did shadow forth Salvation through Faith in Christ and that Believers of the Posterity of Noah should be Heirs by Faith of the righteousness of Christ which was in this Type made a special Free Covenant with them whilst the unbelieving and unperswadable the impenitent and disobedient living and dying such would perish and be destroyed After the Flood Noah thus saved builds an Altar to Jehovah which was a Figure of Christ by whom we are to offer the Sacrifice of Praise always unto God as is interpreted in the Epistle to the Hebrews It is Christ the spiritual Altar who doth sanctifie the offering and the gift On this Altar which Noah did build Noah offered up burnt Offerings of every clean Beast and of every clean Fowl The LORD Christ was hereby Typified who performed his Office of Mediation as in all the other parts of it so in the discharge of his Priestly Function offering up of himself a propitiatory Sacrifice to God his Father more especially for those whom the Father gave unto him This he did by the everlasting Spirit without spot This was signified hereby expiation and the doing away of sin by the slain Sacrifices of Christ himself Jehovah smelled a smell of rest in what Noah did graciously accepting of the Sacrifice thus offered and again makes a Covenant with Noah of rich Mercy in Christ by and through whom Believers should be freed from the Curse For another confirmation of this gracious Promise the LORD makes it sure unto Believers by a sign He gives them a visible Token at some Seasons for the encouragement of his peoples Faith that when they saw him giving his Bow in the Cloud they might believe that he would remember his Covenant that they might rest on him and on his faithfulness in the true performance of the Word of his Grace This Covenant made with Noah that there should not be any more a Flood to destroy the Earth doth the Prophet Isaiah apply to the Covenant of Grace made with Believers in Christ confirmed by Oath For as he swore that the Waters of Noah should no more go over the Earth so he hath sworn that he will be no more angry with his Covenant-people nor rebuke them And the Rainbow which is a visible sign of his special Favour is both in Ezekiels Vision and in the Visions of John in the Revelation used as a sign of Grace from God to his people in Christ It was a gracious Testimony of Christ's glorious Majesty This Covenant of Grace was afterward renewed to Abraham and that several times wherein Jehovah did promise to bless him and to bless all the Families of the Earth in him in the promised Seed in Christ Abraham is called The father of all believers The LORD Christ appeared unto Abraham about eight times unto Isaac about three times and unto Jacob about seven times for the more establishing incouragement of Faith in his Promises so many we have upon written Record This free gracious Covenant and Promise doth Paul in his Epistles to the Romans and to the Galatians affirm improve and apply It was sealed by Circumcision to Abraham and that which was sealed was the Righteousness of Faith and his Faith was therein confirmed by Jehovah's Oath as the Scriptures in divers places have recorded It was full of Mercy and Favour and Jehovah forgets it not but as he hath remembred so he doth and will remember for his people this his holy Covenant The Covenant of the Law proclaimed afterwards at Mount Sinai could not disanul this Covenant with Abraham which was confirmed afore of God in respect of Christ as Paul argues with many convincing Arguments especially two if this be well considered that there was a Covenant of Grace in that Covenant at Mount Sinai which Jehovah the Aelohim of his people did then and there strike with his people at Horeb. The Typical Signs and Shadowing Figures delivered more privately there unto Moses together with the many annexed gracious Promises relating thereunto with respect to Priest Sacrifices Altar and such like do cast a clearer shining Light upon this before the Eyes of every Spiritual Discerner that will diligently compare the New Testament Commentary particularly the Epistle to the Hebrews upon that part of Moses's Book where the Veil that was upon the Face is taken off And if further this may also be demonstrated concerning the Law of the ten Words which was proclaimed with more open Solemnity and glorious Majesty that this also has in it the same Covenant of Grace the Kingly Law will then the more commend it self to the hearts of all the Disciples of Christ This Law has in the Scriptures the Name and the Thing of a Covenant of Grace It is called a Covenant such an one as has Grà ce in it For if we consider it as having the supperadded Law of Types and of Figures annexed to it So this Covenant was not dedicated without Blood The patterns of heavenly things were purified by the Blood of Sacrifices whereby Christ was held forth as confirming the Promises to Believers by his own Blood The Prophet Haggai makes mention of this Covenant made with them in Christ And Paul in declaring the Priviledges and Advantages of that People doth reckon up these that they were the adopted people of God the Ark of the Covenant in which the ten Words was put were amongst them was their Glory all full of Grace there were the Covenants the two Tables of them the Law-giving and the Instituted-worship was theirs and so were the Promises too which went along together with those other favours So that to be estranged from the Citizenship of Israel was to be strangers to the Covenants of Promise The Words there spoken are called The Words of the Covenant The two Tables on which the Words were written by the Finger of Aelohim himself have the name of the Tables of the Covenant of the Testimony of the Tables of the Testimony The Ark into which the Law of the ten Words and this only was put is honoured with the Title of the Ark of the Covenant the Ark of the Testimony covered over with Mercy and crowned round about with Gold and Grace The Tabernacle in which this Ark was treasured up and kept is said to be the Tabernacle of the Testimony O how full of Grace is all this Consider well who was the Law-giver Jehovah Aelohim from the Father in the holy Spirit by the LORD Christ spake with lively voice faces in faces and this unto all the people It was this Christ who was Administrator and Dispenser at Mount Sinai He was the Proclaimer of his own Kingly Law there as hath been already proved by the Scriptures It was he whom the Father gave for a Covenant of the people He who is the Mediator of the Covenant He who was the Angel of the Covenant He who was the
Confirmer of the Covenant He who ever was is and will be the foundation the ground-work the substance the comprehensive of the whole Covenant of Grace He in whom all the Promises of God as many as there be are Yea and Amen Truth and firmness it self faithful and unchangeable as he himself is This Law it self had much of a Gospel Design in it In the preparation that was made for the giving and receiving of it there were precious Promises made to that people who were then about to be taken into Covenant with Jehovah Aelohim A God in Christ ingaged that if hearkning they would hearken to his Voice and keep his Covenant they should be a peculiar treasure unto him above all peoples He would take them for his own proper Goods The same thing is mentioned in the New Testament Christ purchased to himself a peculiar people So Paul kept close to this Expression and that of Peter is much the same in his first Epistle though expressed by another A people for peculiar possession these are they whom Christ Buys and Redeems to himself for his own special use and service they are singularly dear unto him So is that Prophesie and Promise in Malachi How rich how free is this Grace that Jehovah chose his people for his portion as Moses thankfully confesseth in the words of one of his last Songs They were that part which he had marvellously separated unto himself his Heritage as by Liâ—â— allotted to him whom none other can challenge as their Propriety This People he chose above all Peoples that are upon the faces of the earth Not for their Multitude above all Peoples did Jehovah set his love upon them and chuse them for they were the fewest of all peoples but because Jehovah loved them and because he would keep the Oath which he had sworn unto their Fathers did Jehovah bring them out with a strong hand and redeemed them The Election was of his Grace not of any worthiness in them This Jewel was dear unto him and he promised a further honour that he would put upon them They should be unto him a Kingdom of Priests and an holy Nation Is not this the self-same thing which is mentioned as the Covenant-privilege of God's chosen ones under the New Testament-dispensation of Grace For to this phrase doth Peter keep and so also does John in the Revelation who doth give glory unto the LORD Christ that he hath made his people such now unto God his Father How full are the treasures of this Grace O what an honour did Jehovah put upon that People whom he so brought unto himself How signal a favour was this to his Israel If we look into the Ten words themselves do they not begin with a gracious Covenant I Jehovah Thy God This he made over to his People in a special manner there being no higher no greater Good than himself none so high none so great as he He is all Good in one whatever Good there is it is in and from him They are the Blessed ones who have this Jehovah for their God O the Blessedness of such thus sweetly sung the Psalmist This is the choice part of their happiness who enjoy this privilege by his Gracious Covenant and peculiar favour Under every Dispensation of Grace this is mentioned as the summ of all good for this is all the Salvation and all the desire of Believers To be For or To a God unto that People is the substance of that Covenant of Grace which God hath made with his People in Christ So it has been to this day and so it is revealed that it will be renewed and revived in the purest and best days When he gives himself to any he gives an Inheritance of all things to such As this doth bring in the first great Word or Command so also is it expresly put into the Second into the Third and into the Fourth into every Word of Command of the First Table In the Second Table also we may find it in the Fifth Word And those that will diligently observe and duly apply it in their reading of the Holy Scriptures may discern it to be a rich Portion going along with every one of the Ten Words in particular as well as made over to all of them in general especially with respect to the Fourth Word It is remarkable in Moses's repeating of this Law that in his going over of the Law for the Seventh-Day-Sabbath this Covenant of Grace I am Jehovah Thy God is four times expresly mentioned besides the Type of Spiritual Redemption by Christ which is also about thirty nine years after Christ's first proclaiming of this Law at Mount Sinai superadded and expresly put into this Fourth Word as a forcible Reason to engage Obedience to this holy Precept The Figure of which Salvation by Christ and of his delivering of his people from their Spiritual bondage and misery under Sin and Satan is a choice part of the Covenant of Grace This is that which doth lead in the Ten Words By this manifested Grace doth he invite his people to Faith and Obedience His Israel of Old had Redeeming mercy put into the beginning of this Holy Just and Good Law who were redeemed not only from outward Slavery but also from the Idolatry of Egypt as the Prophet Ezekiel hath declared and from the false Gods there so hath Samuel discovered in his Second Book And they had a Promise of other mercy in the Second Word which Jehovah would do unto those who loving him and keeping his Commandments They should receive Mercies Benefits Loving kindnesses Bounties from him It is further note-worthy that most of the Ten Words even Eight of them as they are in the two Tables are exprest in that manner that they are Precepts and Promises too such is the significancy of that Future-tense in which they run and the other two that is to say the fourth and fifth are put into the same promising as well as commanding way in the same Book of Moses in another place and the particular Duties and Graces required in those ten Words are somewhere or other covenanted by Jehovah Aelohim to be given to his people in other Scriptures as to love him to fear him to delight in him and such like he will inwork in them what he doth require of them O what abundance of riches of Grace is here If you meditate upon what did accompany the ten Words and what was annexed to them what were all the Shadows and Figures and Types but a significant Commentary upon the Covenant of Grace What was the true spiritual meaning of all these superadded Patterns but to set out Christ and all those special benefits which Believers have and do injoy in him of which the followers of Christ under that Dispensation of Grace had a free participation as the Disciples of Christ have now they fed on Christ in their Manna
will remember unto them said Jehovah Aelohim speaking of his Covenanting Israel walking obediently the Covenant of Ancestors them whom I brought forth out of the Land of Egypt before the eyes of the Heathen to be unto them a God I Jehovah Thus did he often in that Book of Moses make over himself to his people in Christ such delight did he take in taking occasion to tell them that he was and would be a God unto them Was not here Covenanting Grace and Redeeming Love It was the faine that was made before with Jacob Isaac and Abraham as sometimes the order of words is In other places is mentioned from Abraham downwards to Isaac and Jacob But in one place of Moses's Book it is mentioned renewed and confirmed going upward from the people near a deliverance in Egypt to Jacob to Isaac to Abraham the Father of the Faithful Thus leading them to that former and more ancient Promise and gospel-Gospel-covenant of Grace in Christ Believers could say in the Psalmist's time that J. â—â—lohim was their portion for ever Hath the LORD graciously promised that a chosen People shall be his people So they were of old in Moses's days If ye shall walk in my Stntutes thus spake he to them and keep my Commandments and do them then I will walk among you and will be to you a God and you shall be to me a People Jehovah hath avouched or hath caused to say or to promise by giving his and by taking thy Word thee to be unto him for a People of peculiar Treasure as be hath spoken unto thee and to keep all his Commandments For Jehovah ' s Portion is his people Jacob the Line of his Inheritance Ho hath divided and separated them unto himself as his allotted part and peculiar Possession Hath he promised Covenant teaching and Knowledge This also was a Covenant privilege of Old He taught them his name Jehovah and made himself known to them by that name in putting a Being into his Promises made to their Fathers for their deliverance and proclaimed this Name to Moses His people sate down at his feet receiving of his Words Thus were Christ's Disciples even then taught by him as their Master Thou saith he to his people then hast been made see to know that Jehovah he Aelohim none else besides him And thou shalt know and cause to return into thy heart that Jehovah he Aelohim in the heavens above and on the earth beneath none else This doth particularly relate to their being instructed to acknowledge Christ's Jehovahship In David's time the Secret of Jehovah was to them who feared him and his Covenant to make them for to know He revealed in the inner Man of Believers the hidden Mysteries of Wisdom Will he be merciful to the unrighteousness of his Covenant-people no more remembring their sins and their iniquities The same free Mercy and Grace was manifested under the former Dispensation Christ hath put it into the second Word or Command and proclaimed it as his Name when Moses went up into Mount Sinai as Jehovah had commanded him taking in his hand the two Tables of Stone Jehovah Jehovah God pitiful and gracious long suffering and much in Mercy and Truth keeping Mercy for thousands forgiving iniquity and trespass and sin Doth not the blessedness of man consist in this Whereupon Moses makes haste and bows himself and pleadeth this in Prayer Pardon thou O LORD our iniquity and our sin Was not this the meaning of the Sin Offerings and of the Trespass Offerings with the annexed promises of Pardon and of acceptation Did not the covering Merch seat which was altogether as broad as the Ark wherein were the two Tables preach this Did it not set out the merciful covering and propitiation of sins Was not this a precious Figure of Jesus Christ by and through whom received by and through Faith in him his peoples transgranssings of the Law of the ten Words are freely fully forgiven and wholly covered How full are the Books of Moses of the Psalms and of the Prophets of this comforting Doctrine So that all these Promises in the Covenant of Grace have been are and will be the same under both the Dispensations All the difference is that in the last days there will be a more clear discovery of this gracious Covenant A more glorious way of dispensing a more through inabling to the keeping of it For to this especially have the expressions of difference an eye and respect between the old and renewed Covenant Spoken of in Jeremiah and in the Epistle to the Hebrews compared There will be larger pouring out of the holy Spirit and blessing from the Father in the Name of the Son in those latter purer times that are near at hand So that this Covenant shall not be broken as it has been under former Dispensations of Grace but be better kept with more exactness and faithfulness with more intireness and continuedness in the fulness and perfection of it Halelujah I will confess Jehovah with all the heart Gracious He. He will Remember his Covenant for ever toward his people The secret of Jehovah to them who fearing him and his Covenant to make them for to know All the paths of Jehovah Mercy and Truth to them that keep his Covenant and Testimonies and that remember his precepts for to do them Have respect unto the Covenant For ever thou wilt keep for thy Saints thy excelling Ones thy Mercy and thy Covenant faithful to them The whole of the Christian Religion for Doctrines Graces Duties Priviledges and such like parts of that Religion is one and the same under both the Old and New Testament Is not the Word called the Word of Christ Is not Christ named the speaking-one both by Daniel and by the Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews Doth not Christ call himself the Word and the Word of God Is not He the sum and the subject matter of the whole Scriptures Is not he the Author of them Hath he not said of himself he is the one Doctor or Teacher of his Disciples Is he not the great Prophet Is he not the LORD God of the holy Prophets Did he not at Mount Sinai speak by his own voice from Heaven Was it not his forewithessing Spirit who from him spake in the Prophets of old declaring the sufferings that should befal Christ and the glory that was to follow as saith Peter in his first Epistle Was not that passage in the ninety and fifth Psalm To day if you will hear his voice applyed to the voice of Christ in what was written to the Hebrews Has not Christ himself declared that those who searched the Scriptures might find them testifying of him And what other Scriptures had they at that time but those of the Old Testament When he himself in the days of his flesh did exercise his publick Ministery preaching the glad tydings of Justice in the
good is it to be here But I must come down to this Mount and do further work yet for my LORD and Master I am now to evidence from the Scriptures of Truth that there was a Covenant of Grace under the Old Testament Administration This Doctrine of Grace is that which must lay the foundation for an after assertion of mine about a Law of faith under the Old Testament For Grace and Faith are companions Rich Grace abounding Mercy free Love from the Father in and through his Son Christ revealed to and in his people doth by his Spirit in his Word Inwork the Grace of Faith in them and calls forth acts of Faith from them that Christ may be made to them Wisdom Righteousness Sanctification and Redemption that no flesh might glory in his Presence but that those who glory mighty glory in the LORD and saving justifying Faith doth bottom upon the Power and Truth of God manifesting his unchangeable free Grace to Believers giving them this Grace of Faith whereby they apply Christ and his Righteousness unto themselves for their justification in the fight of God making them to acknowledge that they are justified accepted and saved not of Works neither of themselves but by Grace through and for Christ In Order to the Augmentation of this Holy Science I would propound these Questions to further Disquisition Q. Whether where ever in the Old Testament he that appeared as a Man or as an Angel and withal is called Jehovah be not always Christ manifesting himself under that Dispensation of Grace Q. Whether if all the Hebrew Words which in the Old Testament do set out Grace Mercy Sweet Savour Acceptance free Favour Covenanting Atonement Reconciliation Propitiation Pardon and such like withal Synonyms and Phrases relating thercunto If all these were put together it would not bring great Light to this Doctrine of a Covenant of Grace Q. Whether there be clear Scripture-Evidences that ever there were any Covenant made between God and Man of Salvation by Works only without Free Grace in a Mediator on God's part and without Faith in a Messiah on Man's part So that Man's Justification and Eternal Life was solely and merely upon this one only condition of mans perfect perpetual absolute personal obedience to the whole Law of God to all and every of his Commands Before I pass more thorowly into the Proof of a Covenant of Grace under the old Dispensation it may be of some use to open that expression of a New or a Renewed Covenant in the Prophesie of Jeremiah and in the Epistle to the Hebrews The Hebrew word for New is several times rendred Renewed by the English Translators themselves as the Reader may see in the Scriptures cited in the Margin the Hebrew often signifying not New for the Kind but another of the same thing for Kind The same word which is in Jeremiah A Covenant Renewed as New Days and New Mercies are Renewed Days and Renewed Mercies Thus a new Commandment of Love is a Renewed Commandment of the good old duty of Love Thus also in the Greek Language in that forementioned Instance it was an old Command renewed and revived So it is also in the Verb. Hence the Renewing of our Mind and the Renewnig of the Holy Spirit That it has this sense in the eighth Chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews will yet more clearly appear when I shall discover that all and every of the particulars expressed in that Covenant are such as have been as were in their nature real Existence and actual Being under the Old Testament dispensation In this as in other great Undertakings in this Treatise my Calls are more vocal than others from the LORD to commit my soul by well doing unto this Faithful Creator and loving Redeemer Jehovah Christ Considering the much opposition I have met with heretofore about this and other such Enquiries and may yet further be exercised with But he who made all things is also the Head of the Body of his Body the Church that in all he might hold the Chief For so it pleased the Father who in and through and by his Son has in all Ages of the world manifested and dispensed much of the freeness of this Love and of the Riches of his Grace which that it might be made firm unto his people he hath put into a Promise made sure with his Oath That Covenant which Aelobim in Christ made with his people was a Covenant of Grace one and the same both in the Old and New Testament differing only in the manner of dispensing As also is the whole of the Christian Religion one and the same in both for Doctrines and Duties for Graces and Privileges and such like parts of this Religion which doth vary only in the several ways of Administration By a Covenant of Grace I mean the LORD' 's free promising of Life of Wisdome of Righteousness of Sanctification of Redemption of all good things to his people believing in Christ who are thus specally favoured by him The Instances which I shall particularize in will be those after Adam's Fall Such a Gracious Covenant the LORD made with his people who were under the Old Testament-dispensation How much of Grace was there put into that one comprehensive Promise The Seed of the Woman shall bruise the Serpent's head I shall gather a little out of that full store of this which is to be found and put it together Noah was one that found grace in the eyes of Jehovah a just man perfect in his Generations he walked with Aelohim It is one of Jehovah's Names that he is gracious And it is the special privilege of his people that he has a peculiar favour for them This Grace doth Paul in what he wrote to the Church of Rome oppose unto Works and unto Debt It was the free meroy of God in Christ Noah did not deserve it And it was by faith that Noah pleased God and served him with acceptance With this Noah did Aelohim establish his Covenant that Noah should enter into the Ark he and his Sons and his Wife and his Sons wives with him where they should be saved from the common drawning Noah in faith and in abedience prepares the Ark to the saving of his houshold through the which be condemned the World and was heir of the righteousness which is by faith as is mentioned in the Epistle to the Hebrews Peter calleth him A Preacher of Righteousness That this was typical and had some further spiritual meaning in it the same Peter doth declare by shewing that Baptism under the New Testament was an Anti-type to this an answerable Figure saving of Believers by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ This Doctrine of the Free Covenant of Mercy of Righteousness and of Salvatiou by Faith in Christ did Noah commend to his hearers and it was sealed up towards the Faithful in that wonderful deliverance in the Ark which
erring of their great erring about this Controversie as in many other weighty Cases is because they know not the Scriptures nor the Power of God put forth in a word-way 48 That the cause of mens erring is not therefore because they do not know and acknowledge and own either the Magistral dictates of Humane Rabbies 48 Or the Ancient Records of Vncanonical Church-Histories and Traditions of men 48 49 Or the Councils of the Sanhedrim and the sayings of the ancient Fathers 49 50 Or unwritten verities to be as Scripture Supplements to be received by the people from their Leaders upon trust without tryal 50 Or the judgement opinion and practice of of those who are reputed the Learned and the Godly in the present Age 50 Or the Natio-al Establishments in the matters of Doctrine and of Worship in their humanely invented and imposed confessions of Faith and stinted Leiturgies 50 51 Or man-invented-Arts and Sciences of Philosophical Knowledges and of university humane Learning 51 52 Or the innate or acquired powers of mens own rational Intellect and Will 52 Or Natural Experiments and fleshy sensations 52 53 Or the unscriptural Impulses of Speculative Enthusiasts 53 Or the doubtful questioning of unsettled Scepticks 54 55 That our Faith is not to be resolved into the Authority of fallible men but into the infallible veracity of the truthful Aelohim 54 to 62 That the Old Testament Types and Figures did contain New Testament Institutions as to particular Churches Seals of the Covenant Presbyters Deacons Diaconesses 58 59 60 That Revel 1. 10. Doth not prove any change of the weekly Sabbath from the Seventh to the First day of the week 62 to 65 Neither doth Psalm 118. 22-26 65 66 67 Neither doth Act 2. 1 2 c. 67 Nor Ezek. 43 25 26 27. 68 Nor Heb. 4. 9 10 68 to 145 Here the plain meaning and scope of this passage in the Epislle to the Hebrews is given 68. 69 70 Here is further shewn that the Day expressed in the ninety fifth Psalm and referred unto by the Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews is not to be understood of the First day of the week as the weekly Sabbath-day 70 71 72 That the rest spoken of in this is not meant of the Weekly Sabbath Rest 72 73 74 to 77 Where is opened the significancy of the Word Sabbatism in the Graek 〈◊〉 towed from Hebrew Origination as many other Greek words are 74 to 77 That the He mentioned in one passage of this part of this Epistle is meant of the Believer 75 76 77 That the parallel between Workers Works and Rest doth not hold in some things and where in it doth hold is discovered 77 78 79 80 Here is shewn what are the works which Believers do rest from when they enter into this Sabbatism 79 80 The force of the conjunction For is shewn 80 81 As also what the import of the change of of the number from the plural to the singular is 81 82 And how this Rest is both God's Rest and the Believers Rest too 82 83 Here is further manifested that it is a mistake to go about to found a pretended First day Sabbath upon the New Creation as if it precisely began on the Day of Christ's Resurrection 83 to 145 It is Premised that it is a choice Priviledge and a special Liberty which Believers do injoy under the New Testament Administration of Grace 84 85 Where also some objections that do wrest Galat. 4. 9 10. and Colos 2. 8 16 17. are answered 85 86 87 And that the LORD Jesus Christ was Administrator under the Old as well as New Testament Dispensation of Grace 87 88 The particulars are here instanced in What the old things are which pass away and what the things are which do become new 88 89 to 92 The renewing of the Covenant in the latter days is spoken to 92. 93 That there was a Covenant of Grace under the Old Testament Administration is asserted and evidenced from the Scriptures Page 93 to pag. 101 And that the whole of the Christian Religion for Doctrines Graces Duties Priviledges and such like parts of that Religion is one and the same under both the Old and New Testament 101 to 108 And in what sense the Seventh-day Sabbath is some ways a sign of this 108 to 116 The new Worship was Typically signified in the Figuring pattern of the Old This is also demonstrated 116 to 120 And that the Law of Faith was a Law under the Old Testament Dispensation 120 to 123 And that it is an errour to affirm that the Decalogue has less in it than the Law of Nature At also that therefore it was never intended for a mere or perfect Transcript of the Law of Nature 123 Vnder this is discovered That to this Decalogue it doth belong to believe that the Soul is 124 And to love our selves with a just and necessary Love 124 125 And to take greatest care to save our souls above our bodies 125 And to tame and mortifie all our fleshly lusts in order to our Salvation 125 126 And to deny all bodily pleasure profits honour liberty and life for the securing of our Salvation 126 The Old Law of the Ten Words is proved in the Word of Truth to be still the same both to Jew and Gentile It was the Rule of Obedience to them under the Old Testament as unto God in Christ and is still so a Rule unto us under the new Difference of Horizons and of Climates makes no change of the Law of the Seventh-day Sabbath 126 to 147 The Ingenuous Reader is earnestly desired to correct the Errours in Printing especially those that do much disturb the sense and quite alter the meaning Errours in the Margin are thus to be corrected in the Second Part. For g Gen. page 5. line 1. read g Gen. 2. 2. f. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 6. l. 11. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 f. 1 Cor. 15. 3 14. p. 6. l. 17 18. r. 1 Cor. 15. 3 4. f. 17 19. p. 7 l. 11. r. 17. 10. f. Acts 13 24. p. 11. l. 11. r. Acts 13. 14. f. 58. 13. p. 15. l. 16. r. 58. 12. f. Cor. 1. 16. p. 21. l. 35. r. Col. 1. 16. f. Gen. 28. p. 21. l. 40. r. Gen. 1. 28. f. Heb. 7 8. p. 21. l. 41. r. Heb. 2. 7 8. f. Aclum p. 27. l. 25. r. Atrium f. 3. 12. p. 30 l 34. r. 3. 12. 〈◊〉 f. 33 34. p. 31. l. 28. r. 32 33. f. 12 19 p. 31. l. 43. r. 13 19 f. Gnatrereth p. 35. l. 16. r. Gnetzereth f. 15. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 36. l. 14. r. 15. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 f. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 36. l. 15. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 f. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 37. l. 9. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 f. pag. 110. to pag. 120. of this Treatise p. 38. l. 11 12 13. r. pag. 91. to page 103. of the first Part of
this not as I will but as thou Not what I will but what thou will Not my will but thine be done Lo I come to do thy will I utter thy truth and thy Salvation I do not conceal thy bountifulness and thy Faithfulness in the great Congregation Christ did not in the least go beyond or beside his Fathers will and word The New Testament is full of this The sitting at Christs right Hand and at his left was not in Christs Power to give but or except or if not to those for whom it is prepared of my Father so Christ told the Sons of Zebedee and their Mother It was his to give but only to such as were specified in the Fathers Grant to him Thus he elsewhere affirms of himself what the Son hath seen and heard that he testifieth no more no less no other than that he whom god hath sent that is Christ whom the Father hath sent speaketh the words of God My meat is that I do the will of him that sent me and Finish his work The Son can do nothing of him self except he see the father do it whatsoever he doth also doth the Son likewise I can of my self do nothing I seek not my will but the will of the Father that sent me The Father gave me works to finish The father himself hath sent me Iam come in my Fathers name I came down from Heaven not to do mine own will but the will of him that sent me my Doctrine is not mine but his that sent me If any man will do his will he shall know of the Doctrine whether it be of God or whether I speak of my self he that speaketh of himself seeketh his own Glory but he that seeketh his Glory that sent him the same is true and no unrighteousness is in him I am not come of my self but he that sent me is true I do nothing of my self but as my Father hath taught me I speak these things I do alwaies those things which he hath appointed I speak that which I have seen with my Father I came not of my self but he sent me I have not spoken of my self but the Father which sent me he gave me a Commandment what I should say and what I should speak and I know that his Commandment is life everlasting Whatsoever I speak therefore even as the Father said unto me so I speak the words that I spake unto you I speak not of my self the word which you hear is not mine but the Fathers which sent me I have kept my Fathers Commandements all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you Thus also the LORD Jesus Christ acknowledgeth in his Prayer to his Father Father thou hast given thy Son Power over all Flesh that he should give eternal Life to as many as thou hast given him I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do I have manifested thy name unto the Men which thou gavest me out of the world Thine they were and thou gavest them me and they have kept thy word I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me and they have received them and have known surely that I came out from thee and they have believed that thou didst send me I have given them thy word and the world hath hated them An exact punctual just accompt of this great undertaking and Transacting will Christ give and deliver up to his Father in the latter day The discerning Reader may see how express Christ is in this matter he exerciseth his Power according to his Fathers will and word And the Father as also the Son from the Father hath not revealed any such thing in the word of truth as the Change of the Weekly Sabbath from the last to the first day of the Week There is no appearance of any such Institution or Command Christ came not to make a Change in any one of the Laws of the ten words where did the Father put any such words into Christs mouth and where did Christ ever speak any such words As Christ was to speak what words the Father put into his mouth So also the Holy Spirit of Truth whom the Father sent in Christs name he was not to speak of himself but whatsoever he shall hear saith Christ to his Disciples that shall ye speak How much less should any meer Man or Men speak a word about a pretended Change of the Sabbath which is a saying of their own and not a word from the Father Son and Holy Spirit in this or in any other Case It was the LORDs charge and Promise to Moses I will be with thy mouth and with Aarons mouth and will teach you what ye shall do speak thou all that I say unto thee And Moses has a Scripture-testimonial that he was Faithful in all Gods House It is mentioned to his Praise above forty times that Moses did as Jehovah commanded him The same was in Jeremiahs commission which he confesseth Jehovah said unto me I have put my words in thy mouth and this Jehovah affirms of Jeremiah my words in thy mouth Thus saith Jehovah was the usual message that the Faithful Prophets brought to the People and it is expresly mentioned about one thousand and five hundred times in the Scriptures besides other such like words as thus saith Jehovah Aelohim of Israel and thus saith Jehovah of Hosts often Now who can say with any truth in his saying thus saith Jehovah The first day of the Week is the Sabbath Weekly in the Room of the Seventh the last day of the Week I am now to speak of the Promise There is no Promise made to the observing of any other day in the Week as the Weekly-Sabbath-day but only of the seventh-day which is the last day in the Week in the weekly returns of it Here all that might be resumed which is Written about Aelohims Blessing of the seventh day and that only as the Weekly Sabbath-day To which also might be added all those promises which more at large are made over to those that keep and obey all and every of the Commands of Jehovah Aelohim Whereof this of observing of the Weekly-seventh-day-Sabbath is one But I would keep close to this Subject matter The seventh-day-Sabbath is a gift from Jehovah Aelohim to be a sign between him and between his People to the end they may know that he is Jehovah sanctifying them And that he is Jehovah their God How free is that Love how rich that Grace which is put in to this Covenant And this is annexed to the seventh day as the Sabbath of Rest Holiness to Jehovah What kind of sign this is may be spoken unto in another place Moses in his repeating of this Law of the Weekly seventh-day-Sabbath doth four several-times put this Covenant of Grace by Express terms into this Command whereby Hearts should be the more
of the Gospel to be expressed on this day the First day he speaks of nor to be any thing distinguished from the Night of other Days of the week So writes a Learned Man Thus we have a kind of half Holy-day set up by a Man in the room of an whole Seventh-days-weekly-Sabbath Created and Instituted by Jehovah Aelohim But what part of Time shall we reckon that Night-time to It must belong either to Working-day or Sabbath-day If to Sabbath-day-time then it is a part of the time of a Sabbath-day If to Working-day-time then we have more time than Six Working-days in one Week which is contrary to Scripture-revelation and to Created Nature For the Evening is as Natural to the Created Days as the Morning The Creator Himself did some of his works in the Night As Particularly He created Darkness in the beginning of the Evening of the one Day in the first Week of the created World and the night-part of every one of the Large days and it is the Commendation of a Virtuosa-Woman that she and her Houshold do work some part of the Night Whereas we are expresly forbid to do any Work of our particular Functions on the Seventh-day-Sabbath all that kind of work is supposed to be done on the six foregoing days of the Week and I have before shewed that the Night-part as well as the Day-part belongs to the Weekly Sabbath-day And how doth this Assertion of that learned Man agree with another Affirmation of his so often repeated in that Book of his that That part of Time that is and will be accepted with God is declared and determined in the Fourth Commandment to be the seventh part of it or one day in seven If so Then how can this Learned Man and his Followers in This well groundedly expect Acceptance with God When the seventh-part of Time is not observed as the Weekly-Sabbath but one half of that Seventh part is cut off by him quite contrary unto what God has declared and determined in the Fourth Commandment This incoherence and inconsistence doth bewray the Darkness and doubtfulness that is upon the Minds and Hearts of the most Learned Opposers of the Weekly-Seventh-day-Sabbath What will become of Jehovah's Laws and Prescriptions if Men take such an Unwarranted Liberty at one blow to cut off the half of the Weekly-Sabbath contrary to the LORD's Appointments and contrary too unto their own Concessions and Assertions especially also when on this piece of a pretended Sabbath they give such a Loose to carnal Hearts as to leave any to be a Rule unto themselves for their words works and actions upon this half part of a day of Rest as if all others were Men of a Legal Spirit and were Judaizing Sabbatizers that will be exact according to the Scripture-rules of the good old way in these Matters Who sees not what an Unscriptural liberty even good men will be too prone to allow themselves if once they apprehend that this is referred unto themselves to judg Determinately of Where doth the whole Scripture leave any Man or Men to be rules unto themselves Must we not in all these Cases be Directed Determined and Judged by the Word Here again My heart would be at work in sweet thoughts and in raised affections towards a dear Redeemer who has done and suffered so much for his unworthy Creature that my Heart and Head and Hand may cease a while from giving answering Solutions to Fallacious arguings O how full how sutable a good is here Thou who readest this canst thou truly say this Redeemer is my Redeemer this Mediator hath loved me and hath given himself for me Redemption is wrought out and finished by Christ for me He will perfect it in me as well as for me All the just demands of the Father are fully satisfied by the Son of His love In the vertue of his Satisfaction and Intercession I will go to the Father and expect Audience and Assistance Acceptance and a Blessing O how well will it go with them and with their Cause who have Christ for their Advocate How sure is that Covenant of Grace which hath Christ for the Surety The Reader now may expect that I say something to that part of the Objection which doth suppose the work of Redemption to have been finished on the day of Christ's Resurrection So that He being then Gloriously Manifested to have Rested from it the Objectors think that Christ might have good cause to Honour the First day of the Week above any other day as the Weekly-Sabbath-day Here is Mens Thinking and Reasoning but the serious Inquirer doth look for Christ's Instituting and Commanding which he can never find in the Word as to the First-days being the Weekly Sabbath-day Redemption in the whole and in all and every of the parts of it and in all and every of the Fruits and effects of it I beleivingly confess praise and apply according to those growing measures of Scripture light and of saving Graces which the LORD hath graciously given me therein about this Both those great works of Jehovah-Christ Creation-work and Redemption-work are highly to be valued and one of them should not be set against the other let them both be brought in Creation-work and Redemption work too as proper matter for Meditation conference and Praise whereby the Seventh-day-Sabbath may be Celebrated and Sanctifyed in the Weekly returns of it The observationâ— of the Seventh-day-Sabbath is inforced by the Lawgiver himself to be kept holy to Jehovah by an argument drawn from Salvation-work from Redemption work The LORD Jesus Christ who is Redeemer was Creator too as I have clearly proved from self-evidencing-Scriptures It was he that Rested from his works of Creation Blessing Sanctifying and keeping the Seventh-day-Sabbath in the First week of the World Jehovah Christ as Mediator did himself at Mount Sinai Proclaim this Law of the Ten words whereof this of the Seventh-day-Sabbath is one It is he who is our one and our only Lewgiver It is he whose Voice then shook the Earth at that Mount It is he who was from his Father an Angel by delegated Office sent for this as for many other purposes to be with Moses in the Wilderness It is he who wrote this Law of the Ten words in the two Tables It is he who brought his People Israel out of Egypt and gave them this Law of the Seventh-day-sabbath It is he who came down upon that Mount attended gloriously with ten thousands of his holy Angels and promulgated this Law That Sixty Eighth Psalm doth evidently to a spiritual discerner commend Christ in his glorious Excellencies as to his wonderful person as to his wise Government and Gratious Administration particularly to the Israelites in their Journey out of Aegypt in giving them to Inherit the promised Land in confounding of their Foes all which Favours and Blessings to his Covenant people are set out to be the
was the Israelites called therefore the Region of the Fathers of the Israelites and the Land of the Hebrews The place which Abraham was to receive for an Inheritance The Inheritance of the Jews If there were need to to heap together many Scriptures about this how often is it set out by the Land of Promise or the promised Land or the Promises Or the Land which Aelohim sware to give to Abraham to Isaae to Jacob which Aelohim gave to his people for a possession and such like And this Canaan was also called The Inheritance of Aelohim This is called the place of Rest Jerusalem was more especially the Rest there More expresly yet it is said concerning the Typical Land that Canaan and the Rest there was a Type of this promised Rest in this place to the Hebrews brought out of the ninty fifth Psalm that this Land should enjoy her Sabbaths and that this Land should Rest and enjoy her Sabbaths Whereas it did not so Rest in their Sabbaths your Sabbaths they were theirs when the sinning Israelites dwelt upon it So also they are called her Sabbaths or Rests The Sabbaths of that Land when it was every seven years to have rested from Tillage and such Labour and Work And again your Sabbaths Your Ye shall Rest your Sabbaths speaking of the Typical Expiation-day-Sabbath it was their Rest Thus of Jerusalem of the Inhabitants thereof the Jews who had dwelt there It is said of them under their Babylonish Captivity that The Adversaries did mock at her Sabbaths Her the like is elsewhere I saith Jehovah will make to cease her Sabbath Her So that the Scriptures do affirm that the Rest or Sabbath was that Land's own Rest and it was the Israelites own Rest given of Jehovah And it is called Jehova's Rest too This is my Rest whatever this Objector doth suggest to the contrary And as for the beginnings of this Rest here Believers have and enjoyed it as theirs Thus the Psalmist bespeaks his soul My soul return unto Thy. My Rest It was his soul's and so his own Rest And thus in the New Testament comers to Christ do find Rest to their Souls It is their Souls Rest A Rest given to them of Christ Who is gone before to His Father's House to prepare Mansions for His thorow Disciples there in their Resting-Place which He has taken Actual Possession of in their Name that He and they may be together in Holy Happy Rest In the mean while He has given and left His Peace with them that their hearts might Rest in Him and when their time is come they shall Rest from their Labours with Him in Glory And now let the Reader with me make out after this remaining Sabbatism that this Promised Rest may be ours that we may not so much as seem to come short of it Then and there will be a Sabbatizing a ceasing as from much other Labour and Work so from these Strifes and Disputations The perfectly sanctified Spirit of Just men will come fully home to its Rest sitting down in Glory enjoying Christ and Rest in Him O the Blessedness of such O happy we and O happy our Progresses our goings on with a streight foot towards this if we be such believing obeying perswadable ones as shall enter into this Rest If the Reader be one who hath met with this Objector's arguing against the Seventh Day Sabbath it may be he would willingly have somewhat returned in Answer yet further unto some Grounds on which that learned Adversary doth lay the pretended change of the Weekly-Sabbath-Day from the Seventh to the First day I shall therefore transcribe what is written about this God saith he had of old determined the Renovation of All by a new Creation a new Law of that Creation a new Covenant and a new Sabbatical Rest unto His own Glory by Jesus Christ The Renovation of all things by Jesus Christ is prophesied of and foretold as a new Creation of All even of the Heavens and of the Earth and all things contained in them Isai 65. 17 18. and 66. 22. 2 Pet. 3. 13. Hence the State of things to be introduced thereby was under the Old Testament called the World to come Heb. 2. 5. In the Prophety of the New Temple or Church-state in those Days there is Especial Direction given for the Service of the Sabbath-Day Ezek. 46. 4. This Renovation of all things is said accordingly to be accomplished in Christ 2 Cor. 5. 17 18. Old things are passed away Behold all things are become New The Old Law Old Covenant Old Worship Old Sabbath all that was peculiar unto the Covenant of Works as such in the first Institution of it and its renewed Declaration on Mount Sinai all are gone and antiquated The Moral Law materially the same is now the Rule of our Obedience not merely and absolutely unto God as the Creator the First Cause and Last End of All But as unto God in Christ bringing of us into a New Relation unto Himself There is now a New Covenant part of the New Creation Jerem. 31. 32. Heb. 8. 9. No man can assert the same day of Rest precisely the Seventh-Day to abide as of old but he must likewise assert the same Law the same Covenant the same Rest of God the same way of Entring into it which yet as all acknowledge are changed On this we lay the Observation of the LORD's Day under the New Testament or a new Work of Creation Isai 65. 17. 66. 22 23. 2 Pet 3. 13. Rev. 21. 1. Rom. 8. 19 20. 2 Cor. 5. 17. Gal. 6. 15. Or a Work of new Creation is undertaken and compleated This new Creation is accompanied with a new Law and a new Covenant or the Law of Faith and the Covenant of Grace Rom. 3. 27. 8. 2 3. 4. Jer. 31. 32 33 34. Heb. 8. 8-13 Vnto this Law and Covenant a day of Holy Rest unto the LORD doth belong which cannot be the same day with the former no more than it is the same Law or the same Covenant which were Originally given unto us Heb. 4. 9. Rev. 1. 10. This Day was limited and determined to the first day of the Week by our LORD Jesus Christ Thus this Objector In my reply to this after two premises I am to shew that this new Heaven and this new Earth spoken of in Prophetical Scripture This Renovation by a new Creation is not so finished and compleated but that it is yet to come in the largest fulfilling and accomplishing of it That there was a Covenant of Grace under the Old Testament Administration that the new Worship was Typically signified in the figuring pattern of old That the Law of Faith was a Law under the Old Testament dispensation That the old Law of the ten words is still the same It was the rule of obedience to them under the Old Testament as unto God in Christ and is still
former dispensation which some way or other had not some Figures and shadows annexed to it There was blood of a Bull sprinkled on the Altar Christ and the Book of the Covenant it self and what shall we therefore lay aside Christ and his Book The particular commands of the ten words had some Types and Figures annexed to them Doctrines Duties Graces and Priviledges relating to the first and second words were set out by the Ark the Altars the Burnt offerings the Incense the Fire on the Altar and such like as any spiritual discerner may discover by comparing the Epistle to the Hebrews with the pattern in the Mount The third word or command in several duties of it had annexed Ceremonials as particularly about an Oath about a Vow Thus also about the sixth word or command as in a case of Murther about the seventh command as in a case of Jealousie about the eight word or command as in a case of Restitution and generally when a Soul did sin in omitting of some duty or in committing of a Trespass when it was ignorantly or in some other cases there were peculiar offerings that were appointed So that if this carnal reasoning did hold it would lay aside all and every of the other ten words This Epistle to the Colossians doth establish the Law of the ten words in the several particulars of it and the first word by forbidding the worshipping of Angels the second by condemning of Will-worship The third by taxing of Balsphemy especially when against the Holy Name of God The fourth word by shewing the accomplishment of the Ceremonials annexed to Sabbaths if it were admitted that the Seventh-day Sabbath were here included The fifth word by pressing to a discharge of Relation-duties The sixth by declaring against Anger Wrath and Malice The seventh by threatning of Fornicators and unclean Persons with the Wrath of God The eight by for bidding of wrong and commending of Justness and Equality in dealing The ninth by prohibiting of lying and evil speaking The tenth by charging of inordinate lusting to be Idolatry Which is also a breach of the first command Thus is the Decalogue confirmed in this Epistle The next premise is that the LORD Jesus Christ was Administrator under the Old as well as New Testament dispensation of Grace I take it to be one great occasion of many misapprehensions not only in the common sort of professing Christians but even in many who have gotten a name for Learning and for Godliness that they eye Christ as Christ and Redeemer only under the New Testament and God as Creator only under the Old Whereas Christ says of himself that he was anointed from the beginning before the Earth was as yet made and the Father speaks of this his Son under the Old Testament that he had anointed him Aelohim anointed him by pouring out of the Oyl of his Spirit upon him with an effusion of a fulness of Gifts and of Graces and of Joys mentioning it expresly as a matter of Fact done Mashiach or Christ or Anointed is one of the Mediators names often used in the Old Testament This is attributed to his substance The Father had ordained him to his Mediatoral Office of Priest King and Prophet even then It was Christ who was tempted by the unbelieving Israelites of old It was by Christ that all things were created Christ was the same under all Dispensations of Grace The Fathers purpose and election concerning his people was in Christ The whole Word is the Word of Christ Believers were reproached for Christ in Moses's time It was the Spirit of Christ who was in the Prophets and the Jews and Samaritans acknowledged the Messias before they knew who was the very person and this Christ acted as Mediator under the Old as well as under the New Testament Though his being born of a Virgin and so taking the Humane Nature to his Godhead were a great part of the New Testament Dispensation when in the days of his flesh here on earth he familiarly conversed with men For he had a way of appearing as Man to several Believers upon several occasions under the Old Testament as a forerunning discovery of this latter It was the Messiah or Christ who made himself known by open manifestation visibly audibly to Abraham to Isaac to Jacob to Moses and to several of the Prophets and to some others It was he who proclaimed the Law of the ten Words at Mount Sinai and who afterwards upon the same Mount gave the typical pattern for that Dispensation privately to Moses It was he who was with the Israelitish Church in the Wilderness he was the Mediator between God and Man even then he was the Reconciler even in those Ages This and more to this purpose I have already proved from the Scripture in this Book and therefore if the Reader would be further informed and inlightned in it I refer him to the Pages cited in the Margin This is he to whom all observe all It was the received and delivered Doctrine of them all the Prophets do give Witness that through the Name of the LORD Jesus Christ whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins A great full word this But a remark and observand a special one upon it It is acknowledged by this learned Man that it was the Son who from the Foundation of the World immediately in his own person transacted the Affairs of God with Men yet he opposeth the Seventh day Sabbath whereas it was a Law of Christ's giving to Mankind from the beginning Come we now unto the proofs of the several particulars forementioned whereof this is one that this New Heaven and this New Earth spoken of in prophetical Scripture this Renovation by a New Creation is not finished and completed but that it is yet to come in the large fufilling and accomplishing of it There will be New Heavens and a New Earth This we believe because the Scriptures have foretold it and we rejoyce in Hope of their Appearing For they are not as yet come These glorious Creatures are antedated by such Objectors by many hundreds of years For although there were some beginnings of a New Creation in the Days of Christ's Flesh here on Earth and after Christ's Ascension in the Apostle's time in Regenerations and Conversions as there were also in the Old For even there we may read of the creating of a clean Heart and of the renewing of a right constant Spirit Christ's name was filiated even under that Dispensation and there were Sons and Daughters new createdly born unto him even then and Believers were instated in the Messiah then As for that place in the second Epistle to the Corinthians If any man be in Christ he is a new creature Old things pass away beheld all things become new It doth speak a wonderful change in the New Creature The old carnal State the
from Heaven and they drank of Christ in their Water from the Rock By the Grace of the LORD Jesus Christ they did believe to be saved the same way as Believers do now Peter put no difference between them and us but only in the manner of dispensing What shall I say more of all the Signs and Seals under that Administration of the free favour of Jehovah Aelohim towards his Covenant people What was all this but a Gospel-Teaching an applying of the Covenant Take but off the Veil from them and they appear much with a face of shining Grace Was not the Virtue and Efficacy of Christ's death under that dispensation of Grace He was the Lamb slâ—in from the Foundation of the World so he is said to be in the Revelation Christ's satisfaction and intercession was available for his Covenant people in Moses's time The Book it self wherein Moses did write all the Words of Jehovah is called The Book of the Covenant This Book on the Altar was sprinkled with blood to be sanctified thereby which blood is also called The blood of the Covenant The people also were sprinkled with the blood of the Covenant in the sprinkling of the twelve Pillars which did represent them that is the twelve Tribes This Covenant or Testament at Horeb as the Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews hath observed and declared was not dedicate without blood These were Patterns Anti-types and the Types must answer the one to the other of the heavenly things and they were purified by the blood of those Sacrifices signifying that the LORD Christ by his death should sanctifie his people unto himself by the blood of the New Testament in a clearer manner of dispensing and fuller measure of accomplishing though otherways one and the same Covenant of Grace Moses called upon the people to behold this which Scripture is explained in what is written to the Hebrews this is the Blood of the Covenant or of the Testament which God hath commanded unto you Thus was the Covenant of Grace under the Old Testament confirmed by the Blood of Beasts exactly answering unto the same Covenant of Grace under the New Testament which was confirmed by the Blood of Christ There was free remission of sins acceptation of the person and of the service for in the through Christ then as there is now All the Prophets do give witness unto Christ that through his Name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins This doth further appear in Moses's repeating over in the latter part of his Book the same Covenant which Jehovah Aelohim made with his people at Sinai wherein he doth at large discover how much rich Grace and free Love a God in Christ had manifested towards that people in Covenant with him The Book commonly called Deuteronomy is a second Declaration of the same Covenant of Grace repeated renewed with their Children renewed with Israel the same made before only with some clearer Revelation of Christ and of Blessings by him and of inlarged explained promises It was the same Covenant of Grace which was also solemnly renewed with and by the people of God at their return from the Captivity of Babylon as may be seen in the Records of Ezra and of Nehemiah The same Covenant of Grace also which the LORD makes with his people in Christ now And the same which he will revive and renew with the new formed created people in the latter days Who shall not so break Covenant as those Israelites in the Wilderness of old did but shall be more stedfast and faithful to God who will be so graciously in Covenant with them Those promises in Jeremiah repeated in the Epistle to the Hebrews are if not peculiarly yet at least chiefly made to the house of Israel the ten Tribes as well as Judah have their part in them Ephraim setting out the Israelites of the ten Tribes They shall come from the North and be generally called an innumerable multitude they shall dwell in their Cities in their own Country their City of Jerusalem shall be re-edified their Estate shall be flourishing and happy to perpetual continuance with such other things as were never yet throughly fulfilled Which cannot be meant of their coming out of the Captivity at Babel The promises relating to the New Testament Dispensation And all this shall be in the last days by which words this great Mystery is usually expressed This will yet further be evidently demonstrated in that this Prophetie and Promise was renewed and revived several years after Christs Ascension into Heaven as is clear by the mention of it in that Epistle to the Hebrews and in several places of the Revelation For the contrary to all this was some few years in the same generation or age after Christ's death the Jew 's were unchurched the City and the Temple were destroyed according to Christ's foretelling in what is written in that Book of his Generation All and every of the particulars expressed in the renewed Covenant were before under that Dispensation in Moses's time They are also now made good unto this present Dispensation according to the manner and measure of Administration as the All-wise God saw and sees fit which will be more clearly manifested and more fully accomplished in the last times And with this Prophetie both the Old and New Testament are closed Let all and every of the Particulars pass under a Scripture-Examination Will Christ give his Laws in the mind of his people and write them in their hearts So he did under the Old Testament-dispensation The same thing was fulfilled towards and in a Covenant-people then Thus in Moses's Writings Jehovah Aelohim speaks to his People these words The Ten Words written in the Two Tables of Stone which I commanding thee this day shall be in thy heart These are the fleshly Tables wherein they shall be written Thus the Psalmist in his time in his describing the Just man saith The Law of his God is in his heart it shall not stagger his steps The Prophet Isaiah thus sets out the people of God They are a People in whose heart is this Law It was Solomon's advice in his Proverbs My Son forget not my Law but let thine heart keep my Commandments Write them upon the table of thine heart And again a second time in another place My Son keep my sayings and lay up my Commandment with thee Keep my Commandments and live write them upon the table of thine heart Hath the LORD promised that he will be for or to a God to his people This was performed under the Old Testament I have already shewed that it is expresly put into the Ten Words several times In Moses's time Jehova's people had avouched or had made to say him to be unto them for a God They owned and acknowledged him to be thus in Covenant with them for the confirming of their Faith and for the increase of their Obedience I
the Prophets Should not those who are fellow-members with them of the same body under that one Head the LORD Jesus Christ rejoyce together O how delightful is it to be with them in the Spirit The Church of Believers of old was then more in her Infancy she is now grown up they now have all their Veils of Figures and Types taken off and they see and enjoy Christ face to face They are brought into the light of the Divine Majesty which is in Christ cloathed in our Flesh Christ is now no longer hidden to and from them under shadows these former Coverings are now removed and the clear Light is not kept away They are now able to look into the bottom of Moses's Ministry They now so behold the Glory of the LORD as to be possessed of the heavenly things themselves having a clear view of Christ who is the Image of the invisible God the brightness or resplendence of his Glory and the Engraven Form of his Person There they receive their Reward which God doth graciously give unto his Servants the Prophets and to his Saints and to all that fear his Name Having thus at large manifested it to be according to the Word that there was a Covenant of Grace under the Old Testament-administration and that the privileges of the LORD's Covenant-people even then were the same for kind with Believers now though differently dispensed I shall here further discover that the Seventh-Day-Sabbath it self was some ways a sign of this thus improving this Expression and Meditation to a right useful purpose which some Adversaries do wrongfully pervert to an ill end Thus they object The Seventh Day-Sabbath was a sign of their Sanctification to whom it was given and therefore of a Ceremonial nature and not given to all men These to whom the Sabbath was given to them it was a sign of their present Sanctification but it was no sign of the present Sanctification of all people over the whole World And therefore it was never given to all the people of the whole World but only unto God's people Israel And therefore of no Natural Consideration therefore Ceremonial Thus it is objected This Objection is like to have the more satisfactory Answer if there be a due clear distinguishing of the several things which are contained in it and a proper Application of each Particular unto the present matter in hand that so the understanding Reader and the spiritual Discerner may see that way plain before him which may directly lead him into the Mind and Will of Christ and he may the better learn the Truth as it is in Jesus I purpose therefore to distinguish of Signs of Sanctification of the Law of the Ten Words of Peoples of Ceremonials of Giving this Law of the Ten Words Signs are either natural Signs such as have a force of signifying from the created Nature of that thing which is the Sign Thus the Heavenly Luminaries are Signs of divers things particularly with respect to the Seventh-Day-Sabbath There is the same word in the Original A diligent Observer with the eye of the motions of those Luminaries may see that set Times and fit Seasons for solemn Assembling and for Instituted Worship are directed to and pointed at by these shining Lights to measure out Daily-Evening and Morning and Weekly-Seventh-Day-Sabbath Opportunities for our direction in Working and in Resting or the conserving of the orderly course and state of this World in the required matters of appointed Services due from Man to his Creators and Makers throughout all the Ages all the days of this Earth Which is also put into a Promise And the Covenant of Grace is confirmed by these natural Signs If these be Signs of created Nature of the weekly Seventh-day-Sabbath after the six foregoing working Days in the same Week and this Seventh day-Sabbath have foundation in created Nature and both these be by the Ordination and appointment by the All wise Creator then this being so established by an unchangeable Law of pure Primitive Creation the weekly Seventh-day Sabbath must continue as long as those Luminaries do continue to be such a Sign Which Seventh-day-Sabbath is also a sign of Aelohim's creating the World of Heaven and of Earth and of all things therein in the six foreging Days and of his Resting on the Seventh which is the last Day of the Week This being expresly rendred by himself as the Reason why it is called a Sign Or Signs are instituted which do signifie somewhat by Vertue of some special appointment by the only Supreme Soveraign LORD and Lawgiver Jehovah Christ Thus the Typical Sacrifices and such Ceremonial Figures as were after wards annexed for a time to the weekly Seventh day-Sabbath were Signs and Shadows Types and Figures These were significative of a Christ who was then under that Dispensation to come to be born of a Virgin So they were perfected and accomplished in and by Christ when God was thus manifested in the Flesh when Christ was then born of the Virgin Mary But the weekly Seventh day-Sabbath had its created Being before this and distinct from this and so continued after this did pass into its Antitype This weekly Seventh-day-Sabbath doth stand firm established for ever in the Word and in Nature If the Objector or any other do further affirm that the weekly Seventh-day-Sabbath is still a significant Sign by Institution and that this significativeness is a part of it If they mean that it is thus a shadow of that Spiritual Eternal Rest that Sabbatism which doth yet remain for the people of God in the Heavens let them look well to their Scripture-proofs for this but I shall not contend with them about it it rather making for the cause I undertake For the Type must continue till the Antitype come Let these men therefore keep the Seventh-day-Sabbath till they get to Heaven if ever they come there and then and there they will know more clearly and fully If any further Typical significativeness be pretended and urged when I understand what it is it is like to pass under Examination and Consideration with me Observe here that the Typical Signs superadded unto the Law of the ten Words did establish that Law in the natural unchangeable Holiness and Righteousness of it Only by Institution they did put some further thing into it during that former Dispensation of Grace Or they are notifying-testifying-certifying-Signs By these somewhat is made known and witnessed unto them unto whom these are given from the LORD for some particular use and end Thus the weekly Seventh-day-Sabbath is a Sign Consider here the Law of the Seventh-day-Sabbath as proclaimed and given by Jehovah Christ put into a Covenant of Grace as have been proved Thus it was is and will be a Sign For there is no particular Verb of definite time expressed in one of the places in the Original to determine when and how long so as if then and
there it were to be cut off and so cease to be a Sign For it takes in all the parts of Time all the spaces of Duration it has been a Sign it is now a Sign and it will be a Sign And in the other place the latter Verse doth take in the past Time which they render â—uturely In the former Verse it is Infinitive and Indefinite Thus the Seventh-day-Sabbath is a Sign between Jehovah and his Covenant-people that they are a separate sanctified people a special token of his distinguishing kindness unto such as are inwardly in Covenant with him and some ways a Priviledge even to those who are as yet but outwardly in Covenant with him as it brings them under the Instituted Ordinances of that Day The Seventh-day-Sabbath in a Documental Sign giving Institution in this Pledge of Christ's Love who having been the Creator is the Redeemer too and will be sanctification to his Covenant-people who are in a special manner his new created peculiarly redeemed and separatedly sanctified Ones As this Seventh-day-Sabbath has its Nature Institution Use and End put into Scripture-Revelation so it is a peculiar Sign to those unto whom this Word-discovery is made especially when to their inner man and will be such to the Worlds end to all and every of those who are so choicely favoured It is a witnessing evidencing Sign to know this where Spiritual-Worshippers are Right Sabbath-keepers Were there a more Universal-holy-through growing-Conformity in Knowledge and in Obedience to this and to every other just holy and good Law of Jehovah Aelohim experience would prove to spiritual senses what Faith is to believe from Word-Revelation that the Weekly Seventh day-Sabbath would be such a Sign as would the holy Spirit of the LORD witnessing together with a renewed Spirit in the Saints point out unto them and declare in them that such are some of Jehovah's peculiar people in special Covenant with them like as the holy Fruits of the regenerating Spirit are such a notifying-testifying certifying Sign of translation from death to life This is a Sign which doth still continue O who will give that there were more of this evidencing Sign as to the natural Seed of such of Israel of old as were spiritualized and new born so to the Spiritual Seed of Israel now that there is a mutual convenanting and communion between Jehovah Aelohim and such a people of his that they might know him to be theirs and themselves to be his This is a Sign that is still put into a Promise and will even now and in after days be made good to right Spiritual Observers of Jehovah's weekly Seventh-day-Sabbath A Sign to know here is one great End and special Use of this Sign which is also a lasting-standing continued one that Jehovah doth sanctifie such and is their God Whoever he be that can well evidence an Universal Obedience and Conformity to an whole Christ and his whole Word particularly as to his due sanctifying of the weekly Seventh-day-Sabbath of Jehovah his God which would much influence and operate upon all other Religion would have Aelohim's Covenanted-Love more manifested to him by the incouraging Sign it would be a token to him for this and for much other good It is promised and it would be injoyed actually injoyed for the present even now and this Spiritual Rest with Christ in God here would by improving of Mystical-membership in relation to the Glorified Ones above be some beginning of that eternal Sabbatism in Heaven Thus a Natural Duty is sometimes made a Sign of a Spiritual Priviledge Against this it hath been further objected that Circumcision is called a Sign of the Covenant between Jehovah Aelohim and his Covenant people in their Generations for an everlasting Covenant to be a God unto them And so is the Seventh-day-Sabbath called a Sign between Jehovah and his people throughout their Generations which they were to observe throughout their generations for an everlasting Covenant between him and the Sons of Israel it a Sign for ever And therefore they were to cease together For Answer to this in the General Here is a Fallacy of Composition and Division by taking some things severally and apart which are to be taken conjoynedly and by taking other things conjoynedly which are to be taken apart Some things here would be well divided and severed which are ill joyned and other things would be well joyned which are ill divided Here the divided sense must be separated from the compounded and the compounded sense from the divided There is another Fallacy in the comparing of these two Circumcision and the weekly Seventh-day-Sabbath Because it is not of the same thing in the same manner according to the same part to the same person and thing in the same time And there is a translation from one kind to another Though in some thing these two do more generally agree yet in other things they do specially differ which doth discover both a deceit and a defect a confusedness and a captiousness in the Objector This will further open it self by a more particular distinct considering of what doth follow All Signs are not mutable or changeable Signs to end with the Old Testament Dispensation Sun Moon and Staâ— have been are and will be to the end of this World natural and instituted Signs These Luminaries are Witnesses of God's faithfulness in his Covenant to Generation of Generations Thus also are Day and Night such a Sign The Rain-bow whenever it doth appear is to be a Sign to the Worlds end a Sign or Token of God's Covenant with mankind that he will no more drown this whole Earth with Water Jehovah's weekly Seventh-day-Sabbath has been already manifested to be both a Natural Instituted and notifying Sign Such an immutable unchangeable Sign as that Jehovah Aelohim will in no Generation not even under this New Testament Administration put an end to his sanctifying of his people Whereas Circumcision was a Typical Mutable Changeable Sign which passed into it more spiritual and heavenly Antitype when the Old Testament Dispensation was brought to its accomplish perfected End All Signs are not laid aside under the new Dispensation The Signs mentioned before even the Luminaries Day and Night the Rain bow So also the Seventh-day Sabbath were Signs under the Old and do still continue to be Signs under the New Testament admiâ—â—â—â—ration Such a Sign Circumcision is not as to that of the Foreskin of the Flesh for this doth cease So that Circumcision was another kind of Law than the Natural Law of the Seventh-day Sabbath The Type and Figure of fleshy Circumcision was Temporary and Changeable This Sign which was the Seal of the Covenant of Grace did belong to other sorts of Laws to the Ceremonial Law as it was Typical Figuring and Shadowing and so doth widely differ in the whole kind from the Natural Law of the ten Words whereof this of the weekly Seventh-day Sabbath is one
Instruments Meats and to other things It is also applyed to the Seventh-day Sabbath which Aelohim did sanctifie for holy Uses and to no other day of the whole week as such at the first Creation according to the Nature of its Essence in the order of its being before those after superadded Ceremonies and Shadows So that in this sense Right Reason would inform all reasonable men and women in the World that the Seventh the last day in every week has a concreated adaptness to be a day of holy Rest for the worship of their Maker and that they themselves should be an holy people separated to the service of the holy God Though his Church and People are thus sanctified and severed from other people by Jehovah in a peculiar especial manner his Elect yet more especially As for the Law of the ten Words if we look upon it in its superadded Ceremonies and some such other intermixed Annexes so it had somewhat peculiarly belonging to the Israelitish Church and people in Moses's time and to those of other Nations who were prosâ—lited to that Ceremonial Typical way under that Administration Whereas we under the New Testament have another manner of Dispensation of the same Grace in a more spiritual heavenly glorious way Although this Typical Figuring part made no real change even of old upon the Law of the ten Words If this be considered as it is an absolute and perfect Rule of Life comprehending all duties whatsoever and being that Image and Samplar unto which all mankind at the beginning in their representative Head were created in Wisdom in Holiness and in Righteousness which was afterwards promulgated and proclaimed by Jehovah Christ with a Covenant of Grace intermingled so it is that Law of Nature which inlightned Intellect or right Reason doth teach some notions whereof are still retained even now in man's fallen corrupted estate There are some Seeds of those Eternal Truths and Things some common principles of good and of evil both for the knowledge of God and of his Service and for those Duties which we owe unto our selves and unto our Neighbours This is born and bred with reasonable man every one doth carry it about with him every one coming into this World is inlightned therewithal which Remnants of this Law do serve for many good uses and purposes in civil converse amongst men and for some other ends In this sense the Law of the ten Words particularly that of the weekly Seventh-day Sabbath is given to the whole World All mankind had it in their common representative the first Adam clearly fully perfectly and have still some Relicks of it left within them by the Law of Nature in the Light of Reason demonstrated by concreated Principles the foundations and grounds of which are knowable by Humane Intellect In this sense the Law of the ten Words particularly that of the weekly Seventh day Sabbath is given to the whole World all mankind had it in their common representative and have still some indwelling Notions of it left within them This Law in some parts of the natural Duties of it may yet by the Institution of Jehovah Aelohim be a sign of some mystical thing signified which doth make any real change in the natural Duty it self this standing still in its due force as before but it may have something further significant in it by the LORD 's special appointment As the State Duty and Priviledge of Marriage in the fifth and seventh Words Instituted in Paradise doth figure the great Mystery of that Mystical Union which is between Christ and his Church People come next to be considered People are sometimes in some Scriptures more especially taken for the Israelites and the Jews These are sometimes in the plural Number called Peoples This People had some peculiar Priviledges beyond other Peoples particularly as to the kingly manner of proclaiming and revealing the Law of the ten Words more in their sight and hearing at Mount Horeb and as to some things afterwards annexed to it which was the Pattern in the Mount Thus Jehovah's holy Sabbath was made known unto the Israelites after another manner than to other Nations Whilst they walked by this Rule of Life they were a wise and prudent people But when they transgressed greatly they were a rebellious people The Israelitish people so constituted as it then was are called The people of God The people of the God of Abraham These had some distinguishing favours in that day People in some other Scriptures are some times taken for all Nations besides Israel and besides those other Lands who were brought over to the true Religion Thus the Uncircumcised Nations strangers from the Covenant of God Indels profane and ungodly they also are called People and the People of the Earth and the abominable People Though these whilst such did not share in choice special Church-Priviledges yet some ways they had the Law of the ten words and amongst others the Law of the weekly Seventh-day Sabbath particularly As this Law of the Decalogue is the natural concreated Law There are divers Records in Humane Authors for those to search after who are curious in such Disquisitions which do evidence that the Seventh-day Sabbath was generally observed by the Pagans as the weekly Holy Day The remaining Relicks of their Natural Life and Right Reason dictating the equity of this Law which also might be traditioned down to them The Pagan Idolaters so far conforming to the Laws and Practice of the Church of God They acknowledged the Seventh-day as more holy and owned its Rest from labour And the Ethnick Doctors in this way of teaching would Philosophize only on the Seventh-day Sabbath Then did they frequent their Temples and then some of them sung their Hymns to their Idol God These Precepts of the Decalogue were the Law of our Creation they are the natural Dictates of the Humane Essence in its rational Exercise ingraft Notions concreated Characters wrought into the essential composition of our natural Being the Sanction whereof has more or less a living impression in the Humane Existence The very order of the Days in the first created Week did teach the observation in the weekly Seventh-day Sabbath and made it a part of the Law of Nature Aelobim's Method in the Creatures Production which did so dispose of his Works and of his Rest hath confirmed this Order in laying its foundation in created Beings And this is a very forcible way of right arguing used by the LORD himself in his Word in divers cases The six forgoing Days of the Week for Work and the seventh the last Day of the Week for Rest These were from the beginning of the Creation Designed they were thus originally appointed by the Creator himself and so laid as a standing Law upon the Rational Creatures The natural equity whereof man's Representative in Adam readily submitted and subjected and conformed to there being both
the Sign of Circumcision as a Seal of this Righteousness of Faith which was thus imputed to him Is not Abraham propounded as an Example to after-Believers in this being called the Father of all that believe in the Foot steps of whose Faith after-Believers are to walk For what was so counted to him for Righteousness was written not for his sake alone that it was imputed to him but for the sake of Paul and of others in Paul's time and so still for our sakes in the present day to whom it shall be imputed namely to them that do believe in him what Moses doth speak of the Duties of the Law Paul doth interpret of the Faith of the Gospel It would fill up much paper to inlarge in all the other instances of the old Testament-Believers recorded in the new particularly in that eleventh Chapter to the Hebrews There is one Faith one and the same Doctrine of Faith to be believed and one and the same Grace of Faith by which men do believe for Justification and Salvation both under the Old and New Testament It was the open confession of Peter's Faith in one of the first Councils or Synods held in the New Testament when the Apostles and Elders were assembled together to debate some weighty Question of the Christian Religion We believe saith he by the Grace of the LORD Jesus Christ to be saved in such manner as they also as the believing Fore-fathers under the Old Testament were merely through free Grace by Faith in Grace by Faith in Christ in his righteousness They by Faith in Christ who was then to come to be in due time born of the Virgin which was held forth in Types of old to this end We in Christ as the perfect Anti-type thus already come The Analogy of Faith in both Testaments should be attended unto by a diligent discerning Reader of the Word a due proportional collating of them between and to each other would discover the uniformness and well-agreingness of the Will of our LORD in them both by a particular right application and limitation of their Analogy the orderly regulation whereof must be made according to that measure and number of proportion which the different manner of dispensing doth call for and no further is it to be admitted as to any substantial and essential part of the Christian Religion there is a likeness of Word a sameness of Sense a oneness of intendment on them both unto which Analogy he must keep close who would give forth a true explication of sound Doctrine That Faith which is required and promised in the Covenant of Grace is for the substance of it one and the same Grace which is commanded in the Law of the ten Words and let it be further researched into by the ingenuous for the augment of this Spiritual Science Whether the Faith of Adam in his innocence I do not put here into this inquiry as to the special use and the proper object of it were not for the substance of the Grace one and the same with the New Covenant Grace of Faith Was not Adam in all things to give confident credence to all as to every Truth which Aelohim his Creator had revealed or should further reveal was he not bound to believe in the promised Messiah by the Law of Creation and of Nature as soon as ever Jehovah should reveal this to him The whole Scripture is profitable for this doctrine of the oneness and sameness of old and New Testament Faith and I am perswaded after some years research into the word of Truth about this matter and long experience suited thereunto that one great occasion at least if not cause of the Apostasies and Backslidings of some of the loose ungospel-like and ill-principled-conversation of others and of the practical Atheism and Infidelity of some others and of the doubts and fears and unprofitable walking of other some has been men's unscriptural unwarrantable setting up of so many different Religions in the Old and New Testament and the urging of some one or a few misunderstood misinterpreted Scriptures wrested and wryed to some particular purpose contrary to the drift and intent and scope of the whole Scripture besides which doth write about that Case Whereas the whole Scripture is uniform and harmonious speaking with one mouth one and the same thing The only difference between the Old and the New being in the mode of Administration as has been opened once and again Let me here further add seeing this Objector doth call this a New Law of Faith as a part of the the New Creation brought in and perfected particularly and only upon the first day of the Week and upon no other day as he pretends that this Grace of Faith was put into a Law under the Old Testament Dispensation for besides that if there had been no Law for this Faith under that Dispensation it had been no sin no transgression not to have believed with that Faith for sin is the transgression of some Law and I have shewn it was Christ manifesting himself to Moses in Egypt and in the wilderness whom the Israelites did so often tempt grieve provoke and not not believe But further Faith in that Jehovah Aelohim who proclaimed the ten words at Mount Sinai was a plain duty injoyned in the first word or command and that Promulgator I have proved to be the Messiah or Christ So that it was a duty actually to believe him to believe in him Faith in the Lawgiver is one of the ways and commandments of this Jehovah I had here given a dismiss unto this that I might hasten to the last particular but that I called to mind how another adversary of and objector against the Seventh-day Sabbath had affirmed that the Decalogue had less in it than the Law of Nature and that therefore it was never intended for a mere or perfect Transcript of the Law of Nature Although if he had improved his own concession he might have seen how he tacitely gave an answer to his own Objection for he says That the chief Heads of Natutes Law are contained in the Decalogue He gives instances in divers particulars some of the chief of them in which he seems much to glory I shall examine In which he judgeth the Decalogue is defective such as the belief of the Soul to love our selves with a just and necessary Love to fame and mortifie all our fleshly lusts in order to our Salvation to deny all bodily Pleasure Profit Honour Liberty and Life for the securing of our Salvation Let the considerate Reader now spiritually according to the Word of Truth discern in these matters If the Scripture-rules of interpreting these ten Words Laws or Commands be observed allowed and applyed it will be manifest That they are a comprehensive as for other things so for the particulars specified so far as doth concern the discharge of Duty and the avoiding of Sin These general Laws do take
even in those Climates between seventy and ninety Degrees there is an equivalent space of time measured by hours days weeks months and years by which they overthrow most of the force of their own Argument God commanded no impossibility in Nature in requiring a determinate day in every week to be kept as a weekly Sabbath by man by all mankind though some daringly would infer the quite contrary We must take the Seventh-day as the Creator hath made and continued it to us The Law of the Seventh-day Sabbath is not bottomed upon Ethnick Philosophy which has corrupted the Principles of Astronomy and of Geometry of Theology and of Christianity but upon holy Scriptures and created Nature The Seventh-day Sabbath instituted and commanded in Paradise and renewed and re-inforced at Mount Horeb neither of which places were in the lesser Judaea or Canaan and therefore this Law of the fourth Word was not a local Precept of force no where but in that lesser Judaea and Canaan as some affirm this Seventh day Sabbath is such a kind of day as may be known kept and observed by men where-ever they should inhabit That day in every week which followeth the six foregoing known days of labour is none of ours it is the day of Jehovah he hath plainly pointed it out to us in this Law none need to say the knowledge hereof is hidden from us who shall ascend for us into Heaven and bring the knowledge thereof to us that we may know it and observe it it is clearly demonstrated to us by Aelohim himself we may not make the Sabbath-day the sixth day for then we should shew our selves unthankful in not receiving the LORD 's own bountiful allowance unto us of six days for labour in our particular Functions Neither are we to make it the eight day for then we incroach on the LORD's Right and are not contented with his liberal Grant of six days for our own employments It might be asked of these Objectors whether God have any Covenant People near the North Pole and South Pole if so whether they have not the Scriptures If they have how then can they so mingle Faith with several Scriptures if such a people have not Day and Night in their successive daily Seasons was not the whole Scripture fitted for all Mankind for all Nations for every rational Creature in those Nations to whomsoever the glad tydings of Salvation should come and did not the LORD hereby confirm the lasting establishedness of the Covenant of Grace Is there one Bible for temporate Zones and another Book for Poles and for the inhabitants thereabouts Day and Night were made for the Earth or Land The Heavenly Luminaries have a preaching Voice to all Languages and People night and day To be under the Sun is a phrase which signifieth to be in this inferiour World those that do live in this inhabited Earth are set out by being beholders of the Sun all who have eyes and will use them to that end the Sun is made for light by day and the Sun riseth upon the evil and the good There was a First Second Third Fourth Fifth Sixth and Seventh Day in every Week here in England from the beginning ever since it was dry Land and will be so to the Worlds end if it still continue dry Earth and therefore let us make use of such arguments as do concern our selves there has been always a day from one going in of the Sun to the next going in of the Sun here in this Island ever since it was an Island the created Sun was just in those very places of the firmament at those seasons of the year as to its setting or rising as it is now at the same seasons of the year by unvariable constancy in his ordinary course and our continued certain measure of Days by Divine Ordination in the revealed Word and in created Nature must be by the orderly regular Motion of the Sun Moon and Stars this being one great end of their Creation and these being made before man was Created so that as soon as man had a being he might measure his time this way though it was made known unto him by the LORD on what day of the week he was created and which was the Seventh-day Sabbath when Jehovah made a promise unto Abraham that should be fulfilled some hundreds of years after it is said that in the self-same day the Prophety was fulfilled so that there is a certain Rule of measuring of Time Oh how much is it to be lamented that although the Seventh day Sabbath be so evidently and plainly asserted through the whole Scripture yet multitudes who have and do own the Scriptures will not as yet receive this holy Law of Christ whilst there is any thing that doth but look like somewhat of an Objection against it they take up with every humane conjecture though besides and against the Word many there are who will rather boldly attempt to throw down all weekly Sabbaths than humbly submit and obedientially conform to Jehovah's determinate weekly time of the Seventh-day though Scripture and Nature have joyntly established it When the LORD threatned and accordingly executed it to drive his Israel in case of such provoking disobedience into strange Nations unto the utmost parts of the Heaven yet there they were under the Law and Obligation of the ten Words In Judaea it self or Canaan the lesser the breadth from East to West was generally fifty Miles to which if the Kingdom of Sihon and Og be added on the other side Jordan parcels of Canaan the larger and possessed by Ruben Gad and half Manasses the bredth reckoned to be eighty Miles which doth make some variation of minutes according to this objection and by the same reason made it impossible for them to keep as to the same minute parts of time with respect to the weekly Sabbath but as for the larger Canaan which the Israelitish and Judaick Kings subdued under their Dominion this had a much larger extent as has been in part shewed already their foot did tread and their coast was from the Wilderness and Lebanon from the River the River Euphrates and unto the hindmost Sea The Wilderness of Paran was the Southern part of Canaan Lebanon was a Mountain at the Northen bound Euphrates the great River was the Eastern border of their Territories the hindmost Sea or after Sea called by the Greek and Chaldee the Western Sea was the main or great Sea toward the going in of the Sun this was to the West their Western bound This was prophetied in Moses's and Jehovah's time and afterwards fulfilled in Solomon's days where the Nations subdued were to fear and to worship where the Sun and Moon went forth and went in in their successive courses the Chaldee doth interpret with the rising of the Sun and in the light of the Moon that is at Morning and at Evening as the twelve Tribes
Scriptures which he doth cite where the word Aemesh is used some of the best Lexicographers and Translators do render it past time and the Past night As for the LORDS appearing to Isaac The same night or that self same night there is nothing either expressed or implyed in this that doth say it was the night belonging to the immediate preceding day light neither any such thing in the forementioned Scriptures in the margin but that self same night doth point out that eminent remarRable night of Jehovans appearing to Isaac to encourage him against his fears promising unto him his presence blessing of him and confirming his faith in the multiplication of his seed the place in Numbers has a quite contrary proof to what this Author doth bring it in for For this morrow did make up the self-same-day with the foregoing Night as may be discerned if that Scriptures cited in the Margin be compared with it That self-same-day That same which followed after in time did belong to that Night that very Night that same For otherwise the Israelites did not come out of Aegypt in one day but in part of one day and in part of another day the same Passover day which began at even was the day of their going out and this Author confesseth that the Natural day began at even when the Israelites were come out of Aegypt The night was made the former part of such a day This was prophesied of four hundred years or more before the full accomplishment thereof That place which he doth urge out of Samuel doth shew that Saul had an intention to have David to be slain in the Morning if he did not make an escape in the Night but that it should therefore hold forth the Morning of another natural day to which the foregoing night did not belong is this Authors meer saying without any evidence in this place Those expressions in Matthew and in James To Morrow doth signifie the time coming but how can this convince us that This To Morrow doth demonstrate the Natural day to begin in the Morning for we have the same expression in the significancy of it in Hebrew above threescore times in the Old Testament after the Israelites coming out of Aegypt relating some to Religious others to Civil affairs in which time this Author doth acknowledge that the Night was made the former part of the Natural day amongst which these in the Margin are some so that even Then as to Civil affairs the Israelites did not commonly account the Artificial day of day light to be the former part of the Natural day which though sometimes asserted by this Author is yet elsewhere in the same Treatise contradicted by him when he confesseth the week days had the same measure even then with the seventh day Sabbath which began at even so that how to reconcile such contrary sayings to one matter I discern not much less to reconcile them both to the Scriptures of truth when men do forget in one part of a book what they write in some other part of it inconsistent with a former passage His other Scriptures out of Exodus Leviticus and Numbers do not witness what he doth bring them into the court for seeing although the Day-part be set in order of place in those citations before the night-part yet this doth not there testifie that therefore the Day-part must in order of Nature and of Time be before the Night-part in the Natural-day for divers other Scriptures do place the Night before the Day and that after Israel came out of Aegypt when he himself owneth the Natural-day to begin at even The same we may also find in the New Testament both before and after Christs resurrection after which this Author would have the morning of the Natural-day to be in time before the Evening of it He that would be informed in the true right order must resort to the first established Law in primitive created Nature and in Scripture determinations when this case is professedly treated of and therefore both in the Hebrew and in the Greek when both the parts of a Natural day are joyned together in one Word the Evening and the Night are put before the Morning and the day So that there is no putting back by Moses nor bringing forward by Christ the account of Nights and of Days but they have all along continued as they were at the first made by the unchangeable Laws of the Creation For hereby doth the LORD prove the unchangeableness of his Covenant of Grace The first Creational days and week were the just measure of every after week and of the days thereof in the ordinary course succession and revolution and particularly the fourth fifth sixth and seventh days of that first created week were measured out by the heavenly luminaries and the three foregoing days of that week were of the same nature As to evening darkness and night going before the after morning light and day all and every of the seven days of that week As days were such as the after-days and were the measure of after-days in their stated order it was night and day in the several parts of the earth as it is now the well setled frame of the standing statute of created Nature is not to be inverted Could not did not the creating Aelohim carry the foregoing created evening darkness and night and the following morning light and day in the same moments of time to cause the same beginnings continuings and endings of nights and of days wheresoever and whensoever it is night and day any where in any part of the earth then as it is now Darkness and light were severed then both in nature and in time this Author doth acknowledge a revolution of them on the first created day and that the night was before the day in one Hemisphere From this part of the earth is the Scripture account in the opposite part it is Sea by his own arguing it could not be night every where at the same time for light was in the other Hemisphere and so the first day did not every where begin at the same time for it could not be day where it was evening and dark nor night where it was morning and light thus has he intangled himself in his own net of humane reasoning which he so spread to have catched seventh-day-sabbath observers If when Sun Moon and Stars were created and put into their moving walks on the fourth day they made an universal day that so all seven might in a just proportion of length and number answer to one another as he affirmeth Then at the same time it was night in some parts at full noon when the Sun shone in its strength and the light was clearest and fullest and then also it was day in some parts at the mid of night when it was darkest as the two parts of a natural day are distinguished and yet