should have applied that of the Apostle Rom. 14.21 22. to have deter'd him there-from Wherefore seeing this Piece is so dangerous and may do and already has done so much hurt it s very Expedient if not morally Necessary to endeavour a prevention of its evil Consequences and there especially where the Author is resident and it may most infect and it may well be deemed a Duty of some one of the Dressers of that part of the Vineyard of the Lord Christ where this Weed or Thorn is sprung up to endeavour it's eradication before it spreads any farther or wounds any deeper That Province therefore which I most unable for and Naturally altogether averse from Polemical Disputes shall undertake and with the best skill and faithfulness that God shall afford perform shall only be with all possible Brevity and Perspicuity to weaken all the Arguments the Author manages for his Notion and to confirm and Ratifie all these which he endeavours to weaken and evacuate for the ancient general Scriptural Doctrin of the Lords-day-Sabbath or Sacred Rest and herein to follow his own method Giving some transient Glances upon things that may occur some what Excentrical or Alien from the Great design of this Book Which I shall study to do with all Candor and due Deference to the Gentility Gravity and I hope real Piety of the Author THE CONTENTS Sect. I. SOme general Observations premised whether the World were made by Christ as Jesus Christ God-man page 4 Sect. II. Of Christ's being Jehovah and in what sense the Law was given by him p. 8 Sect. III. Whether after the Creation the Lord rested on the Seventh-day and so Sanctified and Instituted it and did himself observe it as that even Adam in a State of Innocence was bound by it and all Mankind without distinction before the Fall p. 12 Sect. IV. Whether the Ten Commandments were given by Christ to Jews and Gentiles p. 21 Sect. V. Whether Christ in the Flesh did confirm all the Ten Commandments and every tittle of the Fourth And whether Christ and his Apostles did enjoyn or did not rather speak against the Observation of the Seventh-day-Sabbath p. 24 Sect. VI. Of the Word Seventh in the Fourth Commandment the Sabbath not recommended by Christ to his Disciples Of Commenius's desire of Reformation c. p. 30 Sect. VII Of the Ceremonial Law and what is Moral and Positive what is truly Moral that the Saturday Seventh-day-Sabbath is not more may be pleaded for Circumcision p. 35 Sect. VIII Whether Christ in his own Person Observed the Seventh-Week-day-Sabbath and no other and what may be gathered from it The Arguments for the Seventh-day-Sabbath equally hold for all the Jewish Ceremonies Of the Pre-Antiquity of that Day and the falsity of that Argument p. 41 Sect. IX Whether Christ Rested on the Seventh-day-Sabbath while he lay in the Grave And what may be Argued from it p. 44 Sect. X. Vpon what day of the Week Christ ascended into Heaven whether the seventh-Seventh-day or Saturday p. 48 Sect. XI Whether after the Resurrection and Ascension of Christ the seventh-day-Seventh-day-Sabbath was observed by the Apostles and First Christians How long the Apostles met the Jews in their Synagogues on the seventh-Seventh-day and for what Reason p. 51 Sect. XII The Argument from Christ's Resurrection for the First-day of the Week to be the Christian Sabbath Vindicated Circumcision not more abolisht than the Seventh-day-Sabbath That abolisht the First succeeds on the Account of Our Lord's Resurrection since that Time with equal or stronger Reason than the former continued till he Rose from the dead p. 57 Sect. XIII Other Arguments for the First-day-Sabbath Vindicated from the Objections of Mr. B. Of a Sabbath-days Journey After three Days may be understood on the third Day he rose again John 8.56 Psalm 118.22 Psalm 2.7 Acts 20.7 cleared and Vindicated Of the beginning of the Christian Sabbath p. 61. Sect. XIV More Texts cleared Rev. 1.9 10. of being in the Spirit on the Lords-day Math. 12.8 Mark 2.27 Jesus Christ Lord of the Sabbath Of the Lord Supper Christs Resurrection commemorated on the First-day of the Week by Institution p. 79 Sect. XV. Gal. 4.9 10. Explained What days excluded from binding Christians Col. 2.16 What Sabbaths meant as Shadows to vanish when Christ came Math. 24.20 no Argument for the Seventh-day-Sabbath p. 92 Sect. XVI Of the Morality of the Fourth Command The difference between Moral and Positive Between Naturally or Absolutely Moral and positively or secondarily Moral What the Fourth Commandment requires as Moral and Perpetual p. 101 Sect. XVII When to begin the Christian Sabbath and of the fit Time for Publick Worship on that day p. 116 Sect. XVIII The Argument of Tradition considered p. 118 Sect. XIX How far the Decalogue is in Force as to us Gentiles p. 125 Sect. XX. The Tradition of the Lords-day's Rest or First-day of the Week from the Apostles time to the end of the Fourth Century Of Easter and its Observation The change from the Seventh to the First-day not introduced by the Bishop of Rome p. 127 Sect. XXI The Conclusion of the whole with a Summary of what hath been Proved for the Observation of the First-day of the Week as the Christian Sabbath p. 130 A REPLY TO Mr. Bampfield's PLEA FOR THE Seventh-day-Sabbath THE very Title of the Book is justly lyable to Exception as that which does not fairly state the Question the second Enquiry being whether the fourth Command be repealed or altered for he very well knows that these against whom he Disputes even those who acknowledge the Morality of a Sabbath-day do neither pretend to the Repealing of the Command nor yet to the Alteration of it as such for they strenuously assert the Ratification of the preceptive part of it though they allow a practical Mutation of a single Clause therein which was at its first Injunction added as a Motive for the observance of the Seventh Weekly-day And therefore he should rather have stated the Enquiry after such a manner as this Whether every Clause in the Fourth Commandment be Moral or whether every Clause of it be absolutely Immutable or so imposed from the beginning as to be so 'T is not Ingenuous nor Candid so to propose the Controversie as though the Dissenters from him were either Repealers or Alterers of the Fourth Command Moreover the Annexion of this Query to the former and the Subservience of the former to this For 't is very evident that that weighty fundamental Enquiry is made to serve this Hypothesis by his Connexion thereof Page 5. thereto as though the Immutability of every Tittle to this Command was founded upon the Deity of our Lord Christ his creating the World and giving the Moral Law and the Denial of the one were vertually and consequentially the Denial of the other and so those that are for the observance of the Lords day for so I take leave now to call it are really and consequentially Ebionites
in this Conjecture And according to his Conjecture and the usual Phrase of Scripture our Saviour would have continued Forty Two days upon Earth For the Scripture in the number of Days does usually include both the First and Last day As in calling the last day of the Week the Seventh it takes into the Number both it and the First day of the Week for there are but Seven in all And so when it saith that our Saviour rose the Third day from the Dead it includes the First and Last days of the Three and therefore having the scriptural usual Phrase on our side and the Tradition of the Churches we have very good Ground to conclude that he ascended upon Thursday and he has no Ground but his own Conjecture for his Opinion of his Ascension upon Saturday But every little Surmise is made use of to exalt the Seventh above all the days of the Week and especially above the Lords day in this Controversie As to that Fancy of our Saviours coming to Judgment on the Seventh day I leave it as a Pure Fancy Here also he takes it for granted that our Saviour after his Resurrection appeared to his Disciples upon the Seventh day or at least he supposes it may well be granted because they were then assembled c. But he knows they met together on other days and particularly upon the First day on which our Lord appeared unto them And that Assembly in the First of the Acts if 't were on the Ascension day was according to Scripture numbering of days upon our Thursday But seeing he would make use of if we would grant our Lords appearing to his Disciples once on the Seventh day what an Advantage may we justly take for the First day from our Saviour's appearing so often unto them on the same so that there is no other day of the Week named whereon our Saviour manifested himself unto them after the Resurrection but this First day 'T is not said that he appeared unto them on the Second or Third nor at all on the Seventh and 't is very probable that all the Appearances of our Saviour which were not a few were on the First day Except only that on his Ascension day 'T is worth our serious Observance that as our Saviour would not grace the Seventh day with one particular express word of his Mouth about it during his Life-time so he would not honour it with one Appearance of his Human Nature to his Disciples throughout all the Forty days after his Resurrection Which to me seems plainly to signify that he would have a perpetual Silence thereof in his future Churches and that he had buried it in his Grave and would have it lye dormant there for ever SECT XI HAving done with this Conjecture we proceed to the Author's Question in the same Page Whether the Seventh-day-Sabbath was observed after the Resurrection and Ascension of Christ Whereof he thinks he demonstrates the Affirmative But is far enough from it by those Instances which he brings from the Apostles and especially and mostly from St. Paul yea only from him For though we take it for granted that many of the newly Proselyted Jews to the Doctrin and Faith of the Lord Jesus the ordinary and common sort of them did continue to observe the seventh-day-Seventh-day-Sabbath out of an Erroneous Conscience toward God and a Persuasion of the perpetual Obligation of the Fourth Command as to this Seventh day as they did also Circumcision the Passover and other Mosaical Rites and Consecrated Times for all which St. Paul in his Epistles to the Galatians and Colossians does clearly and severely reprove them Yet we say that the Apostles themselves never did so much less St. Paul the great Doctor of the Gentiles and the great Vindicator of their Freedom from the Rites and Days of the Old Testament-Administration For they were otherwise and better taught by their Lord and instructed by the Holy Ghost for they went indeed I mean Paul and his Companions into the Synagogues on the Sabbath-day I mean here the Seventh-day though it deserves not now that Name But 't was not in any Observance of that day as more Holy than another as 't was not in any Observance or Deference to the Synagogue as a more Holy Place than another that he went into it But 't was because that then and there the Jews were assembled in great Numbers because that was the time and that the place of their Solemn and Numerous Associations for their Divine Worship And he could not find so fit an Opportunity any other day nor so convenient a Room in any other place to Converse with them to Preach the Gospel to them to prove the Lord Jesus to be Gods promised and their expected Messiah to Convince them hereof and to Exhort them to Believe on him and Embrace him as such which his Zeal for Christs Glory and his Love to their Souls strongly constrained him to And this we assert was the only cause of his so often and so unusal going into their Synagogue on the Seventh day without any Difference as to Time and Place as if it were more holy than any other We know how ardently he longed after the Conversion and Salvation of his own Countrymen and Kinsfolk according to the Flesh how fervently he panted after our Lord Christs being acknowledged by them as that which would be their greatest Good and his greatest Glory in the World For so his Enemies would become his Friends his Basphemers of him as the worst of Deceivers would be turned to be his Praisers Adorers and Relyers on him as the Son of God the King of Israel and Saviour of the World And therefore this constrained him to apply himself to them in every Place and at every Time where he might discourse with most of them and with greatest Freedom and Advantage And if the Jews had convened on other Days in other Places in as great Crowds he could doubtless then and there have applyed himself unto them And had they accustomed their Assemblies at any other time or in any other place he would have made it his Custom and usual Manner to have associated with them The Reason that the Holy Ghost gives us of Paul's going into the Jews Synagogues on the Seventh day and making it his usual Custom is no where said as I remember that he might Worship with them much less that he might observe the day with them but only that he might Preach the Gospel to them and prove the Lord Christ to be their Messiah Wherefore seeing the Holy Ghost tells us every where that this was his great Design and this his great Work in their Synagogue Therefore it hence follows That if he could not have had such Advantages for this Work among them he would never then nor there have accompanied with them So far was he from any Respect either to Time or Place in this his Custom that he only made use of them in a
or at least the only happy Doctor of this great part of the Christian World no nor of the greatest or any considerable part thereof but only of a few here and there of unsetled Scruplous Superstitious minds No person could have a Rational and probable Prospect of a greater Return from such an Adventure or Crop from such a sowing And so wisely have judged that all his expectations would never quit his cost nor be worth his Risk Especially considering that 4. He should deeply have weighed the sad and sinful Consequences and scandalous Effects that his appearance in Print has a direct tendency to produce Though I trust such a tendency will be obstructed and frustrated by the good Spirit of God and by the Wise and setled Principles of our people The Natural Tendencies are such as these 1. An encouragement to the Profaners and deniers of the Lords-Day in their Principles and Practices They who have no Inclination to separate any Day as Holy to the Holy God in a performance of Holy Duties will take advantages from hence to decry the strict observance of the Lords-day and to fortifie themselves in their Idleness Recreations Worldliness and sinfulness thereon and withall slight and deride the Seventh-day-Sabbath as Judaical Fanatical and Singular and so being taken off from the First-day-Sabbath they will acknowledg none but give that and all the following days of the Week to their Interests and to their Lusts to Earth and to Hell And we have heard that this Book has already produced this fearful effect in our City 2. An Offence and Stumbling-Block to sincere and affectionate Saints who have their Hearts established in Grace and their Heads in the grand Fundamentals of Faith and Practice but are not acquainted with disputations about such remote things as these and therefore having very tender Consciences and dreading to offend God and to approach unto any moral evil hearing of such a piece as this from such an Author so known to some of them will be apt to be startled and excessively troubled with Fear lest they have hitherto lived in Sin and provoked God all their days by a Holy resting upon the Lords day and Working upon Saturday and so all their Services of God upon the one in the works of their General and the services of themselves their Families and the humane Society of which they are Members upon the other in the works of their particular Callings have been provocations and evils to be Repented of for we know what Aggravations scrupulous Consciences and a tempting Devil are apt to make of smallest things and to live in perpetual fears and doubts in their continuance in attendance upon Gods Ordinances on those days whereon they are only to be had in the most solemn manner and all of them at least in the professing Church of God And so they will be deprived of much of that Spiritual Comfort and saving profit thereby which they formely received in and by them And still would had not such an unhappy Scandal been laid in their way Which is no small Offence and Sin against Christ And this also we know to be another product thereof such Christians not daring to neglect the observance and Ordinances of the Lords-day because of their former Perswasion Practice and Experience and yet doing it with doubts and fears lest they should Sin thereby because of this Piece 2. A perverting and withdrawing of the more simple and unstable into this Opinion which we doubt not to assert and question not to evidence to be ill grounded and false and so will prove a scandal indeed even to lead into and to build up in Sin and an unwarrantable Practice And thus to Offend weak ones in Christ is a very great Evil 1 Cor. 8.11 12. But suppose the Authors notion be Orthodox and the contrary Heterodox yet another pernicious Tendencie of it is 4. By a Proselyting of some Persons or some Ministers so many as may make Assemblies and Congregations he will be the Author of a needless Schism and Separation and of inevitable Feuds Rancors and mutual Reproaches and Condemnations The Observers of the Lords day will decry and exclaim against the others as Jews and proud Schismaticks and the keepers of the Seventh day will censure and condemn the other as willful breakers of Gods express Command and profane compliers with the will and Traditions of Men. And he that has not the Gift of Prophesie may easily foretel what sinful and dismall fruits will grow upon such a Root of Bitterness Men should be cautious how they disturb the peace of the Church and rent our Saviours seamless Garment 5. He should seriously have pondered the Days and Times we are faln into the sad and deplorable Divisions of the Church of God among us and the dangerous and fearful Prejudices Rancours and Enmities begotten and fomented thereby with the uncharitable and inexcusable Effects they have produced already in Tongue Pen and Hand as the general Division between Conformists and Non-Conformists and the divers Opinions Parties and Separated Societies of the Latter Though blessed be God the most considerable and Orthodox of them the Independents and Presbyterians have coalesced in their Subscriptions to Articles of Agreement and how unseasonable and inconvenient 't is therefore to broach new Opinions among them and to increase their Divisions and Animosities and so also give an Advantange to their observers to encrease their prejudices and augment their Accusations against them and their Insultings over them as fickle inconstant and heady not knowing where to fix nor what to hold and Practise now that they have forsaken an universal and uninterrupted Conformity unto them Such a stout Non-Conformist to the Church of England ought to have used all caution not to have given the least occasion of weakning or vilifying his own Party 6 Lastly All these things laid together in the Ballance of a sound Judgment would have informed him that no such thing as he hath hereby attempted should have been undertaken unless it had been about the most weighty and necessary Truths of our Religion such as do necessarily concern the Glory of God and the Salvation of Souls or very near bordering thereupon Which I hope he does not beleive the Controversie to be seeing 't is not not about the Substance of Duty or the very heart of a Command but only about the least Circumstance if I may so term it of it Not about what Proportion of time God shall have Consecrated to his service For that is agreed to be the Seventh But only what day of two of them must be that day of the Week And therefore he that observes the First-day gives and devotes to God the Seventh part of his time as well and as much as he that does the Seventh-day Wherefore though the Authors Integrity and Intent may not be questioned yet certainly his Prudence in this Work and the Work under such Circumstances are no way plausible And he
did not foresee a more convenient Opportunity for it hereafter Only let us here consider what he himself here grants viz. That the Moral Law was written upon Man's Heart that it did consist in Knowledge Righteousness and Holiness wherefore the Seventh-day-Sabbath is no part of it because it was not written upon Man's Heart at first 1. Because God revealed it to Man after his Creation which needed not if it had been in him before 2. Because there are obscure Remains of the Moral Law in the Humane and Rational Creature with respect to all the other Commands as might be easily manifested by an Induction but none as to the Seventh-day-Sabbath It is true as to the Moral Substance of the Law that is found in Mankind even a Separation of time and proper Seasons for the Worship of God but this is not Nay it is so rare that not one among Ten thousand does dream of it or scarce one in an Age does so much as fancy it 3. Because by his own Orthodox Assertion in this very place the Moral Law is reingraven that is more fully clearly and distinctly and in its Spiritual Sense and Latitude upon the Hearts of those that are revived by the Spirit of God which is the Image of God reinstamped upon the Regenerate and Converted as St. Paul saith Col. 3.10 Eph. 4.24 Now it is as clear as the Sun that the Generality of the Called inlightned and sanctified have not the Law of the Seventh-day-Sabbath written in their Hearts Nay they have an Aversion from it Of all truly Religious ones that ever I knew Mr. B is the Solitary Person of this Perswasion whence it must necessarily follow that it is no part of the Moral Law or of that Image of God which was instamped upon Man plainly and fully at first and remains imperfectly and obscurely in all Men and is restored to the Saints in their Regeneration and is increased in them in their progressive Sanctification Whence it is also clear that this Command thus stated was not given by Christ to Jews and Gentiles in the Creation And his proof for it is very weak and invalid which is taken from those express Commands given by God to the Jews of causing them that were either their Substance Slaves bought with their own Mony or Proselytes Strangers by Nation but yet joyning themselves to them and dwelling among them and so were of their Body who were bound as he himself there acknowledges and proves to be Circumcised to observe the Passover c. And now what Tendency hath this to prove that the Seventh-day-Sabbath was given to Jews and Gentiles When this proves only that those Gentiles were bound to keep it who were within the Gates and of their Body Politick But has no reference to nor does at all concern other Gentiles some of which might never hear of the Name of Israel or of any of their Laws and Sabbaths It pities me to see such weak and invalid Arguments which if they have any force it is to Judaize all the Christian World As to the second part of the Question whether the weekly Seventh-day-Sabbath were observed ever after during the Old Church We acknowledge it was so still among the Jewish Nation and he needed not to have produced any proofs for it But withall we say never among any other Nations nor any Footstep of it which is a sure Proof against its proper Morality As to that Observation Page 28. That the Seventh Day throughout the Old and New Testament was called the Sabbath day It was fit it should be so all along till our Saviour's Resurrection because it was the Sabbath day till then And afterward if it be so called it was in compliance with the Jews who still held it so to continue or to use the Expression which was in most common use whereby the day might be known they spake of as we do of Sunday Monday c. only to declare what day of the Week we mean or else to declare the Abolition thereof And if we remember it we may make some use of that Assertion that the Seventh day and Sabbath are Synonimous in the Language of the Old and New Testament SECT V. THis Question he endeavours to prove Assirmatively Page 29. That Christ did in the Flesh confirm the Ten Commands without any Exception of the Fourth Commandment or any part or tittle thereof Which if we should fully grant without the least Exception it would make nothing for his Cause nor against ours for as long as Christ was in the World so long we all agree that the Seventh day of the Week was the injoyed Sabbath and therefore ought to be observed and so might have been commanded by Christ to be kept And so we know he ratified the Ceremonial Law by commanding the cleansed Lepers to go and shew themselves to the Priest and offer the Gift which Moses commanded for their cleansing Matt. 8.4 And so also the Judicial Law by injoyning them to pay Tithe of all even of Mint Annis and Cummin Matt. 23.23 which I think few or none do hold to be purely Moral and so the Brother 's taking of his Childless Brother's Wife he seems to confirm by a Tacit Approbation to the Sadducees objecting that to him to baffle and puzzle him about the Resurrection Matt. 22.23 30. Yet nevertheless those Laws were not permanent but expired the Ceremonial with himself and the Judicial with the Judicial State and Polity Withall we add that our Saviour did for ever confirm the Moral Law which is contained in the Ten Commandments And so the Fourth as far as Moral and in all that it commands as such But withall we say that some Passages of the Fourth Command are neither Moral nor yet commanded therein as such or of the Substance thereof Whereof the mentioning of the last the Seventh Day of the Week to be the Sacred Rest is one which here is but nakedly asserted but we defer the Proof and such as was to expire at his Resurrection Wherefore we say that that Passage Matt. 5.17 Till Heaven and Earth pass away one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass away must refer only to the Moral Law Quatenus Moral and as it refers to and obliges all Nations which several Passages belonging to the Ten Commands do not whereof this is one about the Seventh day and I think th is may be cleared by this Argument That which neither our Saviour himself nor any of his Apostles did command or enjoyn to be followed by his or their Disciples and Followers cannot be Moral But neither he nor they did ever enjoyn the Seventh-day-Sabbath therefore it 's not Moral Our Saviour in none of his Discourses that I remember did ever expresly or particularly command the Observance of the Sabbath-day but spake and did things which seem to declare the Abolition of the Seventh day neither do any of his Apostles in any of their Writings impose it upon or command
and not the seventh in order or the last day of the Week This we say is not expresly commanded therein and might be altered for another day of the Seven upon very good and authentick Reasons and Grounds as it is from it to the first In this same Page he returns to our Saviours Confirmation of the Decalogue from Mat. 5.17 19. Luke 16.17 and then asks why those places confirm all the 10 Commands and not the Seventh-day-Sabbath and tells us that he can assign no other reason for it but the marvelous Corruption of our Nature which inclines us to be Gods c. when yet he knows that they that are for the change of the Seventh into the First-day-Sabbath have given him many Reasons and good scriptural Grounds and Arguments which do amount in their Esteems to a divine Authority for that Change though they do not produce an express Command for it as that which he seems to require in this Paragraph yet what amounts thereto but it seems all these are not Reasons to him are not so much as Shews of Reasons But the only Reason is Man's Corruption Pride and Rebellion Whereas he cannot but know that many of those who in Doctrin and Practice admit of this Change are as free from these Vices and have as much mortifyed them as himself and are as Eminent for Holiness and Humility and Obedience to God as any Sabbatarian can pretend to be And their Earnestness for the First day does not spring from the Looseness of others thereon nor mainly and chiefly from their Education and Custom But because they know 't is not Moral as other Parts and Appendix's of the Ten Commandments are not and therefore not confirmed by Christ in those Expressions with many other good and solid Grounds And here I shall ask him by way of requital if the Seventh-day-Sabbath were really and primarily Moral and by Christ confirmed as well as all the other Commands which are undeniably so Whence comes it to pass that in all his Sermons and Discourses that he made to the Jews about the Moral Law he did not so much as ever mention the Sabbath to his Hearer either by way of Recommendation of it to them or commending of them for their Zeal for it and tthe strict Observance of it nor yet commanding of its Observance or teaching them how they should Keep and Sanctify it according to its first Institution seeing 't is clear that he in his Discourse doth particularize every other Duty of the Moral Law and Exhorts and Requires Obedience thereto In all his most copious and glorious Sermon upon the Mount where he Explains Enlarges upon and Injoyns the other Moral Duties we have not a Word about their Sabbath and when ever he enumerates Particulars of the Moral Law of the Decalogue he never mentions among them the Sabbath nor when so many particular and express Occasions were given him by the Pharisees and captions Jews in their condemning him and his Disciples as Profaners of the Sabbath c. to expound the Duty of the Sabbath and to shew them wherein the due religious and acceptable Observance of the Seventh-day-Sabbath consisted There is not the least Word appertaining hereunto uttered by him only a Vindication of his own and his Disciples Practices from a Profanation thereof If I may judge at the Reasons I think they may be such as these 1 Because he knew that it was not of the same nature with the others not Moral as they nor necessary to be kept to Salvation as they 2. Because he saw the Jews too superstitiously and zealously affected towards their seventh-day-Seventh-day-Sabbath already 3. Because neither they nor we neither Jews nor Gentiles should have any thing from his Mouth that might have the least colour of confirming that sabbath-Sabbath-day 4. Because he designed its speedy Absolution as the Seventh day and its Conversion into the First day 5. Because as Place Priesthood Mode outward Ceremonies of Divine Worship which were before his coming into the Flesh were to be altered by his Authority as King of the Church so was Time also the day on which those were chiefly and most slemnly observed into another day wherein his own Institutions were to be chiefly and generally practised by his Church And for these and such like Reasons he did not only particularly recommend and enjoyn but did also speak and do as has been formerly hinted and may be futurely evinced such words and things as had a doctrinal and practical Tendency towards its Expiration Page 33. He imputes the Observation of the First day but to a good Intention which has been the cause of all manner of gross Superstitious Errors Bloody Wars c. As though this general Opinion and Practice of the Universal Church all along since the days of our Lord Christ had no other Foundation but in the deluded Brain of silly Zealots and not the least Footing for it in the Word of God An unworthy Suggestion and a most invidious Comparison and such as very ill becomes a Man of his professed Candor and Reading 'T is strange that a Man should fancy that Commenius when he exhorts to a Reformation of the Government Doctrin Worship and Practice of the Church according to the Word of God and the Patern in the Mount should mean as one if not the chiest of those Particulars the removal of the First-day-Sabbath and the reversion of the seventh day in lieu thereof When he knows that all the Divines and Doctors that are orthodox and his Adversaries in this Opinion prescribe the same rule for the Reformation and call upon those in Authority to subserviate all their own Laws Ecclesiastial and Civil to an Observance of the Laws of God and of Christ And Commenius himself in his Practice and in his own Church was an Observer and Sanctifier of the First-day-Sabbath as he here acknowledgeth so a Disowner and Rejector of the Seventh day And therefore questionless did not esteem the Seventh-day-Sabbath to be any part of that rule according to which he would have all Churches regulated But here we see what a strong fancy can do it can transfigure into its self those things that are quite dissonant if not directly contrary thereto SECT VII HE gives us his Opinion Page 34. of abrogating the Ceremonial Laws But why does he not bring us an Express Command for their Abrogation as he requires us to do for not the Abrogation but only the Mutation of the Sabbath from one Day of the Week to another For I assert and can prove it that some part of the Ceremonial Law was more confirmed by the Mouth of Christ than his Seventh-day-Sabbath I take leave to call it his because though 't was Gods day before the Resurrection of Christ yet now 't is not so but Men will be favourably to themselves and their own Opinions while they are rigorous towards others and their more Orthodox and Scriptural Resentments In the same Page he gives us a
cannot So that we have granted him his desire in shewing him what Law Christ meant in such Passages even the Ceremonial as well as the Moral for they were the Object of the Superstitious Jews greatest Zeal and they persecuted him and his Disciples as the Overthrowers of the Ceremonial Laws and therefore Christ tells them He came not to destroy but to fulfil them c. By all that hath been already said is fully shewn the Impertinency of those Quotations Page 35. 38. where our Saviour makes use of an confirms the Moral Law For there is not one word of his Sabbath in them all In our Saviour's Carriage and Language he vindicates the Sanctity of the Temple John 2.13 17. so he does Circumcision and Authorizes its Administrations upon the Sabbath day and derives it from a more August Antiquity than Moses John 7.22 23. If our Author had any such Expression from our Saviour's Mouth concerning the Sabbath how would he have triumphed therein and have fetch'd its everlasting Establishment therefrom But there is not one such Syllable concerning it These have a greater shew for their Authority from our Saviour's Discourses than the Seventh-day-Sabbath yet I doubt not but he looks on them as no longer in Force and of no Obligation in these latter and Evangelical days Page 37. He produces the Church of England Articles the Presbyterian Confession the Independants Declaration of Faith for the Ratification of the Moral Law who yet are all for the Exclusion of the last day of the Week from being the Christian Sabbath and thereby declare their Rejection of it from being any part thereof And thus all the Authority both Divine and Humane that he produceth makes nothing at all for him but very much rather against him With which this question is concluded SECT VIII HE proposes the Question Page 38. Whether Christ in his own Person did not observe the Seventh Week-day-Sabbath and no other during his Life To which we answer affirmatively with him that he did so that he was bound to do it that it was part of his Righteousness which he was to fulfil for he was born under the Authority and Obligation of the Old Testament Administrations even of the Ceremonial ones and therefore was Circumcised the eighth day went up to Jereusalem with his Mother in his Childhood to keep the Annual Feasts and in his Manhood was a Constant Conscientious and obedient Attender upon and observer of the Passover as we read in the History of his Life after his Baptism and manifesting himself to the World home to his Death or just before his Sufferings and so doubtless did by all the other Ceremonial Laws according to Gods Injunction of them and was an Observer of all other positive Divine Laws and so consequently must he be of this for neither all the former nor this particular were to be abrogated and lain aside as to their Authority till he himself was lain aside and buried in the Grave Without doubt he also dutifully kept and practised all the Judicial Laws being born a Member of their State as well as of their Church as far as their Roman Lords would permit for the Authority of these Laws lasted as long as the Judicial Polity and with it declined and perfectly expired Will this Pleader for the Seventh day contend for the Authority of all those Ceremonial and Judicial Laws home to our days because our Blessed Lord observed and kept them He must do so if this Argument be of any weight And it has been the Fate of all his Arguments hitherto to militate as much for all the Ceremonies except that of the Sabbaths being given in Innnocency of the Jews as for the Seventh day Enough for their own Confutation Just another such Medium is cunningly insinuated Page 39. to prove the Goodness of the Observation of this Sabbath viz. Its Antiquity having been the Sabbath of the Church for four thousand Years which will introduce Sacrifices into the Worship of God a Bloody Offering up of Beasts for they are as ancient within a day or two as 't is probable for God taught Adam to offer up such Sacrifices as the Types of the Seed of the Woman who was to have his Heel bruised by the Serpent his Humane Nature murthered by the Devil and his Agents but then sacrificed and offered up to God as the Expiratory Victim for the sins of Fallen Man And 't is probable that those Skins which God made Coats of for Adam might be of such sacrificed Beasts And Adam taught his Sons to Sacrifice to God And we read Gen. 4.4 That Abel brought to God the Firstlings of his Flock and the Fat thereof Will he therefore plead that their venerable Antiquity must still give them a place in the Evangelical Dispensation now that that Grand and All-sufficient Sacrifice the substance of those Shadows is offered up I trow not So neither can the Antiquity of the former Sabbath till our Saviour's days and through his days be any Argument for its Admission and Authority now seeing by our Saviours coming we have the new Heaven and the new Earth which the Prophets foretold Isa 65.17 66.22 and a more glorious and blessed Work accomplished than that of the Creation which doth much more deserve a Sanctification and Separation of that day whereon its Compleater rested from all his former Labours and a new external Administration was introduced and a new day and consecrated time suitably also instituted SECT IX IT is demanded Page 40. Whether Christ did rest the Seventh-day-Sabbath when he was in the Grave And it is affirmatively resolved that his Soul rested in Heaven and his Body rested in the Grave that day All as a Proof that our Lord Christ himself did in his state of Death confirm that Seventh-day-Sabbath as well as by his Practice and Doctrin in Life and so recommended it to the Observance of all the future Churches Which Notion if it could be proved would do more for the Seventh-day-Sabbath than all the Arguments he hath yet brought If he could rationally demonstrate that the blessed Redeemer did rest on the Seventh day from all his Humiliation and Sufferings he would then defeat the great ground on which all the Churches since our Lords coming and consummating the work of Redemption have built upon for the Change of the Seventh day into the First-day-Sabbath For they say they do it because on the first day our Lord Jesus God-man rested from that more Wonderful Glorious Gracious Profitable and Ravishing Work than that of the Creation and more laborious and difficult work to himself being really and dreadfully so to his Humane Nature But indeed this Notion is a very strange and an uncouth one because the Rest of the Mediator in this Sense cannot be thought to be any other than a happy and Complacential Reflection upon the work of our Redemption merited by all his Active and Passive Obedience which could not be until he had waded through
Hebraick Critick Dr. Lightfoot informs us Yet here our Lord expresly commands the Healed Person to take up his Bed and walk that is to carry it either to his own House or to some other convenient place for so he did in obedience to this Command v. 10. Whereat the Jews were very highly offended and condemned it as an unlawful Act and sought to persecute and kill Christ for enjoyning of it v. 16. Now we would enquire to what end our Lord Christ did enjoyn this Person to carry such a Burden on the Sabbath If it be said it was to try his Faith and Obedience or clearly to evince the Perfection of his miraculous Cure or both of these 'T is replied that these things could be as well done without the carriage of his Bed He might have gone every where and proclaimed his Cure and his Restorer he might have done it by leaping dancing and praising God as the Cripple in Acts 3. Wherefore 't is probably apprehended by learned Men that it was a practical Proof of his being Supream Lord of the Sabbath and of his Authority to change the old day into another of his own appointment and this was a real blow begun to be given to it Besides all that was said against these his Arguments for the Seventh day to be the Lords day meant in the Revelation 'T is observable that the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is used but once more in the New Testament and that is 1 Cor. 11.20 where the Sacrament of our Saviours Body and Blood is called the Lords Supper in which it is clear it signifies both his Authoritative Institution thereof and that his own Death is signified thereby The Lord is both the Institutor thereof and his Death the thing commemorated thereby And therefore Reason and comparing Scripture with Scripture would require that it should be so understood here also even as a day of his own Institution as the Son of Man For so he appeared to John to be in the Vision And so St. John calls him Rev. 1.13 and so a day for his own Commemoration even of his Resurrection viz. the First day of the Week which none deny to be that day And 't was on that day whereon the Author of the Revelations saw the Lord Jesus walking in the midst of the Golden Candlesticks with the Seven Stars in his Right Hand that is with his Orthodox and Zealous Ministers receiving their Light and Heat from him the Sun of Righteousness And then diffusing it abroad in the Churches or in the midst of the Congregations which we know the Orthodox Fathers throughout all Ages of the Church have principally done upon the First day of the Week the day of the Resurrection And so the future Practice of the Church proves the Lords day to be the First day of the Week Again St. John calls this the Lords day after his Resurrection and our Saviour tells him Verse 18. I am he that liveth and was dead and behold I live forevermore Implying that as after his Incarnation Obedience Death Resurrection Ascension Session on the Right Hand of God and Mission of the Holy Ghost all the former carnal and ceremonial Administrations vanished and a new Government new external Modes of Worship were introduced which were properly the Lords and bear the Stamp of his Authority as Mediator as God-Man over the Church and all her Ordinances So this was also the Day of his own Institution after his Humiliation and Exaltation for the Celebration of his new Institutions the other being excluded with the former Appendixes thereto What follows under this Head being what has been spoken to before and is frequently inculcated as of great Moment for him as the Moral Law as the now changing of the Sabbath meer Pretences of the other party c. as being but a little better than the begging the Question and taking that for granted which we utterly deny These I tacitly pass by and leave the Judicious Reader to judge if after all has been said it be not far more probable that the Lords day spoken of in the Revelations is the First day of the Week as all Schollars and Churches almost have hitherto believed than the Seventh day thereof which a very few scarce deserving the Title of Number have pitched upon as a Prop to their tottering Seventh-day-Sabbath SECT XV. THere are other Texts which he produces Page 69.70 as Rom. 14.5 6. Gal. 4.9 10 11. Col. 2.16 17. from whence we hold and contend the Seventh day to be everlastingly excluded from the Christian future Sabbath the chief being the Two latter of these We say in Gal. by Days are meant the Jewish Seventh day because the Apostle mentions their Months that is their Observance of the New-Moon Festivals Times Which some apply to Easter Pentecost Feast of Tabernacles c. and Years which some think is meant of the yearly Feast of Atonement and Expiation Or it may be understood of the year of Jubilee if not the Great Jubilee every Fiftieth year yet the less of every Seventh year which St. Paul probably observed them very Superstitious in But whatever the Difference may be in the particular Applications of these Terms yet they generally hold the more rare or seldom Jewish Festivals to be meant and by Days then what other Festival of the Jews can be understood but the Seventh day If he do not mean their Weekly Sabbath by Days it cannot well be conceived what it should be We doubt not but by the latter Three Expressions Months Times and Years are meant Jewish Festivals And why Days should not signify the same cannot well be imagined Besides we find that these Galatians were greatly infected with the false Leven of Judaical Doctors who taught them to observe Circumcision c. as is seen clearly by the Epistle and seems to be the chief occasion of Writing it to turn them from and sortify them against such false Doctrins and dangerous Observances And therefore hence we conclude St. Paul condemns the Galatian Church for keeping the Seventh-day-Sabbath as well as other Judaical Rites and Festivals and tells them he is afraid he had bestowed his labour in vain upon them In that Text to the Colossians we have the Observance of Sabbaths expresly spken of and thereby St. Paul discarded from their Observance as Shadows which were to vanish when Christ the Body was come By which we contend is meant the Weekly-Sabbath because that in the Scripture is Chiefly Mostly if not Solitarily the Acceptation thereof And we have heard him again and again asserting that 't is the Intent of this Word every where And I believe so whenever it stands absolutely as here without some Annexion or other to alter its Signification And what Reason can be given why here it should not so be understood that only here and no place else in the Bible it should not be taken for the Weekly-Seventh-day Moreover here the Apostle seems plainly to intend
here spoken of is the Seventh day that the Flight here spoken of is that at nearest of the Destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple about Forty Years after Christ And therefore our Saviour knowing what a great Trouble of Spirit 't would be to gracious and devout Souls to be forced to flee for their Lives on that day whereon they should have been Glorifying their God and Refreshing their own Souls in Religious Duties and Holy Communion with the Father and the Son He exhorts them to Pray against such an Evil thereby implying as he would have it the Continuance of that Sabbath and his own Confirmation thereof till then and so forever Wherein I think I have I am sure I intended to have given all the strength of what he hath written from hence and not concealed or lessened any whit of it Unto which I proceed to answer that 1. Some understand this to be a proverbial kind of Speech to express the Difficulty and Irksomness of a thing that 't will be as tedious as a Journy in a Cold Snowy Dirty Winter or as a Flight to a superstitious Jew upon a sabbath-Sabbath-day 2. Others apprehend it to be spoken to the Disciples in this Sense Pray that your Flight may not be on the seventh-day-Seventh-day-Sabbath Because thereby you will greatly offend the superstitious Jews who will deem you as Profaners of that day hereby and so will be so far from Pitying and Relieving you that they will hate and michief you all they can As we know the Jews were great Enemies to them because they were so to their Ceremonial Worship as they deemed them and to their Sabbaths too and hence were so far from sheltring them from that they betrayed them to and delivered them up into the Hands of Heathenish Persecutors 3. It may well be interpreted specifically of a Sabbath and not numerically of the Seventh day only And so 't is as if our Lord had said pray that on what ever day your Solemn Rest for Religious Worship and Divine Service shall be that on that day your Flight may not be for 't will then be very grievous and more intolerable than on any day of the Week And so includes yea primarily intends the First day the Dominical day But 4. To be as fair as we can with him and to grant all that he does desire we will suppose that our Saviour did mean by his words what they 't is most probable did understand by them even the Seventh day to be that Sabbath on which they were to deprecate their Flight Yet this will be also far enough from so clear a Proof for him as he imagines For we know 't is usual in the Holy Writers to speak of Evangelical days and of the Worship of God in them under Legal Metaphors to wit by Sacrifices by erecting of Altars by coming up to the Temple c. as all that know the Stile of the Prophets cannot but be acquainted with because these were then the Services which that People performed and they knew no other and probably would not have endured the mentioning of any other So here our Saviour speaks indeed literally of the seventh-day-Seventh-day-Sabbath because the Jews and his Disciples who were Jews knew yet of no other neither were prepared to hear of the future substituting of another day in its place Yet this does no more confirm the Seventh day to be the future Sabbath than those other Scriptural Sayings do the Ceremonial Rites to be the Evangelical Worship or the external Modes of serving God in the times of Reformation and when the Body and Substance of these Signs and Figures were exhibited Besides we say our Saviour did very well foresee that many of his Disciples as we know the Churches of Galatia and Colosse and those of Jerusalem with James did would many years after his Decease dote upon the judaical Ceremonies and would reverence them out of Conscience to God their Author and Imposer And so also on the judaical day And therefore our Lord fore-apprehending this bids them to deprecate their Flight on such a day which their own Conceits and false Apphrehensions of things would make more grievous and burdensom to themselves not his Injunctions or the real Obligation of the day And there is nothing more common than this way of speaking according to Mens Apprehension of things without any the least Approbation of that Apprehension So we find our Saviour speaking in his Discourses of the Jews Circumcision very commendably and honourably yet I hope this did not confirm it for the future But here it may be objected But he did not Prophesie of its future Observance or require any thing of them upon a Supposition of its Continuance afterwards and therefore this is nothing to the purpose But we know he could not but foresee that they would observe it and keep it up in the Churches after his Departure from them and its Abrogation and so these Speeches of his would then be upon Record and probably made a Plea for its Use especially seeing he never did as I remember speak any thing against it or expresly of its future Extrusion out of the Churches Which Speeches of his cannot Authorize their future Practice Neither can our Saviours foresight of their superstitions and mistaken Observance of the Seventh day and his Command for their Ease-sake upon that Prevision authorize the Continuance thereof Therefore seeing there are so many Solutions given to this Plea against the Apostles meaning of the Seventh day when he condemns them for their Observance of Days and Sabbaths whereof some one may be deemed sufficient but much more all together It cannot by any impartial judicious Person be thought of any Prevalency to evade an express Prohibition of the Apostle of the Observance of that day which we contend his Prohibition of Sabbaths to be the Seventh being the most famous of all Sabbaths Being that which is mostly if not only intended by that Expression in Scripture and in that very word whereby the Holy Ghost in the New Testament intends and means the Seventh-day-Sabbath SECT XVI HE begins Page 75. to betake himself to the Command it self and would from thence collect an absolute Necessity of the perpetual Observance of the last day of the Week asserting the Morality of the whole Command and endeavouring from some Passages and Letters of that Law to ratify his own Opinion herein Therefore I shall take leave with as much Brevity and Plainness as I can to give my weak Thoughts about it and leave it to the Learned and Judicious to determine Here we must premise a Distinction or two 1. Between Moral and Positive between that which is Good Just and Holy in it self which emerges from the right Constitution of the rational Creature and so would be a Duty if 't were never externally injoyned by God And that which has no such innate Goodness neither would have been performed as a Duty by Man were it not imposed by a
spoken of Rev. 1.10 But I think I have disproved that Proof Page 91 He himself recurs to Tradition and undertakes to prove that throughout several Centuries there have been Churches who assembled themselves themselves for religious Worship on the Seventh Day And so this is set as a Bar against and a Counterplea to that Prime Primitive and universal Tradition for the Lords-day To which I answer in general 1. That a few Exceptions against a general Rule do rather confirm than weaken it 2. Every Antiquity or Tradition will not cannot serve to prove either Practice or Doctrin to be commendable or orthodox nor derogate from what is so For the Denyal of the Deity of our Lord Jesus Christ is as ancient as the Apostles Days in which Corinthus was such an Heretick and the Ebionites Photinians and Arains have handed down that damning Doctrin to our Socinians 3. Scarce any Church since the Apostles Days have been without out their Flaws in Doctrin or Worship or both and we doubt not but this hath been one of them if it can be proved to be practised 4. In many Churches where they did observe the seventh-Seventh-day as a Day of publick Assemblies yet in them the lord's-Lord's-day was also kept and observed and that too as the chief Day For on the lord's-Lord's-day all in general were ingaged to wait upon God's publick Worship not so on Saturdays On the lord's-Lord's-day all the Ordinances of the Gospel were administred not so on Saturdays And so still the Lords-day had the Preheminence even in those very Churches Which general Answers may be enough to stop the Mouths of all his ancient Witnesses Yet I will take a little Pains and imploy a little Time to inquire into the Particulars for I think they neither deserve nor require much of either As to his first Instance if all the following be such I am sure they are stark naught yea they are not at all For he asserts that in the Apostles times the Seventh Day was observed as the publick Day of divine Worship Here he must meau by Christins or else he trifles But he can never find in all the Scripture that in the Apostles Days there was ever one Society of Christians gathered on the Seventh Day Indeed St. Paul did go on that Day into the Assemblies of the Jews to preach the Gospel to many of them which he could not conveniently do on any other Day But never did he invite any to keep that Day never did he assemble afterward on that Day when he was separated from their Synagogues finding them imperswasible and obstinate But now we can produce several Christian-Assemblies on the First day the Lords day after our Saviours Resurrection in which our Lord appeared to them And 't was then their Custom to Assemble and bring their Publick Alms to the Publick Treasure wherefore I cannot but marvel at this bold Assertion The Basis of traditionary Structue being so visibily sunk and come to nought makes me suspect that the erected Stories thereof will tumble and fall So that 't is clear we have the Apostle Examples the Churches Use in their days and their Commands against the Seventh day and for the Lords day as a sufficient Demurr to all his future Tradition Into which I now descend and must say that I have searched the Magdeburgenses for his Quotations but cannot find them where he quotes them and therefore believe that the Author used either another Edition or another that is various either in the Bulk or in the Pages I found in them the Eliberine Council but there he Twenty Third Canon hath nothing of a Fast upon a Sabbath day As to the other Authors I have them not and know not where to get them that I might peruse them neither is it needful for the matter of these Quotations makes very little for his Cause For whoever considers them will find 1. That very many if not most of them declare the Establishment and Separation of the Dominical day for Divine Service 2. That another great part of them prove the Observation or keeping both of the Dominical day and the Sabbath in very many of the Churches 3. These tell us that the Sabbath was kept as a Fast by the most if not by all of the Churches that kept it and the Lords-day as a Festival which all our Ecclesiastical Writers acknowledge as before And so evince that it was not kept with so equal Authority as the Lords day So does Dr. Young at large which also shews that they never observed it as the ancient Sabbath or 't was enjoyned in the Fourth Command But upon a new Account or for a new Reason even because our Lord Christ lay dead in the Grave on that day Therefore they would Fast and Humble themselves because their Lord and Saviour was on that day in his lowest Humiliation So far were they from this Gentleman's Opinion that his State of Death was his Rest after his Work of Redemption and they would observe the First day with Praises and Holy Rejoycings as the Christian Festival because 't was the Lords day of Triumph over his Enemies even of his Resurrection These include the greatest part by far of his Historical Examples and a very few are left which do not expresly acknowledge these things And they that do not express them may well be thought to include them I mean though some of these Quotations do not verbally tell us that when they kept this Sabbath they also kept the Lords day yet it may well be presumed they did so seeing 't was the common Practice of such Churches to observe both of them in the foresaid manner Such an one for Example is that of Socrates Scholasticus who tells us for I have examined him and find he does verbatim tell us in a manner all the Churches in the World do Celebrate and Receive the Holy Mysteries every Sabbath day after other Yet the People inhabiting Alexandria and Rome of an old Tradition do not use it Yet doubtless they also observed the Lords-day seeing 't was that which Constantine had before by Edict enjoyned the Churches to do And he saith in the very next Page and in the same Chapter of this Quotation that at Caesarea in Cappadocia and at Cyprus the Priests and Bishops do Preach and Expound Holy Scripture at Evening-Prayer on the Saturdays and Sundays by Candle-Light and therefore we may well presume that the other Churches did which before he spake of These being some of these all As for his Historical Account when the Lord's day was brought into Scotland viz. An. 1208. It may be very well answered that the initiating or bringing in of the Dominical day does not refer to the day it self but only to the Authority that introduced it even that in that Year it began to be Established by the Authority of a Council which before it had not been Or if it refer to the day it self it may not simply be understood as if that
Jehovah and the Maker of all things as such yet the same Lord Christ is also the Son of Man and made by Jehovah as such And therefore as Christ as God-man he neither created the World nor rested from that Creation Though in the Body of the Question the Efficient of the Creation be only stiled Lord by which may be equally understood the Son of God before and after the Incarnation yet in the Margin he interprets this by the word Christ and therefore we have given a proper a direct and sufficient answer to that part thereof And here it will be worth our observing that in a proper and strict Sense Jehovah the Creator of the World cannot be said to rest because it is impossible that he should either admit of any Weariness or Pain in himself yea or of any the least new motion in himself God being an Infinite Perfect Immutable Act and Life cannot possibly admit of any such thing and all the Changes that he makes either substantially of nothing into Being or Alteration of the Qualities and Conditions of Being c. without himself are and must be without the least Mutation and Alteration within himself And this the very Light of Nature and Metaphysicks will teach us as well as the light of Scripture and Theology as Mal. 3.6 Jam. 1.17 So that though God may properly be said to conclude or end his work of Creation yet cannot he properly be said to rest from it or after it because this in its formal Notion implies Motion Activity and exerting of Power and Ability with a Weariness thereby which the Deity is infinitely free from Which I desire may be heeded because I perceive the Author would fain have every Clause in the Fourth Command to be Moral and of necessary and perpetual Observance and especially this of Gods resting on the Seventh day Now that which is Moral as to Motive and Obligation to the Humane Nature is that which the light of Nature right Reason or to go higher the perfectly irradiated Mind of our first Parents would have of its self discerned and closed with as a Motive and Engagement to Piety or Charity or any Duty Which I think Gods resting on the Seventh day may well be asserted not to be because 1. Reason or the illuminated Mind of Man could never suppose God to take after his work any real Rest or Refreshment in himself which he had not before And Secondly God's working in the maintaining of the Creation in its Being Order and Operation is altogether as great and as much as it was in the Production of it and therefore the School-men say That Preservation is a continual Act of Creation because the same Word and Power is exerted in the one as in the other Yea if we respect the Work it self or the Term of it without God we may well say that the Preservation of the World is a greater work than the Creation of it Though as to the Act it self in God all is the same being the Act of the same infinite Power Wisdom and Godhead because of the contrary Qualities of the Creatures mutually tending to each others Destruction but especially because of the Malice of Devils and the sinful wretched Depravity of Fallen Man which without an infinite Wisdom and Power exerted to the contrary would soon bring all to Ruin at least it would do so by the Humane Nature for which all other things of this World were made and are continued And therefore this Motive to a Seventh-day-Sabbath cannot be in and of it self Moral And this our Saviour clearly shews John 5.17 My Father worketh hitherto and I work Which he gives by way of Reply to those who in the former Context taxed and condemned him for a Breach of the Sabbath Grounding it seems tacitely at least their Accusation from that Passage in the Fourth Command of God's resting on that day as though it had been of a Moral and Perpetual Obligation And therefore our Saviour here tells them It was not so for both he and his Father did work on the Seventh day as well as on any other day of the week from which 't is clear this Clause in the Command is not Moral but Positive As to the Second Part of the Question whether the Seventh-day-Sabbath was Sanctifyed and so Instituted by him and was observed by him who made the World We answer 't was Sanctified and Instituted by the Lord as Jehovah but not as Jesus Christ And then that 't was observed by Jesus Christ Incarnated but not as Jehovah because the Observation of it seems to import some dutiful Obligation upon its Observer which cannot be supposed with respect to the God-head but may be so with respect to the Lord Christ as Mediator in his Human Nature But then this Observance makes no more for the keeping the Seventh-day-Sabbath than for the Observance of Pentecost the Passover the Feast of Tabernacles and other Ceremonial and Judicial Laws under which our Lord Christ was and which he observed in the days of his Flesh the Mosaical and the Ceremonial Administration being in force all the while he lived and expired with his Death and were buried in his Grave as to their Vertue and Obligation And so we assert the Seventh-day-Sabbath did also which I hope we may evince in the progress of this Discourse By what has been said we have a sufficient Reply to his Three Proofs which follow his Querly for it 's Affirmative and how they may be orthodoxly admitted or else as Heterodox rejected And here we may take notice that all the former Particulars which the Author makes use of as Foundations to build his beloved Notion upon do as equally militate and plead for the Observance of all the Ceremonial and Judicial Laws as for the Seventh-day-Sabbath for the Creator of the World enjoyned them as well as this The great Jehovah imposed them as well as this The Law-giver gave those Laws as well as this And our Lord Instituted and Sanctifyed those as well as this as he was God and observed those as well as this as Christ Jesus as God-man 'T is as Prejudice sufficient against all those supposed Achillean Arguments that if they prove what they are pleaded for We must all turn Jews But before I leave this Query I must reflect upon one Paragraph or two under it Page 23. wherein we have him laying down all his former great Postulata's that the Lord Christ made the World rested on the Seventh day observed blessed and sanctifyed it By which Repetition we may see how much he depends upon these for the carrying off his Design But withal we have formerly seen how little yea how not at all they conduce thereto But to these he superadds another grand Postulatum as though 't were a Particular which either he had undeniably demonstrated before or were granted by his Adversaries Which is that the Lord instituted this Seventh-day-Sabbath for and imposed it upon Adam and in
all the Degrees of his Abasement and begun his Exaltation and so in his Blessed and Glorious Estate delighting himself in his Conquest of the Devil the World Death and the Grave and his having perfectly satisfied Justice and purchased Grace and Glory for Lost Sinners which could not be till the Resurrection of his Body Can the State of Death with any probability be thought the Mediator's Rest Or his lying in the Grave be deemed the end of all his Abasements when Death was the worst thing his Enemies could bring upon him in their Rage and Fury when they triumphed over him in the Grave and concluded that now they had compleatly vanquished him and proved him to be a Grand Deceiver Matt. 27.62 64. when it was that which was especially required as the utmost of his Sufferings for the Expiation of our Sins being that which was denounced at first against Sin Gen. 2.17 and as the consummate Punishment thereof and is the proper Wages of Sin Rom. 6.23 and therefore so to be undergone and lain under by the Sinners Surety standing in his stead and bearing his Punishment and being made that Curse for him Gal. 3.13 which was the lowest Descent of his Humiliation which saddened the Hearts of his Disciples and filled them with fear whose hopes almost expired at his Death and were buried in his Grave in which Estate if he had abode the Devil and his Enemies would have gotten a compleat Victory over him and we could never have been justified nor saved Moreover our Saviour's Body and Soul rested as much upon the Cross after his Death as they did in the Grave after his Burial And so the Muchammedists have as fair a Plea for their Sixth-day-Sabbath because on that day the Dead Body of our Saviour felt no pain on the Tree and his Soul enjoyed all Bliss in Heaven And so in this sense rested on their day of Worship How unreasonable and unscriptural to call this the Rest of our Redeemer Besides it was impossible that as Redeemer he should rest in the State of Death and in the Grave for the Redeemer must be God-man his Deity could not declaratively rest till it had raised its own Humanity out of the Grave and rent in sunder the Bonds of Death And his Humanity could not really do so because it was not during that Condition for we know that Death is the Separation of the Soul from the Body Now the Soul separated from the Body is a Spirit and not a Man the Body separated from the Soul is a Corps not a Man both Soul and Body separated are not Man but essentially conjoyned they make the Man Wherefore though both Body and Soul in their mutual Separation were united to the Deity and so he was always God and had the essential parts of Man yet being divided he was not Man for by Death they being dissolved his Humanity was destroyed and continued so as long as Death had power over him So that 't is against all Reason and common Sense to assert that the Mediator who must be God-man rested in the Grave seeing in this true sense he could not be Man there No no This was no part of his Rest but his Resurrection from the Grave the re-uniting of his Body and Soul was the first entrance into it For as the Father Son and Holy Spirit Jehovah is not said to rest till he had fully compleated his six days work of Creation and then with infinite Complacency viewed all he had compleated on the Seventh So Jesus Christ God-man cannot be said to rest from the Work of our Redemption till he had fully compleated and ended all his Humiliation till he had conquered all his and our Enemies which could not possibly be while he lay in the Grave on the Seventh day but it was when he rose from thence on the First when indeed he had a glorious and Blessed satisfaction in himself when he reflected upon all he had done and all the Sufferings he waded through and all the Humiliation he was sunk into and had happily and triumphingly concluded with all those inestimable Blessings that should accrue to the Church and that infinite Glory that would redound to God thereby And therefore as God's Resting on the Seventh day from his work of Creation was proposed as the Example and Motive to the Old Church before Christ's coming for the keeping the Seventh for their Sabbath So likewise our Saviour's Resting from his work of our Redemption on the First day of the Week may worthily be and we say really is proposed as a Motive and Example to the Churches since his coming for their consecrating of that day for their Weekly Sabbath I am sorry that such Passages of the Author should occasion so much Tediousness to the Reader and inforce such Enlargedness from the Writer As to that place Mat. 24.20 which he tells us he will improve hereafter to his own Advantage we shall attend his Motions and meet him there To his Query Page 41. we grant that the Jewish Believers did keep the Seventh-day-Sabbath while our Saviours Body was in the Grave and that they ought to do so because as yet the First day by our Lords Resurrection was not Consecrated to be observed as the day of the Redeemers Rest And withal that they were obliged during this time to observe the unleavened Bread-Feast and supposing it to be the Eighth day from their Birth to Circumcise their Children yet I hope this is no Plea for the everlasting Permanency of these So neither can it be for that of the Seventh-day-Sabbath SECT X. WE have his Conjecture Page 43. about the Week-day of our Lord's Ascension which he would fain suppose to be on the Seventh But if we may believe St. Luke Act. 1.3 that he tarried on Earth Forty Days and so was visible to his Disciples all that time and conversed with them as oft as he saw fit and about what was most necessary and profitable for their Knowledge and then ascended into Heaven If we look on this as an Historical Account of his Abode on Earth after his Resurrection as it lays a fairer Foundation for it than all Human Conjectures can be then if we reckon from the First day of the Week to the Fortieth day and both the First and Last inclusively then the day of his Ascension was upon the Fifth day of the Week which is our Thursday as the Church of England observes it If we exclude either the First or Last day only 't will be upon the Sixth day of the Week our Fryday if I mistake not but if we exclude both the First and Last Days I mean the day of his Resurrection and the day of his Ascension from the number of Forty days then 't will fall out upon the Seventh day of the Week our Saturday which he conjectures to be the day of the Week of our Saviours Ascension But here we must consider that we have two to one against him
Subserviency to his farther Design And therefore 't is very remarkable and worthy our most diligent Observance that when the Apostle Paul had sound the Jews given up so far to their cursed Blindness and Prejudice against the Lord Christ that all his Pains he took with them all the Affections he shewed he had for them all the undeniable Demonstrations from Scripture he produced before them could prevail nothing with them but rather they contradicted and blasphemed He forsook them and their Society and turned to the Gentiles Act. 13.45 46. and doubtless went into their Synagogues no more on the Seventh day In other Places he did go into the Jews Synagogues after this on the Seventh day as long as he had any hope of succeeding in his Preaching the Lord Christ to them but when he saw that they were generally hardned and took Advantage to speak Evil of the Lord Christ and his Doctrin before others the Gentiles he turned away quite from them and forsook their Synagogue and made the School of a Heathenish Philosopher one Tyrannus the common Meeting-place of his Auditors Act. 19.8 9. and so questionless altered the Time and Day as well as the Place of his Preaching and the Meeting of his Auditors For after this throughout all the remaining Book of the Acts throughout the remaining part of this Chapter and all the other Nine you find not the least Mention of Paul's Preaching or Praying or Associating with any others upon the Seventh day neither could this Author produce because he could not find any such Passage after this Eighth Verse of this Nineteenth Chapter Wherefore that Word of Mr. B. Pag. 45. Line 15. Continually might well be omitted for he did not continually go into the Jews Synogogue on the Seventh day but ceased from it when his great Design thereof was frustrated and never is said more to do it after this time No not at Rome where he lived Two whole Years in a hired House of his own and might have appointed what day he would for the Collection of his Disciples and Hearers Is he ever said to have called them together on the Seventh day which I assert to be a clear Proof that he never did it before out of any Regard to that day as more holy than other And therefore this Discourse of Two or Three Pages and the particular Remarks which he makes upon this Practice of St. Paul in some few of the Chapters of the Acts and the great Advantages he thinks he has for the Seventh day from them are dwindled and vanished into nothing If he would have gotten any thing for his Cause from this Practice of St. Paul he should have shewn these or such like Particulars 1. That St. Paul called his Auditors together upon that day which he cannot do for the Jews assembled themselves thereon 2. That he associated himself with the Gentiles and made their Religious Assemblies upon that day but this he never reads 3. That he did this perseveringly even when he turned from the Jews but this he can never shew and therefore all this shew is but a shew Besides we know St. Paul preached where-ever and whenever he found a convenient Auditory in the School of Tyrannus Acts 19.9 in the Market-place Acts 17.17 on Mars-hill v. 22. at the High Priests Bar and before Festus and Agrippa and as he made no distinction of places so none of days as to the preaching of the Gospel though as to the Churches solemn stated Worship he did though not the Seventh day and so these days and times have as much to plead for their Sanctity from the Apostles preaching on them as the Seventh hath But I suppose I have said enough of this to satisfie any unprejudiced considering Person Page 46. To his Question we grant that the Holy Scriptures do call no other day of the Week a Sabbath but the Seventh though Dr. Lightfoot shews that one day of the Year is called a Sabbath day whenever it falls out upon any other day of the Week viz. Pentecost and do not begrudge him all the Advantage he can take from hence Thus I hope by Gods Assistance and Guidance I have ran through all this Author's Arguments for his Sabbatarian Opinion and if I deceive not my self have proved them to be very weak and ineffectual as to the Edifying and Establishment of it And now I must proceed to try his Skill in plucking down and to see if he be more Dextrous and Successful in defeating our Arguments against the Seventh day and for the Sanctification of the First day which from henceforth I will take liberty to call the Lords day which he judges to be most weak and empty even the Conjectural Mistakes of the meaning of some Passages in Scripture let us see whether he can prove them to be such SECT XII THe first Objection against the Seventh day and Argument for the Lords day is Page 47. from the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ upon that day c. Against which he has nothing directly and particularly but only hints the Differences of Opinions about the changing of the day but all save one do agree that it is changed and reason would judge that their universal concurrent Suffrages should weigh more for its Mutation than their Differences about the Circumstances thereof should against the Change of it He answers there is no express Alteration of the Seventh into the First-day-Sabbath And he expresses his meaning to be not by any express Precept but we say there are other ways of Abrogating and Establishing things in Scripture than by express Prohibitions or positive Injunctions even by genuine Consequences from Doctrins from Examples of those that are proposed to our Imitation c. And that the Sanctification of the Seventh day is as much abrogated in the Gospel and the Lords day established in its stead as any of the Ceremonies of the Old Administration are And I think we may challenge him to produce any one express Command for the Abolishing of any one of the Jewish Ceremonies or of all of them conjunctly which because we cannot find consequently we must still look upon them to be in force and keep them alive in the Christian Churches and these days of Reformation I do verily believe if my Judgment were sway'd with such Arguments against the Lords day and for the Seventh they would lead me back to all the Jewish Religious Worship because they were all as really commanded by the Second Command even all instituted Worship as the Seventh day is by the Fourth both which are in themselves positive though referred to and virtually contained in the Moral Commands yet he acknowledges the Abolition of these without an express Command and why not of this Let him bring his Arguments from Scripture for the Abrogation of any of them and I do verily believe we shall be able to use the very same for the Exclusion of the Seventh day I know not any one
rested in his works So that 't is clear from hence that 't is not a Pretence to honour the Lord Christ that is pleaded for the first day but 't is really an Honour a great Honour to the Redeemer that it should be dedicated to a holy Commemoration of his Rest That the First-day-Sabbath hath the same Argument and Motive in this particular that the Seventh hath even God's Resting from his work and herein a stronger as far as the Glory and Profit of Redemption excels that of Creation I have been somewhat long here and the Subject is very Glorious Delightful and Profitable and the Argument with others weighty and convincing and ought not to be slightly passed over how little soever is said against it the Author seeming to fancy he could blow it out of door with a puff SECT XIII HE proposes Page 49. our Argument from our Saviour's appearing to his Disciples on the first day of the Week for its being the day of Christian and solemn Worship from John 20. to 26. To which he answers all this amounts not to an Institution but with other Arguments it bids fairly for it and shews the Honour our Saviour put upon this day beyond all others As to his other 't is replied that 't is probable that first day spoken of in v. 19. here may be the same with that spoken of Luke 24.13 c. and 't is probable 't is not so for our Lord appeared to his Disciples on several Lord-days But fairly to grant what he cannot get Suppose it were so could the two Disciples travelling to Emaus and our Saviour's coming to them walking and conversing with them any way disparage this day or weaken this Argument Not at all For 1. These Disciples were yet Unbelievers of Christ's Resurrection and so could have no thoughts of keeping a First-day-Sabbath to the Commemoration thereof 2. Their Journey to Emaus might be but a Sabbath-days Journey It might be for religious Ends and we know many among us do go and ride or have gone or rid several Miles to hear Sermons and receive Sacraments and yet not be adjudged as Profaners of the Lords day And our Lord by several Discourses of his about and Actions of his upon the Sabbath might well take them off from too scrupulous and nice Observation of the Lords day 3. The Journey seems not to be so great nor the distance between Emaus and Jerusalem so many Miles as Geographers relate And therefore Beza saith as Mr. Warren informs me that they were mistaken And there seems a great probability thereof because 't is said Luke 24.33 That they rose up the same hour and went to Jerusalem and came to the Congregation of the Eleven and the other Disciples before ever they were dismissed And therefore 't is very improbable that it should be seven Miles and a half from that City and much more probable that it was but a Sabbath-days Journey 4. Our Saviour being risen and entred into his Glory at least the first degree thereof was now no longer subject to Sabbath Observance neither could he be a Profaner thereof whatever he did thereon And beside having a glorified Body he might be with them in an instant upon the way and so in a very small particle of time return to Jerusalem and all his Discourse to them was most proper for the Holy Sabbath opening to them the Scriptures reproving them for their Unbelief and making their Hearts to burn within them So that our Saviour's Discourses and walking with them do rather serve to confirm the First-days-Sabbath and their going to Emaus no way to infringe it As to that which is produced Page 50. from John 20.26 he replies that they might not be gathered together for religious Worship For what else then For fear of the Jews A very probable Conjecture indeed For if it had been only for fear it had been safer to have been divided and every one have hid and concealed himself in some Friends House or unsuspected and safe place or other But to be all assembled together in a suspected House for the Text plainly hints that was either in a Disciples House or some other usual meeting place would be rather to expose themselves and to do this without any design of religious Worship would argue them very indiscreet But now 't was their duty to meet together to worship God though with hazard and this they did and shut the doors upon them that they might not be disturbed by the Jews His denial of this second Appearing to be on the Lords day is taken from a Criticism about a Greek Preposition which we translate after Now all that know any thing of that Language know that their Prepositions are very Polysemous and admit of divers Interpretations or include many of ours and that two joyned to one Case of the following Noun as this Meta does for it might be rendred before the Accusative in within as well as after and it might have been so translated here but they would render it by after well knowing that even so rendred it would no way alter the Sense of the Holy Ghost but according to Scripture Phrase still intend the first day of the week following according to the Expression in Mark 8.31 After three days the Son of Man shall rise again Three days after he was killed he should rise again for so the Text says expresly where the meaning must needs be upon the third day and the English Translation of Queen Elizabeth render this place within three days he shall rise again And thought it well rendred according to the purport of Meta which the Criticks tell us is usually written and spoken by the Grecians in the meaning of in or upon Other Translation render Meta by an Adverb and not by a Preposition as afterward in three days and so in John afterward in eight days in which eight days are comprised the first Lords day and the second as compleating the number and so this second meeting of Christ and his Disciples was on the first day as his Circumcision was on the eighth day which the Scripture expresses by another such like Phrase as this When eight days were accomplished for the Circumcision of the Child Luke 2.21 As for his Evasion of that passage in Mark by telling us the same Expositors think that Mark reckons the time from his first being betrayed and apprehended This no way helps him for suppose he do so yet his after must signifie upon or on the third day for 't is clear that he was betrayed in the Evening late of the sixth day for St. John tells us chap. 18.3 that they came with Lanthorns and Torches to take him and 't is very probable that that young Man who followed him with only a Linnen Cloth upon his Body as he was immediately upon his Apprehension led to the High Priests Palace Mark 14.51 was one startled out of his Sleep and Bed by the rude Violence of the Souldiers
their Annual Monthly and Weekly Festivals their Annual by Holy days their Monthly by New Moons and so their Weekly by Sabbaths And there was no Weekly Festival but the Seventh-day-Sabbath Or if by Holydays we apprehend the Generality of Jewish Festivals because they were all Holydays as long as their First Institution lasted yet then he condescends to some Particulars of them as the Monthly and Weekly which then must necessarily include the Sabbath because that was a Jewish Holy-day Yet again If we should grant that under the last word Sabbaths any other Festivals may be included or meant Yet certainly the Weekly-Sabbath cannot be excluded being the most famous Analogate comprehended under it and therefore in such an Expression cannot be excepted though sometimes the most famous Analogate be only meant and excludes all others yet never is it it self not intended in such Propositions Withal as we said before of the Galatian Church so we do of the Colossian 't was infected by false Teachers that would make a Mixture of the Jewis and Christian Religion and would have Moses's Rites to be kept with Christ's Ordinances And they know well enough that by Sabbaths was meant the Seventh day seeing 't is always so accepted Whence we may well conclude that here is an express exiling the Seventh-day-Sabbath out of the Church of Church Heretofore we were called upon to shew one Text in which the Seventh-day-Sabbath was abrogated and now we bring an express literal one yet it will not do but many Objections are brought in against it Which we shall successively consider and traverse 1. Some think it must be understood of Ceremonial Sabbaths only because else 't would reach the First-day-Sabbath as well as the Seventh But there is no fear of that for the First day is never called Sabbath in the Scripture and therefore cannot be meant and wee say the Seventh-day-Sabbath was both positive and ceremonial for he himself allows it to signify the eternal Rest above 2. He Objects that one place names no Sabbath but only Days the other indeed names Sabbaths which he would have interpreted Weeks for which I can see no Reason but much against it and therefore shall say nothing till he produce his Reasons for it And all the weight of this Argument is but a silly Conjecture of the meaning of the word Sabbaths But we have seen before that this is not a silly Conjecture but grounded upon the very usual Acceptation of the Word upon the Connection of the adjoyned things upon the State of the Churches unto whom he writ and upon the design of his Epistles to them But I am sure what follows is not so much as a Conjecture but a very great Oversight for he tells us that he finds the word Sabbaths in the Plural Number no where in the New Testament ascribed to the Seventh day It was then because he would not be at the pains to sind it for 't is in all these places Mat. 12.5 10 12. Mark 3.4 Luke 4.31 and 6.2 9. In all these places he will find it so and in the Original Greek the word is Sabbaths without a Verbal Superaddition of days which he himself must be inforced to acknowledge spoke of this day 3. The Seventh day he faith was never in Question in any of these Epistles and if there be no such Question about altering it how can such a Sense be imposed c. Just so I may say the New-Moon Observation and the Annual Festivals are no where questioned in these Epistles nor any where else that I remember expresly to be lain aside How therefore can such a Meaning be put upon Years and Months as to include the Judaical seeing Sabbaths are as plain and clear for the Seventh days as any of the former for what they are understood here We have still the Thred-beaten Plea of the Moral Law introduced and improved when I assert that neither he nor all the World can ever prove the Seventh-day-Sabbath to be part of the Moral Law Quatenus Moral His Fourth Answer plainly confounds Sabbaths with Years and New-Moons which the Apostle clearly distinguishes and of all the rest I may truly say they are but meer ungrounded Conjectures to baffle an express Text of Scripture But here he has a very strange Fancy That by Days may be meant the First day because the Heathen worshiped the Sun on that day And so then every day because the Heathen worshiped distinct Idols every day And so we should have no Consecrated day at all neither First nor Seventh nor any other All the rest that follows here are but as he expresses his own Thoughts and as well grounded as that Thought of his That the First day was not observed by Christians When yet we have found them several times associated on that day and Christ appearing several times in the midst of them and at Troas Assembled on that day and St. Paul Preaching and Administring the Lords Supper to them and therein to Harmonize with the Church of Galatia which I suppose proved against Objections neither of which can be said concerning the Seventh day Only there were Assemblies of the Jews on that day and St. Paul took the Advantage on these days to Preach to them But what is this to Christs Disciples and Followers We may therefore according to his own Rule That which appears not is not at all conclude that the Seventh day was never observed by the Disciples and Followers of Christ after his Resurrection as a day consecrated to Publick Worship because we never read in the Scripture that they did so meet Whereas the contrary is seen by the First day So I dismiss this Thought and the others as no more likely 5. He farther saith that 't is uncertain and therefore as such I or'e look it 6. He saith from Paul's constant keeping the Seventh-day-Sabbath that he cannot be supposed to condemn his own constant Practice But how he did this we have already seen and therefore shall not stop here 7. That St. Paul commends the Whole Moral Law as Just Holy and Good and therefore can never be thought to condemn it here Here we have anew theatrized the Moral Law which we acknowledge the Apostle doth strenuously urge and never opposed any one Tittle thereof But yet he here decries the Seventh-day-Sabbath as very consistent with and agreeing to all his Zeal for the Moral Law because that was never of the Substance of it Neither is it either Holy or Just or Good I mean not in and of it self as all that is truly and naturally Moral is but by Gods commanding it We acknowledge it to be positively Moral 8. The last Answer is from Math. 24.20 Pray you that your Flight be not in the Winter nor on the Sabbath-day Upon which place he lays so great a Stress as to suppose it a sufficient Proof for the Observation of the Seventh day as our bounden Duty For here he takes for granted that this Sabbath
Martyr An. 250. Athanasius An. 326. Hilary 355. Ambrose 374. Hierome 385. Chrysostom 398. Augustine in their Time Eusebius saith my Author testifies 't was observed all the World over And Bp. Andrews as I have read him in his Speech against Thrask a Sabbatarian in the Star-Chamber avows it on his Credit that there is not any Ecclesiastical Writer in whom 't is not found Viz. The sacred Observance of the Lord's Day that is the First Day of the Week Which Testimonies of so many excellent Doctors yea saith Bp. Andrews of all eminent Doctors of so many great and flourishing Churches carry much more Weight with them than all his Collections can pretend to do against them As touching Easter and it's Observance that is no Part of this Controversy therefore I shall only say that I am no Zelot for it's Observance and am perswaded it has less Grounds for it's Celebration than any other of those Festivals which are appropriated to our Lord and in Commemoration of his Birth of his Manifestation of his Ascension of his Mission of the Holy Ghost because the Lord's Day is a constant Memorial of that Resurrection being that Day of the Week whereon he rested from all the Work of his Redemption wherefore seeing there is a weekly religious and solemn Commemoration thereof there must needs be the less Cause for an Annual As for the other Festivals which are appropriated to meer Men and dedicated to their Remembrance and Praise as I have nothing to say for them so I think it neither prudent nor seasonable to say any thing against them But let him that keepeth a Day keep it to the Lord and he that keepeth not a Day unto the Lord let him not keep it And let both maintain the Unity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace Here I hoped to have annexed my Epilogue but some Passages in the Discourse of Easter do require a little Animadversion As when He tells us Page 134. which he had done several Times before that the Change of the Seventh Day to the First was introduced by the Bp. of Rome and so imposed by him upon the other Churches which he thinks evidenced by his former Collection But 1. We have seen it observed before there was a Bp. of Rome and he received it from the Assemblies of the Disciples and Christians just upon our Saviour's Resurrection and in the Apostles Days 2. We have seen it observed by very great Churches in the Purity of the Roman Faith and the Moderation of the Roman Ecclesiastical Government when either the Roman Bishop did not pretend to any Authority over them or if he did they rightly and stoutly resisted and refused it And therefore 't was rather an universal Reception of all the Churches conjunctly as from the Apostles and scriptural Authority than any Imposition of Rome upon them He has a strange Notion Page 130. as it appears to me which is that first Rome endeavoured to introduce the Observation of the Passover upon the Lords-day and so the weekly Holy Rest upon that day which to my Apprehension implies that Rome her self observed the Passover Lords-day before she did the weekly Whereas 't is clear that Rome observed the first day of the week because 't was the Dominical day the day of our Lord's Resurrection whereas the proper Paschal-day was two or three days before the Lords day And therefore in Honour to that day did the Bishop of Rome require Easter to be kept and not ordained Easter First-day as a Shooe-horn to bring in the weekly first day after Moreover in those Churches wherein they dissented from Rome as to the day of Easter they concurred with her in the weekly Lords-day So that the Lords-day was weekly observed by them before Easter was kept upon that day and therefore the yearly first day could not be an usherer in of that week-day which was before it SECT XXI AS the Conclusion and Result of all this Discourse I think I have shewn that the Lord Christ did not make the World that Jehovah was not Christ before the World that he never instituted the Seventh day nor rested on it till his Incarnation nor being Christ really till then that he gave not the Commands on Mount Sinai Neither were they there given to the Gentiles but to the Jews only and those mixed People that came out of Egypt That the Ten Commands were confirmed by our Lord Christ in his Sermons and Discourses but the Seventh-day-Sabbath never so much as mentioned by him in them all as that which was no part at all of the Moral Law but purely positive both in it self and in its Grounds and Motive upon which 't is founded and imposed upon its Observers in the Old Testament and therefore was liable to be changed with the other positive and ceremonial Precepts of the Law of God that our Lord Christ indeed observed it in his own Person in the Flesh because he was made under the antecedent Law of all the Ceremonies and Mosaical Administration and observed them all as well as the Sabbath but yet he then spake and did such things as declared its approach to Dissolution and its Non-Morality that he rested no more in the Grave on the Seventh day than he did on the Cross on the Sixth when he hung dead thereon but the day of his Rest from the work of Redemption was the first day of the week which day he supreamly honoured above all the days of the week by his Resurrection thereon from the Dead by his several Appearances thereon to his Disciples after his Death by his most gracious Discourses thereon unto them which he never did nor made on the Seventh day after his Resarrection and by the Mission of the Holy Ghost upon his Disciples thereon Upon which account St. John calls it the Lords day and by all the Churches ever since that Lords day has been taken to be the first day of the Week That the Apostles and Believers kept the Lords day or the first day of the week as their religious Rest and met together on that day as the day of their publick Assemblies and we never read of any Assemblies on the Seventh day save those of the Jews our Lords Enemies in their Synagogues to whom Paul went to preach the Gospel then and there but when he experienced their desperate Obstinacy left that time and those Synagogues and we never read that ever on that day he joyned with any religious Society after that at Troas he preached and administred the Sacrament to the Believers on the first day the Lords day and that the Holy Ghost does call the first day of the week the Lords day being the day of the Redeemer's Rest from a far more glorious laborious gracious and beneficial Work than that of the Creation And that there is an express Prohibition of the Seventh-day-Sabbath in St. Paul's Epistles and consequently seeing the positive Morality of one day in Seven in the Fourth