THE DOCTRINE OF THE SABBATH VINDICATED In a confutation of a treatise of the Sabbath written by M. Edward Breerwood against M. Nic. Byfield wherein these five things are maintained First that the fourth Commandement is given to the servant and not to the master onely Secondly that the fourth Commandement is morall Thirdly that our owne light workes as well as gainefull and toilesome are forbidden on the Sabbath Fourthly that the Lords day is of divine Institution Fifthly that the Sabbath was instituted from the beginning By the industrie of an unworthy labourer in Gods Vineyard RICHARD BYFIELD Pastor in Long Ditton in Surrey Verily I say unto you till heaven and earth passe one jot or one title shall in no wise passe from the Law till all be fulfilled Matth. 5. 18. LONDON Imprinted by Felix Kyngston for Philemon Stephens and Christopher Meredith at the golden Lyon in Pauls Church-yard 1631. To all that loue the LORD IESVS in sincerity DEare Christian bought with a price most happy in this that thou art not thine owne for thy sake I have undertaken to answer this Treatise to thee doe I Dedicate it who mayest of right challenge all that I am or can Thou whether noble wise mightie learned unlearned weake or meane neare or farre off art interessed in all that maketh for the Truth and in all that is done against it Paul Apollo Cephas are thine 1. Cor. 3. all thine for thou art Christs and Christ is Gods In the broaching of Heresies thou art wounded in the making of schismes thou art racked in every lie thou art layed at nothing commeth against a painefull Minister but reacheth to thy heart through his sides nothing from a laborious Minister but aymeth at thy setling stablishing comforting perfecting Wert thou the meanest that ever lived who can thinke this too much for thee seeing God withholds not himselfe as a Father his Sonne as a Redeemer and Brother his Spirit as sanctifier Comforter and the Spirit of Sonne-ship in thy heart and thy very body also hee ownes as his Temple For a recompence bee inlarged give thy selfe to God receive nothing against but all that is for the Truth Let the reproaches wherewith Christ and his Ministers are reproached fall on thee owne the Ministers gifts and labours as thine reigne but not without them be honourable but not when they are despised When I first received this booke intituled A learned Treatise of the Sabbaoth a little before November last though I was utterly ignorant of any such controuersie to haue passed betweene my Brother and Master Edward Breerwood and had not yet cast mine eye on the base language of the reply in the end of that Treatise yet the very noveltie and dangerous vilenesse of the Doctrine without any reference to things personall strucke me My spirit was stirred in me when I saw the whole right of the Law for the time of Gods worship alleviated the consequence whereof must needs be this the whole kingdome wholy given to Atheisme and prophanenesse The zeale of Gods glory and thy good began to eate upon me I throw my selfe into the open field that thou mayest be nourished I resolved what I was or am or may be should be Christ strengthning mee Gods and thine that God the Lord of Heaven might have his Royaltie untouched man his dutie laid out Superiors directed to stand for God and Men in the things of God and Inferiors be Gods while mens and mens in and for God Now knowing that there are none but are flesh as well as spirit and that the unregenerate part will catch at the most excellent truths to sucke thereout advantage to it selfe by tearing a sunder things inseparably united and taking to things hand over head in a wrong application fearing thy miscarriage I could not but advertise thee a little in that part that concernes thy duty The superiour or master may conceite his power intrenched upon the inferiour or servant may suppose some unwarranted liberty granted him all may thinke of an over-rigid construction of the unchangeable precept This Dâ—spute yeelds none of those neither prejudice to the master nor occasion of liberty to the servant nor other then a received and allowed sense to the never-failing law as will appeare to him that thorowly peruseth it But for prevention of over-hasty conceits in all behold thy way-markes before thou reade or receive any thought to fore-stall thee take what I set here before thee which hath beene seene and heard and allowed and received Blessed be Gods holy Name and I doubt not but shall be maugre the malice of contradicting spirits For I admonish thee of no other things then what are already received in the printed Bookes of Mr. Nich. Byfield Consider I say what that Master of Assemblies hath left in his writings as stakes to bound out the way of both master and servant superiour and inferiour in running the race of this fourth commandement and as goades to quicken thy heart in the embracing of that divine Law For the Doctrine of the Sabbath he thus explaineth himselfe in two places First God hath provided by his unchangeable law that one day in seven servants shall rest from their labour M. Byf. on 1 Pet. 2. 18. pag. 723. Secondly Servants must shew their feare of God in their callings by carefulnesse to doe Gods service as well as their masters not onely by spending the Sabbath in the duties of religion but in redeeming the time in the weeke dayes as may bee without hinderance of their worke or offence to their masters to imploy themselves in prayer reading conference c. And the reason is because as servants must doe their masters worke as they are servants so they stand bound in the common obligation to do Gods service as they are men and no man but is subject to the law of God who hath given all his commandements to servants as well as to masters Byf. in 1 Pet. 2. 18. pag. 734. For the servant he layeth downe these godly and savory limitations as Caveats First the subjection of servants is of Divine institution to which God hath bound them by the fift Commandement and so is a morall and perpetuall ordinance in 1 Pet. 2. 18. p. 721. Secondly no faults in Superiors can free inferiors from their subjection in matter or manner in 1 Pet. 2. p. 742. Thirdly if the matter bee onely inexpedient and unmeete thou must obey in Col. 3. 23. p. 130. Fourthly thou must bee sure that it bee sinne that thou refusest if thou must needs doubt it is better to doubt and obey than doubt and disobey Id. ibid. Fiftly thou must in unlawfull things yeeld to obey by sufferings Id. ibid. Sixtly the servant must avoide inquisitivenesse the servant knoweth not what his master doth Ioh. 15. 15. in 1 Pet. 2. p. 735. For the master he giveth these heavenly admonitions First the master must give account of all hee doth to God though he be not bound to doe
not worke on the Sabaoth was by the judiciall to be punished with death if the servant did worke that day by his commandement Answer First that place is to be understood of the presumptuous offender as appeareth in Numb 15. 35 36. with that in vers 30 31. The soule that doth ought presumptuously reproacheth the Lord and shall be cut off For if the sinne were of ignorance infirmity and errour he was bound to bring a sinne-offring vers 27 28. thus the Iewes understand that place in Exodus Now the servants worke at the masters command will not come under a wilfull and presumptuous sinne yet that law sheweth this truth that men for breach of Sabbath shall be punished according to the nature of their offence so shall he that forgoeth Gods to doe his masters worke This is the true Answere you meerly trifle and therefore the force of the objection lieth still upon you and your Answere falls like an untimely fruite or rotten nut And your hard cases for they seeme full of pitty and yet would have a servant to be in the condition of a beast are meer conceits And for that phrase of yours saying The servants may be compelled to work by men speaking there of such worke as the fourth commandement hath forbidden doth contradict your former Tenet expressely who say that the master may not command his servant to worke may he not command him and may he yet compell him Good stuffe I promise you Secondly in this place also seeing you offer to our thoughts Gods judiciall Law and so his judiciary proceeding I urge you with the just hand of Gods yengeance that lighteth oftentimes on children and servants working at the command of their parents and masters on that day God punisheth none but those that offend lesse or more But this ungodlinesse he hath punished from heaven And all wise Christians will esteeme more of one Demonstration of Gods wrath than of two hundered sophisticated Rhetoricall Demonstrations of any Disputer in the world At Kimstat a towne in France m Iob. siâ—col l. 3. De mirac there lived in the yeere 1559. a certaine covetous woman who was so greedy of gaine that shee would not frequent the Church her selfe nor suffer any of her family to doe it but continually toyled a bout drving and pilling of flaxe and doing other houshold businesses neither would she bee reclaimed by her neighbours who admonished and disswaded her from such unseasonable workes One Sabbath day as they were thus busily occupied fire seemed to issue out of the flaxe without doing any hurt The next Sabbath it tooke fire indeed but was quickly extinct Yet this wretch continued obstinate in her prophanenesse even the third Sabbath when the flax againe taking fire could not bee quenched till it burnt her and two of her children to death for though they were recovered out of the fire alive yet the next day they all three died and that which was much to be wondred at a young infant in the cradle was taken out of the midst of the flame without any hurt God we see tooke vengeance on the children that wrought at the mothers commandement Are there not strange punishments for the workers of iniquitie n Iob 31. 3. Above fifty persons were consumed in the fire which burnt the towne of Fevertone in Devonshire in the yeere 1598. where 400. dwelling houses were all at once on fire and consumed for their horrible prophanation of the Lords day Can any thinke that of those fifty none were children and servants whose worke that day had been usually abused Here also Christian Reader I thought it my part to lay before thy more serious consideration these notable and late examples of Gods wrath from heaven against mens ungodlinesse on the Sabbath day Blackesmith by trade he is yet alive the Lord give him an heart to repent and all the Towne to learne by that hand of God this woman was with her yong childe in her armes within her owne gate looking on them and so it was that while she looked on one of the greatest ropes failed and broke and the Pole fell downe upon the pale that parteth their gate and the streete and the upper end of it with the fall lapped over and strucke the childe on the head in the mothers armes and killed it It was the edge of the weather-cocke that hit the childe on the head marke it well and cleft the skull and it dyed the next day It is time for thee Lord to worke for men have made voide thy Law Psal 119. 126. The Lord is known by the judgement which he executeth The wicked is snared in the worke of his owne hands Higgaion Selah Psal 9. 16. That place in Exo. 23. 12. which commeth in on the left side is abusively rendred by you when you read that thy son and thy maide may be refreshed whereas it is thus in the text the sonne of thine handmaid and when you say it is manifest that the servants worke is accounted the masters seeing the rest from the masters worke is the refreshing of the servant is it not as manifest that it is the servants when the rest is his refreshing For by another rest I am not refreshed if I worke and what if in some respects it may be called the masters worke is it therefore no sinne in the servant to doe it This is a begging of the question and a shame in a professed Disputant CHAP. XIX Breerwood Pag. 32 33 34. ANd thus have I proved my assertion namely that the commandement of the Sabaoth was not given nor fit to be given to the servants themselves but to their governours both by arguments of reason which is the rule of men and authoritie of Scriptures which is the rule of Christians and cannot finde any thing materiall in either of both that may reprove it but yet if I should admit which I doubt you will never prove that the commandement was directly given to servants themselves as servants and that they might lawfully disobey their masters touching those workes whereby the precept of the Sabaoth might bee transgressed yet have I another exception against your doctrine namely for condemning every light worke such as inviting of guests or fetching of wine from a neighbours house or giving a horse provender for these are the very instances which bred the question for transgression of Gods commandements forbidden on the Sabaoth no it is not the commandements importeth no such thing for it is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is every worke but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is there forbidden that is every servile worke for such the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 properly doth import and servile worke by the interpretation of the best Divines is accounted either that which is attended with the toyle of the body or at least intended and directed to lucre and gaine of riches with some care of the minde such as mens ordinary worke is wont to
the servants executing I affirme that were given more to servants than to others and crosseth your former words where you say their labour is forbidden for if they labour is it not their labour and so on the contrary Or to the words directly and immediately you yeeld then that servants labour is forbidden indirectly and immediately The truth is that which is nakedly forbidden is directly forbidden and that which is immediately forbidden is sinfull to be done though mediately mediately or immediately takes not away the edge of the precept or power of the commander Thirdly you say The other commandements were imposed without specification or exception of any person whatsoever and therefore hold all men under an equall obligation but this not so Answ What arguing is this This commandement is with specification and the servant is specified and his worke of service to his master on the Sabbath specified and prohibited therefore it bindeth him not it is not his sinne Nay the specification maketh it the more his sinne and God provided by this enumeration of the persons as all have and will agree unlesse any should use your false glasse that this rest might by no meanes be violated Master Attersoll * Vpon Numb chap. 28. vers 11 12 13. p. 1142. saw in this enumeration not a freeing of the servants and subjects from the obligation because a charge is laid on the Governours to see that others keepe the day but a reason to perswade the inferiour the more chearefully to keepe it thus he saith The charge is laid on Governours that inferiours might yeeld chearefully to Gods will considering how strait a charge God hath given to all Governours And that he meant by Gods will the commandement here imposed upon and binding servants from doing their masters worke though commanded is apparant by his words in the same place which runne thus Many fathers urge their children many masters command their servants to goe about their owne businesse and send them from place to place at that time when they should attend to the holy Commandement of the Lord whereas both of them might well and lawfully reply to their fathers and masters and say with Christ our Saviour Luk. 2. 49. Wist yee not that I must be about my Fathers businesse That word exception is venemous as if some persons were excepted by that specification of persons in the fourth Commandement these are cankred words and evill that will quickly corrupt good manners Therefore Christian Reader I give thee this note as an Antidote and that it may be the more strong to expell poyson know that the specification of persons in a precept negative cannot be an exception of those parties from under that precept if specified in the prohibition not excepted And for the equall obligation that holds all men alike under the other Commandements it is the same also in this for if you say the commandement more obligeth Governours I answer It doth so in respect of their politicall observing of the command as they are Governours and so ought to see this Law kept and not violated and thus they are bound more and otherwise than other men to every of the other nine Commandements For the Magistrate is the keeper or preserver of both m Custos utriusque tabulae Tables of the Law But in respect of their personall observance hereof it is equally charged on them as on the servant and subject and so it is also in the rest of the precepts Fourthly you say this commandement is of a different sort from others therefore it otherwise obligeth and you give three things to shew this difference first the nature of it secondly the matter prohibited thirdly the command it selfe First for the nature of this Law you say It is a Law ingraven in the Tables of stone but not on the Tables of mens heart nor any Law of nature You make this distinction that there are revealed Lawes in the Decalogue which are not the secret Lawes of Nature the Lawes ingraven in stone by the singer of God were not all of them the Lawes of Nature Against this I presse you with reasons authorities and of the other Commandements in the nature and property of the things as you say and so you give three instances two of them have been already answered namely that the labour of the servant is wholly subject to another mans command and that the commandement only forbiddeth the master his servants worke The third difference which now we will God willing scanne is this That the thing forbidden viz. servile worke and so the servants worke is not evill materially and ex suo genere as the matter of other commandements is nor evill of its owne nature but onely because it is prohibited and therefore you hold it is no Law of nature Here first consider how farre wide this is to your scope and the question in hand for what if the matter prohibited be evill but onely by prohibition would not that prohibition make it sinfull of lawfull and that to the servant I le give you an instance in a precept ceremoniall God commanded that no leaven should be in their houses during the Feast of unleavened bread suppose the master should command his servant to make in those dayes leavened bread if the servant did it the servant sinned as well as his master Secondly the proposition it selfe is faulty for the matter of the second Commandement is not evill materially any more than the matter of the fourth to make an image or likenesse of any thing in heaven earth or sea is not evill but onely circumstantially as to make it to bow to it If you say to make it to bow to it is the matter of the Commandement as indeed it is then I say to worke on the Sabbath is the matter of this Commandement and as to make an image to bow to it is evill materially and of its owne nature so to spend the Sabbath I say not that seventh day but the Sabbath the consecrated time of Gods worship in our labour is evill materially And therefore the masters command cannot excuse the servants worke that day And now hence I further reason against you thus Though the second Commandement forbid to make images which is not evill in it selfe but onely with this circumstance added to make them to bow to them yet he that maketh them for another that he knoweth will worship them breaketh the second Commandement therefore in this Commandement the servant that worketh at his masters commandement whom he knoweth to abuse his labour in this kind breaketh this Commandement Now by your Rule the servant commanded to make an image which he knoweth his master would abuse to worship it ought to make it because to make a likenesse or image is not simply evill Thirdly when you hold that the Law of Nature is of those things only that are evill by their property and nature this passage received thrusts out the second
aeternum diem consecravit nobis Dominicum Domini Qui vocatur Dominicus ipse propriè videtur ad Dominum pertinere quia eo die Dominus resurrexit Aug. de verbis Apost Serm. 15. Dominicum ergò diem Apostoli Apostolici viri ideò religiosâ— solennitate habeâ—dum sanxerunt quia in eodem Redemptor noster â— mortuis resurrexit Serm. de temp 251. The Lords Resurrection hath promised us an eternall day and hath consecrated to us the Dominicall day of the Lord. The day which is called the Lords day it seemeth properly to pertaine to the Lord because that day the Lord rose againe The same Father tells us that in this resurrection of Christ the Apostles and Apostolicall men saw as much he saith the Lords day the Apostles and Apostolicall men have ordained with religious solemnity to be kept because in the same our Redeemer rose from the dead Ignatius r 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epist ad Magnâ—s giveth this for the onely Reason binding every one to keepe this day saying Let every one that loveth Christ celebrate the Lords day the day pertaining to the Resurrection the Queene and Prince of all dayes Athanasius Å¿ Athanas de Sabbat circumcis Psal 118. 124. calls the Lords day in which Christ renewed the old Man the beginning of the new Creature and therefore hee saith when hee had renewed the Creature which was made within sixe dayes he would have that day consecrated to this instauration which the Spirit foretells in the Psalme This is the day which the Lord hath made Iunius t Tempus ad conventus sacros semper est dies octavus quem inde à resurrectione Christi Ecclesia vocavit Dominicum quod Christus suaresurrectione sacto sacris coetibus dicavit quem Apostoli observarunt coetibus dicatum esse docâ—erunt quem Christiana Ecclesia dictis corum obsequens facta imitans concelebrat Eccles lib. 1. cap. 4. sub sinem speaking of the time necessary to publike worship saith It is the eighth day for ever which the Church from the resurrection of Christ hath called the Lords day which Christ by his resurrection and deed hath dedicated to holy assemblies which the Apostles have observed and have taught that it is dedicated thereto and which the Christian Church obedient to their words and imitating their deeds doth joyntly celebrate In the Preface to the Assembly of the Church of Scotland at Perth Anno 1618. the question being moved how the particular and materiall day may bee knowne that the Christian Church should observe the answer is that the particular day was demonstrated by our Saviours Resurrection and his apparitions made thereon by the Apostolicall practice and the perpetuall observation of the Church ever since that time of the day which in Scripture is called the Lords day as that which the Iewes observed was called the Lords Sabbath because as the one was appointed by the Lord for a memoriall of his rest after the Creation so the other was instituted by the Lord for a memoriall of his Resurrection after the Redemption For this we must hold as a sure ground whatever the Catholike Church hath observed in all Ages and is found in Scripture expressely to have been practised by Christ and the Apostles such as is the sanctification of the Lords day the same most certainely was instituted by the Lord to bee observed and his practice in Word of the Lord and of equall worth as if the Lord by voice from heaven had spoken it and more sure for us than such a voice 1 Pet. 1. 12 25. and 2 Pet. 1. 19 20 21. Whence it is cleare that the Gospell preached by the Apostles with the holy Ghost sent downe from heaven is the Word of the Lord that endureth for ever Secondly it was enjoyned by the Apostles precept and observed by them enjoyned and the worke of the day in part prescribed 1 Cor. 16. 2. observed Act. 20. 7. Thirdly the Apostle saith that which you have seene and heard in me that doe and the God of peace shall be with you Phil. 4. 9. But this was seene and heard of to bee done by him Act. 20. 7. Therefore do it Perkins on Gal. 4. vers 10. Fourthly if the same reason grounded on Gods Word be as well for the first day of the weeke as it was once for the Sabbath of the Iewes then we are as certainely tyed by the Lord to the observation of this day as they were for their Sabbath for the same reason is of the same force But there is the same reason therefore wee are bound by the Lord. That there is the same reason is apparant by those three places laid together Exod. 20. 10. Mat. 12. 8. Ioh. 5. 23. The maine reason of the Iewes Sabbath is because it was the Sabbath of the Lord. In like manner ours is the Sabbath of the Lord Christ when hee had finished the worke of our redemption for which cause hee taketh this name the son of man is even Lord of the Sabbath as if in more words he should say when God the Father had once ended the making of the world hee rested and published himselfe to be the Lord of that rest and dedicated it to himselfe giving it the name of the Sabbath of the Lord. In like manner when I shall have finished the worke of mans Redemption I will rest have the day of my rest dedicated unto my selfe for which cause I say that the sonne of man is even Lord of the Sabbath also it shall be called the Lords day And thus the will of the Father shall be fulfilled which is that as they honoured the Father in keeping the Sabbath betwixt the Creation and Redemption so they should honour the Sonne in keeping the Sabbath betwixt the redemption and consummation of the world Fifthly the judgments of God fearefully and to miracles lighting on the contemners and prophaners of this day by worldlinesse the opposition of godlesse and most evill men the Conscience working on men for the observation and against the neglect thereof the errors of Familists Anabaptists Papists and such loose pleaders as you and others have shewed themselves to be are strong and impregnable arguments for the Divine Authority of it together with the contradictions and the grosse opinions you are forced to runne into which argue that you rebell against the light in you and your prophane Atheisticall hearts would have that true which yet your owne light disproveth in the truths that are forced thereby to drop from you Sixthly yea I shall through Gods grace evince this that it is of the Lords owne institution for besides that his resurrection institutes it as I sayd before First it is called the Lords day Rev. 1. 10. Which cannot bee for any reason but because it is of the Lords institution for so first the phrase his day not by creation for so all daies are his not by destinatioÌ„ for that
ceremoniall you alledge the place in Col. 2. 16. but that the Apost speaketh not there of the fourth Commandement is evident First because hee treateth expresly of those Sabbaths which were of the same ranke with the New-Moones and were ceremoniall shadowes of things to come in Christ but the Sabbath prescribed in the Decalogue is altogether of another nature as hath beene and shall be further shewed Secondly he speaketh as the Apostles doth to the Galatians cap. 4. 10. but the place there treates only of the observation of the dayes moneths and yeeres which pertained to the servitude and bondage of weake and beggerly rudiments as in vers 9. appeareth Now that any precept of the Decalogue should bee so accounted and reckoned as a weake and beggerly rudiment was farre from the Apostle to thinke and is abhorred to Christian eares and religion Whatsoever also was Ceremoniall in the Sabbath if it bee granted according to the opinion of many Divines that some ceremony was in the day in respect of that precise day that is by constitution annexed to it extrinsecally and not of the nature of the Sabbath and first institution therof which nothing hinders the morality of the seventh dayes institution for so in the Authority of Fathers and first borne which pertaines to the fifth commandement there was annexed a Ceremoniall reason of a type namely the shadowing out of Christ the first borne among many brethren yet by this annexed typical figure the fifth commandement nor the priviledge of the first borne in respect of the first nature of it is not ceremoniall Nevertheles by Scripture there appeareth not unto me of certainty any ceremony or type in the observation of the seventh day properly so called for the mention of a spirituall Sabbatisme in Heb 4. 9. presignified in some type foregoing under the nature of a type if referred only to the rest in Canaan and by comparison of the like to the rest of God but by no meanes in the least signification is it referred to the rest commanded in the fourth precept as to a type and shadow And whereas the Fathers and many others include the Iewish Sabbath within the former text they must in my judgement bee understood of that day as it was the day in which the ceremoniall worship which was then the worship of God was the sanctification of the Sabbath and as that precise day was till Christ came apt and fit but now after Christs resurrection not fit for the new world but swallowed up of the greater namely the Lords day fit for the memoriall of the workes of Creation and Redemption For to observe the Sabbath with Moses Rites were to deny Christ come in the flesh whose Kingdome is not meat and drinke but righteousnesse peace and joy in the holy Ghost and to this the old Sabbatarian Heretikes had an aime and to observe the Iewish seventh for Sabbath now deserves worthily the Anathema of ancient Councels and Saint Austins sharpe sentence who saith thus t Quisque illum diem observat ut litera sonat carnaliter sapit Despir lit c. 14. Whosoever shall keepe that day as the letter soundeth savoureth of the flesh And lastly to observe the Sabbath in the devised assumed superstitious strictnesse Iewish which was never commanded but taken up of their owne heads or in the luxurious heathenish sports that others of them used is deservedly condemned by the Ancients and is against or Christian liberty or Christian sanctity Fourthly but to returne grant it to bee ceremoniall yet your arguing will not hold that the Sabbath in the Commandement is utterly vanished for all that place ceremony in that rest do hold that the rest in heaven was that which was chiefely aymed at Now this maketh against you for then a Sabbaths rest must remaine till that eternall rest bee come for though it bee assured yet it is not come And if the assurance by word and pledge would have cut off the necessity of a Sabbath rest to shadow it then might all the shadowes of the ceremoniall Law have been spared for they had the Word Oath and Spirit of God to assume Christs comming and from that place in Heb. 4. Doctor Willet u D. Willet on Gen. 2. his places of doctrine saw enough to prove the divine institution of the Lords day as a Sabbath rest he thus reasoneth Every simbole significative or representing signe mentioned in Scripture had a divine institution but so is the Sabbath a simbole or type of our everlasting rest Heb. 4. 9. there remaineth therefore Sabbatismus a Sabbath rest to the people of God Which words doe conclude that both the type remaineth that is a Sabbatisme and the signification of the type everlasting rest CHAP. XXIV Breerwood Pag. 39. BVt might not the celebration of the Sabaoth which thus ceased bee justly translated by the Church to the first day of the weeke Yes certainely both might and was iustly For I consider that the generality was of the morall law of the law of nature namely that men should sequester sometime from worldly affaires which they might dedicate to the honour of God onely the speciality that is the limitation and designement of that time was the churches ordinance appointing first one certaine day and that in relation of Christian assemblies namely that they might meete and pray and and praise God together with one voyce in the congregation And secondly designing that one day to the first day of the weeke for some speciall reasons and remembrances For first it was the day of Christs resurrection from the dead Secondly it was the day of the holy Ghosts descention from Heauen to powre infinite graces vpon Christians The first of them for our iustification as the Apostle speaketh The second for the sanctification and edification of the whole Church to omit some other reasons of lesse importance iustly therefore was the consecration of the Sabaoth translated to that day Answer First Yea a shadow Of which we have the substance in Christ Out of Date and expired of it selfe Part of the partition wall And yet the celebration and consecration of the Sabbath translated justly Then the Church by your Doctrine may revive the ceremoniall law and put life into the dead carcase thereof the Church may not alone embrace the shadow of which Christ is the body but also appoint it to bee embraced the Church may translate part of the ceremonial Law which yet Moses the typicall mediator would not might not order a tittle of it to a loope lace or placing of either but keepe to the patterne shewed him in the Mount and so by the same reason translate priesthood and all Heb. 6. The Church then is Lord of the Sabbath and can consecrate and not only celebrate the Sabbath all full of blasphemy against Christ and blemish to his chast spouse Secondly and for your distinction of generality and speciality of the commandement besides what hath been said before if you
Disciples appearing to them through forty dayes space and speaking the things that concerned the Kingdome of God and fully instructing them and teaching profound Theologie not so much with words as with the efficacie of the Spirit He so rested from both workes that hee ceased not yet to teach men and instruct them in the true worship The time would faile me to tell of our English worthies famous Westerne Lights that teach all this Truth as Willet Perkins Greenham Babington Bownd Gibbens Dod Scharpy Esty Williams with many more Behold what a cloude of witnesses doe compasse us about For further confirmation consider that place in Exod. 16. For first before all mention of Moses Law concerning the Sabbath it is storied that the People gathered on the sixt day twice as much bread two Omers for one man which Vers 22. 23. thing was observed by the Rulers of the Congregation who came and told Moses of it To what end was this but that they might apply themselves wholy to the observation of the Sabbath the day following Secondly the very phrase and words of Moses in giving admonition about the Sabbath in vers 23 is such as clearly sheweth that Moses spake not of the Sabbath as some new thing unheard of but cals to minde the ancient sanctimonie of that day which they had beene compelled to neglect of late in Egypt through Phâ—raohs cruell taske-masters This is that which the Lord hath said Tomorrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord. Thirdly the very command of Moses appointing them for after times to gather twice as much every sixth day as they did other dayes and giving this reason on the seventh day which is the Sabbath in it there shall bee none Vers 26. 29. sheweth that Moses himselfe was mindefull of the Law of the Sabbath delivered from Adam to the Fathers Out of this Text then it is evident that the Sabbath was from the beginning The third Section answered Vnto the Argument of Master Byfield for the mortalitie of the Sabbath taken from the manner of giving this Law by lively voyce on Sinai and by divine ingraving in Tables of stone by the finger of God and therefore differenced by the Lord from a ceremoniall Law which were all given mediately by Moses and from Gods owne testimonie by Moses that it is one of the Tenne words or Tenne Commandements you make here such an answer as doth not once come neare the force of the argument It became say you one of the Tenne perpetuall words then when it was given on Mount Sinai for the morall part perpetuall Thou shalt sanctifie the Sabbath for the ceremoniall part not perpetuall Thou shalt sanctifie the seventh day for the Sabbath If it became so because ingraven by the finger of God in Tables of stone then that part thou shalt sanctifie the seventh day for Sabbath is so because so ingraven If it became so but then that sufficeth us that have lived ever since and those that shall arise after us to the end of the world But this that you affirme that then when it was delivered on Sinai it became one of the perpetuall words hath no warrant in Scripture alledge the place nor in reason for as the other nine Commandements became not then first perpetuall though then first delivered in forme of lawes no more did this Were they perpetuall because written in Tables of stone and not rather because perpetuall so written This also is strange that you say that the morall part of the commandement Thou shalt sanctifie the Sabbath as you will have it became but then on Sinaia perpetuall word Was not obliging from the beginning and written in the heart that there should bee a vacant time for the worship of God If you deny it See your owne confession in pag. 24. of the Treatise The fourth Section answered That place in the fifty sixth Chapter of Esay vers 4 5. Vers 2. affords a strong argument against you for there the Christian Sabbath is prophesied of as that which every mortall man every sonne of Adam that would bee blessed must keepe in obedience to God It is therefore an ordinance of God charged in the fourth Commandement and no Command of men The strangers and Eunuchs there spoken of were not such as became proselytes under the law but Christians under the Gospell You object that the priviledge of Sonnes and Daughters was not tendered to strangers and so Master Byfield mistooke the Text. This is but a cavill the intent of the Prophet is to shew that the legall rules about strangers and Eunuchs shall not in Christs Kingdome where they are abolished hinder their election and choise into the number of his people but any of all sorts are accepted with God that thus take hold of his Covenant The Prophet expresly pronounceth them blessed v. 2. therefore it can be no wresting of the Text to say the stranger shall be a Sonne and the Eunuch made joyfull in the house of prayer nay if you take the Promise applyed in v. 5. to the Eunuchs exclusively shutting out the stranger how doth it answer so well the strangers objection who said The Lord hath utterly separated me from his people vers 3. You object further that the burnt offerings and sacrifices mentioned in vers 7. have no place in the New Testament therefore the Text must bee understood of the time of the Old Testament You might as well say that that place in Malach. 1. 11. is not spoken of the New Testament though it bee said Gods Name shall bee great among the Gentiles from the rising of the Sunne to the going downe thereof Because it is added In every place incense shall be offered and a pure offering Christians have their burnt offerings and sacrifices Rom. 12. 1. Heb. 13. But you say that then all the chapter must be understood in a mysticall sense and so of a mysticall Sabbath This consequence is utterly infirme as may be seene by that Text in Malachi forecited and that conceit of a mysticall Sabboth cannot have place here for these are made distinct to keepe the Sabbath from polluting it and to keepe the hand from doing any evill verse 2. To speake fully there is no one word in Scripture that speaketh of a mysticall Sabbath for what is spoken of a * Heb. 4. Spirituall Sabbatisme concernes our rest in Heaven and not a Spirituall Sabbath on earth and to say that servile workes condemned in the fourth Commandement are no other than sinnes or sinnes at all is nothing but an Allegoricall sporting with Gods Word for sinnes are not unlawfull on the Sabbath onely but alwayes and in all places nor doth the fourth Commandement intend to give a prohibition of all sinnes though it is true that in some sense sinnes receive an high aggravation when they are committed on so holy a day Esai 58. 4. Now how this mysticall and spirituall Sabbath of yours should serve to this