of the Light that shines there and now in other respects by the Shew-bread The analogy to this appears in four things 1. In that as many Grains make up one Loaf so many Believers make up one Church 1 Cor. 10.17 for we being many are one Bread and one Body for we are all partakers of that one Bread One person is not a Church how few and how small a number the Church may be reduced unto we need not here dispute In Noahs time they were reduced to 8 persons The first Church and the beginning and foundation of the Church in all after times was when God himself preached the Gospel to our first Parents in Paradise and then Adam and Eve and their Seed were the Church of God There must be divers there must be more then one to make up a Church 2. The analogy appears in the number for as there were twelve Tribes of Israel so there were twelve Loaves These twelve Tribes were often and divers ways represented as by the twelve Stones in the Brest-plate of the High Priest Exod. 28.21 and by the twelve Stones which Joshua did pitch in Jordan and the other twelve which he took out of Jordan and pitched them in Gilgal for a memorial of the 12 Tribes passing thorough Josh 4.9 20. so Canaan was divided into twelve parts that people coming of twelve Patriarchs to which answers the twelve Apostles of the New Testament and the new Jerusalem is built upon those twelve Foundations Rev. 21.14 so in these twelve Loaves there is the like mystery they represented both the Old and the New-Testament-Israel 3. These Loaves were to stand before the Lord all the week upon the Golden Table This was the chief action about them and which holds forth the principal scope of the Institution therefore called Panis facierum or Propositionis Matth. 12.4 which our Translators have fitly rendred Shew-bread The Apostles phrase is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the meaning is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lev. 24.6 thou shalt set them upon the pure Table before the Lord. This signified his continual eye and care over his people they are never out of his sight never out of mind his eye and his thoughts are continually upon them from one end of the week to another Isai 49.16 behold I have graven thee upon the Palms of mine Hands and thy Walls are continually before me Though he seems to forsake and forget them yet he remembers them still Jer. 31.20 for since I spake against him I do earnestly remember him still therefore my Bowels are troubled for him 4. There is Frankincense set upon the Loaves and offered up for a memorial before the Lord Lev. 24 7. This speaks the Lords remembrance of them with acceptance for the Incense made a sweet smell a savour of rest A man may remember a thing with hatred and abhorrence but the Lords remembrance of his people is with dearest affection with everlasting loving kindness he hath a precious remembrance of them These twelve Loaves the twelve Tribes of Israel are by Faith in Christ a sweet odour to him as 2 Cor. 2.15 And as the Lords eye is over upon them so should theirs be to the Lord and that continually See Psal 123.1 2. As the Lord saith of the Angels Matth. 18.10 they do always behold the Face of my Father which is in Heaven so the Saints even here below they should set the Lord alway before them And this is Happiness and Heaven begun 1 Kings 10.8 happy are thy Men happy are thy Servants which stand continually before thee and that hear thy Wisdome The Lords eye upon them in a way of constant care and love and their eye upon him in a way of continual dependance This is a blessed condition Thus you see the first mystery of the Shew-bread how it was a Type of the Church 2. A second mystery of the Shew-bread is the Food and spiritual Provision that is in the Church of God that is Christ in the Word and Ordinances The Word is compared to Bread Amos 6.11 False Doctrine to leavened or sowred Bread Matth. 16.12 It hath the properties of Bread Psal 104.15 Bread which strengtheneth mans heart ver 16. the staff of Bread This Bread is Christ He is the Bread of Life as Joh. 6.48 Christ is typified also by the Manna and the Golden Pot thereof reserved in the Holy of Holies But some distinguish the mystery of these two Types thus That the Manna in the Oracle was the Type of Christ personal this Bread upon the Table in the Sanctuary was a Type of Christ doctrinal or Christ in the Word opened and applied to hungry Souls The analogy will appear further in these particulars 1. They were to set the Shew-bread upon the Golden Table in the Sanctuary every Sabbath Lev. 24.8 Every Sabbath shall he set it in order before the Lord continually that is in the Sanctuary which was a Type of the Church This then speaks thus much That the Ministers of the Gospel are to set Christ the Bread of Life as it were upon the Table every Lords day There is and ought to be a weekly provision of this Food in the House of God every Sabbath As every week there was new Bread so Christ is to be afresh held forth 2. The Priests were to feed upon this all the week after Lev. 24.9 And it shall be Aarons and his Sons and they shall eat it in the holy place so in the Church they that hear the Word and have Christ preached and held forth therein should live all the week long upon the Provision that is made upon the Sabbath Then the Bread is set before Lord but in the week time it is eaten It is a great neglect when the Bread is not eaten when the Word is not digested meditated fed upon But people think it is enough to come to some good Meeting and there to hear the Word But do you eat it and feed upon it all the week do you meditate and ruminate upon it 3. None but the Priests were to eat the Shew-bread It shall be Aarons and his Sons and they shall eat it Lev. 24.9 though in an extraordinary case others might as when David and his Men did to save their Lives in hunger 1 Sam. 21.6 which Christ allows and justifies Matth. 12.3 4. for ceremonial Rules must give place to Moral God will have mercy rather then Sacrifice But the ordinary Rule was none but Priests were to eat the Shew-bread And who are spiritual Priests under the Gospel All Believers they are a royal Priesthood 1 Pet. 2.9 This then teacheth us that none but Believers have a right unto Christ and to the Promises and do or can feed upon him Unbelievers do but intrude and usurp that which is none of theirs when they challenge a part in him They are but Dogs that snatch at Childrens Bread 4. It is the Priests that set this Bread in the Sanctuary and they eat it We may
of Grace as well as the Creature in the way of Providence we must own God in that and depend on him for it for the Church is compared in Scripture to the Moon Psal 89.37 it shall be established for ever as the Moon and as a faithful Witness in Heaven Cant. 6.9 Who is this that looketh forth fair as the Moon c. As the Moon borrows her Light from the Sun so the Church borrows her Light from Jesus Christ who is the Sun of Righteousness As the Church is compared to the Moon so Christ to the Sun for so he is called Mal. 4.2 but to you that fear my Name shall the Sun of Righteousness arise with healing in his Wings The Church borrows her Light from Christ the Sun of Righteousness as the Moon doth from the Sun in the Firmament for Christ is compared to the Sun as well as the Church to the Moon As the Moon borrows her Light and Lustre from the Sun and is renewed by the aspects and influences thereof so the Church by influences from Christ who is indeed the Sun of Righteousness renewing the state of the Church especially under the Gospel And therefore all those Duties which were to be performed on the New Moons so far as they are perpetual ought to be more plentifully and more abundantly performed under the Gospel as abstaining from servile works from sin the worst of servitudes seeking instruction and attending upon the Ordinances for that end the sounding of the silver Trumpet of the Gospel abounding in spiritual Sacrifices and agreeing in love and amity eating their Bread in singleness of heart 3. Here seemeth to be likewise some intimation of that great mystery of the Incarnation of Jesus Christ I mean his Conception of the Holy Ghost in the Womb of the Virgin Mary For this aimed at Christ as all the other Ceremonies of the Law and holy times and seasons did And some have gone about to make it out thus That look as Christ fulfilled other great Types and Ceremonies of the Law in other things so he did in this As the Feast of Tabernacles pointed to the time of his Birth on the fifteenth day of the seventh month so if from thence we reckon thirty eight weeks backward it will carry us to the change of the Moon at which time is a great conjunction or union of those two great Luminaries the Sun the Moon Here they think may be some dark and weak shadow of the conjunction or union of the two Natures of Christ in one person when he became 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which he did as in the whole state of his Humiliation so especially when he was conceived in the Virgins womb 4. The New Moon is put for every thing beneath Christ Rev. 12.1 the world which in respect of the changeableness of it is like the Moon the world and the glory thereof passeth away never standing at the same stay This should be frequently upon our hearts and thoughts 5. They were to observe the first day of the month not the fifth or sixth day so also their morning Sacrifice was to be offered early in the morning and the Passover celebrated the first month in the year To teach them that as ever they expected the Blessing of God upon the rest of their time they must be careful to set apart the first and best of all their days and hours unto his service 6. They were to observe the first day of every month one as well as another which checks that superstitious conceit as if there were lucky and unlucky times whereas God hath sanctified every month and every time to his people as on the contrary to the wicked the most lucky times prove disastrous as among the Papists that famous year 1588. crowned with so many Astrological Praedictions of ensuing happiness and Victory proved quite contrary to their expectations so that Fulke Pref. Rhem. Test saith it Octogesimus Octavus mirabilis annus Clade Papistarum faustus ubique piis No month to a godly man is of it self evil but let a wicked Haman cast lots from the beginning of the year to the ending he shall find no month good So much for the mystery of their New Moons the second sort of their holy times the first was their annual Feasts the second their New Moons the third is their Sabbaths 3. Sabbaths Let no man judge you in respect of the Sabbath A word to that and so we shall finish the Text at this time This is the third sort of holy times and seasons under the Law The general notion of a Sabbath is a time of Rest They had three sorts of Sabbaths their weekly Sabbath every seventh day their yearly Sabbath every seventh year and their great sabbatical year reckoning seven times seven years which was their Jubilee every fiftieth year In every one of which was something of a shadow of things to come the Apostle is express these things are a shadow of things to come Quest Wherein Answ 1. The Sabbath of the seventh day their weekly Sabbath on the seventh day of the week this was partly moral and perpetual considered as a seventh part of weekly time sanctified and set apart by God from common use for man to rest from the works of his weekly Calling in imitation of God and in remembrance of the great work of the Creation of the world But though the Sabbath be partly moral and it must needs be so seeing it is one of the Ten Commandments otherwise there would be but nine moral Commands and the original ground of a Sabbath is not a ceremonial Institution nor the sin and fall of man but a particular Calling and therefore Adam in his innocent and sinless estate needed a Sabbath and God sanctified this day before the fall of man Gen. 2.1 2 3. but yet the Jewish Sabbath was in some respects Ceremonial and therefore it is abrogated and the Christian Sabbath substituted in stead thereof and therefore the Holy Ghost here in the Text reckons the Jewish Sabbaths in the same rank with their New Moons and yearly Festivals amongst the shadows of good things to come for it had some typical respects and uses some ceremonial Rites and Observations annexed to it I shall instance in two things wherein it is typical 1. For the Commemoration of their typical Redemption and Deliverance out of Egypt Therefore though the fourth Commandment as it is recorded in Exod. chap. 20. is grounded upon the Labour of a particular Calling and upon Gods resting from the work of Creation upon the seventh day which are moral grounds yet in the fourth Commandment as it is repeated Deut. 5. one of those moral considerations is omitted viz. the work of Creation and there is a typical consideration substituted in stead thereof viz. their Deliverance out of Egypt Deut. 5.15 2. As there was in the Jewish Sabbath a Commemoration of that typical Redemption out of Egypt so secondly it was a typical
323. 5. The Sin-offerings buth the Bullock and the Goat must be burnt without the Camp ver 27. This also is explained upon the Sin-offering Lev. cap. 4. pag. 321 322. that Christ suffered without the City as a Malefactor with whom we also should suffer bearing our reproach and being content to be accounted as Malefactors yea as the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the offscouring and sweeping of the world 6. On this great day of Atonement was the Jubile to be proclaimed by sound of Trumpet Lev. 25.9 This speaks that after the performance of the whole work of our Redemption by Jesus Christ he did cause the Trumpet of the Gospel to sound to publish and proclaim the glad tidings of our Salvation throughout the world Isai 61.1 2. so that this day of Atonement is like that famous week prophesied of by Daniel cap. 9. He shall confirm the Covenant with many for one week In the midst of the week Messiah shall be cut off This week is interpreted by some concerning that seven years the first part whereof Christ preached suffered in the middle of the week and in the other three years and an half the Apostles preached at Jerusalem after which they were dispersed by persecution and so the Gospel published to all the world It is the performance of the work of our Redemption that was the foundation and groundwork of the preaching of the Gospel the Jubile is proclaimed upon the day of Atonement 7. And lastly this day of Atonement is a day of Humiliation and afflicting their Souls by an everlasting Ordinance ver 29 to the end Days of Humiliation are days of Atonement and Reconciliation Not that our Humiliation merits or deserves any thing it is not the afflicting our Souls that doth make atonement but it fits us to receive the Atonement Humiliation prepares the Soul for Christ and makes it capable to receive the Mercy and the Pardon that Christ hath purchased and that God is willing and ready to bestow upon all that will receive it by Faith THE MANIFOLD SINFULNESS OF THE POPISH HOLY DAYS Discovered in sundry Reasons against them and the most material Objections answered AMongst the several ways wherein the Superstition of the hearts of men works out and vents it self this is one the observing of Days and Times wherein the Church of Rome hath abounded filling the Kalender with superstitious Holy days many of which are still retained and continued by the Church of England But let these Reasons against them be considered Reason 1. Nothing can be holy to the Lord which is not made holy by the Lord but God the Lord of time hath not sanctified nor set apart these times We find indeed before the Ceremonial Law was instituted yea before the Fall of Man that God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it Gen. 2.2 3. and therefore the Observation of a weekly Sabbath one day in seven is moral and perpetual But other Holy days are things which the Lord never commanded and which never came into his heart and of which he will say at the great Day who required these things at your hands The strength of which argument will appear the more if we consider what miserable poor shifts it puts the Patrons of these Holy days to when they go about to grapple with it 1. Sometimes they are so confounded in themselves as to deny that they place Holiness in these days the Church keeps them they say not as more holy and sacred then other days and parts of divine Worship but only for Order and Policy So Bishop Lindsey Perth Ass part 3. p. 5. But the rest of his Fellows have dealt more truly and more sincerely then he in this particular for not only Bellarmine tom 2. de Cultu Sanctorum lib. 3. cap. 10. prop. 2. asserteth Festa Christianorum non solum ratione Ordinis Politiae sed etiam ratione mysterii celebrantur suntque dies festi vere aliis sanctiores sacratiores pars quaedam divini cultus But Hooker Eccles Pol. lib. 5. sect 69. pag 375. also saith they ought to be with all men that honour God more holy then other days Downham in Praec 4. refers them to the fourth Commandment and will have them consecrated as Sabbaths to the Lord. Bishop Andrews in his Holiday Sermons on Luke 4.18 on Matth. 12.39 40. apud Gillesp Eng. Pop. Cerem part 3. cap. 1. pag. 15. hath found out many profound mysteries in them yea in the very order of them and distances of time between them as there be fifty days between Easter and Pentecost because fifty is the number of the Jubile one day between Easter and the Resurrection because Jonas was but one day in the Whales belly with many other pretty tales which are not worth transcribing And the thing it self speaks for why do they call them Holy days if they put no holiness in them nay why do they prefer them above the Sabbaths of God 2. Sometimes they labour to escape in the mist of blind distinctions so when Bishop Lindsey Perth Ass part 3. pag. 28. saith that the Holy dayes are not consecrated to holy mystical uses but to holy political uses Wherein as Mr. Gillespy Eng. Pop. Cer. part 3. cap. 1. pag. 7. well observeth he doth but labour to plaister over his Superstition with the untempered mortar of this quidditative distinction and uncouth speculation of which I dare say the Bishop himself comprehendeth it not 3. Sometimes they say God hath sanctified them by the great works he hath done upon them Thus Bellarmine de Cult Sanct. lib. 3. cap. 10. Christus nascens consecravit locum id est praesepe moriens consecravit Crucem resurgens consecravit Tuntulum unde exivit cur non etiam consecravit Tempus id est Dies illos quibus natus vel passus vel rediturus fuit nobis devictâ morte Which his Disciple Rich. Hooker a most Papistical Writer borrows from him and thus expresseth it Eccl. Pol. lib. 5. § 69. p. 375. No doubt as Gods extraordinary presence hath hallowed and sanctified certain Places so they are his extraordinary works that have truly and worthily advanced certain Times for which cause they ought to be with all men that honour God more holy then other days Thus he But it is not meerly the extraordinary works of God that will sanctifie a day for then all the six days of the week should be holy for God created the World in six days so that there is not one day of the week wherein there was not some work of wonder wrought It is rather the Lords resting from his works then his working that sanctifieth Time and makes it holy as Gen. 2.2 3. Exod 20.11 Upon this ground the seventh day was sanctified in old time because on that day God rested from the work of Creation and upon the same ground the first day of the week being the rest-Rest-day of the Lord our God from the great work of Redemption his
Prefiguration of the Rest of the Body of Jesus Christ in the Grave that whole day which was indeed the only whole day of his resting or cessation from the actions of a bodily life For he was in the Grave only some small part of the sixth day and of the first day but he rested the whole Jewish Sabbath So then as they had other legal days and times that pointed them to other things about the Messiah so the Sabbath points to his resting in the Grave And he did not only rest in the humbling of himself under the guilt of our Sins but in his Resurrection from the dead The day of his Resurrection was the day of his entring into his state of rest from his Sufferings but on the Sabbath he rested from the actions of his bodily life therefore the seventh day Sabbath is abrogated and the Lord hath substituted the first day of the week for the Sabbath is moral And there is a ground too for the changing of the day that there should be one day in seven to attend on the Worship of God this is moral and perpetual that it should be the last day in seven this is by Gods Institution made legal and typical Christ entred into his rest of Glory into the state thereof at his Resurrection and into the place thereof when he ascended into Heaven but his resting in the grave was on the seventh day From all which you may see the morality of the Sabbath considered as in general together with the shadowy nature of the Jewish Sabbath of the seventh day having these typical respects relations annexed to it and so therein you see the grounds of the abrogation of it and of the substitution of the Christian Sabbath instead therereof And so much may serve for the typical respects and use of the Jewish Sabbath Now as for the Rites and Observations thereof 1. There were more Sacrifices that day then upon other days Numb 28.9 10. The reason was because there were more Mercies given and commemorated that day as the Creation their Deliverance out of Egypt and their Sanctification by the Spirit It shall be a sign between me and them that they might know that I Jehovah do sanctifie them Exod. 31.13 Ezek. 20.12 20. Here learn that the more Blessings God gives to any people the greater thankfulness he expects again It reacheth also that special Holiness that should be upon the Sabbath more exercise of Grace and duties of Worship to be performed upon that day then ordinarily upon any other day there should be that among us on the Christian Sabbath that should answer their double Sacrifice upon their Jewish Sabbath But in Ezek. 46.45 there is appointed for the Sabbath six Lambs for one under the Law to teach us that there should be more Holiness now under the Gospel then there was under the Law 2. They might not kindle a fire on that day Exod. 35.3 as some think to put them in mind of their absolute freedom from their Egyptian Bondage and the fiery Brick-works there or from the fire of Gods Wrath in the world to come when entred into that none of these fires should ever be kindled upon them or hurt them though others think that restraint respected only kindling a fire for the building of the Tabernacle nor is it unlikely 3. They were to abstain from building the Tabernacle that day Exod. 31.12 13 14 15 16 17. and 35.2 to teach them that the six days that is the time of this life is the only time wherein God will build the Tabernacle of his Church this life is the only day of Grace and opportunity of Salvation 4. They might not gather Manna on that day Exod. 16. In this life Christ is offered but in the Sabbath of eternity no Manna no means of Grace no offers of Christ then none could have Manna upon the Sabbath but they that had stored it up upon the week day so none can have Christ in Heaven but they that have stored him up in their hearts on earth These things shew the rigor of the Law as to Sabbath-rest but the Pharisees being deeply possest with the spirit of the Law did strain it a peg or two higher that to do a miraculous work of mercy or works of necessity was unlawful 2. They had also a Sabbatical year viz. every seventh year a Sabbath of the seventh year every seventh year was a Sabbatical year as every seventh day was a Sabbatical day Exod. 23.10 Deut. 15.9 This was celebrated by letting the Land rest from its usual culture and husbandry Levit. 25.4 5. Some alledge a political and philosophical reason for this that the Land by resting one year might be the more fruitful the other six quod caret alternâ requie durabile non est This Sabbatical year was celebrated by giving rest unto the Land from tillage and manuring the hungry ground This was a shadow of things to come this signifies something of Christ and Gospel mystery in which observe four things There was a fourfold Instruction in this Sabbatical year 1. This Sabbatical year told them plainly that both they and their Land was the Lords Lev. 25.23 For the Land is mine 2. This taught them to depend upon Providence without worldly care and trusting to the Creature for supply and support For they must not now sow nor till the Land this year for the sixth year was to bring forth the Fruit of three years both for the seventh year and for the eighth and for the ninth till the Harvest time See Lev. 25.20 21 22. and ver 6. the Sabbath of the Land shall be meat for thee The Land of its own accord that year was to produce sustenance enough both for man and beast It is not enough for us to depend on the ordinary course of means God can over-rule them and over-work them as he doth here 3. The Lord hereby teacheth them and us that great Gospel-lesson and duty of mercy and bounty to the poor Exod. 23.10 11. the Land must rest that the poor may eat and Deut. 15.1 2. Creditors must release their Debtors every seventh year Lev. 25.5 6. there is an Equity a Chancery a bountiful condescension to the necessities of the poor that men exact not their own right in all things but rather remit and abate something thereof Not but that men may take their course and use means to get it especially when persons are able and wilful but in case of poverty there should be mercy shewed in such a case 4. This Sabbatical year was a special season and time of instruction in the Law of God Deut. 31.10 11 12. the Lord would have them instructed and taught to know his Mind and the true Religion and the ways of his Worship Therefore he appointed so many times and seasons for it weekly and monthly and yearly and moreover one year in seven as you see Beside the mystery of spiritual rest by Christ of which further in
Providence that ever was excepting that of our Redemption by Jesus Christ Yea so famous was the History of Moses that though it was very antient yet the Heathen Historians and Poets have said something of it And he is thought by some to be their Mercurius Trismegistus of whom they spake out of some broken remembrances and traditions though corrupted with fabulous Inventions intermix'd wherein yet some footsteps of the Truth may be discerned They call their Mercurius Interpres Divum and paint him with a Rod twined with Serpents c. Now that Moses was a Type the Scripture is clear Deut. 18.18 I will raise them up a Prophet from among their Brethren like unto thee Heb. 3.2 Jesus Christ who was faithful to him that appointed him as also Moses was faithful in all his House But how or wherein was Moses a Type The Answer is in two respects For Moses may be considered two ways 1. In regard of his Dispensation and so he was a type of the Law 2. In regard of his Person and so he was a Type of Jesus Christ And so we have two things to inquire into 1. What of the Law and 2. What of Jesus Christ was shadowed forth in Moses I shall begin with the lower Notion first 1. Moses was a Type of the Law in regard of the Dispensation wherein the Lord was pleased to use him and to introduce by his Ministry into the Church For as hath been formerly shewed the Types are not always to be restrained only to the Person of Christ But there were legal shadows of all other Truths which are more clearly and fully revealed under the New Testament And so they had their Types and Shadows even of the Covenant of Works as was shewed in Abrahams Wives and Children So likewise Moses his Administration of the Mind of God shadowed forth the same thing Hence the Scripture speaks so much of the Law of Moses under the notion of Works The Law came by Moses Joh. 1.17 that is as contradistinguished unto Gospel Grace and Truth for it follows but Grace and Truth by Jesus Christ Not that Moses his Dispensation was indeed a Covenant of Works but a shadow or representation of it For had it been indeed a Covenant of Works it would have been their Duty to seek Salvation by their own Merits but they were saved by Grace as well as we and not by Works they were saved by Faith in Christ and in his Righteousness whereof they had some discoveries they were under a Dispensation of Grace but it was like a Covenant of Works and did very much resemble that legal way in many respects Quest But wherein was the Mosaical Dispensation so like unto the Covenant of Works what of the Law was shadowed forth in Moses Answ Something was hinted as to this in the first Sermon on Heb. 4.2 But now to speak a little further to it 1. In regard of the dreadful Majesty and Terror and Glory of that Administration Herein it was like the old Covenant Heb. 12.18 21. God acts as a Soveraign Lord in the Covenant of Works and appears in the dreadful Glory of his absolute Soveraignty and Dominion over his Creatures 2. There was a darkness also in that Dispensation Heb. 12.18 Ye are not come unto blackness and darkness and Tempest Hence Moses had a Veil upon his Face Exod. 34.29 30 33. But there was a further mystery in this Veil it signifieth a spiritual Veil a Covering upon the Heart 2 Cor. 3.13.14 a Veil upon their Minds Act. 13.27 the Prophets they understood them not though read every Sabbath day 3. There was a Yoke of Bondage which neither we nor our Fathers saith Peter were able to bear Act. 15.10 so the Law genders unto Bondage Gal. 4.24 25. Such as are under the Law their Spirits are under continual Bondage but the Gospel is spiritual Liberty 4. The abiding Strength and Power of the Law to condemn 1 Cor. 3 the Letter killeth It is the Ministration of Death And as Moses his natural Force was not abated Deut. 34.7 so neither is the Strength of the Law as to its condemning Power over Sinners Hereby the continual force of the Law is signified the Power whereof decayeth not in the Conscience of Sinners by number of Days or mutitude of Works Answorth in lec till God take it away and abolish it by Grace in Christ 5. The Weakness of it to save Moses might not enter into Canaan though he did much desire it see Deut. 32.52 And the Reason alledged is his failing in that one point Numb 20.12 What was Moses his error and mistake at that time There is something of difficulty to discern and make it out Three things the Scripture seemeth to intimate 1. He smote the Rock twice Numb 20.11 when his Instructions were no more but to speak unto it v. 8. 2. Something of inordinate Passion seems to be noted Psal 106. he spake unadvisedly with his Lips v. 33. 3. His Unbelief is expresly taxed because ye believed not my Word Numb 20.12 But what was this Unbelief or how came it to be working in him at this time Some have guessed at it thus This Occurrence fell out eight and thirty years after their first murmuring for Water and their was a new Generation now risen up and they falling into the very same sin and that at the same place upon the Borders of Canaan and upon the same occasion want of Water for which the Lord had rejected and excluded their Fathers Moses was afraid that the Lord would now take advantage against this Generation also as he did against their Ancestors causing them to wander forty years and as indeed he might justly have done against these also But yet Moses should not have given way to such Fears unless the Lord had declared it which as to this Generation he did not But for this one failing Moses could not enter into Canaan So the Law if but one Sin be admitted keeps the Soul of Heaven the Law is strong to condemn and destroy Sinners but it is unable and weak to save them The Law cannot save Rom. 8.3 Yea 6. The abrogation of it through Grace As Moses's Body was buried that it could not be found Deut. 34.6 and Satan would have brought it forth again but Michael opposed him Jud. 9. so he hath buried the Law though Satan would revive it in the Spirits of Men. 7. Moses did prepare the people for Joshuahs Dispensation So the Law prepares and sits the Soul for Christ Gal. 3.24 wherefore the Law was our Schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ that we might be justified by Faith It doth not put us into Christ but it prepares us for Christ Thus in regard of the Terror of that Dispensation and the Darkness and Bondage of it the Strength to condemn the Impotency of it to bring them into Rest and the Abrogation of it and that nevertheless it did prepare and fit them for it Moses did
and having the same precious Faith shall be all made partakers of the same common Salvation every Believer is compleat in Christ the weak as well as the strong Col. 2.10 4. Where did they get this Manna There were three things chiefly remarkable as to the place which seem to have something of Mystery in them 1. It was about the Camp of Israel and no where else to be found but there So is Christ the Bread of Life to be had in the Church but no where else Extra Ecclesiam non est Salus Where two or three are gathered in his name there is Christ Matth. 18. His Parents found him in the Temple Luke 2. If you would gather Manna go to the Camp of Israel If you would get Christ go to the Church and seek him there 2. It was hidden in the Dew lapt up as it were in two beds of Dew the one above it and the other under it Exod. 16.14 When the Dew was gone up the Manna appeared on the face of the Earth Numb 11.9 When the Dew fell upon the Camp in the night the Manna fell upon it So Christ is exhibited in the Word and Ordinances Dew is often mentioned as an expression of Gods favour I will be as the dew unto Israel Hos 14.5 And the Word is compared to Dew Deut. 32.2 And it is a hidden word to some 2. Cor. 4.3 4. Christ is therefore fitly called the hidden Manna Rev. 2.17 We should labour to see Christ to get Christ in the Word Christ in an Ordinance to gather Manna out of the Dew 3. They went and were to go out of their Tents to gather it Exod. 16.16 So we must go forth out of our selves out of Sin and self and the Creature to get Christ He that stays within in his own Tent cannot gather Manna yet it is but stepping out of doors Oh the sloth and negligence of such as perish for want of it When Manna falls round about our Tents in the Dispensation of the Gospel wherein Christ is offered from day to day 5. The time when they had this Manna There were many Circumstances in the time that are very significant and instructing to us 1. They were to gather it early in the morning Exod. 16.12 The Quails came at Evening for naturally they flew in the day time to the Sea and came to Land towards night Numb 11.31 But Manna came in the Morning because it sell with the Morning Dew Answorth in Exod. 16.12 And the Quails are not noted in the Scripture to be a spiritual meat as the Manna is we should seek after Christ betimes in the Morning of our Lives with our first endeavours Psal 90.14 Satisfie us in the Morning with thy loving kindness They that seek me early shall find me Prov. 8 This should be our first work Mat. 6.33 Seek first the Kingdom of God and the Righteousness thereof and then all other things shall be superadded and given as it were into the bargain 2. They were to gather it and feed upon it daily from day to day if they kept it it putrified and stank Exod. 16.19 20. It wormed Worms as the phrase is in that emphatical Language that is it bred them abundantly or crawled full of Worms A miraculous Judgment for their Unbelief and Curiosity and Disobedience whereby they were taught to depend upon a daily Providence for daily Bread as we pray in the Lords Prayer Give us this day our daily bread we should be content with the present Supplies that Providence casts in without inordinate cares and thoughts for to morrow Let your conversation be without Covetousness and to be content with such things as you have Heb. 13.5 Take no thought for to morrow Matth. 6.31 34. This passage may have a further reference and be applied unto Christ the Mystery of this Type thus that as Manna must be daily gathered daily fed upon so must Christ we must receive him and believe and feed upon him every day or else the sweetest Manna will become as rottenness and a favour of Death unto Death unto carnal and formal Professors who suffer Manna to lie by them un-eaten who suffer Christ to lie by them un-imployed and un-improved for spiritual supplies we must feed upon Christ and receive fresh supplies from Christ every day 3. They were to gather a double portion upon the sixth day and none upon the Sabbath Exod. 16.23 to 27. By this the Lord taught them to rest upon the Sabbath This is the second place where the Sabbath is expresly mentioned before the giving of the Law upon Mount Sinai The first mention of it is before the Fall of Man Gen. 2.1 2. which shews the Antiquity of the Sabbath For that was two thousand five hundred and thirteen years before this which would be a very vast and strange Prolepsis if it were so as the Anti-Sabbatarians weakly and foolishly pretend And here now we have a second mention of the Sabbath before that upon Mount Sinai And it doth not seem by any circumstance of the History to be here mentioned as a new thing unto them but rather as a Duty they formerly knew but the Observance of it now anew recommended to them by a very special Providence Moreover they might here learn That God dispenseth Christ the true Manna to Believers most plentifully towards their later end as he did to Simeon in his old age Luke 2. Christians when they grow near the Grave and near to their eternal Rest they should gather double Manna Yet further we may here learn and see That after this Life all endeavours are in vain If you have not gotten Christ before there is no Manna to be rained down then There be no offers of Grace nor means of Grace then you must pray no more hear Sermons no more but an end then of all your former opportunities They went out to gather but they found none ver 27. So the foolish Virgins asked the wise for Oil but it was too late their time was past It is the case of many a Soul The weekly Sabbath now is a day of spiritual gathering and getting Food for your Souls But there will a Sabbath come a time and state of Rest when you must live upon the Manna you have got and gathered in this Life or else you perish 4. It ceased when they came to Canaan they had it till then Exod. 16.35 but then they did eat of the Fruit of the Land of Canaan Josh 5.12 The Manna ceased on the morrow after they had eaten of the old Corn of the Land So shall all Means and Ordinances when we come to Heaven Word Sacraments offers of Grace shall be no more then means of Grace and opportunities shall be no more 5. Yet nevertheless there was a Golden Pot of it reserved and kept by them for ever being laid up before the Lord in the Holy of Holies Exod. 16.33 34. a Pot it is called in Heb. 9.4 a Golden Pot. So
7. of Cap. 6. The five first sort of Sacrifices have been spoken to at large As to the sixth the Offering of Consecrations there will be occasion to speak something of it when we come to the Priesthood neither is it handled at large in these first Chapters of Leviticus but only some of the Laws of it briefly toucht upon therefore I shall refer what I shall speak of it to that other place As to what remains of the 6. and 7. Chapters of this Book they containing some additional Laws to the Offerings before treated of they were spoken to under the Offerings to which they belong I shall therefore now proceed unto two or three Questions that remain to be considered before we leave this point Quest 1. The first is whether the legal Sacrifices may not be otherwise distributed and what other distributions there be of them Ans The answer is That the Scripture gives other distributions also as well as this in the Text but I chose to handle them in this as the plainest for weak memories They are sometimes thus divided into Zebach and Mincha that is slaughtered Offerings and Meat-Offerings Dan. 9.27 He shall cause the Sacrifice and Oblation to cease The word is the Slaughter Offering and the Meat Offering to cease Zebach and Mincha and in many other Scriptures The Meat Offerings were of Inanimate things offered up to God by fire upon the Altar But the Slaughtered Offerings were of living Creatures and these were offered up both by fire and blood the Beast being first slain and then burnt with fire Some have distinguished these two in respect of their ends and uses thus That the slain Sacrifices respected chiefly the sufferings and passive obedience of Christ as making satisfaction for our sins by his death and blood and that the Meat-Offering related chiefly to his active obedience whereby he fulfilled the Law for us by his holy and blessed life good works being as it were meat and drink to an holy heart In the Meat-Offering therefore say they was shadowed by the burning and ascending of Inanimate things the obedience and merits of Christ to come but it is not to be restrained to his active obedience only for the burning and destroying the Meat-Offering by fire did plainly represent the sufferings of Christ for the satisfaction of divine Justice as was formerly shewed more fully in the Exposition of the Meat Offering Moreover the slaughtered Offerings may be subdivided from their ends and uses thus That they were either simply for atonement and pardon of sin or for other occasions also Those for atonement of sin were either for all sins in general or with special respect to some particulars For all sins in general was the Burnt-Offering which therefore was offered every day There was holocaustum juge for those peccata jugia a dayly Burnt-Offering for those continual dayly sins and sinfulness of our hearts and natures Numb 28.10 This is the Burnt-Offering of every Sabbath besides the continual Burnt-Offering and its Drink Offering which was offered every day at morning and at evening saith the Geneva Note of which Daniel saith of Antiochus that by him the dayly Sacrifice was taken away Dan. 8.11 As to particular sins they being of two sorts either lesser or greater there were two sorts of Sacrifices provided for them For sins committed through ignorance and infirmity the Sin-Offering but the Trespass-Offering extended even to sins committed against light and knowledg These were the Sacrifices meerly for atonement and expiation of sin As to other occasions also there were two Sacrifices appointed and ordained of old 1. As to assurance of peace and of the love of God the Peace-Offering which was a Sacrifice both of atonement and of thanksgiving 2. As to acceptance and entrance into Office in the Church the Milluim or the Offering of Consecration wherein besides atonement of sin this was superadded the Investiture of the person into trust and office in the house of God Quest 2. A second Enquiry may be this whether there were not other Sacrifices besides what are comprehended under these distributions Ans There were some others but they were peculiar Sacrifices these were the ordinary sort of them As for the rest either they may be some way reduced and referred to some of these or else they will come in and may be fitly handled in other places As for Instance the two Sparrows in the cleansing of the Leperâ— were a peculiar kind of Sacrifice Lev. 14. And they will come in among the Laws and Ceremonies of Purification when we spirit of ceremonial cleanness and uncleanness so will also the Sacrifice of the red Heifer and the holy Water or water of Purification made of the Ashes of that Sacrifice Numb 19. The Paschal Lamb also was a peculiar Sacrifice but it will fitly come in to be handled in the Feast of the Passover when we come to the Festivals and there also the Sacrifices of the yearly Feast of Expiation on the tenth day of the seventh month will come to be considered one part whereof is the Scape Goat Levit. 16. But the ordinary Sacrifices were these that have been handled Quest 3. The third Quaere may be this These six here enumerated in the Text being the ordinary sorts of propitiatory Sacrifices what other Sacrifices had they besides these of propitiation or atonement I answer as to that when I entred first upon the Subject you may remember I distributed the Offerings at the Brazen Altar into two sorts Holiness of Holiness and Holiness of Praises or Sacrifices of Atonement and of Thanksgiving You find this distinction of double Holiness and single Holiness in Lev. 21.22 he shall eat the Bread of his God that is of the Sacrifices both of the most Holy and of the Holy so the Fruit of the Land after it was Circumcised is said to be Holiness of Praises to the Lord Lev. 19.24 Quodesh Hillulim is contradistinguished unto Quodesh quodeshim The former sort of Sacrifices namely those that were Holy of Holinesses for atonement were made by fire but the latter sort viz. such as were meerly Sacrifices of Thanksgiving or Holiness of Praises were not offered up to God in the fire but by other Ceremonies Of these there were two sorts the Heave-Offering and the Wave Offering of both which we shall speak a word briefly both concerning the matter the manner and the signification of them The first mention we have of them is in Exod. 29.24 26 27. in the Offering of Consecration The Shoulder is an Heave Offering and the Brest a Wave-Offering Again in Lev. 7. the right Shoulder and the Brest is reserved out of all the Peace-Offerings for a Wave Offering and an Heave-Offering to the Lord for the Priests see vers 34. Again in Lev. 23.10 11. we read of a Wave-Sheaf of the First Fruit of your Harvest unto the Priest And ye shall wave the Sheaf before the Lord to be accepted for you This was to be
done the morrow after the Sabbath of the Passover and fifty days after at the Feast of Pentecost they were to offer two Wave-Loaves vers 17 20. Thus you see the matter of these Offerings The Rite and Ceremony with which they were offered was Waveing and Heaveing from whence they have their names of Wave-Offering and Heave-Offering Waveing that is moving it to and fro round about towards the East West South and North. Tenuphah agitatio from the Verb Nuph which in Hiphil is agitavit ventilavit Heaveing that is lifting it up towards Heaven Terumah from Rum elevari extolli These were Gestures some may think somewhat strange and hardly grave enough in the Worship of God But what was the mystery and meaning of them You will find that clearly expressed in Numb 8.11 And Aaron shall offer the Levites before the Lord for an Offering of the Children of Israel that they may execute the service of the Lord. The Hebrew reads it as your Margin tells you thus and Aaron shall wave the Levites befor the Lord for a Wave-Offering of the Children of Israel This then was the end and the meaning of these Gestures to present and dedicate the thing to the Lord who if he will have it done by such or such a Gesture who or what is vain man that he should controle or find fault with the unsearchable Wisdom and sovereign Authority of the Lord God Almighty These words are used generally concerning all things given or dedicated to God as Exod. 35.22 And every one that offered offered an Offering of Gold unto the Lord Heniph Tenuphath agitavit agitationem he waved a Wave-Offering of Gold unto the Lord even Land it self Ezek. 48.8 9 10 20. Persons also are said to be waved as a Wave-Offering when dedicated to the Lord. Numb 8.11 For Wave the Greek translateth separate which word Paul useth speaking of his Designation to the Ministry Rom. 1.1 Some have observed something more in these Gestures especially that of waveing to and fro round about The original word is sometimes used for sifting in a Sieve Isai 30.28 That signifies Tryals and Afflictions Luk. 22.31 And so the Prophets apply this word unto Troubles Isai 10.32 and 13.2 and 30.28 The sense then will amount to thus much That the Saints and Ministers are spiritual Priests are consecrated to the Lord through sufferings As it is said of Christ the Captain of our Salvation Heb. 2.10 so the Saints 2 Cor. 6.4 10. As the Wave-Offering was tost and waved to and fro and thereby dedicated to the Lord. There is some Controversy upon these Mede Disc 49. pag. 384. started by a learned man and one of much Light in other things however he mist it in this there being aliquid humanum in the best of men and humanum est errare no man but is subject to error and mistakes The Question is whether they were Ceremonial and ceased or Moral and Perpetual But the case is clear and easy concerning them both both the Heave-Offerings and the Wave-Offerings they were Ceremonial and they are abolished Object They were not Types of Christ Ans If they were Types or legal adumbrations of Christian duties or of any of the Benefits of Christ this sufficeth and is enough to make them Ceremonial and consequently abolished For the Types as hath been often said and proved and must be now again repeated do not relate only to the person of Christ but to all Gospel Truths and Mysteries Object They might be eaten by others besides the Priests and in other places not in the holy place only therefore could not be typical unless all the people and every Corner of the Land were typical Ans So might the Peace-Offerings in this Chapter Lev. 7.15 16. The Offerer had a share in them and yet they were Ceremonial and not Moral Moreover not only the Temple and the Priests there but the whole Land of Canaan and the people of Israel were a typical Land and a typical people and as hath been formerly and shall be further shewed all the Fruits of the Land had a typical Holiness the First Fruits being virtually the whole they were a typical dedication of the whole Object The Scripture expresly rejects other Sacrifices and Offerings and doth not mention these Ans Yet these are included by a parity of reason if the chief be rejected much more the lesser and inferior Object But Christians under the New Testament are bound to give part of their substance to the Lord and to his use and service therefore these are Moral Ans I answer it follows not for this is a moral duty to give part of our substance to the Lord but yet the Heave-Offerings and Wave Offerings are ceased that is the Ceremony is ceased but the substance or thing signified remains The formalis ratio of these Offerings did not consist as some have thought in prayer and thanksgiving for there was prayer and thanksgiving in other Offerings also as well as these yea in all their Offerings Are they not commanded to lay their hands upon the Sacrifice of Atonement by way of prayer and confession Cap. 1.4 But the formalis ratio of this and other Offerings doth consist chiefly in the Ceremonies ordained to be used about them which is a great part of that which distinguisheth one Offering from another as you have formerly heard therefore if Waveing and Heaving be not to be used under the Gospel as sacred and significant Ceremonies in the presenting and dedicating of our substance to the Lord the Wave and the Heave Offering are ceased But the Gestures of waving and heaving are not to be used as sacred and significant Ceremonies under the Gospel therefore the Wave and Heave Offering are ceased Vse 1. Remember those great Gospel Mysteries which are the scope of all Sacrifices which as you have heard are chiefly these two Atonement and Thanksgiving 1. Atonement and Reconciliation this was the great Mystery taught and held forth in all the propitiatory Sacrifices that we are reconciled unto God by the death and sufferings of his Son and that they had so great a multitude and variety of Sacrifices plainly taught them two things 1. The imperfection of all those legal Sacrifices it taught them to look beyond these for a more perfect Sacrifice then any of these which might serve once for all The Apostle expresly spells out this Lesson to us from the multitude and iteration of the Sacrifices Heb. 10.1 2. 2. This great variety of Sacrifices taught them also the various and manifold Benefits of Christ and of his death and blood Though Christ be one and dyed once for all yet the Benefits that come by him are many no one thing alone was sufficient to represent the fulness that is in Christ 2. The second great thing held forth by their legal Offerings is Praise and Thankfulness This was the intent of the holy Offerings as Atonement was of the most Holy This was the meaning of the Heave-Offering
that end 2. The Leper must wash his Cloaths and himself and shave his Hair and then come into the Camp but not yet into his Tent. vers 8. The like Ceremony is required in other Cleansings As at the Consecration of the Levites Numb 8.7 they were to cause a Rasor to pass over all their flesh And Deut. 21.12 Of the Captive Woman it is said she shall shave her head and pare her nails Some allegorize this in a plain and a good way thus That it was a figure of casting away all remainders of malice and filthiness James 1.21 Those excrescencies and superfluities of sinful Corruption it shadows out and teacheth the work of Mortification or paring away of sinful superfluities of Lusts and Corruptions as fast as they grow which we cannot be quite rid of but must be paring and cutting them off continually This Expression is used Isai 7.20 in a metaphorical way to signifie the Lords consuming and weakning their strength for much hair argueth strength of nature Hence in age when there is a decay of strength the hair falls off and baldness comes in stead of hair Therefore in a leprous person it seems to argue strength of the Disease therefore the shaving it off is thought to signifie the cutting off and taking away the strength of the Disease and plague of the heart And as to washing this was often required therefore the Apostle speaks of divers washings Heb. 9.10 And the Holy Ghost refers them to the blood of Christ Rev. 1.5 And they respect also the Spirit of Christ often compared to water Isai 44.3 This is that Fountain set open Zach. 13.1 for the house of Judah and the Inhabitants of Jerusalem to wash in for sin and for uncleanness A sinner must wash and bath himself in this Fountain if ever he will be made clean We read of the washing of Regeneration Titus 3.5 which is an allusion to these Ceremonial washings rather than to Baptism And the Leper was to wash his whole body not some part only because Sanctification is a cleansing of the whole man 1 Thes 5.23 And he must wash his clothes as well as himself To teach us that we must purge our selves from all manner of filthiness and every thing that defileth hating the very garment that is spotted with the flesh Any thing of uncleanness the least degree of it Jude ver 23. hating even the garments spotted by the flesh An amplification saith the Margin taken from the forbidden things in the Old Law that did defile that is all appearances occasions any thing that hath the least touch of sin It is a worse sign of a leprous graceless heart for a man to dally with his lust and to allow himself therein than one particular fall into a grosser act of uncleanness if it be abhorred and repented of Thus the Leper must be washed He and his Clothes and his Hair shorn and yet after all this he is not to return to his Tent. The reason is Lest there should be any thing of infection in his Tent. For the very Houses and Garments sometimes were infected with Leprosie 3. The third Ceremony or his after-duty is this After seven days he must use the same Ceremony of shaving and washing over again ver 9. This plainly teacheth us that cleansing work must be renewed from time to time The mortifying and purging out of Corruption it is a gradual work and a frequent work For the Leper is not made clean at once in the first moment nay after all his former observations he is not perfectly clean though he be begun to be made clean but here are seven days must intervene and then he must wash and shave again So that it is a gradual work We should do so in Spiritual Cleansing especially upon the Sabbath day which is the seventh in this sense that is it is one of seven and it is and should be a day of Spiritual washing and cleansing Thus you have seen the first part of this purifying Sacrifice for the Leper viz The two Birds with the several Ceremonies and Ceremonial actions and performances appertaining to them both to the slain Bird and to the living Bird and to the Leper himself 2. The second part of the purifying Sacrifice appointed for him is that of three Lambs with the Ceremonies thereunto belonging and this is declared at large from ver 10. to 32. of that 14. Chapter of Leviticus The Materials of this are two He Lambs the one for a Burnt-Offering the other for a Trespass Offering and an Ew-Lamb for a Sin Offering and fine Flower for a Meat Offering and a log of Oyl These are the Materials Now what must be done with them The Ceremonies about them are chiefly these three 1. The Sacrifices must be slain and offered according to the manner and institution ver 12 13. But this having been opened formerly we shall not insist upon it 2. The Priest must put some of the blood of them upon the tip of the right ear of him that is to be cleansed ver 14. and some part on the thumb of his right hand and on the great toe of his right foot You have the like Ceremony Exod. 29.20 injoined in the Consecration of Aaron and his Sons The sprinkling these parts did represent and was instead of sprinkling the whole body The sprinkling of a part of the body was appointed by God as significative of universal cleansing of the whole man Engl. Annot. on Exod. 29.20 Our Annotators have this Note upon it The Ear was to be sanctified for holy hearing and against the hearing of any corrupt communication And the Hand for working and the Foot for walking that his Conversation might be holy and his Person sanctified from head to foot So in Baptism there is no necessity of plunging the whole body in water but the sprinkling of it on the Forehead may suffice to signifie the mystical meaning intended by it where by a Sacramental Synechdoche though but a part be sprinkled the whole is washed and cleansed This is the second Ceremony some of the blood in these Sacrifices of the three Lambs must be put upon the Leper The 3d. is That the Priest is to take the Oyl and sprinkle part of it before the Lord and with part to anoint the Leper his Ear Thumb and Foot in the place where he had put the blood before and pour the rest upon his head ver 15 16 17 18. This mystical Oyl whereof they had such continual use under the Law we have often heard that it typifies the Holy Ghost and therefore the Son of God is said to be anointed with the Spirit Isai 61.1 And Act. 10.38 God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power Therefore the putting of the Oyl upon these parts signifies the saving Graces of the Spirit of Christ whereby they are cleansed and sanctified and comforted who have been justified and reconciled by his blood As to the putting it upon
Heaven who are compared to Chariots and fiery Chariots Psal 68.17 the Chariots of God are twenty thousand even thousands of Angels which suits with that expression of the Chariot of the Cherubims in the Oracle 1 Chron. 28.18 and with that of the Apostle Peter who saith 1 Pet. 1.12 the Angels bow down their heads to pry into the mysteries of the Gospel alluding to the posture of the Cherubims over the Ark. 2. Kings and Magistrates are called Cherubims in Scripture so it is spoken of the King of Tyre Ezek. 28.14 Thou art the anointed Cherub that covereth and I have set thee so thou wast upon the holy Mountain of God It speaks forth both their Dignity and Duty The Magistrate is to protect the true Religion and the Worship of God as the Cherubims did cover the Ark. 3. Ministers are called Cherubims so in Revel 4. those four living Wights are nothing else but four Cherubims as you will clearly see if you compare that with Ezekiels Vision Ezek. 4. But these Cherubims or four living Wights in the Revelation cannot be interpreted concerning the Angels in Heaven because they are said to be redeemed by the Lambs Blood Rev. 5.8 9. which the Angels in Heaven were not And moreover the four living Wights are expresly distinguished from the Angels in Heaven ver 11. therefore it must needs be meant of a lower sort of Angels the Angels of the Churches that is the Officers and Ministers of the Church who should be men of Angelick Spirits for industry and zeal and vigilancy in the Lords work 6. The sixth and last part of the Ark here mentioned is the Mercy seat The Cherubims of Glory overshadowing the Mercy seat The Mercy-seat was the Cover of the Ark of which Exod. 25.17 The Hebrew word for it is Capporeth from Caphar to cover with pitch and in another Conjugation to expiate atone appease It implyeth a merciful covering of our sins The Septuagint call it sometimes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a propitiatory covering and sometimes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Lid or covering laid on The Apostle applies it to the Blood of Christ and the satisfaction made thereby to the Justice of God for our sins Rom. 3.25 1 Joh. 2.2 Vse 1. See the Glory of the visible Church and of the Presence of God there For all these glorious things are in the Temple in the Holy of holies there And therefore your should see God himself there and hear his voice though not visibly and audibly but spiritually yet really and powerfully and effectually speaking to the heart You should see these things by the eye of Faith When you come to a Meeting though the World revile and call them Conventicles you should see a guard of Angels and Cherubims round about you c. Vse 2. See the fulness of supply and spiritual relief that is in Jesus Christ in the Gospel for poor lost Souls Here is something to answer all their cases and necessities here is God appearing and speaking in Christ here is passive and active Obedience here is the Word the Ministry the Guard of Angels the workings of Providence for the Churches good There be two things which an enlightned Conscience needs and cries for 1. I cannot keep the Law I want a perfect legal Righteousness to appear before God in Therefore Christ hath done it Here is the Law kept in this blessed Ark of the Covenant He hath fulfilled all Righteousness c. 2. But I want a Propitiation for the sins that have been committed But therefore here is a Mercy-seat upon the Ark a propitiatory Covering in the passive Obedience of Jesus Christ whereby he hath not only kept the Law but satisfied for our breaking of it Draw neer to God in the faith and meditation of this mystery An Advertisement to the Reader THe observing Reader will remember that in the method proposed by the Author the Legal Ministry should have come in the next place to be treated of But the Author in his course of preaching handled this Head before that which alteration of his first designed method and thus transposing these two heads of the Legal Ministry and the Legal Festivals is by himself accounted for in the entrance on that of the Legal Ministry and therefore no more shall be said of it The Reader will also doubtless observe his Entrance on this subject of the Legal Festivals to be more abrupt then in the rest of which this account may be given That on this head the Authors Notes which he left behind him were less perfect then on any of the foregoing and thence as it cost more labour to bring them to what is here presented so the judicious Reader will perhaps discern a difference between his Discourses on this and on the other heads as not being spun with an even thred And we have therefore been necessitated to use a greater liberty here then we allowed our selves elsewhere to insert in their properest places as neer as we could sundry notions which we found noted down in the Authors broken Papers relating to this subject some whereof perhaps were not his own yea it may be not according to his Judgment though we do not know of any such inserted but only noted down by him as they came into his mind or as he met with them in reading to be better considered of at further leisure For it is certain it was his manner thus to do Moreover we do find many imperfect hints of Notions amongst his Papers which we could not find where to insert nor indeed as to some of them well tell what to make of them or how to express them as the Author designed and therefore they are lost with him Lastly we may advertise the Reader that we find the Author had thoughts of re-assuming and going over this whole head of the Legal Festivals again in somewhat another method the first rude lineaments whereof were thus drawn by himself viz. he designed first a brief delineation of the whole and when instituted namely their Feasts to wit the Passover Pentecost the Feast of Tabernacles the Feast of Trumpets and the great Day of Expiation their New Moons and their Sabbaths to wit the seventh day of the week the seventh year amd the fiftieth year Next he designed to go over them all again and shew how they made up a rude draught or a dark shadow of better things and here he would have made the first Institution to be his Text for the several Heads and for the Sabbath the 12 13 14 15. verses of the fifth of Deuteronomy because the typical Reason is there annexed to the Command And in the last place he intended to have spoken more fully to the unwarrantableness of Popish Holidays and Musick And indeed he had many years before written two brief Discourses on that Argument the main Materials whereof we suppose he would have brought in here perhaps with some considerable Additions and therefore we have for the affinity of
the matter to this head of the Jewish Festivals subjoined as an Appendix those two Discourses as they were found amongst the Authors Papers Farewell THE GOSPEL of the JEWISH FESTIVALS Jan. 14 17. 1668. Coloss 2.16 17. Let no man therefore judge you in Meat or in Drink or in respect of an Holy day or of the New Moon or of the Sabbath-days Which are a shadow of things to come but the Body is of Christ Obs 1. THat the Jewish Holy days were of three sorts and may be referred to three Heads Feasts New Moons and Sabbaths 2. That these were Shadows of things to come but the Body or Substance is of Christ 3. That therefore Christians should not suffer any man to condemn them for their not observing of these Days I shall handle the two first together in one shewing under each of these legal Holy days what the substance and thing signified was what of Christ was signified and shadowed forth by them Obs 1. That the Jewish Holy days were of three sorts and may be referred to three heads viz. Feasts New Moons and Sabbaths This Distribution of them doth frequently occur in the Scripture in other places as well as in this Text 2 Chron. 2.4 I build an House saith Solomon for the Burnt-offerings on the Sabbaths and on the New Moons and on the solemn Feasts of the Lord our God Ezek. 45.17 And it shall be the Princes part to give Burnt-offerings c. in the Feasts and in the New Moons and in the Sabbaths even in all the solemnities of the House of Israel that is in their appointed or solemn Assemblies Where Solemnities or solemn Assemblies is the general and this Genus is distributed into three particulars Feasts New Moons and Sabbaths so likewise Hos 2.11 I will also cause all her mirth to cease her feast-Feast-days her New Moons and her Sabbaths even every holy Assembly of hers The first word is Feasts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Hebrew moyed set times because they came at set times of the year This is meant of their annual Festivals which were in number five The three principal were the Feast of the Passover the Feast of Pentecost and the Feast of Tabernacles which continued the two former each of them seven days the last for eight days together and the first day and the last day of them were holy Convocations wherein they were to do no servile work but to be wholly vacant for the Word and Worship of God The first mention of them is in Exod. 23 14-17 They are more largely spoken to in the 23. chap. of Leviticus and again in Deut. 16. and briefly recapitulated and summed up in ver 16. These were the principal because then all the males were to go up to Jerusalem and therefore these three are so often mentioned together There were also two more the Feast of Trumpets and the Feast of Expiation There are five general Rules observable concerning all these yearly Feasts 1. That they were all to be celebrated at the place the Lord their God should choose which was Jerusalem Exod. 23.14 Deut. 16.16 That which we are to learn therein is this that there is a Church-worship There are some Ordinances of Gods Worship which are not to be enjoyed but in Church-society As there is a personal and family-worship so there is publick or Church-worship of this kind is the Lords Supper If this be not an Ordinance of publick Worship under the Gospel there is none therefore to carry it to private persons upon their death-beds as the Papists doe is unwarrantable and superstitious 2. It is to be observed that they were all in the Summer time and not in Winter for the Passover was upon the fourteenth day of the first month Pentecost was seven weeks after and the Feast of Tabernacles was upon the fifteenth day of the seventh month Hence is that expression Acts. 27.9 Sailing is now dangerous because the Feast was now already past that is the Feast of Tabernacles The Instruction we are here to learn is this namely to see the tenderness of God towards his people even as to the outward man As he will have Mercy rather then Sacrifice so he orders the matters of Sacrifice and Worship with tenderness and mercy even to the bodies of his people yea the Spirit of God vouchsafes to dwell in their very Bodies as well as in their Souls and he preserves the dust thereof as precious reliques in the treasures of his Providence and will gather those dispersed atoms and bring them forth again and raise them up to everlasting life How great is his Goodness to us It shews there is a Duty incumbent upon us in reference to our Bodies and how great a sin it is in men to wrong and hurt their bodies when the Lord himself is tender of them 3. They were not to come empty handed Exod. 23. Deut. 16.16 17. true Religion is bountiful Duties of Worship are to be accompanied with duties of mercy and bounty so upon the Christian Sabbath there should be Collections for the poor 1 Cor. 16.2 Hypocrisie divides these it is willing to serve God but in the cheapest way hypocrites are all for a cheap Religion 4. Whereas there was danger of Invasion by their Enemies when all the Males were absent the Lord secures them by a promise of special Protection Exod. 34.24 Neither shall any man desire thy Land when thou shalt go up to appear before the Lord thy God thrice in the year Learn here that while we are in our Duty God will take care of our Safety the way of Duty is the way of Safety When the Church of the Jews was gone from God and had crucified the Lord of Life this protecting Providence forsook them For at the Passover it was that the Romans took and destroyed Jerusalem This Ordinance which was at first and ever after a means of safety to them the Lord now makes it a snare to bring them all together as it were into a pound that the Romans might take them and cut them off But while they abode with God in purity of Worship and Obedience he abode with them in his protecting Providence This should be a great encouragement to us in the Work and Worship of God to run all hazards and to fear no colours but be resolute in the discarge and performance of Duty The Lord is with us in such a case and then who can be against us 5. These Feasts as to their end and use were both commemorative of former Benefits and also prefigurative of future It may be said so of other holy times and holy things also but it holds eminently true concerning these three solemn anniversary Feasts The first of these yearly Feasts was the Passover which began upon the fifteenth day of the first month answering chiefly to our March The first Institution of it is in the 12th chap. of Exodus There were three things which were the peculiar observations of this
of the Pagans and to disguise them with a new Name that those Festivities which had been kept before in the Devils name might now be kept in Christs own name to his greater dishonour Besides there is little probability that the true time of Christs Birth is stumbled upon and many learned men confess there is a mistake as to the time and that it must needs be at the Feast of Tabernacles and not in December Moreover God usually gives men up to more sin then then at other time which is a further evidence of his Displeasedness with the Observation of it It was Latimers complaint of old in the days of King Henry the eighth That Christ was more dishonoured in the Twelve Days then in all the whole Twelve Months besides Ye observe days and months and years I am afraid of you that I have laboured in vain says the Apostle in Gal. 4.10 11. it is a sign the preaching of the Gospel hath been very much in vain among the people when they retain the Observation of such times the Apostle speaks of the days and times that men have invented not of days that God hath instituted to be observed It is said of Jeroboam 1 King 12.33 that he offered upon the Altar which he had made in Bethel the fifteenth day of the eighth month the month which he had devised of his own heart which he had lyed or feigned quem mentitus est The Lye of it appears in this that they pretend to do it to the honour of Christ when indeed they do it to his dishonour and therefore it is as a brand set upon him on this account which he lyed in his own heart so it is but lying for men to keep days of their own invention and the Lye appears in that they pretend to do it for the honour of God and of Jesus Christ whereas they unspeakably dishonour him thereby It is the framing of a Lye in mens own hearts when they keep such days Obj. But should we not celebrate the memorial of our Redemption by Jesus Christ why should we forget the memory of these things should we not remember how Jesus Christ suffered and hath sent his Spirit amongst us and came to tabernacle in our Flesh Answ Yes but the Lord commands us to celebrate the memory of it once a week and for us to put him off with once a year is to put him off with less then he requires to give him a day in a year when he requires a day in a week for the memorial and celebration of this thing Moreover there is a way whereby people may keep the Passover and Pentecost and the Feast of Tabernacles that is we should keep them under the Gospel every day As some say every day should be a Christian Sabbath But that is not true for a Sabbath is a day set apart from our Callings but six days shalt thou labour saith the Commandment But we should make every day our Easterday every day our Pentecost c. Obj. But why should not Christians be as holy as the Jews and therefore keep these Feasts as well as they how should we keep them every day Answ We are to keep them in a spiritual and Gospel way but not legally and literally for the Letter killeth but the Spirit is Life The Apostle exhorts let us keep the Feast 1 Cor. 5.8 Now if you would keep the Feasts of Fassover Pentecost and Tabernacles aright it consists chiefly in three things 1. To be much in the exercise of Faith in the acting of a true and pure and lively Faith upon the Death and Sufferings of Jesus Christ as the true Lamb of God I say in acting Faith or drawing nigh with a true heart in full assurance of Faith and this is the true Passover and the true keeping of that Feast Heb. 10.22 Let us keep the Feast 1 Cor. 5.8 without the leaven of Hypocrisie of seeming Faith and seeming Holiness with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth That is the right keeping of the Passover when men live not upon their own Righteousness trust not in their own Duties but being sensible of their sinful undone wretched estate act Faith and exercise their thoughts upon the Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ this is the right keeping of it indeed 2. Be ye filled with the Spirit get a great and large measure of Gods Spirit this is the true Feast of Pentecost Ephes 5.18 Be not drunk with Wine wherein is excess as the Holiday-keepers use to be through the Justice of God because they observe their own inventions but be ye filled with the Spirit Do not sit down with common Gifts and common Graces and common Workings but get and labour after the saving work of the Spirit and be not content nor sit down satisfied with some little beginnings of a special saving work with saving Grace in truth and in sincerity in little measures and degrees but labour after a great degree and measure of the Spirit of Grace after strength and growth of Grace as well as truth of Grace be ye filled with the Spirit c. 3. Behold and see the Glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ This is the true Celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles Get a real sight of God so as to behold his Glory as he is manifested in the flesh and as God dwells in our Nature Joh. 1.14 the Word was made Flesh and dwelt amongst us came and pitched his Tabernacle among us and we beheld his Glory We cannot see God in himself he dwells in Light and Glory inaccessible as we cannot look upon the Sun in its own Brightness but we may see it in a pail of Water so we may see the infinite Majesty and Glory of God in the Flesh of Christ The Tabernacle of Jesus Christ is a thing to be beheld by Men and Angels to see more into the Glory of God 〈◊〉 get acquaintance with the mystery of the Father and of Jesus Christ as the Apostle speaks Col. 2.2 3. that ye may be knit together in love and comforted and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding to the acknowledgment of the mystery of God and of the Father and of Christ in whom are hid all the treasures of Wisdom and Knowledg But beware lest any man spoil you through Philosophy and vain deceit after the Tradition of men after the rudiments of the World and not after Christ ver 8. for in him ver 9. dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily Labour therefore to see God in Jesus Christ we are not able to behold that infinite Majesty but only through the veil of the Flesh of Jesus Christ as shining in his humane nature And this is the mystery of the Feast of Tabernacles and the right and Gospel way of celebrating of it Consider what I have said and the Lord give you understanding in all things THE GOSPEL of the FEAST of TRUMPETS Jan. 21.
1668. Coloss 2.16 17. Let no man therefore judge you in Meat or in Drink or in respect of an Holy day or of the New Moon or of the Sabbath-days Which are a shadow of things to come but the Body is of Christ THere are three Doctrines in the words 1. That the Jewish Holy days are of three sorts or may be referred to three general heads Feast days New Moons and Sabbaths 2. That these their holy seasons were shadows of things to come but the Body is of Christ 3. Therefore no Christian should suffer any man to judg him or condemn him for not observing these Jewish times and seasons We are endeavouring to open the substance of these shadows and what were those things to come those things about Jesus Christ and the Gospel which were shadowed forth in them We began first with their Holy days or their Feast days that is their annual Festivals whereof we heard they had five 1. The Passover 2. Pentecost 2. The Feast of Tabernacles 4. The Feast of Trumpets 5. The Feast of Expiation These three the Passover Pentecost and the Feast of Tabernacles were the three great Festivals which were more solemn then the rest because then all the Males of Israel were to assemble together out of the whole Nation and to appear before the Lord in the place that he should choose in a general Church Assembly We heard something that these things pointed to The Passover did point them to the Death and Sufferings of Jesus Christ as the true Paschal Lamb who fulfilled this Type even as to the very season and holy time it self for he suffered at the Passover The Pentecost pointed at the time of the effusion of the Holy Ghost after his Ascension The Feast of Tabernacles pointed them to the Birth and Nativity of Jesus Christ when he should come to tabernacle and pitch his Tent in our Nature We heard indeed that this was the time of Christs Birth and not as it is commonly computed to be in December in the depth of Winter It is not like the Shepherds would be watching their Flocks all night then and that Augustus would command his Subjects to travel to their own Cities to be taxed at such a time and that John would choose that time to baptize in There be two more of the Jewish Feasts to be spoken to which were great and solemn Feasts yet not so great as these three because the people were not all bound to come up to Jerusalem to the Temple namely the Feast of Trumpets and the Feast of Expiation they were both in the seventh month as was also the Feast of Tabernacles the Feast of Trumpets on the first day of it the Feast of Expiation on the tenth day and the Feast of Tabernales on the fifteenth day and from thence to the two and twentieth day which is therefore accounted the greatest of all their Feasts being in the seventh month which was also the first in their old account the chiefest of all the months in the year and called by some the Sabbath of months as the seventh day is the Sabbath of days 4. This month began with the Feast of Trumpets which was upon the first day of the seventh month The first Institution of it we have in Lev. 23.23 24 25. and the Lord spake unto Moses saying c. It was celebrated as a Sabbath they were to do no servile work therein This Feast also had its peculiar Sacrifices appointed for it as in Numb 29. the six first verses It was also solemnized with the blowing of Trumpets which being the special Rite of this Festivity it had its Name from thence Here therefore the old legal Musick may fitly be considered this being as it were their Feast of Musick The Institution of these Trumpets we read in Numb 10. the ten first verses mentioned long after as a very solemn Ordinance in Psal 81.3 4 The first mention we have of Musical instruments in the Worship of God is in Exod. 15.20 21. where we read that Miriam used Timbrels and they praised God therewith and they sang the Song of Moses when they were delivered from Pharaoh And Miriam the Prophetess the Sister of Aaron took a Timbrel in her hand and all the Women went out after her with Timbrels and with Dances And Miriam answered them Sing ye to the Lord for he hath triumphed gloriously the Horse and his Rider hath he thrown into the Sea Moses afterwards by order from God appointed these Trumpets to be made and we read of a further increase of such Instruments in after times As to the use and signification of them there be many Gospel Instructions to be considered in this legal shadow we shall mention seven 1. The general scope of them was to signifie and shadow forth the sound of the Gospel the blessed sound of the Gospel which is called the joyful sound Psal 89.15 the Gospel is called glad tidings it is a joyful pleasant sound indeed Hence the Ministers of the Gospel are said to lift up their voice like a Trumpet Isai 58.1 the Tongue of the just is as choise Silver Prov. 10.20 these Trumpets were of Silver the faithful discharge and execution of their Office is expressed by blowing of the Trumpet Hos 8.1 Ezek. 33.3 4 5. it is said in the day when the Jews shall be converted in that day the great Trumpet shall be blown and they shall come which were ready to perish c. Isai 27. last when God shall gather them one by one ye shall be gathered one by one ver 12. in that day the great Trumpet shall be blown c that is saith Calvin the Silver Trumpet of the Gospel to the conviction and conversion of the Jews God will have his Church instructed not by sight only but by voice not by the eye only but by the ear Even under the Law the Lord would not have his people always to look for miraculous and immediate Guidance but they were to order themselves according to the sound of the Trumpet both in War Peace according to the rule of the Word so according to the rules of the Gospel according as that Trumpet sounds so are you to act This is the first namely the joyful sound of the Silver Trumpet of the Gospel 2. The Joys and Graces of the Spirit of God is another thing intimated by this Trumpet and instrument of Musick that spiritual melody of the Joys and Graces of the Holy Ghost in the hearts of Gods people Psal 98.6 with Trumpets and sound of Cornet make a joyful noise before the Lord the King Ephes 5.18 19. There is a melody and joyful voice in the Consciences of Believers the Spirit of God both sanctifying and comforting of them so the Apostle Col. 3.16 Grace and Joy the fruit of Grace so this Musick remains in the Antitype of it the heart-strings of Believers making melody suitable to the profession of their Lips and to the gracious and peaceable
the Feast of Expiation Answ They had no more of Gods appointment that were perpetual and religious Feasts It is true we read of some others both in Scripture and in the Jewish Writers but either they were not perpetually recurring every year but meerly occasional upon present emergencies of Providence or else they were not holy and religious Feasts but only civil and political or else lastly they were sinful and unwarrantable as 1. There was Solomons Feast that solemn Feast at the Dedication of the Temple as in 2 Chron. 5. but this was extraordinary and occasional and not a standing yearly Festival 2. They had also those Fasts of the fifth and of the seventh month which are mentioned in Zech. 7 3-5 but these also were but temporary and occasional upon occasion of the calamities of their Captivity in Babylon the Land being laid desolate Jerusalem taken the Temple destroyed Hence they had these Fasts only during the time of their sorrow but they ceased and were turned into rejoycing 3. There was the days of Purim mentioned in Esther 9.21 22. that they kept in the month of Adar on the fourteenth and on the fifteenth day of the month yearly for then it was turned from sorrow to joy and from mourning to a good day This seems not to be a religious but a political constitution so our Divines conclude against the Papists who plead this for their Popish Holidays For there were peculiar Sacrifices appointed for all the holy Festivals Numb chap. 28 and 29. but there was none for this and there is nothing mentioned but civil rejoycing days of Feasting and Joy and sending portions to the needy ver 22. Of this nature is our fifth of November Not but that there may and ought to be upon such times holy rejoycing in God as upon any providential occasion but there ought not to be a religious abstinence from the works of our Callings as upon the Lords day and upon occasional days of Fasting or Rejoycing that ought not to be on any such days Had they been religious Feasts and days wherein they were bound to abstain from the works of their Callings after the nature of religious Feasts we then are to suppose that Mordecai Nehemiah c. had instruction from God about it else they durst not have done it they that had such Light and Holiness 4. We read of two Feasts more appointed in the time of the Maccabees one for the Dedication of the Altar 1 Maccab. 4.56 so they kept the Dedication of the Altar eight days offered Burnt-offerings with gladness and offered sacrifices of deliverance and praise And the other for the Purification of the Temple 2 Maccab. 1.18 we are now purposed to keep the Purification of the Temple upon the five and twentieth day of the month Chesleu Now if these had been only particular and occasional Feasts these things God had left with the Church to appoint but seeing the Jews say they were yearly Feasts they were thererefore superstitious and unwarrantable things for they had no such extraordinary persons amongst them that could give them authority from God for such a thing Thus we have gone through the first word Feast days their Holy days or Feast days Their holy times we referred to three heads their Holy days New Moons and Sabbaths Now a word concerning their New Moons Let no man judge you in respect of the New Moons 2. New Moons 2. The second word in the Text is New Moons of which we read in Numb 28.11 in the beginnings of your months ye shall offer a Burnt-offering unto the Lord c. and Numb 10.10 in the beginnings of your months ye shall blow with the Trumpets over your Burnt-offerings c. To open this a little that so you may understand the mind of the Holy Ghost in it you must observe that their computation of the year was not as ours is meerly Solar but partly Lunar for their month always began with the New Moon and the days remaining to fill up their Solar year which are eleven they were wont to intercalate at the appointment of their High Prests and Rulers at the years end Or as some write after the second or third year in an intercalatory month which they called Veader consisting of eleven or one and twenty or three and thirty days Their month still began with a New Moon and the Lord did appoint that it should be a season religiously observed by them you shall offer such and such Sacrifices ye shall blow with Trumpets c. There were four things observable in the solemnizing the New Moons for they did solemnize this season with such religious Rites and Observations as these 1. A holy Convocation and abstaining from the works and business of their Callings Therefore in Amos 8.5 they are brought in as saying when will the New Moons be gone that we may sell Corn c. 2. By repairing to the Prophets for Teaching and Instruction to inquire of God and to hear his Word 2 Kings 4.23 3. With sounding or blowing of Trumpets every New Moon as well as the New Moon of the seventh month Numb 10.10 4. With peculiar Sacrifices yea a greater number of Sacrifices then on the Sabbath day They had peculiar Sacrifices then to be offered on the first day of the month Numb 28.11 Some add fifthly the keeping solemn Feasts of Love and Amity 1 Sam. 20.5.6 Now this Solemnity doubtless had some Divine mystery in it it aimed at some good thing to come something of Christ in the Gospel for the Text saith expresly they were a shadow of things to come And the Worship of God in Gospel-times is expressed under this phrase Isai 66.23 from one New Moon to another so Ezekiel in his Vision of the Temple-worship under the Gospel speaks of it under the name of New Moons Ezek. 46.1 6. But what then did it signifie what was the meaning of all these things Doubtless they were written for our Instruction there was a Gospel-mystery in these legal Institutions In these things principally lay the substance of these shadows 1. Their acknowledgment of God in the Creature that God must be acknowledged in the renovation of the Creatures in the course of Providence as when the Moon begins increases and is renewed then Gods Providence is acknowledged and taken notice of he renews the course of nature and every mercy we enjoy There is no Light to be seen at first in the Moon but it increases till it come to the full Moon Thus God renews every creature and every comfort in the way of his Providence Psal 104.30 thou sendest forth thy Spirit and they are created and thou renewest the face of the earth They must not bless God in this Solemnity for the Moon when it was at the full then more of the Creature is seen but when there is least of the Creature then God must be owned even in the least of mercies 2. The Renovation of the Church in a way
the next particular viz. 3. The Jubile There was also a third Sabbath beside the weekly Sabbath and the seventh year Sabbath they had likewise a Sabbath of seven times seven that is the Jubile This was their great Sabbatical year for they were to reckon seven times seven years and then to observe a Sabbatical year Lev. 25.9 This also was a Type of Christ as appears in three things that were done in this year of Jubile 1. There was Redemption and Release every one set at liberty every bondage released and every yoke broken Here is a shadow of the spiritual and true Redemption by Jesus Christ who of spiritual slaves by nature makes us the Lords Freemen by Grace Christ hath proclaimed Redemption to sinners and Deliverance to poor captive souls Isai 61.1 2. There was the Trumpet of the Jubile to proclaim it The Gospel is this great Trumpet the proclaiming of the Jubile is alluded to Isai 61.1 2 Isai 27. ult in that day the great Trumpet shall be blown The great Trumpet is the Gospel Calv. in loc 3. Some have observed further that the coming of Christ was at the Jubile that Christ came at the time of the Jubile I know there is some difference amongst Chronologers about it but sure it is it fell thereabout some placing the Jubile upon the preaching of John Baptist who did proclaim the Lords coming but others place it as seemeth more exactly upon the very year of Christs Death by which we were redeemed and set free indeed They began the account of their Jubiles from about anno mundi 2560. for they came out of Egypt about the year 2513. they were forty years in the Wilderness six or seven in conquering and dividing the Land of Canaan Then began their first Sabbatical year from thence to the Death of Christ there were eight and twenty Jubiles his Death being about the year of the world 3960. So you see something of the Gospel-mystery of these Sabbaths of the Jews the three sorts of Sabbaths every week every seventh year and every fiftieth year and thus also you see how these legal holy times and seasons were all shadows of good things to come Take some general Uses from the whole Vse 1. See and remember the unlawfulness and unwarrantableness of the Observation of these Jewish times and seasons under the Gospel for they were typical Amos 5.21 The Papists observe the Passover which they call Easter Pentecost commonly called Whitsuntide and instead of the Feast of Tabernacles they keep the five and twentieth of December for the time of Christs Birth all which we retain And they have also added a Jubile which because it is a profitable time to the Popes Purse he hath ordered it to be kept every five and twenty years instead of fifty These are Errors of dangerous consequence for they do implicitly deny that the Substance is come If these things were shadows of things to come the retaining of them now is an error of dangerous consequence For to retain any of these dark and legal shadows is an implicit denial that Christ the substance is come These things were more fully spoken to the last time Vse 2. See and observe the burthensomness of that old legal Dispensation as also our Christian liberty now under the Gospel The Lord requires no day of us but the Lords day and occasional days of Humiliation or of Thanksgiving upon emergencies of Providence calling thereunto Stand fast therefore in the Liberty wherewith Christ hath made you free Gal. 5.1 and be not again intangled in the yoke of bondage Vse 3. And lastly see wat clear and plentiful evidence the Jews had concerning Jesus Christ that he was the true Messiah and how true this of the Apostle in the Text is that they are a shadow of things to come Put all these things together and you will see these Jewish days made up a rude draught or dark shadow of the good things that were to come under the Gospel in sundry particulars relating to the Body which is of Christ As for instance they lead to the time of his Conception by the Holy Ghost on the first day of the month To the time of his Birth and Nativity being born on the first day of the Feast of Tabernacles and circumcised the eighth He suffered at the time of the Passover He lay and rested in the Grave on the Jewish Sabbath He poured forth his Spirit at their Feast of Pentecost The Jews might have found the Body by these shadows had they been attentive to mind the things belonging to their peace they might have thought when they saw such a conjunction surely this is he that comes speedily to redeem Israel And you though you have a conviction of the truth of the Gospel yet get a further and fuller conviction of it from this that Jesus Christ was so plainly shadowed forth to us by all these ancient Dispensations THE GOSPEL of the GREAT DAY of ATONEMENT Levit. 16. the whole Chapter Jan. 24 28. 1668. THis Chapter is wholy taken up in declaring the Feast of Expiation or Atonement upon the tenth day of the seventh month It is more properly and indeed a Fast but yet commonly called a Feast as taking the word in a more lax acceptation for any set or solemn time And though it was indeed a day of afflicting their Souls yet there was joy in the end of it for their peace was made with God and the Jubile proclaimed this day It was with all the Services and Administrations of it the most full and compleat shadow of the great work of our Redemption that we meet with under the Law the High Priest representing in all he did that which Jesus Christ the true High Priest was to do indeed in the fulness of time I shall endeavour to explain it a little to you as God shall enable me following the method of this Chapter and so you will be able to read it more understandingly and with edification Wherein the first thing that doth occur is the occasion of the Institution ver 1. viz. the Death of the two Sons of Aaron when they offered before the Lord and died which Story is recorded Lev. 10.1 2. Some add that Man fell upon this day but this is not likely It seems more probable from all the circumstances of the Story that he fell upon the seventh day For that he was not fallen upon the sixth day appears by this that in the close of the sixth day God approves all his Creatures that they were good Gen. 1. ult therefore sin had not yet spoiled them And if he had stood out the whole Sabbath day it is probable he had been confirmed by eating of the Tree of Life For it is probable that upon the Sabbath he should have enjoyed all the Ordinances of God and consequently that the Sacrament of that estate should have been the concluding Ordinance as under the New Testament they were wont to
break Bread every Lords day And in the primitive times the Sacrament was the concluding Ordinance But Man did not eat of the Tree of Life for then he had been confirmed and lived for ever Gen. 3.22 therefore it is not likely that he stood in his integrity to the end of the Sabbath And as to the time of the day wherein he sinned it seems to have been about eating time at dinner about noon eating what they should not being the thing wherein they sinned And after his Fall it is said that God came and spake to them in the cool of the day Gen. 3. ver 8. This seems to have been about that time of the day which the Scripture calls the ninth hour which is after our reckoning about three a clock in the afternoon So long they were in darkness and under guilt of their Sin before the Promulgation of the Gospel to them Wherein some have observed a congruity in that Jesus Christ was under those his infinite Sufferings upon the Cross the same space of time from the sixth hour to the ninth Matth. 27.45 46. And it being thus Man in his first sin and fall did break all the Commandments at once as he brake all the rest so he sinned upon the Sabbath day This seems by all the circumstances of the Story to have been the time of his Fall But to think that he fell on Tuesday the tenth day from the Creation there is nothing in the History to evince it Others think this Fast on the day of the seventh month was appointed in remembrance of the great Sin the Idolatry of the Golden Calf Exod. 32. But we may rest in that the Text mentioneth as the occasion of this Ordinance viz. the Sin and Death of Nadab and Abihu And there is a threefold Instruction we are here to learn Obs 1. Here we are taught first That there must be holy fear and reverence in approaching to God in his Ordinances an holy fear and dread of sinning in the manner of his Worship and that it is a dangerous thing to worship God otherwise then he hath appointed Men should take heed of it that they die not as Nadab and Abihu did for this sin they incur the danger of Death both Death temporal and eternal Though God doth not usually smite men with visible Judgments but when they are first in any transgression yet there is a spiritual fire and wrath upon their spirits for it which is worse then outward Judgments Obs 2. The Lord takes hold of the saddest occasions to bring in Dispensations of the greatest good and mercy to his people Light out of Darkness Heaven out of Hell good out of evil to those that he hath set his Love upon Obs 3. When some are slain and die in and for their sins the Lord provides for the Salvation of others that they die not Now to come to the thing it self Moses is to charge Aaron that he come not into the Holy of holies at all times nor in any manner but at Gods appointed times and in such manner as he requireth This manner is here described at large It consists chiefly in three things 1. His washing himself 2. His holy Garments And 3. His propitiatory Offerings 1. That the Priest must wash before he put on his Garments and before he present his Offering is an intimation of his Purity and Cleanness Hence that expression of the Apostle Heb. 10.22 Having our hearts sprinkled from an evil Conscience and our Bodies washed with pure water This is the first thing he is to do So Christ Matth. 3.16 was baptized before he entred upon his Ministry and he was perfectly holy and pure not having the least defilement of sin upon him though he had taken on him our Nature and all the other Infirmities of it Vid. On the Priests Consecration Exod. 29. 2. As to his Attire here be two sorts of holy Garments mentioned in the Services of this day the holy Garments ver 4. and other holy and most costly Garments ver 23.24 Some call the former his White Garments and the other his Golden Garments 1. This Priestly Attire was an emblem of spiritual clothing Psal 132.9 Let thy Priests be clothed with Righteousness and let thy Saints shout for joy and ver 16. I will also clothe her Priests with Salvation Job 29.14 I put on Righteousness and it clothed me my Judgment was as a Robe and a Diadem This then speaks the Grace and Holiness that was in Jesus Christ and ought to be in Ministers such Garments Ministers should be clothed with 2. Those two sorts of Attire the White and the Golden Garments signified the different estate and condition of Jesus Christ when he performed the great work of our Redemption and made atonement for us he did it in much meanness and abasement Isai 52.14 his Visage was marred he was without external Pomp and worldly Glory in the form of a Servant made himself of no Reputation Phil. 2.7 though with Holiness and Purity and Innocency He had white Garments on though they were but plain But as there is a clothing of Grace so there is a clothing of Glory 2 Cor. 5.2 4. And after his Resurrection when he had been in Heaven and returned again and arose and appeared from the dead he did change his Raiment He wore the garments of Holiness here but when he entred into the holy place even into Heaven he did put on garments of Glory These were the holy Garments on this day of Expiation Now the third thing is the Offerings of Atonement and they were of two sorts for the Priest and for the People 1. For the Priest himself and for his own House ver 3 6. This teacheth us the insufficiency and imperfection of the legal Priesthood Heb. 5.1 2.3 we need a better High Priest and we have one Heb. 7.26 27 28. The Priest was first to make atonement for himself and for his own sins that so he might be fit as a figure of Christ the true High Priest to make atonement for the people They that lie under unpardoned guilt themselves are not fit to be Mediators and Intercessors for others The Priest had three things to do in reference to his own Sacrifice 1. He was to kill it and so to make atonement with it v. 11. This was a Type of the Death of Christ the true Sacrifice 2. He was to offer Incense in the Holy of holies v. 12. This is a Type of the Prayers and Intercessions of Jesus Christ in the virtue of his Satisfaction Here are four particulars observable 1. As the High Priest did this before he sprinkled the Blood in the Holiest of all so Christ prepared his own way into Heaven by his Prayers and Intercessions Joh. 17. 2. The Incense was beaten small to intimate the anguish and contrition and brokenness of heart wherewith Christ prayed and interceded for us those agonies of spirit in his Prayers before his Death which he offered
former Rest being disturbed and spoiled by the Fall and Sin of Man is our Christian Sabbath But these Popish Holy days are not the Lords resting days nor is any such thing pretended 4. They commonly put it upon the Church and say the Church hath set apart these times but this is not enough to make them holy for all that the Church can do towards the sanctifying of any time or thing is only to present it and offer it to the Lord but if the Lord do not accept them but refuse such Presents and cast them down as dung in their faces they are not Holiness to the Lord but an abomination to him As suppose the Church of the Jews had offered Swines flesh unto God would this have made Swines Flesh holy no verily because the Lord not did not accept it So here the Church dedicates these days to the Lord but there must be some Word of God to evidence his acceptance of them or else they are not indeed holy times but superstitious times of which the Lord will say at the great day who required these things at your hands whatsoever is not of Faith is sin Isai 1.12 Rom. 14.23 Reason 2. There is not only no warrant in the Scripture for them but clear and sharp reproofs and testimonies against them It was one part of the Superstition of the Pharisees in our Saviours time to fast twice a week Luke 18.12 Those old Papists the Pharisees and our new Pharisees the Papists being men of the same Spirit and acted by the same Principle and walking in the same ways of Superstition And it was the brand set upon Jeroboam 1 Kings 12.33 that he ordained a Feast unto the Children of Israel upon the fifteenth day of the eighth month even the month which he had devised of his own heart which he had lyed or feigned as the word signifies asher bada millibbo quem mentitus est de corde suo And though it was like unto the Feast that was in Judah v. 32. and though he pretended the Glory and Worship of that God that brought them up out of the Land of Egypt as well as the ease and accommodation of the People v. 28. yet all this would not excuse him And what is Christmas and Easter and all the rest of them but days which the Jeroboam of Rome hath devised of his own heart And the Pope had them from the Jews and from the Pagans for what is Christmas but the old heathenish Bacchanalia It is kept at the same time of the year and after the same profane manner only the Pope hath varnished it with a new name But how ill it becomes a Christian to keep the Pagan Festivals hear what Tertullian de Idol cap. 14. saith Nobis saith he quibus Sabbata extranea sunt neomenia feriae aliquando à Deo dilectae Saturnalia Januariae Brumae matronales frequentantur munera commeant strenae consonant lusus convivia constrepunt and is not this as lively a description of Christmas as if it had been purposely intended for it but thus he inveighs against them O melior fides nationum in suam sectam quae nullam solennitatem Christianorum sibi vendicat non Dominicum diem non Pentecosten etiam si nossent nobiscum non communicâssent timerent enim ne Christiani viderentur nos ne Ethnici pronunciemur non veremur We that do not own nor observe the New Moons and other Jewish Festivals appointed of old by God himself do we keep the Heathenish Bacchanalia and other Winter and Summer Feasts of theirs feasting and revelling and making merry as the Heathens do O how much more true are they to their Religion then we to ours For they do not observe any day that Christians observe as Pentecost or the Lords day for they would be afraid lest they should seem to bee Christians in so doing but we are not afraid lest we be pronounced to be Heathens Thus he It is true he alloweth Pentecost as a Feast observed by Christians in those times but how this can be defended and all the rest of the Jewish Feasts cashiered let the Christian Reader judge The Apostle makes no difference but condemns the observation of all the Jewish Festivals alike one as much another Col. 2.16 Let no man judge you in meat or drink or in respect of an holy day or of the New Moon or of the Sabbaths which are a shadow of things to come Judicare hic significat culpae reum facere vel Religionem injicere ita ut amplius liberi non simus saith Calvin in Col. 2.16 Such weak and rudimentary Instructions were fit for those darker and weaker times of the Churches nonage when under the Tutorage and Pedagogy of Moses before the coming of Christ But now after that ye have known God or rather are known of God how turn ye back to the weak and beggarly elements whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage ye observe days and months and times and years I am afraid of you lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain Gal. 4.9 10 11. It is a sign the preaching of the Gospel hath had but small success in such a place and in the hearts of such a people And whereas it is objected both by Papists and Prelates that the Apostle speaks here only against the Jewish Festivals loqui ibi Apostolorum de Judaeorum tantum festis so Bellarmine de Cultu Sanct. c. 10. the Rhemists Annot. in Gal. 4.10 and Bishop Lindsey Perth Ass part 3. pag. 43. This will not take off the force of these Texts For 1. The Armory of Christians against Heresies and Errors should be quickly empty i◠the Weapons which are hung up in the Scriptures should serve only for the persons places and times wherein and against which they were used of the Prophets and Apostles and therefore your shift that the Apostle speaks only against the Jewish Feasts and Fasts is vain saith Mr. Cartwright in Col. 2.16 2. Some of the Popish Feasts are originally Jewish yea which is worse Paganish 3. These Texts do condemn the Popish Feasts as much and in some respects more then the Jewish as Hospinian observes against Bellarmine and Mr. Cartwright in Gal. 4.10 and in Rom. 14.5 gives the same answer to the Rhemists If Paul saith he condemn the Galatians for observing the Feasts which God himself instituted and that for his own Honour only and not for the Honour of any Creature the Papists are much more laid open to this Condemnation which press the Observation of Feasts of Mens devising and to the Honour of Men. For do you think it likely that God should by Christ discharge his people of the yoke of the Law of Moses to bring in another yoke of Mans Ordinances and is there any likelihood that he should abrogate the Festival days consecrated to himself and to his own Majesty to bring in those that are consecrated and set apart to
the Honour of Saints and that the Lord should ease his people of the burthen of a few Festival days to lay upon them an heavier burthen by a greater number of them So that we see the Scripture doth abundantly and clearly condemn and testifie against these superstitious observations of days and times Reason 3. Consider further the deep dishonour that is done to God by these days every manner of way The common pretense is that they do it for the Honor of Christ but it is not good Intentions that will excuse bad Actions Jeroboam pretended very good Intentions 1 Kings 12.28 so did they in Exod. 32.5 they proclaimed an Holy day to Jehovah though they kept it in a rude manner but what saith the Lord to them even after all the Prayers of Moses for them ver 34. in the day when I visit I will visit their sin upon them He will not regard their vain pretenses for the truth is these days are celebrated rather in dishonour and as it were in despite of Christ then for any Glory to him For 1. They are a dishonour to his Holiness as if Christ were a God that delighted in Profaneness and Wickedness for he is dishonoured as some have well observed by letting the reins loose to all manner of Profaneness as much in the twelve days and in some respects more then in all the twelve months of the year beside Hence Mr. Perkins most truly and justly complains that the Feast of Christs Nativity commonly so called is not spent in praising the Name of God but in Revelling Dicing Carding 〈◊〉 Mumming and in all licentious liberty for the most part as 〈◊〉 it were some Heathen Feast of Ceres or Bacchus Perk 〈…〉 Creed Art of Christs Birth apud Gillesp Engl. Pop. Cerem p. 〈…〉 cap. 9. page 48. 2. It is an unspeakable dishonouour to his blessed Sabbaths for men to set their Days by his Days their Posts by his Posts their Altars by his Altars as Jeroboam devised a Feast of his own heart like unto the Feast that was in Judah 1 Kings 12.32 yea as Dr. Ames observes they were from their first use not only equalled unto but extolled above the Lords day Fresh Suit part 2. p. 84. Those Prelates saith Mr. Gillespy that will not abase themselves to preach upon ordinary Sabbaths think the high Holy days worthy of their Sermons Engl. Pop. Cerem part 3. cap. 1 pag. 13. Yea they can write Books against the Sabbath as Heylin White Pocklinton and others have done to pluck away that Crown of Glory and Preeminence which God hath set upon that day which he hath chosen and they set up their own devised days in stead thereof Common experience proveth saith Reverend Mr. Dod on the second Commandment p. 68. that all they which stand most for superstitious Holy days are greatest profaners of the Lords Sabbath and contemners of his Word 3. They do dishonour the Wisdom and Word of Christ for Christ the Lord of Time and the Lord of the Sabbath hath sanctified and instituted the first day of the week whereon he arose from the dead for the Commemoration of the great work of our Redemption by him and what can the man do that comes after the King and in those things that have been already done as Eccles 2.12 It is a bold and deep reflection upon the Wisdom of Christ to add thus to his appointments as if the Lord Jesus Christ himself were not wise enough to appoint days and times sufficient to keep his own Nativity Death Resurrection Ascension and all the great things he hath done for us in everlasting remembrance in the hearts of his Saints but the Devil and the Pope must help it out It is therefore in plain terms a profane speech of Dr. Hammond that when the Festivals are turned out of the Church it will not be in the power of weekly Sermons on some head of Religion to keep up the knowledge of Christ in mens hearts View of Direct and Vindic. of Liturg. pag. 31. What are not the Institutions of Christ powerful to attain his own blessed ends unless they be pieced out with the additions of mens Inventions surely there is no Christian that hath found the experience of the saving Power and Blessing of Gods Ordinances to his own Soul but will detest and abhor to entertain such base and vile thoughts of them unless he hath forgotten that he was purged by them from his old sins 4. These superstitious Holy days introduced and brought in many other corruptions along with them as bad or worse then themselves like the unclean Spirit with seven Devils more sundry whereof are thus expressed by Dr. Ames Fresh Suit against Cerem part 2. pag. 84. They were saith he from their first rise not only equalled unto but also extolled above the Lords day Easter brought in a superstitious Lent to attend upon it made Baptism wait for her Moon and conformed our Lords Supper to the Jewish Passover in unleavened Bread It was the first Apple of Contention amongst Christians The Latin and Greek Churches striving contending fiercely about the time of it and Victor Bp. of Rome desperately excommunicated those that were not of his opinion in this frivolous Question So that it was the first Weapon wherewith the Bishop of Rome played his Prizes against other Churches and after slew so many Britains with by Austin the Monk Holy days devised by men in honour of Christ invited and drew on Holy days to Saints with many other mischiefs more then can be now numbred up And therefore upon all accounts God is dishonoured by them And so much for that third Reason Reason 4. The true yearly time for the Celebration of these Festivals is not certainly known but much disputed among Chronologers and Divines so that Holiday-keepers cannot affirm that they do commemorate opus diei in die suo the Lord having hid it as he did the Body of Moses to prevent Idolatry The fierce contention for the space of two hundred years or thereabout between the Greek and Latin Churches about the time of celebrating Easter is famous in Ecclesiastical History the Eastern Churches kept it on the fourteenth day of the first month when the Jews kept their Passover from whence they were called quarto-decimani But the Western Churches kept it upon the Christian Sabbath in commemoration of Christs Resurrection who rose upon the first day and both sides pretended Apostolical Tradition for their different practice The difference grew so hot that Victor Boshop of Rome being full of the spirit of Antichrist excommunicated all the Asian Churches as being Fourteeners and as Judaizers Afterwards Constantine the Great called the Council of Nice to compose these differences in the Churches who thought it best to keep it upon the day of Christs Resurrection but they had done better if they had utterly abolished it as the great reforming Parliament did in England But thus we see what a bone of Contention
Easter hath been And as for Christmas it hath been clearly evinced by many learned men that there is a wide mistake in the common account which placeth the Birth of Christ upon the five and twentieth of December Mr. Allin Chain of Scripture Chronology Period 7. Num. 60. pag. 233. gives these Reasons against it 1. Because it is not probable that the Shepherds were abroad all night long keeping of their Flocks in the very deep of Winter Luke 2.8 2. Neither is it like that Augustus would by his Decree enjoin all his Subjects to travel at that time of the year to their chief City to be taxed Luk. 2.1 Nor 3. is it probable that John did go into the River Jordan with the People that were baptized of him in the very coldest part of the year for he baptized in Jordan when Jesus was entring upon his thirtieth year Luke 3.23 It is therefore much more probable that the Birth of Christ was in the month of September So Scaliger de Emend tempor conceives for which he reasons from the Conception of John the Baptist And Mr. Allin also is of the same Judgment which he gathers from the half week which the Angel Dan. 9.27 seems to hold out to be between the Baptism of Christ and his Death for if there was just so much between them his Death being just at the Passover which was about the end of our first month called March then his Baptism must needs be about the latter end of September Thus Mr. Allen ubi supra Which argument indeed to me is very satisfying being grounded upon such clear Testimonies of Scripture For that Christ was baptized and entred upon his Ministry at thirty years old we find recorded Luke 3.23 and that he preached three years and an half besides other arguments may be gathered from that in Dan. 9.27 in the midst of the week shall the Messiah be cut off which is meant of a Prophetical week containing seven years therefore there must be half a week that is half a year above the three and thirtieth whereas the common account makes but a quarter of a year between the Nativity and Easter Of which much more might be said but this is enough to shew that the Festivals are grounded upon a very mistaken and uncertain foundation which is a further evidence that they are not of God Reason 5. It is a great infringement of our Christian Liberty when God hath given us six days wherein to serve him in our Callings Six days shalt thou labour for men to contradict the Lord and say thou shalt not labour six days Why may they not as well controll the other part of the Command and say thou shalt not rest upon the Sabbath day For as Mr. Cartwright First Reply p. 152. hath well observed If the Church may restrain the Liberty that God hath given us it may take away the yoke also that God hath put upon us But as it is profaneness to call that common which God hath sanctified and made holy so on the other side it is tyrannical Superstition and Presumption to make that holy which God hath made common And this is one of the Apostles arguments in this very case Col. 2.16 20. Let no man judge you in respect of an Holy day if you be dead with Christ from the Rudiments of the world why as though living in the world are ye subject to Ordinances so likewise Gal. 4.9 10. ye desire again to be in bondage ye observe days and months and times and years Si quisquam mortalium saith Calvin in Col. 2.17 judicis officium hâc in parte sibi usurpet ne obsequamur quum Christus legitimus Judex nos absolvat It tendeth to no good policy nor wealth of the people or preservation of good order that there should be so many days wherein men should cease from work being a thing that breedeth idleness and consequently poverty besides other disorders and vices which always go in company with idleness saith Mr. Cartwright First Reply p. 155. And upon this account King Henry the Eighth did abrogate sundry of them as Mr. Fox sheweth in the Book of Martyrs Act Mon. vol. 2. p. 386. Obj. But then days of Humiliation and Thanksgiving as also week-day Sermons and Lectures are unlawful Answ It followeth not for there is clear Scripture ground and Warrant for occasional days of Humiliation or Thanksgiving when there is any present emergency of Providence calling thereunto For Jehosophat proclaimed a Fast 2 Chron. 20.3 so did the King of Nineveh Jonah 3.7 Joel 1.14 and 2.15 From whence some have not unaptly said that God hath left as it were a Warrant dormant with the Magistrate and with the Church for such days neither indeed could all the particular causes and occasions and times thereof be particularly set down in the Scripture because they are infinite And Christ allows also private Fasts Matth. 6.17 18. and so the Apostle 1 Cor. 7.5 but there is no colourable consequence from such occasional days to these annual stated Popish Festivals for which we have neither a general Warrant in the Scripture nor a particular Call of Providence And as for week-day Lectures they are most impertinently objected seeing as some have well observed Re-exam Art of Perth pag. 144. These are not hours sanctified or consecrated to Gods Service but only the most convenient times when most may resort to the hearing of Sermons so that time is only designed occasionally not dedicate or sanctified Time is made to serve Gods People and not Gods People made to serve the Time or to serve God because it is an holy time Ministers do not then preach with any respect at all to the time as more holy then other times that were superstitious The work is not done for the times sake but the time appointed for the works sake They do not preach with respect to any supposed holiness of the time but appoint the time so as may be most convenient for doing the work Obj. 2. Some object the days of Purim which were anniversary Festivals Esth 9. Ans This hath been 700 years since objected by Papists unto the Waldenses as Amesius Fresh Suit part 2. p. 315. observes and since by all Papists that have written against Protestants about Ceremonies as Gregorius de Valentia Bellarmine Suarez and we need not seek for new Answers about it for that which our Divines have answered to the Papists is sufficient in two words 1. That it cannot be evinced that those days of Purim were religious Feasts Junius in Bell. de Cultu Sanct. lib. 3. cap. 10. saith Praeceptum fuit politicum they were only days of civil rejoycing and as another learned Writer Re-exam Art Perth pag. 191. observes They are only called the Days of Purim not the Holy days of Purim they are not called Chaggim No peculiar Sacrifice was appointed nor any holy Convocation of the people enjoined the Ordinance required but Feasting Joy and sending
here the Lords Instruments of Musick And indeed had there not been such a Stamp of God upon them they had been abominable and those words of God by the Prophet Amos 5.23 might justly have been applied unto them Take away from me the noise of thy Songs for I will not hear the melody of thy Viols or of thy Organs as some translate that word vid. Tarnov in loc For the Lord rejects with loathing whatever he hath not commanded respuit quicquid non praecepit as Calvin observes upon that text A text which condemns the mutterings of the Mass-Priests and the bellowings of the Friars and Nuns wherwith the Churches and Chappels in the Papacy eccho to use the words of the learned Lutheran Tarnovius upon that place But there is not one word of Institution for them under the Gospel neither expresly nor by Consequence but on the contrary they are clearly cashiered and excluded out of the Gospel-worship by that general Rule which the Apostle lays down concerning all the parts of Gods Worship 1 Cor. 14 26. let all things be done unto edifying with ver 15. I will sing with the Spirit and I will sing with Vnderstanding also and vers 11. If I know not the meaning of the Voice he that speaketh shall be a Barbarian to me From all which the Rule is evident that no Voice is now to be heard in the Church of Christ but such as is significant and edifying by signification which the voice of Instruments is not Mr. Cott. of Singing Psalms cap. 1. pag. 6. The Chaunters and Choristers are to use the Apostles phrase Barbarians to all the people for they play and sing no body knows what the understanding cannot edifie by it being not an articulate voice And therefore those Comparisons of Mr. B. when he parallels the use of Organs in Gods Worship with a Cup of Wine and with the Tune and Meter and Melody in Singing are most incongruous and unmeet comparisons For what communion hath Light with darkness and what agreement hath the Temple of God with Idols So when Bellarmine de Bonis Operib partic lib. 1. cap. 1.7 mingles the Question of Organs with that of Singing Psalms handling them both together in one It is too much boldness thus to confound and parallel the Inventions of men with the Institutions of Jesus Christ We know there is an Institution of Chist for the use of Bread and Wine in his Worship in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper as also for the singing of Psalms to which the Tune and Meter are as necessary as Cups and Vessels for the Bread and Wine But where hath Christ appointed Organs and Cathedral Musick who required these things at your hands The time when this Corruption was first invented and introduced into the Church is not certainly known neither is it much material to dispute Certain it is that they are a very late Invention They were not used in Justin Martyrs time who lived in the second Century and it is generally thought by learned men and not without ground that that Book though it bear his Name was indeed much later then his time where they are thus witnessed against the Testimony is very plain and punctual and therefore let us hear it in English Singing saith he in it self is not a childish thing but to sing with instruments of Musick and with Dancing and Timbrels And therefore in the Churches the use of such Musical instruments and other things fit for Children is laid aside in their Songs and Praises and nothing left but only singing with the Voice Justin Mart. Quaest Resp 107. Neither were they used in Chrysostoms time who lived in the fourth Century for he saith Judaeis fuerat permissum propter infirmitatem cordis sui It was permitted to the Jews because of their weakness Chrys in Psal 150. Platina refers the original of them to Pope Vitalianus about 690 years after Christ or as others 770 others about 820. Zepper Pol. Eccles lib. 1. cap. 13. pag. 106. But that they are much later then any of these Aquinas his Determination against them is a sufficient evidence Aqu. secund secundae Qu. 91. art 2. ad 4. who durst never have condemned them as Jewish and typical and carnal if they had been generally received in the Church of Rome in his time who lived about 400 years ago And it is Cajetans observation upon him Nota quod tempore Divi Thomae Ecclesia non utebatur Organis Cajet in Thom. And Bellarmine himself de Bon. Oper. in partic l. 1. c. 17. confesseth in Ecclesiâ sero admitti caepisse the primitive and purest times knew them not so that they are a very late invented Superstition And this is the first Consideration against them There was a clear word of Institution for them under the Law but not so but the contrary under the Gospel 2. We do not find that these Musical instruments amongst the Jews were a part of their Synagogue-worship which was moral and perpetual but rather of their Temple-worship which was ceremonial and is now vanished away We find in the Scripture that they had in their Synagogues the publick moral Worship of God as reading and expounding the Law c. every Sabbath day Luke 4.16 20 21. Acts 13.15 and 15.21 Some think they used Trumpets there also to call the people together but if they did this was a moral use of them for which we use the ringing of a Bell. But the Scripture is clear and express that their instruments of Musick were appointed to be used in their extraordinary solemn Feasts as in the year of Jubile in the day of Atonement Levit. 25.9 and continually before the Ark 1 Chron. 16.4 5 6. And the Singers and Trumpeters stood at the East end of the Altar at the Dedication of the Temple in Solomons time 2 Chron. 5.12 And in Hezekiahs time when the Burnt-offering began the Song of the Lord began also with the Trumpets and with the instruments of Musik ordained by David King of Israel 2 Chron. 29.27 28. But therefore seeing Christ is come and hath caused the Sacrifice and the Oblation to cease and the City and the Sanctuary being both destroyed as Dan. 9.26 27. All the Appendices thereof all the Worship that was affixed thereto is ceased with it Are the Sacrifices of the Temple the Priests of the Temple the Altars of the Temple and all the other parts of Temple-worship ceased and doth the Musick of the Temple continue 3. There was a typical signification in them And upon this account they are not only rejected and condemned by the whole Army of Protestant Divines as for instance by Zuinglius Calvin Peter Martyr Zepperus Paraeus Willet Ainsworth Ames Calderwood and Cotton Zuingl Act. disp 2. pag. 106. Calvin in Psal 33. Pet. Mart. in 1 Cor. 14.7 8. Zepper de leg Mos lib. 4 c. 9. p. 346. de Pol. Eccles lib. 1. cap. 13. p. 106. Paraeus in 1 Cor. 14.7 Willet Synops Papis