labour was not like the Plowmans Masons Carpenters Carryers c. to take up their thoughts but they could lay a Book before them and read or meditate or Discourse to Edification whilest they were working But this is not the case of the Multitude And let any sober man but consider whether with people so ignorant and averse as the most are should he be never so diligent on the Lords day the six dayes intermission be not a great cooling of affection and a great delayer of their growth in knowledge when they are like by the weeks end to forget all that they had learned on the Lords day What then would these poor people come to if the Lords day it self must be alsoloitered or played away VI. The tyranny of many Masters maketh the Lords day a great mercy to the world For if God had not made a Law for their Rest and Liberty abundance of worldly impious persons would have allowed them little Rest for their bodies and less opportunity for the good of their souls Therefore they have cause with great thankfulness to improve the holy liberty which God hath given them and not cast it away on play or idleness VII The full improvement of the Lords dayes doth tend to breed and keep up an able faithful Ministry in the Churches on which the preservation and glory of Religion much dependeth When there is a necessity of full Ecclesiastical performances imposed on Ministers they are also necessitated to prepare themselves with answerable abilities and fitness But when no more is required of them but to read the Liturgie or to say a short and dry Discourse they that know no more is necessary to their ends are so strongly tempted to get ability and preparations for no more that few will overcome the temptation And therefore the World knoweth that in Moscovy Abassia and for the most part of the Greek and Armenian Churches as nothing or little more than Reading is required so little more ability than to Read is laboured after And the Ministers are ordinarily so ignorant and weak as is the scorn and decay of the Christian Religion VIII Yea it will strongly encline Masters of Families to labour more for abilities to instruct and Catechise their Families and pray with them and guide them in the fear of God when they know that the whole day must be improved to the spiritual good of their Families And so knowledge abilities and family-holiness will increase Whereas those that think themselves under no such obligations what ignorant profane and ungodly families have they because for the most part they are such themselves IX A multitude of gross sins will be prevented by the due observation of the Lords day Nothing more usual than for the sports riots idleness and sensuality of that day to be nurseries of Oathes Curses Ribaldry Fornication Gluttony Drunkenness Frayes and Bloodshed And is not Gods Service better work than these X. Lastly This holy order and prosperity of the Churches and this knowledge and piety in individual Subjects will become the safety beauty order and felicity of Kingdomes and all Civil societies of men For when the people are fit but duly to use and sanctifie the Lords day they are fit to use all things in a sanctified manner and to be an honour to their Countrey and an ease and comfort to their Governours and a common blessing to all about them CHAP. XIII What other Church Festivals or separated daies are lawful I Shall conclude this Discourse with the brief answer of this Question I. No sober Christian doubteth but that some part of every day is to be spent in Religious exercises And that even our earthly business must be done with a spiritual intent and mind And that every day must be kept as like to the Lords day as our weakness and our other duties which God hath laid upon us will allow II. Few make any question but the whole dayes of Humiliation and of Thanksgiving may and must be kept upon great and extraordinary occasions of Judgements or of mercies And that many Churches may agree in these And I know no just reason why the Magistrate may not with Charity and Moderation to the weak impose them and command such an agreement among his Subjects III. Few doubt but the Commemoration of great Merâ—ies or Judgements may be made anniversary and of long continuance As the Powder-plot day Nov. 5. is now made among us to preserve the memorial of that deliverance And why may it not be continued whilest the great sense of the benefit should be continued And so the second of Sept. is set apart for the Anniversary humbling remembrance of the Firing of London And so in divers other cases IV. The great blessing of an Apostolick Ministry and of the stability of the Martyrs in their sufferings for Christ being so rare and notable a Mercy to the Church I confess I know no reason why the Churches of all succeeding ages may not keep an Anniversary day of Thanksgiving to God for Peter or Paul or Stephen as well as for the Powder plot-deliverance I know not where God hath forbidden it directly or indirectly If his instituting the Lords day were a virtual prohibition for man to separate any more or if the prohibition of adding to Gods Word were against it they would be against other daies of Humiliation and Thanksgiving especially Anniversarily which we confess they are not If the reason be scandal lest the Men should have the honour instead of God I Answer 1. An honour is due to Apostles and Martyrs in their places in meet subordination to God 2. Where the case of scandal is notorious it may become by that accident unlawful and yet not be so in other times and places V. The Devil hâ—th here been a great Vndoer by Overdoing When he knew not how else to cast out the holy observation of the Lords day with zealous people he found out the trick of devising so many dayes called Holy dayes to set up by it that the people might perceive that the observation of them all as holy was never to be expected And so the Lords day was jumbled in the heap of holy dayes and all turned into Ceremony by the Papists and too many other Churches in the World Which became Calvins temptation as his own words make plain to think too meanly of the Lords day with the rest VI. In the lawful observation of daies it is most orderly to do as the Churches do which we live among and are to joine with VII But if Church tyranny would overwhelm any place with over-numerous daies or Ceremonies which are singly considered lawful we should do nothing needlesly to countenance and encourage such usurpation VIII Yet is it lawful to hear a Sermon which shall be Preached on a humane Holy day which is imposed by Usurpation Seeing such a a Moral duty may be done and so great a benefit received without any approbation of the inconvenient season IX And when we think it unlawful to joyne in the positive Celebration of unlawful dayes as the Mahometan Sabbath yet it may become a duty for
as he nailed the hand-writing of Ordinances to his Cross so he buried the Sabbath in his Grave by lying buried on that day And therefore the Western Churches who had fewer Jews among them did fast on the Sabbath day to shew the change that Christs burial intimated Though the Eastern Churches did not lest they should offend the Jews And that the ancient Christians were not for sabbatizing on the seventh day is visible in the writings of most save the Eastern ones before mentioned Tertull. cont Marcion li. 1. cap. 20. Chrysost. Theodoret Primasius c. on Gal. 4. expound that Text as that by Dayes is meant the Jewish Sabbath and by Moneths the New Moons c. Cyprian 59. Epist. ad Hidum saith that the eighth day is to Christians what the Sabbath was to the Jews and calleth the Sabbath the Image of the Lords day Athanasius de Sab. Circumcis is full and plain on it See Tertullian Advers Judae c. 4. Ambros. in Eph. 2. August Ep. 118. Châ—ysâ—st in Gal. 1. Hâ—m 12. ad pop Hilary before cited Prolog in Psalm Origen Hom. 23. in Num. Item Tertull. de Idol c. 14. Epipban l. 1. num 30. noting the Nazaraei and Ebionaei Hereticks that they kept the Jews Sabbath In a word The Council of Laodiâ—aea doth Anathematize them that did Judaize by forbearing their Labours on the Sabbath or seventh day And as Sozomen tells us that at Alexandria and Rome they used no Assemblies on the Sabbath so where they did in most Churches they communicated not in the Sacrament Yea that Ignatius himself true or false who saith as aforecited After the Sabbath let every lover of Christ celebrate the Lords day doth yet in the same Epistle ad Magnes before say Old things are passed away behold all things are made new For if we yet live after the Jewish Law and the Circumcision of the flesh we deny that we have received Grace Let us not therefore keep the Sabbath or sabbatize Jewishly as delighting in Idleness or Rest from labour For be that will not labour let him not eat In the sweat if thy brows thou shalt cat thy bread I confess I take the cited Texts to have been added since the body of the Epistle was written but though the Writer favour of the Eastern custom yet he sheweth they did not sabbatize on the account of the fourth Commandment or supposed continuation of the Jewish Sabbath as a Sabbath For bodily labour was strictly forbidden in the fourth Commandment Dionysius Alexandr hath an Epistle to Basilides a Bishop on the Question When the Sabbath Fast must end and the observation of the Lords day begin Biblioth Patr. Graec. Lat. Vol. 1. p. 306. In which he is against them that end their Fast too soon And plainly intimateth that the seventh day was to be kept but as a preparatory Fast being the day that Christ lay in the grave and not as a Sabbath or as the Lords day I cite not any of these as a humane authority to be set against the authority of the fourth Commandment But as the certain History of the change of the day which the Apostles made Qu. How far then is the fourth Commandment Moral you seem to subvert the old foundation which most others build the Lords day upon Answ. Let us not entangle our selves with the ambiguities of the word Moral which most properly signifieth Ethical as distinct from Physical c. By Moral here is meant that which is on what ground soever of perpetual or continued obligation And so it is all one as to ask how far it is still obligatory or in force To which I answer 1. It is a part of the Law of Nature that God be solemnly worshipped in families and in holy assemblies 2. It is a part of the Law of Nature that where greater things do not forbid it a stated time be appointed for this service and that it be not left at Randome to every mans will 3. It is of the Law of Nature that where greater matters do not hinder it this day be one and the same in the same Countreys yea if it may be through the world 4. It is of the Law of Nature that this day be not so rarely as to hinder the ends of the day nor yet so frequently as to deprive us of opportunity for our necessary corporal labour 5. It is of the Law of Nature that the holy duties of this day be nâ—t hindered by any corporal work or fleshly pleasure or any unnecessary thing which contradiâ—teth the holy ends of the day 6. It is of the Law of Nature that Rulers and in special Masters of families do take care that their inferiours thus observe it In all these points the fourth Commandment being but a transcript of the Law of Nature which we can yet prove from the nature of the reason of the thing the matter of it continueth not as Jewish but as Natural 7. Besides all this when no man of himself could tell whether one day in six or seven or eight were his duty to observe God hath come in and 1. By Doctrine or History told us that he made the world in six dayes and rested the seventh 2. By Law and bath commanded one day in seven to the Jews by which he hath made known consequentialâ—y to all men that one day in seven is the fittest proportion of time And the case being thus determined by God by a Law to others doth consequentially become a Law to us because it is the determination of Divine Wisdom unless it were done upon some reasons in which their condition differeth from ours And thus the Doctrine and Reasons of an abrogated Law continuing may induce on us an obligation to duty And in this sense the fourth Commandment may be said still to bind us to one day in seven But in two points the obligation even as to the Matter ceaseth 1. We are not bound to the seventh day because God our Redeemer who is Lord of the Sabbath hath made a change 2. We are not bound to a Sabbath in the old notion that is to a day of Ceremonial Rest for it self required but to a day to be spent in Evangelical Worship And though I am not of their mind who say that the seventh day is not commanded in the fourth Commandment but a Sabbath only yet I think that it is evident in the words that the Ratio Sabbati and the Ratio diei septimi are distinguishable And that the Sabbath as a Sabbath is first in the precept and the particular day is there but secondarily and so mutably as if God had said I will have a particular day set apart for a holy Rest and for my Worship And that day shall be one in seven and the seventh also on which I rested from my works And thus I have said as much as I think needful to satisfie the considerate about the day Again professing 1. That I believe that
is before them and how near to Eternity they stand and awaken mens sleepy sensual souls to live as men that do not dream of another world but unfeignedly believe it and then a little reasoning would serve turn to convince them that the Lords day should be spent in the duties of serious holiness and not in Idleness or unnecessary works or sports Obj. But by all this you seem to cast a great reproach on Calvin Beza and most of the great Divines of the forreign Churches who have not been so strict for the observation of the Lords day Answ. Let these things be observed by the impartial Reader 1. It cannot be proved to be most of them that were so faulty herein as the objection intimateth Many of them have written much for the holy spending of the day 2. It must be noted that it is a superstitious Ceremonious Sabbatizing which many of them write against who seem to the unobservant to mean more It is not the spending of the day in spiritual exercises 3. And you must remember that they came newly out of Popery and had seen the Lords day and a superabundance of other Humane Holy dayes imposed on the Churches to be Ceremoniously observed and they did not all of them so clearly as they ought discern the difference between the Lords day and those holy dayes or Church Festivals and so did too promiscuously conjoine them in their reproofs of the burdens imposed on the Church And it being the Papists Ceremoniousness and their multitude of Festivals that stood all together in their eye it tempted them to too undistinguishing and unaccurate a reformation 4. And for Calvin you must know that he spent every day so like to a Lords day in hard Study and Prayer and numerous Writings and publick Preaching or Lecturing and Disputings either every day in the week or very near it scarce allowing himself time for his one only spare meale a day that he might the easilier be tempted to make less difference in his judgement between the Lords day and other dayes than he should have done and to plead for more recreation on that day for others than he took on any day himself 5. And then his followers having also many of the same temptations were apt to tread in his steps through the deserved estimation of his worth and judgement and lest they should seem to be of different minds But as England hath been the happyest in this piece of reformation so all men are unexcusable that will encourage idleness sensuality or neglect of the important duties of the day CHAP. XI What things should not be Scrupled as unlawful on the Lords day As I have told you the Lords day is not a Sabbath in the Jewish sense or a day of Ceremonious Rest but a Day of Worshiping our Creator and Redeemer with thankful Commemorations and with holy Joy c. And a day of vacancy from such earthly things as may be any hinderance to this holy work so now I must resolve the Question first in the General that nothing lawful at another time is unlawful on this day which hath not the Nature of an Impediment to the holy duties of the day unless it be accidentally on the account of scandal or ill example unto others or disobeying the Laws of Magistrates or crossing the Concord of the Churches or such like Therefore hence I deduce these particular resolutions following I. It is not unlawful to be at such bodily or mental labour as is needful to the spiritual duties of the day If the Priests in the Temple saith Christ did break the Sabbath and were blameless that is not the Command of God to them for keeping the Sabbath but the external Rest of the Sabbath which was commanded to others with an exception to their case we may well say that it is no sin for a Minister now to spend his strength in laborious Preaching and Praying or for the people to travel as far as is needful to the Church Assemblies nor do we need to tye our selves to a Sabbath dayes journey that is according to the Scribes 2000 Cubits which is 3000 feet and quinque stadia It is lawful to go many miles when it is necessary to the work of the day II. It is not unlawful to be at the labour of dressing our selves somewhat more ornately or comely than on another day Because it is suitable to the rejoycing of a Festival But to waste time needlesly in curJosity and proud attiring to the hinderance of greater things is detestable III. It is not unlawful to dress meat even in some fuller and better manner than on other dayes Because it is a Festival or day of Thanksgiving And it is a vain self-contradiction of some men who think that another day of Thanksgiving is not well kept if there be not two feasting meals at least and yet think it unlawful to dress one on the Lords day But yet to make it a day of Gluttony or to waste more of the day in eating or dressing meat than is agreeable to the spiritual work of the day which is our end or to make our selves sleepy by fulness or to use our servants like Beasts to provide for our bellies with the neglect of their own souls or to pamper the flesh to the satisfaction and irritation of its lusts All this is to be detested IV. It is not unlawful to do the necessary works of mercy to our selves or others to man or beast Those which must be done and cannot be delayed without more hurt than the doing of them will procure for that is the description of a necessary work As to eat and drink and cloth our selves and our Children To carry meat to the poor that are in present necessity To give or take Physick and to go for advice to the Physician or Surgeon To travel upon a business of importance and necessity To quench a fire or prop a house that is about to fall To march or fight in a necessary case of Warr To Saile or labour at Sea in cases of necessity To Boat-men over a River that go to Church To pursue a Robber or defend him that is assaulted To pull a man out of fire or water To dress a mans sores or to give Physick to the sick To pull an Oxe or Horse or other Cattle out of a pit or water To drive or lead them to water and to give them meat To save Cattle Corne or Hay from the sudden inundations of the Sea or of Rivers or from Floods To drive Cattle or Swine out of the grounds where they break in to spoile such necessary actions are not unlawful but a duty It being a Moral or Natural precept which Christ twice bid the Ceremonious Pharises learn I will have mercy and not Sacrifice And it is not only works of necessity to a mans life that are here meant by necessary works But such also as are necessary to a smaller and lower end or use And
humane Nature 2. It is uncertain whether it was before the fall because we know not whether man fell on the same day in which he was Created which is the commonest opinion though unproved Whereupon Mr. ◠Walker in his Treat of the Sabbath maintaineth that the fall and promise went before the Sabbath and so that Gods rest had respect to Christ promised as the perfection of his works and that the Sabbath was first founded on Christ and the promise But because all this is unproved Opinion I incline to the Objectors and the common sense Reasons 4. The seventh day Sabbath was kept by Abraham Gen. 26. 5. by the Israelites Exod. 5. 5. The Law for the seventh day was repeated Exod. 16. 22 23. Answers 4. I am of the same opinion but it is uncertain so far as it is uncertain whether it was instituted actually at first But the rest Ex. 5. 5. seemeth plainly to referr to no Sabbath but to the peoples neglect of their tasks while Moses kept them in hope of deliverance and treated for them And their tasks with their desire to go into the Wilderness to Sacrifice maketh it probable that Pharaoh never allowed them the Sabbaths rest Reasons 5. The Decalogue was spoken by Jehovah Christ Exod. 20. 1. see the Assemblies lesser Catechisme on the Preamble in the Commands Because the Lord is our God c. Redeemer c. therefore we are bound to keep c. Exod. 19. 3. compared with Act. 7. 38. Esa. 63. 9. Ex. 19. 17. The Decalogue written by his Finger Ex. 31. 18. On Tables of Stone Ex. 32. 15 16 19. 34 1 28. and kept by all the Prophets Answers 5. All true and uncontroverted with these suppositions 1. That the Father as well as the Son gave the Decalogue 2. That the second person was not 〈◊〉 Incarnate Christ. 3. That the Law was given by the Ministration of Angels who its like are called the Voice and Finger of God 4. That God our Redeemer did variously Govern his Kingdom by his Law and Covenant in various Editions of which more anon Reasons 6. The Decalogue was confirmed by Jehovah Christ Ma◠5. 17 18 19. Luk. 16. 17. Mat. 28. 20. Joh. 14. 15. 15. 14. Rom 3. 31. 7. 12. Jam. 2. 8 12. NewCovenant Heb. 8. 10. 1 Joh. 3. 22 24. 1 Joh. 5. 3. 2 Ep. Joh. 5. 6. Rev. 12. 17. 14. 12. 22. 14 18. compared with Mal. 4. 4. Answers 6. Here beginneth our fundamental difference I shall first tell you what we take for the truth and then consider of what you alledge against it 1. We hold that every Law is the Law of some one some Law-maker or Soveraign power And therefore Christ being now the Head over all things to the Church Eph. 1. 22 23. whatever Law is now in Being to the Church must needs be the Law of Christ. 2. We hold that Christs Redeemed Kingdom hath been Governed by him with variety of Administrations by various Editions of his Law or Covenant That is I. Universally to Mankind viz. 1. Before his Incarnation which was first To Adam and secondly to Noah and to mankind in them both 2. After his Incarnation II. Particularly to the seed of Abraham even the Jews as a particular Political society chosen out of the World not as the only people or Church of God on Earth but for peculiar extraordinary mercies as a peculiar people 3. We believe that each of these Administrations was fittest for its proper time and subject according to the manifold Wisdom of God But yet the Alterations were many and great and all tended towards perfection so that the last Edition of the Covenant by Christ Incarnate and his Holy Spirit much excelled all that went before in the Kingdom of the Mediatour And all these changes were made by God-Redeemer himself 4. As it was the work of the Redeemer to be the Repairer of Nature and recoverer of man to God so in all the several Administrations the great Laws of Nature containing mans duty to God resulting from and manifested in our Nature as related to God and in the Natura rerum or the Works of God was still made the chief part of the Redeemers Law so that this Law of Nature whose summe is the Love of God and of his Image is ever the Primitive unchangeable Law and the rest are secondary subservient Laws either Positive or remedying or both And no tittle of this shall ever cease if nature cease not 5. But yet there are temporary Laws of Nature which are about Temporary things or where the Nature of the thing it self is mutable from whence the Natural duty doth result As it was a duty by the then Law of Nature it self for Adams Sons and Daughters to Marry Increase and multiply being made a natural Benediction and the means a natural Duty And yet now it is incest against the Law of Nature for Brother and Sister to Marry So it was a Natural duty for Adam and Eve before their Fall to love each other as innocent but not so when they ceased to be innocent For cessanie materiâ cessat obligatio 6. So also some Positive Commands made to Adam in Innocence ceased on the fall and sentence As to dress that Garden And some positives of the first Administrations of Grace did cease by the supervening of a more perfect administration As the two Symbolical or Sacramental Trees in the Garden were no longer such to man when he was turned out so no positive Ordinance of Grace was any longer in force when God himself repealed it by the introduction of a more perfect Administration 7. Accordingly we hold that a change is now made of the sanctified day Where note 1. That we take not the seventh day no nor one day in seven though that be nothing to our Controversie to be a Duty by the proper Law of Nature but by a Positive Law 2. That the seventh day is never called a Sahbath till Moses time but only a Sanctified and blessed day the word Sabbath being ever taken in Scripture for a day of Ceremonial Rest as well as of spiritual Rest and Worship 3. That Christ himself hath continued a seventh day but changed the seventh day to the first not as a Sabbath that is A day of Ceremonial Rest for he hath ended all Sabbaths as shadows of things that were to come even of rest which remained for the people of God Heb. 4. 9. Col. 2. 16. And this is it which is incumbent upon us to prove and I think I have fully proved already 4. That having proved the thing done the positive Law of the seventh day changed by the Holy Ghost to the first day it concerneth us not much to give the reasons of Gods doings But yet this reason may secondarily be observed That God having made the whole frame of Nature very good did thereby make it the glass in which he was to be seen by man and the Book
the Apostles actual settlement thereupon was the Promulgation 3. The gradual notification by the Preachers to the Churches and finally the destruction of the Jewish Policie and Temple and Priesthood were the fuller proclamation of it and the way of bringing the change that was made by Command into fuller Execution 10. The seventh day Sabbath was observed by the Apostles after the Resurrection and Ascension Act. 13. 14 15 16 42 44. 16. 13 14. And constantly Act. 17. 2. the same Greek phrase with that Luk. 14. 16. for Christ constant keeping the seventh day Sabbath as before Act. 18. 1 4. c. 10 A. 1. But withal in this time they stablished the Lords day as soon as on that day the Holy Ghost came down upon them 2. So all that while they kept other parts of the Jewish Law They scrupled yea refused a while Communion with the Gentiles as Act. 10. shews They so carryed it to the Jews that Paul made it his defence that he had not offended any thing at all either against the Law of the Jews or against the Temple Act. 25. 8. And when he Circumcised Timâ—thy purified himself shaved his head for his Vow c. Do you think that all these are duties to Believers 3. None of the Texts cited by you do prove that the Apostles kept the Sabbath at all as a Sabbath that is a day on which it was their duty to Rest But only that they Preached on that day in the Synagogues and to the people For when should they Preach to them but when they were Congregated and capable of hearing They took it for no sin to Preach on the Sabbath no more than I would do to Preach Christ on Friday which is their Sabbath to the Turks if they would hear me But Sabbatizing according to the Law was something else than Preaching 4. And it is most evident that for a long time the Christian Jews did still keep the Law of Moses And that all that the Apostles did against it then was but 1. To declare that Christ was the end of the Law and so to declare the keeping of it to be unnecessary to Salvation but not unlawful laying by the opinion of necessity 2. That the Gentile Christians should not be brought to use it because it was unnecessary For the Apostles Act. 15. do not forbid it to the Jews but only to the Gentiles who were never under it Therefore the Apostles who lived among the Jews no doubt did so far comply with them to win them as to keep the Law externally though not as a necessary thing that is not as a Law in force obliging them but as a thing yet lawful to further the Gospel And therefore no wonder if Peter went so far as to withdraw from the Gentiles when the Jews were present when even Paul the Apostle of the Gentiles who speaketh so much more than all the rest against the Law doth yet as aforesaid Circumcise Timothy shave his head purifie himself c. and as he became all things to all men so to the Jews he became a Jew But when the Jews Policie and Temple ceased the change was executively yet further made and the Jewish Christians themselves were weaned from their Law In the mean time Paul and John Rev. 2. 3. do openly rebuke the Judaizing Hereticks the Ebionites and Cerinthians and Nicolaitans and shew the perniciousness of their conceits 11. The Holy Spirit calls the seventh day and no other day the Sabbath throughout the Scriptures before and after the Death Resurrection and Ascension of the Lord Jehovah Christ Gen. 2. 2 3 4. Exod. 20. 10 c. Act. 13. 14 15 16 42 44. 16. 13 14. 17. 2. 18. 1 4. 11. A. Though it be not true that the seventh is called the Sabbath Gen. 2. and though others deny the sufficiency of your enumeration yet I grant your assertion as true And therefore am satisfied that it is the seventh day which is put down when Sabbatizing was put down and that it could be none but the seventh day which Paul meant Col. 2. 16. Let no man judge you in meaâ—s c. and Sabbaths which were Shadows of things to come For the first day is never called a Sabbath as you truly say therefore it was not put down with the Sabbath See Dr. Youngs Dies Dom. on Col. 2. 16. 12. The seventh day Sabbath was prophaned by the Church heretofore and reformed Neh. 10. 28 29 31. 13. 15 17 18 22. See Belg. Annot. on Dan. 7. 25 c. as prophesied who would change it 12. This is all granted Sacrificing also was then Prophaned and Reformed and polluted and destroyed by Antiochus And yet we are not still under the obligation of Sacrificing We are not under the Law but under Grace CHAP. III. Whether the seventh day Sabbath be part of the Law of Nature or only a Positive Law IT is but few that I have any Controversie with on this point But yet one there is who objecteth and argueth as followeth God hath put this into nature Ex. 20. 10. Thy Stranger Deut. 5. 14. The three first Chapters of Romans Particularly Chap. 2. 14 15 26 27. 3. 9. 21. 1 Cor. 11. 14. Nature hath its teachings The humane Nature in the first Adam was made and framed to the perfection of the ten words some Notions whereof are still retained even in the corrupt state of fallen man Gen. 1. 26 27. Eccl. 7. 29. Eph. 4. 20. Col. 3. 10. The Law of the seventh day Sabbath was given before the ten words were proclaimed at Sinai Exod. 16. 23. Even from the Creation Gen. 2. 2 3. Given to Adam in respect of his humane nature and in him to all the world of humane creatures Gen. 1. 14. Psalm 104. 19 Lev. 10. 23. Numb 28. 2 9 10. 'T is the 〈◊〉 word in the Original Seâ— times of Divine appointment fâ—r solemn asseâ—â—â—ing and for Gods instituted service are directed to and pointed at by those great Lights which the Creator hath set up in the Heavens Psal. 19. with Rom. 10. 4 5 6 7. 8 18 19 20. Deut. 30. 10 15. John 1. 9. Every man hath a Light and Law of Nature which he carrieth about him and is born and bred together with him These seeds of truth and light though they will not justifie in the sight of God and bring a soul throughly and safely hâ—me to glory Rom. 1. 20. Yet there are even since Adams fall those reliques and dark Letters of this holy Law of the ten words to preserve the memory of our first created dignity and for some other ends though these seeds are utterly corrupted now Titus 1. 15. Natural reason will tell men that seeing all men in all Nations do measure their Time by Weeks and their Weeks by seven dayes they should besides what of their time they offer up as due to God every day give one whole day of every Week to their Maker who
Indeed all Labour is that is all the Motion of any Creature which is out of its proper place and moveth towards it But if you will call the Action of Active natures such as our souls are by the name of spiritual motion or Metaphysical motion as many do then no doubt but cessation is as contrary to their nature as corporal motion is to the nature of a stone And the Rest that is the perfection pleasure and felicity of Spirits consisteth in their greatest activity in good They rest not saying Holy Holy c. 3. You transfer the case from a day of Worship to a day of Rest. And so make your cause worse Because nature saith much for one stated day of Worship but not for one stated day of Rest from labour further than the Worship it self must have a vacancy from other things For reason can prove no necessity to humane nature of Resting a whole day any more than for a due proportioning of Rest unto Labour every day The Rest of one hour in seven is as much as the Rest of one Day in seven Or if some more additional conveniences may be found for Dayes than Hours there being no convenience without its inconvenience this will but shew us that the Law is well made when it is made but not prove a priore that there is or must be such an universal Law As you can never prove that Nature teacheth men the distribution of Time by Weeks 1. It being a thing of Tradition Custom and Consent 2. And no man naturally knoweth it till others tell him of it 3. And many Nations do not so measure their time 4. And no man can bring a Natural Reason to prove that it must be so which they might do if it were a Law of Natural Reason so also that every Family or Countrey at least should not have leave to vary their dayes of Rest according to diversity of Riches and Poverty Health and Sickness Youth and Age Peace and War and other such cases you cannot prove necessary by Nature alone though you may prove it well done when it is done 4 You cannot prove the last day more necessary for Rest than the first or any other For there are few Countreys where Wars or some other necessities have not constrained them sometimes to violate the Sabbaths Rest which when they have done it is as many dayes from the third day to the third as from the seventh to the seventh 5. If Time were naturally measured by Weeks yet it followeth not that Rest must be so some Countreys are strong and can labour longer and others tender and weak and can labour less 6. And seeing that the Reason of a day for worshipping Assemblies is greater and more noble than the Reason of a day for Bodily Rest Nature will rather tell us that God should have the first day than the last A Jove principium As God was to have the first born the first fruits c. 7. If we might frame Laws for Divine Worship by such conceits of convenience as this is of the last day in seven as fittest for Rest and call them all the Laws of Nature what a multitude of additions would be made and of how great diversity whilst every mans conceit went for Reason and Reason for Nature and so we should have as many Laws of Nature as there are diversities of conceits And yet that there is such a thing as a Law of Nature in which all Reason should agree we doubt not But having in vain expected your proof that the seventh day Sabbath is the Law of Nature or of universal natural obligation I shall briefly prove the Negative that it is not 1. That which is of natural obligation may be proved by Natural Reason that is by Reason arguing from the nature of the thing to be a duty But that the seventh day must be kept holy as a Sabbath cannot be proved from the nature of the thing Therefore it is not of Natural obligation He that will deny the Minor let him instance in his natural proof 2. That is not an universal Law of Nature which Learned Godly men and the greatest number of these yea almost all the world know no such thing by and confess they cannot prove by Nature But such is the seventh day Sabbath c. It is not I alone that know nothing of any such Law nor am able by any Natural Evidence to prove it but also all the Divines and other Christians that I am or ever was acquainted with Nay I never knew one man that could say that he either had such a Law in his own nature unless some one did take his conceit for a Law nor that he could shew such 3 Law in natura rerum And it is a strange Law of Nature which is to be found in no ones Nature but perhaps twenty mens or very few in a whole age nor is discerned by all the rest of the world If you say that few understand nature or improve their reason I answer 1. If it be such a Law of Nature as is obliterated in almost all mankind it is a very great argument that nature being changed the Law is changed How can that oblige which cannot be known 2. Are not we men as well as you Have not several Ages had as great improvers of nature as you If grace must be the improver are there or have there been none as gracious If Learning must be the improver have there been none as learned If diligence or impartiality must be the improvers of nature have there not been many as diligent studious and impartial as your selves Let all rational men judge which of these is the better argument I and twenty men more in the world do discern in Nature an universal obligation on mankind to keep the seventh day Sabbath Therefore it is the Law of Nature Or The world of mankind godly and ungodly learned and unlearned discern no such natural obligation except you and the few of your mind Therefore it is no Law of Nature 3. That is not like to be an Universal Law of Nature which no one man since the Creation can be proved to have known and received as such by meer natural reasons without tradition But no one man since the Creation can be proved to have known and received the seventh day Sabbath by meer natural reason without tradition Therefore it is not like to be an Universal Law of Nature If you know any man name him and prove it For I never read or heard of such a man 4. If the Text mention it only as a Positive Institution then it is not to be accounted a Law of nature But the Text mentioneth it only as a Positive institution As is plain Gen. 2. 3. God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because that in it he had rested from all his work c. If it had been a Law of nature it had been made in Nature and the making
History assureth us that they did III. Nor have we any fuller Scripture proof that the Apostles used to require of those that were to be Baptized any more than a general Profession of the substance of the Christian faith in God the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost Or of the ancient use of the Christian Creed either in the words now used or any of the same importance From whence many would inferr that any one is to be Baptized who will but say that I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God with the Eunuch Act. 8. 37. or that Christ is come in the flesh 1 Joh. 4. 2 3. But Historical evidence assureth us that it was usual in those times to require of men a more explicite understanding profession of the Christian faith before they were admitted to Baptisme And that they had a summary or Symbole fitted to that use commonly called The Apostles Creed at least as to the constant tenour of the matter though some words might be left to the speakers will and some little subordinate Articles may be since added And that it was long after the use to keep men in the state of Catechised persons till they understood that Creed And it is in it self exceeding probable that though among the intelligent Jews who had long expected the Messiah the Apostles did Baptize thousands in a day Act. 2. Yet where the Miraculous communication of the Spirit did not antecede as it did Act. 10. they would make poor Heathens who had been bred in ignorance to understand what they did first and would require of them an understanding profession of their Belief in God the Father Son and Holy Ghost which could not possibly if understanding contain much less than the Symbolum fidâ—i the Apostles Creed IV. Nor have we any Scripture proof except by inferring obedience from the precept that ever the Lords Prayer was used in words after Christ commanded or delivered it Whence some inferr that it should not be so used But Church History putteth that past doubt Other such instances I pretermit I think now that I have fully proved to sober considerate Christians that the matter of fact that the Lords day was appointed by the Apostles peculiarly for Church-Worship is certain to us by historical Evidence added to the historical intimations in Scripture as a full exposition and confirmation of it And that this is a proof that no Christian can deny without unsufferable injury to the Scriptures and the Christian cause CHAP. VI. Prop. 5. This Act of the Apostles appointing the Lords day for Christian Worship was done by the special inspiration or guidance of the Holy Ghost THis is proved 1. Because it is one of those Acts or works of their Office to which the Holy Ghost was promised them 2. Because that such like or smaller things are by them ascribed to the Holy Ghost Act. 15. 28. Iâ— seemed good to the Holy Ghost and us when they did but declare an antecedent duty and decide a Controversie thereabout See also Act. 4. 8. Act. 5. 3. 6. 3. with 7. 55. Act. 13. 2 4. 16. 6 7. 20. 23 28. 21. 11. 2 Tim. 1. 14. Jud. 20. Act. 11. 12 28. 19. 21. 20. 22. 1 Cor. 5. 3 4. 14. 2 15 16. And 1 Cor. 7. 40. When Paul doth but counsel to a single life he ascribeth it to the Spirit of God 3. And if any will presume to say that men purposely indued with the Spirit for the works of their commission did notwithstanding do such great things as this without the conduct of that Spirit they may by the same way of proceeding pretend it to be as uncertain of every particular Book and Chapter in the New Testament whether or no they wrote it by the Spirit For if it be a sound inference They had the promise and gift of the Spirit that they might infallibly leave in writing to the Churches the doctrines and precepts of Christ Ergo whatever they have left in Writing to the Churches as the doctrine and precepts of Christ is Infallibly done by the Guidance of that Spirit Then it will be as good an inference They had the promise and gift of the Spirit that they might infallibly settle Church-orders for all the Churches universalâ—y ergo Whatever Church-orders they setled for all the Churches universally they setled them by the infallible guidance of that Spirit But this few Christians will deny except some Papists who would bring down Apostolical Constitutions to a lower rank and rate that the Pope and his General Council may be capable of â—â—ying claim to the like themselves and so may make as many more Laws for the Church as they please and pretend such an authority for it as the Apostles had for theirs By which preâ—ense many would make too little distinction between Gods Laws given by his Spirit and the Laws 〈◊〉 a Pope and Popish Council and call then all but The Laws of the Church Whereas there is no Universal Head of the Church but Christ who hath reserved Universal Legislation to Himself alone to be performed by himself personally and by his Advocate the Holy Ghost in his Authorized and Infallibly-inspired Apostles who were the Promulgators and Recorders of them All following Pastors being but as the Jewish Priests were to Moses and the Prophets the preservers the expositers and the applyers of that Law CHAP. VII Qu. 2. Whether the seventh day Sabbath should be still kept by Christians as of Divine obligation Neg. I Shall here premise That as some superstition is less dangerous than prophaneness though it be troublesome and have ill consequents so the Errour of them who keep both daies as of Divine appointment is much less dangerous than theirs that keep none yea and less dangerous I think than theirs who reject the Lords day and keep the seventh day only Because these latter are guilty of two sins the rejecting of the right day and the keeping of the wrong but the other are guilty but of one the keeping of the wrong day Besides that if it were not done with a superstitious conceit that it is Gods Law in some cases a day may be voluntarily set apart for holy duties as daies of Thanksgiving and Humiliation now are But yet though the rejecting of the Lords day be the greater fault and I have no uncharitable censures of them that through weakness keep both daies I must conclude it as the truth that We are not obliged to the observation of the Saturday or seventh day as a Sabbath or separated day of holy Worship Arg. 1. That dayes observation which we are not obliged to either by the Law of Nature the Positive Law given to Adam the Positive Law given to Noah the Law of Moses nor the Law of Christ incarnate we are not obliged to by any Law of God as distinct from humane Laws But such is the observation of the seventh day as a Sabbath Ergo we are
To call them together before they go to the solemn Assembly and to Pray with them and praise God and if there be time to read the Scripture and tell them what they have to do in publick 3. To see that Dinner and other common employments make no longer an intermission than is needful And to advise them that at their meat and necessary business they shew by their holy speeches that their minds do not forget the day and the employments of it 4. To sing Gods praises with them if there be time and bring them again together to the Church-assembly 5. When they return either to take some account of them what they have learned or to call them together to pray for a blessing on what they have heard and to sing praises to God and to urge the things which they have heard upon them 6. At Supper to behave themselves soberly and piously And after Supper to shut up the day in Prayer and Praise And either then or before either to examine or exhort inferiours according as the case of the persons and families shall require For in some Families it will be best on the same day to take an account of their profiting and to Catechize them And in other Families that have leisure other daies may be more convenient for Catechising and Examinations that the greater works of the Lords day may not be shortened IV. So much of the day as can be spared from publick and family worship must be spent in secret holy duties such as are 1. Secret Prayer 2. Reading of the Scriptures and good Books 3. Holy Meditation 4. And the secret Conference of bosome friends Of which I further adde 1. That where publick or family worship cannot be had as in impious places there secret duties must be the chief and make up the defect of others And it is a great happiness of good Christians who have willing minds that they have such secret substitutes and supplies That they have Bibles and so many good Books to read That they may have a friend to talk with of holy things But much more that they have a God to go to and a Heaven to Meditate on besides so many Sacred Verities 2. That my judgement is that in those places where the publick Worship taketh up almost all the day it is no sin to attend on it to the utmost and to omit all such Family and secret exercises as cannot be done without omission of the publick And that where the publick exercises allow but a little time at home the Family duties should take up all that little time except what some shorter secret Prayers or Meditations may have which will not hinder family duties And that it is a sinful disorder to do otherwise Because the Lords day is principally set apart for publick worship And the more private or secret is as it were included in the publick Your Families are at Church with you The same Prayers which you would put up in secret you may usually put up in publick and in Families And it is a turning Gods Worship into a Ceremony and Superstition to think that you must necessarily put up the same Prayers in a Closet which you put up in the Family or Church when you have not time for both Though when you have time secret prayer hath its proper advantages which are not to be neglected And also what secret or family duty you have not time for on that day you may do on another day when you cannot come to Church Assemblies And therefore it is an Errour to think that the day must be divided in equal proportions between Publick Family and Secret Duties Though yet I think it not amiss that some convenient time for Family and Secret duties be left on that day but not so much as is spent in publick nor nothing neer it If any shall now object I do not believe that we are bound to all this ado nor so to tire out our selves in Religious exercises Where is all this ado commanded us I answer 1. I have proved to you that in Nature and in Scripture set together as great a proportion of time as this for holy exercises is required 2. But O what a Carnal unthankful heart doth this objection signifie What do you account your Love to God and the Commemoration of his Love in Christ a toile What if God had only given you leave to lay by your worldly business and idle talk and Childish play for one dayes time and to learn how to be like Christ and Angels and how to make sure of a Heavenly Glory should you not gladly have accepted it as an unspeakable benefit O what hearts have these wretched men that must be constrained by fear to all that is good and holy and spiritual and will have none of Gods greatest mercies unless it be for fear of hell And they shall never have them indeed till they love them What hearts have those men that had rather be in an Ale-house or a Play-house or asleep than to be in heart with God That can find so much pleasure in jesting and idle talking and foolery that they can better endure it than to peruse a Map of Heaven and to read and hear the Sacred Oracles Who think it a toile to praise their Maker and Redeemer and a pleasure to game and dance and drink Who turn the glass upon the Preacher and grudge if he exceed his hour and can sit at a Tavern or Alehouse or hold on in any thing that 's vain many hours and never complain of weariness Do they not tell the world what enemies they are to God who love a pair of Cards or Dice or Wanton Dalliance better than his Word and Worship Who think six dayes together little enough for their worldly work and profit and one day in seven too much to spend in the thoughts of God and life Eternal Who love the dung of this present World so much better than all the joyes above as that they are weary to hear of Heaven above an hour at a time and long to be wallowing in the dirt again Is it not made by the Holy Ghost a mark not only of wicked men but of men notoriously wicked to be Lovers of pleasures more than of God 2 Tim. 3. 4. O Sinners that in these workings of the wickedness and malignity of your hearts you would at last but know your selves Is it not the Carnal mind that is thus at enmity to God and neither is nor can be subject to his Law Rom. 8. 6 7 8 Which will you take to be your friend Him that loveth your company or him that is a weary of it and is glad when he hath done with you and is got away What would you think of Wife or Child or Friend if they should reason as you do and say What Law doth bind 〈◊〉 to be so many hours in the House or Company or 〈◊〉 of my Husband my Father or my Friendâ—
You do not use if you have a Feast or a Cup of Wine before you to ask Where doth God Command me to Eat or Drink it You can do this without a Command If you hear but of a gainful Market you ask not Where doth God make it my duty to go to it If one would give you Money or Land you would scarcely ask How prove you that I am bound to take it You would be glad of Leave without Commands If the King should say to you Ask what you will and I will give it you you would not say Where am I bound of God to ask And when God saith Ask and it shall be given you you say How prove you that I am bound to ask You can sing ribbald Songs and Dance without a Command You can Feast and Play and Prate and Sleep and Loyter in idleness without a Command But you cannot learn how to be saved nor praise your Redeemer without a Command A Thief can Steal a Fornicator can Play the Bruit a Drunkard can be Drunk an Oppressour can make himself hateful to the Oppressed not only without Law but against it But you cannot Rejoice in God nor live one day together in his Love and Service without a Law no nor with it neither For because you had rather not Love him it is certain that you do not Love him And because you had rather play than pray and serve the flesh than serve your Maker it is a certain sign that you do not serve him with any thing which he will accept as Service For while he hath not your hearts he hath nothing which he accepteth Your Knee and Tongue only is forced against your will to that which you call serving him But your Hearts or Wills cannot be forced When you had rather be elsewhere and say When will the Sermon and Prayer be done that I may be at my Work or Play God taketh it as if you were there where you had rather be I pray you deal openly and tell me you that think a day too long for God and are weary of all holy work What would you be doing that while if you had your choice Is it any thing which you dare say is better Dare you say that playing is better than Praying and a Piper or Dancing is better than praising God with Psalms Or that your Sleep or Games or Chat or Worldly business is better than the Contemplation of God and Glory And will those deceivers of the people also say this who teach them that it is a tedious uncommanded thing to serve God so long I think they dare not speak it out If they dare let them not grudge that they must be for ever shut out of Heaven where there will be nothing else but holiness But if you dare not say so Why will you choose the worse before the better Why will you be weary of well doing that you may do ill Why are you not more weary of every thing than of holiness unless you think every thing better than holiness Especially those men 1. Whose judgement is for will-worship should not ask where is there a Command for any good which they are willing of But doth not this shew that you had rather there were no Command for it Be judges your selves 2. And they that are for making the Churches a great deal more work than God hath made them O what abundance hath Popery made and what a multitude of new Religious particles methinks should not for shame say that God hath tired them out and made them too much work already Do you cry out What a weariness is this one day when you would adde of your own such a multitude of more dayes and more work Yet though I talk of doing it willingly if you had no forcing Law of God but bare leave to receive such Benefits my meaning is not that God hath left any such things indifferent or made them only the matter of Counsels and not of Commands For he hath made it our duty to receive our own benefits and to do that which tendeth to our own good and Salvation But if it had been so that we had only leave to receive so great mercies without any other penalty for refusing than the loss of them it should be enough to men that Love themselves and know what is for their good Much more when commands concurr CHAP. X. How the Lords day should not be spent Or What is unlawful on it AS to the resolving of this Question also I would wish for no greater advantage on him that I dispute with but that he be a man that Loveth God and Holiness and knoweth somewhat of the difference between things temporal and things Eternal and knoweth what is for the good of his soul and preferreth it before his body and hath an appetite to relish the delights of Wisdom and of things most excellent and Divine And that he be one that knoweth his own necessities and repenteth of his former loss of time and liveth in a daily preparation for death that is that he be a real Christian And then by all this it will appear how the Lords day must not be spent or what things are unlawful to be done thereon I. Undoubtedly it must not be spent in wickedness In gluttony or drunkenness chambering or wantonness strife or envying or any of those works of the flesh which are at all times sinful An evil work is most unsuitable to a holy day And yet alas what day hath more ryotting and excess of meat and drink and wantonness and sloth and lust than it II. It ought not to be spent in our worldly businesses which are the labours allowed us on the six dayes unless Necessity or Mercy make them at any time become such duties of the Law of Nature as Positives must for that time give place to For how is it a day separated to holy employments if we spend it in the common business of the world It is the great advantage that we have by such a separated day that we may wholly call off our minds from the world and set them on the world to come and exercise them in holy communion with God and his Church without the interruptions and distractions of any earthly cogitations A divided mind doth never perform any holy work with that integrity and life as the nature of it requireth Heavenly contemplations are never well managed with the intermixture of diverting wordly thoughts So great a work as to converse in Heaven to be rapt up in the admirations of the Divine perfections to kindle a fervent Love to God by the contemplation of his Love and Goodness to triumph over sin and Satan with our triumphing glorified Head to Commemorate his Resurrection and the whole work of our Redemption with a lively working faith doth require the whole heart and will not consist with aliene thoughts and the diversion of fleshly employments or delights Nay had we no higher
yet it is not all such necessity neither that will allow us to do the thing Otherwise a Tradesman or Plowman might say that his labour is necessary to the getting or saving of this or that small commodity I shall be a loser if I do not work And on the other side if it were only a necessity for life limbs or livelihood that would allow us labour than it would be unlawful to dress Meat and to drive Cattle out of the Corn and many such things before mentioned And then it would be lawful to give meat only 〈◊〉 Oxen or Horses of great priâ—e and not to Hens Ducks Geese Dogs and other Animals of little value Therefore there is a great deal of prudent discretion necessary to the avoiding of extreamâ— God hath not enumerated all the particulars which are allowed or forbidden in their generals What then shall we do Shall we violate the outward rest of the day for the worth of 〈◊〉 Groat or two Pence as the feeding of Hens or such like may be Or shall we suffer the loâ—â— of many pounds rather than stiâ—r to save them As for instance Is it lawful to open or turn 〈◊〉 carry in Corn or Hay which in all rational probability though not certainly is like to be lost oâ— very much spoiled if it be let alone to the next day The Corâ— or Hay may be of many pounds value when the feeding of Swine oâ— Hens may be little The Corâ— or Hay is like to be lost when the Swine or Hens or Horses or Oxen may easily recover the hunger or abstinence of a day What must be done in such cases as these I answer 1. It is necessary to know that where God hath not made particular determinations yet general Laws do still oblige us 2. And that Christian Prudence is necessary to the right discarning how far our actions fall under those General Laws of God 3. That he that will discern these things must be a man that truly understandeth valueth and loveth the true Ends and Work of the Lords day and not a man that hateth it or careth not for it And a man that hath a right estimate also of those outward things which stand in question to be medled with And he must be one that hath no superstitious Jewish conceits of the external Rest of the day And he must be one that looketh not only to one thing or a few but to all things how numerous soever which the determination of his case dependeth on 4. And because very few are such it is needful that those few that are such be Casuists and Advisers to the rest and that the more ignorant consult with them especially if they be their proper Pastors as they do with Physicians and Lawyers for their health and their estates 5. It must be known that oft times the Laws of the Land do interpose in such cases And if they do determine so strictly as to forbid that which else would to some be lawful they must be obeyed Because bad men cannot be kept from doing ill by excesses unless some good men be hindered by the same Laws from some things that are to them indifferent nay possibly eligible if there were no such Law 6. And accordingly the case of Scandal or Temptation to others that will turn our Example to their sin must be considered in our Practice Yea it is not only things meerly Indifferent that we must deny our liberty in to prevent anothers fall but oft times that which would else be a Duty may become a sin when it will scandalize another or tempt him to a farr greater and more dangerous sin As it may be my duty to speak some word or do some action as most useful and beneficial when there is nothing against it And yet if I may foresee that another will turn that speech or action to his ruine to the hatred of piety or to take occasion from it to exercise cruelty upon other Christians c. it may become my hainous sin So it must here be considered who will know of the Action which you do and what use they are like to make of it 7. And a little publick hurt must be more regarded than more private benefit And the hurt of a mans soul cannot be countervailed by your corporal Commodities 8. These things being premised I suppose that the great Rule to guide you in such undetermined Circumstances is the Interest of the End All things must be done to the Glory of God and to Edification A truly impartial prudent man can discern by comparing all the circumstances whether his action as if it were carrying in Endangered Corn were likely to do more good or harm On one side you must put in the ballance the value of the thing to be saved your own necessity of it the poors need of it and Christs command Gather up the fragments that nothing be lost on the other side you must consider how far it will hinder your spiritual benefit and duty and how far the example may be like to encourage such as will do such things without just cause And so try which is the way of Gods honour and your own and your neighbours good and that is the way which you must take As in the Disciples rubbing the ears of Corn c. For the Rule is that your labour is then lawful and a duty when in the judgement of a truly judicious person it is like to do more good than hurt And it is then sinful when it is like to do more hurt than good Though all cannot discern this yet as far as I know this is the true rule to judge such actions by As for them that suppose our Lords day to be under the same Laws of Rest with the Jewish Sabbath and so think that they have a readyer way to decide these doubts I will not contend with them but I have told you why I am not of their mind V. From hence I further conclude that whereas there are some actions which bring some little benefit but yet are no apparent hinderances of any of the work of the day it seemeth to me too much Ceremoniousness and too ungospel-like to trouble our own or other mens Consciences by concluding such things to be unlawful If one have a word to speak of some considerable worldly business which may be forgotten if it be not presently spoken or if I meet one with whom I must speak the next day about some worldly business and if I then wish him not to come speak with me I must send a great way to him afterwards I will not say that it is a sin to speak such a word I will first look at a mans positive duties on the Lords day how he heareth and readeth and prayeth and spendeth his time and how he instructeth and helpeth his Family And if he be diligent in seeking God Heb. 11. 6. and ply his Heavenly business I shall be very backward to judge him
for a word or action about wordly things that falls in on the by without any hinderance to his spiritual work And if another speak not a word of any common thing and yet do little in spiritual things for his own or others edification I shall think him a great abuser or neglecter of the Lords day A few words about a common thing that falleth in the way may be spoken without any hinderance of any holy duty But still we must see that it be not a scandalous temptation to others If I see a man that unexpectedly findeth some uncomely hole or rent in his Cloaths either pin it up or few it up before he goeth abroad I will not blame him But if he do it so as to embolden another who useth needlesly to mend his Cloaths on the Lords day it will be a sin of scandal If I see one cut some undecent stragling haires before he go forth I will not blame him But if he do it before one who will be encouraged by it to be barbed needlesly on that day he will offend And so in other cases VI. By these same Rules also we may judge of Recreations on the Lords day The Recreations of the mind must be the various holy employments of the day No bodily Recreations are lawful which needlesly waste time or hinder our duty or divert our minds from holy things or are a snare to others Unless it be some weak persons whose health requireth bodily motion few persons need any other than holy recreations on that day I know no one man that so much needeth it as my self who these twenty years cannot digest one dayes meat unless I walk or run or exercise my body before it till I am hot or sweat And therefore necessity requireth me to walk or fast But I do it privately on that day left I tempt others to sin But I will not censure one whom I see walking at fit houres when for ought I know he may be taken up in some fruitful Meditation But if persons will walk in the Streets or Fields in idleness or for vain delight or discourse as if the day were too long for them and they had no business to do for their souls this is not only a sin but a very ill sign of one that is senseless of his souls necessity and his duty VII To read History Philosophy or common things unnecessarily on the Lords day is a sinful diversion from the more spiritual work of it and unsuitable to the appointed uses of the day much more Romances Play Books or idle stories Yea or those parts of Divinity it self which are less practical and useful to the raising of Thankful and Heavenly affections But yet sometimes such other matter may fall in at a Sermon or Conference or in Meditation which will require a present satisfaction in some point of History Philosophie or controversal Divinity which may be subserviently used to Edification without sin Here therefore we must judge prudently VIII A thing that may be lawful singly in it self unless it be of great necessity is unlawful when he that serveth us in it is drawn or encouraged to make a trade of it As to use a Barber to cut your hair or a Tailor to mend your Cloaths or a Coblar to mend your Shooes Because if you may use him so may others as well as you and so he will follow his Calling on the Lords day And yet I dare not say if when you are to travel to Church you find your Shooes or Boots by breaking something to make you uncapable of going out but you may get them mended privately where it may be done without this inconvenience And though Cooks and Bakers should not be unnecessarily used in their trade yet is it not alwaies unlawful but sometimes very well Because as one servant in the Kitchin may be used to dress meat for all the family so one Baker or Cooke may serve many families and save ten times as many persons the labour which else they must be at And perhaps with easier and quicker dispatch than others The trade of the Apothecary Surgeon and Physician is ordinarily used but for necessity IX There is no sufficient avoidance of such abuses but by careful foresight and prevention and preparation the week before which therefore must be conscionably done CHAP. XII Of what importance the due Observation of the Lords day is THese singular benefits of keeping the Lords day aright should make all that Love God or holiness or the Church or their own or other mens souls take heed how they grow into a neglect or abuse of it much more that they plead not for such negligence or abuse I. The due observation of the Lords day is needful to keep up the solemn worship of God and publick owning and honouring him in the world If all men were left to themselves what time they would bestow in the worshipping of God the greatest part would cast off all and grow into Atheisme or utter prophaneness And the rest would grow into confusion And if all Princes and Rulers or Churches in the world were left to their own wills to appoint the people on what dayes to meet some Kingdoms and Churches would have one day in eight or nine or ten or twenty and some only now and then an hour and some one day and some another and some next to none at all For there is no one universal Monareh on Earth to make Laws for them all whatever the Pope or his nominal-General Councils may pretend to And they would never all come to any reasonable agreement voluntarily among themselves Therefore the Light of Nature telleth us that as a day is meet and needful to be stated so it is meet that God himself the true Universal Monarch should determine of it which accordingly he hath done And this is the very hedge and defensative of Gods publick Worship When he hath made a Law that one whole day in seven shall be spent in it men are engaged to attend it O what a happy acknowledgement of God our Creatour and Redeemer is it and an honouring of his blessed name when all the Churches throughout all the World are at once praising the same God with the same praises and hearing and learning the same Gospel and professing the same faith and thankfully commemorating the same benefits The Church is then indeed like an Army with Banners And were it not for this dayes observation alas how different would the case be And what greater thing can man be bound to than thus to keep up the solemn acknowledgement and worship of God and our Redeemer in the world II. The due Sanctification of the Lords day doth tend to make Religion Vniversal as to Countreys and individual persons which else would be of narrower extent When all the world are under a Divine obligation to spend one day every week in the exercises of Religion and superiours see to the performance of their
subjects obedience to this Law it will make men to be in some sort Religious whether they will or not Though they cannot be truly Religious against their will it will make them visibly religious Yea Gods own Law if mans did nothing would lay arrawe on the Consciences of most who believe that there is a God that made that Law And the weekly Assemblies keep up the knowledge and profession of the Christian faith and keep God and Heaven in the peoples remembrance and keep sin under constant rebukes and disgrace And were it not for this Heathenisme Infidelity and prophaneness would quickly overspread the world The Lords day keepeth up the Christian Religion in the World III. The lamentable Ignorance of the generality in the world doth require the strict and diligent observation of the whole Lords day Children and Servants and ordinary Countrey people yea and too many of higher quality are so exceeding Ignorant of the things of God and their Salvation that all the constantest diligence that can be used with them in Preaching Exhorting Catechizing c. will not overcome it with the most The most diligent Masters of Families lament it how Ignorant their Families are when they have done the best they can Let those that plead for dancing and sporting away much of the day but do like men that do not secretly scorn Christianity nor despise their servants souls and let them but try what measure of knowledge the bare hearing of Common Prayer yea and a Sermon or two with it will beget in their servants if the rest of the day be spent in sports and let them judge according to experience If ever knowledge be propagated to such and families made fit to live like Christians it is likest to be by the holy improvement of this day in the diligent teaching and Learning the substance of Religion and in the Sacred exercises thereof IV. The great Carnality Wordliness and Carelesness of the most and their great averseness to the things of God doth require that they be called and kept to a close and diligent improvement of the Lords day Whatever unexperienced or carnal persons may pretend that such constant duty so long together will make them worse and more averse reason experience and Scripture are all against them If there be some backwardness at the first it is not sports and idleness that will cure it but resisting of the slothful humour and keeping to the work For there is that in Religion that tendeth to overcome mens averseness to Religion And it must be overcome by Religion and not by playing or idleness if ever it be overcome It is want of knowledge and experience of it which maketh them loath it or be weary of it when they have tryed it more and know it better they will if ever be reconciled to it Six dayes in a Week are a sufficient diversion Apprentices and Pupils and School-boyes will hold on in learning though they be averse And you think not all the six dayes too much to hold them to it A School-boy must learn daily eight or nine hours in a day and yet some wretched men yea Teachers would perswade poor souls that must learn how to be saved or perish for ever that less than eight hours one day in seven is too much to be spent in the needfullest excellentest and pleasantest matters in all the World If you say that the sublimity or difficulty maketh it wearisome I answer that Philosophers do much longer hold on in harder speculations If you say Divinity being unsuitable to carnal minds their sick Stomachs must take no more than they can digest I answer 1. Cannot a Carnal Preacher for his gain and honour and fancy hold on all the year in the study even of Divinity perhaps eight or ten hours every day in the week And may not ignorant people be brought one day to endure to be taught as long 2. That which you call Digesting is but Vnderstanding and believing and receiving it And one truth tendeth to introduce another And he that cannot learn with an hours labour may learn more in two 3. And it is hearing and exercise that must cure their want of appetite Experience telleth us that when people take the liberty of playes and sports and idleness for a recreation they come back with much more want of Love to holy exercises than they that continue longer at them Gratifying sloth and sensuality increaseth it and increaseth an averseness to all that is good For who are more averse than they that are most voluptuous If ever people be made seriously holy it is a due observation of the whole Lords day that is like to bring them to it I mean observing it in such Learning and seeking duties as they are capable of till they can do better For when the mind long dwelleth on the truth it will sink in and work And many strokes will drive the nail to the head Let the Adversaries of this day and diligence but observe And if true experience tell not the World that more souls are Converted on the Lords dayes than on all other dayes besides and that Religion best prospereth both as to the Number and the knowledge and serious Holiness of the professours of it where the Lords day is carefully sanctified rather than where Idleness and playing do make intermission than I will confess that I am uncapable of knowing any thing of this nature by experiences But if it be so fight not against the common light V. The Poverty Servitude and worldly necessities of the most do require a strict observation of the whole Lords day Tenants and Labourers Carters and Carryers and abundance of Tradesmen are so poor that they can hardly spare any other considerable proportion of time much less all their Children and Servants whose subjection with their Parents and Masters poverty restraineth them Alas they are fain to rise early and hasten to their work and scarce have leisure to eat and sleep as nature requireth And they are so toiled and wearied with hard labour that if they have at night a quarter of an hour to read a Chapter and Pray they can scarce hold open their eyes from sleeping What time hath the Minister then to come and teach them if we had such Ministers again as would be at the pains to do it And what time have they to hear or learn You must teach them on the Lords day or scarcely at all Almost all that they must learn must be then learnt I deny not but in those former years when the Law forbad me not to Preach the Gospel the people came to me on the week day house by house and also that they Learned much in their shops while they were working But 1. It came to each Families turn but one hour or little more in a whole Year For about fourteen families a week so Catechized and instructed did no sooner bring their course about 2. And our people were mostly Weavers whose
holy Ghost and use violence against Gods word which I should obey Obj. There is no Law in the Scripture to observe the first day no promise made to observers of it no threatning against the breakers of it c. shew it And if no Law no transgression Rom. 4. 15. Sin is a transgression of the Law Answ. I have shewed you full proof of a Law for it before Though it is not Christs way to enact his Laws in that Majestick Commanding forms as God did to Moses on the Mount But as he condescended into flesh to be a Teacher and Saviour in the form of a Servant under the Law himself to redeem those that were under it so he maketh his Laws in a merciful Teaching stile All that is revealed by him as his will appointing our duty is his Law But that we observe the Lords day is revealed by him as his will making it our duty These are his Laws requiring us to Hear and obey his spirit in his Apostles Joh. 20. 21 22. As the Father hath sent me so send I you And when he had said this be breathed on them and said Receive ye the Holy Ghost c. Luk. 10. 16. He that heareth you heareth me And this is his Law requiring his Apostles by that spirit to promulgate his Laws and make known his will Mat. 28. 19 20. Go disciple me all Nations Baptizing them c. Teaching them to observe all things whatever I have commanded you and loe I am with you alwaies to the end of the world or age with the other Texts forecited And that the Spirit in the Apostles hath setled the Lords day as the separated day for holy assemblies and Worship I have proved to you both by the Texts which you now sought in vain to make void and by the unquestionable practice and history of the universal Church from that age untill this And withal by other Texts which you omit which not alone but all set together make up the proof because it is historical evidence of a matter of fact which we have to seek after 1. Christs Resurrection laid the foundation or gave the Cause as Gods ceasing from his works did of the Sabbath 2. Christs appearing to them assembled on that day began the actual separation 3. The Holy Ghost coming down on them on that day did more notably sanctifie it 4. The Holy Ghost as an infallible spirit in them did cause them to make a publick settlement of that day in all the Churches which was the full and actual establishment 5. This settlement is fully proved de facto in Scripture and infallible history 6. And that there are promises and threatnings to the obeyers and rejecters of Christs commands whom the Father commanded us to hear and who is the great Prophet of the Church I hope you believe Rev. 20. 14. Happy are they who do his commandments that they may have right to the tree of life c. Heb. 12. 25. See that yee refuse not him that speaketh For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth much more c. Act. 3. 23. It shall come to pass that every soul that will not hear that Prophet shall be destroyed from among the people 1 Joh. 4. 6. We are of God He that knoweth God heareth us he that is not of God heareth not us Hereby know we the spirit of truth and the spirit of Errour If besides all this you must have particular precepts promises and threatnings in the form which you imagine to be fittest you may for want of those deny many other Gospel Laws as well as this Have you not much more for the separation of the Lords day than you have for Infants Baptism for a Christian Magistrate for Christians wageing Warr for prohibited degrees as to Marriage c. I am perswaded the sober study of these points would do much to convince the contrary minded 1. How much of Christs work as to the settlement of Church-Orders was committed to the Apostles to be done and how little he publickly setled himself in person before his Resurrection 2. How much the Gospel administration excelleth that of the Law And what eminent Glory God designeth to himself by the work of mans Redemption and how much more now he calleth man to Read and Study and Know him in the face of Jesus Christ than in the Creation And how largely the change of the Covenant is proved in the Epistle to the Hebrews 3. What a change is made herein as to mans duty since the fall of man under the wrath of the Creator who is not now his Rest but his terrour and a consuming fire till Reconciled and Adopting us in Christ And since the Earth is cursed to us as a punishment for our sins 4. How much of the certainty and Glory of the Christian faith and of all our Rest and Consolation in it is laid in the Gospel on the RESURRECTION of our Lord as beginning a new World or Creation as it were and as conquering and triumphing over death and Satan and sealing the promise and bringing Life and Immortality to Light and opening the Kingdom of Heaven to Believers 5. How much of Christs Legislation and administration of his Church-settlement and Government was to be done by the Holy Ghost And how glorious this office of the Holy Ghost is and of what grand importance to be understood As he was the promised Paraclete or Advocate or Agent of our glorified Lord to do his Work on Earth in his bodily absence To whom the Infallibility of the Scriptures the sealing operation of Miracles the Sanctification of Believers and forming them for Glory in the Image of God is to be ascribed Whom to Blaspheme is the unpardonable sin 6. How dangerous a thing it is made by the Holy Ghost to seek to set up Moses Law as the whole Epistle to the Gal. besides most of the other Epistles testifie as intimating a denyal of Christ and a falling from Grace and a perverse setting up of that which Christ came to take down as part of our own redemption And how large and plain Paul is upon this Subject and how the spirit in all the Apostles did determine it Act. 15. And how the Cerinthians Nicolaitans Ebionites Nazaraeans and many more of the condemned Heresies of that age which troubled the Churches and whom the Apostles wrote against went all that way of mingling the Jewish Law with the Gospel 7. How plainly and expresly Paul numbreth Sabbaths with the shaddows that cease Col. 2. 16. to pass by other Texts And what violence mens own wits must use in denying the evidence of so plain a Text. Their reason that he saith not Sabbath but Sabbaths is against themselves the plural number being most comprehensive and other Sabbaths receiving their name from this And the word Sabbath alwaies used in Scripture for a Rest which was partly Ceremonial See what Dr. Young in his excellent Dies Domin saith of this
33. 18. 34. 19. 〈◊〉 7. 6. 14. 26. 10. 3 Neh. 8. 2 7 9 〈…〉 10. 29 13. 3. Mal. 2. 6 7 8 9. 〈…〉 11. 13. 12. 5. 26. 36 40. 〈…〉 Luk 2. 22. 27. Joh. 1. 17 45. 7 19. 23. â—1 8. 5. 10. 34. 12. 34. â—5 25 Act. 6. 13. 13. 15 39. 15. 5 24. 21. 20 28. 22. 3 12. 23. 3 29 〈◊〉 23. Rom. 2. 12 13 14 17 18 20 23. 3. 19 20 21 28 31. 4. 13 14 15 16. 5. 13. 7. 1 2 3 4. 5 6 c. And so to the end of the New Testament which I need not fâ—rther number 7. That the seventh day Sabbath was kept by the Lord Jehovah Christ during his life Maâ—k 1. 21. 6. 2. Luk. 4 31. 6. 6. 1. 5. 13. 10. Mat. 12. 1 9. 13. 1 2. and constantly Luk. 4. 16. 17. See Christs counsel which was to come to pass about forty years after his death Mat. 24. 20. 7. 1. So Christ was Circumcised and joyned in the Synagogue Worship and held Communion with the Jewish Church and Priesthood and observed all the Law of Moses never violating any part For he was made under the Law to redeem them that were under the Law Gal. 4. 4 5. Do you think that all this is established for us 2. And his Counsel Mat. 24. 20. had respect to the Jews misery and not to their duty He therefore foretelleth their destruction because they would reject him and his Law in a perverse zeal for Moses Law And therefore intimateth that even Moses should condemn them and their misery should be increased by their zeal for his Law For their City was taken on the Sabbath day which increased their Calamity who scrupled on that day to fight or fly And can you think Christ approved of that opinion who had so oft before condemned the like about their over rigid sabbatizing Or as Dr. Hammond thinks it is liker to be spoken of a Sabbath year when the War and Famine would come together However it be it only supposeth their adherence to their Law and Sabbath but justifieth it not at all Though yet the total and full abrogation of the Jewish Law was not fully declared till at that time of the destruction of their City and Temple their policy more fully ceased 8. That after Jehovah had finished the work of Redemption Joh. 19 30. his body rested in the Grave Mat. 27. 66. and himself in Heaven Luk. 23. 42 43. as he rested when he ended the work of Creation Gen. 2. 2 4. 8. You again adde to the Word of God It is not said that he had finished the work of Redemption But only It is finished which seemeth to mean but that 1. This was the last act of his life in which he was actively to fulfill the Law and offer himself a Sacrifice for man 2. And in which all the Law and Prophets were fulfilled which foretold this Sacrifice For that it is not meant of the whole work of Redemption as finished when he spoke those words is evident 1. Because after those words he was to die 2. Because his state in death and his burial were part of his humiliation as is implyed 1 Cor. 15. 4. Joh. 17 7. Rom. 6. 4. Col. 2. 12. Isa. 53. 9. 1 Cor. 1â— 35. Act. 2. 24. 1 Cor. 15. 26. Phil. 3. 10. 2 Tim. 1. 10. Heb. 2. 14 15. 3. Because his Resurrection was his victorious act and a part of the work of mans Redemption 4. And so is his Intercession For Redemption is larger than Humiliation or Sacrifice for sin As Exod. 6 6. Luk. 24. 21. Rom. 3. 24. 8. 23. 1 Cor. 1. 30. Eph. 1. 14. Luk. 21. 28. It is the Resurrection by which we are made Righteous and receive our hope of life and victory over death and Satan Rom. 1. 4. Phil. 3. 10 11. 1 Pet. 1. 3. 3. 21. Rom. 4. 25. 2. The clean contrary therefore to your Collection is true viz. That God did indeed end the Work of his Creation on the sixth day and rested in it as finished on the seventh But Christ was so far from ending his on the sixth and resting in it on the seventh that on that day above all other he seemed conquered by men and by him that had the power of death Heb. 2. 14 and was held as Captive by the Grave so that his Disciples hopes did seem dead with him Luk. 24. 21. This State of Death being not the least if not the lowest part of his Humiliation Whence came the Churches Article that he descended into Hades 3. I did more probably before prove from Christs own words compared with his burial a casting down of the seventh day Sabbath thus That day on which the Disciples are to fast is not to be kept as a Sabbath For that is a day of Thanksgiving But on the day of Christs Burial the Disciples were to fast that is to walk heavily Which appeareth from Mark 2. 20. When the Bridegroom is taken from them then they shall fast Now though this meant not to command any one day for fasting much less the whole time of his bodily absence yet both the sense of the words themselves and the interpretation of the Event tell us that as there was no day in which he was so sadly taken from them as that Sabbath day which almost broke their hearts and hopes for the next day he was restored to them So there was no day in which they were so dejected and unlike to the Celebraters of a Gospel day of Joy or Sabbath Do you call the day of Satans power and triumph and of the Discples greatest fear and grief that ever befell them the Celebration of a Sabbath rest It had indeed somewhat like an outward Rest but so as seemed plainly to burie in his Grave the seventh day Ceremonial Sabbath And from the Reasons now pleaded it was that the Western Churches kept the seventh day as a Fast. 9. Whilest the Lord Jehovah Christ rested private believers rested according to the Commandment Luk. 23. 55 56. Mar. 15. 42. 16. 1. compared 9 A. They did indeed keep yet the Jewish Sabbath till Christs Resurrection and the coming down of the Holy Ghost And so they did the rest of the Jewish Law For they yet knew not that it was abrogated But must we do so too You may as well argue from their keeping the Sabbath before Christs Death as on that day when he was dead The change of the day was made by Degrees by three several acts or means 1. The Resurrection of Christ was the founding act which gave the Cause of changing it Like Gods finishing his works of Creation at first 2. The Inspiration of the Holy Ghost in the Apostles doth teach them and bring all things to their remembrance which Christ commanded and was the authorising means of the change And
hath allowed them so liberal a portion of time wherein to provide for themselves and their families There being no other proportion of time that can so well provide for the necessities of families as six dayes of every Week and that is so well fitted to all Functions Callings and Employments And the light of Nature when cleared up will tell men that all labour and motion being in order to rest and rest being the perfection and end of labour into which labour work and motion doth pass that therefore the seventh day which is the last day in every Week is the fittest and properest day for a religious rest unto the Creator for his Worship Gen. 2. 1 c. Exod. 20. 9. Deut. 5. 13 14. Heb. 4. 1. 11. Exod. 31. 17. Rom. 14. 13. Exod. 23. 12. 34. 21. Answ. How far a day is of Natural due I have shewed before In all the words of this reason which I set down as I received them there is much which is no matter of Controversie betwen us As that there is a Light and Law of Nature which few men doubt of who are worthy to be called men And that by this Law of Nature God should be solemnly worshipped and that at a set or separated time I hope the Reader will not expect that I weary him with examining the Texts which prove this before it is denyed But the thing denyed by us is that the seventh day Sabbath as the seventh is of Natural Obligation The proofs which are brought for this I must examine For indeed this is the very hindge of all our Controversie For if this be once proved we shall easily confess that it is not abrogate For Christ came not to abrogate any of the Law of Nature though as I have said such particles of it may cease whose Matter ceaseth by a change in Nature it self The first proof is Exod. 20. 10. The stranger To which I answer Our question is not whether the Sabbath was to be rested onâ— by Strangers that are among the Jews but Whether it was part of the Law of Nature If it be intended that whatever such strangers were bound to was of the Law of Nature But strangers were bound to keep the Sabbath Ergo I deny the Major which they offer not to prove And I do more than deny it I disprove it by the Instances of Exâ—d 12. 19. Was eating leavened bread forbidden by the Law of Nature V. 48. 49. One Law shall be to him that is home-born and to the stranger that sojourneth among you Circumcision was not of the Law of Nature Lev. 16. 29. Resting from all work on the tenth day of the seventh Moneth was not of the Law of Nature though made also the strangers duty So eating blood and that which dyeth or was torn Lev. 17. 12 15. So Lev. 25. 6. Numb 15. 14 15 16 26. 29. 19. 10. 35. 15. Deut. 31. 12. Jos. 8. 33 34 35. 20. 9 c. The next pretended proof is Rom. 2. 14 c. where there is not one syllable mentioning the Decalogue as such but only in general The Law so far as it was written in the Gentiles hearts But where is it proved that the Law or the Decalogue are words of the same signification or extent any more than the whole and a part are Or where is it proved that none of the rest of the Law is written in Nature but the Decalogue only Or else that every word in the Decalogue it self is part of the Law of Nature which is the question I shall prove the contrary anon In the mean time the bare numbring of Chapters and Verses is no proof 3. It is next said that Adam was made and framed to the perfection of the ten words Answ. Adam was made in the Image of God before the ten words were given in stone But so much of them as is of the Law of Nature and had matter existent in Adams dayes no doubt was a Law to him as well as it is to us But that 's nothing to the question Whether all things in the ten words are of Natural Obligation 4. It is said that the Law of the seventh day Sabbath was given before the ten words were preclaimed in Sinai Answ. So was Circumcision and so was sacrificing yea so was the Law about the dressing of the Garden of Eden and about the eating or not eating of the fruit thereof even in innocency which yet were no parts of Natures Laws but Positives which now cease 5. It is said that it was given to Adam in respect of his humane nature and in him to all the world of humane creatures Answ. So was the Covenant of Works or Innocency which yet is at an end But what respect is it to his humane nature that you mean If you suppose this Proposition Whatever Law is given with respect to humane nature and to all men is of natural and perpetual Obligation I deny it The Law of Sâ—crinces and Oblations was given with respect to humane nature that is in order to its reparation and it was given to mankind and yet not of natural perpetual obligation The Law of distinguishing clean Beasts from unclean and the Law against eating blood were given to Noah and to all mankind with respect to humane nature Gen. 8. 20. 9. 4. and yet not wholly of natural or perpetual obligation All common Laws have some respect to humane nature But if your meaning be that this Law was given in and with the Nature of Man himself or that it is founded in and provable by the very essentials of mans nature or any thing permanent either in the nature of man or the nature of the world I still deny it and call for your proof Positives may have respect to humane Nature as obliged by them and yet not be written in humane nature nor provable by any meer natural evidence 6. It is said Set times of Divine appointment for solemn assembling c. are directed to by the great Lights c. Psal. 19. Rom. 10 c. Ans. But the question is not of set times in general that some there be But of this set time the seventh day in particular It will be long before you can fâ—tch any cogent evidence from the Lights of Heaven for it Nor do any of the Texts cited mention any such thing or any thing that can tempt a man into such an opinion It must be the Divine appointment and institution which you mention that must prove our obligation to a particular day and not any nature within us or without us 7. The only appearance of a proof is at the end that time being measured by Weeks and the end of the Weeks being fittest for Rest therefore nature points us to the last day Answ. But 1. You do not at all prove that nature teacheth all men to measure their time by Weeks 2. Nor is your Philosophy true that all motion is in order to rest
of Nature would have been the making of the Law But here are two arguments against that in the Text. 1. Blessing and sanctifying are positive acts of supernatural institution superadded to the works of nature They are not Divine Creating acts but Divine instituting acts 2. That which is blessed and sanctified Because God rested in it from all his works is not blessed and sanctified meerly by those works or that Rest And if neither the works of Nature nor the Rest of God from those works did sanctifie it then it is not of natural sanctification and so not of natural obligation 5. If the very Reason of the day be not of natural but of supernatural Revelation then the sanctification of the day is not of natural but supernatural revelation and obligation But the former is certain For no man breathing ever did or can prove by Nature without supernatural Revelation that God made and finished his works in six dayes and rested the seventh Aristotle had been like to have escaped his Opinion of the worlds eternity if he could have found out this by nature 6. The distinction of Weeks is not known by nature to be any necessary measure of our time Therefore much less that the seventh day of the Week must be a Sabbath The Antecedent is sufficiently proved in that no man can give a cogent reason for the necessity of such a measure And because it hath been unknown to a great part of the world The Peruvians Mexicans and many such others knew not the measure of Weeks And Heylin noteth out of Jos. Scaliger de Emend Temp. li. 3. 4. and Rossinus Antiq. and Dion that neither the Chaldees the Persians Greeks nor Romans did of old observe Weeks and that the Romans measured their times by eights as the Jews did by sevens Hist. Sab. P. 1. Ch. 4. p. 83 84. And p. 78. he citeth Dr. Bounds own words p. 65. Ed. 2. confessing the like citing Beroaldus for it as to the Roman custom Yea he asserteth that till near the time of Dionys. Exig an 500. they divided not their time into Weeks as now In which he must needs except the Christians and consequently the ruling powers since Constantine And if they were so unsetled through the world in their measure by Moneths as Bishop Vsher at large openeth in his Dissert de Macedonum Asianorum Anno solari see especially his Ephemeris in the end where all the dayes of each Moneth are named without Weeks the other will be no won-wonder I conclude therefore 1. That one day in seven rather than in six or eight may be Reason be discerned to be convenient when God hath so Instituted it But cannot by Nature be known to be of natural universal obligation 2. That this one day should be the seventh no Light of Nature doth discover Therefore Dr. Bound Dr. Ames and the generality of the Defenders of one day in seven against the Anti-sabbatarians do unanimously assert it to be of Positive supernatural institution and not any part of the Law of Nature Though stated dayes at a convenient distance is of the Law of Nature CHAP. IV. Whether every word in the Decalogue be of the Law of Nature and of perpetual obligation And whether all that was of the Law of Nature was in the Decalogue BUt the great argument to prove it the Law of Nature is because it was part of the ten words written in stone To which I say that the Decalogue is an excellent summary of the Generals of the Law of Nature as to the ends to which it was given but that I. It hath more in it than the Law of Nature II. It hath less in it than the Law of Nature And therefore was never intended for a meer or perfect transcript of the Law of Nature but for a perfect general summary of so much of that Law as God thought meet to give the Jews by supernatural revelation containing the chief heads of Natures Law lest they should not be clear enough in Nature it self with the addition of something more I. That the Decalogue written in stone hath more than the Law of Nature is proved 1. By these instances 1. That God brought them out of the Land of Egypt and out the house of servants and that he is to be worshipped in that relation is none of the Law of Nature universally so called 2. That God is merciful and therefore reconciled to thousand Generations of them that Love him notwithstanding mans natural state of sin and misery and all mens actual sin this is of supernatural Grace and not the Law of meer Nature 3. The great difference between the wayes of Justice and mercy expressed by the third and fourth Generation compared to Thousands is more than the meer Law of Nature 4. Those Divines who take all Gods positive Institutions of Worship to be contained in the Affirmative part of the second Commandment must needs think that it containeth more than the Law of nature Though I say not as they but only that as a General Law it obligeth us to perform them when another Law hath instituted them 5. To rest one day in seven is more than the Law of Nature 6. To rest the seventh day rather than the sixth or first is more than the Law of Nature 7. The strictness of the Rest to do no manner of Work is more than a Law of Nature 8. That there be Man servants and Maid servants besides natural inferiours is not of the primitive or universal Law of Nature 9. The distinction of the Israelites from strangers within their Gates was not by the Law of Nature 10. That Cattle should do no manner of work as for a Dog to turn the spit in a wheel or such like is more than a Law of Nature 11. That God made Heaven and Earth in six dayes and rested the seventh is not of Natural Revelation 12. That this was the reason wherefore God blessed the Sabbath day aud hallowed it is not of Natural Revelation 13. Some will say that more Relations than Natural being meant in the fifth Commandment maketh it more than a Law of Nature 14. That the Land of Canaan is made their reward is a positive respecting the Israelites only 15. That length of dayes in that Land should be given by Promise is an act of Grace and not of Nature only 16. That this promise of length of dayes in that Land is made more to the Honouring of Superiours than to the other commanded duties is more than Natural 2. I prove it also by the Abrogation of the Law written in stone which I proved before If the Decalogue had been the Only and Perfect Law of Nature it would not have been so far done away as the Apostle saith it is of which before II. All the Law of Nature was not in the Tables of Stone Here I premise these suppositions 1. That a General Law alone obligeth not to all particulars without a Particular Law E.