to break the bonds of Christian unity and the bounds of Christian liberty yea to render the golden yoke of Christs Gospel heavier then the Iron yoke of Moses Law But his wretched design is visible in pressing two dayes in a week he would suppresse one The old seventh day must be kept as a Sabbath the Lords day only as a Church holy-day or State holy-day rather for he calls it mans Sabbath But I beseech you what has man to do to appoint a weekly holy-day contrary to Gods expresse command of six dayes for labour If the Lords day be of mans making you sin in keeping of it Psalm 118.24 But if it be a day of Gods making as the Scripture sayes then you sin in keeping any other weekly day besides it And to close all let me adde this which will not easily be answered To keep the old seventh day as a Sabbath in memory of the Creation and the Lords day only as a lesser holy-day in memory of Redemption is to place the greater honour upon the lesser work and to professe that we are lesse ingaged to Christ for shedding his blood to redeem the world then to God the Father for speaking the word to create the world which how it can stand with that Gospel-precept of honouring the Son as we honour the Father John 5.23 let any sober Christian judg Thus we have considered the ground of the Sabbaths institution in the first sense as Gods ending his work may be understood in respect of Providence But 2. Secondly and chiefly God may be said to have ended his work on the seventh day in respect of the promise then manifested to have been given by Christs actual undertaking the work of his Mediatorship and the Fathers rest or complacency in that blessed undertaking of the Son And here I doubt not but we shall make it appear by the light of Gods candle shining in the Scriptures that the first institution of the seventh day was founded not so much upon the memory of the Creation as upon the first publication of Christ in the promise and then it will undeniably follow that the day was made mutable in the first foundation of it For a day fixed upon the making of a promise must needs be changed upon the making good of that promise To make way for the framing of my argument I shall premise these seven considerations 1. That man sinned and fell the same day on which he was created as has been already argued and shall be further proved in the close of this position neither should it seem improbable or incredible to any that so goodly a building should be raised and ruinated both in one day considering the foundation of it stood upon the tottering Sands of free-will not the impregnable rock of free-grace and Christs righteousness 2. As man fell suddenly so Christ was promised seasonably and early The merciful Lord would not let the Sun go down upon his wrath but in the cool of the day while the wound of mans fall was yet fresh and bleeding he gave him that soveraign plaster in the promise Gen. 3.15 The seed of the woman shall bruise the Serpents head 3. That the fall of man brought corruption and confusion upon the whole Creation Gen. 3.17 18. Rom. 8.21 22. subjecting it to the curse of God the consequences whereof are misery and vanity 4. That therefore when it is said Gen. 2.2 On the seventh day God ended or perfected his work for so the word may be rendered and so it is Ezek. 16.14 it may well bear this construction that upon the seventh day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the actual undertaking of Christ newly promised to bring about mans redemption So 2 Chron. 4 12. and the worlds restauration the creatures were brought into a better state then they were in before See more of this in that learned Treatise of Mr. G Walker intituled the Doctrine of the Sabbath as corrupted and defaced by the sin of man This is certain that upon the sixth day the creation was dispatched and fully perfected as to natural perfection Therefore when it is said on the seventh day God perfected his works it may well be understood of a further and higher degree of perfection even that which was supernatural shewing a higher and more excellent end of all things created then that which at first they were created unto At least it implyes such a perfection as consisted in the creatures restauration by the mediation of Christ which made way for the setting of all to rights again A most blessed and seasonable transaction for a sin-shattered world which had certainly been demolished and laine buried in its own ruines had not the blessed Son of God put to his gracious helping-hand These are no humane fancies for a Colos 1.17 Heb. 1.3 Psal 75.3 the Scriptures do abundantly testifie that the Lord Christ is the great supporter and repairer of the Creation without whom we have reason to think that the Sun would not shine one day nor the world stand one moment Hence 5. It followes that God rested on the seventh day That is not only ceased from his work but found rest in his Son he rested and was refreshed Exod. 31.17 that is with a rest full of sweetness and delight such as he finds only in Christ in whom his soul delighteth Isai 42.2 And hence again it is said 6. That God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it how did he blesse it but by ordaining it as a day of Grace and spiritual blessings to the souls of his people during the Old Testament Now this kind of blessing was utterly inconsistent with that covenant of works made with Adam in the state of innocency there was no Grace no Christ in that Covenant But all spiritual blessings flow from Christ that fountain of the Gardens Eph. 1.3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Therefore blessed be God sayes that blessed Apostle who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly things in Christ Jesns Did the Lord then ordain the seventh day to be a day of spiritual blessings to the souls of his people Why still this strongly argues that Christ in the promise lay at the bottom of that day in the first designation of it for he was that blessed seed in whom it was all along promised that the nations and families of the earth should be blessed I would ask T.T. and his followers whether the blessings which they expect by vertue of the old Sabbaths Institution be new Covenant-blessings If so then they cannot deny but the day thus blessed was bottomed upon Christ The foundation of the new Covenant a Isai 42.6 I say upon Christ in the promise that renowned promise of blessed memory the seed of the woman shall bruise the Serpents head which promise was first made to Adam the father of men Gen. 3.15 and afterwards renewed to b Gen. 12.3 c. 18.22 c.
the seventh for me not naming which seventh must he necessarily intend one seventh more then another I should rather think no but any one of the seven being left to his own liberty to chuse which he pleases Or thus Suppose a liberal Master who has seven pounds to dispose of indent thus with his Servant I freely give or lend thee six of them provided thou improve the seventh for me What must he needs intend this or that special seventh supposing some piece of gold among the rest Certainly no every man may know his meaning by the seventh pound he intends one pound of seven The accommodation is easie and apposite the bountiful and blessed God freely bestows six dayes in the week upon his creature man reserving the seventh to himself that is one in seven at his own choice and appointment This is the direct and principal intendment of the Law Though I deny not that the old seventh day was indirectly and occasionally here pointed at as a seventh day then under Divine sanction and the Jewes were bound by this Commandment to keep that day as by the fifth commandment they were bound to honour their particular parents then living yet both these being but occasional circumstances might be and were altered without any impeachment to the morality of these Commands The altering of a mutable circumstance either of time place or person is far from abolishing the substance of a law indeed if the Sabbath had been changed as I said before either to the sixth day or the tenth day the whole frame of the Commandment had been broken and shattered but in the change of one seventh day to another upon a sufficient ground and by a sufficient authority the substance of the Law suffers not at all the substance of it is for one day in seven directly and no more the seventh day is the Sabbath To those forementioned vulgar cases I will adde some Scripture-instances for the further clearing of it As thus why may not the seventh part of mans time and the tenth part of his temporals be understood in a parallel sense Levit. 27.30 Deut. 18.21 Now one part of ten is principally intended in the Law of tithes surely when God commandeth the tenth any man will think he hath more respect to the number then the order such a proportion then such a particular in it Although indeed as judicious Mr. Cawdrey notes in one particular there was a law to restrain it to the last of ten of all their Cattel the tenth that came under the rod was holy to the Lord which law as he sayes well Levit. 27.23 need not have been added if the general law for tithes had intended the last of ten And this is the very case here one day in seven is chiefly and directly intended in this law of the Sabbath The seventh day in every week Christ hath now limited by his Apostles to the Lords day Mr. Perkins in Gal. 4.10 neither can any more be well gathered from it unless some other law be produced to restrain it to the last of seven as once it was or to the first of seven as now it is restrained some other law I say for there is no such particular restriction in theh fourth Commandment For I pray observe this the Commandment doth not point out the day by way of institution but only prescribe the observation of it supposing it either as already instituted or to be instituted elsewhere either in the Old Testament or the New Again to that which others have gathered to my hand let me adde one Scripture-instance more why may not that tribute of time which God calls for and that tribute of their lands which Joseph compacted for with the Egyptians be taken in a like sense since the things themselves are not much unlike Gen. 47.24 You shall give the fifth part of your increase to Pharaoh and four parts shall be your own V. 27. And Joseph made it a law over the land of Egypt unto this day that Pharaoh should have the fifth part that is such a part in proportion one part in five The Gram matical construction of the Commandment will bear this sense and inforce no more then a seventh in proportion and if other arguments must sway the sense what better arguments then the analogy of other Scriptures and the received Principles of religion both which carry it for a seventh day in proportion not the old seventh day Irenaeus Phil. you shall have four and Pharaoh shall have one And truely varying but the circumstances me thinks the Lord speaks much to the same effect in this fourth Commandment Six dayes shalt thou labour but a seventh or the seventh is the Sabbath that is dividing the week into seven parts thou shalt have six of them for thy common work and I will have one in seven for my solemn worship He does not say the seventh day from Creation that was ordered elsewhere Gen. 2. But a seventh in proportion directly this or that seventh indirectly and by consequence only Yea to proceed to demonstration that this is unquestionably the mind of God may be thus made out This proportion is no where directly stated by a perpetual precept unless it be in this fourth Commandment Therefore it must be so determined here That it must be somewhere determined is evident because it is substantially profitable to Religion the glory of God and the good of souls as Mr. Cawdrey has invincibly argued for if men were left to their own liberty to chuse their own proportion in all probability Religion would be substantially prejudiced and damnified by it either it would be starved with too little or surfetted with too much Sabbath-time either Popery would create almost every day in the week a holy day or profaneness would be content with one day in a moneth Let sinful man have liberty to pluck up Gods bounds and alter his proportion either one way or other and experience will soon shew the inconvenience of it Let it be altered from one of seven to one of ten or twenty and what a deadly blow to Religion would that be Yea let the alteration be on the other hand from one of seven to two of seven may we not justly suspect more prejudice then profit by such an alteration Would not one sabbath be able to justle out another and one day disturb the holy rest of another Truly as our Saviour speaks in another case Luke 19.30 No man can serve two masters but either he will have the one and love the other or hold to the one and dispise the other So we may probably think in this case no man can ordinarily observe two Sabbaths in a week but either he will slight the one to keep the other or it may be in a little time slight both and keep neither Whether the Sabbath should be kept once a week or once a moneth cannot be gathered from any plain
substance of the law I do not say they are abrogable as ceremonies but alterable as circumstances they may be changed for better things and not a tittle of the law annulled but rather fulfilled by it according to that of our Saviour till heaven and earth pass one jot Mat. 5.18 or one tittle shall not pass from the law till all be fulfilled I say the law is not destroyed but rather fulfilled by the varying of some circumstances as by changing their typical deliverance from Egypt into our spiritual deliverance from sin and the land of Canaan meant in the fifth Commandment into England where we dwell And because the fourth Commandment and the fifth are neer neighbours methinks the one may fairly expound the other It cannot be denyed Ephes 6.3 The Apostle in repeating that promise leaves out the words which the Lord thy God giveth thee because they were more appropriate to the Jews and to us the argument is entire without them See Weems Chris Syn. that the promised land intended occasionally in the fifth Commandment was the land of Canaan neither do I deny that the day on which God is said to rest in the fourth Commandment was the seventh day from Creation yet all will grant that the argument or inducement of the fifth Commandment is not to be restrained to that land only for then it were no argument at all to us Now I would ask any rational man why the argument of this fourth Commandment should be limited to that particular day from Creation more then the argument of the fifth Commandment to that particular land of Canaan since both the one and the other are but occasionally insinuated And to limit the inducement of a moral law to an occasional circumstance is the ready way to evacuate and make void the whole law But we shall put it out of all doubt that Gods example here propounded is only for one day in seven directly substantially and properly for the old seventh only consequentially indirectly or occasionally and that by a double consideration 1. Because it is here urged as a reason of what went before 2. Because the reason of this reason is chiefly for one day in seven 1. This example of God in six dayes the Lord made heaven and earth and rested the seventh day is alleged as a reason of the forementioned clause six dayss shalt thou labour but the seventh is the Sabbath so much is clearly implyed in the connexive or causal particle For six dayes shalt thou labour and rest a seventh For so did Jehovah thy God Now the reason annexed to any rule must if there be any amiguity in it be expounded by the rule the rule must not be interpreted by the reason for the rule is not brought for the reason but that for the rule Therefore as the former receives strength by the latter so the latter must receive light from the fotmer Now the standing rule for the weekly Sabbath is this Six dayes shalt thou labour but a seventh is the Sabbath Here the term seventh is general 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Indifferently signifies a seventh or the seventh a and the being particles proper to the English tongue are defective in the Hebrew and Latine To supply which defect the schooles distinguish of Diet septimus formaliter and Dies septimus materialiter as was noted before 'T is not said this or that seventh but leftat large And where God has left a latitude we may not dare to put a limitation that were to enclose Gods Common and intrench upon his Royalty Well then the Rule being only express for a seventh day in general the reason or argument here brought to perswade to the observation of such a general seventh is taken from Gods example who also rested a seventh day which although it were the last of seven yet being only alledged as a reason of the forementioned rule it can signifie no more then the rule it self of which it is a reason And so it is clear that the sense of this latter clause in six dayes the Lord made heaven and earth and rested the seventh must be only according to the sense of the former clause six dayes shalt thou labour but a seventh is the Sabbath that is a seventh in proportion directly And thus the first day of the week is as much the Sabbath of the fourth Commandment to Christians as ever the last of the week was to the Jewes being one day in seven as well as that To dispute for the same day on which God rested and infer a necessity of observing that day because we must observe that proportion is to argue à dicto secundum quid ad dictum simpliciter a well known fallacy For the argument is only direct for such a proportion six for labour and a seventh every week for rest not this or that seventh from any prefixed period 2. Let us look into the reason of this reason and then the case will be yet more clear the reason or equity of any law is the life and strength of the law And it is the design of Gods wisdome in imposing laws upon his creatures to propose such reasons in those lawes as shall make them appear congruous and suitable to those common principles of right and equity Psalm 119.18 Rom. 7.12 Deus ideò leges suas judicia vocat quod aequiffima sunt quae praescribit impressed upon the creature And hence Gods lawes are so often styled Judgments because in all things they are just and equal and certainly that sense of the argument which doth most shew the equity of the Commandment is the best and truest sense Now let us consider the equity that Gods example carryes with it in reference to the aforesaid proportion of six dayes for labour and one in seven for rest As thus if the great God who needs not a moment of time either for work or rest as being neither subject to weakness nor weariness if he I say were pleased when he had work to do even a world to make to take six dayes for his work and one in seven for rest how much more should we men still hold to this proportion who by reason of corporal weakness and spiritual wants need such a competency of time both for secular imployments and soul refreshments Thus there is convincing strength of reason and equity in it But now to argue for the particular day God wrought first six dayes and then rested the last of seven therefore we must first work and then rest has no such argumentative force in it especially to us Christians who living under a Covenant of pure grace do rather work by rest then rest by works and therefoe the Sabbath being suitable to the Covenant we may rather judg it equitable to begin the week with a day of rest and work the six dayes after then to work the six first dayes and then rest the last seventh Even dim-eyed nature judges it most
for that which nature informed by a written word judges most agreeable to moral and religious equity so we may grant it we also affirme that a seventh part of time must be perpetually devoted to God from week to week that is one part of seven Neither did this proportion receive any interruption by the change of the day for the Jewes Sabbath being in use while Christ lay in the grave was the seventh part of time for the week going before the resurrection and the Lords day was the seventh part of time for the weeke following the resurrection what inconvenience in all this Answ 2 If by the seventh part of time simply considered he will needs understend the last of seven in order he must first convince us that this is the morality of the Commandment which if by working miracles in Logick and Divinity he can do yet it will at no hand follow that the altering or adjourning of this proportion from the last to the first day of the week was any violation of the precepts morality In this case as one sayes alteration is no dissolution no more then to adjourn the Parliament to another time is to dissolve the Parliament Besides an extraordinary case can be no violation of an ordinary rule As the Suns standing still in Joshuahs and going back in Hezekiahs time which did undoubtedly alter the setled course of time for man had more then six parts and God had less then simply a seventh part of time for those two weeks yet being extroardinary cases they were no infringment of that ordinary standing rule for a seventh part of time from week to week So here supposing some variation in the ordinary course of time at the first change of the day yet being by a person extraordinary the Lord of glory who made the law and is above the law as also upon an occasion extraordinary his resurrection from the dead who would dare to say as this objectour does that the morality of the law was hereby destroyed Whereas he further suggests That if the Sabbath were translated to the eighth or first day Answ 3 This was T. Brabourns Objection p. 178. then seven dayes must pass without any one Sabbath it is already answered there is not the least necessity of that for as the Paschal supper was in use till the Gospel-supper was instituted so was the old Sabbath till the Lords days was consecrated by the Lords resurrection Hence the holy women are commended for keeping it Luk. 23.56 they were as one sayes commended for keeping the Jews Sabbath before Christs resurrection Note that but never were any commended for keeping it after his resurrection Hitherto therefore it appears what feeble unjoynted unsinnewed shadows of arguments this Author pleases himself and perverts the simple withall Neither Is there any strength in that which comes up in the rear Answ 4 that whoever should keep the old seventh day and the first day of the week at the change of the day he must keep two Sabbaths within the circuit of seven dayes What then as long as these two Sabbaths fell in two several weeks this brake no squares in the morality of the law for the Commandment is only for one day of seven in the circle of every week Levir 23.15 Deut. 16.9 Luk. 18.12 Hence the Sabbath being the boundary of weekly time is sometimes termed week intimating that as it was ever a seventh day Sabbath so also a weekly Sabbath one day in a week and but one in a week ordinarily And this rule was exactly kept in the change of the day for as there were two Sabbaths so two distinct weeks in which the forementioned proportion of six dayes for work and one for rest was punctually observed In a word the supposed disorder objected against the change of the day is but a dart flung against heaven a cavil raised against Christ and his blessed Apostles who were well enough able to answer it and so are we also building upon the foundation of the Prophets and Apostles Ephes 2.20 and Jesus Christ the chief corner-stone who when he was made the head of the corner did crown the resurrection-Resurrection-day above all other dayes intimating as much by an illustrious Prophet Psalm 118.24 and expounding it by his inspired Apostles both in their doctrine Acts 4.11 and their practise Acts 20.7 so that the Lords day having Christ himself for its corner-stone Prophets and Apostles for its foundation we may look upon all objections of this nature as groundless and graceless cavillations which like proud waves dashing against the rock dissipate themselves with their own fury Mark 2.28 Sure we are that the Lord Jesus being Lord of the Sabbath had power to change it and in the change it was fit the Sabbath should waite upon him who was Lord of it not he upon it And if the order or constituted course of time received some small interruption for once by the change of the day yet it was no more then what had happened twice before viz. upon the standing still and going back of the Sun Joshu 10.13 Isai 38.8 far less events then the glorious shining forth of the Sun of righteousness after a three dayes eclipse in the chambers of death He has but one discharge more against the truth and then all his powder is spent to no purpose He charges our doctrine with a gross absurdity as thus Obj. 6 p. 116. That we render Gods reason of Janctifiing-the Sabbath in this wise for in six dayes the Lord made heaven and earth and rested the first day Wherefore the Lord blessed the first day for his Sabbath and sanctified it But we answer Answ this pretended absurdity is a meer calumny we are not so destitute of reason as to render Gods reason in such a mishapen form we only argue thus that we must sanctifie one day in seven because God did so As for the particular day whether first or last of seven we ground it not directly either upon the precept or example of God but we say it is instituted elsewhere And when we have found the institution or designation of the Lords day somewhere else as shortly we shall we only go to the Commandment as a rule for the observation of it and accordingly we urge conscience with Gods example not as directly pointing out the day for so it was never intended but as perswading us to such a proportion one day in seven of his own appointment And therefore we reject all his lame consequences That unless we will cast this absurdity upon God we must cast off the fourth Commandment at least the reason of it must be rejected c. These are his own coined suppositions our conclusions are nothing akin to these wild inferences as any man may see that has but half an eye in this controversie As for those popular passages up and down his book That if the day be changed more then a tittle of
of this new creation As to persons it is plain for how is any man a new creature but by being in Christ And how are we in Christ but by h Gal. 2.20 faith And what is the object of this faith Let the same Apostle resolve us l Rom. 10.9 ch 4 24. See DeTwiss p. 97. S. 5. If thou confess with thy mouth the Lord Josus and shalt believe in thy heart that God raised him from the dead And so the Argument will hold good back again from persons to things still the resurrection of Christ carries the maine stroke in the work of the new creation which inevitably antiquates the old and introduces a new Sabbath Against this t is faintly objected T. T. Obj. p. 134. True all old sins are passed away and all old Ordinances curses and Covenants but the old Sabbath still remains He has fairely granted what he would have denyed Answ and wounded his cause in seeking to heal it For if all old ordinances be done away as he yeelds from 2 Cor. 5.17 let him shew where the old Sabbath is exempted that being also an old ordinance by his own confession For a conclusion of this argument I shall refer the learned Reader to that little but pithy Tractate of Athanasius concerning the Sabbath and circumcision where he may find the same thing argued in the same form as here for alledging the Scriptures speaking of a double world or a twofold Creation the first ending at our Saviours passion when the Sun without any eclipse went out of it self the second beginning with his resurrection he reasons thus about it As the old Sabbath was appointed to be kept in memory of the first Creation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so do we celebrate the Lords day as a monument of the second reparation b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 concerning which Paul speaks If any man be in Christ he is a new Creation indeed cas long as the first Creation was in force sayes he the Sabbath was observed c 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but a new generation succeeding according to that of the psalmist this shall be written for the generation to come it was now no longer necessary that this new people should observe the end of the first Creation but rather the beginning of the second he means the Lords day and what opinion he had of the Divine Authority of this day appears by that which followes d 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For this cause Christ having repaired the Creation made in six dayes instituted or set apart that day to this reparation that is to the memory and solemnity of it concerning which the Holy-Ghost forespake in the Psalm This is the day which the Lord hath made Thus good old Athanasius whose word I suppose will be of some weight with such as have but read his Creed And thus the first Argument concludes having both the seal of Scripture-Authority and the stamp of venerable antiquity upon it to warrant it for sound and good We proceed now to a second From the new Covenant it may be formed thus Argum 2 The old Covenant in the special at least in all the symbolical and shadowy branches of it was changed by Christ when the new Covenant was fully exhibited But the old Sabbath in respect of the day was a special yea a symbolical and shadowy branch of the old Covenant Therefore it was unquestionably altered and changed by Christ when the new Covenant was fully exhibited viz. at his resurrection from the dead This Argument how new soever it may seem at first upon trial will be found true I doubt not in every material term and tittle of it for that our blessed Lord Jesus has changed the old Covenant I mean the Covenant of grace as to the a Rom. 7.6 ◠Cor. 3.6 oldness of the letter and manner of dispensing it and that by erecting and exhibiting a new and a better Covenant is plainly avouched in the New Testament b Hebr. 8.13 in that he saith a new Covenant he hath antiquated or made the first old c. And that the old Sabbath was a special branch or ordinance appertaining to that antiquated Covenant may be clearly gathered from the old Testament not only as it grew at first out of the root of that old promise Gen. 3.15 but in that afterwards it symbolized with that old Covenant by the accession of a c Deut. 5.15 type and so visibly participated of the nature of it that it had the very d Exod. 31.16 name Covenant imparted to it and that in a e Gen. 17.13 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So in both places like notion with circumcision For thus sayes the Lord the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath for a perpetual Covenant throughout their generations perpetual as circumcision was throughout their generations only in respect of the particular sign and season throughout all generations in respect of the general substance and thing to wit Sabbath and Sacrament for so still we have the Sacrament of circumcision in Baptisme and the Sabbath of the old seventh day in the Lords day But that which I chiefly take hold of in Exod. 31. the term Covenant here the old Sabbath is called by the name of the old Covenant therefore sure it was neer akin to it a special branch yea a shadowy branch of it as we shall shortly see and being so how naturally will it follow that the Covenant being changed in respect of the form there must also of necessity be a change of the Sabbath in respect of the time or day and that by the same Authority that as the old Covenant had the old seventh day and old Sacrament-seals annexed to it See Widley's Treatise of the Sabb. p. 34. so the new Covenant might have new seals and a new day even as in contracts and Covenants renewed betwixt man and man 't is required that as they be new drawn so also new dated and new sealed To prevent mistakes by the way let this be hinted that I do not here intend any change of the Covenant in respect of the essence and substance of it for I grant that when the Holy-Ghost speaks of the new Covenant as distinct from the old it is not to be understood in respect of the matter and substance but circumstance and manner of expressure as the same Commandment is said to be both e 1 John 2.7 8. old and new and the same way to heaven both f Hebr. 10.20 new and g Hebr. 13.8 Rev. 13.8 old or as the same moon for substance is said to be new or old in respect of accidental changes only this must be added that the new Covenant h 2 Cor. 3.10 excels and out-shines the old in glory as far as the Sun at midday out-shines the moon at midnight and consequently it darkens all the ordinances of the old Covenant yea necessitates a change in them
in that he hath raised up Jesus again as it is also written in the second Psalmm Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee Christ in his resurrection was as it were begotten n Rev. 1.5 from the dead and brought forth of the womb of the earth And here the very particular day of his resurrection is specified as the day on which the promise was eminently fulfilled what promise Why the term is comprehensive and so includes at least that originall promise of Christs bruiling the Serpents head which being an act of his Kingly Office not of his Priesthood was most formally executed in his Resurrection whereby he triumphed in his own person over sin death and the Divel upon the account whereof the Apostle cries o 1 Cor. 15.54 55. Rom. 8.34 37. Victory Some indeed to attribute Christs victory and conquest to his death upon the Crosse because 't is said Colos 2.15 Having spoiled principalities and powers he made a shew of them openly triumphing ever them in it Which it say they refers to the Crosse verse 14. but the Text seemes to be mistranslated For according to the * Not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In semertpso so the Siryack so Yertul de Trin. Origen ep ad Rom. co 5. August ep 59. Hier. in Co. Theodor. ibid Promeruit in cruce sed postca peregit Zanch. in loc Greek it should rather be rendred He spoiled Principalities and powers and made a shew of them openly triumphing over them in himself So the Ancients universally read it and so our worthy translators in the Margin referring it to Christ himself not to the Crosse for although he merited his victory by his passion on the Crosse yet he did not execute it till his resurrection from the dead when God brought him forth from the prison of the grave and p Acts 10.39 40. shewed him openly though not to all he died a sufferer but rose a conqueror not only clothed with honour and immortality but armed with q Mar. 28.18 Philip. 2.9 power and principality he was r 2 Cor. 13.4 crucified through weakness but he liveth by the power of God Having the keyes of death and hell resigned up to him as trophies of his Triumphant resurrection so himself speaks f Rev. 1.13 I am he that liveth and was dead and am alive forevermore and have the keyes of death and hell And again t Ephes 4.8 9. When he ascended up on high be led captivity captive Note that he ascended what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth Christ then did not so much lead captivity captive when he descended into the lower parts of the earth as when he ascended thence when he divided the spoile with the mighty as the Prophet or when he spoiled principalities and powers as the Apostle speaks at what time he was proclaimed u Rom. 14 9. Lord of quick and dead Namely at his resurrection from the dead I write not this to derogate in the least from the meritorious death of our deare Redeemer I can through the grace of God read infinite w love and x John 3.15 eternal life in his death but the hope and assurance of both is built upon his resurrection and therefore when the Apostle would set the door of y 1 Pet. 1.3 4. hope wide open to us he shewes us an empty sepulchre and tells us with the Angel he is z 1 Cor. 15.17 18 19. risen otherwise our faith and hope were vain The promise is the ground and anchr-hold of our hope and that as performed by our Lords resurrection whereby he bruised the Serpents head i.e. brake his power Acts 26.6 7 8 9. Now I say that promise Gen. 3.15 was the ground of flating the Sabbath upon the old seventh day God blessed the day for Christs sake and I doubt not this was the use which old Testament-believers ever made of that old Sabbath to look to Christ in it and seek communion with God through Christ and expect the Spiritual blessings lodged in the institution by Christ the promised and blessed seed And as long as Christ was onely promised the Sabbath ran along with him in the promise upon that day for many ages but now the promise being performed See Mr. G. Walkerp 35 36 and Christ exhibited a perfect and compleat Redeemer and that upon the day of his resurrection which was the greatest day of his appearing in the nature of man upon earth how can it otherwise be but the Sabbath should also advance forward together with the Lord of the Sabbath See also more of this Posit 1. Branch 3. from the last to the first day of the week Especially considering that Secondly Then also the new Covenant was erected and established even the Covenant pointed at by the Prophet I will make an everlasting Covenant with you Isal 55 3. I will give you the sure mercies of David which the Apostle applyes exprosly to Christsresurrection and bottoms in there As concerning that he raised him from the dead Acts 13.34 now no more to return to corruption he said on this wife I will give you the sure mercies of David which if we take in the verse before nominating the very day Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee will amount to this argument That the new Covenant in the last and best exhibition of it was ultimately established by Christs resurrection on the first day of the week whence the inference is easie That therefore then and thereby the old Covenant in the promissory part of it was altered and changed Christ freely promised into Christ fully manifested and if so who shall rob us of this conclusion That the Sabbath was actually changed from the last to the first day of the week upon the account of our blessed Lords resurrection Mistake me not the Argument concludes not the dissolution but the translation of the Sabbath from one day to another translated from the last day of the week it must needs be because the promise which setled it at first upon that day is performed and stated upon the first day of the week it is because the performance of the promise fell upon that day not by chance but by special Providence to fulfil that prophecy Psalm 118.24 This is the day which the Lord hath made 3. And chiefly this truth will be yet more obvious to every eye that shall view the change of the Covenant in the shadowy part of it Heb. 8.5 ch 10.1 I mean those ordinances and institutions appertaining to the old Covenant which were shadowes of things to come that these are antiquated and extinguished by Christ and that upon the account of a new Covenant established is unquestionably clear from that forecited Scripture Heb. 8.13 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 James 4.14 In that he saith a new Covenant he hath made the first old Now that which
ch 37.25 David who dyed many hundred years before Christ cannot be the same David who is promised to be a Prince amongst Christians So here the day or rest of which David speaks being to come and not then entred into could not be the rest of the old seventh day since that was entred into long before even from the foundation of the world This is the true and genuine sense of those words although and again Although is a discretive term * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or a note of distinction importing thus much that albeit there is mention made of a day of rest in the beginning of the world yet it is as another distinct day and rest that is here intended So also this Adverb again is to be taken of another rest-day then that which is mentioned in the former verse for although the old seveuth day were spoken of by Moses as the first and most famons rest in the beginning yet now again so many thousand years after that David speaks of another rest if not another rest-day and if any Sabbath or day of rest be here intended either by David or Paul it will certainly prove fatal to the old Sabbath for I would humbly propose this quere to the consideration of the learned Whether the Psalmists intimation that there should be a day of solemn worship under the Gospel and the Apostles assumption that it could not be meant of the old seventh day will not amount to this conclusion that the old seventh-day-Sabbath is to be no day of rest or solemn worship under the Gospel If T.T. quarrel at this conclusion let him thank himself for the premises one of them at least for he grants a moral rest or Sabbath to be here meant and I will thank the Holy-Ghost and S. Paul for the other for they have assured me that the seventh day from the Creation could not be meant by David no nor Secondly The rest of Canaan neither in the sense above mentioned for although that be sometimes termed the * Deut. 12.9 Josh 1.15 rest which God gave Israel under the conduct of Jesus or Joshua yet sayes the Apostle v. 8. If Jesus had given them rest that is if he had given them the rest of which David here speaks then would he not afterward have spoken of another day where note by the way t is a day of rest which the Psalmist seems to scope at else why should the Apostle thus interweave the one with the other If Joshuah or Jesus had given them rest then would he not afterwards have spoken of another day Note again the same Argument is here used against the supposed place of rest that was urged before against their conceived time of rest the old seventh day both these were entred into long before Davids time whereas he spake by the spirit of prophecy concerning things to come a long time after and hereupon the Apostle concludes There remaineth therefore a rest or the keeping of a Sabbath to the people of God distinct and different from the old Sabbath yet not much unlike it in respect of the ground of it for he that hath entred into his rest hath ceased from his works as God did from his own works And this is spoken only of Christ sayes T.T. Be it so then I hope our proposition will not offend him that when our blessed Lord Jesus ended his work and entred into his rest he laid the foundation of a new Sabbath on that day of his rest only t is like this word new Sabbath will stick in his stomach yet it needs not for we cannot put the old Sabbath into the Apostles conclusion because he himself puts it out of the premises But we shall not wrangle about words by new Sabbath I mean only a new Sabbath-day and for peace-sake I am content the proposition should pass in these terms The day on which Christ ended his works and entred into his rest must be our Christian Sabbath day The assumption followes Secondly That Christ ended his work and entred into his rest by his resurrection from the dead on the first day of the week for proof whereof we may proceed upon another of the Adversaries Principles for thus he argue Christs entring into his rest on the seventh day T.T. p. 144 145. Our dear Redeemers soul was no sooner separated from his body but his better part immediately entred into glory and soon after his blessed body was laid to rest in the grave Where although I cannot but mind him of his gross mistake about the cricumstance of time for t is evident that as our blessed Redeemers soul entred into Paradise on the sixth day the same day that he dyed witness his words to the dying theef this day thou shalt be with me in Paradise so also his sacred body was interr'd the same day even a Mark 16.42 Luke 23.53 54. the day before the Sabbath not on the seventh day as this sophister would make silly people believ e yet I shall take him at his word in the main of his argument namely that when our Saviour entred into his glory he entred into his rest But I assume By his resurrection from the dead on the first day of the week our Lord entred into his glory and for this I have his own word more then once or twice in the 24 of Luke he overtakes the two Disciples going to Emmaus and as they were talking together with sad hearts about the sufferings and the death of Christ and also relating what they had heard but could hardly believe concerning his resurrection he takes them up with a sharp rebuke b Luke 24.25 26. O fools and slow of heart to believe all that the Prophets have spoken Ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into his glory to enter into his glory you will say that is to be understood of his ascention into Heaven nay verily he spake it of his resurrection from the dead where their chief doubt lay and so himself expounds it for the same day at night he appears to the rest of his Disciples and these among them preaching the same Doctrine and saying c V. 46. Thus it is written and thus it behoved Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day this was that he had so often inculcated before his death d Math. 16.21 ch 17. 23. Mark 9.31 ch 10. 34. Luke 9.22 ch 18. 31 32 33. That he must go up to Jerusalem and suffer and die that all things which were written in the prophets concerning him should be accomplished that he should be delivered up to the gentiles that they should crucifie and kill him and that the third day he should rise again according to the Scriptures so that what one Text speaks of his suffering and entring into glory others interpret of his dying and rising again the third day and that Christ by his resurrection entred into his glory
enough is said to shew the discharge of the old seventh day from obligation under the new Testament We shall only remove some of the Adversaries chief objections and then lay down our grounds for the Christian Sabbath He objects Obj. 1 The Fathers institution of the seventh day which makes it as perpetual as the Ordinance of marriage But This is fully answered in the first Position Answ where we have proved that the Fathers institution of the old seventh day was upon such grounds as exposed it to alteration Thither I referr the Reader and shall follow the objector to his next Argument From the Sons confirmation of the seventh day Obj. 2 Christ has confirmed it sayes he 1. T. T. p. 72. to p. 79. By his words 2. By his works By his words more generally among the rest of his royal Lawes which he hath ratified even to a point or Tittle Math. 5.18 Teaching his Apostles to do the like Rom 3. James 2.10 More particularly by proclaiming himself Lord of the Sabbath day Mark 2.28 As if he had said the Sabbath is mine I am Lord of it I made it for Man and having given him a precept and pattern to sanctifie it I shall not make my self a president to profane it Now that which Christ layes claim to as Lord must needs be confessed his Therefore do we celebrate the holy Supper because t is the Lords Supper Again Math. 24.20 He instructs his disciples to pray that their flight might not be on the Sabbath day namely forty years after his death at what time all Ceremonies were abolished by Apostolical proclamation And as thus he has owned the seventh day Sabbath by his words so he has also crowned it by his workt c. This is the main strength and force of his Argument But alas it is to feeble to fetch life into a dead Sabbath that has lain sixteen hundred years in the grave we shall discuss every particular in it and return several answers to it We grant indeed that the Lord our Lawgiver has ratified his royal Moral Law even to a point or a tittle Answ 1 inasmuch as he came to fulfil the Law not to dissolve and destroy it But how is every tittle to be taken Not strictly and graphically for every vowel point and prick of a letter in the Law but for the substance and least matter of it the least Commandment in it so our Saviour expounds himself Matth. 5.19 Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least Commandments and teach men so shall be least in the Kingdome of God teaching us that by jot or tittle of the Law verse 18. he meant the least Commandment of the Moral Law v. 19. Thus also St. James ch 2.10 He that shall offend in one point is guilty of all By one point he means any one precept or Commandment in the Decalogue He explains himself by the reason rendred verse 11. For he that said Do not commit adultery said also Do not kill As if he had said the same God that gave one Commandment gave all therefore when any one point or precept is violated the contempt reflects upon the whole Law the least sin being an affront to Gods soveraignty So then the sense of both places is the same the least point or precept of the Moral Law is in force under the Gospel and if the least much more the fourth Commandment which indeed is none of the least But what of all this The fourth Commandment is established by Christ therefore the seventh day in weekly succession from the Creation the Consequence is infirm For that day was never directly stated in the Commandment the fourth Commmandement sayes not Thou shalt keep holy the last day of the week and not the first but a seventh day Sabbath or one in seven the old seventh day may be and is repealed and yet the Commandement ratyfied to a tittle in the matter yea in the very letter of it evangelically considered to wit as it is explained by Christ according to the will of God though not the carnal reasonings of men But of this formerly That Text Mark 2.28 rightly interpreted makes nothing for the old Sabbath but much against it For these words The Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath day do speak Christs power to alter and change it not his purpose to establish confirm it under the Gospel 't is a title much like that Math. 21. where he stiles himself Lord of the vineyard as having power to let and lease it out to other Husbandmen Mark 12.9 Dominus rectè dicitur alicujus rei qui in illam jua potestatem habet extollendi immutandi Aretius in Luc. 6. Christ was Lord of the Sabbath that is had power to change the day Engl. Annot. in Mar. 2. Luke 20.15.16 And thus he was Lord of the Sabbath having authority to alter and adjourn it to another day the Sabbath was the vineyards Land-mark or the Churches distinctive limit he that had power to transplant the vineyard had no less power to transpose the Sabbath He was Lord of the vineyard and Lord of the Sabbath in a like notion Suppose it spake as the objector speaks I am Lord of the Sabbath the Sabbath is mine yet still the same sense recurres is it not lawful for me to do what I will with my own As our Lord speaks in another case Math. 20.15 The Temple was his as well as the Sabbath Mal. 3.1 and styled his a Ps 132.14 rest forever and his b Isai 56.7 house of prayer for all people more then I remember was ever said of the seventh day Sabbath yet the Temple is destroyed and as Christ never meant to tye up his Gospel worshippers to that typical place of worship so neither to that typical time of worship He was Lord of both while they lasted that he might dissolve both when their season was expired that he might legally and ex officio give his people a discharge from both As for the Authors crafty collation of these two expressions Lord of the Sabbath day and Lords Supper whereby he would insinuate the equall authority and perpetuity of that Legal Sabbath with this Evangelical Sacrament it savours of more sophistry then solidity of Argumentation let the unlearned know that as the terms are different in the Greek so the phrase in our English Dialect imports different things 't is one thing to call Christ Lord of this or that another thing to say t is the Lords to say he was Lord of the Sabbath and that before his death is nothing so much as to to say this is the Lords Supper and that after his resurrection The former imports the office or authority of Christ the latter implyes his Ordinance And let the objector know that this Epithet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is never used but twice in the new Testament namely for the Lords Supper the Lords day Rev. 1.10 The Holy Ghost never vouchsafed to honour the Saturday Sabbath with
the first day of the week not directly indeed but by very good consequence as Mr. Cawdrey and Mr. Byfield do convincingly argue it For sayes the one our Saviour does here speak of a Sabbath indefinitely and a Sabbath to be observed long after his death even at the destruction of Jerusalem and this was spoken to his disciples apart from the multitude sayes the other v. 3. and the period of time here pointed at was forty years after his death when the Jewish Sabbath was gone and the Gospel sufficiently published whereby the ceremonial Law was evacuated and become not only dead but deadly Not that the old Law of a Sabbath the fourth Commandment was then out of force but the Law of the old Sabbath And then the conclusion is this Christ shewes a Sabbath to continue and a religious respect due to a Sabbath still after his death yet not the Jewes Sabbath therefore he intended the Christian Sabbath to be observed according to the fourth Commandment As for the Jewes Sabbath t is certain that it was void at this point of time yea long before this forewarned flight the Apostles and Christians had their assemblies apart from the other Jewes and kept the Lords day the first day of the week as on the Great day of Pentecost Acts 2. and at Troas Acts 20.7 And although sometimes the Apostles did preach on the seventh day yet as Mr. C. notes it was only before the time mentioned Acts 20 never after and only in other Cities abroad not at Jerusalem for there we never read a word of the Sabbath in all the story of the Acts. I conclude therefore with that reverend Author that no reason can be given why our Saviour in this prophetical caution should regard the Jewish Sabbath but altogether the contrary in regard the Christians inhabiting in Jerusalem and the Coasts about Judea preferred the Lords day before it and it would be grievous to gracious hearts to have their holy rest interrupted with the noise of warlike tumults and the hurry of a tumultuous flight well might the disciples be taught to pray Lord when ever we be driven from the place of our Residence let it not be on a day of holy rest for that would be as uncomfortable to our souls as a winters flight would be cumbersome to our bodies Not that it would be sinful or unlawful when life lay at stake to flye on the Sabbath for to save a mans life is a Sabbath-dayes duty and a matter of far greater moment then to leade a beast to the water or pull an oxe out of a pit both which are allowable it may therefore be scored down among the rest of T. T 's errors and oversights that he makes it a sin to flye on the Sabbath day when peril of life puts a man upon it for hâ— terms it a dishonor to God and prophaning his sacred season p. 77. and yet he sayes in the next page That had their flight bin on the Sabbath as long as they carried nothing they could not be counted Transgressors Which may pass for another of his contradictions But for a closure to this answer we have deliberately weighed our Saviours words and sayings concerning the Sabbath but cannot find that ever he spake one word or one syllable in countenance of the old seventh day as the Sabbath of Christians his words prove no such thing And lastly Whereas his workes are pleaded as the crown of that day Answ 4 I am content if the author think good to venture the whole weight of the cause in this bottom That day which Christ has crowned with his greatest wonders is to be most highly esteemed among Christians 'T is his own grant p. 78. and 't is a truth now let him have but a little patience and we shall prove by undeniable Arguments that in this respect the first day of the week carries away the Crown from all other dayes old Sabbath and all If Christs resurrection his often apparitions the mission of his Spirit the inspiration of his Apostles the conversion of three thousand souls ot once be worthy the name of wonders surely the first day of the week is a day of wonder a day of honor and renown above all the dayes that ever the Sun shone upon The most glorious day that ever God created the most solemn day that ever the Church celebrated a day that has crowned Christ and a day that Christ himself has crowned with the greatest glory of any day that ever dawned upon the world Rom. 1.4 I speak but the words of truth and soberness Luke 13.32 Psalm 118.24 Joh. 20.22 23. Cant. 3.11 the Lords day is no day of small things 't is the day of the Lords power the day of his perfection the day of his praise and glory the day of his bounty and blessing the day of his espousals and of the gladness of his heart which can be understood so properly of no day as of this the Resurrection day Let prophane Esaus despise it and proud Notionists oppose it at their peril Behold King Solomon with the crown wherewith his mother crowned him in the day of his espousals and in the day of the gladness of his heart never was Christ more visibly Crowned by his Church then on the Lords day which also was the day of his espousals when he was made sure to his Church by a sure Covenant even the sure mercies of David Hos 2.19 20. Acts 13.34 but let neither of them blame me if I honor and esteem it above all dayes till they can shew me another day which the Saviour of the world has honored and exalted above it Never tell me of one or two miracles wrought on the seventh day yet I desire to adore Christ in all his miracles but shew me such a confluence of wonders and wonderful transactions wrought by him whose name is wonderful on that day as on this and I will confess I have lost the day Alas It cannot be that one transcendent act the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus from the dead the finishing act of our Redemption weighs down all the honor of the seventh day with advantage 'T is objected that our Saviour was pleased to put forth his Divine vertue on the seventh day in sundry miracles miracles of healing and the like I answer 'T is very true and to him be all the glory But if it were an honor to that day that our Heavenly physitian healed the sick what a Crown of glory was it to his own day that he raised the dead Yea that being dead he raised himself from the dead so also if he dignified the seventh day by casting out unclean Spirits how much more the first day by sending his holy Spirit If his preaching in the Synagogues were an honor to the seventh day how much more his presenting himself in that great Assembly of Divines twice at least on the first day of the week Did Christ ever
other arguments as prophetical prediction Psalm 118. and Apostolical practice Acts 20. allege this as one proof of our Christian Sabbath That Christ Jesus our Lord was often seen upon it seen in assemblies of his Saints seen in his royal robes in his state of immortality and not only seen but heard preaching peace to poor sinners opening Scriptures cheering quickening warming cold dead sad hearts for when the disciples saw him they were * Luke 24.32 John 20.21 glad and their hearts did burn within them while he opened the Scriptures to them and all this on the first day of the week T is true after this double apparition our Saviour appeared on a working day as the disciples were a fishing and that was the third time of shewing himself or the third day of his appearing John 21.3.14 But what of this The disciples were sufficiently confirmed in the authority and solemnity of the Lords day by the two former apparitions therefore well might Christ appear the third time upon a working day and countenance worki-day-business by his presence to teach his disciples and us that every day is not a Sabbath day But this fishing-day is not named it might as well be on the Jewes Sabbath as any other day of the week for ought appeares to the contrary in the Text yet I do not say it was I will not speak where the Scripture is silent How often the first day of the week was celebrated by our Saviour between his Resurrection and ascension is not punctually set down in Scripture Junius is confident for every week But there is good evidence for the two first and none against the three last Much may be said for that famous apparition on a Mountaine in Galilee which learned Lightfoot Math. 28.16 17 19 20. Fenner and others conclude without doubt to have been on the first day of the week Mar. 16.15 16. Now the ascension-day drawes on and Christ withdrawes his Corporal presence from his disciples but on the day of Pentecost he visits them again by his spiritual presence Acts 2. And that this also was on the first day of the week shall be fully clear'd when we come to the fourth mark Lastly Rev. 1.10 Some years after all these it pleased the Lord Jesus to appear again on this day Namely to his servant John in the Isle of Patmos little paradise we may call it for the presence of Christ makes a wilderness a paradise especially so much of his presence as this blessed Apostle now enjoyed more than ever was vouchsafed to any man upon earth since Christ went up to Heaven I was in the spirit sayes he upon the Lords day what then Why v. 12. I saw seven Golden Candle-sticks and v. 13. In the midst of them one like the son of man So like him that indeed it was the son of man the man Christ Jesus on the Lords day then John saw Jesus Christ in the midst of his Churches filling them with his blessed presence that day above all others and holding the stars in his right hand that is holding forth Heavenly light by the Ministry of the word on that day especially this John saw and this he is commanded to set down in writing verse 19. and accordingly written it is and written for our learning upon whom the ends of the world are come And what may we learn from it Surely this at first view viz. That in St. Johns time the Golden Churches of Christ were wont to meet Gospel-Ministers to preach and Christ himself to be present with them by his spirit on the Lords day And this is written for a pattern to after-ages and there is a * Verse 3. blessing pronounced on those that read and keep the things that are written in this book Blessed be Christ for this blessed book here we have another glorious appearance of Christ on the Lords day not to one man only or one Church only but seven Churches in which no doubt there were more then seven thousand soules and that this Lords day was also the first day of the week none but peevish spirits ever question'd Ignatius who was trained up in the School of this great Apostle and in all reason was most likely to know his terms * Epist ad Magnes clearly makes it a weekly holy-day observed by Christians in the room of the abrogated Sabbath of the Jewes Yea the Lords day was never taken for other than the first day of the week by any Christian writer in any age since the dayes of St. John till this last age of liberty and lyes that ever I could see or learn Fathers Councils Schoolmen ancient modern writers two or three of this generation excepted do constantly understand it of Christs Resurrection-day the first day of the week and one would think the constant Dialect of the Church of Christ a sufficient Dictionary to interpret a word or phrase in Scripture especially in such a sense as does not cross but correspond with Scripture So does this for how agreeable to Scripture is it to take the Lords day for that day which the Lord hath made Besides 't is observable that this same beloved disciple who was so exact in penning the first apparition John 20. is a spectator of the last Rev. 1. and just as he had related that he sees this the circumstances are remarkable John 26.19 26. Christ appears in the midst of the disciples and Rev. 1.13 in the midst of the Candle-sticks or Churches John 20.19 he appears upon the Resurrection-day arguing his Resurrection and Rev. 1.18 repeating the same argument Saying I am he that liveth and was dead and have the keyes of death and hell To say no more John 20. he appeared on the first day of the week and here again upon the day under a new name the Lords day because it appeared by his Resurrection and former apparitions to be the day which the Lord had owned above other dayes yea the day which the Lord had made and instituted Thus we see how Christs often appearing on this day tends to the further marking out of the day But this mark is sorely shot at objections come thick but short answers will serve when nothing is objected but what has been answered by others or nothing to any purpose He is not ashamed to say T. T. Obj. 1. p. 121. I beleeve it will be found upon inquiry that Christ never appeared to any assembly no not any one first day for it is most certain that the day upon the Scripture-account begins with the evening Now upon the Resurrection-day we find Christ at the village seven miles from Jerusalem when it was towards evening and the day far spent Luke 24.29 30. after which he supped with the two which took up some time then they returned that seven miles and a half to Jerusalem on foot so that by that time they came there the day must be quite spent and though t is
offering of the loaves on the fiftieth day was not only an eucharistical oblation but also a token of the harvest 's being finished and ended 3. It is called the Feast of Pentecost because it was ever kept the fiftieth day the fiftieth day how reckoned From the morrow after the Sabbath that is the first day of the week but what mark had they to know this morrow by Moses tells them When you shall reap the harvest of yur land or when you begin to reap it for so t is expounded in Deuteronomie Deut. 16.9 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Begin to number the seven weekes from such time as thou beginnest to put the sickel to the corn In the Hebrew it runs thus from beginning to put the sickle into the standing corn thou shalt begin to number the seven weekes So that when they began their harvest they must begin their account of the fifty dayes and the first of the fifty was the morrow of the Sabbath or the day following the Sabbath namely the first day of the week and as they began so they must end the account on the same day as the first so the fiftieth day or day of Pentecost must be on the morrow of the Sabbath Levit. 23.15 16. and this is injoyned by the express command of God to be observed as a statute forever throughout their generations this is the plain Scripture-account and who can but observe the wisdom of God in it in ordering the matter thus that this Feast of weeks should never fall upon the seventh day but ever upon the first of the week the morrow after the Sabbath or the day immediatly following it if at least his statute-law had been observed What else could this presignifie as learned Dr. Vsher speakes but that under the state of the Gospel the solemnity of the weekly service should be celebrated upon that day Now I hope that famous Pentecost Acts 2.1 will be no Parable although we state it according to the Divine oracle upon the first day of the week the morrow after the Jewes Sabbath we need no Almanacks to help us here the Bible is sufficient And because the Sabbatrians stand so much upon supposed mysteryes in the Feast of Pentecost according to their traditional account I shall acquaint them with the reall mysteries of Christ accomplished exactly according to this true scripturall account See Dr. Usher there they may see the type and the truth admirably concurring For as at the time of the Passeover a 1 Cor. 5.7 Christ our Passeover was Sacrificed for us and lay in his grave the whole Sabbath following so on the morrow after the Sabbath when the sheaf of first-fruits was offered to God Christ rose from the dead and became the b 1 Cor. 15.20 first-fruits of them that slept c Math. 27.52 53. many dead bodies of Saints that slept arising likewise after him From thence was the count taken of the seven Sabbaths or fifty dayes Numb 28.26 Exod. 34.22 and upon the morrow after the seventh Sabbath which was our Lords day was that famous feast of weekes that day of Pentecost Acts 2.1 upon which day the Apostles having themselves received the first-fruits of the spirit Acts 2.1.4 5 41. begat three thousand souls with the word of truth and presented them as the first-fruits of the Christian Church unto God James 1.18 Rev. 4.14 and unto the Lamb and from that time forward doth Waldensis note that the Lords day was observed in the Christian Church in the place of the Sabbath In his learned letter to Dr. Twisse p. 91.92 Thus Dr. Vsher that Library of learning If it be objected that in this discourse he states Christ suffering at the feast of the Passeover and so falls in which the vulgar opinion which takes the morrow after the Sabbath Levit. 23. For the morrow after the Passeover-Sabbath I answer that cannot be for he had declared before that the Sabbath there intended is the ordinary weekly Sabbath and the morrow after it the first day of the week and he cites Isychius and Rupertus as interpreting it so before him to whom I shall mae bold to add Nazianzen who was before them all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Orat. in Sanct. Pentecost and in his 44th oration speaking of the Feast of Pentecost This nation sayes he meaning the Jewish nation uses to consecrate to God not only the first of their fruits and first-born but the first-fruits of their dayes and years also Thus the illustrious number of seven ha's carried the honour of Pentecost for seven being composed upon its self makes fifty wanting but one day which we have taken from this future age being both the eighth and the first day His phrase is something dark but his argument is clearly this that the Jewes Pentecost was fain to be beholding to the Christians eighth day or first day of the week to make up the complete number of fity dayes And the like he sayes a little before concerning their Jubilee every fiftieth year for seven times seven makes but fourty nine to perfect the number therefore they borrowed the first day of the week and so consecrated to God the first fruits of their dayes as well as of their land So that this computation of the fifty-dayes to Pentecost from the morrow of the weekly Sabbath wants no authority to back it neither humane nor Divine But the plain word of God is our best warrnat and methinks that should satisfie Dr. Twiss was no child at argument nor one that would be satisfied upon slight grounds but upon Bp. Vshers discovery of this truth by the fore-mentioned Scripture-evidence he professes that he had received great * In his printed letter to Bp. Usher satisfaction and acknowledges that the mystery of the feast of first-fruits was opened to the singular advantage of the honour of the Lords day The only material objection against this interpretation is the judgment of Mr. Ainsworth and the English Annotatours who take the Sabbath Levit. 23. For the Passe-over-Sabbath t is true they do so but herein they are led by the common opinion of the Hebrew Doctors who indeed are excellent guides when they keep the beaten rode of Scripture and sometimes to direct us at a doubtfull turning but here it may be proved that they themselves are out of the way I do not say our Christian writers but the Hebrew Doctors who in many things did make voyd the Commandments of God by their own traditions and if there be any mistake let it lie at their doores And cerainly a mistake there is in this point For that the morrow after the Sabbath could not be meant of the Passeover-Sabbath is clear For First It must be such a morrow after the Sabbath as must never fall upon the weekly Sabbath the reason is plain because it was the begining of their harvest when they put their sickle to the corn or harvested their harvest
this last book of the Bible to the praise of him who is our Alpha and Omega the very name speaks Christ the Author of it if not his Resurrection whereby he was declared both Lord and Christ the occasion of it The antients had it in singular esteem for the very name sake 't is an elegant and pious poem which I find written upon it by Sedlius an antient Christian Poet who was but a few years * Vid. Sixti Senesis Biblioth sanct p. 308. Jerome's Junior Caeperat intereà post tristia Sabbata felix Irradiare dies Libr. 5. Carm. Culmen qui nominis alti A domino dominante trahit primusque videri Promeruit nasci mundum atque resurgere Christum In English thus After sad Sabbaths th' happy day'gan dawn Whose lofty name from Lord of Lords is drawn A blessed day that first was grac'd to see Christs Rising and the worlds Nativity But we have more antient Records than this appropriating the title of Lords day to our Christian Sabbath Omnes ferè sacrae Scripturae interp etes tam veteres quam Recentiores de primo dïe hebdomadis intelligunt Wallaeus dissert de 4. prae cap. 6. p 150. Ignatius who lived in St. Johns time makes it a weekly holy day of the Christians observed in the room of the Jewes Sabbath So Tertullian Atharasius Hierom Austin who not By this title we may trace it down from the Apostles times through the Ocean of the Fathers Councills Schoolmen to this present age wherein we live And to come to Scripture there seemes to be much in that which Beza observes out of an antient Greek manu-script wherein that first day of the week 1 Cor. 16.2 is expresly called the Lords day and the Syriack translation tells us * Institut Theol loc 48. de cana Dom. that the Christians meeting together to receive the Lords Supper 1 Cor. 11.20 was upon the Lords day And Bucanus saith this Sacrament is called the Lords Supper as in respect of the institutor and the end of it I had rather interpret the Lords day by the Lords Supper than as Bucan does the Lords Supper by the Lords day so also in respect of the day on which it was wont to be administ viz. The Lords day citeing that Text Acts 20.7 and hence also the antients stiled it Dies panis the day of bread because the Churches of Christ ever used to break bread on this day But to end all disputes if Scripture may be safely interpreted by Scripture and dark places by plain ones then let us expound the Lords day Rev. 1.10 by the Lords Supper 1 Cor. 11.20 Here let the reader take notice that the blessed Spirit of God who had his choice of words and never spake any thing but upon admirable reason never vouchsafed this title of honour in the new Testament but only to the Supper and the day the Lords Supper and the Lords day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Cor. 11.20 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rev. 1.10 Neither can any third Text be produced where this Epithet is applyed to any thing else Now the phrase being the same and thus singular the sense must needs be the same Look therefore in what notion the Supper is the Lords Supper in the same sense is the day stiled the Lords day The supper is the Lords because the Lord Christ instituted it yea and substituted it in the room of the Passeover and why not the day His * So Mr. Perkins in his cases of conscience because he instituted and substituted it in the room of the old Sabbath T is evidently a day of Christs institution a day of the Lords own making and with reference to his Resurrection he made it such a day of the week not such a day of the year as we proved before in a word let any other day be set up in constitution with the first day of the week for the title of Lords day and we shall easily non-suit it Our Saviours birth-day bids fair for it Obj. 1 T.T. Answ Then it must be a day of divine institution which I hope he will not say But I answer further if the day of Christs nativity or any other day besides the first day of the week had been devoted to Christ and intended by John in this place he had spoken very obscurely to say I was in the spirit on the Lords day he would rather have said I was in the spirit on one of the Lords dayes Annot. ad loc But to put this fancy to flight observe the day here dignified with this magnificet title must needs be some noted day the circumstances of time place and person are set down as Beza observes the better to conciliate credit to the truth of these heavenly visions therefore all but that of the place have an eminent badge of cognizance upon them John was a known person and the Lords day with an emphatical Article 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a well-known day doubtless he that relates to others such a thing done such a day presupposes the day sufficiently and certainly known for a doubtfull circumstance darkens a story and drawes a curtain in stead of opening a casement to give light to the matter now let us put it to the question what day was more eminently and unquestionably known in all the Churches of Christ than the first day of the week Which the Secretaries of Christ all the four Evangelists had so exactly noted and the Psalmist so prophetically extolled as a day of the Lords making St. John could not but know that these seven Churches knew the first day of the week to be Christs Resurrection-day and neither he nor they could be ignorant that Christs Resurrection-day was the day which the Lord had made and what 's that but the Lords day As for our Saviours Birth-day although it were a day of wonderful mercy yet it is left in great obscurity not one of the Evangelists marking it out by name neither can it be so clearly resolved either what day of the * Unless the adversary will grant Mr. A. that it was the first day of the week week or what day of the month or what month of the year nor hardly what year of the world our Saviour was born in but it may be matter of controversie See divers disputes about it in Dr. Willets Hexapl. on Dan. chapter 11. If John intends any single day t is most likely to be the seventh day which was antiently stiled the Lords holy day Obj. 2 Isai 57.6 and is declared by Christ to be his day Mark 2. last and no other day throughout the Gospel does he declare to be his This he and Mr. Braburn in contradiction to the whole Christian world would fain perswade us that the Lords day which St. John speaks was the old Sabbath But He may as well say that the Lords Supper which St. Paul speakes of was the old Passeover Ans
1 since that was the * Exod. 12.11 Luke 22.20 Lords Supper in the old Testament as much as the seventh day was the Lords Sabbath Christ never declared the seventh day to be the Lords day Ans 2 although he declared himself to be Lord of the Sabbath-day My meaning is that he never owned the seventh day as the Author and institutor of it in a strict Evangelical sense neither could he for it was instituted long before Heb. 4.4 therefore let it be well considered the Lords day Rev. 1.10 for this very reason cannot possibly be understood of the Jewes Sabbath because it is such a Lords day as relates peculiarly to the Lord Christ not as the Lord our Creator but the Lord our Redeemer to Christ actually exalted to be Lord over all relates to him I say as the Lords Supper does not only as his by possession but his by institution for these two and these only the Supper and the day are called the Lords in Scripture The Greek word is used but twice in all the new Testament only these two have the honour to be matcht in this glorious appellation and we must interpret the one by the other therefore if the Lords Supper be a Gospel-ordinance and institution of Jesus Christ so is the Lords day This paralel will pinch the adversary he cannot so much as pretend that the seventh day nor indeed any other day but the first of the week was instituted by Christ so as to be equalized in phrase with that pure Evangelicall ordinance the Lords Supper There is a vulgar objection abroad that every day is the Lords day therefore this Text makes as much for an every-day-every-day-Sabbath as the weekly Lords day Sabbath But the answer is easie they may as well say every Table is the Lords table and every Supper the Lords Supper and so turn levellers of dayes and duties together Well we have brought it to this issue that there is a day a speciall day under Gospel but not Jewes seventh day which the Lord Jess ha's instituted and owned above all dayes by stamping his own most blessed name upon it as upon his sacred Supper and this we are sure can be no other than the first day of the week The objector fearing belike that the former shift would faile him ha's another evasion to second it Obj. 3 namely that old thread bare Notion of Gomarus I rather think sayes he that the Lords day which S. John spake of was the Lords Judgment-day which the Lord himself calls his day Luke 17. Phil. 1.16 And so he dreams that the day on which S. John dated his Epistles to the seven Churches was the day of Judgment But This as one sayes0 is void of all judgment Answ See Mr. Ley Sund. Sab. For in the readiest construction of the words S. John spake of a day that was in being before the Vision came and so known that the Reader might take notice when it came But the day of Judgment is not yet come unless it be to such dreamers and so utterly unknown to man that our Saviour hath taught us Mat. 24.36 Mark 13.32 Of that day and hour knoweth no man no not the Angels in heaven but my Father only The prooses he alleges are impertinent for although the day of Judgment be stiled the day of the Lord appellatively yet is it never termed the Lords day denominatively as Mr. Cawdrey might have taught him if he had not thought himself too wise to learn of his betters Thus all his cloudy notions are scattered and the Lords day Rev. 1.10 discovered by evidence of Scripture and Antiquity to be the first day of the week Now as the blessed Martyr Ignatius exhorteth Let every one that loves the Lord Jesus Christ keep holy the Lords day Let the zeale of Primitive Christians herein provoke us to holy emulation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ignat. ad Magnes Plinius sub Trajano scripsit Solitos hoc stato die convenire Christianos ante lucem carmenque Christo quasi Deo Communi voce dicere postea Sacramento se obstringere ne scelus aliquid ne furta ne latrocinia ne adulteria committerent Magdeb. Cent. 2. c. 6. Even a Heathen could observe how those precious morning stars used to meet early on this day and sing Hymnes to Christ an not only to sing his praises but to celebrate his holy Supper the Lords Supper upon the Lords day doubtless binding themselves in a holy Covenant to hate and flie sin And 't is known to have been the common question put to Christians by Pagan persecuing Governours Dost thou observe the Lords day the usual answer was I am a Christian I dare not intermit it This was wont to be the distinguishing Shibboleth the cognizance of Christians in the purest times of Christinity O blessed souls because they were Christians they durst not intermit the Lords day no though they lost their dearest lives for keeping of it How ill do they deserve the Name of Christians in these dayes who make no Conscience of this day yea who have the impudence to Preach against it Write against it Work upon it as if it were a common day I remember what the holy Apostle spake in a like case to those that polluted the Lords Table using it as if it were their own table What have ye not houses of your own ot eat and drink in 1 Cor. 11.22 or despise ye the Church of God The like may I say to all prophaners of the Lords day Have ye not dayes enough of your own to work and to play in or despise ye the Lords day Is it a sin a prooking sin to use the Lords Table as if it were your own table to eat Sacramental Bread as if it were common bread and is it no sin to use the Lords day as a common day as if it were your own day Why is it not paralel in phrase with the Lords Supper Is not the Lords Name and Superscrition found upon the one as well as the other I charge thee therefore Reader in the Name of the Lord Jesus so visibly graven upo this day render to Christ the things that are Christs Be assured the Lord will not hold thee guiltless for taking his Name in vain and spending his time in vain his time I mean upon which he has stampt his noble and royal Name This is the fifth Mark or Seal of the day The Inscription of Christs glorious Name upon it 6. The sixth is The Apostles and Apostolical Churches observation of it The holy Apostles were men intimately acquainted with the Secrets of Christ being most of them trained up in his School and personally conversant with him by the space of a Acts 1.3 forty dayes between his Resurrection and Ascension as b Drut 9.11 Moses was forty dayes with god upon the Mount Besides they had immediate Inspiration and authoritative Mission from Christ himself to manage the publick affairs
of his Kingdom Our Saviour made them a kind of Letter of Atturney as one speaks to speak and act in his Name as if he himself had been personally present c John 20.21 As my Father sent me so send I you and d Luke 10.16 Non minùs ratum est quod Apostoli dictante S.S. P. tradiderunt quà m quod ipse Christus tradidit Cyprian he that heareth you heareth me Neither does this extend only to their Verbal preaching but to their visible preaching also their practice I mean at least in things Evangelical and of moral general perpetual concernment to the Churches of Christ otherwise why is their practice propounded as our Patern e Philip. 3.17 Walk as ye have us for an ensample And f Philip. 4.19 Those things which ye have seen in me do And again Be g 1 Cor. 11.2 followers of me as I am of Christ sayes the great Apostle Yea not only the Apostles themselves but the first Churches planted by them are imitable paterns to other Churches especially in things apperteining to the publick exercise of Gospel-worship h 1 Thes 2.14 we may exemplifie both together in the observation of the Lords day not once but often not by single persons only but by sundry Churches and Church-assemblies met on this day That general Assembly Acts 2.1 when they were all together with one accord we have already proved to have been upon this high and holy day and how they keep it we have seen and how God crowned it with the effusion of his holy Spirit as also the Conversion of souls is further considerable For 't is very probable that not only the three thousand Acts 2.41 but the other five thousand also Acts 4.3 were all converted upon this day of Pentencost 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Acts 3.1 notes identity of time as 2 Sam. 21.9 Deut. 25.5 and the ninth hour ch 3. hath reference to the third hour ch 2. See Dr. Lightfoots Harm in Acts. For it was but the third hour of the day or nine a Clock in the morning when the first Sermon was preached which brought in the three thousand Acts 2.15 and at the ninth hour that is about three a clock in the afternoon Peter and John went into the Temple Acts 3.1 wrought a glorious miracle preacht another powerful Sermon which gained five thousand more Ch. 4. such a Spirit of Conversion was never poured out upon any day as this Well might the Holy Ghost call it i Psalm 120.3 the day of the Lords power the adversary acknowledges it was spoken of this very day Again As this Church at Jerusalem so the Churches of Corinth and Galatia kept this day too as shall presently appear from 1 Cor. 16.2 and so the Church of Troas in Phrygia Acts 20.7 which was a neighbour Church to them of Galatia And the like may be said for the seven Churches of Asia for upon the Lords day St. John saw them all in a vision and saw Christ in the midst of them saw him as the Saints have been wont to see him in his glorious goings in the sanctuary walking amidst his golden Candlesticks Psalm 68.14 Isai 30.20 with stars in his hand that is Gospel-Ministers shining like stars in the Firmament of the Church and diffusing the light of the glorious Gospel in the actual exercise of their Ministry on this day especially Yea upon this day John himself was ravished in spirit which made the place of his exile like Pauls third Heaven to him now I demand how this could come to pass that so many several Churches as the Church at Jerusalem Corinth Galatia Troas Ephesus Thyatira and the rest many of which were at a great distance one from another should so unanimously consent and concurr in keeping this day if the Apostles by the authority of Christ had not setled it as an Ordinance in all Christian Churches Let any rational man tell me how all these Apostolical Churches should so early and in the beginning of their plantation consent together to keep the same day unless they had been directed by their first founders the holy Apostles themselves Add to this the joint and uniform practice of all Christian Churches in all succeeding ages since and he ha's hardly the faith of a Christian if the reason of a man that dares so much as question the divine authority of the Lords day for whence came this universal agreement all the Christian world over that all the Churches of Christ should so early so * Even Herericks themselves and such as were for the Jewes Sabbath as Ebion and his followers did alwayes observe the Lords day also Euseb lib. 3. and so do the Ethiorick Churches to this day as Dr. Heiten testifies universally so constantly observe this day not one Church ever attempting to alter it but from some authority superior to the Churches themselves Certainly such customes as were never ordained by Christ or his Apostles were never observed by all Christian Churches throughout the world as the Lords day hath been Such unity of custom in universality of place with perpetuity of practice all meeting together in that which ha's some footing in Scripture must needs argue a divine institution yea if there had been no express Scripture testimony of the Apostles practice and observation of it as our Divines do solidly argue for the baptisme of infants although there be no express precept nor express example of it found in Scripture yet the grounds and reasons of it being found in Scripture with the general practice of the Church concurring we dare not but own it and maintain it How much more the Lords day yea if there had been neither precept nor practice of it in Scripture as long as the grounds of it are laid in Scripture namely a Moral law for the substance of it as one day in seven and a prophesie for the particularity of the Church without any contradiction till these last disputing dayes wherein men are grown so bold as to deny principles I do the rather instance this because I have to deal with an Anabaptist who confidently calls the baptiseing of grown persons * Let him shew me one Scripture for that if he can either precept or president for the baptiseing of such at years of diferetion as were born of Christian parents To tell us of the Apostles baptiseing men and women is no newes but were they such men and such women as are plunged now adaies no verily they were not born of baptized Christian parents as blessed be God we are born of Christian parents a flourishing truth after it ha's been convicted and condemned by the learnedest pens in Christendom for a foolish error But to come to that I aim at let me advise this man in coole blood to ask his own conscience this question namely whether or no if he could find in Scripture expresse Apostolical practice consequential proof satisfies me and others for
first day of the week here the practice being Evangelical the consequence is the more Logical But to the objection is nothing to be esteemed of divine institution and so of obligation to conscience but what ha's a clear command in Scripture Mat. 21.25 26. with verse 32. Mark 11.30 31. Luke 20.5 6. what then will he say to Sacrificing before the Law Where do we find any Commandment to sacrifice before we find Abel sacrificing Or to look to the Gospel in the first dawning of it What express command was there for the baptism of John Yet the poore Publicans and the people generally held it to be from Heaven although the cheif Priests and Elders beleeved him not because they held John as a Prophet yet which is remarkable they had no precept but only Johns practice to warrant it and which is yet more remarkable our blessed Saviour approves this their belief of John and his baptism and condemns those that rejected it as a human institution In like manner we may safely imitate those contemned Publicans in beleeving the Lords day to be from Heaven by divine institution and not of men by human ordination suffering Pauls practice as an Apostle to over-rule us herein See Mr. Abbot p. 66. Math. 11.11 as John Baptist as a Prophet did them the least Apostle of Christ being greater than John the Baptist and in so doing we need not question Christs approbation Express precept indeed we have none in the new Testament but that which is better than a precept sayes Dr. T wiss viz. the practice of the Apostles and Churches For had the Apostles commanded it and the Churches not practised it their Commandment had been obnoxious to various interpretations whereas their establishing it de facto in practice among the Churches is less liable to contradiction if men were not given up to a Spirit of contradiction Yet this must be added and cannot well be denyed Divino Spiritu agebantur Apostoli non minus in sacris institutionibus quà m in ipsa Doctrinâ Evangelij Ames Medul p. 359. Acts 1.2 so the Prophets were commanded Zech. 1.6 Joh. 10.22 that the Apostles and Apostolical Churches practice other arguments concurring supposes and argues that there was a command although there be no specification of it in Scripture for the Apostles did nothing in ordering the Church but from and by Christ either by precept or example or divine inspiration and their very inspiration was virtually preceptive For 't is said That through the Holy Ghost Christ gave Commandments to his Apostles whom he had chosen That is he gave them Commandments by inspiring and breathing the Holy Ghost upon them which was upon the day of his Resurrection Yea 't is more than probable that they had a special warrant from Christ in express charge concerning the celebration of this day For Acts 1.3 of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God Christ spake unto them namely by way of Commandment after his Resurrection but the Lords day and the worship therein performed as it was in the Apostles dayes and ever since is one of those things which appertain to the kingdom of God therefore of this Christ spake by way of Commandment to his Apostles If it be said that the Lords day is not there expressed I answer no more are any other of those particulars appertaining to the kingdom of God which he spake See Mr. Bernard of the Christian Sab. p. 134. therefore it cannot be excluded till it can be proved that the keeping of this day to the honour of Christ is none of the things which pertain to the kingdom of God Again The Commandments Acts 1.2 are such as Christ would have his disciples teach his people to observe Math. 28.18 20. now we find the Churches of Christ observing this day Acts 20.7 1 Cor. 16.2 and the Apostle observing it with them yea prescribing duties to them on this day 1 Cor. 5.4 11 20. which was on the Lords day according to the Syriack but 1 Cor. 16.1 2. is express and the Apostle telleth the Corinthians 1 Cor. 14.37 That the things he wrote unto them were the Commandments of God therefore the practice of the Apostles and Churches planted by them implies a command Yea All Scripture-examples in moral or religious actions fall under the Government of the Ten Commandments Answ 3 Now the fourth Commandment having the government of time for weekly solemn worship and the Apostle Paul tarrying a whole week at Troas and observing the first day of the week only for solemn worship it cannot be imagined but this observance was in obedience to the fourth Commandment and so of the exigency of the Apostles Commission not of the Liberty consequently it is the Saints duty not their liberty The remainders of the Objection about community of goods and Love-Feasts are meer impertinencies to plead for these in the peace settlement of the Church is to put a plea in the mouths of Levellers Libertines and Epicures Community of goods was never the Saints Liberty but in the Church's a Act. 4.34 35 36 37 compared with Act. 8.3 4. extreme poverty and persecution and then it was rather duty than liberty and if ever the Church of God should be in the like state of extremity she is bound to follow that Original Copy but this can hardly be supposed And as for Love-feasts I suppose the Author is to seek for Apostolical president to warrant them whatever he sayes 'T is true they were practised in the Apostles times but never approved nay they were sharply b 1 Cor. 11.21 Jude ver 12. reproved as also the Jewes Sabbath and observation of other Legal days were Gal. 4.10 Thus we have made good the sixth Mark for the Lords day namely the Apostles and Apostolical Churches observation of it 7. Seventhly and lastly we shall adde this to all the rest The Apostles Prescription about it Et quae non prosunt singula juncta juvant Though either or these particulars singly considered may be thought too weak yet I am assured that all of them jointly combined will be too strong for the gates of hell to prevaile against this last will adde some strength to all the rest I shall ground it upon that noted Text 1 Cor. 16.1 2. Now concerning the Collection for the Saints as I have given order to the Churches of Galatia even so do ye Vpon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store as God hath prospered him that there be no gatherings when I come Here we have to observe 1. An Apostolical Ordinance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As I have ordained so do ye He does not counsel them to do it but commands them and by his power Apostolical he enjoyns them to do it and if Paul ordained it certainly he had it from Christ for he tells them 1 Cor. 11.23 That what he delivered to them he received from the
Lord and the things that he wrote to them were the Commandments of the Lord 1 Cor. 14.37 2. The thing enacted by this Ordinance and that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 collecta See Dr. Day his Sermons on this Text. Collection for the Saints The word seems to be a metaphor taken from gathering of fruits or gleanings in harvest or rather as Beza notes from gathering of a shot at a banquet or friendly meeting as men invited to a Feast or Banquet use to make a purse and cast in every one his shot to gratifie the poor servants that belong to the house So the Apostle requires these Corinthians when they meet together at the Feast of the Gospel especially that heavenly Banquet of the Lords Supper the Feast of the great King that then they cast in something to make a purse for the poor servants of Christ in testimony of their thankfulness to the Master of the Feast This some take to be the sense of the word it signifies such a Collection or Contribution as men use to make when they meet at a Feast and it suites well with the next Particular 3. The time stated for such Collection The first day of the work Diem caetus designat P. Matt. ad loc Tum solitos fuisse convenire apparet Act. 20 7. Beza the day designed for their solemn Assemblies and that solemn Ordinance of the Lords Supper as was proved before Acts 20.7 Hence in Justin Martyr's time and ever since the Churches of Christ have walked according to this rule annexing their charitable contributions to the celebration of the Lords Supper But still the great Question is unresolved will some say namely Why the Apostle should limit this duty or work of mercy to the first day of the week Some answer it thus The Apostle therefore mentions the day S. M. Cawdrey because there is a special motive in it to stir up their charity being a day wherein they had received such inestimable bounties from the hands of God as the resurrection of our Saviour Jesus Christ and the like Now I confesse there is much weight in this answer 'T is the fittest time to expresse our thankfulnesse to God wherein we commemorate his greatest loving kindness to us Chrysostom is very clear in his Commentary upon this Scripture Vpon the first day of the week let every one lay by him in store 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost Orat. 43. in 1 Cor. 11. c. See how he exhorts from the very time sayes he for that very day were sufficient to induce them to charity for call to mind saith he what you got on that day for unutterable good things even the root and rise of our life arose on that day Nor in that respect only is the time proper to quicken charity but because it hath rest also and relaxation from labour or abruption of business for the soul being discharged from labors becomes in a better frame and preparation to take pity and more than all this the communicating on this day in the Sacraments so dreadful and immortal puts the mind in great forwardness c. This exposition of Chrysostoms as it may deservedly challenge respect for the antiquity of it being above twelve hundred years old so much more for the truth of it being so agreeable to the Text it self For observe it well 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ibid. First He calls the first day of the week Christs Resurrection day and a little before the Lords day Secondly He concludes it was a Sabbath day or day of rest from labor and worki-day business And to my apprehension this is clearly imployed in the Text. For upon this day the Apostle would have them contribute to the poor members of Christ as God had prospered them to wit in the six foregoing work-dayes which argues a recollection and thankfull calling to mind the blessing of God upon their week-day labours and what can be more Sabbath like Besides the Greek word is emphatical as God hath prospered so we read it but it may be rendred thus as God hath given a good journey or a good voyage plainly intimating that upon every first day of the week they had rest and respit from their worldly imployments 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 1.10 something like that of a travellour at his journey's end or a mariner when his voyage is over and he 's at rest in his harbour Thirdly He counts the first day of the week their Sacrament-day as indeed it was and the collection here injoined speaks as much And doubtless this was a powerfull argument to prompt them to liberality It were sordid ingratitude to spare a penny from the poor when a man considers that God hath not spared the precious blood of his Son Besides all this the first day of the week was the day of their solemn assemblies for prayer preaching prophesying singing of Psalms and other religious exercises all which were as fire to kindle their compassions towards their distressed brethren every word of God every Sermon every prayer every Psalm that was sung might add some fuel to that Heavenly flame of their brotherly love and Charity and for these causes the Apostle chose that time as the most select and choice opportunity to put them upon the practice of that duty But here we are way-laid with Objections If any can discern the Sts. assembling 1 Cor. 16. it must be by some other light than Gods word Obj. 1 T. T. I hope he will grant this text to be Gods word Answ and then if he have but eyes here is light enough For let him look upon the words once again What does Paul prescribe here Collections or contibutions to the poor Saints But who must contribute every one how must they contribute by way of casting into the common treasury so much the * Bucan concludes from hence that the Apostle gave order there should be commune aerarium a common treasury in the Church Loc. 42. de Ministerio word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 implies verse 2. and why so That there might be no gatherings when Paul came Which there must needs have been if every man had kept his contribution at home in his own Coffer So that it must be both a general and a publick contribution Therefore it must be in a publick congregation And why all this upon the first day of the week Why not upon some other day but to mark out this day above others for the weekly season of solemn assemblies as also to move them by the day to the duty What need there any mention of the first day of the week if they had not held their meetings on that day and if there had not been some special argument in the day to perswade them to the duty Paul does not enjoin them to lay it before the Deacons Obj. 2 but let every one of you lay by himself in store as God hath prospered him That is
at his own house in the poores box c. At his own house Answ How then could it be avoided but there must have been gatherings at Pauls coming Which the Text forbiddeth The Apostles care was to have their collections ready i. e. in a publick stock or bank against his coming lest haply they of Macedonid coming along with him to whom it seems he had boasted of the Corinthians forwardness should find them unprepared * 2 Cor. 9.3 4. and so both he and they should be ashamed of his boasting That phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is translated by himself may as well be rendred of himself that is Answ 2 sponte sua of his own accord And so Musculus interprets it when t is said Puta illud in Graco 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non esse positum pro apud se seponat sed hoc sensu quisque vestrûm suapta sponte i. e. in caetu sacro thesaurizans cui proposito nonsatisfecisset si quisque aqud se domi reposuisset etjusmodi namque reposita tum demum collidenda essent cum ipse ad eos venisset quod vitari volehat Wolph Museul ad Loe. let every one lay by treasuring up in store t is not meant let every one lay by himself apart and privately but at your publick meetings casting it into the publick treasury of the Church and that freely of his own good will That there may be no gatherings when I come whereas if every one had laid by in private onely at his own house there would have been need of gatherings at his coming the thing which he takes special care to prevent it seems the Apostle came but seldom and could not tarry long when he came for he had the care of all the Churches upon him especially the Gentiles the world through 2 Cor. 11.28 His work was to gather and govern Churches he must not therefore spend his time in gathering moneyes or going from house to house to call for every mans weekly contribution this had been a leaving the word of God to serve tables as the other Apostles said in a like case Acts 6.2 The survey the Apostle exhorts every man to take of his own estate that he might give thereafter Obj. 3 does notably overthrow the conceit of a first-day-Sabbath for he orders every man to lay by in store as God hath prospered him that is according as his yearly revenue increaseth or his weekly trade proves more or lesse gainful If the first day had been a Sabbath the Apostle knowing the proneness of our nature to mind earthly things would never have put them upon the consideration of their outward estates That the first day of the week is a Sabbath Ans 1 or day of rest is no conceit but a Scripture-truth as it shall ere long appear to the shame of such reviling adversaries 2. That upon this day they must take a survey of their estates because they must give according to their estates and incomes is a conceit indeed there is no colour of consequence in it for I hope they might take their survey on the Saturday night no necessity of deferring it to the Lords day Suppose a Minister of Christ should urge this Apostolical ordinance still as I am informed Mr. White of Dorchester did pressing his people to contribute and lay up something in a common stock every first day of the week for the releif of the poore and that according as God should blesse and prosper them in their callings the week before Does it follow that therefore when the people are assembled together on the Lords day they must make the Church their Counting-house or before they come there turn over their shop-bookes in stead of their Bibles What a ridiculous inference were this Good huâ—â—ands I should think would end the week and their work together good Christians to be sure will do so and not make the Lords day their counting-counting-day a recounting-recounting-day indeed they may and must make it to recount the blessings of providence in a way of praise and thankfulness and this is a sabbath-Sabbath-day duty as appeares by that * Psalm 92. Psalm for the Sabbath But further to dash this dream of the adversary let him consider that in effect as much is * Ez. 46.5 6. said of the Sabbath in the old Testament as here of the Lords day and it may be t is meant of the Lords day-day-Sabbath T is further objected That Pauls Epistle was read in these Churches on the sabbath-Sabbath-day Saturday he means and then the Apostle exhorted them to Charity and would have it to be their first work the next day while the sweet sense of the Epistle was upon their Spirits c. But This is frivolous For Gal. 4.10 The Apostle had utterly condemned the Saturday-Sabbath among the rest of those legal dayes and that he should build again the things he had destroyed we are not so much as to suppose Now take the sum of all On the first day of the week our Saviour was raised from the dead on this day he often appeared after his resurrection sent his holy Spirit on this day after his ascension and stampt his own blessed name upon it on this day the Saints assembled the Apostles preached the Sacraments were administred Charities Collected and concerning this day the Holy Prophets prophecyed what day was ever markt out with more shining and illustrious Characters The Best Antiquity for the Change of the day TO this Scripture-evidence for the change of the day we shall now add something by way of Testimony from the Records of Antiquity I may truly say 't is the glory of this truth that besides Scripture authority it ha's the most luculent Testimony in the writings of the Antients of any paralel-truth controverted in these disputeing times we may trace it all along from age to age ever since the Apostles times and with much contentment behold how providentially it hath pleased the Lord to guide the pens of his faithfull Martyrs and Ministers in their witness-bearing to this sacred truth especially in the first five hundred yeares after Christ wherein we shall find enough to silence the vain glorious vapourings of the adversary who affirms That the spotless spouse of Christ in her primitive purity and while she was decked with the Diadem of infallibility T. T. p. 62. and 106. namely during the first three Centuries did constantly observe both the seventh day and the first day of the week yea for the first 400. years if he may be beleeved By the way let the reader take notice of two considerable grants here First That the Church was decked with the Diadem of infallibility as he calls it for the first three hundred years Secondly That the Lords day was constantly observed during this state of the Church's infabllility For both dayes were observed saies he The Lords day was indeed besides his bare word I will bring sufficient witness for it But the Jewes Sabbath was
not at least not as a Sabbath nor with equal solemnity as the Lords day nor as of necessity so it was ever condemned and the Lords day was ever preferred before it if not observed without it in the purest Churches for the first two hundred years after Christ to say no more Let us examin witnesses in order as they come First Ignatius Let us hear what Ignatius saies who lived some thirty years in the Apostles times and in his Epistle to the Magnesians in the Vulgar Edition is brought in speaking to this purpose * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let us therefore no longer keep the Jewish Sabbath as rejoicing in idleness for it is written He that will not labour let him not eat and in the sweat of thy browes shalt thou eat thy bread But let every of us keep Sabbath spiritually not in bodily ease but in the meditation of the Law not eating meat drest yesterday or drinking luke-warm drinks or walking out a limited space nor in dancings and sensless sportings but in admiration of the workes of God And setting aside the Sabbath let every one that loves Christ keep holy the Lords day the Queen of days the Resurrection day the highest of all dayes I do the rather insert this Testimony though Dr. Vsher except against this Edition of Ignatius his Epistles because T. T. cites it also for the saturday-Saturday-Sabbath only he mangles and misinterprets it dealing with Ignatius as men use to deal with Mag-pyes slitting their tongues to make them speak what they would have them Just thus he deals with this renowned father severing the last clause from the rest of the sentence and singling out a little piece of it to serve his own turn for he insists only upon the last branch and mistranslates it too his words are these Next after the Sabbath-day let every friend of Christ make the Lords day a Solemn festivall As if Ignatius had preferred the Jewes Sabbath before the Lords day but by his favour this clashes with the context for in the foregoing words Christians are counselled no longer to keep the Jewes Sabbath but to work upon it for it is written He that will not labour let him not eat Whereas on the contrary all that love Christ are charged to keep the Lords day a solemn Festival Exam. Concil Trid. de dieb Fest p. 257. being the Queen and princess of dayes Besides these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are well rendred by setting aside the Sabbath So learned Chemnitius and others translate them If any desire further satisfaction I referr them to judicious Mr. Cawdrey who ha's dexterously discuss'd this Testimony The more * Approved by Dr. Twiss after it had been compared with a latin translation found in Caius Col. library in Cambrig and two other Manuscripts in Oxon the one in Magdal the other in Balliot Coll. Library correct copy of Ignatius ' Epistle to the Magnesians presented by Dr. Vsher as agreeable to the citations of Eusebius Athanasius and Theodoret ha's this material and remarkable passage in it The Blessed Martyr speaking of the Jewes converted to the Faith of Christ in his dayes gives this most Christian Character of them * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ad Magnesian That they did no longer keep the Sabbath but led their life according to the Lords day in which our life arose in which words First He expounds what St. John meant by the Lords day Rev. 1.10 namely the day of our Saviours Resurrection and that not as an anniversary but a weekly holy-day contradistinct to the Jewes Sabbath Seconly He acquaints us with the practice of the Church in those Apostolick times which was to observe the Lords day in stead of the old Sabbath If the converted Jewes did thus how much more the Christian Gentiles Therefore blessed Ignatius his preface to this discourse shall be my conclusion by way of caution to my Christian brethren a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Idem Suffer not your selves to be carried about with diverse and strange doctrines for if we shall still live according to the Jewish Law we deny that we have received grace And a litle after b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. ibid. Since we are become the disciples of Christ let us learn to live according to Christianity For it is absurd to profess Christ and Judaize For Christianity ha's not beleeved into Judaism but Judaism into Christianity As for Ignatius's Epistle to the Philippians which the adversary glories it is rejected as spurious and counterfeit and indeed there is nothing of an Apostolical spirit breathing in it See Mr. Perkins Praep. to the dem of the problem Our next witness is Justin Martyr who lived in the very prime of the primitive times about a hundred and fifty years after Christ's Nativity Justin Martyr at * Vide Alfied Chron. Patr. p. 450. what time he wrote a learned Apology for the poor persecuted Christians to Antoninus pius the Emperour wherein among other things he mentions the manner of their publick meetings on the Lords day which he calls Sunday because he had to do with a Pagan Emperour his words are these Vpon the day called Sunday 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Apol 2. ad Cal◠all that abide within the cities or the villages do meet together in some place where the Records of the Apostles and the writings of the Prophets as much as is appointed are read unto us The reader having done the Priest or President ministreth a word of Exhortation that we do imitate those good things which are there rehearsed then standing up together we send up our prayers to Heaven which being ended there is delivered unto us bread and wine with water Water to mingle with their Wine in those hot countries of which as he sayes a little before none are allowed to partake but baptized persons Beleevers and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such as live according to the rule of Christ After this the Priest or President offers up as much as in him is our prayers and thanksgivings to God and all the people say Amen then those of the richer sort every one as his good will is contribute something towards the relief of the poorer Brethren c. What an excellent pattern is here for after-ages and how agreeable to the practice of the Apostles themselves here we have publike assemblies prayer preaching reading the Scriptures breaking of Bread distributing to the poor and all this upon the day called Sunday that is the Lords day and why upon this day rather than any other let Justin himself resolve this as he doth in the next words * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ib. On the Sunday saies he we all make a publike Assembly in as much as it is the first day in which God who changed the darkness and the first matter made the world and because on this day Jesus Christ our Saviour arose from
the dead For on the day before Saturday they crucified him and on the day following Saturday which is Sunday appearing to his Apostles and Disciples he taught these things Here we have both the Doctrine and practice of the Lord's day in the purest times attested by this holy Man and Martyr First he informs us how they kept the day and secondly why they kept it namely because it was the first day Christs Resur rection-rection-day and the day of his apparition to his Disciples whom he taught and instructed so to do it seems the holy Martyrs in the Primitive times were satisfied with these Scripture-Arguments for the Lords day which now the wrangling wits and lusts of men do nothing but storm against But here it may be objected t is true here is plain and positive testimony for the observation of the Lords day but here is nothing for the Negative nothing against the old Sabbath Why mightn ot both dayes be kept in Justin Martyrs time does he ever deny that the Churches of Christ then kept the Saturday-Sabbath I answer yes his Testimony is as full against the Jews Sabbath as for the Lords day witness his Dialogue or dispute with Trypho that obstinate Jew I shall recite a few passages of it verypregnant to this purpose Trypho's grand Objection was this a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 175. num 30. That the Christians did neither observe the Festival days nor Sabbaths nor Circumcision and mereover that they placed their hope in a crucified man Now see how the blessed Martyr answers him partly by granting his Objection For he tels him b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 182. n. 10. we also should verily observe your Circumcision and Sabbaths and all your Festival dayes did we not know the reason for which these things were imposed upon you And again c 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If saies he we patiently endure the most horrible torments that men and divels can devise to inflict upon us why is it that we do not also observe your carnal Circumcision and Sabbaths and Holydays which hurt us not In which words he freely grants that the Christians in his time did not observe the Jews Sabbath and although the Jews condemned them for it yet he justifies them in it and uses many Arguments to vindicate their non-observance of it As 1. Because since the coming of Christ there is no need of it no need of the shadow when the substance is come yea there is no place left for it 't is done away by Christ for in this sense I take it the Father here speaks that d 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Sabbath together with Sacrifices Oblations and Festival dayes began with Moses he means I suppose in the second Edition not the first Institution of them so they were appointed by the Council of God the Father to cease and end with Christ Where by the way observe he useth the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the singular number to shew that it was the old seventh day Sabbath which he chiefly contested against and indeed this was the string that Trypho chiefly harp't upon perswading Justin and his fellow Christians thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 first to be circumcised then to keep the Sabbath and so he might obtain mercy still it must be restrained to the Jewish Saturday-Sabbath matcht with Circumcision and orher Legal Ordinances the Christian Sabbath is not the subject of this dispute this then is his first Argument the Christians neither did nor could observe that old Sabbath because it ended with Christ And 2. e 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 187. Because now there is a new Covenant and a new Law gone out of Zion 3. f 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 118. Because the beleeving Gentiles may attain Gods heavenly inheritance without the observation of it After the proposeal of these and sundry other Arguments Trypho moves a Captious Query viz. whether if a man that knew Christ and beleeved in him still observed these legal customes he could be saved To which our zealous and pious Martyr returns this Christable yet for midable answer g 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In my Judgment O Tripho such a one shall or may be saved provided he do not industriously labour to perswade others especially those among the Gentiles that are converted to Christ to observe the same things with himself telling them that otherwise they cannot be saved For such it seems he had but little Charity Now to sum up all however the opinion and judgment of this antient and eminent Father may be despised by scorners Yet I hope his Testimony will be embraced by all soberminded Christians And this we have both fully and faithfully transcribed The conclusion is this that the Churches of Christ in Justin Martyr's time had renounced the Saturday-Sabbath and celebrated the Sunday or Lords day for the day of weekly solemn worship and this was long before Anti-Christ came to his throne Which I the rather note as a seasonable check to that blasphemous sacrilegious position of the adversary viz. that the change of the Sabbath was an invention of Anti-Christ Oh impudence Was Justin Martyr who shed his blood for Christ a limb of Anti-Christ Did he plead for Baal in asserting the observation of the Lords day and rejection of the Jewes Sabbath by all the Churches of Christ Were the precious Saints and glorious Martyrs in those early dayes devoted to the inventions of Anti-Christ Yea in those bloody dayes when for Christs sake they were killed all the day long and led like sheep to the slaughter Yea in those extraordinary apostolical dayes while the Spirit of prophecy was yet breathing and the power of miracles yet working in the Churches of Christ witness Justin Martyr himself who testifies h 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dial. cum Trypho 191. See Mr. Baxter Spirits witness to the truth of Christianity p. 21. That even in his time the Divels did tremble at the name of Christ and that being adjured by that sacred name they became subject unto them Yea for some years after t his for Tertullian and after him Cyprian made publick challenges to the Pagan persecuting rulers to bring their possessed with Divels into the Christian assemblies and if they did not cast them out and make them confess themselves to be Divels and Christ to be the Son of God they were content to suffer Which may conciliate credit to the testimony at least of these renowned antients well the change of the Sabbath is confirmed by the practice of the Church in Justin Martyrs time And now we are upon the year of our Lord 160. Dionysius 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Euseb l. 4. c. 22. or thereabout And here we meet with another testimony Of Dionysius Bishop of Corinth who in an Epistle of his Soter Bishop of Rome writes thus we have spent or passed through to the end of it the Lords day to day an holy day Now to spend the Lords day throughout an holy day is not to spend any part of it in servilework but to sanctifie it as a Sabbath But
venerable and solemn because thereon our Saviour as the rising Sun having dispellea the darkness of death shone forth by the light of his resurrection And elswhere t Dies Sabbati evat dierum Ordine posterior sanctificatione legis anierior sea ubi finis legis advenit qui est Christus Jesus Rom. 10.4 resurrectione sua octavam sanctificavit caepit eadem prima esse quae octava est habens ex numeriordine praerogativam ex resurrectione Domini sanctitatem The Sabbath day was the last in order of dayes but the first in sanctification under the Law but when the end of the Law was come to wit Jesus Christ Rom. 10.4 and by his Resurrection had consecrated the eighth day that which is the eighth began to be the first being dignified by the precedency of the number and sanctified by the Resurrection of the Lord. Then speaking further by way of allusion to Luke 6. he addes u Vbi Dies Dominica â—aepit praecellere qua Dominus Resurrexerit Sabbatum quod primum erat secundum haberi caepit a primo prima enim requies Cessavit secunda successit unde ad Hebr. scribens Apostolus ait post hac die restat ergo requies populo Deim requies ergo vera non in operis cessatione sed in Kesurrectionis est tempore Ambr. Enar. in Tit. Psalm 47. When the Lords day on which our Lord arose began to excel the Sabbath which was the first began to be accounted the Second from the first For the first rest ceased and the second succeeded Whence the Apostle writing to the Hebrewes Ch. 4. speaks of another day there remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God Therefore the true rest is not now in the cessation of the work meaning the work of Creation but in the time of the Resurrection 'T is as much as if he had said the true Sabbath is not now the seventh day or last day of the week but the first day of the week this is that other day mentioned Heb. 4. this is the rest or Sabbatism that remaineth to the people of God I do the rather cite these sayings of the two worthy Father Ambrose because T.T. quotes him also for the Saturday-Sabbath which he was a zealous disputer against And although he preacht on that day it was but in preparation to the Lords day Hierom 10. Anno 385. Hierom is the next writer of note and eminency in the Church of God and he also speaks very honourably of the of the Lords day In his book against Vigilantius (w) Per unam Sabbati hoc est in die Dominico omnes conferre quae Hierosolymam in solatium dirigerentur praecipit Paulus Item ad Hedib quaestio 4. the Apostle Paul saith he commanded almost all Churches that there should be collections for the poor upon the first day of the week which is the Lords day And elsewhere he informs us how it was observed by the religious in his time x Dominicos dies orationi tantum lectioni vacant Ad Eustoch namely That they designed the Lords day wholly unto prayer and reading of the holy Scriptures For which he commends them and by commending approves their practice But of observing the Jewes Sabbath he speaks not a word only he interprets Gal. 4.10 as a repeal of the Saturday Sabbath and so does Tertullian also Libr. 1. Contr. Marc. Ch. 20. After Hierom comes Chrysostom Chrysostom 11. Anno 398. a painful and powerful preacher in his time and her how he thunders against Judaizing Christians y 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I will close my Sermon saies he with the words of Moses I call heaven and earth to witness against you that if any of us present or those that are absent shall go to look upon the Trumpets or meet in the Synagogues or go up to Matrona a Synagogue of the Jewes two or three miles from Antiochia in Daphne a pleasant village as himself describes it elswhere or joy in their Fasts or partake of their Sabbaths or perform any other Jewish custom great or small I am clear from the blood of you all these words shall stand up in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ between me and you and if you obey they shall give you great boldness but if you disobey or conceal any of them that presume to commit such like things they shall rife up as vehement witnesses against you c. See how zealous this holy man was against Jewish rites and customes and amongst the rest against their Sabbaths Neither was it blind zeal but zeal according to knowledge for he knew and ha's told us z 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That Paul perswaded the Churches of Christ to leave off Circumcision to slight the Sabbaths and dayes legal dayes he means and all other ceremonials And again a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Christ ha's freed us from these Jewish observances neither was his practice in these things intended for ouru pattern for as he kept the passeover with the Jewes not that we should keep it with them but that he might introduce the truth in stead of the shadow in like manner he also endured Circumcision and observed Sabbaths and celebrated their Festivals and did all these things at Jerusalem but to none of these are we subject Yet lest we should think Chrysostom an enemy to the Christian as well as the Jewes Sabbath consider what he sayes in another place treating of almes where he occasionally touches that Text 1 Cor. 16.1 2. concerning the collection for the Saints on the first day of the week and asks this question what reason the Apostle had to command this day for the oblation of their alms And answers it thus b Hom. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Item 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ubi supre Because this day they did abstain from all workes and the Soul was more cheerful by the rest of the day besides the good things received this day for on this day death was destroyed the curse was dissolved sin vanquished the gates of Hell broken in peices therefore saies he if we so honour our Birth-dayes how much more ought we to honour this day which may well be called the Birth-day of all Mankind and how often does this Father call the First day of the week the c 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In John 20. 1 Cor. 16.2 Lords day a royal day a day of rest and the like so others extol it Ignatius calls it the Queen of days the first day of the week and the first day of the world as truly the chiefest as it is undoubtedly the first of dayes saies Eusebius a most Holy day sayes Athanasius higher than the highest saith Nazianzen So sincerely were the Antients devoted to the solemnity of this day that in honour of Christ the Author of it they thought they could never sufficiently grace and garnish it
with titles of preheminence To perfect this Catalogue Let us take in the Testimony of that renowned Austin yea his judgement too Augustine 12. 't is worth the while to take a view of each his testimony touching the Lords day is plain d Vos in dic quem dicunt Solis solem colitis ficut autem nos cundem diom Dominicum dicimus in eo quòd non solem sed Resurrectionem Domini veneramur Contra Faust Manich. lib. 18. cap. 5. You saith he speaking to the Manichees on the day called Sunday worship the Sun but we call the same day the Lords day because therein we honour not the Sun but the Lords Resurrection and how sound his judgement was in the Doctrine of the Christian Sabbath appears by that which he speaks of the divine Authority of it he assigns this as the reason why it is called the Lords day c Per Christum Factus est Dies Dominicus Ep. 86. because as it is in the Psalm the Lord hath made it and it was made the Lords day by Christ Jesus the Lord And that upon the occasion of his Resurrection as he telleth us twice over f Dies Dominicus Christi Resurrectione sacratus est De Cir. Dei Ep. 119. ad Januar The Lords day was consecrated saies he by the Lords Resurrection and concerning the Jews Sabbath he is as plain and peremptory quisque illus diem observat tanquam litera sonat carnaliter sapit who ever keeps that day as the letter soundeth he savoureth of the flesh And again Christs doctrine is the same with Moses's concerning the Sabbath but the time or day is different It were easie if it were not needless to add any more here is a complete Jury already yet let it not be thought superfluous if one Witness more be called in Eusebius by name Eusebius 13. whose Testimony concerning the universal observation of the Lords day all the Christian world over is worthy to be filed We have it towards the end of his Oration of the praises of Constantine where magnifying Christ above all the gods and grandees of the Heathens he speaks thus g 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Who of all the gods or Heroes of the Gentiles hath prescribed to all the Inhabitants of the world by sea and land that coming together into one place every week they should celebrate as Festival the Lords day and appointed that as they feed their bodies with food so they should refresh their soules with divine instruction Thus he testifies the Observation of the Lords day all the world over and that by theh appointment of Christ But does he not also tell us of some as the Ebionites who had a religious esteem of the saturday-Saturday-Sabbath still and accordingly kept both days Yes but he writes them down in the black Book among the Hereticks of that age and so does Epiphanius too Haeres 30. Let us a little attend Eusebius in his Historical description of these Hereticks he observes that their name was given them from the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies poor Lib 3. c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because of the poverty of their understandings h 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the men being very silly and their Heresie very senceless for they did saith he entertain very mean and poor thoughts and opinions of Christ holding that he was but a meer i 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and a common man Observe it well The high opinion they had of the Saturday-Sabbath was founded upon a low opinion of Jesus Christ I wish the new Ebionites of this age do not still build upon the same foundation Could men but see the Godhead and glory of Christ through the veil of his flesh me thinks the change of the Sabbath should be no such paradox to them especially to such as have felt his divine power in the change of their hearts But to close all let us briefly examine the opposite authorities produced in favour of this Ebionitish errour The first is Clemens Romanus or he that writ the constitutions called Apostolicall who is thus presented in great pomp by our Antagonist That blessed Clement saies he whose name is written in the book of life that elect vessel speaks thus Let us keep holy the Sabbath in memory of the Creation and the Lords day in memory of Christs Resurrection lib. 7. c. 24. Answ 1 The Author of those Constitutions was not that blessed Clement mentioned by Paul but some bastard Clement of a later extraction as our learned Dr. Fulk tells the Remish Annotators 'T is true the Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians is generally repoted the Legitimate issue of that elect vessel But let not this Author be angry if I let the reader see his Legal-demain in ascribing the book of Constitutions to the same Clement which none but Papists do our * Vide Chmenis de lectione patrum Perkins to Demont Praep. of the ptobl Protestant writers I am sure are of another mind 'T is a pitifull forlorn cause that flies so often for sanctuary to the Bulwarks of Popery But If he will needs build upon the authority of these constitutions let him take what followes in the same book Answ 2 Hebdomas una est insignis annus septimus mensis septimus Sabbatum c. iis omnibus praestat Dies Dominious Const lib. 7 c. 36. and much good may it do him Por ch 36. this elect vessel as he calls him prefers the Lords day before the Jewes Sabbath and all other Jewish Festivities whatsoever and herein he concurred with the rest of the antients whereas his Doctrine about the seventh day was but one Doctors opinion The next Testimony objected against us is that of Eusebius who reports a decree of Constantine the Emperour to establish the Lords day as the great holy-day Obj. 2 which the objector calls a presumptuous decree Year Anti-Christ prevailed with Constamine as he would make silly people beleive to change the Sabbath time into the first day Page 113. The Lord rebuke thee thou false tongue Answ That the day was changed by a greater than Constantine even Christ himself and his holy Apostles we have I think made good by Scripture-Argument and that this change was visible in the Church's practice long before Constuntine was born we have manifestly proved by the testimony of the most antient Fathers and eminent Martyrs What if the renowned Emperour Constantine made a decree to establish the Lords day Was he therefore the Author of the day or of the change Sozomen tells us that this Christian Emperour as a tender Nursing Father to the Church of Christ did also by a publick Edict establish the Christian religion in all his dominions Sozomen ib. 1. ch 7. But will any man in his right wits draw such a crack-braind Conclusion from hence viz. That therefore Constantine was the Author of the Christian Religion Understand presumptuous
16.8 On the seventh day shall be a solemn Assembly to the Lord thy God thou sahlt do not work therein And as the seventh or last so also the first day of that Feast was to be a day of rest because a day of Convocation On the first day shall be a holy convocation ye shall do no servile work therein saith the Lord. Numb 28.17 18. Now that first day of unleavened bread being a memorial of their Redemption from Egypt was typical of our Christian Sabbath as was noted before And besides there being a moral equity in Gods argument that a day of holy Worship and holy Convocations must be a day of rest it is as applicable to the Lords day as ever it was to any day for we have abundantly proved that this is a holy Convocation-day and 't is a good note that of Mr. Ainsworth on Deut. 16.8 That the Hebrew word Gnat-sereth which we translate solemn Assemblies does also signifie restraint from labour whereby the Holy Ghost would teach us that Holi days set apart for solemn assemblies must be days of holy rest and restraint from work Such is the Lords day to us Christians and no other day but that a day of solemn Assembly it is and has bin from the Apostles days till now yea a day of solemn Worship therfore a day of rest or Sabbath day yea a day of solemn weekly worship therefore the undoubted Sabbath of the fourth Commandment which is the standing rule for a day of weekly worship and but a day ordinarily for the Commandment numbers out six days in the week for worldly business As when a man makes two Wils the last does ipso facto make void the first although there be no express clause to signifie the repeal or revocation and one for religious exercises neither more nor lesse So that supposing there were no repeal of the last day of the week yet the first day being instituted by Divine Authority makes void the last and takes possession of its place by the warrant of the Divine Precept it self Again as the Ministry and the Sacraments appointed by Christ are used by virtue of the second Commandment so the day appointed by Christ must be observed by virtue of the fourth Commandment because this is the general scope both of the second and fourth Commandment that we must observe all the Institutions of God from time to time I might argue further from that prophetical speech of our Saviour Matth. 24.20 where he presignifies to his Disciples that there should be a Sabbath in force long after his death at such time as the old seventh-day-Sabbath was either quite out of doors or out of date at least therefore he spake of the Christian Sabbath which we are obliged both by Law and Gospel to observe The Ancients indeed do seldom apply the title of Sabbath to the Lords day yet sometimes they do They were but too jealous of Judaizing in this particular Orat. in Christi Resurrect Ex illo Sabbato praesens hoc Sabbatum agnosce c. Sic quâ— que ritè sanctificamus Sabbatum Domini Dicente Domino omne â—pus c. Tract de tempore 152. Gregory Nyssen is express for having spoken of the old Sabbath he presently adds from that Sabbath acknowledge thou this present Sabbath the Lords day this day of rest which God hath blessed above other days For in this the only begotten Son of God did truly rest from all his works So also Austin or he that writ the Book De tempore having pleaded the due celebration of the Lords day he concludes with respect to the fourth Commandment concerning the Sabbath so do we rightly sanctifie the Sabbath of the Lord as the Lord hath said In it thou shalt do no work Hence that Royal Edict of Charles the Great published in the year 789. We ordain says he according as it is commanded in the Law of God that no man do servile work on the Lords day To which may be added the decree of King Edgar expresly stiling the Lords day the Sabbath day Diem Sabbati ab ipsa Die Saturni hora pomeridiara tertia usque in Lunaris diei dilaculum festum agitari taking order that the Sabbath should be celebrated from Saturday three a clock in the afternoon till Munday morning at break of day and this was in the year of Christ 959. seven hundred years ago better Antiquity than any can be produced or so much as pretended against this appellation If it be objected That this was in times of Popery I answer That even since the Reformation the Lords day hath been frequently called by the name Sabbath Those precious but persecuted Saints To all these might be added the Church of England Can. 70. So Hom. of time and place of prayer the Waldenses in a Catechism of theirs teach their children to call it by this name And the holy Martyr Bp Hooper in his treatise on the ten Commandements uses the same Dialect some scores more might be reckoned if need were But leaving these Authors I return to the Objector who sets all his wits a work to prove the Lords day a working day most sinfully and shamefully abusing the Scriptures to this purpose I am loth to stain my Paper with his profane Sophisms yet lest his ignorant and erroneous Proselites should take them for unanswerable Arguments I shall briefly sum up all into one Objection and return several answers to it Object T.T. p. 14. of his Pamphlet In stead of that honour put upon the first day of the week First The Father wrought upon it Gen. 1. and therefore we should be his followers as dear children Ephes 5.1 Secondly The son travelled upon it Luke 24.13 15. And he hath given us an example that we should do as he hath done John 13.15 Thirdly The Saints cast their accounts upon it 1 Cor. 16.2 And so may we Thus he quotes Scripture to as good purpose as that Arch Sophister did Matth. 4 But we shall answer him soberly though he deserve it not Answ 1. That which was the Fathers working-day at the Worlds Creation was the Sons Rest day from the work of Redemption and we must not be sollowers of God in contradiction to Christ or oppose the works of God against the Word of God lest in stead of followers as dear children we be found fighters against him as desperate enemies the first day of the week was a common day when it was made at first Gen. 1. but since it is made again and made a solemn day a day of holy worship Psal 118.24 therefore no working day now but to such as have no God to worship or no hearts to worship him God the Father wrought upon the first day of the week yet Israel must not work on this day once a year at least Viz. on the day of unleavened bread as often as it fell on this day Numb 23.18 why because it was a day
so the second third fourth c. This is a meer mistake Answ For we deny that the first darkness Gen. 1. was the evening or night of the first day that darkness upon the face of the deep for ought appears to the contrary lasted not longer than a moment the night of the first day was that which followed the light after God had separated the light which he called day from the darkness which he called night to object the order of the words is vain Moses himself takes off that Objection by inverting that order in the following words for v. 4. he puts light before darkness and day before night The Ceremonial Sabbaths because honoured as Sabbaths were to begin at even as 't is said Obj. 2 Levit. 23.32 From even to even shall ye celebrate your Sabbath This law concerned only the day of atonement Answ which was an extraordinary Sabbath for rest and strictness being their yearly Fast wherein they were to afflict themselves by abstinence from i Joel 1.13 and 2.16 sleep as well as food and this is so far from proving that their weekly Sabbath began at even that to me it is a good Argument to prove the contrary for it looks like a particular exception from a general rule and to specifie the beginning of this extraordinary Sabbath at Even had been needless if their ordinary Sabbaths had begun at the same time Nehemiah caused Jerusalems gates to be shut before the Sabbath even while the declining Sun cast some obscurity on the city gates Obj. 3 Neh. 13. â—9 This was to prevent the profanation of the Sabbath the next day Answ and it were to be wished all Christian Magistrates would have the like care of the Lords day Besides 't is said he caused the gates to be shut when they began to be dark and yet saies the Text this was before the Sabbath which seems rather to intimate that in Nebemiahs time the Sabbath did not begin in the evening otherwise as Mr. C. notes he had done it not before but in the Sabbath The precious women having attended our Saviour to his Sepulchre returned and prepared spices and ointments Obj. 4 and rested the Sabbath according to the Commandment This as we said before was after the sun-set evening besides the holy Women did not forbear to anoint the body of Christ that evening because of the weekly Sabbath Answ but possibly because of the Jews Passeover-Sabbath John 19.31 or rather the Jews preparation to it of which we read John 19.42 We are sure Mark 16.2 they came not to anoint him till the morning of the Resurrection-day and it may be they stayed so long in conscience of the Sabbath which was not ended till the morning after mid-night therefore 't is most likely our Lord had taught them that the Sabbath begins and ends in the morning if it had ended at Sun-set we may rationally think they had visited the Sepulchre before they slept that night and not have put it off till the next morning As for those multiplied Scriptures that call for evening-sacrifices Psal 92 1. Isai 30.29 they make as much for us as for him if not more Since as we count the after-evening from sun-set till mid-night a part of the Sabbath and spend it our waking houres at least in Sabbath-duties repetition meditation prayer and praise so we hold a preparation necessary the evening before Of which in the next Position POSITION VII The Lords Day must be kept holy to the Lord. THe very appellation of it together with the Observation of the Apostles and Primitive Christians is sufficient proof of this 'T is a pious and ponderous speech of a late worthy Writer Dr. Cheynels Treatise of the Blessed Trinity p. 402. The approved practise of the primitive Christians declares the doctrine of the Apostles and the doctrine of the Apostles shews what was the command of Christ the Lord of the Sabbath concerning the sanctification of the first day of the week which is therefore called the Lords day and the Christian Sabbath If it be the Lords day as we have proved then let it be consecrated to the Lord as holy and honourable Isai 58.13 even to that Lord whose name it bears to him I say who hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written Rev. 19.16 King of kings and Lord of Lords even the Lord of glory a Lord as far above the greatest lords on earth as they are above their meanest Subjects 'T is the Lords day and therefore the Lords due let us render to Christ the things that are Christs Why did the Lord make this day but that all his faithful subjects and servants should keep it and keep it holy to him that made it O let the law of the living God over-awe our Consciences which is still in force for a day of weekly worship at his appointment and such we have proved the Lords day to be More Arguments might be produced But those already urged are sufficient to secure this truth from the dread of that downfall threatned by the Adversary The Devil and his agents may puff at the Christian Sabbath but confident I am they shall as soon blow out the Sun with a pair of bellows as totally extinguish this Ordinance of Christ the chief ground of my confidence is the Word of God upon which it is founded and next to that the writings of the antients so many in several Countries and several ages bearing witness as one man to this Christian cause with whom although I would be loth to err in any thing yet do I the less mistrust my self to err while I keep them company and do with more confidence look an adversary in the face when my quiver is full of their Testimonies as a late Author speaks on another occasion To draw to a Conclusion from Doctrinal Positions about the Christian Sabbath we shall descend to some practical Directions I cannot stand to speak fully and largely to the duties of the day neither need I other Treatises have done it already as Mr. Sprints Mr. Shepheards Dr. Gouges but especially Mr. Philip Goodwins only for the help of those that want those excellent helps I shall hint a few things and commit all to the blessing of him whose day and honour I have argued and contended for Briefly the practice of the Christian-Sabbath stands chiefly in two things viz. In preparation to it and sanctification of it 1. There must be solemn and serious preparation the evening before to get our hearts into a Sabbath frame this the Lord calls for in the very front of the Commandement Remember the Sabbath-day to keep it holy remember it before it comes that you may keep it holy when it comes this word Remember should be as a bell to toll us in from our Shops and Farms to our Chambers and Closets there to commune with our own hearts to cast up our spiritual accounts to call over our
wants and if we have hearts to weep over our week day sins and stir up our selves to take hold of Christ that we may make peace with God they that have any acquaintance with heart-work find it hard to have to do with a dusty world full of sins and snares and not be defiled or intangled with it earthly things are apt to leave a tincture upon the most holy and heavenly hearts There must therefore be a rubbing off this rust of the world a washing these dirty hearts and hands before we are fit to draw nigh to God in solemn Worship Exod. 19.14 What were those Ceremonial washings of old but emblematical predictions and documents of preparation to Gospel-worship and if I mistake not something to this purpose is prophesied concerning the purest times and Churches in these later days Rev. 15.2 3. Revel 15. We read of those that had gotten the victory over the Beast and his Image i. e. those that had shaken off the yoke of Anti-Christian Tyranny and Superstition standing upon a sea of glass with the harps of God in their hands those harps in their hands speak them in a posture of publike worship But what means their standing upon a sea of glass Why among other things I conceive it alludes to that Laver or * 1 Kings 7.23 sea in Solomons Temple in which the the Priests were wont to * 2 Chron. 4.6 wash when they went to worship and it may teach us thus much that the people of God under the Gospel as well as they under the Law must wash before they worship there must be some preparation Secondly the sanctification of the Sabbath follows and this also consists in two things Holy rest and holy work First we must keep it as a day of holy rest to the Lord resting from our own works our own words and our own thoughts 1. We are bound upon the Lords day to rest and cease from our own works whether works of labour or works of pleasure if I may so distinguish The Lords day must neither be our working-working-day nor our play-day both these are prohibited by the letter of the fourth Commandment and the analogy of that Text which seems to be written as a Commentary upon the Commandment Isai 58.13 14. If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath from doing thy pleasure on my holy day and call the Sabbath a delight the holy of the Lord honourable and shalt honour him not doing thine own ways nor finding thine own pleasure nor speaking thy own words c. In which words we have the lively Picture and Pourtraiture of a true Sabbath in both parts of it it must be celebrated with rest from our own ways works words pleasures and this rest must be accompanied with a spiritual rejoycing in God and delight in his Sabbath arising from an honourable esteem of the day considering whose day it is namely the Lords Now the scope of this Text is as applicable to our Christian Sabbath as ever it was to the Jews Sabbath ours being first a day of holy rejoycing in the Lord as well as theirs Psal 118.24 Secondly a day which hath the Lord for its author as well as theirs Thirdly a day every whit as honourable as theirs yea a degree above it being instituted upon a more noble account Viz. The most gracious and glorious work of Redemption Fourthly a day in all respects as holy as theirs holy I mean in respect of separation and dedication to holy duties as prayer preaching breaking of bread praise and thanksgiving Acts 2.1 and 20.7 Psal 118.27 28. Therefore it must be kept with rest from accustomed labour and pleasure as well as theirs and that by vertue of the fourth Commandment which requires the sanctifying of one day in seven of divine appointment as a Sabbath with rest from servile works and secular imployments And let it be further considered both the fourth Commandement and the Prophet Isaiah in commenting upon it do first and chiefly call for sanctity Secondarily for rest First Remember the Sabbath to sanctifie it then Thou shalt do no work Sanctification is required as the end cessation from labour as the means the one as principal the other as accessary Now both Prophets and Apostles have markt out the Lords day as a holy day to be spent in holy duties of solemn worship and that weekly therefore by the Law of God and nature we are bound to keep it as a day of weekly rest otherwise we separate the end from the means which cannot be rest from servile work being an inseparable adjunct to a day of solemn worship What then shall we say to those that afterwarning make the Lords day either a common working-day or a sporting day the former I may fitly call the Devils workmen who will one day pay them their wages the other the flesh's Bondmen whose pleasure in the end will prove torment without end The Lord awaken both to repentance better then that of Esau whose sin of the two is greater then his * Hebr. 12.16 there are prophane Esau's under the Gospel and they are the worst of Esau's there is also a sin called * Rom. 2.22 Sacrilege condemned in the Gospel and Sabbath-breaking is very like it when sinners lay sacrilegious hands upon that which is consecrated to the Lord for a sin much like to which Ananias and his wife were once stricken with sudden death and how many such dreadful strokes have been felt and heard in these later days I shall not repeat what has been already committed to record by others Mr. Bernard Mr. Byfield and sundry others have been serious observers of Gods heavy hand in this kind I could say something of what I have seen with my own eyes and heard with my own ears But I shall forbear Numb 10.1 2. when men are struck dead in the very act of their sin as Vzzah in touching the Ark Nadab and Abihu in offering strange fire when the sin and the judgement meet together and do one point at the other surely Gods hand is not to be slighted Mr. Byfield has related many such tremendous strokes upon those that have presumed to work on the Lords day and ended their lives and their work together having no more respit between their sin and their execution or expiration then with trembling lips to tell others the secret reflections of their own guilty Consciences and how many Malefactors have we heard at their execution bewailing their profanation of the Lords day as the leading-cause of all their mischiefs and miseries Now the Conscience of the sinner smarting under Gods revengeful rod is many times like a finger to point out the sin for which God smites as we see in the case of a Judges 1.7 8. Adonibezek To be short the exemplary judgments of God against this sin of Sabbath-breaking falling in so great variety and happening so thick together in many places do call aloud to the
THE JEWS SABBATH ANTIQUATED AND THE LORDS DAY INSTITUTED By DIVINE AUTHORITY OR The Change of the Sabbath from the Last to the First Day of the Week asserted and maintained by Scripture-Arguments and Testimonies of the Best Antiquity with a Refutation of sundry Objections raised against it The Sum of all Comprized in Seven Positions By EDM. WARREN Minister of the Gospel in COLCHESTER REV. 1.10 I was in the Spirit on the Lords Day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Athanasius in Hom. de sement ad init Imprimatur EDM. CALAMY LONDON Printed by David Maxwel for W. Weekly of Ipswich and are to be sold by John Rothwel at the Fountain in Cheapside and also by Nath. Web and Will. Grantham at the Black Bear in Pauls Church-yard 1659. To the Right Worshipful JOHN GVRDON Esq Justice of Peace in the County of SUFFOLK HONOURED SIR THe design of this Dedication is not so much to shelter the ensuing Treatise under the protection of your name let it stand or fall at the bar of Scripture and right reason as to shew my real and unfeigned gratitude for the many and much-obliging favours you have been been pleased to heap upon me both while I lived under your roof and since my removal to a more publike station I thought thus with my self It is the first and likely to be the last time of my appearing in Print therefore the best and fittest season to signifie my due resentment of your love and friendship which from first to last since my acquaintance with you I have experienced so firm and constant as also to shew the precions esteem I still have of you and your pious Family which as I found so I left most religiously devoted to the practise of the truth here pleaded for the keeping holy of the Lords day the undoubted Christian Sabbath it is verily no small joy to me in these days of liberty and loosness to find any especially of your rank walking in this truth of Christ Go on dear Sir in this good old way of truth and holiness be you still a friend to this good day the Lords Day and the Lord will be a friend to you in in an evil day yea in that great day of his appearing Concerning which as Paul prayed for Onesiphorus and his houshold the Lord grant that he may find mercy of the Lord in that day so prays for you and yours The Unworthiest of Christs Ministers EDM. WARREN A Word by way of Preface to the Courteous Reader With a Word of Advice to my Christian Friends and Hearers in and about the Town of Colchester Good Reader I Shall not tire thy patience with any tedious Prefatory Discourse only hint a Word or two concerning the occasion of this Treatise with the Method observed in the composure of it about a year and half since or something more amidst that African brood of Erroneous Books which the lawless liberty of the Press has Midwiv'd into the world came forth a Treatise swelling as with a Timpany of vain glorious confidence for the Jews Saturday-Sabbath so no less opprobious contempt of the Lords day our Christian Sabbath The Author of it Mr. Tho. Tillam by Name by Profession an Anabaptist was pleased in Print to found a challenge and provoke me to the combat in answering of it It was some time before I was fully resolved what to do the sense of my own Insufficiency bespake my silence and willed me rather to sit still in obscurity than venture abroad to the view of a captious and quarrelsom World Besides my Pastoral charge and Preaching-work would scarce afford me that leisure which others of more natural promptness and dexterous parts and gifts might well enough spare for such an Imployment But on the other hand the spreading of this Jewish Leaven together with the pressing Importunity of some Christian Friends perswaded me to undertake this work which accordingly I did and after I had spent much time and written many sheets in answering this Author Page by Page I found his Method so confused his excursions so many his eructations of putrid choler and calumny so bitter that I had not the patience to follow him any longer in that wildgoose-chase but laid all aside and resolved upon a new Method namely to assert the Truth thetically in distinct Positions and answer his most material Arguments as Objections against it He would fain perswade silly people That Antichrist changed the Sabbath and goes about to prove it from Dan. 7. where we read of a little horn that thought to change Times and Laws and with this little horn he makes a loud noise up and down his Book But who told him that this horn was Antichrist Our best Expositors take it to be meant of Antiochus Epiphanes and indeed Dan. 8. cleerly proves it But what desperate insolency is this to take the crown of Christ and set it upon the head of Antichrist Is not the change of the Jewish Law attributed to Christ Hebr. 7.12 and did he not also change their times and seasons of worship was their weekly Sabbath exempted I pray where or how not by the fourth Commandement for we have proved that the seventh day from the Creation was never the substance of that precept nor by any clause in the New Testament for there it is rather repealed 'T is true the Moral duty of rest remains still in a holy day of weekly recourse according to the Commandment but the old Sabbath being of a shadowy nature in the after observation if not in the first Institution of it is certainly done away by Christ the substance of all Legal shadows yet not simply but in way of exchange for a new day of the same number though not of the same shadowy nature What I have argued for the change of the day is sufficiently authorized by the Scriptures the Fathers and our own judicious Divines My Arguments are but few in number more might have been added but for oppressing the Reader 's either purse or patience Mr. Cawdrey and Mr. Palmer have largely handled what I have but briefly touched If what I have written be answered with scurrilous gibes and railing Rhetorick as Mr. Jenisons Book was My next answer shall be nothing but silence and contempt which I the rather hint because the Adversary has threatned a Reply before he read my Book right or wrong it seems he is resolved to have the last word for which I purpose never to contend If I know my own heart 't is truth not triumph that I seek and thirst after truth I say grounded upon the Scriptures sealed with the blood of Martyrs attested by the Primitive Fathers and maintained by the pens of the most Reformed Writers such is the truth here asserted and I shall own nothing as an Answer to it but that which fully answers all these Now my Christian Friends and Brethren I beseech you love and live this truth stand to it stand for it and stand in it
as long as you live Take heed of corrupt Books and broachers of error you may be too credulous too cautelous you cannot be Let neither the pompous Phrases nor proud threats of men either allure you or affright you from the truths of God T. T. abounds in both these Artifices charming some with his Rhetorick scaring others with his Bulls and big words as he does William Sloat by name leaving him as his Printed Book speaks under the unpardonable sin to the judgement of the great day and yet this William Sloat is known to be a man of sober conversation professing Repentance towards God and Faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ only he must be expunged out of the Catalogue of Christians for not being able to keep the Jews Sabbath and damned to the fiery furnace of Hell because he could no longer dance after this mans Pipe or bow down to Images that he has set up in his fancy Opinions I mean To conclude I beseech you Christians for the Lords sake and your souls sake hold fast the Good Old Truths of Christ in this hour of Englands temptation and cleave to that Good Old Cause the Christian Sabbath which the rigid Prelatical party sought to subvert by the Book of Sports and many pernicious Pamphlets and practises till the wrath of God brake out upon the land in those late bloody showers the Remembrance whereof methinks should daunt the heart of the most Goliah-like Adversary that shall dare to draw the sword of defiance the second time against this Christian Cause If any will be so fool-hardy as still to fight against God and the Lamb in profaning and teaching others to profane his day by working as formerly some did by sporting yet be exhorted all you that fear God and love the Lord Jesus to keep holy the Lords day making it no otherwise a working-working-day then by working out your salvation with fear and trembling which is the humble and hearty advice of Yours in all Gospel-Offices EDM. WARREN A TABLE of the Contents Position 1. THe Sabbath made alterable as to the day in the first institution of it evidenced by three Arguments Arg. 1. From the time when it was instituted Viz. after the fall Adam sinned the same day in which he was created proved by five Arguments page 1. to 7. Two Objections answered to p. 17. Arg. 2. From the command by which it was instituted p. 17. to 21. Arg. 3. From the ground or occasion on which it was instituted either Gods providence or promise p. 21. to 32. Seven Considerations premised to clear it p. 33 34 35. Two Scruples resolved p. 37 38 39. Position 2. THat the Old Sabbath was further manifested to be alterable as to the day in the second Edition of the Sabbath For 1. It was never propounded as the substance of any moral Law Here the fourth Commandement is vindicated at large p. 46. to 58. 2. It seems to be pointed at as a sign in the Ceremonial Law p. 70. Sundry Objections answered p. 59. to 70 78. Position 3. THe Old Sabbath was further evidenced to be alterable in the after-Observation of it p. 78 to 83. Position 4. THat the Sabbath was actually altered and changed from the Last to the First day of the Week by the authority of Christ upon the account of his Resurrection c. Four main Arguments to prove it Arg. 1. From the New Creation p. 83 to 90. Arg. 2 From the New Covenant The Covenant changed in a threefold expressure of it in the Mandatory the Promissory and shadowy part p. 90. to 105. The Old Sabbath proved to be of a shadowy nature from Col. 2.16 17. p. 106 107 108. Four Objections answered from p. 109 to 112. Arg. 3. From the Introduction of a new rest Hebr. 4. explained and vindicated to p. 122. Four Objections answered to p. 130. Arg. 4. From the designation of a new day with the discharge of the old The old seventh day Sabbath is discharged from Obligation under the Gospel p. 130. to 138 Four Objections removed The First day of the week is designed for a day of weekly solemn Worship For 1. This is the day above all others on which in the vacancy of the old seventh day God hath set his mind in the Law p. 158 159. 2. This is the day above all days on which Christ has set his special mark in the Gospel A seven-fold mark he has set upon it 1. His resurrection from the dead this day p. 161. to 169. 2. His frequent apparitions on this day p. 169. to 175. Four Objections silenced 3. His gracious speeches and actions at those apparitions 4. The Mission of the Holy Ghost this day The day of Pentecost proved to be the first day of the week p. 179. to 187. Two Objections answered 5. The Inscription of Christs blessed name on this day 't is the Lords day p. 190 191 192. Three Objections answered 6. The Apostles and Apostolical Churches observation of it Acts 20.7 cleared Six Objections satisfied 7. Apostolical prescription about it 1 Cor. 16.1 2. Four Objections answered to p. 214. The Best Antiquity for the Change of the Day TEstimonies of the Antients 1. Ignatius 2. Justin Martyr 3. Dionysius 4. Tertullian 5. Origen 6. Cyprian 7. Athanasius 8. Hilary 9. Ambrose 10. Hierome 11. Chrysostome 12. Augustine 13. Eusebius from p. 216. to 232. Opposite Testimonies answered to p. 245. Position 5. THe Lords day the Christian Sabbath proved and Cavils refuted from p. 236. to 242. Position 6. THe Sabbath begins in the morning Four Objections answered from p. 242. to 246. Position 7. THe Lords day must be kept holy to the Lord. Rules of Direction 1. For Preparation to the Sabbath 2. Sanctification of it 1. By holy rest from our own works words and thoughts 2. By holy work both in private and in publike from p. 246. to the end ERRATA PAge 4. Marg. for John 29. read John 19. p. 54. marg for evening Communicant r. Evangelical Communicant p. 80. for merval r. marvel p. 86. l. 5. for latter r. letter p. 91. marg for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 97. for must with a promise r. meet with a promise p. 107. for â—â—brae and praeterita r. umbra praeteritae p. 109. after it is very questionable add I say p. 126. marg for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 132. for stay r. stop p. 180. l. 1. r. wonderful p. 181. l. 5. for there r. their p. 182. l. 9. r. where ibid. for some r. come for were r. was p. 192. for constitution r. contestation p. 194. l. 31. add the p. 216. marg for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Other false spellings and false pointings there are which the Reader is requested to look upon rather as Errors of the Press then the Pen yet no other then such as are common and ordinary in all Treatises printed in the Authors absence POSITION
too dark to ground an institution upon We must have a Law written in God's book And there is no other that I know of but Gen. 2.3 which if I grant the Adversary to be a command for some do stiffly deny it yet I must be bold to tell him it is but a consequential command For although it be said God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it yet it is not said Let man sanctifie it Here is included God's example but no express command And if the New Testament do not afford us as much warrant for the Lord's day as this amounts to I will yield the Cause But of that hereafter Let the Reader onely take notice by the way how mortally T. T. hath wounded his own cause Pa. 36. by exclaiming so bitterly against Consequences He calls it Philosophie and the deceit of men to establish Ordinances by Consequences Why let me ask him Was the Patriarchal Sabbath for above two thousand years together an Ordinance of God for my part I never doubted of it But he can never make it good without a Consequence he must make a new Bible first for express command there is none onely God's example which without a precept is not alwayes binding And so to use his own words the Lord hath disappointed the devices of the crafty and snared him in his own wisdom he digged a pit for the Lord's day and his Saturdays Sabbath is fallen into it help it out how he can For his life he can find no more in Gen. 2. then an implicit command for that old seventh day And now the next question will be Whether it be a temporary or a perpetual precept If perpetual it must be moral But that it cannot be by his own rule for he has fairly granted That a Moral Law is not meerly good because commanded but therefore commanded because it is good understand it of a Moral natural Law Now I beseech you Sir what natural goodness was there in the seventh day more then in the sixth or fifth Is one day in it self any better then another as to God And as to man if any day had been naturally or morally good above the rest Gen. 1.28 Psal 8.56 in all reason it had been the sixth day on which God made man crowned him with his blessings and gave him dominion over his creatures or the first day in which he made the heavens the Angels and the elements Therefore his threefold mystery to the seventh-days morality is but a threefold miserable mistake to make the best of it 1. That it was written in innocent Adam's heart for which he cites Rom. 2. where there is not a word of any such thing â— 10.11 2. That it was afterwards written in Tables of stone for which he quotes Gal. 3.19 as little to his purpose as the other 3. That it is also written in the fleshly tables of renewed hearts which the experience of almost all renewed hearts in heaven and earth does contradict For to speak in the language of Eliphas Job 5.1 S. Paul Col. 2.16 17. Call now if there be any that will answer thee and to which of the Saints wilt thou turn either Scripture-Saints Cyprian cp ad Fidum 59. Chryso Tom de Res. or Church Saints Ask S. Paul S. Cyprian S. Chrysostom S. Augustine and they will tell you that your antiquated Sabbath was so far from being written in their hearts that they have written against it with their pens August de lit Spir. c. 14. Turn over the works of the eminent Fathers whose books neither you nor I are worthy to bear and their writings are so voluminous that we are not able to bear them Mr. Cawdrey Mr. Palmer Mr. Sheph. Mr. Byfield Mr. White of Dorch and the whole Assembly of Divines Confe of faith Chap. 21. Add to these the most judicious pious and zealous Ministers and Martyrs of Christ who have lived and died within the compass of these sixteen hundred years and most if not all of them will tell you That they never owned your Saturday-Sabbath they lived without it dyed without it and are I doubt not gone to their everlasting rest in heaven without it Besides how many faithful witnesses of late years has the Lord raised up to bear testimony against it of whom I suppose the greatest part are yet alive though some are fallen asleep In a word God has promised to write his laws in the hearts of all his people Jer. 31.33 Hebr. 8.10 Char. 16. But not one of ten thousand has the Saturday-Sabbath written in his heart therefore it is now none of Gods laws how many precious gracious and pious Christians are yet upon earth men and women redeemed from the earth and crucified to the world of whom the world is not worthy who look upon your Sabbath as a cypher can freely labour and travel upon it buy and sell upon it and that after accurate inquiries about it and to this day their consciences never reproched them their hearts never smote them for it what will you say all these are Hypocrites unrenewed unsanctified ones This were to condemn the generation of Gods Children and Canonize your self with your few misled associates for the only Saints in Christendome which I would hope you dare not do though I know you dare as much as another Well the adversary is brought to this Dilemma Either God has no people in the world but such as are of his perswasion or his moral and immutable Laws are not written in their hearts or the Saturday-Sabbath is none of those Lawes The last is the likeliest in the judgment of any indifferent Reader let his cause be tryed where he pleases either at Natures tribunal or the throne of Grace in the hearts of believers and he will be cast at both Nature is both blind and dumb in the business and if he plead the law of Grace which is rectifyed and refined nature the whole Christian world will give in evidence against him A Sabbath a day of holy rest indeed it will own and one day of seven in proportion but the particularity of the day the seventh from the Creation it utterly disclaims And where he will find advocates for it but either among the unbelieving Jews or a few misbelieving Christians Judaizing I know not Therefore surely it is no ingredient of Gods moral and immutable Lawes The conclusion then is that it was but a temporary precept by which it was established which some call ceremonial others had rather term it positive but none perpetual unless such as are more apt to say anything then able to prove it when then have said it We deny not the fourth Commandement to be a perpetual precept but we are now speaking of Gen. 2. which at most is but a positive Law and positive precepts are alterable at the law-givers pleasure yea though they were given in Paradise as the precept concerning the forbidden fruit though it
were given before the fall and should undoubtedly have bound Adam and all his posterity if he had not fallen Gen. 2.17 yet now it binds none neither should it if the tree were known So also that positive law of keeping and dressing the Garden Mr. â—â— Strange which to Adam was a binding precept yet now it is wholly abrogated in the letter of it or else as one sayes we must all tag and rag turn gardeners True there was something moral and of the law of nature in that precept Yates Model of Divin Haec lex naturalis est conjunctam habens designationem diei ceremonialem quia verò partim naturalis partimque ut loquuntur Scholae positiva est Propterea discrimen oportet in eo ordine adhiberi quod enim naturale est puta diem septimum quemque Deo sacrum esse illud permanet quod positivum nempe illum diem qui septimus est creationis esse Diem Sabbathi hoc mutatum est Juni prae'ec in Gen. 2. p. 27. man must alwayes be exercised and imployed the earth his store-house must also be his work-house Idleness and happiness could never consist together But that his imployment must be limited to the culture of a Garden that was meerly positive The like may be said for the Law of the Sabbath supposing not granting it had been given in paradise that man should celebrate a Sabbath was moral and perpetual but that it must be on the seventh day from the Creation was meerly positive temporary and alterable at the law-givers pleasure And this may serve as a proper Engine to undermine that grand argument founded on the institution of marriage P. 155. The Sabbath is a precept saith he as ancient as Vniversal as marriage both were instituted in paradise for Adam and all his posterity Ans We grant that the institution of marriage was made in pure paradise which ever since has made it honorable amongst all men Heb. 13.4 And thus far we also grant the first institution is a perpetual obligation viz. That one man is bound to one woman yet I hope no man is tyed by that first institution to make choice of this or that particular woman but he is at liberty to marry whom he lists provided it be in the Lord so also admitting the Sabbath to be instituted in paradise yet I can see no reason why it should limit us to that particular day but that notwithstanding we may observe any other day that shall appear to be of the Lords appointment as the first day of the week infallibly is and therefore it bears the Lords name being styled the Lords Day by way of eminency Indeed now the day is fixed and we cannot chuse another nor change it to another Psa 118.29 Rev. 1.10 for reasons hereafter to be rendered But enough is said to prove the command whatever it was whereby the old Sabbath was instituted to be but temporary though it had been given in Innocency A positive precept given in innocency might suffer much alteration by mans apostasie Mr. Sheph. Thes 17.19 For to borrow the words of a reverend Author the sin of man made the Lord repent that ever he had made man and consequently that ever he made the world for man which might be a sufficient ground of the Law-givers pleasure to alter and change the day stated upon the worlds Creation to another day stated upon the worlds Redemption of which the Lord will never repent Now if a precept or institution given before the fall might be mutable at the Law givers pleasure how much more this of the seventh day which was rather imposed since the fall as the institution of Sacrifices the prohibition of blood c. Gen. 9.4 3. That the old seventh day was made alterable in the first institution of the Sabbath is most of all evident from the ground or occasion upon which it was instituted and this is hinted unto us in those words Gen. 2.2 See Ainsworth annot in Gen. 2.2 On the seventh day God ended his works which he had made and rested the seventh day wherefore he blessed and sanctified it Now it much concerns us to enquire in what sense the Lord is said to have ended his works on the seventh day since we must not imagine with Hierome and Catharinus that God made any new creatures on the seventh day for doubtless the creation was finished on the sixth day How then it is said on the seventh day God ended his works Why without resting and torturing the words as some do we may understand it in one or both of these two respects either 1. In respect of Providence or 2. In respect of the Promise 1. In respect of Providence So judicious Mr. White in Gen. 2. and why may not this be the meaning of the holy Ghost That on the seventh day God was pleased by a signal hand of Providence to perfect his works of Creations either by establishing them to continue as they do this day or at least by manifesting their accomplishment in his rest and cessation from Creating-work Take the word Ended in this sense and so it informs us that the ground of Gods sanctifying the seventh day was not simply his rest upon that day but also the reason of that rest Heb. 4. v. 3.4 namely the finishing of his works witnessed by his resting as the Author to the Hebrews plainly intimates And not only that but also the result and consequent of both namely the dignifying and honouring of that day above all other dayes for the time being by crowning it with the accomplishment of the greatest work then made or manifested to be made perfect Isa 58.3 Hence the seventh day was styled The Honorable of the Lord not that in it self one day is more honorable and observable then another but that which differences the one from the other and dignifies one above another is Gods casting honour upon it by some memorable work of Providence either begun or finished upon that day Upon which account most of the Jewes Festivals were instituted as their Passeover in the 14th of Abib Lev. 23.5 Esth 9.21 the Feast of Purim on the 14th of Adar like our Gunpowder-treason-day on the 5. of November because the noble acts of God have been done upon these dayes And this was a main ground of their weekly Sabbath upon the seventh day being a day crowned with the greatest work then visible a work manifested to be finished on the seventh day by Gods resting on that day Yet this must be noted that the finishing of Gods work did not make the day more honorable then others by any natural necessity but only by positive right and equity There was no necessary and natural cause why the seventh day on which the work was declaratively ended should be more honorable then the sixth day on which it was really ended and finished only it was Gods will and pleasure to have
and complete the fabrick of the new Creation And thus is the resurrection-day prophetically crowned with honour above all other dayes Old Sabbath and all For the work crowns the day and the greater the work the greater the day And therefore although the last day of the week were the greatest in dignity during the supereminency of the old Creation yet when a greater work was to be finished the day on which it was to conclude must without dispute be the greater day As John Baptist being the last and greatest of the prophets yet was lesse then the least in the Kingdome of heaven so I may say of the Old Sabbath the greatest day under the Old Testament yet it must vail and stoop when the Sun of righteousness shines forth in a new day under the New Testament Surely the second Creation must have a Sabbath of commemoration as well as the first or else God should magnifie his lesser work of Creation above his greater work of Redemption And thus I suppose I have made good my Position both Logically and Theologically that the old seventh day was alterable in its first institution since the same ground of stating the Sabbath at first upon that day might be a sufficient ground of translating it to another day as now it is and that by Divine Authority as shall be seen hereafter The adversary has no considerable weapons to oppose this truth withal but what have been already beaten out of Mr. Brabourns hands and are sufficiently blunted by others or if any new ones be added we shall now try what mettal they are made of Obj. 1 T.T. p. 7. The seventh day sayes he was set apart in memorial of the most glorious work of Creation the benefit whereof being extended to us p. 69. engageth us to that day still And again The world being created not only for Israel but for all people I appeal to all conscientious Christians whether all mankind be not bound to that very day who enjoy the benefit of the Creation By the way let me tell him when I read his insulting challenge I expected Scripture-arguments and not popular appeals But to let him swim in his own element the sum of his appealing for arguing I cannot call it amounts but to this that if the old seventh day were set apart in memory of the Creation which every Christian as a creature is bound to commemorate then the day is unchangeable perpetually to be observed But to this I answer The consequence is sick and crasie Answer and therefore it can produce but a weak conclusion For first the Covenant of grace I suppose is as ancient as the old Sabbath I am sure as eminent a mercy as the occasion of the Sabbath And doubtless to every true-hearted Christian the memory of Gods Covenant is and ought to be as precious as the memory of the worlds Creation yet I hope he will not say that circumcision and sacrifices the old memorials of the Covenant are therefore still in force or ought to be still in use among Christians who are interested in that Covenant And the like may I say of the Saturday-Sabbath Let none object the disparity between the Old Sabbath and circumcision for they are both clad in a livery of the same colour in many things they do much resemble one another Was a Gen. 17.11 circumcision a sign betwixt God and the seed of Abraham so was the b Exod. 31.17 old Sabbath betwixt God and the house of Israel Was c Gen. 17.7 circumcision a perpetual Covenant with Abrahams seed in their generation So also was the d Exod. 31.16 Sabbath to be kept as a perpetual Covenant throughout their generations In a word was e Gen. 17.14 circumcision so exacted that whosoever was uncircumcised must be cut off from the house of Israel why so also was the old f Exod. 31.14 Sabbath whosoever doth any work therein that soul shall be cut off from among the people Again let none tax me with incongruity in comparing the old Sabbath and sacrifices together for the Lord of the Sabbath himself hath taught me to lay them in an equal ballance who when the Pharisees clamoured his Disciples for Sabbath breaking stops their mouths with that g Hos 6.6 Mat. 12.7 Pluris apud De um salus mortalium quà ms crifi iapecudum Muscul in Loc. Scripture The Lord will have merey and not socrifice That is the necessities of men relieved rather then the supposed letter of the Law observed In my poor judgment it is very considerable that such a person at such a time should match the Sabbath day and sacrifices together for it was not the Sabbath in general but the Sabbath day which was then under dispute Surely there was some mystery in this Divinity of our Saviour But this may suffice for a first answer As the Covenant of grace is perpetually to be commemorated but not by circumcision and sacrifices the old memorials of it so the work of creation is continually to be had in remembrace but not by the old Sabbaths celebration For we say as the new Covenant must have new signs so the new creation a new Sabbath And 2. A new day might keep alive the memory of the old Creation Meditatio celebratio operum Dei non minus alio die quà m septimoficri potest Ursin although it be primarily intended as a memorial of redemption And this double honour is put upon the Lords day as the first day of the week it commemorates the worlds redemption as the seventh day in weekly recourse it calls to mind the worlds Creation For in labouring six dayes and resting the seventh weekly we recognize Gods working six dayes and resting the seventh originally And here I may as rationally as T.T. appeal to any ingenuous Christian if the Old Sabbath served the Jews as a means to keep them mindful both of the worlds Creation and their redemption from Egypt why may not our Lords day Sabbath be the Christians memorandum both of the worlds Creation Deut. 5.15 and his Redemption from hell Of the last most directly indeed and that most deservedly being the greatest work and the richest mercy For although t is true to have an earth to tread upon an aire to breath in light to look upon creatures to live upon are excellent mercies yet to have an angry God reconciled a sinful nature repaired Death and Hell vanquished Heaven and glory purchased and assured is infinitely more blessed more beneficial To conclude If I must consecrate a weekly Sabbath to the Lord what day more proper more suitable more significant then that which bears a lively inscriptior of the Lord my Redeemer not without some commemoration of God my Creator But the old seventh day may still he retained in memory of the Creation and the Lords day be celebrated too in memory of Redemption though not as a Sabbath both dayes may lovingly live together
among Christians redeemed from the earth Obj 2 T.T. p. 61 62. To this I may easily answer without any great study Answ that the constant celebration of two dayes in a week is more then the Law requires or the Gospel allowes More then the law requires for that calls but for one day in seven Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy not Sabbath-dayes Exod. 20 8. Again six dayes shalt thou labour not five dayes Chrysostomes descant upon it is very pithy Tom. 5. p. 5 23. The week contains seven dayes sayes he Now see how the Lord hath distributed these dayes he hath not taken the greatest part to himself and left us the least neither has he taken half and left half requiring three for himself and leaving us but three no the Lord is more liberal he hath given thee six and taken but one for himself So he And indeed the Law saith the same I know it is disputed whether these words six dayes thou shalt labour be preceptive or permissive only but to me it is past dispute that they carry a preceptive force for the injunction of working six dayes is delivered in the same commanding terms v. 9. with the inhibition of work on the seventh day v. 10. T. T s gloss therefore falls to the ground Exod. 20.9 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Exod. 10.10 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Six dayes shalt thou labour that is God gives thee leave sayes he as if it were but a bare permission Or six dayes thou wilt labour pointing out the creatures earthly inclination as if there were a prediction in the words But let me advise him in the fear of God to read over the Commandement once more not as he would have it but as it is in the Original since he professes skill in the language of Canaan and then I shall ask him whether those words verse 10. On the seventh day thou shalt do no worke be not imperative If so why not also these Six dayes shalt thou labour since the forme of speech is one and the same It nothing helpes him that the word is otherwise translated Exod. 31.15 six dayes may worke be done for whatever the translation be the tense is the same and it may as well be rendred shall as may And so learned Ainsworth reades it And thus his Critical flourish proves but an empty flash For my part I look upon these words Six dayes shalt thou labour as having the force and vertue of a precept and command in them not directly injoyning us to labour upon any day for that belongs rather to the 8th Commandment but injoyning us such a proportion of time Eph. 4.28 Among the Jewes when holy dayes were so frequent there was never any weekly holy day ordained to go cheeke by jole with the Sabbath But their holy dayes were either monethly or yearly Mr. George Abbot p 118. Periculum mortis tollit Sabbathum necessitas non habet ferias six dayes together within the compass of which our labours must be confined 'T is as if the Lord had said Thou shalt not ordinarily labour more nor less then six dayes together nor rest more or less then one in seven ordinarily That God was pleased to appoint the Jews a greater number of holy dayes as Passeover Pentecost c. and so a lesser number of working-dayes was only in extraordinary cases as our fasting-dayes and thanksgiving-dayes are The fourth Commandment was to be the standing rule only for ordinary time both of weekly work and weekly rest And as those words on the seventh day thou shalt doe no work hinder not but souldiers in time of war may fight a battel and Citizens in case of fire breaking out may quench the flames upon the Sabbath day It was never the Apostles meaning nor in their power when God by a perpetual Law had given us six dayes for labour and destined a seventh for rest to turn it into five dayes labour and two dayes rest Idem ibid. the precept interdicting only the servile works of our ordinary callings In like manner these words six dayes shalt thou labour hinder not but in case of extraordinary judgements or unusual mercies we may set apart dayes of prayer and of praise but ordinarily and weekly to keep two dayes of rest and leave but five dayes for labour is utterly inconsistent with the fourth Commandment And here a word with our new Sabbath-keepers at Colchester you are erroneously taught to think you are bound in conscience to rest from labour two dayes every week else you are woful earth-wormes miserable worldlings dunghill drudges and what not Now I beseech you bring conscience to the rule hath not God said six dayes shalt thou labour and will you listen to man contradicting God and telling you nay thou shalt labour but five dayes only What Antichristian usurpation and Tyrannical imposing upon mens consciences is this to tell them in Print as T.T. does It is not one day in seven will serve your turn when the books shall be opened Why p 3. Why what are those books Shall not the book of the law be one of them And what is written there How readest thou Is it not plain six dayes shalt thou labour and do all thy work Blot this clause out of Gods book Deut. 12.32 or alter the figure and write five instead of six And be sure God will blot out thy name out of the book of life Consider this you that suffer your consciences to be mancipated and enslaved to the dictates of Man Either you must make the week longer by a day or confess in limiting conscience to five dayes only for labour you break the Law under a pretence of keeping it yea you totally make void the Commandment of the living God in subverting the equity of it this is one thing The letter of the Law will bear but one day in seven for holy rest yea the liberty of the Gospel will allow no more ordinarily Rom. 3.21 For do we by faith make void the law God forbid Nay rather we establish the law Yet if we allow but five dayes in the week for labour we must unavoidably make void the law in this particular And besides the observation of dayes legal dayes is disputed against by the great Apostle as contrary to Christian liberty It is but a poor evasion to say Col. 2.16 Gal. 4. â—0 compared with Gal. 5.1 The Apostle speaks only of festival dayes Passeover Pentecost and the like for if these were inconsistent with Gospel-liberty as the adversary grants how much more two dayes every week which amount to more at the years end then all those Jewish festivals twice told The Church in the Apostles time had no other holy day besides the Lords day And the fourth Commandment enjoyns the labour of six dayes Mr. Perkins in Galat. Let him therefore sadly consider the dangerous consequences of his errour forcing him at once both
the resurrection day as after ages have by the Incarnation the Passion or the Assention day have kept it once a year only not once a week as they did and we do But this by the way to illustrate my concession which is this that the fourth Commandment for the substance of it that is for a Sabbath in general yea a seventh day Sabbath and that of Gods appointment is a moral and perpetual precept this I freely grant and firmly believe But 2. That the old seventh day is either in part or in the whole De substautia praecepti non est ut septimum diem precise quo etiam Deus cessavit ab operibus sanctificemus sed dicm quieti consecratum à Deo ipso mediatè vel immediatè Zanch. in praec 4. the moral substance of this Commandment or that the morality of the law-lyes in the particularity of the day this I utterly deny And I shall with the rest of my Brethren affirm and maintain the contrary as an undoubted truth of God Namely that the fourth Commandment doth principally and properly and as the moral substance of it prescribe only such a proportion one day in seven at Gods appointment to be spent in holy rest not this or that particular seventh day unless it be indirectly and occasionally To explicate this the second commandment is usually and aptly alledged as a commentary upon the fourth the form of worship and the time of worship being neerly allyed to each other Now as in the second Commandment we have the rule of solemn worship in general without specifying the particular ordinances of worship whether sacrifices and offerings as under the Law or Prayer Preaching Baptisme and breaking of bread as under the Gospel all which we re consequentially injoyned in the second Commandment but neither of them directly in like manner in this fourth commandment we have a rule for the solemn time of worship a seventh day or one in seven at Gods appointment But whether it should be reckoned from the worlds Creation or from Christ resurrection is not here determined particular duties of worship and the particular day of worship being to vary and change with the different age and state of the Church The wisdome of the Law-giver has so contrived these two Commandments that both the day and the duties as occasionals might be changed without any change of his moral and immutable Lawes But there is native light and evidence enough in the fourth Commandment it self to convince us of this truth Prov. 6.23 For as Solomon sayes the Commandment is a Lamp and the Law is light Only we must look to the sense and not wholly liften to the sound of the letter for in all lawes the meaning of the Law-giver Isai 8.20 Non in verbis sed insensu non in superficie sed in medulla non in foliis sed in radice ratiouis Hieron in Gâ—l 2. Tertull. de Carne Chrsti and the sense of the Law is to be respected not the letter only as he sayes well the mind of God is not so much in letters and syllables as the sense and meaning Not in the out-side but in the pith and marrow not in the leaves of words but in the root of reason for which we must digg deep by serious study and prayer before we can discern it Now if laying aside all prejudice we would thus look into this perfect Law of liberty as those that look to be judged by it another day Jam. 2.12 I doubt not but we shall find one day in seven at Gods choice not the old Seventh day to be the soul and substance of it which that it may the better be demonstrated I shall for methods sake distribute this fourth Commandment into these four parts 1. Exod. 20.8 The preceptive part Remember the Sabbath or day of rest to keep it holy 2. V. 9.10 The directive part Six dayes shalt thou labour but a seventh is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God c. 3. V. 11. The argumentative part For in six dayes the Lord made heaven and earth and rested the seventh 4. The benedictive part or the conclusion Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and sanctified it Now if all these four parts of the Commandment be directly for a seventh day in number or proportion and but indirectly occasionally and consequentially for a seventh day in order then the substance of the Commandment is for one day of seven not the last of seven But the premises are true and to demonstrate their truth let us come to tryal 1. We shall examine the Preceptive part Remember the Sabbath day or day of rest to keep it holy This I hope is not be restrained to the old seventh day Sabbath and seventh day cannot be terms convertible here for then there were a tautology in the Commandment as Mr. Cawdrey observes It were as if God should say Remember the seventh day Sabbath the seventh day is the Sabbath which is such a flat tautology as the God of Wisdome will never own in so short a summe of words No it s evident that hitherto the precept is comprehensive and large not limitted to one day more then another for Sabbath day if you will hear the Hebrew word speak English is no more but a day of rest and that is any day set apart for solemn worship by divine authority It is applicable to the first day of the week as much as ever it was to the last A judicious Author does piously and pithily illustrate it by that second table precept Honour the King Mr. Bernard late of Batcomb 1 Pet. 2.17 If Saul be King honour him if he be dead or displaced and David be King then honour King David To neither of them directly but successively and consequentially it might be accommodated to both So remember the day of rest to sanctifie it while the old seventh day was the day of rest the Jews were bound to sanctifie that If that be changed and the first day of the week be chosen in its room we are as much bound to sanctifie that and this by the same law for as the change of the person took not away the precept of honouring the King Hac enim ratione nos quoque proeceptum hoc servamus dum sanctificamus diem dominicum quia hic quietis nobis est dies sicut Judaels fuit septimus Zanch. in praec Col. 2. Syg so the change of the day made not void the command of sanctifying the Sabbath And thus as learned Zanchy tells us We Christians keep the Sabbath as much as ever the Jewes did in keeping holy the Lords day which is a day of holy rest as well as their was For if it be a day of holy rejoycing it must needs be a day of holy rest since it is both improper and impossible to keep a set or solemn day as a day of holy rejoycing in Christ and at the same time
to follow our worldly imployments worldly labour and the sweat of the brow has too much of the curse in it to consist with a day of thanksgiving or holy rejoycing in the Lord. The Scripture frequently calls festival dayes Sabbaths and if Sabbath be a sit name for other dayes of the same nature Why not for this And therefore I cannot but wonder that T.T. who grants the Lords day to be a day of rejoycing according to that of the Psalmist Let us rejoyce and be glad therein should deny it to be a Sabbath or a day of holy rest as he wickedly and profanely doth calling a mans Sabbath discovering his enmity against the thing by carping at the name yea condemning of it why has he the face to call the Jewish festivals Sabbaths or dayes of rest as being either fasting dayes or feasting dayes and yet deny the Lords day this titular honour Inenaem Phil. p. 74. Is it a day of less account then the Passeover day Pentecost day Expiation day and other Ceremonial dayes which the Scripture terms Sabbaths How suitable is a name of rest to a day of rest as the Lords day is Nay I have already proved that it is greater then these yea greater then the old Sabbath it self therefore sure its a day of rest as shall be farther proved in the close of this Treatise And if this be a day of holy rest it is as much intended in these words Remember the Sabbath day to sanctifie it as ever the Jewes Sabbath was But the seventh day was Sabbath day when the Law was given Obj. therefore it is to be understood of that day and none but that You may as well say Answ the fifth Commandment Honour thy father and mother is to be understood of such particular parents as were then living and none but them And then the Quakers will have a fine plea for their barbarous rudeness and unmannerly behaviour towards superiours Tell them of honouring their parents that 's a wilderness-duty may they say it intended only the Israelites parents now t is a dead letter and out of date As simple and sottish a plea as this would be yet it is no better to say the fourth Commandment intended only the Jews Sabbath and the old seventh day because that was only in being when the precept was given Alas that was meerly occasional and accidental to the Commmandment not at all of the essence or substance of it True that was the only weekly Sabbath then but it was not alwayes so to be as the event hath proved But the truth is this first clause Remember the Sabath day to keep it holy did directly point at no peculiar day more then another but being the law of nature it only requires a day of rest in general to be sanctified to wit what day soever it fall upon And this is very considerable since in the judgment of all the learned and godly Deut. 5.12 the prime morality and main substance of the Commandment lies in this clause And hence it is observed that Moses in the repetition of the Law inserts this memorable parenthesis when he had said See Mr. Shepheard Thes 122 and Dr. Twiss Sect. 6. Keep the Sabbath day to sanctifie it immediately he addes these words as the Lord thy God hath commanded thee between the preceptive and the following parts intimating that the substance of the command lies mainly though not only here Well a day of rest must be sanctified sometimes * Natura dictat aliquan to vacuam quieti diem Gerson the light of nature teaches it and the law of God requires it But the next question will be in what proportion and number of dayes it must be stated how seldome or how often it must return If this be left to mans determination there will be nothing but confusion superstition or irreligion One man perhaps will contend that one day in a * As the eighth day of every moneth was observed by the Grecians and the ninth day by the Romans Plutarch in vita Thes Macrobius Saturn lib. 1. c. 16. moneth is sufficient another a little more devout will say nay it must be once a fortnight at least a third with T.T. will run into another Ebionitish extreem and exact two dayes in a week though he bear little good will to one of them Well to end the strife we must consult the Divine oracle to the law and to the testimony have recourse to the Commandment in the second part of it 2. The Directive part in these words six dayes shalt thou labour but the seventh day is the Sabbath to the Lord thy God as if the Lord had said Your Sabbath shall be once a week or one day in seven at my appointment this agrees best with the order of the precept The law of nature being setled in the first clause that a day of rest must sometimes be kept and kept holy the very next scruple is about the number how often it must be kept whether once a quarter or once a moneth or once a week The order whether it shall be the first or last day of such a number is not the next inquiry in all reason the number and proportion must first be stated For the order presupposes the number the moneth must be agreed upon before the day of the moneth and the week before such a day of the week And accordingly this positive directory is given us to point out the number principally Six dayes shalt thou labour but a seventh day is the Sabbath that is your Sabbath shall be neither a daily nor a monethly nor a yearly but a weekly Sabbath The Phrase is exclusive as one observes implying thus much thou art not to keep the sixth day or one of six Dies septimus ipse unus est dierum qui omnes septem sunt August de Oen. ad lit l. 4. c. 18. or the tenth day or one of ten but the seventh day that is one of seven or one in a week The terme seventh is opposed to all other numbers either ninth tenth or twentieth as also to the six working-dayes which clearly intend such a number as six in seven and so the seventh day is as much as one in seven Six dayes shalt thou labour but a seventh day is the Sabbath a seventh what seventh pray note it the Lord sayes not the seventh from the Creation he nameth no day if he had the law had been limitted to that day but because the law-giver intended to chuse a new day and not to change his old law you see he has left it in large and general terms neither can it be restrained to one day more then to another To make it plain by a similitude or two Suppose a rich man who has seven Lambs in a way of unusual bounty make such a proposal as this to his poor neighbour I will freely give you six of them upon condition you keep
equal to a A Jove principium begin with God b Supervacua necessariis post-ponenda sunt Senec. ep 49. and give the precedency to things most necessary and grace both not gain-say it but rather approve it for is it not most reasonable that I should serve my gracious Lord in the duties of his worship because I serve my self in the works of my calling But the truth is Gods example is neither directly for first or last of seven but for one in seven perpetually The force of Gods argument lies in this that we should dedicate one day in seven to rest for six working dayes indulged to our selves And herein we imitate Gods example in labouring six dayes and resting one in seven weekly For farther satisfaction in this argument let the ingenuous Reader consult Mr. Cawdrey and Mr. White of Dorch two burning and shining Lights who have gone before me if any little spark be here added let the Father of lights have all the glory 4. And lastly let us come to that which for memories-sake I call the benedictive part of the Commandment wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day c. observe the phrase not seventh day but Sabbath day or day of rest is blessed The Commandment both opens and shuts begins and ends with the term Sabbath day not seventh day Certainly if the foregoing argument drawn from Gods example had intended only the seventh day from Creation this conclusion flowing from that argument had fallen upon that day also but we see the term is evidently changed that we may not mistake Gods meaning by a supposed strictness in the term seventh day see how the Lord condescends to our weakness writing Sabbath day or day of rest instead of seventh day The Word Abbath like a finger points both forward and backward directiug us how to expound the whole precept in a large and not in a limited sense Doubtless if the Lord God had intended to tye up his Church in all ages to the seventh day from the Creation he would have fixed the command upon that day only especially in the conclusion of it why should not that precise day be mentioned here as well as in the Institution Gen. 2. There he is said to bless and sanctifie the seventh day here only the Sabbath day a more probable reason to me is not imaginable then this the Commandment is of a larger extent then the Institution And besides the Institution of the old day Gen. 2. was but temporary and mutable whereas the precept it self is more and perpetual see then how wisely the Lord our Law-giver has contrived it that it should not be restrained to that particular seventh day To conclude with this conclusion the whole weight and stress of the Commandment you see leans upon large and general terms the Preceptive part is for a day of rest in general the Benedictive part is of the same latitude and although the seventh day be placed in the middle betwixt both yet it is not fixed upon one day more then another unless it be occasionally which indeed is no fixure at all what hinders therefore but the whole substance of the precept may stand in the fall of the day since it was never incorporated into the moral substance of this or any other command It is I must needs say a truth to me as evident as the light it self that the fourth Commandment in all the substantials of it makes as much for the Lords day being one in seven of Gods appointment as ever it did for the old Sabbath And here I cannot sufficiently admire and adore the depth of Divine wisdome that the ever glorious God foreseeing and foreappointing the change of the day took care to contrive and pen the commandment in such expressions as might aptly suite the old day while it lasted and as equally sort with the new now it is substituted in the roome of the old That the Jewes upon the discovery of so happy a change might not loath their old Sabbath the precept was occasionally and circumstantially fitted to that and that we Christians having a new might not be limited to the old it is substantially adapted to this I shall need add no more if men did not wilfully wink I should thinke here were light enough in this Lamp of the Law to convince them As for the adversaries objections scattered here and there in his book they vanish like so many vapours before the Sun being brought forth and tryed by the evidence of this truth To assert the whole Lawes morality T.T. Obj. 1. p. 14. Answ and yet plead the Sabbaths mutability scarce savours of rationality These are fine words but feeble arguments and indeed his book is full of them But to answer his Jingle if by Sabbath he mean the seventh day from Creation what irrationality is it to plead the mutability of that day and yet hold the morality of the Law Since that day was never a tittle of the Lawes morality Neither can he affirm it without gross absurdity prove it I am sure he cannot by all his sophistry If God by a positive moral law bind all men in all ages to such a particular day as himself appointed Obj. 2 p. 119. then either they must prove that God hath made his moral law mutable by appointing some other day or else restore the seventh day-Sabbath What pitiful chopt Logick is this Ans Why can the particular day be no where appointed but in the moral law his not he himself often affirmed that it was instituted elsewhere And must the moral law needs go to wrack when a new day is appointed Let him first prove that the old day was any essential part of the moral law till I see that I may safely affirm that in the change of the day as an occasional circumstance the substance of the law remains unchangeable as a man may change his old clothes for new yea and alter his temperament too and yet be still the same man as long as for substance he has the same soul and body Some do assert but not for want of ignorance that t is not that special seventh day Obj. 3 pa. 47. but a seventh day that is injoyned whereas we have not only the pattern in the mount namely the precise time of Gods rest to point out the day but to end all cavil he points twice in the Commandment to that very day on which he rested by the Emphatical demonstrative particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so that 't is not a seventh but Hashebigni the seventh day therefore they had need make sure of a very clear word for the change of the day for fear of being left speechless at the day of Judgment And so he runs on to th end of the page spinning a large web but when all comes to all it is but a cobweb we shall sweep it down by degrees And If by the assertours of the forementioned truth Answ 1 he mean
as needs he must those that maintain the fourth Commandment to be moral for one day in seven not the old seventh day then let me tell him his charging them with no want of ignorance argues in himself no want of impudence for upon whom does this arrogant censure fall but upon all the Learned Zealous and pious servants of God called Puritans who have encountred the rigid prelatical party in this controversie as a p 73. Dr. Bownd b Hexap in Gen p 43. Dr. Willet c Sect. 6. Dr. Twiss d Dies Domin l. 1. c. 10 Dr. Young e Mosaic Sab. p. 70. Mr. Bernard of Batcomb f in Gen. 2. moral of the fourth Co. Mr. White of Dorch g Doctr. of the Sab. vind p. 236 Mr. Byfield h of the Sab. p. 78. Mr. Fenner i Declar. the Sab. p. 101. Mr. Cleaver k p. 6. 36. Mr. Sprint l part 2. c. 7. throughout Mr. Cawdrey and Mr. Palmer and whom not of savory name in the Church of Christ do they not all affirm the same thing That the Comandment is substantially moral for one day in seven not that old seventh day and must all these modern worthies be branded for meer ignoramus's And not only these but all the Ancients too whose testimony they have all along cited Surely this man is very wise in his own conceit that he can thus look upon the greatest lights of these latter dayes as fools and dunces But I shall not answer him in his folly therefore to proceed Whereas he objects that we have Gods pattern in the mount the precise time of his rest to point out the day Answ 2 As in the first Institution of the supper Christ made use of unleavened bread yet his example binds us only to the use of bread not that which is unleavened So for the first Institution of the Sabbath God rested on the seventh day from Creation yet his example binds us only to a day of that number not that particular day See the new Annot. in Exod. 20. Attersolls new Cov. I answer as before that Gods pattern or example is directly propounded in the Commandment to point out the proportion not the particular day The proportion I say of one day in seven for rest in opposition to six working dayes And therefore the number of Gods working dayes is specified in the example as well as the day of his rest for in six dayes the Lord made Heaven Earth and Sea and rested the seventh day plainly intimating that the main force of the example is to bind us to such a number of dayes six for labour and one in a week for rest not such an order as first or last of seven Or admit there were some thing else in it namely that indirectly and occasionally it did lead the Jews to that old seventh day that is during the significancy of that day and the supereminency of the first Creation yet when a new Creation is finished and a new rest from a greater work manifested upon another day that indirect and occasional force of the example for the old day must needs be out of force to us being subordinated and swallowed up by the glory of a greater work and a better rest upon another day And that without any violation of the precept at all yea or the example either in the direct scope of it for one day in seven A new day might be and is instituted and yet the main scope both of the precept and example still observed in our labouring six dayes and resting every seventh Only that which was circumstantial and occasional is altered upon the account of the new Creatio or Redemption which comparatively was to put out the memory of the old Creation as it is plain Isai 65.17 And that thus it should be that the occasional force of Gods example as to the old day should be out of force to us and yet a weekly Sabbath to be still observed by the moral and direct force of the command me thinks it is not obscurely signified in the Commandment it self if we do but compare two places together Exod. 20. with Deut. 5. at the first giving of the Law in thunder and terrour Exod. 20.11 compared with Deut. 5.15 the Sabbath is wholly inforced from the Creation and Gods example in resting from that work as was said before but in the repetition or second-giving of the law by the hand of Moses a typical mediatour Deut. 5. you see the reason from the Creation is quite left out and the Sabbath is altogether inforced by a type of our Redemption viz. their deliverance from the Egyptian bondage Remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt Mr. G. Abbot Vindic. Sabb. a most accurate Treatise never yet answered So also see learned Ainsworth in Exod. 20. and the Lord brought thee thence by a mighty hand therefore he commanded thee to keep the Sabbath day lively intimating as a learned Author observes the subsistence of the fourth Commandment under the Gospel and the binding authority of it by the incorporation of a new reason drawn from our Redemption or spiritual deliverance by Christ instead of the old reason drawn from the Creation which is here utterly omitted And as he sayes well it is worthy to be considere whether such a repetition of the fourth Commandment not Seorsim or by it self alone but together with the whole decalogue in its proper place and order with such a material omission or alteration be not very significant and what can it more properly signifie then this that under the second and best dispensation of the Law that is under the Gospel the main argument for our weekly Sabbath should be the work of Redemption Surely their deliverance from Egypt literally considered was not comparable to the work of Creation that it should here be propounded as the reason of the Sabbath and the other left out but as a type of the most glorious and gracious work of Redemption there was much weight in it And if the type it self were thus significant Argum. a minori as to carry the force of a reason for the weekly Sabbath setting aside the Creation how much more should the antitype which excells all types in glory as much as the Su does the shadow It will perhaps be objected That this argues the perpetuity of the old seventh day under the Gospel I answer No it quite overthrowes it for in as much as it signifies the weekly celebration of a Sabbath in memory of Redemption rather then of Creation it evidently implyes that when this greater work should be finished the memory of the Creation upon which the old day was fixed should be swallowed up by the worke of Redemption and then the day it self must unavoidably be changed It s true while the type lasted and Redemption was rather figured then fulfilled the old day was still to be obseved
the Law is abrogated I look upon them as words ' of course which in a Controversie weigh no more then a feather yea as beggerly fallacies for they all along begge the question taking that for granted which hath been soundly whipt with a denyal by sundry learned pens viz. that the seventh day from the Creation was ever an express tittle of the Commandment a seventh day in a week indeed is more then a tittle of the Law and this number is still continued in the observation of the Lords day all the Christian world over And I doubt not but it shall continue to the end of the world although the old day be changed as in the celebration of the Passeover the precise order of time was sometimes altered for whereas the fourteenth day of the first moneth was the time appointed at first Exod. 12.18 yet Hezekiahs great passeover was kept on the fourteenth day of the second moneth 2 Chron. 30.5 Where you see the precise individual day altered upon occasion yet the number the fourteenth day still observed See this illustration further cleared by Mr. G. Abbot p. 37. and Mr. Walker p. 49. So upon a greater and better occasion the Sabbath is altered as to the day yet the seventh day in number still kept intire in this as the fourteenth in the other And so the Sabbath now as well as the Passeover then for substance preserved notwithstanding the circumstantial and occasional change of the day And thus through the conduct of my gracious Guide leading me by Scripture light and the foot-steps of my dear companions in the cause of Christ I have safely passed the pikes of opposition and vindicated this royal law from the false glosses and erroneous discants of the adversary carrying this conclusion all along before me as a truth triumphing over all contradiction That the old seventh day was never propounded as the substance or special subject of any moral law I shall but touch upon the second 2. That it seems to be pointed at as a sign under the ceremonial law yea it does more then seem so if the text be impartially viewed Exod. 31. from v. 13. to v. 18. where we find a special charge imposed upon the Jews to observe the Sabbath and that upon sundry considerations 1. From the end of it Verily my Sabbath ye shall keep for it a sign between me and you V. 13. throughout your generations to know that I am Jehovah that sanctifieth you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for so the words run in the Hebrew And this is farther explicated v. V. 14. 14. ye shall keep the Sabbath therefore for it is holy or holiness to you thereby expounding what was meant by his sanctifying of them in the verse before 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As if the Lord had said the keeping of my Sabbaths shall be a distinctive badge and cognisance of your Covenant-holiness Sabbathum est signum quod Deus Israclem sanctificat ut Sabbathum sanctifionvit scil segregando eosex Gentibns profanls in peculiarem sibi popnlum Lavat in Exek Hom. 26. a sign that I do sanctifie you and separate you to my self above all the people of the earth for an holy and peculiar people for as the Lord is said to sanctifie the Sabbath so also to sanctifie Israel that is by separating it from all other dayes and them from all other nations to be holiness to himfelf And this is the first special reason why they should keep the Sabbath throughout their generations as a sign or mark of distinction to difference them from the rest of the profane world 2. From the perill of profaning it v. 14.15 Every one that defileth it shall surely be put to death for whosoever doth any work therein that soul shall be cut off from amongst his people c. A law shortly after executed in the letter of it by stoning to death one that gathered sticks on the Sabbath day Numb 15.36 which rigour for ought I can find to the contrary lasted no longer then the Israelites peregrination in the wilderness where as one sayes an extraordinary strict rest was imposed upon them because they were extraordinarily accommodated for it Being as the Saints in heaven are immediately at Gods finding having Mannah without means daily provided for them and hence it is said Numb 15.32 While the children of Israel were in the wilderness they found a man that gathered sticks on the Sabbath day and stoned him to death Note the Phrase while they wore in the wilderness not elsewhere for when they were out of the wilderness we never read of the like punishment inflicted It seems then that this strict kind of rest and rigour was restrained to that time and place only 3. Another argument to inforce their observation of the Sabbath is taken from the moral equity of it verse 15. Six dayes may work be done but the seventhis the Sabbath As if the Lord had said ye may well afford me one day in seven since I have given you six in seven And this again is reinforced by Gods example in the latter part of v. 17. For in six dayes the Lord made heaven and earth and rested the seventh day Now it concerns us to inquire in this context what was proper to the Jews and what common with them to us What is moral and perpetual what judicial or ceremonial and temporary For that morals and judicials are here mingled together none can deny and the difficulty will be how to sever the one from the other and to shew in what sense the Sabbath was made a sign what the significancy of it was and especially what kind of sign whether a permanent sign as the Rain bow or a transient sign as the cloudly pillar in the wilderness There are sundry sorts of signs spoken of in Scripture I shall onely instance in those that are of prime note and pertinency to resolve the case in hand 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Josh 4.6 7. So also the Passeover was and the Lords supper is a sign being both memorative Exod. 12.26 Mat. 26.26 1 Cor. 11.24 There are remembrancing signs as the twelve stones taken out of Jordan for every tribe one were set up as a sign to after-ages for a memorial to the childen of Israel that the waters of Jordan were cut off before the ark And such a kind of sign it is commonly thought the Sabbath was a memorial of the Creation But that it is so propounded or intended here cannot easily be proved since the Lord does not say I have given you my Sabbaths as a sign that I created the world but for a sign that I the Lord do sanctifie you And although it be added v. 17. It is a sign betwixt me and the Children of Israel for ever Ainach majoris distinctionis pausae est accentus Buxtorf Thes Gram. for in six dayes the Lord made heaven and earth c. Yet it
sufficient refutation of them 1. The seventh day being a sign makes it not a ceremony T.T. Obj. 1. p. 18. for Christ was a sign Isai 7.14 Luk. 2.34 the Saints are set for signs Isai 8.18 So is the holy Spirit 1 Joh. 4.13 yea for the same sign as the Sabbath is c. He might have added that circumcision Answ Exod. 13.9 Rom. 4.11 and the Passe over also were signs but then he had spoiled his argument for it is certain that both these were ceremonial yet doubtlesss it had been more proper and pertinent to have compared the old Sabbath with other old Ordinances then to have thus equalized it with Christ and his blessed spirit But to answer his instances Christ was propounded as a sign of Confirmation Isai 7. as a sign of Contradiction or a sign to be spoken against Luke 2. The Saints were set for signs of Wonder Isai 8. The holy spirit for a Witness and not properly a sign now what cognation and alliance is there betwixt these and the old Sabbath which as to the day was a distinguishing sign and that for a season only therefore temporary I will not say ceremonial The Sabbath is set for a sign of things past as the worlds Creation not of good things to come Obj. 2 as the ceremonial Sabbaths So also are the annual Sabbaths Answ Deut. 16.1 c. Passeover and Pentecost ordained in memorial of things past as their deliverance from Egypt and the giving of the Law on Mount Sinai yet both are abolished although I grant the Sabbath was never abolished or abrogated as to the substance of it only altered in respect of the circumstance If the morality of the Sabbath cease by being a sign Obj. 3 upon the same account must the whole law cease to be moral since Gods spirit hath set it also for such a sign Deut. 8.6 Thou shalt bind it as a sign upon thine hand But This is frivolous for every child can distinguish between the book and the binding of it Answ Numb 15.38 39 40. The law it self was not a sign but the binding it on their hands and that for a remembrancing sign only the proper use of their fringes and Phylacteries By the way if I mistake not here is a plain contradiction for a little before he had argued that the Sabbath was such a sign as the holy spirit is and now he makes it such a sign as the wearing of the law upon their hands was If one of these be true the other must needs be false for the one is internal the other was external and visible only And this is the Goliahs sward he talks of wherewith He fights with his own fancy Answ 2 for who of sound judgment ever affirmed that the morality of the Sabbath must cease as a sign still he runs upon his ol mistake that the old seventh day was the morality of the Sabbath which we have constantly denyed and disproved The term seventh day is not set for a sign but the term Obj. 4 p. 19. Sabbath The Word Sabbath is very often Answ Levit. 19.3 Isai 1.13 Lam. 1.7 Mat. 12.5.11 Mark 1.21 Luk. 4.31 Acts 13.14 Chap. 17.2 though not alwayes put for the old seventh day especially when it is used in the plural number as here it is Therefore I conclude as before that the day and not the duty is hee set for a temporary sign the duty no otherwise then as it is peculiarly related to the day T is not a Sabbath in general much less the Commandment concerning a weekly Sabbath but the old Sabbath then in use which was given the Jews as a sign and so designed for change for change I mean in respect of the time not of the thing according to that of Augustine who writing against Faustus the Manichee who sought to overthrow the faith of Christians by maintaining that Moses and Christ were opposite in their Doctrines alledging among other things that there was one tradition of Moses another of Christ concerning the Sabbath answers him thus Their doctrine was not divers Non diversa doctrina sed diversum tempus August contra Faust Man lib. 16. cap. 28. only the time or day was different intimating that Moses and Christ were both for a weekly Sabbath but Moses for the last Christ for the first day of the week And thus we have made good the second Position That the old Sabbath being made alterable in the first Institution was further manifested to be alterable in the second Edition of the Sabbath A few words shall suffice for the third POSITION III. That the Old Sabbath was yet further evidenced to be alterable and changeable in the after Observation of it FOr proof whereof I shall only cite the practise of our blessed Saviour in which the Adversary glories most as if it made only for him T is his ground argument for the perpetuity of the old seventh day that Christ did most of his cures and famous miracles on that day Now learned Chemnitius takes the same argument and turns the edge of it against him thus De abrogatione Sabbathi Mosaici dictis docuit Christus libertatem factis sapiuo testatam fecit cum Sabbathis sanaret c. Chemn Examen Concil Trident. cap. de Festis ubiplura The Lord Jesus both by word and deed hath taught us that the Mosaical Sabbath was to be abrogated not only in that he proclaimed himself Lord of the Sabbath but in that he often witnessed his liberty and power over it by sundry of his cures performed on that day Some instance in the cure of the man born blind John 9.6 7 14. Others in the miraculous cure of that cripple or impotent man John 5 whereas Dr. Lightfoot learnedly observes there was the most apparent sign towards the shaking and alteration of the Sabbath as to the day that we meet withall in the New Testament till the alteration it self came To this purpose let the context be duly considered and we shall find two things observable in it 1. What our Saviour did on the Sabbath day he healed a long languishing malady a disease of 38. years standing 2 What he sayed upon this occasion and that 1. To the man his patient 2. To the Jewes his persecutors who call him in question about it To the man he said Take up thy bed and walk Now the question is why our Lord should enjoyn this man to carry his bed on the Sabbath day the expresse letter of the law prohibiting the bearing of any burthens on that day T. T. Supposes that it was either for the confirmation of the miracle to shew the perfectness of the cure Jerem. 17.21 p. 21. or for the publication of Gods glory but it is answerd that both these might have been done as well by his walking upon his feet and leaping as in the like case wee read elsewhere or at least by bearing his bed the next day
Act. 3.8 so ch 14 10. There was therefore certainly more in this Command then what did barely refer either to the confirmation of the miracle or the publication of Gods glory in that sense supposed and what it was the above mentioned Author does thus resolve us namely that it was See Dr. Lightf Harm of the 4 Evang. p. 3. in John 5. Partly in respect of the man Partly in respect of the day In respect of the man it was to trye his faith and obedience whether upon the bare word of Christ he would venture upon so hazardous an action In respect of the day it was to shew Christs power and authority over the old Sabbath that as elsewhere in restoring the man sick of the Palsy he not onely shewed his power over the disease in healing it but also over sin in forgiving it So it pleased him here at one and the same time to shew his Divine power over the distemper in curing it and his soveraignty over the Sabbath in dispensing with it and disposing of it as he thought good 'T is objected against this by T. T. whose usuall trick it is to clamour where he cannot answer That in argueing thus we joyn with the blasphemous Pharisees in charging our Saviour as a Sabbath-breakere Obj But we easily cleare opur blessed Saviour and quit our selves of this false and injurious charge affirming That our Lord could be no more taxed for Sabbath breaking in requiring this man to beare his bed on the sabbath-Sabbath-day then God himself in Commanding Joshuah to march about Jericho seven times on the same day He did not hereby transgress the Law but shewed his soveraignty over the day which will the better appeare if we consider What he sayes to the Jewes in answer to their cavils about it In the sequel of the Chapter where all along we may observe how he justifies his act by asserting his power He tels tehm verse 17 that he had the same authority over the Sabbath that the father had The Father worketh hitherto and I work This answer refers cheifly to that part of the objection which lay against his healing on the Sabbath day and it is continued to verse 20. Then he answers more directly to that other part of their accusation his supposed violation of the Sabbath in giving the man a dispensation to carry his bed verse 20 The father loveth the Son and sheweth him all things that himself doth yea he will shew him greater things then these that ye may mervel Greater workes then these why as the forementioned Authour speakes they were great things that our Saviour had now done in curing a desperate disease and dispensing with the Sabbath but he must do yet greater Workes then these v. 16. namely raise the dead and change the Sabbath that Jewish Spirits might mervel The Jewes persecuted him because he had done these things on the Sabbath day that is healed the man and commanded him to carry his bed So the word judgment is used Psalm 9.11 Psalm 94.15 Isai 28.6 Jerem. 33.15 John 8.16 Now in answer to these two particulars he tels them that the Father would shew him greater workes then these for verse 21. As the Father raiseth the dead so the Son And verse 22. The father judgeth no man but hath committed all Judgment to the Son that is government or Legislative power about the affaires of men and in particular about the disposall of the Sabbath which was now under dispute They carped and cavill'd at his present carriage towards the Sabbath He tels them that he had authority to do what he did yea and more then that came to for all judgement was committed into his hands to do some greater things then barely to dispense with the Sabbath and something at which the Jewes should marvell and for which all should honour the Son as they honour the Father Verse 23 That as the Father was honoured in giving the Law so should the Son be honoured in giving the Gospel and as the Father was honoured in appointing the old Sabbath so should the Son in ordaining a new Sabbath not in confirming the old as T. T. would have it for so the Son is not honoured even as the Father was honoured pa. 145. For the Father was honoured as the institutor of a Sabbath therefore so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 even so must the Son be honoured The argument is very ponderous if we consider the scope of our Saviours oration which was to justifie what he had done on the Sabbath-day To this purpose he pleades his designment to do greater things then these and some greater thing in reference to command and disposall over the Sabbath which was the thing in question And this plea he proves by his power to raise the dead and to dispose of all things in a way of judicature or government under the new Testament as the Father had done under the Old and to this intent that all men should honour the Son as they honour the Father which being spoken with reference to the Sabbath and to his present dispensing with it doth plainly speake his intention to alter and change it Again here is one thing more observable namely that Christs power to raise the dead and his power to dispose of the Sabbath are carryed along both together in this discourse And the one is made an argument of the other plainly intimating the change of the day upon the resurrection upon his own resurrection in the first place which is hinted at verse 26. and others with himself at his resurrection according to that ancient prophecy Thy dead men shall live Isai 26.19 Mat. 27.52 53. together with my dead body shall they arise which was fulfilled when our Saviour rose from the dead So that all things considered here is a most pregnant Scripture to prove that it was our Redeemers purpose to alter the Sabbath And therefore as in Preface to such a thing he both gives the man a commission to carry his bed on that day and pleads for what he had done by his divine authority as beginning to shake the day which within two years after was to be unhinged and actually changed for another at least it speaks his power to alter it And he that shall dare deny this must make Christ Jesus the Lord inferiour to David the servant for even David had power to alter a circumstance in the Law of Moses 1 Chron. 23.24 25 26. ordaining that the Levites should officiate at twenty years old Numb 4.3 Numb 8.24 when as Moses had appointed that they should not officiate till 25. or 30. yet when the reason of the Mosaical ordinance ceased and the Ark had rest you see David changes that order And if David who was but a meer man though a King and a Prophet might alter a circumstance about the Priesthood Isai 9.6 Revel 15.3 Mat. 28.18 how much more might the Lord Jesus who is
the mighty God King of Saints and King of Nations having all power in heaven and earth put into his hands alter a circumstance concerning the Sabbath by translating it from the last to the first day of the week Well if he had power to alter it then it was alterable which was the thing to be proved If it be said the question is not what the Lord could do but what he did whether he did indeed alter the Sabbath as to the day I answer we shall put this question out of question in the next Position POSITION IV. That the Old Sabbath was actually altered and changed from the last to the first day of the week by the authority of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and that upon the noble account of our Redemption manifestly accomplished by his most glorious resurrection from the dead on that day FOR the Confirmation whereof I shall First propound some Scripture-Arguments Secondly Produce some Authentick Records of antiquity both which we shall find harmoniously concurring in all the three branches of this Position First That the day is certainly changed Secondly That this change was occasioned by our Saviours most glorious Resurrection Thirdly That this was done by the Soveraign authority of Christ himself either immediately in his own person or mediately by the prescript and practise of his inspired Apostles either or which will be sufficient We shall begin with Scripture-proof and argument in way of Preface whereunto let it be premised that this truth is not Syllabically and totidem verbis in so many words at length set down in Scripture neither needs it considering the question in not about the change of the septenary number one day in seven but the order only the last for the first of seven and besides it is not the Lords method and manner of speaking in many other New Testament-cases as Church-Government Family-worship and sundry others which were plain enough in the Old Testament to express himself in full sentences but very briefly in short hints and touches here a little and there a little to exercise the ingenuity of believers not to fatisfie the curiosity of Cavillers The Scriptures were no more designed to answer all the cavilling questions of wanton wits then the Sun was made for them to see that shut their eyes yet I deny not the sufficiency of Scripture-light to make us wise unto salvation only we must not presume to give laws to Heaven and teach the Lord how to speak But a Hebr. 12.25 see that ye refuse not him that speaketh from heaven that speaketh I say not only by express word but by his b V. 24. blood or death and so also by his c Joh. 2.19 21. Rom. 1.3 4. resurrection from the dead by the d John 15.26 mission of his Spirit by the unction and inspiration of his Apostles whose writings are his words their counsels his commands their pattern and practise his e 1 Cor. 14.37 precept f Luke 10.16 for he that heareth them heareth him therefore let him that hath an ear hear the voice of Christ yea though he open his mouth in a parable to carnal reason g Psalm 78.1 Mat. 13.9 35. as it seems he does even in some of his Gospel-law yea let us hear Christ speaking by his Spirit I mean the spirit of Prophecy breathing in the Old Testament for h Rev. 19.10 the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of Prophecy nay let us learn to spell his word out of his works for his i John 5 36. ch 10. 25. works do testifie of him In a word consider it is k Luke 11.49 Wisdome it self that uttereth her voice in the written word and she useth to speak 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 much in a little yea to speak by l Mat. 22.32 Acts 14.47 arguments couched in Scripture as well as express affirmations and what those Scripture-arguments are which speak the change of the Sabbath as here stated we come now to shew The first may be taken from the new Creation Arg. 1 or reparation of the world by Christ as thus Incongruum erat veteris Creationis Sabbathum novae Creatimi Lighâ—f Horae Hebr. p. 321. ubi plura The new Creation must have a new Sabbath or set-day of Commemoration now this new Creation came in by Christs resurrection Therefore a new Sabbath The form of this argument I grant is not found in Scripture but the force of it is as shall be seen in the proof of each proposition 1. That the new Creation must have a Sabbath of Commemoration This may not only be gathered from parity of reason but plain Scripture prophecy I might recite that forementioned famous Text in Isai ch 65. 17. Behold I create new heavens and a new earth and the former shall no more be remembred i. e. in respect of solemnity for otherwise remember the work of Creation we do and must but not as the greater work for look as the Jews m Isai 43.18 19. Jer. 16.15 16. ch 23. 7 8. deliverance out of Egypt was subordinated by their after-deliverance out of Babylon so is the work of Creation by that of Redemption whereby the world at least the Church was put into a new frame and form Anno Mundi changed for Anno Domini upon the account whereof as the year of the world was worthily changed for the year of our Lord so was the old Sabbath for the Lords day But that which I would further argue from Isai 65. is this The old Sabbath cannot stand with the new Creation therefore it must have a new or none This was touched before Posit 1. that there should be none at all none but old Anabaptists Familists and Atheists will affirm And that the old cannot stand is evident because the foundation on which it stood the memory and celebrity of the worlds Creation is swallowed up by the glory of a greater work Sicuti Sol exoriens stellis eripit suum fulgorem Calv. in Loc. and we cannot possibly retain that old seventh day but we must memorize our Creation above our Redemption our being above our well-being which were expresly to contradict this ancient promise and Prophecy If it be objected that this Scripture is not yet fulfilled because the Apostle sayes 2 Pet. 3.12 we look for new heavens and a new earth viz. at the end of the world I answer Although it shall then receive a further accomplishment in the latter yet inchoatively and sufficiently as to the thing in question it was fulfilled long ago even before the name Jew was laid aside and the name Christian take up Isai 65.15 So ch 62. 2. for let the context be minded vers 15. the Prophet foretels the rejection of the Jews and the change of their name for the Christian name Ye shall leave your name for a curse to my people Ac si Dominus diceret non amplius nomen
Judaerum celebrabitur amittetis regnum Sacrdotium celebrabitur nomen Christianorum Luther for the Lord God will slay thee and call his servants by another name and then v. 17. he intimates the coming in of this new name as a consequent of the new Creation For behold I make new heavens c. So that these new heavens must be created before the Disciples were called Christians Acts 11.26 and so far accomplished then as to out-shine the first Creation the supereminency whereof was the foundation on which theold seventh day stood I may therefore safely conclude The old Sabbath cannot possibly stand with the new Creation unless some new device can be found out to make an old house stand without a foundation But yet further that the work of the new Creation must necessarily draw after it a new Sabbath will more evidently appear if we look to the next Chapter Isai 66. opened where this Evangelical prophet seems rather to write an history then a prophecy of the new world under the Messiah describing it 1. By its new inhabitants or Church-members namely the n Verse 12.18 19 20. Gentiles 2. By its new Church-officers under those old titles of o V. 21. Priests and Levites I will also take of them meaning the converted Gentiles for Priests and for Levites saith the Lord. 3. By its new seasons of solemn worship under those old terms of new Moons and Sabbaths Vers 23 It shall come to pass that from one new Moon to another New Moons and Sabbaths by a figurative kind of phrase two words used to express one and the same thing are here put for the ordinary stated seasons of solemn worship in general 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Kings 4.23 Ezek. 46.1 or from moneth to moneth as in the Hebrew and from Sabbath to Sabbath all flesh shall come and worship before me saith the Lord that is all sorts of men without exception exemption or exclusion of any Now let us see what may be argued from this Scripture that the Prophet here points at Gospel-times is plain enough yea the whole succession of Gospel-times for the things here prophesied of are such as run parallel with the Church state of the Gentiles and the constituting of a publick Ministry chosen from among them Again that new things are here intended by these old names is without dispute a Gospel-ministry by Priests and Levites distinct from the Levitical priesthood and why not by Sabbaths and new Moons select seasons of worship under the Gospel distinct from those under the Law For that it cannot be meant of the old Sabbath and Old Testament-times of worship may be thus demonstrated That interpretation which would render the Prophet Isaiah a false Prophet cannot be true But to interpret this prophecy from moneth to moneth and from Sabbath to Sabbath all flesh shall come and worship before the Lord of the Jews saturday-Saturday-Sabbath would render the Prophet Isaiah a false Prophet since the experience of these sixteen hundred years can testifie that no flesh at all or none to speak of have owned that day as a day of solemn worship but expound it of the Christian Sabbath and so it holds true to a tittle for the first day of the week has been owned and observed by all Churches in all ages ever since the Sun of righteousness arose on that day and thus what the Lord foretold by his Prophet he has fulfilled by his Providence and this spirit of Prophecy proves the testimony of Jesus And so I suppose we have found even Old Testament-proof of a New testament-Testament-Sabbath or which comes all to one the ordinary stated season of solemn worship under the Gospel distinct from that under the Law and all this in close connexion with the new Creation for verse 22. it is said As the new heavens and new earth which I will make shall remain before me so shall your name and your seed remain and then presently it followes from moneth to moneth and Sabbath to Sabbath all flesh shall come and worship before me saith the Lord. Thus the Major or first Proposition is made good that the new Creation must have a new Sabbath 2. Now for the second That Christ by his resurrection brought in the new Creation we may appeal to that of the Apostle Hebr. 9.26 where our Saviours death and suffering is stated upon the end of the world and if the old world ended with his death the new must needs come in with his resurrection from the dead whereby he brought in a new generation the out-casts of the Gentiles and so a new creation of the same kind mentioned in a Isal 41.19 20 Ephes 2.10 11 Isaiah That the in-come of the Gentiles was to take its rise from our Lords resurrection is not obscurely signified by himselfe in that b Mat. 12.39.40 sign which he gave the Jewes the sign of the Prophet Jonas who was the Prophet of the Gentiles Fatentur ipsi Judaei regnum Messiae inchoandum à resurrectionemortuorum renovatione mundi Lightf Hor. Hebr. hereby he did not only point at his own resurrection as one observes but also secretly gall the Jewes with an intimation of the calling of the Gentiles upon his resurrection as the Ninivites were called upon Jonahs resurrection from the grave of the Whalesbelly And thus some expound that place Thy c Isal 26.19 dead men shall live together with my dead body shall they arise as reserring not only to the corporal resurrection of d Mat. 27.53 those that came out of their graves at Christs resurrection but also to the calling and quickning of the poor dead Gentiles who are said to be e Ephes 2.5 6. quickened together with Christ and raised up together with him Again that the new creation both as to persons and things followes upon Christs resurrection may be gathered from that f 2 Cor. 5.17 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 known Text of Scripture If any man be in Christ he is a new Creation as in the Greek old things are passed away behold all things are become new The Apostle seemes to argue from things to persons * A new name Acts 11 26. A new Jerusalem Rev. 3.12.2 new song Isal 42.10 a new Testament Heb. 8.13 all things new Rev. 21.5 See Dr. Gouge Progress of providence p. 9. All things in Christ are become new a new Jerusalem a new Church a new Covenant new Ordinances new Heavens and a new earth therefore all his followers must be new creatures and this he infers from verse 15 inasmuch as Christ dyed for us and rose again and we may place the accent upon his rising again as in another case the Apostle does g Rom. 8.34 It is Christ that dyed yea rather that is risen again There is a rather put upon the resurrection of Christ in comparison of his death and passion so there in point of justification and so it may be here in respect
And here I cannot but note how emphatically the truth answers the type w Deut. 5.15 c. 6.21 9.26 Exod. 24.8 ch 15.1 21. for look as Israel was redeemed from Egypt with a mighty hand not as captives but as conquerours with the ruine and spoll of their enemies so were the elect redeemed by Christ not barely in a way of ransome by the price of his blood but in a way of rescue and conquest by the hand of his power as in the day of his triumphant resurrection concerning which the Prophet seems to speak x Isai 53.13 I will divide him a portion with the great and he shall divide the spoile with the strong because he hath poured out his soul unto death Thus in substance there is an admirable similitude betwixt the type and the Antitype yea the very circumstance of time is considerable for upon search into Scripture I believe it will be found that their deliverance out of Egypt was on the first day of the week in memorial whereof they kept the feast of unleavened bread y Exod. 15.3 4 5. with because they came forth with their z Exod. 12.6 unleavened lumps being thrust out in hast that it was upon the first day of the week appears from the twelfth chap. where the Passeover is fixed upon the a Exod. 12.6 fourteenth day of the moneth then it was first instituted and celebrated now the fourteenth day of the moneth must needs be the second Sabbath of the moneth even of the moneth Abib answering to our March which was here made the beginning of moneths or the first moneth in the year From the Creation of the world till now they began their year with the moneth Tisri or September See Dr. Lightfoots gleanings on Exod. p. 20. but here upon a work greater in figure as representing our Redemption by Christ about the same time of the year the beginning of their year is changed to Abib and the Passeover being killed the fourteenth day at even the midnight following the first born of Egypt were slain But yet still Israel is in Egypt only their longs girt V. 11. and shoones on their feet ready to depart and see how it followes The Egyptians being dreadfully alarum'd by the death of the first-born resolve to be troubled no longer with such fatal Guests and therefore in a great hurry they pack them away intreat and importune them to be gone Pharaoh did not more force them to stay before then now to depart But Israel must not go empty-handed they must be well paid for their hard service some time must be spent in borrowing the Egyptians Jewels by that time they were furnished for their journey we may suppose it was well towards the morning and now all the Armies of the Lord march out of Egypt in the b Levit. 26.4 5. sight of all the Egyptians this was on the c Numb 33.3 fifteenth day of the first moneth the morrow after the Passeover and the fourteenth dcay being the Sabbath this must needs be the first day of the week which was afterwards kept as a solemn Festival and called the d Levit. 23.6 7. Numb 28.17 Deut. 16.3 feast of unleavened bread in which they were to have a holy convocation and to do no work To this the Apostle plainly alludes e 1 Cor. 5.7 8. Christ our Passeover was sacrificed for us wherefore let us keep the feast he points at the feast of unleavened bread Paul was an excellent Critick he understood these sacred mysteries he knew Christs Passion and humiliation was our Passeover which lasted as long as he lay in the grave being under the pains t Acts 2.24 or sorrowes of death and the day of his resurrection answering to the first day of unleavened bread which originally was on the first day of the week here upon he concludes let us keep the feast I will not say here is a precept for the Christian Sabbath but drawing aside the veile from Moses face this I may safely say here is a proof of it and a plain argument for it for Israels Redemption from Egypt and our Redemption from death and hell being both on the first day of the week completed and the former of these in the type being alledged as the reason of the fourth Commandment with a total omission of the Argument drawn from the creation Deut. 5.15 and that in the repetition or second promulgation of the Law seems to speak plainly what I alledg it for that the accomplishment of that type states the Sabbath on the day of Christs resurrection which all the four Evangelists tell us as the first day of the week But 2. Let us passe on to the promissory part of the Covenant and see if some change be not made there also and whether the change of the Sabbath be not necessitated by it I shall only instancei n that fundamental and complexive promise of Christ who was indeed the sum and substance of all the rest for f 2 Cor. 1.20 in him they are all Yea and in him Amen And therefore we must with g Bphes 2.12 Una fuit promissio sed saepius sancita Beza in Loc. promise in the singular number when mention is made of Covenants in the plural to intimate that all the periods and promises of the old Covenant did concenter and meet together in that grand promise of the Messiah He was both the h Gen. 3.15 seed of the Woman the i Gen. 22.18 seed of Abraham the seed k Psalm 122.10 11 12. of David the seed of Mary or son of the l Isai 7.14 Virgin and to say the truth all these after-promises were but as so many Commentaries upon that first promise The seed of the woman shall bruise the Serpents head Now as long as Christ was tendred in that old promise the old Covenant was still in force The old Covenant was a Covenant of promise the new Covenant is Covenant performance and together with it the old Sabbath in ue But the promise being once performed Christ fully exhibited and a new Covenant established the old as to the expressure of it was instantly changed Hebr. 8.13 and together with it the old Sabbath which had neither birth before nor being after it unless for a season in condescention to the infirmity of the Jewes whose weak eyes could not indure the bright Sun shine of the Gospel all at once Now if it be demanded when and where we shall state the accomplishment of that old Covenant and the establishment of the new I answer both upon te resurrection of Jesus Christ the first day of the week For First Then and thereby was the grand Covenant-promise performed As the Apostle assures us in that forementioned Text m Act. 13.32 33 We declare unto you glad tidings how that the promise which was made to our fathers God hath fulfilled the same to us their children
grave But a word with you Sir did the Lord Jesus indeed enter into that rest of the grave the seventh day of the week why then it seems he rose again from the dead the second day and rested but two dayes and two nights in the grave and had he not need be greater then an Angel that shall take upon him to coine such new Creeds and preach such new Gospels for sear of the Apostles d Gal. 1.7 8. Anathema To salve this he tells us p. 145. that our Saviours body was laid to rest in the Sepulchre in the close of the sixth day Very good Why then does he say in the next page that he entred into this rest on the seventh day Thus at once he contradicts both himself and the Scriptures But to conclude this author has little reason to vaunt and glory as he does in this new invention For to make Christs rest in the grave a ground of the weekly Sabbath is neither proper in respect of the thing nor proportionable in respect of the time For the thing it self how altogether improper and incongruous is it to keep a weekly festival in memory of our Saviours Funeral to make that day a day of rejoycing which was rather a day of mourning For so the Ancients held it and therefore kept it as a Fast ergo not as a Sabbath for the Sabbath was ever reckoned among the solemn c Ier. 23.2 3. Feasts of the Lord which one consideration is sufficient to shew the judgment of antiquity in this controversie For they kept the * Diem Solis laetitiae indulgemus Tertul. Apol. c. 36. Sabbato usque ad galli cantum jejunium producite et illucescente uno Sabbatorum qui est dominicus desinite Constit lib. 5. c. 16. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epiphan lib. â—3 Tom. 3. Haeres 75. Lords day as a day of spiritual joy and gladness and spent the whole Saturday the time of Christs lying in the grave in Fasting and mourning alledging for their practise that speech of our Saviour When the Bride-groom is taken from them then shall they fast Luke 5.35 Again it holds no proportion in respect of the time for our Saviour lay three dayes and three nights in the grave therefore this can be no pattern for a weekly Sabbath I doubt the best of our new Sabbath-keepers would be weary of resting so long at a time But the stress of T. T s Argument is laid upon Christs entring into rest therefore there remaineth the keeping of a Sabbath to the people of God and here I shall lay the stress of my answer having manifestly proved that Christs entrance into rest was not on the seventh day no not in this authors own new notion of rest And whereas he addes that the taking down of our Saviours body from the Cross and laying it in the sepulchre in the close of the sixth day was providentially ordered I answer true providentially indeed for hereby the Holy Ghost has admirably provided against this future error of raising the old seventh-day-Sabbath from the dead and building it up anew upon the grave of Christ where it rather lies buried never to rise again For if the blessed body of Christ were laid in the grave on the sixth day then he entred not into that rest nor indeed any rest at all on the seventh day But on the first day of the week he entred into his true rest and ceased from his work of Redemption as God the Father did the seventh day from his work of Creation therefore there remaineth the keeping of a Sabbath to the people of God upon the day of Christs resting from his work the day of his rising from the dead And we have grand reason to think that Christ had a significant meaning in prolonging his Resurrection to the third day which was the first of the week as the Father had in lengthening out the Creation to the seventh day which was the last of the week For as the Father could have created the world in a moment so could the Son have quickned and raised himself from the grave assoon as he was in it either the same day or the seventh if he had pleased But he purposely and providentially passed over that day and crowned the first of the week with the glory of his resurrection which plainly speakes it his will and pleasure to make that day the day of our weekly rest in which our Lord himself rested from his greatest work Oh! But Christ rested not on the day of his Resurrection Obj. 4 T. T. p. 120. for he journeyed fifteen miles that very day which was no fair president for celebrating a Sabbath And again he travelled fifteen miles upon this supposed new Sabbath and this not to any Church-meeting but from Jerusalem where most of his disciples were purposely joyning with the two disciples that were journeying on foot seven miles and a half into the Countrey He means the disciples going to Emmaus Luke 24.13 14. This is his last refuge and 't is a very sorry one For First This travel was without labour and if he had journeyed that day from earth to Heaven and back again from Heaven to earth it had been no impeachment to his holy rest any more then the motion of an Angel sent upon Gods errand would be a profanation of his Sabbath certainly the body of Christ at his resurrection was a glorious body and able to move from earth to Heaven as some think in a moment And whether he did not locally though not so solemnly as afterwards ascend into Heaven and descend again the very day of his resurrection is disputed by some I shall not positively assert it but modestly propound it to further inquiry whether those words a John 20.17 Touch me not for I am not yet ascended to my Father but go and tell my brethren I ascend do not seem to imply that even now in the morning of the resurrection-day he was about to ascend and whether the same day at night returning again and bidding them touch or b Luke 24.39 handle him do not argue that now he had ascended Again whether those words c Eph. 4.8 11. When he ascended up on high he gave gifts unto men some Apostles some Prophets c. must be necessarily limited to his last ascention or whether they may not be construed of some former ascention Since it seems those gifts were given upon the very day of his resurrection for then d John 20. towards the evening or end of that day the Gospel-Ministry was constituted then the Apostles received their mission and commission e v. 19. As my Father hath sent me even so send I you f v. 21. whose soever sins ye remit they are remitted and whose soever sins ye retain they are retained Yea then they received the g v. 22. Holy Ghost For he breathed on them and saith unto them receive ye the
Holy Ghost I shall not determine where our Saviour had his usual residence during those 40. dayes betwixt his resurrection and last ascention whether in Heauen or on earth curiosity I abhorre in the mysteries of Christ and what I have here offered is in humility and sobriety of spirit with submission to better and riper judgments Let not this digression be counted a transgression or if it be pardon it To return to my answer this is most certain that although the body of Christ after his resurrection remained a real and true body yet it was a h Luke 24.37 spiritual a splendid and glorious body free from that corpulency that lumpishness that subjection to weariness and other infirmities that these vile bodies of ours are clogged and incumbred withall this is manifest by his marvellous apparitions upon earth and his glorious i Acts 1.9 10. 1 Pet. 3.22 assention into Heaven when he mounted himself in the Chariot of that cloud in which he rode in Triumph into glory now motion is no hindrance to the rest of a glorified body such as Christs was when he arose from the dead therefore although he were in action and motion on the resurrection day yet he did not labour His joyning with those two Disciples travelling to Emmaus was a work of Charity and Piety Ans 2 For their hearts were sad and ready to sink under their own fears Luke 24.17 And this blessed Physitian came to comfort them and confirm them in the belief and assurance of his resurrection They were his poor distracted dejected timerous disciples and whom should he visit but such Say they were going from Jerusalem that bloody City suppose they were straying like sheep without a Shepherd yet the Lord Jesus that great Shepherd of the sheep being now brought again from the dead Hebr. 13.20 would not leave them wandering in a wilderness but fetch them home to their fold again And it was no secular imployment but a Sabbath dayes work for he spent the time in opening Scripture preaching and proving his resurrection till their cold and dead hearts were so quickned and warmed that they did even burn within them in a word it was a Sabbath dayes journey But leaving the Adversary to solace himself with these sapless notions and trifling objections we proceed to a fourth Argument From the designation of a new day upon the discharge of the old Arg. 4 we shall couple both together and cast it into this form The old seventh day Sabbath is discharged from obligation or observation under the new Testament and a new day of the same number the first of the week designed deputed and determined for the Christians weekly day of Solemn worship under the Gospel and that by the Lord of the Sabbath Therefore the Sabbath is altered and changed from the last to the first of the week by no less then Divine authority The consequent cannot be denyed if the Antecedent be granted and granted it must be when proved by Scripture as it shall be in each particular I hope to full satisfaction 1. That the old seventh day is discharged disanulled and abolished for ever being a Sabbath more to the people of God in Gospel-times this we have proved in part already from Colos 2.16 to which may be added Gal. 4.10 11. See the new Annotations on this place Ye observe dayes and moneths and times and yees I am afraid of you c. See how zealously this great Apostle and Doctor about dayes decries all legal distinctions of dayes by four distinct phrases he enumerates all the solemn Festivals in use among the Jewes and opposeth the observation of them all in Christian Churches Read the words either backwards or forwards the first clause Ye observe dayes must in all reason referr to their observation of the Jewes weekly Sabbath day For if by years we are to understand either their Sabbaticall years or rather their yearly Sabbath called the day of atonement and by times or seasons their annual Feasts of Passover Pentecost and Tabernacles and by Moneths their monethly Feasts called New-moons what can be meant by dayes in this retrograde order but their weekly seventh day What dayes were in request among the Jewes of quicker return then their monethly dayes besides their weekly Sabbath day That which perswades me that the Apostle does here unquestionably intend the old seventh-day is 1. The Correspondency of this Text with that Kalendar or Chapter of dayes Levit. 23. where Moses sets down all their solemn Feasts or holy-dayes eight in number reckoning the weekly Sabbath among the rest of those Ceremonial Festivals and putting that first as the Apostle does here then proceeding to speak of the rest much after the same order here observed This Text comprehends all the dayes and times mentioned in that catalogue 2. The plain parallel betwixt this place and Colos 2. which may may be seen in the scope of both Epistles compared together These two Churches it seems were sick of one and the same disease as appears by the same Symptomes in both the disease was Judaism wherewith they were dangerously infected by the breath of false teachers crept in among them who beguiled them with a Colos 2.4 enticing words and sought to b Gal. 1.5 pervert the Gospel namely by perswading them to mingle Law and Gospel together by retaining the customes of Moses together with the commands of Christ Colos 2.12.16 Gal. 4.10 ch 5. 2 3 6 12 13. and that especially in two points viz. Circumcision and Observation of legal dayes and among other dayes the old seventh-day which together with circumcision was cryed up among the Colossians as was shewed above and therefore by good consequence among the Galatians also since they were men of the same gang that had bin tampering here as well as there I mean Jewish false teachers the Doctors of circumcision and their Doctrin was alike yea the dayes for which they contended were alike both here and there dayes or Sabbaths sorted out by themselves The old seventh day is here meant though it be not mentioned expresly and distinguished from new moons and other Festivals therefore undoubtedly the old seventh-day was the maine This together with circumcision were those legal and mosaical customes which the Jewish Zealots laboured tooth and nayl to propagate in all the primitive Churches especially where there were any convert Jewes But St. Paul like a resolute champion of Christs cause opposes himself against these growing errours wherever he came insomuch that he began to be voyc'd and cryed up or rather cryed down as the great stickler against Moses Therefore when he came to Jerusalem St. James tells him that the Judaizing weak brethren were c Acts 21.21 informed of him how that he taught the Jewes who were among the Gentiles that is the Christian Churches to forsake Moses and not to walk after the customes and by and by when to stay the Mouths of these
Oracles of God Observation does imply obligation And how can this stand with the soveraignty of God But I suppose his meaning is that God rested the seventh day what then Therefore it was no rudiment had nothing Typical or ceremonial in it It followes not Psam 132.8 2 Chron. 6 41. How often is God said to rest in Types of Christ is not the Tabernacle stiled Gods rest And the Temple and the Temple Worship are not t Gen. 8.21 Exod. 29.18 Numb 15.3 Sacrifices and oblations called a Savour of rest unto God not that Gods soul rested in any of these rests properly nor the people of God neither But he rested in Christ and so did they in these things only as Types or prefigurations of Christ to come And thus he is said to rest on the seventh day We have proved before that man sinned and fell the sixth day and that Christ was promised and actually invested in the office of Mediatorship before the Sabbath was instituted And hereupon God rested the seventh day not only from the work of Creation but from the weight and burthen of Adams sin For God complains of sin as a heavy u Isai 1.14 Amos 5.2.13 burthen and as the sins of the old world are said to * Gen. 6.6 grieve him at his heart so no doubt did the sin of Adam But Christ interposing to make reconcilation God rested the seventh day and was refreshed Exod. 31.17 That the old Sabbath was instituted after the fall besides what has bin formerly alledged appears plainly from that of our Saviour x Mark 2.28 The Sabbath was made for man not man for the Sabbath For man that is for man in misery not man in innocency for the context speaks of necessitous indigent man man subject to hunger and thirst and want T is spoken upon the occasion of the hungry disciples plucking the ears of Corn and eating out of pure necessity on the Sabbath day The Pharisees presently censure them as Sabbath breakers Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath day having power to dispose of it at his pleasure but sayes the Lord of the Sabbath you quarrel without cause For the Sabbath was made for man not man for the Sabbath That is the Sabbath was made for the good and benefit of man in misery Principally for the good of his sick and sinfull soul but partly for the support of his weak and frail body also that it might rest and be refreshed with convenient food Physick and the like which clearly argues that the Sabbath was made ordained and instituted after man was in necessity and misery namely after Adams fall and therefore t is said That God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it Gen. 2.3 Blessed it how not with natural blessings that the Sun should shine brighter or the weather be fairer that day then another No the blessings of the Sabbath were of another nature spiritual blessings such as were suitable to the state of fain man such as God has pronounced Fallen man blessed withall otherwise the institution had never concerned any one man since the fall How could it if the blessings contained in it had bin nothing but Paradise blessings But we shall not inculcate former arguments only add one consideration more to make it further manifest that Gods rest on the seventh day was partly if not chiefly in relation to Christ the promised Messiah T is a saying of the Hebrew Doctors and it agrees well with the a Heb. 2.10 Rev. 5.11 12 13. Scriptures that the world it self had not bin made but for the Messiah For all things were made by him and for him and he is the b Heb. 1.2 heir of all things and that as Mediatour and we have reason to think that Gods heart were more set upon Christ when he set up this visible frame of Heaven and earth then upon all the world besides How unlikely therefore is it that the glorious Creator should set apart a day of rest till the grand design upon which his thoughts had run from all eternity and which was chiefly in his eye when he made the world the glorifying of himself in his Son by investing him with the government of the world and putting him as heir of all things into actuall possession of his hereditary Dominions had some actual inchoate existence 'T is cleare that God did not rest from his other works of Creation till he had made man because till then he had not attained his subordinate end of making the rest of his creatures and t is credible that he would not rest after he had made man till he had made Christ Mediatour and put the government of all upon his shoulders because till then he had not attained his ultimate end for which he made man and all the rest of the world besides Certain it is that the Creation was made but mutably perfect at first and therefore it cannot be conceived how God could keep a setled rest the seventh day till he had setled and established the Creation on Christ the rock c Deut. 32.4 whose work is perfect And this I conceive to be the true and undoubted sense of that saying Gen. 22. On the seventh day God ended Finished or perfected his work namely by establishing it upon Christ that sure foundation 1 Peter 4.18 hence he is styled a faithfull Creator in that he did not leave his work of Creation in a mutable estate as Masons and Carpenters when they have built their houses leave them without any further care what becomes of them but as a faithful Creator * God was not the author or approver of mans falbut only the orderer and over ruler of it to bring good out of evill he over ruled the Fall of Adam for a greater good namely for the establishment of his mutable work by bringing in Christ the right heir setting him as e Ps 8.6 He. 2.8 1 Cor. 15.24 Lord over all the works of his hands puting all things under his feet making him f Josh 3.11 Neb. 9.6 Dan. 10.14 15. Acts 10.36 Lord of the whole world and of all things therein to whom doth appertain the Dominion of the Heavens and the Heaven of Heavens the earth and all that is therein Thus on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made or perfected his work which he had made That which he had made perfect at first with mutable perfection he now perfected again by a further degree of supperadded perfection namely by the promise of Christ and his personall undertaking as Mediatour by whom all things g Col. 1.16 consist And accordingly God rested the seventh day not in the changeable Creature but in Christ the rock and so the Sabbath was stated on the seventh day upon the account of Christ in the promise upon the performance of which promise the seventh day ceases to be any longer a day of rest But
this Evangelical title But of that in convenient time and place we are now discussing Mark 2. where Christ while the old seventh day was in force professes himself Lord of it which plainly intimated his Lordship Dominion and soveraignty over it that he had authority to displace it and dispose of it as himself thought good the Coherence carries it clearly this way The disciples through the Pharisaical carping and misprision of their adversaries were condemned for Sabbath-breaking because they had pluck'd a few eares of corne and dressed them for their dinner on the Sabbath day which was a work of mercy and pure necessity hunger and emptiness constraining them to it and so no breach of the Sabbath Hospin de orig Fest cap. de Sab. But the malicious Pharisees whose traditions had taught them that to crop an herb to pill an onyon to rost an apple to kill a flea Metens vel tantillum reus est vellere spicas est species Messionis Maim Ichabb vide Lightf Horae Hebraic in Math. 12. much more to pluck ears of corn and rub them in their hand which they look'd upon as a kind of reaping threshing were unlawfull and sinful actions on the Sabbath day presently take occasion to condemn the disciples for Sabbath-violation Well our Saviour justifies his disciples and wipes off the charge of their accusers by this argument ver 27. The Sabbath was made for man that is miserable fallen man not man for the Sabbath Therefore the Son of man the Messiah is also Lord of the Sabbath day as if he had said Cùm post lapsum institutum fuit Sabbaturn lege conditione quae Christum jam promissum hominisque lapsum respexerit non potuit Sabbatum non sub potestate domini filii hominis id est seminis promiss◠subjici ab co ordinandum disponendum prout ip si visum ac provisum fuerit Idm. Ibid. 't is your error to think that all workes of mercy and necessity are unlawfull on the Sabbath day for the Sabbath was made and instituted at first for man subject to necessity and misery namely by such a law as related to the fall of man and the promise of the Messiah therefore the Son of man is also Lord of the Sabbath day That is it falls under my dominion and disposal as the Son of man The phrase is observable he sayes not The Son of David but The Son of man the Mediator pointed out in the promise made to Adam the first man even he is Lord of the Sabbath day or has dominion over it being at first the foundation of it This is the most probable interpretation if we take the Son of man here for Christ But very many Learned Writers take it for man or mankind in general as it is sometimes used Filliue hominis i.e. homo Zanch in praec 4. Psal 8.5 Isai 65.2 And then the meaning may be this that in case of urgent and pungent necessity as extreme hunger perill of life health or the like every or any son of man is Lord of the Sabbath day having liberty to dress or prepare food to take physick to refresh and repaire nature Filliue hominis tam de Christo quà m de quovis Christiuno homine intelligi potest Gualter in Loc. item Ravanel in verb. dominus necessity as we use to say knowes no law that is no positive Law provided it be not a necessity contracted by idleness or improvidence This is the exposition of some very learned and godly and it seemes to suit well with the case of the disciples as also the context v. 27. The Sabbath was made for man not man for the Sabbath Therefore viz. in case of pure necessity the Son of man or mankind is Lord of the Sabbath day Take it in which sense we will it makes nothing for the Saturday Sabbath The objectors notion is altogether incoherent both with the sense of the Text and scope of the context but to proceed Touching that Text Math. 24.20 Ans 3 Pray that your flight be not in the Winter nor on the Sabbath day I have two things to answer 1. By way of supposition supposing it were meant of the Jewes Sabbath it would signifie no more but this that it would be superstitiously kept among the unbeleeving Jewes forty yeares after our Saviours death as it is to this day and therefore pray that your flight may not be either in the winter when it will be doleful dirty or on the Sabbath when it will be dangerous travelling through the coasts of Judea and bring you into peril of persecution by your own countrey-men which was one of Pauls perils 2 Cor. 11.26 For although by that time the disciples were sufficiently instructed in their Christian liberty that their flight was as lawfull on that day as another and therefore they could not flye with scruple of conscience yet the superstitious Jewes to whom such flight might be offensive in all reason would Shimei-like barke at such harmless passengers if not bite and snap them And whereas it is objected T.T. p. 78. That it cannot be rationally conceived that the Jewes instead of securing themselves should trifle away their time in persecuting the Christians This objection is answered by himself in the very next words almost For sayes he the Jewes were so superstitious that they durst not fight for their life Then I may well inferre that t is most likely they were also so zealous that they would persecute any who should flye for their life if they themselves would rather dye then flye or fight for their lives as he suggests much more would they hinder the flight of others So that if the old Sabbath were intended by our Saviour it was rather with a note of dislike then approbation as foreseeing that through the superstition of the Jewes it would be an occasion of persecution to his servants as it had often been to himself Supposing I say for I grant it not that the Jewes Sabbath was here meant it must be construed in such a sense namely that they are counselled to deprecate their flight on that day for the better avoiding of bodily calamities for in reference to that day we cannot so much as suppose any soule distress incident to the disciples by reason of such flight we cannot conceive how they should be straightned in conscience out of any religious respect to that day at the siege or sacking of Jerusalem since the adversary himself confesses That all ceremonies were then abolished by Apostolical proclamation For which he cites Colos 2.16 17. Which Text does irrefragably prove the repeale of the old Sabbath as was said before And thus he is caught in his own trap But 2. By way of affirmation I assert That these words of our blessed Saviour pray that your flight be not on the Sabbath are to be understood of our Christian Sabbath
but for the multitudes sake then met together he hasted thither to preach the word So here it was not out of any devotion either to the Jewes Sabbath or their Synagogue that he reasoned with them everly Sabbath-day as long as they would hear reason but because of the concourse of people then and there assembled As if there were a Synagogue of the Iewes in London a Minister of Christ might occasionally visit it on their Saturday-Sabbath to dispute with those infidels and convince them that Jesus is the Christ yet be far enough from owning either their Synagogue or their Sabbath and that Pauls practice among the Jewes and such Gentiles as the Text speaks of amounts to no more then this 1 Cor. 9.20 namely an occasional act or at most a prudentiall act Whereby to the Jewes he became as a Jew that he might win the Jewes and to them under the law as though he were under the Law is evident because when he saw no hope of winning them to the faith of Christ but they grew obstinate and refractory contradicting blaspheming and openly opposing the Gospel yea persecuting those that embraced it Paul and his converts now no longer frequent their Synagogues but separate themselves and joyn in Christian assemblies by themselves Acts 17.4 5. Acts 19 9. ch 18.17 Thus the beleeving Jewes and Proselytes of Thessalonica so also those at Ephesus and at Corinth when they opposed themselves and blasphemed Paul shook his rayment against them to signifie that God had now shaken them off and he would have no more to do with them and after this Acts 18.6 we hear no more of his preaching on the Jewes Sabbath For when the Churches of Christ were separated from the Synagogues they kept the first day of the week passing by the Jewish Sabbath The converted Gentiles we are sure did so Acts 20.7 And whereas t is objected That this was but once whereas t is clear that Paul preached every Sabbath day I answer if this were true yet the consequence that therefore the Jewes Sabbath was more respected by Paul then the Lords day is utterly false For one single instance of Apostolical practice in a Gentile Church will weigh down a hundred in a Jewish Synagogue since among the Jewes the Apostle became all to all that he might win some Whereas among the Gentiles his practice was purely Evangelical And to turn the point of the Argument against the Objector we must be followers of Paul as he was of Christ Now Christ celebrated the first day of the week in a pure Gospel Church John 20.26 And never the seventh day after his resurrection and as Christ did so did Paul Acts 20. and as he did so must we Himself grants that we must follow Paul only in such practices as were Evangelical and unrepealed Now the first day of the week is such Purely Evangelical and never yet repealed therefore he must eat his words or yield his cause As for the old seventh day it was both legal according to his principles it must be an appendix to the Covenant of works being instituted before the fall when there was no Gospel therefore purely legal and according to my principles partly legal as circumcision was therefore repealed among the rest of those legal dayes of worship Colos 2. for though he cannot read the repeal there yet through mercy I and others can Or if it be not repealed it is expired and was never revived by Apostolical practice or precept in any one Christian Church I have given him one instance of a Christian Church meeting on the first day of the week to worship Christ let him shew me but such another for the Jewes Sabbath among the Gentiles erit mihi magnus Apollo Ans 4 Pauls practice among the Jewes in things temporary is no pattern for the Gentiles a Acts 21.25 St. James telles him that whatever they did among the Jewes in respect of legal customes to win upon their weakness yet as toucking the Gentiles which beleeved they had written and concluded that they should observe no such thing And what if Paul did observe the seventh day among the Jewes must this needs conclude against the change of the Sabbath from the last to the first day of the week he may as well say the Apostles b Acts 16.3 circumcising of Timothy to gratifie the Jewes disproves the changing of circumcision into baptism If it be Objected that the consequence is not good because however Paul circumcised Timothy the better to win upon the Synagogue Jewes who c Acts 10 28. would have no familiar converse with uncircumcised Gentiles yet he would by no means yeild to have d Gal. 2.3 4 5. Titus circumcised in compliance with the Jewes in Christian Churches I answer the very same may I affirm touching the Jewes Sabbath which however it might be tollerated for a while in the Synagogues yet it was never allowed in the Churches of Christ among the Gentiles nor ever practiced without reproof as in Gal. 4. or if it were I desire to see the place and the proof which I confesse I am yet to seek T is no lesse notorious an untruth that not only Paul Answ 5 but all his companions kept the seventh day Some of them might possibly attend him to the Synagogue but few of that train which accompanyed him to Troas Acts 20.5 Where he celebrated the Lords day and Lords Supper among the disciples As for the women which on the Sabbath day resorted to the rivers side where prayer was wont to be made they were Jewish proselytesses witness their meeting on the Jewish Sabbath Lydia to be sure was so for she was a worshipper of God before Paul came there but unbaptized if not unconverted till then What he would make of this meeting by the rivers side I know not unless it be to furnish his Sabbath-keepers with meditations as he seems to speak in the close of his book p. 144. which shewes his high esteem of Rivers and ponds and such like watry places De bello Jud. lib. 7. ch 24. T is a wonder he forgot Josephus his story concerning that River in Palestina called the Sabbatical River which being dry six dayes used to fill up its channel and run very swiftly the seventh day from whence the Jewish Rabbins plead stoutly for their Saturday Sabbath But as one answers them wittily out of Galatinus in case that River whiles it was in being was a good Argument that the Jewes Sabbath was to be observed now since there is no such River to be found it is a better Argument that their Sabbath is not any where to be regarded Mr. Brabourn and he had best go on Pilgrimage to find out that famous river I dare say it would be a more taking Argument among simple people for the Saturday Sabbath then any they have yet alledged For his quarrell with the reverend Translators Ans 6 I tell him again t
the fourth Commandment which as the above mentioned Author at whose torch I have lighted my candle observes is a thing worthy of special note any may afford a satisfying reason why there is no expresse institution of the first day of the week in the new Testament viz. Because the vertue of the fourth Commandment doth of it self fall upon that day the former being void being the only day capable of keeping up Gods proportion perpetually determined in the Commandment yet I confess as formerly that the Commandment does not directly institute the day but falls upon the observation of it and supposes the institution neither do I urge it directly for the designation of the day for the first day of the week is not expresly mentioned in the fourth Commandment no more is the last day of the week neither but a seventh day is which although as I said before it could not be restrained to one day more then another yet my meaning was and is that it could not be so tyed to the last of seven as not to be applyed to the first of seven if God so pleased Briefly this argument concludes rather for the observation than the designation of the first day day of the week as the only day upon which in the vacancy of the old Sabbath God has set his mind in the Law And good reason For 2. This is the day upon which above all other dayes Christ has set his mark his special signall characteristical mark in the Gospel to mark it out for a day of weekly solemn worship under the new Testament A seven-fold mark he has set upon it which the malice of men and divels shall never be able to obliterate As 1. His glorious Resurrection upon this day 2dly His several veral Apparitions 3dly His gracious actions and speeches at those apparitions 4th The Mission of his Holy Spirit on this day 5th The inscription of his own blessed name upon it 6th His Apostles and Apostolical Churches observation of it 7th Their prescription about it Of which I shall treat in order as they lie answering all objections that oppose themselves against this conquering truth of Christ 1. What a mark of honour yea what a crown of glory is it to this day that it had the favour above all the dayes of the week to be Christs resurrection-day The Sun in the firmament arises and shines upon other dayes as well as this but the Sun of righteousness never arose upon any day but this and if we will beleeve the Holy Ghost the institution of the day had its foundation here Psalm 118.22 23 24. For the discovery whereof I shall once more desire the Reader to turn to that Text Psam 118. The stone which the builders refused is become the head-stone of the corner So 1 Pet. 2.7 this is the Lords doing and it is marvellous in our eyes This is the day which the Lord hath made c. The Apostle Peter expounds this Text and applies it to Christ Acts 4.11 where speak to Caiaphas and the rest of the Councill who went for builders he boldly tells them This is the stone which ye builders refused which is become the head of the corner he speaks it of Christ and of Christs resurrection for v. 10. he had spoken of their refusing him in his Crucifixion and Gods exalting him in his resurrection Whom ye crucified and whom God raised from the dead Thereby making him both a corner-stone and head of the corner Head of all principality and power Coloss 2.10 head or Lord of the living and the dead yeas head of Heaven and earth having all power in Heaven and earth then given to him Matth. 28.18 Thus of Davids prophetical prediction Next let us consider his application of it 1. In respect of the deed done 2. In respect of the day on which it was done 3. In respect of the duty of that day 1. The deed or work done the raising of Christ from the dead he magnifies as the Lords own act his marvelous stupendious act This is the Lords doing and it is marvellous in our eyes v. 23. No wonder for indeed this was the greatest wonder the ever was wrought in the world concerning which we may say as Moses in another case Ask now of the dayes that are past which were before thee Deut. 4.32 since God created man upon the earth and ask from the one side of Heaven to the other whet her there hath been any such things as this great thing is or hath been heard like it That one by his own power should raise himself from the dead no history no chronicle can paralel it So wonderful was our Saviours resurrection that it challenges wonder even from his enemies behold ye despisers and wonder Acts 13.41 Sayes the Apostle wonder at what Why at Gods raising Christ from the dead of which he had treated before verse 36 37. 2. The Psalmist applies it further to the day on which this work of wonder was wrought This is the day which the Lord hath made and mark the connection the day depends upon the deed or work done Factum domini as one sayes facit diem domini The Lords deed makes it the Lords day Here the institution of the day is undeniably founded upon the resurrection of Christ upon this account 't is stiled the day which the Lord hath made because the stone cast aside of the builders Christ crucifyed was made the head of the corner that is raised from the dead as St. Peter expounds and as Christs resurrection was the Lords own doing so the Psalmist foresaw that the resurrection-day would be a day of the Lords own making If it be objected So is every day I answer but not every day alike For look as it was in the works of Creation all were Gods works all of his making but man the master-piece more especially of whom it may be said with an accent this is the creature which God had made so here all the dayes in the week are of Gods making but this in the Text above all the Holy Ghost sets an Emphasis upon it This is the day which the Lord hath made Made 1 How made not by was of Creation so 't was made before Gen. 1. But by way of institution The day which the Lord hath made What has he made it A working-day so it was before if therefore he has made it any thing it must be a holy solemn day a day more solemn and sacred then all the dayes that God ever made before And so the word signifies not only to makes but to magnify 't is equivalent to sanctifie 3. The Psalmist proceeds to the prophetical delineation of the duties of this day Let us be glad and rejoyce therein Yea he brings in the Church shouting and singing Hosanna's to Christ on this day v. 26. a Math. 21.9 Blessed is he that cometh to us in the Name of the Lord As when the b
Zech. 4.7 Temple was finished the head-stone was brought forth with shouting crying grace grace thereunto So here when the work of our redemption should be finished and Christ exalted as head and corner-stone of his Church by his triumphant Resurrection the Holy Ghost intimates the solemn gratulation and publick praise that the Church should offer on that day So we are to understand the next words were as c Isal 56.7 Mal. 1.11 usually New Testament-worship is set forth in an old Testament-dress v. 27. God is the Lord which hath she wed us light light indeed when the Sun of righteousness arises he has made it a day of light and gladness to poor self-condemned sinners therefore bind ye the sacrifice with cords to the horns of the altar That is offer to the Lord the sacrifice of publick praise and thanksgiving verse 29. Oh give thanks unto the Lord for he is good his mercy endureth for ever So that t is evident a day of solemn worship is here intended and Christs resurrection day is principally pointed at as a day which the Lord would institute and a day which the Church should celebrate Saying This is the day which the Lord hath made let us be gland and rejoyce therein What a plain Scripture-proof is this of Divine authority of the Lords day So plain that the adversary is forced to grant it page 61. It must needs be meant of Christs resurrection-day saies he and when he wrote his first book he excited Christians to the weekly celebration of it Whereas in a late railing pamphlet since he seekes to smother the light and evidence of this Text by a silly evasion that the Psalmist speaks not of every first day of the week but Easter-day as may be conjectured But I shall easily shake off this slight exception Away with conjectures let us search the Scriptures what day does the Holy Ghost in Scripture call Christs resurrection-day Ask Matthew Mark Luke and John they 'l tell you Math. 28.1 Mark 6.2 Luke 24.1 John 20.1 19. t is the first day of the week the day of the year is never mentioned nor the day of the month on which Christ arose but the day of the week only to teach us doubtless that Christs resurrection-day must be no yearly or monthly but a weekly solemnity Good reason that the work of Redemption should have as frequent a commemoration as the work of Creation had Now ponder this good Reader and the Lord print it upon thy heart the day of the Saviours Resurrection prophetically extolled in the old Testament as the day which the Lord hath made is historically noted down in the New Testament as the first day of the week and now we shall draw an argument which I hope will be an arrow of conviction to the contrary-minded the rather because it comes out of Gods own quiver thus the day of Christs resurrection is the day which he Lord hath made for duties of solemn worship but the first day of the week is the day of Christs Resurrection therefore the first day of the week is the day which the Lord hath made for duties of solemn worship The proposition is warranted by the Testimony of the Psalmist the assumption is confirmed by the harmony of all the four Evangelists the conclusion therefore will stand as long as the world stands namely that the first day of the week is a day of divine institution mark'd out by the finger of God the spirit of Christ for a day of solemn weekly worship under the Gospel For as I hinted before the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy * Acts 1.16 2 Tim. 3.16 1 Pet. 1.11 and ch 3.19 Rom. 15.4 It was by the spirit of our great Prophet that all the Prophets of old did speak Like stars they all borrowed their light from this Sun they were irradiated and inspired by Christ and when a holy Prophet foretels such a thing shall be we may as confidently build upon it as if Christ himself had said I will have it so For indeed it is the voice of Christ that speaks in the old Testament as well as in the new And possibly this may be one reason why the Lord Christ has spoken so little in the Gospel concerning some new Testament-ordinances as the Lords day for one namely because the Prophets had spoken so much before and Christ would not take off his people from the study of the old Testament upon which the authority of the new does so much depend Me thinks as to the controversie of the Christian Sabbath this should abundantly satisfie any sober Christian that the day of Christs resurrection was prophesied of by David and others as a day which the Lord would make and institute and accordingly practised by the inspired Apostles upon the first day of the week and this practice perpetuated by the Church of Christ the Catholick Church in all ages since for above sixteen hundred years What can be objected with any colour of reason against so clear a truth Christ hath not left one syllable for the institution or celebration of this day T.T. p. 120. Answ Not one syllable Why did he not grant before that Psalm 118. compared with Acts 4. Must needs be meant of the resurrection-day and does not the spirit speak expresly Mr. Perkins in his cases of conscience argues for the Christian Sabbath from this text Cyprian Austin and Ambrose and all the ancients who have ever cited or saluted this place Psalm 118. do expound it and understand it of the Lords day See Mr. L. strange This is the day which the Lord hath made Is it a day of the Lords making and will he make nothing of that What else can be made of it but a prediction of a Divine institution which is equivalent to a precept especially when expounded by Apostolical practice as this has been Let it be seriously considered in what other sense can a day made long before in respect of Creation be stiled the day which the Lord hath made than in respect to a divine institution An institution then it is and the occasion of it Christs resurrection which was the concluding act of our Redemption and what an impression of glory does this stamp upon the day above all the dayes that God ever made the seventh day and all As some * years are crowned with Gods goodness above others so dayes also The work crownes the day as I have often said and the greater the work the greater the day now that work in which God is most glorified in all his attributes must needs be the greatest work such is the work of Redemption Quasi hactenus nullus fuerit in orbe dies Mollerus in Loc. therefore the day set apart in commemoration of it must wear away the crown from all other dayes Such is Christs resurrection-day therefore Emphatically stiled The day which the Lord hath made as if there had never been
a day in the world till this day dawned at the rising of the Sun of righteousnesse never such a day T is worthy to be noted what a wonderful concurrence of remarkable periods of time met together at our Saviours resurrection both in respect of the year and the day Is 61.2 ch 63.34 John 4.34 35. Heb. 2.14 15. 1. The year was a Sabbatical year the year of Jubilee as may be gathered from scripture which if it make nothing for the Christian Sabbath yet it makes much against the Jewes Sabbath themselves being witnesses For the Hebrew Doctors have spoken rarely to this purpose even to the admiration of considerate Christians The Divine Majesty say they will be to Israel in a Jubilee Freedom Redemption and finisher of Sabbaths H. Broughtons Sinai-sight 2. The day of our Lords Resurrection was a remarkable day in many respects As 1. It was the eighth day in a continued reckoning of dayes and eight was a number of greater prefection then seven in some respect witness Circumcision which was so strictly tyed to the eighth day John 7.22 Sacramentum hoc suit diei illius octavi quo dominus resurrexit ad justificationem nostram Ep. ad Fid. ita Aug. de Gelebr Pasch that if it had fallen on the weekly Sabbath it must not be omitted for the Sabbaths sake The antients insist much on this Circumcision on the eighth day was a type of that eighth day on which our Lord rose again for our justification sayes Cyprian 2. Christs resurrection was also on the third day after his passion which himself foretold as the day of his perfection For so some expound that saying of his The third day I shall be perfected Luke 13.32 Besides this third day was a day of * Ho. 6.2 Lu. 24.46 note in the Law and the Prophets a day appointed and appropriated to the Messiah signally markt out in the Kalendar of the Prophets and figured by many famous Types as that of Isaac who was virtually a James 2.21 offered and restored again the b Gen. 22.4 third day as it may be computed and that in a kind of c Heb. 11.19 figure as the Apostle intimates So also Hezskiah who was in account a dead man and on the d 2 Kings 20.5 third day miraculously revived again So e Jonah 2.10 Math. 12 40. See Ainsw in Gen. 22. Jonah and others from which instances the Rabbins it serms could conclude Christs Resurrection on the third day There be many a three dayes say they in Scripture of which one is the Resurrection of the Messiah 3. Christs Resurrection was on the first day of the week as the Evangelists unanimously testifie Which although it be termed by the blaspemous Jewes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Nazarens day in a way of reproach yet in Scripture-account it is a day of greatest renown being the first in order in the Creation and the first in dignity by our Saviours resurrection The first-fruits of time and the first-born of dayes and accordingly the only day in which our Lord became the f 1 Cor. 15.20 first-fruits of them that slept and the g Col. 1.18 first born from the dead that in all things he might have the preheminence 4. To all these may be added what some have probably argued that this first day of the week was our blessed Redeemers Birth-day as well as his Resurrection day yea the day of his Ascension into Heaven as well as the mission of his Spirit but this I leave to Mr. Aspinwal to make good Only thus much I dare assert that the day of our Saviours resurrection the first day of the week is the fittest for the commemoration of his Nativitie Passion Ascension and all other blessed transactions in the work of our Salvation For the Resurrection of Christ implyes all the rest but is not necessarily of them And if the Lord Jesus had not risen from the dead what benefit had we had either by his birth life death or burial or being dead and buryed how had he ascended and the Spirit the Comforter descended unless he had first bin raised from the dead Besides his Resurrection and Ascension are computed h Luke 24.26 Eph. 4.8 9 10. See Dr. Twisse p. 117. Sect. 5. 1 John 20.17 in Scripture as one compleat motion As his dying and continuing under the power of death for a time were but one entire work of Redemption For however after his resurrection he stayed a sew dayes here upon earth to confirm the faith of his followers and settle the affairs of his Kingdom yet he was no sooner risen but presently he speaks of his ascending and indeed his rising was in reference to his ascending partly if not a part of it It was the first step of his triumphant passage into his kingdom and glory So that in a right sense very Lords day is our christmass-Christmass-day easter-Easter-day ascension-Ascension-day Whitsunday and all my meaning that in a right celebration of our Christian Sabbath we solemnize the memorial of all these blessed ingredients in the work of our Redemption We need not contend for an annual Solemnization of our Saviours birth-day resurrection-resurrection-day ascension-day neither need we fear oblivion of these gracious and glorious mysteries if the Lords day were duly observed We cannot better keep alive the memory of these mercies than by keeping a day in commemoration of them once a week and no day so fit as the Lords day in which we have the sum of all A day that brought forth the greatest good to faln man of any day even a compleat Redeemer who on this day redeemed us with triumph from the tyranny of Satan the dominion of death and hell and k John 10.25 ch 14. 19. restored us to life and Salvation yea assured it unto us Therefore I conclude with that renowned father the Lords day was declared by the Lords Resurrection to be the Christians day Dies Dominicus Christi resurrectione declaratus est ex illo caepit habere festivitatem suam August Ep. 119. ad Jan. item de Civitate Dei lib. 22. cap. ult Serm. 15. de verb. Apost and from that very time it began to be celebrated as the Christian mans Festival or rather with that of the Psalmist This is the day which the Lord hath made 'T is no day of mans making if the God of truth may be beleeved 'T is a plant of the Lords own planting therefore the Divel and all his instruments shall never be able to pluck it up Neither can all the men nor all the Churches in the world alter it to another day And how remarkable is it that the Church for sixteen hundred years should no where offer or attempt to alter it but in all places and all ages observe it What does this speak but the Divine authority of it by which mens Spirits have been awed and their hands tied from such presumptuous undertakings the truth is
as I noted before 't is built upon the foundation of the Prophets and Apostles Jesus Christ by his resurrection being the chief corner-stone And because nothing can ever fall out in this world comparable to Christs Resurrection in glory and power therefore no day can be set up like unto this neither can it be changed for any other See Dr. Bownd lib. 1. p. 47. No man can translate the work therefore no man can translate the day The like cause can never be offered to change this day which at first occasioned the choice of it Therefore it must and shall remain till the end of all things men do but kick against the pricks in opposing the Lords day they that would raze out the remembrance of this day must first pick out Christs mark which he ha's wrought into it by the work of Redemption and so blot out the testimony of all the four Evangelists concerning Christs Resurrection the first day of the week together with the prophecy of the Psalmist which if they dare do Yet 2. We have another conspicuous mark to note it by above all other dayes in the week namely our Saviours frequent apparitions on this day after his Resurrection from the dead Here let it be observed First That these glorious apparitions of our now glorified Redeemer were no common favours but choice and speciall evidences of his owning providence both as to persons and times For as he appeared not to all sorts of persons but to some select * Acts 10.41 chosen witnesses who were either eminently devoted to his service or designed to teach others so neither did he make his appearance to those persons every day but principally and most usually upon the day designed by the Prophets to his worship and service and now consecrated by his blessed Resurrection mostly vouchsafing his gracious visits to holy men in holy time such at least as were so or should be so Secondly Although it be * Acts 1.20 said that he was seen of his Apostles fourty dayes between his Resurrection and ascension yet it cannot be construed thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Theophyl that he was seen every day during those fourty dayes but only thus that there were so many dayes between his Resurrection and Ascension in which he was sometimes seen And this is all that the Greek will bear for it is not in fourty dayes but by fourty dayes that is by the space of fourty dayes at times for sometimes he disappeared Thirdly However it may be supposed that our Saviour did appear on other dayes as once he did upon a working day yet no other day of the week ha's the honour to be denominated as the day of his appearing but the first day of the week onely 'T is never said he appeared on the second or third day much less the last day of the week or the seventh day but the first day of the week is expresly and emphatically noted by name * John 20.19 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 t is not barely said the same day but the same day being the first of the week That same day that first day of the week came Jesus and stood in the midst of his disciples as if he would have it specially noted Fourthly T is evident that our Lord appeared often on this day gracing it with his beatifical presence above all dayes In the a Joh. 20.14 15.16 morning to Mary Magdalen and the rest of the holy b Math. 28.9 women who when they saw him fell at his feet and worshipped him and in the evening of the same day to the eleven disciples and c Lu. 24.33.36 them that were with them gathered together in a way of Church d John 20.19 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 assembly and this assembly convened it seemes by our Saviours own means who appearing to Mary commanded her to carry tidings to his disciples of his joyful Resurrection However a Christian assembly it was and the first that injoyed the presence of Christ after his death and Resurrection then it followes John 20.26 After eight dayes the disciples were within again and Thomas with them then came Jesus and stood in the midst after eight dayes that is as some would have it after the day-light of the eighth day was past or as the Geneva-translation reads it eight dayes after or after eight dayes were come that is on the eighth day Which reckoning the Resurrection-day inclusively was just that day seven-night or the next first day of the week there are six working-dayes in the week and Sabbath and Sabbath make eight now Christ appeared the first See Mr. L'strange p. 73. and the next succeeding which was the eighth day so the antients generally expound it It is necessary that this should be the Lords day sayes Cyrill and Nazianzen made an oration on purpose for it stiling it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the new Lords day because it was the first Lords day solemnized in the weekly revolution after the Resurrection-day We shall clear it by Scripture when we come to answer the Objections mean while let it be noted that this was the second solemn apparition of our blessed Saviour after he rose from the dead for the next mentioned by this Evangelist is said to be the third time that he shewed himself which what else can it signifie to us John 21.14 but that he appeared not between those two first dayes not on the seventh day nor on any of the other six he was absent all the week and appeared to none except to some single persons as Peter he made no publick apparitions at solemn assemblies but upon his own day Now methinks ingenous Christians should thus reason within themselves certainly 't is written for our instruction that the Lord Jesus rose from the dead on this day that in the morning of the day he shewed himself to the holy women that the same day at evening being the first day of the week the disciples were assembled and Jesus came and stood in the midst and after eight dayes again i.e. that day senven-night for though part of the former and part of the latter day made it eight dayes yet could it be but seven nights if we count it by nights according to the account of natural dayes such as the dayes of the week are surely these things are not written in vain that our Saviour should solemnly shew himself in a Christian assembly on the very day of his Resurrection and that there was no other apparition till that day seven night this no doubt was of purposed providence to give original to that Ordinance of the Lords day which accordingly ha's been observed ever since St. Paul makes it one Argument in conjunction with others of his Apostleship that Christ had appeared to him * 1 Cor. 9.1 ch 15. 8 9. Am not I an Apostle have not I seen Christ Jesus our Lord And may not I in consociation with
said he appeared the first day at evening yet the first day was then as fully ended as the Sabbath at sun-set when they brought their sick which was forbidden on the Sabbath-day Mark 1.32 Christ appeared in the morning of the Resurrection-day as well as at evening very early as well as very late Ans 1 Math. 28.9 Mark 16.9 Discourse of the instic dignity and end of the Lords day p. 33 to teach us that the whole day is his 't is the day which the Lord hath made not a peice of the day Thus I remember Dr. Hakewil long ago stopt the mouth of this objection Christ appeared to his Apostles at night sayes he to instruct them and teach us that even then it ceaseth not to be the Lords day T is so farre from certain that the day in Scripture-account begins in the evening that 't is certainly false Ans 2 as shall appear hereafter The instance of the disciples returning from Emmaus to Jerusalem and that late makes much against himself For as late as it was in the evening before they got home the later the better as to the case in hand yet the Holy Ghost does not call it the second but the first day of the week John 20.19 the same day at evening being the first day of the week note it well First The Evangelist calls this time of evening the same day in which Christ arose from the dead Secondly He calls it the first day of the week by which two expressions he puts the matter out of all doubt that this evening was a part of the first day of the week Thus the Holy Ghost provides against future errors Let the objector now blush to consider how shamefully he has given the lye to the spirit of truth 1. In affirming that Christ never appeared to any assembly any one first day of the week 2 That the first day was then fully ended fully ended then the Evangelist was much mistaken to tells us it was the same day he should rather have said the second day or the next day Mark 1.32 does at most but speak the opinion and practice of the degenerate Jewes who if they stated the end of the Sabbath at the sun-set evening by a traditional account and therefore brought not their sick to be healed till the Sun was down yet their superstitious opinion proves not that according to the true Scripturall account the Sabbath began and ended at evening Besides it is but a bare conjecture that they brought their sick to be healed no sooner out of respect to the Sabbath * See Tremel his Annot. in Math. 12.8 and Ainsworth in Ex. 20.10 for they held that peril of life doth drive away the Sabbath Some think the only reason why they came no sooner was because they had no sooner intelligence of our Saviours Miraculous healing power But to end the controversie however the Jewes Sabbath might be supposed to begin and end at evening yet 't is apparent that the first day of the week ended not with the Sun-set-evening because it is expresly said in this very chapter Mark. 1.35 That the morning of it was a great while before day Thus 't is said of Christ that in the morning rising up a great while before day or * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 greatly in the night as the Greek ha's it he departed into a solitary place to pray And this was on the morrow of the Sabbath as the context shewes So that if it were the morning of the day while it was yet night long before sun-rising then it could not be the evening or end of the day till long after the Sun-setting so Math. 28.1 John 20.1 As for Christs second apparition Obj. 2 t is expresly said it was after eight dayes and therefore could not be on the first day of the week John 20.26 Why Ans did he never read that * Mark 8.31 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vide Bez. Calv. Rollock Piscat Jansen upon the places See Mr. Cawdry p. 4. ch 1. The reckoning of these eight dayes is inclusive see the like Lu. 9.28 compared wiâ—h Mat. 17.1 See Dr. Gouge Sabb. Sanct. p. 21. Scripture That the son of man must suffer and after three dayes rise again After three dayes therefore it could not be the third day does that follow As much as this after eight dayes therefore it could not be the eighth day or the first day of the week Mr. Sprint p. 138. Observes that 't is as if the Evangelist had said the eighth day after by an Hebraism quoting the like speech Luke 1.59 ch 2.21 or after the eighth day was come Thus the like expression is used Jer. 25.12 When seventy years are fulfilled the people shall return that is on the seventieth year so Acts 2.1 When the day of Pentecost was fulfilled i. e. Fully come This appeares to me to be the vulgar acceptation of the phrase as in a like case Math. 27.63 the cheif Priests and Pharisees told Pilate that Christ should say while he was yet alive after three dayes I will rise again wherefore they intreat him of all loves that he would command the sepulcher to be made sure till the third day Whence t is evident that by this phrase after three dayes they understood Christs purpose of rising on the third day otherwise they would have desired a guard for a longer space than three dayes Christ was ever seen of some or other of his disciples fourty dayes Acts 1 2 3. Obj. 3 That Christ was seen by the space of fourty dayes implies not that he was seen every day of the fourty only that he stayed fourty dayes before he ascended and appeared at times as was said before besides we are not now arguing his apparitions to single persons only but assemblies Oh! Obj. 4 But the disciples were assembled only for fear of the Jewes not to celebrate the Sabbath in honour of Christs Resurrection for they believed not that he was risen the womens tidings therefore seemed idle tales to them The privacy of their meeting and shutting the doors was indeed for fear of the Jewes Ans 1 But why they should fear the Jewes more on those two dayes than any other I see no reason neither can it be any reason of their then assembling T is probable Ans 2 that their first assembly was not on their parts out of any religious respect to the day for as yet they understood not that it was or was to be the Christian Sabbath therefore some of them were travelling into the countrey Luke 24. for fear of the Jewes too it may be Math. 28.13 14 15. because the lying souldiers had given it out that the disciples came by night and had stoln away the body of Jesus yet on Gods part in assembling them and on Christs part in appearing to them there was doubtless some special respect to the day which they understood afterwards and therefore the Evangelist is so precise
Le. 23.10 which they are expresly forbidden to do upon their weekly Sabbath Ex. 34.21 22. Six dayes shalt thou labour but on the seventh thoushalt rest both in earing-time and harvest And see how this is coupled with the feast of first-fruits in the very same place Thou shalt observe the feast of weekes c. Now observe it if the morrow after the Sabbath Levit. 23. had been the morrow after the Passeover-Sabbath this would often have fallen upon the weekly Sabbath For the Passe-over-Sabbath being fixed upon a certain day of the month viz. the 15th of Nisan when ever this 15th of Nisan fell upon the Friday the morrow after it must needs be on the Saturday and so they must begin to reap their harvest upon the weekly Sabbath against an expresse command of God The Hebrew Doctors foresaw this inconvenience and had no other way to salve it but by affirming * See Ainsworth in Levit. 23. that this reaping did drive away the Sabbath and that it was lawfull on the Sabbath-day A most impious opinion For it crosses the very letter of Gods Law In earing-time and in harvest thou shalt rest Secondly The morrow after the Sabbath at the begining of their account must be such a morrow as concludes it Levit. 13.15 16. therefore it could not be the morrow of the Passeover-Sabbath or any Festival-Sabbath for there was no such Sabbath at the end of the account whatever there was at the beginning of it Thirdly The Passeover-Sabbath was fixed to a certain day of the month * Numb 28.17 namely the fifteenth day of the first month and thus all their other Festivals they had their fixed dayes But this feast of Pentecost is no where affixed in all the bookes of Moses to any one certain day of the month nor indeed could it be unless God should make a ceremonial Law to cross the Law of nature or rather to limit the course of divine Providence to ripen their corn just against such a day of the month which as Dr Vsher observes is a very great presumption that the Feast of Pentecost was a moveable Feast namely as to the day of the month but immoveable as to the day of the week so varying that it might always fall upon the day immediately following the ordinary Sabbath Fourthly The Anti-type is the best key to unlock the type And this is clear in the new Testament for that Christ was our first-fruits in reference to his Resurrection St. Paul assures us 1 Cor. 15.20 and that he rose from the dead on the morrow after the weekly Sabbath all the 4 Evangelists do inform us And T. T. ha's granted us that these things must be punctually fulfilled by Christ as well in the time as in the type From his own grant therefore I conclude That the day of first-fruits was the first day of the week therefore so was the day of Pentecost to the everlasting honour of that Lords day and the glory of God the Holy Ghost who sanctifyed it by his presence and power sending down a new supply of tongues from Heaven as if all the tongues upon earth were not sufficient to sound forth the praises of our Redeemer and spread his Gospel all the world over upon the first day of the week as an earnest whereof there was a glorious beginning made this day the Gospel being now published to some of all nations for there was now a great concourse even of every nation under Heaven met at Jerusalem Acts 2.5 and at this meeting three thousand soules converted and baptized v. 41. a double baptism was indeed dispensed this day the Apostles were now baptized with fire and three thousand converts with water Which was such a solemnity as the Church of God never saw the like from that day to this I need say no more T. T. p. 81. the adversary confesses that this was the most glorious Sabbath that ever Church enjoyed Only he would fain perswade himself and others that it was the Saturday-Sabbath but herein he befooles himself and deceives others His Grammar Logick and Arithmetick never falled him more than in this point See what a Grammarian he is Mr. Aspinwal had objected that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 translated fully come should rather be rendred fully past to which T. T. learnedly replies that the Greek being a Gerund in do signifies fulfilling now I confesse t is the first time that ever I heard of a Greek Gerund in do it may be this author learnt some Latin-Greek-Grammar while he was a Roman-Catholick I wish he do not stick too much in the Gerund in do stil One passage in his book renders it a little suspicious as p. 146 Let us sayes he celebrate the seventh-day-Sabbath a day of delights to the Lord and so obtain meercy for the Sabbath-pollution of our dayes of ignorance What does he hope to obtain mercy by doing Nay then I do not much wonder at his zeal for the saturday-Saturday-Sabbath I rather wonder he does not cry up the old Covenant again To trace him yet further he is a little out in his Arithmetick too For in beginning the count of the fifty dayes on a Saturday he begins at the wrong end making the last day of the week to be the first of the week the seventh day the eighth day the first day the second day the sixth day the last day against his own professed principles and is not here strange confusion Let me ask him in good earnest if the seventh day were the first day in all those seven weeks Deut. 16. how was the fourth Commandment kept all that while which according to his opinion will brook no other weekly Sabbath but the last of the week Thus for his Arithmetick Now for his Logick But here he is quite lost his Conclusions are flat Contradictions and his his best Arguments Barbarous absurdities I do him no wrong let the Reader judge I Affirm sayes he Object 1 Pag. 22. of his last book with the most Learned of this Age That the Sabbath from whence our Reckoning arises Levit. 23.11 15. was not the weekly Sabbath but the first day of the Passeover-Feasts And a little before he calls it The Passeover on the morrow of which Sabbath the waving of the Sheaf was exactly accomplished in Christ by the Crucifying Priests who waved him between Heaven and Earth upon the sixth day of the week from which day began the Count of the Apostles Pentecost punctually beginning and ending upon the Seventh-day-Sabbath Here are strange mysteries indeed First Answ he states the Crucifixion of Christ on the morrow of the Passeover-Sabbath and yet he had argued before That Christ was Crucifyed on the Passeover-Sabbath it self upon the day called Good Friday sayes he was our First-fruits waved by the Priests upon the Cross And what day that was he tell us namely The fifteenth of Nisan which was the first day of the Passeover-Feast say his Learned Authors And I
infant-Baptisme he would not own it as an Ordinance of Christ Or thus whether if the Holy Ghost had expresly affirmed in Scripture that in the Apostles times baptisme was once at least administred to infants in a solemn assembly of Christians Paul himself being present and actually assisting in the administration his own conscience would not tell him nay then surely infant-baptism is an Ordinance of Christ Let him say the same concerning the celebration of the first day of the week For the Holy Ghost ha's expresly declared that this day was solemnly kept at Troas Paul himself being present and principally ingaged in the work of the day For let the Text be consulted Acts 20.6 7 8. We came to Troas in five dayes where we abode seven dayes and upon the first day of the week when the disciples came together or were gathered together in a Church-assemblie to break bread Paul preached unto them ready to depart on the morrow and there were many lights in the upper room where they were assembled together and there sate in a window a certain young man named Eutychus c. Here note 1. Una Sabbati id est Die dominiâ—â— dies dominica recordatio dominicae resurrectionis Ven. Beda In Acts 20. Tom 5. When this solemn assembly met together on the first day of the week saies the Text. The day which all the Evangelists witness to be Christs Resurrection-day This day then the disciples were congregated But why the first day of the week Why not th elast day of the week which was the Jewes Sabbath strange if that had been the Christian Sabbath that these primitive Christians had not have met on that day especially since it was but the day before yet more strange that we read not a word of Pauls keeping it since he tarried at Troas seven dayes But most of all that we read not one word in all the New Testament of his owning that day in any Christian Church at all only the first day of the week a fair argument that the day was changed upon the account of our Saviours Resurrection 2. The Church is assembled on the first day of the week but how Privately it may be No publickly and openly as those times would bear yea probably the company was very numerous for it seemes the room below would not hold them but they were fain to get up into the windowes three stories high as Eutychus did Acts 20.8 doubtless it was no small appearance Well 3. Here is a full assembly met upon the first day of the week but why then To break bread sayes the Text to receive the Eucharist sayes the Syriack translation that is to * Math. 26.26 Acts 2.46 1 Cor. 11.24 receive the Lords Supper upon the Lords day The Lords Supper What without preparatory prayer and other Sabbath-exercises that had been but a faint devotion will some say Mr. Shepard answers it well Breaking of bread is here put Thus prayer is put for the whole worship of God Gen. 4.26 ch 12.8 Acts 2.21 Rom. 10.12 13. Synecdochically the part for the whole there is no more reason to exclude prayer preaching singing of Psalms because these are not mentioned than to exclude drinking of wine in the Sacrament as the blind Papists do because neither is that expressed but breaking of bread only So that the first day of the week in effect is called the day of meeting to break bread which was ever accompanied with prayer preaching and other holy exercises Now as the fore-mentioned * Thes 35. Author observes if ever the Saints used to break bread on any other day yet the day is never mentioned as a speciall time for such a purpose nor do we find in all the Scriptures a day distinctly mentioned for holy duties as this first day of the week is wherein a whole Church meet together for such ends but that day was holy The nameing of the particular day for such ends implies the holiness of it Well the Saints at Troas meet on this day to receive the Sacrament But 4. Have they no Sermon yes and Paul himself preaches it v. 7. And continued his speech till mid-night and about break of day he departed Which yeeldeth us two notes one that the first day of the week is no travelling day St. Paul would not we are sure he did not travel this day but the day after another that the first day of the week is a solemn holy-day to be spent in spirituall exercises and Sabbath-day duties as preaching hearing praying conferring breaking of bread in commemoration of Christ his death and Resurrection Why else does the Holy Ghost story this down so exactly and precisely Is it not written for our learning upon whom the ends of the world are come Yea doubtlesse for our learning that we might forecast our journeyes and other affairs in such sort as to keep holy the Lords day and not intrench upon it by travelling or the like thus we have plain Apostolicall practice for the observation of this day But see how this clear Text and truth is cavill'd at This meeting of the Saints at Troas was occasional Obj. 1 T.T. p. 123. Answ and what was the occasion of it he intimates in the next words viz. Paul's departing by Sea This is a sorry shift for the Text saies not that the disciples were assembled by reason of Paul's departure the next day but they were assembled this day to break bread without the least reference to Paul's journey the day following So that this Church-meeting was not occasional but a thing usual upon the first day of the week And the context clearly implies that the puting off of Pauls journey till the next day was occasioned by the Church's meeting this day not this meeting by his departure the next day for the Apostle seems to stay purposely and wait seven dayes among them that he might have a publick opportunity of preaching and communicating with them upon the usual day of their publick assemblies which appears by this convention to have been the first day of the week here was therefore nothing occasional in all this solemnity neither the assembly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nor Sacrament no nor the Sermon neither but only the length and continuance of the Sermon till mid-night this indeed was occasional by reason of St. Pauls departure on the morrow so the Text it self imports Paul being to depart on the morrow preached and continued his Sermon till mid-night he preacht a long Sermon because it was his last Sermon he was like to preach among them The Saints assembled and brake bread every day Obj. 2 Acts 2.26 therefore they may as well plead for an every day Sabbath as for the first day Sabbath from Acts 20.7 It cannot be proved by Scripture that the Lords Supper is an every dayes Supper Answ or that ever it was celebrated on any day after the first institution but upon the Lords day which may be reckoned as a special prerogative of this day above the Jewes Sabbath and
all other dayes The Lords day and the Lords Supper are Scripture-companions Acts 2.26 is misquoted I perceive this Author uses to quote Scripture at a venture but I suppose he means Acts 2.46 and there indeed we read of the Saints continuing daily with one accord in the Temple and * Domi frangebant portionem Syriack verse breaking bread from house to house but to take this for Sacramentall bread and make it their daily bread is to mistake the matter quite For although verse 42. speak of bread Sacramentally broken yet verse 46. the phrase is quite altered and the * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 word signifies ordinary bread or common food Piscator understands it of bread broken in a way of Charity or dealing their bread to the hungry as it is * Isai 58.7 elswhere expressed If breaking of bread had been a service peculiarly designed for the honour of the first day Obj. 3 the Apostle would not have deferr'd it till the second day till after mid-night verse II. Neither does it appear that he did deferre it till after mid-night For Eutychus dropt asleep in Sermon-time Answ verse 9. and the Sermon lasted but till mid-night verse 7. and as soon as Eutychus caught his fall no doubt Paul hasted to raise him again And when he was come up again he brake bread verse 11. Part 3 Thes 63. all this while it might not be mid-night for after all this he talked a long while even till break of day Besides as Mr. Shephard observes the Lords Supper might be administred before Pauls Sermon And that breaking of bread verse 11. might be common bread some ordinary repast for Paul after his long preaching and before his long journey And the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 implies as much and hence also 't is spoken of one man principally When he had broken bread and eaten c. however t is expresly said v. 7. that the disciples were assembled together ex more sayes * Ad locum Pellican after their wonted manner to break bread upon the first day of the week and their purpose shewes what was their usual practice The disciples came not together till towards evening Obj. 4 for as soon they are met we read of lights in the upper room and this is no fair president for keeping a Sabbath They must needs be come together before Candle-lighti ng Answ 1 by is own principles otherwise how is it said they were assembled the first day of the week since he holds that the day begins and ends with the Sun-set evening The text saith not Answ 2 they met in the evening of the first day but on the first day and it might be in the morning for ought appears to the contrary The lights in the upper room ar gue not that it was late in the day before they assembled but long in the night before Paul ended his Sermon Besides supposing they came not together till towards the close of the day remembring still what perillous persecuteing times those were yet out of question the former part of the day was spent in religious exercises otherwise the disciples had rusht very rudely upon that sacred and solemn ordinance of the Lords Supper We should count them but sorry Christians that should dare to come reaking out of the world from their Merchandise or shops or fields or farms to sit down as guests at the Lords table The Saints example at Troas doth no more oblige us to their time Obj. 5 than their meeting in an upper chamber doth tie us to the like place If time and place be equal circumstances in religion Answ See Mr. Wowe of the Sab. then the old Prelatical Argument were good as the true worshippers of God are not tied to worship him either in Jerusalem or any other peculiar place but must worship him in spirit and in truth in all places so neither are they tied to any time of worship but may pray continually But this principle is out of plea now and I am perswaded in urging of it the objector fights against conscience and struggles against his own convictions For he ha's elswhere maintained time and place to be unequal circumstances and if not equal why does he argue from the one to the other But the truth is he ha's no game to play but what the Anti-Sabbatarian Prelatists have plaid and lost before him Only one card more which was none of their pack Examples do only allow us a liberty Obj. 6 page 13. of his Pamphlet nothing but a clear command can oblige us to a duty For instance community of goods is the Saints liberty because it was practiced but liberality of our proper substance is a duty because it is commanded Saints may freely seast before Communion because we have Apostolical president but all true disciples must break bread because we have Evangelical precept so we have liberty to meet the first day because we find the Saints at Troas then occasionally assembled but we are tied in duty to celebrate the seventh day Sabbath because it is commanded If this rule were as true as it is false Answ 1 he might blot out all the examples of the Saints recorded in Scripture For what are they good for To allow us a liberty only Why that we had before Had we never heard of the Saints meeting and Pauls preaching on the first day of the week yet I hope we had had free liberty to meet and worship on that day nevertheless what followes now Why by this Doctors new divinity absit blasphemia verbo the Holy Ghost ha's inserted this story in vain This leaf yea and twenty more might have been left out of the Bible without loss See the poison of a rotten error 'T is no less false Answ 2 that nothing but a clear command can oblige us to duty What must we limit the holy one of Israel must he deliver his mind and will only by way of precept May he not do it as well by promise or prophesie or proportion or consequence Must we teach the Lord how to teach us our duty pray what expresse command was there to sanctifie the Sabbath or what example of any one man that did sanctifie it for 2000. years after the Creation I mean in expresse terms Was it never a duty therefore till the Commandment came and is not Apostolicall example with a consequential command a sufficient rule for the observation of the Lords day He argued before for the Jewes Sabbath that we must be followers of Paul as he was of Christ how much better may we urge the same argument for the Lords day As thus Christ was present upon this day in the assembly of his disciples and kept it like a Sabbath John 20.19.26 and so Paul Acts 20.7 and we must follow Paul as he did Christ therefore we must keep holy the Lords day the
in regard this Testimony touches but one half of the question I only touch upon it by the way and proceed to a fourth who speakes the truth and the whole truth Tertullian by name Tertullian 4. who flourished in the year of grace 200. or two hundred and four His African phrase is somwhat dark yet some light it affords us as to this controversy In his book of the souldiers Crown he speaks thus On i Die dominico jejunare nefas ducimus vel de geniculis adorare De Colon Mil. the Lords day we hold it unlawful either to fast or to pray kneeling And elswhere he seems to intimate the reason of it viz. k Diem solis laetitiae indulgemus alia longe ratione quam religione solis seeundo loco ab eis sumus qui diem Saturni otio viotui decernunt exorbitantes ipsi a Judaico more quem ignorant Apol. adv Gent. c. 16. â—And ch 3. de anima he speaks of the Lords dayes solemnities namely Scripturarum lectio Psalmi cantus adlocutiones petitiones reading the scriptures singing of Psams conference and prayer Dominica solennia Because it was a day of joy and gladness For upon the Sunday saies he we give our selves to joy or gladness Where note that in Tertullian's time also the title of Lords day Rev. 1.10 was appropriate to Sunday which the primitive Christians so universally observed that the Heathens began to calumniate them as worshippers of the Sun But Tertullian in this place clears them For saies he although upon the Sunday we give our selves to gladness yet it is for another farre wide reason than in honour of the Sun And again in the second place are we from them meaning the Jewes who appoint the Saturday to idleness and eating wandring from the Jewish custom which they know not In which words he gives us to understand that although the Christians then devoted the Lords day to joy and gladness yet they made it not a play-day or a day of pampering their bodies and riotous feastings as the degenerate Jewes did their Sabbath but they spent it in the spiritual exercises of prayer and praise they kept it as a solemn holy day but how often What once a year Nay once a week as he testifies in the 14. ch of his book concerning Idolatry where he speaks l Ethnicis sentel annuus dies quisque festus est tibi vero octavus Excerpe fingulas solennitates nationum in ordinem texe Pentecostem implere non poterunt de Idol p. 736. Edit Basil â—O melior fides nationum in suam sectam quae nullam Christianorum seleuitatem fibi vendicat non dominicam non Pentecostem etiam si nossent nobiscunt non communicassent ne Christiani viaerentur nos ne Ethnici pronunciemur non veremur Ibid. thus to the Christian who observed 52. Lords dayes every year whereas all the Annual festivities of Pagans came short of Pentecost or 50 To the Heathens every Festival is some annual day but to thee every eighth day c. and here he takes up a sad complaint against some Apostatizing Christians who kept heathenish holy-dayes as if there were not Lords dayes enough in the year O the Faith of the nations better than ours to Wards their own sect as who challenge not to themselves any Christian solemnity not that of the Lords day nor that of Pentecost Did they know it they would not communicate with us lest they should seem Christians we Christians are not afraid to be accounted Heathens Where two things are worthy of note First that he stiles the Lords day the Christians solemnity or solemn day Secondly that he makes it the Christians livery or badge of cognizance Therefore the Heathens would not keep it lest they should be taken for Christians and indeed so it was the keeping holy of the Lords day was ever the distinguishing Character of a true Christian Hence as we noted before the persecuting Pagans used to question the primitive Christians upon this interrogatory hast thou kept the Lords day Anno 303. Just as the bloudy Papists in Queen Maries time examined the Protestants about the Lords Supper and the common answer was I am a Christian I date not intermit it for the Law admonishes me of it Lex eos de eo agendo admonuisset seil lex dei ut ipfi martyres exponunt num 51. non ecclesia ut in Margine a Baronio annotatur Num. 48. vide Theoph. Philokur lib. ch 4. Namely The law of God of Christ and Christianity which answer cost many a Christian his life never were two truths more deeply dyed with the blood of Martyrs than the Lords Supper and the Lords day have been the one under Popish the other under Pagan persecution But to return to our Author Tertullian's Testimony is clear for the Christians keeping of the Lord's day But did they not keep the saturday-Saturday-Sabbath too in his time No he denies that once and again as in the fore-mentioned Book concerning Idolatry m Nobis quibus Sabbata extranea Sunt Neomenia seriae aliquando à Deo dilectae Saturnalia Januriae frequentantur c. Shall we says he frequent Heathenish Festivals to whom the Sabbaths new Moons and Holy days sometimes so dearly beloved of God are strange Strange through dis-use doubtless not through ignorance therefore 't is clear they did not keep them But more clear is that which he writes in his Apologetick against theGentiles where he acknowledgeth n Neque de victus exceptionibus neque de solennitatibus dierum neque de ipso signaculo corporis neque de consortio nominis cum Judaeis agimus p. 848. That the Christians had no correspondence with the Jews neither in difference of meants nor solemnities of days nor in signature of body meaning Circumcision nor in society of name Mark it they had nothing to do with the Jews in solemnities of dayes i e. Jewish days therefore not in the solemnization of the seventh day which Tertullian expressly calls * Lib. advers Iudaeos p. 125. Sabbatum temporale a temporary Sabbath thus we have the practice of the Church in his time adding further proof to the change of the day Our next Author is Origen whose testimony concerning the Lords day is not to be contemned however his judgement in all things-cannot be approved We are not now pleading his Orthodoxy but his veracity he might erre but sure he would not lie being so ready to die for Christ let us hear what he ha's to say to this Christian cause treating upon the story of the Israelites gathering a double portion of Manna on the sixt day because none was to be found on the seventh day o Quare ergo qua die caeperit Manna caelitus dari
volo comparare Dominicam nostram cum Sabbato Judaeorum Ex divinis namque apparet Scripturis quod in die Dominica primo in terris datum est Manna Sienim ut Scriptura dicit sex diebus continuis collectum est septima autem die quae est Sabbati cessatum est sine dubid initium ejus a die prima quae est dies Dominica fuit quod si ex divinis Scripturis boc constat quod Die Dominica Deus pluit Manna de Coelo in Sabbato non pluit intelligant Judaei jam tunc praelatam esse Dominicam nostram Judaico Sabbato c. I demand saies he when the Manna began to fall from heaven and it is apparent from the Holy scriptures that Manna was first given upon the Lord's day For if as the Scripture says they gathered it six days together and ceased the seventh being the Sabbath day without controversie it began to fall on the first day which is is the Lord's day which being manifest from the Divine Scriptures that upon the Lords day God rained Manna from Heaven and upon the Sabbath none let the Jews understand that even then our Lords day was preferred before the Jewish Sabbath And presently after he adds Vpon our Lords day the Lord always rains Manna from heaven and what he means by Manna he tells them Viz. The heavenly Oracles the Word read and preacht to the people Where note First That he calls the seventh day the Jews Sabbath In nostra enim Dominica die semper pluit Domnius Manua de coelo Caelestia namque sunt eloquia ista c. Orlg. in Exod. 16. Hom. 7. not the the Christians Sabbath Secondly He titles the first day of the week the Lords day and our Lords day Thirdly he testifies that on this day the Church in his time had always Manna from Heaven in the publike Ministry of the Word and all this in opposition to the Jews Sabbath which what else can it signifie but the change of the day I might also allege that 23. Homily upon Humbers where this Antient Father calls the Lords day our Christian Sabbath and that in a literal sense as being a day of rest or cessation ab omnibus secularibus operibus from all secular works 6. Cyptian Hier. Cat. log Nam quia octavus dies i. e. post Sabbatum primus dies futurus erat quo Dominus resurgeret nos vivificaret spiritualem nobis daret circumcisionem hic dies octavus i.e. post Sabbatum primus Dominicus praecessit in imagine Câ—pr ep 59. ad Fid. which could not be meant of an every days Sabbath But I pass on to the next Witness namely Cyprian who flourished about the year of Christ 250 or 54. and received the crown of Martyrdom under Valerianus His words to our purpose are these For because the eighth day that is the first after the Sabbath was to be the day in which the Lord should arise and quicken us and give us the spiritual Circumcision this eighth day that is the first after the Sabbath and the Lords day went before in the shadow c. Where observe That he calls the first day of the week the Lords day and that in reference to Christ's resurrection secretly hinting the change of the day prefigured by Circumcision which was tied to the eighth day upon which the Infant being circumcised was accounted as a new creature as if it were risen again from death to life and this did typifie our first Resurrection from the death of sin to the life of grace by virtue of Christ's Refurrection whose Resurrection-day is called the eighth day John 20.26 Justin Martyr also insists upon this in his Dialogue with Trypho and it was the judgment of the Fathers generally that the change of the Sabbath was lapped up in that Sacrament of Circumcision About the year of our Lord 326. Anhanasius shone like a star in the eastern Church And his Testimony is clear as the light p 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Homil de Sement ad init Of old saies he the Sabbath was in great esteem among the anients but the Lord hath changed the sabbath-Sabbath-day into the Lord's day The Lord himself did it sayes Athanasius And again Not we by our authority haue slighted the old Sabbath but in regard it did belong to the Pedagogy of the Law when Christ the great master came in place it became useless 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the candle is put out when the Sun shines What can be more plain T is true he seems to intimate that they did then occasionally meet upon the Jewes Sabbath but he gives a good account of it q 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Not saies he as if we were infected with Judaism but therefore we meet upon the Sabbath that we may worship the Lord of the Sabbath not out of any religious respect to that false Sabbath as he calls it but meerly in Devotion to Christ whereas on the contrary they celebrated the Lord's day with an honourable esteem of the day as it followes r 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ibid. p. 839. Therefore we honony the Lord's day because of the Lord's Resurrection Thus far famous Athanasius whose next neighbour was Hilary a French divine who livedi n the year 355. Hilarius 8. and left a most memorable record behind him of the Church's practice in his time r Nos ectava die quae ipsa prima est per fecti Sabbati festivi tate laetamur plolog in Isalm explan p. 335. Vpon the eighth day saith he which also is the first day we rejoyce in the Festivity of a perfect Sabbath Where we have enough to answer the imputation of Novelty for calling the Lord's day Sabbath however it was called it seem it was kept as a Sabbath in Hilarie's time yea long before t is true he calls it the 8th day also though it have a weekly return in the number of seven because counting on beyond the Jewish tale of weekly dayes comming next after their seventh it made the eighth See Mr. Ley. Sunday a Sabbath About the year 374. Ambrose 9 Ambrose was Bishop of Millain and he also ha's set his hand and seal to this sacred truth in sundry of his writings in his commentary upon the Colossians Or 377. acord to Chytraeus Chronol he expounds Ch. 2.17 Of the weekly Sabbath of the Jewes and paralels that place with Math. 12. The Son of man is Lord of the Sabbath day And indeed the change of the Sabbath does most powerfully preach Christ's Lordship and dominion over it Again to shew the high esteem that he and other Saints in his time had of the Lords day he Rhetoricates thus upon it Å¿ Dominica nobis ideo venerabilis atque solennis quia in co Salvator velut Sol exoriens discussis infernorum tenebris luce Resurrectionis emicuit de rat Fest Pent. Tom. 5. To us the Lords day is therefore
man that as the Christian religion was professed so the Christian Sabbath was practised when there was no Christian Magistrate in the world and that all the Christian world over long before Constantines time Which one would think were enough to put to silence lying lips O Obj. 3 but Merator and Dr. Hen in tell us that in the Aethiopick Churches both dayes are still observed True Answ but they tell us also Dr. Heylin I am sure does that both dayes are observed as Sabbaths and accordingly called For they call the Saturday the Jewes Sabbath and the Lords day the Christian Sabbath so that what ever their practice be 'T is none of their pinciples that the Saturday-Sabbath is the Christian Sabbath And as for their practice 't is little to be regarded considering their corruption For together with the Saturday-Sabbath they observe * Mr. Breerwoods inquiries circumcision too on the eighth day with many other Jewish and Anti-Christian customes Blessed be God for that better light which shines in the Churches of Europe The testimonies taken out of Socrates do only prove that in his time namely 400 years after Christ some Churches did meet together and break bread on the old Sabbath Which we deny not only we say that the Lords day had stil the preheminence and that in four things as learned Dr. Young ha's observed 1. That the saturday-Saturday-Sabbath was never the day of solemn assemblies in all Churches for the constom of holding assemblies on that day never obtained in the Churches of Rome and Alexandria as Sozomon testifies lib. 7. c. 19. Whereas all Churches had their Church-meetings on the Lords day not one excepted 2. The Saturday or old Sabbath was never kept as a solemn Festival for in many Churches it was a weekly Fasting-day and once a year in all Churches namely Easter-Eve Constit lib. 7. c. 24. and lib. 5. c. 15. being the day of Christs greatest abasement while he lay in the grave and under the sorrowes of death whereas every Lords day throughout the year was held a solemn Festival Constit lib. 7. c. 31. 3. All Ordinances were never administred with that uniformity on the old Sabbath as on the Lords day August ep 118. Socrates lib 5. c. 22. as the Ordinance of the Lords Supper which in the purest Churches was appropriate to the Lords day which was therefore called the day of bread as we noted before Athan. Apol. 2. Hence that memorable passage of Athanasius who being accused for Breaking a Communion-cup clears himself thus That time instanced by his accusers was no Communion-time for it was not the Lords day 4. Their conventions on the old Sabbath were ever arbitrary not urged as of necessity unless by Ebion and his followers who were therefore condemned as Hereticks But the observation of the Lords day was ever held a Christian duty and never were any stigmatized with that black brand of Heresie for observing of it nay it was the badge of Christianity I am a Christian I dare not intermit it to all these I may add 5. The old Sabbath was never the Christian Sabbath or day of rest but a working-day So in Ignatius's time Anno 314. he counselled Christians to work upon it and the Council of Laodicea made a decree to this purpose That Christians ought not to Judaize and to rest from work on the Sabbath-day but to prefer the Lords day before it and to rest thereon from labour In which words as Mr. Cawdrey well observes this Synod did but expound the sentence of of holy Ignatius I might instance also the Council at Eliberis Carthage Arragon Mascon Chalons and other both Fathers Councills and Christian Emperours but others have prevented me in this kind of Antiquity So much for the fourth Position POSITION V. That the Lords day or first day of the week commonly called Sunday is the Christian Sabbath or day of holy rest THis does naturally result from the premises For the day being changed and yet the law concerning the Sabbath continued and established the new day must needs be a day of rest as it rests on the authority and morality of the fourth Commandment and as it succeeds the old day in Sabbath-solemnity Yet it is not so much the name as the thing that I contend for For although I am fully convinced that as our spirituall exercises are called Sacrifices because they succeed in the place of the Jewes Sacrifices so and much more significantly may our Lords day be termed Sabbath because it * Succeeds I mean not in any ceremonious respect but in relation to the fourth Commandment succeeds in the place of the Jewes Sabbath yet I had rather insist upon the thing than the name because the one being proved the other cannot well be denyed No rational man will stick at nominal respect where there is a real right to it A name of rest will be easily granted due to a day of rest now that the Lords day is without dispute a day of rest appears thus Cum de re constat propier quam vorba dicuntur de verbis non debore contendi c. August cont Acad. l. 3. c. 13. First As it is the day of our Redeemers rest from his painful work of Redemption his rising from the dead was his resting from his work By his Resurrection this day he entred into his rest for hereby as was said before he entred into his glory which will further appear by comparing two texts together viz. John 7.39 with John 20.22 The first tells us That the spirit was not yet given because Jesus was not yet glorified therefore when the Spirit was given surely then Christ was glorified Now the other Text informs us That upon the day of Christs Resurrection the Spirit was given For he breathed on them and said Receive the Holy Ghost Now therefore undoubtedly the Lord of glory was crowned with glory not that he entred into the place of rest and glory upon the day of his Resurrection but into the state of rest and glory the place is but accidental to the state that which I modestly propounded to further inquiry page 128. Namely Whether Christ did not locally ascend into Heaven on the very day of his Resurrection has been since concluded and resolved in the Negative by a Reverend Brother from that Text of Scripture Hebr. 9 12. by his own blood he entred once into the Holy place Which seems to a gue strongly that our blessed High Priest entred once and but once into Heaven To which I do now freely subscribe Errare possum Haereticus esse nolo Secondly The Lords day is a day of Religious Assemblies for solemn weekly worship therefore also a day of religious rest from civil and secular imployments Since 't is impossible for men to meet together about solemn Worship and at the same time to follow their worldly occasions observed as Sabbaths as the Feast of unleavened bread * Deut.
of holy Convocation and so is every first day of the week to us which as some conceive the Holy Ghost foretold long since by the Prophet Ezekiel saying Ezek. 43.27 It shall be that upon the eight day and so forward the Priests shall make your burnt offerings upon the altar and your peace-offerings or thank offerings and I will accept you saith the Lord 't is a clear prophecy of Gospel-times if not the special time of Gospel-worship upon the eighth day i.e. the first day of the week Answ 2. Touching our Saviours travelling this day I have answered before That it was without labour such as is the motion of immortal and glorified bodies and therefore no President for us who dwell in these corruptible houses of clay And I add moreover That Christs walking with his Disciples that day was no more an impeachment to the holy rest of the first day than the Fathers working every day to the Sabbatical rest of the seventh day 'T is our Saviours own Argument in answer to a like objection My Father worketh hitherto and I work John 5.17 That I termed this journey to Emmaus a Sabbath-days journey was in reference to the discourse by the way not the length of the way To which upon second thoughts I add this further answer That 't is very uncertain whether Christ travelled all the way on foot to Emmaus and back again The Scripture is silent and therefore we may not speak The Objector indeed has it often up That Christ travelled fifteen miles on his Resurrection-day but he speaks without Book and can never prove it by Scripture for he might overtake the two Disciples near Emmaus and how he came there we read not neither can we tell how he conveyed himself back again to Jerusalem Guesses and conjectures are no arguments Answ 3. That the Saints cast their accounts on this day I utterly deny we have nothing but the bold and bare word of the Objector to prove it and let him not blame us if we look not upon him as such a Pythagoras that his Ipse dixit should carry it More might be added in pursuance and prosecution of this Thesis that the Lords day is the Christian Sabbath but Mr. Cawdrey Mr. Bernard Mr. Ley and sundry others have spared me this labour POSITION VI. That the Sabbath begins in the Morning THis Position hath been also handled and proved abundantly by others chiefly by Mr. Cawdrey and Mr. Pynchon whose Arguments I judge unanswerable 'T is to me an unquestionable conclusion That the Sabbath being a natural day consisting of 24 hours it must begin and end as the natural day it self does Now in Scripture-account the natural day begins and ends at or about midnight that it begins in the dark night is evident from that fore-mentioned place Mark 1.35 Where we read of our Saviours rising in the morning a great while before day or while it was deep in the night Hence also the evening of the natural day is reckoned from about noon or mid-day Matth. 14.13 When the evening was come the Disciples came to Christ The Scripture speaks of two evenings Exod. 30.8 Chap. 16.12 about sending away the multitude to seek their dinner in the Villages and that this was not the sun-set-evening is clear for after the multitude had dined and were dismissed we read of another evening v. 23. so that the former evening all circumstances considered must needs be about mid-day therefore it must have a morning answerable to it which must necessarily begin about mid-night when the a Jonah 4.7 morning-Sun begins to ascend as it does from mid-night till mid-day or b Prov. 4.18 perfect day and then it declines again and the c Jer. 6.4 shadows begin to be stretched out called the shadows of the evening till they fall into the darkness of the night which is deepest at mid-night Against those that begin the natural day and so the Sabbath at Sun-set evening we may object this which they can never answer That by their reckoning Christ must rise from the dead the second not the third day after his burial For 't is clear that he was not buried or inclosed in the heart of the earth till after the sun-set evening Matth. 27.57 Mark 15.42 For Joseph went not to Pilate to beg the body till the even was come namely the later evening which begins at Sun-set and after this there were many things to be done before the blessed body of Christ was laid in the Sepulchre As the (c) Mark 15.46 buying of fine linnen to wrap it in besides the imbalming or perfuming it with d John 19.40 spices and odours as the manner of the Jews was to bury This together with other Funeral rites took up some time so that it must needs be after Sun-set before this sad Funeral was finished Now if the Sabbath had begun with the Sun-set evening Christs Resurrection-day being the morrow after the Sabbath could be but the second day whereas it is a great Article of our faith grounded upon the e 1 Cor. 15.4 Scriptures That Christ rose from the dead the third day to fulfill the type of Jonas Further however the Jews in later times begun their Sabbath at evening as we grant they did superstitiously reckoning their preparation-time part of their Sabbath-time yet it is very considerable that the Holy Ghost keeps a contrary account stating the end of the Sabbath towards the dawning of the day following as Matth. 28.1 in the end of the Sabbath which dawned towards the first day of the week Now if the Sabbath ended at the dawning towards the next day then it must needs begin about the same time the day before and as the old Sabbath began and ended in Gods account so must the Lords day In a word how preposterous is it and incongruous both to Scripture and nature to begin the day at evening how ill does this agree with those Texts of Scripture that make the morning the first part of the day and evening the last The Angels we know are called f Job 38.7 morning stars not evening start because they were created in the beginning of the Creation and the days of the Gospel are called g Zech. 14.7 evening in the evening it shall be light because they are the last days according to the common Dialect of Scripture h Psal 5.3 Psal 143.8 Gen. 49.27 morning time is first evening last and evening never signifies early but late because it is the later part of the day But others have sufficiently cleared this truth already to add any more were but to light a candle to the Sun A word or two in answer to the Objections and we have done First Object 1 T. T. p. 56. We are told that Gen. 1. the day began at evening for the darkness went before the light and this darkness with the ensuing light saies the Objector made the first day and
inhabitants of the earth to b Isai 26.9 10. learn righteousness and it is doubtless our duty with humble reverence and holy awfulness of the divine Majesty soberly to observe and improve them inadvertency of Gods judiciary proceedings is a c Psal 28.5 and 10.4 5. Isai 5.12 sin frequently condemned in Scripture and severely threatned Reader if neither Scripture-Arguments nor exemplary judgments will reclaim thee from violation of the Lords day proceed on in thy prophaneness still it may be the Lord will make thee the next example to teach others what thou wilt not learn thy self Something might also be added from Christian experience 't is observable that when the Spirit comes effectually to convince of sin commonly one of the first sins which the eye of inlightned Conscience fixes upon is the neglect of the Lords day and conviction ending in conversion one of the first duties which the soul comes seriously to close withal is the strict observing of the Lords day grace works much this way and does exceedingly dispose the heart to this duty for which I dare appeal to the Consciences of many thousand living Witnesses Add to this the spiritual profit and sensible growth of grace with the sweet comfort and final peace experienced this way Tell me where does true Religion thrive better and the power of godliness flourish and prosper more than in Families Cities Countries and Kingdoms where the Lords day is duly observed on the contrary where does superstition irreligion Atheism and profaneness abound more than where this day is neglected and vilified 't is a serious Observation of a learned * Dr. Hakewils discourse of the Institution dignity and end of the Lords day Author concerning the ingress and progress of Popery in former times Namely That after-ages much degenerating from the simplicity of the Primitive times so infinitely multiplied and magnified their holy-days beyond all measure and reason that the Lords day began to be slighted and accounted with many a common Holy-day perchance inferiour to some of their Saints days which no doubt was a special occasion of that thick cloud of Superstition which afterwards overshadowed the face of the Church and in appearance the reducing of this day to its original honour would prove the readiest means to restore the Church again to her original lustre and beauty even in those places where that cloud is not yet dispelled c. But this by the way Secondly In order to the sanctifying of the Lords day we must cease not only from doing our own works but from speaking our own words Good reason for it is none of our own day therefore let none say Our tongue is our own on this day Christian if thou canst not speak religiously on the Lords day learn to speak sparingly rather be silent then sinful in thy speeches Valerius Maximus reporteth of Zenocrates that being in company with some who used ill language he was very mute and being asked the reason he replyed It hath often repented me that I have spoken never that I have held my peace Thus much the Scripture teaches us That in the multitude of words there wanteth not sin therefore d Prov. 17.27 28. he that spareth his words is wise Indeed if a man speak of heavenly things on the Lords holy day he may with Paul continue his discourse till mid-night and never speak too much but of earthly things we cannot speak too little Oh that our hearts and lips were more heavenly on the Lords day that there might be more sprinklings of grace and heaven in all our Sabbath-day discourses how much were it to be wished that on this day Christians would speak less of what they saw more of what they heard in the publike assemblies Alas should the Lord put that Question to many Christians now which once he did on this day to the two Disciples going to Emmaus What manner of communication is this that ye have one with another how would it put some thousands to the blush who have nothing but earth or froth in their mouths Thirdly we must also lay a charge upon our hearts not to think our own thoughts on the Lords day Rom. 7.14 For the Law of God is spiritual and bindeth the heart from thinking as well as the tongue from speaking or the hand from working Besides what vile hypocrisie is it to lay a restraint upon our words and actions when in the mean time we give scope and liberty to our thoughts to wander after a thousand vanities this is just like painted Sepulchres fair without but full of rottenness and dead mens bones within Further our own vain and worldly thoughts are great distractions and obstructions to the duties of the day Exod. 8.24 like that plague of flies in Egypt which was so vexatious that they could neither work nor eat nor drink and 10.12 but the Flies molested them Such a plague is a worldly heart on the Lords day a man can neither pray nor hear nor meditate but earthly thoughts pester and disturb him yea like that plague of Locusts that devoured all earthly thoughts eat up all the pleasant fruit of Sabbaths and Sermons Luke 8.14 yea like thorns they choak the very seed of the Word and render it unprofitable How highly does it concern us therefore on the Lords day especially to look to our hearts Now if ever Solomons counsel is seasonable * Prov. 4.23 Keep thy heart with all diligence Or Cum omni custodiâ with all keeping as some read it set guards and double guards upon it for as Bernard truly speaks Corde nihil fugacius Nothing is more flitting then the heart of man 't is a wandring Dinah we had need watch it warily and check it speedily when it begins to hanker-after the world In a word to cure evill and earthly thoughts on the Lords day we should do well to awe our hearts with the apprehension of Gods all-seeing eye 'T is observable that our Lord appeared to his servant John upon his own day in a heart-searching-similitude His eyes were as a flame of fire Rev. 1.14 not only burning in jealousie against sin and sinners but bright and shining as the searcher of hearts and tryer of reins by which title he then also stiled himself Rev. 2.23 Consider Christian that on the Lords day especially thy heart lies under the view of that fiery flaming eye of Christ therefore let thy thoughts be none but such as that pure and piercing eye will approve and if Christ as the searcher of hearts be not awful to thee yet me thinks Christ as the judge of secrets should O let the terror of that last day work upon our hearts every Lords day the seat of the Judge is fitly resembled by a cloud not a throne of silver or gold but a cloud Rev. 14.14 Now as we know the clouds are storehouses of refreshing showres so also of storms and tempests and thus doubtless that
day of the Lord will be as a day of refreshing to some so a stormy day of tempests and terrors to others and a great part of the tempest of that day will fall upon the thoughts and hearts of men for * Eccles 12. ult God will bring every secret thing into judgement we must be accountable not only for idle words but vain thoughts And thus much of the first thing we must keep the Sabbath as a day of rest but we must not rest in this rest we must not make it a Sabbath of idleness but a Sabbath of holiness we must not so much cease from working as change our work servile work for soul work worldly imployments for spiritual exercises That is the next thing 2. To our holy rest we must join holy work and this is either publike or private something indeed must be done in private before the publike our closet-devotions and Family duties common to other dayes must not he omitted this day but rather augmented their Sacrifices under the Law were * Numb 28.9 doubled upon the Sabbath-day and observe it Exod. 3.7 their first service was the burning of Incense before the Lord. Matth. 28.1 Mark 16.2 John 20.1 Now prayer is our Incense let this be our morning exercise in private Seek the Lord O my soul seek him early do as Mary Magdalen did she was early up to seek him whom her soul loved she was last at the Cross and first at the Sepulchre in the dawning while it was yet dark very early in the morning say the Evangelists Oh that our love to Christ could keep pace with hers Shall we love the world better than Christ if we have a journey to go about worldly concernments we can set out betimes oh that we were as wise for our souls as we are for our bodies let not sleep that devourer of time beguile us of our golden hours in the morning in which we are freshest and fittest for converse with God let the sluggard that sleeps with the Sun-beams in his face remember that saying of Austin If the Sun could speak how roundly might it salute thee with this reproof I laboured more then thou yesterday and yet I am risen before thee to day But this is too low an Argument behold the Sun of righteousness is risen and he rose early this day therefore let us not sleep as do others but say and sing with the Church f Isai 26. â— With my soul have I desired thee in the night yea with my spirit within me will I seek thee early Having performed our morning exercises in private how cheerfully should we repair to the publike Assemblies and draw nigh to God in publike Ordinances on this acceptable day this season of grace when Christ sits in State as one speaks scattering treasures of grace amongst hungry and thirsty Saints that are poor in Spirit and wait for spiritual alms at the Throne of grace g Psal 84.1 2. How amiable are thy Tabernacles O Lord of Hosts My soul longeth yea even fainteth for the courts of the Lord My heart and my flesh cryeth out for the living God And again h Psal 122.1 I was glad when they said unto me let us go into the house of the Lord. For the i Psal 87.2 Lord loveth the gates of Zion more then all the dwellings of Jacob and most sweetly the Prophet Isaiah speaking of Gospel-times k Isai 2 1 2. Many people shall go and say Come and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord to the house of the God of Jacob and he will teach us of his ways and we will walk in his paths A most lively prediction of our Christian solemn Assemblies the select season of which is signified by t he practice of the Apostles and Primitive Saints to be the first day of the week on this day they met to break bread and Paul preached to them Acts 20.7 on this day they were all together with one accord in prayer Acts 2.1 with chap. 1.2 4. and at these meetings the Scriptures were read by the Apostles command Tertul. Apol. cap. 39. Col. 4.16 1 Thes 5.27 to which may be added singing of Psalms usual at their solemn Assemblies 1 Cor. 14. an Ordinance by which God is much glorified and the souls of his people sweetly cheered and refreshed what greater act of honour can we do to the great God here on earth then publikely to praise him in the great Congregation especially on the Lords day Psal 111.1 when all the Churches of Christ in the world joyn consort with us in this melodious duty Hebr. 10.25 Let us not therefore forsake the assembling of our selves together as the manner of some is while we enjoy publike Liberties and Ordinances let us improve them we know not how soon the songs of the Temple may be turned into howlings and Ichabod may be written upon all our Church-doors the glory is departed from Israel Lam. 1.4 16. the ways of Sion de mourn because none come to her solemn assemblies The Lord forbid that ever we should live to see that woful day wherein we shall desire to see one of the dayes of the Son of man but shall not see it Let not our neglect of the Lords day provoke the Lord to deprive us of it let us conscienciously wait upon God in Sabbath-Assemblies and publick Ordinances lest we be forced for contempt of the publike to seek our bread in secret wandring up and down in caves and dens of the earth destitute afflicted tormented as we read of some better than our selves Heb. 11.38 39. Lastly The publike solemnities of the day being ended what remains but that we return again to our private exercises searching the Scriptures concerning the truths taught in publike as the * Acts 17.11 noble Bereans did to which we may joyn Repetition and Conference to whet the Word upon one anothers hearts let not our souls be weary of Sabbath-work only take heed as of resting in the rest so also in the work of the day for what one truly speaks of duties and actings of grace they are good duties and good graces but bad Christs the like may I say of Sabbaths never so well kept they are good Sabbaths but bad Saviours let our rest and confidence be only in Christ and to such as take him for their rest his work is but recreation and so indeed we should esteem it in a spiritual sense not looking upon it as a sowr task or a rigid exaction but calling the Sabbath a delight we should keep it accordingly even the whole day with the whole man as a day of delights to the Lord being transported beyond flesh and the world and having our conversation in heaven as much as is possible for creatures cloathed with flesh To come to a closure There is a double duty to be performed in private on the Lords day which I seriously advise Christians to make Conscience of namely the spiritual duty of meditation and the celestial duty of praise First how seasonable it is on the Sabbath to
is not said it shall be a sign that in six dayes the Lord made heaven and earth For there is a notable pause in the middle which divides the sentence and the sense also The seventeenth verse containes two distinct arguments or reasons why they should keep the Sabbath 1. Because it was a sign 2. Because it was set apart upon the occasion of Gods work and rest in the beginning 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Joh. 2.3 1 Joh. 3.18 There are indicating or evidencing signes such are the Characters of saving grace But neither can this be the sense of the word sign in this place It is a sign that I the Lord do sanctifie you What savingly why then all were Israel that were of Israel for the Sabbath was given to all neither was it so much their keeping the Sabbath as Gods giving them a Sabbath to keep which is here made a sign Witness Ezekiel Moses his interpretor I have given them my Sabbath for a sign Ezek. 20.13 to know that I the Lord do sanctifie them Therefore 3. There are distinguishing or differencing signs 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such as do visibly mark out a people for Gods peculiar select and sanctified ones above all other people of the earth And in this sense the Sabbath is here given the Jews as a sign a sign of his sanctifying them that is in one word as Calvin speaks a sign of his segregating and singling them out from the rest of the nations as his peculiar people Siquis un◠verbo reddere vellet sanctificare est segregare Cal. Praelec in Ezek. 20. Ita Simler in Exo Levit. 21.8 ch 2.32 So also Simlerus and to the same effect is that of Lavater aforementioned The Sabbath was a sign of Gods sanctifying them as the Sabbath it self was sanctified that is separated from other common dayes and set a part for holy ends and uses And so the Word sanctifie is usually if not only taken in Scripture when it is applyed to the whole bulk or body of a people as here it is Well the Sabbath was given to the people of Israel as a sign of Gods sanctifying them but how long throughout their generations That is during the Oeconomy of the Law as long as the people of Israel should be the only peculiar people of God Exod. 12.14 The very same Phrase is used concerning the Passeover ye shall keep it a feast to the Lord throughout your generations by an ordinance or ever which clearly speaks it a temporary ordinance But Secondly We must distinguish of Sabbaths as well as of signes very briefly the Word Sabbath signifies one of these three things either 1. The moral duty holy rest or 2. The penal rigour of that rest or 3. The precise day of rest Now 1. It cannot be meant of the moral duty simply considered since that extends beyond their generations for there remaineth a rest Heb. 4.9 10. or keeping of a Sabbath to the people of God still neither 2. Can itwell be understood of that penal rigour resting from all work upon pain of corporal death for this in all likelihood lasted not out half their generations being calculated chiefly for their wilderness estate as was saidbefore Therefore 3. It must be the precise day of rest the old seventh-day-Sabbath or nothing which is here set as a sign throughout their generations and this I take to be the true intent of the Holy-Ghost both here and Ezek. 20. The case seems clearly to me to be stated in this wise The old seventh day was at first given to Adam and his posterity as the only true Sabbath during the pre-eminency of the Creation and Christ in the promise and that it was conscientiously kept by the holy Patriarchs for some ages after I doubt not though some of the Ancients seem to deny it but to be sure in tract of time the sinful race of Adam forsaking the true God did also forget the true Sabbath Now when it pleased God out of that degenerate lump of mankind to form Israel or the seed of Abraham a peculiar people to himself he gave them his old Sabbath again in a new Edition That among other ends it might be a visible sign to distinguish them from the rest of the world Other nations no doubt had their Sabbaths as well as their gods but as Israel must serve the only true God so they must also observe the then only true Sabbath Ezod 31.13 So much is implyed in the text Verily my Sabbath ye shall keep saith the Lord. The Word my is Emphatical 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it points at the precise day of Gods appointment the seventh and last day of the week therefore this and mainly this was made a sign of Gods sanctifying the Jews throughout their generations which being so how evidently doth it follow that the day was design'd for change and that now it is certainly changed by the will and appointment of God For if the Jews generation be extinct and they that were once the people of God have now a Lo-ammi written upon them Ho. 11.20 1 Thes 2.15 16. Ye are none of my people how shall that day any longer stand as a Sabbath wich was given them as a sign of their being the peculiar people of God and that for a season only till their generations were expired Maledic domine Nazarais Lord curse the Christians is one of their daily imprecations vid Trapp in Hosea Either let the adversay say the blaspheming Jews who powre out daily curses instead of prayers are still the Covenant-people of God in so much as still they retain that saturday-Saturday-Sabbath And then he shall speak like a true Jew indeed or let him confess their saturday-Sabbath which was once the crown of their glory is now no better then the badge of their blasphemy whereby they would make the world believe that they are still the sanctified people of God though they trample underfoot the blood of his Son whereby they should be sanctified I speak not this as insulting over the misery of the Jews but as lamenting the sin of apostate Christians who take up that day as a badge of their Saintship which the infidel Jews wear as a badge of their blasphemy and enmity against Christ and Christians Indeed it was once an illustrious sign of their sanctification but it was limited to their generations as the Passeover was and therefore if the one be expired so is the other upon the same account And in this respect I dare boldly affirm and I doubt not to maintain it that it is every whit as lawful for a Christian to celebrate that old Sacrament the Passeover as to observe the old Sabbath For the one was as well a sign as the other and the one was ordained for a season as well as the other There are a few feeble objections to face this argument but the bare repetion with the premises will be
correspondent to the change of the Covenant it self and accordingly such a change of the Sabbath I do here assert not in respect of the substance or duty holy rest but the circumstance of time the day upon which that duty was formerly fixed and stated And that such a change of the Covenant there is and such a change of the Sabbath by one and the same Christ i Hebr. 12.24 mediator of the Covenant and k Mark 2.28 Lord of the Sabbath and both these occasioned by the exhibition of a new and a better Covenant upon his glorious resurrection from the dead we come now to demonstrate To this purpose we shall reflect upon the old Covenant in a threefold Covenant-expressue of it and shew what a visible change Christ has made in it and how inseparably the change of the Sabbath is interwoven with it 1. In the mandatory part of it I mean the Decalogue or law of the ten Commandments that this was a l Jep 31.31.32 Deut. 5.2 ch 29.1 1 Kings 8 9.21 2 Chron. 6.11 Psalm 105.11 piece of the old Covenant promulgated upon Mount Sinai I suppose none will question And that even this has undergone not only mitigation but some kind of mutation by our glorious Gospel-law-giver none need to question only we must state it warily and soberly not affirming with the blundring Antinomians hand over head that the law of Moses is out-lawed and abrogated without any distinction This were to coyn a lye to confirm the truth of God for it is certain that those lively m Acts 7.38 Oracles n Ex. 20.1 propounded by God himself upon Mount Sinai and afterwards expounded by Moses and the Prophets in the Old Testament by o Mat. 5.21 to the end Christ and his p Rom. 7.12 14 ch 13.8 9 10. Ephes 6.1 2 3. James 2.8 9 10 12. 1 John 2.9 10 Apostles in the New are still in force under the Gospel not onely as declarative of the law of nature but as positively preceptive also in the matter and substance of them yea as perpetually directive as a rule of life and obedience both in respect of duties to be performed and sins to be avoided As to have the only true God and no other to be our God to worship this only true God with his own prescribed worship and no other to use his holy name most reverently and religiously to sanctifie his holy Sabbath to honour Father and Mother to avoid Idolatry Blasphemy Murder Adultery Theft c. These are as much duties and sins under the Gospel as ever they were under the Law and in this sense the Moral law is q Rom. 3.31 1 Cor. 9.21 established by Christ and r Mat 5.17 18. Christus finisest legis Rom. 10.4 sed finis persiciens non intersiciens August in John tract 55. Tom. 9. ratified even to a tittle You will ask me then wherein les the change I answer not in the substance but in some circumstantials peculiar to those times and appropriate to that people the Church of the Jewes for as I hinted before almost all Scripture had some circumstantial peculiarity and propriety to those times and that people to whom it was immediately given and so had the Decalogue 'T is true in the substance and morality of it it was equally calculated both for Jewes and Christians yet some particulars in it in regard of circumstance either direct or indirect were proper to the Jewes onely as the preface to the first Commandment I am the Lord which brought thee out of the land of Egypt which in the letter of it concerns not us for literally and properly we were never in Egypt not in bondage there so also the promise annexed to the fifth commandment which in the particularity of it belonged to the Jewes only pointing at the land of Canaan The like may be said for the positive part of the second Commandment touching Gods worship as then by ceremonial observances as also the positive part of the fourth Commandment which occasionally and indirectly prescribed the celebration of the Jews seventh day and that with this additional circumstance within thy gates all these were adjuncts of the old Covenant and appropriate to the Jews Now the new Covenant taking in ſ Isai 2.3 See Mr. Roberts on the Covenant and Mr. Abbot against Broad Gentiles as well as Jewes must necessarily vary these circumstantials in the moral law by construing them in a new Covenant-sense to accommodate it to these new confederates as thus by changing their temporal deliverance from Egypts thraldom into out spiritual deliverance from the thraldom of sin and Satan the land of Canaan into any other part of the earth where the heirs of the promise shall dwell their legal worship into our Gospel-worship their gates into our jurisdictions in a word their seventh day into our seventh day which analogically at least is as much intended by seventh day in the fourth Commandment as England by Canaan in the fifth Commandment If it be demanded when and by whom this change was introduced I answer by the blessed Mediator of the new Covenant and that immediately upon his resurrection from the dead for then he was given both for a t Isal 42.6 light and a Covenant to the Gentiles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mas. 28 19 20. Mark 16.15 Luke 24.47 John 20.23 then was the Churches Charter formerly confined among the Jews graciously extended to the Gentiles then it was that our Lord was pleased to issue forth that high commission as one calls it for the discipling of all the Gentiles by Baptisme and so bringing them into Covenant requiring his Apostles to tender the whole Covenant to them both in the promises and the precepts of it and the fore as the Prophet Jonah shortly after his resurrection went to Nineveh so Jesus Christ after his to Galilee where according to fore-appointment he gave his disciples a solemn meeting and laid a solemn charge upon them to teach the Gentiles to observe whatsoever he had commanded them Now if the precept of the Sabbath were included among the rest of those commands as 't is like it was it must be in such a sense as would comport with their new Covenant-state which must needs exclude the old seventh day since that was a branch of the old Covenant peculiar to the Jews and urged upon them by such a reason or inforcement as in the letter of it concerned not the Gentiles at all viz. their deliverance out of Egypt Deut. 5.15 Mystically indeed it concerned us as well as them as implying out Redemption by Christ but in that sense it quite carries away the Sabbath from their old seventh day in as much as the accomplishment of our Redemption fell upon the first day of the week viz. by the glorious resurrection of our Saviour but for which we had remained still in the Egypt of our u 1 Cor. 15.17 sins as the Apostle witnesseth
the Sabbaths here specified were a shadow of things to come whereas the Lords day as one well observes is only a memorial of something past to wit the glorious resurrection of Jesus Christ So that to argue from hence against all difference of dayes under the Gospel as the old Anabaptists and Familists do is evidently to stretch the Text beyond the stapse But to urge it against all the Jewes Holy-dayes their weekly Sabbath and all is not at all to force it For First The Apostle seemes to speak distinctly and distributively enumerating the several sorts of dayes in observation among the Jewes Holy-day New moons Sabbaths and the gradation from yeerly holy-dayes to monthly new Moons and from them to weekly Sabbaths is visible enough to such as are not blinded with prejudice See Mr. Shepheard Thes 20. part 2. Secondly The plural term Sabbaths is usually put for the singular the Sabbath or seventh day now under dispute Yea I cannot find any one Text in all the new Testament where it is applied in the same number to any other day or Sabbath but the old seventh-day-Sabbath * Math. 12.1.5.10.12 Mark 1.21 ch 2 24. ch 3. v. 2. Lu. 4.31 ch 13 v. 10. Acts 13 14. in all these Texts t is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Seven or eight times the same word as it is here set down in the plural number is used for that old weekly Sabbath and not so much as once for any yearly Sabbath therefore inall reason that precise weekly Sabbath must be here I willnot say in cluded only but principally intended Thirdly * 2 Kin. 4.23 even in the old Testament where ever New Moons and Sabbaths go coupled together unless the phrase be figurative 1 Chro. 23.31 2 Cron. 1.4 ch 8.13 ch 31 v. 3. Nehem. 10.33 Ezek. 45.17 Hos 2.11 Amos 8.5 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as in Isai 66.23 the Jews weekly Sabbath is denoted by it as appears by those several Scriptures cited in the margin in most of which their annual Sabbaths are excepted and distinguished by another name scil Feasts to which answers the words holy-day in this place Colos 2.16 For indeed the word in the original fignifies a feast or festival day Thus let Scripture expound Scripture and truth will be truth in spight of errour take the whole sentence together holy-day new Moon Sabhaths and if it be an Old Testament-phrase it alwayes implies the old seventh day-Sabbath or take the words Sabbaths singly by it self and if it be a New Testament-term as 't is like it is it ever I think I may truely say ever signifies the same seventh day unless when it is put for the week which here it cannot be The conclusion then is undeniable that the Jews seventh day Sabbath was a shadowy Sabbath and therefore it cannot be our Christian Sabbath for what have we to do with shadowes under the Sun-shine of the Gospel under the clear and bright discoveries of Christ 2 Cor. 3.18 when we may with open face as in a glass behold the glory of the Lord. Oh that the spirit of truth would take away that vail that lies upon the hearts of men that vail of errour and darkness which keeps out the light of this truth for a truth it is a plain truth as plain as Scripture can make it that the Sabbaths here mentioned were a shadow of things to come and I have made it evident that the old Sabbath as to the day is here chiefly intended it is not necessary that I should trouble the Reader to tell him my judgment what kind of shadow it was or what was shadowed by it in particular whether Christs rest that day full and whole in the grave or his rest the next day from the grave or a believers rest in Christ a compleat Saviour But this is certain a shadow it was of which something in Christ was the body and the body being come the shadow must be gone And so I might proceed to another argument but I must first remove some objections wherewith the Adversary has indeavoured to block up our way But all in vain First he tells us T.T. Obj. 1. p. 23.24 25. 't is evident at first sight that only such Sabbaths are ceased as were shadows of good things to come but the seventh day was never such a Sabbath A sign indeed of good things past and present it was but never termed a shadow of things to come This proceeds upon his accustomed fallacy Answ petitio principij a begging of the thing in question for he would make us believe that the old seventh day was none of the Sabbaths here intended which if we deny as we do then he has lost his conclusion for in this very Text it is termed a shadow of things to come what if we grant it a sign of something past so were the annual Sabbaths as he calls them Passeover Pentecost c. the one of their preservation in Egypt the other of the giving of Gods law yet both shadowes of things to come or else the Apostle was much mistaken The blessed Spirit by two other terms declares clearly what Sabbaths are ceased Ob. 2 1. Such as were against us 2. Contrary to us and such were those annual Sabbaths requiring great labour and travel in coming three times a year from all parts to Jerusalem the seventh day-Sabbath was never in the least against us nor contrary to us unless so far as we are against God and contrary to him as 't is elsewhere added 'T is very questionable Answ 1 whether these three annual Festivals Passeover Pentecost and the feast of Tabernacles be ever termed Sabbaths in Scripture indeed the Sabbatical years as every seventh year and every fiftieth year ae five or six times termed a Levit. 25.8 c. 26.34 35 43. Sabbaths 2 Chron. 36.21 but the Jews themselves could never say these were against them or contrary tot hem the one being a year of rest to their lands the other a year of release to their servants The weekly Sabbath or seventh day directly intended in the fourth Commandment I grant is nto againt us Answ 2 neither are we against it we own it we observe it and shall do I trust till we enjoy our everlasting Sabbath in Heaven But The seventh-day-Sabbath imposed upon the Jews or rather the hand-writing of Ordinances not Gods hand-writing but Moses hand writing was in some sense against us Gentiles and contrary to us as it was a piece of that old partition-wall which separated the Jewes from the Gentiles and occasioned b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Compare Col. 2.14 with Ephes 2.14 15 16. See the Dutch Annot. enmity between them that such a division or partition-wall there was we read in Ephes 2. whereby the Jews and Gentiles were parted and shut up as it were one from another that there was no correspondency between them and the symboll of this
cannot with any colour of reason be denyed surely when he entred into his Kingdome he entred into his glory but by his resurrection from the dead he entred into his Kingdome being solemnly invested with Kingly power and soveraignty c Math. 28.18 Having all power in Heaven and earth put into his hands and f Rev. 3.7 the keys of David the Government of the Kingdom laid upon his shoulders to dispense lawes pronounce pardons pass sentence of life and death g John 20.23 to bind and loose at his princely pleasure In a word it was by his glorious resurrection from the dead that God h Psalm 2.6 7. set him as King upon his holy hill of Sion saying thou art my son this day have I begotten thee Christs resurrection-day was in a special manner his Coronation-day and as earthly Princes are wont on their Coronation-dayes to shew themselves to their subjects in all their royalty casting about their silver and gold so the Lord Jesus delights on this day to manifest himself to the souls of his people scattering his precious gifts and graces in the assemblies of his Saints for as this is the day which the Lord hath made so t is the day in which he himself was made i Rom. 14.9 Lord of the living and the dead k Acts 2.36 ch 3. 15. ch 5. 30 31. Lord and Christ Prince of life King of Heaven and earth a King indeed he was in the l Math. 2.2 cradle a King on the m ch 27. 37. Cross but never so much or so manifestly a King upon earth as when he conquered that King of terrours and carried away n 1 Tim. 6.16 that incomparable Title the blessed and only potentate the King eternal and immortal o Rom. 6.9 who dyeth no more death hath no more dominion over him He that shall deny Christs entring into glory by his resurrection will rob him of much of his glory t is true he entred not into the place of glory in his whole person till his ascention but into the state of glory he entred by his resurrection if the bodies of the Saints shall be raised in p 1 Cor. 15.43 glory how much more was the blessed body of Jesus Christ If the glory of the stars be such what is the glory of the rising Sun But I must not expatiate here a word more and I have done He that hath entred into his rest hath ceased from his works as God did from his whence I gather that it is not only Christs rest but the reason of that rest the consummation of the work of redemption which occasions our Sabbath as Gods finishing the work of Creation did the old Sabbath Hebr. 4.3 4. And this the word Rest implies being a demonstrative proof of the accomplishment of the work for even a wise man if he undertake a work will not rest till it be finished or if he do he is p Luke 14.29.30 laugh'd at for his lost labour and therefore much more when the all-wise God is said to rest may we conclude his work is perfected To speak properly if rest imply only a cessation from work we cannot say that God rested from his work of Creation on the seventh day more then he has done ever since or Christ from his work of redemption therefore we must take in the consummation of each work as the ground of each rest otherwise all the time after should be of equal account with the last day in respect of Creation and with the first day in respect of Redemption Now the question will be when the work of Redemption was consummate and complete Doubtless not till the top-stone was laid till Christ was made the head of the corner which the q Act. 4.10 11. Apostle assures us was by his resurrection from the dead for if this had not been done the work had been all to do again If Christ had suffered dyed and been swallowed up of death and corruption in the grave and never risen again then had we remained still in our sins and all our preaching of Christ and faith in Christ had been vain 1 Cor. 15.17 It was by our Saviours joyful resurrection therefore that the work of our Redemption was manifestly accomplished and hereupon Christ rested from his work as God did from his and as when God rested from the work of Creation he appointed a Sabbath although he did not rest from works of Providence in like manner Christ hath appointted a Sabbath upon his resting from the work of Redemption by price although he doth not rest from the work of Redemption by power till all his enemies by vanquished and all his elect saved as a * Dr. Cheynels Treatise of the blessed Trinity pag. 403. learned Author speaks And so much for this Argument on Hebr. 4. only some objections Treatise of the must be removed for T.T. takes this Text of Scripture and wofully wrests it to his own and others misguidance in countenance of the Saturday-Sabbath I shall briefly answer his several Arguments as objections against what has been spoken The polluting of Gods seventh-day-Sabbath was wofully Israels sin Obj. 1 T.T. p. 141. for which the Lord destroyed them in the wilderness as 't is plain Ezek. 20.13 And this being compared with the Apostles admonition to these Christians plainly points out the Sabbath which remains to the people of God he sets forth Israels sin and sorrow on this wise although God finished his work from the foundation of the world and thereupon speaks Gen. 2. Yet neither the glory of his wonderful Creation or authority of his institution could engage them to follow his Example but so highly did they provoke him especially in polluting his Sabbaths that he sware in is wrath they should not enter into his rest c. Wherefore the Apostle concludes in applying all to believers exhorting them in the use of that means which Israel neglected to enter into the eternal rest lest any should fall after the example of Israels unbelief or disobedience as the Greek signifies and then he concludes Magisterially Christians believe it this is the summe of the Apostles admonition But I must tell him they had need of a very strong faith that can believe such incongruous stuffe as this is For Although it be granted that Sabbath-breaking were one of I sraels sins in the wilderness Answ 1 yet it will not follow that this sin is here intimated by the Apostle as the cause of their ruine but rather the sin of unbelief For so 't is expresly affirmed ch 3. v. 18.19 To whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest but to them that believed not So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief So ch 4. v. 2. v. 6. v. 11. And whereas T.T. tells his Reader that the word signifies disobedience I must tell him it is his mistake to render it so in this place for
weak Christians he goes into the Temple to purifie himself the Jewes which were of Asia make a loud out cry against him V. 28 saying Men of Israel help this is the man that teacheth all men every where against the people and the law and this place By which Testimonies t is evident that St. Paul was a rigid Non-conformist and that he did mightily cry down the customes of Moses in all Christian Churches If you ask me what customes I answer they are not particularly mentioned onely these two Epistles do witness that he had decryed circumcision the old Sabbath and other dayes and rites of legal worship therefore in all likelyhood these were some of those condemned customes And hereupon it seems the old Ebionites rejected Pauls writings rating him as an * Apostatam legis eum dicentes Iren. lib. 1. ch 26. Apostate because he wrote against the customes of Moses chiefly circumcision and the old Sabbath both which the Ebionites eagerly contended for and therefore they were branded for Hereticks to all succeeding generations and well they deserved it But it may be demanded by what warrant did St. Paul cry down these Mosaical customes and upon what ground I answer his warrant was e Gal. 1.1 he that raised Christ from the dead gave him his commission signed in Heaven and his ground was good For the Lord Jesus himself was designed to change these customes so much St. Steven does upon the matter affirm for he was accused for saying That f Acts 6.14 Jesus of Nazareth should change the customes which Moses had delivered Mark the expression the very word change is brought in as an Article against this blessed Martyr The only crime they had to lay to his charge was this that he should say Jesus of Nazareth should change the customes which Moses had desivered 'T is true they accused him for speaking blasphemy against Moses law and therefore they are called g V. 13. false witnesses or false accusers but like enough that which they called blasphemy St. Steven had spoken very like in his dispute with the h V. 9 10. Libertines Cyrenians and Alexandrians he might speak something to this effect that Christ should destroy the Temple and change the law and ordinances which Moses had given them Whether he did affirm it or no the thing it self is a certain truth the Lord Jesus has changed the Traditions of Moses he has changed the i Heb. 7.12 law and the Priesthood the Covenant and the Seales of the Covenant circumcision for Baptism the Passeover for the Lords Supper the typical k Mal. 1.11 John 4.21 place and times of worship all things lyable to change he has certainly changed and among the rest the old Sabbath which was mutable from the beginning as we have shewed elsewhere But I conceive St. Steven had indeed asserted this truth for being charged with it does he deny it No he rather stands to maintain and justifie it ch 7. * V. 47. and accordingly God justifies him by making his face to shine before the Council like the face of an l ch 6. 15. Angel for indeed it was the Doctrine of an m Dan 9.26.27 Angel which he had delivered and to come to some issue that which I would further observe is this St. Paul although at that time neither Saint nor Paul was present at the Martyrdom if not the tryall of Steven and did n Acts 22.20 ch 26. 10. consent to his death and doubtless he could not but know the cause for which he suffered which was partly this Reader note this as a convincing argument that a Sabbath or day joyned with other Jewish holy-dayes yet distinguished from them can be no other then their seventh day Sabbath and this is often condemned never commanded in all the new Testament therefore thou must make a new Gospel if thou wilt maintain that old Sabbath for saying that Jesus of Nazareth should change the customes which Moses had delivered a truth sealed with the blood of this Protomartyr Now I would offer it to further consideration whether this might not be one ground of this great Apostles after zeal against the Ordinances Rites and Customes which Moses had delivered and in particular circumcision and the old Sabbath But I shall not go by guesse and conjectural probability Thus much I infer from the premises as matter of certainty The customes which Paul taught people to cast off were the customes delivered by Moses Acts 21.21 which were destinated to be changed by Christ Acts 6.14 But Paul taught people to cast off circumcision and the old Sabbath Colos 2.12.16 Gal. 4.10 ch 5. 2. Therefore these were the customes delivered by Moses and destinated to change by Christ That circumcision was none Question but the scruple is about the Sabbath for it may be objected the Sabbath was long before Moses time as old as Adam Apostate Adam at least I answer so also circumcision was long before Moses time being given at first to o Gen. 17.9 10 Acts 7.8 Abraham yet circumcision is said to be given by p John 7.22 Moses because he was the first that wrote of it and the like may be said for the old Sabbath which was one of those customes delivered or made known by the hand of Moses Neh. 9.14 and ranked with the rest of those ceremonial festivals Levit. 23. But to be sure whatever St. Steven in his dispute with the Libertines and Cyrenians asserted St. Paul in his Epistles to the Colossians and Galatians hasevidently concluded the discharge of the old seventhday T. T. has little to say to Gal. 4. only this * p. 23. That Paul does not here condemn the observation of all dayes c. onely beggarly seasons and elements Neither do we say that all dayes are here condemned or disallowed The Lords day the first day of the week we are sure is not for this was established by this very Apostle in these very Churches of q 1 Cor. 16.1 2. Galatia and to condemn this had been to crosse his own Ordinance But we say all Judaicall dayes for dayes months years do all referr to that specialty Jewish solemnities are here discharged and condemned and among the rest the old seventh day And as for the objectors Minatory charge If any man be so bold to call this a beggarly element at his peril be it Let the Holy Apostle answer it He had best tell St. Paul at your peril be it Paul if you dare call the old Sabbath a shadow of things to come or a * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 poore Rudiment for so he may qualifie the termes if he please but where lies the peril Why not the old Sabbath a poore rudiment he hints this as his reason Because God instituted and observed it Observed it how did God observe it Take heed of unbeseeming termes When we speak of the glorious God we had need speak as the