of the law could not be manifested at all Nay farther whereas God insists so much upon that ground especially in the institution of the Passeover Especially seeing he doth it in ordaining other feasts of lesse importance Exod. 12.42 it seems very strange that he should against his custome neglect or passe by that ground upon which he instituted other feasts in the institution of the greatest of all feasts that ever was ordained in the Church It seems therefore more then probable that this reason drawn from Gods resting upon the seventh day must be deduced not from Gods act in resting on that day but from the consequent of that rest the honouring of that day by his resting therein Some man perhaps may reply that whether the very act of Gods resting Objection 1 or the honouring of the day wherein he rested be made the ground of appointing that the day of our rest Which way soever we draw the reason it still enforceth the observation of the seventh day it is all one because either way it binds us still to the observation of the same seventh day We answer that although to the Jews it was all one which way soever the reason was deduced yet it makes a wide difference in the Commandement to ordain the day to be observed because God rested upon that day or to command it to be observed because God honoured that day by his resting therein Answer for Gods resting being a particular act Not so for the act of Gods resting is appliable only to that day But the honouring of the day thereby is appliable to other daies cannot be communicated to any other then that very day wherein he rested but the honouring of that day being of a speciall nature may be communicated to any other day that shall be honoured in like manner So that if the reason be drawn from Gods act of resting upon that day if we change the day we alter the law but if we draw the reason from Gods advancing of the day by his resting therein above other daies we alter not the law when we observe another day upon the same ground It may be objected yet farther that this rule by which this holy day of rest is assigned in this generall way is both uncertain and obscure Uncertain Objection 2 because if the advancement of one day above another by some eminent mercy bestowed on that day The rule thus laid down is 1. Uncertain 2. Obscure be our rule for the observing or altering the day of holy rest it may fall out that divers daies being made remarkable by such events it will be hard to judge which of them is most eminent and consequently pointed out unto us by God to be observed Answer To this we answer that the Sabbath day must needs be esteemed the highest of all consecrated times 1. Not uncertain as being perpetually univerfally and more frequently to be observed then any other festival day Because it is grounded upon the honouring of the day by the greatest most universall and perpetuall mercy bestowed on the Church Whence it must needs follow that the work of mercy upon the memory whereof that day is founded must be such as not only brings an universall and perpetuall benefit but besides the greatest of all benefits unto the Church Now that the works of creating the world by Gods word in the beginning and since of the redemption of it by Jesus Christ are the most eminent of all the mercies bestowed by God upon man and indeed the fountain and foundation of all the rest the benefits whereof remain to the worlds end is more evident then the light And of these two the later being in all respects the far greater mercy and therefore deservedly carrying the observation of this holy day in remembrance thereof yet hath the wisdome of God so ordered it that in the consecrating this day of rest both should be remembred the creation in the proportion of the time by setting apart one day of seven and the redemption by changing the Sabbath from the last day of seven to the first in which our Saviour by his resurrection from the dead perfected that glorious work So then the rule for the observation of the day of this holy rest is not uncertain as is pretended Neither is this rule so obscurely laid down unto us 2. Nor obscure because the light of naturall reason may discover it but that it may be understood of as many as desire seriously to search into it For whereas the light of nature acknowledgeth teacheth as we have shewed already this principle that the observation of festivall daies is most fitly grounded upon the remembrance of some memorable event or other which hath hapned upon those daies which are to be observed when we read in this Commandement that God appoints his Sabbath to be kept upon the day on which he finished the Creation of the World even naturall reason will suggest that in this institution God observes the rule of nature in ordering that for the day of this solemne Feast on which the greatest generall benefit which till the Redemption of the world by Jesus Christ had been wrought for mankind from the beginning was accomplished Now that rule which the very light of nature approves being observed by God in appointing the day for this holy rest naturall reason will lead us on to conclude that when a more eminent work then the Creation of the World is performed it must carry the observation of the Sabbath unto that day on which it was accomplished upon the same ground and by the same rule by which it was first ordained to be observed upon another day Reason easily drawes particular directions out of generall rules when it finds the grounds of that rule appliable to more then that particular For instance the command for Circumcising Infants because they were within the Covenant quickly taught the Church of God the Baptizing of Infants upon the same ground because they are within the same Covenant It may be farther objected that the rule for the observation of the Sabbath had been much plainer 3. The rule had been plainer if God had said you shall keep theseventh day in memory of the Creation till I perform the greater work of your Redemption if God had laid it down in expresse tearms as thus You shall keep the Sabbath upon that day which you shall finde most honoured above other daies by my most eminent Work which I shall accomplish upon that day or yet more clearly till the coming of Christ you shall observe the last day of the week for your Sabbath in remembrance of the Creation of the world and after Christs resurrection you shall celebrate the first day of the week in memory of the redemption of mankind Answer which was perfected by him We answer 1. So might the second Commandement have been plainer we grant that the rule had been plainer if
most employed in secular affairs are said to sanctifie a day by leaving of their labours in secular things that they may spend their time in holy duties And how can God sanctifie a day by his act of resting But how God can be said to sanctifie one time above another seeing he is holy in all his works Ps 145.17 who can imagine Others interpret the words Sanctified and Blessed 2. Sanctified means that he decreed to do it only as Jer. 1.5 to expresse not what God did at present but what he decreed then to act and do afterward viz. when he gave his Law to his people by the hand of Moses upon mount Sinai And to give the better countenance to this interpretation they parallel it with another place Jer. 1.5 where God tels Jeremiah that he sanctified him before he came out of the womb In which place Sanctified can signifie no more Answer then he decreed to sanctifie Now to forbear all other exceptions against that parallel place in Jeremiah Where doth Blessed signifie Decreed to blesse admit the word Sanctifie signifie decree to sanctifie where doth the word Blessed signifie decree to blesse But admit such an instance might be found for that also Again it is taken so in one proves not that it must be so in this This were a mad form of reasoning The words Sanctified and Blessed in one place signifie Decreed to sanctifie and blesse where the circumstances of the Text admit other interpretations therefore the same words where they may have a better construction according to their usuall and proper signification must be interpreted in a sense lesse proper and usuall though no necessity urge us thereunto If such a liberty as this were admitted we should never be able to draw any certain conclusion out of any place of Scripture whatsoever A third sort there are who acknowledge that these words 3. It is related in Genesis by anticipation Gen. 2.3 import an institution but that is say they related in that place by way of anticipation referring and pointing out unto us a time when this was done more then 2400 years after when the Law was given by Moses upon mount Sinai Now this interpretation must suppose the whole third Verse Gen. 2. to be inserted there by a Parenthesis and then some clause must be added by way of supply to make up some such sense as this But what enforceth to admit an anticipation This resting of God upon the seventh day was the reason and ground of Gods sanctifying and blessing the seventh day in the Law which God gave unto his people by the hand of Moses upon mount Sinai But first what incongruity with the scope of this place or with any circumstances of the Text in which this is related or with any other place of Scripture or with any principle of faith enforceth us to allow such an anticipation in this place as we are forced to admit in some other places because we cannot otherwise find how they may agree either the words with themselves or with some other place of Scripture without which necessity to admit anticipations were to confound all order of Scripture For the countenancing of this anticipation they say that Moses Gen. 2. having mentioned Gods rest vers 2. upon the seventh day had thereupon a fit occasion to point at the Law which being given afterwards It cannot be proved that the Law was given before Genesis was written was grounded upon that rest of God which is here related To which we answer First this conceit supposeth that which no man in the world shall be ever able to prove that the book of Genesis was written by Moses after the giving of the Law otherwise how could Moses in this place give a reason of that Law which was not then in being but it seems more probable if conjectures may have any place in reasoning that the book of Genesis as it is placed first in order The contrary seems more probable so was first written For it is manifest by Saint Stephens words Act. 7.25 that God had revealed himself to Moses before he went out of the land of Aegypt into Midian and had designed him to be the deliverer of his people Again that Moses during his abode in Midian had leisure enough to pen that history it is evident in it self Lastly that the penning and reading of that history might be of singular use to stir up the children of Israel to go up out of Aegypt to take possession of the land of Canaan in which their Fathers had been so long a time sojourners and so blessed and advanced by God that they were esteemed as Princes amongst those with whom they lived especially God having so freely and fully given that land to them and their posterity is so evident that no man can with any colour deny it So that it must needs follow that in setling their anticipation upon such a supposition they build at the best upon a very uncertain ground Besides 2. The pointing at the Law in Genesis had been superfluous it had been meerly superfluous to have pointed at the ground of instituting the Sabbath in this place in Genesis seeing it is cleerly expressed in the body of the Law given by Moses Now whosoever considereth what brevity Moses useth in penning the history of the world allowing but 6 Chapters to the setting out of an history of 1650 yeares must needs judge it to be very improbable that he would lengthen it with needlesse and uselesse repetitions Lastly all that can be inferred on it the fairest that are produced to countenance this fained anticipation proves no more but this if all were granted that they alleage that there may be an anticipation but how will they prove that it must be and that is it which it concerns them to make good especially seeing there are so many strong if not convincing arguments which prove the contrary as we have shewed already Hitherto there appears for ought that we see no great occasion Arguments against the giving of the Law of the Sabbath to Adam or use at all of this pretended anticipation Gen. 2.3 which notwithstanding we must be enforced to acknowledge if it can be proved that the Sabbath was not Instituted before the giving of the Law by Moses upon mount Sinai or till the first intermission of the raining of Manna which was not long before it Wherefore they endeavour to prove that the Law neither was nor could possibly be given to Adam in Paradise This maintainers of that opinion labour to make good by three Arguments First 1. It was impossible for Adam to observe the Sabbath that it were absurd to conceive that God would give Adam a law which was impossible for him to observe Secondly that he should give him a law 2. It was needlesse which to him in the state of innocency 3. The Patriarchs till Moses his time never kept
over in few words Again for three reasons we cannot conceive that in this Exod. 16. there is any institution of the Sabbath at all For first 2. There happened at that time no memorable event to ground an institution here is no ground of instituting a festivall day seeing that must needs be some memorable event which dignifies that day that is to be consecrated above other days which is a rule which God and the Church and even heathen men by the light of nature guided themselves by Secondly here is no convocation of the people 3. The people are not convened as they ought to have been to receive this law who ought to have been assembled to hear that law that they must all obey as they were not only Exod. 20. when God himself delivered them the morall law upon mount Sinai but also when Moses his servant delivers unto them from God the Ceremoniall and Judiciall Laws Exod. 34.32 35.1 whereas here we find only a meeting of the Elders But only the Elders and that occasionally only and that too occasionally not by the call of Moses but their voluntary recourse to him to enquire the reason why the people had gathered a double portion of Manna on the sixth day and what should be done with it Thirdly 4. Here is no direction for the observation of this new feast here is no direction for the observation of this new feast and without it the law is not only imperfect but in effect no law at all Whereas there is a full direction for the use of their double portion of Manna which makes it evident that the ordering of their Manna must needs be the only charge which the Lord sent by Moses to the people Others therefore there are who go not so far as to plead for the institution of the Sabbath in this Exod. 16. Objection 21 Though the words amounted to an institution yet they are a preparation to a following institution but will have these words of Moses to be only in the nature of a preparation to an institution which was to follow To this also we answer First that this opinion is pressed with the same difficulties that the former is if things be duly weighed Answer 1. The same reasons are against that too 2. There is no like instance in giving any other law 3. What needs it 4. Why is this ground omitted in the fourth Commandement Secondly let them but give us one instance of any such kind of preparation used before the giving of any other law Thirdly let them shew us what need there is of any such preparation at all when the people were almost immediately after to be prepared in so solemn a manner for the receiving of that and the rest of the laws Lastly if the giving of a double portion of Manna on the sixth day or the ceasing of Manna on the seventh were such great means to win credit to this new Sabbath how is it that neither the one nor other is so much as once mentioned in that whole fourth Commandement wherein notwithstanding is so fully and largely laid down the ground of the institution of that law especially this mercy being so new and fresh in memory whereas God in the fourth Commandement goes back to the beginning of the world to seek out another and firmer foundation of instituting the Sabbath without mentioning of this at all Thus when all circumstances are duly weighed it will easily appear to any not forestalled by prejudice that in this Exod. 16. Moses speaks of the Sabbath to the Elders of Israël Whence it appears that Moses mentions the Sabbath to the Elders Exod. 16.23 as a thing known as of a thing well known unto them before-hand and by consequent which the Jewes were wel-acquainted with before the Law was given to Moses on mount Sinai whereupon it must needs follow that they received it from the Patriarchs delivered from hand to hand as other truths and laws of God were and consequently by that the Patriarchs in their generations observed the Sabbath although their observation thereof be not left upon record by Moses whose task was not to write a diary of the Fathers lives but to leave to posterity the remembrance of the most memorable examples both of their actions and of the events that befell them both for Gods honour and our instruction SECT III. The morality and perpetuity of the Sabbath proved out of the fourth Commandement IF this principle which will at last appear to be an undoubted truth were generally received and acknowledged that the whole Decalogue is morall and consequently immutable this question concerning the morality of the Sabbath were at an end Now the generall opinion wherewith most men are possessed but without any firm ground either out of reason or Scripture that it must needs be granted that there is something ceremoniall in the fourth Commandement either the set day or the strict rest of the Sabbath or both hath been a great occasion of begetting and cherishing this errour that there is something mutable in the Decalogue and consequently that it is neither morall nor perpetuall If therefore upon a due and thorough examination of all the severall clauses and expressions which we meet with in the fourth Commandement we can make it appear that there is nothing in that fourth Commandement that is any way ceremoniall and therefore mutable we shall remove a great scruple which hath long troubled the minds of many men divers of them much esteemed both for their learning and piety Before we begin to take this task in hand it will be needfull to premise this one thing by way of caution That in this case we are not bound to prove that the phrases and expressions which we meet withall in this Commandement The words of of the fourth Commandement in a fair construction enjoyn nothing ceremoniall neither in the day nor rest can have no other sense then that in which we take them It will be sufficient for us to make it appear that according to the usuall course of grammaticall construction and without any incoherence or incongruity with other parts of the law they may be taken in such a sense as we give them For if we can but make this appear that our construction of the words is as fair and proper as any other that is given by others the consequent of establishing the immutability of the Decalogue is of that weight that I conceive any man of two probable interpretations will be willing to embrace that which most makes for the establishing of the morall law Which is as much as needs to be proved It must therefore be our care to make it appear that the sense which we give of the words of this law may stand according to a fair and usuall manner of grammaticall construction and those that will oppose us must prove on the other side that it cannot stand That we may proceed
of holy rest consecrated to the Lord thy God Now things are said to be Gods for the peculiar interest that he hath in them whether by Creation as Psal 100.3 He made us and therefore wee are his people By redemption or purchase so the children of Israel God challengeth to be his own because he had bought them Isa 43.1 By deputation or designation as Christ is called Gods king Psal 2.6 and David a Type of Christ Psal 89.19 20. Or by advancing or honouring so a day may be called Gods because he hath advanced or honoured it above other daies Psal 118.24 Or lastly by consecration and dedication to God so the Priests are the Lords Levit. 20.26 the tythes vessels c. the Lords for his service Now in both these latter respects the day of holy rest is the Lords day as he calls it his Sabbath Exod. 31.13 Both because his works have advanced that above any other day and besides because upon that ground it is consecrated to him and set apart for his service To restrain men from violating of the holy rest of the Sabbath it is sufficient that it is the Lords but to make a deeper impression of it upon mens hearts he thought fit to adde The Lord thy God a dreadfull name to his people Deut. 28.58 This foundation being laid that the Sabbath is the Lords No manner of works that is of thy calling not excluding he hath a sufficient ground to take upon him to dispose of it and therefore in the next ensuing clause strictly enjoyns In it thou shalt do no manner of worke he means none of the works mentioned before properly called our own works 1. Works about Gods service or works of our particular callings As for works about Gods service such as were those about the service of the Tabernacle justified by our Saviour Mat. 12.5 Works of necessity for the creatures preservation which also Christ allows Mat. 12.11 2. Works of necessity from which also God himself ceaseth not Joh. 5.17 Works of mercy 3. Works of mercy though not of absolute necessity such as was the restoring of the mans withered hand Matth. 12.12 13. yea though it be to our selves vers 7. they are not to be accounted among the works forbidden upon this day If there were any stricter rest then this enjoyned the Jews which perhaps will not so easily be proved it is not required by any restraint in this Commandement and therefore not exacted upon us Christians As for the forbidding of the kindling of a fire and dressing of meat Exod. 16.5.13 35.3 they were inhibitions which determined as it is most probable with the Israelites peregrination in the wildernesse and laid upon them by other laws so that hitherto we meet with nothing ceremoniall in this fourth law The last main branch of this law is the reason or confirmation of it No reason annexed to any law but only to this fourth Commandement But before we undertake the opening of the phrases and tearms in which it is penned we cannot but take notice of one thing by the way that we find no reason annexed to any other Commandement of the Decalogue but to this alone We find indeed some Sanctions annexed to the second third and fift Commandements but none save this fourth is confirmed by a reason The cause hereof can be no other but this because whereas the duties commanded in other laws are either laws of nature or at least approvable by naturall reason as soon as they are delivered Because the grounds of other laws are evident in themselves but the ground of this law could not be known unless it had been revealed because the grounds upon which those lawes are founded are evident in themselves the grounds of this fourth Commandement could not have been known unlesse they had been revealed by God himself Indeed that God must be publikely worshipped That a set time must be appointed and that it must be a time of rest from private employments are dictates of naturall reason But why we must observe a weekly Sabbath and not a monthly and why the seventh or first day of the week rather then the third or fourth no man could have found out the reason unlesse God had revealed unto us the Creation of the world in six daies and his resting upon the seventh by the consideration whereof the equity of this law clearly and manifestly appears and upon the manifestation thereof is as easily approved and assented unto even by the light of naturall reason So then the reason alledged in this Commandement shews us not why God ordained a Sabbath which the very light of nature taught even the very heathen as we know but why he commands a weekly Sabbath and why upon such a day of the week rather then upon any other That therefore which we are to search after in the examining of this reason is how the equity of these two particulars is discovered therein that we may acknowledge this Commandement also to be just and good as S. Paul speaks of all the rest Rom. 7.12 yea equall and right concerning all things as the Prophet David speaks Psal 119.128 and thereupon submit unto it not by constraint but by a willing mind 1 Pet. 5.2 Now concerning the former of those two particulars why God allots out such a proportion of time as one day weekly for his Sabbath we have already in a great part discovered the equity thereof in the explication of this law wherein it appears that so much time may be spared without prejudice to our particular callings which if it should be denied God makes farther manifest by this reason annexed which we have before us To make it appear that six daies in the week are sufficient for the dispatch of our secular affairs one ground must be supposed Why we may spare one day of seven for this holy rest which is unquestionable that mens labours about the things of this world are onely for the conservation of the creatures and fitting of them for mans use That ground being laid this reason for the strengthning of our faith laies before us the example of God himself who created the world and all things therein in six daies from whence we may strongly reason that he that without the help of mans labour created the world in six daies can easily by mans labour of six daies support and conserve the world If it be questioned whether he will do it reason will easily conclude that the same goodnesse that moved God to give a being to things that were not will much more move him to conserve and provide for the things that are being all the work of his own hand seeing we know him to be a faithfull Creator as the Apostle calls him 1 Pet. 4.19 Wherefore we find that the godly for the strengthning of their faith and dependence on God upon any incident occasion usually have recourse to the creation of the world
as the means to assure themselves of his protection or supply in any thing that they need as Psal 119.73 Jer. 14.22 unto which God himself directs us Isa 45.11 12. Our help stands in the name of the Lord which hath made heaven and earth Psal 121.2 The Lord having made it appear that the consecrating of a day weekly unto God for his worship will be no prejudice to our secular affairs Why we must observe such a particular day gives us next a reason why he makes choice of the seventh day rather then any other to be this day of holy rest even because himself rested from all his works of creation upon that day Now that this rest of God is the ground of appointing this to be the day of rest all men acknowledge but how the reason must be drawn out from this ground and wherein the force of it consists is all the question For whereas in Gods rest there is a double consideration the one of the act it self simply the very resting of God from his work the second of the consequent of it If we draw the reason from Gods act of resting it must be the seventh day If from the honouring of that day thereby it enforceth the observation of the first day as well as of the seventh the advancing and honouring of that day above other daies thereby If we draw the reason of the instituting of this day from Gods simple act it necessarily inforceth the observation of that very seventh day from the creation after Gods example But if we draw it from the consequent of his rest the advancing and honouring of that day thereby it binds us as well to the observation of the first day of the week now as it did the Jews to the observation of the seventh day heretofore Those that oppose the morality of the Sabbath labour to draw the reason which is laid down in this fourth Commandement for the observing of this day of rest Wee cannot make Gods act of resting the ground of instituting the Sabbath from Gods bare act of resting himself upon that day which if they do they must form their argument in this manner That day in which God himself rested from his works he appointed to be a day of mens resting from their works but that was the seventh or last day of the week therefore God ordained that to be the day on which men should rest from their works Now against the argument framed in this manner there lie two main exceptions 1. Gods example is not the ground of any Commandement the first of them is the example of God neither is nor can be any warrant to us to do the like neither do we ever find it proposed unto us as a rule which we must follow This is true that Gods or Christs examples are are set before us sometimes as incitements to stir us up to the performance of such duties as are required of us by the law as Luke 6.36 Be mercifull as your heavenly father is mercifull and Phil. 2.5 Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ but we never find any act of Gods or of Christs proposed unto us as a rule to teach us what we should do Gods actions declare that it is his will that it should be done but when he directs us what he will have us to do he sends us unto the law and to the testimony Isa 8.20 Neither do we ever find that the meer act of God was ever the ground of any law Although as in this particular case and in the institution of some other feasts some consequent or something that accompanies that act may be an occasion of an institution Perhaps to this some may reply Objection 23 that in this fourth Commandement we have first a law given in these words We have the precept first and then Gods example to encourage us to observe it The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God and then we have Gods example to stir us up to the practice of that duty required in that law To this we answer that we have a law indeed that commands the observation of an holy day of rest unto God Answer We have no precept for the particular day of rest before the reason and a second branch of that law which appoints the proportion of the time of that rest that it shall be one day in the week but concerning the third branch without which the law it self is not perfect that is which day of the week shall be the day of that rest is not expressed as we have partly already shewed in opening the explication of this Commandement but only in the reason annexed unto this law Unlesse therefore it can be proved that the tearm seventh mentioned in the explication of this Commandement signifies the last day of seven we have no law precedent to Gods example here mentioned that commands the observation of the last day of the week for the day of rest As hath been shewed already that seventh in the explication of the Commandement notes not the particular day Now the weaknesse of the reasons alleaged to prove that this tearm seventh used in the explication of this law signifies the last day of the week we have shewed already And by one reason have made it more then probable that this tearm seventh in that place signifies only indefinitely one of seven and not particularly such a certain day of the seven The second reason which farther manifests that truth and makes it evident And is further proved because God mentions it not at all in the conclusion of the Commandement we have deferred untill now and it is this If God had intended to command that the last day of the week should be observed for the Sabbath he must and would have mentioned it in the conclusion of that reason by which he shews us the equity of the observation of that day rather then any other Now he is so far from doing that that he forbears the mentioning of that name of seventh in the conclusion at all That this which we alleage may have the greater sway with us take speciall notice that the conclusion of this Commandement hath the very same words which we find in the first giving of this law Gen. 2.3 whether the words themselves were taken out of that history I will not peremptorily define though it seems most probable Whereas he precisely names it in the Law given to Adam Gen. 2. This is cleer the words in both places are the same in every title else save only that in stead of the tearm seventh in Genesis God useth the name Sabbath in this Law This questionlesse he doth not without reason for God neither forgets nor mistakes nor speaks unadvisedly as men do too often now what may be the reason why God makes choice of this word Sabbath in the conclusion of this Commandement This is evident that by
to be taken away For as for those allegations that the rest of the Sabbath was a type of Christs rest in the grave and a part of the Iewish bondage how little force they have we have shewed before Now then if it evidently appear to all that will consider things with any indifferency by all that we have said that neither the resting from our labour one day in seven nor the continuing of that rest for the whole day nor yet the strictnesse of any rest enjoyned by the fourth Commandement are either as ceremonious or upon any other ground to be altered neither that the particular day of rest which now by Christs resurrection is altered from the last to the first day of the week is there commanded otherwise then in a generall rule equally communicable both to the Iewish and Christian Sabbath there appears no necessity of granting any thing to be mutable in this fourth Commandement more then in any of the laws of the Decalogue It hath been intimated before that mens mistake of the right interpretation of the fourth Commandement hath been a great occasion of questioning the perpetuity and immutability of the morall law and of how dangerous consequent it is to admit that there is any thing mutable therein experience teacheth us when we find how ready men are to embrace and hold that dangerous errour of casting aside the whole law and that so far as to deny it to be a rule of direction unto us Christians in the course of our practice whereby they open a wide gap to all licentiousnesse and by that means overthrow the very life and power of godlinesse to the high dishonour of God and to the extream perill of their own souls so that we see how neerly it concerns all such as have any true zeal for the furthering of Gods honour and their own salvation and their brethrens to endeavour by all the means that they can the establishing and maintaining of this truth that the morall law given by God to Adam in the beginning and renewed afterwards by Moses upon mount Sinai is an everlasting rule left by God unto his Church for the right ordering and guiding them in all their ways The premises then being duly weighed and layed together we have a sufficient ground to argue in this manner All the laws written in the Decalogue are morall and immutable in all things But the fourth Commandement concerning the observation of the Sabbath day is one of the laws of the Decalogue Therefore this law of the Sabbath is perpetuall and unchangeable in all things which are concerned therein And so much concerning the morality and perpetuity of the fourth Commandement in the Decalogue by way of digression SECT IV. A continuation of the consideration of the rest of the Laws recorded in the Scripture with such instructions as may be drawn from them HAving now established the perpetuity of that Law which we call Morall in all the Commandements thereof it is time to returne to that from which we digressed namely the delivering of rules for our direction in drawing out observations from the Laws recorded in Scripture for our instruction and there being three kinds of these Laws Morall Judiciall Ceremoniall as we have shewed before of these the Morall law comes first to be considered Now that Law being given to Adam the roote of mankind and that not so much to his person as to the nature of man which was wholly in him when he received this Law from God and consequently binding all those who are partakers of that nature it must needs be acknowledged that whatsoever commands we find therein we must guide our selves by as the rule of our practice Which that we may the better doe it will be needfull to lay before us some rules All duties to God and man are commanded in the Morall Law that may direct us in the right interpretation of these Commandements Before we give these rules it will be necessary to lay before us this evident ground of truth that these ten words as they are called comprise all the heads of duties to be performed both to God and man This is clearly manifested by our Saviours answer to the Lawyer that tempted him Luke 10.26 enquiring what he might doe to inherit eternall life to whom Christ replies that whatsoever duty was needfull to the attaining thereof was to be found in the commandements where he wils him to seek it Now these precepts being delivered in such briefe expressions as they are it must needs follow that every one of the tearms in them must needs be of exceeding large comprehension First therefore Rules for interpreting the Law whereas we find these Laws of the Decalogue penned some in the form of a command and most of them in the forme of a prohibition Rule 1 we must conceive that under every command there is implied a prohibition of whatsoever is contrary to what is commanded All the Commandements forbidding any sinne command the contrary duty and commanding the duty forbid the opposite sin and in every prohibition a command of all duties opposite to that which is forbidden For example in the second Commandement which under the name of Images forbids the inventing or using of any form of worship of mans devising there is withall commanded the worship of God according to his own will in the use of the ordinances prescribed and warranted by his Word as prayer and hearing of the Word receiving the Sacraments c. And in the third Commandement under the prohibition of taking Gods name in vaine is commanded the taking up of it with all holy reverence and feare Secondly Rule 2 under the name of any duty commanded there is required not only the performance of the outward act of that duty The Law besides the outward act requires the obedience of the heart but withall the inward obedience of the heart to the Law which requires it Rom. 6.17 and the letting out of all the affections of the soule in the performance of it as Psal 119.167 the Prophet professeth that his soul had kept Gods Testimonies and that he did love them exceedingly whence it is that both our Saviour Christ and his Apostles after him both comprise all duties commanded in the Law under the name of Love being an affection of the heart and tell us that the holy affection of love is the fulfilling of the Law Rom. 13.10 implying that whatsoever the act be which we perform yet if it proceed not from that holy disposition of the heart And the use of all helps to any duty commanded it is not answerable to the Law Againe together with the duty commanded in any Law there is required the use of all helps and meanes which may further us thereunto on the other side where any sinne is forbidden there the inward roote of that evill And forbids the originall corruption of the heart with all motions flowing from thence even as far
while the whole nature of mankind was in our first Parents upon that ground therefore supposed and granted by all we thus argue That which Moses relates God to have done Proved by the series of the history Gen. 2. that he did in the manner and order that he relates but Moses relates that God instituted the Sabbath from the beginning as well as marriage and some other Laws therefore it was so and then done The words of Moses his relation of the Institution of that day of rest Gen. 2.3 are these And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it Now that these words Blessed and Sanctified in the most proper and ordinary construction signifie instituted and annexed a blessing to the observation of it I conceive no man will denie Wherefore seeing this is the most usuall and proper signification of these words and seeing no incongruity with other clauses and expressions in the letter of that text no contradiction to any other place of Scripture nor repugnancy to any principle of faith enforce us to seeke out any other more unusuall signification of them we have sufficient warrant to construe and interpret them according to their usuall literall and proper sense in this place Now that Blessing and Sanctifying the Sabbath was from the beginning besides the series of the history And by the tearmes blessed and sanctified which is a stronger more convincing argument to prove that it was so then any that is or can be alleadged to prove the contrary may be evineed and farther made good by these reasons First we find the Lord himself in the fourth Commandment affirming that he had blessed and sanctified the Sabbath day for so all the Interpreters render these words according to the most proper signification of them in the originall tongue as remembring and referring unto an act done before the giving of the Law Repeated in the fourth Commandement and pointing at an act past Now we find in no place of Scripture any mention of the Lords blessing sanctifying the Sabbath day before the publishing of the Decalogue upon Mount Sinai but in this only Gen. 2.3 Neither doe those that deny the Morality of the Sabbath mention or suppose any time precedent to the delivery of the Law by Moses wherein God blessed and sanctified the Sabbath day neither if any such thing had been done by God would the Scripture have omitted the recording of it being a matter of so great importance neither lastly 3. Neither was any time so fit for giving this Law of the Sabbath as in the beginning was there any time so fit for the giving of this Law as when the ground of the Institution of this holy Rest which was Gods manifesting of the perfecting of the worlds creation by his resting on that day was new and fresh in memory This reason taken from the fitnesse of the time for the enacting and publishing of this Law carries with it the greater weight because we know how carefull God is to make every thing beautifull in its time Eccl. 3.11 and consequently we have no reason to imagine that God would omit the fittest time for the giving of this Law and defer it to a time lesse seasonable As appeares in instituting other Feasts especially seing we see that in the Institution of the Feasts of lesse imporportance as Easter and Pentecost of lesse frequent observation and to last but for a time he tooke care to ordaine them when the mercies were yet fresh and new for the preserving of the memory whereof they were appointed The same course the Church tooke afterwards in the ordaining of the Feast of Purim wherein both the occasion and Institution of the Feast went both together Nay even the Heathen themselves by the very light of nature were directed to follow the same rule as all men know But the strongest and clearest argument to prove the Institution of the Sabbath by God from the beginning is the testimony of the Apostle The Apostle affirmes it Heb. 4.3 4. Heb. 4.3.4 in these words Although the works were finished from the foundation of the world for he spake in a certaine place namely Gen. 2.2 of the seventh day on this wise And God rested the seventh day from all his workes To shew the force of the argument which is to be drawne out of this place we must in this whole disputation of the Apostle's begun chap. 3.12 and ending chap. 4.11 consider what he chiefly aimes at and intends to prove which is to disswade men from unbeleefe to which purpose he sets before them the dangerous consequents thereof namely that it excludes men out of heaven To prove this he alleadgeth the testimony of the Prophet David Psal 95.11 who threatens the people of his time to be shut out of Gods rest as their Fathers by hardening their hearts through unbeleefe were shut out of Canaan a Type of heaven if they proved unbeleevers and hardened their hearts thereby as their fathers had done If it should be replied unto the Apostle that David in that place alleadged out of the Psal meant not heaven by the rest which he there mentions the Apostle demonstrates plainly that David in these words which he relates could not possibly by the name of Rest meane any thing else but the rest of heaven The Apostle's argument by which he demonstratively proves that the Prophet in the words which he cites out of him could meane no other rest but the rest of heaven is this in briefe The rest which David mentions in that place must needs be such a rest as the men to whom he speakes had not entred into for then it had beene a vaine thing to threaten to shut them out of that which they had already in possession but had a possibility to enter in it or else it were a like folly to threaten that as a judgement upon them to deprive them of that which they should never have any possibility to obtain But saith the Apostle there was no such rest to be entred into by them in Davids time but only the rest of heaven therefore David in that place cited by the Apostle could meane no other rest but the rest of heaven To make good this argument he gives a sufficient enumeration of all the kindes of rests which were possible to be meant by David in the place alleadged which must all of them have this condition that they might be entred into by men which were three the rest of the Sabbath the rest of Canaan and the rest of heaven into all which men had a possibility to enter Now the rest out of which they are threatned to be excluded must be a rest which they had not already entred into But saith our Apostle into two of these Rests men had entred before Davids time into the rest of the Sabbath from the foundation of the world in which God rested after he had perfected his workes and into the rest of Canaan
nothing to his purpose in this disputation unlesse it be to shew the ground of mans rest at the same time it might sufficiently satisfie any man that is willing to be guided by reason Notwithstanding as we have taken notice of the main drift at which the Apostle aims in this disputation so it will not be amisse to consider the grounds which the Apostle laies for the raising of his argument To prove then that David threatens unbelievers to be shut out of heaven which he here calls by the name of Gods rest he laies this for his ground that this name of Gods rest can be applied onely to three things the Sabbath Canaan and Heaven Now these three being all members under one generall head and distinguished one from another must needs have something common to them all and something proper and peculiar wherein they differ That which is common to them all is first that they are Gods rests that is rests which God ordains for and bestowes upon men Secondly that they are therefore rests into which men may enter The difference between these rests is that two of them were possessed by men already and one of them was yet to come Now the Prophet Davids words expresly mention a rest to come and to conceive and affirm that the Apostle building his argument upon this distinction as it plainly appears he doth should impertinently intend to bring in Gods resting in his own person is to confound this distinction of rests which the Apostle lays for the ground of his Argument and by consequence his whole disputation that is built thereupon To conclude the Apostle not only laies downe a distinction of the severall kinds of Gods rests in that dispute Heb. 4. but farther in applying it to his purpose insists most strongly upon the opposition between the words in Gen. 2. and the words of David Psal 45. by which he makes it manifest that David could not mean that rest of the Sabbath that Moses speaks of Gen. 2. For Heb. 4.3 thus he reasons David speaks of a rest to come but Moses speaks of a rest past therefore David cannot mean the rest of the Sabbath of which Moses speaks which was entred into so long before And again v. 5. he takes up the same opposition in these words And in this place of David again If they shall enter both in the 3. and 5. vers the Apostle insists upon Davids expressions If they shall enter which he shews cannot refer to the rest of the Sabbath which was entred into as Moses relates long before Now wherein stands this opposition between the relation of Moses that God rested the seventh day Davids intermination they shall not enter there is no opposition between these two expressions God hath entred and They shall not enter but between these two They have entred and They shall not enter there is a manifest opposition whereas therefore the Apostle presseth strongly this opposition ver 3. ver 5. it must be granted that though he expresseth only Gods resting on the seventh day yet he specially intends mans resting which was grounded thereupon Some amongst the opposites grant that the Apostle may in the 3. 4. verses of Heb. 4. though he mention Gods resting too as being instituted and grounded upon Gods resting upon the same day But this they say was intended only indirectly and by consequence Neither say they doth the Apostle limit Gods resting and mans resting unto the same time but mentions only Gods rest which was indeed from the foundation of the world but not mans rest which began only from the delivering of the Law by Moses To this we answer that it must needs be that mans resting is principally and directly intended in that place by the Apostle although it be not expresly mentioned that Gods resting is only named as the ground of the institution of mans rest so that when he affirmeth that God rested from the foundation of the world he implies that man rested with him at the same time seeing as we have shewed the whole weight of his Argument lies upon mans and not upon Gods resting And when he affirms that man had already entred into that rest it was fit for him to assigne the time when he entred into that rest as he doth afterwards set down the time when he entred into the rest of Canaan because the expressing of the time of entring into that rest is that which gives most strength to his Argument Besides if mans resting upon the giving of the Law by Moses were meant by the Apostle it was easie for the Apostle to have named that time as it was to name the other But what may be the reason may some say why the Apostle in this place principally intending and meaning mans resting on the Sabbath mentions notwithstanding only Gods resting on the Sabbath day but speaks not a word of mans resting on that day and proves that out of Gen. 2.2 when he might as easily have proved the other out of the verse following To this we answer that the whole course of the Apostles dispute shews evidently what he means Secondly we say that Gods rest sufficiently implies mans resting at the same time as being the very ground and foundation upon which the rest of man on the Sabbath day was grounded Thirdly why the Holy Ghost was pleased rather to imply mans resting on the Sabbath day under the phrase of Gods resting then to expresse in plainer tearms we can no more give a reason then we can tell why the same spirit of God sets downe divers disputations in such broken expressions that need the supply of many clauses to make up the sense cleer and full or why in other places of Scripture he shadows out many things under obscure phrases which might as easily have been expressed in clearer and plainer forms SECT II. Answer to the Arguments against the Institution of the Sabbath in Paradise TO avoid the Institution of the Sabbath recorded Gen. 2.3 Exceptions against this argument from Gen. 2. in expresse and plaine tearms and so distinctly related in that place that any man may justly wonder that any one endewed with reason should oppose so cleer an evidence the opposites have invented strange interpretations of these words Blessed and sanctified which carry the Institution 1. There is related onely what God did not what he ordained Some interpret them as relating an act of God what he did not as his command what he appointed men to do as if the words signified no more but this That God honoured and advanced the day by his resting thereon This absurd interpretation the very letter of the text sufficiently and plainly confutes which relates Gods resting and his sanctifying that rest Answer as two distinct Acts Gods resting and sanctifying are related as two distinct acts the one grounded on the other vers 3. That he sanctified the day because he had rested therein Besides men because they are
changing the word Seventh into Sabbath which is of larger signification the day of rest is not so precisely tied to the last day of the week in this fourth Commandement as it is in the Law given to Adam Gen. 2. why then should we not think that God intended in this law given by Moses to leave the set day of this holy rest more at large then he had done in the Commandement given to Adam Why God might think it fit to do so And might do because till Christ came the Creation of the world was Gods greatest work and fittest to ground the law of the Sabbath upon we see manifest reason for untill the fall of man there could be no day fitter for the observation of an holy rest unto God then the last day of the week in which by the rest of God from creating the creation of the world was declared to be fully perfected which was the greatest work then done or to be done if man had not fallen But now when man was fallen But mans redemption by Christ being a greater work required the altering of the Sabbath to the First day of the week and therefore to be redeemed and created anew which was a greater work then his creation at the first so that a greater work and mercy of God to men was to be remembred there was in a sort a necessity of changing the day of rest from the last to the first day of the week on which mans redemption was to be perfected And consequently it was fit that the law given to man fallen and to be redeemed should be so penned in generall tearms that when this glorious work of mans redemption should be perfected there might be a change of the day of rest without any change of the law A second exception that we take against the drawing of the reason of this fourth Commandement 1. To urge the keeping of the Sabbath from the act of resting shews not the equity of the law from the example of God resting on the Sabbath day to bind us thereupon to the observation of the same day for the day of our rest is this A law we know is a rule of equity and to give a reason of a law is to make it appear to be so God then in giving this for a reason of this Commandement could have no other aime before him but by this reason to shew the equity of this law both in appointing the proportion of time for an holy rest and in limiting it to such a particular day Now to draw the reason of our resting from Gods resting Because Gods condition and ours is not alike shews no equity in the law at all We cannot make good this position It is equal and just that we should rest because God rested There is infinite odds between Gods condition and ours God might rest as long and as often as he pleased seeing he hath al-sufficienty in himself and is not supported by labour as men and their estates are who if they should cease from their labors too long or too often must necessarily perish So that by reasoning in this manner that we must rest because God rested too cannot make the equity of this law appear at all Seeing therefore the equity of the law cannot be evidenced by reasoning from Gods meer act of resting upon that day let us now trie whether the other way of deducing the reason of the law from Gods advancing and honouring the seventh day by his resting thereupon and establishing the rule of our rest thereupon do not more cleerly manifest the equity of this law in that particular But drawing the reason from Gods honouring of that day by his rest the equity of the law is evident If we draw the reason of the law from the honouring of the seventh day by Gods resting upon that from all his works we may conceive that he argues in this or that manner That day which is honoured by God above other daies by his most eminent works of mercy to mankind shall be the day of holy rest to be consecrated to him for his worship but the day in which God ended and perfected the creation of the world is the day honoured and advanced above all other daies by that wonderfull work therefore that shall be the day of your holy rest In this syllogisme the minor or second proposition only is expressed in the words of the law and that too only in part for there is no more said but that God rested that day not that he honoured that day by his rest which notwithstanding is necessarily implied for he that saith that Christ rose the first day of the week must mean as much as if he had said Christ made the first day of the week honourable memorable by his resurrection on that day As for the major or first proposition in this syllogisme it is a principle acknowledged by all men by the light of nature It is evident that daies and times in themselves are all equall that which advanceth one day above another must be some memorable event that hath happened on that day Again that such memorable events ought to be the ground upon which such daies as God hath marked out by them Laying down a ground upon whcih God instituted other feasts And the Church and advanced above other daies ought to be observed above other daies is as cleer and evident Wherefore we see that God himselfe hath taken that for his ground of justifying the feasts of Passeover and Pentecost and in imitation of him the Jews upon the same ground took upon them the observation of the feast of Purim Hest 9.21 Yea the very heathens led thereto by the light of nature 23. Yea the very heathen themselves as all histories testifie have alwaies made the daies of their birth of founding their Cities of obtaining memorable victories and the like to be daies of annuall observance in joy and feasting So that to consider the day of Gods rest as a day advanced above other daies and thereupon to ordain that to be a day of holy rejoycing in God in remembrance of his great and glorious works is to shew an equity acknowledged by light of nature in the institution of the Sabbath Now whereas God both in all his waies God therefore purposing to shew the equity of this law could not but set down the reason so as that might best appear but more especially in his laws takes speciall care to make it appear unto men that they are all equall and just in all things as the Prophet David acknowledgeth Psal 119.128 both for his own honour and withall to draw us the more cheerfully to obey and serve him we cannot imagine that he being to give a reason of this law and having so fair a ground by which he might manifest the equity thereof even to naturall reason it self should conceal that and propose another reason in which the equity
It is objected that the Rest commanded in the fourth Commandement was a figure of Christs rest in the grave and therefore is now banished with the rest of those shadowes We answer this typicall relation to Christ Answer was accidentall to the Sabbath not essentiall That was accidentall to the Sabbath it was a Sabbath before it was a Type for it was a Sabbath before Christ was looked upon as a sacrifice for sin that is before man had fallen and consequently before there was any need of our Saviours resting in the grave Seeing therefore it was a Sabbath before it was a type it may remaine a Sabbath though the type be taken away They will it may be grant that there must be a rest from labour upon the Sabbath day Objection 2 but the strictness of that rest such as the Jews observed The strictnesse of the rest enjoyned the Jewes is taken away is ceremonious and abolished The rest say they to be observed of us Christians is only for publike worship and no longer so that the remainder of the day after publike duties are ended is free and then men are at liberty to make use of the time remaining for recreations or for any secular affaires as occasion shall required In answer hereunto we have shewed already that although publike worship be principally yet it is not solely provided for in this Law which as we have proved out of Esay 58.13 reacheth to our private carriage also And the Law calls the whole day the Sabbath or rest of the Lord that is both commanded by him and consecrated to him For the whole week being distributed into seven parts sixe are allowed for labour and the seventh is consecrated unto God which therefore must be a naturall day as the other sixe are To replie that we are not bound by that Law is to begge the question But why should not Christians be bound to rest the whole day as well as the Jews The Jews not bound to rest but for holy duties Surely if the Sabbath were a type of Christs rest in the grave yet there could be no type in a whole day as there was in Jonas his three daies So the rest of the whole day having no type in it is not abolished for that cause What then was it a part of the burthen of those ceremonious observances from which Christ hath freed us To give the fuller answer hereunto let us examine what rest was enjoyned the Jewes that we may discover wherein the burthensomenesse of that rest consisted First I conceive no man will think that the Jewish rest was a totall cessation from all action like that in the Aegyptian darknesse Exod. 10.23 as if men after the publike exercise were to sit still and to do nothing Was it then a ceasing from labours to follow sports that the Sabbath might be like the feast of the Calfe Exod. 32.6 or was it rest from worldly labours to fit men give them the more leisure to attend holy duties Such a rest indeed the Law requires For which we have as much need of rest as they and the Sabbath to be kept holy Now if this were all that God required of the Jews to rest that they might be exercised in hearing reading praying c. Is this the liberty Christ hath purchased unto us that we may be lesse godly then they lesse frequent in prayer and other holy duties then they For if we are bound at least to equall if not to go beyond them in our exercise in those holy duties we have as much need of rest from ordinary employments as they had This will be made more evident unto us if we lay before us these five particulars First 1. As having a more weighty ground for observing this holy rest our ground of consecrating the Sabbath is as great and weighty and more cleer and evident to us then it was to the Jews seeing Gods mercies towards man are more cleerly represented us in mans redemption then they could be to them in the worlds creation and conservation Secondly 2. And are as much bound to advance Gods majesty as they 3. And more helps then they 4. And as much need to prevent distractions as they 5. And our duties are as many or more then theirs the majesty and greatnesse of God to whom we consecrate this day is as fully manifested to us as to them Thirdly our helps and means for the raising up of our spirits to an holy rejoycing in God are greater and more effectuall then they were unto them Fourthly we need as much as they all helps to prevent the distraction of our minds and to the quickning of our spirits Lastly our exercise in spirituall and holy duties is in all respects as much or more then theirs So that if all be laid together the observing of a whole day of rest for our exercise in holy duties is as usefull and as needfull to us Christians as it was heretofore to the Iews To cleer this point yet more fully 1 Private prayer and reading let us lay before us the right manner and order of performing the duties in which the Sabbath day is to be sanctified First therefore all men must needs grant that the private exercises of prayer reading Gods word and meditation which are constantly to be used on other daies are not to be neglected but ought rather to be enlarged on the Sabbath day 2. Recordation of Gods mercies generall and Particular Again as the Sabbath ought to be a day of gladnesse and rejoycing in God Psalm 118.24 for all his mercies to man in generall so it is a time of recounting his extraordinary favours to our own souls in particular which will be of speciall use to quicken and fill our hearts with the love of God by tasting the sweetnesse of his goodnesse and to carry us on with more cheerfulnesse and life of spirit in the performance of all the duties of that day both private and publike Thirdly 3. Preparation to publique duties for the publike duties themselves they can never be rightly performed without precedent preparation David will wash his hands in innocency and so compasse Gods Altar Psal 26.6 and Solomon tels us we must take heed to our feet when we enter into Gods house Eccles 5.1 and bethink our selves of the majesty and greatnesse of that God before whom we present our selves and of our own vilenesse that are but dust and ashes Gen. 18.27 nay which is worse unclean and filthy persons Isa 64.6 unworthy to stand before a God that hath pure eyes and the Apostle tells us of superfluity of naughtinesse that must be laid aside when we come to hear that we may receive the word with meeknesse Jam. 1.21 into an honest and good heart Luk. 8.15 Meditations by which we must prepare our hearts in our private exercises of reading Gods word and prayer much more in these which are more solemn and publike Again
4. Recordation and application afterward hearing of the word without recordation meditation and particular application after we have heard profits not much more then our meats do without digestion Adde unto all these 5. Instructions to the family 6. Works of mercy instructions to the family Works of mercy in visiting of the sick comforting the afflicted relieving the poor c. and we shall find little spare-time left on the Lords day for other then religious and holy employments As for the objection that the Jews are precisely restrained from going out of their places to gather Manna on the Sabbath day or kindle a fire throughout their habitations on that day Exod. 35.3 For the restraint from going out to gather Manna we know that must needs be taken away when Manna ceased and bound the Jews no longer who had liberty otherwise not only to go out of their places but to go small journies on the Sabbath daies as appears Acts 1.12 As for the inhibition to kindle a fire on the Sabbath day some conceive it respected only the building of the Tabernacle which work though God would have hastned yet he would not have the rest of the Sabbath violated for the furthering thereof nor so much as a fire kindled in any of their tents about that work to which they alleage that charge of building the Tabernacle and of forbidding work on the Sabbath day go both together both Gods direction to Moses Exod. 13.11 13. and in the delivery thereof to the people Exod. 35.2 3 4. Howsoever that inhibition of kindling fire was but temporary during the Israelites peregrination in the wildernesse The reasons by which it appears that this restraint of kindling a fire on the Sabbath day was only temporary Restraint from kindling a fire on the Sabbath was but temporary 1. It hath not the form of a continuing ordinance 2. It crosseth our Saviours rule The Sabbath was made for man 3. The loosing of a beast on the Sabbath allowed 4. Christ was at a great feast on the Sabbath which could not be without a fire are these First we find not the usuall clause which is added in most ordinances which were to continue added in this restraint that it should be observed throughout their generations Secondly this seems to crosse our Saviours generall rule Mark 2.27 That the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath he means for mans comfort and refreshing for which kindling of fire and dressing of meat may be and are in a sort necessary Thirdly our Saviour allows the loosing of a beast from the stall and leading of him to the water on the Sabbath day now we know the beast might be provided for by setting water in the stall over-night which would refresh it sufficiently and better then meat dressed overnight could comfort many men Fourthly we find our Saviour present at a great feast Luk. 14.1 where many and it seems persons of quality vers 7.12 were bidden now it is very unlikely that the provisions for that feast were dressed over night and if it were dressed on that day neither would the Pharisee have permitted nor our Saviour have countenanced the dinner with his presence if dressing of meat kindling of fires on the Sabbath day had been forbidden by the law Now why the dressing of Manna while the Israelites were in their peregrination in the wildernesse was forbidden though the dressing of other meats might be allowed afterwards there may be some reason given For Manna it may be might be as good and comfortable eaten cold as hot and the preparing overnight might be no inconvenience at all howsoever it is out of question that in that unsetled condition of the Israelites wandring in the wildernesse when they were enforced to pick up fewell where they could get it baking and boyling must needs be more troublesome and laborious then it was afterwards in Canaan where being setled in their dwellings they had all things whereof they were to make use for such works provided and ready at hand But to conclude suppose the strictnesse of the rest unto which the Iews were bound Howsoever such strictnesse of rest was not required of them by the fourth Commandement to have been as great as they imagine it must needs be granted that there is no clause in the fourth Commandement that enjoyns it which requires no more then a rest from our ordinary secular employments that we may be at leisure to attend wholly upon the duties of religious worship that we consecrate the whole day unto God as the words of that law do cleerly expresse it So the rest of the laws that enjoyn such strictnesse of rest being taken away the fourth Commandement may remain fully in force in every clause of it And as it hath been already intimated it concerns us to take speciall notice of Gods expression Six days shalt thou labour and do all thy work by which he can mean nothing else but the works of our particular callings which only may be properly called our works for there be generall works which be proper to all callings and subordinate thereunto as to eat and drink and to cloath our selves and to make use of the rest of the comforts of this life by which we are strengthned and enabled to labour in our particular callings These cannot properly be called our works and are as well to be done on the Sabbath as on other days with this difference only that whereas they are done on other days to enable us to labour they are to be done on the Sabbath to strengthen us to holy duties These reasons which we have laid down before amount to little lesse then a Demonstration that the rest of the Sabbath must be the rest of a whole day or the seventh part of the week which we Christians have both as much cause and as much need to consecrate unto God as ever the Iews had in times past And that we may do it with as little detriment to our selves in our secular affairs and with as much assurance to have our labours of six days so blessed that they shall be sufficient for the dispatch of our needfull employments is evident by the reason which is annexed to that Commandement which proves it by the creation of the world by God in six days a ground of faith which concerns us as well as the Iews Wherefore seeing we have as great reason as great helps and as great encouragements by the assurance of Gods blessing upon our six days labour to sanctifie an entire day of holy rest unto God as the Iews had And seeing the expresse words of the law appoint the whole day to be consecrated unto God why should not we take our selves to be as strongly bound as the Iews were to the keeping of the holy rest of this whole day which we call the Sabbath seeing there appears no sufficient reason why we should judge any jot or title of this law
in the daies of Ioshua therefore David could not threaten them to be excluded out of either of those rests there could therefore be no other but the rest of heaven out of which they might be excluded because there was no other but the rest of heaven to be entred into in Davids time from which yet they might and were in danger to be shut out by unbeleefe That the Rest of the Sabbath was entred into from the foundation of the world the Apostle expresly affirmes in these words And God rested the seventh day from all his works But say our opposits the Apostle here affirmes no more but that God entred into that Rest of the seventh or Sabbath day but he speakes not one word of mans entring into rest on that day Nowun to this we answer that these particulars which follow cannot be denied First that the conclusion which the Apostle intends to prove is that unbeleefe shuts a man out of heaven Secondly it is as manifest that to prove this he produceth the Prophet Davids testimony threatning men to be shut out of Gods Rest if they hardned their hearts by unbeleefe as their Fathers had done Thirdly it is evident that the Apostle assumes that David by this rest could meane nothing else but heaven Fourthly it is as cleare that he proves that the Psalmist by the Rest which he mentions in that place could meane no other Rest but heaven because there was no other rest left out of which men might be excluded but heaven in Davids dayes In the Fift place to make that good the Apostle proceeds by way of enumeration or induction and reckons up three severall sorts of Rests which might be called Gods Rests namely the Rest of the Sabbath the rest of Canaan and the Rest of heaven Sixtly the Apostle farther assumes that the rest which David mentions could not be the rest of the Sabbath nor the rest of Canaan Seventhly it cannot be denied but that he affirmes that the people had many yeares ages before Davids time entred into Canaan under the conduct of Ioshua Every one of these particulars is so cleare in it selfe that no man with any colour of reason can deny any of them The question is only by what argument the Apostle proves that by the Rest mentioned by David he could not meane the rest of the Sabbath for that only branch was left to be made good to make up the full demonstration of the conclusion that the Apostle tooke on him to prove that by that rest out of which David threatens them to be excluded by unbeleefe the Psalmist could not mean Canaan all men will acknowledge that the Apostle reasons thus The Prophet David could not threaten them to be shut out by unbeleefe from that rest which they had in their own possession but of the rest of Canaan they had been possessed long before even from the dayes of Ioshua Now it remaining upon the Apostle's hand to prove that David by Gods rest could not meane the Sabbath he must of necessity take up the same argument by which he had before proved that he could not mean Canaan by Gods rest that is because they had entred into that rest many yeares before In like manner if he will make good his argument he must prove that David could not mean the rest of the Sabbath because they had entred into that rest long before The opposites tell us that the Apostles words can import no more but that God entred into the rest of the Sabbath from the foundation of the world but there is no mention made of mans entring into that rest at that time But how vain this exception is we are now to shew If we understand these words Heb. 4.4 only of Gods entring into his rest on the seventh day as the letter of the Text at the first view seemes to carry it the Apostles argument if it be brought into form must be thus framed That rest which was entred into already could not be the rest which David meant because he speaks of a rest yet to come But the rest of the Sabbath was entred into long before Davids time even by God himselfe from the foundation of the world Therefore the rest of the Sabbath could not be the rest that David meant in that place I grant indeed that the conclusion necessarily follows out of these premises But I affirm withall that the major proposition is utterly false and no way futes with the scope of the Apostle in this disputation For it is true that notwithstanding Gods entring into the rest of the Sabbath David could not mean that rest in this place because it is possible that men might not enter into that rest although God did it is only mens entring into that rest that makes it impossible to be meant by David here who speaks of excluding men from entring into that rest which he there means from which they could not be shut out if they had entred already and therefore if they had entred into the rest of the Sabbath before David could not mean that rest in that place So then the opposition lies not between mens excluding and Gods entring both which might perhaps stand together but between mans excluding and mans entring upon which the whole weight of the disputation lies and that so evidently that it may be justly wondred that any man that desires to submit to the truth should not acknowledge it If therefore we frame the major proposition so that it may sute with the Apostles scope which best interprets the meaning it must be composed in this form or at least to this purpose That rest into which the Jews had entred already could not be the rest out of which David threatens that they should be excluded by unbeliefe Whereunto if we adde this minor or second proposition But into the rest of the Sabbath God had entred from the foundation of the world there could follow no conclusion at all But if we adde our minor proposition and so form our syllogisme thus That rest into which the Jews had entred from the beginning cannot be the rest out of which those that harden their hearts by unbeliefe are threatned to be excluded But into the rest of the Sabbath men had entred from the beginning Therefore the rest of the Sabbath could not be that rest out of which they are threatned to be excluded that harden their hearts through unbeliefe This conclusion naturally and necessarily follows out of the premises and fully sutes with the whole course of the Apostles disputation and with the scope at which he aimes If there were no other Argument but this which we have already produced to prove thta the Apostle although he names onely Gods resting on the Sabbath day yet must necessarily imply mans resting on that day as wel as Gods and that mans entring into the rest of the Sabbath sutes most fully with the Apostles scope but Gods entring into that rest makes