it so Having premised this by the way now let us see how the old Sabbath was founded upon the finishing of his works As thus That day which God hath honoured and crowned with the accomplishment of the greatest work must be the day of solemn worship or Sabbath-day But the seventh day from the Creation was thus honoured and crowned in the Cradle or infancy of the world Therefore that day must be the Sabbath day viz. till a greater work take place And then the argument will conclude as strongly for the change of the day as ever it did for the choice of it For we shall argue thus If the ground of stating the Sabbath on the seventh day were applicable to another day then the Sabbath in the first ground-work of it was alterable to another day But the ground of stating it upon that old seventh day was applicable to another day therefore c. The consequence is cleere as the Sun for as it is with duties so with dayes of worship the grounds upon which they are setled being applicable to other times and places the dayes and duties themselves have alwayes been moveable and circumstantially mutable also as that duty of reverencing of Gods Sanctuary which is mated and coupled with keeping his Sabbaths the ground of it being applicable to the Temple as well as the Tabernacle Levit. 19.30 the duty it self was also moveable from the Tabernacle to the Temple although the first were only in being when the precept was given And the like must be said of the Sabbath The consequence hath evidence enough in it self to every vulgar eye If the foundation be moveable so is the building If the Assumption be questioned viz. That the ground of fixing the Sabbath on the seventh day was moveable and applicable to another day we shall thus confirm it The ground of fixing the Sabbath on the old seventh day was Gods honouring and advancing that day above all other dayes for the time being by his most eminent work of Creation manifested to be accomplished on that day therefore when another day shall be crowned with the accomplishment of a more eminent Creation the same ground and reason which cast the Sabbath on the old day will unavoidably carry it to the new Now the work of Redemption is a new Creation 2 Cor. 5.17 and it was long ago prophesied that as the a Hag. 2.9 glory of the second Temple should out shine that of the first so the glory of this new Creation should excell that of the old and comparatively eate out the memory of it b Isai 65.17 Behold I create new heavens and a new earth sayes the Lord and the old shall not be remembered nor come into mind Not that the Lord would simply and absolutely have the memory of the Creation to be lessened but respectively and in comparison of Redemption it must not be obliterated but only subordinated retained and remembred it must be still but as a lesser work then Redemption and as a lesser good to us as the Law is to the Gospel or the Old Testament to the New Redemption must be owned as the greater and better work in as much as Spiritual things are better then Natural and Gods last works are his best the first being only preparative to the last as Dr. Sibbs excellently observes Mat. 16.26 Mark 8.36 And verily he that shall question whether Redemption be a greater and better work then Creation knows little what a Redeemer is or what the ransome of an immortal soul is worth See Mr. Phil. Goodw. Dies Dominic rediv. pa. 11.12 13. I should think as mans gaining the world cannot recompense the loss of his soul so Gods creating of the world doth not equalize Christs redeeming the soul In creating the world indeed the Lord has done much for me but in shedding his precious blood in conquering sin and death he hath done more then if he had created another world for me Let the redeemed of the Lord say so yea the work is not only better to me but greater in it self too In creation there was but a words speaking and the work was presently done 2 Cor. 5.21 Gal. 3.13 See more in Dr. Gouge Heb. 9. S. 63. but in Redemption there was doing and dying God must come down from heaven God must be made man yea God-man must be made sin and a curse for me Here was a work exceeding wonder Besides in the work of Creation there was nothing to with stand But in the work of Redemption here was Justice against Mercy wrath against pity In a word in the Creation God brought something out of nothing but in redemption he hath out of one contrary brought another good out of evil life out of death Is not thy soul ravished Christian at these discoveries of wisdome grace and power shining forth in thy souls Redemption Canst thou see the like in the worlds Creation Is there not more glory in one Christ then in many worlds What a sapless unsavory question therefore to a soul that knows any thing of Christ Pa. 130. is that which T. T. propounds Who told thee the work of Redemption was the greater work A question more beseeming a Jew then a Christian But the answer is ready at hand He that hath told me the heavens are the works of his a Psalm 8.3 fingers and Redemption the work of his b Isal 52.9 10. arm his out-stretched unbared arm hath sufficiently taught me that Redemption is the greater work a work of greater might I am sure of greater mercy And so for his next question If it be the greater work who told thee that it deserves the honour of the day I answer a wiser and better man then you or I that man after Gods own heart who was most likely to know the mind of the Lord he has foretold it in that 118th Psalm when by a prophetick spirit foreseeing the glory of the resurrection day as a day amongst the seven dayes like the Sun amongst the seven planets he accordingly salutes it with a magnificent Title This is the day which the Lord hath made yea magnified for the word signifies not only to make but to magnifie and advance above all others c 1 Sam. 12.6 And such was the power of God in raising Christ hat the Psalmist cryes our it is marvellous in our sight Acts 4.10.11 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 est vel imus vel summus lapis Arretius in 1 Pet. 2.7 Mat. 11.11 As by the same word the Lord is said to advance Moses and Aaron 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to lift them up in dignity and preeminency above the rest of the people Thus he foresaw that the Lord would magnifie and exalt the resurrection day and why Because on this day the most glorious work of redemption was to be accomplished the stone which the builders resused being made the head of the corner i. e. to perfect
separation was the old Sabbath whereby the Jewish Nation was distinguished from all other people in the world as we shewed before out of Exod. 31. Now the Lord Jesus came to take down this separation wall and to make up a Union betwixt Jew and Gentile and this he did partly by his death blotting out the hand writing of Ordinances or law of Commandments contained in Ordinances and partly by his e Acts 4.11 Ephes 2.20 resurrection where he was made the corner-stone of his Fathers house to unite both parts of he building together that all might be d Gal. 3.28 one in Christ Jesus This I take to be the sense of the place But the Prelates have perverted the Text Obj. 3 T. T. for unto the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which only signifies Sabbaths they have deceitfully added dayes as though there were no Sabbathe but Sabbath dayes they have destroyed the Apostles scope by their addition of dayes The pious and judicious Translatours have rightly rendered it Sabbath-dayes for so the word is used in all those other texts above mentioned p. 136. Answ yea when there is no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 joyned with it and the like I have observed in e Dialogue with Trypho Justine Martyr f Hom. de semente Athanasius and other expert Grecians who do generally dispute against the Jews weekly Sabbath under the term which is here used therefore this Author does most unworthily and wrongfully charge those worthy instruments who made the Scriputres speak true English with fraud and deceit God will one day require an account of these hard speeches yea scoffs and impious slanders But he has not done yet Whereas by this bold and absurd addition some would cast off the seventh day as Ceremonial Obj. 4 who yet plead strongly for the morality of the Sabbath it is very considerable that this Text toucheth not the day at al but the duty that is the Sabbath for the Apostle mentions not the day or time as a shadow but Sabbaths None but a bold and absurd Anabaptist would call this an absurd addition Answ 1 for it is the usual and proper Translation of the word elsewhere and if he should read it thus let no man judg you in meat or drink or in respect of a festival day or a new Moon or the Sabbath day it were no wrong to the Text for so we read the same word Mat. 12.1 Understanding it of the old Sabbath day Answ 2 The duty of holy rest in general is not here intended at all for that is usually intimated in a word of the singular number and stands firm in the fourth Commandment as also g 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mat. 24.20 'T is only the particular day or the respective limitation of the duty to that day that is here reckoned among the shadows of things to come look how their festival dayes are called shadowes so is their Sabbath not the moral duties required on those dayes as solemn h 2 Chron. 30 21 22. Neh. 8.6 worship praise and thanksgiving for then it were a sin to keep a day of thanksgiving but the set dayes together with the ceremonial duties which they were accustomed to a re here discharged and the like I may say of their weekly Sabbath And therefore his conclusion will not hold That we may as warrantably reject the moral law upon that expression of the law being changed as the seventh day upon this word of Sabbaths being a shadow The distinction of moral and ceremonial may as well be applied to Sabbaths as lawes and till he can prove that the old seventh day is excepted from these shadowy Sabbaths as we can prove the moral law to be from that which was mutable he must confess it was but a shadow and so either abrogated or altered or both as the ceremonial i H. br 7.12 law and the priest-hoods were and if so let him judg whether the Apostles rule ought not to be regarded Let no man judg you in respect of shadowy Sabbaths and let T. T. timely bethink himself how he will answer the breach of this rule at the Barre of Christ when his own book shall without repentance be brought in as a bill of indictment against him for judging censuring condemning not only faithful Ministers and Christian-people but Magistrates Princes Parliaments charging them with little less then the sin against the Holy-Ghost because forsooth they disown the brat of his brain p. 50. and reject the Saturday-Sabbath let this unjust judg take heed he be not judged with a witness I shall ere long read him a sharp sentence out of Justin Martyr But first I shall endeavour to convince him by two or three Arguments more That the Sabbath is certainly changed from the last to the first of the week and that by Divine Authority Christ ending his work Arg. 3 ad hominem and entring into his rest layes the foundation of a new Sabbath upon the day of his rest But he ended his work and entred into his rest upon the first day of the week by his resurrection from the dead Therefore then and thereby he laid the foundation of a new Sabbath upon that day of his rest Both feet of this argument stand upon Scriputre-ground or the grant of the adversary as shall appear in the prosecution of it First That our blessed Redeemers ending his work and entring into his rest laid the foundation of a new Sabbath seemes to be the Apostles conclusion Hebr. 4.9.10 There remaineth therefore the keeping of a Sabbath as the Tranlators render it in the Margin to the people of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for he that hath entred into his rest that is Christ hath ceafed from his workes as God did from his own workes That it is spoken of Christ T. T. plainly grants p. 141. yea peremptorily determines in these words It is Christ only whose intrance into rest is here intended and therefore there remaineth the keeping of the Sabbath to the people of God A Sabbath I should rather say I may lawfully proceed upon his own grant and so wound him with his own weapon For however he wrests this Scripture and uses it as a sheild to defend his Saturday-Sabbath I believe upon trial it will be found a sword to destroy it Which will the better appear if we look into the contents of the third and fourth Chapters and withall have an eye to the scope of the whole Epistle which will be an excellent key to unlock this intricate Text. Breifly to touch upon the general scope it is very probable that these Christian Hebrews were about casting off the Ordinances and worship of the New Testament and revolting from Christ to Moses for the prevention and cure of which Apostacy St. * For if the cloth may be known by the lâ—st as M. Ward was wont to say the Epistle is most likely to be his the phrase and
day of the Lord will be as a day of refreshing to some so a stormy day of tempests and terrors to others and a great part of the tempest of that day will fall upon the thoughts and hearts of men for * Eccles 12. ult God will bring every secret thing into judgement we must be accountable not only for idle words but vain thoughts And thus much of the first thing we must keep the Sabbath as a day of rest but we must not rest in this rest we must not make it a Sabbath of idleness but a Sabbath of holiness we must not so much cease from working as change our work servile work for soul work worldly imployments for spiritual exercises That is the next thing 2. To our holy rest we must join holy work and this is either publike or private something indeed must be done in private before the publike our closet-devotions and Family duties common to other dayes must not he omitted this day but rather augmented their Sacrifices under the Law were * Numb 28.9 doubled upon the Sabbath-day and observe it Exod. 3.7 their first service was the burning of Incense before the Lord. Matth. 28.1 Mark 16.2 John 20.1 Now prayer is our Incense let this be our morning exercise in private Seek the Lord O my soul seek him early do as Mary Magdalen did she was early up to seek him whom her soul loved she was last at the Cross and first at the Sepulchre in the dawning while it was yet dark very early in the morning say the Evangelists Oh that our love to Christ could keep pace with hers Shall we love the world better than Christ if we have a journey to go about worldly concernments we can set out betimes oh that we were as wise for our souls as we are for our bodies let not sleep that devourer of time beguile us of our golden hours in the morning in which we are freshest and fittest for converse with God let the sluggard that sleeps with the Sun-beams in his face remember that saying of Austin If the Sun could speak how roundly might it salute thee with this reproof I laboured more then thou yesterday and yet I am risen before thee to day But this is too low an Argument behold the Sun of righteousness is risen and he rose early this day therefore let us not sleep as do others but say and sing with the Church f Isai 26. â— With my soul have I desired thee in the night yea with my spirit within me will I seek thee early Having performed our morning exercises in private how cheerfully should we repair to the publike Assemblies and draw nigh to God in publike Ordinances on this acceptable day this season of grace when Christ sits in State as one speaks scattering treasures of grace amongst hungry and thirsty Saints that are poor in Spirit and wait for spiritual alms at the Throne of grace g Psal 84.1 2. How amiable are thy Tabernacles O Lord of Hosts My soul longeth yea even fainteth for the courts of the Lord My heart and my flesh cryeth out for the living God And again h Psal 122.1 I was glad when they said unto me let us go into the house of the Lord. For the i Psal 87.2 Lord loveth the gates of Zion more then all the dwellings of Jacob and most sweetly the Prophet Isaiah speaking of Gospel-times k Isai 2 1 2. Many people shall go and say Come and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord to the house of the God of Jacob and he will teach us of his ways and we will walk in his paths A most lively prediction of our Christian solemn Assemblies the select season of which is signified by t he practice of the Apostles and Primitive Saints to be the first day of the week on this day they met to break bread and Paul preached to them Acts 20.7 on this day they were all together with one accord in prayer Acts 2.1 with chap. 1.2 4. and at these meetings the Scriptures were read by the Apostles command Tertul. Apol. cap. 39. Col. 4.16 1 Thes 5.27 to which may be added singing of Psalms usual at their solemn Assemblies 1 Cor. 14. an Ordinance by which God is much glorified and the souls of his people sweetly cheered and refreshed what greater act of honour can we do to the great God here on earth then publikely to praise him in the great Congregation especially on the Lords day Psal 111.1 when all the Churches of Christ in the world joyn consort with us in this melodious duty Hebr. 10.25 Let us not therefore forsake the assembling of our selves together as the manner of some is while we enjoy publike Liberties and Ordinances let us improve them we know not how soon the songs of the Temple may be turned into howlings and Ichabod may be written upon all our Church-doors the glory is departed from Israel Lam. 1.4 16. the ways of Sion de mourn because none come to her solemn assemblies The Lord forbid that ever we should live to see that woful day wherein we shall desire to see one of the dayes of the Son of man but shall not see it Let not our neglect of the Lords day provoke the Lord to deprive us of it let us conscienciously wait upon God in Sabbath-Assemblies and publick Ordinances lest we be forced for contempt of the publike to seek our bread in secret wandring up and down in caves and dens of the earth destitute afflicted tormented as we read of some better than our selves Heb. 11.38 39. Lastly The publike solemnities of the day being ended what remains but that we return again to our private exercises searching the Scriptures concerning the truths taught in publike as the * Acts 17.11 noble Bereans did to which we may joyn Repetition and Conference to whet the Word upon one anothers hearts let not our souls be weary of Sabbath-work only take heed as of resting in the rest so also in the work of the day for what one truly speaks of duties and actings of grace they are good duties and good graces but bad Christs the like may I say of Sabbaths never so well kept they are good Sabbaths but bad Saviours let our rest and confidence be only in Christ and to such as take him for their rest his work is but recreation and so indeed we should esteem it in a spiritual sense not looking upon it as a sowr task or a rigid exaction but calling the Sabbath a delight we should keep it accordingly even the whole day with the whole man as a day of delights to the Lord being transported beyond flesh and the world and having our conversation in heaven as much as is possible for creatures cloathed with flesh To come to a closure There is a double duty to be performed in private on the Lords day which I seriously advise Christians
THE JEWS SABBATH ANTIQUATED AND THE LORDS DAY INSTITUTED By DIVINE AUTHORITY OR The Change of the Sabbath from the Last to the First Day of the Week asserted and maintained by Scripture-Arguments and Testimonies of the Best Antiquity with a Refutation of sundry Objections raised against it The Sum of all Comprized in Seven Positions By EDM. WARREN Minister of the Gospel in COLCHESTER REV. 1.10 I was in the Spirit on the Lords Day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Athanasius in Hom. de sement ad init Imprimatur EDM. CALAMY LONDON Printed by David Maxwel for W. Weekly of Ipswich and are to be sold by John Rothwel at the Fountain in Cheapside and also by Nath. Web and Will. Grantham at the Black Bear in Pauls Church-yard 1659. To the Right Worshipful JOHN GVRDON Esq Justice of Peace in the County of SUFFOLK HONOURED SIR THe design of this Dedication is not so much to shelter the ensuing Treatise under the protection of your name let it stand or fall at the bar of Scripture and right reason as to shew my real and unfeigned gratitude for the many and much-obliging favours you have been been pleased to heap upon me both while I lived under your roof and since my removal to a more publike station I thought thus with my self It is the first and likely to be the last time of my appearing in Print therefore the best and fittest season to signifie my due resentment of your love and friendship which from first to last since my acquaintance with you I have experienced so firm and constant as also to shew the precions esteem I still have of you and your pious Family which as I found so I left most religiously devoted to the practise of the truth here pleaded for the keeping holy of the Lords day the undoubted Christian Sabbath it is verily no small joy to me in these days of liberty and loosness to find any especially of your rank walking in this truth of Christ Go on dear Sir in this good old way of truth and holiness be you still a friend to this good day the Lords Day and the Lord will be a friend to you in in an evil day yea in that great day of his appearing Concerning which as Paul prayed for Onesiphorus and his houshold the Lord grant that he may find mercy of the Lord in that day so prays for you and yours The Unworthiest of Christs Ministers EDM. WARREN A Word by way of Preface to the Courteous Reader With a Word of Advice to my Christian Friends and Hearers in and about the Town of Colchester Good Reader I Shall not tire thy patience with any tedious Prefatory Discourse only hint a Word or two concerning the occasion of this Treatise with the Method observed in the composure of it about a year and half since or something more amidst that African brood of Erroneous Books which the lawless liberty of the Press has Midwiv'd into the world came forth a Treatise swelling as with a Timpany of vain glorious confidence for the Jews Saturday-Sabbath so no less opprobious contempt of the Lords day our Christian Sabbath The Author of it Mr. Tho. Tillam by Name by Profession an Anabaptist was pleased in Print to found a challenge and provoke me to the combat in answering of it It was some time before I was fully resolved what to do the sense of my own Insufficiency bespake my silence and willed me rather to sit still in obscurity than venture abroad to the view of a captious and quarrelsom World Besides my Pastoral charge and Preaching-work would scarce afford me that leisure which others of more natural promptness and dexterous parts and gifts might well enough spare for such an Imployment But on the other hand the spreading of this Jewish Leaven together with the pressing Importunity of some Christian Friends perswaded me to undertake this work which accordingly I did and after I had spent much time and written many sheets in answering this Author Page by Page I found his Method so confused his excursions so many his eructations of putrid choler and calumny so bitter that I had not the patience to follow him any longer in that wildgoose-chase but laid all aside and resolved upon a new Method namely to assert the Truth thetically in distinct Positions and answer his most material Arguments as Objections against it He would fain perswade silly people That Antichrist changed the Sabbath and goes about to prove it from Dan. 7. where we read of a little horn that thought to change Times and Laws and with this little horn he makes a loud noise up and down his Book But who told him that this horn was Antichrist Our best Expositors take it to be meant of Antiochus Epiphanes and indeed Dan. 8. cleerly proves it But what desperate insolency is this to take the crown of Christ and set it upon the head of Antichrist Is not the change of the Jewish Law attributed to Christ Hebr. 7.12 and did he not also change their times and seasons of worship was their weekly Sabbath exempted I pray where or how not by the fourth Commandement for we have proved that the seventh day from the Creation was never the substance of that precept nor by any clause in the New Testament for there it is rather repealed 'T is true the Moral duty of rest remains still in a holy day of weekly recourse according to the Commandment but the old Sabbath being of a shadowy nature in the after observation if not in the first Institution of it is certainly done away by Christ the substance of all Legal shadows yet not simply but in way of exchange for a new day of the same number though not of the same shadowy nature What I have argued for the change of the day is sufficiently authorized by the Scriptures the Fathers and our own judicious Divines My Arguments are but few in number more might have been added but for oppressing the Reader 's either purse or patience Mr. Cawdrey and Mr. Palmer have largely handled what I have but briefly touched If what I have written be answered with scurrilous gibes and railing Rhetorick as Mr. Jenisons Book was My next answer shall be nothing but silence and contempt which I the rather hint because the Adversary has threatned a Reply before he read my Book right or wrong it seems he is resolved to have the last word for which I purpose never to contend If I know my own heart 't is truth not triumph that I seek and thirst after truth I say grounded upon the Scriptures sealed with the blood of Martyrs attested by the Primitive Fathers and maintained by the pens of the most Reformed Writers such is the truth here asserted and I shall own nothing as an Answer to it but that which fully answers all these Now my Christian Friends and Brethren I beseech you love and live this truth stand to it stand for it and stand in it
28.4 Abraham the father of the faithful then to David and others in after-ages till at last it was fully accomplished by the most glorious resurrection of Christ from the dead whereby he trode on the Serpents head and all to-bruised it This consideration will out deep in the adversaries cause and to set the better edge upon it let it be further considered 7. And lastly the Holy Ghost has fully assured us that Christ in the promise was of the same antiquity with the confessed ground of the seventh dayes Sabbath c Heb. 3.3 4. The Apostle confesses that one ground or occasion of singling out that precise seventh day was Gods ending his work evidenced by his entring upon his rest And when this was done the same Apostle in the same place informs us the works sayes he were finished from the foundation of the world Now hear another Apostle guided by the same Spirit speaking of Christ in the same terms not differing in a tittle d Revel 13.8 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Observe the difference between 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the one signifies from the other before Joh. 17.24 Eph. 1.4 Thus he styles him the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world he does not say the Lomb slain before the foundation of the world as if it intended Christ in the eternal purpose of God but from the foundation of the world which clearly speaks Christ in the promise of Godfrom the beginning Now by the foot-steps of these two Texts compared how visibly may we trace the Antiquity of Christ in the promise and find a Saviour promised before a Sabbath instituted The seventh day-Sabbath was instituted upon Gods finishing of his works now as the works were finished from the foundation of the world so Christ was slain from the foundation of the world slain I say in respect of his Fathers promise and his own personal beginning to undertake that work which he was to perform in a way of suffering and dying so that when the Father ended his work of Creation the Son entred upon his work of redemption and thereby added a further perfection to the first work Whereupon God rested the seventh day and blessed it That is appointed it for a day of spiritual blessings upon the account of Christ the promised and blessed seed All which particulars premised it will be a truth of unquestionable evidence that the institution of the old seventh day was founded and bottomed upon Christ in the promise And now a dim eye may easily discern mutability lying at the very foundation of the day and thus it may be demonstrated A day founded upon Christ in the promise must necessarily be changed when the promise shall be fully accomplished Argum. But the old seventh day was founded upon Christ in the promise as appears by the premises Therefore c. The proposition needs no confirmation or if it does take it thus If the greatest duty founded upon Christ in the promise was to vary and change with the promise how much more the day For instance the great duty of believing in the Lord Jesus It cannot be denyed but one and the same Christ was the object of saving faith in all ages before the law under the law and under the Gospel Heb. 13.8 Rev. 1.8 Christ Jesus the same yesterday to day and for ever being he which was and which is and which is to come And so the faith of Gods elect which was and is and is to come looks to the same object But yet according to the different state of the object the eye of faith has had a different and various aspect Old Testament-believers who went before looked to him that should come after we that come after in the New Testament look to him that is gone before As long as Christ was in the promise they believed in the Messiah to come now the promise is fulfilled we believe and know that the Son of God is come And though still we look for his second coming to judge the world 1 Joh. 5.20 yet his first coming to save the world by his blessed Incarnation his bitter Passion and glorious resurrection we no longer expect as to come but look upon as already come and gone Well then you see how this great duty of believing circumstantially varies and changes with the promise and why because it was founded upon Christ in the promise And verily if the old Sabbath had the same foundation as we have proved then it must admit of the same variation As long as Christ continued in the promise the seventh day from the Creation was the Sabbath day but now the promise is accomplished the * Note that well day must be altered for the first foundation upon which it stood is removed And as we cannot now call that true faith which looks upon the Messiah as yet to come in the sense above mentioned so neither can we count that the true Sabbath which leans upon the promise of a Messiah to come Look to it if you keep the old seventh day you must keep Christ still in the old promise and together with the Jews Sabbath profess the Jews faith the twelfth Article of whose cursed Creed is this I believe with perfect faith that the Messiah is yet to come Buxtorf Synag c. 1. p. 4. And thus deluded creatures may see what they have gotten by siding with forlorn infidels against the principles and practises of the Christian world But I must here resolve a scruple or two and then I shall put a period to this first part You will say if the old seventh day were founded upon Christ in the promise Scrup. 1. then it must have been changed as soon as Christ was manifested in the flesh It followes not Resol 1. for the promise was not fully accomplished when Christ was manifested in the flesh but when he was justified in the spirit by his resurrection from the dead then indeed it was completely fulfilled as Paul and Barnabas do plainly testifie to the Jews at Antioch Act. 13.32 33. Acts 13. The promise which was made unto our fathers God hath fulfilled the same unto us their Children 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 adimpleoit Arius Mont. in that he hath raised up Jesus again So that the day of Christs resurrection was infallibly the day of the old Sabbaths expiration for then the promise upon which it was founded was fully accomplished of which more hereafter But will not this argument overthrow the duty as well as the day the Sabbath it self as the old seventh day Scrup. 2 Not in the least Resol for a Sabbath or day of rest in general is moral-natural and so perpetual but the fixing of it on that precise seventh day was meerly positive if not ceremonial Therefore the particular day may be and is cashiered and yet the duty Sabbath or holy rest still retained as the duty of solemn fasting is still
in force although the particular day in which the Jewes were appointed to fast is abolished viz. f Levit. 16.29 ch 23.27 29. See Dr Downam Christian Sanc. p. 8 9. the tenth day of the seventh moneth And why may not the duty of solemn resting as well as the duty of fasting stand in the fall of the day That which was circumstantial and shadowy is done away but that which was substantial and moral still remaineth And thus we have by Scripture-light found the old Sabbath as to the day alterable and changeable in the first institution of it and have added something by way of overplus for the actual change of the day I shall now conclude this first position with the accommodation of an Historical passage recorded by Ammianus Marcellinus concerning Julian the Apostate Ammian Marâ—â—l Hist lib. 23. it is to this purpose That he the said Julian out of enmity to the Christians projected the rearing up of the Jewish ceremonies that he might supplant the new religion by the old and to that intent he encouraged them to rebuild their Temple at Jerusalem and sent one Alypius into those parts furnished with treasure to forward the work Hocque modo elemento destinatius repellente cessavit inceptum but no sooner had the work-men attempted to lay the foundation then certain balls of fire bursting out from beneath dissolved their work and made them desist from their enterprise I shall personate none in the application of this only this I shall say in general that as the Jews Temple was destroyed on their g Dion fol. 748. Sabbath day so their Sabbath yea their whole Civil and Church-State was dissolved together with their Temple And this grounded confidence I have that whoever shall reare up that antiquated seventh day with a design to supplant the new Sabbath by the old he shall meet with such Sanctuary-fire such Scripture-light and evidence breaking out from under the foundation of the old day as shall either burn his fingers or which is all the hurt I wish him enlighten his conscience that he shall see his error and confesse as h 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrys quod Christus fit Deus he said of the Temple that no power or policy of man is able to raise what Christ hath razed POSITION II. That the old Sabbath as to the day was further manifested to be alterable in the second edition of the Sabbath I Am not ignorant that as the Sabbaths First Institution is much disputed so the Second Edition as to time and place may be much controverted also But taking it for granted as I do that the first institution lay neer the worlds foundation then the second Edition of it will be found in the wilderness of Sin at the falling of Mannah or upon mount Sinai at the giving of the Law Nehem. 9.13 And here we meet with a double argument to make it further evident that the old seventh day was alterable or liable to change 1. First Because it was never propounded as the substance of any moral Law 2. Secondly It seems to be pointed at as a sign under the ceremonial Law 1. First That the old seventh day from the Creation was never propounded as the substance of any moral law that is so as the day could not be changed but there must also of necessity be a change of the Law in the substantials of it For the clearing of which let it be premised that whereas the fourth Commandment is the only precept in the Decalogue which concerns the Sabbath First I do most freely grant that the fourth Commandment is a moral and perpetual precept yet not moral natural unless it be in the first clause concerning a day of rest in general but rather moral positive and in the substance of it perpetual I say in the substance of it because it is the judgment of some learned and godly that the whole Decalogue as well as the fourth Commandment was in some circumstances peculiar to the Jewes by reason of the time place and people to whom it was delivered But the substance of it is common to all like as almost all Scripture is for substance common and for circumstance proper and peculiar because much of it was written occasionally as Mr. Abbot observes Now that which is circumstantiall and occasional in a moral Law may be mutable and yet the substance of the Law be perpetual as the preface prefixed to the first Commandment and the promise annexed to the fifth being both circumstantially peculiar to the Jews were in that respect mutable yet the Commandments themselves remain immutable and belong to us as well as to them So in this fourth Commandment that which indirectly and occasionally respected the Jews might admit of a circumstantial alteration and yet the Commandment it self in all the substantials of it be as much in force to us as ever it was to them that is for such a numeral day though not the same individual day for one day in seven though not the old seventh which might be and for ought I can see to the contrary is changed upon a double account in respect of the promise upon which it was instituted as a ceremonial at least a temporary ordinance and in respect of the precept by which it was observed as an occasional circumstance In the substance of it And therefore we need not as some do make the Commandment partly moral and partly ceremonial but grant it wholly moral and hold the day mutable as indirectly and occasionally pointed at as the Land of Canaan was in the fifth commandment And thus the change of the day is no prejudice at all to the morality of the Commandment as not being of the substance of it Indeed to have altered the number from one day of seven to one day of ten or from one of seven to two of seven ordinarily had been to wound the precept in the substantials of it and in plain terms to blot out one of Gods ten Commandments not so to alter the day from one seventh to another seventh which was but a circumstantial variation To those that affirm the fourth Commandment to be temporary in reference to the proportion of one day in seven because in that point we grant it positive I have only this to say that we judg it not to be meerly positive but moral positive and so perpetual as the event hath proved it For although the particular day were changed by the refurrection of Christ yet the proportion of one day in seven has been still preserved inviolable by the practise of the Apostles and Churches ever since And as one well observes no other solid reason can be rendred why the Apostles and primitive Churches should weekly celebrate the day of Christs resurrection if it had not been in reference to the fourth Commandment had not their consciences been under the binding power of this precept why might they not have done by
the resurrection day as after ages have by the Incarnation the Passion or the Assention day have kept it once a year only not once a week as they did and we do But this by the way to illustrate my concession which is this that the fourth Commandment for the substance of it that is for a Sabbath in general yea a seventh day Sabbath and that of Gods appointment is a moral and perpetual precept this I freely grant and firmly believe But 2. That the old seventh day is either in part or in the whole De substautia praecepti non est ut septimum diem precise quo etiam Deus cessavit ab operibus sanctificemus sed dicm quieti consecratum à Deo ipso mediatè vel immediatè Zanch. in praec 4. the moral substance of this Commandment or that the morality of the law-lyes in the particularity of the day this I utterly deny And I shall with the rest of my Brethren affirm and maintain the contrary as an undoubted truth of God Namely that the fourth Commandment doth principally and properly and as the moral substance of it prescribe only such a proportion one day in seven at Gods appointment to be spent in holy rest not this or that particular seventh day unless it be indirectly and occasionally To explicate this the second commandment is usually and aptly alledged as a commentary upon the fourth the form of worship and the time of worship being neerly allyed to each other Now as in the second Commandment we have the rule of solemn worship in general without specifying the particular ordinances of worship whether sacrifices and offerings as under the Law or Prayer Preaching Baptisme and breaking of bread as under the Gospel all which we re consequentially injoyned in the second Commandment but neither of them directly in like manner in this fourth commandment we have a rule for the solemn time of worship a seventh day or one in seven at Gods appointment But whether it should be reckoned from the worlds Creation or from Christ resurrection is not here determined particular duties of worship and the particular day of worship being to vary and change with the different age and state of the Church The wisdome of the Law-giver has so contrived these two Commandments that both the day and the duties as occasionals might be changed without any change of his moral and immutable Lawes But there is native light and evidence enough in the fourth Commandment it self to convince us of this truth Prov. 6.23 For as Solomon sayes the Commandment is a Lamp and the Law is light Only we must look to the sense and not wholly liften to the sound of the letter for in all lawes the meaning of the Law-giver Isai 8.20 Non in verbis sed insensu non in superficie sed in medulla non in foliis sed in radice ratiouis Hieron in Gâ—l 2. Tertull. de Carne Chrsti and the sense of the Law is to be respected not the letter only as he sayes well the mind of God is not so much in letters and syllables as the sense and meaning Not in the out-side but in the pith and marrow not in the leaves of words but in the root of reason for which we must digg deep by serious study and prayer before we can discern it Now if laying aside all prejudice we would thus look into this perfect Law of liberty as those that look to be judged by it another day Jam. 2.12 I doubt not but we shall find one day in seven at Gods choice not the old Seventh day to be the soul and substance of it which that it may the better be demonstrated I shall for methods sake distribute this fourth Commandment into these four parts 1. Exod. 20.8 The preceptive part Remember the Sabbath or day of rest to keep it holy 2. V. 9.10 The directive part Six dayes shalt thou labour but a seventh is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God c. 3. V. 11. The argumentative part For in six dayes the Lord made heaven and earth and rested the seventh 4. The benedictive part or the conclusion Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and sanctified it Now if all these four parts of the Commandment be directly for a seventh day in number or proportion and but indirectly occasionally and consequentially for a seventh day in order then the substance of the Commandment is for one day of seven not the last of seven But the premises are true and to demonstrate their truth let us come to tryal 1. We shall examine the Preceptive part Remember the Sabbath day or day of rest to keep it holy This I hope is not be restrained to the old seventh day Sabbath and seventh day cannot be terms convertible here for then there were a tautology in the Commandment as Mr. Cawdrey observes It were as if God should say Remember the seventh day Sabbath the seventh day is the Sabbath which is such a flat tautology as the God of Wisdome will never own in so short a summe of words No it s evident that hitherto the precept is comprehensive and large not limitted to one day more then another for Sabbath day if you will hear the Hebrew word speak English is no more but a day of rest and that is any day set apart for solemn worship by divine authority It is applicable to the first day of the week as much as ever it was to the last A judicious Author does piously and pithily illustrate it by that second table precept Honour the King Mr. Bernard late of Batcomb 1 Pet. 2.17 If Saul be King honour him if he be dead or displaced and David be King then honour King David To neither of them directly but successively and consequentially it might be accommodated to both So remember the day of rest to sanctifie it while the old seventh day was the day of rest the Jews were bound to sanctifie that If that be changed and the first day of the week be chosen in its room we are as much bound to sanctifie that and this by the same law for as the change of the person took not away the precept of honouring the King Hac enim ratione nos quoque proeceptum hoc servamus dum sanctificamus diem dominicum quia hic quietis nobis est dies sicut Judaels fuit septimus Zanch. in praec Col. 2. Syg so the change of the day made not void the command of sanctifying the Sabbath And thus as learned Zanchy tells us We Christians keep the Sabbath as much as ever the Jewes did in keeping holy the Lords day which is a day of holy rest as well as their was For if it be a day of holy rejoycing it must needs be a day of holy rest since it is both improper and impossible to keep a set or solemn day as a day of holy rejoycing in Christ and at the same time
is not said it shall be a sign that in six dayes the Lord made heaven and earth For there is a notable pause in the middle which divides the sentence and the sense also The seventeenth verse containes two distinct arguments or reasons why they should keep the Sabbath 1. Because it was a sign 2. Because it was set apart upon the occasion of Gods work and rest in the beginning 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Joh. 2.3 1 Joh. 3.18 There are indicating or evidencing signes such are the Characters of saving grace But neither can this be the sense of the word sign in this place It is a sign that I the Lord do sanctifie you What savingly why then all were Israel that were of Israel for the Sabbath was given to all neither was it so much their keeping the Sabbath as Gods giving them a Sabbath to keep which is here made a sign Witness Ezekiel Moses his interpretor I have given them my Sabbath for a sign Ezek. 20.13 to know that I the Lord do sanctifie them Therefore 3. There are distinguishing or differencing signs 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such as do visibly mark out a people for Gods peculiar select and sanctified ones above all other people of the earth And in this sense the Sabbath is here given the Jews as a sign a sign of his sanctifying them that is in one word as Calvin speaks a sign of his segregating and singling them out from the rest of the nations as his peculiar people Siquis un◠verbo reddere vellet sanctificare est segregare Cal. Praelec in Ezek. 20. Ita Simler in Exo Levit. 21.8 ch 2.32 So also Simlerus and to the same effect is that of Lavater aforementioned The Sabbath was a sign of Gods sanctifying them as the Sabbath it self was sanctified that is separated from other common dayes and set a part for holy ends and uses And so the Word sanctifie is usually if not only taken in Scripture when it is applyed to the whole bulk or body of a people as here it is Well the Sabbath was given to the people of Israel as a sign of Gods sanctifying them but how long throughout their generations That is during the Oeconomy of the Law as long as the people of Israel should be the only peculiar people of God Exod. 12.14 The very same Phrase is used concerning the Passeover ye shall keep it a feast to the Lord throughout your generations by an ordinance or ever which clearly speaks it a temporary ordinance But Secondly We must distinguish of Sabbaths as well as of signes very briefly the Word Sabbath signifies one of these three things either 1. The moral duty holy rest or 2. The penal rigour of that rest or 3. The precise day of rest Now 1. It cannot be meant of the moral duty simply considered since that extends beyond their generations for there remaineth a rest Heb. 4.9 10. or keeping of a Sabbath to the people of God still neither 2. Can itwell be understood of that penal rigour resting from all work upon pain of corporal death for this in all likelihood lasted not out half their generations being calculated chiefly for their wilderness estate as was saidbefore Therefore 3. It must be the precise day of rest the old seventh-day-Sabbath or nothing which is here set as a sign throughout their generations and this I take to be the true intent of the Holy-Ghost both here and Ezek. 20. The case seems clearly to me to be stated in this wise The old seventh day was at first given to Adam and his posterity as the only true Sabbath during the pre-eminency of the Creation and Christ in the promise and that it was conscientiously kept by the holy Patriarchs for some ages after I doubt not though some of the Ancients seem to deny it but to be sure in tract of time the sinful race of Adam forsaking the true God did also forget the true Sabbath Now when it pleased God out of that degenerate lump of mankind to form Israel or the seed of Abraham a peculiar people to himself he gave them his old Sabbath again in a new Edition That among other ends it might be a visible sign to distinguish them from the rest of the world Other nations no doubt had their Sabbaths as well as their gods but as Israel must serve the only true God so they must also observe the then only true Sabbath Ezod 31.13 So much is implyed in the text Verily my Sabbath ye shall keep saith the Lord. The Word my is Emphatical 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it points at the precise day of Gods appointment the seventh and last day of the week therefore this and mainly this was made a sign of Gods sanctifying the Jews throughout their generations which being so how evidently doth it follow that the day was design'd for change and that now it is certainly changed by the will and appointment of God For if the Jews generation be extinct and they that were once the people of God have now a Lo-ammi written upon them Ho. 11.20 1 Thes 2.15 16. Ye are none of my people how shall that day any longer stand as a Sabbath wich was given them as a sign of their being the peculiar people of God and that for a season only till their generations were expired Maledic domine Nazarais Lord curse the Christians is one of their daily imprecations vid Trapp in Hosea Either let the adversay say the blaspheming Jews who powre out daily curses instead of prayers are still the Covenant-people of God in so much as still they retain that Saturday-Sabbath And then he shall speak like a true Jew indeed or let him confess their saturday-Sabbath which was once the crown of their glory is now no better then the badge of their blasphemy whereby they would make the world believe that they are still the sanctified people of God though they trample underfoot the blood of his Son whereby they should be sanctified I speak not this as insulting over the misery of the Jews but as lamenting the sin of apostate Christians who take up that day as a badge of their Saintship which the infidel Jews wear as a badge of their blasphemy and enmity against Christ and Christians Indeed it was once an illustrious sign of their sanctification but it was limited to their generations as the Passeover was and therefore if the one be expired so is the other upon the same account And in this respect I dare boldly affirm and I doubt not to maintain it that it is every whit as lawful for a Christian to celebrate that old Sacrament the Passeover as to observe the old Sabbath For the one was as well a sign as the other and the one was ordained for a season as well as the other There are a few feeble objections to face this argument but the bare repetion with the premises will be
sufficient refutation of them 1. The seventh day being a sign makes it not a ceremony T.T. Obj. 1. p. 18. for Christ was a sign Isai 7.14 Luk. 2.34 the Saints are set for signs Isai 8.18 So is the holy Spirit 1 Joh. 4.13 yea for the same sign as the Sabbath is c. He might have added that circumcision Answ Exod. 13.9 Rom. 4.11 and the Passe over also were signs but then he had spoiled his argument for it is certain that both these were ceremonial yet doubtlesss it had been more proper and pertinent to have compared the old Sabbath with other old Ordinances then to have thus equalized it with Christ and his blessed spirit But to answer his instances Christ was propounded as a sign of Confirmation Isai 7. as a sign of Contradiction or a sign to be spoken against Luke 2. The Saints were set for signs of Wonder Isai 8. The holy spirit for a Witness and not properly a sign now what cognation and alliance is there betwixt these and the old Sabbath which as to the day was a distinguishing sign and that for a season only therefore temporary I will not say ceremonial The Sabbath is set for a sign of things past as the worlds Creation not of good things to come Obj. 2 as the ceremonial Sabbaths So also are the annual Sabbaths Answ Deut. 16.1 c. Passeover and Pentecost ordained in memorial of things past as their deliverance from Egypt and the giving of the Law on Mount Sinai yet both are abolished although I grant the Sabbath was never abolished or abrogated as to the substance of it only altered in respect of the circumstance If the morality of the Sabbath cease by being a sign Obj. 3 upon the same account must the whole law cease to be moral since Gods spirit hath set it also for such a sign Deut. 8.6 Thou shalt bind it as a sign upon thine hand But This is frivolous for every child can distinguish between the book and the binding of it Answ Numb 15.38 39 40. The law it self was not a sign but the binding it on their hands and that for a remembrancing sign only the proper use of their fringes and Phylacteries By the way if I mistake not here is a plain contradiction for a little before he had argued that the Sabbath was such a sign as the holy spirit is and now he makes it such a sign as the wearing of the law upon their hands was If one of these be true the other must needs be false for the one is internal the other was external and visible only And this is the Goliahs sward he talks of wherewith He fights with his own fancy Answ 2 for who of sound judgment ever affirmed that the morality of the Sabbath must cease as a sign still he runs upon his ol mistake that the old seventh day was the morality of the Sabbath which we have constantly denyed and disproved The term seventh day is not set for a sign but the term Obj. 4 p. 19. Sabbath The Word Sabbath is very often Answ Levit. 19.3 Isai 1.13 Lam. 1.7 Mat. 12.5.11 Mark 1.21 Luk. 4.31 Acts 13.14 Chap. 17.2 though not alwayes put for the old seventh day especially when it is used in the plural number as here it is Therefore I conclude as before that the day and not the duty is hee set for a temporary sign the duty no otherwise then as it is peculiarly related to the day T is not a Sabbath in general much less the Commandment concerning a weekly Sabbath but the old Sabbath then in use which was given the Jews as a sign and so designed for change for change I mean in respect of the time not of the thing according to that of Augustine who writing against Faustus the Manichee who sought to overthrow the faith of Christians by maintaining that Moses and Christ were opposite in their Doctrines alledging among other things that there was one tradition of Moses another of Christ concerning the Sabbath answers him thus Their doctrine was not divers Non diversa doctrina sed diversum tempus August contra Faust Man lib. 16. cap. 28. only the time or day was different intimating that Moses and Christ were both for a weekly Sabbath but Moses for the last Christ for the first day of the week And thus we have made good the second Position That the old Sabbath being made alterable in the first Institution was further manifested to be alterable in the second Edition of the Sabbath A few words shall suffice for the third POSITION III. That the Old Sabbath was yet further evidenced to be alterable and changeable in the after Observation of it FOr proof whereof I shall only cite the practise of our blessed Saviour in which the Adversary glories most as if it made only for him T is his ground argument for the perpetuity of the old seventh day that Christ did most of his cures and famous miracles on that day Now learned Chemnitius takes the same argument and turns the edge of it against him thus De abrogatione Sabbathi Mosaici dictis docuit Christus libertatem factis sapiuo testatam fecit cum Sabbathis sanaret c. Chemn Examen Concil Trident. cap. de Festis ubiplura The Lord Jesus both by word and deed hath taught us that the Mosaical Sabbath was to be abrogated not only in that he proclaimed himself Lord of the Sabbath but in that he often witnessed his liberty and power over it by sundry of his cures performed on that day Some instance in the cure of the man born blind John 9.6 7 14. Others in the miraculous cure of that cripple or impotent man John 5 whereas Dr. Lightfoot learnedly observes there was the most apparent sign towards the shaking and alteration of the Sabbath as to the day that we meet withall in the New Testament till the alteration it self came To this purpose let the context be duly considered and we shall find two things observable in it 1. What our Saviour did on the Sabbath day he healed a long languishing malady a disease of 38. years standing 2 What he sayed upon this occasion and that 1. To the man his patient 2. To the Jewes his persecutors who call him in question about it To the man he said Take up thy bed and walk Now the question is why our Lord should enjoyn this man to carry his bed on the Sabbath day the expresse letter of the law prohibiting the bearing of any burthens on that day T. T. Supposes that it was either for the confirmation of the miracle to shew the perfectness of the cure Jerem. 17.21 p. 21. or for the publication of Gods glory but it is answerd that both these might have been done as well by his walking upon his feet and leaping as in the like case wee read elsewhere or at least by bearing his bed the next day
correspondent to the change of the Covenant it self and accordingly such a change of the Sabbath I do here assert not in respect of the substance or duty holy rest but the circumstance of time the day upon which that duty was formerly fixed and stated And that such a change of the Covenant there is and such a change of the Sabbath by one and the same Christ i Hebr. 12.24 mediator of the Covenant and k Mark 2.28 Lord of the Sabbath and both these occasioned by the exhibition of a new and a better Covenant upon his glorious resurrection from the dead we come now to demonstrate To this purpose we shall reflect upon the old Covenant in a threefold Covenant-expressue of it and shew what a visible change Christ has made in it and how inseparably the change of the Sabbath is interwoven with it 1. In the mandatory part of it I mean the Decalogue or law of the ten Commandments that this was a l Jep 31.31.32 Deut. 5.2 ch 29.1 1 Kings 8 9.21 2 Chron. 6.11 Psalm 105.11 piece of the old Covenant promulgated upon Mount Sinai I suppose none will question And that even this has undergone not only mitigation but some kind of mutation by our glorious Gospel-law-giver none need to question only we must state it warily and soberly not affirming with the blundring Antinomians hand over head that the law of Moses is out-lawed and abrogated without any distinction This were to coyn a lye to confirm the truth of God for it is certain that those lively m Acts 7.38 Oracles n Ex. 20.1 propounded by God himself upon Mount Sinai and afterwards expounded by Moses and the Prophets in the Old Testament by o Mat. 5.21 to the end Christ and his p Rom. 7.12 14 ch 13.8 9 10. Ephes 6.1 2 3. James 2.8 9 10 12. 1 John 2.9 10 Apostles in the New are still in force under the Gospel not onely as declarative of the law of nature but as positively preceptive also in the matter and substance of them yea as perpetually directive as a rule of life and obedience both in respect of duties to be performed and sins to be avoided As to have the only true God and no other to be our God to worship this only true God with his own prescribed worship and no other to use his holy name most reverently and religiously to sanctifie his holy Sabbath to honour Father and Mother to avoid Idolatry Blasphemy Murder Adultery Theft c. These are as much duties and sins under the Gospel as ever they were under the Law and in this sense the Moral law is q Rom. 3.31 1 Cor. 9.21 established by Christ and r Mat 5.17 18. Christus finisest legis Rom. 10.4 sed finis persiciens non intersiciens August in John tract 55. Tom. 9. ratified even to a tittle You will ask me then wherein les the change I answer not in the substance but in some circumstantials peculiar to those times and appropriate to that people the Church of the Jewes for as I hinted before almost all Scripture had some circumstantial peculiarity and propriety to those times and that people to whom it was immediately given and so had the Decalogue 'T is true in the substance and morality of it it was equally calculated both for Jewes and Christians yet some particulars in it in regard of circumstance either direct or indirect were proper to the Jewes onely as the preface to the first Commandment I am the Lord which brought thee out of the land of Egypt which in the letter of it concerns not us for literally and properly we were never in Egypt not in bondage there so also the promise annexed to the fifth commandment which in the particularity of it belonged to the Jewes only pointing at the land of Canaan The like may be said for the positive part of the second Commandment touching Gods worship as then by ceremonial observances as also the positive part of the fourth Commandment which occasionally and indirectly prescribed the celebration of the Jews seventh day and that with this additional circumstance within thy gates all these were adjuncts of the old Covenant and appropriate to the Jews Now the new Covenant taking in ſ Isai 2.3 See Mr. Roberts on the Covenant and Mr. Abbot against Broad Gentiles as well as Jewes must necessarily vary these circumstantials in the moral law by construing them in a new Covenant-sense to accommodate it to these new confederates as thus by changing their temporal deliverance from Egypts thraldom into out spiritual deliverance from the thraldom of sin and Satan the land of Canaan into any other part of the earth where the heirs of the promise shall dwell their legal worship into our Gospel-worship their gates into our jurisdictions in a word their seventh day into our seventh day which analogically at least is as much intended by seventh day in the fourth Commandment as England by Canaan in the fifth Commandment If it be demanded when and by whom this change was introduced I answer by the blessed Mediator of the new Covenant and that immediately upon his resurrection from the dead for then he was given both for a t Isal 42.6 light and a Covenant to the Gentiles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mas. 28 19 20. Mark 16.15 Luke 24.47 John 20.23 then was the Churches Charter formerly confined among the Jews graciously extended to the Gentiles then it was that our Lord was pleased to issue forth that high commission as one calls it for the discipling of all the Gentiles by Baptisme and so bringing them into Covenant requiring his Apostles to tender the whole Covenant to them both in the promises and the precepts of it and the fore as the Prophet Jonah shortly after his resurrection went to Nineveh so Jesus Christ after his to Galilee where according to fore-appointment he gave his disciples a solemn meeting and laid a solemn charge upon them to teach the Gentiles to observe whatsoever he had commanded them Now if the precept of the Sabbath were included among the rest of those commands as 't is like it was it must be in such a sense as would comport with their new Covenant-state which must needs exclude the old seventh day since that was a branch of the old Covenant peculiar to the Jews and urged upon them by such a reason or inforcement as in the letter of it concerned not the Gentiles at all viz. their deliverance out of Egypt Deut. 5.15 Mystically indeed it concerned us as well as them as implying out Redemption by Christ but in that sense it quite carries away the Sabbath from their old seventh day in as much as the accomplishment of our Redemption fell upon the first day of the week viz. by the glorious resurrection of our Saviour but for which we had remained still in the Egypt of our u 1 Cor. 15.17 sins as the Apostle witnesseth
Man cannot make perfecter distributions of time then God himself hath made since therefore there must be a time or season of solemn worship it must of necessity be taken out of one of these it must be either a day out of a week or a day or week out of a moneth or a moneth out of a year less then a day out of a week I cannot yield since I cannot so much as pretend that lest is sufficient for God and my soul when more may conveniently be had Again a week out of a moneth or a moneth out of a year I cannot subscribe unto as either convenient or equal See Iren. philal uâ—â— plur since experience tells me that the necessities both of civil and soul-affaires require a mutual interchange of speedier dispatches and quicker returns therefore I must conclude Gods proportion is most just and equal when all is done viz. one day of seven and but one of seven ordinarily two dayes in a week or out day in two weeks I find no rule for in the written word Gods first division of time was into dayes and his first multiplication of dayes into weeks and ever since his select portion has been one day in the circle of every week This was the constant tribute paid him under the Old Testament on the last day and under the New Testament on the first day of the week this therefore is moral and perpetual being of Gods own assignation of the Churches constant observation and in it self the most exact proportion consequently the Commandment in this respect must needs be moral the rather because in all this there can beno ceremony the number of seven is generally taken for a number of perfection but who ere fancied it to be of a ceremonlous signification What type or ceremony can there be imagined in seven more then in six to make types of meer figures is such a kind of Cabalism as I suppose never came into any sober mind But here I must resolve a scruple or two The Jews seventh day was ceremonious Scrup. 1. See Dr. Willes on Exod. â—o Dr. Twiss p. 74. as the learned generally assert and if so why not one day in seven also If the particular day were shadowy why not the proportion also It followes not at all unless you will say Resol that those particular Sacraments under the law Circumcision and the Passeover being ceremonial make the like number of Sacraments under the Gospel viz. Baptism and the Lords Supper ceremonial too the reason is alike in both for the Ceremony stood not in the proportion or number but in the particularity or nature of that day and those duties But you have formerly granted Scrup. 2. that the fourth Commandment did point at that particular seventh day under the term seventh day therefore the fourth Commandment was in that respect ceremonial I have indeed granted Res that the Commandment did indirectly and occasionally point at that precise seventh day but not particularly only within the general scope of it or as a general rule equally communicable to that day as being elswhere appointed of God while it stood and to our day now it is substituted in the room of that by the same Divine appointment And if this were heedfully observed the scruple were soon answered But here lies the mistake men would fain scrue in the seventh day from that presixed period of creation into the heart of the Commandment and make that seventh day and a seventh day of equal dimensions which can never be unless they will render the Commandment ceremonial whereas to affirm as I do that the Commandment indirectly pointed at that day as being then under Divine Sanction does no more place a ceremony in the fourth Commandment then it does in the fifth to say that by Father and Mother were meant not only natural but civil and Ecclesiastical parents and occasionally such as were Typical as not only the Priests and Levites but Moses and Aaron also who were to be honoured by vertue of the fifth Commandment and that as Fathers in a figutative sense From which instance thus much is manifest that a moral precept may occasionally point at something ceremonial and yet retaine its own morality So that neither a Sabbath nor a weekly Sabbath were ever shadowes of things to come But Secondly That Sabbath and particular seventh day which the Jewes observed was certainly of a shadowy nature Dr. Tailour observes in his Christ revealed p. 4. 1. That as the body is the cause of the shadow so was Christ of the ceremonies 2. As the shadow represents the shape motions and actions of the body so did the legall shadows resemble Christ in his actions and passions and I add why may not both these be affirmed of the old Sabbath For 1. It was occasioned at first by Christ as the shadow is by the body B. Christ I say in the promise 2. It shadowed out something of Christ and the ancients generally understood it as a shadow of his rest that day in the grave being instituted at first with reference to Christ as all other shadowes were and having an accessory type afterwards affixed to it And of this we may safely expound that forementioned Text Colos 2.16 Let no man judge you in meat or in drink or in respect of an holy day or now moon or Sabbaths which were shadown of things to come but the body is of Christ The only question is whether their weekly Sabbath were here intended Some are jealous lest in pressing it so farr it should prove prejudicial to our weekly Christian Sabbath but this is meet causless jealously For let us but ponder the scope of the place and it will appear that the Apostles design is not to level Christian dayes and duties but such as the Jewes observed and would have intruded together with circumcision and other legal rites into the Church of Christ This is evident for he writes both against distinctions of meats and dayes Now under that clause of meats and drink shall we say he condemns all distinctions of meats and drinks in matters of religion What of bread and Wine in the Lords Supper too or in disputing against the Jewes Sacraments especially circumcumcision does Paul strike at all Sacraments what baptism and all no 't is aparent that in all those three Texts usually alledged Rom. 10.5 6 Gal. 4.10 Colos 2.16 He cryes down the Ordinances of the Law or old Testament not the institutions of the Gospel Look what the Jewish fals-teachers cryed up St. Paul cryes down i. e. their Sabbaths and their Sacraments 'T is not likely that they ever pleaded for the Christian Sabbath the first day of the week and therefore t is most improbable that the Apostle in opposing them should implead that In a word Dies Dominicus non est umbrae rerum futurarum sed rei praeterita viz. gloriosae Christi resurrectionis grata Recordatio Brochmand Syst Theol.
may be reckoned as a special prerogative of this day above the Jewes Sabbath and all other dayes The Lords day and the Lords Supper are Scripture-companions Acts 2.26 is misquoted I perceive this Author uses to quote Scripture at a venture but I suppose he means Acts 2.46 and there indeed we read of the Saints continuing daily with one accord in the Temple and * Domi frangebant portionem Syriack verse breaking bread from house to house but to take this for Sacramentall bread and make it their daily bread is to mistake the matter quite For although verse 42. speak of bread Sacramentally broken yet verse 46. the phrase is quite altered and the * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 word signifies ordinary bread or common food Piscator understands it of bread broken in a way of Charity or dealing their bread to the hungry as it is * Isai 58.7 elswhere expressed If breaking of bread had been a service peculiarly designed for the honour of the first day Obj. 3 the Apostle would not have deferr'd it till the second day till after mid-night verse II. Neither does it appear that he did deferre it till after mid-night For Eutychus dropt asleep in Sermon-time Answ verse 9. and the Sermon lasted but till mid-night verse 7. and as soon as Eutychus caught his fall no doubt Paul hasted to raise him again And when he was come up again he brake bread verse 11. Part 3 Thes 63. all this while it might not be mid-night for after all this he talked a long while even till break of day Besides as Mr. Shephard observes the Lords Supper might be administred before Pauls Sermon And that breaking of bread verse 11. might be common bread some ordinary repast for Paul after his long preaching and before his long journey And the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 implies as much and hence also 't is spoken of one man principally When he had broken bread and eaten c. however t is expresly said v. 7. that the disciples were assembled together ex more sayes * Ad locum Pellican after their wonted manner to break bread upon the first day of the week and their purpose shewes what was their usual practice The disciples came not together till towards evening Obj. 4 for as soon they are met we read of lights in the upper room and this is no fair president for keeping a Sabbath They must needs be come together before Candle-lighti ng Answ 1 by is own principles otherwise how is it said they were assembled the first day of the week since he holds that the day begins and ends with the Sun-set evening The text saith not Answ 2 they met in the evening of the first day but on the first day and it might be in the morning for ought appears to the contrary The lights in the upper room ar gue not that it was late in the day before they assembled but long in the night before Paul ended his Sermon Besides supposing they came not together till towards the close of the day remembring still what perillous persecuteing times those were yet out of question the former part of the day was spent in religious exercises otherwise the disciples had rusht very rudely upon that sacred and solemn ordinance of the Lords Supper We should count them but sorry Christians that should dare to come reaking out of the world from their Merchandise or shops or fields or farms to sit down as guests at the Lords table The Saints example at Troas doth no more oblige us to their time Obj. 5 than their meeting in an upper chamber doth tie us to the like place If time and place be equal circumstances in religion Answ See Mr. Wowe of the Sab. then the old Prelatical Argument were good as the true worshippers of God are not tied to worship him either in Jerusalem or any other peculiar place but must worship him in spirit and in truth in all places so neither are they tied to any time of worship but may pray continually But this principle is out of plea now and I am perswaded in urging of it the objector fights against conscience and struggles against his own convictions For he ha's elswhere maintained time and place to be unequal circumstances and if not equal why does he argue from the one to the other But the truth is he ha's no game to play but what the Anti-Sabbatarian Prelatists have plaid and lost before him Only one card more which was none of their pack Examples do only allow us a liberty Obj. 6 page 13. of his Pamphlet nothing but a clear command can oblige us to a duty For instance community of goods is the Saints liberty because it was practiced but liberality of our proper substance is a duty because it is commanded Saints may freely seast before Communion because we have Apostolical president but all true disciples must break bread because we have Evangelical precept so we have liberty to meet the first day because we find the Saints at Troas then occasionally assembled but we are tied in duty to celebrate the seventh day Sabbath because it is commanded If this rule were as true as it is false Answ 1 he might blot out all the examples of the Saints recorded in Scripture For what are they good for To allow us a liberty only Why that we had before Had we never heard of the Saints meeting and Pauls preaching on the first day of the week yet I hope we had had free liberty to meet and worship on that day nevertheless what followes now Why by this Doctors new divinity absit blasphemia verbo the Holy Ghost ha's inserted this story in vain This leaf yea and twenty more might have been left out of the Bible without loss See the poison of a rotten error 'T is no less false Answ 2 that nothing but a clear command can oblige us to duty What must we limit the holy one of Israel must he deliver his mind and will only by way of precept May he not do it as well by promise or prophesie or proportion or consequence Must we teach the Lord how to teach us our duty pray what expresse command was there to sanctifie the Sabbath or what example of any one man that did sanctifie it for 2000. years after the Creation I mean in expresse terms Was it never a duty therefore till the Commandment came and is not Apostolicall example with a consequential command a sufficient rule for the observation of the Lords day He argued before for the Jewes Sabbath that we must be followers of Paul as he was of Christ how much better may we urge the same argument for the Lords day As thus Christ was present upon this day in the assembly of his disciples and kept it like a Sabbath John 20.19.26 and so Paul Acts 20.7 and we must follow Paul as he did Christ therefore we must keep holy the Lords day the
at his own house in the poores box c. At his own house Answ How then could it be avoided but there must have been gatherings at Pauls coming Which the Text forbiddeth The Apostles care was to have their collections ready i. e. in a publick stock or bank against his coming lest haply they of Macedonid coming along with him to whom it seems he had boasted of the Corinthians forwardness should find them unprepared * 2 Cor. 9.3 4. and so both he and they should be ashamed of his boasting That phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is translated by himself may as well be rendred of himself that is Answ 2 sponte sua of his own accord And so Musculus interprets it when t is said Puta illud in Graco 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non esse positum pro apud se seponat sed hoc sensu quisque vestrûm suapta sponte i. e. in caetu sacro thesaurizans cui proposito nonsatisfecisset si quisque aqud se domi reposuisset etjusmodi namque reposita tum demum collidenda essent cum ipse ad eos venisset quod vitari volehat Wolph Museul ad Loe. let every one lay by treasuring up in store t is not meant let every one lay by himself apart and privately but at your publick meetings casting it into the publick treasury of the Church and that freely of his own good will That there may be no gatherings when I come whereas if every one had laid by in private onely at his own house there would have been need of gatherings at his coming the thing which he takes special care to prevent it seems the Apostle came but seldom and could not tarry long when he came for he had the care of all the Churches upon him especially the Gentiles the world through 2 Cor. 11.28 His work was to gather and govern Churches he must not therefore spend his time in gathering moneyes or going from house to house to call for every mans weekly contribution this had been a leaving the word of God to serve tables as the other Apostles said in a like case Acts 6.2 The survey the Apostle exhorts every man to take of his own estate that he might give thereafter Obj. 3 does notably overthrow the conceit of a first-day-Sabbath for he orders every man to lay by in store as God hath prospered him that is according as his yearly revenue increaseth or his weekly trade proves more or lesse gainful If the first day had been a Sabbath the Apostle knowing the proneness of our nature to mind earthly things would never have put them upon the consideration of their outward estates That the first day of the week is a Sabbath Ans 1 or day of rest is no conceit but a Scripture-truth as it shall ere long appear to the shame of such reviling adversaries 2. That upon this day they must take a survey of their estates because they must give according to their estates and incomes is a conceit indeed there is no colour of consequence in it for I hope they might take their survey on the Saturday night no necessity of deferring it to the Lords day Suppose a Minister of Christ should urge this Apostolical ordinance still as I am informed Mr. White of Dorchester did pressing his people to contribute and lay up something in a common stock every first day of the week for the releif of the poore and that according as God should blesse and prosper them in their callings the week before Does it follow that therefore when the people are assembled together on the Lords day they must make the Church their Counting-house or before they come there turn over their shop-bookes in stead of their Bibles What a ridiculous inference were this Good huâ—â—ands I should think would end the week and their work together good Christians to be sure will do so and not make the Lords day their counting-counting-day a recounting-recounting-day indeed they may and must make it to recount the blessings of providence in a way of praise and thankfulness and this is a sabbath-Sabbath-day duty as appeares by that * Psalm 92. Psalm for the Sabbath But further to dash this dream of the adversary let him consider that in effect as much is * Ez. 46.5 6. said of the Sabbath in the old Testament as here of the Lords day and it may be t is meant of the Lords day-Sabbath T is further objected That Pauls Epistle was read in these Churches on the Sabbath-day Saturday he means and then the Apostle exhorted them to Charity and would have it to be their first work the next day while the sweet sense of the Epistle was upon their Spirits c. But This is frivolous For Gal. 4.10 The Apostle had utterly condemned the Saturday-Sabbath among the rest of those legal dayes and that he should build again the things he had destroyed we are not so much as to suppose Now take the sum of all On the first day of the week our Saviour was raised from the dead on this day he often appeared after his resurrection sent his holy Spirit on this day after his ascension and stampt his own blessed name upon it on this day the Saints assembled the Apostles preached the Sacraments were administred Charities Collected and concerning this day the Holy Prophets prophecyed what day was ever markt out with more shining and illustrious Characters The Best Antiquity for the Change of the day TO this Scripture-evidence for the change of the day we shall now add something by way of Testimony from the Records of Antiquity I may truly say 't is the glory of this truth that besides Scripture authority it ha's the most luculent Testimony in the writings of the Antients of any paralel-truth controverted in these disputeing times we may trace it all along from age to age ever since the Apostles times and with much contentment behold how providentially it hath pleased the Lord to guide the pens of his faithfull Martyrs and Ministers in their witness-bearing to this sacred truth especially in the first five hundred yeares after Christ wherein we shall find enough to silence the vain glorious vapourings of the adversary who affirms That the spotless spouse of Christ in her primitive purity and while she was decked with the Diadem of infallibility T. T. p. 62. and 106. namely during the first three Centuries did constantly observe both the seventh day and the first day of the week yea for the first 400. years if he may be beleeved By the way let the reader take notice of two considerable grants here First That the Church was decked with the Diadem of infallibility as he calls it for the first three hundred years Secondly That the Lords day was constantly observed during this state of the Church's infabllility For both dayes were observed saies he The Lords day was indeed besides his bare word I will bring sufficient witness for it But the
man that as the Christian religion was professed so the Christian Sabbath was practised when there was no Christian Magistrate in the world and that all the Christian world over long before Constantines time Which one would think were enough to put to silence lying lips O Obj. 3 but Merator and Dr. Hen in tell us that in the Aethiopick Churches both dayes are still observed True Answ but they tell us also Dr. Heylin I am sure does that both dayes are observed as Sabbaths and accordingly called For they call the Saturday the Jewes Sabbath and the Lords day the Christian Sabbath so that what ever their practice be 'T is none of their pinciples that the Saturday-Sabbath is the Christian Sabbath And as for their practice 't is little to be regarded considering their corruption For together with the Saturday-Sabbath they observe * Mr. Breerwoods inquiries circumcision too on the eighth day with many other Jewish and Anti-Christian customes Blessed be God for that better light which shines in the Churches of Europe The testimonies taken out of Socrates do only prove that in his time namely 400 years after Christ some Churches did meet together and break bread on the old Sabbath Which we deny not only we say that the Lords day had stil the preheminence and that in four things as learned Dr. Young ha's observed 1. That the Saturday-Sabbath was never the day of solemn assemblies in all Churches for the constom of holding assemblies on that day never obtained in the Churches of Rome and Alexandria as Sozomon testifies lib. 7. c. 19. Whereas all Churches had their Church-meetings on the Lords day not one excepted 2. The Saturday or old Sabbath was never kept as a solemn Festival for in many Churches it was a weekly Fasting-day and once a year in all Churches namely Easter-Eve Constit lib. 7. c. 24. and lib. 5. c. 15. being the day of Christs greatest abasement while he lay in the grave and under the sorrowes of death whereas every Lords day throughout the year was held a solemn Festival Constit lib. 7. c. 31. 3. All Ordinances were never administred with that uniformity on the old Sabbath as on the Lords day August ep 118. Socrates lib 5. c. 22. as the Ordinance of the Lords Supper which in the purest Churches was appropriate to the Lords day which was therefore called the day of bread as we noted before Athan. Apol. 2. Hence that memorable passage of Athanasius who being accused for Breaking a Communion-cup clears himself thus That time instanced by his accusers was no Communion-time for it was not the Lords day 4. Their conventions on the old Sabbath were ever arbitrary not urged as of necessity unless by Ebion and his followers who were therefore condemned as Hereticks But the observation of the Lords day was ever held a Christian duty and never were any stigmatized with that black brand of Heresie for observing of it nay it was the badge of Christianity I am a Christian I dare not intermit it to all these I may add 5. The old Sabbath was never the Christian Sabbath or day of rest but a working-day So in Ignatius's time Anno 314. he counselled Christians to work upon it and the Council of Laodicea made a decree to this purpose That Christians ought not to Judaize and to rest from work on the Sabbath-day but to prefer the Lords day before it and to rest thereon from labour In which words as Mr. Cawdrey well observes this Synod did but expound the sentence of of holy Ignatius I might instance also the Council at Eliberis Carthage Arragon Mascon Chalons and other both Fathers Councills and Christian Emperours but others have prevented me in this kind of Antiquity So much for the fourth Position POSITION V. That the Lords day or first day of the week commonly called Sunday is the Christian Sabbath or day of holy rest THis does naturally result from the premises For the day being changed and yet the law concerning the Sabbath continued and established the new day must needs be a day of rest as it rests on the authority and morality of the fourth Commandment and as it succeeds the old day in Sabbath-solemnity Yet it is not so much the name as the thing that I contend for For although I am fully convinced that as our spirituall exercises are called Sacrifices because they succeed in the place of the Jewes Sacrifices so and much more significantly may our Lords day be termed Sabbath because it * Succeeds I mean not in any ceremonious respect but in relation to the fourth Commandment succeeds in the place of the Jewes Sabbath yet I had rather insist upon the thing than the name because the one being proved the other cannot well be denyed No rational man will stick at nominal respect where there is a real right to it A name of rest will be easily granted due to a day of rest now that the Lords day is without dispute a day of rest appears thus Cum de re constat propier quam vorba dicuntur de verbis non debore contendi c. August cont Acad. l. 3. c. 13. First As it is the day of our Redeemers rest from his painful work of Redemption his rising from the dead was his resting from his work By his Resurrection this day he entred into his rest for hereby as was said before he entred into his glory which will further appear by comparing two texts together viz. John 7.39 with John 20.22 The first tells us That the spirit was not yet given because Jesus was not yet glorified therefore when the Spirit was given surely then Christ was glorified Now the other Text informs us That upon the day of Christs Resurrection the Spirit was given For he breathed on them and said Receive the Holy Ghost Now therefore undoubtedly the Lord of glory was crowned with glory not that he entred into the place of rest and glory upon the day of his Resurrection but into the state of rest and glory the place is but accidental to the state that which I modestly propounded to further inquiry page 128. Namely Whether Christ did not locally ascend into Heaven on the very day of his Resurrection has been since concluded and resolved in the Negative by a Reverend Brother from that Text of Scripture Hebr. 9 12. by his own blood he entred once into the Holy place Which seems to a gue strongly that our blessed High Priest entred once and but once into Heaven To which I do now freely subscribe Errare possum Haereticus esse nolo Secondly The Lords day is a day of Religious Assemblies for solemn weekly worship therefore also a day of religious rest from civil and secular imployments Since 't is impossible for men to meet together about solemn Worship and at the same time to follow their worldly occasions observed as Sabbaths as the Feast of unleavened bread * Deut.
to make Conscience of namely the spiritual duty of meditation and the celestial duty of praise First how seasonable it is on the Sabbath to meditate not only on the Word but the Works of God appears from Psal 92. which is a Psalm for the Sabbath-day How does the Psalmist there search and dive into the wonderful works of God Vers 5. How great are thy works O Lord and thy thoughts are very deep Here we have a large field works of Creation and works of Providence here our souls may wander from sea to land See Mr. Baxter Saints ever-lasting Rest from earth to Heaven from time to eternity yea walk upon the Sun Moon and Stars and enter into Heaven it self the Paradise of God How manifold are thy works O Lord in wisdome hast thou made them all Every creature of God that we cast our eyes upon this day should be as a flower to feed our Meditations I speak of cursory Meditation or that which is occasional one special use whereof is to feed our graces by our senses and as we are Christians to conduct us to Christ by the view of all creatures and actions when we look upon the Sun it bids us look up to Christ the Sun of righteousness every star may mind us of that star of Jacob that bright and morning star if we look upon our houses Christ is the door if upon our bodies he is the head if upon our clothes he is the garment of salvation if upon our friends and relations he is our husband our friend our Lord our Law-giver our King if we walk he is the way if we read he is the word if we eat and drink he is our food if we live Christ is our life that is a holy heart may make this spiritual use of all earthly objects and occasions to contemplate Christ in them and if we improve not our senses this way 't is all one as if we were blind or brutish But besides this there is a more distinct deliberate solemn and set meditation required on the Lords day and the work of Redemption being the occasion of the day how should our hearts work upon this blessed subject Come Christian call in thy thoughts from all worldly concernments and contemplate this rare contrivance of thy Redemption by Jesus Christ ponder it deeply get lively and strong apprehensions of it that it may leave deep and lasting impressions upon thy soul view over the several passages and transactions in this Master-piece of all Gods works view it first in the platform how gloriously was this laid in the eternal projects and a Ephes 1.4 purposes of Gods love yea in that eternal promise past between the Father and the Son b Titus 1.2 In hopes of eternal life which God that cannot lie promised before the world began Mark it here was a promise a promise of eternal life made by God by God that cannot lie and that before there was a world or man in the world Oh the everlastingness infiniteness unsearchableness of this love of God! that the everlasting God the Majesty of heaven and earth should take care of me before the world was that he should busie himself and his Son about a worthless wretched worm born out of due time the least of Saints the greatest of sinners O my soul admire adore this first love this free love of God and Christ Next see the early discovery and shining forth of this mystery in the very morning of the world no sooner is man fallen but God reaches out a c Gen. 3.15 promise to him and after many ages sends his blessed Son out of his bosome to fulfil it in the d Gal. 4.4 fulness of time Christ comes we could not come up to him lo he comes down to us O see the King of glory stooping bowing the Heavens to come down and dwell in a dungeon to lodge amongst prisoners and pitch his tent in the rebels camp Think O my soul how did the holy Angels wonder to see the King of Heaven stepping down from his throne to sit on his footstool yea putting off to the view the robes of a prince to put on the livery of a e Phil. 2.7 8. servant and that after treason had been stampt upon it taking our nature I mean after it had been up in arms against God not that he took the sin of our nature he that could make our nature without sin could also and did take it without sin but the shame of it he took in that he took it when it was under a cloud under a blot before God and Angels How does this express the love of Christ a heart full of love to lost sinners q. d. poor soult I cannot keep from you I love your very nature and will joyn it to my self and so I may save you from sin and wrath I care not if I become one with you and dwell in your very flesh My glory shall not hinder I will rather veil it for a while and take the form of a servant and become of no reputation than you shall perish for ever Again how does this speak the unspeakable love of God See Mr. Ambrose looking to Jesus p. 342. as one sweetly observes God did so love the very nature of his elect that though for the present he had them not all with him in heaven yet he must have their picture in his Son to see them in and love them in O meditate much on this admirable strein of love till it melt thy heart and make it burn within thee From the Incarnation of our blessed Saviour we may trace him through the several passages of his life to his death and passion and here with an eye of faith look upon him whom thou hast pierced behold the man as he said even that man of sorrows suffering bleeding dying on that tree of shame and ignominy dwell upon the death of Christ till it put life into thy dead heart then follow thy crucified Lord from the cross to the Sepulchre and by the way ponder deeply the severity of Gods justice the sinfulness of sin the love of Christ and the worth of souls which are not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold but with the precious blood of Jesus Christ 1 Pet. 1.18 19. as a lamb without blemish and without spot Why did the Primitive Saints sacramentally shew forth the Lords death on the Lords day Acts 20.7 but to signifie to us that to contemplate and commemorate the death of Christ is a special duty of the day So also his Resurrection which was the great transaction of the day therefore a proper subject for serious meditation It is Christ that died yea rather that is risen again and become the first-fruits of them that slept Consider O my souls the holy triumph of thy Redeemer this day when he trod on the serpents head took from death its sting from hell its standard Suppose thou hadst
to follow our worldly imployments worldly labour and the sweat of the brow has too much of the curse in it to consist with a day of thanksgiving or holy rejoycing in the Lord. The Scripture frequently calls festival dayes Sabbaths and if Sabbath be a sit name for other dayes of the same nature Why not for this And therefore I cannot but wonder that T.T. who grants the Lords day to be a day of rejoycing according to that of the Psalmist Let us rejoyce and be glad therein should deny it to be a Sabbath or a day of holy rest as he wickedly and profanely doth calling a mans Sabbath discovering his enmity against the thing by carping at the name yea condemning of it why has he the face to call the Jewish festivals Sabbaths or dayes of rest as being either fasting dayes or feasting dayes and yet deny the Lords day this titular honour Inenaem Phil. p. 74. Is it a day of less account then the Passeover day Pentecost day Expiation day and other Ceremonial dayes which the Scripture terms Sabbaths How suitable is a name of rest to a day of rest as the Lords day is Nay I have already proved that it is greater then these yea greater then the old Sabbath it self therefore sure its a day of rest as shall be farther proved in the close of this Treatise And if this be a day of holy rest it is as much intended in these words Remember the Sabbath day to sanctifie it as ever the Jewes Sabbath was But the seventh day was Sabbath day when the Law was given Obj. therefore it is to be understood of that day and none but that You may as well say Answ the fifth Commandment Honour thy father and mother is to be understood of such particular parents as were then living and none but them And then the Quakers will have a fine plea for their barbarous rudeness and unmannerly behaviour towards superiours Tell them of honouring their parents that 's a wilderness-wilderness-duty may they say it intended only the Israelites parents now t is a dead letter and out of date As simple and sottish a plea as this would be yet it is no better to say the fourth Commandment intended only the Jews Sabbath and the old seventh day because that was only in being when the precept was given Alas that was meerly occasional and accidental to the Commmandment not at all of the essence or substance of it True that was the only weekly Sabbath then but it was not alwayes so to be as the event hath proved But the truth is this first clause Remember the Sabath day to keep it holy did directly point at no peculiar day more then another but being the law of nature it only requires a day of rest in general to be sanctified to wit what day soever it fall upon And this is very considerable since in the judgment of all the learned and godly Deut. 5.12 the prime morality and main substance of the Commandment lies in this clause And hence it is observed that Moses in the repetition of the Law inserts this memorable parenthesis when he had said See Mr. Shepheard Thes 122 and Dr. Twiss Sect. 6. Keep the Sabbath day to sanctifie it immediately he addes these words as the Lord thy God hath commanded thee between the preceptive and the following parts intimating that the substance of the command lies mainly though not only here Well a day of rest must be sanctified sometimes * Natura dictat aliquan to vacuam quieti diem Gerson the light of nature teaches it and the law of God requires it But the next question will be in what proportion and number of dayes it must be stated how seldome or how often it must return If this be left to mans determination there will be nothing but confusion superstition or irreligion One man perhaps will contend that one day in a * As the eighth day of every moneth was observed by the Grecians and the ninth day by the Romans Plutarch in vita Thes Macrobius Saturn lib. 1. c. 16. moneth is sufficient another a little more devout will say nay it must be once a fortnight at least a third with T.T. will run into another Ebionitish extreem and exact two dayes in a week though he bear little good will to one of them Well to end the strife we must consult the Divine oracle to the law and to the testimony have recourse to the Commandment in the second part of it 2. The Directive part in these words six dayes shalt thou labour but the seventh day is the Sabbath to the Lord thy God as if the Lord had said Your Sabbath shall be once a week or one day in seven at my appointment this agrees best with the order of the precept The law of nature being setled in the first clause that a day of rest must sometimes be kept and kept holy the very next scruple is about the number how often it must be kept whether once a quarter or once a moneth or once a week The order whether it shall be the first or last day of such a number is not the next inquiry in all reason the number and proportion must first be stated For the order presupposes the number the moneth must be agreed upon before the day of the moneth and the week before such a day of the week And accordingly this positive directory is given us to point out the number principally Six dayes shalt thou labour but a seventh day is the Sabbath that is your Sabbath shall be neither a daily nor a monethly nor a yearly but a weekly Sabbath The Phrase is exclusive as one observes implying thus much thou art not to keep the sixth day or one of six Dies septimus ipse unus est dierum qui omnes septem sunt August de Oen. ad lit l. 4. c. 18. or the tenth day or one of ten but the seventh day that is one of seven or one in a week The terme seventh is opposed to all other numbers either ninth tenth or twentieth as also to the six working-dayes which clearly intend such a number as six in seven and so the seventh day is as much as one in seven Six dayes shalt thou labour but a seventh day is the Sabbath a seventh what seventh pray note it the Lord sayes not the seventh from the Creation he nameth no day if he had the law had been limitted to that day but because the law-giver intended to chuse a new day and not to change his old law you see he has left it in large and general terms neither can it be restrained to one day more then to another To make it plain by a similitude or two Suppose a rich man who has seven Lambs in a way of unusual bounty make such a proposal as this to his poor neighbour I will freely give you six of them upon condition you keep
the first day of the week not directly indeed but by very good consequence as Mr. Cawdrey and Mr. Byfield do convincingly argue it For sayes the one our Saviour does here speak of a Sabbath indefinitely and a Sabbath to be observed long after his death even at the destruction of Jerusalem and this was spoken to his disciples apart from the multitude sayes the other v. 3. and the period of time here pointed at was forty years after his death when the Jewish Sabbath was gone and the Gospel sufficiently published whereby the ceremonial Law was evacuated and become not only dead but deadly Not that the old Law of a Sabbath the fourth Commandment was then out of force but the Law of the old Sabbath And then the conclusion is this Christ shewes a Sabbath to continue and a religious respect due to a Sabbath still after his death yet not the Jewes Sabbath therefore he intended the Christian Sabbath to be observed according to the fourth Commandment As for the Jewes Sabbath t is certain that it was void at this point of time yea long before this forewarned flight the Apostles and Christians had their assemblies apart from the other Jewes and kept the Lords day the first day of the week as on the Great day of Pentecost Acts 2. and at Troas Acts 20.7 And although sometimes the Apostles did preach on the seventh day yet as Mr. C. notes it was only before the time mentioned Acts 20 never after and only in other Cities abroad not at Jerusalem for there we never read a word of the Sabbath in all the story of the Acts. I conclude therefore with that reverend Author that no reason can be given why our Saviour in this prophetical caution should regard the Jewish Sabbath but altogether the contrary in regard the Christians inhabiting in Jerusalem and the Coasts about Judea preferred the Lords day before it and it would be grievous to gracious hearts to have their holy rest interrupted with the noise of warlike tumults and the hurry of a tumultuous flight well might the disciples be taught to pray Lord when ever we be driven from the place of our Residence let it not be on a day of holy rest for that would be as uncomfortable to our souls as a winters flight would be cumbersome to our bodies Not that it would be sinful or unlawful when life lay at stake to flye on the Sabbath for to save a mans life is a Sabbath-dayes duty and a matter of far greater moment then to leade a beast to the water or pull an oxe out of a pit both which are allowable it may therefore be scored down among the rest of T. T 's errors and oversights that he makes it a sin to flye on the Sabbath day when peril of life puts a man upon it for hâ— terms it a dishonor to God and prophaning his sacred season p. 77. and yet he sayes in the next page That had their flight bin on the Sabbath as long as they carried nothing they could not be counted Transgressors Which may pass for another of his contradictions But for a closure to this answer we have deliberately weighed our Saviours words and sayings concerning the Sabbath but cannot find that ever he spake one word or one syllable in countenance of the old seventh day as the Sabbath of Christians his words prove no such thing And lastly Whereas his workes are pleaded as the crown of that day Answ 4 I am content if the author think good to venture the whole weight of the cause in this bottom That day which Christ has crowned with his greatest wonders is to be most highly esteemed among Christians 'T is his own grant p. 78. and 't is a truth now let him have but a little patience and we shall prove by undeniable Arguments that in this respect the first day of the week carries away the Crown from all other dayes old Sabbath and all If Christs resurrection his often apparitions the mission of his Spirit the inspiration of his Apostles the conversion of three thousand souls ot once be worthy the name of wonders surely the first day of the week is a day of wonder a day of honor and renown above all the dayes that ever the Sun shone upon The most glorious day that ever God created the most solemn day that ever the Church celebrated a day that has crowned Christ and a day that Christ himself has crowned with the greatest glory of any day that ever dawned upon the world Rom. 1.4 I speak but the words of truth and soberness Luke 13.32 Psalm 118.24 Joh. 20.22 23. Cant. 3.11 the Lords day is no day of small things 't is the day of the Lords power the day of his perfection the day of his praise and glory the day of his bounty and blessing the day of his espousals and of the gladness of his heart which can be understood so properly of no day as of this the Resurrection day Let prophane Esaus despise it and proud Notionists oppose it at their peril Behold King Solomon with the crown wherewith his mother crowned him in the day of his espousals and in the day of the gladness of his heart never was Christ more visibly Crowned by his Church then on the Lords day which also was the day of his espousals when he was made sure to his Church by a sure Covenant even the sure mercies of David Hos 2.19 20. Acts 13.34 but let neither of them blame me if I honor and esteem it above all dayes till they can shew me another day which the Saviour of the world has honored and exalted above it Never tell me of one or two miracles wrought on the seventh day yet I desire to adore Christ in all his miracles but shew me such a confluence of wonders and wonderful transactions wrought by him whose name is wonderful on that day as on this and I will confess I have lost the day Alas It cannot be that one transcendent act the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus from the dead the finishing act of our Redemption weighs down all the honor of the seventh day with advantage 'T is objected that our Saviour was pleased to put forth his Divine vertue on the seventh day in sundry miracles miracles of healing and the like I answer 'T is very true and to him be all the glory But if it were an honor to that day that our Heavenly physitian healed the sick what a Crown of glory was it to his own day that he raised the dead Yea that being dead he raised himself from the dead so also if he dignified the seventh day by casting out unclean Spirits how much more the first day by sending his holy Spirit If his preaching in the Synagogues were an honor to the seventh day how much more his presenting himself in that great Assembly of Divines twice at least on the first day of the week Did Christ ever
the fourth Commandment which as the above mentioned Author at whose torch I have lighted my candle observes is a thing worthy of special note any may afford a satisfying reason why there is no expresse institution of the first day of the week in the new Testament viz. Because the vertue of the fourth Commandment doth of it self fall upon that day the former being void being the only day capable of keeping up Gods proportion perpetually determined in the Commandment yet I confess as formerly that the Commandment does not directly institute the day but falls upon the observation of it and supposes the institution neither do I urge it directly for the designation of the day for the first day of the week is not expresly mentioned in the fourth Commandment no more is the last day of the week neither but a seventh day is which although as I said before it could not be restrained to one day more then another yet my meaning was and is that it could not be so tyed to the last of seven as not to be applyed to the first of seven if God so pleased Briefly this argument concludes rather for the observation than the designation of the first day day of the week as the only day upon which in the vacancy of the old Sabbath God has set his mind in the Law And good reason For 2. This is the day upon which above all other dayes Christ has set his mark his special signall characteristical mark in the Gospel to mark it out for a day of weekly solemn worship under the new Testament A seven-fold mark he has set upon it which the malice of men and divels shall never be able to obliterate As 1. His glorious Resurrection upon this day 2dly His several veral Apparitions 3dly His gracious actions and speeches at those apparitions 4th The Mission of his Holy Spirit on this day 5th The inscription of his own blessed name upon it 6th His Apostles and Apostolical Churches observation of it 7th Their prescription about it Of which I shall treat in order as they lie answering all objections that oppose themselves against this conquering truth of Christ 1. What a mark of honour yea what a crown of glory is it to this day that it had the favour above all the dayes of the week to be Christs resurrection-day The Sun in the firmament arises and shines upon other dayes as well as this but the Sun of righteousness never arose upon any day but this and if we will beleeve the Holy Ghost the institution of the day had its foundation here Psalm 118.22 23 24. For the discovery whereof I shall once more desire the Reader to turn to that Text Psam 118. The stone which the builders refused is become the head-stone of the corner So 1 Pet. 2.7 this is the Lords doing and it is marvellous in our eyes This is the day which the Lord hath made c. The Apostle Peter expounds this Text and applies it to Christ Acts 4.11 where speak to Caiaphas and the rest of the Councill who went for builders he boldly tells them This is the stone which ye builders refused which is become the head of the corner he speaks it of Christ and of Christs resurrection for v. 10. he had spoken of their refusing him in his Crucifixion and Gods exalting him in his resurrection Whom ye crucified and whom God raised from the dead Thereby making him both a corner-stone and head of the corner Head of all principality and power Coloss 2.10 head or Lord of the living and the dead yeas head of Heaven and earth having all power in Heaven and earth then given to him Matth. 28.18 Thus of Davids prophetical prediction Next let us consider his application of it 1. In respect of the deed done 2. In respect of the day on which it was done 3. In respect of the duty of that day 1. The deed or work done the raising of Christ from the dead he magnifies as the Lords own act his marvelous stupendious act This is the Lords doing and it is marvellous in our eyes v. 23. No wonder for indeed this was the greatest wonder the ever was wrought in the world concerning which we may say as Moses in another case Ask now of the dayes that are past which were before thee Deut. 4.32 since God created man upon the earth and ask from the one side of Heaven to the other whet her there hath been any such things as this great thing is or hath been heard like it That one by his own power should raise himself from the dead no history no chronicle can paralel it So wonderful was our Saviours resurrection that it challenges wonder even from his enemies behold ye despisers and wonder Acts 13.41 Sayes the Apostle wonder at what Why at Gods raising Christ from the dead of which he had treated before verse 36 37. 2. The Psalmist applies it further to the day on which this work of wonder was wrought This is the day which the Lord hath made and mark the connection the day depends upon the deed or work done Factum domini as one sayes facit diem domini The Lords deed makes it the Lords day Here the institution of the day is undeniably founded upon the resurrection of Christ upon this account 't is stiled the day which the Lord hath made because the stone cast aside of the builders Christ crucifyed was made the head of the corner that is raised from the dead as St. Peter expounds and as Christs resurrection was the Lords own doing so the Psalmist foresaw that the resurrection-day would be a day of the Lords own making If it be objected So is every day I answer but not every day alike For look as it was in the works of Creation all were Gods works all of his making but man the master-piece more especially of whom it may be said with an accent this is the creature which God had made so here all the dayes in the week are of Gods making but this in the Text above all the Holy Ghost sets an Emphasis upon it This is the day which the Lord hath made Made 1 How made not by was of Creation so 't was made before Gen. 1. But by way of institution The day which the Lord hath made What has he made it A working-day so it was before if therefore he has made it any thing it must be a holy solemn day a day more solemn and sacred then all the dayes that God ever made before And so the word signifies not only to makes but to magnify 't is equivalent to sanctifie 3. The Psalmist proceeds to the prophetical delineation of the duties of this day Let us be glad and rejoyce therein Yea he brings in the Church shouting and singing Hosanna's to Christ on this day v. 26. a Math. 21.9 Blessed is he that cometh to us in the Name of the Lord As when the b
Zech. 4.7 Temple was finished the head-stone was brought forth with shouting crying grace grace thereunto So here when the work of our redemption should be finished and Christ exalted as head and corner-stone of his Church by his triumphant Resurrection the Holy Ghost intimates the solemn gratulation and publick praise that the Church should offer on that day So we are to understand the next words were as c Isal 56.7 Mal. 1.11 usually New Testament-worship is set forth in an old Testament-dress v. 27. God is the Lord which hath she wed us light light indeed when the Sun of righteousness arises he has made it a day of light and gladness to poor self-condemned sinners therefore bind ye the sacrifice with cords to the horns of the altar That is offer to the Lord the sacrifice of publick praise and thanksgiving verse 29. Oh give thanks unto the Lord for he is good his mercy endureth for ever So that t is evident a day of solemn worship is here intended and Christs resurrection day is principally pointed at as a day which the Lord would institute and a day which the Church should celebrate Saying This is the day which the Lord hath made let us be gland and rejoyce therein What a plain Scripture-proof is this of Divine authority of the Lords day So plain that the adversary is forced to grant it page 61. It must needs be meant of Christs resurrection-day saies he and when he wrote his first book he excited Christians to the weekly celebration of it Whereas in a late railing pamphlet since he seekes to smother the light and evidence of this Text by a silly evasion that the Psalmist speaks not of every first day of the week but Easter-day as may be conjectured But I shall easily shake off this slight exception Away with conjectures let us search the Scriptures what day does the Holy Ghost in Scripture call Christs resurrection-day Ask Matthew Mark Luke and John they 'l tell you Math. 28.1 Mark 6.2 Luke 24.1 John 20.1 19. t is the first day of the week the day of the year is never mentioned nor the day of the month on which Christ arose but the day of the week only to teach us doubtless that Christs resurrection-day must be no yearly or monthly but a weekly solemnity Good reason that the work of Redemption should have as frequent a commemoration as the work of Creation had Now ponder this good Reader and the Lord print it upon thy heart the day of the Saviours Resurrection prophetically extolled in the old Testament as the day which the Lord hath made is historically noted down in the New Testament as the first day of the week and now we shall draw an argument which I hope will be an arrow of conviction to the contrary-minded the rather because it comes out of Gods own quiver thus the day of Christs resurrection is the day which he Lord hath made for duties of solemn worship but the first day of the week is the day of Christs Resurrection therefore the first day of the week is the day which the Lord hath made for duties of solemn worship The proposition is warranted by the Testimony of the Psalmist the assumption is confirmed by the harmony of all the four Evangelists the conclusion therefore will stand as long as the world stands namely that the first day of the week is a day of divine institution mark'd out by the finger of God the spirit of Christ for a day of solemn weekly worship under the Gospel For as I hinted before the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy * Acts 1.16 2 Tim. 3.16 1 Pet. 1.11 and ch 3.19 Rom. 15.4 It was by the spirit of our great Prophet that all the Prophets of old did speak Like stars they all borrowed their light from this Sun they were irradiated and inspired by Christ and when a holy Prophet foretels such a thing shall be we may as confidently build upon it as if Christ himself had said I will have it so For indeed it is the voice of Christ that speaks in the old Testament as well as in the new And possibly this may be one reason why the Lord Christ has spoken so little in the Gospel concerning some new Testament-ordinances as the Lords day for one namely because the Prophets had spoken so much before and Christ would not take off his people from the study of the old Testament upon which the authority of the new does so much depend Me thinks as to the controversie of the Christian Sabbath this should abundantly satisfie any sober Christian that the day of Christs resurrection was prophesied of by David and others as a day which the Lord would make and institute and accordingly practised by the inspired Apostles upon the first day of the week and this practice perpetuated by the Church of Christ the Catholick Church in all ages since for above sixteen hundred years What can be objected with any colour of reason against so clear a truth Christ hath not left one syllable for the institution or celebration of this day T.T. p. 120. Answ Not one syllable Why did he not grant before that Psalm 118. compared with Acts 4. Must needs be meant of the resurrection-day and does not the spirit speak expresly Mr. Perkins in his cases of conscience argues for the Christian Sabbath from this text Cyprian Austin and Ambrose and all the ancients who have ever cited or saluted this place Psalm 118. do expound it and understand it of the Lords day See Mr. L. strange This is the day which the Lord hath made Is it a day of the Lords making and will he make nothing of that What else can be made of it but a prediction of a Divine institution which is equivalent to a precept especially when expounded by Apostolical practice as this has been Let it be seriously considered in what other sense can a day made long before in respect of Creation be stiled the day which the Lord hath made than in respect to a divine institution An institution then it is and the occasion of it Christs resurrection which was the concluding act of our Redemption and what an impression of glory does this stamp upon the day above all the dayes that God ever made the seventh day and all As some * years are crowned with Gods goodness above others so dayes also The work crownes the day as I have often said and the greater the work the greater the day now that work in which God is most glorified in all his attributes must needs be the greatest work such is the work of Redemption Quasi hactenus nullus fuerit in orbe dies Mollerus in Loc. therefore the day set apart in commemoration of it must wear away the crown from all other dayes Such is Christs resurrection-day therefore Emphatically stiled The day which the Lord hath made as if there had never been
1 since that was the * Exod. 12.11 Luke 22.20 Lords Supper in the old Testament as much as the seventh day was the Lords Sabbath Christ never declared the seventh day to be the Lords day Ans 2 although he declared himself to be Lord of the Sabbath-day My meaning is that he never owned the seventh day as the Author and institutor of it in a strict Evangelical sense neither could he for it was instituted long before Heb. 4.4 therefore let it be well considered the Lords day Rev. 1.10 for this very reason cannot possibly be understood of the Jewes Sabbath because it is such a Lords day as relates peculiarly to the Lord Christ not as the Lord our Creator but the Lord our Redeemer to Christ actually exalted to be Lord over all relates to him I say as the Lords Supper does not only as his by possession but his by institution for these two and these only the Supper and the day are called the Lords in Scripture The Greek word is used but twice in all the new Testament only these two have the honour to be matcht in this glorious appellation and we must interpret the one by the other therefore if the Lords Supper be a Gospel-ordinance and institution of Jesus Christ so is the Lords day This paralel will pinch the adversary he cannot so much as pretend that the seventh day nor indeed any other day but the first of the week was instituted by Christ so as to be equalized in phrase with that pure Evangelicall ordinance the Lords Supper There is a vulgar objection abroad that every day is the Lords day therefore this Text makes as much for an every-day-Sabbath as the weekly Lords day Sabbath But the answer is easie they may as well say every Table is the Lords table and every Supper the Lords Supper and so turn levellers of dayes and duties together Well we have brought it to this issue that there is a day a speciall day under Gospel but not Jewes seventh day which the Lord Jess ha's instituted and owned above all dayes by stamping his own most blessed name upon it as upon his sacred Supper and this we are sure can be no other than the first day of the week The objector fearing belike that the former shift would faile him ha's another evasion to second it Obj. 3 namely that old thread bare Notion of Gomarus I rather think sayes he that the Lords day which S. John spake of was the Lords Judgment-day which the Lord himself calls his day Luke 17. Phil. 1.16 And so he dreams that the day on which S. John dated his Epistles to the seven Churches was the day of Judgment But This as one sayes0 is void of all judgment Answ See Mr. Ley Sund. Sab. For in the readiest construction of the words S. John spake of a day that was in being before the Vision came and so known that the Reader might take notice when it came But the day of Judgment is not yet come unless it be to such dreamers and so utterly unknown to man that our Saviour hath taught us Mat. 24.36 Mark 13.32 Of that day and hour knoweth no man no not the Angels in heaven but my Father only The prooses he alleges are impertinent for although the day of Judgment be stiled the day of the Lord appellatively yet is it never termed the Lords day denominatively as Mr. Cawdrey might have taught him if he had not thought himself too wise to learn of his betters Thus all his cloudy notions are scattered and the Lords day Rev. 1.10 discovered by evidence of Scripture and Antiquity to be the first day of the week Now as the blessed Martyr Ignatius exhorteth Let every one that loves the Lord Jesus Christ keep holy the Lords day Let the zeale of Primitive Christians herein provoke us to holy emulation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ignat. ad Magnes Plinius sub Trajano scripsit Solitos hoc stato die convenire Christianos ante lucem carmenque Christo quasi Deo Communi voce dicere postea Sacramento se obstringere ne scelus aliquid ne furta ne latrocinia ne adulteria committerent Magdeb. Cent. 2. c. 6. Even a Heathen could observe how those precious morning stars used to meet early on this day and sing Hymnes to Christ an not only to sing his praises but to celebrate his holy Supper the Lords Supper upon the Lords day doubtless binding themselves in a holy Covenant to hate and flie sin And 't is known to have been the common question put to Christians by Pagan persecuing Governours Dost thou observe the Lords day the usual answer was I am a Christian I dare not intermit it This was wont to be the distinguishing Shibboleth the cognizance of Christians in the purest times of Christinity O blessed souls because they were Christians they durst not intermit the Lords day no though they lost their dearest lives for keeping of it How ill do they deserve the Name of Christians in these dayes who make no Conscience of this day yea who have the impudence to Preach against it Write against it Work upon it as if it were a common day I remember what the holy Apostle spake in a like case to those that polluted the Lords Table using it as if it were their own table What have ye not houses of your own ot eat and drink in 1 Cor. 11.22 or despise ye the Church of God The like may I say to all prophaners of the Lords day Have ye not dayes enough of your own to work and to play in or despise ye the Lords day Is it a sin a prooking sin to use the Lords Table as if it were your own table to eat Sacramental Bread as if it were common bread and is it no sin to use the Lords day as a common day as if it were your own day Why is it not paralel in phrase with the Lords Supper Is not the Lords Name and Superscrition found upon the one as well as the other I charge thee therefore Reader in the Name of the Lord Jesus so visibly graven upo this day render to Christ the things that are Christs Be assured the Lord will not hold thee guiltless for taking his Name in vain and spending his time in vain his time I mean upon which he has stampt his noble and royal Name This is the fifth Mark or Seal of the day The Inscription of Christs glorious Name upon it 6. The sixth is The Apostles and Apostolical Churches observation of it The holy Apostles were men intimately acquainted with the Secrets of Christ being most of them trained up in his School and personally conversant with him by the space of a Acts 1.3 forty dayes between his Resurrection and Ascension as b Drut 9.11 Moses was forty dayes with god upon the Mount Besides they had immediate Inspiration and authoritative Mission from Christ himself to manage the publick affairs
infant-Baptisme he would not own it as an Ordinance of Christ Or thus whether if the Holy Ghost had expresly affirmed in Scripture that in the Apostles times baptisme was once at least administred to infants in a solemn assembly of Christians Paul himself being present and actually assisting in the administration his own conscience would not tell him nay then surely infant-baptism is an Ordinance of Christ Let him say the same concerning the celebration of the first day of the week For the Holy Ghost ha's expresly declared that this day was solemnly kept at Troas Paul himself being present and principally ingaged in the work of the day For let the Text be consulted Acts 20.6 7 8. We came to Troas in five dayes where we abode seven dayes and upon the first day of the week when the disciples came together or were gathered together in a Church-assemblie to break bread Paul preached unto them ready to depart on the morrow and there were many lights in the upper room where they were assembled together and there sate in a window a certain young man named Eutychus c. Here note 1. Una Sabbati id est Die dominiâ—â— dies dominica recordatio dominicae resurrectionis Ven. Beda In Acts 20. Tom 5. When this solemn assembly met together on the first day of the week saies the Text. The day which all the Evangelists witness to be Christs Resurrection-day This day then the disciples were congregated But why the first day of the week Why not th elast day of the week which was the Jewes Sabbath strange if that had been the Christian Sabbath that these primitive Christians had not have met on that day especially since it was but the day before yet more strange that we read not a word of Pauls keeping it since he tarried at Troas seven dayes But most of all that we read not one word in all the New Testament of his owning that day in any Christian Church at all only the first day of the week a fair argument that the day was changed upon the account of our Saviours Resurrection 2. The Church is assembled on the first day of the week but how Privately it may be No publickly and openly as those times would bear yea probably the company was very numerous for it seemes the room below would not hold them but they were fain to get up into the windowes three stories high as Eutychus did Acts 20.8 doubtless it was no small appearance Well 3. Here is a full assembly met upon the first day of the week but why then To break bread sayes the Text to receive the Eucharist sayes the Syriack translation that is to * Math. 26.26 Acts 2.46 1 Cor. 11.24 receive the Lords Supper upon the Lords day The Lords Supper What without preparatory prayer and other Sabbath-exercises that had been but a faint devotion will some say Mr. Shepard answers it well Breaking of bread is here put Thus prayer is put for the whole worship of God Gen. 4.26 ch 12.8 Acts 2.21 Rom. 10.12 13. Synecdochically the part for the whole there is no more reason to exclude prayer preaching singing of Psalms because these are not mentioned than to exclude drinking of wine in the Sacrament as the blind Papists do because neither is that expressed but breaking of bread only So that the first day of the week in effect is called the day of meeting to break bread which was ever accompanied with prayer preaching and other holy exercises Now as the fore-mentioned * Thes 35. Author observes if ever the Saints used to break bread on any other day yet the day is never mentioned as a speciall time for such a purpose nor do we find in all the Scriptures a day distinctly mentioned for holy duties as this first day of the week is wherein a whole Church meet together for such ends but that day was holy The nameing of the particular day for such ends implies the holiness of it Well the Saints at Troas meet on this day to receive the Sacrament But 4. Have they no Sermon yes and Paul himself preaches it v. 7. And continued his speech till mid-night and about break of day he departed Which yeeldeth us two notes one that the first day of the week is no travelling day St. Paul would not we are sure he did not travel this day but the day after another that the first day of the week is a solemn holy-day to be spent in spirituall exercises and sabbath-Sabbath-day duties as preaching hearing praying conferring breaking of bread in commemoration of Christ his death and Resurrection Why else does the Holy Ghost story this down so exactly and precisely Is it not written for our learning upon whom the ends of the world are come Yea doubtlesse for our learning that we might forecast our journeyes and other affairs in such sort as to keep holy the Lords day and not intrench upon it by travelling or the like thus we have plain Apostolicall practice for the observation of this day But see how this clear Text and truth is cavill'd at This meeting of the Saints at Troas was occasional Obj. 1 T.T. p. 123. Answ and what was the occasion of it he intimates in the next words viz. Paul's departing by Sea This is a sorry shift for the Text saies not that the disciples were assembled by reason of Paul's departure the next day but they were assembled this day to break bread without the least reference to Paul's journey the day following So that this Church-meeting was not occasional but a thing usual upon the first day of the week And the context clearly implies that the puting off of Pauls journey till the next day was occasioned by the Church's meeting this day not this meeting by his departure the next day for the Apostle seems to stay purposely and wait seven dayes among them that he might have a publick opportunity of preaching and communicating with them upon the usual day of their publick assemblies which appears by this convention to have been the first day of the week here was therefore nothing occasional in all this solemnity neither the assembly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nor Sacrament no nor the Sermon neither but only the length and continuance of the Sermon till mid-night this indeed was occasional by reason of St. Pauls departure on the morrow so the Text it self imports Paul being to depart on the morrow preached and continued his Sermon till mid-night he preacht a long Sermon because it was his last Sermon he was like to preach among them The Saints assembled and brake bread every day Obj. 2 Acts 2.26 therefore they may as well plead for an every day Sabbath as for the first day Sabbath from Acts 20.7 It cannot be proved by Scripture that the Lords Supper is an every dayes Supper Answ or that ever it was celebrated on any day after the first institution but upon the Lords day which
first day of the week here the practice being Evangelical the consequence is the more Logical But to the objection is nothing to be esteemed of divine institution and so of obligation to conscience but what ha's a clear command in Scripture Mat. 21.25 26. with verse 32. Mark 11.30 31. Luke 20.5 6. what then will he say to Sacrificing before the Law Where do we find any Commandment to sacrifice before we find Abel sacrificing Or to look to the Gospel in the first dawning of it What express command was there for the baptism of John Yet the poore Publicans and the people generally held it to be from Heaven although the cheif Priests and Elders beleeved him not because they held John as a Prophet yet which is remarkable they had no precept but only Johns practice to warrant it and which is yet more remarkable our blessed Saviour approves this their belief of John and his baptism and condemns those that rejected it as a human institution In like manner we may safely imitate those contemned Publicans in beleeving the Lords day to be from Heaven by divine institution and not of men by human ordination suffering Pauls practice as an Apostle to over-rule us herein See Mr. Abbot p. 66. Math. 11.11 as John Baptist as a Prophet did them the least Apostle of Christ being greater than John the Baptist and in so doing we need not question Christs approbation Express precept indeed we have none in the new Testament but that which is better than a precept sayes Dr. T wiss viz. the practice of the Apostles and Churches For had the Apostles commanded it and the Churches not practised it their Commandment had been obnoxious to various interpretations whereas their establishing it de facto in practice among the Churches is less liable to contradiction if men were not given up to a Spirit of contradiction Yet this must be added and cannot well be denyed Divino Spiritu agebantur Apostoli non minus in sacris institutionibus quà m in ipsa Doctrinâ Evangelij Ames Medul p. 359. Acts 1.2 so the Prophets were commanded Zech. 1.6 Joh. 10.22 that the Apostles and Apostolical Churches practice other arguments concurring supposes and argues that there was a command although there be no specification of it in Scripture for the Apostles did nothing in ordering the Church but from and by Christ either by precept or example or divine inspiration and their very inspiration was virtually preceptive For 't is said That through the Holy Ghost Christ gave Commandments to his Apostles whom he had chosen That is he gave them Commandments by inspiring and breathing the Holy Ghost upon them which was upon the day of his Resurrection Yea 't is more than probable that they had a special warrant from Christ in express charge concerning the celebration of this day For Acts 1.3 of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God Christ spake unto them namely by way of Commandment after his Resurrection but the Lords day and the worship therein performed as it was in the Apostles dayes and ever since is one of those things which appertain to the kingdom of God therefore of this Christ spake by way of Commandment to his Apostles If it be said that the Lords day is not there expressed I answer no more are any other of those particulars appertaining to the kingdom of God which he spake See Mr. Bernard of the Christian Sab. p. 134. therefore it cannot be excluded till it can be proved that the keeping of this day to the honour of Christ is none of the things which pertain to the kingdom of God Again The Commandments Acts 1.2 are such as Christ would have his disciples teach his people to observe Math. 28.18 20. now we find the Churches of Christ observing this day Acts 20.7 1 Cor. 16.2 and the Apostle observing it with them yea prescribing duties to them on this day 1 Cor. 5.4 11 20. which was on the Lords day according to the Syriack but 1 Cor. 16.1 2. is express and the Apostle telleth the Corinthians 1 Cor. 14.37 That the things he wrote unto them were the Commandments of God therefore the practice of the Apostles and Churches planted by them implies a command Yea All Scripture-examples in moral or religious actions fall under the Government of the Ten Commandments Answ 3 Now the fourth Commandment having the government of time for weekly solemn worship and the Apostle Paul tarrying a whole week at Troas and observing the first day of the week only for solemn worship it cannot be imagined but this observance was in obedience to the fourth Commandment and so of the exigency of the Apostles Commission not of the Liberty consequently it is the Saints duty not their liberty The remainders of the Objection about community of goods and Love-Feasts are meer impertinencies to plead for these in the peace settlement of the Church is to put a plea in the mouths of Levellers Libertines and Epicures Community of goods was never the Saints Liberty but in the Church's a Act. 4.34 35 36 37 compared with Act. 8.3 4. extreme poverty and persecution and then it was rather duty than liberty and if ever the Church of God should be in the like state of extremity she is bound to follow that Original Copy but this can hardly be supposed And as for Love-feasts I suppose the Author is to seek for Apostolical president to warrant them whatever he sayes 'T is true they were practised in the Apostles times but never approved nay they were sharply b 1 Cor. 11.21 Jude ver 12. reproved as also the Jewes Sabbath and observation of other Legal days were Gal. 4.10 Thus we have made good the sixth Mark for the Lords day namely the Apostles and Apostolical Churches observation of it 7. Seventhly and lastly we shall adde this to all the rest The Apostles Prescription about it Et quae non prosunt singula juncta juvant Though either or these particulars singly considered may be thought too weak yet I am assured that all of them jointly combined will be too strong for the gates of hell to prevaile against this last will adde some strength to all the rest I shall ground it upon that noted Text 1 Cor. 16.1 2. Now concerning the Collection for the Saints as I have given order to the Churches of Galatia even so do ye Vpon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store as God hath prospered him that there be no gatherings when I come Here we have to observe 1. An Apostolical Ordinance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As I have ordained so do ye He does not counsel them to do it but commands them and by his power Apostolical he enjoyns them to do it and if Paul ordained it certainly he had it from Christ for he tells them 1 Cor. 11.23 That what he delivered to them he received from the
Lord and the things that he wrote to them were the Commandments of the Lord 1 Cor. 14.37 2. The thing enacted by this Ordinance and that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 collecta See Dr. Day his Sermons on this Text. Collection for the Saints The word seems to be a metaphor taken from gathering of fruits or gleanings in harvest or rather as Beza notes from gathering of a shot at a banquet or friendly meeting as men invited to a Feast or Banquet use to make a purse and cast in every one his shot to gratifie the poor servants that belong to the house So the Apostle requires these Corinthians when they meet together at the Feast of the Gospel especially that heavenly Banquet of the Lords Supper the Feast of the great King that then they cast in something to make a purse for the poor servants of Christ in testimony of their thankfulness to the Master of the Feast This some take to be the sense of the word it signifies such a Collection or Contribution as men use to make when they meet at a Feast and it suites well with the next Particular 3. The time stated for such Collection The first day of the work Diem caetus designat P. Matt. ad loc Tum solitos fuisse convenire apparet Act. 20 7. Beza the day designed for their solemn Assemblies and that solemn Ordinance of the Lords Supper as was proved before Acts 20.7 Hence in Justin Martyr's time and ever since the Churches of Christ have walked according to this rule annexing their charitable contributions to the celebration of the Lords Supper But still the great Question is unresolved will some say namely Why the Apostle should limit this duty or work of mercy to the first day of the week Some answer it thus The Apostle therefore mentions the day S. M. Cawdrey because there is a special motive in it to stir up their charity being a day wherein they had received such inestimable bounties from the hands of God as the resurrection of our Saviour Jesus Christ and the like Now I confesse there is much weight in this answer 'T is the fittest time to expresse our thankfulnesse to God wherein we commemorate his greatest loving kindness to us Chrysostom is very clear in his Commentary upon this Scripture Vpon the first day of the week let every one lay by him in store 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost Orat. 43. in 1 Cor. 11. c. See how he exhorts from the very time sayes he for that very day were sufficient to induce them to charity for call to mind saith he what you got on that day for unutterable good things even the root and rise of our life arose on that day Nor in that respect only is the time proper to quicken charity but because it hath rest also and relaxation from labour or abruption of business for the soul being discharged from labors becomes in a better frame and preparation to take pity and more than all this the communicating on this day in the Sacraments so dreadful and immortal puts the mind in great forwardness c. This exposition of Chrysostoms as it may deservedly challenge respect for the antiquity of it being above twelve hundred years old so much more for the truth of it being so agreeable to the Text it self For observe it well 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ibid. First He calls the first day of the week Christs Resurrection day and a little before the Lords day Secondly He concludes it was a Sabbath day or day of rest from labor and worki-day business And to my apprehension this is clearly imployed in the Text. For upon this day the Apostle would have them contribute to the poor members of Christ as God had prospered them to wit in the six foregoing work-dayes which argues a recollection and thankfull calling to mind the blessing of God upon their week-day labours and what can be more Sabbath like Besides the Greek word is emphatical as God hath prospered so we read it but it may be rendred thus as God hath given a good journey or a good voyage plainly intimating that upon every first day of the week they had rest and respit from their worldly imployments 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 1.10 something like that of a travellour at his journey's end or a mariner when his voyage is over and he 's at rest in his harbour Thirdly He counts the first day of the week their Sacrament-day as indeed it was and the collection here injoined speaks as much And doubtless this was a powerfull argument to prompt them to liberality It were sordid ingratitude to spare a penny from the poor when a man considers that God hath not spared the precious blood of his Son Besides all this the first day of the week was the day of their solemn assemblies for prayer preaching prophesying singing of Psalms and other religious exercises all which were as fire to kindle their compassions towards their distressed brethren every word of God every Sermon every prayer every Psalm that was sung might add some fuel to that Heavenly flame of their brotherly love and Charity and for these causes the Apostle chose that time as the most select and choice opportunity to put them upon the practice of that duty But here we are way-laid with Objections If any can discern the Sts. assembling 1 Cor. 16. it must be by some other light than Gods word Obj. 1 T. T. I hope he will grant this text to be Gods word Answ and then if he have but eyes here is light enough For let him look upon the words once again What does Paul prescribe here Collections or contibutions to the poor Saints But who must contribute every one how must they contribute by way of casting into the common treasury so much the * Bucan concludes from hence that the Apostle gave order there should be commune aerarium a common treasury in the Church Loc. 42. de Ministerio word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 implies verse 2. and why so That there might be no gatherings when Paul came Which there must needs have been if every man had kept his contribution at home in his own Coffer So that it must be both a general and a publick contribution Therefore it must be in a publick congregation And why all this upon the first day of the week Why not upon some other day but to mark out this day above others for the weekly season of solemn assemblies as also to move them by the day to the duty What need there any mention of the first day of the week if they had not held their meetings on that day and if there had not been some special argument in the day to perswade them to the duty Paul does not enjoin them to lay it before the Deacons Obj. 2 but let every one of you lay by himself in store as God hath prospered him That is
wants and if we have hearts to weep over our week day sins and stir up our selves to take hold of Christ that we may make peace with God they that have any acquaintance with heart-work find it hard to have to do with a dusty world full of sins and snares and not be defiled or intangled with it earthly things are apt to leave a tincture upon the most holy and heavenly hearts There must therefore be a rubbing off this rust of the world a washing these dirty hearts and hands before we are fit to draw nigh to God in solemn Worship Exod. 19.14 What were those Ceremonial washings of old but emblematical predictions and documents of preparation to Gospel-worship and if I mistake not something to this purpose is prophesied concerning the purest times and Churches in these later days Rev. 15.2 3. Revel 15. We read of those that had gotten the victory over the Beast and his Image i. e. those that had shaken off the yoke of Anti-Christian Tyranny and Superstition standing upon a sea of glass with the harps of God in their hands those harps in their hands speak them in a posture of publike worship But what means their standing upon a sea of glass Why among other things I conceive it alludes to that Laver or * 1 Kings 7.23 sea in Solomons Temple in which the the Priests were wont to * 2 Chron. 4.6 wash when they went to worship and it may teach us thus much that the people of God under the Gospel as well as they under the Law must wash before they worship there must be some preparation Secondly the sanctification of the Sabbath follows and this also consists in two things Holy rest and holy work First we must keep it as a day of holy rest to the Lord resting from our own works our own words and our own thoughts 1. We are bound upon the Lords day to rest and cease from our own works whether works of labour or works of pleasure if I may so distinguish The Lords day must neither be our working-day nor our play-day both these are prohibited by the letter of the fourth Commandment and the analogy of that Text which seems to be written as a Commentary upon the Commandment Isai 58.13 14. If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath from doing thy pleasure on my holy day and call the Sabbath a delight the holy of the Lord honourable and shalt honour him not doing thine own ways nor finding thine own pleasure nor speaking thy own words c. In which words we have the lively Picture and Pourtraiture of a true Sabbath in both parts of it it must be celebrated with rest from our own ways works words pleasures and this rest must be accompanied with a spiritual rejoycing in God and delight in his Sabbath arising from an honourable esteem of the day considering whose day it is namely the Lords Now the scope of this Text is as applicable to our Christian Sabbath as ever it was to the Jews Sabbath ours being first a day of holy rejoycing in the Lord as well as theirs Psal 118.24 Secondly a day which hath the Lord for its author as well as theirs Thirdly a day every whit as honourable as theirs yea a degree above it being instituted upon a more noble account Viz. The most gracious and glorious work of Redemption Fourthly a day in all respects as holy as theirs holy I mean in respect of separation and dedication to holy duties as prayer preaching breaking of bread praise and thanksgiving Acts 2.1 and 20.7 Psal 118.27 28. Therefore it must be kept with rest from accustomed labour and pleasure as well as theirs and that by vertue of the fourth Commandment which requires the sanctifying of one day in seven of divine appointment as a Sabbath with rest from servile works and secular imployments And let it be further considered both the fourth Commandement and the Prophet Isaiah in commenting upon it do first and chiefly call for sanctity Secondarily for rest First Remember the Sabbath to sanctifie it then Thou shalt do no work Sanctification is required as the end cessation from labour as the means the one as principal the other as accessary Now both Prophets and Apostles have markt out the Lords day as a holy day to be spent in holy duties of solemn worship and that weekly therefore by the Law of God and nature we are bound to keep it as a day of weekly rest otherwise we separate the end from the means which cannot be rest from servile work being an inseparable adjunct to a day of solemn worship What then shall we say to those that afterwarning make the Lords day either a common working-day or a sporting day the former I may fitly call the Devils workmen who will one day pay them their wages the other the flesh's Bondmen whose pleasure in the end will prove torment without end The Lord awaken both to repentance better then that of Esau whose sin of the two is greater then his * Hebr. 12.16 there are prophane Esau's under the Gospel and they are the worst of Esau's there is also a sin called * Rom. 2.22 Sacrilege condemned in the Gospel and Sabbath-breaking is very like it when sinners lay sacrilegious hands upon that which is consecrated to the Lord for a sin much like to which Ananias and his wife were once stricken with sudden death and how many such dreadful strokes have been felt and heard in these later days I shall not repeat what has been already committed to record by others Mr. Bernard Mr. Byfield and sundry others have been serious observers of Gods heavy hand in this kind I could say something of what I have seen with my own eyes and heard with my own ears But I shall forbear Numb 10.1 2. when men are struck dead in the very act of their sin as Vzzah in touching the Ark Nadab and Abihu in offering strange fire when the sin and the judgement meet together and do one point at the other surely Gods hand is not to be slighted Mr. Byfield has related many such tremendous strokes upon those that have presumed to work on the Lords day and ended their lives and their work together having no more respit between their sin and their execution or expiration then with trembling lips to tell others the secret reflections of their own guilty Consciences and how many Malefactors have we heard at their execution bewailing their profanation of the Lords day as the leading-cause of all their mischiefs and miseries Now the Conscience of the sinner smarting under Gods revengeful rod is many times like a finger to point out the sin for which God smites as we see in the case of a Judges 1.7 8. Adonibezek To be short the exemplary judgments of God against this sin of Sabbath-breaking falling in so great variety and happening so thick together in many places do call aloud to the
inhabitants of the earth to b Isai 26.9 10. learn righteousness and it is doubtless our duty with humble reverence and holy awfulness of the divine Majesty soberly to observe and improve them inadvertency of Gods judiciary proceedings is a c Psal 28.5 and 10.4 5. Isai 5.12 sin frequently condemned in Scripture and severely threatned Reader if neither Scripture-Arguments nor exemplary judgments will reclaim thee from violation of the Lords day proceed on in thy prophaneness still it may be the Lord will make thee the next example to teach others what thou wilt not learn thy self Something might also be added from Christian experience 't is observable that when the Spirit comes effectually to convince of sin commonly one of the first sins which the eye of inlightned Conscience fixes upon is the neglect of the Lords day and conviction ending in conversion one of the first duties which the soul comes seriously to close withal is the strict observing of the Lords day grace works much this way and does exceedingly dispose the heart to this duty for which I dare appeal to the Consciences of many thousand living Witnesses Add to this the spiritual profit and sensible growth of grace with the sweet comfort and final peace experienced this way Tell me where does true Religion thrive better and the power of godliness flourish and prosper more than in Families Cities Countries and Kingdoms where the Lords day is duly observed on the contrary where does superstition irreligion Atheism and profaneness abound more than where this day is neglected and vilified 't is a serious Observation of a learned * Dr. Hakewils discourse of the Institution dignity and end of the Lords day Author concerning the ingress and progress of Popery in former times Namely That after-ages much degenerating from the simplicity of the Primitive times so infinitely multiplied and magnified their holy-days beyond all measure and reason that the Lords day began to be slighted and accounted with many a common Holy-day perchance inferiour to some of their Saints days which no doubt was a special occasion of that thick cloud of Superstition which afterwards overshadowed the face of the Church and in appearance the reducing of this day to its original honour would prove the readiest means to restore the Church again to her original lustre and beauty even in those places where that cloud is not yet dispelled c. But this by the way Secondly In order to the sanctifying of the Lords day we must cease not only from doing our own works but from speaking our own words Good reason for it is none of our own day therefore let none say Our tongue is our own on this day Christian if thou canst not speak religiously on the Lords day learn to speak sparingly rather be silent then sinful in thy speeches Valerius Maximus reporteth of Zenocrates that being in company with some who used ill language he was very mute and being asked the reason he replyed It hath often repented me that I have spoken never that I have held my peace Thus much the Scripture teaches us That in the multitude of words there wanteth not sin therefore d Prov. 17.27 28. he that spareth his words is wise Indeed if a man speak of heavenly things on the Lords holy day he may with Paul continue his discourse till mid-night and never speak too much but of earthly things we cannot speak too little Oh that our hearts and lips were more heavenly on the Lords day that there might be more sprinklings of grace and heaven in all our Sabbath-day discourses how much were it to be wished that on this day Christians would speak less of what they saw more of what they heard in the publike assemblies Alas should the Lord put that Question to many Christians now which once he did on this day to the two Disciples going to Emmaus What manner of communication is this that ye have one with another how would it put some thousands to the blush who have nothing but earth or froth in their mouths Thirdly we must also lay a charge upon our hearts not to think our own thoughts on the Lords day Rom. 7.14 For the Law of God is spiritual and bindeth the heart from thinking as well as the tongue from speaking or the hand from working Besides what vile hypocrisie is it to lay a restraint upon our words and actions when in the mean time we give scope and liberty to our thoughts to wander after a thousand vanities this is just like painted Sepulchres fair without but full of rottenness and dead mens bones within Further our own vain and worldly thoughts are great distractions and obstructions to the duties of the day Exod. 8.24 like that plague of flies in Egypt which was so vexatious that they could neither work nor eat nor drink and 10.12 but the Flies molested them Such a plague is a worldly heart on the Lords day a man can neither pray nor hear nor meditate but earthly thoughts pester and disturb him yea like that plague of Locusts that devoured all earthly thoughts eat up all the pleasant fruit of Sabbaths and Sermons Luke 8.14 yea like thorns they choak the very seed of the Word and render it unprofitable How highly does it concern us therefore on the Lords day especially to look to our hearts Now if ever Solomons counsel is seasonable * Prov. 4.23 Keep thy heart with all diligence Or Cum omni custodiâ with all keeping as some read it set guards and double guards upon it for as Bernard truly speaks Corde nihil fugacius Nothing is more flitting then the heart of man 't is a wandring Dinah we had need watch it warily and check it speedily when it begins to hanker-after the world In a word to cure evill and earthly thoughts on the Lords day we should do well to awe our hearts with the apprehension of Gods all-seeing eye 'T is observable that our Lord appeared to his servant John upon his own day in a heart-searching-similitude His eyes were as a flame of fire Rev. 1.14 not only burning in jealousie against sin and sinners but bright and shining as the searcher of hearts and tryer of reins by which title he then also stiled himself Rev. 2.23 Consider Christian that on the Lords day especially thy heart lies under the view of that fiery flaming eye of Christ therefore let thy thoughts be none but such as that pure and piercing eye will approve and if Christ as the searcher of hearts be not awful to thee yet me thinks Christ as the judge of secrets should O let the terror of that last day work upon our hearts every Lords day the seat of the Judge is fitly resembled by a cloud not a throne of silver or gold but a cloud Rev. 14.14 Now as we know the clouds are storehouses of refreshing showres so also of storms and tempests and thus doubtless that