and complete the fabrick of the new Creation And thus is the resurrection-day prophetically crowned with honour above all other dayes Old Sabbath and all For the work crowns the day and the greater the work the greater the day And therefore although the last day of the week were the greatest in dignity during the supereminency of the old Creation yet when a greater work was to be finished the day on which it was to conclude must without dispute be the greater day As John Baptist being the last and greatest of the prophets yet was lesse then the least in the Kingdome of heaven so I may say of the Old Sabbath the greatest day under the Old Testament yet it must vail and stoop when the Sun of righteousness shines forth in a new day under the New Testament Surely the second Creation must have a Sabbath of commemoration as well as the first or else God should magnifie his lesser work of Creation above his greater work of Redemption And thus I suppose I have made good my Position both Logically and Theologically that the old seventh day was alterable in its first institution since the same ground of stating the Sabbath at first upon that day might be a sufficient ground of translating it to another day as now it is and that by Divine Authority as shall be seen hereafter The adversary has no considerable weapons to oppose this truth withal but what have been already beaten out of Mr. Brabourns hands and are sufficiently blunted by others or if any new ones be added we shall now try what mettal they are made of Obj. 1 T.T. p. 7. The seventh day sayes he was set apart in memorial of the most glorious work of Creation the benefit whereof being extended to us p. 69. engageth us to that day still And again The world being created not only for Israel but for all people I appeal to all conscientious Christians whether all mankind be not bound to that very day who enjoy the benefit of the Creation By the way let me tell him when I read his insulting challenge I expected Scripture-arguments and not popular appeals But to let him swim in his own element the sum of his appealing for arguing I cannot call it amounts but to this that if the old seventh day were set apart in memory of the Creation which every Christian as a creature is bound to commemorate then the day is unchangeable perpetually to be observed But to this I answer The consequence is sick and crasie Answer and therefore it can produce but a weak conclusion For first the Covenant of grace I suppose is as ancient as the old Sabbath I am sure as eminent a mercy as the occasion of the Sabbath And doubtless to every true-hearted Christian the memory of Gods Covenant is and ought to be as precious as the memory of the worlds Creation yet I hope he will not say that circumcision and sacrifices the old memorials of the Covenant are therefore still in force or ought to be still in use among Christians who are interested in that Covenant And the like may I say of the Saturday-Sabbath Let none object the disparity between the Old Sabbath and circumcision for they are both clad in a livery of the same colour in many things they do much resemble one another Was a Gen. 17.11 circumcision a sign betwixt God and the seed of Abraham so was the b Exod. 31.17 old Sabbath betwixt God and the house of Israel Was c Gen. 17.7 circumcision a perpetual Covenant with Abrahams seed in their generation So also was the d Exod. 31.16 Sabbath to be kept as a perpetual Covenant throughout their generations In a word was e Gen. 17.14 circumcision so exacted that whosoever was uncircumcised must be cut off from the house of Israel why so also was the old f Exod. 31.14 Sabbath whosoever doth any work therein that soul shall be cut off from among the people Again let none tax me with incongruity in comparing the old Sabbath and sacrifices together for the Lord of the Sabbath himself hath taught me to lay them in an equal ballance who when the Pharisees clamoured his Disciples for Sabbath breaking stops their mouths with that g Hos 6.6 Mat. 12.7 Pluris apud De um salus mortalium quà ms crifi iapecudum Muscul in Loc. Scripture The Lord will have merey and not socrifice That is the necessities of men relieved rather then the supposed letter of the Law observed In my poor judgment it is very considerable that such a person at such a time should match the Sabbath day and sacrifices together for it was not the Sabbath in general but the Sabbath day which was then under dispute Surely there was some mystery in this Divinity of our Saviour But this may suffice for a first answer As the Covenant of grace is perpetually to be commemorated but not by circumcision and sacrifices the old memorials of it so the work of creation is continually to be had in remembrace but not by the old Sabbaths celebration For we say as the new Covenant must have new signs so the new creation a new Sabbath And 2. A new day might keep alive the memory of the old Creation Meditatio celebratio operum Dei non minus alio die quà m septimoficri potest Ursin although it be primarily intended as a memorial of redemption And this double honour is put upon the Lords day as the first day of the week it commemorates the worlds redemption as the seventh day in weekly recourse it calls to mind the worlds Creation For in labouring six dayes and resting the seventh weekly we recognize Gods working six dayes and resting the seventh originally And here I may as rationally as T.T. appeal to any ingenuous Christian if the Old Sabbath served the Jews as a means to keep them mindful both of the worlds Creation and their redemption from Egypt why may not our Lords day Sabbath be the Christians memorandum both of the worlds Creation Deut. 5.15 and his Redemption from hell Of the last most directly indeed and that most deservedly being the greatest work and the richest mercy For although t is true to have an earth to tread upon an aire to breath in light to look upon creatures to live upon are excellent mercies yet to have an angry God reconciled a sinful nature repaired Death and Hell vanquished Heaven and glory purchased and assured is infinitely more blessed more beneficial To conclude If I must consecrate a weekly Sabbath to the Lord what day more proper more suitable more significant then that which bears a lively inscriptior of the Lord my Redeemer not without some commemoration of God my Creator But the old seventh day may still he retained in memory of the Creation and the Lords day be celebrated too in memory of Redemption though not as a Sabbath both dayes may lovingly live together
for that which nature informed by a written word judges most agreeable to moral and religious equity so we may grant it we also affirme that a seventh part of time must be perpetually devoted to God from week to week that is one part of seven Neither did this proportion receive any interruption by the change of the day for the Jewes Sabbath being in use while Christ lay in the grave was the seventh part of time for the week going before the resurrection and the Lords day was the seventh part of time for the weeke following the resurrection what inconvenience in all this Answ 2 If by the seventh part of time simply considered he will needs understend the last of seven in order he must first convince us that this is the morality of the Commandment which if by working miracles in Logick and Divinity he can do yet it will at no hand follow that the altering or adjourning of this proportion from the last to the first day of the week was any violation of the precepts morality In this case as one sayes alteration is no dissolution no more then to adjourn the Parliament to another time is to dissolve the Parliament Besides an extraordinary case can be no violation of an ordinary rule As the Suns standing still in Joshuahs and going back in Hezekiahs time which did undoubtedly alter the setled course of time for man had more then six parts and God had less then simply a seventh part of time for those two weeks yet being extroardinary cases they were no infringment of that ordinary standing rule for a seventh part of time from week to week So here supposing some variation in the ordinary course of time at the first change of the day yet being by a person extraordinary the Lord of glory who made the law and is above the law as also upon an occasion extraordinary his resurrection from the dead who would dare to say as this objectour does that the morality of the law was hereby destroyed Whereas he further suggests That if the Sabbath were translated to the eighth or first day Answ 3 This was T. Brabourns Objection p. 178. then seven dayes must pass without any one Sabbath it is already answered there is not the least necessity of that for as the Paschal supper was in use till the Gospel-supper was instituted so was the old Sabbath till the Lords days was consecrated by the Lords resurrection Hence the holy women are commended for keeping it Luk. 23.56 they were as one sayes commended for keeping the Jews Sabbath before Christs resurrection Note that but never were any commended for keeping it after his resurrection Hitherto therefore it appears what feeble unjoynted unsinnewed shadows of arguments this Author pleases himself and perverts the simple withall Neither Is there any strength in that which comes up in the rear Answ 4 that whoever should keep the old seventh day and the first day of the week at the change of the day he must keep two Sabbaths within the circuit of seven dayes What then as long as these two Sabbaths fell in two several weeks this brake no squares in the morality of the law for the Commandment is only for one day of seven in the circle of every week Levir 23.15 Deut. 16.9 Luk. 18.12 Hence the Sabbath being the boundary of weekly time is sometimes termed week intimating that as it was ever a seventh day Sabbath so also a weekly Sabbath one day in a week and but one in a week ordinarily And this rule was exactly kept in the change of the day for as there were two Sabbaths so two distinct weeks in which the forementioned proportion of six dayes for work and one for rest was punctually observed In a word the supposed disorder objected against the change of the day is but a dart flung against heaven a cavil raised against Christ and his blessed Apostles who were well enough able to answer it and so are we also building upon the foundation of the Prophets and Apostles Ephes 2.20 and Jesus Christ the chief corner-stone who when he was made the head of the corner did crown the Resurrection-day above all other dayes intimating as much by an illustrious Prophet Psalm 118.24 and expounding it by his inspired Apostles both in their doctrine Acts 4.11 and their practise Acts 20.7 so that the Lords day having Christ himself for its corner-stone Prophets and Apostles for its foundation we may look upon all objections of this nature as groundless and graceless cavillations which like proud waves dashing against the rock dissipate themselves with their own fury Mark 2.28 Sure we are that the Lord Jesus being Lord of the Sabbath had power to change it and in the change it was fit the Sabbath should waite upon him who was Lord of it not he upon it And if the order or constituted course of time received some small interruption for once by the change of the day yet it was no more then what had happened twice before viz. upon the standing still and going back of the Sun Joshu 10.13 Isai 38.8 far less events then the glorious shining forth of the Sun of righteousness after a three dayes eclipse in the chambers of death He has but one discharge more against the truth and then all his powder is spent to no purpose He charges our doctrine with a gross absurdity as thus Obj. 6 p. 116. That we render Gods reason of Janctifiing-the Sabbath in this wise for in six dayes the Lord made heaven and earth and rested the first day Wherefore the Lord blessed the first day for his Sabbath and sanctified it But we answer Answ this pretended absurdity is a meer calumny we are not so destitute of reason as to render Gods reason in such a mishapen form we only argue thus that we must sanctifie one day in seven because God did so As for the particular day whether first or last of seven we ground it not directly either upon the precept or example of God but we say it is instituted elsewhere And when we have found the institution or designation of the Lords day somewhere else as shortly we shall we only go to the Commandment as a rule for the observation of it and accordingly we urge conscience with Gods example not as directly pointing out the day for so it was never intended but as perswading us to such a proportion one day in seven of his own appointment And therefore we reject all his lame consequences That unless we will cast this absurdity upon God we must cast off the fourth Commandment at least the reason of it must be rejected c. These are his own coined suppositions our conclusions are nothing akin to these wild inferences as any man may see that has but half an eye in this controversie As for those popular passages up and down his book That if the day be changed more then a tittle of
the Law is abrogated I look upon them as words ' of course which in a Controversie weigh no more then a feather yea as beggerly fallacies for they all along begge the question taking that for granted which hath been soundly whipt with a denyal by sundry learned pens viz. that the seventh day from the Creation was ever an express tittle of the Commandment a seventh day in a week indeed is more then a tittle of the Law and this number is still continued in the observation of the Lords day all the Christian world over And I doubt not but it shall continue to the end of the world although the old day be changed as in the celebration of the Passeover the precise order of time was sometimes altered for whereas the fourteenth day of the first moneth was the time appointed at first Exod. 12.18 yet Hezekiahs great passeover was kept on the fourteenth day of the second moneth 2 Chron. 30.5 Where you see the precise individual day altered upon occasion yet the number the fourteenth day still observed See this illustration further cleared by Mr. G. Abbot p. 37. and Mr. Walker p. 49. So upon a greater and better occasion the Sabbath is altered as to the day yet the seventh day in number still kept intire in this as the fourteenth in the other And so the Sabbath now as well as the Passeover then for substance preserved notwithstanding the circumstantial and occasional change of the day And thus through the conduct of my gracious Guide leading me by Scripture light and the foot-steps of my dear companions in the cause of Christ I have safely passed the pikes of opposition and vindicated this royal law from the false glosses and erroneous discants of the adversary carrying this conclusion all along before me as a truth triumphing over all contradiction That the old seventh day was never propounded as the substance or special subject of any moral law I shall but touch upon the second 2. That it seems to be pointed at as a sign under the ceremonial law yea it does more then seem so if the text be impartially viewed Exod. 31. from v. 13. to v. 18. where we find a special charge imposed upon the Jews to observe the Sabbath and that upon sundry considerations 1. From the end of it Verily my Sabbath ye shall keep for it a sign between me and you V. 13. throughout your generations to know that I am Jehovah that sanctifieth you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for so the words run in the Hebrew And this is farther explicated v. V. 14. 14. ye shall keep the Sabbath therefore for it is holy or holiness to you thereby expounding what was meant by his sanctifying of them in the verse before 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As if the Lord had said the keeping of my Sabbaths shall be a distinctive badge and cognisance of your Covenant-holiness Sabbathum est signum quod Deus Israclem sanctificat ut Sabbathum sanctifionvit scil segregando eosex Gentibns profanls in peculiarem sibi popnlum Lavat in Exek Hom. 26. a sign that I do sanctifie you and separate you to my self above all the people of the earth for an holy and peculiar people for as the Lord is said to sanctifie the Sabbath so also to sanctifie Israel that is by separating it from all other dayes and them from all other nations to be holiness to himfelf And this is the first special reason why they should keep the Sabbath throughout their generations as a sign or mark of distinction to difference them from the rest of the profane world 2. From the perill of profaning it v. 14.15 Every one that defileth it shall surely be put to death for whosoever doth any work therein that soul shall be cut off from amongst his people c. A law shortly after executed in the letter of it by stoning to death one that gathered sticks on the Sabbath day Numb 15.36 which rigour for ought I can find to the contrary lasted no longer then the Israelites peregrination in the wilderness where as one sayes an extraordinary strict rest was imposed upon them because they were extraordinarily accommodated for it Being as the Saints in heaven are immediately at Gods finding having Mannah without means daily provided for them and hence it is said Numb 15.32 While the children of Israel were in the wilderness they found a man that gathered sticks on the Sabbath day and stoned him to death Note the Phrase while they wore in the wilderness not elsewhere for when they were out of the wilderness we never read of the like punishment inflicted It seems then that this strict kind of rest and rigour was restrained to that time and place only 3. Another argument to inforce their observation of the Sabbath is taken from the moral equity of it verse 15. Six dayes may work be done but the seventhis the Sabbath As if the Lord had said ye may well afford me one day in seven since I have given you six in seven And this again is reinforced by Gods example in the latter part of v. 17. For in six dayes the Lord made heaven and earth and rested the seventh day Now it concerns us to inquire in this context what was proper to the Jews and what common with them to us What is moral and perpetual what judicial or ceremonial and temporary For that morals and judicials are here mingled together none can deny and the difficulty will be how to sever the one from the other and to shew in what sense the Sabbath was made a sign what the significancy of it was and especially what kind of sign whether a permanent sign as the Rain bow or a transient sign as the cloudly pillar in the wilderness There are sundry sorts of signs spoken of in Scripture I shall onely instance in those that are of prime note and pertinency to resolve the case in hand 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Josh 4.6 7. So also the Passeover was and the Lords supper is a sign being both memorative Exod. 12.26 Mat. 26.26 1 Cor. 11.24 There are remembrancing signs as the twelve stones taken out of Jordan for every tribe one were set up as a sign to after-ages for a memorial to the childen of Israel that the waters of Jordan were cut off before the ark And such a kind of sign it is commonly thought the Sabbath was a memorial of the Creation But that it is so propounded or intended here cannot easily be proved since the Lord does not say I have given you my Sabbaths as a sign that I created the world but for a sign that I the Lord do sanctifie you And although it be added v. 17. It is a sign betwixt me and the Children of Israel for ever Ainach majoris distinctionis pausae est accentus Buxtorf Thes Gram. for in six dayes the Lord made heaven and earth c. Yet it
enough is said to shew the discharge of the old seventh day from obligation under the new Testament We shall only remove some of the Adversaries chief objections and then lay down our grounds for the Christian Sabbath He objects Obj. 1 The Fathers institution of the seventh day which makes it as perpetual as the Ordinance of marriage But This is fully answered in the first Position Answ where we have proved that the Fathers institution of the old seventh day was upon such grounds as exposed it to alteration Thither I referr the Reader and shall follow the objector to his next Argument From the Sons confirmation of the seventh day Obj. 2 Christ has confirmed it sayes he 1. T. T. p. 72. to p. 79. By his words 2. By his works By his words more generally among the rest of his royal Lawes which he hath ratified even to a point or Tittle Math. 5.18 Teaching his Apostles to do the like Rom 3. James 2.10 More particularly by proclaiming himself Lord of the Sabbath day Mark 2.28 As if he had said the Sabbath is mine I am Lord of it I made it for Man and having given him a precept and pattern to sanctifie it I shall not make my self a president to profane it Now that which Christ layes claim to as Lord must needs be confessed his Therefore do we celebrate the holy Supper because t is the Lords Supper Again Math. 24.20 He instructs his disciples to pray that their flight might not be on the Sabbath day namely forty years after his death at what time all Ceremonies were abolished by Apostolical proclamation And as thus he has owned the seventh day Sabbath by his words so he has also crowned it by his workt c. This is the main strength and force of his Argument But alas it is to feeble to fetch life into a dead Sabbath that has lain sixteen hundred years in the grave we shall discuss every particular in it and return several answers to it We grant indeed that the Lord our Lawgiver has ratified his royal Moral Law even to a point or a tittle Answ 1 inasmuch as he came to fulfil the Law not to dissolve and destroy it But how is every tittle to be taken Not strictly and graphically for every vowel point and prick of a letter in the Law but for the substance and least matter of it the least Commandment in it so our Saviour expounds himself Matth. 5.19 Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least Commandments and teach men so shall be least in the Kingdome of God teaching us that by jot or tittle of the Law verse 18. he meant the least Commandment of the Moral Law v. 19. Thus also St. James ch 2.10 He that shall offend in one point is guilty of all By one point he means any one precept or Commandment in the Decalogue He explains himself by the reason rendred verse 11. For he that said Do not commit adultery said also Do not kill As if he had said the same God that gave one Commandment gave all therefore when any one point or precept is violated the contempt reflects upon the whole Law the least sin being an affront to Gods soveraignty So then the sense of both places is the same the least point or precept of the Moral Law is in force under the Gospel and if the least much more the fourth Commandment which indeed is none of the least But what of all this The fourth Commandment is established by Christ therefore the seventh day in weekly succession from the Creation the Consequence is infirm For that day was never directly stated in the Commandment the fourth Commmandement sayes not Thou shalt keep holy the last day of the week and not the first but a seventh day Sabbath or one in seven the old seventh day may be and is repealed and yet the Commandement ratyfied to a tittle in the matter yea in the very letter of it evangelically considered to wit as it is explained by Christ according to the will of God though not the carnal reasonings of men But of this formerly That Text Mark 2.28 rightly interpreted makes nothing for the old Sabbath but much against it For these words The Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath day do speak Christs power to alter and change it not his purpose to establish confirm it under the Gospel 't is a title much like that Math. 21. where he stiles himself Lord of the vineyard as having power to let and lease it out to other Husbandmen Mark 12.9 Dominus rectè dicitur alicujus rei qui in illam jua potestatem habet extollendi immutandi Aretius in Luc. 6. Christ was Lord of the Sabbath that is had power to change the day Engl. Annot. in Mar. 2. Luke 20.15.16 And thus he was Lord of the Sabbath having authority to alter and adjourn it to another day the Sabbath was the vineyards Land-mark or the Churches distinctive limit he that had power to transplant the vineyard had no less power to transpose the Sabbath He was Lord of the vineyard and Lord of the Sabbath in a like notion Suppose it spake as the objector speaks I am Lord of the Sabbath the Sabbath is mine yet still the same sense recurres is it not lawful for me to do what I will with my own As our Lord speaks in another case Math. 20.15 The Temple was his as well as the Sabbath Mal. 3.1 and styled his a Ps 132.14 rest forever and his b Isai 56.7 house of prayer for all people more then I remember was ever said of the seventh day Sabbath yet the Temple is destroyed and as Christ never meant to tye up his Gospel worshippers to that typical place of worship so neither to that typical time of worship He was Lord of both while they lasted that he might dissolve both when their season was expired that he might legally and ex officio give his people a discharge from both As for the Authors crafty collation of these two expressions Lord of the Sabbath day and Lords Supper whereby he would insinuate the equall authority and perpetuity of that Legal Sabbath with this Evangelical Sacrament it savours of more sophistry then solidity of Argumentation let the unlearned know that as the terms are different in the Greek so the phrase in our English Dialect imports different things 't is one thing to call Christ Lord of this or that another thing to say t is the Lords to say he was Lord of the Sabbath and that before his death is nothing so much as to to say this is the Lords Supper and that after his resurrection The former imports the office or authority of Christ the latter implyes his Ordinance And let the objector know that this Epithet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is never used but twice in the new Testament namely for the Lords Supper the Lords day Rev. 1.10 The Holy Ghost
volo comparare Dominicam nostram cum Sabbato Judaeorum Ex divinis namque apparet Scripturis quod in die Dominica primo in terris datum est Manna Sienim ut Scriptura dicit sex diebus continuis collectum est septima autem die quae est Sabbati cessatum est sine dubid initium ejus a die prima quae est dies Dominica fuit quod si ex divinis Scripturis boc constat quod Die Dominica Deus pluit Manna de Coelo in Sabbato non pluit intelligant Judaei jam tunc praelatam esse Dominicam nostram Judaico Sabbato c. I demand saies he when the Manna began to fall from heaven and it is apparent from the Holy scriptures that Manna was first given upon the Lord's day For if as the Scripture says they gathered it six days together and ceased the seventh being the Sabbath day without controversie it began to fall on the first day which is is the Lord's day which being manifest from the Divine Scriptures that upon the Lords day God rained Manna from Heaven and upon the Sabbath none let the Jews understand that even then our Lords day was preferred before the Jewish Sabbath And presently after he adds Vpon our Lords day the Lord always rains Manna from heaven and what he means by Manna he tells them Viz. The heavenly Oracles the Word read and preacht to the people Where note First That he calls the seventh day the Jews Sabbath In nostra enim Dominica die semper pluit Domnius Manua de coelo Caelestia namque sunt eloquia ista c. Orlg. in Exod. 16. Hom. 7. not the the Christians Sabbath Secondly He titles the first day of the week the Lords day and our Lords day Thirdly he testifies that on this day the Church in his time had always Manna from Heaven in the publike Ministry of the Word and all this in opposition to the Jews Sabbath which what else can it signifie but the change of the day I might also allege that 23. Homily upon Humbers where this Antient Father calls the Lords day our Christian Sabbath and that in a literal sense as being a day of rest or cessation ab omnibus secularibus operibus from all secular works 6. Cyptian Hier. Cat. log Nam quia octavus dies i. e. post Sabbatum primus dies futurus erat quo Dominus resurgeret nos vivificaret spiritualem nobis daret circumcisionem hic dies octavus i.e. post Sabbatum primus Dominicus praecessit in imagine Câ—pr ep 59. ad Fid. which could not be meant of an every days Sabbath But I pass on to the next Witness namely Cyprian who flourished about the year of Christ 250 or 54. and received the crown of Martyrdom under Valerianus His words to our purpose are these For because the eighth day that is the first after the Sabbath was to be the day in which the Lord should arise and quicken us and give us the spiritual Circumcision this eighth day that is the first after the Sabbath and the Lords day went before in the shadow c. Where observe That he calls the first day of the week the Lords day and that in reference to Christ's resurrection secretly hinting the change of the day prefigured by Circumcision which was tied to the eighth day upon which the Infant being circumcised was accounted as a new creature as if it were risen again from death to life and this did typifie our first Resurrection from the death of sin to the life of grace by virtue of Christ's Refurrection whose resurrection-Resurrection-day is called the eighth day John 20.26 Justin Martyr also insists upon this in his Dialogue with Trypho and it was the judgment of the Fathers generally that the change of the Sabbath was lapped up in that Sacrament of Circumcision About the year of our Lord 326. Anhanasius shone like a star in the eastern Church And his Testimony is clear as the light p 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Homil de Sement ad init Of old saies he the Sabbath was in great esteem among the anients but the Lord hath changed the Sabbath-day into the Lord's day The Lord himself did it sayes Athanasius And again Not we by our authority haue slighted the old Sabbath but in regard it did belong to the Pedagogy of the Law when Christ the great master came in place it became useless 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the candle is put out when the Sun shines What can be more plain T is true he seems to intimate that they did then occasionally meet upon the Jewes Sabbath but he gives a good account of it q 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Not saies he as if we were infected with Judaism but therefore we meet upon the Sabbath that we may worship the Lord of the Sabbath not out of any religious respect to that false Sabbath as he calls it but meerly in Devotion to Christ whereas on the contrary they celebrated the Lord's day with an honourable esteem of the day as it followes r 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ibid. p. 839. Therefore we honony the Lord's day because of the Lord's Resurrection Thus far famous Athanasius whose next neighbour was Hilary a French divine who livedi n the year 355. Hilarius 8. and left a most memorable record behind him of the Church's practice in his time r Nos ectava die quae ipsa prima est per fecti Sabbati festivi tate laetamur plolog in Isalm explan p. 335. Vpon the eighth day saith he which also is the first day we rejoyce in the Festivity of a perfect Sabbath Where we have enough to answer the imputation of Novelty for calling the Lord's day Sabbath however it was called it seem it was kept as a Sabbath in Hilarie's time yea long before t is true he calls it the 8th day also though it have a weekly return in the number of seven because counting on beyond the Jewish tale of weekly dayes comming next after their seventh it made the eighth See Mr. Ley. Sunday a Sabbath About the year 374. Ambrose 9 Ambrose was Bishop of Millain and he also ha's set his hand and seal to this sacred truth in sundry of his writings in his commentary upon the Colossians Or 377. acord to Chytraeus Chronol he expounds Ch. 2.17 Of the weekly Sabbath of the Jewes and paralels that place with Math. 12. The Son of man is Lord of the Sabbath day And indeed the change of the Sabbath does most powerfully preach Christ's Lordship and dominion over it Again to shew the high esteem that he and other Saints in his time had of the Lords day he Rhetoricates thus upon it Å¿ Dominica nobis ideo venerabilis atque solennis quia in co Salvator velut Sol exoriens discussis infernorum tenebris luce Resurrectionis emicuit de rat Fest Pent. Tom. 5. To us the Lords day is therefore venerable and solemn because thereon our Saviour as the rising Sun having dispellea the darkness of death shone
man that as the Christian religion was professed so the Christian Sabbath was practised when there was no Christian Magistrate in the world and that all the Christian world over long before Constantines time Which one would think were enough to put to silence lying lips O Obj. 3 but Merator and Dr. Hen in tell us that in the Aethiopick Churches both dayes are still observed True Answ but they tell us also Dr. Heylin I am sure does that both dayes are observed as Sabbaths and accordingly called For they call the Saturday the Jewes Sabbath and the Lords day the Christian Sabbath so that what ever their practice be 'T is none of their pinciples that the Saturday-Sabbath is the Christian Sabbath And as for their practice 't is little to be regarded considering their corruption For together with the Saturday-Sabbath they observe * Mr. Breerwoods inquiries circumcision too on the eighth day with many other Jewish and Anti-Christian customes Blessed be God for that better light which shines in the Churches of Europe The testimonies taken out of Socrates do only prove that in his time namely 400 years after Christ some Churches did meet together and break bread on the old Sabbath Which we deny not only we say that the Lords day had stil the preheminence and that in four things as learned Dr. Young ha's observed 1. That the Saturday-Sabbath was never the day of solemn assemblies in all Churches for the constom of holding assemblies on that day never obtained in the Churches of Rome and Alexandria as Sozomon testifies lib. 7. c. 19. Whereas all Churches had their Church-meetings on the Lords day not one excepted 2. The Saturday or old Sabbath was never kept as a solemn Festival for in many Churches it was a weekly Fasting-day and once a year in all Churches namely Easter-Eve Constit lib. 7. c. 24. and lib. 5. c. 15. being the day of Christs greatest abasement while he lay in the grave and under the sorrowes of death whereas every Lords day throughout the year was held a solemn Festival Constit lib. 7. c. 31. 3. All Ordinances were never administred with that uniformity on the old Sabbath as on the Lords day August ep 118. Socrates lib 5. c. 22. as the Ordinance of the Lords Supper which in the purest Churches was appropriate to the Lords day which was therefore called the day of bread as we noted before Athan. Apol. 2. Hence that memorable passage of Athanasius who being accused for Breaking a Communion-cup clears himself thus That time instanced by his accusers was no Communion-time for it was not the Lords day 4. Their conventions on the old Sabbath were ever arbitrary not urged as of necessity unless by Ebion and his followers who were therefore condemned as Hereticks But the observation of the Lords day was ever held a Christian duty and never were any stigmatized with that black brand of Heresie for observing of it nay it was the badge of Christianity I am a Christian I dare not intermit it to all these I may add 5. The old Sabbath was never the Christian Sabbath or day of rest but a working-day So in Ignatius's time Anno 314. he counselled Christians to work upon it and the Council of Laodicea made a decree to this purpose That Christians ought not to Judaize and to rest from work on the Sabbath-day but to prefer the Lords day before it and to rest thereon from labour In which words as Mr. Cawdrey well observes this Synod did but expound the sentence of of holy Ignatius I might instance also the Council at Eliberis Carthage Arragon Mascon Chalons and other both Fathers Councills and Christian Emperours but others have prevented me in this kind of Antiquity So much for the fourth Position POSITION V. That the Lords day or first day of the week commonly called Sunday is the Christian Sabbath or day of holy rest THis does naturally result from the premises For the day being changed and yet the law concerning the Sabbath continued and established the new day must needs be a day of rest as it rests on the authority and morality of the fourth Commandment and as it succeeds the old day in Sabbath-solemnity Yet it is not so much the name as the thing that I contend for For although I am fully convinced that as our spirituall exercises are called Sacrifices because they succeed in the place of the Jewes Sacrifices so and much more significantly may our Lords day be termed Sabbath because it * Succeeds I mean not in any ceremonious respect but in relation to the fourth Commandment succeeds in the place of the Jewes Sabbath yet I had rather insist upon the thing than the name because the one being proved the other cannot well be denyed No rational man will stick at nominal respect where there is a real right to it A name of rest will be easily granted due to a day of rest now that the Lords day is without dispute a day of rest appears thus Cum de re constat propier quam vorba dicuntur de verbis non debore contendi c. August cont Acad. l. 3. c. 13. First As it is the day of our Redeemers rest from his painful work of Redemption his rising from the dead was his resting from his work By his Resurrection this day he entred into his rest for hereby as was said before he entred into his glory which will further appear by comparing two texts together viz. John 7.39 with John 20.22 The first tells us That the spirit was not yet given because Jesus was not yet glorified therefore when the Spirit was given surely then Christ was glorified Now the other Text informs us That upon the day of Christs Resurrection the Spirit was given For he breathed on them and said Receive the Holy Ghost Now therefore undoubtedly the Lord of glory was crowned with glory not that he entred into the place of rest and glory upon the day of his Resurrection but into the state of rest and glory the place is but accidental to the state that which I modestly propounded to further inquiry page 128. Namely Whether Christ did not locally ascend into Heaven on the very day of his Resurrection has been since concluded and resolved in the Negative by a Reverend Brother from that Text of Scripture Hebr. 9 12. by his own blood he entred once into the Holy place Which seems to a gue strongly that our blessed High Priest entred once and but once into Heaven To which I do now freely subscribe Errare possum Haereticus esse nolo Secondly The Lords day is a day of Religious Assemblies for solemn weekly worship therefore also a day of religious rest from civil and secular imployments Since 't is impossible for men to meet together about solemn Worship and at the same time to follow their worldly occasions observed as Sabbaths as the Feast of unleavened bread * Deut.
16.8 On the seventh day shall be a solemn Assembly to the Lord thy God thou sahlt do not work therein And as the seventh or last so also the first day of that Feast was to be a day of rest because a day of Convocation On the first day shall be a holy convocation ye shall do no servile work therein saith the Lord. Numb 28.17 18. Now that first day of unleavened bread being a memorial of their Redemption from Egypt was typical of our Christian Sabbath as was noted before And besides there being a moral equity in Gods argument that a day of holy Worship and holy Convocations must be a day of rest it is as applicable to the Lords day as ever it was to any day for we have abundantly proved that this is a holy Convocation-day and 't is a good note that of Mr. Ainsworth on Deut. 16.8 That the Hebrew word Gnat-sereth which we translate solemn Assemblies does also signifie restraint from labour whereby the Holy Ghost would teach us that Holi days set apart for solemn assemblies must be days of holy rest and restraint from work Such is the Lords day to us Christians and no other day but that a day of solemn Assembly it is and has bin from the Apostles days till now yea a day of solemn Worship therfore a day of rest or Sabbath day yea a day of solemn weekly worship therefore the undoubted Sabbath of the fourth Commandment which is the standing rule for a day of weekly worship and but a day ordinarily for the Commandment numbers out six days in the week for worldly business As when a man makes two Wils the last does ipso facto make void the first although there be no express clause to signifie the repeal or revocation and one for religious exercises neither more nor lesse So that supposing there were no repeal of the last day of the week yet the first day being instituted by Divine Authority makes void the last and takes possession of its place by the warrant of the Divine Precept it self Again as the Ministry and the Sacraments appointed by Christ are used by virtue of the second Commandment so the day appointed by Christ must be observed by virtue of the fourth Commandment because this is the general scope both of the second and fourth Commandment that we must observe all the Institutions of God from time to time I might argue further from that prophetical speech of our Saviour Matth. 24.20 where he presignifies to his Disciples that there should be a Sabbath in force long after his death at such time as the old seventh-day-seventh-day-Sabbath was either quite out of doors or out of date at least therefore he spake of the Christian Sabbath which we are obliged both by Law and Gospel to observe The Ancients indeed do seldom apply the title of Sabbath to the Lords day yet sometimes they do They were but too jealous of Judaizing in this particular Orat. in Christi Resurrect Ex illo Sabbato praesens hoc Sabbatum agnosce c. Sic quâ— que ritè sanctificamus Sabbatum Domini Dicente Domino omne â—pus c. Tract de tempore 152. Gregory Nyssen is express for having spoken of the old Sabbath he presently adds from that Sabbath acknowledge thou this present Sabbath the Lords day this day of rest which God hath blessed above other days For in this the only begotten Son of God did truly rest from all his works So also Austin or he that writ the Book De tempore having pleaded the due celebration of the Lords day he concludes with respect to the fourth Commandment concerning the Sabbath so do we rightly sanctifie the Sabbath of the Lord as the Lord hath said In it thou shalt do no work Hence that Royal Edict of Charles the Great published in the year 789. We ordain says he according as it is commanded in the Law of God that no man do servile work on the Lords day To which may be added the decree of King Edgar expresly stiling the Lords day the Sabbath day Diem Sabbati ab ipsa Die Saturni hora pomeridiara tertia usque in Lunaris diei dilaculum festum agitari taking order that the Sabbath should be celebrated from Saturday three a clock in the afternoon till Munday morning at break of day and this was in the year of Christ 959. seven hundred years ago better Antiquity than any can be produced or so much as pretended against this appellation If it be objected That this was in times of Popery I answer That even since the Reformation the Lords day hath been frequently called by the name Sabbath Those precious but persecuted Saints To all these might be added the Church of England Can. 70. So Hom. of time and place of prayer the Waldenses in a Catechism of theirs teach their children to call it by this name And the holy Martyr Bp Hooper in his treatise on the ten Commandements uses the same Dialect some scores more might be reckoned if need were But leaving these Authors I return to the Objector who sets all his wits a work to prove the Lords day a working day most sinfully and shamefully abusing the Scriptures to this purpose I am loth to stain my Paper with his profane Sophisms yet lest his ignorant and erroneous Proselites should take them for unanswerable Arguments I shall briefly sum up all into one Objection and return several answers to it Object T.T. p. 14. of his Pamphlet In stead of that honour put upon the first day of the week First The Father wrought upon it Gen. 1. and therefore we should be his followers as dear children Ephes 5.1 Secondly The son travelled upon it Luke 24.13 15. And he hath given us an example that we should do as he hath done John 13.15 Thirdly The Saints cast their accounts upon it 1 Cor. 16.2 And so may we Thus he quotes Scripture to as good purpose as that Arch Sophister did Matth. 4 But we shall answer him soberly though he deserve it not Answ 1. That which was the Fathers working-day at the Worlds Creation was the Sons Rest day from the work of Redemption and we must not be sollowers of God in contradiction to Christ or oppose the works of God against the Word of God lest in stead of followers as dear children we be found fighters against him as desperate enemies the first day of the week was a common day when it was made at first Gen. 1. but since it is made again and made a solemn day a day of holy worship Psal 118.24 therefore no working day now but to such as have no God to worship or no hearts to worship him God the Father wrought upon the first day of the week yet Israel must not work on this day once a year at least Viz. on the day of unleavened bread as often as it fell on this day Numb 23.18 why because it was a day
And here I cannot but note how emphatically the truth answers the type w Deut. 5.15 c. 6.21 9.26 Exod. 24.8 ch 15.1 21. for look as Israel was redeemed from Egypt with a mighty hand not as captives but as conquerours with the ruine and spoll of their enemies so were the elect redeemed by Christ not barely in a way of ransome by the price of his blood but in a way of rescue and conquest by the hand of his power as in the day of his triumphant resurrection concerning which the Prophet seems to speak x Isai 53.13 I will divide him a portion with the great and he shall divide the spoile with the strong because he hath poured out his soul unto death Thus in substance there is an admirable similitude betwixt the type and the Antitype yea the very circumstance of time is considerable for upon search into Scripture I believe it will be found that their deliverance out of Egypt was on the first day of the week in memorial whereof they kept the feast of unleavened bread y Exod. 15.3 4 5. with because they came forth with their z Exod. 12.6 unleavened lumps being thrust out in hast that it was upon the first day of the week appears from the twelfth chap. where the Passeover is fixed upon the a Exod. 12.6 fourteenth day of the moneth then it was first instituted and celebrated now the fourteenth day of the moneth must needs be the second Sabbath of the moneth even of the moneth Abib answering to our March which was here made the beginning of moneths or the first moneth in the year From the Creation of the world till now they began their year with the moneth Tisri or September See Dr. Lightfoots gleanings on Exod. p. 20. but here upon a work greater in figure as representing our Redemption by Christ about the same time of the year the beginning of their year is changed to Abib and the Passeover being killed the fourteenth day at even the midnight following the first born of Egypt were slain But yet still Israel is in Egypt only their longs girt V. 11. and shoones on their feet ready to depart and see how it followes The Egyptians being dreadfully alarum'd by the death of the first-born resolve to be troubled no longer with such fatal Guests and therefore in a great hurry they pack them away intreat and importune them to be gone Pharaoh did not more force them to stay before then now to depart But Israel must not go empty-handed they must be well paid for their hard service some time must be spent in borrowing the Egyptians Jewels by that time they were furnished for their journey we may suppose it was well towards the morning and now all the Armies of the Lord march out of Egypt in the b Levit. 26.4 5. sight of all the Egyptians this was on the c Numb 33.3 fifteenth day of the first moneth the morrow after the Passeover and the fourteenth dcay being the Sabbath this must needs be the first day of the week which was afterwards kept as a solemn Festival and called the d Levit. 23.6 7. Numb 28.17 Deut. 16.3 feast of unleavened bread in which they were to have a holy convocation and to do no work To this the Apostle plainly alludes e 1 Cor. 5.7 8. Christ our Passeover was sacrificed for us wherefore let us keep the feast he points at the feast of unleavened bread Paul was an excellent Critick he understood these sacred mysteries he knew Christs Passion and humiliation was our Passeover which lasted as long as he lay in the grave being under the pains t Acts 2.24 or sorrowes of death and the day of his resurrection answering to the first day of unleavened bread which originally was on the first day of the week here upon he concludes let us keep the feast I will not say here is a precept for the Christian Sabbath but drawing aside the veile from Moses face this I may safely say here is a proof of it and a plain argument for it for Israels Redemption from Egypt and our Redemption from death and hell being both on the first day of the week completed and the former of these in the type being alledged as the reason of the fourth Commandment with a total omission of the Argument drawn from the creation Deut. 5.15 and that in the repetition or second promulgation of the Law seems to speak plainly what I alledg it for that the accomplishment of that type states the Sabbath on the day of Christs resurrection which all the four Evangelists tell us as the first day of the week But 2. Let us passe on to the promissory part of the Covenant and see if some change be not made there also and whether the change of the Sabbath be not necessitated by it I shall only instancei n that fundamental and complexive promise of Christ who was indeed the sum and substance of all the rest for f 2 Cor. 1.20 in him they are all Yea and in him Amen And therefore we must with g Bphes 2.12 Una fuit promissio sed saepius sancita Beza in Loc. promise in the singular number when mention is made of Covenants in the plural to intimate that all the periods and promises of the old Covenant did concenter and meet together in that grand promise of the Messiah He was both the h Gen. 3.15 seed of the Woman the i Gen. 22.18 seed of Abraham the seed k Psalm 122.10 11 12. of David the seed of Mary or son of the l Isai 7.14 Virgin and to say the truth all these after-promises were but as so many Commentaries upon that first promise The seed of the woman shall bruise the Serpents head Now as long as Christ was tendred in that old promise the old Covenant was still in force The old Covenant was a Covenant of promise the new Covenant is Covenant performance and together with it the old Sabbath in ue But the promise being once performed Christ fully exhibited and a new Covenant established the old as to the expressure of it was instantly changed Hebr. 8.13 and together with it the old Sabbath which had neither birth before nor being after it unless for a season in condescention to the infirmity of the Jewes whose weak eyes could not indure the bright Sun shine of the Gospel all at once Now if it be demanded when and where we shall state the accomplishment of that old Covenant and the establishment of the new I answer both upon te resurrection of Jesus Christ the first day of the week For First Then and thereby was the grand Covenant-promise performed As the Apostle assures us in that forementioned Text m Act. 13.32 33 We declare unto you glad tidings how that the promise which was made to our fathers God hath fulfilled the same to us their children
ch 37.25 David who dyed many hundred years before Christ cannot be the same David who is promised to be a Prince amongst Christians So here the day or rest of which David speaks being to come and not then entred into could not be the rest of the old seventh day since that was entred into long before even from the foundation of the world This is the true and genuine sense of those words although and again Although is a discretive term * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or a note of distinction importing thus much that albeit there is mention made of a day of rest in the beginning of the world yet it is as another distinct day and rest that is here intended So also this Adverb again is to be taken of another rest-day then that which is mentioned in the former verse for although the old seveuth day were spoken of by Moses as the first and most famons rest in the beginning yet now again so many thousand years after that David speaks of another rest if not another rest-day and if any Sabbath or day of rest be here intended either by David or Paul it will certainly prove fatal to the old Sabbath for I would humbly propose this quere to the consideration of the learned Whether the Psalmists intimation that there should be a day of solemn worship under the Gospel and the Apostles assumption that it could not be meant of the old seventh day will not amount to this conclusion that the old seventh-day-Sabbath is to be no day of rest or solemn worship under the Gospel If T.T. quarrel at this conclusion let him thank himself for the premises one of them at least for he grants a moral rest or Sabbath to be here meant and I will thank the Holy-Ghost and S. Paul for the other for they have assured me that the seventh day from the Creation could not be meant by David no nor Secondly The rest of Canaan neither in the sense above mentioned for although that be sometimes termed the * Deut. 12.9 Josh 1.15 rest which God gave Israel under the conduct of Jesus or Joshua yet sayes the Apostle v. 8. If Jesus had given them rest that is if he had given them the rest of which David here speaks then would he not afterward have spoken of another day where note by the way t is a day of rest which the Psalmist seems to scope at else why should the Apostle thus interweave the one with the other If Joshuah or Jesus had given them rest then would he not afterwards have spoken of another day Note again the same Argument is here used against the supposed place of rest that was urged before against their conceived time of rest the old seventh day both these were entred into long before Davids time whereas he spake by the spirit of prophecy concerning things to come a long time after and hereupon the Apostle concludes There remaineth therefore a rest or the keeping of a Sabbath to the people of God distinct and different from the old Sabbath yet not much unlike it in respect of the ground of it for he that hath entred into his rest hath ceased from his works as God did from his own works And this is spoken only of Christ sayes T.T. Be it so then I hope our proposition will not offend him that when our blessed Lord Jesus ended his work and entred into his rest he laid the foundation of a new Sabbath on that day of his rest only t is like this word new Sabbath will stick in his stomach yet it needs not for we cannot put the old Sabbath into the Apostles conclusion because he himself puts it out of the premises But we shall not wrangle about words by new Sabbath I mean only a new Sabbath-day and for peace-sake I am content the proposition should pass in these terms The day on which Christ ended his works and entred into his rest must be our Christian Sabbath day The assumption followes Secondly That Christ ended his work and entred into his rest by his resurrection from the dead on the first day of the week for proof whereof we may proceed upon another of the Adversaries Principles for thus he argue Christs entring into his rest on the seventh day T.T. p. 144 145. Our dear Redeemers soul was no sooner separated from his body but his better part immediately entred into glory and soon after his blessed body was laid to rest in the grave Where although I cannot but mind him of his gross mistake about the cricumstance of time for t is evident that as our blessed Redeemers soul entred into Paradise on the sixth day the same day that he dyed witness his words to the dying theef this day thou shalt be with me in Paradise so also his sacred body was interr'd the same day even a Mark 16.42 Luke 23.53 54. the day before the Sabbath not on the seventh day as this sophister would make silly people believ e yet I shall take him at his word in the main of his argument namely that when our Saviour entred into his glory he entred into his rest But I assume By his resurrection from the dead on the first day of the week our Lord entred into his glory and for this I have his own word more then once or twice in the 24 of Luke he overtakes the two Disciples going to Emmaus and as they were talking together with sad hearts about the sufferings and the death of Christ and also relating what they had heard but could hardly believe concerning his resurrection he takes them up with a sharp rebuke b Luke 24.25 26. O fools and slow of heart to believe all that the Prophets have spoken Ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into his glory to enter into his glory you will say that is to be understood of his ascention into Heaven nay verily he spake it of his resurrection from the dead where their chief doubt lay and so himself expounds it for the same day at night he appears to the rest of his Disciples and these among them preaching the same Doctrine and saying c V. 46. Thus it is written and thus it behoved Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day this was that he had so often inculcated before his death d Math. 16.21 ch 17. 23. Mark 9.31 ch 10. 34. Luke 9.22 ch 18. 31 32 33. That he must go up to Jerusalem and suffer and die that all things which were written in the prophets concerning him should be accomplished that he should be delivered up to the gentiles that they should crucifie and kill him and that the third day he should rise again according to the Scriptures so that what one Text speaks of his suffering and entring into glory others interpret of his dying and rising again the third day and that Christ by his resurrection entred into his glory
never vouchsafed to honour the Saturday Sabbath with this Evangelical title But of that in convenient time and place we are now discussing Mark 2. where Christ while the old seventh day was in force professes himself Lord of it which plainly intimated his Lordship Dominion and soveraignty over it that he had authority to displace it and dispose of it as himself thought good the Coherence carries it clearly this way The disciples through the Pharisaical carping and misprision of their adversaries were condemned for Sabbath-breaking because they had pluck'd a few eares of corne and dressed them for their dinner on the Sabbath day which was a work of mercy and pure necessity hunger and emptiness constraining them to it and so no breach of the Sabbath Hospin de orig Fest cap. de Sab. But the malicious Pharisees whose traditions had taught them that to crop an herb to pill an onyon to rost an apple to kill a flea Metens vel tantillum reus est vellere spicas est species Messionis Maim Ichabb vide Lightf Horae Hebraic in Math. 12. much more to pluck ears of corn and rub them in their hand which they look'd upon as a kind of reaping threshing were unlawfull and sinful actions on the Sabbath day presently take occasion to condemn the disciples for Sabbath-violation Well our Saviour justifies his disciples and wipes off the charge of their accusers by this argument ver 27. The Sabbath was made for man that is miserable fallen man not man for the Sabbath Therefore the Son of man the Messiah is also Lord of the Sabbath day as if he had said Cùm post lapsum institutum fuit Sabbaturn lege conditione quae Christum jam promissum hominisque lapsum respexerit non potuit Sabbatum non sub potestate domini filii hominis id est seminis promiss◠subjici ab co ordinandum disponendum prout ip si visum ac provisum fuerit Idm. Ibid. 't is your error to think that all workes of mercy and necessity are unlawfull on the Sabbath day for the Sabbath was made and instituted at first for man subject to necessity and misery namely by such a law as related to the fall of man and the promise of the Messiah therefore the Son of man is also Lord of the Sabbath day That is it falls under my dominion and disposal as the Son of man The phrase is observable he sayes not The Son of David but The Son of man the Mediator pointed out in the promise made to Adam the first man even he is Lord of the Sabbath day or has dominion over it being at first the foundation of it This is the most probable interpretation if we take the Son of man here for Christ But very many Learned Writers take it for man or mankind in general as it is sometimes used Filliue hominis i.e. homo Zanch in praec 4. Psal 8.5 Isai 65.2 And then the meaning may be this that in case of urgent and pungent necessity as extreme hunger perill of life health or the like every or any son of man is Lord of the Sabbath day having liberty to dress or prepare food to take physick to refresh and repaire nature Filliue hominis tam de Christo quà m de quovis Christiuno homine intelligi potest Gualter in Loc. item Ravanel in verb. dominus necessity as we use to say knowes no law that is no positive Law provided it be not a necessity contracted by idleness or improvidence This is the exposition of some very learned and godly and it seemes to suit well with the case of the disciples as also the context v. 27. The Sabbath was made for man not man for the Sabbath Therefore viz. in case of pure necessity the Son of man or mankind is Lord of the Sabbath day Take it in which sense we will it makes nothing for the Saturday Sabbath The objectors notion is altogether incoherent both with the sense of the Text and scope of the context but to proceed Touching that Text Math. 24.20 Ans 3 Pray that your flight be not in the Winter nor on the Sabbath day I have two things to answer 1. By way of supposition supposing it were meant of the Jewes Sabbath it would signifie no more but this that it would be superstitiously kept among the unbeleeving Jewes forty yeares after our Saviours death as it is to this day and therefore pray that your flight may not be either in the winter when it will be doleful dirty or on the Sabbath when it will be dangerous travelling through the coasts of Judea and bring you into peril of persecution by your own countrey-men which was one of Pauls perils 2 Cor. 11.26 For although by that time the disciples were sufficiently instructed in their Christian liberty that their flight was as lawfull on that day as another and therefore they could not flye with scruple of conscience yet the superstitious Jewes to whom such flight might be offensive in all reason would Shimei-like barke at such harmless passengers if not bite and snap them And whereas it is objected T.T. p. 78. That it cannot be rationally conceived that the Jewes instead of securing themselves should trifle away their time in persecuting the Christians This objection is answered by himself in the very next words almost For sayes he the Jewes were so superstitious that they durst not fight for their life Then I may well inferre that t is most likely they were also so zealous that they would persecute any who should flye for their life if they themselves would rather dye then flye or fight for their lives as he suggests much more would they hinder the flight of others So that if the old Sabbath were intended by our Saviour it was rather with a note of dislike then approbation as foreseeing that through the superstition of the Jewes it would be an occasion of persecution to his servants as it had often been to himself Supposing I say for I grant it not that the Jewes Sabbath was here meant it must be construed in such a sense namely that they are counselled to deprecate their flight on that day for the better avoiding of bodily calamities for in reference to that day we cannot so much as suppose any soule distress incident to the disciples by reason of such flight we cannot conceive how they should be straightned in conscience out of any religious respect to that day at the siege or sacking of Jerusalem since the adversary himself confesses That all ceremonies were then abolished by Apostolical proclamation For which he cites Colos 2.16 17. Which Text does irrefragably prove the repeale of the old Sabbath as was said before And thus he is caught in his own trap But 2. By way of affirmation I assert That these words of our blessed Saviour pray that your flight be not on the Sabbath are to be understood of our Christian Sabbath
the first day of the week not directly indeed but by very good consequence as Mr. Cawdrey and Mr. Byfield do convincingly argue it For sayes the one our Saviour does here speak of a Sabbath indefinitely and a Sabbath to be observed long after his death even at the destruction of Jerusalem and this was spoken to his disciples apart from the multitude sayes the other v. 3. and the period of time here pointed at was forty years after his death when the Jewish Sabbath was gone and the Gospel sufficiently published whereby the ceremonial Law was evacuated and become not only dead but deadly Not that the old Law of a Sabbath the fourth Commandment was then out of force but the Law of the old Sabbath And then the conclusion is this Christ shewes a Sabbath to continue and a religious respect due to a Sabbath still after his death yet not the Jewes Sabbath therefore he intended the Christian Sabbath to be observed according to the fourth Commandment As for the Jewes Sabbath t is certain that it was void at this point of time yea long before this forewarned flight the Apostles and Christians had their assemblies apart from the other Jewes and kept the Lords day the first day of the week as on the Great day of Pentecost Acts 2. and at Troas Acts 20.7 And although sometimes the Apostles did preach on the seventh day yet as Mr. C. notes it was only before the time mentioned Acts 20 never after and only in other Cities abroad not at Jerusalem for there we never read a word of the Sabbath in all the story of the Acts. I conclude therefore with that reverend Author that no reason can be given why our Saviour in this prophetical caution should regard the Jewish Sabbath but altogether the contrary in regard the Christians inhabiting in Jerusalem and the Coasts about Judea preferred the Lords day before it and it would be grievous to gracious hearts to have their holy rest interrupted with the noise of warlike tumults and the hurry of a tumultuous flight well might the disciples be taught to pray Lord when ever we be driven from the place of our Residence let it not be on a day of holy rest for that would be as uncomfortable to our souls as a winters flight would be cumbersome to our bodies Not that it would be sinful or unlawful when life lay at stake to flye on the Sabbath for to save a mans life is a Sabbath-dayes duty and a matter of far greater moment then to leade a beast to the water or pull an oxe out of a pit both which are allowable it may therefore be scored down among the rest of T. T 's errors and oversights that he makes it a sin to flye on the Sabbath day when peril of life puts a man upon it for hâ— terms it a dishonor to God and prophaning his sacred season p. 77. and yet he sayes in the next page That had their flight bin on the Sabbath as long as they carried nothing they could not be counted Transgressors Which may pass for another of his contradictions But for a closure to this answer we have deliberately weighed our Saviours words and sayings concerning the Sabbath but cannot find that ever he spake one word or one syllable in countenance of the old seventh day as the Sabbath of Christians his words prove no such thing And lastly Whereas his workes are pleaded as the crown of that day Answ 4 I am content if the author think good to venture the whole weight of the cause in this bottom That day which Christ has crowned with his greatest wonders is to be most highly esteemed among Christians 'T is his own grant p. 78. and 't is a truth now let him have but a little patience and we shall prove by undeniable Arguments that in this respect the first day of the week carries away the Crown from all other dayes old Sabbath and all If Christs resurrection his often apparitions the mission of his Spirit the inspiration of his Apostles the conversion of three thousand souls ot once be worthy the name of wonders surely the first day of the week is a day of wonder a day of honor and renown above all the dayes that ever the Sun shone upon The most glorious day that ever God created the most solemn day that ever the Church celebrated a day that has crowned Christ and a day that Christ himself has crowned with the greatest glory of any day that ever dawned upon the world Rom. 1.4 I speak but the words of truth and soberness Luke 13.32 Psalm 118.24 Joh. 20.22 23. Cant. 3.11 the Lords day is no day of small things 't is the day of the Lords power the day of his perfection the day of his praise and glory the day of his bounty and blessing the day of his espousals and of the gladness of his heart which can be understood so properly of no day as of this the Resurrection day Let prophane Esaus despise it and proud Notionists oppose it at their peril Behold King Solomon with the crown wherewith his mother crowned him in the day of his espousals and in the day of the gladness of his heart never was Christ more visibly Crowned by his Church then on the Lords day which also was the day of his espousals when he was made sure to his Church by a sure Covenant even the sure mercies of David Hos 2.19 20. Acts 13.34 but let neither of them blame me if I honor and esteem it above all dayes till they can shew me another day which the Saviour of the world has honored and exalted above it Never tell me of one or two miracles wrought on the seventh day yet I desire to adore Christ in all his miracles but shew me such a confluence of wonders and wonderful transactions wrought by him whose name is wonderful on that day as on this and I will confess I have lost the day Alas It cannot be that one transcendent act the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus from the dead the finishing act of our Redemption weighs down all the honor of the seventh day with advantage 'T is objected that our Saviour was pleased to put forth his Divine vertue on the seventh day in sundry miracles miracles of healing and the like I answer 'T is very true and to him be all the glory But if it were an honor to that day that our Heavenly physitian healed the sick what a Crown of glory was it to his own day that he raised the dead Yea that being dead he raised himself from the dead so also if he dignified the seventh day by casting out unclean Spirits how much more the first day by sending his holy Spirit If his preaching in the Synagogues were an honor to the seventh day how much more his presenting himself in that great Assembly of Divines twice at least on the first day of the week Did Christ ever
a day in the world till this day dawned at the rising of the Sun of righteousnesse never such a day T is worthy to be noted what a wonderful concurrence of remarkable periods of time met together at our Saviours resurrection both in respect of the year and the day Is 61.2 ch 63.34 John 4.34 35. Heb. 2.14 15. 1. The year was a Sabbatical year the year of Jubilee as may be gathered from scripture which if it make nothing for the Christian Sabbath yet it makes much against the Jewes Sabbath themselves being witnesses For the Hebrew Doctors have spoken rarely to this purpose even to the admiration of considerate Christians The Divine Majesty say they will be to Israel in a Jubilee Freedom Redemption and finisher of Sabbaths H. Broughtons Sinai-sight 2. The day of our Lords Resurrection was a remarkable day in many respects As 1. It was the eighth day in a continued reckoning of dayes and eight was a number of greater prefection then seven in some respect witness Circumcision which was so strictly tyed to the eighth day John 7.22 Sacramentum hoc suit diei illius octavi quo dominus resurrexit ad justificationem nostram Ep. ad Fid. ita Aug. de Gelebr Pasch that if it had fallen on the weekly Sabbath it must not be omitted for the Sabbaths sake The antients insist much on this Circumcision on the eighth day was a type of that eighth day on which our Lord rose again for our justification sayes Cyprian 2. Christs resurrection was also on the third day after his passion which himself foretold as the day of his perfection For so some expound that saying of his The third day I shall be perfected Luke 13.32 Besides this third day was a day of * Ho. 6.2 Lu. 24.46 note in the Law and the Prophets a day appointed and appropriated to the Messiah signally markt out in the Kalendar of the Prophets and figured by many famous Types as that of Isaac who was virtually a James 2.21 offered and restored again the b Gen. 22.4 third day as it may be computed and that in a kind of c Heb. 11.19 figure as the Apostle intimates So also Hezskiah who was in account a dead man and on the d 2 Kings 20.5 third day miraculously revived again So e Jonah 2.10 Math. 12 40. See Ainsw in Gen. 22. Jonah and others from which instances the Rabbins it serms could conclude Christs Resurrection on the third day There be many a three dayes say they in Scripture of which one is the Resurrection of the Messiah 3. Christs Resurrection was on the first day of the week as the Evangelists unanimously testifie Which although it be termed by the blaspemous Jewes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Nazarens day in a way of reproach yet in Scripture-account it is a day of greatest renown being the first in order in the Creation and the first in dignity by our Saviours resurrection The first-fruits of time and the first-born of dayes and accordingly the only day in which our Lord became the f 1 Cor. 15.20 first-fruits of them that slept and the g Col. 1.18 first born from the dead that in all things he might have the preheminence 4. To all these may be added what some have probably argued that this first day of the week was our blessed Redeemers Birth-day as well as his Resurrection day yea the day of his Ascension into Heaven as well as the mission of his Spirit but this I leave to Mr. Aspinwal to make good Only thus much I dare assert that the day of our Saviours resurrection the first day of the week is the fittest for the commemoration of his Nativitie Passion Ascension and all other blessed transactions in the work of our Salvation For the Resurrection of Christ implyes all the rest but is not necessarily of them And if the Lord Jesus had not risen from the dead what benefit had we had either by his birth life death or burial or being dead and buryed how had he ascended and the Spirit the Comforter descended unless he had first bin raised from the dead Besides his Resurrection and Ascension are computed h Luke 24.26 Eph. 4.8 9 10. See Dr. Twisse p. 117. Sect. 5. 1 John 20.17 in Scripture as one compleat motion As his dying and continuing under the power of death for a time were but one entire work of Redemption For however after his resurrection he stayed a sew dayes here upon earth to confirm the faith of his followers and settle the affairs of his Kingdom yet he was no sooner risen but presently he speaks of his ascending and indeed his rising was in reference to his ascending partly if not a part of it It was the first step of his triumphant passage into his kingdom and glory So that in a right sense very Lords day is our Christmass-day Easter-day Ascension-day Whitsunday and all my meaning that in a right celebration of our Christian Sabbath we solemnize the memorial of all these blessed ingredients in the work of our Redemption We need not contend for an annual Solemnization of our Saviours birth-day resurrection-day ascension-day neither need we fear oblivion of these gracious and glorious mysteries if the Lords day were duly observed We cannot better keep alive the memory of these mercies than by keeping a day in commemoration of them once a week and no day so fit as the Lords day in which we have the sum of all A day that brought forth the greatest good to faln man of any day even a compleat Redeemer who on this day redeemed us with triumph from the tyranny of Satan the dominion of death and hell and k John 10.25 ch 14. 19. restored us to life and Salvation yea assured it unto us Therefore I conclude with that renowned father the Lords day was declared by the Lords Resurrection to be the Christians day Dies Dominicus Christi resurrectione declaratus est ex illo caepit habere festivitatem suam August Ep. 119. ad Jan. item de Civitate Dei lib. 22. cap. ult Serm. 15. de verb. Apost and from that very time it began to be celebrated as the Christian mans Festival or rather with that of the Psalmist This is the day which the Lord hath made 'T is no day of mans making if the God of truth may be beleeved 'T is a plant of the Lords own planting therefore the Divel and all his instruments shall never be able to pluck it up Neither can all the men nor all the Churches in the world alter it to another day And how remarkable is it that the Church for sixteen hundred years should no where offer or attempt to alter it but in all places and all ages observe it What does this speak but the Divine authority of it by which mens Spirits have been awed and their hands tied from such presumptuous undertakings the truth is
affirm with them sayes the Objector That this was the Sabbath Lev. 23. So that to make good his cross conceits he would have Christ Crucifyed two dayes together namely on the Passeover Sabbath and the morrow after it that is Friday and Saturday which exceeds the cruelty of the crucifying Priests themselves Secondly To salve this sore the coyns another conceit namely that the Passeover-day and the Passeover-Sabbath were all one Pag. 83.84 For thus he argues in his first book The Israelites were appointed to bring on the morrow after their Passeover-Sabbath a Sheaf of their First-fruits to be waved by the Priests before the Lord and from that day to count seven weeks And here let the believer who sees all Types ended in Christ with confidence behold his dying Redeemer as the undoubted Sheaf of First-fruits waved upon the Cross by the Crucifying Priests the very morrow after he had eaten the Passeover As if the morrow after the Passeover-Sabbath were all one with the morrow after the Passeover Whereas the Learned Authors whom he cites will tell him That the Passeover-day was no Sabbath but a half-holiday Ainsw Lev. 23.5 But here again he is at odds with himself for in his last book he boasts of his concurrence with the most Learned of this Age saying I affirm with them That the Sabbath Lev. 23. is not the weekly Sabbath but the first day of the Passeover-feast that is the fifteenth day as they affirm therefore it could not be the fourteenth day And if he wikll contradict himself who can help it Thirdly Another gross Error is this That he makes Christ the Anti-type of the First-fruits in reference to his Death and quotes 1 Cor. 15.23 to prove it which speaks expressely of his Resurrection What shameful abuse of Scripture is this The morrow after the Sabbath on which the account began Object 2 is known by three things First by the Sickles entring into the Corn Deut. 16 9. Secondly by the waving of the First-fruits Lev. 23.11 Thirdly by offering the same day a Lamb without Spot Lev. 23.12 Now all these were punctually fulfilled in Christ on the day caleld Good Friday Then the Sickle was put to him to cut him down then he was Waved on the Cros then this Lamb without spot was offered from which day the holy Sabbath is the first of the account and at the end of seven full weeks the same day that began did end the account All this may be answered in a word The Type and the time to use his own language hold no proportion For the Sickle must be put to the Corn the First-fruits Waved and the Lamb offered the morrow after the Sabbath Lev. 23.10.12 Whereas Christ suffered and dyed the day before the Sabbath and not upon that day which he counts the morrow after the passeover-Sabbath for then he must have been Crucifyed upon the Saturday but upon that which he calls the Passeover-Sabbath it self namely the fifteenth day of the Moneth And here let him see how he hath lost his Cause and his Credit too For I hope he will stand to the judgment of Mr. Ainsworth and the English Annotators else why does he cite them now they both affirm That the Passeover Sabbath must be the fifteenth of Nisan and the morrow after it from which they began to reckon must needs be the sixteenth day From which they reckoned Exclusively from the night of the sixteenth day sayes Mr. Ainsworth Law 23.15 Now Christ suffered upon the Friday which was the fifteenth day and the supposed Passeover-Sabbath The next day being the Sabbath was the sixteenth of Nisan from which day namely when the day was ended they must begin to reckon the fifty dayes to Pentecost and so it falls pat upon the first day of the week and thus T. T. reckons in his first book excluding the morrow after the Passeover-Sabbath from being one of the fifty dayes And so against his will he must be forced to begin upon the first day of the week and that day that begins the account must needs end it and so his confidence is utterly dismounted Indeed in his last book he begins to reckon the sixteenth day Inclusively but in the very next page he contradicts himself again leaving out the morrow after the Passeover-Sabbath as none of the number a just jugment of God to make men fight with themselves when they would fight against his Truth The Waving of the First-fruits Answ and putting the Sickle into the Corn are Erroneously and falsely applied to the death of Christ they do both more properly relate to his Resurrection The Resurrection of the Just at the last day is resembled to reaping Matth. 13.39 The Harvest is the end of the world and the Reapers are the Angels Now Christ by virtue of his Resurrection was the First-fruits of that harvest The First-fruits of them that sleep 1 Cor. 15. The waving of the First-fruits under the Law did Typifie Christs rising from the dead and presenting himself alive before God upon the day of his Resurrection Again the offering of the Lamb without Blemish Lev. 23.12 makes not that day a Type of our Saviours dying day for it was their daily offering and upon the last of the fifty dayes they were to offer seven Lambs without blemish Levit. 23.20 Yet Christ dyed but once and by that one offering hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified Heb 9.28 ch 10 14. But Mr. Jemison has prevented me in this Argument and to give him his due he has done worthily in it as to the substance of what he hath written To conclude after all attempts to the contrary the glory of the Spirit 's Mission rests upon the First day of the week This day the Church of Christ was visited from on high the promise of the Father was sent Acts 1.4 The blessed Spirit came the Disciples were assembled Peter preached thousands converted and Baptized Acts 2. and all this is written for our instruction Why the Church assembled as Mr. Sprint argues why on that day Why the holy Ghost Why Preaching Why Conversion and administration of Sacraments Why the Promise of Christ accomplished all on this day but still to declare the will and Ordinance of Christ in blessing and sanctifying this day to his Church and so marking it out for a day of publick solemn worship as a day in all its Prerogatives superlative above other dayes the day of our Saviours Resurrection by which we are Justified the day of the holy Spirits Descension by whom we are Sanctified Fifthly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Andr. Caesar Another signal mark is the inscription of his royal name upon it whose day it is Rev. 1.10 t is stiled the Lords day Surely 't is some additionall honour to this illustrious day that as it was the first day of time mentioned the beginning of the first book of the Bible so it is the last day of same noted in the beginning of
to make Conscience of namely the spiritual duty of meditation and the celestial duty of praise First how seasonable it is on the Sabbath to meditate not only on the Word but the Works of God appears from Psal 92. which is a Psalm for the Sabbath-day How does the Psalmist there search and dive into the wonderful works of God Vers 5. How great are thy works O Lord and thy thoughts are very deep Here we have a large field works of Creation and works of Providence here our souls may wander from sea to land See Mr. Baxter Saints ever-lasting Rest from earth to Heaven from time to eternity yea walk upon the Sun Moon and Stars and enter into Heaven it self the Paradise of God How manifold are thy works O Lord in wisdome hast thou made them all Every creature of God that we cast our eyes upon this day should be as a flower to feed our Meditations I speak of cursory Meditation or that which is occasional one special use whereof is to feed our graces by our senses and as we are Christians to conduct us to Christ by the view of all creatures and actions when we look upon the Sun it bids us look up to Christ the Sun of righteousness every star may mind us of that star of Jacob that bright and morning star if we look upon our houses Christ is the door if upon our bodies he is the head if upon our clothes he is the garment of salvation if upon our friends and relations he is our husband our friend our Lord our Law-giver our King if we walk he is the way if we read he is the word if we eat and drink he is our food if we live Christ is our life that is a holy heart may make this spiritual use of all earthly objects and occasions to contemplate Christ in them and if we improve not our senses this way 't is all one as if we were blind or brutish But besides this there is a more distinct deliberate solemn and set meditation required on the Lords day and the work of Redemption being the occasion of the day how should our hearts work upon this blessed subject Come Christian call in thy thoughts from all worldly concernments and contemplate this rare contrivance of thy Redemption by Jesus Christ ponder it deeply get lively and strong apprehensions of it that it may leave deep and lasting impressions upon thy soul view over the several passages and transactions in this Master-piece of all Gods works view it first in the platform how gloriously was this laid in the eternal projects and a Ephes 1.4 purposes of Gods love yea in that eternal promise past between the Father and the Son b Titus 1.2 In hopes of eternal life which God that cannot lie promised before the world began Mark it here was a promise a promise of eternal life made by God by God that cannot lie and that before there was a world or man in the world Oh the everlastingness infiniteness unsearchableness of this love of God! that the everlasting God the Majesty of heaven and earth should take care of me before the world was that he should busie himself and his Son about a worthless wretched worm born out of due time the least of Saints the greatest of sinners O my soul admire adore this first love this free love of God and Christ Next see the early discovery and shining forth of this mystery in the very morning of the world no sooner is man fallen but God reaches out a c Gen. 3.15 promise to him and after many ages sends his blessed Son out of his bosome to fulfil it in the d Gal. 4.4 fulness of time Christ comes we could not come up to him lo he comes down to us O see the King of glory stooping bowing the Heavens to come down and dwell in a dungeon to lodge amongst prisoners and pitch his tent in the rebels camp Think O my soul how did the holy Angels wonder to see the King of Heaven stepping down from his throne to sit on his footstool yea putting off to the view the robes of a prince to put on the livery of a e Phil. 2.7 8. servant and that after treason had been stampt upon it taking our nature I mean after it had been up in arms against God not that he took the sin of our nature he that could make our nature without sin could also and did take it without sin but the shame of it he took in that he took it when it was under a cloud under a blot before God and Angels How does this express the love of Christ a heart full of love to lost sinners q. d. poor soult I cannot keep from you I love your very nature and will joyn it to my self and so I may save you from sin and wrath I care not if I become one with you and dwell in your very flesh My glory shall not hinder I will rather veil it for a while and take the form of a servant and become of no reputation than you shall perish for ever Again how does this speak the unspeakable love of God See Mr. Ambrose looking to Jesus p. 342. as one sweetly observes God did so love the very nature of his elect that though for the present he had them not all with him in heaven yet he must have their picture in his Son to see them in and love them in O meditate much on this admirable strein of love till it melt thy heart and make it burn within thee From the Incarnation of our blessed Saviour we may trace him through the several passages of his life to his death and passion and here with an eye of faith look upon him whom thou hast pierced behold the man as he said even that man of sorrows suffering bleeding dying on that tree of shame and ignominy dwell upon the death of Christ till it put life into thy dead heart then follow thy crucified Lord from the cross to the Sepulchre and by the way ponder deeply the severity of Gods justice the sinfulness of sin the love of Christ and the worth of souls which are not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold but with the precious blood of Jesus Christ 1 Pet. 1.18 19. as a lamb without blemish and without spot Why did the Primitive Saints sacramentally shew forth the Lords death on the Lords day Acts 20.7 but to signifie to us that to contemplate and commemorate the death of Christ is a special duty of the day So also his Resurrection which was the great transaction of the day therefore a proper subject for serious meditation It is Christ that died yea rather that is risen again and become the first-fruits of them that slept Consider O my souls the holy triumph of thy Redeemer this day when he trod on the serpents head took from death its sting from hell its standard Suppose thou hadst
is not said it shall be a sign that in six dayes the Lord made heaven and earth For there is a notable pause in the middle which divides the sentence and the sense also The seventeenth verse containes two distinct arguments or reasons why they should keep the Sabbath 1. Because it was a sign 2. Because it was set apart upon the occasion of Gods work and rest in the beginning 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Joh. 2.3 1 Joh. 3.18 There are indicating or evidencing signes such are the Characters of saving grace But neither can this be the sense of the word sign in this place It is a sign that I the Lord do sanctifie you What savingly why then all were Israel that were of Israel for the Sabbath was given to all neither was it so much their keeping the Sabbath as Gods giving them a Sabbath to keep which is here made a sign Witness Ezekiel Moses his interpretor I have given them my Sabbath for a sign Ezek. 20.13 to know that I the Lord do sanctifie them Therefore 3. There are distinguishing or differencing signs 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such as do visibly mark out a people for Gods peculiar select and sanctified ones above all other people of the earth And in this sense the Sabbath is here given the Jews as a sign a sign of his sanctifying them that is in one word as Calvin speaks a sign of his segregating and singling them out from the rest of the nations as his peculiar people Siquis un◠verbo reddere vellet sanctificare est segregare Cal. Praelec in Ezek. 20. Ita Simler in Exo Levit. 21.8 ch 2.32 So also Simlerus and to the same effect is that of Lavater aforementioned The Sabbath was a sign of Gods sanctifying them as the Sabbath it self was sanctified that is separated from other common dayes and set a part for holy ends and uses And so the Word sanctifie is usually if not only taken in Scripture when it is applyed to the whole bulk or body of a people as here it is Well the Sabbath was given to the people of Israel as a sign of Gods sanctifying them but how long throughout their generations That is during the Oeconomy of the Law as long as the people of Israel should be the only peculiar people of God Exod. 12.14 The very same Phrase is used concerning the Passeover ye shall keep it a feast to the Lord throughout your generations by an ordinance or ever which clearly speaks it a temporary ordinance But Secondly We must distinguish of Sabbaths as well as of signes very briefly the Word Sabbath signifies one of these three things either 1. The moral duty holy rest or 2. The penal rigour of that rest or 3. The precise day of rest Now 1. It cannot be meant of the moral duty simply considered since that extends beyond their generations for there remaineth a rest Heb. 4.9 10. or keeping of a Sabbath to the people of God still neither 2. Can itwell be understood of that penal rigour resting from all work upon pain of corporal death for this in all likelihood lasted not out half their generations being calculated chiefly for their wilderness estate as was saidbefore Therefore 3. It must be the precise day of rest the old seventh-day-seventh-day-Sabbath or nothing which is here set as a sign throughout their generations and this I take to be the true intent of the Holy-Ghost both here and Ezek. 20. The case seems clearly to me to be stated in this wise The old seventh day was at first given to Adam and his posterity as the only true Sabbath during the pre-eminency of the Creation and Christ in the promise and that it was conscientiously kept by the holy Patriarchs for some ages after I doubt not though some of the Ancients seem to deny it but to be sure in tract of time the sinful race of Adam forsaking the true God did also forget the true Sabbath Now when it pleased God out of that degenerate lump of mankind to form Israel or the seed of Abraham a peculiar people to himself he gave them his old Sabbath again in a new Edition That among other ends it might be a visible sign to distinguish them from the rest of the world Other nations no doubt had their Sabbaths as well as their gods but as Israel must serve the only true God so they must also observe the then only true Sabbath Ezod 31.13 So much is implyed in the text Verily my Sabbath ye shall keep saith the Lord. The Word my is Emphatical 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it points at the precise day of Gods appointment the seventh and last day of the week therefore this and mainly this was made a sign of Gods sanctifying the Jews throughout their generations which being so how evidently doth it follow that the day was design'd for change and that now it is certainly changed by the will and appointment of God For if the Jews generation be extinct and they that were once the people of God have now a Lo-ammi written upon them Ho. 11.20 1 Thes 2.15 16. Ye are none of my people how shall that day any longer stand as a Sabbath wich was given them as a sign of their being the peculiar people of God and that for a season only till their generations were expired Maledic domine Nazarais Lord curse the Christians is one of their daily imprecations vid Trapp in Hosea Either let the adversay say the blaspheming Jews who powre out daily curses instead of prayers are still the Covenant-people of God in so much as still they retain that Saturday-Sabbath And then he shall speak like a true Jew indeed or let him confess their saturday-Sabbath which was once the crown of their glory is now no better then the badge of their blasphemy whereby they would make the world believe that they are still the sanctified people of God though they trample underfoot the blood of his Son whereby they should be sanctified I speak not this as insulting over the misery of the Jews but as lamenting the sin of apostate Christians who take up that day as a badge of their Saintship which the infidel Jews wear as a badge of their blasphemy and enmity against Christ and Christians Indeed it was once an illustrious sign of their sanctification but it was limited to their generations as the Passeover was and therefore if the one be expired so is the other upon the same account And in this respect I dare boldly affirm and I doubt not to maintain it that it is every whit as lawful for a Christian to celebrate that old Sacrament the Passeover as to observe the old Sabbath For the one was as well a sign as the other and the one was ordained for a season as well as the other There are a few feeble objections to face this argument but the bare repetion with the premises will be
it agrees not with the scope of the context which is to disswade them from unbelief as the root of Apostasie ch 3. 12. Take heed Brethren of an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God where the * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 v. 18.19 word doth properly and without all question signifie unbelief And the Apostles rendring of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies either unbeliefe or disobedience by another word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies unbelief only v. 18.19 does evidently speak his meaning namely that we should take heed of falling by Israels example of unbelief which is the mother of all * John 16.8 9 vice as faith is the mother of grace And therefore ch 4. v. 1. he cautions us to fear lest a promise being left any of us should seem to come short Now the promise is the ground of Faith as the precept is of obedience I conclude therefore it is not so much Israels disobedience as Israels unbelief upon which the stress of the argument is laid To take the Apostles admonition as a caution against the neglect of the old Sabbath is utterly to mistake his main mark and scope For his grand design is to prevent their Apostasie from Christ and his Gospel not from Moses and his law And I am perswaded if any Sabbath-breaking be here intended it is to deterre them from the breach of the Christian Sabbath To understand this Scripture there remaineth the keeping of a Sabbath to the people of God of the old seventh-day-Sabbath Answ 3 is utterly to invalidate the Apostles argument because it confounds that distinction of rests on which he grounds his argument For 't is evident See Mr. White of Dutch in this Tex p. 230 the Apostle speaks of several and distinct rests and insists most strongly upon the opposition between Moses words Gen. 2. and the words of David Psalm 95. not Psalm 45. as T.T. misquotes it and makes it most manifest that David could not mean the rest of the Sabbath of which Moses speakes Gen. 2. for Hebr. 4.3 thus he reasons David speaks of a rest to come but Moses speakes of a rest past therefore David cannot mean the rest of the old Sabbath of which Moses speaks which was entred into so long before And verse 5. he takes up the same opposition again and in this place i. e. of David again if they shall enter who sees not a manifest opposition betwixt these two have entred and shall enter That word although v. 3. relates not to the sin of Israel but the saying of David And thus this Authors first fancy is battered There remaineth therefore the keeping of a Sabbath to the people of God but no the old Sabbath T is set down in the Margin of our Bibles the keeping of a Sabbath whence they would evade the seventh-day Sabbath Obj. 2 T.T. although the Dictionaries and Lexicons render ib plainly the keeping of the Sabbath The Greek word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Answ without an Article and therefore this is a meer causless cavil and as for Lexicons that render the Greek into Latin I suppose be will find neither a nor the in any of them for these are English particles and as for Latin Dictionaries he may look long enough before he will find the word in any of them for t is a pure Grecism And thus I think he has shewed his Scholarship with a witness No wonder such an accurate Critick casts odium upon the Translatours t is much he does not give us a Bible of his own making The Scripture gives full evidence Obj. 3 p. 144. that Christ entred into his rest the true seventh day he means the old seventh day when he had finished his great work of Redemption and for this he cites Acts 2.26 where t is said his flesh did rest in hope The* word signifies only thus much Answ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his flesh did remain in hope and it may be as well rendred remain as rest It implyes no such thing as Sabbatical rest He cites Job 17.3 for Job 3.17 an argument he is not infallable As for Job 3.17 which he misquotes again it makes nothing for his purpose All that it speaks is this There the wicked cease from troubling and there the weary are at rest Teaching us that the grave is a place of rest from external impressions of violence and cruelty as also from trouble labour and sorrow to the people of God They shall rest in their beds sayes the Prophet Yet I hope he will grant the grave is a softer bed to Saints then it was to our Saviour for as he took away the sting of death by dying and rising again so also the horror of the grave by being buried Certain it is that Christs burial was a part of his humiliation and while he lay in the grave he lay under the sorrowes paines or chains of death as the Holy Ghost witnesseth Acts 2.24 And who ever doubted but our Saviours durance in the Sepulchre was penal Even the Lutherans who attribute more then is meet to the buriall of Christ as they do to his body do confess that it was a part of his humiliation and that hereby he underwent that penalty Gen. 3.19 vide Gerh. Supplem ad Chem. Harm p. 230. as well as his death upon the Crosse How then did he rest from the work of Redemption as long as he lay under the arrest of death in the prison of the grave Certainly all his humiliation work was Redemption-work from his Birth to his burial and setting aside his Crucifixion we have reason to think our Redeemer was not so much humbled all the three and thirty years of his life as the three dayes and three nights after his death while he lodged in the heart of the earth Before he was but as the Sun in a cloud but now as the Sun under a total Eclipse as to the view of the world And doubtless for the blessed Son of God and Lord of Glory to lie down in the a Psalm 22.15 Ephes 4 9. dust of death and suffer himself to be trampled under the feet of that Tyrant was no small degree of abasement But to be sure whatever our blessed Redeemers rest were before his Resurrection either that of his Soul in glory or the other of his body in the grave it could make nothing for the Saturday-Sabbath for neither of these rests were entred into on the seventh day but both on the sixth day The b John 19. v. 14 31.42 day before the Sabbath he was crucified and the same day he was buried otherwise how is it said That he rose again the third day c 1 Cor. 15.4 according to the Scriptures Methinks this should make the Objector blush to look back upon his anti-scriptural conclusion That Christ entred into his rest on the true seventh-day-Sabbath expounding it of his rest in the
weak Christians he goes into the Temple to purifie himself the Jewes which were of Asia make a loud out cry against him V. 28 saying Men of Israel help this is the man that teacheth all men every where against the people and the law and this place By which Testimonies t is evident that St. Paul was a rigid Non-conformist and that he did mightily cry down the customes of Moses in all Christian Churches If you ask me what customes I answer they are not particularly mentioned onely these two Epistles do witness that he had decryed circumcision the old Sabbath and other dayes and rites of legal worship therefore in all likelyhood these were some of those condemned customes And hereupon it seems the old Ebionites rejected Pauls writings rating him as an * Apostatam legis eum dicentes Iren. lib. 1. ch 26. Apostate because he wrote against the customes of Moses chiefly circumcision and the old Sabbath both which the Ebionites eagerly contended for and therefore they were branded for Hereticks to all succeeding generations and well they deserved it But it may be demanded by what warrant did St. Paul cry down these Mosaical customes and upon what ground I answer his warrant was e Gal. 1.1 he that raised Christ from the dead gave him his commission signed in Heaven and his ground was good For the Lord Jesus himself was designed to change these customes so much St. Steven does upon the matter affirm for he was accused for saying That f Acts 6.14 Jesus of Nazareth should change the customes which Moses had delivered Mark the expression the very word change is brought in as an Article against this blessed Martyr The only crime they had to lay to his charge was this that he should say Jesus of Nazareth should change the customes which Moses had desivered 'T is true they accused him for speaking blasphemy against Moses law and therefore they are called g V. 13. false witnesses or false accusers but like enough that which they called blasphemy St. Steven had spoken very like in his dispute with the h V. 9 10. Libertines Cyrenians and Alexandrians he might speak something to this effect that Christ should destroy the Temple and change the law and ordinances which Moses had given them Whether he did affirm it or no the thing it self is a certain truth the Lord Jesus has changed the Traditions of Moses he has changed the i Heb. 7.12 law and the Priesthood the Covenant and the Seales of the Covenant circumcision for Baptism the Passeover for the Lords Supper the typical k Mal. 1.11 John 4.21 place and times of worship all things lyable to change he has certainly changed and among the rest the old Sabbath which was mutable from the beginning as we have shewed elsewhere But I conceive St. Steven had indeed asserted this truth for being charged with it does he deny it No he rather stands to maintain and justifie it ch 7. * V. 47. and accordingly God justifies him by making his face to shine before the Council like the face of an l ch 6. 15. Angel for indeed it was the Doctrine of an m Dan 9.26.27 Angel which he had delivered and to come to some issue that which I would further observe is this St. Paul although at that time neither Saint nor Paul was present at the Martyrdom if not the tryall of Steven and did n Acts 22.20 ch 26. 10. consent to his death and doubtless he could not but know the cause for which he suffered which was partly this Reader note this as a convincing argument that a Sabbath or day joyned with other Jewish holy-dayes yet distinguished from them can be no other then their seventh day Sabbath and this is often condemned never commanded in all the new Testament therefore thou must make a new Gospel if thou wilt maintain that old Sabbath for saying that Jesus of Nazareth should change the customes which Moses had delivered a truth sealed with the blood of this Protomartyr Now I would offer it to further consideration whether this might not be one ground of this great Apostles after zeal against the Ordinances Rites and Customes which Moses had delivered and in particular circumcision and the old Sabbath But I shall not go by guesse and conjectural probability Thus much I infer from the premises as matter of certainty The customes which Paul taught people to cast off were the customes delivered by Moses Acts 21.21 which were destinated to be changed by Christ Acts 6.14 But Paul taught people to cast off circumcision and the old Sabbath Colos 2.12.16 Gal. 4.10 ch 5. 2. Therefore these were the customes delivered by Moses and destinated to change by Christ That circumcision was none Question but the scruple is about the Sabbath for it may be objected the Sabbath was long before Moses time as old as Adam Apostate Adam at least I answer so also circumcision was long before Moses time being given at first to o Gen. 17.9 10 Acts 7.8 Abraham yet circumcision is said to be given by p John 7.22 Moses because he was the first that wrote of it and the like may be said for the old Sabbath which was one of those customes delivered or made known by the hand of Moses Neh. 9.14 and ranked with the rest of those ceremonial festivals Levit. 23. But to be sure whatever St. Steven in his dispute with the Libertines and Cyrenians asserted St. Paul in his Epistles to the Colossians and Galatians hasevidently concluded the discharge of the old seventhday T. T. has little to say to Gal. 4. only this * p. 23. That Paul does not here condemn the observation of all dayes c. onely beggarly seasons and elements Neither do we say that all dayes are here condemned or disallowed The Lords day the first day of the week we are sure is not for this was established by this very Apostle in these very Churches of q 1 Cor. 16.1 2. Galatia and to condemn this had been to crosse his own Ordinance But we say all Judaicall dayes for dayes months years do all referr to that specialty Jewish solemnities are here discharged and condemned and among the rest the old seventh day And as for the objectors Minatory charge If any man be so bold to call this a beggarly element at his peril be it Let the Holy Apostle answer it He had best tell St. Paul at your peril be it Paul if you dare call the old Sabbath a shadow of things to come or a * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 poore Rudiment for so he may qualifie the termes if he please but where lies the peril Why not the old Sabbath a poore rudiment he hints this as his reason Because God instituted and observed it Observed it how did God observe it Take heed of unbeseeming termes When we speak of the glorious God we had need speak as the
other arguments as prophetical prediction Psalm 118. and Apostolical practice Acts 20. allege this as one proof of our Christian Sabbath That Christ Jesus our Lord was often seen upon it seen in assemblies of his Saints seen in his royal robes in his state of immortality and not only seen but heard preaching peace to poor sinners opening Scriptures cheering quickening warming cold dead sad hearts for when the disciples saw him they were * Luke 24.32 John 20.21 glad and their hearts did burn within them while he opened the Scriptures to them and all this on the first day of the week T is true after this double apparition our Saviour appeared on a working day as the disciples were a fishing and that was the third time of shewing himself or the third day of his appearing John 21.3.14 But what of this The disciples were sufficiently confirmed in the authority and solemnity of the Lords day by the two former apparitions therefore well might Christ appear the third time upon a working day and countenance worki-day-business by his presence to teach his disciples and us that every day is not a Sabbath day But this fishing-day is not named it might as well be on the Jewes Sabbath as any other day of the week for ought appeares to the contrary in the Text yet I do not say it was I will not speak where the Scripture is silent How often the first day of the week was celebrated by our Saviour between his Resurrection and ascension is not punctually set down in Scripture Junius is confident for every week But there is good evidence for the two first and none against the three last Much may be said for that famous apparition on a Mountaine in Galilee which learned Lightfoot Math. 28.16 17 19 20. Fenner and others conclude without doubt to have been on the first day of the week Mar. 16.15 16. Now the ascension-day drawes on and Christ withdrawes his Corporal presence from his disciples but on the day of Pentecost he visits them again by his spiritual presence Acts 2. And that this also was on the first day of the week shall be fully clear'd when we come to the fourth mark Lastly Rev. 1.10 Some years after all these it pleased the Lord Jesus to appear again on this day Namely to his servant John in the Isle of Patmos little paradise we may call it for the presence of Christ makes a wilderness a paradise especially so much of his presence as this blessed Apostle now enjoyed more than ever was vouchsafed to any man upon earth since Christ went up to Heaven I was in the spirit sayes he upon the Lords day what then Why v. 12. I saw seven Golden Candle-sticks and v. 13. In the midst of them one like the son of man So like him that indeed it was the son of man the man Christ Jesus on the Lords day then John saw Jesus Christ in the midst of his Churches filling them with his blessed presence that day above all others and holding the stars in his right hand that is holding forth Heavenly light by the Ministry of the word on that day especially this John saw and this he is commanded to set down in writing verse 19. and accordingly written it is and written for our learning upon whom the ends of the world are come And what may we learn from it Surely this at first view viz. That in St. Johns time the Golden Churches of Christ were wont to meet Gospel-Ministers to preach and Christ himself to be present with them by his spirit on the Lords day And this is written for a pattern to after-ages and there is a * Verse 3. blessing pronounced on those that read and keep the things that are written in this book Blessed be Christ for this blessed book here we have another glorious appearance of Christ on the Lords day not to one man only or one Church only but seven Churches in which no doubt there were more then seven thousand soules and that this Lords day was also the first day of the week none but peevish spirits ever question'd Ignatius who was trained up in the School of this great Apostle and in all reason was most likely to know his terms * Epist ad Magnes clearly makes it a weekly holy-day observed by Christians in the room of the abrogated Sabbath of the Jewes Yea the Lords day was never taken for other than the first day of the week by any Christian writer in any age since the dayes of St. John till this last age of liberty and lyes that ever I could see or learn Fathers Councils Schoolmen ancient modern writers two or three of this generation excepted do constantly understand it of Christs Resurrection-day the first day of the week and one would think the constant Dialect of the Church of Christ a sufficient Dictionary to interpret a word or phrase in Scripture especially in such a sense as does not cross but correspond with Scripture So does this for how agreeable to Scripture is it to take the Lords day for that day which the Lord hath made Besides 't is observable that this same beloved disciple who was so exact in penning the first apparition John 20. is a spectator of the last Rev. 1. and just as he had related that he sees this the circumstances are remarkable John 26.19 26. Christ appears in the midst of the disciples and Rev. 1.13 in the midst of the Candle-sticks or Churches John 20.19 he appears upon the resurrection-Resurrection-day arguing his Resurrection and Rev. 1.18 repeating the same argument Saying I am he that liveth and was dead and have the keyes of death and hell To say no more John 20. he appeared on the first day of the week and here again upon the day under a new name the Lords day because it appeared by his Resurrection and former apparitions to be the day which the Lord had owned above other dayes yea the day which the Lord had made and instituted Thus we see how Christs often appearing on this day tends to the further marking out of the day But this mark is sorely shot at objections come thick but short answers will serve when nothing is objected but what has been answered by others or nothing to any purpose He is not ashamed to say T. T. Obj. 1. p. 121. I beleeve it will be found upon inquiry that Christ never appeared to any assembly no not any one first day for it is most certain that the day upon the Scripture-account begins with the evening Now upon the Resurrection-day we find Christ at the village seven miles from Jerusalem when it was towards evening and the day far spent Luke 24.29 30. after which he supped with the two which took up some time then they returned that seven miles and a half to Jerusalem on foot so that by that time they came there the day must be quite spent and though t is
infant-Baptisme he would not own it as an Ordinance of Christ Or thus whether if the Holy Ghost had expresly affirmed in Scripture that in the Apostles times baptisme was once at least administred to infants in a solemn assembly of Christians Paul himself being present and actually assisting in the administration his own conscience would not tell him nay then surely infant-baptism is an Ordinance of Christ Let him say the same concerning the celebration of the first day of the week For the Holy Ghost ha's expresly declared that this day was solemnly kept at Troas Paul himself being present and principally ingaged in the work of the day For let the Text be consulted Acts 20.6 7 8. We came to Troas in five dayes where we abode seven dayes and upon the first day of the week when the disciples came together or were gathered together in a Church-assemblie to break bread Paul preached unto them ready to depart on the morrow and there were many lights in the upper room where they were assembled together and there sate in a window a certain young man named Eutychus c. Here note 1. Una Sabbati id est Die dominiâ—â— dies dominica recordatio dominicae resurrectionis Ven. Beda In Acts 20. Tom 5. When this solemn assembly met together on the first day of the week saies the Text. The day which all the Evangelists witness to be Christs Resurrection-day This day then the disciples were congregated But why the first day of the week Why not th elast day of the week which was the Jewes Sabbath strange if that had been the Christian Sabbath that these primitive Christians had not have met on that day especially since it was but the day before yet more strange that we read not a word of Pauls keeping it since he tarried at Troas seven dayes But most of all that we read not one word in all the New Testament of his owning that day in any Christian Church at all only the first day of the week a fair argument that the day was changed upon the account of our Saviours Resurrection 2. The Church is assembled on the first day of the week but how Privately it may be No publickly and openly as those times would bear yea probably the company was very numerous for it seemes the room below would not hold them but they were fain to get up into the windowes three stories high as Eutychus did Acts 20.8 doubtless it was no small appearance Well 3. Here is a full assembly met upon the first day of the week but why then To break bread sayes the Text to receive the Eucharist sayes the Syriack translation that is to * Math. 26.26 Acts 2.46 1 Cor. 11.24 receive the Lords Supper upon the Lords day The Lords Supper What without preparatory prayer and other Sabbath-exercises that had been but a faint devotion will some say Mr. Shepard answers it well Breaking of bread is here put Thus prayer is put for the whole worship of God Gen. 4.26 ch 12.8 Acts 2.21 Rom. 10.12 13. Synecdochically the part for the whole there is no more reason to exclude prayer preaching singing of Psalms because these are not mentioned than to exclude drinking of wine in the Sacrament as the blind Papists do because neither is that expressed but breaking of bread only So that the first day of the week in effect is called the day of meeting to break bread which was ever accompanied with prayer preaching and other holy exercises Now as the fore-mentioned * Thes 35. Author observes if ever the Saints used to break bread on any other day yet the day is never mentioned as a speciall time for such a purpose nor do we find in all the Scriptures a day distinctly mentioned for holy duties as this first day of the week is wherein a whole Church meet together for such ends but that day was holy The nameing of the particular day for such ends implies the holiness of it Well the Saints at Troas meet on this day to receive the Sacrament But 4. Have they no Sermon yes and Paul himself preaches it v. 7. And continued his speech till mid-night and about break of day he departed Which yeeldeth us two notes one that the first day of the week is no travelling day St. Paul would not we are sure he did not travel this day but the day after another that the first day of the week is a solemn holy-day to be spent in spirituall exercises and sabbath-Sabbath-day duties as preaching hearing praying conferring breaking of bread in commemoration of Christ his death and Resurrection Why else does the Holy Ghost story this down so exactly and precisely Is it not written for our learning upon whom the ends of the world are come Yea doubtlesse for our learning that we might forecast our journeyes and other affairs in such sort as to keep holy the Lords day and not intrench upon it by travelling or the like thus we have plain Apostolicall practice for the observation of this day But see how this clear Text and truth is cavill'd at This meeting of the Saints at Troas was occasional Obj. 1 T.T. p. 123. Answ and what was the occasion of it he intimates in the next words viz. Paul's departing by Sea This is a sorry shift for the Text saies not that the disciples were assembled by reason of Paul's departure the next day but they were assembled this day to break bread without the least reference to Paul's journey the day following So that this Church-meeting was not occasional but a thing usual upon the first day of the week And the context clearly implies that the puting off of Pauls journey till the next day was occasioned by the Church's meeting this day not this meeting by his departure the next day for the Apostle seems to stay purposely and wait seven dayes among them that he might have a publick opportunity of preaching and communicating with them upon the usual day of their publick assemblies which appears by this convention to have been the first day of the week here was therefore nothing occasional in all this solemnity neither the assembly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nor Sacrament no nor the Sermon neither but only the length and continuance of the Sermon till mid-night this indeed was occasional by reason of St. Pauls departure on the morrow so the Text it self imports Paul being to depart on the morrow preached and continued his Sermon till mid-night he preacht a long Sermon because it was his last Sermon he was like to preach among them The Saints assembled and brake bread every day Obj. 2 Acts 2.26 therefore they may as well plead for an every day Sabbath as for the first day Sabbath from Acts 20.7 It cannot be proved by Scripture that the Lords Supper is an every dayes Supper Answ or that ever it was celebrated on any day after the first institution but upon the Lords day which
forth by the light of his resurrection And elswhere t Dies Sabbati evat dierum Ordine posterior sanctificatione legis anierior sea ubi finis legis advenit qui est Christus Jesus Rom. 10.4 resurrectione sua octavam sanctificavit caepit eadem prima esse quae octava est habens ex numeriordine praerogativam ex resurrectione Domini sanctitatem The Sabbath day was the last in order of dayes but the first in sanctification under the Law but when the end of the Law was come to wit Jesus Christ Rom. 10.4 and by his Resurrection had consecrated the eighth day that which is the eighth began to be the first being dignified by the precedency of the number and sanctified by the Resurrection of the Lord. Then speaking further by way of allusion to Luke 6. he addes u Vbi Dies Dominica â—aepit praecellere qua Dominus Resurrexerit Sabbatum quod primum erat secundum haberi caepit a primo prima enim requies Cessavit secunda successit unde ad Hebr. scribens Apostolus ait post hac die restat ergo requies populo Deim requies ergo vera non in operis cessatione sed in Kesurrectionis est tempore Ambr. Enar. in Tit. Psalm 47. When the Lords day on which our Lord arose began to excel the Sabbath which was the first began to be accounted the Second from the first For the first rest ceased and the second succeeded Whence the Apostle writing to the Hebrewes Ch. 4. speaks of another day there remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God Therefore the true rest is not now in the cessation of the work meaning the work of Creation but in the time of the Resurrection 'T is as much as if he had said the true Sabbath is not now the seventh day or last day of the week but the first day of the week this is that other day mentioned Heb. 4. this is the rest or Sabbatism that remaineth to the people of God I do the rather cite these sayings of the two worthy Father Ambrose because T.T. quotes him also for the Saturday-Sabbath which he was a zealous disputer against And although he preacht on that day it was but in preparation to the Lords day Hierom 10. Anno 385. Hierom is the next writer of note and eminency in the Church of God and he also speaks very honourably of the of the Lords day In his book against Vigilantius (w) Per unam Sabbati hoc est in die Dominico omnes conferre quae Hierosolymam in solatium dirigerentur praecipit Paulus Item ad Hedib quaestio 4. the Apostle Paul saith he commanded almost all Churches that there should be collections for the poor upon the first day of the week which is the Lords day And elsewhere he informs us how it was observed by the religious in his time x Dominicos dies orationi tantum lectioni vacant Ad Eustoch namely That they designed the Lords day wholly unto prayer and reading of the holy Scriptures For which he commends them and by commending approves their practice But of observing the Jewes Sabbath he speaks not a word only he interprets Gal. 4.10 as a repeal of the Saturday Sabbath and so does Tertullian also Libr. 1. Contr. Marc. Ch. 20. After Hierom comes Chrysostom Chrysostom 11. Anno 398. a painful and powerful preacher in his time and her how he thunders against Judaizing Christians y 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I will close my Sermon saies he with the words of Moses I call heaven and earth to witness against you that if any of us present or those that are absent shall go to look upon the Trumpets or meet in the Synagogues or go up to Matrona a Synagogue of the Jewes two or three miles from Antiochia in Daphne a pleasant village as himself describes it elswhere or joy in their Fasts or partake of their Sabbaths or perform any other Jewish custom great or small I am clear from the blood of you all these words shall stand up in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ between me and you and if you obey they shall give you great boldness but if you disobey or conceal any of them that presume to commit such like things they shall rife up as vehement witnesses against you c. See how zealous this holy man was against Jewish rites and customes and amongst the rest against their Sabbaths Neither was it blind zeal but zeal according to knowledge for he knew and ha's told us z 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That Paul perswaded the Churches of Christ to leave off Circumcision to slight the Sabbaths and dayes legal dayes he means and all other ceremonials And again a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Christ ha's freed us from these Jewish observances neither was his practice in these things intended for ouru pattern for as he kept the passeover with the Jewes not that we should keep it with them but that he might introduce the truth in stead of the shadow in like manner he also endured Circumcision and observed Sabbaths and celebrated their Festivals and did all these things at Jerusalem but to none of these are we subject Yet lest we should think Chrysostom an enemy to the Christian as well as the Jewes Sabbath consider what he sayes in another place treating of almes where he occasionally touches that Text 1 Cor. 16.1 2. concerning the collection for the Saints on the first day of the week and asks this question what reason the Apostle had to command this day for the oblation of their alms And answers it thus b Hom. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Item 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ubi supre Because this day they did abstain from all workes and the Soul was more cheerful by the rest of the day besides the good things received this day for on this day death was destroyed the curse was dissolved sin vanquished the gates of Hell broken in peices therefore saies he if we so honour our Birth-dayes how much more ought we to honour this day which may well be called the Birth-day of all Mankind and how often does this Father call the First day of the week the c 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In John 20. 1 Cor. 16.2 Lords day a royal day a day of rest and the like so others extol it Ignatius calls it the Queen of days the first day of the week and the first day of the world as truly the chiefest as it is undoubtedly the first of dayes saies Eusebius a most Holy day sayes Athanasius higher than the highest saith Nazianzen So sincerely were the Antients devoted to the solemnity of this day that in honour of Christ the Author of it they thought they could never sufficiently grace and garnish it
stood by the Sepulchre and seen the Sun of righteousness covered with a cloud before shining forth most gloriously in the morning of the Resurrection-day how would this have raised and ravished thy heart How glad were the Disciples when they saw the Lord so glad that 't is said They beleeved not for joy O the day of Christs rising from the dead was a day of joy and gladness John 20.20 Luke 24.41 No day like this when our surety was released the Covenant and sure mercies of David confirmed hope revived heaven and eternal life assured In the midst of these thoughts who can but cry out with the Apostle O that I may know him and the power of his resurrection Phil. 3.10 That I may feel the working of that mighty power which God wrought in Christ Eph. 1.19 when he raised him from the dead O that the same * Rom. 1.4 and 6.4 5. spirit of holiness which quickned Christ from the dead this day and so made the day holy would also quicken my soul from the death of sin to the life of holiness that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father even so I also might walk in newness of life being planted into the likeness of his resurrection as also of his death Our hearts being thus tuned by meditation how should our tongues shew forth the praises of our precious Redeemer Let him have the praise and the glory of the whole work of our Redemption Awake my glory utter a song Sing that Psalm of John the Divine Vnto him that loved us Rev. 1.5 6. and washed us from our sins in his own blood and hath made us Kings and Priests unto God and his Father To him be glory and dominion for ever and ever Thus give unto Christ the glory of his death yea the praise of his Resurrection say with Peter Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ 1 Pet. 1.3 4. who acording to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again to a lively hope by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled reserved in heaven for us Surely God requires a thousand thousand Hallelujahs for this blessed work of our Redemption he calls upon all creatures to join with us in rejoycing upon this account Isai 44.23 Sing O ye Heavens for the Lord hath done it shout O ye lower parts of the earth break forth into singing ye mountains O forrest and every tree therein for the Lord hath redeemed Jacob Let us therefore devote our selves more solemnly to this Angelical service begin the day with prayer and end it with praise not only in publike but in private O that every house were in this respect a temple that the songs of the Temple might be heard in all our tabernacles on the Lords day that the streets might ring with our praises even the high praises of our Creator and Redeemer 'T is Scripture counsel That we should speak to our selves in Psalms Ephes 5 19. and Hymns and spiritual songs singing and making melody in our hearts to the Lord and singing with grace in our hearts grace in the heart as one saies well is the best tune to every Psalm We must sing with the Spirit as well as pray with the spirit And therefore we should labour to be with S. John in the Spirit on the Lords day In a word Christian prudence should direct us to chuse out sutable Psalms for such a solemn day Psal 118. is very proper and pertinent The stone which the builders refused is become the head of the corner this is the Lords doing and it is marvellons in our eyes This is the day which the Lord hath made we will be glad and rejoyce in it God is the Lord which hath shewed us light c. Thou art my God and I will praise thee Thou art my God I will exalt thee O give thanks unto the Lord for he is good for his mercy endureth for ever Thus much in brief concerning the prime duties of the day I shall conclude all with the words of that Prince of English Poets HERBERT O day most calm and bright The week were dark but for thy light The other days and thou Make up one man whose face thou art Knocking at heaven with thy brow The working days are the back-part The Sundays of mans life Thredded together on times string Make bracelets to adorn the wife Of the eternal glorious King Thou art the day of mirth And where the work-days trail on ground Thy Flight is higher as thy birth O let me take thee at thy bound Leaping with thee from seven to seven Till that we both being toss'd from earth Fly hand in hand to heaven FINIS Books sold by John Rothwel at the Fountain in Goldsmiths Row in Cheapside THe Use and Practise of Faith or Faiths Universal usefulness and quickning influence into every kind and degree of the Christian life Delivered in the Publike Lectures at Ipswich by the late eminent and Faithful Servant of his Lord Mr. Matthew Laurence Preacher to the said Town 4o. Festered Conscience new lanced The Good Masters Plea and the Evil Servants Cavil Orthodxal Navigation by Benjamin Hubbard The Saints Rest in an Evil day both in their dependance upon God and assistance from him Together with Bowels of Mercy interceding for the Saints in danger Or Sacred Sympathy unsealed by Alex. Pringle late Minister of the Gospel at Georges Southwark The Universal Character by which all Nations in the World may understand one another Conceptions reading out of one common Writing their own Mother-tongues an invention of general use the Practise whereof may be atteined in two hours space observing the Grammatical Directions which Character is so contrived that it may be spoken as well as written By Cave Beck M. A. The same Book is also Printed in French for the use of that Nation The Reign of Gustavus King of Sweden son of Ericus collected out of the Histories of those times and offered to the service of these A Sermon preached at the Funeral of Mr. Samuel Collins Minister of Braintree in Essex By Matthew Newcomen Minister of Dedham in the same County The Saints Delight in the Spring of Salvation Or Christ saving Delivered in a Sermon at Gregories by Pauls the day of their solemn Weekly Lecture there by Alex. Pringle late Pastor of Georges Southwark