XIII Sheweth the ancient Observation of the first day of the Week called Sunday by the Heathens And that there is greater Reason to believe it is rather than the Jewish Sabbath the Old seventh-day Sabbath from the Creation tho' neither the one nor the other can be assured of the same Page 47. Sect. XIV Containeth a brief Discourse shewing wherein our first day Sabbath answers the Pattern of Adams Sabbath better than the Jewish Sabbath doth Page 50. And also sheweth the time of Day when our Christian Sabbath should begin and the Reasons why we had no Positive Command left us in the New Testament to observe the first day of the Week a Sabbath Page 52 c. With a Discourse of the Morality of Adams Pattern Page 56. And of Gods accepting the first of Time Page 58. Lastly Answers to the Chiefest Objections made against our keeping the first day Sabbath A TRACT ON THE Sabbath-Day WHEREIN The keeping of the First Day of the Week a Sabbath is justified by an Institution of God and a double Example contained in the Old and New Testament THAT we have both a Precept and a double Example to justifie the keeping of the first day of the week a Sabbath I have here to produce from the Holy Scriptures The Precept is in the Fourth Commandment founded on God's first sanctifying the Sabbath-day and we have the Example of Christs Disciples with the primitive Gospel Churches in the New Testament and of Adam to his Posterity all which I shall prove and explain as followeth SECT I. First That the Reader may not be under any mistake about the use I make of the word Moral throughout this Treatise I shall here acquaint him that in its self it belongeth to Manners Civility or Behaviour properly to the Actions of Man only as he is Man And so by some the Moral Law is taken for the Law Light or Instinct of Nature which Adam had in the State of Innocency which altho this be true yet I also make a larger use of the word For as no Man knoweth by Nature the extent of Adams light in all particulars for his Obedience when he was in Innocency and therefore cannot describe the whole of that Law of Nature And as I suppose the prohibition to him not to eat of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil will not be deny'd by any to have been binding for all his posterity as Men so we must have recourse to Divine Revelation for the better understanding our Moral and universal Duty to God since the Law of Nature is so much obliterated in us through the fall And therefore because of the darkness and depravity of our Minds we have the substance of the Law of Nature given to us in written Precents which may be called Moral as they are not Ceremonial but perpetually and universally binding to all Men for their Obedience unto God and also Institutions by Divine Revelation as being now a more full discovery to us of the Mind of God first implanted in our innocent Parents than we retain in our Natures or can recover in our fall So that when I speak of the Moral Law or of Morality it must be taken as the Adjunct Matter governs it in either sence of the Law or Light of Nature alone in the State of Innocency or contained in those transcribed Precepts of the Ten Commandments as the substance thereof in general Heads and in those other Precepts that morally do explain them which I shall only take notice of wherein I am concerned and not collect and reserr them all to their proper Heads In brief I use the word Moral in common to those things that are of universal and perpetual Concern to all Mankind for their Obedience to God as their Creator For as to the case before us seeing it s said that God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it We cannot say that Adam by his pure Light of Nature alone knew that it was meetest to have but six working days and no less as 5 7 or 8 together to one Sabbath but that from God's Example revealed to him the light of Adams Nature told him that it was most meet for him to divide his time like his Creator and so it became the Moral Duty of Men as Men to have no more nor less than six working or common days to one Sabbath SECT II. TO proceed on the Subject Matter of this Treatise I shall here recite the first Foundation Scripture for keeping the seventh day Sabbath as a boundary to six working days and briefly Note something of the Nature and Quality of the Text Gen. 2.2 3. And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made It is here said God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it that is he made it a happy and holy day by setting it apart from common use for Man to worship him and he appointed it to be a rest for Adam by Revelation as he did that he should not eat of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil for otherwise Adam could not by his Light of Nature alone know the time which had passed before he was Created nor could he understand the Mind of God as it was in God himself and therefore the knowledge Adam had of God's sanctifying the seventh day Sabbath was by Supernatural Revelation to him And this I presume none will deny for a time for Man to abstain or rest from his own business to exert his solemn Worship to God is morally implanted in the Heart of Man by Nature and surely God did not conceal from Adam the meetest time when he sanctified the first seventh day of the World for that end Besides before that God had formed Eve Gen. 2.7.8 15. he put Adam into the Garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it and therefore Adam being appointed to do this business he might have applyed himself thereto immediately after Eve was formed and brought to him if he had not received the knowledge of God's sanctifying the seventh Day yea then it had been lawful for him to have worked on God's Sabbath if it had not been revealed to him Moreover Our Saviour puts this matter clearly out of doubt because he referrs the making of the Sabbath not to the first Institution of it at the gathering of Manna in the Wilderness but to the time of God's creating Man Mark 2.27 saying The Sabbath was made for Man and not Man for the Sabbath that is the Sabbath was not first made and then Man for the sake of the Sabbath but Man was first Created and then the Sabbath was sanctified for his Happiness as the blessing of it signifieth God's bare ceasing from Work did not make it for Man but
before his six working days but as for our first-day Sabbath we are justified in keeping it by the Example of Christs Disciples and the Primitive Churches and the more because as it was changed from the Jewish Sabbath it is our first-day Sabbath before our six working days and so it better agrees with Adams Pattern than the Jewish Sabbath then can do 4. If it should be said as I acknowledge it may that the Jewish Sabbath may be called their first-day Sabbath respecting their first observing it in the Wilderness as a boundary before and after their six working days and so by Imitation does answer the Pattern of Adams Sabbath I have this to Answer that yet the Jewith Sabbath did not imitate Adams Pattern as our Christian Sabbath doth in beginning it with the Morning Day light for the Jews began their Sabbath at Even contrary to Adams Pattern as there is Reason from Scripture to believe And if it be objected that the Pattern of Adam respecting the beginning of his Sabâ—ath in the Morning is not plainly exprest but drawn by Interence from the Scripture but the Jewish Pattern is expresly commanded and therefore there is better ground of the two to observe the Sabbath after the Pattern in the Mosaical Precept I answer 1. It is not expressy said that Adams first Sabbath was his first-first-days Sabbath Mark 2.27 But yet seeing Christ hath said the Sabbath was made for Man and that none can deny but that Adam was bound in Duty to God to observe Gods seventh day Sabbath wherein he rested from his Works of Creation then we may insist on the sufficiency of our Evidence for Adams beginning his Sabbath in the Morning it being so rationally inserred thô it is not in Words expressed in the Scriptures 2. It hath been shewed how our Lord made void the Mesaical Precept of Divorcement and justified the doing of it by the Moral Pattern in our first Parents tho' it was not by any express Word of God nor by so clear an evidence from Adam and Eves being one Fresh that he nor his Posterity but by a special permission of God should not put away their Wives except for Fornication as there is Reason to believe that Adam began his Sabbath in the Morning day light And therefore tho' Christ might have abolished that Precept without setting a Moral Pattern against it yet his justifying the doing of it from thence 2 Tim 3.16 is an Example to be of use to us in other Cases 3. We have greater Reason to begin our Sabbath in the Morning in every Countrey where it can be so observed after the Pattern of Adams Sabbath and the Reason of its change in the New Testament tho' his beginning of it so is but inferred from the Scripture and not expressed in it rather than to begin it after the Jewish Precept at Evening for were this universally binding it could not being a Positive Command accommodate the Necessity of Nature for the different beginning and ending of the Sabbath as the Pattern in Adam and the New Testament Example doth And this I conceive to be one chief Reason that the Jewish Sabbath is abrogated and that we have only the Pattern of Adams Sabbath left us by rational Inference from the Scripture and the Reason of the change of the Sabbath in the New Testament for our beginning of it in the Morning and that we have not any command fixing of it as it was to Israel For 1. That would have either bound us to the precise Point of Time of its beginning in the Lard of Canaan and then the Memorial of Christs Resurrection early in the Morning had not been signified by its beginning in other Nations remote from their Borders for in some places it must then begin at Noon c. and so its day-light there had been divided and the Service of God distructed and our worldly Affairs too much intruding on the meetest time for solemn Worship Or 2. Such a command to six the beginning of the Sabbath would have required it univerfally to begin in the Morning or at the dawning of the Day which is inconsistent with the course of Nature for many Weeks together in some Northern Parts of the World And therefore that those People should not be obliged by any Law to keep such a Sabbath which they are not capable constantly to observe God was pleased to leave only the Moral Precept of the fourth command founded on his first sanctifying of the Sabbath to be binding to us all that those Northern People should answer it by beginning their Sabbath with the first and seventh-day or proportionable Division of a day bounding before and after their six working days and allow it the same Proportion of Time and should preserve the Memorial of the Resurrection of Christ by observing the first day of the Week from and in Distinction to the Jewish seventh-day as near as they can to Answer the Example of the Primitive Churches in the New Testament And that we and all others that have constantly our natural days with Evenings and Mornings twenty four hours long should answer the same Moral Law after the Gospel Pattern and as precisely as we can to begin our first-days Sabbaths early or at the dawning of the Morning in every Nation For if we and all other such Nations should be tyed successively to begin our Sabbath at the very precise Point of Time of the dâ—wning of the first-day in Jerusalem to contemporize with them in the Land of Canaan where our Lord afore from the Dead then they must either in other Countries Eastward to the Sun from the Land of Canaan begin their Christian Sabbath later in their Day-light or Westward from them sooner in their Night than they should in Judea and so in the Compass of the whole World Eastward or Westward there would be a beginning and ending of the Sabbath near a day and night differing in their Time of day to the dawning of the day in the Land of Canaan and by this means in some parts of the World the Christian Sabbath would begin at Noon at Evening and at all hours of the Day and Night and so except in that very spot in and about the Land of Canaan they would lose its Memorial of Christs Resurrection at the Dawning of the Day But if other Countries Eastward and Westward from Canaan begin as they ought their first-days Sabbath like them at the same time of the day then they must either begin their first day sooner or later than the first day began in Canaan and so in the Compass of the World Eastward or Westward it must begin and end in all Hours of the Jewish seventh or second day of the Week and in some place their first-day must be in the same time and contemporize with their seventh * Or within a very small time of it viz. of their seventh or second-day or in some place with their second-day
†Or within a very small time of it viz. of their seventh or second-day in the Land of Canaan And therefore seeing the Sabbath cannot be begun universally both at the precise Point of Time and Time of day as it should begin in the Land of Canaan to contemporize with them there And considering that Adams Sabbath was not only designed for the Moral end of Mans abâ—inence from Work for a time of solemn Worship to God but that it had its Memorial of the Creation and that the Jewish seventh-day Sabbath afterwards bearing that Memorial was also appointed for â—loral Ends and for a Ceremonial Memorial that rendred it uncapable of being a universal Pattern and that the Memorial of Christs Purchase of our Spiritual and Eternal Salvation should be preferred before that of Israels Deliverance out of Egypt then we ought to observe our Christan Sabbath as much as can be to Answer thereunto the end of its chinge which may be done by all Nations including those Northern People keeping their first-day Sabbath in Distinction to and from the Jewish seventh day And as for its beginning early in the Morning or at the dawning of the Day the Scriptures shew that so it began in Judea Matth. 28.1 In the end of the Sabbath as it began to dawn or as John 20.1 While it was yet dark i. e. not light day towards the first-day of the Week came Mary Magdalen and the other Mary to see the Sepulchre c. And in Mark 16.2 It 's said they came unto the Sepulchre at the rising of the Sun and ver 9. Now when Jesus was risen early the first-day of the Week he appeared first to Mary Magdalen and said unto her John 20 1â— Touch me not for I am not yet ascended to my Father but go to my Brethren and say unto them I ascend unto my Father and your Father and to my God and your God And therefore seeing the Evangelists have Recorded the Time of the dawning and Sun rising of the Day to the History and Circumstances of Christs Resurrection and that we find he was then but newly riten because he had not yet ascended unto the Father when Mary first saw him We have then greater Reason to six the beginning of our first-day Sabbath in all Nations where we can at the dawning of the day expressed in the Scripture to bare the fuller Memortal of the Resurrection of our Lord than at any other time of the day And this we may strengthen from the Example of the Jews beginning their Sabbath in the Evening here in England and in other Nations tho our Evenings here differ and in other Nations are farther from the precise Time of the Evening in the Land of Canaan and their Reason for it is taken from the Precept of Moses which bindeth them to celebrate their Sabbaths from Evening to Evening Lev. 23.32 Exod. 12 18 19. And therefore seeing God was pleased under the Type of the Gospel Salvation Church and Sabbath to require the Memorial of that Deliverance by beginning their Sabbath in the Evening as the most proper time to bear its lively remembrance and that from thence they conclude it best answereth the express command of God and his End and Design in sixing the Jewish Sabbath to begin at Evening in the Land of Canaan for them to begin it so in other Countries also rather than to begin it at the precise Point of time of its beginning in Canaan and differ in the Time of day then we have Reason from the Type and their Example to begin our first-day Sabbath rather at the dawning of the day in all the World where we can than at the precise Point of Time at a different time of day to contemporize in all places And whatever the Jewish Sabbatharians may invent to say from the Necessity of the Course of Nature in those Northern or Southern Parts against the beginning of our first-days Sabbath early in the Morning or at the dawning of the day in all other Parts of the World the same Arguments will equally serve against the beginning of their Sabbath in the Evening where it can be so observed so that they cannot gain the least Advantage by opposing us in beginning our Christian Sabbath early in the Morning unless they can first invalid and disprove the Authority we bring for our keeping the first-day it self that it does not answer the Pattern of Adams Sabbath the Moral Law in the fourth Commandment and the Example of Christs Disciples and the Primitive Churches with all the ends of a Sabbath which is a task too hard for them And seeing the Scriptures sheweth by the Resurrection of our Lord that our Sabbath should begin at the dawning of the first-day of the Week it must consequently not end till the dawning of the second-day Mark 15.42 Luke 23.54 See Mr. Heemse Christ Synagogue Page 74. Who tells us the Jews had three Preparations to their Sabbaâ—h Succeeding each other And from the Custom of the Jews to make Preparations for their Sabbath the preceding Time from twelve a Clock on Saturday Night vulgarly so called till the dawning of the first-day it that time be not spent in our Nights rest it should be employed to prepare our Minds for the Worship and Service of God on the approaching Sabbath day But to proceed That I may remove any doubts that may yet arise about the usefulness of the Pattern of Adams Sabbath to us under the Gospel I shall add something to demonstrate how far it is of a Moral Nature for seeing I have forborn to call it a Moral Pattern because no one Pattern respecting the beginning and ending of the Sabbath can be wholly alike universally so to all Nations I think it 's therefore needful to explain the Moral use that is to be made of Adams Sabbath that so whatever different Apprehensions there may be about the use of the Word Mortal â—o Adams Pattern the thing it self may be understood and the Controversie may not be fomented about Words which some have made the Subject of much Discourse when they have not been able to Confute the thing that was plainly intended by them 1. Therefore as I shewed Page 2. that from Gods sanctifying the seventh-seventh-day for Man the Light of Adams Nature taught him that it was most meet to divide his time like his Creator and so it became the Moral Duty of Men as Men to have no more nor less than six working days to one Sabbath 2. See Page 24. I have also shewed the Reason we have from Scripture to believe that after Adams first sleep in the Night when the Hamane Nature was compleatly formed and Eve was brought to him at the end of the sixth Creation day their Sabbath began with the Morning day light of the seventh-seventh-day and the first day after the finishing of the Creation which seeing the Order of Gods Working and Rest and the Original Moral Duty of Man
none will affirm or else he was bound in Duty to keep his Sabbath before his six working days on Gods seventh-seventh-day of rest and then it was Adams Sabbath also Mark 2.27 as Christ plainly tells us That the Sabbath was made for Man and not Man for the Sabbath 2. There is two Moral Reasons for Man to Sabbatize or keep a Sabbath The one is to abstain from work that he may devote himself to Worship his Creator the other is to rest and refresh himself from his Toyl and Labour Now altho' many Men have not toiled themselves in any Work and so have no need of a rest to refresh their Bodies yet such are bound to keep the Sabbath as well as others in ceasing from finding their own Pleasure and speaking their own Words and to Honour God on his Holy Day Isa 58.13 So then tho' Adam and Eve had not passed one working day before they had Gods seventh-seventh-day Sabbath made for them yet it was their Moral Duty to abstain from Work and to Dedicate that very day to Attribute their Praise and Worship to him For we find by Abels Offering the Firstlings of his Flock Gen. 4.4 which was afterwards required of Israel with all the first Fruits of the Land of Canaan that the first of all our Increase is most acceptable to God and so by the same Rule was the first of Time after the Creation And when Adam was put into the Garden of Eden and had seen all the Cattel and Beasts of the Field and the Fowls of the Air and after that had Eve brought to him which God had formed for a help Meet for him and had taken a little view of the Works of God in the Heavens and on the Earth and of his own Happy Estate and Lordship over the Creatures Then surely it was his Moral Duty before he served himself in any Work or Business of his own most solemnly to Praise and Glorifie God for Creating him after his own Image and making him Lord over all the Earth And this seemeth to have been the Work of Man and Angels from Job 38.7 When the Morning Stars sang together and all the Sons of God shouted for Joy For thô it may be doubted what these Morning Stars are and how they sang yet the Sons of God most properly were the Angels and Man who bear the greatest Likeness and Image of their Creator of those then it s said they all shouted for Joy and I observe from the Text that as this could not be precisely at the same instant when the Foundations of the Earth were laid but rather when the Works of Creation were finished because neither the Natural Stars nor Mankind were then formed So there is no Reason to understand the Text of any Time after the fall of Man for then the Enmity of the Evil Angels against God would rather excite them to Curse than to Rejoice and Praise him for his Works It 's true the Word all is sometimes taken for a part and not the whole but not here for when God had finished his Work on the sixth-day He saw every thing that he had made and behold it was very good So that neither Man nor Angels were then fallen nor before this Solemn Acclamation of Joy for that would have been a Check unto it Besides we find nothing mentioned in the Text of Redemption-Grace but of the Works of Creation and therefore we have the greatest Reason to refer it to a Time of solemnizing the Praises of God between the finishing of the Creation and the Fall and there is Reason to believe that so it was for why should we imagine that God should Create all things very good and in Perfection and never receive their perfect Homage and Praise It is therefore rational to believe that God did not suffer sin to Marr the Perfection of his Works till all was sinished and did shew forth his Praise And then if Man had a time in Persection to solemnize the Praise of his Creator when could it best be done but in the sanctified time of Abstinence from his own business Mr. H. Soursby and Mr. M. Smith in their Book Page 67. say the Seventh day was a Paradice Institution for thô his Mind was then Pure and served God always yet why did God sanctifie the Sabbath for Man in Innocency as it is confessed by our seventh-day Sabbatharians if it was not principally for his solemn Worship for thô he had work appointed in Innocency to dress and keep the Garden of Eden yet it was not toilsome but delight some to him for Adams eating his Bread in Sorrow and with the Sweat of his Face came by the Curse that fell upon him for his Sin seeing therefore the Sabbath at its first sanctifying was not principally Hallowed for Man to rest and refresh his weary Body which became one Moral end of it through the Accident of Sin forseen by God but that it was first sanctified for Man to abstain from Work most solemnly to worship his Creator before he served in his own Affairs and considering God himself had no need of a Day of Rest for he fainteth not nor is weary and so his Declaration of it was for the Sake of Man to exert his worship to him we may then conclude that Adams first Sabbath was most properly fixed before his six working days to answer the Prime and Chief end of Hallowing of it after such manner as best became our first Parents in the State of Innocency Object 5. But some may say Thô by Adams first keeping his Sabbath we have no Example for beginning our Sabbath originally after our six working days yet the six days in which Israel first gathered Manna was to settle the keeping of their Sabbath as after their six working days and not before them Answer 1. Tho gathering Manna six days before their first Sabbath in the Wilderness is no where assigned as a sixing their first Sabbath after no more than six working days But it rather appears as to Man an Accidental thing For we find that God first gave the People Manna upon their murmuring because of hunger Besides if God had designed to six six working days before their first Sabbath it would better have suited such an end for God to have sanctified the seventh-day from their first Passover or from the Red Sea when they were delivered from Pharaohs pursuing of them but notwithstanding Israel were freed from the fear of their Enemies and had nothing as I can find to hinder their resting on the next seventh-day after yet if we reckon the day on which Moses and the Children of Israel sang and danced before the Lord for Joy of their Deliverance and the three days they were in the Wilderness of Shur and after that their coming to Morah and their Incamping after that at Elim by the twelve Wells of Water and seventy Palm Trees from whence they removed unto the Wilderness of Sin where
he cometh home the first-day in Canaan is by his account but the seventh-day and contrarywise if he Travelleth round the World Eastward he loseth in the length of his days but gaineth a day in Tale so that by his account the first day in Canaan falleth to be his second day at his return from whence some have argued that neither a Law nor Example can bind us universally to the Observation of any one Day and therefore if it were agreed amongst men any day of the Week or one day in seven may be made our seventh-day Sabbath boundary to six working days and so would answer the Moral Law Answer 1. The Question is Whether the Moral Law bindeth us to keep the seventh-day which men may appoint at their own pleasures or the seventh-day that we are directed unto in the Holy Scriptures Phil. 3.17 2 Thes 3.9 Surely we ought to exert our Obedience to Gods Precepts after the Examples of those that are set forth to be an Example to us I say not that we should follow them in all things they ever did but in all things they did which were essential to answer any Moral or Gospel Precept given for our Practice and consequently in this particular of the first-day Sabbath For seeing the Ceremonial Precept for the Sabbath is abroga ed and the Course of Nature maketh it impossible to be morally binding to all Nations we have then no other Directions how to answer the Moral Law but the Gospel Pattern justified by the Example of our first Parents and therefore we having a positive Law to keep the seventh-day Sabbath we are under a necessity to make that our Pattern For tho' the Apostle did go into the Jews Synagogues and there preâ—â—â—hed the Gospel on their seventh-day Sabbath 2 Tim. 4.2 as the meetest time to Convert both the Jews and Gentiles who assembled together on that day Yet we no where sind in Scripture that the Apostles Disciples of Christ and Primitive Churches did of choice set a-part that day but the first day of the Week for Gospel Service and this being Recorded as the only Example of the Gospel Churches Obedience to the Moral Law in this particular of the Sabbath surely it is lest for our Directions whatever is otherwise handed down by Humane History as the Practice of some Christians for the Scriptures snew that divers were under mistakes and errors Acts 15.1 c. Gal. 2.12 Ch. 4.21 and Ch. 3 and very Subject to Judaize even in the Apostles days 2. Mr. Chasie saith That Mr. Ironside also from the Diversity of Meridians proveth that one and the same day cannot be universally kept and therefore never commanded the whole Church One and the same day sath he could not possibly be observed a Sabbath by all the Jews in the East parts and West parts 〈◊〉 of Judea and in Babilon and in Rome by Reason of their Diversity of Longitudes And if it be supposed to be but two or three 〈◊〉 difference of Longitudes yet will that difference make the days as truly to differ from being the same as will an hundred and three tho it will not make them so much to differ But altho' this be true and the Law of Moses for sixing the Jewish Sabbath to begin at Even in the Wilderness and in the Land of Canaan was never designed to bind the Israelites to that which is impossible viz. to begin their Sabbaths both at the same time of day and at the precise Point of Time to contemporize in all places where they sojourned yet it doth not from hence follow as some have argued that such differences of days do free us from all Obligations to keep any one particular day so that if Christians agree upon the fourth fifth sixth or any other day of the Week to make it the seventh-day Sabbath after our six working days it does answer the Mind of God in the Moral Law as well as by keeping our first-day Sabbath For altho as I have proved the Jewish Sabbath being by Law to begin at Even was therefore never designed for a universal Pattern to all Nations yet who will say that it was not a Pattern for the Jews in all places that had Evenings where they did sojourn and where the days have no Evenings for many Revolutions of the Sun there was no Provision made for their Sabbath in the Ceremonial Law which they were under For God had placed Israel within other Nations and required all their Males three times a Year to appear before him in Jerusalem And therefore Dem. 16.16 they were not to sojourn so far amongst the Heathens as those Northern or Southern Parts while they were a free and peculiar Kingdom of Priests to God Exod. 19.5 6. So then notwithstanding the Ceremonial Precept for the Sabbath was neither designed to oblige the Heathens In those Northern Countreys if they were then inhabited nor could by Reason of the difference of their days accommodate the Jews to keep their Sabbaths there Yet if that Law was binding at all under the least Alteration of their Day as I think none can doubt of that nor consequently that it was obliging to the Jews in other parts of the World also where the days differed more in Point of Time to begin their Sabbaths at Evening with allowance to comply with the Necessity of the Course of Nature I say then seeing that Ceremonial Precept was binding under such Alterations of their day it must be granted that it obliged them not to vary from one another in the time of keeping their Sabbath farther than the Necessity of Nature did compell them for the beginning and ending of it at the time prefixed by the Law Otherwise if their Law did not so restrain them it was of no force nor use to them and consequently if the Gospel Pattern for us to keep the first day Sabbath be any Pattern at all for us to follow as I have shewed it is it doth then oblige us to observe it with no farther Allowance to alter the day than to accommodate the Necessity of Nature in every Countrey where we dwell Object 4. Tho' Gods seventh-day Sabbath on which he rested after his six Creation days was Adams first-day Sabbath of Abstinence from work before his six working days yet that was properly Gods own Sabbath on which he rested and not Adams because he could not be said to rest before he had any working days and therefore tho Adam abstained from work on Gods Sabbath yet the Moral end of Gods Example fixed Adams first Sabbath to begin on the next seventh day after the Sabbath on which God had rested from his Work of Creation Answer 1. Adam was either allowed to dress the Garden on Gods seventh-seventh-day of Rest which he sanctified and so to have seven working days as hath been said before he could rest on the next successive seventh-seventh-day or have his seventh-seventh-day rest a day before it which I believe
A TRACT ON THE Sabbath-Day Wherein the keeping of the First-day of the Week a Sabbath is justified BY A Divine COMMAND AND A Double EXAMPLE CONTAINED In the Old and New TESTAMENT With Answers to the Chiefest Objections made by the Jewish seventh-day Sabbatharians and others By ISAAC MARLOW London Printed by J. A. and are to be Sold by H. Barnard at the Bible in the Poultrey and by Hannah Smith at the Bible in Aldersgate-street 1693 4. THE Authors EPISTLE Christian Reader WHEN first my Thoughts were exercised in drawing up some Reasons to justifie our keeping the first day of the Week a Sabbath they were only designed for Private Use and to serve a particular Occasion that called for them But since the Providence of God has lead my Meditations farther into this Subject from other Considerations and by means of a Book lately Published by Mr. Tho. Bampfield for pressing the seventh day or Saturday Sabbath as the Duty of all Christians to keep Holy in Obedience to Gods command I have Thought it needful to present this Treatise for the eâ—â—ablishing of those that are unsettled in their Minds about it and for their Advantage who through the tolderness of their Consciences are exposed to divers difficulties because they cannot see that Liberty to be lawful which others take in making the Jewish Sabbath a working day To help therefore those sincere Christians tho but few in number that are intangled with this Yoak of Bondage I have considered diver Authors on their seventh-day Sabbath as besides the two Books of Mr. Edw. Stennets Mr. H. Soursby and Mr. M. Smiths Mr. VVill. Sellers Mr. Theophilus Brabourn and the aforesaid Mr. Tho. Bampfields two late Treatises which tho I have not directed the following Discourse in Answer to any one of them except in some particulars yet the Ingenious Reader may find I have taken Notice of the Chiefest Grounds and Arguments for their Sabbath contained in them all And if the Lord will graciously bless my well-meant endeavours for their right Information and hereby remove that bar between them and others or if any Benefit shall be received from this Improvement of my Talent I desire He may have the Praise to whom alone it is due However thô we or others may differ in some particulars thrô the various Sence we have of the Mind of God revealed in his Word yet as through the Grace of Christ we abhorr that which is Evil and cleave to that which is good with a Holy Detesta â—n of all apparent Transgressions of the Law consistent with Love and Pity to mens Persons and as we are Children of one Father and Co-heirs of Eternal Life through Faith in Christ that worketh by Love we ought to be united in kind Affections to one another And were our differences managed more in Brotherly Charity and by the gracious Conduct of the Holy Spirit controversial Discourses would be more acceptable the Reputation of Religion and our mutual Peace and Love would be better preserved which as I speak this more in general than desighing any particular Reflection on my aforesaid Brethren so I desire always my self to watch and labour to abound in this Grace of Love which is the Bond of Perfection To Conclude I have in the following Tract not only made the best Improvement I can of several things that others have wrote before me but as the Lord hath inlightned my Understanding I have added such Matters which I believe may be useful to clear the Case in hand hoping he will graciously Bless my Labour to your Advantage I. M. THE CONTENTS Sect. I. OF the use of the Word Moral Page 1. Sect. II. Of Gods revealing the first Sabbath to Adam Gen. 2. 2 3. which was then sanctified for Man before Israel observed their seuenth-day Sabbath in the Wilderness and was no Anticipation of the Order of Moses History Page 3. Sect. III. Treateth of the Law 1. Shewing wherein the House of Israel were more concerned in Sinai's Covenant than other Nations Page 5. 2. That the Israelites were not absolutely tyed to stand or fall Eternally by that Covenant without relief in Christ for the Elect Page 6. 3. Of the Ten Commandments and of their binding quality to the Gentiles Page 7. Sect. IV. Cleareth a Proposition 1. Shewing that the Gentiles were not absolutely required to keep the whole Ceremonial Law Page 9. 2. That there is Reason to believe the Gentiles before the Law had some Divine Revelation of the Will of God how they should worship him and that they were required to Sacrifice slain Beasts Page 10 11 12. Sect. V. In four Paragraphs proveth the Ten Commandments to be morally binding to all Nations Page 12 c. Sect. VI. Treateth of the Morality of the fourth Commandment Page 16. And of the Reasons why the Sabbath was first sanctified in the Name of the Seventh-day and not of the first-day Sabbath which it may be so called respecting its proper Nature immediate end and principal use first to Man Page 17. Sect. VII Sheweth that the Jewish Sabbath is Ceremonial and not morally binding to all Nations 1. Because it was a Couenant Memorial of Israels Deliverance out of Egypt Page 19. 2. Because it is abolished Colos 2.16 17. Page 19. 3. From the Order and Necessity of Nature wherein is shewed the Alterations of the accounts of Years Page 21. And of Days Page 23. As also the Interruption of the orderly Course of the Day Page 29. And the impossibility of all Nations observing the Sabbath after the Jewish Pattern because in some Places and Parts of the Year there is no Sun-settings nor Sun-rising for several Days and Weeks Time together Page 31 32 c. Sect. VIII Sheweth that Israels first Sabbath in the Wilderness was not a fixed Pattern that all men should originally have six working days before their Sabbath and not their Sabbath before their six working days Page 34. Sect. IX Containeth some Instances of particular Cases in the New Testament in which we are referred to the Pattern in our first Parents which serveth to justifie our doing the like to justifie our Observation of the first-day Sabbath Page 36. Sect. X. Explaineth the Pattern of Adams Sabbath Page 38. Sect. XI Treateth of the Types and Shadows that were of the Gospel first-day Sabbath under the Law Page 40. Sect. XII Sheweth that Christ arose from the Dead on the first-day of the Jewish Week Page 42. 2. That he appeared to his Disciples on the first-day of the Week Page 45. 3. The Apostle ordered the Churches to make Collections for the Saints on the first day of the Week Ibid. And 4. He broke Bread with the Church of Troas on the first day of the Week who on that day came together for that end Page 46. Whereto is added a brief Historical account that soon after St. Johns writing the first-day of the Week was called the Lords day in Distinction to the Jewish Sabbath Page 47. Sect.
alike Let every Man be fully perswaded in his own Mind Whatever some may imagine from this Scripture yet seeing Adam in Paradice had his Sabbath for the solemn worship of God Levit. 23.3 and Israel had their Sabbath for the same end and to rest from their work and labour there being still the same Moral Use and Necessity of Nature for a Sabbath there is Reason to believe that such a day is to be observed as well now and in after Ages as it was before And considering the undeniable Evidence that hath been given to prove the Decalogue to be Morally binding to us under the Gospel there is a necessity for the Preservation of the Concord of Holy Writ to give such an Exposition of this Text of Scripture as will both suit and agree with the Letter of it and the binding quality of other Scriptures to keep a Sabbath-day To proceed therefore the Apostle surely would not have singled forth the first-day of the Week on which the Churches were wont to have their Assemblies as the properest time to make their Collection for the Saints Nor would the Apostle John have called it the Lords day as hath been shewed from History if it had not been a sanctified day for Holy Use neither would the Holy Ghost have Recorded the Disciples gathering together on the two first-days after the Resurrection of Christ nor that the Church of Troas came together on the first day of the Week to solemnize the Gospel Ordinances of Divine Worship as the only Examples to answer the Moral Law in the fourth Commandment If the same Spirit of Truth in the Apostle had here designed to make every day alike Common 2. If the Apostle in this Scripture had so designed he would not have cited so many Precepts of the Ten Commandments in Chap. 13.9 of the same Epistle and have said of the rest of them as binding to the Romans to confirm his Moral Doctrine That if there be any other Commandment it is briefly comprehended in this saying namely Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy self And therefore seeing he doth so plainly discover the binding quality of the Ten Commandments to the Gentile Christians there is no Reason to conceive he should dissolve the Obligation of any one of them in the following Chapter considering that the Liberty there mentioned of esteeming or not esteeming of Days is not there reserred or applyed as having Retation to the Moral Observation of the sourth Command 3. The Apostle would not have abolished as hath been shewed the Jewish Feasts Holy days and Sabbaths Colos 2.16 17. nor have said to the Galatians Ye observe Days Gal. 4.10 and Months and Times and Years I am afraid of you least I have bestowed upon you labour in Vain If he or any other by Christs Authority had given absolute Liberty for Christians to observe the Jewish Holy days And therefore the sence of this Text which is freest from all Exceptions is That the Apostle neither giveth us Liberty to sleight the Observation of the seventh-day required of us in the fourth Commandment as the Bond of the Gospel Pattern nor yet doth give us absolute Liberty to observe the Jewish seventh-day Sabbath and their other Holy-days but he is teaching us how we should bear with one another in indifferent Matters as the eating of Herbs and esteeming of Jewish days That in Case a Brother should be so weak as that after he is converted from the Jewish Religion to the Christian Faith he should still retain some esteem of their Holy days yet being sound in all the Essential Principles to Salvation and in the constituted Order of a Regular Gospel Church his Communion is not to be refused Ver. 1. but here let the Reader well observe that my meaning is not that any Church should receive such a Christian into full Communion with them at the Lords Table that holdeth and maketh our first-day Sabbath only as a common day to him for this in the Judgment of a Church according to Scripture Rule bringeth him under the guilt of Sin and the Church should not partake of it by their holding such full Communion with him But the Apostle means that in Case a Converted Jew as he is there treating of such a one as maketh a difference between Meats to be Clean and Unclean Ver. 14 1â— if he should still esteem some of their Holy days yet if he also keepeth the first-day Sabbath Holy unto the Lord the Church in such a Case should be tender of grieving his weak Conscience by Continual and Uncharitable Disputations with him about the Matter wherein he is not clearly enlightned so as to give him an occasion to stumble and sall at the Offence For seeing he Conscientiously keepeth Holy the first-day Sabbath Gal. 4.13 15 20 21 23. for his retaining an esteem for some Jewish Holy days so they be kept to the Lord in Christian Worship and not for Jewish Sacrifices or such things which betoken Christs not being yet come and fully exhibited in the Flesh we are not to deny Communion at the Lords Table with such a Brother seeing he neither observeth the Jewish days to uphold their worship contrary to the Prohibition of Legal Ceremonies under the Gospel Dispensation nor can any ways be charged with disorders in Ordinances or in Matters Essentially pertaining to the Regular Constitution of a Gospel Church And that this is the Mind of Christ in the Text appeareth in two things 1. Because the Apostle joineth this Liberty of Regarding or not Regarding of days with Eating or not Eating of Meats as things of a like indifferent Nature but the Keeping or not Keeping of the Weekly Sabbath hath been fully proved to be no indisserent thing but an absolute Duty and therefore it is none of the Subject Matter included in the Apostles Words 2. He intended to give no Liberty to observe the Jewish days for Legal Ceremonial Worship for this under the Gospel would not be counted a keeping of a day to the Lord but not a keeping of it to him and so as the Apostle argueth it is not a keeping of a day at all And thus having opened this Scripture and given the sence of the Apostles Words in Reconciliation to the Authority of other Places that are binding to us for the Observation of the Sabbath day I shall leave it to the serious Consideration of the Impartial Reader Answer 2. To the Objection from 2 Cor. 3.7 where the Apostle saith But if the Ministration of Death written and ongraven in Stones was glorious so that the Children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the Face of Moses for the Glory of his Countenance which Glory was to be done away how shall not the Ministration of the Spirit be rather Glorious In Answer to this Scripture I shall Note that in the preceding and following Verses the Apostle is signifying the different and exceeding Glory of the Ministration of the quickening Spirit
when the Humane Nature was compleatly formed to offer the first of Time to the Praise of his Creator before he served himself did first begin the Sabbath with the day-light unto Man we have then Reason to conclude that such a Sabbath is most morally to be observed by the World as no other Sabbath can more universally suit with the Course of Nature in the greatest part of it Indeed God can by his Prerogative and as I have shewed did dispense with the Alteration of the Sabbath from this first Pattern by a Law to Israel as he did by the Precept of Divorcement dispense with the Moral Pattern in Adam and Eve that none should put away his Wife for the causes allowed afterwards by a Ceremonial Law but this we find did not at all destroy the Moral Use and Binding Quality of the Pattern in our first Parents after Christ was come and so it is with the first Pattern of the Sabbath which no doubt was binding to others after Adam as precisely to observe the same day as near to the orderly Succession of the same time as could be according to the allowance of the Course of Nature in every Climate wherein they dwelt It 's true it may be said we cannot keep the Sabbath from our Knowledge that we observe the same precise Succession and Order of Time as Adam did and others in the first Ages did or should do in their feveral Countreys But then as God was pleased Exod. 13.2 12 to 16. insigâ—d of the first-born of the Children of Israel which were the Lords to require and accept of the Levites for his Service Exod. 34.19 20. Numb 3.41 to the end Chap. 8.16 c. Levit. 27.25 26 c. Chap. 22.29 30. Deut. 12.6 but still kept up the Memory of his Right by Causing afterwards the Israelites to acknowledge it in paying Redemption Money for their first-born of Man and unclean Beasts and did still require the first-born of clean Beasts to be offered to him So likewise the Practice of Christs Disciples and the Primitive Churches shews us that the first of Time from the work of purchasing our Redemption bearing the Image of the first of Adams and Eves Time from the Creation is most acceptable to God and after the aforesaid Example of Gods Command and Allowance to Israel concerning their first-born we should likewise offer it as God accepteth of it instead of the same precise Succession of Time from the Creation in Memorial thereof and of the purchase of Mans Salvation And it is rational to conclude that seeing the beginning of the day was changed upon the account of the Type a day might well be changed upon the account of the Antitype If this in the Figure was reckoned worthy of such Note that the account of the days beginning from the Creation with the Day-light most give place to the Memorial of Israels Deliverance out of Egypt so as that their days must begin at Evening the substance of this Figure appearing might well be the Cause of the Change of a Day and of a Typical Memorial to its Spiritual and Gospel Memorial in our first-days Sabbath To close this Matter seeing the Moral Law requireth the seventh or first-day a boundary to our six working days and that the Precept for the Jewish Pattern is abtogated in the New Testament Nature it self also taking away its binding quality to all Nations because it cannot accommodate its necessity how then can we answer the fourth Command so well as by keeping such a Sabbath that every way agreeth with that Moral Precept that also suiteth with and is justified by the Morality of Adams Sabbath the end of its change from the Jewish seventh-day and the Example of Christs Disciples with the Primitive Churches which doubtless we are bound to follow in Obedience to the fourth Command as we observe their Examples in Obedience to other Precepts As for instance laying on of Hands for Confirmation of Elders or Church Officers and consummating their Ordination is a Divlne Rite which is the Duty of all Compleat and Orderly Gospel Churches Authoritatively to Practise Ordination of Elders being Instituted in Titus 1.5 but yet the manner of compleating this Institution is no otherwise known nor practised by us as I can find but from the Examples of the Apostles and Primitive Churches Acts 14.23 26. with Chap. 13.1 2 3. Chap. 6.1 to 7. Objections Answered Object 1. THE Psalmist saith Psal 147.19 20. He sheweth his Word anto Jacob his Statutes and his Judgments unto Israel He hath not dealt so with any Natton and as for his Judgments they have not known them Answer This Scripture is no ways repugnant to what I have said of the Use and Benefit of the Law of Moses to the Gentiles For we find the Israelites had continual Wars with the Heathens round about them and the old Inhabitants of Canaan were not wholly subdued till Joab David's Servant 1 Chron. 11.4 c. Chap. 19.20 took the Castle of Jebus which is Jerusalem or about the latter end of Davids days So that till they had obtained Peace and Rest and became in Repute and Honour in Salomons Reign it cannot rationally be supposed that any Gentile Nation for the Text excludes not single Persons had a full and distiuct Knowledge of Moses Law with the Statutes and Judgments therein contained Nay tho' the Gentiles had an Interest in the Uso and Benefit of the Law and were to seek after the Knowledge of the Oracles of God committed to the Jews yet such was their hatred against them and love to gross Idolatry that till about two hundred eighty Years before the Nativity of Chirst See Josephus Book 12. Ch. 2. Ptolomy Philadelphus King of Egypt had caused the Law to be translated into Greek by the Seventy two Interpreters it was never as I can find translated out of the Hebrew Tongue So that as David rightly said that God had not dealt so with any Nation viz. with any other Nation besldes Israel so as to shew them his Oracles under a peculiar Obligation in trust for others also He having designed to pour the Water out of Jacobs Buckets it is likewise also Evident Numb 24.7 that no Gentile Nation thenâ— in Davids Time had a full and distinct Knowledge of Gods Laws tho' respecting the particular Election of God among them they might by some means or other receive the true and saving Knowledge of the Messias through their converse with the Jews Object 2. Some may say the Apostle in Rom. 14.5 seemeth to leave the keeping of days to our own Liberty and also in 2 Cor. 3.7 8. Coloss 2.14 he seemeth to abolish the binding quality of the Ten Commandments as given on Mount Sinai and therefore it is doubtful whether we are under any Obligation to keep a Sabbath or Day of Rest at all Answer 1. To Rom. 14.5 One Man esteemeth one day above another another esteemeth every day