appellation of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Dominica was generally received although the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was in some particular Churches used before those Fathers wrote as may appear by that authentick Epistle of b Ignat. Epist 3. Edit Plant. Ignatius ad Magnesianos Neither did those Primitive Christians before mentioned who first began this solemnity nor the Apostles who approved thereof long before the Revelation was written ever call this day so as it is now called We find it recorded under the title of The first day of the week or first day after the Sabbath Act. 20. 7. and 1 Cor. 16. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but we find no mention of Sabbath Lord's day or Resurrection day nor did they then call it Sunday because the naming of the seven week-dayes by the seven Planets was never before or at that time used by the Jews nor by the Romans their then Magistrates Whereby it is evident enough that the assigning of the first day of the week for holy assemblies was not originally upon consideration of Christ's Resurrection on that day Notwithstanding the succeeding Church did conform unto that day because their Predecessors had fixed thereon And they further alledged new reasons for the retaining of it They considered That Christ did indeed rise that day from the dead That the descending of the holy Ghost at Pentecost That the creation of Heaven and Earth and Light That Manna rained from Heaven first and all these on this first day of the week Bellarmine addeth if you will believe him b Bel. de Cultu Sanct. l. 3. c. 11. To. 2. That by his and other learned mens calculations the Nativity of Christ fell on this first day of the week These were the reasons for retaining this day though not of instit uting it But in succeeding times the Jewish appellation of dayes by First Second Third c. of the Sabbath or Week was disused Therefore the Church affixed a new name to that day according to the Custom of their Country or Ordinance of the Church and hence came the denomination of Dominica and Sunday respectively We cannot with reason account this appellation Sunday to be any disparagement to the solemnity of the festivall in regard that our Saviour himselfe for whose Honour we sanctifie this Day is called by his Prophets The Sun which shall no more Isa 60. 20 Mal. 4. 2. Matth. 17 2. Matth. 13 43. Rev. 1. 16. 10. 1. 12. 1. go down And the Sun of Righteousnesse his glorious Transfiguration is resembled to the Sun his Saints are promised at their glorification To shine as the Sun his owne Countenance and his mighty Angell and his Spouse are described by the glory of the Sun so that this Name is high and glorious The disusing of this word Sunday and Dominica of late among us is upon some reason of State as of some other good old words also as The word Kingdome and Three Kingdomes and Bishop and Common Prayer Leiturgy and Letanie are now left And instead of them We have Common-wealth Three Nations Presbyters Independents Directory Sabbath Lords-day c. but oâ—d words may return again and new words may grow obsolete when the State seeth it needfull as one saith Multa renascentur quae jam cecidêre Horace cadentque Quae nunc sunt in honore vocabula Si volet usus As for the warrant and authority for hallowing and assembling thereon We say That it is not grounded on the fourth Commandement which doth not in the least mention or meddle therewith Neither did Christ or any Apostle command it as Chemnitius a Learned Protestant granteth Exam. Conc. Trid. But we keep it rather by vertue of the fifth Commandement which requireth us to Honour our Parents wherein lawfull Magistrates are included and their just lawes authorized Our reasons are these 1. The institution of the Church Primitive 2. The Apostolicall approbation thereof 3. The Imperiall decrees and also the Regall lawes of this Realm 4. The constant practise of the Church Catholick in all ages thereof 5. The scripturall authority for it which is derived as is said before from the fifth Commandement although not directly or expressely and down-right but secondarily consequently and collaterally in these and the like passages Submit your 1 Pet. 2. 13 selves to eveâ—y Ordinance of Man for the Lord's sake And Obey them that Heb. 13. 17 have rule over you and submit your selves for they watch for your souls Christ also said If be neglect the Church Matth. 18 17. let him be as an Heathen man and a Publican For these and such like reasons we adhere to it and esteem them so ponderous that we account it an high insolency and pride either to abrogate or but to alter the day as some have attempted Thus far we agree in the thing but we dissent from the name Sabbath and Lords day and also from all superstition therein practised As touching the Mysterious Apocalyps from which the late appellation of Lord's day is taken by a Translation of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is not rendred exactly to the Originall Letter as is shewed before Although this Scripture be still confessed both by the Church Protestant and Roman to be Theopneust and Canonicall yet it cannot be denied that many Learned men both Anciently and Lately have doubted concerning the Writer thereof and also have been anxiously perplexed with the obscurities therein First for the Writer That he was named John the Book often declareth But whether he were St. John the Apostle the Text doth not declare nor do the Ancients agree therein in so much that in consideration of former disputes concerning the Writer and also of the style phrase form or manner of speech therein used a Prolegom in Apoc. Beza is inclined to conjecture that if it were not written by St. John the Apostle yet that it was written by St. Mark the Evangelist who was also named John because we read of John surnamed Mark Act. 12. 12. and Act. 15. 37. But Beza's conjecture disagreeth with the History of St. Mark who is recorded by b Hier. in Marco St. Jerome to have suffered death in the eighth year of Nero c Origines Alexand. p. 38. Mr. Selden's Eutychius saith he died in the first year
Simon John and Eleazer of whom we read much in a Jos de Bello lib. 8. Josephus who then rebelled against Caesar their Lawfull Prince at that time though Nero and thereby caused the utter and finall ruine of their Ciâ—y and Country If we now examine the Jewish superstitions and compare them with the practises or commands of some sabbatizing Christians we shall find them running parallel Buxdo f. as they are recorded boâ—h by our own and by forrain Writers as 1. If a Jew fell History of the Sab. short of home on a Sabbath-Eve he must stay there in wood wildernesse or high-way till the Sabbath were past 2. A blind Jew might not carry a staffe 3. A wounded man might not wear a plaister nor a woman a fan 4. A Jew might not carry mony in his purse nor knock at a door with an Hammer or Ringle nor wear Clogs or Pattens nor a Taylor his Needle nor milk Kine nor lift a beast out of a ditch nor kill a flea on that day So some Christian Sabbatarians have Mr. Tho. Roger's Preface on the 39 Artic taught publickly 1. To work on Sunday Lord's day they call it or throw a boule is a sin as great as to kill a man or commit adultery 2. To kill a cock as bad as to kill a servant 3. To make a Feast or dresse a Wedding-dinner as bad as for a father to cut his own child's throat 4. To ring more Bells then one as to commit murder They say one may not carry provender to an Horse a Maid-servant would not sweep her Kitchin nor wash her Dishes a zealous sonne would not ride for a Bone-setter when his Father's bones were broken Some school-men among the Romanist's have bin as eager in this superstition as ours They taught that it is as great a sinne to stitch a poor Man's broken shoe on Sunday as to kill a Thousand men a Advers Concil Trident as Doctor Tuppius reporteth Besides all this some of our own Sabbatarians have laboured to revive and bring in the old Jewish saturday-Sabbath Thus hath this Sabbaticall Law and our Christian Sunday been abused by schismaticall Demagogues who notwithstanding have bin of late both permitted and encouraged for such politick ends as we see are now fully effected The consideration whereof moved me to endeavour a right understanding and vindication of the Divine Sabbath Law I have also addressed this discourse to you My most Honoured Lord and Lady for an acknowledgement of your many favours to my self and to my more dear Consort in these hard times and for a Testimony of my most thankfull apprehension thereof And also for that I am well assured that you My Lord in your love to Truth and Piety have taken pains to inform your selfe in this very Mystery by carefull attention in hearing and by your more private readings and conferences besides your secret Meditations best known to your self Of which Christian imployments because I was in some part Conscious it stirred me the more to hasten this Work wherein I trust you will find satisfaction when your leisure will permit you to read it through I beg both your pardons for my tediousnesse in this addresse being not so much Epistolar as Isagogical which I so designed to be instead of an Introduction needfull for the more easie and unscrupulous perusall of the ensuing Treatise which I have cloathed with ordinary and coorse Apparrel in a low and vulgar style as to be the more fitly accommodated to the ordinary or middle sort of Christians just so as the Books of our Sabbatarians are whereby they have gained too much upon the easinesse and credulity of their adherents This book is therefore of the like alay with theirs as one saith b Mart. l. 7. ep 89. Aequales scribit libros Calvinus Umber In old time Writers were thought to procure a kind of immortality to them whose Names they recorded in their Books therefore a Plin. l. 7. ep 33. Plinius the younger a man of singular worth who procured a stay and mollifying of the persecution under Trajan desired Tacitus his contemporary to record his Name in his History because he thought that so it might continue as long as the World And before him Ovid by the same way promised the like to himselfe and to his Wife b Ovid. Met Trist l. 5 eleg 15. Nomenque erit indelebile nostrum And Perpetui fructum donavi nominis So when Picus Mirandula wrote a book and dedicated it to Politian he returned this answer c P lit lib. 12. Epist 5. Ago tibi gratias ob immortalitatem Just so did d â—ips cent ep 65. Lipsius to another But I may not promise or hope for any such production or issue by these papers to you or to my Lady though I wish I could yet I am well assured that the Doctrine herein delivered being of the greatest concernment and comfort for Christians is such as ought to continue in the Church as long as it is Militant Neither do either of you need any such immortalizing Pharmacum or paper-charm for that which your owne eminent and shining vertues may by themselves procure your piety to God your sincerity and constancy in true Religion your mercifullnesse and charitable compassion and bountifull reliefe of the poor Members of Christ your generall goodnâ—sse toward all sorts of people and particularly to the now oppressed Church-men in these â—ad times will be your Testimonialls or Epistles as the Apostle speaketh a 2 Cor. 3. 2. and Comforts to your Consciences whil'st you live here and Monuments or Trophies to posterity when both of you in a full and good old age shall follow those Prayers and Almes which are gone up before you for a Memoriall before God Act. 10. 4. with whom I trust you will find your names recorded with an everlasting Character in the blessed Registry of the Book of Life In the mâ—an time whil'st my now aged life shall last I will not forget to recommend you and yours in my Prayers to the Mercifull protection of our Lord Jesus and remain My Noble Lord and Lady Your devoted and obliged Servant EDM. PORTER Marsham in Norf. Octob. 1. 1658. THE CONTENTS 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 all the ten Commandments are still in force A passage in St. Austin and another in Isychius explained An abuse of the Commandments in the Roman-Catechisms shewed CHAP. II. That the word Sabbath signifieth Rest Of the Rest of God and the Rest of Man Of our Rest Corporall and Spirituall The differences of Sabbaths The severall sorts of Jewish Laws which commanded or enforced the Sabbath Of the Judiciall Laws of the Jews and that
assured that the very Seaventh day Sabbath was but a meer figure and Type of the true Eternall Sabbath which is Christ That the Jewish Sabbath was but the shadow And that the body thereof was Christ Justly therefore are the Jewes reproved for doting so much on the Shadow-sabbath and utterly neglecting the Substance and body which was but only represented by that shaddow like the dog in the a Gabriae fabula 32. Fable which let-go and est the Substantiall flesh out of his mouth by snatching at the shadow thereof in the water So the great Oratour Demosthenes perceiving the Greeks to neglect the weighty matters of State which he delivered in an Oration tells them a tale then reproves them for listening with more attention to a ridiculous case b Plut. de 10. Orat. of two men contending for the shadow of an Asse than they did to the great affaires of their Country This surely was the reason that our Saviour so often took occasion to slight and decry the Jewish seventh-day sabbath because he saw the Scribes and Pharisees so strict and curious in keeping that shadow and utterly to neglect the true Substantial Sabbath which was their Messiah in whom only true Sabbatical Rest was to be found and no where elss And now since Christ is come and fully made known to his Church the Jewish Ceremonies are useless and quite gon as may thus appear 1. For now what need have we of the shadow of a Paschal Lamb seeing the true Lamb of God is slain 2. What need of the blood of Sacrifical beasts for us since Christ is Sacrificed and his precious blood powred out 3. Now there is no need of the Jewish earthly Tabernacle or Temple because Christ is come whose body was the Substantial Temple 4. No need now of Corporal Circumcision because Christ hath taken away the Superfluity of Sin even of Original Sin which was but only Figuratively signified by that Sacrament of Circumcision which Sacrament was as I conceive therefore performed or executed on that part of the body and none other part through which Original Sin is propagated 5. No need now of the Jewish Calends or New-moons because men are now really renued by the Spirit of Christ The Sun of righteousness hath inlightned us we need not the darker shadowy type of Moon-light at Noon day 6. Nor need we the Ceremonious festival of At-onement or Reconciliation now by the High-priest entring into the most holy place of the earthly Temple because Christ hath really made our Atonement by his own blood and hath himself entred into the most holy Tabernacle of Heaven and thither caried our Nature with him 7. Finally we have now no need of the Jewish weekly Typical and Ceremonious Sabbath because the true Sabbath is come even Christ who is the Sabbath or Rest both of the Godhead and of us men It is evident enough that Christ did on purpose and design take special care both to discountenance and also to dissolve the Jewish Saturday-Sabbath that by his example the Jewes might be withdrawn and weaned from the Ceremony to the Sâ—bstance and from the Letter to the Spiâ—it meaning thereof for he commanded the Iâ—potent man to cary his bed on the Sabbath day Joh. 5. 8. The Jewes therefore charge him with their Sabbath-breaking which Christ did not deny and they therefore sought to kill him vers 18. Afterwards He makes clay on the Sabbath day Joh 9. 14. which he needed not to have done in order to the curing of the blind man therefore it was done upon another dâ—sign of Nulling the Sabbath as the Jewes also apprehended it vers 16. He also excuseth his Disciples for plucking eares of corn on the Sabbath day Math. 12. And tels the Pharisees that their own Jewish priests did prophane the Sabbath by working on the Sabbath in their Temple and yet the priests were blameless For indeed they did on that day make the Shew-bread and brought in fuell for the Altar they killed washed skinned dressed and Sacrificed beasts and so laboured as much or more then ordinarie Butchers and more also on the Sabbath day than any other day of the week except it were a Festival which Festivals were also called Sabbaths To this dissolution and nulling of the Jewish Sabbath the Fathers and other Christian writers generally agree except some few Sabbatarians Saint Austin upon occasion of those words Joh. 5. 18. saith a Aug Epist 11. Christus sabbatum solvi i. e. Christ hath dissolved the Sabbath again he saith b de Gen ad lit L 4. C. 13. Jam ab usu fidelium observatio Sabbati ablaâ—a est perpetuum Sabbatum observatur i. e. The observation of the Sabbath is now taken away from believers who now keep a perpetual Sabbath For our constant adhering to Christ is our continual Sabbath And again he saith c de spiritu litera C 14. Quisquis nunc observat Sabbatum sicut litera sonat carnaliter sapit quod mors est i. e. That man which now observeth the Sabbath literally is carnally minded and to be carnally minded is death saith Saint Paul Rom. 8. 6. With him agrees Saint Ambrose using these words d An. br de fide l. 2. c. 4. Christus Sabbatum solâ—it c. Hinc Judaei ad necem ejus commoti Christ did dissolve the Sabbath and therefore the Jewes sought to kill him Ioh. 5. 16. Again he saith e Epist l. 5. Ep. 42. Sabbatum Circumcisio cessant sub Evangelio i. e. Both the Sabbath and also Circumcision do cease under the Gospel By these words he declareth that the Jewish Sabbath is but such a typical and temporary Ceremony as Circumcision was which Circumcision we know was forbidden not only by St. Paul Gal. 5. 2. but also by the whole Councell of the Apostles Act. 15. 24. St. Jerome also thus writeth of St. Paul a Hier. proaem in Gal. Nullus Apostoli Sermo est vel per epistolam vel praesentis in quo non laboret docere Antiquae legis Onra deposita id est Sabbatum Circumcisionem Calendas c. The Apostle in every Sermon of his either written by Epistle or delivered where he was present teacheth that the troublesome Ceremonies of the old law are taken off such as Sabbaths Circumcision and New-Moons c. Before him Athanasius had thus Written upon those words Mat. 11. 27. All things are delivered to me of my Father b Athan. Tom. 1. 294. Sabbatum injunctum est priori populo-sednovae creaturae non praecepit observationen Sabbati i. e. The Sabbath was imposed on the first people The Israelits but not on the new people The Christians The Jewish Sabbath was appointed to be on the last day of the week which might intimate that is was near Ending for when Christ the true Sabbath and the true light was come the Sabbaticall ceremony was uselesse as candle-light at Noon day St. Chrysostom also observeth in
Commandment the Word Remember is prefixed as a John Baptist or fore runner of Christ which Memento we find not in any of the other Nine Surely there is something in this Commandement of most weighty concernment and more than is in any other of the nine for if in this Commandment God had only intended the keeping of the Seaventh day which we know was but temporary and to be left in its due time he would not have said Remember Because all those lawes which are truly Moral are also unexpirable and undispensable and to be kept at least to the end of the world and this Sabbaticall law especially so long and longer also even to Eternity therefore it deserves a Remember From this Memento Some doe argue that the Seaventh day Sabbath was observed before the dayes of Moses as if Remember related only to former usances If that were true it will make against their Seaventh day Sabbath and for our truly Morall Sabbath i. e. Christ because they may see that the Memento is prefixed to the Sabbath day but not to the Seaventh Day for that was not alwaies to be remembred 3. In this Sabbatical Commandment we finde not only a Memento going before but also another remembrance following after it as a type and shadow of the grand Sabbath for direction of God's people as the Pillar of â—ire and Cloud sometimes before and sometimes behind the Israelites Ex. 14. 19. For so it pleased God to ordain a weekly Shaddowy Sabbath to keep them in a continuall remembrance and expectation of their Messiah in whom only true certain eternall Rest was to be found Indeed Joshuah was to lead them into the Earthly Rest of the land of Canaan the land of Promise but he was but a type of the Messiah and is therefore called Jesus Acts 7. 45. Heb. 4. 8. and Canaan but a shadow of heaven and the weekly Sabbath but a figure of the Substantiall Sabbath Only their Messiah our Jesus was to lead his people into the blessed and everlasting Sabbath or Rest in heaven Now the adding an annexion of a ceremonial type to this Sabbaticall and Moral law which is not found in any other of the Nine doth cleerly shew that the Grand Sabbath here intended is of the most weighty and Considerable concernment of all and is therefore most principally to be Remembred For if it were possible for us men precisely to keep all the other Nine Commandments such a performance would not be Sufficient for our Eternall Rest without the keeping of this For this Sabbath is Christ in whom alone resideth all our hope and confidence of heaven there is none other name whereby we must be saved Acts. 4. 12. And moreover although we have transgressed and broken all the other Nine yet if we shall afterwards constantly and faithfully keep this Sabbath we shall find therein an help and remedy to preserve us from the dangerous consequences that otherwise will follow us upon such disobedience The consideration of that terrible sentence in the Law Deut. 27. 29. Cursed is he that confirmeth not all the words of this Law to do them and of that in the Gospel Jam. 2. 10. Whosoever shall keep the whole Law and yet offead in one point is guilty of all may drive Christians to restlesness of conscience and dispaire if this Sabbath or Rest in Christ be not apprehended which is principally that One point in which we must be most cautelous Christ himself hath said Mat 10. 32. Whosoever shall confess me before men him will I confess But whosoever shall deny me totally finally him will I deny before my Father which is in Heaven The two Tables of this moral law would Plut. in vit Soloâ— in Moral be to us most uncomfortable and formidable and like those cruel Graecian laws of Draco and Lycurgus which are said to be written 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a in blood and death because all transgressions were by them Capitally punished These divine lawes would be far more severe in everlasting punishments if they were not mollified by a gracious Sabbath law Aust saith he disrellished that famous book of Cicero called Hortensius b Aug. conf l. 2. 4. Quod nomen Christi non erat ibi i. e. Because the name of Christ was not there and so should we these two tables if Christ were not included therein But blessed be our gracious Law giver there we find Christ under the name and appellation of Sabbath just as in the Gospel he is called Mat. 11. 30. The Lord of the Sabbath this sweet name only maketh this yoke easie and burden light If there were nothing but the bare letter in this Moral Law woe unto us it would be but a kling law and as the Apostle sairh A killing letter if Christ were not in it But there is also in those sacred Tables as the same Apostle saith 2 Cor. 3. 6. a spirit that giveth life that is there is a secret mysterious and spiritual meaning not openly or plainly expressed but implyed and covertly intimated and that spirit is Christ who onely giveth life and he is that mysterious and spiritual Sabbath which is here intended By vertue of this secret spirit this Law which of it self considered in the bare letter doth only as the Apostle saith of it Rom 4. 15. The law worketh wrath becommeth good and vital and bringeth healing in it's wings * viperae cineres medentur morsui lact deira cap. 13. p. 716. There are some venemous and mortiferous creatures which as learned men say have in them an Antidote or remedy to preserve men from the danger of their poyson as we read in Plinie of a Plin. lib. 29. c. 4 Theriaci pastilli i. e. cakes or pills of Treacle made of the venemous viper So in a night-vision a Dragon presented an hearb to Great Alexander which cured his friend Ptolomy of a mortal wound by a poysoned arrow as b Diod. sic lib. 17. Diodorus writeth Antiochus had a Theriaca or Treacle that preserved him against all poysons as the forenamed c Plin. lib. 20. cl 24. Plinie reporteth such as Homer phanfied of his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 d Homer Odyss lib. 20. Verily this Law which in the letter and outward appearance of it seemeth so deadly and impossible hath in it a pretious and sure Antidote with being faithfully apprehended and piously applied will preserve us from the killing quality thereof and moreover it will shew us how the whole law may by us be perfectly performed And this Antidote is wrapped up and covered in this Sabbath law For the Sabbath is Christ and Christ hath performed the whole law and we that are united to him as members of his mystical body have also in him by him performed the whole law God because we are one with him as the Apostle saith We are members of his body Eph 5. 3. And
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
Sabbath or Rest in Christ He tels us also that Ebâ—on the Ancient Judaizing Heretick raised a report d Id Haer. 30. That Saint Paul had desired the Jewish High-preist's dâ—ughter to be given to him in mariage but being denied in revenge he wrote against their Sâ—bbath anâ— Circumcision But the true cause of the Apostle's decrying the Jewish Sabbath was this e Id. iâ—iâ— Christus est magnum Sabbatum quietos nos faciens à peccatis nostris -Ejus figura erat parvâ—m Sabbatum quod inserviebat usque ad ipsius adventum Christ is the grand Sabbath for he setteth us at rest from the troubles of our soules by reason of our sins the Jewish little weekly Sabbath was but a figure of Christ our great Sabbath and was to last but until his comming To this doctrine the learned Romanist's do assent as Bishop White hath observed out of Pet. Damianus Bishop of Ostia above 500 years since who thus writeth f Pet. Damiani lib. 2 Eph. 5. Quid per Sabbatum intelligere debemus nisi Christum in Illo siquidem Sabbato requiescâ—mus- spem ponimus i. e. What should we understand by the Sabbath but Christ for in him is our rest and hope St. Aâ—stin is most plentiful in asserting this doctrine for besides what I have observed before out of him he further saith of Circumcision and Sabbath a Aug. Cont Admantum c. 16. To. 6. Circumcisionem approbamus spiritualem- Sabbatum nam ad aeternam requiem intendimus We Christians approve of Circumcision but it is Circumcision spiritual mentioned Rom. 2. 29. Circumcision in the heart not in the letter but in the spirit and Colos 2. 11. Circumcision made without hands we approve of that Sabbath by which we intend and trust to obtain everlasting Rest Of this Sabbath he saith again b Id. Cont Adiman c 2. To. 6. Sabbatum non est repudiatum a nobis Christianis sed intellectum We Christians do not utterly reject the Sabbath but we understand it more truly than the Jews do Of the same mysterious Sabbath he saith again c Id de Gen. ad lit lib. 4 c 13. A fidel bus perpetuum Sabbatum observatur They that believe in Christ do keep a Sabbath perpetual What he meanes by this Sabbath is declared by these words d Id. Cont Faâ—stum lib. 19. c. 9. In Christo Sabbatum habemus nam ait Ego faciam ut requiescatis Our Sabbath is in Christ for he it is that saith I will give you rest Mat. 11. 28. And to shew the difference between the Typical and the Substantial Sabbaths and to what Purpose that Jewish Saturday-Sabbath was ordained He saith The Jews were offended because Christ commanded the infirm man to carry his bed on their Sabbath day Jo. 5. 10. But Christ might have answered them e Aug. in Joan. Tract 17. SacramentuÌ„ Sabbati signum observandi unius diei ad tempus datum Judaeis impletionem verò Sacramenti illius in illo venisse Sabbatum ad significationem meam vobis praeceptum est The Sacramental Sabbath or sign of keeping that day was imposed on the Jews but for a time because the fullfilling of it was performed by the comming of Christ for that Sabbath was given onely to signify Christ To this of Austin Calvin seemeth to me to subscribe where he saith f Calv. instit 2. 8. 31. Christus est verum Sabbati Complementum The keeping of a seaventh-day-Sabbath is but a vain and empty shadow except it be filled with the apprehension of Christ So that as all Typical and Ceremonial shadows were to cease when the thing was come which they signified the Sabbath being but such a sign must also so cease as Justin Martyr long ago taught g Just Dialog cum Triph. Sabbata finem habuêre nato Christo When Christ came Sabbaths went away Lastly it would be inquired what the Church of Englands doctrine is concerning that Sabbath in the fourth Commandment which Church I firmly believe to be in her doctrine and discipline the most truly Catholick Church in the world This we may discover by considering that prayer or suffrage which this Church hath required to be by us said at the rehearsing of this Sabbath-Commandment as at each other of them in these words Lord have mercy upon us and incline our hearts to keep this law This prayer hath much troubled the minds of some of our Religious and well-meaning Countrymen because their teachers did not aright inform them in the true meaning of that Sabbath for both in their pulpits and also in their pâ—inted Catechisms they expound it to be meant only of sanctifying a day as the Jews did But if they so mean this prayer would be not only vain but also an impious mocking of God seeing the Commandment mentions onely the seaventh day and that precisely and none other and that is our Saturday which both we and all other Christian-Churches have utterly rejected but if they thereby understand our Sunday that is not so much as mentioned much less intended there nor may it be called a Sabbath day nor is the celebration of our Sunday to be enforced by vertue of that Commandment but otherwise as is before shewed But those Judicious Leanred and Godly men and also heroical Martyrs who were the compilers of our English Liturgy as Cranmer Ridley and others did rightly understand that Sabbath to signify Christ who onely is our Christian Sabbath and in this sence only we ought to understand it and then this Prayer must needs be confessed to be pious and necessary and not otherwise for the keeping of Christ by faith in him and sanctifying him that is considering his worth and benefits and demeaning our selves towards him so reverendly as becometh us and belongeth to his super-eminent hollness is the only way to procure an everlasting tranquillity Rest and Sabbath to our Consciences For without this Sabbath all our care will prove vain and the very Godhead will be but a terrour to us But if by God's merciful assistance we keep our selves fast in faith and so in Union with this blessed Sabbath we may then with comfort apply Ps 42. 5. that expostulation of the Psalmist to our own souls Why art thou cast down O my soul And why art thou disquieted in me Hope thou in God for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance Now because the prayer above mentioned though it were granted to us is not full enough to supply and satisfy our defects and necessities for neither a good inclination readiness or willingness nor yet our earnest desires no nor our laborious endeavours to perform the Law do amount to the real and perfect keeping thereof without which we cannot enter into life as Christ hath said Mat. 19 17. Therefore the Church hath added another prayer at the end of these Commandements which is full and perfect In these words Write all
In a word he that understands in what particular thing the Rest of God consisteth may by the same easily apprehend why it is fixed on this seventh day Wherefore the Lord blessed c. That which our English readeth Wherefore St. Jerom and the Latines generally read Therefore idcircò From which word we observe that the Judaicall or Ceremoniall Sabbath was not appointed in consideration of the work of Creation or that men should on that day contemplate and meditate onely on the creatures of the world although those wonderfull works are also right worthy of our serious consideration and should be a great motive to incite us to glorisie the Almighty Creator but it was principally ordained to put both the Jews and us Christians also in mind of the Rest of God and to move us all to consider in what this Rest consisteth which doth far more concern us and our happinesse than all the world without it because otherwise neither the world nor any creatures therein nor the perfect knowledge by our Studies and Arts of all the excellencies and secrets thereof can bring us to that everlasting Rest which was but typically figured by this Ceremoniall Sabbath For What is a man profited if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul Mat. 16. 26. Now that this Wherefore or Therefore relateth to the Rest of God and not to his creating of the world we are expresly taught by Moses who tells us That God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because that in it he had rested from all his works So that the Gen. 2. 3. Rest of man on that day was afterwards enacted by a Law for a memoriall of the Resting and not of the Working of God Concerning the blessing and sanctifying whereof we are next to enquire 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 and of the differences of Holiness When the Seventh day was first hallowed and how it was dis-hallowed Something of Sacrilege How the Prophets spake truly of things to come as if they had been past Of the Prophetical figure called Anticipation with Rules and Examples thereof applied to this Sabbath The Lord blessed the Sabbath day or Seventh day THe Leiturgie of the Church of England readeth the Seventh day but the Original hath the Sabbath day Both are read indifferently as Gen. 2. 3. hath the Seventh day and so have some of the other languages in this Commandement as appeareth in the late incomparable and renowned work of our new Great Bible Indeed both are one in this place For the Sabbath Ceremonial is but the Seventh day and the Seventh day only is that Sabbath which is here meant it being but a Sabbath Typical Blessed the Sabbath day To blesse Benedicere is to speak some good of it as in the Leiturgie of St Basil this Prayer is found a Basil n. 2 Domine loquere bonum in cor Regis pro Ecclesia tua When God blesseth he conferreth some favour or special priviledge as here on the Sabbath day such as it was capable of and in order to that purpose for which it was blessed which was to signifie Man's Rest in Christ The blessing of a Day is not like his blessing of a Man on whom by blessing he doth effectually conferre something that is beneficial to him as spirituall Graces or temporal Favours as in Children Lands Cattel Basket and Store mentioned Deut. 28. and as Isaac blessed his Sons with the dew of Heaven and fatnesse of the Earth But the Sabbath being uncapable of such benedictions the blessing of it must consist in such respects as these 1. God chose that day for his own Mysterious Rest 2. He appointed that day only and not any of the other six to be for a memorial to his people of the grand blessing of their Rest in Christ 3. He ordained it for a corporal rest both for Men and Cattel 4. He gave most strict command upon pain of capital punishment for the keeping thereof 5. He appointed larger Sacrifices on that day than on the former dayes 6. He appointed a larger portion of Manna on the Parasceue as a provision for the Sabbath 7. He appointed this holy day to be weekly that is two and fifty times in the year whereas other Festivals except new-Moons were but once These or such like are the blessings thereof And hallowed it Hallowed is holied or sanctified The meaning is that God designed it to be an holy or hallowed day To be an hallowed or sanctified day is to be divided separated or distinguished from other common dayes by way of preferment honour and preheminence and to be set apart so as that work which might lawfully have been done on that day before it was hallowed might not be done on it after the hallowing thereof We read of hallowed or holy oyl holy vessels holy vestments and holy places which might not be used or applied to any other service but that only for which they were hallowed and destinated So this hallowed day was not to be imployed in common works as other unhallowed dayes were for that would have been a profanation thereof but it was wholly to be bestowed and spent in the service of God the Sanctifier by the serious and thankful consideration of that blessed Rest which he had procured and designed for Man And this hallowed use was to continue from the first institution thereof untill the period and repealing of it by the same God who hallowed it Which was performed evidently by Jesus Christ who is the same God which did sanctifie it and this he did not untill God had actually and visibly exhibited in the â—lesh the reall and substantial accomplishment of that Typical Ceremonial and Temporary Sabbath in the Person of the said Lord Jesus But yet during the vigour and continuance of this hallowing the Sabbath day was not altogether and absolutely quitted from all manner of working We know the Priests did then work hard and Souldiers marched and other works were lawfully done the reason was because this Sabbatical Hallowing was but meerly figurative and ceremonial and therefore dispensable in case of pressing necessity and charitable accommodation toward our brethren and in duty to God and also because such workings are commanded by a Superiour Law even the Moral Law of God whereby we are required To love the Lord our God with all our heart and our neighbour as our self This Law hath been in force ever since the Creation was finished and so shall continue until the end of the World but the hallowing of the Seventh day was neither from the beginning nor was it to last to the end of the World being but Ceremonial and Temporary and therefore ought to give place to the Law Moral We find Hallowing or Holiness applied diversly to several things and for divers considerations First There is an Holiness Essential which is only