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ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A69228 A discourse of the Sabbath and the Lords Day Wherein the difference both in their institution and their due observation is briefly handled. By Christopher Dow, B.D. Dow, Christopher, B.D. 1636 (1636) STC 7088; ESTC S110113 45,823 80

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the fourth Commandement as it enjoynes the externall observation of the seaventh day is not morall either of these wayes Whence S. Augustine saith That among all those ten Commandements that onely of the Sabbath is figuratively to be observed whereas as hee after saith Wee observe the other Commandements there properly as they are cōmanded without any figurative signification And generally the Ancients as Calvin hath truly observed called this Precept a shadow which as he there saith was truly but not fully said of them And therefore they do better and more fully expresse the nature of this Cōmandement which say it is partly morall and partly ceremoniall So Peter Martyr and generally all Divines both reformed and others use now to speake Now if any shall therefore thinke it unworthy a place in the Decalogue and to be rankt with those precepts which are morall and of perpetuall observance Aquinas may seeme to give them full satisfaction who saith 1. that the Precept concerning the Sanctification of the Sabbath is put among the Precepts of the Decalogue for that which is moral in it 2. That this Precept as Ceremoniall ought rather to have a place in the Decalogue then any other The other Ceremonies being signes of some particular effects of God but this of the Sabbath was a signe of a generall benefit viz. the Creation of the Vniverse So that that which Amesius will have a most certaine rule and received among all the best Divines as he calls them That all and onely the Morall precepts were delivered by the voyce of God himselfe and by Him written in the tables of stone is not true unlesse Saint Augustine Calvin Martyr c. be in his esteeme none of the best Divines Yet perhaps wee may admit that rule so farre as to say That all the Morall Precepts are contayned in the Decalogue and that every Precept there contayned is Morall though all of every Precept be not so but may have something that is ceremoniall annexed to it which haply God thought good to place among the morall precepts to intimate the perpetuall necessity of having some ceremonies in the Church though that ceremonie be not necessarily perpetuall but with the rest of that nature to expire at the death of Christ which though wee admit yet cannot any justly charge us that wee diminish any of the tenne words or that wee expunge one Commandement out of the Decalogue in as much as wee affirme that onely which was ceremoniall in this Commandement to bee expired and out of date and that there is in it a morality still remaining which retaines its full power of obligation and exacts the same obedience under the same penalty which it did at its first promulgation or inscription in the heart of Adam In which respect the Church hath good cause still to use her accustomed Antiphona at the repeating of this Commandement as well as at any of the rest and to pray Lord have mercy upon us and encline our hearts to keepe this law And here because some who love to have this Commandement termed morall though thereby they intend no more then what hath beene already granted use so to argue as if they did not acknowledge it at all to be ceremoniall it will not be amisse before wee proceed any further to answere some of the principall arguments that are brought to this purpose And I wil begin with that of our Saviour Math. 5. 17. Thinke not that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets I came not to destroy but to fulfill Which words in their opinion make strongly for the morality and perpetuall obligation of the fourth Commandement For from hence they argue to this purpose That which our Saviour did not destroy but fulfill is still in force but hee did not destroy the law contayned in the Decalogue Therefore it is still in force For answere hereunto I say That in this argument two things are by them supposed First they suppose that by the Law in this place is meant only the law contained in the Decalogue or ten Commandements Secondly That our Saviours fulfilling and not destroying this law was the ratifying and perpetuating of the observation of it under the Gospel If wee grant them both these wee shall condemne the Christian Church for altering the day from the seventh to the eight or first day of the week which cannot stand with this exposition of our Saviours speech who in the words following saith expresly That not one jot or title shall passe from the Law But both these are beside the meaning and intent of our Saviour as will easily appeare to any that with indifferency doth consider his words For First the Law which our Saviour here speakes of is of larger extent and latitude and comprehends not onely the Decalogue or law morall but the Ceremoniall and judiciall also As being indeed put for the Pentateuch or five bookes of Moses And so The Law and the Prophets as much as Moses and the Prophets Which formes of speech are used as a Periphrasis of the old Testament of which these two are the maine essentiall parts The Bookes of Moses so containing and describing the Law that they reserre whatsoever else they containe unto that receive their denomination from it as from the principall subject of them The Prophets that is their Bookes comprehend all the rest of the old Testament which the Hebrewes divide into the former and latter Prophets and the Hagiographa All which though they be not Prophesies being written by divine inspiration and by holy men as they were moved by the Spirit of God may justly be termed The word of Prophecy and passe under the name of the Prophets That the Law is taken in this sense is manifest by the use of the same phrase else where Where not only the duties commanded in the Decalogue but Christ and faith in him is said to be taught and witnessed by the Law to which purpose the Apostle S. Paul useth the same phrase Acts 28. 23. Rom. 3. 21. Now what word in all the Decalogue gives witnesse to Christ or perswades the faith which is required in him Certainly however some have found not onely the faith in Christ but the Sacraments also of the New Testament commanded in the Decalogue yet there is no one word there which imports any such thing Yea the very context evinces thus much for our Saviour having thus prefaced his exposition of the Law keeps not himselfe within the bounds of the Moral Law as appeares verse 18. And therefore Interpreters generally upon this place shew how our Saviour did not destroy but fulfill the Ceremoniall Law also as well as the Morall which were altogether needlesse if by the Law that onely were understood Now the Law being as it must needs be thus largely taken any man may easily perceive that the not destroying but fulfilling of it is not the ratifying and the perpetuating of