A TRACT ON THE Sabbath-Day Wherein the keeping of the First-day of the Week a Sabbath is justified BY A Divine COMMAND AND A Double EXAMPLE CONTAINED In the Old and New TESTAMENT With Answers to the Chiefest Objections made by the Jewish seventh-seventh-day Sabbatharians and others By ISAAC MARLOW London Printed by J. A. and are to be Sold by H. Barnard at the Bible in the Poultrey and by Hannah Smith at the Bible in Aldersgate-street 1693 4. THE Authors EPISTLE Christian Reader WHEN first my Thoughts were exercised in drawing up some Reasons to justifie our keeping the first day of the Week a Sabbath they were only designed for Private Use and to serve a particular Occasion that called for them But since the Providence of God has lead my Meditations farther into this Subject from other Considerations and by means of a Book lately Published by Mr. Tho. Bampfield for pressing the seventh day or Saturday Sabbath as the Duty of all Christians to keep Holy in Obedience to Gods command I have Thought it needful to present this Treatise for the eâ—â—ablishing of those that are unsettled in their Minds about it and for their Advantage who through the tolderness of their Consciences are exposed to divers difficulties because they cannot see that Liberty to be lawful which others take in making the Jewish Sabbath a working day To help therefore those sincere Christians tho but few in number that are intangled with this Yoak of Bondage I have considered diver Authors on their seventh-day Sabbath as besides the two Books of Mr. Edw. Stennets Mr. H. Soursby and Mr. M. Smiths Mr. VVill. Sellers Mr. Theophilus Brabourn and the aforesaid Mr. Tho. Bampfields two late Treatises which tho I have not directed the following Discourse in Answer to any one of them except in some particulars yet the Ingenious Reader may find I have taken Notice of the Chiefest Grounds and Arguments for their Sabbath contained in them all And if the Lord will graciously bless my well-meant endeavours for their right Information and hereby remove that bar between them and others or if any Benefit shall be received from this Improvement of my Talent I desire He may have the Praise to whom alone it is due However thô we or others may differ in some particulars thrô the various Sence we have of the Mind of God revealed in his Word yet as through the Grace of Christ we abhorr that which is Evil and cleave to that which is good with a Holy Detesta â—n of all apparent Transgressions of the Law consistent with Love and Pity to mens Persons and as we are Children of one Father and Co-heirs of Eternal Life through Faith in Christ that worketh by Love we ought to be united in kind Affections to one another And were our differences managed more in Brotherly Charity and by the gracious Conduct of the Holy Spirit controversial Discourses would be more acceptable the Reputation of Religion and our mutual Peace and Love would be better preserved which as I speak this more in general than desighing any particular Reflection on my aforesaid Brethren so I desire always my self to watch and labour to abound in this Grace of Love which is the Bond of Perfection To Conclude I have in the following Tract not only made the best Improvement I can of several things that others have wrote before me but as the Lord hath inlightned my Understanding I have added such Matters which I believe may be useful to clear the Case in hand hoping he will graciously Bless my Labour to your Advantage I. M. THE CONTENTS Sect. I. OF the use of the Word Moral Page 1. Sect. II. Of Gods revealing the first Sabbath to Adam Gen. 2. 2 3. which was then sanctified for Man before Israel observed their seuenth-day Sabbath in the Wilderness and was no Anticipation of the Order of Moses History Page 3. Sect. III. Treateth of the Law 1. Shewing wherein the House of Israel were more concerned in Sinai's Covenant than other Nations Page 5. 2. That the Israelites were not absolutely tyed to stand or fall Eternally by that Covenant without relief in Christ for the Elect Page 6. 3. Of the Ten Commandments and of their binding quality to the Gentiles Page 7. Sect. IV. Cleareth a Proposition 1. Shewing that the Gentiles were not absolutely required to keep the whole Ceremonial Law Page 9. 2. That there is Reason to believe the Gentiles before the Law had some Divine Revelation of the Will of God how they should worship him and that they were required to Sacrifice slain Beasts Page 10 11 12. Sect. V. In four Paragraphs proveth the Ten Commandments to be morally binding to all Nations Page 12 c. Sect. VI. Treateth of the Morality of the fourth Commandment Page 16. And of the Reasons why the Sabbath was first sanctified in the Name of the Seventh-day and not of the first-day Sabbath which it may be so called respecting its proper Nature immediate end and principal use first to Man Page 17. Sect. VII Sheweth that the Jewish Sabbath is Ceremonial and not morally binding to all Nations 1. Because it was a Couenant Memorial of Israels Deliverance out of Egypt Page 19. 2. Because it is abolished Colos 2.16 17. Page 19. 3. From the Order and Necessity of Nature wherein is shewed the Alterations of the accounts of Years Page 21. And of Days Page 23. As also the Interruption of the orderly Course of the Day Page 29. And the impossibility of all Nations observing the Sabbath after the Jewish Pattern because in some Places and Parts of the Year there is no Sun-settings nor Sun-rising for several Days and Weeks Time together Page 31 32 c. Sect. VIII Sheweth that Israels first Sabbath in the Wilderness was not a fixed Pattern that all men should originally have six working days before their Sabbath and not their Sabbath before their six working days Page 34. Sect. IX Containeth some Instances of particular Cases in the New Testament in which we are referred to the Pattern in our first Parents which serveth to justifie our doing the like to justifie our Observation of the first-day Sabbath Page 36. Sect. X. Explaineth the Pattern of Adams Sabbath Page 38. Sect. XI Treateth of the Types and Shadows that were of the Gospel first-day Sabbath under the Law Page 40. Sect. XII Sheweth that Christ arose from the Dead on the first-day of the Jewish Week Page 42. 2. That he appeared to his Disciples on the first-day of the Week Page 45. 3. The Apostle ordered the Churches to make Collections for the Saints on the first day of the Week Ibid. And 4. He broke Bread with the Church of Troas on the first day of the Week who on that day came together for that end Page 46. Whereto is added a brief Historical account that soon after St. Johns writing the first-day of the Week was called the Lords day in Distinction to the Jewish Sabbath Page 47. Sect.
2. Thô Adam rested or rather abstained from Work on God's Sabbath before he had passed six working days that he might perform his moral Worship to God before he dressed the Garden or meddled in his own Affairs and praise him for the Lordship he had received over the Creatures which God had made and so with respect to the chief Moral end for which the Sabbath was first made for Man it might have properly been called the first day Sabbath throughout all Generations yet seeing God had also designed the Sabbath to be a figure of a greater rest in the seventh thousand years of the World Heb. 4.3.10 Rev. 20.4 5 7. as it is believed by many Christians it therefore could not have been so glorious a Type if it had been delivered to us under the name of the First day So that the Sabbath-day was appointed in the name of the seventh day not to deny Adam's Moral Obedience in keeping his first day Sabbath before his six working days to be a pattern to his posterity or that Adams first Sabbath could not properly be called afterwards successively Mans first days Sabbath but because the seventh day of God's Rest and so considered as after Mans six working days did better suit the Memorial of God's Creation and Rest and the Typical uses of the Sabbath day 3. The Sabbath was commanded in the Name of the seventh day and not of the first because tho God abstained from Work before the Creation yet it could not be said he Rested Ceased or Abstained from Work a day before a Day was made or there was time measured by a day So that the necessity of Nature placed Gods Sabbath after his Creation days but there was not the like necessity that Adam should have his Sabbath before his six working days and therefore seeing that God sanctified the seventh day on which he ceased from his Works of Creation with respect to Man that Man should abstain from his Work to Worship him Mal. 3.6 Isal 40.28 Heb. 13.8 and not because that God himself had need of rest for he fainteth not nor is weary neither is the most high changeable or subject to accidents in his Nature Then the seventh-day Sabbath bore this Name from the Necessity of Nature in Gods Example of measuring time more than from its proper Nature immediate End and principal Use to Man for in all these respects Adams first Sabbath was his first days Sabbath 4. The Sabbath was expresly sanctified in Gen. 2.2 3. and in the fourth Command in these Words the seventh day and not a seventh day to preserve the constant Order of our six Working days together and that men should not choose any one day in the Week and at their own Pleasures alter the Sabbath to any different day as to the first day in one Week and the second or third c. in the Weeks following so as they keep one or a day in seven in every Week Moreover it is not said a but the seventh-day to prevent Mens Alteration of it to any other day than what we have a Pattern for in the Holy Scriptures that as it was to bind Adam and others after him to the Observation of the seventh-day successively after his first days Sabbath without Alteration so it was to oblige Israel to keep the seventh-day Sabbath successively after their first Sabbath in the Wilderness without a change and to tye us that forasmuch as the Jewish seventh-day Sabbath is abrogated in the New Testament as you may see afterwards in this Treatise and that we have a Pattern left us to observe the first day of the Jewish Week that from thence we should keep our Christian Sabbath successively on the seventh-day after its first taking place by the abolishing of the Jewish Sabbath in the New Testament without Alteration Colos 2.16 17 as Adam and the Israelits did after their first days Sabbath which if the Sabbath in Gen. 2.2 3. and in the fourth Command had been sanctified in the express Words of a seventh-day and not of the seventh-day it might have occasioned Doubts and Confusions about the Observation of the aforesaid several Sabbaths but it being expresly commanded in these Words the seventh-day it does signifie the Mind of God so clearly as both to prevent such Confusions and yet to preserve the Moral Law in the Fourth Commandment unviolated under the change that hath been made of the Sabbath SECT VII HEre I shall prove both from the Holy Scriptures and the Course and Necessity of Nature that the Jewish seventh-day Sabbath is Ceremonial and not Morally binding to all Nations And 1. This appeareth in that it was not only a sign to Israel as our Gospel Sabbath considered as the seventh-day is to us that in six days the Lord made Heaven and Earth Exod. 31.13 14 15 16 17. and on the seventh-day he rested but it was also a Sign and a Covenant throughout their Generations that they should remember that Israel was a Servant in the Land of Egypt and that the Lord their God brought them out thence through a Mighty hand and by a stretched out Arm Deut. 5.15 Therefore saith Moses the Lord their God commanded them to keep the Sabbath-day So then as their Sabbath was a Sign of their deliverance out of Egypt with respect to their Beginning and Ending of it from Evening to Evening thereby to suit their other new days Beginning from their first Passover Evening and so to keep that deliverance in fresher Memory it is Ceremonial and ceaseth as other Sabbaths and Memorials of that Deliverance have done by the coming of Jesus Christ 2. The old Jewish seventh-day Sabbath is proved to be Ceremonial by the Apostles Words Col. 2.16 17. Let no Man therefore judge you in Meat or in Drink or in respect of an Holy-day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in part of a Feast or of the New Moon or of the Sabbath-days Which are a shadow of things to come but the Body is of Christ For as the Holy-day or Feast-days New Moon and Sabbaths herein mentioned must be taken for those written by Moses and given to Israel because those only and not the Heathen Idolatrous Holy-days were given of God as Types and Shadows of good things to come so the Sabbath-days there distinctly expressed from other Holy-days appointed for the Observation of Israel must be taken for their weekly seventh-days Sabbath and the two Verses plainly comprehends all their Sabbaths and Holy-days to be but Shadows of Things to come But saith the Text the Body is of Christ Object But some do say the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Sabbaths here ought to be rendred Weeks as the same Greek Word is rendred John 20.19 Luke 24.1 Mark 16.2 Matth. 28.1 Answer The Word Sabbath in Greek Sabbaton used in those places is not there translated Week for any other Reason than because it was customary to call the days of the Week the days of the
Fryday or their sixth day which was according to the Law the first day of their Passeover Sabbath he was crucified and there being no other Passeover Sabbath wherein the Jews were forbidden to work till the seventh day of the Passeover Feast it must then follow that the Sabbath on which the Women rested as it 's said according to the Commandment being the next day after the first true Passeover Sabbath was undeniably the Jews weekly seventh day Sabbath and the day next ensuing called The one of the Sabbaths and the first of the Sabbath on which Christ arose from the dead must of necessity be understood of the First day of the Jewish Week after their seventh-seventh-day Sabbath and from thence the Christians observe their First day Sabbath wherein they solemnly worship God And to this I shall cite the Confession and Testimony of Mr. Theophilus Brabourn in his Discourse upon the Sabbath day See his Book Pag 68. wherein he labours to justifie the keeping of the seventh day Saturday Sabbath saith he Remember Saturday to keep it holy c. Now that Sabbath day was a proper Name of one of their Week days is apparent to all since they counted all the other six days of the Week by the Sabbath day thus the seventh and last day of the Week they viz. the Jews called Sabbath-day the first-day of the Week our Sunday they called the first of the Sabbath the second day of the Week our Monday they called the second of the Sabbath our Tuesday the third of the Sabbath c. So that the clear Confession of the Saturday Sabbatharians themselves does confirm that which is undeniably manifest in the Holy Scriptures that the first of the Sabbath which is so called Marâ— 16.9 and is the same as one of the Sabbaths in the other Evangelists as hath been shewed is the Name of the First day of the Jewish Week See his Reply â—age 28. as it is also owned by Mr. Bampfield 2. This First day Sabbath at its first founding by the Resurrection of Christ thó it broke the Order of the Jewish working days among the Christians by taking their first day for our Sabbath and their Sabbath into the Christians six working or common days yet there was no breach of the Moral Law respecting the Order of the six working days considered as being bounded before and after with a Sabbath for the Jewish Sabbath after their six working days being followed with a New Sabbath made two Sabbaths together but this neither broke the Order of the six working days before the Jewish Sabbath nor of the six working days after the Christian Sabbath Luke 23.56 nay nor before it because we must suppose that the Christians at that time kept both the Sabbaths and did not reckon the Jewish Sabbath as a common day before the Resurrection of the Lord. So that at the first sounding of our Christian Sabbath it was bounded with six Jewish working days and their Sabbath before and six working days with the seventh-day of Christian Sabbath after iâ— and is as much our seventh-seventh-day Sabbath after our six working days as Adams seventh day Sabbath was after his six working days which Sabbath when it was first sounded on Gods seventh-seventh-day of Rest was also Adams first-first-day Sabbath From whence I observe that the Christians Sabbath considered as both their first and seventh-day Sabbath is like as it was in the beginning to which Christ refers us in other things for a Pattern to answer the Moral Law and to make void the Ceremonial Addition to it as hath been shewed And now since the abolishing of all Ceremonial Things in the Law of Moses that we have a Pattern for the Sabbath given to us by the Practice of the Holy Apostles and the Primitive Churches in the New Testament appears as followeth 1. After Christ arose from the Dead Luke 14.1.9 10 13 33 36. on the first day of the Week he appeared unto his Disciples and the eleven Apostles who were gathered together on the same day John 10.1.19.26 And after eight days Jesus appeared again to his Disciples that were Assembled which was on the next first-day being the eighth day for it was the custom of the Hebrews after this manner to express this day-week or this day seven-night as we have an Instance in 2 Chron. 10.5 12. And he said unto them come again unto me after three days and the People departed So Jeroboam and all the People came to Rehoboam on the third day Which Example plainly shews that after three days was on the third day and so here in the Evangelist after eight days was on the eighth day or after eight days were come and not after they were past on the ninth day as it is also clearly explained in Mark 8.31 The Son of Man must suffer and be killed and after three days rise again For Christ arose from the Dead not after but on the third day after he was Crucified And to this present day the Hollanders in their Vulgar Discourse express this day Week after the same manner saying Over eight days so that the Disciples were assembled also on the second first day of the Week after the Resurrection of our Lord who appeared to them on that day also 3. The Apostle ordered and appointed the Churches of the Galatians and Corinthians to make their Collections for the Saints on the first day of the Week 1 Cor. 16.12 which business had no temporary Reason in it to limit the doing of it to that day and therefore it is a clear Demonstration that it was the accustomed day of their Assembling together to worship God and for such Church Affairs otherwise it 's rational to believe the Apostle would have rather left them at Liberty to do it on any day which Example of this Nature having something of an Institution in it some have thought it is a sufficient warrant of its self to justifie our keeping of the first day of the Week a Sabbath 4. In Acts 20.6 7 11. It is said that Paul abode at Troas seven days And upon the first day of the Week when the Disciples came together to break Bread Paul preached unto them ready to depart on the Morrow and continued his Speech until Mid-night When he therefore was come up again and had broken Bread and eaten and talked a long while even till break of day so he departed First I observe from this Scripture that Paul abode there seven days in which time we hear nothing of his Preaching or of the Disciples coming together till on the first day of the Week which was the last of the seven days so that Paul came thither on the second day of the Week and tarried till the usual day of their Assembling together otherwise he need not have straitned himself for time so as to preach till Midnight when he was to depart at break of day but that it may rationally be concluded that he
he cometh home the first-day in Canaan is by his account but the seventh-day and contrarywise if he Travelleth round the World Eastward he loseth in the length of his days but gaineth a day in Tale so that by his account the first day in Canaan falleth to be his second day at his return from whence some have argued that neither a Law nor Example can bind us universally to the Observation of any one Day and therefore if it were agreed amongst men any day of the Week or one day in seven may be made our seventh-day Sabbath boundary to six working days and so would answer the Moral Law Answer 1. The Question is Whether the Moral Law bindeth us to keep the seventh-day which men may appoint at their own pleasures or the seventh-day that we are directed unto in the Holy Scriptures Phil. 3.17 2 Thes 3.9 Surely we ought to exert our Obedience to Gods Precepts after the Examples of those that are set forth to be an Example to us I say not that we should follow them in all things they ever did but in all things they did which were essential to answer any Moral or Gospel Precept given for our Practice and consequently in this particular of the first-day Sabbath For seeing the Ceremonial Precept for the Sabbath is abroga ed and the Course of Nature maketh it impossible to be morally binding to all Nations we have then no other Directions how to answer the Moral Law but the Gospel Pattern justified by the Example of our first Parents and therefore we having a positive Law to keep the seventh-day Sabbath we are under a necessity to make that our Pattern For tho' the Apostle did go into the Jews Synagogues and there preâ—â—â—hed the Gospel on their seventh-day Sabbath 2 Tim. 4.2 as the meetest time to Convert both the Jews and Gentiles who assembled together on that day Yet we no where sind in Scripture that the Apostles Disciples of Christ and Primitive Churches did of choice set a-part that day but the first day of the Week for Gospel Service and this being Recorded as the only Example of the Gospel Churches Obedience to the Moral Law in this particular of the Sabbath surely it is lest for our Directions whatever is otherwise handed down by Humane History as the Practice of some Christians for the Scriptures snew that divers were under mistakes and errors Acts 15.1 c. Gal. 2.12 Ch. 4.21 and Ch. 3 and very Subject to Judaize even in the Apostles days 2. Mr. Chasie saith That Mr. Ironside also from the Diversity of Meridians proveth that one and the same day cannot be universally kept and therefore never commanded the whole Church One and the same day sath he could not possibly be observed a Sabbath by all the Jews in the East parts and West parts 〈◊〉 of Judea and in Babilon and in Rome by Reason of their Diversity of Longitudes And if it be supposed to be but two or three 〈◊〉 difference of Longitudes yet will that difference make the days as truly to differ from being the same as will an hundred and three tho it will not make them so much to differ But altho' this be true and the Law of Moses for sixing the Jewish Sabbath to begin at Even in the Wilderness and in the Land of Canaan was never designed to bind the Israelites to that which is impossible viz. to begin their Sabbaths both at the same time of day and at the precise Point of Time to contemporize in all places where they sojourned yet it doth not from hence follow as some have argued that such differences of days do free us from all Obligations to keep any one particular day so that if Christians agree upon the fourth fifth sixth or any other day of the Week to make it the seventh-day Sabbath after our six working days it does answer the Mind of God in the Moral Law as well as by keeping our first-day Sabbath For altho as I have proved the Jewish Sabbath being by Law to begin at Even was therefore never designed for a universal Pattern to all Nations yet who will say that it was not a Pattern for the Jews in all places that had Evenings where they did sojourn and where the days have no Evenings for many Revolutions of the Sun there was no Provision made for their Sabbath in the Ceremonial Law which they were under For God had placed Israel within other Nations and required all their Males three times a Year to appear before him in Jerusalem And therefore Dem. 16.16 they were not to sojourn so far amongst the Heathens as those Northern or Southern Parts while they were a free and peculiar Kingdom of Priests to God Exod. 19.5 6. So then notwithstanding the Ceremonial Precept for the Sabbath was neither designed to oblige the Heathens In those Northern Countreys if they were then inhabited nor could by Reason of the difference of their days accommodate the Jews to keep their Sabbaths there Yet if that Law was binding at all under the least Alteration of their Day as I think none can doubt of that nor consequently that it was obliging to the Jews in other parts of the World also where the days differed more in Point of Time to begin their Sabbaths at Evening with allowance to comply with the Necessity of the Course of Nature I say then seeing that Ceremonial Precept was binding under such Alterations of their day it must be granted that it obliged them not to vary from one another in the time of keeping their Sabbath farther than the Necessity of Nature did compell them for the beginning and ending of it at the time prefixed by the Law Otherwise if their Law did not so restrain them it was of no force nor use to them and consequently if the Gospel Pattern for us to keep the first day Sabbath be any Pattern at all for us to follow as I have shewed it is it doth then oblige us to observe it with no farther Allowance to alter the day than to accommodate the Necessity of Nature in every Countrey where we dwell Object 4. Tho' Gods seventh-day Sabbath on which he rested after his six Creation days was Adams first-day Sabbath of Abstinence from work before his six working days yet that was properly Gods own Sabbath on which he rested and not Adams because he could not be said to rest before he had any working days and therefore tho Adam abstained from work on Gods Sabbath yet the Moral end of Gods Example fixed Adams first Sabbath to begin on the next seventh day after the Sabbath on which God had rested from his Work of Creation Answer 1. Adam was either allowed to dress the Garden on Gods seventh-day of Rest which he sanctified and so to have seven working days as hath been said before he could rest on the next successive seventh-day or have his seventh-day rest a day before it which I believe
God therefore it was the precise successive seventh-day from the Creation Answer 1. The Reason for the Sabbath in the fourth Command is For in six days the Lord made Heavon and Earth the Sea and all that in them is and rested the sâ—â—enth-day wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath-day and ballowed it Now tho this resers us to the Pattern in the beginning yet it followeth not that therefore this Precept sixed the old precise successive seventh-day to Israel For 1. It is not assigned to be the same nor doth it appear that the reference was made to the first Pattern for that end But that as God had six Creation days together and then his Sabbath so after his Example they should also have six working days and no more together to one Sabbath or Lords day For it is not ours for common use but to rest and refresh our selves to worship and serve the Lord Isa 58.13 and therefore 't is called his Holy day as other things are called his that were set a-part from common use to his Service yea tho' they were not the very same from the Original Ezra 6.16 17. Zach. 6.14 and 7.2 3. Exod. 13.2 12 13 15. Chap. 12.29 30. â—evit 27.8 as 1. The new Temple builded in Ezra's time was called the House of God and Temple of the Lord tho it was not the same which Solomon builded 2. The first-born among the Children of Israel both of Men and of Beasts were sanctified and set a-part to the Lord and are said to be his and yet the same in kind was not always required of them for his Service for tho' they were to Sacrifice all the first-born to the Lord being Males except the first-born of Man which they redeemed yet they were also allowed to redeem an unclean Beast according to the Estimation of the Priest and to be at Liberty either to redeem an Ass with a Lamb or break his Neck And so we sind in the Case of the seventh-day Sabbath given to Israel in the Wilderness Exod. 20.10 Josh 10.13 Isa 38.8 Chap. 58.13 that tho' after our English Translation 't is said in the sourth Command to be the Sabbath of the Lord thy God yet nevertheless after the Interruption of the orderly course of the Night and Day and consequently of the Sabbath-day too it was called Gods Holy Day and therefore we cannot say that because the Sabbath given to Israel in the Wilderness is called the Sabbath of the Lord therefore there is ground to believe it was the same precise successive seventh-day from the Creation 2. Mr. Ainsworth Translateth the Hebrew Text Exod. 16.23 To Morrow is the Sabbatism the Sabbath of Holiness to Jehovah And ver 25. It is the Sabbath to day unto Jehovâ—th And Lâ—vit 23.3 But in the seventh shall be a Sabbath of Sabbatism And Deut. Mr. Rebertsons Gate to the Holy Tongue Page 110. See Mr. Hughes in his Analitical Exposition 5.13 But the seventh-day is a Sabbath to Jehovah thy God And Exod. 20.10 But the seventh-day is a Sabbath to Jehovah thy God Which two last places Ari. Montanus reads Et die septimo Sabbathum Domino Deo â—uo And Mr. Will. Robertson translateth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Laihovah Elobecha to the Lord thy God and Mr. Hughet on Exod. 16.23 reads it To Morrow is the Sabbatism the Sabbath of Holinesâ— to Jehovah ver 25. For the Sabbath to Jehovah is to day and Chap. 20.10 But the seventh-day is a Sabbath to Jehovah thy God And Mr. Pools Annotations reads the last place Exod. 20.10 Or to the Lord i. e. Conscerated to his Vse Honour and Service And therefore seeing that whith our English Tranâ—lations read in the fourth Commandment the Sabbath of the Lord is a Sabbath to Jehovah there is nothing that hath the least Appearance of Demonstration that the Sabbath day instituted in the Wilderness was the same precise successive seventh-day from the Creation Object 9. It does not appear that the Sabbath as to its first Original was Typical or instituted to prefigure any thing that was Future for the Law of it was before the sirst Promise of Christ in the state of Innocency wherein there was no respect unto the Mediation of Christ And therefore the Sabbath could not be abolished in the New Testament as a shadow of things to come Answer Gen. 2.9 Prov. 3.18 Luke 23.43 Rev. 2.7 Chap. 22.2 14. The Tree of Life in the midst of the earthly Paradice was also before the fall of Man and the first Promise of Christ and yet both of them were Types of the Spiritual Tree of Life in the Heavenly Paradice So that tho' the Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden and the Sabbath Originally before the fall were not known to Adam as Figures of Future Things in Christ yet from the Counsel and Fore-knowledge of God they were designed as Shadows of things to come For in the Covenant with his Eternal Son before the Foundation of the World Ephel 1.4 11 having Chosen and Predestinated a Select number of Mankind to inherit an Heavenly Paradise he also disposed and ordered all things to accommodate the Declaration of his Counsel to fallen Man with Shadows of those Heavenly Things that were to come And therefore there is no Reason to deny the day of Gods rest from the Work of his Creation to be more than for a Memorial of it but to believe it was also designed of God before the fall to be of Typical Use to Man as appeareth Heb. 4. 2. In Answer to this Objection I have this farther to say that whatever may be thought of the Original Sabbath from the Creation yet the Sabbath days in Colos 2.16 cannot be denied to be the Jewish Sabbaths and of these the Apostle saith they are a Shadow of things to come but the Body is of Christ and therefore the shadows are done away Object 10. Seeing the Jewish seventh-day Sabbath did answer the Moral Law and yet you say it is abrogated under the Gospel Colos 2.16 Then either its Typicahâ—ess or Significative Nature as it is a Shâ—â—ow or was a Memerial of Israâ—h Deliverance out of Egypt is only abolished and not the day it self or else a Branch of the Moral Law it self is reâ—ealed Answer I have shewed before that the seventh-day Sabbath must at least be comprehended in the Prohibition of Sabbaths as a shadow of things to come and have already cleared this Scripture Colos 2.16 from divers Exceptions that may seem to weaken its Authority from abrogating the Jewish Sabbath yet because I sind Mr. Brabourne has laboured with all his might to stifle that which I conceive is the Mind of the Holy Ghost in it I shall therefore clear it from other things that may possibly puzzle the Minds of some weak Christians And 1. It s there said Let no Man therefore judge you in Meat oâ— in Drink or in respect of an Holy Day Gr. of a
Feast or of the New Moon or of the Sabbath days which are a shadow of things to come but the Body is of Christ Here as was mentioned before Sabbaths are distinctly expressed from the New Moon and Feasts or other Jewish Holy days that were or had also Sabbaths and were observed under the Law and therefore their weekly seventh-day Sabbath must at least be comprehended in the Word Sabbaths and equally prohibited with the New Moon and other selâ—ival Sabbaths that were then observed 2. It appeareth the Jewish seventh-day was a shadow of things to come in that it was a Sign and Memorial of Israth Deliverance out of Eâ—ypt for that Deliverance with all its Memorials was a Type of our Salvation by Jesus Christ and oâ— the Gospel Signs and Memorials of it for it s said That all the Prophets 〈◊〉 11.13 and the Law prophesud until John 3. Tho' the change of the Jâ—â—ish seventh day into the Christion sirst-day Sabbath in Distinction to tieiâ—s was Typed out by the eighth or sust day and by the Year of Jâ—bilee under the Law as I have shewed yet our Claiâ—â—ion Salbath considered as our seventh-day to our six working days was also shadowed by the Jewish seventh-day Sabbath 4. It this will not fatissie I have also this to say That we find nothing applyed in the New Testament as the Antitype of the New Moon It 's true there is something signisied or shadowed to us by the New Moon Isa 66.23 And by the Feast of Tabernacles Zach. 14.16 which places both relate to Christs Glorious Kingdom yet to come and not to our present Gospel-day but yet we cannot certainly say what the New Moon and Feast of Tabernacles does particularly shadow to us Howbeit from thence it 's plain that the New Moon is a shadow of something yet to come and seeing the Apostle saith so too and comprehends the seventh-seventh-day Sabbath with it we can no more deny his forbidding all Men not to judge or censure the Christians for not observing the Jewish seventh-day Sabbath than for not observing their New Moons and other Holy days and for any to except the Jewish seventh-day Sabbath out of this Prohibition because they sind no present Gospel Antitype shadowed by it expresly applyed to it in the New Testament will give equal Liberty for others to except against the Prohibition of observing their New Moons And therefore seeing those Typical days and times of the New Moon and Feast of Tabernacles that were not evident shadows of present but of suture Gospel things are not to be kept in our Gospel days as Signs and Memorials of Israels Deliverance out of Egypt or for any other Reason and yet the Record of them in Scripture does retain their Typical and Shadowy Significations then surely we have equal Reason to conclude that in Case it were granted as it is not that the Jewish seventh-day Sabbath was no shadow of any present Gospel thing yet as a Sign and Memorial of Israels Deliverance out of Egypt and also as a shadow of suture things it is not to be observed tho' the Record of it in Scripture does still retain a shadowy Signification and is so of Use to us 5. Tâ—â— some have sound out a more cunning Distinction than an Explanation of Truth batteen the typicalness or significative Nature of the Jewish Sabbith and the Sabbath or day it self yet this covâ—â—ing may castly be removed and their mistake Corrected for tho' the Pypical use oâ— their Sabbath to suture things still temaineth on sacred Record and is not wronged by transâ—erring the same Typical Signiâ—ication to be born also by our actual keeping the 〈◊〉 day Sabbath as the seventh-day Sabbath also yet it is the Jewish seventh-day Sabbath the day it self that is aboâ—ished as other things were that were Memorials of Israels Deliverance out of Egypt which respecting their seventh-day Sabbath was in their beginning and ending of it From Evening to Evening to answer their new day from the Sacrisice of their first Passover thereby weekly and dailytoo to keep that deliverance in fresher Memory and so the significative Nature of the day respecting an actual and practical bearing up the Memory of that Deliverance could not be removed unless the Sabbath day it self were altered in its beginning and ending which was to cease with their Church-state and to give way to our Gospel Memorials of the greater deliverance when our Spiritual Redemption and Eternal Salvation was purchased by Jesus Christ 6. The Jewish Sabbath its self is abrogated without a repeal of any part of the Moral Law or Ten Commandments or any Moral Branch of that Law tho' the keeping of it by the Jews did answer and fulfil it in the fourth Command For as I have noted the fourth Command of its self does not require the Sabbath to begin and end from Evening to Evening so it consequently follows it does not of its self limit the keeping of that very day but this was done by another Ceremonial Precept which till it was abrogated tho' it answered the Moral Law as being their seventh-day boundary to their six working days yet it does not therefore follow that it was of its self of a Moral Nature for then we must also say that all other Ceremonial Precepts are Moral and all the Jewish Worship is Moral for nothing was required contrary to the Ten Commandments but for Israels putting forth their Obedience to them which was to be exerted according to the revealed Will of God in all the other Appendant both Moral and Ceremonial Precepts and Branches of the Decalogue So that the prohibiting of the Sabbath according to the Jewish Pattern is no repeal of any Part or Moral Branch of the Ten Commandments but is only an Abrogation of a Ceremonial Precept that pertained to it during the shadowy Dispensation of the Law Object 11. Here I shall answer to something I find in Mr. Edward Stennet's Book of the seventh-day Sabbath Page 47. concerning those Countreys where they have so much day together in the Summer and Night together in the Winter Saith he the Psalmist saith Psal 74.20 The dark places of the Earth are full of the Habitations of Cruelty That is saith he they are the places by Divine Appointment for the cruel Wild Beasts and not for Man except they will become like Beasts for as David saith There is no Sperch nor Language under Heaven where the Voice of Day and Night is not heard Psal 19.2 3. So that if there be any Speech or Language under Heaven that hear not the Voice of Day and Night they are gone out of that orderly State which they were in in Davids Time and so ought to return again into such Countreys where they may be in a Capacity to serve God and live under the means of Grace for men ought to sorsake all that this World affords rather than Sin against God and if so then men may well forsake their dark
could not conveniently see the Church in a full Assembly before their usual appointed Time on the first day of the Week Secondly Then they came together to break Bread viz to eat the Lords Supper for so the same Expression is universally understood in Acts 2.42 So that on the first day of the Week the Church of Troas Assembled to hear the Word of God and to solemnize the Ordinances of Jesus Christ which pattern together with the Example of his Disciples before mentioned and the occasion of the change of the Jewish Sabbath answering the Precept of the Moral Law founded on the first sanctifying of the Sabbath with the Observation of the first and seventh-day Sabbath by Adam is a sufficient warrant for the keeping of our first-day Sabbath there being both a Precept and a double Example that justifieth our Observation of it And this I conceive to be the same day which St. John calls the Lords day as Dr. Wallis shews See his Defence of the Christian Sabbath in Answer to Mr. Thomas Bampfield Page 48. that we have the more Reason so to presume because we find it so called by others very soon after St. Johns time as Ignatius who was not only Contemporary with him but was a Disciple or Scholar of St. John now Ignatius in his Epistle to the Magnesians even according to the genuine Edition published by Bishop Vshâ—â— out of an Ancient Manuscript not that which is justly suspected to be interpolated he doth earnestly exhort them not to Judâ—â—ze but to live as Christians not any longer observing the Jewish Sabbath but the Lords day on which Christ our Life rose again It is manifest therefore saith he as may be there further seen that within eight or ten Years after St. Johns writing the Lords day did not signifie the Jewish Sabbath but the first day of the Week on which our Saviour rose again and that it was then observed in contradistinction to the Jewish Sabbath he also adds the evidence of Justin Martyr and farther saith that Dominica or dies Dominicus hath been so used not only by the Ancient Christian Writers Ignatius Clement Ireneus Origen Tertullian c. but by the Councils and Church History all along Now this Historical Testimony of Ignatius c. that the Lords day was accounted from St. Johns time the first day of the Week is the more to be regarded seeing Mr. Bampfield in his Reply to the Doctors Book does not as I can find in the least invalidate the Reputation or any ways deny the Truth of the aforesaid History SECT XIII HEre I shall observe that the first day Sabbath which I have been treating of is asserted by many Authors to be as its Heathen Name viz. Sunday that is still in Vulgar use does witness the same successive day which the Gentiles from great Antiquity have observed as the chief day of their Week in worship to the Sun See Dr. Nath. Hâ—lmes his Essay concerning the Sabbath Chap. 7.8 9. as Dr. Hâ—lmes sheweth how anciently the Sun was worshipped Jerem. 43.12 13. He shall break also the Images of Bethshemesh which in our Marginal Notes is translated the House of the Sun that is in the Land of Egypt and the Houses of the Gods of the Egyptians shall he burn with Fire And Gen. 41.45 And â—haraoh called Josephs name Zaphnath-Paaneah and he gave him to Wife Asenath the Daughter of Potipherah Priest of On which he translates from the Septuagint 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Priest of the City of the Sun And he citeth divers Authors as Jo. Gr. Assyr Monarch idem Biblian to shew that Nimrod having given to the Sun his greatest God the Name of Baal Nimâ—od Gen. 10.8 was the Father of Belus See Mr. Tho. Chasiâ— on the Sabbath Page 29. he afterwards assumed that Name to himself And â—elus giving to their greatest God the Sun the Name of Jove the Contract of Jâ—lâ—vah the said Belus afterwards took that Name to himself and was called Jove Bel. I shall add that the Sâ—â—â— and Moon and the Host of Heaven were worshipped by the Gentiles before Israels coming out of Egypt as seemeth by the strict command given to them and the Penalty of Death to any Man or Woman that should worship the Sun and Moon Deut. 17.2 See Mr. Tho. Chasie on the Sabbath Chap. 15. 3 c. Also Mr. Chafie proves from divers Authors that the Heathens did of old Worship the Sun and that the weekly day to wit the seventh-day of every Week with the Gentiles which they call the day of the Sun or Sunday was the very same day which we call the Lords day Moreover Mr. Tho. Bampfield in his Reply to Doctor Walles page 56 57. saith That Mr. Chafie tells us page 40. That to take off the Israelites from this Idolatry viz. of worshipping the Sun the Lord used this means for one that they should not have the day of the Sun that is Sunday for the day of his Worship but the day before that is the Seventh day which saith Mr. Bampfield I think refers to the Time of the sixteenth or twentieth of Exodus which saith he proves not only the Observation of the seventh-day by the Israelites but of Sunday by the Heathens and that very Anciently and that continually in the Weekly Circulation of days to this day And Mr. Chafie's ninth and fifteenth Chapters saith Mr. Bampfield I think might give satisfaction that all Nations of Note under Heaven worshipped the Sun and that very anciently as far back at least as the Time of Moses and that upon Sunday and that weekly Now all the Use I intend to make hereof is that our first day Sabbath according to the Opinion of some Persons and to what Mr. Bampfield approveth of in Mr. Chafie's Book stands fairest to be the successive seventh-day Sabbath from the Creation of the World See Dr. H. Essay on the Sabbath Page 78.79.82 Gen 12.8 Chap. 13.4 as Dr. Holmeâ— saith We know that Idolaters were always the Apes as Divines call them of true Religion As because Abraham builded an Altar on the Mountain near Bethel and planted a Grove in Beersheba and prepared all things at Gods command to offer up his Son Isaac Therefore Idolaters planted Groves and worshipped in high Places their Idols Gen. 21.33 Chap. 22. and made their Children to pass through the Fire to them and therefore saith he nothing can be more probable than that the seventh-day with the ancient Patriaâ—â—ks was no other but that which afterwards was the Sunday or Day of or to the Sun with the 〈◊〉 and from them was called Sunday by other Nations also To which I add that the Astronomers say the measure of our days by the Revolutions of the Sun in a whole Years time differs between five and six hours from the Revolutions of the Stars which make a day every fourth or Leap Year and yet that the odd Minutes in which their Measure differs
being short of a day in four Years loseth near a day in one hundred Years and we know not which way or that any one Method of keeping the Account of the Age of the World has been constantly and successively used from the Creation thereof to this present day nor how much time we have lost the Knowledge of for want of the exact Account of the Ages of the first Patriarks c. unto Months and Days which are omitted in the Scriptures so that we cannot tell so much as the precise Year of the Creation of the World as our Astronomers tell us that according to Verity is 0000 viz. it is not known Collected in the 〈…〉 Eusâ—â—tus 〈◊〉 â—â—nicon 〈◊〉 552. 〈◊〉 in 1619. And in Eusebius we have divers Authors mentioned that in their Account of the Year of the World when Christ was born they differ many hundred Years from each other Yet the precise Succession of Weeks of seven Days and seven Nights bounded with as many Risings and Settings of the Sun are more eastly preserved and from Gods Example of six working days with a Sabbath were observed by Adam who at first had no other measure to mete out his Age and Time and by Noah Gen 8.10 12. and were successively handed down by Tradition to Laban who said to Jacob sulfil her Week and so forwards unto Posterity Gen. 29.27 〈◊〉 28. and this way the precise Succession of the Sabbath might possibly have been handed down to us from the Creation But seeing there hath been an Interruption of the orderly course of Nature and that the Sacred Scriptures do not any ways confirm it to us nor six the Jewish Sabbath as that precise successive seventh-day but rather gives us ground to believe that if the precise Succession of the first seventh-day Sabbath was preserved among the Gentiles in Worship to their Idols or to the Sun before Israels Deliverance out of Egypt that seeing God to keep those People from the Idolatry of Egypt and other Nations did appoint them a new beginning of their Year and to begin their days at Evening which before began in the Morning I say this rather gives us ground to think that God did appoint their Sâ—bbath to be kept on a different day also to what it was before therefore we may from hence perceive that thâ— neither the Jews nor do I believe the Châ—istians can justifie their seventh or first day Sabbath on this Foundation as being the precise successive seventh-day from the Creation yet our first-day Sabbath standeth fairest for it SECT XIV I Shall here make some Comparisons of the Gospel first-day Sabbath with the Pattern of Adams Sabbath and shew the disparity of the Jewish seventh-day and also treat of the first day Sabbaths beginning in the Morning with some other Matters and then proceed to Answer the chiefest Objections I find against our keeping the first or Lords-day a Sabbath And 1. Our first-day Sabbath better answered the Pattern of our first Parents keeping their Sabbath than the Jewish Sabbath did Gen. 1.27 28. for that after Eve was compleatly formed about the end of the sixth Creation day as Adam first entred upon his Subordinate Lordship which God had given him over the Creatures which he had made and on his first day in the Earthly Paradice on his first-day Sabbath So our Lord Jesus thô his Soul was in the Paradise of Heaven John 20.17 when his Body was in the Grave yet he was not compleatly there in Soul and Body too till he was raised on the first-day of his Ascension in our Nature far above all Principalities and Powers to take Possession of his purchased Inheritance and Kingdom to be increased without end So that herein our first-day Sabbath did Originally answer Adams first Sabbath better than the Jewish seventh-day did in the Wilderness 2. As Adam and Eves Sabbath was Originally their first-day Sabbath and after their six working days their seventh-day Sabbath too So our Gospel Sabbath is the Image or Likeness of it more than the Jewish Sabbath is for thô their seventh-day may be called their first-day Sabbath respecting their Original keeping it in the Wilderness yet the Scripture does not shew that it was their first-day Sabbath from so precise an Epocha of Time or notable Event of their Deliverance out of Egypt as our Gospel Sabbath is from the precise Epocha of the Purchase of our Spiritual and Eternal Salvation from whence it is a more proper first-day Sabbath and bears a greater likeness to Adams Pattern which had its precise Epocha of Time than the Jewish Sabbath does from its Original For thô the Jewish Sabbath was appointed to bare the Memorial of Israels Deliverance out of Egypt yet the Scripture does not shew that it took its Original from the Epocha of the Passover or from the Red Sea but contrariwise I find that Israel came unto the Wilderness of Sin on the fifteenth day of the second Month after their departing out of the Land of Egypt and the following Words are Exod. 10.1 2 3 11 12. â—er 5 22 23. And the whole Congregation of the Children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron for Bread And the Lord spake unto Moses saying at Even ye shall cat Flesh and in the Morning ye shall be filled with Bread Now their first Sabbath in the Wilderness was not till the day after their sixth day of gathering Manna and from this account See Mr. Weemse Christian Synagogue Page 9â— if we reckon as the Jews did their Lunar Year according to Mr. Weemse â—rogromma of the Hebrew Kalender that the first Month Nisan or Abib hath thirty days and then reckoning the fifteenth day of this Month on which they departed out of Egypt unto the fifteenth day of their second Month and add this day to their six days of gathering Manna with their first Sabbath it makes together thirty eight days and so their first Sabbath fell on the third day after five Weeks time from their departing out of Egypt and took not its Original from that Epocha nor any other precise Epocha as a first-day Sabbath for if any should insist on their gathering Manna six days as an Epocha which I have shewed was not so for sixing their six working days Precisely and Originally before their Sabbath it would only render it a seventh-day Sabbath Originally in the Wilderness and so it could not answer Adams Pattern of his first-day Sabbath nor be like it in its Epocha from the perfecting of the first Adam as our first-day Sabbath was from its Epocha of the perfecting the second Adam 3. If it should be yet thought thô there is no Reason for it that the Jewish Sabbath was originally sixed to the Israelites in the Wilderness as following their six working days I have this to say that if so then Israel kept their Sabbath therein after a Ceremonial Precept contrary to Adams Pattern in keeping his first-day Sabbath
†Or within a very small time of it viz. of their seventh or second-day in the Land of Canaan And therefore seeing the Sabbath cannot be begun universally both at the precise Point of Time and Time of day as it should begin in the Land of Canaan to contemporize with them there And considering that Adams Sabbath was not only designed for the Moral end of Mans abâ—inence from Work for a time of solemn Worship to God but that it had its Memorial of the Creation and that the Jewish seventh-day Sabbath afterwards bearing that Memorial was also appointed for â—loral Ends and for a Ceremonial Memorial that rendred it uncapable of being a universal Pattern and that the Memorial of Christs Purchase of our Spiritual and Eternal Salvation should be preferred before that of Israels Deliverance out of Egypt then we ought to observe our Christan Sabbath as much as can be to Answer thereunto the end of its chinge which may be done by all Nations including those Northern People keeping their first-day Sabbath in Distinction to and from the Jewish seventh day And as for its beginning early in the Morning or at the dawning of the Day the Scriptures shew that so it began in Judea Matth. 28.1 In the end of the Sabbath as it began to dawn or as John 20.1 While it was yet dark i. e. not light day towards the first-day of the Week came Mary Magdalen and the other Mary to see the Sepulchre c. And in Mark 16.2 It 's said they came unto the Sepulchre at the rising of the Sun and ver 9. Now when Jesus was risen early the first-day of the Week he appeared first to Mary Magdalen and said unto her John 20 1â— Touch me not for I am not yet ascended to my Father but go to my Brethren and say unto them I ascend unto my Father and your Father and to my God and your God And therefore seeing the Evangelists have Recorded the Time of the dawning and Sun rising of the Day to the History and Circumstances of Christs Resurrection and that we find he was then but newly riten because he had not yet ascended unto the Father when Mary first saw him We have then greater Reason to six the beginning of our first-day Sabbath in all Nations where we can at the dawning of the day expressed in the Scripture to bare the fuller Memortal of the Resurrection of our Lord than at any other time of the day And this we may strengthen from the Example of the Jews beginning their Sabbath in the Evening here in England and in other Nations tho our Evenings here differ and in other Nations are farther from the precise Time of the Evening in the Land of Canaan and their Reason for it is taken from the Precept of Moses which bindeth them to celebrate their Sabbaths from Evening to Evening Lev. 23.32 Exod. 12 18 19. And therefore seeing God was pleased under the Type of the Gospel Salvation Church and Sabbath to require the Memorial of that Deliverance by beginning their Sabbath in the Evening as the most proper time to bear its lively remembrance and that from thence they conclude it best answereth the express command of God and his End and Design in sixing the Jewish Sabbath to begin at Evening in the Land of Canaan for them to begin it so in other Countries also rather than to begin it at the precise Point of time of its beginning in Canaan and differ in the Time of day then we have Reason from the Type and their Example to begin our first-day Sabbath rather at the dawning of the day in all the World where we can than at the precise Point of Time at a different time of day to contemporize in all places And whatever the Jewish Sabbatharians may invent to say from the Necessity of the Course of Nature in those Northern or Southern Parts against the beginning of our first-days Sabbath early in the Morning or at the dawning of the day in all other Parts of the World the same Arguments will equally serve against the beginning of their Sabbath in the Evening where it can be so observed so that they cannot gain the least Advantage by opposing us in beginning our Christian Sabbath early in the Morning unless they can first invalid and disprove the Authority we bring for our keeping the first-day it self that it does not answer the Pattern of Adams Sabbath the Moral Law in the fourth Commandment and the Example of Christs Disciples and the Primitive Churches with all the ends of a Sabbath which is a task too hard for them And seeing the Scriptures sheweth by the Resurrection of our Lord that our Sabbath should begin at the dawning of the first-day of the Week it must consequently not end till the dawning of the second-day Mark 15.42 Luke 23.54 See Mr. Heemse Christ Synagogue Page 74. Who tells us the Jews had three Preparations to their Sabbaâ—h Succeeding each other And from the Custom of the Jews to make Preparations for their Sabbath the preceding Time from twelve a Clock on Saturday Night vulgarly so called till the dawning of the first-day it that time be not spent in our Nights rest it should be employed to prepare our Minds for the Worship and Service of God on the approaching Sabbath day But to proceed That I may remove any doubts that may yet arise about the usefulness of the Pattern of Adams Sabbath to us under the Gospel I shall add something to demonstrate how far it is of a Moral Nature for seeing I have forborn to call it a Moral Pattern because no one Pattern respecting the beginning and ending of the Sabbath can be wholly alike universally so to all Nations I think it 's therefore needful to explain the Moral use that is to be made of Adams Sabbath that so whatever different Apprehensions there may be about the use of the Word Mortal â—o Adams Pattern the thing it self may be understood and the Controversie may not be fomented about Words which some have made the Subject of much Discourse when they have not been able to Confute the thing that was plainly intended by them 1. Therefore as I shewed Page 2. that from Gods sanctifying the seventh-day for Man the Light of Adams Nature taught him that it was most meet to divide his time like his Creator and so it became the Moral Duty of Men as Men to have no more nor less than six working days to one Sabbath 2. See Page 24. I have also shewed the Reason we have from Scripture to believe that after Adams first sleep in the Night when the Hamane Nature was compleatly formed and Eve was brought to him at the end of the sixth Creation day their Sabbath began with the Morning day light of the seventh-day and the first day after the finishing of the Creation which seeing the Order of Gods Working and Rest and the Original Moral Duty of Man
alike Let every Man be fully perswaded in his own Mind Whatever some may imagine from this Scripture yet seeing Adam in Paradice had his Sabbath for the solemn worship of God Levit. 23.3 and Israel had their Sabbath for the same end and to rest from their work and labour there being still the same Moral Use and Necessity of Nature for a Sabbath there is Reason to believe that such a day is to be observed as well now and in after Ages as it was before And considering the undeniable Evidence that hath been given to prove the Decalogue to be Morally binding to us under the Gospel there is a necessity for the Preservation of the Concord of Holy Writ to give such an Exposition of this Text of Scripture as will both suit and agree with the Letter of it and the binding quality of other Scriptures to keep a Sabbath-day To proceed therefore the Apostle surely would not have singled forth the first-day of the Week on which the Churches were wont to have their Assemblies as the properest time to make their Collection for the Saints Nor would the Apostle John have called it the Lords day as hath been shewed from History if it had not been a sanctified day for Holy Use neither would the Holy Ghost have Recorded the Disciples gathering together on the two first-days after the Resurrection of Christ nor that the Church of Troas came together on the first day of the Week to solemnize the Gospel Ordinances of Divine Worship as the only Examples to answer the Moral Law in the fourth Commandment If the same Spirit of Truth in the Apostle had here designed to make every day alike Common 2. If the Apostle in this Scripture had so designed he would not have cited so many Precepts of the Ten Commandments in Chap. 13.9 of the same Epistle and have said of the rest of them as binding to the Romans to confirm his Moral Doctrine That if there be any other Commandment it is briefly comprehended in this saying namely Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy self And therefore seeing he doth so plainly discover the binding quality of the Ten Commandments to the Gentile Christians there is no Reason to conceive he should dissolve the Obligation of any one of them in the following Chapter considering that the Liberty there mentioned of esteeming or not esteeming of Days is not there reserred or applyed as having Retation to the Moral Observation of the sourth Command 3. The Apostle would not have abolished as hath been shewed the Jewish Feasts Holy days and Sabbaths Colos 2.16 17. nor have said to the Galatians Ye observe Days Gal. 4.10 and Months and Times and Years I am afraid of you least I have bestowed upon you labour in Vain If he or any other by Christs Authority had given absolute Liberty for Christians to observe the Jewish Holy days And therefore the sence of this Text which is freest from all Exceptions is That the Apostle neither giveth us Liberty to sleight the Observation of the seventh-day required of us in the fourth Commandment as the Bond of the Gospel Pattern nor yet doth give us absolute Liberty to observe the Jewish seventh-day Sabbath and their other Holy-days but he is teaching us how we should bear with one another in indifferent Matters as the eating of Herbs and esteeming of Jewish days That in Case a Brother should be so weak as that after he is converted from the Jewish Religion to the Christian Faith he should still retain some esteem of their Holy days yet being sound in all the Essential Principles to Salvation and in the constituted Order of a Regular Gospel Church his Communion is not to be refused Ver. 1. but here let the Reader well observe that my meaning is not that any Church should receive such a Christian into full Communion with them at the Lords Table that holdeth and maketh our first-day Sabbath only as a common day to him for this in the Judgment of a Church according to Scripture Rule bringeth him under the guilt of Sin and the Church should not partake of it by their holding such full Communion with him But the Apostle means that in Case a Converted Jew as he is there treating of such a one as maketh a difference between Meats to be Clean and Unclean Ver. 14 1â— if he should still esteem some of their Holy days yet if he also keepeth the first-day Sabbath Holy unto the Lord the Church in such a Case should be tender of grieving his weak Conscience by Continual and Uncharitable Disputations with him about the Matter wherein he is not clearly enlightned so as to give him an occasion to stumble and sall at the Offence For seeing he Conscientiously keepeth Holy the first-day Sabbath Gal. 4.13 15 20 21 23. for his retaining an esteem for some Jewish Holy days so they be kept to the Lord in Christian Worship and not for Jewish Sacrifices or such things which betoken Christs not being yet come and fully exhibited in the Flesh we are not to deny Communion at the Lords Table with such a Brother seeing he neither observeth the Jewish days to uphold their worship contrary to the Prohibition of Legal Ceremonies under the Gospel Dispensation nor can any ways be charged with disorders in Ordinances or in Matters Essentially pertaining to the Regular Constitution of a Gospel Church And that this is the Mind of Christ in the Text appeareth in two things 1. Because the Apostle joineth this Liberty of Regarding or not Regarding of days with Eating or not Eating of Meats as things of a like indifferent Nature but the Keeping or not Keeping of the Weekly Sabbath hath been fully proved to be no indisserent thing but an absolute Duty and therefore it is none of the Subject Matter included in the Apostles Words 2. He intended to give no Liberty to observe the Jewish days for Legal Ceremonial Worship for this under the Gospel would not be counted a keeping of a day to the Lord but not a keeping of it to him and so as the Apostle argueth it is not a keeping of a day at all And thus having opened this Scripture and given the sence of the Apostles Words in Reconciliation to the Authority of other Places that are binding to us for the Observation of the Sabbath day I shall leave it to the serious Consideration of the Impartial Reader Answer 2. To the Objection from 2 Cor. 3.7 where the Apostle saith But if the Ministration of Death written and ongraven in Stones was glorious so that the Children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the Face of Moses for the Glory of his Countenance which Glory was to be done away how shall not the Ministration of the Spirit be rather Glorious In Answer to this Scripture I shall Note that in the preceding and following Verses the Apostle is signifying the different and exceeding Glory of the Ministration of the quickening Spirit