confesseth that its no doubt but the Religious observation of the day began in the Apostles age with their approbation and Authority and hath since continued in the same respect And what needs he more for confutation And as to his allegations of the Judgement of the Reformed Lutheran and Roman Church 1. We take none of them for our Rule so impartial are we But 2. He himself citeth Beza Mercer Paraeus Cuchlinus Simler Hospinian Zanchius c. as holding that It was an Apostolical and Truly Divine Tradition that the Apostles turned the Sabbath into the Lords day that it was an Apostolical custome or a custome received in the Apostles times c. And whereas afterward he would perswade us that they spent but a little of the day in holy worship he himself cited Mr. George Sandys Travels saying of the Copties that On Saturday presently after midnight they repair unto their Churches where they remain well nigh till Sunday at noon of the Evening he speaketh not but of their first meeting during which time they neither sit nor kneel but support themselves on Crutches And they sing over the most part of Davids Psalms at every meeting with divers parcels of the New Testament This is like the old way And such a Liturgie we do not contradict nor scruple Sandys also informeth us of the ArmenianChristians that coming into the place of the Assembly on Sunday in the afternoon no doubt they had been there in the Morning be found one sitting in the midst of the Congregation in habit not differing from the rest reading on a Bible in the Chaldaean tongue That anon after came the Bishop in a hood or Vest of black with a staffe in his hand That first he prayed and then sung certain Psalms assisted by two or three After all of them singing joyntly at interims praying to themselves the Bishop all this while with his bands erected and his face towards the Altar That Service being ended they all kissed his hand and bestowed their Almes he laying his other hand on their heads and blessing them c. And of the Abaffines he reciteth out of Brierwood and he from Damianus a Goes that they honour the Lords day as the Christian Sabbath and the Saturday as the Jews Sabbath because they receive the Canons called the Apostles which speak for both And King Edgar in England ordained that the Sabbath should begin ou Saturday at three a Clock Afternoon and continue till break a Day on Munday These Laws for the Sabbath of Alfred Edgar c. were confirmed by Etheldred and more fully by Canutus But of these things I shall say more anon under the Proposition following In the mean time only remembring you 1. That it is well that we are required after the fourth Commandment to pray Lord have Mercy upon us and encline our hearts to keep this Law And we accept his Concession that this includeth all of that Commandment which is the Law of Nature Though I have told you that it reacheth somewhat further 2. That we approve of the plain Doctrine of the English Homilies on this point and stand to the Exposition of sober impartiality Prop. 10. It hath been the constant practice of all Christs Churches in the whole world ever since the daies of the Apostles to this day to assemble for publick worship on the Lords day as a day set apart thereunts by the Apostles Yea so universal was this judgement and practice that there is no one Church no one writer or one heretick that I remember to have read of that can be proved ever to have dissented or gainsaid it till of late times The proof of this is needless to any one that is versed in the writings of the ancients And others cannot try what we shall produce I have been these ten years separated from my Library and am therefore less furnished for this task than is requisite But I will desire no man to receive more than the Testimonies produced by Dr. Pet. Heylin himself which with pittiful weakness he would pervert And he being the Grand Adversary with whom I do now contend I shall only premise these few Observations as sufficient to confute all his Cavils and Evasions 1. When his great work is to prove that the Lords day was not called the Sabbath unless by allusion we grant it him as to a Jewish Sabbath as nothing to the purpose 2. Whereas he strenuously proveth that the Lords day was not taken for a Sabbath de re we grant it him also taking the word in the primitive Jewish sense 3. When he laboureth to prove that Christians met on other daies of the week besides the Lords day though not for the Lords Supper we grant it him as nothing to the purpose So Calvin Preached or Lectured daily at Geneva and yet kept not every day as a holy day separated to Gods worship as they did the Lords day though too remisly So we do still keep Week-day Lectures and the Church of England requireth the Reading of Common Prayer on Wednesdayes and Fridays and holy day Evens Do they therefore keep them Holy as the Lords day 4. When he tells us that Clemens Alexandrinus and Origen plead against them that would hear and pray on that day only we grant it him and we are ready to say as they do that we should not confine Gods Service to one day only as if we might be profane and worldly on all other daies but should take all fit opportunities for religious helps and should all the week keep our minds as near as we can in a holy frame and temper Of the rest of his Objections I shall say more in due place 5. But I must note in the beginning that he granteth the main cause which I plead for acknowledging Hist. Sab. l. 2. page 30. it thus So that the Religious observation of this day beginning in the age of the Apostles no doubt but with their Approbation and Authority and since continuing in the same respect for so many ages may be very well accounted amongst those Apostolical Traditions which have been universally received in the Church of God And what need we more than the Religious Observation in the Apostles time by the Apostles Approbation and Authority and this delivered to us by the universal Church as an Apostolical Tradition But yet he saith that the Apostles made it not a Sabbath Answ. Give us the Religious observation and call it by what name you please We are not fond of the name of the Sabbath 6 And therefore we grant all that he laboriously proveth of the abolition of the Jewish Sabbath and that the Ancients commonly consent that by the abolished Sabbath Col. 2. 16. is meant inclusively the weekly Jewish Sabbath Epiphan l. 1. haeres 33. n. 11. Ambros. in loc Hieron Epist. ad Algus qu. 10. Chrysost. Hom. 13. in Haebr 7. August cont Jud. cap. 2. cont Faust. Manich. l. 16. c. 28. I recite the
not obliged to the observation of the seventh day as a Sabbath by any Law of God The Minor I must prove by parts For I think none will deny the sufficient enumeration in the Major And 1. That the Law of Nature bindeth us not to the seventh or any one day of the seven more than other appeareth 1. In the nature and reason of the thing There is nothing in nature to evidence it to us to be Gods will 2. By every Christians experience No man findeth himself convinced of any such thing by meer nature 3. By all the Worlds experience No man can say that a man of that opinion can bring any cogent evidence or argument from nature alone to convince another that the seventh day must be the Sabbath Nor is it any where received as a Law of Nature but only as a Tradition among some few Heathens and as Law positive by the Jews and some few Christians I am not solicitous to prosecute this argument any further because I can consent that all they take the seventh day for the Sabbath who can prove it to be so by meer natural Evidence which will not be one II. That the Positive Law made to Adam before or after the fall or to Noah bindeth not us to keep the seventh day as a Sabbath is proved 1. Because we are under a more perfect subsequent Law which being in force the former more imperfect ceaseth As the force of the Promise of the Incarnation of Christ is ceased by his incarnation and so is the precept which bound men to believe that he should de future be incarnate and the Law of Sacrificing which Abel doubtless received from Adam though one of late would make it to be but will-worship so also is the Sabbath day as giving place to the day in which our Redemption is primarily commemorated as the imperfect is done away when that which is more perfect cometh 2. Because that the Law of Christ containeth an express revocation of the seventh day Sabbath as shall be shewed anon 3. Because God never required two dayes in seven to be kept as holy Therefore the first day being proved to be of Divine institution the cessation of the seventh is thereby proved For to keep two dayes is contrary to the command which they themselves do build upon which requireth us to sanctifie a Sabbath and labour six dayes 4. And when it is not probable that most or many Infidels are bound to Adams day for want of notice at least For no Law can bind without promulgation though I now pass by the question how far a promulgation of a positive to our first Parents may be said to bind their posterity that have no intermediate notice It seemeth leÃs probable that Christians should be bound by it who have a more perfect Law promulgate to them 5. Nor is it probable that Christ and his Apostles and all the following Pastors of the Churches would have passed by this Positive Law to Adam without any mention of it if our universal obligation had been thence to be collected Nay I never yet heard a Sabbatarian plead this Law any otherwise than as supposed to be implyed or exemplified in the fourth Commandment III. And that the fourth Commandment of Moses Law bindeth us not to the seventh day Sabbath is proved 1. Because that Moses Law never bound any to it but the Jews and those Proselites that made themselves inhabitants of their Land or voluntarily subjected themselves to their policy For Moses was Ruler of none but the Jews nor a Legislator or deputed officer from God to any other Nation The Decalogue was but part of the Jewish Law if you consider it not as it is written in Nature but in Tables of Stone And the Jewish Law was given as a Law to no other people but to them It was a National Law as they were a peculiar people and holy Nation So that even in Moses daies it bound no other Nations of the World Therefore it needed not any abrogation to the Gentiles but a declaration that it did not bind them 2. The whole Law of Moses formally as such is ceased or abrogated by Christ. I say As such Because Materialy the same things that are in that Law may be the matter of the Law of Nature and of the Law of Christ of which more anon That the whole Law of Moses as such is abrogated is most clearly proved 1. By the frequent arguings of Paul who ever speaketh of that Law as ceased without excepting any part And Christ saith Luke 16. 16. The Law and the Prophets were untill John that is were the chief doctrine of the Church till then Joh. 1. 17. The Law was given by Moses but grace and truth cometh by Jesus Christ. No Jew would have understood this if the word Law had not contained the Decalogue So Joh. 7. 19 23. Act. 15. 5 24. It was the whole Law of Moses as such which by Circumcision they would have bound men to Gal. 5. 3. The Gentiles are said to sin without Law even when they broke the Law of Nature meaning without the Law of Moses Rom. 2. 12 14 15 16. In all these following places its not part but the whole Law of Moses which Paul excludeth which I ever acknowledged to the Antinomians though they take me for their too great Adversary Rom. 3. 19 20 21 27 28 31 4. 13 14 15 16. 5. 13. 20. 7. 4 5 6 7 8 16. 9. 4 31 32. 10. 5. Gal. 2. 16 19 21. 3. 2 10 11 12 13 19 21 24. 4. 21. 5. 3 4 14 23. 6. 13. Eph. 2. 15. Phil. 3. 6 9. Heb. 7 11 12 19. 9. 19. 10. 28. 1 Cor. 9. 21. 2. More particularly there are some Texts which express the cessation of the Decalogue as it was Moses Law 2 Cor. 3. 3 7 11. Not in Tables of Stone but in fleshly tables of the heart But if the Ministration of death written and engraven in stones was glorious so that the Children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his Countenance which was to be done away or is done away They that say the Glory and not the Law is here said to be done away speak against the plain scope of the Text For the Glory of Moses face and the glorious manner of deliverance ceased in a few daies which is not the cessation here intended But as Dr. Hammond speaketh it that Glory and that Law so gloriously delivered is done away And this the eleventh verse fullyer expresseth For if that which is done away was glorious or by Glory much more that which remaineth is glorious or in glory so that as it is not only the Glory but the Glorious Law Gospel or Testament which is said to remain so it is not only the Glory but the Law which was delivered by Glory which is expresly said to be done away And this is
To call them together before they go to the solemn Assembly and to Pray with them and praise God and if there be time to read the Scripture and tell them what they have to do in publick 3. To see that Dinner and other common employments make no longer an intermission than is needful And to advise them that at their meat and necessary business they shew by their holy speeches that their minds do not forget the day and the employments of it 4. To sing Gods praises with them if there be time and bring them again together to the Church-assembly 5. When they return either to take some account of them what they have learned or to call them together to pray for a blessing on what they have heard and to sing praises to God and to urge the things which they have heard upon them 6. At Supper to behave themselves soberly and piously And after Supper to shut up the day in Prayer and Praise And either then or before either to examine or exhort inferiours according as the case of the persons and families shall require For in some Families it will be best on the same day to take an account of their profiting and to Catechize them And in other Families that have leisure other daies may be more convenient for Catechising and Examinations that the greater works of the Lords day may not be shortened IV. So much of the day as can be spared from publick and family worship must be spent in secret holy duties such as are 1. Secret Prayer 2. Reading of the Scriptures and good Books 3. Holy Meditation 4. And the secret Conference of bosome friends Of which I further adde 1. That where publick or family worship cannot be had as in impious places there secret duties must be the chief and make up the defect of others And it is a great happiness of good Christians who have willing minds that they have such secret substitutes and supplies That they have Bibles and so many good Books to read That they may have a friend to talk with of holy things But much more that they have a God to go to and a Heaven to Meditate on besides so many Sacred Verities 2. That my judgement is that in those places where the publick Worship taketh up almost all the day it is no sin to attend on it to the utmost and to omit all such Family and secret exercises as cannot be done without omission of the publick And that where the publick exercises allow but a little time at home the Family duties should take up all that little time except what some shorter secret Prayers or Meditations may have which will not hinder family duties And that it is a sinful disorder to do otherwise Because the Lords day is principally set apart for publick worship And the more private or secret is as it were included in the publick Your Families are at Church with you The same Prayers which you would put up in secret you may usually put up in publick and in Families And it is a turning Gods Worship into a Ceremony and Superstition to think that you must necessarily put up the same Prayers in a Closet which you put up in the Family or Church when you have not time for both Though when you have time secret prayer hath its proper advantages which are not to be neglected And also what secret or family duty you have not time for on that day you may do on another day when you cannot come to Church Assemblies And therefore it is an Errour to think that the day must be divided in equal proportions between Publick Family and Secret Duties Though yet I think it not amiss that some convenient time for Family and Secret duties be left on that day but not so much as is spent in publick nor nothing neer it If any shall now object I do not believe that we are bound to all this ado nor so to tire out our selves in Religious exercises Where is all this ado commanded us I answer 1. I have proved to you that in Nature and in Scripture set together as great a proportion of time as this for holy exercises is required 2. But O what a Carnal unthankful heart doth this objection signifie What do you account your Love to God and the Commemoration of his Love in Christ a toile What if God had only given you leave to lay by your worldly business and idle talk and Childish play for one dayes time and to learn how to be like Christ and Angels and how to make sure of a Heavenly Glory should you not gladly have accepted it as an unspeakable benefit O what hearts have these wretched men that must be constrained by fear to all that is good and holy and spiritual and will have none of Gods greatest mercies unless it be for fear of hell And they shall never have them indeed till they love them What hearts have those men that had rather be in an Ale-house or a Play-house or asleep than to be in heart with God That can find so much pleasure in jesting and idle talking and foolery that they can better endure it than to peruse a Map of Heaven and to read and hear the Sacred Oracles Who think it a toile to praise their Maker and Redeemer and a pleasure to game and dance and drink Who turn the glass upon the Preacher and grudge if he exceed his hour and can sit at a Tavern or Alehouse or hold on in any thing that 's vain many hours and never complain of weariness Do they not tell the world what enemies they are to God who love a pair of Cards or Dice or Wanton Dalliance better than his Word and Worship Who think six dayes together little enough for their worldly work and profit and one day in seven too much to spend in the thoughts of God and life Eternal Who love the dung of this present World so much better than all the joyes above as that they are weary to hear of Heaven above an hour at a time and long to be wallowing in the dirt again Is it not made by the Holy Ghost a mark not only of wicked men but of men notoriously wicked to be Lovers of pleasures more than of God 2 Tim. 3. 4. O Sinners that in these workings of the wickedness and malignity of your hearts you would at last but know your selves Is it not the Carnal mind that is thus at enmity to God and neither is nor can be subject to his Law Rom. 8. 6 7 8 Which will you take to be your friend Him that loveth your company or him that is a weary of it and is glad when he hath done with you and is got away What would you think of Wife or Child or Friend if they should reason as you do and say What Law doth bind 〈◊〉 to be so many hours in the House or Company or 〈◊〉 of my Husband my Father or my Friendâ—
hath allowed them so liberal a portion of time wherein to provide for themselves and their families There being no other proportion of time that can so well provide for the necessities of families as six dayes of every Week and that is so well fitted to all Functions Callings and Employments And the light of Nature when cleared up will tell men that all labour and motion being in order to rest and rest being the perfection and end of labour into which labour work and motion doth pass that therefore the seventh day which is the last day in every Week is the fittest and properest day for a religious rest unto the Creator for his Worship Gen. 2. 1 c. Exod. 20. 9. Deut. 5. 13 14. Heb. 4. 1. 11. Exod. 31. 17. Rom. 14. 13. Exod. 23. 12. 34. 21. Answ. How far a day is of Natural due I have shewed before In all the words of this reason which I set down as I received them there is much which is no matter of Controversie betwen us As that there is a Light and Law of Nature which few men doubt of who are worthy to be called men And that by this Law of Nature God should be solemnly worshipped and that at a set or separated time I hope the Reader will not expect that I weary him with examining the Texts which prove this before it is denyed But the thing denyed by us is that the seventh day Sabbath as the seventh is of Natural Obligation The proofs which are brought for this I must examine For indeed this is the very hindge of all our Controversie For if this be once proved we shall easily confess that it is not abrogate For Christ came not to abrogate any of the Law of Nature though as I have said such particles of it may cease whose Matter ceaseth by a change in Nature it self The first proof is Exod. 20. 10. The stranger To which I answer Our question is not whether the Sabbath was to be rested onâ— by Strangers that are among the Jews but Whether it was part of the Law of Nature If it be intended that whatever such strangers were bound to was of the Law of Nature But strangers were bound to keep the Sabbath Ergo I deny the Major which they offer not to prove And I do more than deny it I disprove it by the Instances of Exâ—d 12. 19. Was eating leavened bread forbidden by the Law of Nature V. 48. 49. One Law shall be to him that is home-born and to the stranger that sojourneth among you Circumcision was not of the Law of Nature Lev. 16. 29. Resting from all work on the tenth day of the seventh Moneth was not of the Law of Nature though made also the strangers duty So eating blood and that which dyeth or was torn Lev. 17. 12 15. So Lev. 25. 6. Numb 15. 14 15 16 26. 29. 19. 10. 35. 15. Deut. 31. 12. Jos. 8. 33 34 35. 20. 9 c. The next pretended proof is Rom. 2. 14 c. where there is not one syllable mentioning the Decalogue as such but only in general The Law so far as it was written in the Gentiles hearts But where is it proved that the Law or the Decalogue are words of the same signification or extent any more than the whole and a part are Or where is it proved that none of the rest of the Law is written in Nature but the Decalogue only Or else that every word in the Decalogue it self is part of the Law of Nature which is the question I shall prove the contrary anon In the mean time the bare numbring of Chapters and Verses is no proof 3. It is next said that Adam was made and framed to the perfection of the ten words Answ. Adam was made in the Image of God before the ten words were given in stone But so much of them as is of the Law of Nature and had matter existent in Adams dayes no doubt was a Law to him as well as it is to us But that 's nothing to the question Whether all things in the ten words are of Natural Obligation 4. It is said that the Law of the seventh day Sabbath was given before the ten words were preclaimed in Sinai Answ. So was Circumcision and so was sacrificing yea so was the Law about the dressing of the Garden of Eden and about the eating or not eating of the fruit thereof even in innocency which yet were no parts of Natures Laws but Positives which now cease 5. It is said that it was given to Adam in respect of his humane nature and in him to all the world of humane creatures Answ. So was the Covenant of Works or Innocency which yet is at an end But what respect is it to his humane nature that you mean If you suppose this Proposition Whatever Law is given with respect to humane nature and to all men is of natural and perpetual Obligation I deny it The Law of Sâ—crinces and Oblations was given with respect to humane nature that is in order to its reparation and it was given to mankind and yet not of natural perpetual obligation The Law of distinguishing clean Beasts from unclean and the Law against eating blood were given to Noah and to all mankind with respect to humane nature Gen. 8. 20. 9. 4. and yet not wholly of natural or perpetual obligation All common Laws have some respect to humane nature But if your meaning be that this Law was given in and with the Nature of Man himself or that it is founded in and provable by the very essentials of mans nature or any thing permanent either in the nature of man or the nature of the world I still deny it and call for your proof Positives may have respect to humane Nature as obliged by them and yet not be written in humane nature nor provable by any meer natural evidence 6. It is said Set times of Divine appointment for solemn assembling c. are directed to by the great Lights c. Psal. 19. Rom. 10 c. Ans. But the question is not of set times in general that some there be But of this set time the seventh day in particular It will be long before you can fâ—tch any cogent evidence from the Lights of Heaven for it Nor do any of the Texts cited mention any such thing or any thing that can tempt a man into such an opinion It must be the Divine appointment and institution which you mention that must prove our obligation to a particular day and not any nature within us or without us 7. The only appearance of a proof is at the end that time being measured by Weeks and the end of the Weeks being fittest for Rest therefore nature points us to the last day Answ. But 1. You do not at all prove that nature teacheth all men to measure their time by Weeks 2. Nor is your Philosophy true that all motion is in order to rest
of Nature would have been the making of the Law But here are two arguments against that in the Text. 1. Blessing and sanctifying are positive acts of supernatural institution superadded to the works of nature They are not Divine Creating acts but Divine instituting acts 2. That which is blessed and sanctified Because God rested in it from all his works is not blessed and sanctified meerly by those works or that Rest And if neither the works of Nature nor the Rest of God from those works did sanctifie it then it is not of natural sanctification and so not of natural obligation 5. If the very Reason of the day be not of natural but of supernatural Revelation then the sanctification of the day is not of natural but supernatural revelation and obligation But the former is certain For no man breathing ever did or can prove by Nature without supernatural Revelation that God made and finished his works in six dayes and rested the seventh Aristotle had been like to have escaped his Opinion of the worlds eternity if he could have found out this by nature 6. The distinction of Weeks is not known by nature to be any necessary measure of our time Therefore much less that the seventh day of the Week must be a Sabbath The Antecedent is sufficiently proved in that no man can give a cogent reason for the necessity of such a measure And because it hath been unknown to a great part of the world The Peruvians Mexicans and many such others knew not the measure of Weeks And Heylin noteth out of Jos. Scaliger de Emend Temp. li. 3. 4. and Rossinus Antiq. and Dion that neither the Chaldees the Persians Greeks nor Romans did of old observe Weeks and that the Romans measured their times by eights as the Jews did by sevens Hist. Sab. P. 1. Ch. 4. p. 83 84. And p. 78. he citeth Dr. Bounds own words p. 65. Ed. 2. confessing the like citing Beroaldus for it as to the Roman custom Yea he asserteth that till near the time of Dionys. Exig an 500. they divided not their time into Weeks as now In which he must needs except the Christians and consequently the ruling powers since Constantine And if they were so unsetled through the world in their measure by Moneths as Bishop Vsher at large openeth in his Dissert de Macedonum Asianorum Anno solari see especially his Ephemeris in the end where all the dayes of each Moneth are named without Weeks the other will be no won-wonder I conclude therefore 1. That one day in seven rather than in six or eight may be Reason be discerned to be convenient when God hath so Instituted it But cannot by Nature be known to be of natural universal obligation 2. That this one day should be the seventh no Light of Nature doth discover Therefore Dr. Bound Dr. Ames and the generality of the Defenders of one day in seven against the Anti-sabbatarians do unanimously assert it to be of Positive supernatural institution and not any part of the Law of Nature Though stated dayes at a convenient distance is of the Law of Nature CHAP. IV. Whether every word in the Decalogue be of the Law of Nature and of perpetual obligation And whether all that was of the Law of Nature was in the Decalogue BUt the great argument to prove it the Law of Nature is because it was part of the ten words written in stone To which I say that the Decalogue is an excellent summary of the Generals of the Law of Nature as to the ends to which it was given but that I. It hath more in it than the Law of Nature II. It hath less in it than the Law of Nature And therefore was never intended for a meer or perfect transcript of the Law of Nature but for a perfect general summary of so much of that Law as God thought meet to give the Jews by supernatural revelation containing the chief heads of Natures Law lest they should not be clear enough in Nature it self with the addition of something more I. That the Decalogue written in stone hath more than the Law of Nature is proved 1. By these instances 1. That God brought them out of the Land of Egypt and out the house of servants and that he is to be worshipped in that relation is none of the Law of Nature universally so called 2. That God is merciful and therefore reconciled to thousand Generations of them that Love him notwithstanding mans natural state of sin and misery and all mens actual sin this is of supernatural Grace and not the Law of meer Nature 3. The great difference between the wayes of Justice and mercy expressed by the third and fourth Generation compared to Thousands is more than the meer Law of Nature 4. Those Divines who take all Gods positive Institutions of Worship to be contained in the Affirmative part of the second Commandment must needs think that it containeth more than the Law of nature Though I say not as they but only that as a General Law it obligeth us to perform them when another Law hath instituted them 5. To rest one day in seven is more than the Law of Nature 6. To rest the seventh day rather than the sixth or first is more than the Law of Nature 7. The strictness of the Rest to do no manner of Work is more than a Law of Nature 8. That there be Man servants and Maid servants besides natural inferiours is not of the primitive or universal Law of Nature 9. The distinction of the Israelites from strangers within their Gates was not by the Law of Nature 10. That Cattle should do no manner of work as for a Dog to turn the spit in a wheel or such like is more than a Law of Nature 11. That God made Heaven and Earth in six dayes and rested the seventh is not of Natural Revelation 12. That this was the reason wherefore God blessed the Sabbath day aud hallowed it is not of Natural Revelation 13. Some will say that more Relations than Natural being meant in the fifth Commandment maketh it more than a Law of Nature 14. That the Land of Canaan is made their reward is a positive respecting the Israelites only 15. That length of dayes in that Land should be given by Promise is an act of Grace and not of Nature only 16. That this promise of length of dayes in that Land is made more to the Honouring of Superiours than to the other commanded duties is more than Natural 2. I prove it also by the Abrogation of the Law written in stone which I proved before If the Decalogue had been the Only and Perfect Law of Nature it would not have been so far done away as the Apostle saith it is of which before II. All the Law of Nature was not in the Tables of Stone Here I premise these suppositions 1. That a General Law alone obligeth not to all particulars without a Particular Law E.