the Week as a Weekly-Sabbath-day but only against and upon such as will not observe the seventh day which is the last day in every Week In the Book of Moses before the Proclaiming of the Law of the Ten words at Mount Sinai the Israelites were to gather Manna on the six foregoing daies of the Week and on the sixth day that sixth the day immediately before the Seventh that there could be no mistake of the day the bread of two daies one part whereof being kept for Food on the seventh day Sabbath did neither melt nor stink neither was any Worm therein yet notwithstanding this wonderful appearance of Jehovah for the sustenance and Food of his people who but a little before had murmured and complained for want of Bread there were of the People who went out on the Seventh day for to gather Manna and they found none Upon this Jehovah steps in with his prohibition and threatning and said unto Moses how long refuse ye to keep my Commandements and my Laws See for that Jehova hath given you the Sabbath this Sabbath this noted day therefore he giveth you on that sixth day the Bread of two daies abide ye every Man in his place let no man not a Man of you if you dare to transgress it will be to your hurt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a Particle of Dehorting and of Deprecating go out of his place on this seventh day And that this seventh-day Sabbath might have the more confirming Sanction Jehovah Aelohim continues this miraculous way of seeding of his people for about Fourty years and takes order for the preserving of a Pot of this Manna to be laid up to the Faces of Jehovah to be kept for their generations for the better establishing of the Doctrine of Weeks and of the certainty and duty of observing the seventh-day-Sabbath which admirable appearing if we reckon it seven times over for every Week six times for the fall of Manna on the six foregoing daies of each Week and a seventh time for the preserving of that part of the double portion on the Seventh day which was gathered on the Sixth day the Number amounts to above fourteen Thousand times At the Promulgation of the Law there was a threatning in the Prohibition six daies thou shalt Labour but the seventh day is the Sabbath In it thou shalt not do any Work So in Moses's repeating of this Law the seventh day is the Sabbath of Jehovah thy Aelohim in it thou shalt not do any work if thou wilt boldly transgress it will be at thine own Peril After the solemn reviving and publishing of this Law every one that defiâ—eth the Sabbath shall surely be put to death For whosoever doth any Work therein that Soul shall be cutt off from amongst his people Six daies shall work be done but in the seventh the Sabbath of Rest or a Sabbath of Sabbatism Holiness to Jehovah who doing a work in the day of that Sabbath to die he shall die whosoever doth work on the seventh-day-Sabbath shall be put to death Thus saith Jehovah if ye will not hearken unto me and will not do all these my Commandments particularly if ye will not keep my Sabbaths I also will do this unto you And then followeth Threatning upon Threatning Curse upon Curse Thus f when Jehovah had by a judicial Law declared against wilful transgressors a Soul that would sin with an high hand whereby such an one did Reproach Jehovah for which that Soul was to be cut off from among his People because he had despised the word of Jehovah and had broken his Commandment that Soul was utterly to be cut off his Iniquity was to be upon him And notwithstanding this Denunciation one of the Children of Israel would be gathering of Wood upon the sabbath-Sabbath-day when those that found him thus Transgressing this Law and contemning this threatning had brought him unto Moses and Aaron and unto all the Congregation and they had put him in ward because it was not declared as to the particular kind of Death for the judicial Law was declared before as was but now mentioned should be done to him Hereupon Jehovah said to Moses that man shall surely be put to death All the Congregation shall stone him with Stones without the Camp And all the Congregation brought him without the Camp and stoned him with Stones and he died as Jehovah commanded Moses In the Book of the Prophets there is also a denouncing of Judgments against Profaners of the seventh-day-seventh-day-Sabbath Hear what Jehovah spake by the mouth of his servant Jeremiah thus said Jehovah unto me go and stand in the gate of the Children of the People whereby the Kings of Judah come in and by the which they go out and in all the Gates of Jerusalem and say unto them hear ye the word of Jehovah ye Kings of Judah and all Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem that enter in by these Gates Thus saith Jehovah take heed to your selves and bear no Burden on the Sabbath-day nor bring in by the Gates of Jerusalem neither carry forth a Burden out of your Houses on the Sabbath-day neither do ye any work but Hallow the Sabbath-day as I commanded your Fathers but they obeyed not neither inclined their Ear but made their Neck stiff that they might not hear nor receive instruction And if you will not hearken unto me to Hallow the Sabbath day and not to bear a Burden even entring in at the Gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath-day then will I kindle a Fire in the Gates thereof and it shall devour the Palaces of Jerusalem and it shall not be quenched Let Ezekiel now speak from the LORD I saith Jehovah caused my people to go forth out of the Land of Egypt and brought them into the Wilderness and I gave them my statutes and shewed them my Judgments which if a man do he shall even live in them Moreover also I gave them my Sabbaths to be a sign between me and them that they might know that I Jehovah who Sanctifie them But the House of Israel rebelled against me in the Wilderness they walked not in my statutes and they despised my Judgments which if a Man do he shall even live in them This promise mentioned twice here implyeth the contrary death even death upon death death unto death threatned against not-doers particularly against not-doers not-Hallowers of the seventh-day-seventh-day-Sabbath and my Sabbaths they greatly polluted Then observe the LORD catched at this season of their provoking of him I said I would pour out my fury upon them in the Wilderness to consume them Yet also I lifted up my hand unto them in the Wilderness that I would not bring them into the Land which I had given them Flowing with Milk and Hony which are the Glory of all Lands Because they despised my Judgments and walked not in my Statutes but polluted my Sabbaths But I said unto their Children
the Western Churches did Further as in Low-Dutch the seventh Day is named Rust-dagh that is the Day of Sabbath or of Rest so in Teutonick or High Dutch or the German Tongue which is an ancient Nation and Language the last Day the seventh Day of the Week is called Samstag as if Schemtag that is the LORD's Day or the Day of the LORD It is further yet observable as to this that the Visions of Ezekiel and those of John well agreeing in many particulars which a diligent comparer may easily observe Ezekiel's Visions were on the fifth day of the fourth Moon which some affirm to have been the Seventh day Sabbath Jehovah's Day But upon the whole it is the first answer that I more stick unto namely that the Lordly Day is that great Providential Day when he will more visibly appear as King and LORD Whereas some do object that this word in Greek Lordly is applyed but to one thing more in the New Testament which is the Supper called the Lordly Supper or LORD's Supper or the Supper of the LORD What can there rationally necessarily convincingly be inferred from thence as to any establishing of the first day of the week in the room of the seventh as the weekly Sabbath in this place of the Revelation The Lordly Supper or Lordy Supper is expresly mentioned Whereas here is no express mention of the first Day as a Sabbath day not either of the words First or Sabbath nor their sense and meaning in the Text or Context nor any where else in all this Book or in the whole Scripture The Lordly Supper is so called in that it was instituted by our LORD It is to his Honour a Lordly Feast one great design and end of it being to exalt Christ in his Lordship and to shew forth the Death of this LORD till he came in his Lordly appearance in the later Day This Ordinance was received of the LORD by Paul It was the LORD who Instituted it It sets out the LORD's Death The Cup is called the Cup of the LORD The LORD's Body we read of also there Which Supper is not fixed to the first day of the Week The first Institution Administration and Participation of it was on another Day of the Week on the Passion Day on the Passover Day which is called a Sabbath For a further discovery that a Day in some Scriptures is used for a larger space of time than from one going in of the Sun on one day to the next going in of the Sun on the next day consider that in the Scriptures day doth sometimes set out the time of Christ's Reign and glorious Power The day of judging of his grand Adversaries John saw this in the Vision as if the time had been then present Will not that be a Lordly Day when Christ will glorifie and magnifie his Office of King and of LORD in the utter destruction of Enemies and in the eminent salvation of Friends It is called the Day of Christ the Day and Kingdom of God the presence of coming of Christ Do not these expressions significantly declare some glorious shining season of Christ's Lordly appearing It is named the Day of Jehovah about six and twenty times and in some of those places the Day of the Vengeance and of the Anger of Jehovah and the Day of Jehovah's Battel The great and terrible and dreadful Day of Jehovah the same expressions which are used in this Book of the Revelation And the Day of the LORD is mentioned five times expresly in the New Testament In which also it is set out by divers words that doth intend the same thing as his Day that is the Day of this LORD Christ who will then be revealed in his Lordly Power and Glory That Day pointing out that Age when these things should be The Day that Day The Days in the plural Number as being more than one and of longer continuance That great conspicuous Day of the LORD The Day of the LORD Jesus The times and the seasons which do relate to this Day of the LORD The Day approaching the last hour It is observed that in all Languages this Word Day doth sometimes signifie judgement here on Earth Hence a Days man or Umpire to judge between party and party Mans day and the Judgement of Men The Day that is the Judgement or trial shall declare Hence Day is sometimes put for the time of destruction Day doth sometimes denote a long continued duration as the Day of the Age or the Day of Eternity Other times Day points out the time of Grace and of Salvation And now upon this occasion having shewn that Day doth not always in all Scriptures point out any one particular Day of the Week distinctly from and in opposition to the rest of the Days of the Week I have here some fair opportunity to write a little about one other Scripture which some do urge to put a colour upon their first Day as if it did point out the first Day of the Week as the eminent transcendent determinate definite day of Christ's compleating the Work of Redemption on his Resurrection Day which say they was then and from thenceforth to be observed as the weekly Sabbath day in the room of the Seventh Thus they As to what doth concern Christ's Resurrection as also how and when he compleated the Work of Redemption I have written already and I am now to consider this Scripture which is mentioned by all and every of the four Evangelists In which Historical-fulfilling it is evident that much and the main of this Prophetical passage was fulfilled according to the Letter before Christ's Resurrection and upon another Day of the Week than that first Day of the Week for which it is so brought and pressed although if it could be proved to be otherwise yet doth it no way determine this Case about a pretended change of the weekly Sabbath from one Day of the Week to another from the Seventh to the First The chief men of the Jews who were counted the Builders did more notoriously refuse Christ the Head Corner Stone when being put to their choice they actually openly declaredly preferred a Barabbas who was a seditious Murderer before an innocent holy Jesus and this on a Day of solemn Judicature when the Judge Pilate sat upon Christ either for life or for death which also was by a joynt consent of chief Priests and Rulers and People who cry out all at once Away with this man and release unto us Barabbas This was before that Christ was crucified Also after his Death before his Resurrection the chief Priests and the Pharisees do call him a Deceiver and this before Pilate which was another refusing and rejecting of Christ Thus according as was Prophesied in that Psalm that the Builders would refuse that Stone which was to become for Head to the Corner so accordingly did they act as at many
other times so at these two seasons one in Christ's life time the other after his death and both before his rising The chief Priests did count themselves and were counted by others to be Builders yet thus notoriously did they refuse Christ The word in the Psalm according to the Hebrew in its propriety of signification is they have reprobated rejected despised refused scorned or turned away from and that expression in a place of the New Testament doth signifie ye have earnestly desired and refused and that when Judge Pilat had absolved him in his own declared judgement yet did they crave earnestly that a man murderer and a seditious one might be freed and that Christ whom yet they could not justly charge with any crime or the least sin might be crucified Then and thus was Christ reprobated of these men Was it not an eminent Day of monstrous rejecting when the question being put to them whether of the two they would have to be released they preferred a seditious Murderer Though there were other times of their refusing and rejecting of Christ before this and that on the Seventh day Sabbath but it was more notorious on the Passion day It was also Prophesied in that Psalm that the people would pray O Jehovah save now or prosper now blessed be he that cometh in the Name of Jehovah This was fullfilled before the Day of Christ's crucifixion when he rode into Jerusalem and the people went forth to meet him crying Hosanna Hoshignana in the Hebrew or Hosanna as it is put into the Greek These things are plain familiar and clear evident of themselves upon the bare reading of them and are not any forced interpretations of my own What a far way about do Objectors go and carry their Followers along with them to bring them at last to that which is no proof at all of that for which they have brought them thither As for the Day spoken of which Jehovah made for his people to rejoyce in it is the large Day of Grace under the New Testament Dispensation of Grace which doth take in many a Natural Day And as for spiritual rejoycing it is every days work though more especially upon the Seventh-day Sabbath so that in short there being not in the Scriptures urged by Objectors either First day or Sabbath-day either in the letter of the words or in any necessary consequence naturally flowing from thence or any design that looks any thing like a change of the weekly Seventh-day Sabbath translating it to any other day How any satisfaction can such a change be inferred and inforced from hence To return therefore a while unto that place in the Revelation although there must be some particular distinct determinate Day of the Week when John first saw the beginning of this Vision For all that doth come to pass in time must necessarily be on one Day or other of the Week yet this Lordly Day here spoken of had not this design at all in it to set up the first day in the room of the seventh The skilful in the Greek Tongue do know that an Adjective joyned to a Substantive doth usually mean the Genitive Case of that Substantive as the Lordly Day is the Day of Lordship or Day of the LORD So we find this expressed in other Languages In Hebrew it is in the Day of our LORD in Syriack a Day of the LORD So in Spanish in a Day of the LORD In Greek the Participles have sometimes the force of the Nouns So in English the LORD's Day or the Day of the LORD as in the other instance where the word is used the LORD's Supper or the Supper of the LORD For which Supper we have evident express both Institution appointing of it and command injoyning us to do it Promise making over and sealing the benefit of Christ's Death to such as partake of it worthily after a due sitting manner and threatning denouncing judgements against the profaners of this Ordinance None of all which either Institution Command Promise or Threatning have we yet after all our search found for the first Day to be the Day of the weekly Sabbath in the place of the seventh so that here is no foundation for belief and practice to build upon Where any one place of Scripture is so interpreted as not to have the Harmonious Oneness and the well agreeing consent of the whole Scripture where they do treat of that matter or subject there that is the interpretation of mens own private spirit and not the interpretation of the Spirit of Aelohim And therefore the cause of the first day as the weekly Sabbath not having the whole Scripture profitable for the proving of it cannot stand in the judgement notwithstanding one misinterpreted Scripture is yet further alledged to defend it if the urger of it could be any Art plead it One historical hint more this Objector doth suppose may be with respect to the Day of Pentecost which he thinks was that year on the first Day of the Week when the pourings out of the holy Spirit were on the Apostles and so thinks it to be the Day separated by the Apostles for holy Worship especially in publick Church Assemblies and yet he says he was loth to name the day of the sending down of the Holy Ghost Holy Spirit it should have been said was given as a proof because that some do controvert it but it seemeth to him a very considerable thing I must therefore return somewhat in answer unto this It is much of the Artifice in the present age as in some other cases so concerning the matter under debate to darken and obscure some particular places of Scripture either by corrupt Translations or by false Interpretations upon which to ground their wrong Inferences and conjectural consequences and then to perswade the plain people how deep these things do lie and how much they should lean upon the Wisdom and Advice of their Church Guides who much study humane Histories for them to lead them through what through those dark Mazes into which these Guides have misled them Whereas the Scriptures about the weekly Sabbath are full of clear Light and of satisfying self-evidence to those who are made throughly willing to do the acceptable Will of Jehovah Aelohim What conviction can there be brought in upon the understanding concerning any change of the weekly Sabbath-day from the seventh to the first day of the week where is not either expressed or implyed any thing at all of any such change and where the Reader cannot find the first day spoken of or hinted to to any such purpose The Passover is acknowledged by this Author on this year of Christ's Death to be a Seventh-day Sabbath If so then including that day in the number of fifty and seven Sabbaths reckoned and added to that day Pentecost or the fiftieth day was a Seventh-day Sabbath also for so was the computation seven times
Fruit of Christs Mediating for them with his Father He their Saviour and their God and the God of their Past-Present-and After-Salvarions who would make of their Posterity a Glorious new Christian Church in the latter daies As for Redemption-work it doth confirm the Law of the Ten words in the Type And the antitype must answer to the Type The Israel of God were to do the Weekly-Seventh-day-Sabbath and to keep it Holy to Jehovah their Saviour and Redeemer and so are believers under the New-Testament-Dispensation the Saviour himself this Redeemer having so observed it all his life through in the daies of his Flesh here on Earth when Born of the Virgin Mary The Ark which was one of the principal of all the Holy things of God and for which the Tabernacle mainly was set up which did Sanctifie the place where it did Rest this Ark had nothing in it but the two Tables of the Covenant And this Ark was a Type of Christ who had this Law in his Heart And did in his own Person Confirm it to every Letter and part of it by his Doctrine and Practice when more Familiarly Conversant here amongst men It was Christ as Mediator who appeared as man unto Abraham Moses Zechariah and others under that former Administration These works of Redemption were in the Types then and as for the Actual Perfecting and Accomplishing of these in the Person of the Mediator himself when he took to his Godhead the seed of Abraham and was made of the seed of David according to the Flesh and was made of a Woman these works may be said to take their beginning as to this of perfecting and accomplishing them in the antitype upon Christs First thus manifesting of himself in the Flesh And they were further carried on by him in his Life so declared by his Father and attested by his Spirit His Life was a Continued fulfilling of Redeeming-types And as for his Death upon the Cross there just before his giving up the Spirit and commending it into the hands of his Father he himself said it is Finished or accomplished or perfected namely for so much and for fo far he having but a little before on the same day of his Death in his Prayer to his Father declared that he had finished the work which the Father gave him to do This work of Reconciliation and Redemption Thus accomplishing it and perfecting the Types by steps and degrees Some Remainders whereof are further Fulfilled at his 〈◊〉 Resurrection Which also it self was a great work Yet was not this all For these works of Reconciliation and of Redemption had yet a further filling up and a more through perfecting when Forty daies from his rising again he ascended up into Heaven Where he appeared as the great High-Priest of his Peoples Holy profession as the Antitype with Blood and with Incense in that Holy of Holies having his satisfaction and intercession Further in his Glorious Person Actually accepted by his Father which was Typified of Old by the High-Priests entering into the Holy of Holies once every year upon the Atonement day or day of Expiation of which the Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews gives an account of its being perfected and fulfilled in Christ To this Ascension of His into the Highest Heavens and his sitting there at the Right Hand of his Father where he appears for his People and intercedes on their behalf in a way suted to his Glorious Majesty in so raised an Exaltation to this doth belong his putting down of the Levitical Priesthood which was a shadow and Type and Figure of the Heavenly Priesthood of Christ and must now upon Christs Ascending and session give way and place to the Truth to the true antitype the High Priest being got into Heaven For whilst Christ was upon Earth the Levitical Priesthood continued at least as to some parts of their Office When the Reader puts all this together and sees how the Redemption-work was for so many years together before Christs Resurrection perfecting and accomplishing and finds Christ Travelling upon the day of his Rising with Two Disciples to Emmaus which was from Jerusalem about Sixty Furlongs which in Common Computation is about seven Miles and a half at least seven Miles too long a Journey for the weekly Sabbath day especially when it was a going off from a greater assembling at Jerusalem the Publick appointed place of worship and this about a private business to a little Village an Example not to be followed upon a pretended new Instituted weekly-sabbath-weekly-Sabbath-day And withal the Reader observes that some part of Redeeming-work was actually compleated by Christ in a way of fulfilling of a Redeeming-Type which work was not done by him before either in his Birth or Life in his Death or Resurrection it will be time for him ponderingly to think on his waies and to turn his feet unto Jehovahs Testimonies to make hast and not to slacken to entertain his Commandments particularly this of the weekly-seventh-day-weekly-Seventh-day-Sabbath To set this right precept before him and no longer to put away this Institution of Aelohim from him Which is so full and plain and clear through the whole Scripture and no further to wander on misled by mens darkning-conjectures who would still keep up a day of their own setting up up the First day of the week which as to this of a weekly Sabbath-day is a Creationless and Scriptureless Restingless Blessingless and Sanctifyingless Nameless Thingless Commandless Promiseless and Threatless-day none of those being for it but all for the Seventh day The adversary being driven out of this hold seeks refuge for his First day Sabbath in some other Scriptures cited in the Margin which yet will not allow him Countenance and Warrant For say they the good Apostles met on the First day the day of Christs Resurrection which they then observed as the weekly-Sabbath-day in memory of his Resurrection and of his compleating the works of Redemption on that day Christ taught the two Disciples on that day of his Rising on the same day he appeared to the Disciples and instructed them and did eat with them thus assembled and Blessed them The next First day of the week he chose to appear to them again And those Apostles Christ did Commission as his principal Church Ministers to teach the Churches all his Doctrine and to deliver them all his Commands and orders and so to settle and guide the first Churches Which Apostles did actually separate and appoint the First day of the week for Holy Worship especially in Church-assemblies They themselves frequently meeting upon that day for that end and enjoyning the Churches of their Plantation so to do who obeyed them in this The First day is mentioned as the day of the Disciples assembling to break Bread which though they did it oft on other daies yet no day else was peculiarly appointed for
of any other place through the Word of Truth The Words in their true proper significancy are according to one of the Sabbaths The Article being omitted here it doth signifie distributely according to one or other or each of those Sabbaths So that the day here specified doth relate to some one or other of those Sabbath-Festivals fore-mentioned There were Harvest-Seasons when the fruits of the earth came in and they could judge somewhat of their Increase in corn and gain That Word which is translated a Collection is such a Collect or Collation as is concluded by Reasoning an inferring from reckoning and casting up an account every one as it went well with him in his Voyage Journey and Trade at such seasons of the year when the profits came in whether at and from the Sea or the Land and so the Word signifies in propriety of Speech according as the LORD hath given a good Voyage or a prosperous way or Journey accordingly should they honour Aelohim with their substance and increase by setting apart a due proportion out of their Estates to relieve needy ones The charitable supplying of the poor with necessaries especially if poor Saints which was the Case here is a natural Religious Duty under all the Dispensations of Grace Old and New A Law of Mercy and of Love still in force and ever will be whilst there are such Objects of pity Some few such I do know who do practise suitably treasuring somewhat every year and at some quarterly Incomes and sometimes by shorter Returns out of their revenue and increase out of which to take as Cases do call for it being in a preparedness through Grace to part with the rest if necessity were such So that upon all such occasions they readily go and fetch out of that store which was laid up for such a purpose in a way of thankful acknowledgment of Gods blessing of them in their outward Estate Paul intended to come to Corinth about that season of the year when Ship-ladings at Sea or Harvest-gatherings at Land had been brought in and therefore it is that he thus Exhorts them Laws about Mercy and Charity are scattered up and down in many Scriptures and it were easie to gather several of them together if need were Which Laws ever had for the substance of them a natural equity binding all mankind but more especially those who were Church-Members in Fellowship I refer to some few in the Margin Pauls advice here was a prosecution of a further direction to pursue Love which he had so largely described and commended a little before Nothing appears in all this of any appointing or instituting of a new Weekly-Sabbath-day in the room of the old the Seventh-day which was so from the beginning There is another word further in the objected place which doth respect the Treasury of Alms near the Temple into which some sort of Tithes Gifts Gold Silver and such like were brought for the relief of the Levite Stranger Widow Poor Of this Treasury the Reader may consult the several Scriptures in the Margin Having opened the expression of one of the Sabbaths and shewn that it refers in all the places to another matter and purpose than that for which it is brought there is somewhat yet further to be spoken to about Christs appearing to his Disciples on the Day of his Resurrection Which was observed say the Objectors by them as the new Weekly-Sabbath-day in memory of his Resurrection as is pretended c. That the Disciples did not meet on that day as now the weekly-sabbath-weekly-Sabbath-day in memory of Christs Resurrection is evident because they did not the most of them at that time believe that he was arisen For which their misbelief their LORD and Master doth check and rebuke them he having so often inculcated this thing upon them about his Suffering his Death and his Resurrection How often had he told them that he was to rise again from the dead on the third day That Word Third is mentioned Twelve times in the New Testament plainly pointing out the particular day of Christs Resurrection and in several of those places it is recorded that they with their own Ears heard Christ affirming of it again and again over and over upon several occasions In every one of the places the Article is added and prefixed and to one of them the Article is doubled All which put together do shew the Emphatical Significancy and Force the Demonstrativeness of it noting a certain determinate day to be known of all that would seriously consider it The same word for Significancy in another part of Speech is used four times in the new Testament Three times by Christ himself to point out the certain determinate Day of his Resurrection to be the Third Day VVhich also in one of those four times is expresly acknowledged by his Adversaries themselves who laboured to obscure the glory thereof In one of the places both the distinct parts of an whole natural large day are punctually set down with respect to every one of the several three days Three days and three nights used for the whole time of the darkness and light in one succeeding course and exemplified as to the matter of Fact in the Case of a particular person of Jonah the History of whom is one of the Books of the Scriptures of Truth who was herein a Type of Christ As to his being raised on the third day It is a day distinct from two complete fore-going Days In one of the places that Christ might make sure of clearing this matter to their understandings and fixing it the deeper in their memories so as it might not leak through their Vessel of Remembrance and also of having the three days and the three nights included he expresseth it by a Preposition signifying after after three For so is the meaning of it when it governs an Accusative Case and this Praeposition is confessed in one of the places by his open Enemies and if those thought on it and called it to mind the more excuseless were the Disciples who did not for a while so credit it Whereby it is manifest That they could not actually design this as the end of observing such a day which themselves did not yet believe so to be though it were declared to them by some to whom he had appeared So that this part of the Objection is Scriptureless and Reasonless and as for Christs appearing to the eleven in the places cited It is also clear by the Scripture-Accompt that that day on which Christ had conference with Cleopas and another Disciple in their way from Jerusalem to Emmaus was over-past and gone before that appearing of his to the Eleven For the day was upon closing when they went into that Village where Christ spent some time with them And those two Disciples had sixty Furlongs to travel afterwards back again from Emmaus to Jerusalem
may be seen in the next Scripture cited in the Margin which is a part of this same Prophesie For observe here the Jews shall then be restored when this will be performed Their Foes will be terrified upon the report of the Jews repair home which is not fully verified The Nations will do homage to the Jews upon their Conversion whereas hitherto they have been dispersed among and subdued by the Nations are objects either of scorn or pitty to all Mankind where ever they are a great overthrow will be given to their open Enemies which is yet to come The converted Jews will turn to Jehovah Christ and will constantly and continuedly serve him according to Gospel Institution particularly by observing the Seventh-day Sabbath in his Sabbath which expression is used elsewhere referring to the Seventh-day Sabbath When these things shall come to pass the LORD will make crooked things to be streightness before his people when that Law of his to which the Isles do expect shall be magnified and made honourable as the Giver of it also will be So great and so glorious things being to come so long after Isaiah's Prophesyings Such as whereof all the World could not have foretold these are confirmed and verified by the Testimony of the Father in his Son by his Spirit in his Word As for what is Prophesied of by Ezekiel concerning the new Temple or Church state where especial direction is given for the service of the Sabbath-day this doth confirm and establish the Seventh-day Sabbath to continue under New Testament times For it speaks of such a Day of Sabbath in the same Week as has six working Days going before it which is expresly according to the same Law proclaimed Mount Sinai as one of the ten Words That which is alledged out of Peter was a Prophesie long after Christ's Resurrection and Ascension a little before Peter's death and not long before the destruction of the Temple and of the Jews which had a quite contrary Face and Nature from the glorious Renovation foretold Those new Heavens and new Earth that were prophesied were at that time of Peter's writing the Epistle in the Promise unfulfilled such as were yet expected and look'd out after and the whole Discourse doth manifest that it was not then accomplished That day of the LORD the same LORDLY Day spoken of in the Revelvtion the great providential Day of his LORDLY Appearance was not then come it Peter's time The Heavens were not then passed away with a noise they were not then perished in flames by fire the Elements were not then burnt and loosed or dissolved and melted the Earth and the works that were therein were not then burnt up The Heavens which are now saith he speaking of those that were in his Day and Time and the Earth are by the same Word laid up as a Treasure and are kept unto fire against the day of Judgment and of the Destruction of ungodly men or of corrupt Worshippers These things saith he shall perish They had not then perished The day of the LORD shall come It was not then come but they were to look for and to hasten unto the coming of it We according to his promise expect new Heavens and a new Earth wherein dwelleth Righteousness We look for these things They were as yet but in the Promise They were under the Expectation of Believers They looked for them but they did not then see and enjoy them actually in their real Coming for they were not as yet come Thus also that Prophety by John in the Revelation when he had a Visional sight of a new Heaven and a new Earth upon the passing away of the first Heaven and the first Earth and when he saw the Holy City and the New Jerusalem and when a great Voice out of Heaven had told him that God would wipe off all tears from the eyes of his Covenant-people and that Death should be no more neither mourning nor crying nor any more trouble for the former things should pass away He that sat upon the Throne said Behold I make all things new Write for these things are true and faithful Is it not evident here that this Prophetie was many years after the Day of Christ's Resurrection And must not the Fulfilling be after the Prophetie Is there not enough in this very place to confute the Objector's Arguing Is the first Heaven and the first Earth yet passed away When ever was this fulfilled Is the new Heaven and the new Earth yet come Is the Holy City the New Jerusalem as yet come down from God out of Heaven Are there not tears found in the eyes of the LORD'S people to be wiped away Is there not death still Are these former things yet passed away Is not the LORD He who then foretold that he would make all things new John saw in a Vision and heard in a voice they would be so made but they were not actually so excellent on earth in John's Day and Time For there will be this new face of things in the Churches of Christ on earth This New Holy City Jerusalem is not said to go up to God into Heaven but it doth come down from God out of Heaven God will renew his Covenant with his people and he will Tabernacle with them God will put away Humane Ordinances Inventions Impositions and Traditions to set up his own Institutions all the Laws and Orders of his New House in their Purity and Power The Nations shall receive Light from this New Church so shiningly enlightned so clearly taught of him Church-Discipline shall be revived set up and exercised Distempers Diseases and Ulcers of Spirit of Soul and Body shall be healed and cured and removed by the Medicinal leaves of the Tree of Life All which do belong to a Church-State here on earth If other passages in this Book of the Revelation be collated it will appear that many things foretold to go before this are not yet fulfilled For there must be another manner of Conversion of the Tribes yet of all the Tribes which do include the Ten of Israel as well as the Two of Judah and Benjamin The twelve thousands of the several Tribes The New Church was to be erected after that the See of the Beast was overthrown The Returning Jews are called the Kings of the East There will be a laying dry the Waters of Euphrates as those of the Red Sea were of Old for Jehova's Redeemed ones to pass thorow The Turkish oppressing Tyrant will yet further destroy many of the Jews which grand Enemy shall at length be quite destroyed utterly ruined and his Power shall be broken to pieces The very place of this Conflicting Battel is particularly mentioned where his Overthrow shall be And there will yet be a glorious Christian Church of returning believing Jews erected
ground and evidence enough in the things themselves thus made and Light and Reason enough in the Humane Intellect of Rational Beings to discern and to improve this to the very same ends Both these had Primitive concreated self-evidence however sin now have darkned and defaced things The indication of these Duties were at the first true real sufficient Some worn Letters of which original Ingraving are yet still remaining to be read These Laws resulting from the Humane Nature and from that Relation which created Man doth stand in to his creating Maker The Obligation which doth arise from hence must continue as long as the Humane Nature doth continue For it is Essential to our Formation and constitution as we are reasonable men and women and so is unchangeably binding And he that would make any one Law of pure primitive Nature alterable doth thereby though it may be not designedly yet eventually heave at the overturning of all the Laws of Nature This Primigenial Holiness and Righteousness in created Man bearing exact conformity to the holy Righteous Nature of creating Aelobim And Christ's coming was not to dissolve any one Law of the Decalogue or any thing of the Obligation to any Law therein but to maintain these Laws and their obliging All mankind brought under convincing demonstrations from distinguishing taste of the difference of good and of evil should acknowledge all and every of those holy just and good Laws to have a clear congruity to their Natures Who of all mankind that has the due exercise of rational abilities but must acknowledge that we ought to love the LORD our God with all our heart and with all our soul and with all our mind and to love our neighbour as our selves On which two Commandments hang all the Laws and the Prophets For which we have the Authority of the LORD Jesus Christ himself He being the Law-giver and Law-Interpreter too Further yet People in some Scriptures are the Elect and Believers Whether of Jews or of Gentiles Who are also absolutely called People The Nations which shall be converted to the Faith of the Gospel renouncing Antichrist and his corrupt principles and practices are some of this people These both under the Old and New Testament Administration had this Law of the ten Words written not only in the Scripture Revelation but also on the two Tables of the Mind and Heart by the holy Spirit Thus is the Law of the ten Words specially and distinguishingly given to new Creatures and thus it will be renewed in the purer Churches in the later Days In this sense the Rule and Direction for renewed Holiness and for the Works and Duties of Grace and of Sanctification is called The new Law or Commandment the same with the Old only renewed Next of Ceremonials These are sometimes called The Law of Degrees placed in external Rites and by some such other Expressions These Rites were used about outward fleshie things such as Meats Drinks Washings and the like These so far as they were Typical Figuring and Representative of a Christ who was then to come to be born of a Virgin and to shed his blood were perfected and accomplished in Christ when he was so born and had so suffered was risen and had ascended And they did peculiarly belong to the People under the former dispensation Of this nature were some Ceremonies annexed to the weekly-seventh-Weekly-seventh-day Sabbath By these holy rites the Church and People of God under that administration were differenced and discerned as a People holy to God distinct from other prophane Nations An Old Testament Ceremonie is set out in Scripture by Flesh a carnal Ordinance an hand-writing of death an Element of the World weak and egene an Exemplar of Heavenly things unstable An Intolerable Yoak A shadow and such like Which are not properly applicable to the seventh-day-Seventh-day-Sabbath as such If any say it is an Exemplar of the Sabbatism in Heaven and so a Ceremonious Type Let then the Type stand as I have said till we can come at the Antitype Ceremonies sometimes do set out the inward spiritual things Graces Duties Priviledges which they did signify and teach A Ceremonie has been and is a Sign of somewhat that is natural and so they have been annexed to natural Spiritual Duties As Evening and Morning worshipping of God had divers Ceremonial Observances So the Weekly-Seventh-day-Sabbath Thus for Parents to give up themselves their Sons and Daughters to God is a natural dutie Yet this duty has Baptism even now under the new Testament-Ministration annexed to it Those things which are still of a concreated Spiritual Nature Were are and will be a duty The Epistle to the Hebrews is a Gospel-Exposition hereupon Though Multitudes of these Ceremonies were superadded to the Law of the ten Words as an Evangelical Explanation and Interpretation of them yet this doth not alter the true real nature of any of these ten words which are always a standing unalterable Rule of holy Righteous living As for the giving of this Law of the Ten words If this Law be considered As promulgated and proclaimed at Mount Sinai by Jehovah Aelohim thus there was somewhat in it which was a peculiar gift to the Israelitish Church and those who were proselyted to it beyond any other People As for the time when he brought them out of Egyptian bondage so for the place the Desert Jehovah gave them this in their Wildernesses condition At Mount Horeb or Mount Sinai in an Enemies Land that of the Amorites and of the Moabites Thus also For the persons They were those of that age who were then alive at that place who understood the Hebrew to whom He gave this Law So for the subservient Administrator by whose hand Jehovah Christ gave this Law to them Who was Moses there was Moses's a Ministery used in it Hence it is called the Law of Moses Moses wrote this Law in a Book Also for the manner of proclaiming With Trumpet Thunder Fire Audible Immediate voice of Aebolim himself and such like And thus too for the solemn imbodying of an whole nation into a Church-state These and some such other like were the peculiar Circumstances of that Promulgation in that day Yet is the Law still the same now The LORD Jesus Christ doth speak unto us even now in this Law of the ten Words What God did speak unto Moses He spake unto others in the days of Christs flesh when born of the Virgin Mary which was hundreds of Years after And these ten Words were written unto us If this Law be considered as the Law of nature so it was given to all mankind in Representative Adam As I have declared If it be looked on as Inwritten in the mind and Heart of the Regenerate by the Holy Spirit Thus it is peculiarly given to new Creatures As also I have manifested Thus I have laboured to clear and to
Disciple from an Antichristian Synagogue and a Worshipper of the Beast are the keeping of the Commandments of God and the having the Testimony of Jesus Christ Much peace to them that love Jehovah's Law and to them no stumbling block This will be the everlasting Rule of the Holiness and Righteousness of glorified Ones in Heaven If some one will do he shall know of this Doctrine whether it be of God or not O the happy straight goings on of that man who fearing Jehovah who delighting greatly in his Commandments Christ is the Author of Eternal Salvation unto all them that obey him and the Father gives his Spirit unto such How freely and delightfully could I here inlarge in the commendation of this excellent perfect Law How good how holy how just is this Law for the matter intrinsecally externally good and holy and just consonant to the eternal Justice and Holiness and Goodness which is in the LORD himself whose Authority is stamped upon this and as such is given forth from him unto us to be a Rule How can this be abrogated or changed which is so full and comprehensive of that Righteousness and Holiness which is the perfect Image of the pure unchangeable Jehovah Aelohim were we more throughly conformed to it in our natures and actions we should be tied to it and to the Commander of it with an everlasting love love beyond expression How can the obligation of its mandatory power be other than eternal and immutable O how good is it in its kindly effects inlightning converting restoring quickning comforting and many other ways operating upon the heart when the holy Spirit doth put life and power into mens hearts for these productions This way of obedience to the ten Words is the way of lasting of hidden age and of everlastingness that way which alone of all ways will continue and hold out to the utmost duration when all the ways of Anomous of lawless ones shall perish Christ's Disciples should evidence and manifest their love to him by their friendliness to his Law The Doctrines and the Precepts of this Rule the promises and the threatning of it do some way or other lead to Christ and have him for their scope and this under the old as well as new Administration were not the believing Israelites to look unto the covenanted Messiah and to act Faith upon him Were they not by all the Types and Figures and Shadows of him to make application of him to themselves and of themselves to him and and to confirm their expectation of his coming Was not this that which made all their prayers and other services acceptable their spiritual relation which they had unto him How could mercy be done unto thousands as the Letter of this Law doth include if we exclude this Messiah or Christ out of his own Laws as if he were not intended there The Administration of this Law was Evangelical in its great design and main intention Can a believer but highly prize Christ and esteem him precious when he doth so look into the glass of this Law as to view and loath the spots on the face of his nature and life the least of which this Law doth discover and will not hide any of his deformities nor cover his wrinckles nor paint his ugliness In this case how great are the benefits by Christ to the Believer who is made of God to the Believer Wisdom and Righteousness and Sanctification and Redemption The more that a Beliver doth honour Christ the more will he be carried out in a Spirit of Love to delight in the Commands of Christ When Adam was most holy he was most obedient and when he was most obedient he was most acted by a principle of Love Thus the holy blessed Angels do all in obedience and love to Christ for they also are under this Law and at command Even the LORD Jesus Christ himself kept these Commandments of his Father and did abide in his Love his ready chearful obedience to his Father must have an eye to a commanding Law The Law of the ten Words though it include a perfect holiness in its requirements yet doth it not exclude an Advocating Mediator in its intendments O how will mens faces be covered with shame at the last when they shall be judged by that Law which now they so much contend against When the LORD had given forth the Law of the ten Words it is said Not hath he added He added no more commands of this Nature This was almost forty years after the promulgation of the Decalogue at Mount Sinai He hath not added he doth not add he will not add will still be a true saying relating to this no more commands of this kind and sort for they are but ten Words a perfect Law to which nothing is to be added and from which nothing is to be substracted In this Book of Deuteronomy Moses repeated the ten Words or Commandments and presseth to the observation of this Law confirming the whole of it with promises to the believing and obedient and with threatnings against the unperswadeable and transgressing And Christ himself a little before his death foretold of the continuance of the seventh-Seventh-day Sabbath calling it by the name of Sabbath well towards forty years after his death though for the advancement of Sabbath-learning I propound to the Vertuoso and the Ingenuoso of the times to consider Q. Whether that expression Mat. 24. 20. Pray ye that your flight be not in the Sabbath do not relate to all and every of those great periods of time the destruction of Jerusalem the down-fall of Antichrist and the Tribulation of that time which shall make way for the later-day-Glory this Seventh-day Sabbath will last as long as this world lasteth to the utmost end of it Thus Reader have I through Mercy and Grace somewhat traded according to my Talent received for the Honour of my LORD and of his Works Words and Law and for the promoting of Scripture-sciences and Arts. It is with him what entertainment he will give it in thy heart and what blessing he will there put upon it O the Excellency of this Word Knowledge The Wise of heart will receive Commands They will treasure up Knowledge to draw it out in season Wisdom is found in their lips To the mouth of their Vnderstanding shall they be praised The Well-advised will hearken unto Counsel and those that fear the Command shall prosper Whereas the proud will be always wrangling and contending Contemners of the Word will quickly be corrupted The Law the Doctrine the Institution of a wise man is a clear Vein and Fountain of Lifes and a good Understanding will give Grace A Scorner seeks Wisdom and finds it not but Knowledge is easie unto him that understands it It is facile it is obvious it freely presents it self it is soon learnt it is easily gettable quickly attained A Fool has
some particular known day Do not Commissions to Judges and to other Officers meet with this sense by their Dates Do not Charters to Corporations express some special day of Grants Are not Fairs and Markets held upon certain days of the week agreeing with the present Accompt as the reckoning now is Search the records of Marriages Nativities Deaths Burials in Ecclesiastical Register-books and is not the memory of Days preserved there Do not Compacts Covenants Agreements between party and party Wills and Testaments speak the certain knowledg of Days Do not Day-labourers keep to this Accompt Do not Ephemeries Diaries Hemerologies Calendars Almanacks Astronomies assent and consent to this same What further Evidence is now needful in this case of a matter of Fact for the satisfying of them who will keep a Weekly-Sabbath-day Holy unto Jehovah As an act of Faith with an eye to his Promise as an Act of Fear with an eye to his Threatning Sandys in his Travels being a narrow inquirer into the state of other Nations and Kingdoms doth relate this concerning the matters of Religion in the Eastern parts that there is a Christian Empire of the Aethiopians that did still in his time Celebrate Saturday as well as the Sunday as he useth the old Ethnick Phrases and Purchas writes of the Abyssines as Subject to Peter and Paul and especially to Christ that they observed the Saturday Sabbath The Melchites or Syrians are said to Celebrate Divine Service as solemnly on the Sabbath day as on the Dominical day as they call the First day Some Christian Churches have forbid Fasting on both these days Many more Historical records of this may an Ingenious Industrious Reader of such books Collect that would further Inform himself about this Sufficient to me is Scripture Authority warranted in created Nature Having now gone thorow my great Task and undertaking in asserting and proving thorow the whole Scriptures by Aelohim's own assigned Reasons by other Scripture Arguments and by Created Nature and Established Order the Seventh-day which is the last day of the week to be the Weekly Sabbath-day should not every Mouth be stopped from gain-saying of it Yet the plainests clearest Truths have been opposed and so is this Some rise up against it and object that no special Honour is put by the LORD and by his Word upon the seventh day more than upon any other day of the week and that it is but A seventh not The seventh And that that part of time that is and will be accepted with God is declared and determined to be the seventh part of it or one day in seven and that one day in seven hath and must have a natural priority unto the seventh-day because say such the seventh day is one of the seven Whereas such should have more deliberately considered that one day of seven was not before the seventh day in order of time It could not be truly affirmed of any one day that it was one of seven before the seventh day was Created For when the one day was so named there was but that one day so but two on the second day but three on the third day but four on the fourth but five on the fifth but six on the sixth day till the seventh had its natural Existence and it s created being and untill then no one of the fore-going days of the Week could be called one in seven For till then there were not seven and the seventh day is the last number of days and the only seventh in the days of the Week So that here is a stop made and we go no further forward As to the natural created Order and accompt of a Week and therefore that exception and objection which some do bring in against this from ten Lambs any of which may be the tenth according as they may run out is nothing pertinent and applicable to the present matter For the days of every week do not run voluntarily at their pleasure which can be before or behind as they will to go backward or forward when they list but they keep their created order in this successive continued weekly course by a well-established natural unalterable Law although in the exception and objection this should be noted that when the ten Lambs were run out they had each distinct names and the last was the only tenth and no other but the last That particular day of the week is the Weekly Sabbath-day which alone As to this of the weekly-Sabbath has proper marks of Note and of Honour put upon it As Jehovah's own peculiar day which he has culled out from all the rest of the days of the week for his created ends and instituted purposes There is not any one Insignificant word or letter in the whole Book of God All that he has spoken and given to his people is of good use The LORD Jesus Christ has confirmed his Law of the Ten Words to a Letter a Consonant a Vowel a Particle a Point These things amongst others I have commended to their serious Observation who do understand the Original or will take so much pains as to learn the notes of Demonstration and their Significancy which may the LORD blessing it be gotten with a little Industry one is to observe well the first place in the Scriptures where the Doctrine and Law of the Seventh-day-Sabbath is taught here is a Note of Demonstration importing The This or That and it is three times joyned to the word Seventh which particular day of the Week the Last day Aelohim Rested on Blessed and Sanctifyed as the Weekly-Sabbath-day The seventh and a second time The Seventh and a third time The seventh and three times there is a Letter an Inseparable joyned Preposition signifying In Which would carry the discerning obedient Observer of the Weekly-Sabbath-day into the Possession and enjoyment the Duties and Priviledges of that set Seventh-day Besides another Particle there which doth here put a great force upon the signification as That day That Seventh The Note of Demonstration in this Place doth point out a certain known Determinate Fixed Particular Unchangeable day in every Week in that First Created Week and in the after Successive Returns of that last day in every Week as the Weekly Sabbath-day Because this is the First place in the Holy Scriptures where this Note of Demonstration is put to this word Seventh And this was an Eminent Remarkable thing pointed at this seventh day as the day of Weekly Rest And all and every of the foregoing daies of the Week of this Created World have a distinct observable put upon them and therefore so has this also Especially the Seventh day being the most remarkable day in divers respects that was in all the Week Here was a thing certain to be known and to be taken special notice of that was thus Demonstrated and Notificated The Subject matter compared with that which doth go before doth eminently point out as it
and they were at that meeting where Christ appeared to the Eleven The Sun was gone in before that time So that if this pretended Historical Hint be mistaken by those Objectors so then is the next also which they alledg of a second appearing as to the particular day of it the place it self doth expresly confute their assertion For that appearing was after eight Days After observe which could not therefore be that very day which they name Not the first day by their own Computation Besides what cogency is there in this kind of arguing from Christ's appearing to the Disciples For he appeared often to them in the forty days between his Resurrection and Ascension and once when they were Fishing which is no weekly-Sabbath-days-work and employment at which time also Christ did eat somewhat of what Fish they had taken Upon a due long serious Consideration of the whole of this matter There appears nothing to me not the least shew or colour of any sound Scriptural reasoning in all these Allegations which men in Reputation have been by a Traditionary Religion in this so fond of What a great way about do they go quite out of any Scripture-path to fetch in something that might look like an Argument with those who take up such matters of humane invention upon Trust from their misguiders who in this teach them to Err in a Dark-walk where they see not how nor whither they go and then tell them that the mind of Christ in this is a great Deep and not so easie for plain Understandings presently to fathom Whereas we who are brought under the New Testament-Administration of Grace are put into a state of clearer Light than those were in who were under the former Dispensation Doctrines Duties Graces Priviledges do shine forth in more Glory before us as the Apostle doth argue in the second of his Epistles to the Church at Corinth the design of which passage is to shew the New-Testament-Glory to be excelling They of old had a veil on their Ministration by Figures Types and Shadows whereas we now do at least we may and should behold things with unveiled Face As for the Laws of the Ten words particularly this of the Weekly-seventh-day-Sabbath they are clear as the Light And therefore the Holy Scriptures of Truth do give them that Name of Light of self-evidencing and clear-shining are they containing Commandments so right in all things so enlightening the eyes of mens understanding though otherwise they be but simple silly and weak the very opening entrance or door of which Word doth give light to make the silly ones to be understanding ones especially when the Commandment comes in the Demonstration of the Spirit and with Power and former pre-conceptions and prejudices are laid aside A Law so guiding the Obeyers of it to walk in such paths of Rightness a Law so true so holy so just so good so spiritual so perfect such a Law of Liberty setting a renewed enlarged heart so free to run in its Way A Law so comprehensive a Law so formed in right humane Nature being at the first concreated with it A Law so convincingly opening it self and its true mind and its proper meaning and so fully expounded throughout the whole Scripture which is a large exposition upon it insomuch as that all the rest of the Word so far as concerns Duties to be performed and sins to be avoided is but as it were Jehovah Aelohims Commentary upon and Interpretation of it So that here Those of an inquiring Spirit are led safely out of the Maze of those perplexing difficulties which the Objectors reasoning about the necessariness of human Histories to make up a full evidence of the Scriptures in the matter of the first day would hurry them into and such diligent re-searchers are brought into a plain way and the Good Old way or the way of hidden Ages or of Eternity The Words of this Law do carry a plain Evidence in them As all the rest so particularly the fourth Word or Command concerning the weekly-seventh-day-Sabbath It has in it self a common and familiar understanding the sense and meaning whereof doth appear at the very first sight It is but hear or read and every man that is endued with Reason and will exercise it without any prepossession or imposings will forthwith conceive aright of it That the weekly-Sabbath-day is the Seventh-day That the Seventh-day is the weekly-Sabbath-day This Objector doth assert it That it is agreed on that the Passover that year when Christ was cruciâ—yed fell on the Sabbath-day It must here be his meaning the Seventh which is the last day of the week which he takes to be the First day of that Feast of unleavened bread On which the Paschal Lamb according to Institution was to be eaten which was not the First day of the Week but the Seventh Upon this Supposition I would thus questioningly argue either Christ that year kept the very day of Passover according to Institution or not if Christ kept the true Passover-day as I do not at all doubt but that he did for he was to fulfill all righteous Observances and accordingly he did It being the Work which his Father gave him to do and which he finished The Antitype directly answering in every thing with great exactness to the Type And the History in the written Word which doth report this matter of Fact in Christ doth expresly call that day on which he did with his Disciples eat the Paschal Lamb the Passover-day as the Scriptures in the Margin will undeniably prove and he dying the same day which was the Passover-day If this be granted by this Opposer to be the Weekly Seventh-day-Sabbath what then becomes of all the rest of his arguing and pleading for the First day which according unto this Supposition was not that particular day of the Week on which Christ arose from the dead For according to this that First day was the next immediate day after his death and could in no Sense be called the Third day on which he rose again If he say That the true passover-Passover-day which not Christ but the Jews kept was the day next after the death of Christ we call for an Answer to the forecited Scriptures in the Margin and expect a Word-proof for what he asserts Although if that could be cleared yet has it no Rightness or Forcibleness of arguing in it to demonstrate what it is brought for as to a First-day-Sabbath But if those Scriptures do in so many express Words give the day of Christs being apprehended and condemned and crucified and killed the First day of unleavened bread and the Passover-day whilst we have the Scripture thus speaking we have no cause to be moved at what Humane Authorities and Church-Histories do record to the contrary And this has now brought me to an Examination of the validity or invalidity of Church-histories and of humane Authorities in these matters Though
of Promise made to the observers of the First day as such What one word of threatning against any that do not so observe the First day as the weekly Sabbath day and if there be not any one word here for the First day either as to Institution or Command or Promise or Threating how can any observer keep it aright either in Faith or Obedience in Hope or Fear The direct plain meaning of this Scripture is if I mis-judge not that this day doth evidently relate to that providential Day of the LORD Christ's appearing in the fulfilling of this Prophesie who appeared to John as LORD pleading the Cause of his Kingly Lordly Office which has been too long and too far invaded by the Kings and Lords of the Earth who have not inforced Christ's Laws nor made them to be the Rule of Government but usurped an unscriptural authority over mens consciences and souls How Lordly a Day therefore will it be when Christ will recover and exercise his Power and his Right Those great things which this ever-blessed LORD of Glory would do in the latter ages were represented to John from Christ by an Angel in a way of Prophetical Revelation This manifestation by Vision and by Voice was after such a manner as if the thing had been acted and performed before and to John's senses By comparing of this passage with some other passages in the same book of Revelation relating to the same matter he that doth diligently mark and wisely observe and rightly understand may see that this Lordly Day is the great Providential Day of that God that Almighty One a name several times given to Christ in this Book There are several parts of this great comprehensive large Vision and there are several seasons of their fulfillings and accordingly several days in this great Day Ezekiel doth mention one part of this Prophesie that will last seven years The LORD Jesus Christ will come and come in several Judgements on several Hours Days Weeks Months and Years It is one of his Names to be such a one as is coming and he is called the coming King And his Kingdom is a coming Kingdom and the age of this is said to be a coming Age and the World to come a coming World In every age of the Church of Christ there were fulfillings of this in part Those in John's time had somewhat of this Lordly Day who therefore were to behold Christ's coming This was partly Historical before John's death when Christ came in his admirable way of wonderful providence to destroy Jerusalem according as was foretold in other Scriptures and partly Prophetical to be accomplished in the several ages after John's time John saw this Day in a Vision and speaks of it with a double confirmation John was made to be in the Spirit on that Lordly Day An expression of which he had experience as is mentioned in other places of this Book The Article added that Lordly Day doth determine but indefinitely There is no such certain particular Day of the Week pointed out so to our understanding on what Day of the Week it will begin or on what Day of the Week it will end This is not the design at least not as to the pretended change of the Weekly Sabbath-day It was that Lordly Day of Christ's coming when he would convert and recover the chosen remnant of those of Israel and of Judah and destroy the Rebellious and the unbelieving among them If men will be limiting of this day to any one determinate definite particular day of the week what one day has such a plea as the Seventh-day Sabbath Seeing for the dreadfully executed Judgement part of it as the first Temple was destroyed being burnt with fire on the tenth day of the fifth Moon which day according to Jeremiah's Prophesie is granted even by many adversaries to be the Seventh-day Sabbath he told the Jews before it came to pass that their Temple would be burnt with Fire if they profaned the Sabbath of Jehovah Answerable unto which is that passage in another Prophet who on the same day of the same Moon reproved Sabbath-breaking when the Elders came to inquire what the mind of the LORD was And as the second Temple was under the like threatning from the mouth of the LORD Christ himself putting them upon earnest importunate Prayer lest otherwise that terrible destruction brake in upon them on the Sabbath the Seventh-day Sabbath Those who are sond of Ecclesiastical Histories may find it recorded in them that the second Temple was actually destroyed according to this Prophetical threatning of our LORD on the seventh-day Sabbath The change of Jehovah's Ordinance of which mens changing of his Seventh day Sabbath is one is soretold in Isaiah with respect to the later ages of the World to be one great provoking Cause of his sending of Judgements upon the rebellious and unfaithful World when keepers of his Seventh-day Sabbath shall have his holy Arm revealed for their Salvation Some of the first great rejections of the unbelieving Jews in a way of Church censure after Christ's ascending on high were occasionally and deservedly by their prophane blaspheming miscarriage on the Seventh day Sabbath of which some account hath been given before So that if a particular day of the week in the weekly returns of it were here designedly pointed at what day can plead and claim a fairer Title and Right unto it than the Seventh-day which is the Sabbath of or to Jehovah or to the LORD Jehovah is the chief choice Name of the Eternal Ever blessed Self-being the Being of beings as that Name doth signifie And that Word which in the Greek doth answer to this Hebrew Name Jehovah some do draw from a word that doth signifie I am which they constantly render LORD So that Jehovah in the Old Testament is often rendred by this Word in the New which we do translate LORD That which in the Old is Hear O Israel Jehovah our Aelohim Jehovah One is in the new Hear O Israel The LORD that God of ours is one LORD Thus also the Hebrew Text doth sometimes but Adonai supporting LORD for Jehovah Thus that whith in one Psalm is I will confess thee among the peoples O Jehovah is in another Psalm I will confess thee among the peoples O LORD Further Christ Jesus saith of himself that he is LORD of the Sabbath of that Seventh-day Sabbath which he created commanded and observed being a keeper of his Fathers Commandments whereof this of the Seventh-day Sabbath was one Those that do relie on the judgement and authorities of men about the meaning of this expression may consider that Ecclesiastical Historians do relate that John and his followers the Eastern Asiatick Churches did keep the Passover on the Seventh-day not pressing the observation of the first day for the celebration of the Passover as
old corrupt Principles the old crooked Rules the old selfish ends the old bad Frames the old uutoward Actings the erroneous mistakes the formality in Worship the old unscriptural Traditions the old Sins the old man's Conversion and such like These do pass away and all things contrary to these are become new A whole new man The Apostle speaks of what is peculiar to the New Creature in Christ as such For as for the old ceremonious Rites and their passing away even those that were not new Creatures but were carnal Professors of Christianity yet had these things passing away and they were put under a new Administation the new dispensation of Grace had Ordinances now in a more spiritual heavenly way and manner The passing away of old things here is of old things so far as they stand in opposition to the new Creature and unto that new life in and to Christ which now the converted person should live That as Christ so loved his people as to dye and rise again for them so should those in Christ thus evidence their Love to Christ by living no longer to themselves but unto him crucifying the old man mortifying the sins and lusts of that old man and vivifying or quickning the new man which was true in the Types and Figures before Christ was come born of the Virgin Mary and which is still true now after that Christ is come and ascended up into Glory But all this doth make nothing as to the passing away of the Law of the ten Words in all of them or in any one the least of them This is a distinct fort of Laws from the Typical Figuring Shadowy Institutions The Law of the ten Words as it always has been so is it now and still will be the Rule of the new Creature in Christ Jesus For what in one place is called the new Creatures Rule in another speaking to the same case is the keeping of the Commandments of God In Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing nor Uncircumcision but a new Creature And as many as walk according to this Rule Peace be on them and Mercy and on the Israel of God The Israel of old had no saving benefit barely by the outward sign of Circumcision whereas God's Israel then who had the sign and the thing signified too they had the Mercy and Peace who were new Creatures united to the Messiah by Faith working by Love who had their hearts circumcised to love Jehovah their God who had sin subdued and lust mortified And the uncircumcision under the new Dispensation was not of any good avail without the new Birth without conjunction to and communion with it and if the Regenerate the new Born the new Created would evidence and approve themselves to be such and to be in Christ they must obey him and keep his Commandments But what is all this to any change of the weekly Sabbath from the Seventh to the First Day of the Week To pass from one sort of Laws into another sort of Laws from the Law of figuring Types to the Law of the ten Words and to infer the passing away of any one of the Laws of the ten Words from the passing of Types into the Antitypes and of signifying Figures into their signified things is a transition from one kind to another a way of sophistical arguing of fallacious disputing captiously to over-reach the ignorant too credudulous vulgar and to defraud them of their right to the Truth As for that part of the Objection which doth speak of new Heavens and of new Earth pretended to be completed and finished on the Day of Christ's Resurrection from whence to conclude the passing away of the Seventh-day Sabbath to make room for a First-Day-weekly Sabbath it is so scriptureless so natureless so reasonless an inference that it should have been more preconsidered by this Arguer whether it do conclude and prove any thing but this that the Adversaries would fain have something or other that might carry a little colour and some shew with it if they know what For let it be pondered upon search and examination that all those places of Scripture which do speak of the new Heavens and the new Earth do relate to a further time for their full accomplishment than precisely to the Day of Christ's Resurrection That Prophesie in Isaiah hath an eye to the more large and spreading conversions of the two and ten Tribes in the latter days yet to come How was this then fulfilled on Christ's Resurrection-Day who of them was then converted what eminent new Creatorship was there then brought forth which might put any such signal remark upon the First Day of the Week as from thence to become the new weekly Sabbath When the most of the Disciples themselves did scarce believe him to be raised till after that Day was over And two Disciples with whom he had walked some Miles that Day had little belief of his Resurrection and little knowledge of him till he disappeared from them How few in comparison were brought in unto Christ and made new Creatures in all Christ's life time at his Death and Resurrection and forty Days after that till after his Ascension and after the pourings out of the Holy Spirit That forementioned Prophesie doth foretel that Nations shall be brought under the Jews Dominions when those new Heavens and new Earth shall appear This was not at the time of Christ's Resurrection-day nor ever since and they were then and have been since for sixteen hundred years or more so far Ruling over the Nations that they have been a scattered despised broken people without so much as any Political Kingly Government amongst themselves It foretels that those of Judah and of Israel should be gathered out of all Quarters East West North and South This also is behind yet unfulfilled That Euphrates would be dry Was this on Christ's Resurrection Day Or has it been since Is not this also yet to come upon their return to their own Land in the latter Days Will not their grand Enemy the Turk be then overthrown who has so long wrongfully possessed their Inheritance which when it is will be so great a work for the inhabited Earth to take notice of where the ear-report shall come or the eye-witnessing be that it will obscure the memory of former Acts. Another Prophesie by Isaiah doth fortel that at that time of the new Heavens and the new Earth the ten Tribes of Israel as well as the other two of Judah and of Benjamin shall according as to an express promise return home to their own Country and Land For Sharon was in Gilead which belonged to Manasseh The Valley of Achor was a parcel of the Tract of Jericho in the Tribe of Judah There will then be a new face of things in their glorious and blessed Renovation when there will be divers things accomplished which are not as yet fulfilled As
Jehovah forgivest the iniquity of my sin To this agreeth that of Isaiah who brings in Jehovah himself thus speaking I I for my self blot out thy transgressions and remember not thy sin And the same Prophet doth record it of Hezekiah that he thankfully acknowledged this Thou O Jehovah hast cast behind thy back all my sins And that was the same which Isaiah had experienced in his own case Thus speaks the Prophet Micah in an holy triumphing manner Who is a mighty God like unto thee Forgiving iniquity and passing by the transgression of the remnant of his Inberitance Thou wilt cast all their sins into the bottom of the Sea And long before him this was revealed to Moses when Jehovah proclaimed this to be part of his Name He who forgiving iniquity and trespass and sin How often was this Truth preached over in the Sacrifices for Sin offerings and in their Typical Washings and Purifications and such like which held forth this in the spiritual meaning of them And Christ appointed some who in their Function by Office were to teach Jacob his Judgments and Israel his Law to shew them what those Truths and Things were that were so shadowed out by those Figures Thus also was not the Sanctification or Holiness of a Covenant-people The Declared Will of Jehovah Aelohim Is not the Command express in Moses's Book Ye shall sanctifie your selves and be holy for I Jehovah your God And ye shall keep my statutes and do them I Jehovah who sanctifie Ye shall set to it to be holy and ye shall be holy for I holy Has he not put that honour upon them by calling them Saints His Saints An holy People in Covenant with him How many ways did he preach this Doctrine to them The Priests must be Holy the Levites Holy the Prophets Holy the People Holy the Convocation Holy the Sabbath Holy the Place of Worship Holy the City Jerusalem is named Holy the House Holy the Mount Holy the Land Holy the Garments Holy the Tabernacle Holy the Temple Holy the Scriptures Holy the Law Holy the Covenant Holy Did not their whole Burnt-Offerings call upon them to be sanctified throughout their whole intire Spirit and Soul and Body to be kept unblamable Did not the Precepts to abstain from prohibited Pollutions and to use prescribed cleansings in case of contracted uncleanness speak the same Truth Was not the Law of the ten Words a comprehensive perfect Doctrine of all Holiness and Righteousness And are not the Sermons of the faithful Prophets full of Dehortations from sin and of Exhortations to Holiness If thou wouldest be instructed in the Doctrine of the Resurrection Did not the LORD Christ himself prove and teach this out of the saying of Jehovah Aelohim unto Moses in the Bush I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob God is not the God of the dead but the God of living From whence he doth infer that though Abraham Isaac and Jacob were dead as to their body yet they were still alive in their Spirit and Soul which bodies were parts of them and therefore their bodies should in time rise again For hereby it was evident that there is another life after this is ended which those departed Saints that were dead as to this life had their shares and parts in So that God not only was heretofore but still now is and will be their God after their death The Bodies of Abraham of Isaac and of Jacob shall rise and therefore the bodies of the dead shall rise they shall live again whereas now they are dead and therefore they shall arise For he is their God now they are dead and therefore they shall live again though now they be dead For God is not the God of the dead who are so dead that they shall never live again So that he declaring himself to be their God ever since they were dead it must unanswerably follow as convincingly concluding that their bodies shall live again With what a clear judgement and holy confidence doth Job speak the same truth I know said he that my Redeemer living and that the latter one shall rise upon the dust Therefore after I shall awake and that the worms have digged through this yet in my fiesh I shall see God Whom I shall behold to me and mine eyes have seen and not a stranger My reins are consumed within my bosom Was not Christ's Resurrection plaintly taught in the sixteenth Psalm Where Christ himself doth thus express his sure hope of rising again from death the third day My flesh shall dwell in considence for thou wilt not leave my soul to Sheol Thou wilt not give thy gracious Saint to see corruption doth not Peter so interpret this And did not Paul so explain and apply this And if the head be raised must not the members of that body to which the head is so nearly related in union and in fellowship be raised also Hath not David left behind him a lively Testimony of his firm belief of this in his day and time When he set out the different apprehensions that he had concerning his expressed happiness in another better hâ—â— and world from what the unbelieving men of this World had They those mortal men of this transitory World they counted their good things to be their part and portion here in this life I saith he as if he all past into this this was his Belief this was Hope this his Portion this his Happiness I in justice shall view thy faces shall be satisfied when I shall awake with thy image There would be a day when he should awake out of the dust of the Earth from the sleep of death when he should see and know plainly and perfectly and bear the Image of the Heavenly The Psalmist speaks of a Morning when those that sleep in the dust of the Earth shall awake and rise He believed that Aelohim would redeem his soul from the hands of Sheol because he would receive him A glorious Testimony of his belief of a Resurrection Daniel in his Prophetick Spirit speaks of a time when many of them that sleep in the dusty Earth shall awake some unto everlasting life and some unto reproach and shame everlasting Which doth also point to a Day of Judgement following of this Resurrection Though Daniel in this place doth not seem to speak of the last general Resurrection yet hereby insinuating the Doctrine thereof According as Enoch also the seventh from Adam is recorded by Jude to have Prophetyed Behold the LORD hath come with his holy ten thousands to do judgement against all and convincingly to reprove all those corrupt Worshippers of them concerning all those their works of corrupt worship which they have impiously done and of all their hards which they have spoken against the LORD who sinners worshiping corruptly The wicked shall not stand up in judgement as is
declared in the first Psalm Sinners will then fall and be condemned This Daniel saw in that glorious Vision wherein the Judge of all shewed himself sitting upon his Throne having thousand times thousands ministring unto him and ten thousand times ten thousands standing before him Where Judgement set it self and the Books were opened Thus did Solomon close the Book of his Experiences of his folly in seeking a happiness in creature injoyments which were all vanities having minded others of the Day of their Death A serious Meditation of which might prove either a prevention or a remedying of this evil malady The Dust shall return to the Earth as it was and the Spirit shall return unto God who gave it He leaves behind him with those who came after him these acceptable words of Truth the end of the Word of all hath been heard these same Aelohim or adored Almighties in Father Son and holy Spirit fear thou and those Commandments of his keep thou because this all that Adam or for this all Adam or the whole of that first Adam or all of Man or the whole Man here is all the main of all our Religion when we have spoken and written and printed never so much about Religion this is our grand spiritual and eternal concern thine and mine and every other mans Because Aelohim will make to come into Judgement every Work all Work with all that is hidden be it kept never so secret from other men here if good and if evil or whether good and whether evil Wouldst thou who readest this have the Graces of the holy Spirit in wrought by him in the hearts of his Covenant people to pass under the same Scripture-examination Did not the Believers under the Old Testament Dispensation l obtain by Lot like precious Faith with those under the New Administration Hath not the Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews given us a large Catalogue of such as were full of lively fruitful-working-Faith Doth he not give us an Historical Account of the Faith of Abel of Enoch of Noah of Abraham of Sarah of Isaac of Jacob of Joseph of Moses of Gideon of Barak of Sampson of Jephthah of David of Samuel and of the Prophets And of the wonderful Fruits and Effects of this Grace in them How eminent was Abraham more especially and particularly this way Who has this honourable Title put upon him that he is called The father of the faithful Did not James in his Epistle Exhort the Christian Brethren to take for an Example of suffering of evil and of long suffering the Prophets who have spoken in the Name of the LORD Behold said he we count them blessed that endure Ye have heard of the patience of Job and ye have seen the end of the LORD that the LORD is of so much Bowels and Compassionate How lively was Abraham's Hope who against Hope believed in Hope What a Man of Hope was David Who that savours of and that frames to his renewed Spirit can considerately read Davids Psalms and not see this Grace often put forth into Act by him How constant an expectant was he unto Jehovah Aelohim in variety of difficult and trying Cases And how often doth he call earnestly upon others to be much in this The good whereof he had so often proved to his great satisfaction and to his raised joy How full of love was his heart towards Christ and towards the Law of Christ So that when he could not express the whole of what he thus felt stirring within him he gives a vent to his heart by his Exclamations O how I Love And by his longings after more O what an holy Fear had he of this glorious God And O how much did David's heart stand in awe of his Word Shall I speak of Duties Was not this David the Man to whom God himself gave Testimony and said I have found David of Jesse a man after mine heart who shall will-do all my wills How full of Prayings Praisings Singings and of such like Religious Services is that one Book of Psalms Wouldst thou hear somewhat of their Priviledges Doth not James bear witness that Abraham was called a friend of God Did not Enoch walk with God Had he not Testimony that he pleased God Did not Noah find Grace in the Eyes of Jehovah Did not he also walk with God Were not the believing ones of the Israelites Sons and Daughters to Jehovah their Aelohim Were not they made partakers of the same Adoption and Love by Faith in Christ What a fulness of assurance of Faith had Abraham How filled with joy and peace in believing was David whilst he walked in the ways of Jehovah O what gladness was there often given into his heart How often was the Light of the Faces of Jehovah lifted up over him In this Light did the gracious Saints of old walk on who were marvellously separated unto Jehovah Aelohim In his Name were they glad all the day and in his Justice were they exalted for he was the Glory of their strength They were satisfied with his favourable acceptation and were full with his blessings The Sons of Israel were a people near him Halelujah Jehovah's portion was his people even then Jacob was the Line of his Inheritance they his portion and he theirs Hear some of their holy Breathings To me how precious are thy thoughts O God! How mightily increased are the summs of them Would I tell them they will be more than the sand I awake and still I with thee How precious thy mercy O Aelohim And the Sons of Adam hope for safety in the shadow of thy wings They shall be plenteously moistened with the fatness of thy house and the stream of thy pleasures thou wilt give them to drink Because with thee the Well of life In thy light we see light Extend thy mercy to them that know thee and thy justice to the right of heart How much thy goodness which thou hast laid up for them who fearing thee Were not these things forewritten for the use of Believers now When Jacob found Jehovah Christ in Bethel did he not there speak with praying Believers in after Ages When Aelohim turned the Sea into Dry When his people passed thorow the River on foot did not the Saints in after Generations there rejoyce in him The Faithful then and the Faithful now are fellow-servants and fellow-brethren and joynt-heirs of the same promised Glory They confessed that they were Guests and Strangers upon Earth they were desirous of and sought a better the heavenly Countrey Therefore God is not ashamed of them to be called their God Happy they who are in Abraham's bosom who are taken into intimate society conjunction love and glorious fellowship with him How full of heavenly joys is that blessed State of Christ's Spiritual Kingdom which is a Being with Abraham Isaac and Jacob and all