The Lords day Vinaicated OR The First day of the WEEK THE Christian Sabbath In Answer to Mr. Bampfields Plea for the Seventh day in his Enquiry Whether Jesus Christ be Jehovah and gave the Moral Law And whether the Fourth Command be Repealed or Altered BY G. T. a Well-wisher to Truth and Concord Prov. 18.17 He that is first in his own Cause seemeth just but his Neighbour cometh and searcheth him LONDON Printed for Samuel Clement at the White Swan in St. Paul's Church-yard 1692. TO THE READER THo' there be many Books already written on this Subject the following Preface will justify the Seasonableness of this Modest and Judicious Reply to Mr. B. especially among serious Professors in the West of England But it cannot be unfit upon other Considerations that such a Discourse be now Publish'd when the Doctrinal Truth in the Controversie of a Weekly Sabbath is opposed by so many and the Practical Sanctification of it neglected by so many more It has been generally observed that the Power of Godliness hath Flourished or Abated in every Age and in every part of Christendom as the strict and consciencious Observation of a weekly-Weekly-Day of Holy Rest did obtain or not And particularly in our own Country no outward Means can be assigned that hath more availed to help the Preservation of Pure Reformed Christianity among us On which account it concerns all Christians to enquire what is our Warrant for the Observation of One day in Seven and likewise whether the Seventh or the First day of the Week which according to a true Account may also be called the Seventh ought to be observed as the Christian Sabbath What is said on this Argument in the following Reply to Mr. B. discovers so much the Candor and Moderation of the Author as will recommend it to every Impartial Reader His Distance from London and nothing else occasions or needs this Epistle as will doubtless be thought even by such as have some different Conceptions from him in some lesser Matters of this Controversie That it may advance the Honour of Christ and help to satisfy the Minds of some Wavering and less Established Christians and promote the real Interest of Practical Godliness upon which the Doctrin of the Weekly Sabbath will have a great Influence as it will answer the Authors Design so our Desires and Prayers John Howe John Shower The PREFACE IT may afford cause of Wonder to considering and serious Persons what should be the Inducements of the Author of the Enquiry whether the Lord Jesus c. to Print and divulge it at such a time and under such circumstances as we are brought into And though he hath proposed no Preface to his Book to plead for it's Emission yet I think there has scarce been a Piece sent into the World these many Years that more required and needed it For 1. He well knows that the whole Christian World is engaged against him herein and that they have Sciptural grounds and the practice of the most ancient Churches the Doctrin and Testimonies of the must Orthodox and Learned Fathers derived immediately from the Apostles with an uninterrupted Succession through several Centuries and their own Education Custom and Practice received down from many Generations with their own blessed Experiences of the Light of Gods countenance the operations of his Spirit the activity and growth of their own Graces on that blessed Day c. for their consecrating of the first day of the Week to Divine Service and their Religious and Devout appropriating it to and imploying it in those Duties which immediately concern the Glory of God and the Spiritual and Eternal Weal of their own Souls Which things are not easily overcome and laid aside with as great and Rooted Prejudices against his opinion of the Seventh-day-Sabbath as that 't is Judaical Fanciful and Singular such at least as has had but very few Favourers and Abetters either in the ancient Churches and these branded for Heresie or else in the modern some three or four starting up of late years among our selves daring by Writing and Printing to endeavour the Introduction of this Novelty into the belief and practice of Vniversal Church All which and other Prejudices against this Opinion cannot slightly be eradicated out of the minds of Men and therefore he could hardly imagin any great success to this undertaking unless he could have produced undeniable demonstrations to our Reason or irrefragable Testimonies of Scripture to our Faith Which I hope we shall see he has been far enough from 2. He should also have considered and concluded that these Arguments which have been produced heretofore by those of his perswasion are not likely now to convince and convert the whole Christian World to his thoughts and practice Seeing they have been so often and by so many worthy Learned Orthodox and Pious Divines answered and in the judgment of Wise and gracious Persons fully confuted and satisfactorily baffled to the deeper Rooting and more firm Establishment of the Churches of Christ in their constant Observance of the Lords day Wherefore if he would have effected any thing by this attempt he should have offered some new Inventions of his own that have never yet encountered with any opposition But in all his Book to the best of my Remembrance I have not met with any one place of Scripture nor argument drawn therefrom nor Improvement thereof for his own Sentiments Nor yet any Text of Gods word or Topick against ours no nor any one solution of our Authoritative or Rational proofs for the confirmation of our Contrary Belief and Practice to his which has not been already produced by others and as largely and strenuously managed as by himself and that too in the same manner 'T is no great Prudence in a Combatant to make use of the same Weapons Modes and Arts against his Antagonists which have been frequently Baffled Defeated Broken and retorted into his own Bowels Wherefore 't is strange to me if any Victory over any considerate studious Person could be hoped for by such a casting of the Gantlet 3. But suppose he could have expected to have proselited some to his Opinion as who has not though the Doctrin be never so absurd Heterodox and Impious yet sure it could not be thought a sufficient means to prevail upon all the Churches no nor upon the universality of the National Church of that Collection of so many millions of counterminded Christians and Protestants whereof he is He could not certainly presume that all the Authority of these Nations both Ecclesiastical and Civil would follow his Dictates or receive new Light from his Torch and acknowledg themselves to have been in gross Error and in a sinful Practice ever since and always before the Reformation since they Professed Faith in the Lord Christ And that they should alter all their Acts and Statutes all their Canons and Articles in this particular And herein acknowledg him to be the infallible Apostle
should have applied that of the Apostle Rom. 14.21 22. to have deter'd him there-from Wherefore seeing this Piece is so dangerous and may do and already has done so much hurt it s very Expedient if not morally Necessary to endeavour a prevention of its evil Consequences and there especially where the Author is resident and it may most infect and it may well be deemed a Duty of some one of the Dressers of that part of the Vineyard of the Lord Christ where this Weed or Thorn is sprung up to endeavour it's eradication before it spreads any farther or wounds any deeper That Province therefore which I most unable for and Naturally altogether averse from Polemical Disputes shall undertake and with the best skill and faithfulness that God shall afford perform shall only be with all possible Brevity and Perspicuity to weaken all the Arguments the Author manages for his Notion and to confirm and Ratifie all these which he endeavours to weaken and evacuate for the ancient general Scriptural Doctrin of the Lords-day-Sabbath or Sacred Rest and herein to follow his own method Giving some transient Glances upon things that may occur some what Excentrical or Alien from the Great design of this Book Which I shall study to do with all Candor and due Deference to the Gentility Gravity and I hope real Piety of the Author THE CONTENTS Sect. I. SOme general Observations premised whether the World were made by Christ as Jesus Christ God-man page 4 Sect. II. Of Christ's being Jehovah and in what sense the Law was given by him p. 8 Sect. III. Whether after the Creation the Lord rested on the Seventh-day and so Sanctified and Instituted it and did himself observe it as that even Adam in a State of Innocence was bound by it and all Mankind without distinction before the Fall p. 12 Sect. IV. Whether the Ten Commandments were given by Christ to Jews and Gentiles p. 21 Sect. V. Whether Christ in the Flesh did confirm all the Ten Commandments and every tittle of the Fourth And whether Christ and his Apostles did enjoyn or did not rather speak against the Observation of the Seventh-day-Sabbath p. 24 Sect. VI. Of the Word Seventh in the Fourth Commandment the Sabbath not recommended by Christ to his Disciples Of Commenius's desire of Reformation c. p. 30 Sect. VII Of the Ceremonial Law and what is Moral and Positive what is truly Moral that the Saturday Seventh-day-Sabbath is not more may be pleaded for Circumcision p. 35 Sect. VIII Whether Christ in his own Person Observed the Seventh-Week-day-Sabbath and no other and what may be gathered from it The Arguments for the Seventh-day-Sabbath equally hold for all the Jewish Ceremonies Of the Pre-Antiquity of that Day and the falsity of that Argument p. 41 Sect. IX Whether Christ Rested on the Seventh-day-Sabbath while he lay in the Grave And what may be Argued from it p. 44 Sect. X. Vpon what day of the Week Christ ascended into Heaven whether the seventh-Seventh-day or Saturday p. 48 Sect. XI Whether after the Resurrection and Ascension of Christ the seventh-day-Seventh-day-Sabbath was observed by the Apostles and First Christians How long the Apostles met the Jews in their Synagogues on the Seventh-day and for what Reason p. 51 Sect. XII The Argument from Christ's Resurrection for the First-day of the Week to be the Christian Sabbath Vindicated Circumcision not more abolisht than the Seventh-day-Sabbath That abolisht the First succeeds on the Account of Our Lord's Resurrection since that Time with equal or stronger Reason than the former continued till he Rose from the dead p. 57 Sect. XIII Other Arguments for the First-day-Sabbath Vindicated from the Objections of Mr. B. Of a Sabbath-days Journey After three Days may be understood on the third Day he rose again John 8.56 Psalm 118.22 Psalm 2.7 Acts 20.7 cleared and Vindicated Of the beginning of the Christian Sabbath p. 61. Sect. XIV More Texts cleared Rev. 1.9 10. of being in the Spirit on the Lords-day Math. 12.8 Mark 2.27 Jesus Christ Lord of the Sabbath Of the Lord Supper Christs Resurrection commemorated on the First-day of the Week by Institution p. 79 Sect. XV. Gal. 4.9 10. Explained What days excluded from binding Christians Col. 2.16 What Sabbaths meant as Shadows to vanish when Christ came Math. 24.20 no Argument for the Seventh-day-Sabbath p. 92 Sect. XVI Of the Morality of the Fourth Command The difference between Moral and Positive Between Naturally or Absolutely Moral and positively or secondarily Moral What the Fourth Commandment requires as Moral and Perpetual p. 101 Sect. XVII When to begin the Christian Sabbath and of the fit Time for Publick Worship on that day p. 116 Sect. XVIII The Argument of Tradition considered p. 118 Sect. XIX How far the Decalogue is in Force as to us Gentiles p. 125 Sect. XX. The Tradition of the Lords-day's Rest or First-day of the Week from the Apostles time to the end of the Fourth Century Of Easter and its Observation The change from the Seventh to the First-day not introduced by the Bishop of Rome p. 127 Sect. XXI The Conclusion of the whole with a Summary of what hath been Proved for the Observation of the First-day of the Week as the Christian Sabbath p. 130 A REPLY TO Mr. Bampfield's PLEA FOR THE Seventh-day-Sabbath THE very Title of the Book is justly lyable to Exception as that which does not fairly state the Question the second Enquiry being whether the fourth Command be repealed or altered for he very well knows that these against whom he Disputes even those who acknowledge the Morality of a Sabbath-day do neither pretend to the Repealing of the Command nor yet to the Alteration of it as such for they strenuously assert the Ratification of the preceptive part of it though they allow a practical Mutation of a single Clause therein which was at its first Injunction added as a Motive for the observance of the Seventh Weekly-day And therefore he should rather have stated the Enquiry after such a manner as this Whether every Clause in the Fourth Commandment be Moral or whether every Clause of it be absolutely Immutable or so imposed from the beginning as to be so 'T is not Ingenuous nor Candid so to propose the Controversie as though the Dissenters from him were either Repealers or Alterers of the Fourth Command Moreover the Annexion of this Query to the former and the Subservience of the former to this For 't is very evident that that weighty fundamental Enquiry is made to serve this Hypothesis by his Connexion thereof Page 5. thereto as though the Immutability of every Tittle to this Command was founded upon the Deity of our Lord Christ his creating the World and giving the Moral Law and the Denial of the one were vertually and consequentially the Denial of the other and so those that are for the observance of the Lords day for so I take leave now to call it are really and consequentially Ebionites
did not foresee a more convenient Opportunity for it hereafter Only let us here consider what he himself here grants viz. That the Moral Law was written upon Man's Heart that it did consist in Knowledge Righteousness and Holiness wherefore the Seventh-day-Sabbath is no part of it because it was not written upon Man's Heart at first 1. Because God revealed it to Man after his Creation which needed not if it had been in him before 2. Because there are obscure Remains of the Moral Law in the Humane and Rational Creature with respect to all the other Commands as might be easily manifested by an Induction but none as to the Seventh-day-Sabbath It is true as to the Moral Substance of the Law that is found in Mankind even a Separation of time and proper Seasons for the Worship of God but this is not Nay it is so rare that not one among Ten thousand does dream of it or scarce one in an Age does so much as fancy it 3. Because by his own Orthodox Assertion in this very place the Moral Law is reingraven that is more fully clearly and distinctly and in its Spiritual Sense and Latitude upon the Hearts of those that are revived by the Spirit of God which is the Image of God reinstamped upon the Regenerate and Converted as St. Paul saith Col. 3.10 Eph. 4.24 Now it is as clear as the Sun that the Generality of the Called inlightned and sanctified have not the Law of the Seventh-day-Sabbath written in their Hearts Nay they have an Aversion from it Of all truly Religious ones that ever I knew Mr. B is the Solitary Person of this Perswasion whence it must necessarily follow that it is no part of the Moral Law or of that Image of God which was instamped upon Man plainly and fully at first and remains imperfectly and obscurely in all Men and is restored to the Saints in their Regeneration and is increased in them in their progressive Sanctification Whence it is also clear that this Command thus stated was not given by Christ to Jews and Gentiles in the Creation And his proof for it is very weak and invalid which is taken from those express Commands given by God to the Jews of causing them that were either their Substance Slaves bought with their own Mony or Proselytes Strangers by Nation but yet joyning themselves to them and dwelling among them and so were of their Body who were bound as he himself there acknowledges and proves to be Circumcised to observe the Passover c. And now what Tendency hath this to prove that the Seventh-day-Sabbath was given to Jews and Gentiles When this proves only that those Gentiles were bound to keep it who were within the Gates and of their Body Politick But has no reference to nor does at all concern other Gentiles some of which might never hear of the Name of Israel or of any of their Laws and Sabbaths It pities me to see such weak and invalid Arguments which if they have any force it is to Judaize all the Christian World As to the second part of the Question whether the weekly seventh-day-Seventh-day-Sabbath were observed ever after during the Old Church We acknowledge it was so still among the Jewish Nation and he needed not to have produced any proofs for it But withall we say never among any other Nations nor any Footstep of it which is a sure Proof against its proper Morality As to that Observation Page 28. That the Seventh Day throughout the Old and New Testament was called the Sabbath day It was fit it should be so all along till our Saviour's Resurrection because it was the Sabbath day till then And afterward if it be so called it was in compliance with the Jews who still held it so to continue or to use the Expression which was in most common use whereby the day might be known they spake of as we do of Sunday Monday c. only to declare what day of the Week we mean or else to declare the Abolition thereof And if we remember it we may make some use of that Assertion that the Seventh day and Sabbath are Synonimous in the Language of the Old and New Testament SECT V. THis Question he endeavours to prove Assirmatively Page 29. That Christ did in the Flesh confirm the Ten Commands without any Exception of the Fourth Commandment or any part or tittle thereof Which if we should fully grant without the least Exception it would make nothing for his Cause nor against ours for as long as Christ was in the World so long we all agree that the Seventh day of the Week was the injoyed Sabbath and therefore ought to be observed and so might have been commanded by Christ to be kept And so we know he ratified the Ceremonial Law by commanding the cleansed Lepers to go and shew themselves to the Priest and offer the Gift which Moses commanded for their cleansing Matt. 8.4 And so also the Judicial Law by injoyning them to pay Tithe of all even of Mint Annis and Cummin Matt. 23.23 which I think few or none do hold to be purely Moral and so the Brother 's taking of his Childless Brother's Wife he seems to confirm by a Tacit Approbation to the Sadducees objecting that to him to baffle and puzzle him about the Resurrection Matt. 22.23 30. Yet nevertheless those Laws were not permanent but expired the Ceremonial with himself and the Judicial with the Judicial State and Polity Withall we add that our Saviour did for ever confirm the Moral Law which is contained in the Ten Commandments And so the Fourth as far as Moral and in all that it commands as such But withall we say that some Passages of the Fourth Command are neither Moral nor yet commanded therein as such or of the Substance thereof Whereof the mentioning of the last the Seventh Day of the Week to be the Sacred Rest is one which here is but nakedly asserted but we defer the Proof and such as was to expire at his Resurrection Wherefore we say that that Passage Matt. 5.17 Till Heaven and Earth pass away one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass away must refer only to the Moral Law Quatenus Moral and as it refers to and obliges all Nations which several Passages belonging to the Ten Commands do not whereof this is one about the Seventh day and I think th is may be cleared by this Argument That which neither our Saviour himself nor any of his Apostles did command or enjoyn to be followed by his or their Disciples and Followers cannot be Moral But neither he nor they did ever enjoyn the Seventh-day-Sabbath therefore it 's not Moral Our Saviour in none of his Discourses that I remember did ever expresly or particularly command the Observance of the Sabbath-day but spake and did things which seem to declare the Abolition of the Seventh day neither do any of his Apostles in any of their Writings impose it upon or command
the Fourth Command but only to alter a Circumstance and Motive therein the whole Substance thereof continuing in its full Vigour and Authority Once he saith occasioned by Paul's being to depart to Morrow Which very Circumstance seems to me to be of some Moment against the Seventh or for the First day For we may well suppose that St. Paul had determined some days before the very day of his Departure and therefore seeing he intended the Second day of the Week to be it he might with much more Conveniency have Met and Preached and Administred the Lords Supper to the Disciples on the Seventh day If that had been now the Consecrated day of the Week and so have had more Time and Leisure with them for his Work and not have so straitned himself or incommoded them throughout a whole Night But becaust the Lords day was the sacred day of the Week to be observed and kept therefore he would defer it till then though to his own and their greater Inconvenience Here we have a Conjecture somewhat strange viz. that the Apostle kept the Seventh day at Troas What was it alone by himself and without any other with him as a private Person and not as an Apostle and then would keep the First day of the Week as an Apostle and with the Assembly of Believers Doubtless St. Paul was no such Dissembler on one hand nor Supersticious Bigot on the other to observe Two Sabbaths in the Week one by himself and another with the Church when God commands but one only But he seems to do all he can to turn the First day into the Seventh and to persuade us that the Assembly of the Disciples was begun on the last day of the Week and continued some time of the First Whereas the Text expresly tells us they came together on the First day and so continued together the First day till its Conclusion in the Second days Morning Here he takes no notice at all or to no purpose that the Holy Ghost tells us expresly that Paul abode Seven days at Troas of which one must necessarily be the last day the Seventh day in order of the Week And yet never tells us that the Disciples met on that day or Paul with them but only on the First day And why should this be if for any reason but to shew us that the Lords day was the day of their Religious Conventions and the Seventh day antiquated and no more to be mentioned and observed among Christians as such a day What follows has been if I mistake not satisfactorily answered already 'T is well he recedes from and stands not much upon the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be interpeted one for he knows that in both the Sacred Languages the Numerical word is frequently used for the Ordinal and if we should render this word here one it would make the Language of the Scripture very Impertinent and Uncertain It would be Impertinent and Superfluous because if it were upon any day it must be upon one day of the Week for there is no day that is not one of the Week and what need the Holy Ghost to tell us that was which we are sure could not but be And it would be uncertain and dubious for according to this meaning we could never know what day of the Week this religious Congregation met whether on the first or second or third or fourth c. and the Expression seems to hint that the Holy Ghost would acquaint us with the particular day thereof But such an uncertain Translation would greatly befriend this Author for then he might more confidently suppose it to be the Seventh day Seeing that now when the Spirit clearly asserts it was upon the First day he does perswade himself and would perswade us that it was upon the Seventh What follows after being Conjectures and Consequences drawn from his former weak Premises I shall say nothing more to them SECT XIV HE next proposes Page 58. the Objection against his Sabbath and Argument for our Lords day which is in 1 Cor. 16.1 2. which is taken as we say from the Collections for the Poor made in the publick Congregations on the first day of the Week and does what he can to enervate it Let us see how successfully 1. He tells us he knows not what the order to the Church of Galatia was But St. Paul tells him plainly that in this particular it was to collect Mony for the Poor on the Lords-day 2. That he does not find written that this order to that Church should oblige all others The like may be said of all the other Orders and Directions given in Scripture to all particular Churches therein mentioned and written to For 't is not there said that they are intended for all other Churches to the end of the World Yet I hope he looks upon the Doctrins taught them the Ordinance and Discipline established amongst them to be Obligatory upon the Churches now And we may well suppose the Apostles being inspired by the Holy Ghost in these Matters in all their Constitutions of their prime Primitive Churches to lay the Platform for all succeeding ones except there may be some particular Circumstance which may necessitate or allow a Deviation therefrom which in this matter of Collection cannot well be pretended 3. That it was a general order for a charitable Seposition but no order to observe the first day True indeed but it does imply the Observance of that day else why should it be enjoyned on that day more than on another but because thereon publick Assemblies met 4. 'T is an Order he tells us for a profane Employment as to cast up their Accounts on that day and to tell their Mony they have got and to reckon up how much their Stock is increased for he here supposes a Man must on this day look over all his Stock cast up all his Charges c. But certainly this is a pretty far fetch'd Invention for they are commanded only to lay up by them on the Lords-day what God had graciously enabled them to give to the Poor by his Success on their Labours and his providential Blessing on them as to Earthly things which they might very well enquire into the day before even the Seventh and having then discovered how God had succeeded them the next day even the Lords-day to separate that charitable Portion from the rest and carry it unto the publick Assembly and so cast it into the Poors Box. And I think 't is clear that the Text necessarily implies a former Inquisition into their Stock before this Seposition but where it implies it must be done on that day no Man can see Wherefore we say that a former Examination being had of these Matters this day that consecrated part was taken carried to the Congregation and put into the common Stock that so the Apostle when he came amongst them might not be forced to go from House to House to
gather but find it all ready in the publick Ecclesiastical Treasure I am sure he can bring no Demonstration from the Text for his or against my Interpretation But then I have the Testimony of the most ancient Fathers that on the first day they publickly assembled and then they made Collection for the Poor in these Assemblies Moreover If the Apostle here enjoyned such a profane or worldly Task as he supposes why does he enjoyn them to do it on the First days seeing it might have been done as well n every day of the Week and better on the Sixth day If the Seventh were then their Sabbath that so they might know at the end of the common days what they might well and gratefully spare of that weeks Gains and so lay it up against the ensuing Sabbath for the Poors Stock Whence we see that this supposed Solution to this Argument has no ground at all from the Text and to be sure from no other Topick And therefore conclude that the General Collections and so Associations of the Galatian Church being on the First day And the Appostle commanding the Church of Corinth to make the same Collections on that day in Imitation of them or as they did is with the former a very good Evidence that that day was the instituted day for Worship and so consequently the Seventh excluded Page 60. That Proof for the First-day-Sabbath in Rev. 1.9 10. where that day which St. John calls the Lords-day we say was that day of the week which we will by no means grant but tells us what the Opinions of some singular Persons were concerning it that it was Annual not a weekly day either the day of Christ's Birth or of his Resurrection either Christmas-day or Easter Others say 't is a great providential day to vindicate his Kingly Authority and others the last day of his coming but how this day whereon St. John was in the Spirit should be a future day can hardly be conjectured but every thing must be hinted that may seem to serve to an Undermining of the First day of the week from being the day of this glorious Vision But at length it is granted that some take this Lords-day to be a weekly day But then again these some are crumbled into a Sub-division and some of them assert it to be the First day and some the Seventh day thereof and this is written as though the Assertors of the First day were as small a some as those of the former annual Opinion of a future day to John's Vision and of the last day of the Week Whereas I dare to say put them all together they will not amount to the hundredth part of those solid and learned Authors which understand it of the First day of the week but withall these some for the Seventh day as inconsiderable for number as they are in comparison of the other yet they are far better founded and proceed upon more certain and undeniable Grounds than the First-day-Men do for they proceed upon Scripture but these have only Tradition if they have that for their Opinion Now the Tradition which is pleaded for the First day to be the Lords-day is constant uninterrupted and universal from the days of the Apostles The Generality of Christians acknowledging the Dominical day to be the First day whatever Opinion they had of the Sabbath till of late Years some Sabbatarians have thought fit to question it and virtually if not expresly to deny it Which is such a Tradition as upon which their very Scriptural Proofs are grounded for 't is from Tradition that they know the meaning of the very words of the Scripture Whether the Original Languages carry the Sense they are interpreted in and whether we have the genuine and proper Significations of the Originals can be known by nothing but Humane Tradition for either it must be had from Translations or Lexicons or oral Traditions Wherefore if the Sabbatarians will renounce here such a Tradition as is pleaded they must withall renounce their own Scriptural Authority which course will make wild work in the Church He very well denies it to be Christmas-day or any annual one but the great Query is What day of the Week this was and here in the entrance of his Discourse he endeavours to invalidate the universal Tradition of the Churches for 1600 Years by an Induction of other unlawful Traditions as that of Polygamy among the Patriarchs of whom the Scripture mentions but a few particulars and what is that to the Universality of Christians And which was condemned by our Saviour as alien from the first Institution of Marriage And how does this resemble the First days being the Lords-day which was never blamed by him The like he mentions in the Omission of the Feast of Booths and the Custom of the Profanation of the Seventh-days-Sabbath before the Captivity But these were against express Injunctions and Commands still in force and obliging which we deny the Seventh-day-Sabbath to be and avouch and may yet more prove its Abolition as of other positive and ceremonial Commands without any express or literal Prohibition of them in Scripture What therefore he saith in the following Paragraph would be very cogent and undeniable If he could prove the Seventh day of the week to be still enjoyned by the Fourth Command which he hath not yet done by his positive Proofs for his own Opinion as we have seen nor by his Negative in denying of ours as has been in some measure seen already and may be more hereafter At length he comes to give us his own Judgment concerning this Lords-day what day of the Week it was and if he had not told us we should have presumed that it determined for the Seventh-day which in all things till the end of the World must have the Preheminence according to his thoughts but withall 't is grounded upon Scripture which we will candidly and fairly weigh and examine 1. That the Lord Christ instituted the Seventh-day-Sabbath just after the Creation he means too before the Fall quoting Gen. 1. begin which we utterly deny because Jesus Christ then was not nor could be we speak of his Existence not Gods Foresight and Decree for then Man was Guiltless and Sinless and so needed no Jesus nor could have had one But in all these Old Testament Proofs he runs upon that former Fallacy of Ill Composition taking for granted that whatever Jehovah did the Lord Jesus Christ did Jehovah the Godhead of our Saviour did create and institute the Seventh-day-Sabbath but not Christ himself which necessarily includes both the Godhead and the Manhood And therefore the Premises being false the Conclusion cannot be true nor the consequential Discourse thereupon of any Moment His second and third Arguments laboring under the same Mistake admit of the same Answer Besides we know that the positive and ceremonial Precepts of Jehovah before his Incarnation were to be abolished by himself after his Incarnation that
their Annual Monthly and Weekly Festivals their Annual by Holy days their Monthly by New Moons and so their Weekly by Sabbaths And there was no Weekly Festival but the Seventh-day-Sabbath Or if by Holydays we apprehend the Generality of Jewish Festivals because they were all Holydays as long as their First Institution lasted yet then he condescends to some Particulars of them as the Monthly and Weekly which then must necessarily include the Sabbath because that was a Jewish Holy-day Yet again If we should grant that under the last word Sabbaths any other Festivals may be included or meant Yet certainly the Weekly-Sabbath cannot be excluded being the most famous Analogate comprehended under it and therefore in such an Expression cannot be excepted though sometimes the most famous Analogate be only meant and excludes all others yet never is it it self not intended in such Propositions Withal as we said before of the Galatian Church so we do of the Colossian 't was infected by false Teachers that would make a Mixture of the Jewis and Christian Religion and would have Moses's Rites to be kept with Christ's Ordinances And they know well enough that by Sabbaths was meant the Seventh day seeing 't is always so accepted Whence we may well conclude that here is an express exiling the Seventh-day-Sabbath out of the Church of Church Heretofore we were called upon to shew one Text in which the Seventh-day-Sabbath was abrogated and now we bring an express literal one yet it will not do but many Objections are brought in against it Which we shall successively consider and traverse 1. Some think it must be understood of Ceremonial Sabbaths only because else 't would reach the First-day-Sabbath as well as the Seventh But there is no fear of that for the First day is never called Sabbath in the Scripture and therefore cannot be meant and wee say the Seventh-day-Sabbath was both positive and ceremonial for he himself allows it to signify the eternal Rest above 2. He Objects that one place names no Sabbath but only Days the other indeed names Sabbaths which he would have interpreted Weeks for which I can see no Reason but much against it and therefore shall say nothing till he produce his Reasons for it And all the weight of this Argument is but a silly Conjecture of the meaning of the word Sabbaths But we have seen before that this is not a silly Conjecture but grounded upon the very usual Acceptation of the Word upon the Connection of the adjoyned things upon the State of the Churches unto whom he writ and upon the design of his Epistles to them But I am sure what follows is not so much as a Conjecture but a very great Oversight for he tells us that he finds the word Sabbaths in the Plural Number no where in the New Testament ascribed to the Seventh day It was then because he would not be at the pains to sind it for 't is in all these places Mat. 12.5 10 12. Mark 3.4 Luke 4.31 and 6.2 9. In all these places he will find it so and in the Original Greek the word is Sabbaths without a Verbal Superaddition of days which he himself must be inforced to acknowledge spoke of this day 3. The Seventh day he faith was never in Question in any of these Epistles and if there be no such Question about altering it how can such a Sense be imposed c. Just so I may say the New-Moon Observation and the Annual Festivals are no where questioned in these Epistles nor any where else that I remember expresly to be lain aside How therefore can such a Meaning be put upon Years and Months as to include the Judaical seeing Sabbaths are as plain and clear for the Seventh days as any of the former for what they are understood here We have still the Thred-beaten Plea of the Moral Law introduced and improved when I assert that neither he nor all the World can ever prove the Seventh-day-Sabbath to be part of the Moral Law Quatenus Moral His Fourth Answer plainly confounds Sabbaths with Years and New-Moons which the Apostle clearly distinguishes and of all the rest I may truly say they are but meer ungrounded Conjectures to baffle an express Text of Scripture But here he has a very strange Fancy That by Days may be meant the First day because the Heathen worshiped the Sun on that day And so then every day because the Heathen worshiped distinct Idols every day And so we should have no Consecrated day at all neither First nor Seventh nor any other All the rest that follows here are but as he expresses his own Thoughts and as well grounded as that Thought of his That the First day was not observed by Christians When yet we have found them several times associated on that day and Christ appearing several times in the midst of them and at Troas Assembled on that day and St. Paul Preaching and Administring the Lords Supper to them and therein to Harmonize with the Church of Galatia which I suppose proved against Objections neither of which can be said concerning the Seventh day Only there were Assemblies of the Jews on that day and St. Paul took the Advantage on these days to Preach to them But what is this to Christs Disciples and Followers We may therefore according to his own Rule That which appears not is not at all conclude that the Seventh day was never observed by the Disciples and Followers of Christ after his Resurrection as a day consecrated to Publick Worship because we never read in the Scripture that they did so meet Whereas the contrary is seen by the First day So I dismiss this Thought and the others as no more likely 5. He farther saith that 't is uncertain and therefore as such I or'e look it 6. He saith from Paul's constant keeping the Seventh-day-Sabbath that he cannot be supposed to condemn his own constant Practice But how he did this we have already seen and therefore shall not stop here 7. That St. Paul commends the Whole Moral Law as Just Holy and Good and therefore can never be thought to condemn it here Here we have anew theatrized the Moral Law which we acknowledge the Apostle doth strenuously urge and never opposed any one Tittle thereof But yet he here decries the Seventh-day-Sabbath as very consistent with and agreeing to all his Zeal for the Moral Law because that was never of the Substance of it Neither is it either Holy or Just or Good I mean not in and of it self as all that is truly and naturally Moral is but by Gods commanding it We acknowledge it to be positively Moral 8. The last Answer is from Math. 24.20 Pray you that your Flight be not in the Winter nor on the Sabbath-day Upon which place he lays so great a Stress as to suppose it a sufficient Proof for the Observation of the Seventh day as our bounden Duty For here he takes for granted that this Sabbath
spoken of Rev. 1.10 But I think I have disproved that Proof Page 91 He himself recurs to Tradition and undertakes to prove that throughout several Centuries there have been Churches who assembled themselves themselves for religious Worship on the Seventh Day And so this is set as a Bar against and a Counterplea to that Prime Primitive and universal Tradition for the Lords-day To which I answer in general 1. That a few Exceptions against a general Rule do rather confirm than weaken it 2. Every Antiquity or Tradition will not cannot serve to prove either Practice or Doctrin to be commendable or orthodox nor derogate from what is so For the Denyal of the Deity of our Lord Jesus Christ is as ancient as the Apostles Days in which Corinthus was such an Heretick and the Ebionites Photinians and Arains have handed down that damning Doctrin to our Socinians 3. Scarce any Church since the Apostles Days have been without out their Flaws in Doctrin or Worship or both and we doubt not but this hath been one of them if it can be proved to be practised 4. In many Churches where they did observe the Seventh-day as a Day of publick Assemblies yet in them the Lord's-day was also kept and observed and that too as the chief Day For on the Lord's-day all in general were ingaged to wait upon God's publick Worship not so on Saturdays On the Lord's-day all the Ordinances of the Gospel were administred not so on Saturdays And so still the Lords-day had the Preheminence even in those very Churches Which general Answers may be enough to stop the Mouths of all his ancient Witnesses Yet I will take a little Pains and imploy a little Time to inquire into the Particulars for I think they neither deserve nor require much of either As to his first Instance if all the following be such I am sure they are stark naught yea they are not at all For he asserts that in the Apostles times the Seventh Day was observed as the publick Day of divine Worship Here he must meau by Christins or else he trifles But he can never find in all the Scripture that in the Apostles Days there was ever one Society of Christians gathered on the Seventh Day Indeed St. Paul did go on that Day into the Assemblies of the Jews to preach the Gospel to many of them which he could not conveniently do on any other Day But never did he invite any to keep that Day never did he assemble afterward on that Day when he was separated from their Synagogues finding them imperswasible and obstinate But now we can produce several Christian-Assemblies on the First day the Lords day after our Saviours Resurrection in which our Lord appeared to them And 't was then their Custom to Assemble and bring their Publick Alms to the Publick Treasure wherefore I cannot but marvel at this bold Assertion The Basis of traditionary Structue being so visibily sunk and come to nought makes me suspect that the erected Stories thereof will tumble and fall So that 't is clear we have the Apostle Examples the Churches Use in their days and their Commands against the Seventh day and for the Lords day as a sufficient Demurr to all his future Tradition Into which I now descend and must say that I have searched the Magdeburgenses for his Quotations but cannot find them where he quotes them and therefore believe that the Author used either another Edition or another that is various either in the Bulk or in the Pages I found in them the Eliberine Council but there he Twenty Third Canon hath nothing of a Fast upon a Sabbath day As to the other Authors I have them not and know not where to get them that I might peruse them neither is it needful for the matter of these Quotations makes very little for his Cause For whoever considers them will find 1. That very many if not most of them declare the Establishment and Separation of the Dominical day for Divine Service 2. That another great part of them prove the Observation or keeping both of the Dominical day and the Sabbath in very many of the Churches 3. These tell us that the Sabbath was kept as a Fast by the most if not by all of the Churches that kept it and the Lords-day as a Festival which all our Ecclesiastical Writers acknowledge as before And so evince that it was not kept with so equal Authority as the Lords day So does Dr. Young at large which also shews that they never observed it as the ancient Sabbath or 't was enjoyned in the Fourth Command But upon a new Account or for a new Reason even because our Lord Christ lay dead in the Grave on that day Therefore they would Fast and Humble themselves because their Lord and Saviour was on that day in his lowest Humiliation So far were they from this Gentleman's Opinion that his State of Death was his Rest after his Work of Redemption and they would observe the First day with Praises and Holy Rejoycings as the Christian Festival because 't was the Lords day of Triumph over his Enemies even of his Resurrection These include the greatest part by far of his Historical Examples and a very few are left which do not expresly acknowledge these things And they that do not express them may well be thought to include them I mean though some of these Quotations do not verbally tell us that when they kept this Sabbath they also kept the Lords day yet it may well be presumed they did so seeing 't was the common Practice of such Churches to observe both of them in the foresaid manner Such an one for Example is that of Socrates Scholasticus who tells us for I have examined him and find he does verbatim tell us in a manner all the Churches in the World do Celebrate and Receive the Holy Mysteries every Sabbath day after other Yet the People inhabiting Alexandria and Rome of an old Tradition do not use it Yet doubtless they also observed the Lords-day seeing 't was that which Constantine had before by Edict enjoyned the Churches to do And he saith in the very next Page and in the same Chapter of this Quotation that at Caesarea in Cappadocia and at Cyprus the Priests and Bishops do Preach and Expound Holy Scripture at Evening-Prayer on the Saturdays and Sundays by Candle-Light and therefore we may well presume that the other Churches did which before he spake of These being some of these all As for his Historical Account when the Lord's day was brought into Scotland viz. An. 1208. It may be very well answered that the initiating or bringing in of the Dominical day does not refer to the day it self but only to the Authority that introduced it even that in that Year it began to be Established by the Authority of a Council which before it had not been Or if it refer to the day it self it may not simply be understood as if that
Martyr An. 250. Athanasius An. 326. Hilary 355. Ambrose 374. Hierome 385. Chrysostom 398. Augustine in their Time Eusebius saith my Author testifies 't was observed all the World over And Bp. Andrews as I have read him in his Speech against Thrask a Sabbatarian in the Star-Chamber avows it on his Credit that there is not any Ecclesiastical Writer in whom 't is not found Viz. The sacred Observance of the Lord's Day that is the First Day of the Week Which Testimonies of so many excellent Doctors yea saith Bp. Andrews of all eminent Doctors of so many great and flourishing Churches carry much more Weight with them than all his Collections can pretend to do against them As touching Easter and it's Observance that is no Part of this Controversy therefore I shall only say that I am no Zelot for it's Observance and am perswaded it has less Grounds for it's Celebration than any other of those Festivals which are appropriated to our Lord and in Commemoration of his Birth of his Manifestation of his Ascension of his Mission of the Holy Ghost because the Lord's Day is a constant Memorial of that Resurrection being that Day of the Week whereon he rested from all the Work of his Redemption wherefore seeing there is a weekly religious and solemn Commemoration thereof there must needs be the less Cause for an Annual As for the other Festivals which are appropriated to meer Men and dedicated to their Remembrance and Praise as I have nothing to say for them so I think it neither prudent nor seasonable to say any thing against them But let him that keepeth a Day keep it to the Lord and he that keepeth not a Day unto the Lord let him not keep it And let both maintain the Unity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace Here I hoped to have annexed my Epilogue but some Passages in the Discourse of Easter do require a little Animadversion As when He tells us Page 134. which he had done several Times before that the Change of the Seventh Day to the First was introduced by the Bp. of Rome and so imposed by him upon the other Churches which he thinks evidenced by his former Collection But 1. We have seen it observed before there was a Bp. of Rome and he received it from the Assemblies of the Disciples and Christians just upon our Saviour's Resurrection and in the Apostles Days 2. We have seen it observed by very great Churches in the Purity of the Roman Faith and the Moderation of the Roman Ecclesiastical Government when either the Roman Bishop did not pretend to any Authority over them or if he did they rightly and stoutly resisted and refused it And therefore 't was rather an universal Reception of all the Churches conjunctly as from the Apostles and scriptural Authority than any Imposition of Rome upon them He has a strange Notion Page 130. as it appears to me which is that first Rome endeavoured to introduce the Observation of the Passover upon the Lords-day and so the weekly Holy Rest upon that day which to my Apprehension implies that Rome her self observed the Passover Lords-day before she did the weekly Whereas 't is clear that Rome observed the first day of the week because 't was the Dominical day the day of our Lord's Resurrection whereas the proper Paschal-day was two or three days before the Lords day And therefore in Honour to that day did the Bishop of Rome require Easter to be kept and not ordained Easter First-day as a Shooe-horn to bring in the weekly first day after Moreover in those Churches wherein they dissented from Rome as to the day of Easter they concurred with her in the weekly Lords-day So that the Lords-day was weekly observed by them before Easter was kept upon that day and therefore the yearly first day could not be an usherer in of that week-day which was before it SECT XXI AS the Conclusion and Result of all this Discourse I think I have shewn that the Lord Christ did not make the World that Jehovah was not Christ before the World that he never instituted the Seventh day nor rested on it till his Incarnation nor being Christ really till then that he gave not the Commands on Mount Sinai Neither were they there given to the Gentiles but to the Jews only and those mixed People that came out of Egypt That the Ten Commands were confirmed by our Lord Christ in his Sermons and Discourses but the Seventh-day-Sabbath never so much as mentioned by him in them all as that which was no part at all of the Moral Law but purely positive both in it self and in its Grounds and Motive upon which 't is founded and imposed upon its Observers in the Old Testament and therefore was liable to be changed with the other positive and ceremonial Precepts of the Law of God that our Lord Christ indeed observed it in his own Person in the Flesh because he was made under the antecedent Law of all the Ceremonies and Mosaical Administration and observed them all as well as the Sabbath but yet he then spake and did such things as declared its approach to Dissolution and its Non-Morality that he rested no more in the Grave on the Seventh day than he did on the Cross on the Sixth when he hung dead thereon but the day of his Rest from the work of Redemption was the first day of the week which day he supreamly honoured above all the days of the week by his Resurrection thereon from the Dead by his several Appearances thereon to his Disciples after his Death by his most gracious Discourses thereon unto them which he never did nor made on the Seventh day after his Resarrection and by the Mission of the Holy Ghost upon his Disciples thereon Upon which account St. John calls it the Lords day and by all the Churches ever since that Lords day has been taken to be the first day of the Week That the Apostles and Believers kept the Lords day or the first day of the week as their religious Rest and met together on that day as the day of their publick Assemblies and we never read of any Assemblies on the Seventh day save those of the Jews our Lords Enemies in their Synagogues to whom Paul went to preach the Gospel then and there but when he experienced their desperate Obstinacy left that time and those Synagogues and we never read that ever on that day he joyned with any religious Society after that at Troas he preached and administred the Sacrament to the Believers on the first day the Lords day and that the Holy Ghost does call the first day of the week the Lords day being the day of the Redeemer's Rest from a far more glorious laborious gracious and beneficial Work than that of the Creation And that there is an express Prohibition of the Seventh-day-Sabbath in St. Paul's Epistles and consequently seeing the positive Morality of one day in Seven in the Fourth
haling him through the Streets Therefore this must be the former part of the sixth day in the latter part whereof he was Crucified and laid in the Grave in which he continued throughout the seventh and out of which he rose very early in the Morning of the first day And so it could not be after as he would fain have it but upon the third day And therefore without any danger of shaking the third days Resurrection our Expositors according to the use of Scripture do thus interpret this Passage and this Preposition See another express place for this where after three days is said to be upon the third day 2 Chron. 3.5 12. And because it was our Saviour's use to appear to them upon that day even the first day 'T is strange that he should herein go against all the Criticks of that Language and against all the Sense of all the Expositors that I can see to serve his own Hypothesis 'T is without doubt that it was not upon the Seventh day that our Lord did now appear to his Disciples unless we will understand it thus after four or five days after the eighth day he appeared to them And thus he slily evades this other Argument for the Lords days Observance even his Appearance to his Disciples when gathered together for religious Worship which as I have shewed formerly was not once only but several times after his Resurrection And 't is the only day of the Week which is named by all the four Evangelists upon which our Saviour appeared to them and graciously discoursed with them no other day so much as mentioned nor the Seventh so much as hinted to be the day of his Personal Manifestation of himself unto them which is another high Honour and Prerogative our Lord and the King of the Church has bestowed upon this first day of the Week and seems to be a practical and exemplary laying aside of the Seventh day from being the weekly Sabbath-day and substituting the first day to be that day consecrated to the publick and solemn Worship of God and an Assurance that he will be in the midst of his People assembling themselves upon this his day and will come and Bless them which has been and is according to the Experiences of his People in their religious Devotions and publick Congregations for there have they met and do they still meet him in those his Galleries Then he brings them into his Wine-Cellar and his Banner over them is Love Then he gives them the ravishing Kisses of his Mouth Then they behold his Beauty in his Sanctuary apprehend his Glory Experience his gracious Power in and upon their Souls Then they are abundantly satisfied with the Fatness of his House and drink delicious Draughts of the Rivers of Spiritual Pleasures that flow therein Then they experience that that first day of the Week in Gods House is inconceivably better to them than all the days of the Week any where else or about any other Imployment whatever Wherefore we have just cause to hope that our People will not and persuade them that they do not neglect the Sanctification of the first day of the week and their Assembling themselves together on that Holy day Seeing herein they follow the Examples of the Apostles themselves and the other Christians in their days and experience the Gracious Spiritual Presence of our Lord in the midst of them as they did both his Carnal and Spiritual Presence then and turn aside after the novel and singular Opinion of this Author being also poorly grounded as we have seen He proceeds Page 51. against that which some bring from John 8.56 Abraham saw my day c. as the day of Christ's Resurrection and so the First day of the Week He says some would have it meant of his Birth-day for the Observance of Christmas others all the days of his Flesh and the things which he did speak and suffered and our Redemption thereby which I think to be a true Notion But then to be sure he must foresee his Resurrection and so a day thereof and this was the great Cause of his Joy and Gladness Because without this there could be no cause of Gladness in all the rest For his Birth Life and Death could have brought no Glory to him if he had still layen in the Grave nor Good nor Profit to us if he had not rose out of it but he would have been conquered by his Enemies and we forever undone But now his Resurrection is for his own greatest Glory his Enemies Confusion and our Comfort and Triumph This was properly our Lords day He calls the day and time of his Sufferings Luk. 22.53 the hour of his Enemies and the power of Darkness Because then they insulted over him and he was delivered into their Hands But the time of his Resurrection was his own day because he therein Triumphed over all his Enemies and had perfectly vanquished them and therefore this day must chiefly be intended by Abraham because 't was the chief day of his and all Believers Joy and Gladness Though Mr. B. does not so much as once mention it in all those Particulars he reckons up under this Head Moreover Page 52.53 he mentions those Texts Psal 118.22 24. and Heb. 4.1 11. where the day the Psalmist speaks of which God hath made some do interpret of the resurrection-Resurrection-day and that therefore upon that day of the Week Christians or the Churches should go into the Houses of Worship and there praise the Lord and adore him And Psal 2.7 where the day of God's begetting his Son is interpreted the day of Resurrection And there is very good reason nay there is Divine Authority for it for it 's applyed and appropiated to that very day Act. 13.33 So that the Text in the Hebrews which speaks of a Sabbath besides the Seventh day from the Creation and that Sabbath or Rest which Jehovah brought Israel into in the Land of Canaan which was to succeed and as it were to antiquate and exclude the others is by good and excellent Authors understood of the Lords day the Sabbath of the First day Who bring many excellent Arguments for this their Interpretation and Opinion Which Mr. B. should have Produced Answered and Invalidated and not put them off only by a bare Denial or Calling them Shifts and Wind-laces As though his only Rejection of these Passages were enough to Counterballance all the Arguments and rational and scriptural Discourses which many good Scholars Divines and Holy Men do draw from them and give us upon them And therefore seeing he saith nothing to Confute what they have said and I desire to study Brevity I shall speak nothing more here but only refer the Reader to these Orthodox Authors themselves and Particularly to Mr. Warren in whom he shall find very good Improvement of these Passages for the Lords day Page 54. He mentions Act. 20.7 as an Objection against the Authority of the Seventh day and
concerning Worship are abolished by the coming of Christ Why should this then solitarily be excluded and stand in its Strength and Vigour when all its other Companions are thrown to the Ground and vanish I know no reason but because this was written by the singer of God upon stone But this altereth not the nature of the Command it self neither can it from hence plead a greater Privilege for all the former had God for their Author as well as this and God's Mouth is as Authoritative as his Finger Wherefore we may well conclude that seeing there is no reason can be given why the Seventh-day-Sabbath should not recede and give place as well as all other Ceremonial and Positive Precepts to our Lord Christ at his coming and his new and more glorious Administrations that it is and ought to be excluded with them and give place to a more glorious day in Commemoration of a more glorious work and Gods resting from it Even the first day our Lords glorious triumphing day The other two reasons of this Fourth Command follow which are Gods Blessing the Sabbath day and Hallowing it Where 't is worthy our Observance though this Author deems it a Triffe that 't is the Sabbath day not the Seventh day of the Week that is here blessed and hallowed As if God would hint that the Sabbath upon what day soever of his own Appointment should be Blessed even the first as well as the Seventh day of the Week when in the latter days his Sons glorious Rest should Authorize that day and as it should alter all other Ceremonial and positive Ordinances of his own Appointment so also this Ceremonial and Positive day into that other which with all the other Ordinances and Institutions of the Blessed Redeemer should last to the end of the World From which Discourse concerning the Nature of the Fourth Command all that follows in his third or fourth Pages after is sufficiently answered and so his next answer to another Objection against his Opinion P. 82. SECT XVII THUS by God's Help and I hope his Guidance I have considered all his Arguments that he urges for his Sabbatarian Opinion and have shewen their Invalidity and Weakness And all the Solutions that he brings to disannul all our Proofs for the Dominical Tenet and suppose that I have vindicated ours from all his Attempts and shewen how they remain solid and substantial Other things which follow being but Appendixes to this Discourse and not of so great Moment I shall but touch upon them As Page 83. about the Beginning of the Sabbath He would have it to begin at Even and we willingly grant him that the Seventh-day-Sabbath did so for it began when God had ended his Works of Creation which was the Evening before the Sun-rising of the Seventh Day But I judge that now the best Time to begin our Lord's Day with is in the Morning because 1. 'T was on that Time of the Day early in the Morning about Break of day that our Lord Jesus rested from his Work of Redemption Wherefore if the foregoing Evening of the Old Testament-Sabbath was its most convenient Beginning because then God ended his Work of Creation and rested then So he Morning-Light of the First Day is the most convenient Time for its Beginning because then God rested from his much more Glorious and really in his Humanity Laborious Work of our Redemption 2. Because the Holy Scripture expresly begins it thus placing the Conclusion of the Seventh Day at the beginning of the Morning of the First Day Mat. 28.1 In the End of the Sabbath as it began to dawn toward the First Day of the Week and consequently then that Day began 3. Because 't is the most convenient Time because most observable less lyable to Prophanations upon the account of Mistakes and so to turbulent Spirits less obnoxious c. but this is not so substantial a Dispute Let every Person give up and consecrate the whole Lords-day to the Service of God I mean the whole Artificial Day or rather the whole lightsome Part thereof and then let him begin either at Even or Morning I doubt not but if it be conscientiously done in the Name of Christ God will accept him But there he must not scandalize others by doing Common or Mechanick Works upon the following Evening of that Day which the Generality of Christians among whom he lives account as Sacred He seems Page 84. to imply that there should be Morning and Evening religious Service every Day in publick But there is scarcely any preaching Minister can have so much Leisure beside his own personal and domestical Devotions And beside our People will not attend it every day and then the proper publick Duty of the Sabbath to be but once and begin about Noon I for my Part believe the Times of publick Worship on the Lord's-day are most conveniently ordered already Twice once in the Morning about Nine and so in the Evening about Two An Interval being for the Refreshment of the outward Man and Recruits of the Spirit for a more vigorous and enlarged serving of God in the Evening Beside we know in the Country 't is convenient to keep some Persons at home or one Person when Houses are solitary and lyable to Injury by those who should know them totally destitute of an Inhabitant and in Country and City Families that have Children which must be kept at home either through Weakness or such as would disturb the Congregation by their Presence must have some one or other to take care of them Now in such Cases one Servant or Person may be at home in the Morning and another in the Evening and so all partake of the publick Worship every Lord's-day which could not so conveniently be done by one single assembling the Congregation But however to meddle herein would be very impertinent and would rather savour of a restless Fancy to say no worse than of a peaceable and prudent Spirit The other Pages home to the 90th I overlook because in them I find either such things as do not belong to the Sabbath nor to this Controversy at all Or if they do they are such as are written already at least the Substance and answered SECT XVIII HE produces Page 90. the Argument of Tradition from the Apostles in the universal Church these 1600 Years for the Observance of the Lord's-day Whereto his Answer is that no Tradition can add to take from lay aside or alter any Word of Christ or Duty of Man But yet such a perpetualand epidemical Tradition may serve for a good subservient Proof for that which is founded upon and deduced from Scripture as the case is here for we have proved by many Arguments from Scripture the Abolition of the Seventh-Day-Sabbath and the ratification of the Lord's-Day He answers to such a general and lasting Tradition for the Sanctification of the Lord's-day That he has already proved that the Seventh Day is the Lord's-day
Command is of perpetual Obligation to the Churches therefore the first day must be that day and the Sabbath was excluded that the Lords day might succeed and that the Promises made to the Rest of one day in Seven in the Command are made to and entail'd upon the first day of those Seven now as they were upon the last of them before its Expiration and that a due Observation thereof shall have a gracious Acceptation with a bountiful Remuneration from our God and our Saviour according to all the Blessed Experiences of the strict and consciencious Observers thereof That there is a more express and peremptory Abolition of this Sabbath in the Scriptures of that Apostle than there is or can be found in them for the Cessation of many other particular positive and ceremonial Institutions which yet Christians in general and this Gentleman in particular disregard as dissolved and vanished And I profess if I could see but half so much in the Second Command to prove a Form of Prayer to be the Pesel there forbidden or at least included therein I should utterly deny all Forms as Idolatrous which now I dare not do but in some cases hold them not only lawful but necessary and Praise-worthy or but half so much in any Line or Sentence of the New Testament against the use of the Lords Prayer in the publick Congregation I would never so use it more but to my due power would endeavour its Banishment thence If I say but half so much as I find expressed for the Seventh days Deposal well may we wonder that in such things a Man sees what scarce no Man else ever did in the word of God and yet in this that he should not see what almost every Man else can plainly discover Wherefore I question not but all our Divines and Ministers of Congregations are sufficiently satisfied that they serve God duly as to the Circumstance of time on Lords days and may and do in Faith associate on the Lords day as the only Sacred day of the Week with all other Christians in the Apostles days since our Saviours Resurrection home to this very Generation And I cannot but hope that this piece how specious soever it be and with what confidence soever recommended however back'd with the Pretences of Divine Authority of Jehovah's Will c. with pathetical Inculcations of those in multitudes of its Pages for the Observance of the Seventh day will find but very few if any Proselites among our common Professors and I am confident none among our Wise Stade experienced Christians or if any be in danger of Infection I pray to God that this Reply intended for this end may be an Antidote to secure them Lastly it will be good Advice to this Gentleman who hath caused the Expence of so much time in this Controversie to bethink himself how his Opinion leads us to Judaize and this work of his tends only to divide the Church to stumble the Weak to imploy and please the Silly Fantastical and Giddy in matters of Religion to encourage the Profaners of the first day or rather of the Lords day to scandalize and grieve all and therefore to cease from farther Attempts of this kind And all I desire is that the Reader would impartially compare what he has written for his Seventh day against the Lords day and what I have written for the Lords day against his Seventh day and beg Wisdom and Understanding from God to have a due Insight into and draw a right Conclusion from both FINIS Books Printed for Samuel Clement at the Swan in S. Paul's Church Yard GOD's Revenge against Murther and Adultery expressed in Thirty several Tragical Histories Wherein are lively delineated the Various Stratagems subtle Practices and deluding Oratory used by our Modern Gallants in order to the seducing young Ladies to their unlawful Pleasures To which are annexed the Triumphs of Friendship and Chastity in some Heroical Examples and Delightful Histories The whole illnstrated with about fifty Elegant Epistles relating to Love and Gallantry By Thomas Wright M. A. of S. Peter's Colledge in Cambridge A Compleat History of the Late Revolution from the first Rise of it to this present Time in Three Parts The English Grammar setting forth the Grounds of the English Tongue and particularly its Genius in making Compounds and Derivatives with many other Useful and curious Observations Wherein are also explained the usual Abbreviations the several hands used in Writing and Characters in Printing the Variety of Styles the Art of true Pointing and the Way to understand Books With a Prefatory Discourse about the Original and Excellency of the English Tongue and at the end an Alphabetick Collection of the Monosyllables being a Treatise of Orthography for Writers and of Rhymes for Poets A Necessary Work in general for all sorts of Persons desirous to understand the Ground and Genius of the English and very proper to prepare Young Men for the Latin Tongue By Guy Miege Gent. Cerevisiarii Comes Or the New and True Art of Brewing Illustrated by various Examples in making Beer Ale and other Liquors so that they may be most Durable Brisk and Fragrant and how they may be so ordered as to yield the greatest Quantity of Spirits in Distillation To which is added the right way to refine and bottle Beer and Cyder and a Cure for those that are Sick and Ropy so as to return them to their internal Sanity as also the true Method of manuring Lands and the Art of making Salt-Water fresh All proved by Demonstration and Sound Philosophy to be more agreeable to Man's Body than otherwise and so not only sit for English Constitutions but also for Transportation Published for the fake of Variety and therefore recommend to all that esteem demonstrated Truths before Notional Theory By W. Y. worth Medicin-Professor