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A55487 Sabbatum. The mystery of the Sabbath discovered Wherein the doctrine of the Sabbath according to the Scriptures, and the primitive church, is declared. The Sabbath moral, and ceremonial are described, and differenced. What the rest of God signified, and wherein it consisted. The fourth commandment expounded. What part of the fourth commandment is moral, and what therein is ceremonial. Something (occasionally) concerning the Christian Sunday. By Edm. Porter, B.D. sometime fellow of St John's Colledge in Cambridge, and Prebend of Norwich. Porter, Edmund, 1595-1670. 1658 (1658) Wing P2984; ESTC R218328 143,641 276

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from the very Creation of man or from that very time when God commanded man to abstain from the Tree of knowledg And yet in this Assertion I shall not in the least gainsay the Doctrine of those Ancient and most learned Fathers as a Iust dial cum Tryph. Tert. Adv. Iudaeos Euseb de Demonst lib 1. c. 6. Justin Martyr and Tertallian and Eusebius who tells us that neither Adam nor Enoch nor Noah nor Melchisdeck did ever Sabbatize And b Athanas in Synopst Athanasius also who affirmed very truely That the observation of the 7th day sabbath be an not untill the dayes of Moses All which I firmly beleeve to be true provided that we understand their Assertion in the same sense that they meant it viz of the hebdomary weekly or 7th day Sabbath which verily is not that Sabbath which is meant mysteriously implied in the fourth Commandment For the Sabbath which in the fourth commandment is required to be Sanctified is the true substantiall mysticall and eternall Sabbath which is the Son of God the Messiah the great Peace-maker even the Lord Jesus Christ of which true Sabbath the Jewish Leviticall Ceremoniall or seaventh-day Sabbath was but a meer shadow type or figure which shadow is now vanished as other legal shadows are such as Circumcision and Sacrifices both which were farr more ancient then the weekly Sabbath was whereas the Sabbath meant and intended commanded in this 4th commandement was in force and kept by all the holy Patriarks before Moses was born and before it was written in stone it was written in man's heart as all other Moral lawes were and it was and is to last untill the end of this world and in the next world also and not to be Antiquated at all as the seaventh-day Sabbath was and is For the Moral law which was written by the finger of God consisteth of ten Commandments just so many no more nor lesse which number the holy Scripture mentioneth Ex. Ex. 34. 2● 34. 28. Ten commandments or Decem verba Foederis Tenn words And so again Deut. 4. 13. Tenn words or Commandments And God wrote them on two Tables of Stone to signifie the durablenesse of them all and therefore the Moral Sabbath there meant must continue as long and as firmly as any of the other nine We must still have Ten Commandments which is the reason that St. Austin and generally all our Divines to this day call this Moral law Decalogum as consisting of Ten words or Commandments The same Father in his book intituled a Aug. Tom 3. Speculum reciting the Moral law out of Ex. 20. doth quite omit the fourth commandment which is of the Sabbath and this he did because 1. He knew that the seaventh-Seaventh-day Sabbath was none of the Moral laws of God but that it is totally antiquated and expired 2. Because he perceived that men did mistake the meaning of the true Moral Sabbath by fixing the duety thereby required only on the keeping holy of a day whereas they should have known that the Sabbath there meant is only Christ So that by this misconceit men slighted the Substance and magnified the Shadow for the same Father had said before b Aug. epist 86. Judaeus si sabbatum observando Dominum negat c. i. e. If the Jew by observing his Sabbath day doth thereby deny that his Lord Messiah is come how can the Christian safely observe the Sabbath day And again in his 119. Epistle to c Epist 119. cap. 12. Januarius cap. 12. he thus writeth c. Praeceptum de Sabbato solùm figuratè praecipitur de requie quae in solo Deo certa invenitur-ergo non ad literam jubemur observare diemillum nam nisi aliam Spiritualem requiem significet lex ridenda judicatur i. e. The law of the Sabbath day is only figurative signifying that Sabbath or rest which is no where to be found sure and certain but only in our God Therefore we are not hereby to observe a day as it is literally set down for unlesse some other Spiritual rest be thereby meant that Sabbath law might seem ridiculous Thus he Upon the same reason Isychius of Jerusalem affirmeth That the sabbath day which the Jewes observe is none of the Ten Commandements although it was written among them for the Sabbath there meant signifies d Isych in Levit. lib. 7. c. 26. Requiem intelligibilem saith he i. e. not a Corporal but a spiritual or intelligible Rest which rest is only in our God He added that if we will take the words going before viz I am the Lord thy God that brought thee out of the land of Aegypt for one of the commandments we shall still have Tenn Indeed The mysterious Sabbath which is really meant and intended in the morality of the 4th Commandement is only that God which delivereth us out of not only Egyptian but also Hellish Slavery which deliverance is implied and couched in this word Sabbath so that we need not put out one of the commandments and in the room of it take in a new for preserving the number of of Ten for that number will be found therein without such chopping and we are offended with the Romanists for such practises about these commandments who to hide the second commandement which forbiddeth image-worship have in their Catechisms quite omitted it although it continueth perfectly in their Bibles and to supply the defect they have obtruded the fallacy of Composition in making but one Commandment of the two first And the fallacy of Division in making two of the last as is apparent in their books and particularly in Ledesma's dial p. 81. Ferus libell precat p. 59. 60. the Catechism of Jacobus Ledesma a Jesuite and also of Ferus CHAP. II. The word Sabbath That it signifieth Rest Of the Rest of God and the Rest of man Of our rest Corporal and Spirituall The diffferences of Sabbaths The severall sorts of Jewish lawes which command or enforce the Sabbath The Judicial lawes of the Jewes not fit to be imposed on Christian WHat this word Sabbath signifieth we are certified by two learned Jewes first a Philo. de cherubin Philo saith Sabbatum interpretatur Quies i. e. The interpretation of Sabbath is Rest With him b Ioseph Antiq. l. 1. c. 2. Josephus agreeth Sabbatum significatrequiem i. e. that it signifieth quiet or Rest With them our Christian writers generally consent as Eusebius Nazianzen Epiphanius Jerome Austin The Rest which is signified by this word Sabbath is 1 The Rest of God mentioned Gen. 2. 2. God rested on the 7th day from all his works And so again Ex. 20. 11. How the most blessed Godhead can be said to rest which never laboured or was weary we shall inquire hereafter Secondly The Rest of man and this Rest is of two Sorts First Rest Corporal by ceasing from worldly servile labours on the 7th day both himself his family and his poor beasts
be the Lord. The Scriptures often mention Sabbaths in the plural number as Lev. 19. 3. Keep my Sabbaths and also Sabbath in the singular numb●r and I doubt not but the Jews were charged to keep other Sabbaths as that which is appointed in the Feast of Trumpets Levit. 23. 24. and that in the Feast of Tabernacles Levit. 23 39. and that in the Feast of Atonement Levit. 23. 32. as well as the weekly Sabbath because we find that transgressors of the yearly Sabbath are threatned with destruction as well as the breakers of the weekly Sabbath Levit. 23. 29. But now all these Ceremonial Sabbaths are vanished This being granted it will follow in regard of the authority and perpetuity of the Moral Law of God That there must needs be some one special singular and mysterious Sabbath of greater necessity and concernment to be still kept than all those Hebdomarie or Annual Sabbaths and that surely is Christ The Lord Paramount of all Sabbaths which were but shadows of him Whosoever therefore shall imagine that the keeping of any weekly or yearly Day Sabbath is the principal or only duty required in this Moral Law he is such an one as the Psalmist describeth Psal 397. A man that walketh in a vain shadow It is very considerable and surely for some weighty reason That our Saviour very often in the Evangelical Histories occasionally mentioning these Moral Laws and many of them distinctly and severally yet never spake in the least expresly and openly of the Sabbath Law although that fourth Commandment so far as it is Moral is as necessary to be pressed and rather more than any one or indeed then all the other as is shewed before And yet it is not to be doubted but that he meant and also did covertly press this very Sabbath Law in the true intent and meaning thereof to be for ever carefully observed and sanctified I do not take upon me to render a full account of what moved Christ to forbear the reciting of that Law so openly as he did other Moral Laws of the Decalogue yet it may reasonably be thought that he on design and purpose omitted that Law and indeed all the particular Laws of the first Table because he saw that the Jews did misunderstand that Commandment of the Sabbath and that they were zealously obdurate for keeping the seventh day Sabbath as if that had been the full and only intendment and duty required by that Commandment for if Christ had urged it the Jews had been by him countenanced in their erroneous Sabbatizing which he came to dissolve therefore he forbare the naming of that particular Law and for the same cause he abstained from mentioning any of the other Laws of that Table lest if amongst them this Law should be omitted without any mention the Jews would have been more exasperated against him before his time was come to suffer This omission of the Sabbath Law the Reader may observe Mat. 19. 17. Where Christ said If thou wilt enter into life keep the Commandements And when he was asked Which Commandments he answered Thou shalt not murther nor commit adultery nor steal nor bear false witness and Honour thy Father and Mother and Love thy Neighbour as thy self See the same again Mark 10. 19. and Luke 18. 20. In all which places there is no express mention of the Sabbath Law or of any other Law of the first Table But when he was more strictly questioned by a knowing-man a Lawyer or Scribe being a Professor of the Law Mat. 22. 36. Master which is the greatest Commandment in the Law Yet then he answered him but in general terms including the Laws of both Tables without mentioning any one particular Law of either Table thus Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart c. This includeth all the four precepts of the first Table Sabbath and all He that performeth this doth thereby keep the Sabbath Therefore to love honour and sanctifie our Lord Jesus Christ who is our only Lord God our God Incarnate the Emmanuel our Creator Redeemer and Saviour is to keep this Moral Sabbath for he only is that Sabbath which is mysteriously commanded to be sanctifyed in that Law this Sabbath Law continueth in full force and vigour at this day and so shall to the end of this world and for ever when all other observations of seventh-Days or any other worldly Sabbaths are quite forgotten and vanished for the true intended Sabbath is a Person Christ the Son of God and the Son of man Finally This Commandment which I have set down in these words Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy is certainly a Moral and an everlasting Law This Sabbath if it be confessed to signifie Christ we have what we desire but if it should signifie only the keeping of a Day whether the last day of the week as the Jews think or the first day as some Christians suppose then surely the not keeping of one at least of these two days is a sin and must be so accounted now under the Gospel for the Apostle tells us 1 Ioh. 34. Sin is the transgression of the Law He means the Law Moral But we are well assured that the Gospel doth not account the Not-keeping of both or either of those days to be a sin against the fourth Commandment or against any other of those ten Moral Laws except indirectly and by consequence for in all the New Testament we cannot find such Sabbath-breaking to be so much as once mentioned in any of the black Rolls of sins as other transgressions of all those Commandments are particularly and often by the great Apostle See 1 Cor. 6. 9 Neither Fornicators nor Idolaters nor Adulterers nor effeminate nor abusers of themselves with mankinde nor Theeves nor Covetous nor Drunkards nor Revilers nor Extortioners shall inherit the kingdom of God See more Gal. 5. 19. Uncleanness lasciviousness wi●chcra●t hatred variance emulations wrath strife seditions heresies envyings murthers revilings and such like See more 1 Tim. 1. 9. Lawless disobedient ungodly and sinn●rs unholy and prophane murtherers of fath●rs and of mother● man-slayers men-stealers such as are now called Spirits ●yars perjured persons Among all this Rabble we find not Sabbath-breakers Yet the abusers or neglecters of the true Moral Sabbath which is Christ are deeply threatned as Judas for betraying him the Jews for crucifying him and All that shall deny him So the Sanctifiers of him are gloriously promised as the confessors of him the believers in him the relievers of him or of his poor Members for his sake to be rewarded with the kingdom of Heaven This is the Scriptural Doctrine concerning the Sabbath-ship of Christ What the Church Catholick conceived thereof is next to be enquired CHAP. VII The Doctrine of the Primitive Church concerning the Sabbath shewed out of Tertullian and other Fathers How the Patriarks kept the Sabbath before the days of Moses The Doctrine of the Church of England
Sunday-Sabbath because Origen's authority is invalid having bin condemned by the Church as erronious and his Sectaries are put into the Catalogue of Hereticks by d Epiph. Haer. 64. Epiphanius under the title of Origianistae and yet that book of Origen is now not extant in that Language wherein he wrote it but was translated into Latin by Ruffinus who is generally noted to Deteriorare as St. Ambrose speaketh i. e. to be a depraver of all books that he took in hand to translate or reform Notwithstanding I have Intituled this book Sabbatum By which word I mean that Sabbath which is Moral and natural and is commanded in the fourth Commandement which is still in force and binding both Jewes and Christians and all men in the world and so it was before any Law was written and should have so continued although it had never bin written in stone or although no Day-Sabbath had bin commanded For this fourth Commandment injoyneth and obligeth us to a more noble and needfull Sabbath than ever any seaventh-day Sabbath was or could be which surely the holy Patriarks did apprehend before the dayes of Moses but the Scribes and Pharisees and vulgar Jewes after Moses did not nor yet do to this day The true substantial and moral Sabbath intended in that Law is their M●ssiah our Christ who is the Jesus i. e the Saviour and therefore the perfect and only and everlasting Sabbath or Rest of all believers Which truth I trust will hereafter clearly appear But if our Brethren do indeed believe that our Sunday is that Sabbath which is literally or but equitably as they say commanded in the Moral Law then verily they should perform all those duties and services which the Law giver commanded to be done on the Sabbath day then they must offer bloody Sacrifices two Lambs for the Sabbath besides the two which were for every week-day and B●ke 12 great loaves or cakes of Shew-bread which was to be done on the Sabbath and in order heerunto they should joyn 1 Chron. 9. 32. with the Jewes and help them to build their Temple once more at Jerusalem where these duties are to be performed and with them set up the Fifth Monarchy or Earthly Kingdome of Saints If it be said that the sunday-Sunday-Sabbath differs from the Jewish in that theirs was on the last day of the week but this on the first This will not help because other festivals of the Jewes were Sabbaths and all required sacrifices and might fall on any day of the week as the Passover and Pentecost and the rest for they were moveable feasts depending on the Moon But the performance of such shadowie ceremonies now would be a real denyal of Christ as if he were not come and were not the grand Sacrifice of which the former were but meer Figures which figures now are but Cyphers All good and prudent Christians do believe and confess that the Jewish Ceremonial Saturday-Sabbath is now quite gone expired and vanished and that since the true body of them and the true light is come the Jewish figures and shadowes are not to be any longer used by us among which shadowes the Sabbath was one and the most principal of all Surely we ought to abstain from applying the appellation of Sabbath to our Sunday lest therein we should seem to Judaize Justin Martyr saith a just Dialog cum Tryph. Gentes Christiani non observant Sabbata ne Judaei putarentur i. e. The Gentiles or Nations which are Christians do now abstain ftom observing the Sabbath lest they might thereby be thought to be of the Jewish infidelity and seeing that the thing it self is gone there is no cause why we should retain the name For the very word Sabbath applyed to our Sunday is not only a sign of our ignorance in Religion but it is moreover Scandalous in that it hudwinketh the people with a Mosaical Jewish vaile as the Apostle sepaketh 2 Cor. 3. 15. And thereby hindereth them from discerning the true Sabbath which is Christ and leadeth them into the Jewish error so as to think that the whole duty required in the fourth Commandment consisteth in keeping holy one day of the week as if that were the only or principal and ultimate duty thereof which is not only untrue but dangerous also And this error of Sabbatarians mixed with their too hot and ignorant zeal therein and in some other Judaizing practises hath given our adversaries occasion to detest our Persons and also to blaspheme our Religion and as a Luther an once did some Calvinists to call us Baptized Jewes For this reason it was in all probability that the Ancient-fathers most learned Christians in the very primitive times of the Church did so warily cautiously abstain from putting the appellation of Sabbath upon the Christian Sunday lest they should be thought to Judaize And the same reason also moved the Church to alter the Jewish day of the old Passover for the solemnity of our Easter is the remembrance and confession of the Easter that is the Rising or R●surection of Christ from the precise fourteenth day of the Moon to the Sunday and this lest Christians should be thought to celebrate only a Typicall Passover as the Jewes did as if Christ the true Passover were not come and therefore Tessares-cae-de catitae the Church adjudged and condemned those that held to the fourtenth day for Hereticks under the appellation of Tessares-cae-decatitae or Quar● adecimani as we find in b Epiph. H ar 50 Epiphanius The same reason also moved the holy Apostles themselves to meet in Council on purpose against the errors of some Pharisees and Judaizing Christians in their dayes who said that the Converted Gentiles ought to be Circumcised and to be commanded to keep Moses law they meant the law Ceremonial as we read Act. 15. 5. So early did they decree against the danger of Judaizing This is not said by me as in dislike or in the least to disparage the Christians godly and zealous care in Sanctifying the Sunday devoutly and seriously to the service of our God and by joyning in our holy assemblies in praying and praising God and hearing his Word readd and opened to us and also privately meditating theron Far be it from me so to ●ilipend the godly usance of the Church in all ages thereof and the sacred lawes and decrees of Christian Princes upon which as on two pillars the Authoritative sanctification of our Sunday standeth and not otherwise Onely in all humility I offer this caution to the less learned and more credulous Brethren Rem tene linguam corrige Good Christian keep the Sunday or as now it is in England called of late though not by the Church of England the Lords-day and keep it holy in the name of God but abstain from calling it a Sabbath day Because the Sabbath was but a figure and is gon and because neither the old Jewish Sabbath nor the Christian Sunday are that