in the third Commandment then all common worship as some call it or rather all that holy and reverend manner of worship which we owe to God is required in the same command and if all naturall instituted and common worship or holy manner of worship be required in the three first commands I marvaile then how any worship any further then as a time of worship may be called worship can be required in this fourth command The time therefore and not the worship it selfe is required herein for if any worship be required it 's either the whole worship of God or some speciall kinde of worship if the whole worship then there should be no worship of God required directly in the three first Commandments but the very same which is commanded in the fourth also which grosse Tautology is most absurd to imagine in the short summe of these ten words but if any speciall kinde of worship should be required and not the whole then the Sabbath day is sanctified to some one kind of worship rather then to the exercise of all kind of worship which is most false and prophane for who will affirme that the Sabbath is to bee sanctified suppose by that kinde of worship which is publick and not private also by externall and not by internall worship also by naturall worship in love and fear God c. and not with instituted in the use of all Gods Ordinances and that with all holy preparation and reverence also Thesis 54. The exercise of worship is one thing the worship it selfe is another 't is most true that the holy exercise of all worship is here required but most false that the worship it selfe is so The worship it self is required in the three first commands but the speciall exercise of all this worship at such a time is required in the fourth Command the exercise of holinesse and holy duties is here required as the end and a holy rest as a meanes thereunto and in this respect it is true which Wallaeus observes viz. That it is not a bare and naked circumstance of time but the rest it self from labour and the application of the day to holy uses which is here enjoyned but doth it therefore follow that the worship it self and the holy duties themselves are here directly commanded which he seemes to maintain no verily no more then that works of mercy in the second Table are required in this fourth Command of the first Table because the exercise of mercy and love as well as of piety and necessity is required also in this Command Thesis 55. It is generally and frequently affirmed by those who seek to support the morality of the Sabbath to wit that the exercise of worship and holy duties at this time is required for the duties sake as at other times the time is required for the times sake by which words they seem to make the bare circumstance of time to bee required here but this assertion had need be understood with much candor and the true explication of it for in some sense its most true which our Saviour affirms that man is not made for the Sabbath or the time of it Mark 2.27 Thesis 56. This time therefore may be considered two wayes 1. Abstractly 2. Concretely 1. Abstractly for the bare circumwance of time abstracted and stript from all other considerations and so it is very absurd to imagine all the holy duties of the Sabbath to be for the time as if God and all his holy worship should give homage unto and attend upon a naked empty circumstance Time in this respect is rather for the worships sake 2. Concretely as it is wholly sanctified and set apart for God or as it is a holy time set a part for holy rest that so man might attend upon God and in this respect all holy duties are for this time because in this respect they are for God who is all in all in holy time And therefore Wallaeus need not put us upon search to see whether the holy rest of the day be required in the second or any other Command for 't is not affirmed by any that the naked circumstance of time is here onely required without any holy rest but that a holy time of rest is herein commanded and therefore to bee referred to this command hence also it is most false which some affirme viz. That the rest from ordinary labours on this day as it is connected with holy duties of worship without which they cannot be performed is as necessary now as when the Jewish Sabbath was in being but otherwise out of these duties there is no holy time of rest commanded For such a restraint of time to holy duties as makes the time holy for the duties sake so that no time is holy but in the performance of holy duties and these duties upon narrow examination onely publick duties doth but open a gap for licentiousnesse voluptuousnesse sports May-poles and Dog-markets and such like prophanesse out of the time of holy publick worship or what private worship each man shall think most meet For in this sense holy duties are for the time because the whole day being sanctified holy duties are therefore to attend and in this respect are for this time and not the time for them viz. That when the time of the exercise of some holy duties doth cease the time of holy rest or holy time must then cease also Thesis 57. Nor should it seeme strange that holy duties should attend holy time and be for the sake of such time because although it bee true that this time is sanctified that man may performe holy duties yet man is now called to the performance of all holy duties that he may lastly honour God in all holinesse in such a speciall time Which time if any humane power onely should put any holinesse in and it therefore should be attended on what would it bee else but an observing of dayes and times condemned by the Apostle Romans 14. Gal. 4. which dirty ditch of observing times they unawares fall into who plead against a determined Sabbath sanctified of God and yet would have some time and day observed by the appointment of men For the observation of such dayes which God shall appoint cannot be condemned as an observing of times but the observation of dayes which humane wisedome shall think fit may be quickly reduced to such a transgression Thesis 58. If any think that there is a peculiar manner of holinesse and of worshipping God herein required which is not required in any other Commandment it may bee readily granted if by peculiar manner of sanctification be meant a more speciall degree and manner of exercising the whole worship of God in respect of such a time but it doth not therefore follow that any new kinde of worship which Wallaeus hence pleads for is required herein for this higher degree and speciall manner of worship is not the substance of any new worship
is not meant the weekly Sabbath for then say some what will you understand by new moons which are conjoyned with them yet these two things are evident 1. That Sabbaths and new moons were set times of worshipping God under the old Testament 2. That it is usuall with the Prophets to vaile and not alway to type out the worship and so the times of worship which were to be under the new Testament under the Ordinances of God observed in the old as may appeare Isa. 19.19 Mal. 1.11 as also by Ezekiels Temple and such like hence then it followes that although this place should not evict a seventh dayes Sabbath yet it demonstrates at least thus much that some let times and dayes shadowed out under the name of new moons and Sabbaths are to be observed under the new Testament and this is sufficient to prove the point in hand That all daies are not equall under the Gospell Thesis 78. The Kindome of heaven indeed doth not consist in meat and drink as the Apostle saith Rom. 14.17 i. in the use of externall indifferent things as those meats and drinks and some kind of dayes were or if in some sense it did yet not chiefely in them as if almost all religion did chiefely consist in them but doth it from hence follow that it consists not in things commanded nor in any set dayes of worship which are commanded If because the kingdom of God consists in internall peace and righteousnesse and joy of the holy Ghost that therefore all externall observances of times and duties of worship are not necessary to be attended by Gospel-worshippers as some secretly imagine then farewel all externall Preaching Sacraments Profession and Confession of the Name of Christ as well as Sabbaths and let such artists of licentiousnesse bring in all prophanesse into the world again by a law from heaven not condemning the acts of the outward man though never so abominable in abstinence from which by this rule the kingdome of heaven doth not consist Is it no honour to the King of glory as it is to earthly Princes to be served sometimes upon speciall Festivals in speciall state with speciall and glorious attendance by his people as well as after a common and usuall manner every day We have seen some who have at first held community of dayes onely to fall at last through the righteous judgment of God blinding their hearts to maintaine community of wives and that because the kingdome of God hath as they have thought consisted no more in outward relations as that is between Husbands and Wives than in the observation of externall circumstances and dayes Thesis 79. But this is not the ordinary principle by which many are led to maintaine an equality of dayes under the Gospel but this chiefely viz. that the morall law is not to bee a Christians rule of life for we aknowledge it to be no Covenant of life to a Beleever that either by the keeping of it he should be justified or that for the breach of it he should be condemned but they say that when a Believer hath life by the Covenant of grace the law is now not so much as a rule of life to such a one and then 't is no wonder if they who blow out the light of the whole morall law from being a light to their feet and a lamp to their paths if they hereby utterly extinguish this part of it viz. the Commandment of the Sabbath This dashing against the whole law is the very mystery of this iniquity why some doe cashier this law of the Sabbath and they doe but hide themselves behinde a thread when they oppose it by their weapons who therefore abandon it because it alone is ceremoniall above any other law Thesis 80. The Sabbath saith one is perpetuall and morall but not the Sabbath day the Sabbath which some make continuall and inward onely is perpetually to be observed but not the Sabbath day a Sabbath is by Divine ordination but a Sabbath day is to be observed onely as a humane constitution But they should doe well to consider whether that which they call an inward continuall Sabbath be inconsistent with a speciall day for I am sure that they under the old Testament were bound equally with us to observe a continuall Sabbath in resting from all sinne and resting in God by Iesus Christ Heb. 4.1 2. yet this did not exempt them from observing a speciall day A speciall day is a most powerfull meanes to Sabbatize every day Why then may not a Sabbath and a Sabbath day consist together An every day Sabbath is equally opposite to a time occasionally set as to a set day which the Commandment enjoyns and therefore if it exempts a Christian from observing a set day it sets him free also from all observation of any such set time for if because a Christian Sabbath ought to bee continuall and that therefore there ought to bee no set dayes then there should not bee any occasionally set times for the worship of God because these neither can be continuall and if there ought to be no such set times we may then bid good night to all the publick worship and glory of God in the world like the men with one eye to him who put his other eye quite out And if any here reply that there is not the like reason because holy time and days are not necessary but holy duties are necessary and therefore require some occasionall set time for them I answer That let the difference be granted yet that which I now dispute on is this ground and supposition onely viz. That if all set dayes are to bee abandoned because a Christians Sabbath ought to bee continuall and inward then all occasionall set times also are to bee abandoned upon the same ground because these cannot bee continuall and inward no more than the other as for them who think no holy day necessary but holy duties lawfull every day we have already and shall hereafter cleare up more fully in its proper place Mean while it is yet doubtfull to me whether those who follow Master Saltmarsh and some others will acknowledge the lawfulnesse of any occasionall set times for publick worship of hearing the word and prayer c. For he makes the bosome of the Father to bee the Christian Sabbath typified in the seventh day of the first Creation and he makes the six dayes of worke to be a type not onely of the Lord Iesus in his active and fulfilling administrations while he was in the flesh but also to be a figure of the Christian in bondage or to use his own words of a Christian under active and working administrations as those of the law and Gospel are as all formes of worship Duties Graces Prayer Ordinances c. From whence it will follow from his principles for I know not his practice that all formes of worship Duties Graces Prayer Ordinances are then to cease as types
time to be sanctified rather then a fifth a fourth or a ninth not simply because it was this seventh or a seventh but because in his wise determination thereof he knew it to be the most just and equall division of time between man and himself and therefore I know no incongruity to affirm that if God had seen one day in three or four or nine to be as equall a proportion of time as one day in seven that he would then have left it free to man to take and consecrate either the one or the other the Spirit of God not usually restraining where there is a liberty and on the other side if he had seen a third or fifth or ninth or twentieth part of time more equal then a seventh he would have fixed the bounds of labour and rest out of a seventh but having now fixed them to a seventh a seventh day is therefore morall rather then a fourth or sixt or ninth day because it is the most equall and fittest proportion of time all things considered between God and man the appointment therefore of a seventh rather then a sixt or fourth is not an act of Gods meer will only as our adversaries affirm and therefore they think it not morall but it was and is an act of his wisdom also according to a morall rule of justice viz. to give unto God that which is most fit most just and most equall and therefore although there is no naturall justice as Mr Primrose cals it in a seventh simply and abstractly considered rather then in a sixth or tenth yet if the most equall proportion of time for God be lotted out in a seventh there is then something naturall and morall in it rather then in any other partition of time viz. to give God that proportion of time which is most just and most equall and in this respect a seventh part of time is commanded because it is good according to the description of a morall law and not only good because it is commanded Thesis 131. 'T is true that in private duties of worship as to reade the Scriptures meditate pray c. the time for these and the like duties is left to the will and determination of man according to generall rules of conveniency and seasonablenesse set down in the word mans will in this sence is the measure of such times of worship but there is not the like reason here in determining time for a Sabbath as if that should be left to mans liberty also because those private duties are to be done in that time which is necessarily annexed to the duties themselves which time is therefore there commanded where and when the duty is commanded but the time for a Sabbath is not such a time as naturally will and must attend the action but it 's such a time as Counsell not nature sees most meet and especially That counsell which is most able to make the most equall proportions of time which we know is not in the liberty or ability of men or Angels but of God himself for do but once imagine a time required out of the limits of what naturally attends the action and it will be found necessarily to be a time determined by counsell and therefore our adversaries should not think it as free for man to change the Sabbath seasons from the seventh to the fifth or fourth or tenth day c. as to alter and pick our times for pâ—ivate duties Thesis 132. There is a double reason of proposing Gods example in the fourth Command as is evident from the Commandment it self the first was to perswade the second was to direct 1. To perswade man so to labour six daies together as to give the seventh or a seventh appointed for holy rest unto God for so the example speaks God laboured six daies and rested the seventh therefore do you do the like 2. To direct the people of God to That particular Seventh which for that time when the Law was given God would have them then to observe and that was that Seventh which did succeed the six daies labour and therefore for any to make Gods example of rest on That Seventh day an argument that God commanded the observation of that Seventh day only is a groundlesse assertion for there was something more generally aimed at by setting forth this example viz. to perswade men hereby to labour six daies and give God the seventh which he should appoint as well as to direct to that particular day which for that time it 's granted it also pointed unto and therefore let the words in the Commandment be obseâ—ved and we shall finde mans duty 1. More generally set down viz. to labour six daies and dedicate the seventh unto God and then follows Gods perswasion hereunto from his own example who when he had a world to make and worke to doe he did labour six daies together and rested the seventh and thus a man is bound to do still but it doth not follow that he must rest that particular seventh only on which God then rested or that that seventh though we grant it was pointed unto was only aimed at in this example the binding power of all examples whatsoever and therefore of this being ad speciem actus as they call it to that kind of act and not to the individuum actionis only or to every particular accidentall circumstance therein If indeed man was to labour six daies in memoriall only of the six daies of creation and to rest a Seventh day in memoriall only of Gods rest and cessation from creation it might then carry a faire face as if this example pointed at the observation of that particular seventh onely but look as our six daies labour is appointed for other and higher ends then to remember the six daies worke of God it being a morall duty to attend our callings therein so the Seventh day of rest is appointed for higher and larger ends as Didoclavius observes then onely to remember that notable rest of God from all his works it being a morall duty to rest the Seventh day in all holinesse Thesis 133. It was but accidentall and not of the essence of the Sabbath day that that particular Seventh from the creation should be the Sabbath for the Seventh day Sabbath being to be mans rest day it was therefore suitable to Gods wisdom to give man an example of rest from himselfe to encourage him thereunto for we know how strongly examples perswade now rest bâ—ing a cessation from labour it therefore supposes labour to goe before hence God could not appoint the first day of the creation to be the Sabbath because he did then but begin his labour nor could he take any the other daies because in them he had not finished his work nor rested from his labour therefore Gods rest fell out upon the last of seven succeeding six of labour before so that if there could have been any other day as fit then for exemplary
that by the force and analogy of this fourth Commandment all the true worshippers of God are bound to the exact observation of one day in the circle and compasse of seven and then he produceth a cloud of witnesses both ancient Fathers and the chief of our late reformers testifying to th◠same morality of one day in seven which himself maintaines that whoever shall read him herein would wonder how it should ever enter into the hearts of learned men as White Rogers Dow the Historian and many others to imagine and go about to befoole the world as if the morality of a seventh day was the late and soure fruit growing out of the crabbed and rigid stock of some English Puritans and reformers wherein they are forsaken of all their fellowes whom in all other things they so much admire in other Reformed Churches It being therefore confessed on all hands that the Sabbath is morall though I confesse at other times our Adversaries unsay this at least in their Arguments the Controversie therefore onely lies in this viz. How and in what respect it should be so Thesis 45. The generall consent herein also is this to wit That the morality of the Sabbath chiefly is in respect of some generality or in respect of something which is more generall in this Commandment rather then in respect of that particular day which the Commandment doth also point at for if the morality of it did lie in observing that particular day only how could there bee a change of that day to another For if the morality of a Sabbath was limited unto a particularity or to that one particular day it is then impossible that any other day to which that first is changed should be morall by vertue of the same Commandment but wee shall shew in fit place that the day is lawfully changed and morally observed and therfore that which is in this Commandment firstly morall must of necessity be somewhat more generall Thesis 46. The generall which we acknowledge to be morall in this command rightly understood is a seventh day Our adversaries would make it more generall and resolve it into a day or some day for solemne worship yet when they are forced to see and acknowledge by the dint of argument that this is too generall because thus the Commandment may be observed if one day in a thousand or once in ones life it be sanctified they doe therefore many times come nearer to us to somewhat lesse generall then a day viz. to a stinted fixed and appointed day and to such an appointed day as containes a sufficient proportion of time for God with convenient frequency no lesse frequent then theirs in the old Testament which was every seventh day as may be seen Thesis 44. and truly thus much being acknowledged by them one would think that the controversie with this sort of men was brought unto a comfortable and quiet issue and full agreement but it is strange to see how contrary the language is of these men sleeping from what it is when they are awake They strike fiercely at a seventh day and a determined time as impossible to be morall when they meet with them in the darke and yet we see acknowledge them in effect to be morall when they meet with them sometimes in the light Thesis 47. But because a seventh day may be accounted convenient by some and morall by others and because the determination of it may bee made by some either more lax or narrow viz. either to any day in seven which man or the Church may appoint or to such a seventh day as God shall determine It is therefore needfull for the clearing up of this controversie to seek out with an impartiall and sober mind the true meaning of the fourth Commandment and to enquire more particularly and exactly what is required it it and what is commanded by vertue of it which some able men not taking a right observation of in the dark and tempestuous times of controversie have therefore made miserable shipwrack not onely of the truth but also of themselves and souls of others Thesis 48. The things which are morally enjoyned in this Commandment are these two 1. Some things are Primariò i. Primarily firstly and more generally morall 2. Some things are secundariò i. Secondarily derivatively and consequently morall A time a day a seventh day of rest are in the first respect moral but in the other respect this or that particular seventh day may be said to be morall Things primarily morall are perpetuall things secondarily morall are not necessarily so As for example To honour superiors and fathers whether of Common-wealth or family is primarily morall but to honour these or those particular superiors is secondarily morall because our honouring of them ariseth from that primary and generall law of morall equity viz. that if our fathers are to be honoured then in the second place it followes that these and those particular persons being our lawfull fathers are to be honoured also To honor our fathers whom God hath set over us is perpetuall to honour these or those particular fathers is not perpetuall because themselves are not perpetuall but changeable It was a morall duty to honour this particular King David but it was not perpetuall for when David was taken away they were not bound to honour King David any more when King Solomon his sonne became his successor nor was it a ceremoniall duty to honour this or that particular King because it was changeable from one to another but it was a morall duty so to doe wherein the law and rule is not changed it being primarily morall but onely the object which wee are bound to honour secondarily in respect of the generall rule So 't is in this law of the Sabbath To keep a day a seventh dayes Sabbath is perpetual it being primarily morall but to observe this or that particular day is of it selfe changeable being secondarily morall For if it bee a morall duty to sanctifie a seventh day which God shall appoint then it 's morall as it were in the second place to sanctifie this or that seventh interchangeably which God doth appoint and yet it doth not follow that this or that particular seventh is in it selfe ceremoniall because it is changeable◠for in such a change the morall rule is not changed but the morall object onely to which it is morally applyed the duty is not changed but onely the day and in this respect it should not seem hard to make somethings morall which are not perpetuall for lawes primarily morall are properly perpetuall but lawes secondarily morall not necessarily so but changeable because as hath been said herein there is no change of the rule but onely of the object or application of the rule which may be variously and yet morally observed Thesis 49. This distinction of things primarily and secondarily morall is taken from the truth of things and which those who study this controversie
which Master Primrose contends for but rather directly to the second and reductively and indirectly as appendices to the fourth which appendices as they may be put to so they may be taken off againe the morall Commandment remaining entire even as we know Calvin referres many ceremoniall duties as appendices to such Commands concerning the morality of which Master Primrose doubts not and therefore for him to thinke that the Sabbath comprehends all Iewish Festivall dayes upon this ground viz. because the Sabbath is joyned with and put in among the reckoning of such Festivals Leviticus 23. Isaiah 1.13 14. hath no more force in it than by retorting the argument and upon the like ground prove it to be morall because it is joyned with Morall Commandments as honouring of Parents Leviticus 19.3 and prayer Isaiah 1.19 and by his owne confession with the other nine which are all of them morall also Thesis 65. Secondly not onely a solemne time but more particularly a solemne day a whole day of worship is here also required by vertue of this fouâ—th Command and the Lord gives us good reason for it that if he gives us many whole dayes for our owne work then not some part of a day but a day a whole day according to the reason and expresse words of the Commandment should bee marked out and set apart for his work and service if that place Isaiah 56.6 7. will not demonstrate a seventh dayes Sabbath under the new Testament yet â—â—sufficiently and fully clears the point in hand viz. that a Sabbath day is to be observed by the sonnes of the stranger or Gentiles who are called strangers to the Common-wealth of Irsael Ephesians 2.12 and indeed Wallaeus freely confesseth and proveth that a whole day is here required and if a whole day I hope none will think that the time out of publick Assemblies is common and prophane if a whole day be holy and therefore Mr. Primrose tels us that the Gentiles having no other law but the light of nature have appointed set dayes for the exercise of their religion and that as the Jews had their set days which we know were whole dayes so should Christians have theirs for their publick Assemblies under the Gospel which I hope must be therefore whole dayes also it is also considerable that if the three first Commandments requiring Gods worship do consequently require some time for that worship as being a necessary adjunct to all actions whether morall or civill and without which they cannot be performed then the fourth Command must require somewhat more particularly than a time of worship and therefore they that place the morality of the fourth Command in requiring onely a time of worship because say they a time of worship is necessary may upon this ground wholly and perfectly abolish the fourth Command as superfluous and needlesse because such a time of worship is required in all other Commandments necessarily They may also imagine as great a morality in the command of building the Temple the place of worship because a place of worship is necessary as well as a time it is not therefore a time but such a time as is preserved in a day even in a whole day for worship which is here commanded Thesis 66. The wise God could have appointed some part of every day to be kept holy rather than a whole day together but his wisdome saw this proportion of time every day to be more unmeet in respect of mans daily cumbers which doe so easily intangle mans thoughts and affections so as within some smal piece of a day he cannot ordinarily nor so easily recover and unloose himselfe to find the end of a Sabbath service which is most sweet and full rest in the bosome of his God as he may within the compasse of a whole day set a part for that end or suppose he could so doe in a piece and part of a day yet Gods Name should lose by it if he should not have the hoâ—â—ur of some solemne day which wee see doe serve to advâ—â—ce the names of idoll gods and men on earth it 's meet and just that Gods Name should be magnified by us commonly every day by setting a part some time which we may well spare as whet to the sithe out of our callings for God and this doth honour him but a day much more Thesis 67. They therefore who maintaine that a seventh day is not morall because it is but a circumstance of time may as well abolish time to be morall or any day to be morall because a day let it fall out when it will is but a circumstance of time which notwithstanding they account to be morall in this command but we know that much morality lyes in circumstances and why a day sanctified may not bee as much morall as a duty I yet see not Thesis 68. The Familists and Antinomians of late like the Manichees of old do make All dayes equally holy under the Gospel and none to bee observed more than another by vertue of any command of God unlesse it be from some command of man to which the outward man they think should not stick to conforme or unlesse it be pro re nata or upon severall occasions which speciall occasions are onely to give the Alarums for Church meetings and publick Christian Assemblies an audacious assertion crosse to the very light of nature among the blind heathens who have universally allowed the deity whom they ignorantly worshipped the honour of some solemn dayes crosse to the verdict of popish Schoolmen and Prelatists whose stomacks never stood much toward any Sabbath at all crosse to the scope of the Law of the Sabbath which if it hath any generall morality not denyed scarce to any of Moses Judicials surely one would think it should lie in the observation of some day or days though not in a seventh day for which now we do not contend Crosse also to the appointment of the Gospel foretold by Isaiah and Ezekiel Isa. 56.4 6. Ezek. 43.27 made mention of by our Saviour to continue long after the abolishing of all ceremonies by his death Mat. 24.20 who therefore bids them pray that their flight may not be in the winter nor on the Sabbath day which whether it be the Jewish or Christian Sabbath I dispute not only this is evident that he hath an eye to some speciall set day and which was lastly ordained by Christ and observed in the Primitive Churches commonly called the Lords day as shall be shewn in due place and which notion under pretence of more spiritualnes in making every day a Sabbath which is utterly unlawfull and impossible unlesse it be lawfull to neglect our own work all the week long and without which there can be no true Sabbath doth really undermine the true Sabbath in speciall set days and look as to make every man a King Judge in a Christian Common-wealth would be the introduction of confusion and consequently
rest as this and as afterward it sell out in the finishing of the work of redemption it might have been as well upon such a day as this but it was not then so and hence the rest day fell as it were accidentally upon this and hence it is that Gods example of rest on that particular day doth not necessarily binde us to observe the same seventh day morall examples not alway binding in their accidentals as the case is here although it be true that in their essentials they alway do Thesis 134. There is no strength in that reason that because one day in seven is to be consecrated unto God that therefore one yeere in seven is to be so also as of old it was among the Jewâ—â— for beside what hath been said formerly viz. that one yeere in seven was meerly ceremoniall one day in seven is not so saith Wallaeus but morall God gave no example whose example is onely in morall things of resting one yeere in seven but he did of resting one day in seven I say beside all this it is observable what Iunius notes herein The Lord saith he challengeth one day in seven jure creationis by right of creation and hence requires it of all men created but he challenged one yeere in seven jure peculiaris possessionis i. by right of peculiar possession the Land of Canaan being the Lords land in a peculiar manner even a type of Heaven which every other Country is not and therefore there is no reason that all men should give God one seventh yeer as they are to give him one seventh day By the observation of one day in seven saith he men professe themselves to be the Lords and to belong unto him who created and made them and this profession all men are bound unto but by observation of one yeere in seven they professed thereby that their Countrey was the Lords and themselves the Lords Tenants therein which all Countreys not being types of Heaven cannot nor ought to doe and therefore there is not the like reason urged to the observation of a seventh yeere as of a seventh day Thesis 135. Look therefore as 't is in the second Commandement although the particular instituted worship is changed under the Gospel from what it was under the Law yet the generall duty required therein of observing Gods own instituted worship is morall and unchangeable so t is in the fourth Commandement where though the particular day be changed yet the duty remains morall and unchangeable in observing a seventh day there is therefore no reason to imagine that the generall duty contained in this precept is not morall because the observance of the particular day is mutable and yet this is the fairest colour but the strongest refuge of lies which their cause hath who hold a seventh day to be meerly ceremoniall Thesis 136. If it be a morall duty to observe one day in seven then the observation of such a day no more infringeth Christian liberty then obedience to any other morall Law one part of our Christian liberty consisting in our conformity to it as our â—ondage consists in being left to sinne against it and therefore that argument against the morality of one day in seven is very feeble as if Christian liberty was hereby infringed Thesis 137. It was meet that God should have speciall service from man and therefore meet for himselfe to appoint a speciall time for it which time though it be a circumstance yet it s such a circumstance as hath a speciall influence into any businesse not onely humane but also divine and therefore if it be naturally it may be also ethically and morally good contributing much also to what is morally good and therefore the determination of such a time for length frequency and holinesse may be justly taken in among the morall Laws he that shall doubt of such a powerfull influence of speciall time for the furthering of what is specially good may look upon the art skill trade learning nay grace it self perhaps which he hath got by the help of the improvement of time a prophane and religious heart are seen and accounted of according to their improvements of time more or lesse in holy things Time is not therefore such a circumstance as is good only because commanded as the place of the Temple was but it is commanded because it is good because time nay much time reiterated in a weekly seventh part of time doth much advance and set forward that which is good Thesis 138. That Law which is an homogeneall part of the morall Law is morall but the fourth Commandment is such a part of the morall Law and therefore it is morall I do not say that that Law which is set and placed among the morall Laws in order of writing as our adversaries too frequently mistake us in that it is therefore morall for then it might be said as wel that the Sabbath is ceremoniall because it it is placed in order of writing among things ceremoniall Lev. 23. but if it be one link of the chain and an essentiall part of the morall Law then it s undoubtedly morall but so it is for its part of the Decalogue nine parts whereof all our adversaries we now contend with confesse to be morall and to make this fourth ceremoniall which God hath set in the heart of the Decalogue and commanded us to remember to keep it above any other Law seems very unlike to truth to a serene and sober minde not disturbed with such mud which usually lies at the bottome of the heart and turns light into darknesse and why one ceremoniall precept should be shuffled in among the rest which are of another tribe lineage and language hath been by many attempted but never soundly cleared unto this day surely if this Commandment be not morall then there are but nine Commandments left to us of the morall Law which is expresly contrary to Gods account Deut. 4. To affirm that all the commands of the Decalogue are morall yet every one in his proportion and degree and that this of the Sabbath is thus morall viz. in respect of the purpose and intent of the Lawgiver viz. That some time he set apart but not morall in respect of the letter in which it is exprest it is in some sence formerly explained true but in his sence who endeavours to prove the Sabbath ceremoniall while he saith it is morall is both dark and false for if it be said to be morall only in respect of some time to be set apart and this time an individuum vagum an indeterminate time beyond the verges of a seventh part of time then there is no more morality granted to the fourth Commandment then to the Commandment of building the temple and observing the new moons because in Gods command to build the Temple the generall purpose and intention of the Lawgiver was that some place be appointed for his publike worship and in commanding to
which notwithstanding may be morall although it be not so immediatly known Thesis 198. If we speak of the law of corrupt nature largely taken for that law which when 't is made known by divine determination and declaration is both sutable and congruous to naturall reason and equity we may then say that the Law of the Sabbath is according to the light of nature even of corrupt nature it self for do but suppose that God is to be worshipped and then these three things appear to be most equall 1. That he is not only to have a time but a speciall time and a fit proportion of time for worship 2. That it 's most meet that he should make this proportion 3. The Lord having given man six daies and taken a Seventh to himself mans reason cannot but confesse that it is most just to dedicate that time to God and for my own part I think that in this respect the law of the Sabbath was as fairly writ on mans heaâ—â— in innocency as many other morall laws which none question the morality of at this day but disputes about this are herein perhaps uselesse Thesis 199. The Sacrament of the Lords Supper may be administred meet circumstances concurring every Lords day nay upon the week daies often as they did in the primitive persecutions and hence our Saviour limits no time for it in the first institution thereof as he did for the Passeover of old but only this As oft as you doe it doe it in remembrance of me Hence it will follow that now under the Gospel there is no set Sabbath as M. Primrose would because our Saviour at the first institution of the Lords Supper limits no particular day for the celebration thereof as once he did for the Passeover for though there is an appointed speciall time as shall hereafter appeare for the publique exercise of all holy duties not being limited to those times but enlarged to other times also hence there is no reason why our Saviour should institute a set Sabbath when he instituted the Lords Supper as the proper time of the celebration thereof as it was in case of the Passeover Thesis 200. It is no argument to prove the Sabbath to be ceremoniall because it is reckoned among ceremonials viz. shew-bread and sacrifices as M. Primrose and Wallaeus urge it out of Mat. 12.1 2 3. for 1. upon the same ground fornication and eating of idolothytes are ceremoniall because they are ranked among ceremonials viz. bloud and things strangled Act. 15.29.2 upon this ground the Sabbath hath no morality at all in it no more then shew-bread and sacrifices which were wholly ceremoniall 3. The Sabbath is in the same place reckoned among things which are morall as pulling a sheep out of a pit upon the Sabbath day an act of humanity why may it not then be as well accounted morall 4. One may as well argue that the not keeping company with Publicanes and sinners was a ceremoniall thing because the Lord Jesus useth the same Proverbiall speech I will have mercy not sacrifice Mat. 9.13 upon which he defends the lawfullnesse of pulling the ears of corn upon the Sabbath day in this Mat. 12.15 the scope therefore of this place is not to shew the nature of the Sabbath day whether it be ceremoniall or morall but the lawfullnesse and morality of his act in eating the ears of corn upon this day and thus the arguments of our Saviour are very strong and convicting to prove the morality of such an act but no way to prove the ceremoniality of the Sabbath for that is the scope of our Saviour that mercy to the hungry is to be preferred before the Sacrifice of bodily resting upon the Sabbath M. Primrose indeed replies hereto and tels us that mercy is to be preferred before sacrifice or ceremoniall duties but not before morall duties and therefore Christ preferring it before the rest on the Sabbath the Sabbath could not be morall but we know that mercy in the second table is sometimes to be preferred before morall duties in the first table a man is bound to neglect solemn praier sometime to attend upon the sick it 's a morall duty to sanctifie some day for a Sabbath saith M. Primrose and yet suppose a fire be kindled in a town upon that day or any sick to be helped must not mercy be prefer'd before hearing the word which himself will acknowledge to be then a morall duty Thesis 201. When Christ is said to be Lord of the Sabbath Mat. 12.8 the meaning is not as if he was such a Lord as had power to break it but rather such a Lord as had power to appoint it and consequently to order the work of it for his own service M. Primrose thinks That he is said to be Lord of it because he had power to dispense with the keeping of it by whom when he would and that Christ did chuse to do such works upon the Sabbath day which were neither works of mercy or necessity nay which were servile which the Law forbade for Christ saith he as mediatour had no power to dispense with things morall but he might with matters ceremoniall and therefore with the Sabbath How far Christ Jesus might and may dispence with morall laws I dispute not now I think Biell comes nearest the truth in this controversie only this is considerable suppose the Sabbath was ceremoniall yet it 's doubtfull whether Christ Jesus who came in the daies of his flesh to fulfill all righteousnesse could abolish or break the law ceremoniall untill his death was past by which this hand-writing of Ordinances was blotted out Colos. 2.14 and this middle wall of partition was broken down Ephes. 2.14 15 16. But let it be yeelded that Christ had power to break ceremoniall laws then before his death yet in this place there is no such matter for the words contain a clear proof for the right observance of the Sabbath against the over-rigid conceptions of the superstitious and proud Pharisees who as they thought it unlawfull for Christ to heal the sick upon the Sabbath so to rub out and eat a few corn ears upon it although hunger and want and perhaps more then ordinary in the Disciples here should force men hereunto which was no servile work as Mr Primrose would but a work of necessity and mercy in this case and our Saviour proves the morality of it from the example of David eating the Shew-bread and those that were with him preferring that act of mercy before sacrifice and abstinence from Shew-bread and hence our Saviour argues That if they attending upon David might eat the Shew-bread much more his hungry Disciples might eat the corn while they attended upon him that day who was Lord of the Sabbath and that they might be the better strengthened hereby to do him service These things being thus where now is there to be found any reall breach of the Sabbath or doing of any
what Mr. Brabourne and Mr. Primrose have alledged against the same The second Part. LONDON Printed for Iohn Rothwell 1650. The generall Contents about the change of the Sabbath 1. SVfficient Light in the Scriptures for the change of the Sabbath Thes. 1. 2. Apostolicall unwritten-traditions no ground for the change of it Thes. 2. 3. Neither Churches custome or any Imperiall Law ground of the change of it Thes. 3. 4. How the observation of the Christian Sabbath ariseth from the fourth Commandement Thes. 4. 5. How 〈◊〉 day in the week may be called the seventh day Thes. 7 8. 6. The will of God the Efficient cause the Resurrection of Christ the morall cause of the change of the Sabbath Thes. 10. 7. The Asceâ—tion no ground of the change of the Sabbath Thes. 13. 8. The 〈…〉 spoyled in his first Creation by the sin of man hence the Day of Rest may be well changed Thes. 16. 9. Neither the three dayes resting of Christ in the grave nor the 33. yeers of Christs labour the ground of our labour and rest now Thes 18. 10. Not only Christs Resurrection but an affixed Type to the first Sabbath is the ground of the abrogation of it Thes. 20. 11. What the affixed Type to the Sabbath is Thes. 21. 12. The meer exercises of holy duties upon a day are not any true ground to make such a day the Christian Sabbath Thes. 25. 13. How holy duties on a day may evince a Sabbath day Thes. 26. 14. The first day of the week honour'd by the Primitive Churches from the Commandment of the Lord Iesus Thes. 27. 15. The Apostles preaching on the Iewish Sabbath doth not argue it to be the Christian Sabbath Thes. 30. 16. The first day of the week proved to be the Christian Sabbath by Divine Institution Thes. 34. 17. The first place alledged for the Christian Sabbath Acts 20.7 cleared by nine considerations Thes. 35. 18. The second place from 1 Cor. 16.1 2. cleared from seven considerations Thes. 36. 19. The third Scripture Rev. 1.10 cleared by two 〈◊〉 branches Thes. 37. 20. How the Christian Sabbath ariseth from the fourth Commandment although it be not particularly named in it Thes. 40. 21. The error of those especially in the Eastern Churches who observed two Sabbaths Thes. 41. 22. How the work of Redemption may be a ground for all men to observe the Sabbath Thes. 42. 23. How far the Iudgement of God upon prophaners of the Lords Day is of force to evince the holinesse of the Sabbath Thes. 44. The Change of the Sabbath THESIS 1. THe change of this day from the last to the first of the week although it be confirmed by an ancient custome yet the true reason and grounds of so great a change are not so fully known Sacred writings not so expresly setting down as it doth in some things of lesse concernment the causes hereof And many of the Arguments heaped up and multiplyed by some for the change of it which may seem of great weight while they want an adversary at the other end of the Scale to ballance them Yet upon sad examination and search into them they prove too light and consequently occasion the temptation of scrupling the truth and validity of others more cleare We are therefore with more warinesse and humility of mind to search into this Controversie and with much thankfulnesse and modesty to accept that little light which God gives us in greater as well as of much light which he is pleased to lend us in smaller matters Pascimur apertis exercemur obscuris was his speech long since concerning the Scriptures There is no truth so clear but mans loose wit can invent and mint many pernicious Cavils against it and therefore in those things which shine forth with lesse evidence it is no wonder if it casts such blots and staines upon them as that they can fear 〈…〉 discerned Nil magis inimicum veritati acumine 〈…〉 therfore be wise with sobriety remember that in this and such like Controversies the Scriptures were not written to answer all the scruples and objections of Cavillers but to satisfie and stablish the consciences of poor beleevers And verily when I meet with such like speeches and objections as these viz. Where is it expressely said that the old Sabbath is abrogated and what one Scripture is there in the N. Testament declaring expressely that the Lords day is substituted and put in its roome I cannot from such expressions but think and fear that the ignorance of this change in some doth not spring so much from deficiency and want of light on Gods part but rather from perversnes on mans part which will not see nor own the tâ—uth because it is not revealed and dispensed after that manner and fashion of expression as mans wit and phantasie would have it Like Naaman who because the Prophet went not about the cure of his Leprosie in that way and fashion which he would have him did not therefore for a time see that way of cure which God had revealed to him For the Holy Ghost is not bound to write all the principles of Religion under Common-place heads nor to say expressely In this place of Scripture you may see the old Sabbath abrogated and the new instituted for we find no such kind of expressions concerning Pauls Epistles and many books of Scripture that this or that Epistle or book is Canonical which yet we know to be so by other evidences We know also that the Holy Ghost by brief hints of Truth gives occasion of large Comments and by writing about other matters tanquam aliud agens it brings forth to light by the By revelations of great concernment which it saw meet purposely in that manner to make known And as in many other things it hath thus done so especially in this of the Sabbath So that if our hearts like Locks were fitted to Gods Key they would be soon opened to see thorough the difficulties of this point which I confesse of all practicall points hath been most fuâ—l of knots and difficulties to my own weaknesse Thesis 2. To make Apostolicall unwritten inspirations notified and made known in their dayes to the Churches to be the cause of the change of the Day is to plough with a Popish Heifer and to cast that Anchor on which deceivers rely and by which they hope to save themselves when they know not how otherwise to defend their falshoods Thesis 3. To make Ecclesiasticall Custome established 〈◊〉 by the Imperiall Law of Constantine to be the 〈◊〉 of the change is to make a prop for Prelacy and a step to Popery and to open a gap to all humane inventions For if it be in the Churches power to appoint the greatest Holy day why may not any other Rite and Ceremony be imposed also and if it be free to observe this day or not in respect of it selfe because it wants a divine institution and yet necessary to
observe it in respect of the Churches Custome and constitution as some pretend why may not the Chuâ—ches Commandment be a rule of obedience in a thousand things else as well as in this and so introduce Will-Worship and to serve God after the tradition of men which God abhors Thesis 4. The observation of the first day of the weeke for the Christian Sabbath ariseth from the force of the fourth Commandment as strongly as the observation of the media cultus or means of worship now under the New Testament doth from the force of the second Commandment only let this be supposed that the day is now changed as we shall hereafter prove as also that the worship it self is changed by divine institution for Gospel-institutions when they be appointed by divine and soveraign Authority yet they may then be observed and practised by vertue of some morall Law The Gospel appointed new Sacraments but we are to use them by vertue of the second Commandment so here the Gospel appoints a new seventh day for the Sabbath but it stands by vertue of the fourth Commandment and therefore the observation of it is not an Act of Christian Liberty but of Christian duty imposed by divine Authâ—rity and by vertue of the moral Law Thesis 5. For the morality of the fourth Commandment as hath been proved being preserved in observing not that Sabbath only nor yet a Sabbath meerly when man sees meet but in observing the Sabbath i. e. such a Sabbath as is determined and appointed of God which may therefore be either the first or last of the seven dayes Hence it is that the first of the seven if it be determined and instituted of God under the New Testament ariseth equally from the fourth Commandment as the last seventh day did under the old Testament and therefore it is no such piaculum nor delusion of the common People as Mr. Brabourne would make it to put the Title of the Lords Sabbath upon the Lords day and to call it the Sabbath day for if it be borne out of the same wombe the first seventh was if it arise I mean from the same Commandment Remember to keep holy the Sabbath day why may it not bear the name of the Sabbath nâ—w as the first-born did in former times Thesis 6. If the Lord would have man to worke six dayes together according to his own example and the morality of the fourth Commandement that so a seventh day determined by himselfe might be observed Hence it is that neither two Sabbaths in a week can stand with the morality of the fourth Commandement nor yet could the former Sabbath be justly changed into any other day then into the first day of the week the first day could not belong to the week before for then there should be eight days in a week and if it did belong to the week following then if we suppose that the second day had been the Sabbath there must be one working day viz. the first day to go before it and five working dayes after it and so there should not nor could not be six working dayes continued together that the seventh might be the Lords according to the morality of the fourth Commandement And hence it is that no Humane or Ecclesiasticall power can change the Sabbath to what day of the week they please from the first which now is Thesis 7. It should not seem an uncouth Phrase or a hard saying to call the first day of the weeke a seventh or the seventh day for though it be the first absolutely in order of existence from the Creation yet relatively in way of relation and in respect of the number of seven in a week it may be invested with the name and title of a seventh even of such a seventh as may lawfully be câ—owned and annointed to be the Sabbath day for look as Noah though he was the first in order of yeares and dignity of entrance into the Ark yet he is called the eight 2 Pet. 2.5 in that he was one of them as the learned observe qui octonarium numerum perficiebant or who made up the number of eight so it is in respect of the first day which in divers respects may be called the first and yet the seventh also Mr. Brabournes Argument therefore is of no solidity who goes about to prove the Christian Sabbath to be no Sabbath Because That Sabbath which the fourth Commandement injoynes is called the seventh day but all the Evangelists cal the Lords day the first day of the week not the seventh day For he should remember that the same day in divers respects may be called the first day and yet the seventh day for in respect of its naturall existence and being it may be and is called the first day and yet in respect of divine use and application it may be and is called the seventh day even by vertue of the fourth Commandement which is the Lords day which is confessed to be the first day Thesis 8. For although in numero numerante as they call it i. e. in number numâ—â—ing there can be but one seventh which immediately follows the number six yet in numero numerato i. e. in number numbred or things which are numbred as are the dayes of the week any of the seven may be so in way of relation and proportion As suppose seven men stand together take the last man in order from the other six who stand about him and he is the seventh so againe take the first in order and set him apart from the six who stand below him and if the number of them who are taken from him make up the number of six he then may and must necessarily be called the seventh Just thus it is in the dayes of the week the first Sabbath from the Creation might be called the seventh day in respect of the six dayes before it and this first day of the week may be called the seventh day also in respect of the six working dayes together after it That may be called the last seventh this the first seventh without any absurdity of account which some would imagine and if this first day of the week is called the eight day according to Ezekiels Prophesie of Evangelicall times and his reckoning onward from the Creation Ezek. 43.27 why may it not then in other respects put on the name of a seventh day also Thesis 9. The reason why the Lord should depose the last seventh and exalt and crowne the first of seven to be the day of the Christian Sabbath is not so well considered and therefore to be here narrowly examined For as for those Easterne Christians who in the primitive times observed two Sabbaths in a week the Jewish and the Christian doubtlesse their milke sod over and their zeale went beyond the Rule The number of Jewes who were beleevers and yet too too zealous of their old customes we know did fill those places in their dispersion and before more then
with 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 as it were upon Mount Zion and proclaime by word or writing in so many expresse words That the Iewish Sabbath is abrogated and the first day of the week instituted in its roome to be observed of all Christians to the end of the world For t is not the Lords manner so to speak in many other things which concerne his Kingdome but as it were occasionally or in way of History or Epistle to some particular Church or people and thus he doth concerning the Sabbath and yet Wisdomes mind is plain enough to them that understand Nor do I doubt but that those Scriptures which are sometimes alledged for the Change of the Sabbath although at first blush they may not seeme to heare up the weâ—ght of this cause yet being throughly considered they are not onely sufficent to stablish modest minds but are also such as may 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or stop the mouths even of wranglers themselves Thesis 25. I doe not thinke that the exercise of holy duties on a Day argues that such a Day is the Christian Sabbath Day for the Apostles preached commonly upon the Jewish Sabbath sometime upon the first day of the week also and therefore the bare exercise of holy duâ—ies on a day is no sufficient Argument that either the one or the other is the Christian Sabbath for then there might be two Sabbaths yea many Sabbaths in a week because there may be many holy duties in severall dayes of the week which we know is against the Morality of the fourth Commandment Thesis 26. Yet notwithstanding although holy duties on a Day doe not argue such a Day to be our Sabbath yet that Day which is set apart for Sabbath services rather then any other Day and is honoured above any other Day for that end surely such a day is the Christian Sabbath Now if it may appear that the first Day of the week was thus honoured then certainly it is to be accounted the Christian Sabbath Thesis 27. The Primitive patterne Churches thus honoured the fiâ—st Day of the weeke and what they practised without reproof that the Apostles who planted those Churches enjoyned and preached unto them so to do at least in such weighty matters as the Change of Dayes of preferring one before that other which the Lord had honoured before and what the Apostles preached that the Lord Jesus commanded Matth. 28.20 Go teach all Nations that which I Command you unlesse any shall think that the Apostles sometime went beyond their Commission to teach that to others which Christ never commanded which is blasphemous to imagine for though they might erre in practise as men and as Peter did at Antioch and Paul and Barnabas in their contention yet in in their publike ministry they were infallibly and extraordinarily assisted especially in such things which they hold forth as patterns for after times if therefore the Primitive Churches thus honoured the first day of the week above any other day for Sabbath services then certainly they were instituted and taught thus to do by the Apostles approving of them herein and what the Apostles taught the Churches that the Lord Iesus commanded to the Apostles So that the approved practise of the churches herein shewes what was the Doctrine of the Apostles and the Doctrine of the Apostles shewes what was the command of Christ so that the sanctification of this Fiâ—st Day of the week is no humane tradition but a Divine institution from Christ himselfe Thesis 28. That the Churches honoured this Day above any other shall appeare in its place as also that the Apostles commanded them so to doe Yet Mr. Primrose saith that this latter is doubtful and Mr. Ironside not questioning the matter fals off with another evasion viz. That they acted herein not as Apostles but as ordinary Pastours and consequently as fallible men not only in commanding this Change of the Sabbaâ—h but in all other matters of Church government among which he reckons this of the Sabbath to be one which he thinks were imposed according to their private wisdome as most fit for those times but not by any Apostolicall Commission as concerning all times But to imagine that matters of Church-government in the Apostles dayes wete coats for the Moon in respect of after-times and that the form of it is mutable as he would have it I suppose will be digested by few honest and sober minds in these times unlesse they be byassed for a season by politick ends and therefore herein I will not now contend oneâ—y it may be considered whether any private spirit could abolish that Day which from the beginning of the world God so highly honoured and then honour and advance another Day above it and sanctifie it too as shall be proved for religious services Could any do this justly but by immediate dispensation from the Lord Christ Jesus and if the Apostles did thus receive it immediately from Christ and so teach the observation of it they could not then teach it as fallible men and as private Pastors as he would have it a pernicious conceit enough to undermine the faith of Gods elect in many matters more weighty then this of the Sabbath Thesis 29. To know when and where the Lord Christ instructed his Desciples concerning this Change is needlesse to enquire It is sufficient to beleeve this that what the Primitive Churches exemplarily practised that was taught them by the Apostles who planted them and that whatsoever the Apostles preached the Lord Christ commanded as hath been shewen Yet if the Change of the Sabbath be a matter appertaining to the Kingdome of God why should we doubt but that within the space of his forty dayes abode with them after his Resurrection he then taught it them for 't is expressely said that He then taught them such things Acts 13. Thesis 30. When the Apostles came among the Jewes they preached usually upon the Jewish Sabbaths but this was not because they did thinke or appoint it herein to be the Christian Sabbath but that they might take the fittest opportunity and season of meeting with and so of preaching the Gospel to the Jewes in those times For what power had they to call them together when they saw meet or if they had yet was it meet for them thus to do before they were sufficiently instructed about Gods mind for setting apart some other time and how could they be sufficiently and seasonably instructed herein without watching the advantage of those times which the Jewes yet thought were the only Sabbaths The dayes of Pentecost Passeover and houres of prayer in the Temple are to be observed still as well as the Iewish Sabbath if the Apostles preaching on their Sabbaths argues the continuance of them as Mr. Brabourne argues for we know that they preached also and went up purposely to Ierusalem at such times to preach among them as well as upon the Sabbath dayes look therefore as they laid hold upon the
dayes of Pentecost and Passeover as the fittest seasons to preach to the Jewes but not thinking that such Feasts should still be continued so it is in their preaching upon the Jewish Sabbaths Thesis 31. Nor did the Apostles sinfully Iudaize by preaching to the Iewes upon their Sabbaths as Mr. Brabourne would inferre supposing that their Sabbaths should not be still observed they should then Iudaiz and after Ceremonies saith he and so build up those things which they laboured to destroy For suppose they did observe such Dayes and Sabbaths as were Ceremonial for a time yet it being done not in conscience of the Day but in conscience of taking so fit a season to preach the Gospel in it could not nor cannot be any sinful Iudaizing especially while then the Iews were not sufficiently instructed about the abolishing of those things For Mr. Brabourne could not but know that all the Iewish Ceremonies being once the appointment of God were to have an honourable burial and that therefore they might be lawfully observed for a time among the Iewes untill they were more fully instructed about them and hence Paul Circumcised Timothy because of the Iewes Acts. 16.3 and did otherwise conforme to them that so he might winne and gaine the more upon them and if Paul observed purposely a Iewish Ceremony of Circumcision which was not necessary nay which was not lawfull to be observed among the Gentiles Galat. 5.2 and yet he observed it to gaine the Iewes why might not Paul much more preach the Gospel which is in it selfe a necessary Duty upon a Iewish Sabbath which fell out occasionally to him and therefore might lawfully be observed for such an end among the Iewes which among the Gentiles might be unlawful Suppose therefore that the Apostles might have taught the Iewes from house to house as Mr. Brabourne argues against the necessity put upon the Apostles to preach upon the Iewish Sabbath yet what Reason or Conscience was there to lose the opportunity of publike preaching for the more plentiful gathering in of soules when many are met together and which may lawfully be done and be contented onely to seek their good in such private waies and what although Paul did assemble the chiefe of the Iewes together at Rome when he was a prisoner to acquant them with Civill matters about his imprisonment Acts. 28.17 yet had he power to do thus in all places where he came or was it meet for him so to do Did not he submit the appointment of a sacred Assembly to heare the word rather unto them then assume it to himself Acts 28 23. It is therefore false and unsound which Master Brabourne affirmes viz. That Paul did preach on the Iewish Sabbath in conscience of the Day not merely with respect of the opportunity he then tooke from their owne publike meetings then to preach to them For saith he Paul had power to assemble them together upon other dayes This I say is both false for he that was so much spoken against among them might not in all places be able to put forth such a power as also 't is unsound for suppose he had such a power yet whether it was so meeâ— for him to puâ—â—t forth in appointing other times may be easily judged of by what hath been said Thesis 32. Nor is there a foundation here laid of making all other actions of the Apostles unwarrantable or unimitable as Mr. Brabourne saith because we are not to imitate the Apostles herein in preaching upon the Iewish Sabbaths For no actions either of Christ or the Apostles which were done meerly in respect of some speciall occasion or speciall reason are eatenus or in that respect binding to others For the example of Christ eating the Lords supper onely with men not women in an upper chamber and towards the dark evening doth not bind us to exclude women or not to celebrate it in other places and times because we know that these actions were meerly occasioned in respect of speciall reasons as the eating of the Passeover with ones own family Christs family not consisting of women so it is here in respect of the Sabbath The Apostles preaching upon the Iewish Sabbaths was meerely occasionall by occasion of the publique meetings their fittest time to doe good in which were upon this and any other day Thesis 33. Now although the Iewes observing this day the Apostles observed it among the Iewes by preaching among them yet we shall finde that among the Christian Gentile Churches and believers where no Iudaisme was to be so much as tolerated for a time not any such day was thus observed nay another day the first day in the weeke is honoured and preferred by the Apostles above any other day in the weeke for religious and Sabbath services For although Holy duties doe not argue alway a Holy day yet when wee shall finde the Holy Ghost single out and nominate one particular day to be observed and honoured rather then any other day and rather then the Iewish seventh day it selfe for Sabbath services and Holy duties this undeniably proves that day to be the Christian Sabbath and this we shall make evident to be the first day of the weeke Which one thing seriously minded if proved doth utterly subvert the whole frame and force of Master Brabournes shady Discourse for the observation of the Jewish Sabbath and most effectually establisheth the Christian Sabbath Master Braburne therefore herein bestirs his wits and tells us on the contrary that Paul preached not onely to the Iewes but even unto the Gentiles upon this Iewish Sabbath rather then any other day and for this end brings double proofâ— one is Acts 13.42 44. where the Gentiles are said to desire Paul to preach to them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. the weeke betweene or any Day betweene till the next Sabbath as some translate it or if Master Brabourne will the next Sabbath or Iewish Sabbath when almost all the City came out to heare Paul who were most of them Gentiles not Iewes Be it so they were Gentiles indeed but as yet no Church or Christian Church of Gentiles actually under Christs Government and Ordinances among whom I say the first day of the weeke was so much honoured above any other day for sacred Assemblies For 't is no wonder if the Apostles yield to their desires in preaching any time of the weeke which they thought the best time even upon the Iewish Sabbath among whom the Iewes being mingled they might have the fitter opportunity to preach to them also and so become all things to all men to gaine some His second proofe is Acts 16 12 13. and here he tells us that Paul and Timothy preached not to the Iewes but to the Gentiles upon the Sabbath day I confesse they are not called Iewes no more then 't is said that they were Gentiles but why might not Lydia and her company be Iewes or Iewish Proselytes vvho vve know did observe the Iewish
Sabbath strictly till they were better instructed as they did all other Jewish ceremonies also For Lydia is expressely said to be one who worshipped God befoâ—e Paul came Master Brabourne tels us they were no Iewish Proselytes because they had no Iewish Synagogue and therefore they were faine to goe out of the City into the Fields beside a River to pray I confesse the Text saith that they went out to a River side where prayer was wont to be made but that this was the open Fields and that there was no Oratory house or place of shelter to meet and pray in this is not in the Text but its Master Brabournes comment and glosse on it But suppose it was in the open Fields and that they had no Synagogue yet will it follow that these were not Iewes might not the Iewes be in a Gentile City for a time without any Synagogue especially if their number be but small and this small number consist chiefly of women as it seemes this did whose hearts God touched leaving their husbands to their owne waies If they were not Iewes or rather Iewish Proselyâ—es why did they choose the Sabbath day which the Iewes so much set by rather then any other to pray and worship God together in But verily such answers as these wherewith the poor man abounds in his Treatise make me extreamly fear that he rather stretcht his Conscience then was acted by a plaine deluded Conscience in this point of the Sabbath Thesis 34. It remains therefore to prove that the first Day of the week is the Christian Sabbath by Divine institution and this may appeare from those three texts of Scripture ordinarily alledged for this end I. Acts 20.7 II. 1 Cor. 16.2 III. Revel 1.10 Which being taken joyntly together hold these three things 1. That the first Day of the week was honoured above any other day for Sabbath services in the Primitive Churches practise as is evident Acts 20.7 2. That the Apostles commanded the observation of this Day rather then any other for Sabbath-services as is evident 1 Cor. 16.1 2. 3. That this day is holy and sanctified to be holy to the Lord above any other day and therefore it hath the Lords name upon it an usual signe of things Holy to him and therefore called the Lords Day as is evident Revel 1.10 but these things need more particular explication Thesis 35. In the first of these places Acts 10.7 these particulars are manifest 1. That the Church of Troas called Disciples publikely and generally now met together so that it was no private Church-meeting as some say but generall and open according as those times would give leave 2 That this meeting was upon the first day of the week called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which phrase although Gomarus Primrose Heylin and many others go about to translate thus viz. upon one of the dayes of the week Yet this is sufficient to dash that Dream besides what else might be said viz That this phrase is expounded in other Scriptures to be the first day of the week Luke 24 1. Iohn 20 1. but never to be found throughout all the Scriptures expounded of one day in the week Gomarus indeed tels us of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luke 5.17 8.22 20.1 which is translated quodam die or a certain day but this will not help him for this is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as 't is in this place 3. That the end of this meeting was Holy Duties viz. to break bread or to receive the Lords Supper as the phrase is expounded Acts 2.43 which was therefore accompanied with preaching the word and prayer Holy preparation and serious meditation about those great mysteries Nor can this breaking of Bread be interpreted of their Love-feasts or common Suppers as Gomarus suspects For their Love-feasts and common Suppers were not of the whole Church together as this was but in several houses as Mr. Cartwright proves from Acts 2.46 And although the Corinthians used their Love-Feasts in publike yet they are sadly reproved for it by the Apostle 1 Cor. 11.12 and therefore he would not allow it here 4. 'T is not said that Paul called them together because he was to depart the next day or that they purposely declined the Lords Supper till that day because then Paul was to depart as Master Primrose urgeth but the text speaks of it as of a time and Day usually observed of them before and therefore it is said that when they came together to break bread and Paul therefore took his opportunity of preaching to them and seemes to stay purposely and wait seven dayes among them that he might communicate with them and preach unto them in this ordinary time of publike meeting and therefore though he might privately instruct and preach to them the other seven dayes yet his preaching now is mentioned in regard of some speciall solemnity of meeting on this Day 5. The first Day was honoured above any other Day for these Holy Duties or else why did they not meet upon the last Day of the week the Iewish Sabbath for these ends For if the Christian Churches were bound to observe the Iewish Sabbath why did they not meet then and honour the seventh Day above the first day considering that it was but the day before and therefore might easily have done it more fitly too had that seventh day been the Christian Sabbath 6. Why is the first Day of the week mentioned which is attributed onely in the New Testament to the Day of Christs resurrection unlesse this day was then usually honoured and sanctified for Holy Duties called here breaking of bread by a Synecdoche of a part for the whole and therefore comprehends all other Sabbath Duties For there is no more reason to exclude prayer preaching singing of Psalmes c. because these are not mentioned then to exclude drinking of Wine in the Sacrament as the blinde Papists do because this neither is here made mention of Master Primrose indeed tels us that it may be the first Day of the week is named in respect of the Miracle done in it upon Euâ—ichus But the Text it plaine the time of the meeting is mentioned and the end of it to break Bread and the Miracle is but brought in as a particularly event which happened on this day which was set apart first for higher ends 7. Nor is it said in the Text that the Church of Troas meâ— every day together to receive the Sacrament as Master Prâ—mrose suggests and that therefore this action of breaking Bread was done without respâ—ct to any particular or special Day it being performed every Day For I do not finde that the Primitive Church received the Lords Supper every day for though it be said Actsâ— â—2 That the Church continued in the Apostles Fellowship and breaking of Bread yet it is not said that they broke Bread every day they are indeed said to be daily in the Temple verse 46.
but not that they brake Bread every day in the Temple or from house to house or if they should yet the bâ—eaking of Bread in this verse is meant of Common not Sacred Bread as it is verse 42. where I think the Bread was no more Common then their continuance in the Apostles Droctrine and Fellowship was Common and therefore in this 46. verse the phrase is altered and the Original word properly signifies ordinary Bread for common nourishment And yet suppose they did receive the Sacrament every day yet here the breaking of Bread is made mention of as the opus diei or the speciall businesse of the day and the day is mentioned as the special time for such a purpose and hence no other day if they break Bread in it is mentioned and therefore it s called in effect the day of meeting to break bread Nor do I finde in all the Scripture a day distinctly mentioned for holy duties as this first day of the week is wherein a whole people or Church meet tâ—gether for such ends but that day was Holy the naming of the particular day for such ends implies the Holinesse of it and the time is purposely mentioned that others in after times might purposely and specially observe that Day 8 Nor is it said that the Disciples met together the night after the first day but it s expressely said to be upon the first day of the week and suppâ—se as Mr. Brabourne saith that their meeting was noâ— together in the morning but onely in the evening time to celebrate the Lords Supper a little before the shutting in of the day yet it s a sufficient ground for conscience to observe this day above any other for holy services although every part of the day be not filled up with publike Church duties for suppose the Levites on the Jewish sabbath should do no holy publike duty on their own Sabbath untill the day was farre â—pent will Mr. Brabourne argue from thence that the Jewish Sabbath was not wholly holy unto God But againe suppose the latter part of the day was spent in breaking of Bread yet will it follow that no other part of the day was spent before either in any private or publique holy duties possibly they might receive the Lords Supper in the evening of this Sabbath for the time of this action is in the general indifferent yet might they not spend the rest of the morning in publike Duties as we know some do now in some Churches who are said to meet together to break Bread the latter part of this day and yet sanctifie the Sabbath the whole day before Suppose it be not expressely said that they did shut up shopwindwes at Troas and forsake the Plough and the Wheele and abstaine from all servile work yet if he beleeves that no more was done this day but what is expressely set downe Mr. Brabourne must needs see a pitiful face of Christ in the Lords Supper and people comming â—ushing upon it without any serious examination or preparation or singing of Psalms because no such Duties as these are mentioned to be upon this Day 9. Lastly Master Primrose like a staggering man knowes not what to fasten on in answer to this place therefore tels us that suppose it was a Sabbath yet that it might be taken up from the Churches Liberty and Custome rather then from any Divine institution But besides that which hath been said to dasht his Dreame Thes. 27. the falsenesse of this common and bold assertion will appeare more fully in the explication of the second text 1 Cor. 16.1 2. which now followes wherein it will appeare to be an Apostolical and therefore a Divine Institution from Jesus Christ. Thesis 36. In the second of the places therefore alledged 1 Cor. 16.1 2. These things are considerable to prove the first day in the week to be the Christian Sabbath and that not so much by the Churches practise as by the Apostles precept For 1. Although it be true that in some cases Collections may be made any day for the poore Saints yet why doth the Apostle here limit them to this day for the performance of this Duty they that translate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon one day of the week do miserably mistake the phrase which in Scripture phrase onely signifies the first day of it and beat their forheads against the maine Scope of the Apostle viz. to fixe a certaine day for such a Duty as required such a certaine time For they might by this translation Collect their Benevolences one day in foure or ten yeers for then it should be done one day in a week 2 The Apostle doth not onely limit them to this time but also all the Churches of Galatia verse 1. and consequently all other Churches if that be true 2 Cor. 8.13 14. wherein the Apostle professeth he pressâ—th not one Church that he may ease another Church but that there be an equality and although I see no ground from this Text that the maintenance of the Ministry should be raised every Sabbath day for Christ would not have them reckoned among the poore being labourers worthy of their Hire and although this Collection was for the poore Saints of other Churches yet the proportion strongly holds that if there be ordinary cause of such Collections in every particular Church these Collections should be made the first day of the week much more carefully and religiously for the poore of ones own Church and that in all the Churches of Christ Jesus to the end of the world 3. The Apostle doth not limit them thus with wishes and counsels onely to do it if they thought most meet but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 verse 1. as I have ordained or instituted and therefore bindes their consciences to it and if Paul ordained it certainly he had it from Christ Jesus who first commanded him so to appoint it who professeth that what he had received of the Lord that onely he commanded unto them to do 1. Cor. 11.23 4. If this day had not been more holy and more fit for this work of Love then any other day he durst not have limited them to this Day nor durst he have honoured this Day above any other in the weeke yea above the Iewish seventh Day For we see the very Apostle tender alway of Christian Liberty and not to binde were the Lord leaves his people free for thus doing he should rather make snares then Lawes for Churches 1 Cor. 7.27.35 and go expressely against his own Doctrine Galat. 5.1 who bids them stand fast in their Liberty and that in this very point of the observation of dayes Galat. 4.10 But what fitnesse was there on this Day for such a service Consider therefore 5. That the Apostle doth not in this place immediatly appoint and institute the Sabbath but supposeth it to be so already as Mr. Primrose is forced to acknowledge and we know Duties of Mercy and Charity as
surely it is wil-worship for any Humane Custome to institute it Now the Lords name being stamped upon this Day and so set apart for the honour of Christ it cannot be that so it should be called in respect of the Churches customes for surely then they should have been condemned for wil-worship by some of the Apostles and therefore it is in respect of the Lords institution hereof Thesis 39. The second Difficulty now lies in clearing up this particular viz. That this Day thus sanctified was the first Day of the week which is therefore the Holy Day of the Lord our God and consequently the Christian Sabbath for this purpose let these ensuing particulars be laid together 1. That this Day of which Iohn speaks is a known Day and was generally known in those dayes by this glorious name of the Lords Day and therefore the Apostle gives no other title to it but the Lords Day as a known day in those times for the Scope of Iohn in this Vision is as in all other Prophetical Visions when they set down the day and time of it to gain the more credit to the certainâ—y of it when every one sees the truth circumstantiated and they heare of the particular time and it may seem most absurd to set down the day and time for such an end and yet the day is not particularly known 2. If it was a known Day what Day can it be either by evidence of Scripture or any Antiquity but the first Day of the week For 1. There is no other Day on which mention is made of any other work or action of Christ which might occasion a Holy Day but onely this of the Resurrection which is exactly noted of all the Evangelists to be upon the first Day of the week and by which work he is expressely said to have all power given him in heaven and earth Matt. 28.18 and to be actually Lord of dead and living Rom. 14.9 and therefore why should any other Lords Day be dreamed of why should Master Brabourne imagine that this day might be some superstitious Easter Day which happens once a yeer the Holy Ghost on the contrary not setting downe the month or day of the yeer but of the week wherein Christ arose and therefore it must be meant of a weekly Holy Day here called the Lords Day 2. We do not read of any other Day besides this first Day of the week which was observed for Holy Sabbath Duties and honoured above any other day for breaking of Bread for preaching the Word which were acts of piety nor for Collections for the poor the most eminent act of mercy why then should any imagine any other day to be the Lords day but that first day 3. There seems to be much in that which Beza observes out of an ancient Greek Manuscript wherein that first Day of the week 1 Cor. 16.2 is expressely called the Lords Day and the Syriack Translation saith that their meeting together to receive the Sacrament 1 Cor. 11.20 was upon the Lords Day nor is there any antiquity but expounds this Lords Day of the first Day of the week as learned Rivet makes good against Gomarus professing that Quotquot Interpretes hactenus fuerunt haec verba de die Resurrectionis Domini intellexerunt solus quod quidem sciam Cl. D. Gomarus contradixit 4. Look as Iehovahs or the Lords Holy Day Isaiah 58.13 was the seventh Day in the week then in use in the Old Testament so why should not this Lords Day be meant of some seventh Day the first of seven in the week which the Lord appointed and the Church observed under the New Testament and therefore called as that was the Lords Day 5. There can be no other Day imagined but this to be the Lords Day indeeed Gomarus affirms that it s called the Lords Day because of the Lord Jesus apparition in Vision to Iohn and therefore he tell us that in Scripture phrase the Day of the Lord is such a Day wherein the Lord manifests himselfe either in wrath or in favour as here to Iohn But there 's a great difference between those phrases The Lords Day and the Day of the Lord which it is not called here For such an interpretation of the Lords Day as if it was an uncertaine time is directly crosse to the Scope of Iohn in setting downe this Vision who to beget more credit to it tels us First of the person that saw it I Iohn ver 10. Secondly the particular place in Paimo Thirdly the particular time the Lords Day These considerations do utterly subvert Mr. Brabournes discourse to prove the Jewish Sabbath to be the Lords Day which we are still to observe and may be sufficient to answer the scruples of modest and humble minds for if we aske the Time of it It is on the first Day of the week Would we know whether this time was spent in holy Duties and Sabbath services this also hath been proved Would we know whether it was sanctified for that end Yes verily because it s called the Lords Day and consequently all servile work was and is to be laid aside in it Would we know whether 't is the Christian Sabbath Day Verily if it be the Day of the Lord our God the Lords Day why is it not the Sabbath of the Lord our God If it be exalted and honoured by the Apostles of Christ above the Jewish Sabbath for Sabbath duties why should we not beleeve but that it was our Sabbath Day And although the word Sabbath Day or seventh day be not expressely mentioned yet if they be for substance in this Day and by just consequence deduced from Scripture it is all one as if the Lord had expressely called them so Thesis 40. Hence therefore it followes that although this particular seventh day which is the first of seven be not particularly made mention of in the fourth Commandment yet the last of seven being abrogated and this being instituted in its roome it is therefore to be perpetuated and observed in its roome For though it be true as Mr. Brabourne urgeth That New Institutions cannot be founded no not by Analogy of proportion meerly upon Old Institutions as because children were Circumcised it will not follow that they are therefore to be baptized and so because the Iewes kept that seventh day that we may therefore keep the first day Yet this is certaine that when New things are instituted not by humane Analogy but by Divine appointment the Application of these may stand by vertue of old precepts and general Rules from whence the Application even of old Institutions formerly arose For we know that the Cultus institutuâ— in the New Testament in Ministry and Sacraments stands at this day by vertue of the second Commandment as well as the instituted worship under the Old And though Baptisme stands not by vertue of the institution of Circumcision yet it being De novo instituted by Christ as the Seale of
it is to be spent in duties of humiliation as the other Sabbath in duties suitable to the nature of it and hence the Lords care is greatly exact herein 1. That no servile work be done because it is a Sabbath verse 31 32. 2. That it be spent and sanctified from Even to Even meaning like as you do your weekly Sabbaths And hence the Lord saith not You shall celebrate your day of Atonement from even to even but the Lord usually wrapping up arguments in his words Your Sabbath as if he should say You would account it a prophane thing not to celebrate your ordinary weekly Sabbath from even to even or to do any servile work on that day this day is a Sabbath and therefore you must sanctifie it from even to even and therefore do no servile work herein Thesis 91. To imagine as some do That the ordinary Sabbath began at another time because here God makes a new command that it be from even to even in opposition to the other Sabbaths beginning and that otherwise it had been enough to say You shall celebrate this day as a Sabbath one may from the same ground imagine that in other Sabbaths they might do any servile work because here also 〈◊〉 are forbidden it for it may be as well said that other 〈◊〉 had been enough to say You shall sanctifie this day as you do other Sabbaths here therefore is no new institution of time from the beginning of the Sabbath but of a new Ordinance together with the application of time according to common and ordinary account and the Lord expresseth from even to even which makes up a naturall day left mans heart which is soon weary of duties of Humiliation should interpret it of an artificiall day to prevent which mistake the Lord had good reason to set the distinct bounds of it from even to even Thesis 92. Nor can this Evening be fairly interpreted of the former even before Sun set as taking in that also for this evening is to begin at the evening of the ninth day verse 32. which evening of the ninth day is not the evening of that day about two or three of the clock for the tenth day onely is called the day of Atonement verse 27. and therefore part of the ninth day is no part of the Atonement day but as Iunius well expounds it at the evening of the ninth day puta qua nonus dies definit at that nick of time which is the communis terminus of the end of the ninth day and beginning of the tenth you shall then celebrate your Sabbath which curious exactnesse of the Lord is partly to expresse his zeal for the full and plenary observation of the day that he may not lose a moments time of honour as also to shew what care they should have of holding out from the first point to the last period of that Sabbath Thesis 93. And therefore it is a groundlesse deduction from the Text to make this day to be of extraordinary length and so an unfit measure for our ordinary Sabbath And to say that there was a ceremony in beginning this day at even is but gratis dictum and can never be made good unlesse it be by such fetches of wit which can mould the plainest History into the Image of a goodly Allegory a most impudent course of arguing in Austins judgement and in his time Thesis 94. If the Sabbath do not begin at evening why did Nehemiah an exemplary Magistrate command the Gates to be shut when the Gates of Ierusalem began to be dark before the Sabbath Nehem. 13.19 was it not left the Sabbath should be prophaned that night by bringing in of wares and burdens thorow the Gates as well as in the ensuing day is it not expresly said that he set his servants at these Gates that there might be no burden brought in upon the Sabbath day is it not expresly said that he set the Levites to keep the Gates to sanctifie the Sabbath day verse 19 22. Now if this 〈◊〉 was no part of the Sabbath how could they then be said to sanctifie the Sabbath thereby Thesis 95. To imagine that Nehemiah did this to prevent the prophaning of the Sabbath day after is as if a man should shut his doors at noon against such Thieves as he knows will not come to hurt him untill mid-night be past It would be weaknesse in a Magistrate to take away any considerable part of the week which God allows for labour to prevent that evil on the Sabbath which he knows he is sufficiently able to prevent at the approach of the day it self for Nehemiah might easily have shut the Gates in the morning if the Sabbath had not begun before and might have better done it then to cut so large a Thong out of the week time to prevent such defilement of the Sabbath day Thesis 96. When therefore the Gates of Ierusalem began to be dark or as Iunius renders the words quum abumbrarentur portae i. when they were shaddowed by the descent of the Sun behind the mountains which compassed Ierusalem and so did cast a shadow of darknesse upon the Gates of the City somewhat sooner then in other places lesse mountainous this shadow being no part of the dark night is truly said to be before or as the Hebrew is before the face or looking out of the Sabbath for although the Sabbath be said to begin at Sun-set yet t is to be understood not of the setting of the body of the Sun visibly but of the light of the Sun when darknesse begins to be predominant over the light and men are forced to forsake their work now just before this Nehemiah shut the gates at the common term and end of the six daies labour and the Seventh dayes rest and therefore t is a weak objection which some make to say that this evening was not part of the Sabbath because the Gates are said to be shut before the Sabbath Thesis 97. It s said the women who prepared spices for our Savioâ—â—â— body that they rested the Sabbath which is evident to be in the evening and this they did not superstitiously as some say but according to the Commandment Luk. 23.53 54 55 56. if therefore these women began to rest according to the commandment of God upon the evening then the evening by the same Commandment is the beginning of the holy Rest of the Sabbath It is not onely the commandment of God that one day in Seven be sanctified but also that it be sanctified from even to even Thesis 98. Now that they began to rest in the evening is evident from these considerations 1. That our saviour dyed the Ninth hour Luke 23.44 46. which was about three of the clock in the afternoon A little after this Ioseph begs his body and takes it down because it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or preparation for the Sabbath Mark 15.42 in which preparation it s said that the
improve the day no better then the beasts that perish Thesis 2. And as the rest of the Day is for the holinesse of it so is all the labour of the Week for this holy rest that as the end of all the labour of our lives is for our rest with Christ in Heaven so also of the six daies of every weeke for the holy Rest of the Sabbath the twilight and dawning of Heaven For the eighth Commandement which would not have us steale commands us therefore to labour for our Families and comforts in all the seasons of labour This fourth command therefore which not onely permits but commands us to labour six daies must have another respect in commanding us to labour and a higher end which cannot be any thing else but with respect to the Sabbath that as we are to watch unto prayer so we are to worke unto the Sabbath or so worke all the Weeke day that we may meet with God and sanctifie the Sabbath day Thesis 3. As therefore the holinesse of the Sabbath is morall because it is the end of the day so is the Rest of the Sabbath the immediate means to that end morall also Looke therefore what ever holy duties the Lord required of the Iewes which were not ceremoniall the same duties he requires of us upon this day so what every Rest he required of them for this end he exacts of all Christians also Thesis 4. Those that make the Sabbath ceremoniall imagine a stricter Rest imposed upon the Iewes then Christians are now bound unto because they place the ceremonialnesse of the Sabbath in the strict Rest of it but we are bound to the same Rest for substance of it and the ground for a stricter rest then we are bound unto will be found too light if well pondered Thesis 5. For though it be sayd that the Iewes might not bake nor seeth meat upon this day Exod. 16.23 no nor make a fire upon it Ex. 35.3 no nor gather sticks upon it without Death Numb 6.15.30 all which things Christians now may lawfully do yet none of these places will evince that for which they are alledged Thesis 6. For first it is not said Exod. 16.23 bake and seeth that to day which may serve you next day but that which remains viz. which is not sod nor baked lay it up untill the Morning and consequently for the morrow of the next day which being thus laid up I doe not finde that they are forbidden to bake or seeth that which remaines upon the next day but rather if they must use it the next day they might then bake it or seeth it that day also as they did that of the sixt day and without which they could not have the comfortable use of it upon the Sabbath day indeed it was as unlawfull to grind and beate the Manna in Mills and Morters mentioned Numb 11 8. upon this day as now to thrash and grind Corne this day the meale therefore which did remaine is not forbidden to be baked or sod upon this day nor would Gods speciall and miraculous providence appeare in preserving it from wormes and stinking if there had been any bâ—king of it the day before and not rather upon the Sabbath Day Thesis 7. Although also they were forbidden to kindle fire upon this lay Exod. 35.3 in respect of some use yet they are not forbidden so to do in respect of any use whatsoever For there was fire kindled for the Sabbath sacrifices and it would have bin a breach of the rule of mercy not to kindle a fire for the sick and weake in the wildernesse Nehemiah also a man most strict and zealous for the Sabbath yet had such provision made every day as could not be drest nor eaten without some fire upon the Sabbath day Neh. 5.18 and the Sabbath not being a fast but a feast in those times as well as those hence it s not unsutable to the time to have comfortable provisions made ready provided that the dressing of meaâ— be not an ordinary hindrance to publike or private duties of holinesse upon this day Exod. 12.16 this kindling of the fire here forbidden must therefore be understood in respect of the scope of the place viz. not to kindle a fire for any servile work no not in respect of this particular use of it viz. to further the building of the Sanctuary and Tabernacle made mention of in this Chapter for it s said whosoever shall do any worke therein 1. any servile worke which is more proper for the weeke time shall be put to death verse 2. there is therefore either no dependance of these words in the third verse with those in the second or else we must understand it of kindling fires restrictively for any servile worke which is there forbidden not only the Iewes but us Christians also Thesis 8. The man that gathered sticks on the Sabbath Numb 15.30 was put to death what for gathering of sticks onely why then did not the just God put them to death who were the first offenders and therefore most fit to be made examples who went out to gather Manna upon this day Exod. 1â— This gathering of sticks therefore though little in it selfe yet seemes to be aggravated by presumption and that the man did presumptuously breake the Sabbath and therefore it s generally observed that this very example followes the Law of punishing a presumptuous transgressor with death in this very Chapter and though it be said that they found a man gathering sticks as if it were done secretly and not presumptuously yet we know that presumptuous sins may be committed secretly as well as openly though they are not in so high a degree presumptuous as when they are done more openly the feare of the Law against Sabbath breakers might restrain the man from doing that openly which before God was done proudly and presumptuously and though Moses doubted what to do with the man who had that capitall Law given him before against Sabbath breakers yet they might be ignorant for a time of the full and true meaning of it which the Lord here seemes to expound viz. that a Sabbath breaker sinning presumptuously is to be put to death and although it be doubted whether such a Law is not too rigorous in these Times yet we do see that where the Magistrate neglects to restraine from this sinne the Lord takes the Magistrates work into his own hand and many times cuts them off suddenly who prophane his Sabbath presumptuously and t is worth enquiring into whether presumptuous Sabbath breakers are not still to be put to Death which I doubt not but that the Lord will either one day cleare up or else discover some specialty in the application of this judiciall Law to that Polity of the Iewes as most fit for them and not so universally fit for all others in Christian Common-vvealths but this latter I yet see no proofe for nor doe I expect the clearing up of the other while
unworthy to come into it cannot but infinitely and excessively prize that love of Jesus Christ this day to come and enter into his rest and lie in his very bosome all the day long and as a most loving friend loth to part with them till needs must and that the day is done Thesis 18. The fourth is This holinesse ought not onely to be immediate speciall and constant but all these holy duties are thus to be performed of us as that hereby we may enter into Rest so as that our soules may finde and feele the sweet of the true Rest of the Sabbath and therefore it must be a sweete and quieting holinesse also for the Sabbath is not only called a Sabbath of Rest in respect of our exemption from bodily labour but because it is so to be sanctified as that on this day we enter into Rest or such a fruition of God as gives rest to our soules otherwise we never sanctifie a Sabbath aright because we then fall short of this which is the maine end thereof untill we come so to seeke God as that we finde him and so finde him as that we feele Rest in him in drawing neare to him and standing before him that as God after his six daies labour did Rest and was refreshed in the fruition of himselfe so should we after our six daies labour also be refreshed in the presence of the Lord That in case we want meanes upon the Sabbath yet he may be in lieu of them unto us and in case we have them and finde but little by them conveyed to us yet that by that little we may be carried on the wings of faith beyond all meanes unto that Rest which upon this day we may find in his bosome that as Christ after his labours entred into his Rest Heb 4. so we ought to labour after the same Sabbatisme begun here on earth but perfected in Heaven that after all the weary steps we tread and sinnes and sorrowes we finde all the weeke yet when the Sabbath comes we may say returne unto thy Rest oh my soule The end of all labour is rest so the end of all our bodily and spirituall labour whether on the weeke-daies of Sabbath day it should be this Rest and we should never think that we have reached the end of the day untill we Taste the Rest of the Day nor is this Rest a Meteor in the Ayre and a thing onely to be wisht for but can never be found but assuredly those who are wearied with their sinnes in the weeke and wants on the Sabbath and feele a neede of rest and refreshing shall certainly have the blessing viz. the Rest of these seasons of refreshing and rest and the comforts of the Holy Ghost filling their hearts this day Isa. 10.2 3 4. Isa. 56.5 6 7 8. Isa. 58.13 14. Psal. 36.7 8. Not because of our holinesse which is spotted at the best but because of our great high Priests holinesse who hath it written upon his forehead to take away the iniquity of all our holy Offerings Ex. 28.36.38 and who hath garments of grace and bloud to cover us and to present us spotlesse before the face of that God whom we seeke and serve with much weakenesse and whom at last we shall finde when our short daies worke here is done and our long looked for Sabbath of glory shall begin to dawn Thesis 19. Now when the Lord hath inclined us thus to Rest and sanctifie his Sabbath what should the last act of our holinesse be bvt diffusive and communicative viz. in doing our utmost that others under us or that have relation to us that they sanctifie the Sabbath also according to the Lords expresse particular charg in the Commandement Thou thy Sonne thy Daughter thy Servants the Stranger within thy Gates the excellency of Christs holinesse consists in making us like himsele in holinesse the excellency and glory of a Christians holinesse is to endeavour to be like to the Lord Christ therein our Children Servants Strangers who are within our Gates are apt to prophane the Sabbath we are therefore to improve our power over them for God in restraining them from sinne and in constraining them as farre as we can to the holy observance of the Rest of the Sabbath least God impute their sinnes to us who had power as Eli in the like case to restrain them and did not and so our Families and Consciences be stained with their guilt and bloud Thesis 20. And if superiours in Families are to see their Gates preserved unspotted from such provoking evils can any thinke but that the same bond lies upon Superiours in Common Wealths who are the Fathers of those great Families whose subjects also are within their Gates and the power of their Jurisdictions the Civill Magistrate though he hath no power to impose new Lawes upon the Consciences of his subjects yet he is bound to see that the Lawes of God be kept by all his Subjects provided alwaies that herein he walke according to the Law and Rule of God viz. that 1. Ignorant Consciences in cleare and momentous matters be first instructed 2. Doubting Consciences have sufficient means of being resolved 3. Bold and audacious Consciences be first forewarned hence it is that though he hath no power to make Holy daies and to impose the observation of them upon the Consciences of his subjects because these are his own Lawes yet he may and should see that the Sabbath Day the Lords holy Day that this he observed because he doth but see to the execution of Gods Commandement herein By what Rule did Nehemiah not onely forbid the breach of the Sabbath but did also threaten bodily punishment upon the men of Tyre although they were Heathens yet were they at this time within the Gates and compasse of his Jurisdiction Nehem. 13.21 certainly he thought himselfe bound in conscience to see that the Sabbath should not be prophaned by any that were within his Gates according to this fourth Commandement If Kings and Princes and civill Magistrates have nothing to do in matters of the first Table and consequently must give any man liberty to Prophane the Sabbath that pretends Conscience why then doth Ieremy call upon Princes to see that it be not prophaned with promise of having their Crownes and Kingdomes preserved from wrath if thus they do and with threatning the burning up and consuming of City and Kingdome if this they do not Ieremy 17.19.25.27 If civill Magistrates have nothing to do herein they then have nothing to do to preserve their Crownes Kingdomes Sceptets Subjects from fire and Bloud and utter ruine Nehemiah was no Type of Christ nor were the Kings of Israel bound to see the Sabbath kept as Types of Christ but as nursing Fathers of the Common-Wealth and because their own subjects were within their Gates and under their power and therefore according to this morall Rule of the Commandement they were bound not onely to keepe it themselves but
practice in sports and revellings upon this day beare sufficient witnesse and oh that we had no cause to wash off this spot with our teares from the beautifull and pleasant face of the glorious grace and peace which once shined in the German Churches by whose Graves we may stand weeping and say this is your misery for this your provoking sin Scotland knows best her own integrity whose lights have been burning and shining long in their clearnesse in this particular But England hath had the name and worn this Garland of glory wherewith the Lord hath crowned it above all other Churches But how hath that little flock of slaughter which hath wept for it and preacht and printed and done and suffered for it beene hated and persecuted who have been the scorne and shame and reproach of men but a company of poor weaklings for going out a few miles to hear a faithful painful Preacher from those idle Shepheards who either could not feed them with knowledge and understanding at home or else would not do it through grosse prophanesse or extream idlenesse And now since God hath broken the yoke of their oppressors and set his people at liberty to returne to Sion and her solemne assemblies as in dayes of old and hath given to them the desires of their hearts that they may now be as holy on the Sabbath as they will without any to reproach them at least to countenance such reproaches of them now I say when one would think the precious Sabbaths which so many of Gods servants in former time have brought down to this generation swiming in their teares and prayers and which many in these dayes have so much looked and longed for that every eye should be looking up to Heaven with thankfulnes for these and that every heart should embrace Gods Sabbaths with teares of joyfulnesse and bid this dear and precious friend welcome and lie and rest in their bosome and so I doubt not but that England hath yet may a corner ful of such precious Jewels to whom Gods Sabbathâ— are yet most precious and glorious and who cannot easily forget such blessed seasons and meanes in them whereby if ever the Lord did good unto them they have been so oft refreshed and wherein they have so oft seen God wherein they have so oft met with him and he with them but whose heart will it not make to relent and sigh to hear of late a company not of ignorant debosht persons malignants prelatical and corrupt and carnal men but of such who have many of them in former times given great hopes of some feare of God and much love to Gods Ordinances and Sabbaths and now what hurt the Sabbaths Ordinances of the Lord Jesus therein have done them I know not but it would break ones heart to see what little care there is to sanctifie the Sabbath even by them who think in their judgments that the day is of God What poore preparation for it either in themselves or families what little care to profit by it or to instruct and catehize their families and to bring them also it love with it what secret wearinesse and dead-heartednesse almost wholly unlamented remains upon them what earthly thoughts what liberty in speech about any worldly matter presently after the most warning Sermon is done that the Lord Jesus hath scarce good carcasses and outsides brought him which cannot but threaten more crows to pick them unlesse they repent and yet this is not so sad as to see the loosenesse of mens judgments in this point of the Sabbath whereby some think a Sabbath lawful but not necessary in respect of any command of God nay some think it superstition to observe a weekly Sabbath which should be every day as they imagine they have allegorized Gods Sabbaths and almost all Gods Ordinances out of the world and cast such pretended Antichristian filth and pollution upon them that spiritual men must not now meddle with them nay verily all duties of the moral Law and fruitful obedience and holy walking and sanctification graces and humiliation and such like are the secret contempt of many and the base drudgery for a â—ll-horse and legal Christian rather then for one that is of an Evangelical frame and herein Satan now appears with the ball at his foot and seems to threaten in time to carry all before him and to kick and carry Gods precious Sabbaths out of the world with him and then farewel dear Lord Jesus with all thy sweet love and life if Sabbaths be once taken from us by the blind and bold disputings of wretched men authority as yet upholds them which is no small mercy and the savour of Christs sweetnesse in them and the external brightnesse of the beauty of them do still remaine on many with that strength and glory that it is not good policy for the prince of darknesse now to imploy all his forces against the gates of the Sabbath but the time hastens wherein the assault will be great and fierce and I much fear that for the secret contempt of these things the Lord in dreadful justice will strengthen delusions about this day to break forth and prosper and then pray you poor Saints of God and hidden ones that your flight may not be in the Winter nor on the Sabbath day but woe then to them that give suâ—k woe then to the high Ministry that should have kept these gates woe then to that loose and wanton generation rising up who think such outward formes and observation of dayes to be too course and too low and mean a work for their enobled spirits which are now raised higher and neerer God then to look much after Sabbaths or Ordinances graces or duties or any such outward forms for I doubt not but if after all the light and glory shining in England concerning Gods Sabbaths if yet they are not thereby become precious but that the Lord will make them so by his plagues if this sin once get head God will burne up the whole world and make himself-dreadful to all flesh untill he hath made unto himself a holy people and a humble people that shall love the dust and take pleasure in the very stones of his house and love the place where his Honour dwels and long for the time wherein his presence and blessing shall appear and be poured out upon the Sabbath day It 's matter of the greatest mourning that they above all other should trouble Gods rest wherein perhaps their souls have found so much rest or might have done that in these times wherein the Lord Jesus was coming out to give unto his house his Ordinances and unto his people his Sabbaths and dayes of rest every way that now they above all others should offer to pull them out of his hand tread them under foot and hereby teach all the prophane rout in the world to do the like with a quiet conscience and without any check by their reasonings that now when
yet oh that in this matter of the Sabbatâ— God would betimes awaken and that these weakâ—nesses might stirre up their strength for I mucâ— feare and foresee that if it be not done there is aâ— houre and a nick of temptation in such a juncture 〈◊〉 times approaching wherein the enemy will come 〈◊〉 like a flood and rise up from all quarters against the Doctrine of the Sabbath and then farewell all the good dayes of the son of man if this be lost which then men shall desire to see and shall not see them I have therefore been the more willing to let my owne shame and weaknesse appeare to the world if so it be found if this might be any meanes of doing the least good for keeping up the price of Gods Sabbaths in the hearts of any I have therefore spent the more time about the Morality of the Sabbath because the clearing up of this gives light to all the rest The generall CONTENTS of the Theses concerning the Morality of the Sabbath 1. GOD is the superiour disposer of mans time Thes. 1 2. Man who is made next to God and to return to his rest at the end of the larger circle of his life is to return to him at the end of the lesser circle of eveâ—y week Thes. 7 3. What a Moral Law is not 10 11 4. How a Divine Law may be said to be Moral 14 5. What a Moral law is strictly taken 16 6. A Moral Law considered in a strict sense is not good meerly because commanded but is therefore commanded because it is good 17 7. What is that goodnesse in a Moral Law for which it is commanded 21 8. By what Rules may that goodnesse be known which are foure 24 25 9 Divers consectaries flowing from the description of a Moral Law 1. That Divine determination of something in a Law doth not alway take away the morality of it 26 2. That those are not Moral laws only which are known to all men by the light of corrupt nature 29 3. That the whole Decalogue in all the parts of it is the Moral Law of God Thes. 30. where Objections are answered to 38 10. Three sorts of Laws which were among the Jewes Moral Ceremonial Judicial 38 11. The true state of the Question whether the Sabbath be a Moral or Ceremonial Law 43 12. The agreement on all hands how far the Law of the Sabbath is Moral 44 13. Something general is agreed on and whether it lies under this general viz. a seventh day 46 14. The chief means of resolving this controversie in opening the meaning of the fourth Commandment 47 15. The things which are Moral in the fourth Commandment are either primarily or secundarily moral 48 16. Those things which are primarily generally moral in the forth Commandment are 3. 1. A time of worship 2. A day 3. A 7th day determined 17. Not the worship it self but only the solemne time of it is required in the fourth Commandment 53 18. How holy duties are for time 56 19. Instituted worship is not directly required in the fourth but in the second Commandment wherein the meaning of the second Commandment is occasionally cleared against Wallaeus 59 20. If the moral worship it self be not required herein much lesse is the whole ceremonial worship 63 21. Neither the publike worship only nor Jewish holy dayes required in this fourth Commandment 64 22. Not a part of a day but a whole day is moral by the fourth Commandment 65 23. Gods wisdome did rather choose a whole day together for special worship then borrow a part of every day 66 24. The sin of Familists and others who allow God no special day but make all dayes equal 68 25. How any day is said to be holy and that though all places are alike holy yet all dayes are not therefore alike holy 69 70 26. Answer to such Scriptures as seem to make all dayes alike holy under the New Testament 72 73. to 79 27. The chief reason why some abolish the day of the Sabbath in the fourth Commandment is because they abandon the whole Decalogue it self as any Rule of life unto his people 79 28. An inward Sabbath may well consist with a Sabbath day 80 29. The great controversie whether the Law be a rule of life to a beleever discussed in sundry Theses 81 30. The Spirit is not the rule of life 86 31. Not the will of Gods Decree but the will of his command is the rule of life 91 32. The fundamental Errour of Antinomians 93 33. The rule of the Law is kept in Christ as matter of our justification not sanctification 94 34. How Christ is our Sanctification as well as our Justification 95 35. Duties of Christian thankfulnesse to God were not performed by Christ for beleevers under that notion of thankfulnesse but by way of merit 97 36. Whether a beleever is to act in vertue of a command 98 37. The sin of those who affirme that Christian obedience is not to be put forth by vertue of a command 100 38. To act by vertue of a Commandment and by vertue of Gods Spirit are subordinate one to another 101 39. Whether the Law is our rule as given by Moses on mount Sinai or only as it is given by Christ on mount Sion 102 40. How Works and Law-duties are sometime commended and sometime condemned 105 106 41. The new creature how it is under the Law 107 42. How the children of God under the Old Testament were under the Law as a Schoolmaster and not those of the New 108 43. How the Gospel requires doing and how not and about conditional promises in the Gospel 110 44. Various motives to obedience from the Law and Gospel from God as a Creator and from Christ as a Redeemer do not vary the Rule 111 45. Unbelief is not the only sin 112 46. Three evils arising from their Doctrine who deny the Directive use of the moral Law 113 47. The sin of such as deny the humbling work of the Law under Gospel ministrations 114 48. Their Errour who will not have a Christian pray for pardon of sin or mourn for sin 115 49. Whether Sanctification be a doubtful evidence and may not be a just evidence and wheâ—â—er the Gospel and all the promises of it belong to a sinner as a sinner and whether sight of corruption be by the Gospel the setled evidence of salvation as some plead for 117 50. Whether the first evidence be without the being or only the seeing of grace 118 51. The true grounds of evidencing Gods love in Christ cleared 119. 52. Not only a day nor only a Sabbath day but a seventh day determined is the last thing generally moral in the fourth Commandment 120.122 53. That which is particularly moral herein is this or that particular seventh day 123 54. The morality of a Sabbath may be as strongly and easily urged from the Commandment of observing that particular seventh day from the
here that looke as man standing in innocency had cause thus to returne â—rom the pleasant labours of his weekly paradise imployments as shall be shewn in due place so man fallen much more from his toilsome and wearisome labours to this his rest again And therefore as because all creatures were made for man man was therefore made in the last place after them so man being made for God and his worship thence it is that the Sabbath wherein man was to draw most neare unto God was appointed after the creation of man as Peter Martyr observes For although man is not made for the Sabbath meerly in respect of the outward rest of it as the Pharisees dreamed yet hee is made for the Sabbath in respect of God in it and the holinesse of it to both which then the soule is to have its weekly revolution back againe as into that Rest which is the end of all our lives labour and in speciall of all our weekly labour and work Thesis 8. As therefore our blessed rest in the fruition of God at the end and period of our lives is no ceremony but a glorious privilege and a morall duty it being our closing with our utmost end to which we are called so it cannot be that such a Law which cals and commands man in this life to returne to the same rest for substance every Sabbath day should bee a ceremoniall but rather a Morall and perpetuall Law unlesse it should appeare that this weekly Sabbath like the other annuall Sabbath hath been ordained and instituted principally for some ceremonious ends rather than to be a part and indeed the beginning of our rest to come there being little difference between this and that to come but onely this that here our rest is but begun there it is perfected here it is interrupted by our weekly labours there it is continued here we are led into our rest by meanes and ordinances but there we shall bee possessed with it without our need of any helpe from them our God who is our rest being then become unto us immediately All in All. Thesis 9. Were it not for mans worke and labour ordained and appointed for him in this life he should enjoy a continuall Sabbath a perpetuall Rest. And therefore wee see that when mans life is ended his sunne set and his worke done upon earth nothing else remaines for him but only to enter into his perpetuall and eternall Rest All our time should be solemne and sacred to the Lord of time if there were no common worke and labour hâ—re which necessarily occasions common time why then should any think that a weekly Sabbath is ceremoniall when were it not for this lifes labour a perpetuall and continuall Sabbath would then be undoubtedly accounted morall It s hard for any to thinke a servants awfull attendance on his Lord and Master at certaine speciall times not to bee morally due from him who but for some more private and personall occassions allowed him to attend unto should at all times continually be serving of him Thesis 10. The word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and no Scripture phrase and therfore not proper fitly and fully to expresse the question in controversie to wit whether the fourth Commandment bee a morall precept The best friends of this word finde it slippery and can hardly tell what it is and what they would have to be understood by it and hence it is become a bone of much Contention a fit mist and swampe for such to fight in who desire so to contend with their Adversaries as that themselves may not bee known either where they are or on what ground they stand Yet it being a word generally taken up and commonly used it may not therefore be amisse to follow the market measure and to retaine the word with just and meet explications thereof Thesis 11. They who describe a morall law to bee such a law as is not typically ceremoniall and therefore not durable doe well and truely expresse what it is not but they doe not positively expresse what it is Thesis 12. Some describe and draw out the proportions of the morall law by the law of nature and so make it to bee that law which every man is taught by the light of nature That which is morally and universally just say some which reason when it is not mis-led and the inward law of nature dictateth by common principles of honesty or ought to dictate unto all men without any outward usher It is that say others which may be proved not only just but necessary by principles drawne from the light of nature which all reasonable men even in nature corrupted have still in their hearts which either they doe acknowledge or may at least bee convinced of without the Scriptures by principles still left in the hearts of all men But this description seems too narrow For 1. Although it be true that the law naturall is part of the law morall yet if the law morall be resolved into the law of nature only and the law of nature bee shrunke up and drawne into so narrow a compasse as what the principles left in corrupt man onely suggest and dictate then it will necessarily follow that many of those holy rules and principles are not the law of nature which were the most perfect impressions of the law of nature in mans first creation and perfection but now by mans apostacy are obliterated and blotted out unlesse any shall thinke worse than the blinde Papists either that mans minde is not now corrupted by the fall in losing any of the first impressions of innocent nature or shall maintaine with them that the Image of God of which those first impressions were a part was not naturall to man in that estate 2. It will then follow that there is no morale discipline as they call it that is nothing morall by discipline informing or positively morall but onely by nature dictating which is crosse not onely to the judgements but solid Arguments of men judicious and most indifferent 3. If that onely is to be accounted morall which is so easily knowne of all men by the light of nature corrupted then the imperfect light of mans corrupt minde must bee the principall judge of that which is morall rather than the perfect rule of morality contained in the Scripture which Assertion would not a little advance corrupt and blinde Nature and dethrone the perfection of the holy Scripture Thesis 13. They who define a morall law to be such a law as is perpetuall and universall binding all persons in all ages and times doe come somewhat nearer to the marke and are not far off from the truth and such a description is most plaine and obvious to such as are not curious and in this sense our adversaries in this cause affirme the Sabbath not to be morall meaning that it is not a Law perpetuall and universall Others on the contrary affirming that it is morall intend
or evill without some law for then there should bee some sinne which is not the transgression of a law and some obedience which is not directed by any law both which are impossible and abominable 3. He makes morall lawes by externall imposition and constitution onely to be such as before the externall imposition of them are a diaphorous and good or evill onely by reason of some circumstance When as we know that some such lawes as are most entirely morall yet in respect of their inward nature generally considered they are indifferent also for not to kill and take away mans life is a morall law intirely so yet in the generall nature of it it is indifferent and by circumstance may become either lawfull or unlawfull lawfull in case of warre or publick execution of justice unlawfull out of a private spirit and personall revenge In one word the whole drift of his discourse herein is to shew that the Sabbath is not morall and this he would prove because the Sabbath is not simply and entirely morall which is a most feeble and weake consequence and this hee proves because the Sabbath day hath in respect of its inward nature no more holines and goodnes than any other day all the dayes of the week being equally good by creation But he might well know that the day is not the law of the fourth Commandment but the keeping holy of the Sabbath day which is a thing inwardly good and entirely morall if wee speak of some day Nay saith the Bishop the law of nature teacheth that some sufficient and convenient time bee set apart for Gods worship if therefore some day be morall although all dayes by creation be indifferent and equall according to his owne confession what then should hinder the quota pars or the seventh part of time from being morall will he say because all dayes are equally holy and good by creation then why should hee grant any day at all to bee entirely morall in respect of a sufficient and convenient time to bee set apart for God If hee saith the will and imposition of the Law-giver abolisheth its morality because he bindes to a seventh part of time then we shall shew that this is most false and feeble in the sequell Thesis 25. There are therefore four rules to guide our judgments aright herein whereby we may know when a law is sutable and agreeable to humane nature and consequently good in it selfe which will bee sufficient to cleare up the Law of the Sabbath to be truely morall whether in a higher or lower degree of morality it makes no matter and that it is not a law meerly temporary and ceremoniall 1. Such lawes as necessarily flow from naturall relation both between God and man as well as between man and man these are good in themselves because sutable and congruous to humane nature for there is a decency and sweet comlinesse to attend to those rules to which our relations binde us For from this ground the Prophet Malachy cals for feare and honour of God as morall duties because they are so comely and seemly for us in respect of the relation between us If I be your Lord and Master and Father where is my feare where is my honour Mal. 1.6 Love also between man and wife is pressed as a comely duty by the Apostle from that near relation betweene them being made one flesh Ephes. 5.28 29. there are scarce any who question the morality of the duties of the second Table because they are so evidently comely suitable and agreeable to humane nature considered relatively as man stands in relation to those who are or should bee unto him as his owne flesh and therefore he is to honour superiors and therefore must not kill nor steale nor lye nor covet nor defile the flesh c. but the morality of all the rules of the first Table is not seen so evidently because the relation between God and man which makes them comely and suitable to man is not so well considered for if there be a God and this God be our God according to the first Commandement then it 's very comely and meet for man to honour love feare him delight trust in him c. and if this God must be worshipped of man in respect of the mutuall relation between them then 't is comely and meet to worship him with his owne worhsip according to the second Commandment and to worship him with all holy reverence according to the third Commandment and if he must be thus worshipped and yet at all times in respect of our necessary worldly imploiments cannot be so solemnly honoured and worshipped as is comely and meet for so great a God then 't is very fit and comely for all men to have some set and stated time of worship according to some fit proportion which the Lord of time onely can best make and therefore a seventh part of time which he doth make according to the fourth Commandment 2. Such lawes are drawne from the imitable Attributes and Works of God are congruous and suitable to mans nature For what greater comelinesse can there be or what can be more suitable to that nature which is immediately made for God then to be like unto God and to attend unto those rules which guide thereunto Hence to be mercifull to men in misery to forgive our enemies and those that doe us wrong to be bountifull to those that be in want to be patient when we suffer evill are all morall duties because they are comely and suitable to man and that because herein hee resembles and is made like unto God Hence to labour six dayes and rest a leventh is a morall because a comely and suitable duty that because herein man followes the example of God and becomes most like unto him And hence it is that a seventh yeare of rest cannot be urged upon man to be as much morall as a seventh day of rest because man hath Gods example and patterne in resting a seventh day but not in resting any seventh yeare God never made himselfe an example of any ceremoniall duty it being unsuitable to his glorious excellency so to doe but onely of morall and spirituall holinesse and therefore there is somewhat else in a seventh day that is not in a seventh yeare and it is utterly false to thinke as some doe that there is as much equity for the observation of the one as there is of the other And here by the way may bee seen a grosse mistake of Mr. Primrose who would make Gods example herein not to be morally imitable of us nor man necessarily bound thereunto it being not naturally and in respect of it selfe imitable but onely because it pleased God to command man so to doe as also because this action of God did not flow from such attributes of God as are in their nature imitable as mercy bounty c. but from one of those attributes as is not imitable
and standing in the roome of all mankinde Hence as nothing was writ then but what was common to all men so such things thus writ were good for all men and suitable to all men it being most injurious to God to think that any thing evill should be imprinted there if therefore it bee proved that the law of the Sabbath was then writ upon mans heart then it undenyably followes that it is meet and suitable to all men still to observe a Sabbath day and indeed to the right understanding of what is suitable to man as man and consequently morall there is nothing more helpfull than to consider of our primitive estate and what was suitable to our nature then for if that which is morall in marriage is to be searched for in the first and ancient records of our first creation by the appointment of our Saviour I then know no reason whatever others object but morality in all other lawes and duties is there to bee sought also for although our originall perfection is now defaced and lost and in that respect is a merum non ens as some call it yet it had once a being and therefore in this controversie we may lawfully enquire after it considering especially that this being which once it had may be suffiently knowne by the contrary being of universall corruption that is in us now as also by the light of the Scriptures in which the searcher and maker of all hearts declares it unto us and indeed there are many morall duties which will never appeare good and suitable to man but rather hard and unreasonable because impossible untill we see and remember from whence we are fallen and what once we had Thesis 26. If therefore a morall law command that which is suitable to humane nature and good in it selfe then it followes from hence which was toucht before that divine determination of something in a law doth not alway take away morality from a law for divine determination is many times no more but a plain and positive declaration of that which is suitable just and good and equall for man to observe now that which points out and declares unto us the morality of a law cannot possibly abolish and destroy such a law For a morall law commanding that which is suitable and good as hath been shewne it is impossible that the Commandment which determineth and directeth to that which is good that by this determination it should overthrow the being of such a good law nay verily particular determination and positivenesse as some call it is so farre from abolishing as that it rather addes to the being as well as to the clearing up and manifestation of such a law For if it be not sufficient to make a morall law that the thing be good in it selfe but that also it must be commanded then the Commandment which many times onely detemines to that which is good and consequently determination doth adde unto the being of a morall law Thesis 27. There is scarce any thing but it is morally indifferent untill it falls under some divine determination but divine determination of twofold 1. Of such things which are not good fit or needfull for man to observe without a command as Sacrifices and Sacraments and such likes now herein in such lawes positive determination may be very well inconsistent with morality and it may bee safely said that such a law is not morall but rather positive and thus the learned sometimes speak 2. Of such things as are equall good in themselves needfull and suitable for man and here particular determination and morality may kisse each other and are not to be opposed one to another and hence it is that if Gods Commandment positively determines us to observe any part of instituted worship suppose Sacraments or Sacrifices yet such lawes are not morall although it bee morall in generall to worship God after his owne will because the things themselves are not good in themselves nor needfull but if God shall determine us to observe a Sabbath day this determination doth not take away the morality of the command because it being good in it selfe to give God the meetest and fittest proportion of time for holy Rest and the commandment declaring that this seventh part or so is such a time hence it comes to passe that this time is good in it selfe and therefore determination by the commandment in this case doth not abolish the morality hereof It is a morall duty to pay tribute to Caesar to give to Caesar that which is Caesars hence because a man may give too much or too little to him that determination which directs us to that particular which is Caesars due and most meet for him to receive and us to give that is best in it selfe and is therefore morall so prayer is a morall duty but because a man may bee tempted to pray too oft or else too seldome hence determination of the fittest and this fittest season makes this or that morall So 't is here in the Sabbath I doe willingly and freely professe thus farre with our Adversaries of the morality of the Sabbath that it is a morall duty to give God some time and day of holy Rest and worship as 't is morall to give Caesar his due and to pray to God but because we may give God too many dayes or too few hence the determination of the most meet and fittest proportion of time and particularly of this time makes this and that to be also morall If no day at all in generall was good and fit for man to give to God and God should notwithstanding command a seventh day then the commandment of such a day with such positive determination could not bee morall any more then the determination of sacrrifices and such like But every day say some of our Adversaries some day say others of them being acknowledged to be equall just and good and most meet to give to God hence it is that determination of a seventh day doth not abolish but clear up that which is morall because it points out unto man that which is most meet and equall Hence therefore it follows that a seventh day is therefore commanded because it is good and not good meerly because commanded Determination also declaring what is most meet declareth hereby that this commandment is also morall and not meerly positive and ceremoniall which not being well considered by some this fourth commandment having some more positivenesse and determination then divers of the rest hath therefore been the chiefe stumbling stone and rock of offence to many against the morality of it by which they have miserably bruised themselves while they have endeavoured to destroy it upon so grosse a mistake Thesis 28. It is true that God out of his absolute soveraignty and good pleasure of his will might have determined us to observe a fourth a ninth a twentieth part of our time in holy rest more or lesse as well as to
ever as hee would have that law preserved for ever which these safeguard but on the other side these judicialls which did safeguard ceremoniall laws which wee know were not perpetuall but proper to that Nation hence those judicials which compasse these about are not perpetuall nor universall the ceremonialls being pluckt up by their roots to what purpose then should their fences and hedges stand As on the contrary the morals abiding why should not their judicials and fences remaine The learned generally doubt not to affirme that Moses judicials binde all nations so farre forth as they containe any morall equity in them which morall equity doth appeare not onely in respect of the end of the law when it is ordered for common and universall good but chiefely in respect of the law which they safeguard and fence which if it bee morall it 's most just and equall that either the same or like judiciall fence according to some fit proportion should preserve it still because 't is but just and equall that a morall and universall law should bee universally preserved from whence by the way the weaknesse of their reasonings may bee observed who that they may take away the power of the civill Magistrate in matters of the first Table which once he had in the Jewish common-wealth affirm that such civill power then did arise from the judiciall and not from any morall law when as it 's manifest that this his power in preserving Gods worship pure from Idolatrous and prophane mixtures according to the judiciall lawes was no more but a fence and safeguard set about morall Commandments which fences and preservatives are therfore for substance to continue in as much power and authority now as they did in those dayes as long as such lawes continue in their morality which these preserve the duties of the first Table being also as much morall as those of the second to the preserving of which later from hurt and spoil in respect of their morality no wise man questions the extent of his power Thesis 43. If therefore the question be now made whether the law of the fourth Commandment be morall or no we must then remember that the true state of the question is not in this to wit Whether the law of the Sabbath be a principle of the light of nature knowne and evident of it selfe or at least such as every man that hath the use of reason may readily finde out without some externall revelation as Mr. Ironside injuriously states it wrastling herein with his own shadow with many others of his fellowship in this controversie For morality as hath been declared is of larger extent then such naturality But the question is whether it is one of those lawes which is therefore commanded because it is holy just and good in it selfe whether man see it by any previous light of corrupt nature I or no and being thus commanded as such a law whether it be not therefore of perpetuall and universall obligation binding all Nations and persons in all ages in their hearts lives manners to the observance thereof as a part of that holinesse we owe to God and which God requires of all men according to rules of morall equity or on the contrary whether it be not rather a typicall ceremoniall figurative and temporary precept binding onely some persons or that one Nation of the Jews for some time from the obedience of which law Christians in respect of any law of God are now exempted Thesis 44. For clearing up whereof it may not be amisse to take notice of the agreement at least in words herein on all hands even by those who oppose that morality of the Sabbath which we plead for All sides agree in this viz. That the law of this fourth Commandment concerning the Sabbath is morall But as the differences about the meaning of Tu es Petrus are many so here the difficulty lies to know how and in what sense and respect it may bee called morall for Master Ironside expressely consents in this viz. That all the Commandments of the Decalogue are morall but every one in his proportion and degree and so saith he is that of the Sabbath it is morall for substance but not for circumstance Master Primrose also when he is awake expressely confesseth thus much viz. That the Sabbath is morall in its foundation end marrow and principall substance and that a stinted time is morall and grounded on the principles of nature and therefore the Gentiles saith he had their set dayes of religion and this he tels us is ratified by the Gospel which commendeth to the faithfull the Assembling of themselves together for Word and Sacraments and consequently that they have appointed times to attend upon them wherein the word of God be read and preached as under the old Testament every Sabbath day nay he yields yet more viz. That not onely stinted times but that also there should be a convenient proportion and suitable frequency of time for Gods service now under the Gospell as under the Law and therefore affirmes that the Jewish annuall Feasts and new Moons being but once a yeare or once a moneth and so being rare and seldome could not teach us the convenient and most suitable frequency of Gods publick service as the Sabbath did which returned weekly and therefore he saith that the Commandment runs not thus viz. Remember to keep the new Moons but Remember to keep holy the Sabbath day So that by Mr. Primrose concession not onely a time but a stinted time not onely a stinted but also such a convenient proportion and suitable frequency of time as is once in seven dayes is morally holy by vertue of the fourth Commandment Gomarus also concludes that the publick worship of God required in the fourth Commandment cals for observation not onely of certain but also of sufficient dayes for worship and what these sufficient dayes bee is to bee gathered from the fourth Commandment viz. that they bee not more rare and lesse frequent then the weekly Sabbaths of the Israelites because if God as he shewes challenged a weekly Sabbath of a stiffe-necked people laden with the burden of many other Festivals and Ceremonies how then should Christians freed from their yoaks and burdens have them lesse frequent Master Breerwood also to the like purpose professeth That Christians should noâ— bee lesse devout and religious in celebrating the Lords day then the Jews were in celebrating their Sabbath and his reason labouring with some spice of a contradiction is this viz. because the obligation of our thankfulnesse to God is more then theirs although the obligation of his Commandment to us in that behalfe is lesse for I confesse it s beyond my shallownesse to conceive how the thankfulnesse should bee more and the Commandment lesse unlesse he will imagine some such popish work as exceeds the command Wallaeus comes almost quite over the threshold unto us and maintains upon solid arguments
inventions of man to further the worship of God are condemned directly in the second Command 〈◊〉 all such Churches as are framed into a spituall policy after the fashion and patterne of the Word and primitive institution are with leave of Erastus and his disciples enjoyned in the same Commandment and therefore not in the fourth Gomarus and Master Primrose therefore do much mistake the mark and scope of the fourth Commandment who affirme That as in the three first Commandments God ordained the inward and outward service which hee will have every particular man to yeeld to him in private and severally from the society of men every day so in the fourth Commandment he enjoyneth a service common and publick which all must yeeld together unto him forbearing in the mean while all other businesse But why should they think that publick worship is more required here than private Will they say that the Sabbath is not to bee sanctified by private and inward worship as well as by publick and externall worship Is not private preparation meditation secret prayer and converse with God required upon this day as well as publick praying and hearing the Word If they say that these are required indeed but 't is in reference to the publick and for the publick worship sake it may be then as easily replyed that the publick worship is also for the sake of the private that each man secretly and privately might muse and feed upon the good of publick helps they are mutually helpfull one to another and therefore are appointed one for another unlesse any will thinke that no more holinesse is required upon this day than while publick worship continues which we hope shall appeare to bee a piece of professed prophanesse In the meane while looke as they have no reason to thinke that private worship is required in this command because the exercise of private worship is at this time required so they have as little reason to thinke that the publick worship it selfe is herein enjoyned because the exercise of it is to be also at such a time It is therefore the time not the worship it self either publick or private which is here directly commanded although it be true that both of them are herein indirectly required viz. in relation to the Time Thesis 63. If therefore the morall worship it self whether publick externall or private be not directly required in this fourth Command much lesse is the whole Ceremoniall worship here enjoyned as Master Primrose maintaines for the whole Ceremoniall worship both in Sacrifices Ceremonies Typeâ— c. was significant and were as I may so say Gods Images or media cultus meanes of worship by carrying the minde and heart to God by their speciall significations and therefore were instituted worship and therefore directly contained under the second and therefore not under the fourth Command And if there bee but nine Commandments which are morall and this one by his reckoning is to bee ceremoniall and the head of all ceremonials and that therefore unto it all ceremoniall worship is to appertaine then the observation of a Sabbath is the greatest Ceremony according as wee see in all other Commandments the lesser sinnes are condemned under the grosser as anger under murder and lust under adultery and inferiour duties under the chief and principall as honouring the aged and Masters c. under honouring of parents and so if all Ceremonialls are referred to this then the Sabbath is the grossest and greatest ceremony one of them and if so then 't is a greater sinne to sanctifie a Sabbath at any time than to observe new moones and other festivals which are lesse Ceremoniall and are therefore wholly cashiered because ceremoniall and if so why then doth Master Primrose tell us That the Sabbath is morall for substance principall scope and end and that its unmeet for us to observe fewer dayes than the Iewes in respect of weekly Sabbaths Why is not the name and memoriall of the Sabbath abandoned wholly and utterly accursed from off the face of the earth as well as new moones and other Jewish festivals which upon his principles are lesse ceremoniall than the weekly Sabbath It may be an audacious Familist whose Conscience is growne Iron and whose brow is brasse through a conceit of his immunity from and Christian liberty in respect of any thing which hath the superscription of law or works upon it may abandon all Sabbaths together with new Moones equally but those I now aime at I suppose dare not nor I hope any pious minde else who considers but this one thing viz. that when the Lord commands us to Remember to keep the Sabbath holy hee must then according to this interpretation command us that above all other Commandments wee observe his Ceremoniall worship which they say is here enjoyned rather than his morall worship which they acknowledge to be enjoyned in all the other nine Commands at the gate of none of which Commands is written this word Remember which undoubtedly implyes a speciall attendance to bee shewne unto this above any other for as wee shall shew keepe this keep all break this slight this slight all and therefore no wonder if no other Command hath this word Remember writ upon the portall of â—t which word of fence denotes speciall affection and action in the Hebrew Language but I suppose it may strike the hardest brow and heart with terrour and horrour to go about to affix and impute such a meaning to this Commandment viz. That principally above all other duties we remember to observe those things which are ceremoniall for although the observation of Ceremonies bee urged and required of God as Master Primrose truely observes from Psalme 118.27 Ieremiah 17.26 Ioell 19.13 Malachy 1.7 8 10 13 14. yet that God should require and urge the observation of these above any other worship is evidently crosse to reason and expresly crosse to Scripture Isaiah 1.11 12 13 14 15. Isaiah 66.3 Psalme 50.13 Ieremiah 6.20 Amos 3.21 Micah 6.7 To remember therefore to keepe the Sabbath is not to remember to observe Ceremoniall duties Thesis 64. Nor should it seem strange that Jewish holy dayes are not here enjoyned where a holy time a Sabbath day is commanded for those Jewish holy dayes were principally instituted as Wallaeus well observes for signification of Christ and his benefits as may appeare from â— Cor. 5.7 Luke 4.19 Hebrewes 10.5 and therefore being significant were parts of instituted worship belonging to the second not fourth Command but the Sabbath day as shall be shewn is in its originall institution and consecration of another nature and not significant yet this may bee granted that ceremoniall holy dayes may be referred to the fourth Command as appendices of it and if Calvin Vrsin Danaeus and others aimâ— at no more it may bee granted but it will not follow from hence that they therefore belong to the second command indirectly and directly to the fourth
but a roiall law Iam. 2.8.12 nor doth hee make subjection thereunto to be the bondage of servants as that was Gal. 4.9 but the liberty of children and therefore called a royall law of liberty Secondly Suppose the weekly Sabbath bee here comprehended under dayes as also that by Sabbaths is meant weekly Sabbaths Col. 2.16 yet hereby cannot be meant the Christian Sabbath but the Iewish Sabbath for the Apostle condemnes that Sabbath and those Sabbath dayes which the Iewish teachers pleaded for among the Colossians now they never pleaded for the observation of the Christian Sabbath but were zealous and strong procters for that particular seventh day from the creation which the Iewes their fore-fathers for many yeares before observed and for the observation of which some among us of late begin to struggle at this day Now as was said admit the gradation we doe not observe the Iewish Sabbath nor judge others in respect of that Sabbath no more than for observing new moones or holy dayes we do utterly condemne the observation of that Sabbath If it bee said why doe we not observe new moones and holy dayes as well by substituting other dayes in their roome as we doe a Christian Sabbath in the room of that Iewish Sabbath wee shall give the reason of it in its proper place which I mention not here lest I should bis coctam apponere These places therefore are strong arguments for not observing that seventh day which was Iewish and ceremoniall but they give no sufficient ground for abandoning all Christian Sabbaths under the Gospel Thirdly there is a double observation of dayes as Wallaeus and Davenant well observe 1. Morall 2. Ceremoniall Now the Apostle in the places alledged speakes against the Ceremoniall and Pharisaicall observation of dayes but not morall For dayes of fasting are to be observed under the Gospel the Lord Christ our Bridegroom being now taken from us when our Saviour expressely tels us that then his Disciples even when they had the greatest measures of Christs spirituall presence should fast Matth. 9.15 16. But wee are to observe these dayes with morall not ceremoniall observation such as the Iewes had in sackcloth ashes tearing haire rending Garments and many other Ceremoniall trappings we are to rend our hearts and cry mightily unto God upon those dayes which is the morall observance of them So 't is in respect of the Sabbath no Sabbath day under the Gospel is to bee observed with ceremoniall or pharisaâ—call observation with Jewish preparations Sacrifices needlesse abstinence from lawfull worke and such like formalities but doth it hence follow that no dayes are to bee observed under the Gospel with morall observation in hearing the Word receiving the Sacraments singing of Psalms c. There was no morality in the new moons by vertue of any speciall commandment and therefore it is in vaine to aske why new moons may not be observed still as well as Sabbaths provided that it be observatione morali for there is a morality in observing the Sabbath and that by a speciall command which is not in new moons and holy dayes and therefore as we utterly abandon all that which was in the Sabbath ceremoniall so we doe and should heartily retaine and observe that which is morall herein with morall observance hereof Thesis 75. There were among the Jews dayes ceremonially holy as well as meats ceremonially uncleane now in that other place which they urge against the observation of any dayes under the Gospel Rom. 14.5 therein dayes ceremoniall are compared with meats ceremoniall and not morall days with ceremoniall meats It is therefore readily acknowledged that it was an errour and weaknesse in some to think themselves bound to certaine ceremoniall dayes as well as it was to abstain from certain ceremoniall meats but will iâ— hence follow that it is a part of Christian liberty strength to abandon all dayes as ceremoniall and that it is a part of Christian weaknes to observe any day under the Gospel this verily hath not the face of any reason for it from this Scripture wherein the Apostle doubtlesse speaks of ceremoniall not morall dayes as shall appear our Christian Sabbaths be And look as it is duty not weaknesse sometime to abstaine from some meats as in the case of extraordinary humiliation as wee see in Daniel Dan 9. and 11. so it may be duty not weaknesse still to observe some dayes I say not the seventh day for that is not now the question but some dayes are or may be necessary to bee observed now Thesis 76. If any man shall put any holinesse in a day which God doth not and so think one day more holy than another this is most abominable superstition and this is indeed to observe dayes and of this the Apostle seems to speak when he saith Ye observe dayes But when the Lord shall put holines upon one day more then upon another we do not then put any holines in the day but God doth it nor doe we place any holines in one day more then in another but God placeth it first and this is no observation of dayes which the Apostle condemns in those that were weak but of the will of God which he every where commands Thesis 77. There is as some call it Sabbathum internum externum i. an internall and externall Sabbath the first if I may lawfully call it a Sabbath is to be kept every day in a speciall rest from sin the second is to bee observed at certaine times and on speciall days now if that other place Isa. 66.23 which is much urged for the equality of all days be meant of a continuall Sabbath so that those words from Sabbath to Sabbath if they signifie a constant continuall worship of God indefinently then the Prophet speaks of an internall Sabbath which shall in speciall be observed under the Gospel but this doth not abolish the observation of an externall Sabbath also no more then in the times before the Gospel when the people of God were bound to observe a continuall Sabbath and rest from sin and yet were not exempted hereby from externall Sabbaths onely because more grace is poured out upon the people of God under the new Testament then under the old and under some times and seasons of the new Testament and some people more then at and upon others hence this prophesie points at the times of the Gospell wherein Gods people shall worship God more spiritually and continually then in former times But if by this phrase From Sabbath to Sabbath be meant succession i. one Sabbath after another successively wherein Gods people shall enjoy blessed fellowship with God from Sabbath to Sabbath successively in the worship of him one Sabbath after another then this place is such a weapon in their owne hands against themselves as that it wounds to the heart that accursed conceit that all dayes should be abandoned by those under the new Testament But suppose that by Sabbath
and shadowes and figures when once the substance is come to wit when they come in this life to the highest attainment which is the bosome of the Father which bosome is the true Sabbath of a Christian man Now I confesse that the bosome of God in Christ is our rest and our All in All in heaven and our sweet consolation and rest on earth and that we are not to rest in any meanes Ordinances Graces Duties but to look beyond them all and to be carried by them above them all to him that is better than all to God in Christ Jesus but to make this bosome of God a kinde of canker-worme to fret and eat out the heart and being not only of all Sabbaths and Ordinances of worship but also of all duties and graces of Gods Spirit nay of Christ Jesus himself as he is manifested in the flesh and is an externall Mediator whom some lately have also cast into same box with the rest Being sent onely as they think to reveale but not to procure the Fathers love of delight and therefore is little else than a meere forme and so to cease when the Father comes in the room of all formes and so is All in All This I dare say is such a high affront to the precious bloud of Christ and his glorious Name and blessed Spirit of grace that he who hath his Furnace in Zion and his fire in Ierusalem will not beare it long without making their judgements and plagues at least spirituall exemplary and wonderfull and leading them forth in such crooked wayes with the workers of iniquity when peace shall be upon Israel Are these abstracted notions of a Deity into the vision and contemplation of whose amazing glory without seeing him as he is in Christ a Christian they say must be plunged lost and swallowed up and up to which hee must ascend even to the unaproachable light the true and onely Sabbath Are these I say the new and glorious light breaking out in these dayes which this age must wait for which are nothing else upon narrow search than Monkish imaginations the goodly cob-webs of the brain-imagery of those idolatrous and superstitious hypocrites the Anchorites Monks and Fryers who to make the blinde and simple world admire and gaze upon them gave it out hereby like Simon Magus that they were some great ones even the very power and familiars of God Surely in these times of distraction warre and bloud if ever the Lord called for sackcloth humiliation repentance faith graces holinesse precious esteem of Gods Ordinances and of that Gospel which hath been the power of God to the salvation of thousands now is the time and must Gods people reject these things as their A. B. C and must the new light of these times be the dreames and visions and slaverings of doting and deluded old Monks Shall the simplicity of Gospel-ministery bee rejected as a common thing and shall Harphius his Theologia Mystica Augustinus Elutherius Iacob Behmen Cusanus Raimundus Sebund Theologia Germanica and such like Monk-admirers be set up as the new lights and beacons on the mountaine of these elevated times Surely if so God hath his time and wayes of putting a better relish to his precious Gospel and the crosse of Christ which was wont in Pauls time to be plainly preached without such popish paintings and wherein Gods people knew how to reconcile their sweâ—â— rest in the bosome of the Father and their Sabbath day Thesis 81. If sinne which is the transgression of the law bee the greatest evill then holines which is our conformity to the law is our greatest good If sin be mans greatest misery then holinesse is mans greatest happinesse It is therefore no bondage for a Christian to be bound to the observance of the law as his rule because it onely binds him fast to his greatest happinesse and thereby directs and keeps him safe from falling into the greatest misery and woe and if the great designe of Christ in comming into the world was not so much as to save man from affliction and sorrow which are lesser evils but chiefely from sinne which is the greatest evill then the chiefe end of his comming was not as some imagine to lift his people up into the love and abstracted speculation of the Father above the law of God but into his owne bosome onely where only wee have fellowship with the Father above the Law of sinne Thesis 82. The bloud of Christ was never shed to destroy all sense of sin and sight of sinne in Beleevers and consequently all attendance to any rule of the law by which means chiefely sinne comes to be seen but he dyed rather to make them sensible of sinne for if he dyed to save men from sin as is evident 1 Iohn 3.5 Tit. 3.14 then hee dyed to make his people sensible of sinne because hereby his peoples hearts are chiefely weaned and sever'd from it and saved out of it as by hardnesse and unsensiblenesse of heart under it they chiefely cleave to it and it to them and therefore we know that godly sorrow workes repentance never to be repented of 2 Cor. 7.10 And that Pharaoh's hardnesse of heart strengthened him in his sin against God unto the last gasp and hence it is also that the deepest and greatest spirit of mourning for sin is poured out upon Beleevers after God hath poured out upon them the spirit of grace as is evident Zach. 12.10 11. because the bloud of Christ which was shed for the killing of their sinne now makes them sensible of their sinne because it 's now sprinkled and applyed to them which it was not before for they now see all their sins aggravated being now not onely sinnes against the law of God but against the bloud and love of the Son of God It is therefore a most accursed doctrine of some Libertines who imagining that through the bloudshed and righteousnes of Christ in their free justification God sees no sinne in his justified people that therefore themselves are to see no sinne because now they are justified and washed with Christs bloud and therefore lest they should be found out to bee grosse liars they mince the matteâ— they confesse that they may see sinne by the eye of sense and reason but faith being crosse to reason they are therefore to see the quite contrary and so to see no sinne in themselves by the eye of faith from whence it followes that Christ shed his bloud to destroy all sight and sense of sin to the eye of faith though not to the eye of reason and thus as by the eye of faith they should see no sin so it will follow that by the same bloud they are bound to see no law no not so much as their rule which as a rule is index sui obliqui and in revealing mans duty declares his sinne I know that in beholding our free justification by the bloud of Christ we are to exclude all law
here only commanded the first seems in Mr. Primrose apprehension to writhe and wrack the words of the Commandment the second if granted abolisheth our Christian Sabbaths Thesis 122. For clearing up of this difficulty therefore and leaving the dispute of the change of the Sabbath to it 's pâ—â—per place it may be made good that not that seventh day from the creation so much as a seventh day which God shall determine and therefore called the seventh day is primarily morall and therefore enjoyned in this Commandment for which end let these things be considered and laid together 1. Because the expresse words of the Commandment do not run thus viz. Remember to keep holy That seventh day but more generally the Sabbath day 't is in the beginning and so 't is in the end of this Commandment where it is not said that God blessed That Seventh day but The Sabbath day by which expression the wisdom of God as it points to that particular seventh day that it should be sanctified so it also opens a door of liberty for change if God shall see meet because the substance of the Commandment doth not only contain That seventh day but The Sabbath day which may be upon another seventh as well as upon that which God appointed first and that the substance of the command is contained in those first words Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy may appeare from the repetition of the same Commandment Deut. 5.12 where these words As the Lord thy God commanded thee are immediately inserted before the rest of the words of the Commandement be set down to shew thus much that therein is contained the substance of the fourth command the words following being added only to presse to the duty and to point out the particular day which at that time God would have them to observe 2. Because in the explication of those words the Sabbath it is not called That seventh but The seventh for so the words runne Six daies shalt thou labour but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God the meaning of which is thus much to wit that man taking six daies to himself for labour that he leave the seventh to be the Lords now unlesse any can shew that no other day but that Seventh could be the seventh for rest nor no other six daies but those six daies going before thaâ— seventh could be the six daies for labour they can never prove that this fourth Commandment hath only a respect to That particular Seventh and it is no small boldnesse necessarily to limit where God hath left free for we know that if God will man may take other six daies for labour and leave another Seventh for God then those six daies and that Seventh day only 3. The change of the Sabbath undeniably proves thus much if it can be proved that the morality of this command did not lie in that particular day only for if that only was morall how could it be changed and if it did not lie only in that Seventh wherein then did it more generally lie was it in a day more largely or in a Seventh day more narrowly now let any indifferent conscience be herein judge who they be that come nearest to the truth whether they that fly so far from the name Seventh which is expresly mentioned in the Commandment or they that come as near it as may be whether they that plead for a Seventh of Gods appointing or they that plead for a day but God knowes when of humane institution and it 's worth considering why any should be offended at the placing of the morality of the command in a Seventh more then at their own placing of it in a day for in urging the letter of the Commandment to that particular Seventh to abolish thereby the morality of a Seventh day they do withall therein utterly abandon the morality of a day for if That Seventh only be enjoyned in the letter of the Commandment and they will thence inferre that a Seventh therefore cannot be required how can they upon this ground draw out the morality of a day 4. Because we know that ratio legis est anima legis i. the reason of a law is the soul and life of the law now let it be considered why God should appoint the Seventh rather then the ninth or tenth or twentieth-day for spirituall rest and the reason will appear not to be Gods absolute will meerly but because divine wisdom having just measures and ballances in its hand in proportioning time between God and man it saw a seventh part of time rather then a tenth of twentieth to be most equall for himself to take and for man to give and thus much the words of the Commandment imply viz. that it is most equall if man hath six that God should have the seventh now if this be the reason of the law this must needs be the soul and substance of the morality of the law viz. That a Seventh day be given to God man having six and therefore it consists not in That Seventh day only for the primary reason why God appointed this or that Seventh was not because it was that seventh but because a Seventh was now equall in the eye of God for God to take to himself man having the full and fittest proportion of six daies together for himself and because a seventh was the fittest proportion of time for God hence this or that individual and particular seventh in the second place fall out to be morall because they contain the most equall and fittest proportion of a Seventh day in them there was also another reason why That Seventh was sanctified viz. Gods rest in it but this reason is not primary as hath been said and of which now we speak 5. Because if no other Commandment be in the Decalogue but it is comprehensive and looking many waies at once why should we then pinion and gird up this only to the narrow compasse of that Seventh day only 6. Because our adversaries in this point are forced sometime to acknowledge this morality of a Seventh with us we have heard the judgement of Gomaras herein Thesis 44. and M. Primrose who speaks with most weight and spirit in this controversie professeth plainly That if God give us six daies for our own affairs there is then good reason to consecrate a Seventh to his service and that in this reason there is manifest justice and equity which abideth for ever to dedicate to God precisely a seventh day after we have bestowed six daies upon our selves it cannot be denied saith he but that it is most just Now if it be by his confession 1. just 2. most just 3. manifestly just 4. perpetually just to give God precisely one day in seven the cause is then yeelded the only evasion he makes is this viz. that though it be most just to give God one day in seven yet it 's not more just then to give God one in six
or five or four there being no naturall justice in the number of seven more then in the number of six or four but the answer is easie that if man may give unto God superstitiously too many or prophanely too few and if the appointment of God hath declared it self for a seventh and that the giving of this seventh be most just and equall then let it be considered whether it be not most satisfactory to a scrupling conscience to allow God a seventh day which he hath appointed which is confessed to be most just and perpetually equall and consequently morall and if there be a morall and perpetuall equity to give God one day in seven then 't is no matter whether there be any more naturall equity therein then in one in five or six the disputers of this worlâ— may please themselves with such speculations and shifts but the wisdom of God which hath already appointed one day in seven rather then in six or ten should be adored herein by humble mindes in cutting out this proportion of time with far greater equity then man can now readily see 7. Because deep corruption is the ground of this opinion the plucking up of Gods bounds and land-marks of a seventh is to put the stakes into the Churches hands to set them where she pleaseth or if she set them at a seventh where God would have them yet that this may be submitted to not because God pleaseth but because the Church so pleaseth not because of Gods will and determination but because of the Churches will and determination that so it being once granted that the Church hath liberty to determine of such a day she may not be denied liberty of making any other holidaies or holy things in the worship and service of God and that this is the main scope and root of this opinion is palpably evident from most of the writings of our English adversaries in this controversie Thesis 123. A seventh day therefore is primarily morall yet as was formerly said Thesis 48. there is something else in this commandment which is secundarily morall viz. This or that particular seventh day I will not say that it is accidentally morall as some do but rather secundarily and consequently morall for it is not morall firstly because it is this particular seventh but because it hath a seventh part of time divinely proportioned and appointed for rest falling into it and of which it participates to give almes to the needy is a morall duty and primarily morall but to give this or that quantity may be morall also but it is secundarily morall because it flowes ex consequenti onely from the first for if we are to give almes according to our ability and others necessity then this or that particular quantity thus suting their necessity must be given which is also a morall duty so 't is in this point of the Sabbath Thesis 224. Hence it follows that this Commandment enjoynes two things 1. More generally a seventh 2 More particularly this or that seventh and in speciall that seventh from the Creation this or that seventh are to be kept holy because of a seventh part of time appointed falling into them A seventh day also is to be kept holy by vertue of the Commandement yet not in generall but with speciall eye and respect to that particular seventh wherein this generall is involved and preserved That seventh from the Creation is commanded because of a seventh falling into it and a seventh also is commanded yet with a speciall eye to that seventh wherein it is involved And therefore 't is a vaine objection to affirm that if a seventh be commanded that then â—o particular seventh is or if any particular seventh be so that then a seventh is not for the Commandement we see hath respect to both for what is there more frequent in Scripture then for generall duties to be wrapt up and set forth in some particular things instances and examples and consequently both commanded together and after narrow search into this Commandement we shall finde both the generall and particular seventh not onely inferring one the other but both of them in a manner expresly mentioned Thesis 125. When those that plead for the morality of the fourth Command in respect of a seventh day would prove it to be morall because it is part of the Decalogue and set in the heart of it with a speciall note of remembrance affixed to it c. Mr. Ironside and others doe usually dash all such reasonings out of countenance with this answer viz. That by this argument That particular seventh from the creation is morall which we see is changed for say they that also is set in the heart of the Decalogue with a speciall note of remembrance also But the reply from what hath ben said is easie viz. That that also is indeed morall only 't is secondarily morall not primarily and therefore as we have shewn was mutable and changeable the primary morality in a seventh immutably remaining the morall duty of observing a seventh day is not changed but only the day If Mr. Primrose could prove that there is nothing else commanded in this fourth command but only that particular seventh from the creation he had then enough to shew that this day being justly changed the Commandment is not morall of perpetuall but out or this particular seventh which now is changed himself acknowledgeth that out of it may be gathered the morality of a day and why not of a seventh day also as well as of a day He saith that it is a bold assertion to say that this genus of a seventh is herein commanded But why is it not as bold to affirm the same of a day for out of that particular seventh whence he would raise the genus of a day we may as easily and far more rationally collect the genus of a seventh day Thesis 126. Nor will it follow that because a seventh is morall that therefore any one of the seven daies in a week may be made a Christian Sabbath For 1. We do not say that it is any seventh but A seventh determined and appointed of God for holy rest which is herein commanded 2. The Lord hath in wisdom appointed such a seventh as that man may have six whole daies together to labour in and hence it follows that divine determination without crossing that wisdom could not possibly fall upon any other daies in the Cycle of seven but either upon the last of seven which was the Jewish or the first of seven which now is as shall be shewn the Christian Sabbath 3. As God hath appointed one day in seven for mans rest so in his wisdom he so orders it as that it shall be also a day of Gods rest and that is not to be found in any day of the week but either in the last of seven wherein the Father rested or in the first of seven wherein the Son rested from his work also Thesis 127. 'T
is true that the Sabbath day and that seventh day from the creation are indifferently taken sometimes the one for the other the one being the exegesis or the explication of the other as Gen. 2 2 3. Exod. 16.29 and elsewhere but that it should be only so understood in this commandment Credaâ— Iudaeus Apella non ego as he said in another case I see no convicting argument to clip the wings of the Scripture so short and to make the Sabbath day and that seventh day of equall dimensions Although it cannot be denied but that in some sense the Sabbath day is exegeticall of the seventh day because the commandment hath a speciall eye to that seventh from the creation which is secundarily morall yet not excluding that which is more generally contained in that particular and consequently commanded viz. a seventh day or The Sabbath day Thesis 128. M. Primrose would prove the exegesis That by the Sabbath day is meant that seventh day only from the creation because God actually blessed and sanctified that Sabbath day because God cannot actually blesse a seventh being an unlimited indefinite and uncertain indetermined time The time saith he only wherein he rested he only actually blessed which was not in a seventh day indetermined but in that determined seventh day But all this may be readily acknowledged and yet the truth remain firm for that particular seventh being secundarily morall hence as it was expressely commanded so it was actually and particularly blessed but as in this seventh a generall of a seventh is included so a seventh is also generally blessed and sanctified Otherwise how will M. Primrose maintain the morality of a day of worship out of this commandment for the same objection may be made against a day which himself acknowledgeth as against a seventh day which we maintain for it may be said that That day is here only morall wherein God actually rested but he did not rest in a day indefinitely and therefore a day is not morall let him unloose this knot and his answer in defence of the morality of a day will help him to see the morality of a seventh day also That particular day indeed wherein God actually and particularly rested he particularly blessed but there was a seventh day also more generall which he generally blessed also he generally blest the Sabbath day he particularly blest that Sabbath day and in blessing of that he did virtually and by Analogy blesse our particular Christian Sabbath also which was to come As Moses in his actuall blessing of the tribe of Levi Deut. 23.7 10. he did virtually and by Analogy blesse all the Ministers of the Gospel not then in being And look as when God commanded them to keep holy the Sabbath in ceremoniall duties he did therein virtually command us to keep it holy in Evangelicall duties so when he commanded them to observe that day because it was actually appointed and sanctified and blessed of God he commanded us virtually and analogically therein to observe our seventh day also if ever he should actually appoint and blesse this other Thesis 129. The distribution of equity and justice consists not alway in puncto indivisibili i. in an indivisible point and a set measure so as that if more or lesse be done or given in way of justice that then the rule of justice is thereby broken ex gr it 's just to give alms and pay tribute yet not so just as that if men give more or lesse that then they break a rule of justice so 't is in this point of the Sabbath a seventh part of time is morall because it is just and equall for all men to give unto God who have six for one given them to serve their own turn and do their own work in yet it is not so just but that if God had required the tribute of a third or fourth part of our time but it might have been just also to have given him one day in three or two or four for in this case positive determination doth not so much make as declare only that which is morall And therefore if Mr Primrose thinks that a seventh part of time is not morall upon this ground viz. because it is as equall and just to dedicate more time to God and that a third or fourth day is as equall as a seventh it is doubtlesse an ungrounded assertion for so he affirms That although it be most just to give God one day in seven yet no moâ—e just then to dedâ—cate to him one day in three or six And suppose it be so yet this doth not prove that a seventh day is not morall because it is as equall to give six as seven no more then that it is no morall duty to give an alms because it may be as equall to give twenty pence as thirty pence to a man in want If furthermore he think that it is as equall and just to give God more daies for his service as one in seven out of humane wisdom and by humane consecration not divine dedication then it may be doubted whether one day in two or three or six is as equall as one day in seven for as humane wisdom if lest to it self may readily give too few so it may superstitiously give too many as hath been said But if four or three or six be alike equall in themselves to give to God as one in seven then if he thinks it a morall duty to observe any such day in case it should be imposed and consecrated by humane determination I hope he will not be offended at us if we think it a morall duty also to observe a seventh day which we are certain divine wisdom hath judged most equall and which is imposed on us by divine determination we may be uncertain whether the one is as equall as we are certain that a seventh day is Thesis 130. Actions of worship can no more be imagined to be done without some time then a body be without some place and therefore in the three first Commandments where Gods worship is enjoined some time together with it is necessarily commanded if therefore any time for worship be required in the fourth command which none can deny it must not be such a time as is connaturall which is necessarily tyed to the action but it must be some solemne and speciall time which depends upon some speciall determination not which nature but which Counsel determines Determination therefore by Counsel of that time which is required in this command doth not abolish the morality of it but rather declares and establisheth it God therefore who is Lord of time may justly challenge the determination of this time into his own hand and not infringe the morality of this command considering also that he is more able and fit then men or Angels to see and so cut out the most equall proportion of time between man and himself God therefore hath sequestred a seventh part of
the Law but the hardnesse of their stony hearts which the Law writ upon them was not able to overcome and t is true that the stony Tables did signifie stony hearts but its false that the writing on stone did not signifie continuance also according to Scripture phrase For all the children of God have stony hearts by nature now God hath promised to write his Law upon such hearts as are by nature stony and his writing of them there implies the continuance of them there so that both these may stand together and the similitude is fully thus viz. The whole Law of God was writ on Tables of stone to continue there so the whole Law of God is writ on stony hearts by nature to continue thereon Thesis 144. Only morall Laws and all morall Laws are thus summarily and generally honoured by God the ten Commandements being Christian pandects and common heads of all morall duties toward God and men Under which generals all the particular morall duties in the Commentaries of the Prophets and Apostles are virtually comprehended and contained and therefore Mr. Primrose's argument is weake who thinks that this honour put upon the Decalogue doth not argue it to be morall Because then many other particular morall Laws set down in Scripture not in Tables of stone but in parchments of the Prophets and Apostles should not be morall For we doe not say that all morall Laws particularly were thus specially honoured but that all and only morall Laws summarily were thus honoured in which summaries all the particulars are contained and in that respect equally honoured It may affect ones heart with great mourning to see the many inventions of mens hearts to blot out this remembrance of the Sabbath day they first cast it out of Paradise and shut it out of the world untill Moses time when in Moses time it s published as a Law and crowned with the same honour as all other morall Laws yet then they make it to be but a ceremoniall Law continuing onely until the comming of Christ after which time it ceaseth to be any Law at all unlesse the Churches constitution shall please to make it so which is worst of all Thesis 145. Every thing indeed which was published by Gods immediate voyce in promulgating of the Law is not morall and common to all but some things so spoken may be peculiar and proper to the Jews because some things thus spoken were promises or motives only annexed to the Law to perswade to the obedience thereof but they were not Laws for the question is whether all Laws spoken and writ thus immediately were not morall but the argument which some produce against this is From the promise annexed to the fifth Command concerning long life and from the motive of redemption out of the house of bondage in the preface to the Commandments both which they say were spoken immediatly but yet were both of them proper unto the Iews But suppose the promise annexed to the fifth Commandement be proper to the Jews and ceremoniall as Master Primrose pleads which yet many strong reasons from Eph. 6.2 may induce one to deny what is this to the question which is not concerning Promises but Commandements and Laws Suppose also that the motive in the Preface of the Commandments literally understood is proper to the Jews yet this is also evident that such reasons and motives as are proper to some and perhaps ceremoniall may be annexed to morall laws which are common to all nor wil it follow that laws are therefore not common because the motives thereto are proper We that dwel in America may be perswaded to love and feare God which are morall duties in regard of our redemption and deliverances from out of the vast sea storms we once had and the tumults in Europe which now are which motives are proper to our selves Promises and motives annexed to the Commandements come in as means to a higher end viz. obedience to the Laws themselves and hence the Laws themselves may be morall and these not so though immediatly spoken because they be not chiefly nor lastly intended herein I know Wallaeus makes the preface to the Commandments a part of the first Commandment and therefore he would hence infer that some part at least of a Commandment is proper to the Jews but if these words contain a motive pressing to the obedience of the whole how is it possible that they should be a part of the law or of any one law For what force of a law can there be in that which only declares unto us who it is that redeemed them out of Egypts bondage For it cannot be true which the same Author affirms that in these words is set forth only who that God is whom we are to have to be our God in the first Commandement but they are of larger extent shewing us who that God is whom we are to worship according to the first Commandement and that with his own worship according to the second and that reverently according to the third and whose day we are to sanctifie according to the fourth and whose wil we are to doe in all duties of love toward man according to the severall duties of the second Table and therefore this declaration of God is no more a part of the first then of any other Commandment and every other Commandement may challenge it as a part of themselves as well as the first Thesis 146. It is a truth as immovable as the pillars of Heaven That God hath given to all men universally a rule of life to conduct them to their end Now if the whole Decalogue be not it what shall The Gospel is the rule of our faith but not of our spirituall life which flows from faith Gal. 2.20 Ioh. 5.24 The law therefore is the rule of our life now if nine of these be a compleat rule without a tenth exclude that one and then who sees not an open gap made for all the rest to goe out at also For where wil any man stop if once this principle be laid viz. That the whole law is not the rule of life May not Papists blot out the second also as some of Cassanders followers have done all but two and as the Antinomians at this day do all and have they not a good ground laid for it who may hence safely say that the Decalogue is not a rule of life for all Mr. Primrose that he might keep himselfe from a broken head here sends us for salve to the light of nature and the testimony of tbe Gospel both which saith he maintain and confirm the morality of all the other Commandements except this one of the Sabbath But as it shall appeare that the Law of the Sabbath hath confirmation from both if this direction was sufficient and good so it may be in the mean time considered why the Gentiles who were universall Idolaters and therefore blotted out the light of nature as Mr. Primrose confesseth
example there was and is a present rule binding immediatly to â—ollow that example if therefore from the foundation of the world God made himself an example in six daies labour and in a seventh daies rest why should not this example then and at that time of innocency be binding there being no example which God sets before us but it supposeth a rule binding us immediatly therunto The great and most high God could have made the world in a moment or in a hundred years why did he make it then in six daies and rested the seventh day but that it might be an example to man It s evident that ever since the world began mans life was to be spent in labour and action which God could have appointed to contemplation only nor will any say that his life should be spent only in labour and never have any speciall day of rest unlesse the Antinomians who herein sin against the light of nature if therefore God was exemplary in his six daies labour why should any think but that he was thus also in his seventh daies rest Pointing out unto man most visibly as it were thereby on what day he should rest A meet time for labour was a morall duty since man was framed upon earth God therefore gives man an example of it in making the world in six daies A meet time for holy rest the end of all holy and honest labour was much more morall the end being better then the means why then was not the example of this also seen in Gods rest M. Ironside indeed is at a stand here and confesseth his ignorance In conceiving how Gods working six daies should be exemplary to man in innocency it being not preceptive but permissive only to man in his apostasie But let a plain analysis be made of the motives used to presse obedience to the fourth command and we shall finde according to the consent of all the Orthodox not prejudiced in this controversie that Gods example of working six daies in creating the world is held forth as a motive to presse Gods people to do all their work within six daies also and the very reason of our labour and rest now is the example of Gods labour and rest then as may also appear Ex. 31.17 And to say that those words in the Commandment viz. Six daies thou shalt labour are no way preceptive but meerly promissive is both crosse to the expresse letter of the text and contrary to morall equity to allow any part of the six daies for sinfull idlenesse or neglect of our weekely work so far forth as the rest upon the Sabbath be hindered hereby Thesis 157. The word Sanctified is variously taken in Scripture and various things are variously and differently sanctified yet in this place when God is said to sanctifie the Sabbath Gen. 2.2 3. it must be one of these two waies either 1. By infusion of holinesse and sanctification into it as holy men are said to be sanctified Or 2. By separation of it from common use and dedication of it to holy use as the Temple and Altar are said to be sanctified Thesis 158. God did not sanctifie the Sabbath by infusion of any habituall holinesse into it for the circumstance of a seventh day is not capable thereof whereof only rationall creatures men and Angels are Thesis 159. It must therefore be said to be sanctified in respect of its separation from common use and dedication to holy use as the Temple and Tabernacle were which yet had no inherent holinesse in them Thesis 160. Now if the Sabbath was thus sanctified by dedication it must be either for the use of God or of man i. either that God might keep this holy day or that man might observe it as a holy day to God but what dishonour is it to God to put him upon the observation of a holy day and therefore it was dedicated and consecrated for mans sake and use that so he might observe it as holy unto God Thesis 161. This day therefore is said to be sanctified of God that man might sanctifie it and dedicate it unto God and hence it follows that look as man could never have lawfully dedicated it unto God without a precedent institution from God so the institution of God implies a known command given by God unto man thereunto Thesis 162. 'T is therefore evident that when God is said to sanctifie the Sabbath Gen. 2.2 3. that man is commanded hereby to sanctifie it and dedicate it to the holy use of God Sanctificare est sanctifica â— mandare saith Iunius And therefore if M Primrose and others desire to know where God commandeth the observation of the Sabbath in Gen. 2.2 they may see it here necessarily implied in the word Sanctifie And therefore if God did sanctifie the Sabbath immediatly after the creation he commanded man to sanctifie it then for so the word Sanctified is expressely expounded by the holy Ghost himself Deut. 5.15 We need not therefore seek for wood among trees and enquire where and when and upon what ground the Patriarchs before Moses observed a Sabbath when as it was famously dedicated and sanctified i. commanded to be sanctified from the first foundation of the world Thesis 163. Our adversaries therefore dazled with the clearnesse of the light shining forth from the text Gen. 2.2 to wit that the Sabbath was commanâ—ed to be sanctified before the fall do fly to their shifts and seek for refuge from severall answers sometimes they say 't is sanctified by way of destination sometimes they â—ell uâ— of anticipation sometime they think the Book of Genesis was writ after Exodus and many such inventions which because they cannot possibly stand one with another are therefore more fit to vex and perplex the mind then to satisfie conscience and indeed do argue much uncertainty to be in the mindes of those that make these and the like answers aâ— not knowing certainly what to say nor where to stand yet let us examine them Thesis 164. To imagine that the Book of Genesis was writ after Exodus and yet to affirm that the Sabbath in Genesis is said to be sanctified and blest only in way of destination i. because God destinated and ordained that it should be sanctified many years after seems to be an ill favoured and mishapen answer and no way fit to serve their turn who invent it for if it was writ after Exodus what need was there to say that it was destinated and ordained to be sanctified for time to come when as upon this supposition the Sabbath was already sanctified for time past as appears in the story of Exodus 19.20 And therefore M. Primrose translates the words thus that God rested and hath blessed and hath sanctified the seventh day as if Moses writ of it as a thing past already but what truth is there then to speak of a destination for time to come I know Iunius so renders the Hebrew words as also
168. If God sanctified and commanded Adam to sanctifie the Sabbath it was either that he himselfe should observe it personally or successively in his posterity also now there is no reason to thinke that this is a command peculiarly binding Adam himselfe only there being the same cause for his posterity to observe a Sabbath as himselfe had which was Gods example of labour and rest and if this was given to his posterity also then it was a morall duty and not a point of meer order proper to Adam to attend unto yet Mr. Primrose for feare lest he should shoot short in one of his answers wherein he tels us that it did derogate much from the excellency of Adams condition to have any one day for God appointed unto him yet here notwithstanding hee tels us that if God had appointed such a day it was no morall thing nor yet a ceremony directing to Christ but only as a point of order which God was pleased then to subject him unto and that a man may as well conclude that it was a morall thing to serve God in Eden because it was a place which God had appointed Adam to serve him in as the seventh day to be morall because it was the time thereof but this assertion is but a meer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the text tels us expresly that God did both blesse and sanctifie the Seventh day in a speciall manner as a thing of common concernment but is never said to blesse and sanctifie the place of Eden All men in Adam were made in the image of God and was there but one thing in innocency wherein God made himself eminenâ—ly exemplary in labour and rest shal we think that that one thing was rather a point of order proper to Adam then a part of Gods image common to all the appointment of that royall seat of Eden was an act of heavenly bounty and therfore might well be proper to him in that estate but the appointment of the time for Gods speciall honour was an act of justice made and built upon a rule of common equity as may appear out of the second edition of this Law in the fourth Commandment and therefore might well be morally binding unto all and not a point of meer order only for Adam to observe Thesis 169. If Adam had stood all mankinde might and perhaps should have observed that particular seventh day for ever on earth but look as Adam observed it not meerly because it was That Seventh as hath been shewn which was but secundarily and as it were accidentally morall but because it was the Seventh day appointed of God which is firstly and primarily morall so although we now do not observe that Seventh day which Adam did yet the substance of the morality of this command given unto him is observed still by us in observing the Seventh day which God hath appointed to which the equity of this command bindes generally all mankinde hence therefore it is of little force which some object that if the Commandment to man in innocency be morall that then we are bound to observe the same Seventh day which Adam in innocency did this is oft laid in our dish but the answer is easie from what hath been said Thesis 170. If because we reade not any expresse mention that the Patriarchs before Moses time did sanctifie a Sabbath that therefore the Sabbath was not sanctified at that time we may as well argue that it was not observed all the time of the Judges nor of the books of Samuel because no express mention is made in those books of any such thing for if it be said that there is no doubt but that they observed it because it was published on Mount Sinai the like we may say concerning the Patriarchall times who had such a famâ—us manifestation of Gods minde herein from the known story Commandment and example of God in the first creation Gen. 2.2 it is not â—aid expresly that Abram kept the Sabbath but he is commended for keeping Gods Commandments Gen. 26.5 and is not the Sabbath one of those Commandments the breach of which is accounted the breaking of all Exod. 16.27 28. and may we lawfully and charitably think that Abram neglected other morall duties because they are not expâ—esly mentioned again it may be as well doubted of whether the Patriarchs observed any day at all which our adversaries confesse to be morall because it nâ—ither is expâ—esly mentionedâ— again it may be said with as good reason thâ—â— the sacrifices which they offered were without warrant from God because the Commandment for them is not expresly mentioned but we know that Abel by faith offered and faith must arise from a precedent word so that as the approved practise of holy men doth necessarily imply a command so the command given as hath been shewn to Adam doth as necessarily inferre a practise again if no duties to God were performed by the Patriarchs but such as are expresly mentioned and held forth in their examples we should then behold a strange face of a Church for many hundred years together and necessarily condemn the generatioâ— of the just for living in grosse neglects and impieties tâ—ere being many singular and speciall duties which doubtlesse were done that were not meet particularly to be mentioned in that short epitome of above 2000 years together in the book â—f Genesis and therefore for M. Ironside and Primrose to conclude that the keeping of the Sabbath had certainly been mentioned if it had been observed is very unsound M. Primrose thinks that if the Sabbath had been observed it had been then mentioned because lesser things then the Sabbath are made mention of there being also frequent occasion to speak of the Sabbath and that Moses and the Prophets would have pressed the observation of it from the Patriarchs example if they had so practised But what is this kinde of arguing but to teach the holy Ghost what and when and how to speak for there be many lesser matters exprest in many other historicall parts of the Scripture and good occasion as man may fancy to speake of the Sabbath and yet we see it is past by in â—â—ence but it is no wonder if he who questions whether there were any daies of fasting and prayer for 2000 yeeres together because they are not expresly mentioned if that he doubts also whether there were any Sabbath all that time upon the same ground but can any question that considers the sorrows of those times which all ages have put men to seek God in such duties but that they had such daies of fasting as well as their betters in Evangelicall times when the Bridegroom was gone Thesis 171. It is not improbable but that the Sacrifices of Cain and Abel Gen. 4.3 were upon the Sabbath day the usuall stated time then for such services for that which our Translation renders In processe of time the Hebrew cals it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i.
The end of daies and why may not this be the end of the daies of the week a known division of time and most famous from the beginning of the world as Râ—vet demonstrates out of the best Antiquaries rather then at the end of the moneths of the yeere But 't is not good to wrastle with probabilities of which many are given which do rather darken then clear up this cause This only may be added that suppose the Patriarks observed no Sabbath from mans fall to Moses time yet it will not follow that man in innocency was a stranger to it because man in his apostacy forgot or did not regard to keep it Thesis 172. If therefore it was a duty which Adam and his posterity were bound to keepe by a Law given them in innocency Then it undeniably follows that the observance of a Sabbath doth not depend upon great numbers of people to sanctifie it for at first creation the number was but two and yet they both were bound to observe it then nor yet is it to be cast aside through any mans freedom from worldly imcumbrances whereby he hath liberty to serve God more frequently every day for thus it was also in the state of innocency and yet the Sabbath to be observed then It is therefore unsound which M. Primrose affirms herein viz. That the consecration of a certain day for Gods service is not necessary but then only when many troop together and make up the body of a great Assembly and that therefore it may be doubted whether the Patriarks having but small families and little cumber observed any Sabbath but rather served God alike every day with great ease and assiduity and that therefore there was no need nor cause of a Sabbath till they became a numerous people at mount Sinai But beside what hath been said how will it appeare that the posterity of Seth called the sons of God Gen. 6.1 2. were not a numerous people Or that Abrahams family was so small out of which he could gather three hundred fighting men to pursue five mighty Princes in battell But suppose they were few yet have not small companies and particular persons as much need of the blessing of a Sabbath and speciall communion with God therein as great numbers and troops of people Is not the observation of the Sabbath built upon better and surer grounds mentioned in Scripture then bignesse of number and freedom from cumbers not mentioned at all Thesis 173. If Adams fall was before the Sabbath as Mr. Broad and some others otherwise orthodox in this point of the Sabbath conceive by too much inconsiderate wresting of Psal. 49.12 Iohn 8.44 yet it will not hence follow that he had no such command in innocency to observe the Sabbath before his fall For whether man had fallen or no yet the thing it selfe speaks that God was determined to work six dayes in making the world and to rest and so to sanctifie the seventh that hee might therein be exemplary to man and consequently God would have given this law and it should have been a rule to him whether he fell or no and indeed the seventh daies rest depends no more upon mans fall then the six daies worke of creation which we see were all finished before the fall the seventh daies holinesse being more sutable to that state then the six daies labour to which we see he was appointed if Gods example had any force to direct and lead him thereunto Againe if the law of labour was writ upon his heart before he was actually called forth to labour viz. To dresse and keep the garden Gen. 2.15 why might not also the law of holy rest be revealed unto him by God and so answerably writ upon his heart before he fell or came actually to rest upon the Sabbath Little of Adams universall obedience to the Law of workes was as yet actuall while he remained innocent and yet all his obedience in time to come was writ upon his heart the first moment of his creation in the Image of God as it were aforehand and why might not thiâ— Law of the Sabbath be writ so aforehand And therefore M. Broad need not trouble himself or others in enquiring whether God sanctified the Sabbath before or after the first seventh day wherein God rested and if before it how Adam could know of the Sabbath before Gods compleat rest upon the first seventh day the cause of it for God was as well able to make Adam privy to his counsell aforehand concerning that day before Gods rest on it which was a motive to the observance of it as he was to acquaint his people with his purpose for a holy Passeover before the occasion of it fell out Mr. Broad indeed tels us that its most probable that God did not blesse and sanctifie the first Sabbath or seventh day of rest because it is not said that God blessed the Sabbath because he would but because he had rested in it but by his leave it is most proper to say that God at the end of the six daies worke had then rested from all his works and thence God is said to sanctifie and rest the seventh day his cessation from worke which is the naturall rest being the cause of resting the seventh day with a holy rest as we have shewn and therefore there is no reason to stay till the seventh day was past and then to sanctifie it against the next seventh day the first seventh day upon the ground mentioned being first sanctified and which Adam might be well enought acquainted with aforehand as hath been shewn Thesis 174. If the Scriptures may be judge of the time of mans fall which yet is not momentous to cast the balance either way in this controversie it will be found that neither Angels nor men did fall the sixt day before the Sabbath for then God looked upon all his works and they were very good Gen. 1.31 and therefore could not as yet be bad and evill by any sin or fall and now because it 's more then probable that if Adam had compleatly sanctified and stood one Sabbath he had stood immutably as I think might be demonstrated he therefoâ—e not standing a whole seventh day for then he could not have fallen and yet not being fallen the sixt day he therefore fell upon the Sabbath day that as the breach of every other command was wrapt up in that first sin so this of the Sabbath The objections against this from Iohn 8.44 that Satan was a murderer from the beginning and from Psal. 49.12 that man in honour did not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or abide one night in that estate with some other conjecturall reasons taken from some of the Schoolmens Obs and Sols are easily answered by a serious and sober minde and therefore I leave them Thesis 175. Adams soul say some did not need a Sabbath because every day was a Sabbath to him nor did his body need it
servile work or maintenance of any unnecessary work which the fame learned and acute writer imputes to our Saviour which I had almost said is almost blasphemous Thesis 202. It 's no argument that the Sabbath is not morall because it 's said Mark 2.27 that man is not made for it but it for man for saith Mr Ironside man is made for morall duties not they for man For let the Sabbath be taken for the bare rest of the Sabbath as the Pharisees did who placed so much Religion in the bare rest as that they thought it unlawfull to heal the sick on that day or feed the hungry so man is not made as lastly for the bâ—re rest but rather it for man and for his good but if by Sabbath be meant the Sanctification of that rest so man is made for it by Mr Primrose own confession Nor our Saviour speaks of the Sabbath in the first respect for the rest of it is but a means to a further and a better end viz. The true sanctification of it which the Pharisees little lookt unto and therefore he might well say that the Sabbath was made for man the rest of it being no further good then as it was helpfull to man in duties of piety or mercy required of man in the sanctification thereof M. Primrose confessing that man is made for the sanctification of the Sabbath would therefore winde out from this by making this sanctification on the Sabbath to be no more then what is equally required of man all the week beside but he is herein also much mistaken for though works of piety and mercy are required every day yet they are required with a certain eminency and specialty upon the Sabbath day and thence 't is that God cals mens to rest from all worldly occasions which he doth not on the weeke daies that they might honour God in speciall upon the Sabbath as shall hereafter appear Thesis 203. It 's a monkish speculation of M. Broad to distinguish so of the Sabbath in sensu mystico and sensu literali as that the mysticall sense like the lean and ill-favoured kine in Pharoah's dream shall eat up the literal sense and devour Gods blessed and sweet Sabbath for the Lord never meant by the Sabbath such a mysticall thing as the resting from the works of the old man only every day no more then when he commands us to labour six daies he permits us to labour in the works of the old man all the six daies Thesis 204. For though it be true that we are to rest every day from sin yet it will not hence follow that every day is to be a Christians Sabbath and that no one day in seven is to be set apart for it For 1. Upon the same ground Adam should have had no Sabbath because he was to rest from sin every day 2. The Jews also before Christ should have rejected all Sabbaths because they were then bound to rest from sin as well as Christians now 3. Upon the same ground there must be no daies of fasting or feasting under the Gospel because we are to fast from sinne every day and to be joyfull and thankfull every day I know some Libertines of late say so but upon the same ground there should have been none under the law neither for they were then bound as well as we to fast from sin 4. Hence neither should any man pay his debts because he is bound to be paying his debt of love to God and all men every day 5. Hence also no man should pray at any time in his family nor alone by himself solemnly because a Christian is bound to pray continually And indeed I did not think that any forehead could be so bold and brazen as to make such a conclusion but while I was writing this came to my hearing concerning a sea-man who came to these coasts from London miserably deluded with principles of Familisme who when an honest New-English man his Cabbin-mate invited him to go along and pray together considering their necessities he would professedly refuse to doe it upon this ground viz. Dost not pray continually Why then should we pray together now 6. The Commandment of the Sabbath doth not therefore presse us to rest only from such works as are in themselves evil which God allows at no tiâ—â— but from the works of our callings and weekly imployments which are in themselves lawfull and of necessity to be attended on at some time It is therefore a loose and groundlesse assertion to make every day under the Gospel to be a Christians Sabbath day Thesis 205. To think that the Sabbath was proper to the Jews because they only were able to keep and exactly observe the time of it being shut up as M. Primrose saith within a little corner of the earth and that the Gentiles therefore are not bound to it because they cannot exactly observe the time of it in severall quarters of the earth so far distant is a very feeble argument For why might not all nations exactly observe the rising and the setting of the sun according to severall climates by which the naturall day and so this of a Sabbath is exactly measured and which God hath appointed without limitation to any hour to be the bounds of the Sabbath as it sooner or later rises or sets were not the mariners of the men of Iudah bound to observe the Seventh day in all the severall coasts where they made their voyages did God limit them to the rising or setting sun of Iudaea only what colour is there to think thus of them indeed it 's true that in some habitable Northern coasts the Sun is not out of sight some moneths together but yet this is certain if they know how the year spends into moneths they can exactly reckon the weeks of those moneths and therefore can exactly tell you the daies of which those weeks consist and therefore they have their exact rules and measures to know East and West the place of the sun-rising and sun-setting and consequently to know the Sabbath daies and yet if they should not exactly know it their will to do it is herein as in other things accepted of God Thesis 206. If this truth concerning the morality of the Sabbath did depend upon the testimony of ancient writers it were easie to bring them up here in the rear notwithstanding the flourishes of the great Historian but this hath been done sufficiently by others nor doth it sute our scope who aim at only the clearing up of the meaning of the fourth command which must stand firm the heaven and earth shall fall asunder the Lord will rather waste kingdomes and the whole Christian world with fire and sword then let one tittle of his Law perish the land must rest when Gods Sabbaths cannot Lev. 26.34 and although I wish the Ministry of Christ Jesus a comely and comfortable maintenance as may richly testifie his peoples abundant thankfullnesse for the feet of
of the institution of it some time after that work was Past. Thesis 16. The sinne and fall of man having defaced and spoyled de jure though not de facto the whole worke of Creation as that learned Bishop well observes It was not so meet therefore that the Sabbath should be ever kept in respect of that work but rather in respect of this new Creation or Restoration of all things by Christ after the actuall Accomplishment thereof in the day of his Resurrection But look as God the father having created the world in six dayes he rested therefore and sanctified the seventh So this work being spoiled and marred by mans sin and the new Creation being finished and ended the Lord therefore rested the first day of the week and therefore sanctified it Thesis 17. The fourth commandment gives in the reason why God sanctified the seventh day from the Creation viz. because God rested on that day and as it is in Exod. 31.17 was refreshed in it that is took a complacency and delight in his 〈◊〉 so done and so finished But the sin of man in falling from his first Creation made God repent that ever he made man Gen. 6. and consequently the world for man and therefore it tooke off that complacency or rest and refreshing in this his work if therefore the Lord betake himselfe to work a new work new Creation or Renovation of all things in and by his Son in which he will for ever Rest may not the day of his rest be then justly changed into the first of seven on which day his rest in his new work began whereof he will never repent If the Lord vary his rest may not be vary the time and day of it nay must not the time and day of our rest be varied because the ground of Gods rest in a new work is changed Thesis 18. As it was no necessary duty therefore perpetually to observe that seventh day wherein God first rested because his rest on that day is now changed so also it is not necessary orderly to observe those six dayes of labour wherein He first laboured and built the world of which for the sin of man he is said to have repented yet notwithstanding though it be no necessary duty to observe those particular six dayes of labour and that seventh of Rest yet it is a morall duty as hath been proved to observe six dayes for labour and a seventh for Rest and hence it follows that although the Lord Christs Rest on the Day of his Resurrection the first day of the week might and may justly be taken as a ground of our rest on the same day yet his labour in the work of Redemption three and thirty yeers and upward all the dayes of his life and humiliation could not nor cannot justly be made the ground or example of our labour so as we must labour and worke thirty three yeeres together before we keep a Sabbath the Day of Christs Rest. Because although God could alter and change the Day of Rest without infringment of the Morality of the fourth Commandment Yet he could not make the example of Christs labour thirty three yeers together the ground or example of our continuance in our work without manifest breach of that Morall Rule viz. That man shal have six dayes together for labour the seventh for Rest. For man may rest the first day of the week and withall observe six dayes for labour and so keep the fourth Commandment but he cannot labour 33. yeers together and then keep a Sabbath without apparent breach of the same Commandment and therefore that Argument of Master Brabourne against 〈◊〉 Christian Sabbath meltâ— into Vanity wherein he urgeth an equity of the Change of the Dayes of our 〈◊〉 either three Dayes onely together as Christ did lie in the grave or 33. yeers together as he did all the dayes of his Humiliation in case we will make a Change of the Sabbath from the Change of the Day of Christs Rest. And yet I confesse ingenuously with him that if the Lord had not instituted the first Day of the week to be our Christian Sabbath all these and such like arguings and reasonings were invalid to prove a Change for mans reason hath nothing to do to Change dayes without Divine appointment and institution these things onely I mention why the wisdome of God might well alter the Day The proofs that he hath changed it shall follow in due place Thesis 19. The Resurrection of Christ may therefore be one ground not onely of the Sanctification of the Christian Sabbath but also a sufficient ground of the abrogation of the Jewish Sabbath For first the greater light may darken the lesse and a greater work as the Restoration of the World above the Creation of it may overshadow the lesse Ierem 23.7 8. Exod. 12.2 Secondly Mans sinne spoyled the first Rest and therefore the day of it might be justly abâ—ogated For the horrible wrath of God had been immediatly poured out upon man as might be proved and as it was upon the lapsed Angels and consequently upon all Creatures for mans sake if Christ had not given the Father Rest for whose sake the world was made Revel 4.11 and by whose meanes and mediation the World continues as now it doth Ioh. 5.22 Thesis 20. Yet although Christs Resurrection be one ground not onely of the Institution of the new Sabbath but also of the abrogation of the Old yet it is not the onely ground why the Old was abrogated For as hath been shewen there was some type affixed to the Jewish Sabbath by reason of which there was just cause to abrogate or rather as Calvin calls it to translate the Sabbath to another Day And therefore this dasheth another of Mr. Brabournes dreames who argues the continuance of the Jewish Sabbath because there is a possibility for all Nations still to observe it For saith he cannot we in England as well as they at Jerusalem remember that Sabbath Secondly rest in it Thirdly Keep it holy Fourthly keep the whole day holy Fifthly the last of seven Sixthly and all this in imitation of God Could no Nation saith he besides the Iewes observe these six things Yes verily that they could in respect of naturall ability but the question is not what men may or might do but what they ought to do and should do For besides the change of Gods Rest through the work of the Sonne there was a Type affixed to that Jewish Sabbath for which cause it may justly vanish at Christs death as well as other types in respect of the affixed Type which was but accidentall and yet be continued and preserved in another Day being originally and essentially Moral A Sabbath was instituted in Paradise equally honoured by God in the Decalogue with all other Moral Lawes foretold to continue in the dayes of the Gospel by Ezekiel and Isaiah Ezek. 43. ult Isa. 56.4.6 and commended by Christ who bids his people
the more clear and distinct knowledge of it it being the priviledge of truth to be more purified and shine the brighter by passing thorough the heats and fires of mens contentions and disputations Thesis 2. There being therefore Five severall opinions concerning this particular it may not be unusefull to bring them all to the Balance and Touchstone that so by snuffing the Candle and rejecting that which is false the light of truth may shine the brighter at last Thesis 3. Some there be who make the Time mutable and various affirming that God hath not fixed any set time or that he stands upon or would have his people troubled with such Niceties so long as the day be observed say they it is no matter when it be begun nor do they make this variation to be according to that which God allows suppose from Sun to Sun sooner or later as the time of the yeere is but according to the civill customs of severall Nations as they variously begin or end their daies among whom they live as suppose they live among Romans they think they may begin it at midnight if with Babylonians at Sun-rising if among Grecians at Sun-set if among Umbrians and Arabians at mid-day Thesis 4. If the Scripture had left us such a liberty as this viz to measure the beginning of the day according to humane custome a scrupulous conscience I think might have a most and ready quieting answer here but it will be found too true that though Civill and common Time may admit of such variations as may best suit with their manner and occasions yet sacred and holy time is not dependent upon humane customs but upon divine institutions for which purpose God hath made the lights of Heaven to be for seasons Gen. 1.14 to be guides and helps to begin and end the seasons and daies which he shall appoint Thesis 5. T is true that it suits not with Gods wisdome to determine all particular circumstances of things which are almost innumerable and infinite by the expresse letter of the Scripture and therefore he hath left us a few generall Rules to direct us therein yet for the Lord to leave the determination of some circumstances to humane liberty would be very perilous The Temple was but a circumstance of place and King Vzziah in in offering Incense varied onely in a circumstance of person yet we know that the ten Tribes were carried away captive for not sacrificing at the Temple and Vzziah smitten with Leprosie till his death so the Lord having determined the Seventh day to be his what now should hinder but that he should determine the Beginning also thereof Thesis 6. If God hath been accurately carefull to fix the beginning of other Feasts and Holy daies far inferior unto this as appeareth Levit. 23.23 Exod. 12.6 why should we think that the Lord is lesse carefull about the beginning of his Sabbath Thesis 7. If the Lord hath not left it to humane wisdome to set down the bounds and limits of holy places as appears in the Temple Tabernacle and all their appurtenances why should we think that he hath left it to mans wisdome to limit and determine holy Time Thesis 8. If the Lord will have a speciall Time of worship once within the circle of Seven daies and not appoint the Time for the beginning and end of it might he not lose much of the beauty of the holinesse of the day every thing being beautifull in its season may not man begin the day at such a season as may not be beautifull Thesis 9. The Deputation of Time for holy uses upon occasion is allowed to man yet sanctification of Time and to set the bounds and limits of it is left to no man Sanctification not only positive but relative as here in the Sabbath being as proper to the Holy Ghost as Creation to the Father and Redemption to the Son Thesis 10. Application of holy Time to the performance of holy duties on the Sabbath as to fix what houres to meet in upon that day is left to humane prudence from generall rules of Conveniency Order Comelinesse but Consecration of constant and fixed Time is the Lords propriety not onely of the middle but of the beginning and end thereof Thesis 11. The Scriptures have left the determination of the Beginning of the Sabbath no more to civill Nations and their customs then to particular Churches and each particular person for they may all equally plead against the the Lordâ— strictnesse to any exact begining of time but if such a loose liberty were granted a world of confusion scandall and division would soon appeare for some persons might then begin it at midnight some at mid-day some might mâ—asure the beginning of the Sabbath according to their sleeping sooner or latter on the Sabbath day morning some might be Plowing or dancing and drinking when others are praying and hearing of the word and who could restraine them herein for they might plead the Sabbath is not yet begun to them Thesis 12. If therefore God hath sanctified a set Time he hath set and sanctified the bounds and limits of that Time and to begin the time when we lift it may sometime arise from weaknesse but usually t is a fruit of loosnesse of heart which secretly loves to live as it lists which would not conform to Gods rule and therefore will crook and bend the rule to its humour which will not come up to Gods time and therefore make God to come downe to theirs Thesis 13. O here there be who give god the honour of determining the beginning and end of the day but they cut him short of one halfe of it in that they make the Artificiall day or the Day-Light from Sun-rising to Sun-setting to be the day of his Sabbath Thus some affirm downright Others more modestly say hâ—t mans conscience ought not to be scrupulous nor trouble it selfe if conscienciously give God the honour of the Sabbath day-light having some generall preparations for it the night before and good affections the night after Thesis 14. But if the Day-light be the measure of the Sabbath those that live in some paâ—ts of the Russia and East-land must have once a yeere a very long Sabbath for there are some times of the yeeâ—e wherein they have day-light a moneth together Thesis 15. If God give us six naturall daies to labour in is it not fit that the seventh day should beare an equall proportion with every working day and therefore it is not an Artificiall but a Naturall day consisting of twenty four houres which we must in conscience allow unto God to be the Sabbath day Thesis 16. It is true that the night is given to man to rest in it being most fit for that end but it is not necessary that all the weekâ—ly nights be spent in sleep for we then do labour and Gods providence puts men generally upon it to labour in their callings earely and laâ—e those nights
need such violent perswasions to stay with them and for any to say that the Paralell of the Levites Fathers perswasions to stay upon weake grounds is not the same with this because his Arguments might sure well not to begin a long journey when it was past noone which was the case there but it s a reason of no force to perswade to go farther when a man is in a journey already which is the case here I say this answer is against the Practise of love in common experience men weary in their journey may stand in more need of perswasions to stay then they that have not begun to travaile at all nor was the Levites journey long from Bethlem to Gibeah Thesis 63. Nor is it an Argument of any weight from Iohn 39.1 because the two Disciples are said to abide with Christ that Day that therefore the night following did belong to that day they staying as it is supposed all night and consequently that the Day begins in the Morning for these Disciples comming to Christ at the tenth houre or foure of the Clock in the afternoone there were then two houres remaining untill Night the Iewes artificiall Day continuing from six to six within which time our Saviour who can do much worke in a small time might sufficiently instruct them for that time within the space of two houres and why might they not depart before the night came and so stay with him onely so short a time And yet if they did stay that Night they might notwithstanding be said to stay that artificiall day onely without reference to any Night before or after or to any part of the Morning following that Night when 't is probable they departed if they did stay with him all that Night Thesis 64. Those who think that Paul would never have Preached till midnight Acts 20.7 if that night had not been part of the Sabbath which began the Morning before much lesse would he after this long Sermon have communicated with them in the Sacrament ver 11. unlesse it had been the Sabbath Day may do well to consider these things 1. That the cause of taking in so much of the Night following for Preaching till midnight was extraordinary viz. Pauls early departure never to see their faces more and to say that if this Night was no part of the Sabbath it was then unreasonable to hold them so long at it is an assertion which wants reason if we do but consider the shortnesse of his time the largenesse of Pauls heart speaking now for his last and the sweetnesse of their affections as might easily enable them to continue till midnight and upward with cheerfulnesse and without thinking the duty tedious and unreasonable long Paul therefore might begin his Sermon some part of the Day-light which was part of the Sabbath Day and continue it till midnight following and yet this night be no part of the Christian Sabbath because it was an extraordinary cause which prest him hereunto 2. That there is nothing in the Words which will evince the Sabbath to continue so long as Pauls Sermon did for suppose those who begin the Sabbath at Evening that it should be said of such that being met together the first day of the Week to break Bread their Teacher being to depart on the morrow Preached unto them and continued his speech till midnight will this argue a continuance of the same day No verily and the like reason is here 3. That the Lords Supper might be and was administred before Pauls Sermon for there is a double breaking of bread in the Text the one is of common bread Verse 11. after Paul had Preached the other is of holy bread in the Eucharist verse 7. for the Syriak calls Thaâ— breaking of the bread which is mentioned verse 7. the Eucharist or Lords Supper but that which is mentioned verse 11. Common bread and the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 implies as much and hence also it s spoken of one man principally viz. That when he had broken bread and eaten and talked a long time till breake of the day he then departed it being some ordinary repast for Paul after his long Preaching and before his long journey and is not therefore any Sacramentall eatâ—ng the manner of which is wont to be exprest in other words then as they are here set down if therefore Pauls eating verse 11. was common Bread it cannot be then affirmed that the Eucharist was then administred after Sermon at midnight and yet they pertaking of the Sacrament this day verse 7. it seems therefore that it was administred some time before this extraordinary course of Preaching began Thesis 65. Nor will it follow that the Sabbath begins in the Morning because the Morning is set before the Night in the Psalm for the Sabbath Psal. 92.1 2. for 1. The scope of the Psalmist is not to set forth when the Sabbath begins but how it is to be sanctified and that is not onely by shewing forth the loving kindnesse of God every Morning or day time for that perhaps many will readily do but also in the Night when men may think it too unseasonable or too late and therefore in a holy gradation from the lesse to the greater he first makes mention of the Morning 2. The Hebrew word for every Night is in the Nights and therefore suppose that this Psalm is specially applyable to the Sabbath which we know some question yet this place will as soon evince the Sabbath to begin in the Night before the Morning and to be continued in sweet affections the night after as that it should begin in the Morning and be continued the night after so that this place will not clear this cause nor is there any weight in such kind of reasoningâ— Thesis 66. Nor will it follow from Levit. 7.15 with 22.29 30. and Ex. 12 10. that because the â—â—esh of the peace Offrings was to be eaten the same day and nothing to be left untill the Morning something like this being spoken also of the Passeover that the day therefore begun in the Morning for in Leviticus there is a double Commandment 1. To eat the flesh of their peace offerings the same day but yet because when they have eaten some bones and oâ—fals might remain hence 2. They are commanded to leave nothing till the Morning which doth not argue that they had liberty to eat it as long as they might keep it but that as they had liberty no longer then the same day to eat it so nor liberty any longer then the next Morning so much as to keep any of the relicks of it And as for the Passeover a place much urged by some they were to kill it on the fourteenth day Exod. 12.6 which they might eat the night following verse 8. yet so as to leave nothing of it till the Morning verse 10. This night following iâ— not therefore any part of the fourteenth but of the 15th day for at
well as of necessity and piety are Sabbath Duties for which end this Day which Beza finds in an ancient Manuscript to be called the Lords Day was more fit for those Collections then any other day partly because they usually met together publikely on this day and so their Collections might be in greater readinesse against Pauls coming partly also that they might give more liberally at least freely it being supposed that upon this Day mens hearts are more weaned from the world and are warmed by the word and other Ordinances with more lively faith and hope of better things to come and therefore having received spirituall things from the Lord more plentifully on this Day every man will be more free to impart of his temporal good things therein for refreshing of the poore Saints and the very bowels of Christ Iesus And what other reason can be given of Limiting this Collection to this Day I confesse I cannot honestly though I could wickedly imagine And certainly if this was the end and withall the Iewish Day was the Christian Sabbath the Apostle would never have thus limited them to this Day nor honoured and exalted this first Dâ—y before that Iewish seventh which if it had been the Christian Sabbath had been more fit for such a work as this then the first Day if a working day could be 6. Suppose therefore that this Apostolical and Divine Institution is to give their Collections but not to institute the Day as Master Primrose pleads suppose also that they were not every Lords Day or first Day but sometime upon the first day Suppose also that they were extraordinary and for the poor of other Churches and to continue for that time onely of their need Suppose also that no man is injoyned to bring into the publike Treasury of the Church but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 privately to lay it by on this Day by himselfe as Mr. Brabourne urgeth against this Text yet still the question remaines unanswered viz. Why should the Apostle limit them to this Day either for extraordinary or private Collections and such special acts of Mercy unlesse the Lord had honoured this day for acts of mercy and much more of Piety above any other ordinary and common day What then could this Day be but the Christian Sabbath imposed by the Apostles and magnified and honoured by all the Churches in those dayes I know there are some other Replies made to this Scripture by Master Brabourne but they are wind-egges as Plutarch calls That Philosophers notions and have but little in them and therefore I passe them by as I do many other things in that book as not worth the time to name them 7. This Lastly I adde this first Day was thus honoured either by Divine or Humane Institution If by Divine we have what we plead for If by Humane custome and tradition then the Apostle assuredly would never have commended the observation of this Day who elsewhere condemnes the observation of dayes though the dayes were formerly by Divine Institution Ye observe saith he Dayes and Times and would he then have commended the observation of these dayes above any other which are onely by humane but never by Divine Institution It s strange that the Churches of Galatia are forbidden the observation of dayes Galat. 4.10 and yet commanded 1 Cor. 16.1.2 a more sacred and solemne observation of the first Daye of the week rather then any other Surly this could not be unlesse we conclude a Divine Institution hereof For we know how Zealous the holy Apostle is every where to strike at Humane customes and therefore could not lay a stumbling block to occasion the grievous fall of Churches to allow and command them to observe a Humane Tradition and to honour this above the seventh Day for such holy services ar are here made mention of But whether this Day was solemnely sanctified as the Sabbath of the Lord our God we come now to inquire Thesis 37. In the third Text Revel 1.10 Mention is made of the Lords Day which was ever accounted the first day of the week It seems therefore to be the Lords Day and consequently the Sabbath of the Lord our God Two things are needfull here to be considered and cleared 1. That this Day being called the Lords Day it is therefore set apart and sanctified by the Lord Christ as holy 2. That this Day thus sanctified is the first day of the week and therefore that first Day is our Holy or Sabbath Day Thesis 38. The first Difficulty here to prove and cleare up is that This Day which is here called the Lords Day is a day instituted and sanctified for the Lords honour and service above any other Day For as the Sacrament of Bread and Wine is called the Lords Supper and the Lords Table for no other reason but because they were instituted by Christ and sanctified for him and his honour so what other reason can be given by any Scripture-light why this is called the Lords Day but because â—t was in the like manner instituted and sanctified as they were Master Brabourne here shifts away from the light of this Text by affirming that it might be called the Lords Day in respect of God the Creator not Christ the Redeemer and therefore may be meant of the Iewish Sabbath which is called the Lords holy Day Isaiah 58 3. But why might he not as well say that its called the Lords Supper Table in respect of God the Creator considering that in the New Testament since Christ is actually exalted to be Lord of all this phrase is onely applyed to the Lord Christ as Redeemer Look therefore as the Jewish Sabbath being called the Lords Sabbath or the Sabbath of Iehovah is by that title and note certainly known to be a Day sanctified by Iehovah as Creator so this Day being called the Lords Day is by this note as certainly known to be a Day sanctified by our Lord Jesus as Redeemer Nor do I finde any one distinct thing in all the Scripture which hath the Lords superscription or name upon it as the Lords Temple the Lords Offerings the Lords people the Lords Priests c. but it is sanctified of God and holy to him why is not this Day then Holy to the Lord if it equally bears the Lords name Master Primrose indeed puts us off with another shift viz. That this Day being called so by the Churches customs John therefore calls it so in respest of that custome which the church then used without Divine institution But why may he not as well say that he calls it the Lords Table in respect of the Churches Custome also the Designation of a Day and of the first time in the Day for Holy publike services is indeed in the power of each particular Church Suppose it be a Lecture and the houres of Sabbath-meetings but the Sanctification of a Day if it be Divine worship to observe it if God command and appoint it then