erring of their great erring about this Controversie as in many other weighty Cases is because they know not the Scriptures nor the Power of God put forth in a word-way 48 That the cause of mens erring is not therefore because they do not know and acknowledge and own either the Magistral dictates of Humane Rabbies 48 Or the Ancient Records of Vncanonical Church-Histories and Traditions of men 48 49 Or the Councils of the Sanhedrim and the sayings of the ancient Fathers 49 50 Or unwritten verities to be as Scripture Supplements to be received by the people from their Leaders upon trust without tryal 50 Or the judgement opinion and practice of of those who are reputed the Learned and the Godly in the present Age 50 Or the Natio-al Establishments in the matters of Doctrine and of Worship in their humanely invented and imposed confessions of Faith and stinted Leiturgies 50 51 Or man-invented-Arts and Sciences of Philosophical Knowledges and of university humane Learning 51 52 Or the innate or acquired powers of mens own rational Intellect and Will 52 Or Natural Experiments and fleshy sensations 52 53 Or the unscriptural Impulses of Speculative Enthusiasts 53 Or the doubtful questioning of unsettled Scepticks 54 55 That our Faith is not to be resolved into the Authority of fallible men but into the infallible veracity of the truthful Aelohim 54 to 62 That the Old Testament Types and Figures did contain New Testament Institutions as to particular Churches Seals of the Covenant Presbyters Deacons Diaconesses 58 59 60 That Revel 1. 10. Doth not prove any change of the weekly Sabbath from the Seventh to the First day of the week 62 to 65 Neither doth Psalm 118. 22-26 65 66 67 Neither doth Act 2. 1 2 c. 67 Nor Ezek. 43 25 26 27. 68 Nor Heb. 4. 9 10 68 to 145 Here the plain meaning and scope of this passage in the Epislle to the Hebrews is given 68. 69 70 Here is further shewn that the Day expressed in the ninety fifth Psalm and referred unto by the Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews is not to be understood of the First day of the week as the weekly Sabbath-day 70 71 72 That the rest spoken of in this is not meant of the Weekly Sabbath Rest 72 73 74 to 77 Where is opened the significancy of the Word Sabbatism in the Graek 〈◊〉 towed from Hebrew Origination as many other Greek words are 74 to 77 That the He mentioned in one passage of this part of this Epistle is meant of the Believer 75 76 77 That the parallel between Workers Works and Rest doth not hold in some things and where in it doth hold is discovered 77 78 79 80 Here is shewn what are the works which Believers do rest from when they enter into this Sabbatism 79 80 The force of the conjunction For is shewn 80 81 As also what the import of the change of of the number from the plural to the singular is 81 82 And how this Rest is both God's Rest and the Believers Rest too 82 83 Here is further manifested that it is a mistake to go about to found a pretended First day Sabbath upon the New Creation as if it precisely began on the Day of Christ's Resurrection 83 to 145 It is Premised that it is a choice Priviledge and a special Liberty which Believers do injoy under the New Testament Administration of Grace 84 85 Where also some objections that do wrest Galat. 4. 9 10. and Colos 2. 8 16 17. are answered 85 86 87 And that the LORD Jesus Christ was Administrator under the Old as well as New Testament Dispensation of Grace 87 88 The particulars are here instanced in What the old things are which pass away and what the things are which do become new 88 89 to 92 The renewing of the Covenant in the latter days is spoken to 92. 93 That there was a Covenant of Grace under the Old Testament Administration is asserted and evidenced from the Scriptures Page 93 to pag. 101 And that the whole of the Christian Religion for Doctrines Graces Duties Priviledges and such like parts of that Religion is one and the same under both the Old and New Testament 101 to 108 And in what sense the Seventh-day Sabbath is some ways a sign of this 108 to 116 The new Worship was Typically signified in the Figuring pattern of the Old This is also demonstrated 116 to 120 And that the Law of Faith was a Law under the Old Testament Dispensation 120 to 123 And that it is an errour to affirm that the Decalogue has less in it than the Law of Nature At also that therefore it was never intended for a mere or perfect Transcript of the Law of Nature 123 Vnder this is discovered That to this Decalogue it doth belong to believe that the Soul is 124 And to love our selves with a just and necessary Love 124 125 And to take greatest care to save our souls above our bodies 125 And to tame and mortifie all our fleshly lusts in order to our Salvation 125 126 And to deny all bodily pleasure profits honour liberty and life for the securing of our Salvation 126 The Old Law of the Ten Words is proved in the Word of Truth to be still the same both to Jew and Gentile It was the Rule of Obedience to them under the Old Testament as unto God in Christ and is still so a Rule unto us under the new Difference of Horizons and of Climates makes no change of the Law of the Seventh-day Sabbath 126 to 147 The Ingenuous Reader is earnestly desired to correct the Errours in Printing especially those that do much disturb the sense and quite alter the meaning Errours in the Margin are thus to be corrected in the Second Part. For g Gen. page 5. line 1. read g Gen. 2. 2. f. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 6. l. 11. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 f. 1 Cor. 15. 3 14. p. 6. l. 17 18. r. 1 Cor. 15. 3 4. f. 17 19. p. 7 l. 11. r. 17. 10. f. Acts 13 24. p. 11. l. 11. r. Acts 13. 14. f. 58. 13. p. 15. l. 16. r. 58. 12. f. Cor. 1. 16. p. 21. l. 35. r. Col. 1. 16. f. Gen. 28. p. 21. l. 40. r. Gen. 1. 28. f. Heb. 7 8. p. 21. l. 41. r. Heb. 2. 7 8. f. Aclum p. 27. l. 25. r. Atrium f. 3. 12. p. 30 l 34. r. 3. 12. 〈◊〉 f. 33 34. p. 31. l. 28. r. 32 33. f. 12 19 p. 31. l. 43. r. 13 19 f. Gnatrereth p. 35. l. 16. r. Gnetzereth f. 15. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 36. l. 14. r. 15. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 f. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 36. l. 15. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 f. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 37. l. 9. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 f. pag. 110. to pag. 120. of this Treatise p. 38. l. 11 12 13. r. pag. 91. to page 103. of the first Part of
the week as the weekly-Sabbath-day but only against and upon such as observed not the seventh-day as such If it be thus then how nameless how Commandless how promiseless how threatless is the first day of the week as to this matter of the weekly-Sabbath-day Examine and search we the Scriptures in this case All the Scriptures through where the holy spirit speaks of a weekly-sabbath day the name and thing thereof that is of such a weekly-Sabbath-day is given only to the seventh which is the last day in the week in the weekly returns of it and to no other day of the week as a weekly-Sabbath-day On the seventh-day the seventh-day the seventh-day Aelohim Sabbatized he Sabbatized The seventh-day the seventh-day the seventh-day the seventh-day the rest of the Holy Sabbath a Sabbath the Sabbath the Sabbath the People rested on it The seventh day is the Sabbath in it thou shalt not do any work The seventh day is the Sabbath in it thou shalt not do any work In the seventh is the Sabbath of rest The seventh day a Sabbath of Rest The seventh day the Sabbath of rest Scores of times in the Scripture of the old testament the seventh day is called the Sabbath Several times also in the new Testament about threescore times The LORD Christ himself speaking Prophetically cals it the Sabbath-day Divers times in the Historie of the Acts of the Apostles after Christs Ascension to his Father Every Sabbath Paul reasoned in the Synagogue as his manner was No other day in the week is called the Sabbath-day This some of the most Learned amongst the adversaries of the seventh day having been convinced of and finding their labours fruitless in searching after the name Sabbath to be given to the first day of the week which is no where done they rather oppose the name Sabbath as not fit to be used now under the new-Testament-administration of Grace as applyed to the weekly seperated day for Holy rest and worship they reject it themselves that others too might the more abhor it by giving it an ill name miscalling it the jewish-Jewish-Sabbath So that these Enemies themselves being Judges they confess that all Churches do call the seventh day alone by the old name Sabbath It was the seventh this seventh day it is double-Articled on which God rested from all his works Consider further there is not all the Scriptures through any command given for the observation of any other day in the week asthe weekly-Sabbath-day but only the seventh which is the last day in the week in the weekly return of it At the first Creation of this seventh day It was instituted for Adam to do it and observe it as the weekly Sabbath day Thus before the Law was proclaimed how long refuse ye to keep my Commandements and my Laws Jehovah hath given you the Sabbath Let no man go out of his place on the seventh day for to gather Manna or to do any other servile work So the People rested on the seventh day Thus at the time of Promulgation Remember or to remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy Six daies shalt thou labour and do all thy work but the seventh day is the Sabbath of Jehovah thy God In it thou shalt not do any work It expresseth both a precept what to do and a prohibition what not to do Keep the Sabbath to sanctifie it as Jehovah thy God hath commanded thee Six daies shalt thou labour and do all thy work but the seventh day is the Sabbath of Jehovah thy God In it thou shalt not do any work So express is this word of the Law-giver himself After the proclaiming of this Law six daies thou shalt do thy work and on the seventh day thou shalt rest Verily my Sabbaths ye shall keep said Jehovah ye shall keep the Sabbath six daies shall work be done but in the seventh is the Sabbath of rest Six daies thou shalt work but on the seventh day thou shalt rest In Eating-time or Plough-time and in Harvest thou shalt rest during the seventh-day-Sabbath If any time had more colouraable plea for working than other the Ploughing-time and the Harvest-time were the seasons the one to prepare the Ground and to cast in the Seed the other to reap and gather in the Fruit and increase Tillage was necessary for Harvest Harvest was necessary for sustenance yet the holy rest of the Sabbath must not be broken for these The prohibition reached in the very letter of it against these times Again these are the words which Jehovah hath commanded that ye should do them six daies shall work be done but on the seventh day there shall be to you an holy day a Sabbath of rest to Jehovah If any handy-work were to be spoken for as an exception to this general rule Tabernacle-work was the work yet this Law of the seventh-day-Sabbath must not be transgressed for the carrying on of such work for the preparing finishing and erecting of the Tabernacle though it were the appointed place under that dispensation of Grace for the publick Instituted worship and service of God Ye shall keep my Sabbath again ye shall keep my Sabbath and a third time in Leviticus ye shall keep my Sabbaths the like we have in the Books of the Prophets carry not forth any burden out of your houses on the Sabbath day nor do any work but ye shall hallow the Sabbath day according as I commanded your Fathers said Jehovah by Jeremiah to the People of God in his time much the same we have in Ezekiel bringing in the LORD thus bespeaking his People I Jehovah your God walk in my statutes observe my judgments and do them and Hallow my Sabbaths The same Prophetically in another place thus saith Adonai Jehovah the gate of the inner Court that looketh towards the East shall be shut the six working daies but on the Sabbath it shall be opened But the gate shall not be shut until the Evening The Prince shall offer the burnt Offering on the Sabbath-day Thus after the return from the Babylonish Captivity Zealous Nehemiah reproves the transgressors of this law and Command of the seventh day-Sabbath what Evil thing is this that ye do and profane the Sabbath-day I commanded and charged saith he This he did in pursuance of Jehovahs Express command and charge that no burden be brought in on the Sabbath day I said unto the Levites that they should cleanse themselves and come and keep the gates to sanctifie the Sabbath-day The same is mentioned in the New-Testament the holy Women had Rested on the Sabbath-day according to the Commandement They who were no friends to Christ could yet acknowledge this in the Principle for the matter of Right though they misjudged in a matter of Fact in point of practise and in a particular Case there are six daies in which men ought to work and not
some particular known day Do not Commissions to Judges and to other Officers meet with this sense by their Dates Do not Charters to Corporations express some special day of Grants Are not Fairs and Markets held upon certain days of the week agreeing with the present Accompt as the reckoning now is Search the records of Marriages Nativities Deaths Burials in Ecclesiastical Register-books and is not the memory of Days preserved there Do not Compacts Covenants Agreements between party and party Wills and Testaments speak the certain knowledg of Days Do not Day-labourers keep to this Accompt Do not Ephemeries Diaries Hemerologies Calendars Almanacks Astronomies assent and consent to this same What further Evidence is now needful in this case of a matter of Fact for the satisfying of them who will keep a Weekly-Sabbath-day Holy unto Jehovah As an act of Faith with an eye to his Promise as an Act of Fear with an eye to his Threatning Sandys in his Travels being a narrow inquirer into the state of other Nations and Kingdoms doth relate this concerning the matters of Religion in the Eastern parts that there is a Christian Empire of the Aethiopians that did still in his time Celebrate Saturday as well as the Sunday as he useth the old Ethnick Phrases and Purchas writes of the Abyssines as Subject to Peter and Paul and especially to Christ that they observed the Saturday Sabbath The Melchites or Syrians are said to Celebrate Divine Service as solemnly on the Sabbath day as on the Dominical day as they call the First day Some Christian Churches have forbid Fasting on both these days Many more Historical records of this may an Ingenious Industrious Reader of such books Collect that would further Inform himself about this Sufficient to me is Scripture Authority warranted in created Nature Having now gone thorow my great Task and undertaking in asserting and proving thorow the whole Scriptures by Aelohim's own assigned Reasons by other Scripture Arguments and by Created Nature and Established Order the seventh-Seventh-day which is the last day of the week to be the Weekly Sabbath-day should not every Mouth be stopped from gain-saying of it Yet the plainests clearest Truths have been opposed and so is this Some rise up against it and object that no special Honour is put by the LORD and by his Word upon the seventh day more than upon any other day of the week and that it is but A seventh not The seventh And that that part of time that is and will be accepted with God is declared and determined to be the seventh part of it or one day in seven and that one day in seven hath and must have a natural priority unto the seventh-day because say such the seventh day is one of the seven Whereas such should have more deliberately considered that one day of seven was not before the seventh day in order of time It could not be truly affirmed of any one day that it was one of seven before the seventh day was Created For when the one day was so named there was but that one day so but two on the second day but three on the third day but four on the fourth but five on the fifth but six on the sixth day till the seventh had its natural Existence and it s created being and untill then no one of the fore-going days of the Week could be called one in seven For till then there were not seven and the seventh day is the last number of days and the only seventh in the days of the Week So that here is a stop made and we go no further forward As to the natural created Order and accompt of a Week and therefore that exception and objection which some do bring in against this from ten Lambs any of which may be the tenth according as they may run out is nothing pertinent and applicable to the present matter For the days of every week do not run voluntarily at their pleasure which can be before or behind as they will to go backward or forward when they list but they keep their created order in this successive continued weekly course by a well-established natural unalterable Law although in the exception and objection this should be noted that when the ten Lambs were run out they had each distinct names and the last was the only tenth and no other but the last That particular day of the week is the Weekly Sabbath-day which alone As to this of the weekly-Sabbath has proper marks of Note and of Honour put upon it As Jehovah's own peculiar day which he has culled out from all the rest of the days of the week for his created ends and instituted purposes There is not any one Insignificant word or letter in the whole Book of God All that he has spoken and given to his people is of good use The LORD Jesus Christ has confirmed his Law of the Ten Words to a Letter a Consonant a Vowel a Particle a Point These things amongst others I have commended to their serious Observation who do understand the Original or will take so much pains as to learn the notes of Demonstration and their Significancy which may the LORD blessing it be gotten with a little Industry one is to observe well the first place in the Scriptures where the Doctrine and Law of the Seventh-day-Sabbath is taught here is a Note of Demonstration importing The This or That and it is three times joyned to the word Seventh which particular day of the Week the Last day Aelohim Rested on Blessed and Sanctifyed as the Weekly-Sabbath-day The seventh and a second time The Seventh and a third time The seventh and three times there is a Letter an Inseparable joyned Preposition signifying In Which would carry the discerning obedient Observer of the Weekly-Sabbath-day into the Possession and enjoyment the Duties and Priviledges of that set Seventh-day Besides another Particle there which doth here put a great force upon the signification as That day That Seventh The Note of Demonstration in this Place doth point out a certain known Determinate Fixed Particular Unchangeable day in every Week in that First Created Week and in the after Successive Returns of that last day in every Week as the Weekly Sabbath-day Because this is the First place in the Holy Scriptures where this Note of Demonstration is put to this word Seventh And this was an Eminent Remarkable thing pointed at this seventh day as the day of Weekly Rest And all and every of the foregoing daies of the Week of this Created World have a distinct observable put upon them and therefore so has this also Especially the Seventh day being the most remarkable day in divers respects that was in all the Week Here was a thing certain to be known and to be taken special notice of that was thus Demonstrated and Notificated The Subject matter compared with that which doth go before doth eminently point out as it
man above and beyond the Fool. The Hebrews and Chaldees do set out an especial part of wisdom in Circumspection when the eyes in the Head are deligently used As Folly doth notably manifest it self in heedless walking The last instance is in Leviticus where there is the notificative prefix put before Adam which as the English Reader may find the Dutch Annotations in English do express that man which doth the same shall live by them It doth signally set out a singular excelling Adam or Man If other Scriptures be Collated that do speak of the same thing they have all and every one of them the emphatick Article The Pronoun Relative also doth directly with a strait foot lead to that same man Thus also the Greek has the prepositive Article in two several places of the New Testament where this Scripture is cited out of the Old Testament Let therefore those marks of Honour by Notes of Demonstration which the LORD hath put upon it still be worn as an Hereditary Crown set and established upon the head of the weekly-seventh-day-Weekly-Seventh-day-Sabbath That day of the Sabbath that day of this Sabbath As it is expressed in another Scripture It should further be considered here in a way of conâ—utation of those who would leave the appointing of Sabbath-times to the Church or State besides what has been already mentioned that the weekly sabbath-Sabbath-day must be a particular known determinate Fixed standing day for all men to take notice of unchangeable in the weekly returns of it distinct from all other daies of the same week How else should there be a coming together for Jehova's solemn Instituted worship It must be such a stated constant day as that the Governours of Families might carefully and watchfully see to it that both they and their Children and Servants and the stranger within their Parts might remember to observe it That the freed Beasts might take some Natural Perception of it in whose custody soever he were kept whoever were the owner and possessor of it None but Jehovah Aelohim hath Authority to determine and to appoint this weekly Sabbath-day Christ the Creator and Redeemer is LORD of the Sabbath and he has fixed it on the seventh the last day of the week The work of a Commanded day must be done in the day thereof on which Jehovah hath appointed it If men would expect from him acceptance of their work the word or thing we should have a word for every thing of a day must be done in his day How express are the Scriptures in this with respect to the Seventh-day-Sabbath In the Sabbath-day the seventh day-Sabbath in the weekly returns thereof there was to be the Ascension or Ascending Sacrifice of the Sabbath in his Sabbath Sabbath worship must be done on the proper day and time of it on the seventh day the last day of every week and not a day before in the same week nor a day after in another week They that will change a day from what Jehovah hath appointed do devise a day of their own Heart Jehovahs time and Law should not be Changed Sabbath-worship must be from the time of the Sabbath in his Sabbath One of the great opposers of the weekly seventh-day-Sabbath doth yet grant that Rest in the first notion of it doth include a respect to an Antecedent work or labour And that it is so every where declared And that it is vain to imagine the World was made in Six daies and those closed with a day of Rest without an especiall respect unto the obedience of rational Creatures Hereby then man in general was taught obedience and working before he entered into rest For being Created in the Image of God he was to conform himself to God As God wrought before he rested so was he to work before his Rest Thus he How then can the first day of the week be now the Resting day of that week where the Rest is made to go before the work and labour This being contrary to Greated Nature And it being a part of mans natural Created Image of Aelohim to conform unto him in working before Resting in the same week Meditation on the works as well as on the word of Christ and on Christ himself is a necessary useful duty And how can this be performed in its right proper place where the Sabbath is carried from the seventh to any other day of the week as for instance to the First day For this Computation would put the Seventh day back to the sixth day the Sixth to the Fifth day the Fifth to the Fourth day the Fourth to the Third day the third to the Second day the Second to the First day and it would set the First day forward to the Seventh quite inverting the order of the Creation and so would engage a man on the First day which was and is a working day to meditate on a Sabbath-days priviledge and on the Creators Resting and mans Resting which was upon another day the seventh which is the last day of the week and on the Seventh day which by this wrong account is misreckoned the Sixth It would put a man upon meditating on the work of the Sixth day whereas it was Created and appointed the Resting-day Thus every day would be set out of its due place And hence it is that such multitudes of namers of the Name of Christ do so little understand what the particular Created works of every day in the week are and so seldom meditate upon the peculiar works of their proper day Whereas when the seventh day closeth the week with a Sabbath day a day of Rest which is most natural then Meditation passeth naturally into Created order as to working and as to Resting To speak in propriety of speech there is but one only day in a week that is the Seventh day in the same week in orderly reckoning according to Created beings which is and must be and can be no other than the last day of the week every day has its own Peculiar proper Name And apt and â—it names are to be kept close unto especially when given by Jehovah Aelohim himself setting out the true nature and property of things This being one Testimony of his Sovereign LORDship to call persons and things by their own proper Names How else can there be a Peculiar Distinct Certain Knowledge of them Hence the Name is sometimes taken for the Person or thing thus the Name of God is put for God himself And thus the Name of Christ is put for the LORD Jesus Christ himself And what is observable the Law of Christ is by Christ himself expounded to be his Name Thus also with reference to a day the Name of the Number is sometimes inclusive of the day too It were of very profitable use if the daies of the Week were every one called by their own proper Names Is it not high time to throw
away those Idolatrous Names of daies As Sunday c. of which Jebovah has prophesied that He will cut them off Having thus far attended the Weekly-seventh-day-Sabbath in its strait-footed walk in a plain path through the whole Scripture there thwarts the Reader now a straying company that would perswade him to get into another way along with them the way of the first day as the weekly-Sabbath as if this were now the New-Testament-Dispensation And for this they would have him to consider these Scriptures in the Margin as Translated out of the Greek into English Before I return an express direct Answer to the several particular Scriptures themselves I advise the Reader to ask these Transferrers of the Weekly-Sabbath-day from the seventh to the first day of the week when they judg it was that the first day of the week began to be the weekly Sabbath-day Most will say that it began on the particular day of Christ's Resurrection by Christ himself Some few will assert that it was a little after that Resurrection by the Apostles of Christ but all of them will acknowledge that it was before any part of the New-Testament was written It being so then let the Reader improve this last Concession and further demand of these men if one of the Apostles as Peter by name for Supposition had preached up this Doctrine that the Weekly Sabbath-day under the New-Testament-Administration of Grace was translated and changed from the Seventh which is the last day of Week to the first day of the week and that one of the Hearers had asked Peter upon what Scripture do you bottom this Doctrine How are whatsoever words of God were heretofore written Profitable and written for such a Doctrine What Answer do these Men imagine that Peter could have returned The New Testament was not then written and all the Scriptures which they then had were the Writings of the Old Testament Those of Moses and of the Prophets This Hearer searcheth these and can meet with no such thing in the Preceptive or Prophetical or Promissary part of that Word neither could any other refer him to clear-convincing-proofs of this How then could this Man be well satisfied that this was True Doctrine when he could not find it in his Bible but the quite contrary all the Old Testament through another day the Seventh in order of Created Time all along Commanded and commended And if this Hearer should further have asked Peter If I should work upon the seventh-day contrary to the Precept in the Law what Scriptures would bear me out in so doing when I appear before the righteous Judg who has in so many Words forbid this and so often in all the Scriptures that I have which speak of this thing and if I do not observe the first day as the Weekly-Sabbath-day but do work on that day having Aelohim's Command and Example for it what Scriptures have you by which to reprove me After this Arguing what could Peter have replyed to this from Old-Testament-Scripture I leave the Reader further to improve this in his Study and Meditation For the Christianized believers did search the Scriptures whether those things which the Apostles of Christ taught them were so or not even in the Case of Paul himself who was one of the most Eminent and most used of them all I shall now in the supplies of the Spirit of Holiness according to the word of Truth discover the deceitful colours of these Mens wrestings of some Scriptures and then shew the Reader the convincing reprehension of those Colours Which colours how fair soever to outward appearance for a while yet are a false Disguise a Paint that will melt away before the fire of the Word The Fallacies are soon detected and confuted before a discerning and judicious an unprejudiced and Impartial Reader There are some Scriptures in our English Bibles of the New-Testament say these Objectors which do speak of the first day of the week as the day of Christ's Resurrection when he rested from his work of Redemption which is now appointed and determined as the weekly-sabbath-Weekly-Sabbath-day unto the Church in memory of Christ's Resurrection One of the Sabbaths doth frequently occur and is the same with the first day of the week One being often put for First the Numeral for the Cardinal The generality of the Antients both Greek and Latin agree whose Testimony about the sense of aWord is the best Dictionary and Evidence we can expect and this same phrase used of the day of Christ's Resurrection by the Evangelists proveth it Thus they say The Resurrection of Our LORD Jesus Christ from the Dead on the third day according to the Scriptures I thankfully acknowledg together with the many exceeding great and precious priviledges and benefits thereof and through Mercy and Grace I do firmly believe and particularly apply This true Doctrine is one main part of that solid Foundation on which we are to bottom our Hope and O how gladly could I here lay aside this Controversie and be taken up with sweet Delight and with Rapturing joy into an Heavenly Meditation on an arisen Saviour Here could I leave this unkind World and wrangling-generation and get up above that I might rise with Christ to be where he is to behold his Glory O how willingly could I here breath and long desire and pant that this arisen Redeemer whom my Soul loves would be with my Spirit that my spirit might be more with him O that I might more Experimentally sensibly satisfyingly Know and acknowledge that Power that Vertue of his Resurrection That I might more and better Evidence my being planted into it by walking in Newness of life Here could I bid this Fallacious Sophistry of Quarrellers with Christ's weekly seventh-day-Sabbath to stay behind whilst I find my heart with much Complacencie safely lodged in a full Christ and in his sull Word O the Savourie-nourishing-Meditations that this Subject-Matter would afford Here the admiring Soul may pass into a spiritual-Rest by silent-Thinkings secret Adorings Marvelling-loves Exalting-Praises and Filling-enjoyments But the Reader expects an Answer In all the places of the New Testament relating to the matter in hand where the last English Translation doth render it the first day of the week the Words do properly signify one of the Sabbaths except only in one place where it is the first day of the Sabbath The meaning whereof may be afterwards opened All the other places you may find cited in the Margin and the words in the Greek rightly done into English in every one of these are one of the Sabbaths not the first day of the week nor the first of Sabbaths nor the alone Day or only day or Sabbaths Not at all concluding the first day of the week to be now the Weekly Sabbath-day in the room of the seventh which the words do not mean either in their proper Significancie or intended sense as they stand in Syntax or Coherence
of Promise made to the observers of the First day as such What one word of threatning against any that do not so observe the First day as the weekly Sabbath day and if there be not any one word here for the First day either as to Institution or Command or Promise or Threating how can any observer keep it aright either in Faith or Obedience in Hope or Fear The direct plain meaning of this Scripture is if I mis-judge not that this day doth evidently relate to that providential Day of the LORD Christ's appearing in the fulfilling of this Prophesie who appeared to John as LORD pleading the Cause of his Kingly Lordly Office which has been too long and too far invaded by the Kings and Lords of the Earth who have not inforced Christ's Laws nor made them to be the Rule of Government but usurped an unscriptural authority over mens consciences and souls How Lordly a Day therefore will it be when Christ will recover and exercise his Power and his Right Those great things which this ever-blessed LORD of Glory would do in the latter ages were represented to John from Christ by an Angel in a way of Prophetical Revelation This manifestation by Vision and by Voice was after such a manner as if the thing had been acted and performed before and to John's senses By comparing of this passage with some other passages in the same book of Revelation relating to the same matter he that doth diligently mark and wisely observe and rightly understand may see that this Lordly Day is the great Providential Day of that God that Almighty One a name several times given to Christ in this Book There are several parts of this great comprehensive large Vision and there are several seasons of their fulfillings and accordingly several days in this great Day Ezekiel doth mention one part of this Prophesie that will last seven years The LORD Jesus Christ will come and come in several Judgements on several Hours Days Weeks Months and Years It is one of his Names to be such a one as is coming and he is called the coming King And his Kingdom is a coming Kingdom and the age of this is said to be a coming Age and the World to come a coming World In every age of the Church of Christ there were fulfillings of this in part Those in John's time had somewhat of this Lordly Day who therefore were to behold Christ's coming This was partly Historical before John's death when Christ came in his admirable way of wonderful providence to destroy Jerusalem according as was foretold in other Scriptures and partly Prophetical to be accomplished in the several ages after John's time John saw this Day in a Vision and speaks of it with a double confirmation John was made to be in the Spirit on that Lordly Day An expression of which he had experience as is mentioned in other places of this Book The Article added that Lordly Day doth determine but indefinitely There is no such certain particular Day of the Week pointed out so to our understanding on what Day of the Week it will begin or on what Day of the Week it will end This is not the design at least not as to the pretended change of the Weekly Sabbath-day It was that Lordly Day of Christ's coming when he would convert and recover the chosen remnant of those of Israel and of Judah and destroy the Rebellious and the unbelieving among them If men will be limiting of this day to any one determinate definite particular day of the week what one day has such a plea as the Seventh-day Sabbath Seeing for the dreadfully executed Judgement part of it as the first Temple was destroyed being burnt with fire on the tenth day of the fifth Moon which day according to Jeremiah's Prophesie is granted even by many adversaries to be the Seventh-day Sabbath he told the Jews before it came to pass that their Temple would be burnt with Fire if they profaned the Sabbath of Jehovah Answerable unto which is that passage in another Prophet who on the same day of the same Moon reproved Sabbath-breaking when the Elders came to inquire what the mind of the LORD was And as the second Temple was under the like threatning from the mouth of the LORD Christ himself putting them upon earnest importunate Prayer lest otherwise that terrible destruction brake in upon them on the Sabbath the Seventh-day Sabbath Those who are sond of Ecclesiastical Histories may find it recorded in them that the second Temple was actually destroyed according to this Prophetical threatning of our LORD on the seventh-seventh-day Sabbath The change of Jehovah's Ordinance of which mens changing of his Seventh day Sabbath is one is soretold in Isaiah with respect to the later ages of the World to be one great provoking Cause of his sending of Judgements upon the rebellious and unfaithful World when keepers of his seventh-Seventh-day Sabbath shall have his holy Arm revealed for their Salvation Some of the first great rejections of the unbelieving Jews in a way of Church censure after Christ's ascending on high were occasionally and deservedly by their prophane blaspheming miscarriage on the Seventh day Sabbath of which some account hath been given before So that if a particular day of the week in the weekly returns of it were here designedly pointed at what day can plead and claim a fairer Title and Right unto it than the seventh-Seventh-day which is the Sabbath of or to Jehovah or to the LORD Jehovah is the chief choice Name of the Eternal Ever blessed Self-being the Being of beings as that Name doth signifie And that Word which in the Greek doth answer to this Hebrew Name Jehovah some do draw from a word that doth signifie I am which they constantly render LORD So that Jehovah in the Old Testament is often rendred by this Word in the New which we do translate LORD That which in the Old is Hear O Israel Jehovah our Aelohim Jehovah One is in the new Hear O Israel The LORD that God of ours is one LORD Thus also the Hebrew Text doth sometimes but Adonai supporting LORD for Jehovah Thus that whith in one Psalm is I will confess thee among the peoples O Jehovah is in another Psalm I will confess thee among the peoples O LORD Further Christ Jesus saith of himself that he is LORD of the Sabbath of that seventh-Seventh-day Sabbath which he created commanded and observed being a keeper of his Fathers Commandments whereof this of the seventh-Seventh-day Sabbath was one Those that do relie on the judgement and authorities of men about the meaning of this expression may consider that Ecclesiastical Historians do relate that John and his followers the Eastern Asiatick Churches did keep the Passover on the seventh-Seventh-day not pressing the observation of the first day for the celebration of the Passover as the Western Churches did Further as in Low-Dutch the seventh Day is named Rust-dagh that is the Day of Sabbath or
may be seen in the next Scripture cited in the Margin which is a part of this same Prophesie For observe here the Jews shall then be restored when this will be performed Their Foes will be terrified upon the report of the Jews repair home which is not fully verified The Nations will do homage to the Jews upon their Conversion whereas hitherto they have been dispersed among and subdued by the Nations are objects either of scorn or pitty to all Mankind where ever they are a great overthrow will be given to their open Enemies which is yet to come The converted Jews will turn to Jehovah Christ and will constantly and continuedly serve him according to Gospel Institution particularly by observing the Seventh-day Sabbath in his Sabbath which expression is used elsewhere referring to the Seventh-day Sabbath When these things shall come to pass the LORD will make crooked things to be streightness before his people when that Law of his to which the Isles do expect shall be magnified and made honourable as the Giver of it also will be So great and so glorious things being to come so long after Isaiah's Prophesyings Such as whereof all the World could not have foretold these are confirmed and verified by the Testimony of the Father in his Son by his Spirit in his Word As for what is Prophesied of by Ezekiel concerning the new Temple or Church state where especial direction is given for the service of the sabbath-Sabbath-day this doth confirm and establish the seventh-Seventh-day Sabbath to continue under New Testament times For it speaks of such a Day of Sabbath in the same Week as has six working Days going before it which is expresly according to the same Law proclaimed Mount Sinai as one of the ten Words That which is alledged out of Peter was a Prophesie long after Christ's Resurrection and Ascension a little before Peter's death and not long before the destruction of the Temple and of the Jews which had a quite contrary Face and Nature from the glorious Renovation foretold Those new Heavens and new Earth that were prophesied were at that time of Peter's writing the Epistle in the Promise unfulfilled such as were yet expected and look'd out after and the whole Discourse doth manifest that it was not then accomplished That day of the LORD the same LORDLY Day spoken of in the Revelvtion the great providential Day of his LORDLY Appearance was not then come it Peter's time The Heavens were not then passed away with a noise they were not then perished in flames by fire the Elements were not then burnt and loosed or dissolved and melted the Earth and the works that were therein were not then burnt up The Heavens which are now saith he speaking of those that were in his Day and Time and the Earth are by the same Word laid up as a Treasure and are kept unto fire against the day of Judgment and of the Destruction of ungodly men or of corrupt Worshippers These things saith he shall perish They had not then perished The day of the LORD shall come It was not then come but they were to look for and to hasten unto the coming of it We according to his promise expect new Heavens and a new Earth wherein dwelleth Righteousness We look for these things They were as yet but in the Promise They were under the Expectation of Believers They looked for them but they did not then see and enjoy them actually in their real Coming for they were not as yet come Thus also that Prophety by John in the Revelation when he had a Visional sight of a new Heaven and a new Earth upon the passing away of the first Heaven and the first Earth and when he saw the Holy City and the New Jerusalem and when a great Voice out of Heaven had told him that God would wipe off all tears from the eyes of his Covenant-people and that Death should be no more neither mourning nor crying nor any more trouble for the former things should pass away He that sat upon the Throne said Behold I make all things new Write for these things are true and faithful Is it not evident here that this Prophetie was many years after the Day of Christ's Resurrection And must not the Fulfilling be after the Prophetie Is there not enough in this very place to confute the Objector's Arguing Is the first Heaven and the first Earth yet passed away When ever was this fulfilled Is the new Heaven and the new Earth yet come Is the Holy City the New Jerusalem as yet come down from God out of Heaven Are there not tears found in the eyes of the LORD'S people to be wiped away Is there not death still Are these former things yet passed away Is not the LORD He who then foretold that he would make all things new John saw in a Vision and heard in a voice they would be so made but they were not actually so excellent on earth in John's Day and Time For there will be this new face of things in the Churches of Christ on earth This New Holy City Jerusalem is not said to go up to God into Heaven but it doth come down from God out of Heaven God will renew his Covenant with his people and he will Tabernacle with them God will put away Humane Ordinances Inventions Impositions and Traditions to set up his own Institutions all the Laws and Orders of his New House in their Purity and Power The Nations shall receive Light from this New Church so shiningly enlightned so clearly taught of him Church-Discipline shall be revived set up and exercised Distempers Diseases and Ulcers of Spirit of Soul and Body shall be healed and cured and removed by the Medicinal leaves of the Tree of Life All which do belong to a Church-State here on earth If other passages in this Book of the Revelation be collated it will appear that many things foretold to go before this are not yet fulfilled For there must be another manner of Conversion of the Tribes yet of all the Tribes which do include the Ten of Israel as well as the Two of Judah and Benjamin The twelve thousands of the several Tribes The New Church was to be erected after that the See of the Beast was overthrown The Returning Jews are called the Kings of the East There will be a laying dry the Waters of Euphrates as those of the Red Sea were of Old for Jehova's Redeemed ones to pass thorow The Turkish oppressing Tyrant will yet further destroy many of the Jews which grand Enemy shall at length be quite destroyed utterly ruined and his Power shall be broken to pieces The very place of this Conflicting Battel is particularly mentioned where his Overthrow shall be And there will yet be a glorious Christian Church of returning believing Jews erected
the last and best day of the Week to take my sweet repose in him who formed all these things and who had brought forth such a world somewhat for me vile unworthy sinful me But that which was and is through the Grace of God an Holy Rest to me has been and is like further to be through the corruptions of men a troublesom Controversie from them Must I now be made a man of contention who have so much desired and endeavoured to be a man of Peace My LORD is going forth in his comely Honour riding upon the word of his Truth and he will prosper His Truth is victorious for this must I be valiant and earnestly contend in his strength For this end was he born and for this cause came he into the world that he should bear witness unto the Truth Every one that is of the Truth heareth his voice Happy is he who has a good report of the Truth it self In the Order of my pursuit after the refining and raising of useful Arts and profitable Knowledges I am now led to that day the Seventh which is the last day in the week wherein Aelohim the Creator himself did Sabbatize on this day he rested to contemplate his own Works For having now framed and disposed the glorious Fabrick and the goodly structure of the whole Universe and having put it into its beauteous ceconomy and regular Polity he closeth the week with a day blessed above all the other foregoing days of the Week The righteous cause of which sanctified Day I am now to plead against the many Contenders against it Having thus in a former Treatise attended followed and walked with Aelohim in some of his great Works on the several distinct six foregoing days of this created World I am now brought to Sabbatize and rest with and in Him on his Weekly-seventh-day-Sabbath There are divers profitable Disquisitions that might be made with respect to the Seventh which is the last Day of every Week For the advancement of this Holy Art and for the Improvement of this Spiritual Science which would be a great promoting to this useful Learning As Q. Whether every Day of the week be of equal length Particularly whether the Seventh-day which is the last day in every week be not longer in time and have more minutes in it than the First day of the week If the Seventh-day be found longer in time it has a concreated Excellency in nature unchangeable dignoscible to Sense Q. Whether 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be from Shabath or from Jachab If from Shabath there are many Truths and Duties which that word would clear up and also demonstrate the Observation of the weekly-seventh-day-Sabbath before the Promulgation of the Law of the Ten words at Mount Sinai Q. Whether 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 do point out the daily and weekly seasons of created instituted time for daily-evening-and-morning-Worship and for weekly-Sabbath-Worship Q. Whether 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 do not in divers Scriptures set out the Seventh the last day of the Week and this in some places before Aelohims proclaiming of the Ten words at Horeb Q. Whether the LORD Jesus Christ having risen again the Third day according to the Scriptures that Third day be the Full complete Third day from the time of his burial and what that particular large day of the week was and what the certain hour of that particular large day was in which He did actually arise and what Scripture-evidence there is of this which is queried not at all in the least to question the Truth of his Resurrection which we firmly believe but rather to strengthen our Faith therein and to promote Scripture-knowledg of the Doctrine of Christs Resurrection upon which the whole of the Christian Religion doth so much depend and for some other good ends For the present there are some weighty reasons why I do not interpose my own Apprehensions about these Quaeries but leave them to those who are of studious inquiring Spirits who by a deeper search into the word of Truth in the Supplies of the Holy Spirit may make those Discoveries that will at once both convince and shame the ignorant-mistaking-World Whilst for the better satisfaction of serious seekers after Christs mind about the weekly-Sabbath I shall in a Word-way through the whole Scripture where this Case is spoken to and of treat of this one Enquiry returning a plain and as I judge a full Answer thereunto Q. Whether the Seventh Day which is the last Day in and of the Week in the weekly Revolutions and orderly Returns thereof has been from the beginning and so continued to be all the old-Testament-administration of Grace through and be so under the New Testament Dispensation of Grace all along to this Age of the Church and will be so to the end of this World the weekly-Sabbath-day A. The Seventh-day which is the last day in and of the week in the weekly Revolutions and orderly Returns thereof has been from the beginning and so continued to be all the Old-Testament-Administration of Grace through and is so under the New-Testament-Dispensation of Grace all along to this Age of the Church and will be so to the end of this World the weekly-Sabbath-day The whole Scripture is profitable for this Doctrine and for this Duty This closing part of the History of the Creation is express for it When Jehovah Aelohim had finished all his Works relating unto the six foregoing days of this one week The LORD Christ now on the Seventh-day actually perfected and will continue actually perfect in the whole and in every part of it His delegated-work which he had made adornedly-really to exist preparedly perfected and He did then Sabbatize and his will was is and will be that from thence his people shall Sabbatize ceasing resting from other motion and work of the fore-mentioned creating kind In a Day that Seventh from all his Work the which he had made and he did and will bless in word and in deed in a continued way in the weekly revolutions of it as long as weeks shall last in this world That day That Seventh and he did and will sanctifie by severing it from a common use and destinating it to an Holy Use accomodating it to instituted Ordinances of solemn Worship the same because in it he hath sabbatized and will Sabbatize from all his work the which he had created pure without spot or blemish of corruptness or uncomeliness for to make This Seventh is a Number completely perfecting the Week For when such a number of days hath filled up the week then we begin again with one second third fourth fifth and sixth till it comes to another seventh And there the Week in the continued revolutions thereof doth still receive a perfective end The Greek Interpreters here as in a many of other Scriptures else where are Corrupters of the Hebrew Text who do translate in the sixth day for the Seventh and
Fruit of Christs Mediating for them with his Father He their Saviour and their God and the God of their Past-Present-and After-Salvarions who would make of their Posterity a Glorious new Christian Church in the latter daies As for Redemption-work it doth confirm the Law of the Ten words in the Type And the antitype must answer to the Type The Israel of God were to do the Weekly-Seventh-day-Sabbath and to keep it Holy to Jehovah their Saviour and Redeemer and so are believers under the New-Testament-Dispensation the Saviour himself this Redeemer having so observed it all his life through in the daies of his Flesh here on Earth when Born of the Virgin Mary The Ark which was one of the principal of all the Holy things of God and for which the Tabernacle mainly was set up which did Sanctifie the place where it did Rest this Ark had nothing in it but the two Tables of the Covenant And this Ark was a Type of Christ who had this Law in his Heart And did in his own Person Confirm it to every Letter and part of it by his Doctrine and Practice when more Familiarly Conversant here amongst men It was Christ as Mediator who appeared as man unto Abraham Moses Zechariah and others under that former Administration These works of Redemption were in the Types then and as for the Actual Perfecting and Accomplishing of these in the Person of the Mediator himself when he took to his Godhead the seed of Abraham and was made of the seed of David according to the Flesh and was made of a Woman these works may be said to take their beginning as to this of perfecting and accomplishing them in the antitype upon Christs First thus manifesting of himself in the Flesh And they were further carried on by him in his Life so declared by his Father and attested by his Spirit His Life was a Continued fulfilling of Redeeming-types And as for his Death upon the Cross there just before his giving up the Spirit and commending it into the hands of his Father he himself said it is Finished or accomplished or perfected namely for so much and for fo far he having but a little before on the same day of his Death in his Prayer to his Father declared that he had finished the work which the Father gave him to do This work of Reconciliation and Redemption Thus accomplishing it and perfecting the Types by steps and degrees Some Remainders whereof are further Fulfilled at his 〈◊〉 Resurrection Which also it self was a great work Yet was not this all For these works of Reconciliation and of Redemption had yet a further filling up and a more through perfecting when Forty daies from his rising again he ascended up into Heaven Where he appeared as the great High-Priest of his Peoples Holy profession as the Antitype with Blood and with Incense in that Holy of Holies having his satisfaction and intercession Further in his Glorious Person Actually accepted by his Father which was Typified of Old by the High-Priests entering into the Holy of Holies once every year upon the Atonement day or day of Expiation of which the Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews gives an account of its being perfected and fulfilled in Christ To this Ascension of His into the Highest Heavens and his sitting there at the Right Hand of his Father where he appears for his People and intercedes on their behalf in a way suted to his Glorious Majesty in so raised an Exaltation to this doth belong his putting down of the Levitical Priesthood which was a shadow and Type and Figure of the Heavenly Priesthood of Christ and must now upon Christs Ascending and session give way and place to the Truth to the true antitype the High Priest being got into Heaven For whilst Christ was upon Earth the Levitical Priesthood continued at least as to some parts of their Office When the Reader puts all this together and sees how the Redemption-work was for so many years together before Christs Resurrection perfecting and accomplishing and finds Christ Travelling upon the day of his Rising with Two Disciples to Emmaus which was from Jerusalem about Sixty Furlongs which in Common Computation is about seven Miles and a half at least seven Miles too long a Journey for the weekly Sabbath day especially when it was a going off from a greater assembling at Jerusalem the Publick appointed place of worship and this about a private business to a little Village an Example not to be followed upon a pretended new Instituted weekly-Sabbath-day And withal the Reader observes that some part of Redeeming-work was actually compleated by Christ in a way of fulfilling of a Redeeming-Type which work was not done by him before either in his Birth or Life in his Death or Resurrection it will be time for him ponderingly to think on his waies and to turn his feet unto Jehovahs Testimonies to make hast and not to slacken to entertain his Commandments particularly this of the weekly-Seventh-day-Sabbath To set this right precept before him and no longer to put away this Institution of Aelohim from him Which is so full and plain and clear through the whole Scripture and no further to wander on misled by mens darkning-conjectures who would still keep up a day of their own setting up up the First day of the week which as to this of a weekly Sabbath-day is a Creationless and Scriptureless Restingless Blessingless and Sanctifyingless Nameless Thingless Commandless Promiseless and Threatless-day none of those being for it but all for the Seventh day The adversary being driven out of this hold seeks refuge for his First day Sabbath in some other Scriptures cited in the Margin which yet will not allow him Countenance and Warrant For say they the good Apostles met on the First day the day of Christs Resurrection which they then observed as the weekly-Sabbath-day in memory of his Resurrection and of his compleating the works of Redemption on that day Christ taught the two Disciples on that day of his Rising on the same day he appeared to the Disciples and instructed them and did eat with them thus assembled and Blessed them The next First day of the week he chose to appear to them again And those Apostles Christ did Commission as his principal Church Ministers to teach the Churches all his Doctrine and to deliver them all his Commands and orders and so to settle and guide the first Churches Which Apostles did actually separate and appoint the First day of the week for Holy Worship especially in Church-assemblies They themselves frequently meeting upon that day for that end and enjoyning the Churches of their Plantation so to do who obeyed them in this The First day is mentioned as the day of the Disciples assembling to break Bread which though they did it oft on other daies yet no day else was peculiarly appointed for
it Disciples and believers at Christian-assemblies were not to come empty on the first day of the week but were on that day to deposite what they brought in to the Treasury of the Church And this has been the practice of all the Christian Churches in the World since the Apostles daies For which there is the Evidence of Church-history in this matter of Fact into which Humane Authority this must be resolved For this evidence of this Churches Vniversal constant usage is a full and sufficient proof of the matter of Fact That the First day was set apart by the Apostles for Holy worship especially in the publick Church assemblies They that will deny the Validity of this Historical evidence do by consequence betray the Christian Faith or give away or deny the necessary means of proving the truth of it and of many great particulars of Religion For without this Historical evidence we cannot make good the Authority of any one single verse or text of Scripture which we shall alledg because we are not certain of that particular Text or words whether it have been altered or added or corrupted by the Fraud of the Hereticks or the partiality of some Christians or the oversight of Scribes c. thus these objecters The Spirit of these Objecters is now to be tryed whether it be according to Christ and the word of Christ or not Which shall be done by a strict examination of the two Comprehensive particulars more especially whether the Scriptures alledged be truly Translated and rightly Interpreted and meetly applyed as to the present Case in hand either for matter of Fact or for matter of Right And whether Human Church Histories be of such Authority with reference to the certainty and verity of Scripture and of the Christian Faith and Religion conteined therein As for those expressions in our last English Translation of the First day of the week in the places cited I have shewn before that the words in the propriety of speech according to the truth of Grammar-etymology in their proper significancy and regimen of syntax are one of the Sabbaths the Notation of which Phrase in its plain meaning exactly agreeing with the real Nature of the thing punctually set out by it it has been discovered and proved that as to those places in the Evangelists it was one of the Paschal Sabbaths which doth speak nothing as to any substituting of the First day of the week in the room of the Seventh day as the Weekly Sabbath now which is the pretence of our Opposers As neither do the other Scriptures cited where that Expression is used once in the Acts of the Apostles and another time in the first Epistle to the Corinthians for one of the Sabbaths In that place of the Acts was one of those Seven Sabbaths between Passover and Pentecost as will be evident to an unprejudiced diligent Comparer of the Scriptures cited in the Margin which is quite another thing from what the adversaries do urge it for And as for the evidence of this there is express mention made both of the feast of unleavened Bread which was the Passover-Feast in the verse immediately going before the place cited and also of Pentecost in nine verses after relating to that season in the same year within the compass of which two Feasts inclusively were seven Sabbaths upon one of which that meeting was of Paul with the Disciples Which doth hold forth a clear Truth contrary to what it is alledged for As for what Paul did more after that Sabbath day was over at the going in of the Sun when another day came on which was meerly occasional he being in a preparedness to depart on the next day after the Sabbath Such as his continuing of his speech till midnight his raising up Eutychus his eating of Brèad his talking with them a long while even till break of day then departing So long Preaching and conference all the Night long is not to be enforced as a necessary Sabbath-duty the Scriptures no where so enjoyning it and if this objector would assert it so far at least as till the midnight according to his account of an whole day in England from midnight to midnight which I have shewn in this treatise to be no right reckoning but contrary to the word of truth Let him and the other learned man whom I answered but a little before who shuts out the night-part from being any part of the weekly-Sabbath-day let them I say if they can find no better work for their time contend about that matter This Night-part belonging to the after day-part as making up the whole next day after the Sabbath was not observed by Paul as the weekly-Sabbath for you may there Read how some of the Disciples went before to ship and sayled to Assos there intending to take in Paul For so had he appointed minding himself to go afoot And when he met with them at Assos they took him in and came to Mytilene this was no Weekly-Sabbath-work no necessity nor mercy enforcing or warranting them thereunto As for the breaking of Bread whether that expressed in the seventh or the other in the eleventh verse if it were admitted to be used in the Administration and participation of the LORD's Supper yet this objector himself doth affirm that it was often done by Apostles and Disciples on other daies of the week than on that which he so earnestly contends for And whereas he doth assert that no day else but only the First day of the Week was peculiarly appointed for breaking of Bread in that ordinance Whither shall we go for a warrant and proof of this We find no such appointment by our LORD in the Scriptures and the Objector cannot but acknowledg that our LORD Jesus Christ did institute and administer it at the first appointing and dispensing of that New-Testament ordinance of the supper on another day of the Week than the first day For the Objector affirms elsewhere that the passover day in that year was the Weekly-Seventh-day-Sabbath and Paul doth expresly say that it was the same Night in which he was betrayed then it was that he took the Bread and the Cup in this LORDly Supper And this did Paul receive from the LORD and so did deliver it unto that Corinthian-Church of Saints as that word-Rule by which they were to reform their abuses which had crept in amongst them as to that ordinance particularly and according unto which they were exactly to measure all their Administrations If this Objector do urge humane Authorities without Scripture-evidence we shall shew the vanity and weakness the incogency and unconvincingness of that empty Plea after a while Reader exercise thy discerning here Is there any thing in this place that speaks at all of any change of the weekly-Sabbath from the Seventh to the first day of the Week do either the significancy of the words or the intendment of the place or the force of
the context or any necessary unavoidable consequence present any such thing to an impartial unprejudiced understanding which doth report a matter of fact done upon another day not medling with any state of this question about this matter of Right Has the First day of the Week either the name of the Weekly Sabbath or the substance and essence of it Is there any one word of Command found here requiring beleiving Christians to observe the First Day as the Weekly Sabbath Is there any Promise made over to the weekly observers of it As such Is there any threatning denounced here against the not-observers of it As such Is there any mention made of Christs being the Author of it As such Is there any one expression of its being instituted by Christ As such Is there any one word or Phrase against the the Seventh daies being now any longer the Weekly-Sabbath-day Can this Objector satisfie and establish thee upon any firm ground such as is Scriptural by any contrary arguing wherein nothing of all this can befound The plain Historical Narration doth inform us that Paul abode at Troas seven daies in the sixth verse And whether he came to Troas on the First day of the week search may be made Troas standing near the Sea of Hellespont in Asia the less whether Paul came from Philippi that was scituated in Greece which was on the other side of Hellespont or of the Euxine Sea which Sea did lie between Europe and Asia the less Macedonia whence Paul came was a Province in Graecia There at Troas Paul stayed seven daies inclusively in the fifth and six verses of this twentyeth Chapter spending a Seventh-day-Sabbath amongst them and then went away from them the next Week in the Seventh and eleventh verses after the Weekly-Seventh-day-Sabbath The Objector therefore mistaking the day to be the first day of the week whereas It was the weekly Seventh-day-Sabbath all that which he doth wrongly build upon that mistake falleth to the Ground together with that mistake This answer drawn up from the true proper translating of the words one of the Sabbaths I mainly stick to as plain convincing and self Evidencing though I have elsewhere drawn up much more about it We are not hurried away with noise and multitude But that which swayes with us and keeps our hearts in an awesul fear and trembling-joy and believing establishment with sweet satisfaction nourishing delight and great complacency is the Word of the adored Almighties clearly opened well-agreeingly-collated soundly understood and rightly applyed Christ and his word have their Authority with us beyond any man or men whatsoever or any or all of their sayings to the contrary His words do always best express things according to the true Nature of them in their own familiar sense which the Holy Spirit doth give of them in their respective places The same Genuin significancy has this Phrase in that passage to the Corinthians where also it is in true propriety of speech not the first day of the Week but one of the Sabbaths meaning according to the proper significancy of the words phrase and thing either one of the Sabbaths between Passover and Pentecost inclusively as in the former place of which two Feasts he makes express mention in the same Epistle and of one of them in the same Chapter or else one of the Sabbaths of one or other of those Three great Festivals spoken of else where The Feast of Unleaveneds The Feast of Sevennies and the Feast of Booths or leaf-hutts especially at the time of ingathering the yearly Fruits and increase of the Earth at which time they were able by such a revolution of a year to pass a Judgment upon Jehovahs Blessing of them which cannot be so well estimated on every Weekly return for then all the Males that appeared before the Faces of Jehovah were not to appear empty but every man according to the gift of his Hand or according to the Blessing of Jehovah his God which is much the same with the expression in this Epistle which he had given him And this reply has consent and agreement with other Scriptures and with the nature of the Duty of Charitable Relieving and is evident upon the same place It is the confession and acknowledgment of an adversary as was Noted a few leafs before that about the time of the writing of the Books of the New-Testament both the Jews themselves and all the Heathen that took notice of them called all their Feasts and solemn assemblies their Sabbaths Because they did no servile work in them they had the general Nature of the weekly Sabbath in a cessation from Labour It is known and confessed saith he that at that time when Paul wrote to the Church at Colosse which they suppose to be about twenty and nine years after Christs Ascension into Heaven all Iudaical observation of daies or the daies which they religiously observed whether Feasts or Fasts Weekly Monthly or Annual were by themselves and all other called their Sabbaths They were so called by God himself from their Analogy Thus he And this First Epistle to the Corinthians is reckoned by some to be sent unto that Church about two and twenty years after Christs ascension So that to translate the words one of the Sabbaths is the most proper significant Rendring the most pertinent to the drift and Scope and the most Harmonious in consent with the whole Scripture that treats of this matter The believing Corinthians were to lay a way by themselves somewhat of their income proportionable to the LORD 's prospering of them in a way or Journey of their particular Trades Functions and callings Thus gathering some Treasure that they might have in a readiness that which might afford a necessary supply of the poor Saints at Jerusalem that the collection might be in a preparedness against that time when Paul was to call for it and to carry and distribute it to that End Let the Reader here observe that Corinth to the Church in which City Paul did write this Epistle out of one passage of which the Adversary would raise an objection was that city where Paul had been a publick preacher according to all or every Sabbath So that Paul did keep the Seventh-day-Sabbath there in that Particular place constantlyin this City of Achaia A City Scituate near the Sea where he taught the word of God one whole year and six months and that by a special Call and encouragement from the LORD Jesus Christ So far was he from setting up the First day in the room of the Seventh Day as to the weekly-Sabbath that even there he was a diligent Observer of every Seventh-day-Sabbath For so the Holy Spirit himself calls that day the Sabbath Here is therefore no firm bottom in this place objected to ground a transferring of the weekly Sabbath from one day to another which is nothing at all the design of this place as neither is it
Objector doth not confirm his reasoning thus only with respect to the first Day but doth carry it much further on by his asserting that the first Institution of Church Officers and Orders as well as that of the LORD's Day by which he means the first Day was not by Scripture The proof saith he is undeniable because the Old Testament did not contain the Institution e. g. of particular Churches Sacraments Presbyters Deacons Diaconesses and the LORD's Day c. And the New Testament was none of it written till An. 40. at soonest and it was not all written till An. 99. Now it is certain that the Church was not all these years without the Orders now in question nor without a day to meet on for publick Worship even as Baptism and the LORD's Supper were Instituted by Christ himself long before the writing of any part of the New Testament and the Church was in long possession of them upon the bare word and Declaration of the Apostles So he writes That the Church was not all these years without a day to meet on for publick Worship we readily subscribe for they knew the Seventh day Sabbath was the weekly day to meet on for that end of which the Churches had had long possession for near four thousand years and of which they had still the Tenure and for the continuance of which title and practice they had the whole Writen Word of God whereunto the practice of Christ and of his Apostles did fully agree But as for his other exemplified instances we desire both him and the Reader a little to consider If these were received and practised by the Church upon the bare verbal Declaration of the Apostles and not by Scripture what then meant the Types of these Did these signifie nothing Was there nothing of these understood by Moses Aaron the Priests and Levites Did not Moses by the Word and Prayer sanctifie the Baptismal Types of the Red Sea and the Cloud and the Supper-Types of the Paschal Lamb the Heavenly Manna and springing Rock Though there was a veil upon these and such other Figures and Shadows in the reading of the Old Testament yet Believers had some knowledge of their meaning and some insight into their Mystery and there were Teachers by Office who were to interpret the signifyingness of these things and to open the spiritual part of the Pattern Had not these things a Spiritual Relation unto Christ and to an after administration of Grace Was not this the end the drift the design the purport the scope of these Institutions to refer unto Christ They were a Pedagogue a Leader of those Children to the Christian School for their Institution and Discipline There áre divers Scriptures in the Old Testament which did discover unto discerning Believers of that Dispensation that those Types Figures and Shadows were to be done away under an after administration of Grace to receive their perfection and accomplishment in the Messiah who was to be born of a Virgin and in his days Several Prophesies also under that former Ministration do speak punctually to this matter though we who have the New Testament-fulfilling of them and Commentary upon them have a more clear unveiled manifestation of them The Christian Religion for sum and for substance being one and the same under both dispensations particularly as to the institutions mentioned For there is one Baptism in this sense the Baptismal Types of old and the Baptismal Antitypes now are thus one and the same excepting the different manner of Administration So that suppose Baptism was instituted by Christ himself before the writing of any part of the New Testament yet was not this upon the bare verbal Declaration of the Apostles especially not as to that part of the Church which was in Christ's time For John's Baptizing of others particularly of Christ and Christ's Baptizing by his Apostles and Christ's Doctrine which he several times taught about Baptism and John's foretelling of this As John himself also was Prophesied of of old particularly by Isaiah and by Malachi By these and such like passages was this known to such at least knowable by them and somewhat of this had a confirmation and testimony from Heaven As for particular Churches and the calling and gathering of them there were such under the Old Testament times In Adam's days in Epoch's days in Noab's days Though at the first they called upon the Name of Jehovah in a way of family Worship yet afterwards in greater Church-Assemblies and a difference was put between the true and pure Worshipers and those that were corrupt So it was before the Flood and thus also it was after the Flood Melchisedec was a Priest in the Church of Aelohim Abraham had a Church in his Family and was King Priest and Prophet there So was Isaac and Jacob. Job and Eliphaz were of congregated Societies and had their Church-meetings in their days though living in other Regions in Countries distant from Abraham In Moses's time the Israelites were put into a Church way and had such Institutions and Laws and Ordinances for Church-Assemblies and Societies as were afterwards observed not only by the Israelites as a national Church but by particular Churches of the Israelites when after Moses's death they were settled in the promised Land in the days of Joshua Judges and the Kings For the Priests and Levites were not only for all the Tribes joyntly but also for several Tribes distinctly and further for the several Cities and Towns and other populous places in every particular Tribe where they had distinct Assembles injoying all Ordinances Institutions Priviledges excepting what was specially limited to some particular place of Jehovah's chusing and appointing for some solemn Sacrifices and Festivals and they exercised Church-Discipline in those particular Churches Neither was Syria and Mesopotamia in Moses days without their congregated Societies Church convention and worshiping Assemblies Balaam having a gift of Prophesie was an hireling that served Congregations There are particular Congregations both described and prophesied of in what was written afore of old A wise observer and a spiritual discerner and a diligent comparer may easily find and plainly see how Christ's Institutions and Directions for management of Church Affairs and for the Exercise of the Duties of Church fellowship and Discipline have evident reference to his Institutions under the old Dispensation though clearer and more spiritual and glorious and heavenly now and it will be found in experience as it is evident in Scripture that several Church proceedings will not be either so well understood or so regularly practised but by a collating of Old with New Testament directions about those matters particularly for Church-Discipline as in the case of Leprosie especially As for Church-Officers Overseers Presbyters or Elders teaching and ruling Ones Pastors and Teachers Diacons or Ministers under the Old Testament it were no very difficult task to write a large Treatise upon that
Which is a standing unchangeable Rule of Life uniform and always one and the same They were written once and a second time in Tables of Stone by Jehovah Christ which doth shew amongst somewhat else their renewed durableness It was the Writing of Aelohim and the Record of them is to remain for ever So that a due difference must be put between this weekly Seventh-day Sabbath as it is such a standing established Rule of Life in created Nature one of the ten Words and between some Typical Institutions and superadded Rites and Figuring Shadows afterwards annexed to this Sabbath There is a plain evident difference between these two sorts of Laws Let Moses be heard concerning this in what he said to the Israelites Jehovah declared unto you his Covenant which he commanded you to do the ten Words observe these are distinctly expressed and severed from the Figuring Laws and he wrote them upon two Tables of Stone and Jehovah commanded me at that time to teach you Statutes and Iudgements that ye may do them in the Land whither ye are going over to possess it May we not discern here that Moses doth put a clear difference between the Laws of the ten Words which were publickly openly spoken and given by the LORD Christ in his own Royal Person from his Father to all the people and were written with the Finger of his own Spirit between these and those other shadowy Ordinances which were privately spoken to Moses only and by him and by his Ministery brought to the people and written by him These figuring Statutes admitted of a change and yet the Law of the Seventh day Sabbath doth remain unchangeable a perpetual Law And if any think that there is yet further any thing significative annexed to this day by Jehovah's Institution of Christ's second coming and of the heavenly Sabbatism then let that so far when any will clear it up from Scripture stand firm and unmoved till that time If the naturalness and self evidence of the Law of the ten Words were to receive a change because of superadded Institutions fitted to that Dispensation particularly as to Signs then the naturalness and self evidene of every one of them by this kind of arguing were to receive a change Was there not a Law for Fringes by the Institution of Jehovah Aelohim himself throughout the Generations of the Israelites for this end that they might see and remember all his Commandments This outward Rite was a memorative Sign or a religious Sign to help their memories and to further their sanctification To lead them unto a continual remembrance and practice of all the Law of the ten Words Thus also their Phylacteries were for a Sign upon their Hand and for a Memorial between their eyes that Jehovah's Law might be in their Mouth This was a Typical Memorial or Monument Which is the proper meaning of the Original Word By this outward Sign Jehovah Aelohim would have them to apply all their serious study and all their careful practice unto the keeping of all and every of the Laws of the ten Words All the outward Rites of the Ceremonial Laws were Signs typical Figures and significant Shadows instituted of God as Seals and Pledges to assure Believers of Christ and of those good things which his Faithful Obedient Perswadable ones have in and by him A due difference therefore should be put between Signs and Figures Signs and Shadows For although in the general and in common there be somewhat of a Sign in Figures and Shadows yet every Sign is not a Figure and Shadow but has somewhat particularly specially distinct A Figure doth set out and foreshew some Truth Duty Grace or Priviledge which is afterwards more clearly to be revealed though even then to be known believed done acted and injoyed A Shadow doth give some dark resemblance and it is a betokener of a Body which is to come in the place thereof and is in the appointed season to be exhibited whereas a Sign as it doth in some instances point out somewhat which is yet afterward to be looked for so in other cases it doth assure Believers of somewhat that is already gone and performed and in somewhat else it may stand and be joyned together with that which is signified thereby and be of special usefulness at one and the same present time The Ark wherein was nothing but only the ten Words in two Tables and the propitiatory Covering which was over the Ark were Types Figures and Shadows of Christ So that if Ceremonial Annexes should make void the Law of the Seventh-day Sabbath that way of arguing would lay aside and make void all the other Laws of these ten Words Sanctification is either that which was natural and concreated at the first and is now restored to and inwrought in some a spiritual transforming-Sanctification whereby the LORD doth regenerate and renew his People by the Power and Grace of his holy Spirit The Seventh-day Sabbath duely observed and well filled up having a suitable growing knowledge of and obedience to the rest of the revealed Will of God summarily comprehended in the ten Words would be a notifyingtestifying-certifying Sign of this Sanctification as has been shewn Or it is a Ritual Ceremonial Sanctification whereby under the former Dispensation in the use of some outward Rites and Ceremonies some persons and things which had some ways contracted some uncleanness were sanctified or purified which were typical and significative of in ward spiritual transforming Sanctification and of real inwrought Holiness and Purity Of this sort of Signs were their Blood sprinklings their Water-washings and such like Baptism is such a Sign under the new Dispensation Thus the weekly seventh-Seventh-day Sabbath if it be taken under this consideration as it had under the Old Testament Administration divers Ceremonial Laws added unto it both for preparation before and for cleansing in and after in some cases in this respect that which was superadded to it was a Sign of Sanctification to the Israelitish Church beyond any other people unless others came in and embraced the same true Religion and then there was one Law for the Israelite and for the Stranger When the Forreigner or Sojourner did leave the Worship of Idols and other heathenish practices of the Infidel World Thus that people were injoyned some out ward ceremonial Sanctifyings for the reviving of the Law of the ten Words But these Figures and Shadows made no real change upon the fourth Word the Law of the Seventh day Sabbath as neither did they upon any other of the ten Words Or Sanctification is the separating of somewhat from a common use and destinating and setting of it apart for some special singular holy Use Thus in several Scriptures some persons were Sanctified as the Administrators about holy things the Israelitish people which is also applied to the chosen Vessels Sanctification in this sense was applyed to the Tabernacle Temple Altar
Instruments Meats and to other things It is also applyed to the Seventh-day Sabbath which Aelohim did sanctifie for holy Uses and to no other day of the whole week as such at the first Creation according to the Nature of its Essence in the order of its being before those after superadded Ceremonies and Shadows So that in this sense Right Reason would inform all reasonable men and women in the World that the Seventh the last day in every week has a concreated adaptness to be a day of holy Rest for the worship of their Maker and that they themselves should be an holy people separated to the service of the holy God Though his Church and People are thus sanctified and severed from other people by Jehovah in a peculiar especial manner his Elect yet more especially As for the Law of the ten Words if we look upon it in its superadded Ceremonies and some such other intermixed Annexes so it had somewhat peculiarly belonging to the Israelitish Church and people in Moses's time and to those of other Nations who were prosâ—lited to that Ceremonial Typical way under that Administration Whereas we under the New Testament have another manner of Dispensation of the same Grace in a more spiritual heavenly glorious way Although this Typical Figuring part made no real change even of old upon the Law of the ten Words If this be considered as it is an absolute and perfect Rule of Life comprehending all duties whatsoever and being that Image and Samplar unto which all mankind at the beginning in their representative Head were created in Wisdom in Holiness and in Righteousness which was afterwards promulgated and proclaimed by Jehovah Christ with a Covenant of Grace intermingled so it is that Law of Nature which inlightned Intellect or right Reason doth teach some notions whereof are still retained even now in man's fallen corrupted estate There are some Seeds of those Eternal Truths and Things some common principles of good and of evil both for the knowledge of God and of his Service and for those Duties which we owe unto our selves and unto our Neighbours This is born and bred with reasonable man every one doth carry it about with him every one coming into this World is inlightned therewithal which Remnants of this Law do serve for many good uses and purposes in civil converse amongst men and for some other ends In this sense the Law of the ten Words particularly that of the weekly Seventh-day Sabbath is given to the whole World All mankind had it in their common representative the first Adam clearly fully perfectly and have still some Relicks of it left within them by the Law of Nature in the Light of Reason demonstrated by concreated Principles the foundations and grounds of which are knowable by Humane Intellect In this sense the Law of the ten Words particularly that of the weekly Seventh day Sabbath is given to the whole World all mankind had it in their common representative and have still some indwelling Notions of it left within them This Law in some parts of the natural Duties of it may yet by the Institution of Jehovah Aelohim be a sign of some mystical thing signified which doth make any real change in the natural Duty it self this standing still in its due force as before but it may have something further significant in it by the LORD 's special appointment As the State Duty and Priviledge of Marriage in the fifth and seventh Words Instituted in Paradise doth figure the great Mystery of that Mystical Union which is between Christ and his Church People come next to be considered People are sometimes in some Scriptures more especially taken for the Israelites and the Jews These are sometimes in the plural Number called Peoples This People had some peculiar Priviledges beyond other Peoples particularly as to the kingly manner of proclaiming and revealing the Law of the ten Words more in their sight and hearing at Mount Horeb and as to some things afterwards annexed to it which was the Pattern in the Mount Thus Jehovah's holy Sabbath was made known unto the Israelites after another manner than to other Nations Whilst they walked by this Rule of Life they were a wise and prudent people But when they transgressed greatly they were a rebellious people The Israelitish people so constituted as it then was are called The people of God The people of the God of Abraham These had some distinguishing favours in that day People in some other Scriptures are some times taken for all Nations besides Israel and besides those other Lands who were brought over to the true Religion Thus the Uncircumcised Nations strangers from the Covenant of God Indels profane and ungodly they also are called People and the People of the Earth and the abominable People Though these whilst such did not share in choice special Church-Priviledges yet some ways they had the Law of the ten words and amongst others the Law of the weekly Seventh-day Sabbath particularly As this Law of the Decalogue is the natural concreated Law There are divers Records in Humane Authors for those to search after who are curious in such Disquisitions which do evidence that the seventh-Seventh-day Sabbath was generally observed by the Pagans as the weekly Holy Day The remaining Relicks of their Natural Life and Right Reason dictating the equity of this Law which also might be traditioned down to them The Pagan Idolaters so far conforming to the Laws and Practice of the Church of God They acknowledged the seventh-Seventh-day as more holy and owned its Rest from labour And the Ethnick Doctors in this way of teaching would Philosophize only on the seventh-Seventh-day Sabbath Then did they frequent their Temples and then some of them sung their Hymns to their Idol God These Precepts of the Decalogue were the Law of our Creation they are the natural Dictates of the Humane Essence in its rational Exercise ingraft Notions concreated Characters wrought into the essential composition of our natural Being the Sanction whereof has more or less a living impression in the Humane Existence The very order of the Days in the first created Week did teach the observation in the weekly Seventh-day Sabbath and made it a part of the Law of Nature Aelobim's Method in the Creatures Production which did so dispose of his Works and of his Rest hath confirmed this Order in laying its foundation in created Beings And this is a very forcible way of right arguing used by the LORD himself in his Word in divers cases The six forgoing Days of the Week for Work and the seventh the last Day of the Week for Rest These were from the beginning of the Creation Designed they were thus originally appointed by the Creator himself and so laid as a standing Law upon the Rational Creatures The natural equity whereof man's Representative in Adam readily submitted and subjected and conformed to there being both
ground and evidence enough in the things themselves thus made and Light and Reason enough in the Humane Intellect of Rational Beings to discern and to improve this to the very same ends Both these had Primitive concreated self-evidence however sin now have darkned and defaced things The indication of these Duties were at the first true real sufficient Some worn Letters of which original Ingraving are yet still remaining to be read These Laws resulting from the Humane Nature and from that Relation which created Man doth stand in to his creating Maker The Obligation which doth arise from hence must continue as long as the Humane Nature doth continue For it is Essential to our Formation and constitution as we are reasonable men and women and so is unchangeably binding And he that would make any one Law of pure primitive Nature alterable doth thereby though it may be not designedly yet eventually heave at the overturning of all the Laws of Nature This Primigenial Holiness and Righteousness in created Man bearing exact conformity to the holy Righteous Nature of creating Aelobim And Christ's coming was not to dissolve any one Law of the Decalogue or any thing of the Obligation to any Law therein but to maintain these Laws and their obliging All mankind brought under convincing demonstrations from distinguishing taste of the difference of good and of evil should acknowledge all and every of those holy just and good Laws to have a clear congruity to their Natures Who of all mankind that has the due exercise of rational abilities but must acknowledge that we ought to love the LORD our God with all our heart and with all our soul and with all our mind and to love our neighbour as our selves On which two Commandments hang all the Laws and the Prophets For which we have the Authority of the LORD Jesus Christ himself He being the Law-giver and Law-Interpreter too Further yet People in some Scriptures are the Elect and Believers Whether of Jews or of Gentiles Who are also absolutely called People The Nations which shall be converted to the Faith of the Gospel renouncing Antichrist and his corrupt principles and practices are some of this people These both under the Old and New Testament Administration had this Law of the ten Words written not only in the Scripture Revelation but also on the two Tables of the Mind and Heart by the holy Spirit Thus is the Law of the ten Words specially and distinguishingly given to new Creatures and thus it will be renewed in the purer Churches in the later Days In this sense the Rule and Direction for renewed Holiness and for the Works and Duties of Grace and of Sanctification is called The new Law or Commandment the same with the Old only renewed Next of Ceremonials These are sometimes called The Law of Degrees placed in external Rites and by some such other Expressions These Rites were used about outward fleshie things such as Meats Drinks Washings and the like These so far as they were Typical Figuring and Representative of a Christ who was then to come to be born of a Virgin and to shed his blood were perfected and accomplished in Christ when he was so born and had so suffered was risen and had ascended And they did peculiarly belong to the People under the former dispensation Of this nature were some Ceremonies annexed to the weekly-seventh-Weekly-seventh-day Sabbath By these holy rites the Church and People of God under that administration were differenced and discerned as a People holy to God distinct from other prophane Nations An Old Testament Ceremonie is set out in Scripture by Flesh a carnal Ordinance an hand-writing of death an Element of the World weak and egene an Exemplar of Heavenly things unstable An Intolerable Yoak A shadow and such like Which are not properly applicable to the seventh-day-Seventh-day-Sabbath as such If any say it is an Exemplar of the Sabbatism in Heaven and so a Ceremonious Type Let then the Type stand as I have said till we can come at the Antitype Ceremonies sometimes do set out the inward spiritual things Graces Duties Priviledges which they did signify and teach A Ceremonie has been and is a Sign of somewhat that is natural and so they have been annexed to natural Spiritual Duties As Evening and Morning worshipping of God had divers Ceremonial Observances So the Weekly-Seventh-day-Sabbath Thus for Parents to give up themselves their Sons and Daughters to God is a natural dutie Yet this duty has Baptism even now under the new Testament-Ministration annexed to it Those things which are still of a concreated Spiritual Nature Were are and will be a duty The Epistle to the Hebrews is a Gospel-Exposition hereupon Though Multitudes of these Ceremonies were superadded to the Law of the ten Words as an Evangelical Explanation and Interpretation of them yet this doth not alter the true real nature of any of these ten words which are always a standing unalterable Rule of holy Righteous living As for the giving of this Law of the Ten words If this Law be considered As promulgated and proclaimed at Mount Sinai by Jehovah Aelohim thus there was somewhat in it which was a peculiar gift to the Israelitish Church and those who were proselyted to it beyond any other People As for the time when he brought them out of Egyptian bondage so for the place the Desert Jehovah gave them this in their Wildernesses condition At Mount Horeb or Mount Sinai in an Enemies Land that of the Amorites and of the Moabites Thus also For the persons They were those of that age who were then alive at that place who understood the Hebrew to whom He gave this Law So for the subservient Administrator by whose hand Jehovah Christ gave this Law to them Who was Moses there was Moses's a Ministery used in it Hence it is called the Law of Moses Moses wrote this Law in a Book Also for the manner of proclaiming With Trumpet Thunder Fire Audible Immediate voice of Aebolim himself and such like And thus too for the solemn imbodying of an whole nation into a Church-state These and some such other like were the peculiar Circumstances of that Promulgation in that day Yet is the Law still the same now The LORD Jesus Christ doth speak unto us even now in this Law of the ten Words What God did speak unto Moses He spake unto others in the days of Christs flesh when born of the Virgin Mary which was hundreds of Years after And these ten Words were written unto us If this Law be considered as the Law of nature so it was given to all mankind in Representative Adam As I have declared If it be looked on as Inwritten in the mind and Heart of the Regenerate by the Holy Spirit Thus it is peculiarly given to new Creatures As also I have manifested Thus I have laboured to clear and to
of this holy Law of the ten Words particularly to be breakers of that Law of the seventh-Seventh-day Sabbath so that these Laws were well known to the Church and people of God by a long continued handing of them down by Posterity from Age to Age though practical Anomy or lawlessness had too much crept in and corrupted them of that Generation who neglected and broke them especially whilst bond-slaves in Egypt Afterwards when this Law was proclaimed and commanded at Mount Horeb where was a great mixture a miscellaneous multitude of Israelites and Gentiles who were present at that Mount and the stranger is expresly named in the very Letter of the Fourth Word or Command so that he also was under the obligation to yield obedience unto the Law of the Seventh day Sabbath The mind of man having by sin covered over with thick darkness ignorance errour and long diâ—use evil inclinations to Vice having much depraved and blinded the Understanding The LORD in words of his own mouth proclaimed this Law that it might be a manifest Testimony to mankind that natural Notions and Novelties of the Law concerning the difference between Good and Evil Duty and Sin were divinely ingrafted into the Nature of Mankind and were consentaneous unto this Eternal Rule of Holiness and of Righteousness which is in Aelohim He instaurs and restores the intire knowledge of his Will in his Law by this solemn promulgation that those old Letters of it which were much worn and defaced in the decayed Monuments of corrupt hearts might be more deeply ingraven and more plainly read again that what men had observed he by his own speaking Voice and writing Finger might rightly explain thus interposing his own Royal Authority to beget an inward testimony in their own consciences for the justness and equity of his holy righteous Law that all Mankind might be convinced of their sin and misery and might thereby be awakened to make out after a remedy otherwise they would be left altogether without excuse Upon the second of the Trumpets at Mount Sinai all Mankind was bound to make diligent inquiry after that which the LORD who is the King of Nations there spake so that they are all under his Law and are all bound thereunto being all concerned to take notice of the promulgation thereof by Royal Proclamation though more especially given forth at that place of Sinai It is not unworthy of serious consideration what a tonourous loud voice that was which not only all the Israelites did hear who yet were about six hundred thousand men a multitude that took up a great space of ground when Aelohim spake all the Words of the Decalogue This voice was also accompanied with a sound of Trumpets so exceeding loud as that the Lord could make all Mankind then alive to hear it such a sound shall go forth in the last day Besides all this what tempests were there at that solemnity what smoke what fire yea what thunderings and what an Earth-quake Such as might shake all the Inhabitants of the Earth at once and make them take notice of it For not only did Mount Sinai or Horeb quake greatly but that expression of Mount Sinai also doth shew that other parts of the Earth were shaken too The Earth was then shaken as the Earth shall be shaken at Christ's coming in the later days when all Nations shall be shaken or moved or made to tremble all and every one of them so shaken as the Heavens then will all of them at once All the Earth is bid to rejoyce at Jehovah's reigning which is described by his solemn giving of the Law which the Church is to rejoyce at and this is applyed unto Christ all the inhabited World was then enlightned all the Earth saw and trembled he then and their declared himself to be LORD of the whole Earth in giving forth this Kingly Law Thus this glorious Law-giver himself descended from Heaven with a shout his Charriot being twice ten thousand thousands of Angels the LORD being with them at Sinai in the Sanctuary and when he ascended to on high he led captive a Captivity he had taken Gifts unto Adam observe so is the Original word or in Adam which Paul doth explain to be men all Adam's posterity particularly from that time and also the rebellious to dwell with that God This Law universally concerneth all for in Christ all are one and whoever they were of the Heathen Nations that came into the Church of God in that day and were obedient unto all the Laws of Jehovah they had a part with Israel in all the holy things of God the Strangers themselves were under a Promise of having an allotted Inheritance in the Holy Land together with the Tribes of Israel There were the same privileges to the Obedient to the Stranger as to the Home-born The same judgments executed upon Transgressors of the Law of the Ten Words were he the one or the other All Nations under Heaven heard report of Israel and of the LORD 's appearing for them and giving them his holy Law Let the Reader further observe how it was afterwards when Solomon built the Temple at his dedicating of it he put the Stranger into his Prayer as well as the Israelite And this wise just Judge especially whilst his heart was right with the LORD judged according to this Law of the ten Words and the judicials annexed thereunto Solomon had his Dominion from Sea to Sea and from the River unto the ends of the Land they that dwelt in dry places kneeled before him and his Enemies licked the dust The Kings of Tharshish and of the Isles rendred an oblation the Kings of Sheba and Seba offered a present and all Kings bowed down to him all Nations served him he reigned over all Kingdoms who were someways under his subjection being herein a Type of Christ so that Solomon was a kind of Universal Monarch upon Earth ruling and governing by Jehovah's Laws Consider what the Office and Work of the Prophets was after Solomon's time even to preach Commentaries and Sermons upon this Law of the ten Words directing transgressors unto the Messiah to procure pardon and reconciliation And these Prophets especially some of them had not only the Israel of God put into their Embasse and Commission but also the Gentile Nations and Kingdoms and People let Jeremiah be one eminent instance of this when the LORD did set over the Nations and other the Kingdom according unto that Word which he brought or sent to them from Jehovah and according as they yielded obedience or not unto this Law of Jehovah so they were either built and planted or plucked up and broken down spoiled and destroyed All those Nations unto whom Jehovah sent Jeremiah with a word of Prophety were many not Jerusalem and Judah the Kings thereof the Princes thereof but also Pharaoh King of Egypt and his Servants and his Princes and
26. 39. Mar. 14. 36. Luke 22. 42. Heb. 10. 9. m Mat. 20. 23. n John 3. 32. 34. 4. 34. 5. 19 30 36 37 43. o John 6. 38. p John 7. 16 17 18 28. q John 8 28 29 38 42. r John 12. 49 50. s John 14. 10. 24. t John 15. 10. 15. u John 17. 2 4 6 8 14. 1 Cor. 15. 24. w John 16. 13. x Exod. 4. 15. y Exod 6 29. z Heb. 3. 2. a Jerem. 1. 9. 5. 14. b Exod. 16. 29. Ezek. 20. 12. c Exod. 31. 13 14 15 16 17. Ezek. 20. 12. 20. d Deut. 5. 12-15 e Levit. 26. 2. c. also Numb 28. 2. 9 10. f Isai 56. 1 -8 g Isai 58. 13. 13. 14. h Isai 66. 23. i Ierem. 17. 21 22 24 25. 26. k Ezek. 20. 11. 12 13 19 20 21 41. l Psal 92. title compared with the rest m Mar. 2. 27. Mat. 24. 20. n Exod. 16. 23 -35 o Comparae Josh 5. 12. p Exod 20. 9 10. Deut 5. 13 14. q Exod. 31. 14 15. r Exod. 35. 2. s Levit. 26. 2 14 15 16. c. t Numb 15. 30 -36 u Exod. 31. 14 15. 35 2. w Jerem. 17. 19 20 21 22 23 27. x Ezek. 20. 10 -21 y Ezek. 22 26. 31. z Amos. 8. 4-14 a Nehem. 13. 15-22 b 2. King 25. Mat. 24. 20. Act. 13. 44 -48 c Gen. 1. 26 27. Eccles 7. 29. Ephes 4. 24. Colos 3. 10. Rom. 2. 14 15 26 27. 3. 29. d Gen. 8. 22. Jerem. 31. 35 36. 33. 20 25. e 1 Cor. 11. 14. Romeâ— 20. f Heb. 4. 10. Revel 14. 13. g Exod. 23. 12. h Mognadim contracted Mognadei compare Gen. 1. 14. and Psal 104. 19. Levit. 23. 2 3. and Numb 28. 2. 9 10 Psa 136. 7 8 9. i 2 Pet. 1. 3 4. k Galat. 4. 8. l Jam. 3. 7. m Rom. 2. 27. n Rom. 11. 24. o Rom. 1 26 27. Rom. 11. 24. p Rom. 2. 14. 1 Cor. 11. 14. q Psal 51. 10. 2 Cor. 5. 17. Eph. 2. 10. 4. 24. Gal. 6. 15. Isa 41. 20. 57. 19. Ps 148. 5 6. Ezek. 28. 13. 15. Isai 4. 5. 48. 7. Jer. 31. 22. Psa 102. 18. Eph. 3. 9. Isa 65. 18. Psa 100. 3. 149. 2. Isa 27. 11. 43. 1. 7 15 21. and 44. 2 21 24. 45. 11. 51. 13. 54. 5. Eph. 2. 15. Isai 65. 17. 66. 22. 2 Per. 3. 13. Rev. 21. 1 2. Prov. 16. 4. Rom. 11. 36. 1 Cor. 8. 6. Heb. 2. 10. Rev. 4. 11. Cor. 1. 16. 1 Tim. 4. 3. 1 Cor. 3. 22. Hos 2. 18 21 22. r Deut. 32. 4. s Gen. 28. and 2. 16 19. Psa 8 6. Heb. 7 8. t Dan. 7. 25. 1 Kin. 12. 32 33. u Numb 28. 9 10. w Gen. 2. 2 3. Exod. 5. 13 19. Lev. 23. 37. 1 King 8. 59. Ezek. 24. 2. x See the Author of Cosmical Suspicions pag. 19 20. y Hâ—b 4. 3 4. z Act. 15. 13 21. A Commentator of note with many of the learned doth cite diverse passages out of Ecclesiastical History whereby to prove that the Seventh-day-Sabbath as well as the first day of the week was observed as Festival Christianâ—â—um mos velus saith he qui diuâ—issime mansit in Oriente convenire non minus Sabbati quam Dominicis dielus observe diuâ—issime Clemens constitutionum 7. 24. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Paria habet 8. 33 67. Asterius Amascae Episcopus in Homilia de repudio 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vocat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gregorius Nyssenus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Balsamo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ideo Constantinus Christianos non minus in sabbatum quam in diem Dominicum vadari vetuit tesle Eusclio Hinc etiam ortum illud ut sicut diebus Dominicis tanquam â—etitiae diebus non jejunabatur sient docet Gangrensis Synodus canone 18. ita nec Sabbatis excepto uno ante Pascha Sic 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 interpretatur Zâ—naras ad canonem Apostolicum 53. Ignatius ad philippenses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sabbatum nunquam nist in Pascha jâ—junandum ait Tertullianus de jejuniis qui adversus Marcionem 4. Privilegium donatum sabbato a Primordio mundi dicit veniam jejunii Qâ—are 〈◊〉 Justinus Tertullianus Patres illos anteâ— Mosen negent sabbatizasse id intelligendum non de conventitus sed de rigido per totum diem otio Thus he and more upon this place Who so is both at leisure and willing to read more about this may see his Explication of the Decalogue at the end of his Annotations on the Books of the Gospel pag. 40 41. a That Act April 6. vulgarly so called 165â— for the better observation of the Lords-day as they wrong Name the First day was given out on the day of the Sabbath meaning the Seventh-day * An. 1. Car. 1. Cap. 1. An. 3. Cap. 1. An. 5 6. Fav 6. Cap. 3. p. 133. b Act 12. 4. is mis-translated It should be Passover for Easter There is this passage in a Querie of King Charles the First concerning Easter propounded to the Parliaments Commissioners at Holmby April 23. 1647. I conceive saith he the celebration of this Feast of Easter was instituted by the same authority which changed the Jewish Sabbath into the Lords day or Sunday For it will not be found in Scripture where Saturday is discharged to be kept or turned into the Sunday Wherefore it must be the Churches authority that changed the one and instituted the other Therefore my opinion is that those who will not keep this Feast may as well return to the observation of Saturday and refuse the weekly Sunday When any body can shew me that herein I am in an error I shall not be a shamed to confess and amend it till when you know my mind C. R. Hesychius calls the first day of the Week another Sabbath-day So in the Council of Friuli the first day is called Sabbatum primum as the Seventh day is Sabbatum ultimum Concil Foro juliense cap. 13. So Ambrose in Psal 37. So Scaliger of the Aethiopian Christians they call both of them the Seventh day and the First day by the name of Sabbaths Thus Doctor Vsher in his Letter to Dr. Twiss published by Dr. Bernard page 88 89. c Rust-dagh in Belgic or Low-Dutch d In his Travels fol. 173. and Purchas's Pilgrims 2d part fol. 1176 1177. c. Matt. 5. 17 18 19. To a Joâ— and Chirek f Gen. 2 〈◊〉 3 g 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the pronoun 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he or from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 behold h 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 k Gen. 1. 5 8 13 19 23 31. and 2. 2 3. l 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gen. 47. 23. Ezek. 16. 43. m 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 n 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 See Avenarius ' s Hebrew Grammar p. 23. Junius Bythner Mayr and
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ΣΑΒΒΑΤΙΚΗ ΗΜΕΡΑ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Septima dies Dies Desiderabilis SABBATUM JEHOVAE The Seventh-Day-Sabbath the Desirable-Day The closing completing DAY of that FIRST Created Week WHICH Was is and will be the just Measure of all succeeding Weeks in their successive Courses BOTH For Working in the six foregoing DAYS and for Rest in the Seventh which is the Last Day by an unchangeable LAW of well-established Order Both in the REVEALED WORD AND IN CREATED NATURE The SECOND PART By FRANCIS BAMPFIELD Printed in the Year 1677. THE SUMMARY CONTENTS OF THE Second Part OF THIS TREATISE ATransition from the First to the Second Part Page 1 2 3 Of the Seventh-Day p. 3 4 Q. Whether the seventh-Seventh-day which is the last Day in every Week in the weekly Revolutions and orderly Returns thereof have been from the Beginning and so continued to be all the Old Testament-administration of Grace thorow and be so under the New Testament dispensation of Grace all along to this Age of the Church and will be so to the End of the World the weekly Sabbath day 4 The Answer at large given to this Inquiry is in the Affirmative that it is so from 4 to 149 Vnder this Answer are divers particular useful Truths and Duties opened As that the Seventh-day was Created for to be the weekly Sabbath the last day of the week being that Seventh and no other day of the week so Thus it was in the Primitive Creation 4 5 6 7 Which matter is resolved into a Scripture Determination 4 5 6 7 That all the Reasons which Jehovah Aelohim doth give for the due Observation of a weekly Sabbath do belong to to the Seventh which is the last day in every week and to no other day of the week as such 7 8 9 10 That Aelohim rested from his Works of the foregoing six days of the week on the Seventh day as the weekly Sabbath-day Which Seventh day Sabbath righteousness in Christ is that Righteousness which a Believer is to apply himself to cover his Sabbath-unrighteousness 7 8 That Aelohim Blessed the Seventh which is the last day in the week that and that only and no other day of the week as the weekly Sabbath day 8 9 That Aelohim sanctified the Seventh which is the last day in the week that and that only and no other day of the week as the weekly Sabbath-day 9 10 That all the Scriptures thorow where the Holy Spirit doth speak of a weekly Sabbath-day there the name and thing of a weekly Sabbath is given only to the Seventh which is the last day in the week in the weekly Revolutions and successive Courses of it and to no other day of the week as a weekly Sabbath-day Page 10 11 That no Command is given for the observation of any other day in the week as the weekly Sabbath-day but only of the Seventh which is the last day in the week in the weekly returns of it 11 to 15 Where is also further discovered that pretended unwritten Institutions for a First-day weekly Sabbath are a false deceitful wrong cooked rule which we may neither measure nor walk by 12 13 That Christ as Mediator had it not in Commission from his Father to change the weekly Sabbath-day from the Seventh to the First 13 14 15 That there is no Promise made to the observing of any other day in the week as the weekly Sabbath-day but only of the Seventh-day which is the last day in the week in the weekly returns of it 15 16 That there is no threatning all the Scriptures thorow either denounced against or executed upon any that shall not observe any other day in the week as a weekly Sabbath-day but only against and upon such as will not observe the Seventh-day which is the last day in every week 16 to 19 That Aelohim bath put this weekly Seventh-day Sabbath into Created Nature by a standing unchangeable Law 19 20 21 22 Here is declared what is meant by Nature in Scripture 20 21 22 Where also seeing it is called for by some as an argument to men is disoovered That this particular Seventh-day which we now count to be the last day of the week is the Seventh-day by the Judgement and Tradition of such Historical Records as many are so fond of although we do bottom our judgment and practice upon Scripture Revelation and created Nature 22 23 24 25 Objections against this Seventh-day Sabbath are answered from 25 to 147 Here is proved that it was not a seventh part of weekly time or a seventh day But the Seventh-day the last day in every week this and this only is the weekly Sabbath-day having a special honour put upon it by Aelohim himself by notes of Demonstration by particles by pronouns by praepositions all significant in their places to point out the Seventh-day to be the only certain known determinate fixed particular unchangeable day of the weekly Sabbath where the emphatickness of the Hebrew Ha is asserted 25 to 33 It is further evidenced that what is in the English Transsation in seven places of the New Testament the first day of the week is in every one of them in the Greek one of the Sabbaths in propriety of speech and so its colourable pretence for a First day weekly Sabbath is convincingly reprehended as Scriptureless from 33 to 45 That five of these seven places mentioned in the four Evangelists relate to the Paschal Sabbaths and not to the weekly Sabbath 33 to 41 That Believers in the times of Christ and of his Apostles before the New Testament was written could find nothing in all their Scriptures of the Old Testament for a pretended First day Sabbath 32 33 That in one place where it is The first of the Sabbath this speaks nothing to any change of the weekly Sabbath from the Seventh to the First day but has a quite another meaning both in the significancy and in the intendment of that phrase 35 36. 37 38 That the weekly Sabbath under the New Testament is not barely or no more than an half-holy-day between Sun rising and Sun set but that it is an whole Seventh-day from Evening to Evening 38 That Christ's Redemption Work as well as his Creation Work has established the Seventh-day to be still the weekly Sabbath day 39 40 That Acts 20. 7. is no firm ground to bottom the pretended First day Sabbath upon 41 42 43 Neither is 1 Cor. 16. 2. 43 44 That the eleven Disciples did not meet on Christs Resurrection Day as a newweekly Sabbath day in memory of that Rising 45 That the weekly Sabbath under the new Dispensation is not left so much in the dark and deep as some pretend but is clearly the Seventh-day in the plain Precept as of old 46 47 That the true stating of the Matter of right in this Question about the weekly Sabbath doth not depend upon Ecclesiastical History Page 47 to p. 62 That mens cause of
Christ is the great Exemplary Pattern for his Disciples to imitate and to follow he rested on that Seventh-day and therefore his people must also rest on the same seventh-day Thus he himself doth argue He was the First-seventh-day-Sabbath-Observer and under all the several Administrations of Grace He called upon his People to do the same In the days of his flesh here on earth after he was born of the Virgin Mary he through the Weeks of his life yielded Obedience unto this Command by keeping the Seventh-day as the weekly Sabbath-day and no other day in the weekly return as such And this was and is a part of that perfect Righteousness which every sound believer doth apply to himself as his Plea of Justification in the sight of God for his Sin of Sabbath-breaking and every such believer is to conform in Sanctification to Christ in all the Acts of Christs Obedience to this Law of the ten words He as his Custom was went into the Synagogue on the Sabbath-day and stood up for to read He taught the people such as would give him the hearing on the Sabbath-days And whither shall we go to get our selves cloathed with Sabbath Righteousness but unto him putting on this Lord Jesus and making this Jehovah to be our Righteousness How can there be such an apt proper distinct suitable Sabbath-Righteousness from Christ applyed to the Soul but by those who make out after that weekly seventh-day-Sabbath-Righteousness which was in its perfection in Christ Those that observe any other day of the week as the weekly Sabbath cannot so directly go to Christ for such a days Righteousness not particularly for the First-days Righteousness as to a Sabbath which First day Christ all his life through never observed as the weekly Sabbath He has left us an example a Pattern a Copy such as Writing Masters do leave to their Scholars that we should follow his steps He that saith he abideth in Christ ought himself also to walk even as he walked Because as he is so are we in this World if we keep to his Rule and Example for the Scripture speaks of things as they ought to be taking it for granted that they be so and they are so so far forth as Believers do act regularly like themselves as doth become them According to this Pattern we have Paul practising after Christs Ascension into Heaven on every Sabbath-day it was his Custom and Usage his constant Practice the same Expression that sets out Christs continued weekly observing of the Seventh-day-Sabbath that it was usual to him is affirmed also of that eminent Servant of his That it was also usual to this Paul O that the same might be truly testified of more in our Day of Leaders and of their People that Christ might hold such forth before others and say Here are they that keep the Commandments of God and the Faith of Jesus The Holy Seed of Christ and of his Church are such as keep these Commands of God and have the Testimony of Jesus Christ O the happy Progresses O the blessed goings on with a strait foot of such as do his Commandments A Second Reason of his affixing to this Holy Law of the weekly Seventh-day-Sabbath who is Wisdom essential Wisedoms All Wisdoms in one is this For that Aelohim blessed the Seventh which is the last day in the week that and that only and no other day of the week as the weekly-Sabbath-day Thus it was from the beginning and thus it is and will be to hidden ages of hidden ages The blessing is its peculiar Portion and what is Man that he will take away this Heritage of Blessing from the Seventh-day to endeavour to settle it on any other day on the first day particularly where the LORD himself never so gave and secured it The Seventh-day the Seventh-day Aelohim blessed the Seventh-day he hath blessed it he doth bless it and he will bless it and it shall be blessed O blessed day which Jehovah himself hath blessed so blessed This blessing was afterwards renewed revived solemnly openly declared at Mount Sinai and affix'd to the seventh-day Six days thou shalt labour but the seventh-day is the Sabbath In it thou shalt not do any work For six days Jehovah made Heaven and Earth the Sea and all that in them is and rested the seventh-day Wherefore Jehovah blessed that day that Sabbath the blessing is gone forth for this Seventh-day-Sabbath irreversibly from the Mouth of Jehovah Mashiach himself It has his Applaud and approve for its due estimation and deserved renown its noble majestickness and Royal imperialness How many are the Prerogatives and Priviledges which he hath Conferred upon it Christ is the Seventh-daies-benedictor and benefactor This is the day which he hath Dedicated to the Instituted worship and service of Jehovah Aelohim A day greatly to be desired and delighted in by his Children Friends and Servants as a day of holy rest and of Heavenly joy A day of sweet converse between him and his Saints A day that calleth upon them for a singingshouting-triumphing-rejoycing-frame and therefore there is a peculiar Psalm fitted for this purpose to this end Thus is the Crown of special Benediction put upon the head of the Seventh-day and no other foregoing day of the Week is to share with it in this princely honour Isaiah that evangelical Prophecier and Preacher has from Jehovah Pronounced those Blessed even to admiration O the happy Progresses O the happy goings on of such that do keep this Sabbath and not prophane it They shall enjoy many a covenant-favour O how choice Spiritual blessings are there that do visit the Hearts of Holy observers of this Seventh-day-Sabbath under the New-Testament Administration O what a Blessed day did Christ make it to be unto some whose sick bodies he healed whose sinful Souls he pardoned whose sadned Spirits he comforted unto whom his Gracious words were converting and Restoring teaching and enlightning quickning and strengthning whom he met in Sabbath ordinances and gave them the Blessing of this separated day and how many a Soul had cause to bless the LORD for ever who so prospered Pauls labours on the Seventh-day-Sabbath for blessing for good to them Christ taught daily in the Temple and Paul was often in the Synagogues on the foregoing daies of the Week and much good was done thereby but the whole Scripture doth take peculiar notice of this That the Seventh-day as the Weekly Sabbath-day carried away the Sabbath-blessings which no other day in the week did though the LORD do bless his People every day yet not with Sabbath-blessings but only on the seventh-day Aelohim gave a Special Blessing an appropriated Blessing to this day above all the other daies So true and good is that saying of Christ still That this Sabbath was made for Adam for Man for a blessing to him every way for his cheifest and choicest good It was Christs counsel to
several of the Ecclesiastical Historians have been examined by me upon this subject matter and I have some Collections by me about it enough to shew how little credit is to be given unto those kind of Authorities which are so fallible and sometimes so self-contradicting and so altogether unsatisfying when the matter of Right comes to be Inquired after and determined any further than they do speak the mind of Christ in his word For either in these Cases of Conscience they write and speak according to the word or not If they do let these Scriptures be particularly pointed to with which they accord If not they are not to be received or followed Yet in regard that my design is to bring all to the Scriptures of truth referring this and all else under Aelohim to their Judgment I shall therefore now debate the Principle with this objector So much of matters of fact as do relate to matters of right and as are necessary for us to believe in order unto Salvation is Recorded in the word of truth Whereunto the whole Scripture is profitable which is enough for us if no more were written by me concerning this particular question in hand For that Scripture referred to is proper and pertinent to this purpose about Christ and his Resurrection and his appearing to his Disciples and his Blessing of them and conference with them as is plain in the foregoing part of the same Chapter and other Scriptures collated and compared with this do evidently speak it But we have yet much more to say about this To assert the perfection of the Scriptures is one of the great truths of the present Age The forces of Earth and of Hell are now joyning together and putting forth their strength to assault and to attempt the overthrow of this useful Doctrine As it was in the daies of Christs Flesh when he was familiarly Conversant here on Earth the Roman Power the Grecian Wisdom the Jewish Traditions Ethnick Philosophers and Diabolical possessions all the humane and devilish Force and Art and invention was called together to War against Christ and against his word So in the latter daies the Worldly might Old and New Philosophy Institutions and Impositions Histories and Traditions Inventions and Authorities of men unwritten pretended necessary verities Generall Councils sayings of those whom they call Fathers Articles of Faith composed by men Confessions and practise of Protestant Reformed Churches the judgment and practice of Learned and Godly men these and such like Extra-scriptural places are the swaying Authority with many whereby Antichristianism and Antiscripturalism in a many of particulars are still held up and maintained against the LORD and against his word who in this Providential day is pouring contempt upon all Flesh upon men and upon their sayings bringing a Blast upon them so far as they are contrary to sound Doctrine and do oppose the mind of Christs Revealed in the written word and is putting a Crown on Christ and an Honour upon his word the Testimony of men may be and often is in Fact Erring and Fallible uncertain and lying self-contradicting and unsatisfying Into which therefore the Christian Doctrine Faith and Religion is not to be resolved either in whole or in part For the word of Jehovah is like himself who is the Author of it of invaluable veracity and of unchangeable truthfulness He truth it self and his word The Truth He a God that is true and that cannot lye and his word That which is truly purely such the word of truth His Law is the truth The asserters of the Seventh day to be the Weekly Sabbath for which we have the whole Scripture are charged with Errour because we will not be resolved by humane Authorities to own the First day in the Room of it Whereas if men do err greatly err it is therefore because they know not the Scriptures nor the Power of God put forth in a word-way To assign somewhat else for a cause of this which is not a cause is a by-way of paralogizing-deception of sophistical-arguing and of Fallacious disputing The LORD Jesus Christ doth not in his word and where else as from him shall we look for it assign this as a cause of mans erring that they do not know the magistral dictates of humane Rabbies It is the proud Arrogance of the Antichristian usurper to impose his own placits upon the Churches as if he were imperial Dictator to mens Souls and vniversal Monarch over their Consciences Neither is their Erring from hence that they know not the Antient Records of uncanonicall Church Histories which do sometimes write Contrary to themselves and to one another as those do understand who have been faithfull diligent comparers and collectors of such passages and this both in matters of Fact and in matters of Right and this Objector himself doth confess he Judgeth that some of the writings of these Antients are spurious and corrupt And how few are there of those to whom the Gospel is preached and upon whose Hearts that word of Grace and of Truth doth take most saving holds to which word the LORD himself doth bear witness are versed and read in this kind of Ecclesiastical History And which way shall they be ascertained that it has been all of it read over by others by their Guides and teachers particularly or that the report is faithfully brought to them or if that were whether they ought to be swayed by it Were Church-Histories unerringly inspired Who is so bold as downright to assert this Or if any were so daring how can he prove it Who of our plain Converted People had humane Histories in his thoughts when he was thorowly Regenerated and gratiously visited from Christ and from the Father of Christ by the Spirit of Christ in the word of Christ What a kind of Faith is that which doth ultimate it self into humane Church Histories He that would have judged of the state and Case of Jehovah's Church and people in the daies of Ezra by making search in the book of those Ecclesiastical Records and have judged according to what was Historifyed there would have brought in an hard Charge of Rebellion and of Sedition against them and have been ready to have irritated the powers that were over them against them as their Adversaries did Neither do men therefore err because they know not the Tradition of the Elders which has long obtained by common Custom and by little Controlled usage so as to plead prescription unscriptural Customes and Tradition is a part of that Redemption which our LORD has wrought out for his People And it is a choice Mercy to be throughly delivered from them For in the event and effect they would un LORD Christ and the word of Christ of his and of its due Autority For which he condemned those Scribes and Pharisees of his daies who would have obtruded these upon him and upon his Disciples but he confutes them by his
preaching the Gospel to the Gentiles as if this had scarce been their duty though it were expresly put into their Commission from the mouth of Christ Till Peter was righter informed by a Vision from Heaven The written word of Christ has an Authority above and beyond the Authority and Testimony of the most eminent Apostles or Angels of Heaven If a Paul had brought his own word contrary to Christs word what were Pauls saying It must be rejected and in that the hearers were to carry themselves towards Paul as if he had been an excommunicate If a Prophet bring a word contradictory to the word of the LORD he should not be hearkened unto If an Angel from Heaven speak otherwise than the God of Angels and would teach disobedience against the word of Jehovah Fellowship should not be kept up with him It is one erroneous part of Antichristianism to set up the Testimony of men or the Authority of the Church in the seat of Christ and of his written word The The Antichrist is the Anomous one the Lawless one the Antinomian And Anomy or Lawlesness or Antinomianism is the great comprehensive sin of the Latter daies And they are Lawless ones that are the erring seducing ones Men as to their Church state have their foundation and bottom their existence and life under a God in Christ from the written word of Christ whereas these Scriptures of Truth have not their groundwork and being from any meer man or men Church or Churches A Church is made up of Believers as the prefaces of the Epistles to the Churches do shew and Believers must have a word to sound and to live upon All true doctrines are to be fetched hence and to be grounded and proved here The Conventions of Pagans and the Synagogues of Sutan are not owned as Churches of Christ because they are not according to Christ and the word of Christ Men though passing into never-so-noted-a-Church-way yet may actually be in process of time so Obstinate in Heresies so Idolatrous in Worship and so scandalous in profaneness as to cease to be a true-Scripture-Church and must be separated from The Christian Church at Rome in Pauls time has another manner of Character given of it in his Epistle to them than the Satanical Synagogue at Rome has by John in the Revelation who saw in a Vision the foul Apostasie thereof Separation in such Cases is holy and a duty The holy Scriptures of Truth do not give a Sovereign Authority to the Testimony of men they did not send us to humane Witness to Church History to unwritten Tradition to fetch Credibility to it It is the Glorious excellency of this Word of Christ to be the one and the only rule of Judging in all Cases both here now and at the Last Judgment day Which no Testimony of men is honoured withal The whole Scripture is God-inspired whose Testimony is the greatest and the most Credible so are not the after-humane-Testimonies Traditions Histories and Authorities The Books of Genesis Exodus Leviticus Numbers Deuteronomy as commonly now called are more Antient than all other written printed bookes The true pure Word of God is of greatest Authority mens Writings are a Postscript The Grace of sound and of Saving Faith must have Almighty Power Infallible truthfulness unchangeable faithfulness and infinite Wisdom to bottom and to build firmly upon A Believers assent and consent to the Infallible Authority of the written word hath been is and may be brought forth without mens-Testimony History Tradition and Authority Many have been made to believe this before they came to any such Human helps and who neither knew read or considered such Church Histories and Traditions which therefore could not be the cause immediate Adequate and Efficient thereof Where the word it self doth work effectually and savingly in a believing heart there it is embraceingly recieved not the word of man but as it is in truth the word of God Saving Faith cannot bottom upon mens Testimonies which humane Writers will still be needing further Arguments and Testimonies to confirm it The Testimony of man can never of it self perswade and enable savingly to credit the infallible Authority of the written word till the Holy Spirit do infuse sound saving Faith and call and draw it forth into Act Though the other pretended cause of Humane Testimonies and Authorities be put into act yet this effect of sound believing doth not follow Many remain Infidels under the highest esteem and strongest perswasions of Church-Histories and of mens Testimonies and some tempted Saints yet cannot be cured of their unbelieving Fears and of their distrustful doubts by any humane Tradition History or Authority till the Spirit and word of Christ from the Father do come with Demonstration and with Power Saving Faith is Supernatural which mens Testimony from Extrascriptural Arguments is not they do each differ in their whole kind and one cannot be in another The best read Historians and other wise learned men of the World are not the soonest brought to assent and consent to the Authority of the word by the force of any or of all humane Arguments If this Faith which is greater in its self and in its Spiritual effects could be inwrought by mens Testimony then other particular objects of Faith or Truths or things to be beleived which are less Such as are the several Doctrines about Spiritual Eternals Invisibles but not these and therefore neither that also Even as to matters of Fact past besides knowing of them by Inspiration Voice or Visions and by natural causes arguing from them to the effects by humane Report which is called History or Tradition they may be known some other waies when they are needful to be known Matters of Fact past have been and still may be known by lots which where the Case and Cause do call for it is a way of natural appeal to the allknowing God Thus was Achans matter of past fact known and thus also was Jonathans past Fact discovered And thus also in the tryal of Jealousie past Facts of works of darkness in Adulterous Acts were brought to light by an Oath of Execration taken by the suspected party and a solemn address thereupon made to the Heart-searching all-knowing Aelohim And this also I would propound to the Ingenious and Studious for the advance and Augment of this best of Sciences Scripture-knowledges whether by lots and Oathes of Execration natural Appeals solemn-Addresses and by miracles other waies the truthfulness of Scripture-revelation would not yet under the present dispensation of Grace For I revive not any of the Old Testament Figures Types and shadows about any of these then used be thus still confirmed were a Spirit of Faith mingled with a word of Faith put into the prayer of Faith As for Humane report the experience that we have had of our own day and time doth inform us how partial men are in these
Histories where private interest and particular partyship do incline them to write over favourably of themselves and of their own Facts and how hatred of and prejudice against others who are of contrary Principles and practises do put them upon hard misconstruings and wrong misreportings of the Actions of their Adversaries So that it is a rare Ingenuity in an Historian to give a true Narrative of the matter of Fact in the several Circumstances of it under the opposition of an Enemy Especially if some Ages have passed away since the matter of Fact there is the less certainty and credibility And more especially yet if there have been such ages coming between which were Ages of thick darkness of prevailing Ignorance and of gross imposture and when in such cases as wherein Antichrist has imposed much upon the Churches by his Humane Additions Supplements and Traditions thereby to obscure or to corrupt or to thrust out to take from or to add to what is Christ's mind in his Word which is the present case And he who reads the story of Eustathius the Popes Legat in Roger Hoveden by what counterfeit Artifices and false Pretences and forged Visions feigned Voices and lying Wonders he introduced the observation of the first Day of the Week here into England no longer ago than in the Reign of King John may unless he very much dote on such humane fallible Testimonies see cause enough to give little credit to such Church-Histories as would so report the matter of Fact as thereby to determine the matter of right which those who go this way generally do whilst they place the first day in the Week in the room of the seventh day as the weekly sabbath-Sabbath-day under the New Testament ministration So that I am the less fond or rather not at all fond of Humane Histories in these matters relating to sin or duty from cited Church Authorities in matters of Fact having my esteem heightned from Scripture Records and word-commands chiefly in such cases where the whole Scripture doth contain such Reasons of the LORD 's own assigning founded in the very Nature of Created Existences such names and things such Precepts and Prohibitions such Promises and Threatnings such suitable Examples and such like as these which do uniformly throughout speak a quite contrary thing and go a quite different way from those sayings which Church-Registers do wrong tell me and from that By-path into which Humane Histories would mislead me as they would in this case when they would take me off from the due observation of the weekly Seventh-day Sabbath to drag me along to keep the first day as a separated day for holy Worship I am bound to believe Scripture History as a true report from the infallible veracity of a truthful Aelohim it is necessary this Faith to my Salvation But I am not under such an obligation neither is it so necessary for me to believe Humane History so many hundreds of years ago especially such circumstances as have been mentioned before in such matters of fact as are but pretended to be transacted in Scripture times chiefly to whom they are so argued against the whole of other Scripture How can this objector prove to me that those Ecclesiastical Histories whose certainty and credibility of reporting this he so much cryeth up were directed and dictated thereunto by the Spirit of Truth in this matter And if not how can my Faith be swayed by their Authorities Jehovah Aelohim himself appointed Scripture Histories to be written by the Prophets and Priests these Historiographers were ocular Witnesses in much of that which they wrote and registred and in this as also in the rest they were God inspired So were those Evangelists and Apostles also who wrote the New Testament History As for Tradition we receive what is scriptural Believers are delivered from Patro-traditional conversation such as is unscriptural we receive the commandments which Christ hath delivered but we reject Humane Traditions which are not according to Christ and his Word If the case were so that all the Men and Speakers and Writers and Printers and Books and what other humane Authorities did tell me what I know evidently is expresly otherwise in Christ and in the Word of Christ it were of no validity with me The Prophets and the LORD Jesus Christ the sender of his Prophets did refer the Jews not to the Traditions of Rabbines especially when they were such Traditions as would have UNLORDED him and his Word of his and of its due Authority but to the Law to the Scriptures Scripture Traditions which are allowed of in the Word of Christ we approve of about sound Doctrine and Faith of the Truth and holy conversation and about observing of a naturally comly decent order in Church-assemblies But we reject what is of mens own and in their own name It is an Observand in Scripture that the Scriptures do refer to Scriptures often may we meet with such expressions it is written and as it is written and for it is written and according to that which is written This is under the LORD the Judging Rule and the Lawful Determiner in all cases By this were Truths confirmed and by this were errours confuted Even whilst the Apostles were alive there were false supposititious writings thrust upon some as if they had been the Apostles own true Writing and therefore the Apostles subscribed their Epistles with their own hands they used some peculiar subscription such a subsigning as was well known to the Churches How much more was the World like to be imposed upon when they were dead and gone by the writings of men who would be fathering of their own unscriptural brats of false tenets upon the Apostles there being many Antichrists gone forth even in John's time Paul whilst living to confute the falshood yet was strongly charged with saying and asserting of that which he utterly denies though others would affirm it to be so he was evil-spoken of and wrongfully accused as if he had expresly taught a damnable Doctrine which he wholly disowneth And if they were so bold in his days how can we be so over confident of a matter of fact reported by a mere humane traditionary Knowledge above sixteen hundred years ago without any God-inspired Scripture Revelation or Natural Demonstration How can any man to his own or others satisfaction affirm that by Humane History he certainly knows that all the Christian Churches have constantly set apart and observed the first day for holy Worship when he cannot certainly know that he hath read all humane Histories that have recorded that particular matter of fact Or that no humane History hath recorded a quite different both Principle Judgement and Practice in some particular Church or Churches and when the matter of fact for any evidence he hath to the contrary may have been quite otherwise in some Church or Churches which yet is not recorded in any humane History This
particular subject especially by one that is acquainted with the Original Hebrew and the several words and phrases under that dispensation that do speak to this case The Churches of Aelohim had in all ages such as were gifted graced called by Office to preach the Word and to Administer Signs and Seals Before Moses's time the Ordinary Ministers were the first born of Families into whose place afterwards the Priests and the Levites succeeded Enoch was a Prophet Noah was a Preacher Abraham was a Prophet The Priests and the Levites were the Pastors and the Teachers And Paul under the New Testament doth set out the Ministerial Office now by such expressions as were borrowed from the Ministerial Office under the Old Publick Officers in the Work of the Ministery now are such as perform the holy Office of the New Testament Priesthood Ministerial Workmen if they would not be ashamed should rightly divide the Word of Truth The cutting of the Burnt-offering into its pieces did Figure the Work of the Ministery in the New Testament Church It might not be a confused or disordered mangling it must be done into the Natural pieces The Prophesies concerning the Ministery of the New Testament are set out by the Ministery of the Old The Levites did serve the Priests about Tabernacle and Temple worship but were not to come near the Sanctuary nor the Altar The Elders laid their hands upon the Levites in setting them apart for the Ministery and Service How aptly is this applicable in a New Testament Church If you consider Deacons under this Dispensation as having this to be a part of their Office to provide for and to distribute to the poor Thus also were some of the Levites imployed in such Ordinary Ministeries of distrubution of the Church-Treasure overseeing the holy things and the Work of Jehovah too Neither was the Old Testament without its Diaconesses its ministring Women whose Ministery and Service was used by the Church These are the particular instances of this Objector to every one of which I have brought some Testimonies out of the Old Testament As for Rules about Church-Offices under the New Dispensation a discerning eye may see now the New Testament is written that Christ and his Apostles did in their teaching much refer their hearers unto the Analogy of Faith under the Old Testament The stile of the New doth not carry along with it a form of enacting such new Laws and new Rules of which there was not any thing at all under the Old Administration But we find Christ confirming the old Laws of the ten Words accomplishing the old Types and fulfilling the foregoing Prophesies concerning himself Interpreting the meaning of the Types and setting up the Anti-types in the room of them And where he doth bring in Laws it is occasionally either to open their meaning or to prove somewhat thereby or from thence to exhort correct instruct some way or other to apply it to the present case declaring himself to be one and the same Law-giver that was of Old Whereby he doth demonstrate that the Old Testament is still to be a Rule under the New The difference between them being only in the divers form and manner of dispensing as will be more shewn hereafter The regulation now is to be made according to that proportion which the new Administration doth call for and the old Rules must be new applyed which as to the matter now here under Question have a clearer Revelation and a more spiritual Dispensing So that the New Testament Word is much the Old Testament Scripture gone over again in more clearness fulness perfection spirituality glory and heavenliness The Old and the New Testament-Will of God are not contrary Wills but one and the same Will diversified only in some particulars of the manner of administring the new Will is the old Will revived and cleared and confirmed and so put into a more heavenly form There is a well measured equality between the Old and the New a well agreeing sameness of word and there should be a true proportioned collation of both Testaments each with other All and every of Christ's Institutions had ever a word of his to warrant them even in the times of the Apostles a word written about such Institutions in the Old Testament in Type Prophesie or some such like way and a Word spoken by Christ before the New Testament was written referring to the foregoing Patterns of them in the Old which word afterwards also was put into the New Testament Scripture whereas we know no word from Christ either in the Old Testament or New for the first day being a weekly day separated and appointed for a day of Holy Worship in the room of the Seventh day Sabbath Thus far this Author himself doth acknowledge that the first day was not instituted by Scripture all the Old Testament through which did not contain its Institution so that the Believers of that age in Christ's time had no written word at for any such observance of the first day any where all their Bible through Let this concession be improved by the wise and discerning the serious and the considering Reader However therefore the matter of fact may have been afterwards reported in Humane Histories we expect that the matter of Right be proved from God-inspired Scriptures Whatever this Author do say that this being the common usage of so observing the first day in the Apostles times by them and by the Churches of their Plantation and that therefore there was no such need of putting this pretended matter of fact into Scripture History it appears hereby how broken this Reed of his Assertion is which he would have all the Christian World to lean upon After several years serious diligent search I cannot find any such common usage no not so much as one particular instance that either any one of the Apostles themselves or any one of the Churches of their planting did ever so much as once so observe the first day as the weekly Sabbath-day Although if that could be proved it doth not yet determine this case upon our hearts who do expect Scripture Institutions Commands Prophecies Promises and such like appointments as have harmonious consent of the whole Scripture besides that speaks of that matter if there had been any such great change of the weekly Sabbath-day as is pretended If the force of this Authors arguing do lye there how evident is it that there was great need of writing such a Matter of Fact that had so weighty a case of so great consequence in it It is the common practice of all the wise part of mankind to take along with them sufficient credible witnesses of it such whose Testimony will upon occasion stand firm in Law when they first take actual possession of some great Estate of a rich Inheritance settled upon them and upon theirs that shall come after them and to set it down in
writing and to keep the Records of it well attested especially when another doth claim a former Title for some hundreds of years As this of the seventh-day Sabbath did for some thousands of years for some ages beyond the memory of man and when they could not but foresee that their Title would be so much called in question and controverted and especially too where the Matter of Fact is pretended as it is by this Author so much to prove the Matter of Right All Matters of Fact that do pass into Historical Writing are fittest to be written in the same age wherein they were done as being then better known in their circumstances by sensible demonstrations which cannot be so well discerned in after ages How fond are Traditionists of unscriptural humane Antiquities and Universalities Whereas Errors have been ancient even as long full home to the times of the Apostles Even then did the Mystery of iniquity begin to work there were even then many Antichrists and Malignant Assemblies and when the Antichrist shall be revealed there would be a great Apostasie and Defection from the Truth The Revelation hath foretold that all the World would go a whoring after the Beast and would worship the Beast and the Dragon that gave him power yet are these some of their Notes of a visible Church Antiquity and Universality which that they might be the sooner imposed upon the hoodwinck'd credulous World have another vain pretence going along with them altogether as unscriptural and vain as they that is that the Church cannot err And they falsly call their particular Romish Synagogue the Catholick Church I expectingly believe and hopingly wait for a coming day when our plain tender sincere upright-hearted people will be undeceived and no longer to suffer themselves to be deluded and imposed upon by such confident Assertions as this Objector doth bring them As if that which beyond all doubt must assure them that de facto the first day was by the Apostles separated for holy Worship especially in publick Church Assemblies is the full and unquestionable expository evidence of the practice of all the Churches in the World since the very days of the Apostles For so has this Learned Author affirmed Reader bethink thy self what thy Faith must resolve it self into if it will follow this misguiding How can such believers as never traded in this kind of humane Learning ever come to undoubted assurance about the matter How can they be fully ascertained of this who were never versed nor are ever like to be neither are under any such obligation by any Scripture Precept to be throughly versed and understandingly read in all and every of the Writings of all and every of the Ecclesiastical Histories that do write about this Or if it were possible and facible that they could compass this of which I can see no end who yet have more helps and advantages this way than the most How can they unquessionably be confirmed in this perswasion that there never was any one Church of Christ that did escape the Humane Church-Record and History And if so who can tell them but that that particular Church might be of a different judgement and practice What doth this kind of arguing in this Author mean What would it have our people to resolve their satisfaction and assurance concerning the pretended first day Sabbath into that report which their humane fallible Guides do make unto them of this without their tryal of it The Word of Christ doth call upon them to try the spirits whether they be of God and to prove all things that are thus brought them by Teachers by the Scripture-canon and Touch stone as the one and the only infallible Rule What a kind of Faith is that which is a trusting of fallible men without tryal a depending upon Humane Authorities without Scripture Evidence The God-inspired Authority of Christ and of his Word is fully attested within the holy Scriptures own bounds and needs not step out to Humane Histories Authorities and Traditions However this Author would buz into the ear such amazing expressions as this that it is impossible it should be otherwise than as such Humane Historie doth record of the practice of all the Churches since the times of the Apostles and that this Testimony is infallible Humane History and that part of it which they call Ecclesiastical History however it be a pleasant study and an employ someways in its place profitable yet of all kinds of Scientifick Learning is one of the weakest common places of arguing and the least convincing for demonstration because it doth resolve its probations into the fallible Testimonies of lying men and so doth not cannot give any firm full satisfaction to an inquiring Spirit and studious Mind who will still be doubtful and afraid how he doth bottom his Faith in so weighty a case as is now before him upon such an unsure and unsafe ground as he can build no firmness of belief and certainty of knowledge upon even the uncertain witness of deceivable men what their eyes and ears and tongues and pens have reported to us who are so many hundred years come into the World after they were dead and gone that way of disputing therefore which this mighty man of Humane Reason has walked in to find out some place if he could where to make his First day Sabbath cause to stand is such a by-path as doth mislead his Reader into bogs where he cannot settle and stay with any good confidence and sound comfort Such arguments may take with over credulous minds and with passive intellects who through idleness and guile of spirit in a matter which would ingage them in so much of self-denyal and of cross bearing had rather use another man's writings and reasonings than be at the pains of studying of the Scriptures and of exercising their own understanding What has at large been written in trying this Objectors spirit upon the former Scriptures in an answer also to the next mentioned by him in the Revelation which he calleth another Historical hint of the New Testament How can a change of the weekly Sabbath-day from one day to another from the seventh to the first be soundly proved from this other Scripture where he that is of a serious spirit and doth diligently inquire after word-satisfaction about this matter cannot find either Sabbath or First day either in terms plainly expressed or clearly implyed or necessarily inferred in this place or in the context or in the design of the Holy Spirit here or by comparing of it with other places of Scripture Those that would lay the foundation of so great a change should see their Scripture grounds to be more evident convincing and firm What one Word is there in this Scripture that doth warrant any new Instition from Christ for the observing of the First day as the weekly Sabbath-day What one word is there here of command so to observe the First day What one word
of Rest so in Teutonick or High Dutch or the German Tongue which is an ancient Nation and Language the last Day the seventh Day of the Week is called Samstag as if Schemtag that is the LORD's Day or the Day of the LORD It is further yet observable as to this that the Visions of Ezekiel and those of John well agreeing in many particulars which a diligent comparer may easily observe Ezekiel's Visions were on the fifth day of the fourth Moon which some affirm to have been the Seventh day Sabbath Jehovah's Day But upon the whole it is the first answer that I more stick unto namely that the Lordly Day is that great Providential Day when he will more visibly appear as King and LORD Whereas some do object that this word in Greek Lordly is applyed but to one thing more in the New Testament which is the Supper called the Lordly Supper or LORD's Supper or the Supper of the LORD What can there rationally necessarily convincingly be inferred from thence as to any establishing of the first day of the week in the room of the seventh as the weekly Sabbath in this place of the Revelation The Lordly Supper or Lordy Supper is expresly mentioned Whereas here is no express mention of the first Day as a Sabbath day not either of the words First or Sabbath nor their sense and meaning in the Text or Context nor any where else in all this Book or in the whole Scripture The Lordly Supper is so called in that it was instituted by our LORD It is to his Honour a Lordly Feast one great design and end of it being to exalt Christ in his Lordship and to shew forth the Death of this LORD till he came in his Lordly appearance in the later Day This Ordinance was received of the LORD by Paul It was the LORD who Instituted it It sets out the LORD's Death The Cup is called the Cup of the LORD The LORD's Body we read of also there Which Supper is not fixed to the first day of the Week The first Institution Administration and Participation of it was on another Day of the Week on the Passion Day on the Passover Day which is called a Sabbath For a further discovery that a Day in some Scriptures is used for a larger space of time than from one going in of the Sun on one day to the next going in of the Sun on the next day consider that in the Scriptures day doth sometimes set out the time of Christ's Reign and glorious Power The day of judging of his grand Adversaries John saw this in the Vision as if the time had been then present Will not that be a Lordly Day when Christ will glorifie and magnifie his Office of King and of LORD in the utter destruction of Enemies and in the eminent salvation of Friends It is called the Day of Christ the Day and Kingdom of God the presence of coming of Christ Do not these expressions significantly declare some glorious shining season of Christ's Lordly appearing It is named the Day of Jehovah about six and twenty times and in some of those places the Day of the Vengeance and of the Anger of Jehovah and the Day of Jehovah's Battel The great and terrible and dreadful Day of Jehovah the same expressions which are used in this Book of the Revelation And the Day of the LORD is mentioned five times expresly in the New Testament In which also it is set out by divers words that doth intend the same thing as his Day that is the Day of this LORD Christ who will then be revealed in his Lordly Power and Glory That Day pointing out that Age when these things should be The Day that Day The Days in the plural Number as being more than one and of longer continuance That great conspicuous Day of the LORD The Day of the LORD Jesus The times and the seasons which do relate to this Day of the LORD The Day approaching the last hour It is observed that in all Languages this Word Day doth sometimes signifie judgement here on Earth Hence a Days man or Umpire to judge between party and party Mans day and the Judgement of Men The Day that is the Judgement or trial shall declare Hence Day is sometimes put for the time of destruction Day doth sometimes denote a long continued duration as the Day of the Age or the Day of Eternity Other times Day points out the time of Grace and of Salvation And now upon this occasion having shewn that Day doth not always in all Scriptures point out any one particular Day of the Week distinctly from and in opposition to the rest of the Days of the Week I have here some fair opportunity to write a little about one other Scripture which some do urge to put a colour upon their first Day as if it did point out the first Day of the Week as the eminent transcendent determinate definite day of Christ's compleating the Work of Redemption on his Resurrection Day which say they was then and from thenceforth to be observed as the weekly Sabbath day in the room of the Seventh Thus they As to what doth concern Christ's Resurrection as also how and when he compleated the Work of Redemption I have written already and I am now to consider this Scripture which is mentioned by all and every of the four Evangelists In which Historical-fulfilling it is evident that much and the main of this Prophetical passage was fulfilled according to the Letter before Christ's Resurrection and upon another Day of the Week than that first Day of the Week for which it is so brought and pressed although if it could be proved to be otherwise yet doth it no way determine this Case about a pretended change of the weekly Sabbath from one Day of the Week to another from the Seventh to the First The chief men of the Jews who were counted the Builders did more notoriously refuse Christ the Head Corner Stone when being put to their choice they actually openly declaredly preferred a Barabbas who was a seditious Murderer before an innocent holy Jesus and this on a Day of solemn Judicature when the Judge Pilate sat upon Christ either for life or for death which also was by a joynt consent of chief Priests and Rulers and People who cry out all at once Away with this man and release unto us Barabbas This was before that Christ was crucified Also after his Death before his Resurrection the chief Priests and the Pharisees do call him a Deceiver and this before Pilate which was another refusing and rejecting of Christ Thus according as was Prophesied in that Psalm that the Builders would refuse that Stone which was to become for Head to the Corner so accordingly did they act as at many
other times so at these two seasons one in Christ's life time the other after his death and both before his rising The chief Priests did count themselves and were counted by others to be Builders yet thus notoriously did they refuse Christ The word in the Psalm according to the Hebrew in its propriety of signification is they have reprobated rejected despised refused scorned or turned away from and that expression in a place of the New Testament doth signifie ye have earnestly desired and refused and that when Judge Pilat had absolved him in his own declared judgement yet did they crave earnestly that a man murderer and a seditious one might be freed and that Christ whom yet they could not justly charge with any crime or the least sin might be crucified Then and thus was Christ reprobated of these men Was it not an eminent Day of monstrous rejecting when the question being put to them whether of the two they would have to be released they preferred a seditious Murderer Though there were other times of their refusing and rejecting of Christ before this and that on the Seventh day Sabbath but it was more notorious on the Passion day It was also Prophesied in that Psalm that the people would pray O Jehovah save now or prosper now blessed be he that cometh in the Name of Jehovah This was fullfilled before the Day of Christ's crucifixion when he rode into Jerusalem and the people went forth to meet him crying Hosanna Hoshignana in the Hebrew or Hosanna as it is put into the Greek These things are plain familiar and clear evident of themselves upon the bare reading of them and are not any forced interpretations of my own What a far way about do Objectors go and carry their Followers along with them to bring them at last to that which is no proof at all of that for which they have brought them thither As for the Day spoken of which Jehovah made for his people to rejoyce in it is the large Day of Grace under the New Testament Dispensation of Grace which doth take in many a Natural Day And as for spiritual rejoycing it is every days work though more especially upon the Seventh-day Sabbath so that in short there being not in the Scriptures urged by Objectors either First day or Sabbath-day either in the letter of the words or in any necessary consequence naturally flowing from thence or any design that looks any thing like a change of the weekly Seventh-day Sabbath translating it to any other day How any satisfaction can such a change be inferred and inforced from hence To return therefore a while unto that place in the Revelation although there must be some particular distinct determinate Day of the Week when John first saw the beginning of this Vision For all that doth come to pass in time must necessarily be on one Day or other of the Week yet this Lordly Day here spoken of had not this design at all in it to set up the first day in the room of the seventh The skilful in the Greek Tongue do know that an Adjective joyned to a Substantive doth usually mean the Genitive Case of that Substantive as the Lordly Day is the Day of Lordship or Day of the LORD So we find this expressed in other Languages In Hebrew it is in the Day of our LORD in Syriack a Day of the LORD So in Spanish in a Day of the LORD In Greek the Participles have sometimes the force of the Nouns So in English the LORD's Day or the Day of the LORD as in the other instance where the word is used the LORD's Supper or the Supper of the LORD For which Supper we have evident express both Institution appointing of it and command injoyning us to do it Promise making over and sealing the benefit of Christ's Death to such as partake of it worthily after a due sitting manner and threatning denouncing judgements against the profaners of this Ordinance None of all which either Institution Command Promise or Threatning have we yet after all our search found for the first Day to be the Day of the weekly Sabbath in the place of the seventh so that here is no foundation for belief and practice to build upon Where any one place of Scripture is so interpreted as not to have the Harmonious Oneness and the well agreeing consent of the whole Scripture where they do treat of that matter or subject there that is the interpretation of mens own private spirit and not the interpretation of the Spirit of Aelohim And therefore the cause of the first day as the weekly Sabbath not having the whole Scripture profitable for the proving of it cannot stand in the judgement notwithstanding one misinterpreted Scripture is yet further alledged to defend it if the urger of it could be any Art plead it One historical hint more this Objector doth suppose may be with respect to the Day of Pentecost which he thinks was that year on the first Day of the Week when the pourings out of the holy Spirit were on the Apostles and so thinks it to be the Day separated by the Apostles for holy Worship especially in publick Church Assemblies and yet he says he was loth to name the day of the sending down of the Holy Ghost Holy Spirit it should have been said was given as a proof because that some do controvert it but it seemeth to him a very considerable thing I must therefore return somewhat in answer unto this It is much of the Artifice in the present age as in some other cases so concerning the matter under debate to darken and obscure some particular places of Scripture either by corrupt Translations or by false Interpretations upon which to ground their wrong Inferences and conjectural consequences and then to perswade the plain people how deep these things do lie and how much they should lean upon the Wisdom and Advice of their Church Guides who much study humane Histories for them to lead them through what through those dark Mazes into which these Guides have misled them Whereas the Scriptures about the weekly Sabbath are full of clear Light and of satisfying self-evidence to those who are made throughly willing to do the acceptable Will of Jehovah Aelohim What conviction can there be brought in upon the understanding concerning any change of the weekly Sabbath-day from the seventh to the first day of the week where is not either expressed or implyed any thing at all of any such change and where the Reader cannot find the first day spoken of or hinted to to any such purpose The Passover is acknowledged by this Author on this year of Christ's Death to be a Seventh-day Sabbath If so then including that day in the number of fifty and seven Sabbaths reckoned and added to that day Pentecost or the fiftieth day was a Seventh-day Sabbath also for so was the computation seven times
of the Scripture that do foretell of an Holy Righteous People in the purer Churches of the later days have respect unto this Law which is sealed in Christ's Disciples which is transcribed in their new Heart It is engraven on the Hearts and Minds of Christ's New Covenant people by the LORD the Spirit Anti-christ that lawless one will set himself most to persecute those Disciples of Christ who do stick closest to Christ in walking according to the Rule of this Law Both the Old Testament and also the New doth close with a Reviving and Inforcing of this Law and that under a terrible threatning of Excommunication against scandalous Transgressors of it and a dreadful Curse denounced against such as shall add to or take from it whereunto other Scriprures do well agree For the accomplishing of what John had in a Vision Believers do now wait even that the Temple of God may be open in Heaven in which Temple may be seen the Ark of his Testament or Covenant in which Ark there was nothing put but the Two Tables on which the Ten Words written with the finger of Aelohim This Law shall yet once again come forth out of Mount Sion This Law is one of the Great honourable things of Aelohim All the LORD'S Appearings in his way of Justice against Sin for Holiness is his Vindication of this Law And all his free Rewardings of his obedient people in his way of Righteous performing of Covenant Mercy is his Approbation of this Law for upon this bottom do all his Judicial Laws stand These later days do call for Advocates to plead the Cause of this Holy Righteous Law Antichrist now doth more appear to be the Anomous one The Antichristian party have mangled the ten Words for thus they publish them in their Psalters and Catechisms 1. I am the Lord God thou shalt have no other God but me 2. Thou shalt not take the Name of God in vain 3. Remember to sanctifie the holy days 4. Honour thy father and mother 5. Thou shalt not kill 6. Thou shalt not commit adultery 7. Thou shalt not steal 8. Thou shalt not bear false witness 9. Thou shalt not desire thy neighbours wife 10. Thou shalt not desire thy neighbours goods Here they wholly leave out the second Commandment They thrust the weekly Seventh-day Sabbath of Jehovah out of the Fourth Word and substitute their own unscriptural holy-days they turn the last Word into two They teach religious reverence to be done to Creatures as to Angels to Souls departed to the Cross c. they hold it lawful to be present at idolatrous service keeping a man's conscience to himself they teach Invocation of Saints they allow blasphemous Oaths they teach Will-worship Idolatry Superstitions and their fabulous feigned Traditions and such vows as are unwarrantable and unlawful they lay aside the weekly Seventh-day Sabbath and set up days of mens inventing instituting and imposing dedicating them and the worship and service on them much to Creatures they hold that the Magistrate hath nothing to do in the Matters of Religion they exempt their Clergy from the jurisdiction of the Civil Magistrate They absolve Inferiors from their subjection to Superiors They justifie Murthering of Princes and of others that promote not their Cause they tolerate Stewes they allow uncleanness to some persons as venial and scarce a sin They assert officious and sporting lyes to be lawful and justifiable if good may be attained by it They dispense with the whole Decalogue by Usurpation If the Pope command what Christ doth forbid or if he forbid what Christ doth command yet they require their people to obey them contrary to Christ's Law The sins of the later days are expressed by the name of Anomies which is often declared against in the New Testament as well as in the Old Violence to the Law and partiality in the Law is one great Article that will be brought in by way of charge against corrupt Teachers in the later days This is the great comprehensive sin which the LORD doth so much hate One Word for Law is used if I have not misreckoned abvoe one hundred and ninety times in the New Testament and another word for a commandment about seventy times And those who are nefarious not consentaneous to Laws Out laws and lawless ones are the gross erring ones in principle in practice or in both O how zealous was the LORD Christ for this Law of his How careful to have the whole of it all and every part of it to be safely kept He put it all into two comprehensive Precepts and there hung it up to stay it that none of it might fall to the ground or be lost All Religion conspireth into these two This is that way of Righteousness wherein Believers ought to be found walking Anomy Antinomianâ—sm lawlessness or a disowning and rejecting of the Law of the ten Words this is a description of sin as opposed to Holiness and Righteousness 1 John 34. Rom. 6. 19. 2 Cor. 6. 14. Anomy is that foul comprehensive evil which Christ doth hate Heb. 1. 9. To be reckoned amongst the Anomous ones is to be reckoned amongst the vilest and most notorlous of sinners Mar. 15. 28. Luk. 22. 37. They were Anomous hands which did crucifie Christ Act. 2. 23. Anomous works are grieving and vexing to the Righteous Soul of a Righteous Man 2 Pet. 2. 8. Anomy is that great Evil which Christ came to redeem his people from Tit. 2. 14. Anomy is that sin which all Christ's justified ones have freely forgiven unto them Rom. 4. 7. Heb. 8. 12. and 10. 17. Anomy doth lay aside that Rule by which we must judge of Good and of Evil of Sin and of Duty Rom. 4. 15. and 5. 30. It is one of Antichrists Names that he is the Anomous one 2 Thess 2. 8. Anomy is the hainous crime of the later days Mat. 24. 12. 2 Thess 2. 7 8. Anomous ones will be cast out of Fellowship and Communion in the purer Churches of the later-day-Glory Mat. 13. 41. Such as live and die working of this Anomy will at the last be shut out of the New City and the Heavenly Glory Mat. 23. and 23. 28 33. We must take one and all one and every one of the ten Words They are conjoyned into one body of the Law and must be so likewise in our Obedience It is as it were one copulative if you dissolve and break one you dissolve and break all and thereby violate his Authority who requires obedience to all and to every one of them All the ten Commandments is but one Commandment A Law Kingly A Law of Liberty A Law by which we must be obliged A Law by the works of which men must manifest their Faith to be of the right saving living-kind and by which Faith is made perfect The same Aelohim who spake one of the Laws of these ten Words
all his People and all the mingled People and all the Kings of the Land of Vz and all the Kings of the Land of the Philistines and Ashkelon and Azzah and Ekron and the remnant of Ashdod Edom and Moab and the Children of Ammon and all the Kings of Tyrus and all the Kings of Zidon and the Kings of the Isles which beyond the Sea Dedan and Tema and Buz and all that in the utmost corners and all the Kings of Arabia and all the Kings of the mingled people that dwell in the Desert and all the Kings of Zimri and all the Kings of Elam and all the Kings of Medes and all the Kings of the North far and near one with another and all the Kingdoms of the World which upon the face of the Earth and the King of Sheshach The LORD had a controversie with the Nations and he pleaded with all flesh with all men by this man's Ministery the cracking sound and the terrible noise whereof went East West North and South to the ends of the Earth and that strife in Judgement which the LORD had against them was because they transgressed this holy righteous just Law of his and were not the Gentiles also then under the obligation and direction of this Law Now that I am upon somewhat of the Historical part of this Narration let me here add some passages both before and after the time wherein Jeremiah did live Let us go back as far as Noah who found Grace in the Eyes of Jehovah who was a just man perfect in his Generations and who walked with God Jehovah himself giving of him this Testimony he was one who was intire in his obedience to all the Laws of God in his life and conversation and he was heir of the Justice or Righteousness which is by Faith and was a Preacher of the same Doctrine of Justification in the sight of God by Faith in the Messiah This Noah was the Father of those Nations and Peoples who after the Floud did multiply and spread and inhabit the Earth and by this means the Laws of Jehovah were made known throughout the world and thus also was the Church scattered and dispersed in several places more especially in the days of his Son Shem there were visible Church-societies and publick Church-meetings called The Tents of Shem. In and about Abraham's time who was also Father of many Nations in his Family the Church of God shined forth in its glorious lustre and comly beauty he was one of whom the LORD himself hath witnessed that he obeyed the voice of Jehovah and kept his Charge his Statutes and his Laws Jehovah knew him that he would command his sons and his house after him and they should keep the way of Jehovah to do Justice and Judgement Such care would he take to make known unto others the Commands of Jehovah And about Abraham's time Job and his friends were not strangers to the Laws of the LORD though dwelling a great way off in the Land of Vz off from Abraham they also had their Congregations for true pure Worship Job declaring against Idolatry and observing instituted times for solemn Worship and he answered for himself against the false accusations charged upon him by Eliphaz that his foot had held the right path of Jehovah his way did Job keep and not turn away and the Laws of his lips he did not cast off Job did lay up the Words of his Mouth more than his daily bread whereby it doth appear that those parts were not strangers to Jehovah's Laws those more particularly which in some respects are more the Laws of his Lips and the words of his Mouth Further full home to Moses's time and in his days we have foot-steps of the Laws of the true Religion even amongst those who were none of Israels off spring Balaam of Syria in Mesopotamia had a gift of Prophety and knew the Law of Jehovah and being a publick Teacher did spread the knowledge of it about in Assemblies Examine we the Captives of the LORD's People besides some other smaller scatterings There was one Captivity of the ten Tribes by Salmanassar King of Assyria who planted those Israelites in Hala and Habor by the River of Gozan and in the Cities of the Medes whither this great Conqueror and mighty Monarch did transplant them making them to dwell in places far remote from their own Land where they communicated the Knowledge of the Laws of Jehovah Here was a great dispersion of that Nation we find not that any considerable part of these ever returned to dwell again in their own Country being placed here by the Assyrian in Parthia Media and Persia there or thereabouts they still dwelt in the days of Christ and in the time of the Apostles Another Captivity was of the two other Tribes Judah and Benjamin by Nebuchadnezzer King of Babylon more than one hundred years after the former Israel was first in the Apostasie and yet Judah would not take warning At the seventy years end many of these two Tribes returned to Jerusalem and dwelt in their own Land again building again the Temple being encouraged thereto by Cyrus re-erecting their City and restoring their Common-wealth This also lasted till Christ's time and some years after yet many of the Jews staid behind in Babylon great numbers had well accommodated dwellings and were loath to leave their Habitations though in a stranger Land where Historians tell us they had their Academies Schools and Doctors these two were numerous dispersions beyond the River Euphrates A third Captivity by a Grecian King of divers after the return from Babylon whose off-spring were carried Captives into Egypt where that King reigned whom he planted in Alexandria and the places thereabouts who had their Synagogues there Let us take the account from Scripture Record A few Days a Week or thereabouts after Christ's Ascension there were met together of them at the Pentecosts Feast when men of several Nations Parthians and Medes and Elamites and dwellers in Mesopotamia and in Judaea and Cappadocia in Poutus and Asia Phrygia and Pamphylia in Egypt and the parts of Lybia about Cyrene and stranger-Romans both Jews and Proselytes Cretes and Arabians devout men out of every Nation under Heaven observe every Nation under Heaven to that these dispersions were more or less in all Nations besides the last Captivity by Titus almost forty years after Christ's Ascension insomuch as that in almost every City of the Gentiles whither the Apostles travelled and came to preach Christ and the glad tydings of Salvation by him there were Jews who had their Synagogues James doth direct his Epistle to the twelve Tribes scattered abroad and Peter doth inscribe his unto those of the dispersion in Pontus Galatia Cappadocia Asia and Bithynia he salutes them from Babylon which was their Metropolis from all which put together it is evident that Jehovah's Laws were published throughout the inhabited
will remember unto them said Jehovah Aelohim speaking of his Covenanting Israel walking obediently the Covenant of Ancestors them whom I brought forth out of the Land of Egypt before the eyes of the Heathen to be unto them a God I Jehovah Thus did he often in that Book of Moses make over himself to his people in Christ such delight did he take in taking occasion to tell them that he was and would be a God unto them Was not here Covenanting Grace and Redeeming Love It was the faine that was made before with Jacob Isaac and Abraham as sometimes the order of words is In other places is mentioned from Abraham downwards to Isaac and Jacob But in one place of Moses's Book it is mentioned renewed and confirmed going upward from the people near a deliverance in Egypt to Jacob to Isaac to Abraham the Father of the Faithful Thus leading them to that former and more ancient Promise and Gospel-covenant of Grace in Christ Believers could say in the Psalmist's time that J. â—â—lohim was their portion for ever Hath the LORD graciously promised that a chosen People shall be his people So they were of old in Moses's days If ye shall walk in my Stntutes thus spake he to them and keep my Commandments and do them then I will walk among you and will be to you a God and you shall be to me a People Jehovah hath avouched or hath caused to say or to promise by giving his and by taking thy Word thee to be unto him for a People of peculiar Treasure as be hath spoken unto thee and to keep all his Commandments For Jehovah ' s Portion is his people Jacob the Line of his Inheritance Ho hath divided and separated them unto himself as his allotted part and peculiar Possession Hath he promised Covenant teaching and Knowledge This also was a Covenant privilege of Old He taught them his name Jehovah and made himself known to them by that name in putting a Being into his Promises made to their Fathers for their deliverance and proclaimed this Name to Moses His people sate down at his feet receiving of his Words Thus were Christ's Disciples even then taught by him as their Master Thou saith he to his people then hast been made see to know that Jehovah he Aelohim none else besides him And thou shalt know and cause to return into thy heart that Jehovah he Aelohim in the heavens above and on the earth beneath none else This doth particularly relate to their being instructed to acknowledge Christ's Jehovahship In David's time the Secret of Jehovah was to them who feared him and his Covenant to make them for to know He revealed in the inner Man of Believers the hidden Mysteries of Wisdom Will he be merciful to the unrighteousness of his Covenant-people no more remembring their sins and their iniquities The same free Mercy and Grace was manifested under the former Dispensation Christ hath put it into the second Word or Command and proclaimed it as his Name when Moses went up into Mount Sinai as Jehovah had commanded him taking in his hand the two Tables of Stone Jehovah Jehovah God pitiful and gracious long suffering and much in Mercy and Truth keeping Mercy for thousands forgiving iniquity and trespass and sin Doth not the blessedness of man consist in this Whereupon Moses makes haste and bows himself and pleadeth this in Prayer Pardon thou O LORD our iniquity and our sin Was not this the meaning of the Sin Offerings and of the Trespass Offerings with the annexed promises of Pardon and of acceptation Did not the covering Merch seat which was altogether as broad as the Ark wherein were the two Tables preach this Did it not set out the merciful covering and propitiation of sins Was not this a precious Figure of Jesus Christ by and through whom received by and through Faith in him his peoples transgranssings of the Law of the ten Words are freely fully forgiven and wholly covered How full are the Books of Moses of the Psalms and of the Prophets of this comforting Doctrine So that all these Promises in the Covenant of Grace have been are and will be the same under both the Dispensations All the difference is that in the last days there will be a more clear discovery of this gracious Covenant A more glorious way of dispensing a more through inabling to the keeping of it For to this especially have the expressions of difference an eye and respect between the old and renewed Covenant Spoken of in Jeremiah and in the Epistle to the Hebrews compared There will be larger pouring out of the holy Spirit and blessing from the Father in the Name of the Son in those latter purer times that are near at hand So that this Covenant shall not be broken as it has been under former Dispensations of Grace but be better kept with more exactness and faithfulness with more intireness and continuedness in the fulness and perfection of it Halelujah I will confess Jehovah with all the heart Gracious He. He will Remember his Covenant for ever toward his people The secret of Jehovah to them who fearing him and his Covenant to make them for to know All the paths of Jehovah Mercy and Truth to them that keep his Covenant and Testimonies and that remember his precepts for to do them Have respect unto the Covenant For ever thou wilt keep for thy Saints thy excelling Ones thy Mercy and thy Covenant faithful to them The whole of the Christian Religion for Doctrines Graces Duties Priviledges and such like parts of that Religion is one and the same under both the Old and New Testament Is not the Word called the Word of Christ Is not Christ named the speaking-one both by Daniel and by the Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews Doth not Christ call himself the Word and the Word of God Is not He the sum and the subject matter of the whole Scriptures Is not he the Author of them Hath he not said of himself he is the one Doctor or Teacher of his Disciples Is he not the great Prophet Is he not the LORD God of the holy Prophets Did he not at Mount Sinai speak by his own voice from Heaven Was it not his forewithessing Spirit who from him spake in the Prophets of old declaring the sufferings that should befal Christ and the glory that was to follow as saith Peter in his first Epistle Was not that passage in the ninety and fifth Psalm To day if you will hear his voice applyed to the voice of Christ in what was written to the Hebrews Has not Christ himself declared that those who searched the Scriptures might find them testifying of him And what other Scriptures had they at that time but those of the Old Testament When he himself in the days of his flesh did exercise his publick Ministery preaching the glad tydings of Justice in the
great Church Assembly did he not teach in that Sermon of his at the Mount the same true Christian Doctrine which was delivered of old to his faithful Messengers from him the which to bring to his people And did he not vindicate the verity and purity of it from those corrupt wrong Interpretations that false Teachers had given of it Did not Christ who lay in the bosom of his Father declare and reveal the whole of the Will of his Father under that former dispensation of Grace so far as concerned that Dispensation And is it not one and the same Will still the difference in the manner of dispensing only well observed Were not they then taught all things and all Truths whatsoever that were necessary to Salvation Were not they fully and perfectly directed the true right way to Eternal Life Were not they strictly charged from Christ by his Servant Moses not to add to the words that he gave them in commandment nor to take from them And must not that Word then be a complete Directory and comprehensive sum of all Doctrinals as well as of other matters O who will give that this Word of Christ may ind wel in us copiously abundantly in all Wisdom O let it not stand as a stranger without doors but let us receive it in and find a place for it in our inmost parts That it may be as well known and familiar to us as the most dear delightful companions and the most near beloved Relations with whom we dwell and converse Let us be well acquainted with the whole of it and diligently compare it in the several parts of it Be we much and mighty in the Scriptures of both the Prophets and also of the Apostles receiving the whole as a Doctrine revealed from Heaven by Christ O that this were more found in our Hearts and Minds In our Memory and Conscience in our Wills and Affections That all the good Fruits thereof may abound and be more visible in the whole of our Life There we may learn all saving Wisdom There is the perfect Knowledge to be had of all things to be both believed and done that Eternal Life may be obtained There are Universal Principles of this Law of the ten Words which do pertain to Faith and Manners and these Practical Dictates which every one of these Laws doth include is a Fundamental Truth and Doctrine necessary to be believed as that we must have Jehovah Aelohim for our God and him alone that we must worship him according to his Institutions in his Word and not in any other way of Humane Inventing and imposing that we ought to have an holy reverent use of his Name That the Seventh day is his Sabbath in which we may not do the servile works of our particular calling that the Father and Mother are to be honoured and so of the rest Whoever doth believe the contrary to these is guilty of erring in Decalogical Fundamentals Have I not already demonstrated and proved by the whole Scriptures those great Doctrines concerning the Jehovahship the Christship the Mediatorship the Lordship the Lawgivership the Creatorship of the LORD Jesus Christ Would the Reader have more Doctrines thus manifested The Doctrine of Regeneration was preached of old The first Creation of Man was an exact Patten and a lively Samplar of this when man was made in the Image according to the likeness of his Makers he having a concreated resemblance unto his Creators in Knowledge in Righteousness in Holiness in Dominion in Glory this was defaced by the Fall of Man and is again restored to Sons and Daughters of God in Spiritual Recreation which is a new man renewed unto acknowledgement according to the Image of him who created him in Righteousness and Holiness of Truth As Paul doth speak David acknowledgeth in the Book of Psalms that a new heart is Creation-work So glorious and excelling a piece as that it is the making of a new World of Men and of Women A Work that none but the Almighty-creating power can do and therefore all the Honour and Glory of it must be given to him alone This is the humble confession called for Know ye that Jehovah he God he made us and not we his people and sheep of his pasture This is variously expressed in the Old Testament in very significant Words Moses sets it out by the circumcision of the heart So doth Jeremiah David by Creation and Renovation Isaiah by Jahovah's creating a people for his Glory for his Forming of them or Framing them anew by the Spirit of Regeneration Ezekiel by a Resurrection a Life from the Dead he calleth it a new Heart a new Spirit an Heart of flesh Jehova's giving of his Spirit in the innermost of the Covenant-people The Prophets often by conversion or turning from sin to Jehovah Aelohim What Spiritual Discerner doth not here see the same Doctrine which Christ preached to Nicodemus when he discovered to him the necessity of being born again from above otherwise there could be no seeing no entring into the Kingdom of God Affirming once and again and the third time that this must be Which when this great Doctor understood not what this Spiritual Regeneration was what that was which was born of the Spirit The LORD Christ reproves him for and convinceth him of his Ignorance Art thou a Teacher in Israel and knowest thou not these things Whereby he evidently shews that this was no such new unheard of Doctrine before but the same that was taught in Moses's Book and by the Prophets Wouldst thou be led to some other great Truth Consider that Doctrine about Justification Hath not Habakkuk declared that The Righteous by faith he shall live And is not this three if not four several times mentioned in the New Testament Hath not Paul confirmed the same shewing that The Righteousness without the Law only by faith in Jesus Christ unto all and upon all that believe hath testimony from the Law and the Prophets Doth not Jeremiah call Christ by this name Jehovah-tzidkenu Our Righteousness Did not Noah preach the same true sound Doctrine Was not that which was said of Abraham that He believed and it was imputed to him for Righteousness Was not this written not for his sake alone that it was imputed to him but for our sakes also to whom it shall be imputed even to them that believe in him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead who was delivered over for our sins and was raised up for our Justification Were not Believers of old well instructed in the Doctrine of free Remission of sins O how kindly was David's heart affected herewith when he tasted the sweetness and enjoyed the good of this Truth O the blessedness the happy goings on of him whose trespass is forgiven whose sin is covered O how Blessed the man to whom Jehovah imputeth no iniquity and in whose spirit no deceit Thou O