glorified in us and by us and the Interest of Religion in Purity Holiness and Righteousness be promoted amongst Men. J. O. Jan. 11. 1670. Exercitations Concerning the Name Original Nature Use and Continuance of a Day of Sacred Rest. Exercitatio Prima HEBR. Chap. IV. Ver. IX 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Trouble and Confusion from mens Inventions 2 Instanced in Doctrines and Practices of a Sabbatical Rest. 3 Reason of their present Consideration 4 Extent of the Controversies about such a Rest. 5 A particular Enumeration of them 6 Special Instances of Particular Differences upon an Agreement in more general Principles 7 Evil Consequences of these Controversies in Christian Practice 8 Principles and Rules proposed for the right Investigation of the Truth in this matter 9 Names of a Sacred Day of Rest. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gen. 2. 3. Heb. 4. 4. 10 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gen. 2. 3. Exodus 16. 23. Chap. 35. 2. Lam. 1. 7. Saturn called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the Jews and why The Word doubled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Reason of it 11 Translation of this Word into the Greek and Latin Languages 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 12 All Judaical Feasts called Sabbata by the Heathen Suetonius Horace Juvenal cited to that purpose 13 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sunday Used by Justine Martyr Tertullian Eusebius Blamed by Austin Hierom and Philastrius 14 Use of the Names of the Dayes of the Week derived from the Heathen of old Custom of the Roman Church 15 First day of the Week Lords Day Lords Day Sabbath The First Exercitation § 1 SOLOMON tells us that in his Disquisition after the Nature and State of things in the world this alone he had found out that is absolutely and unto his satisfaction namely that God made man upright but they have sought out many Inventions Eccles. 7. 29. And the Truth hereof we also find by woful experience not only in sundry particular Instances but in the whole course of men in this world and in all their concerns with respect unto God and themselves There is not any thing wherein and whereabout they have not found out many Inventions to the Disturbance and perverting of that state of peace and quietness wherein all things were made of God Yea with the fruits and effects of this perverse Apostasie and Relinquishment of that universally Harmonious state of things wherein we were created not only is the whole world as it lyes in evil filled and as it were overwhelmed but we have the Reliques of it to conflict withal in that Reparation of our condition which in this life by Grace we are made partakers of In all our Wayes Actions and Duties some of these Inventions are ready to immix themselves unto our own disturbance and the perverting of the right wayes of God § 2 An evident Instance we have hereof in the business of a Day of Sacred Rest and the Worship of God therein required God originally out of his Infinite Goodness when suitably thereunto by his own Eternal Wisdom and Power he had made all things Good gave unto men a day of Rest as to express unto them his own Rest Satisfaction and Complacency in the Works of his Hands so to be a day of Rest and composure to themselves and a Means of their Entrance into and Enjoyment of that Rest with himself here and for ever which he had ordained for them Hence it became unto them a Principle and Pledge a Cause and Means of Quietness and Rest and that in and with God himself So might it be still unto the Sons of men but that they are in all things continually finding out new Inventions or immixing themselves in various Questions and Accounts for so saith the Wise man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 themselves have sought out many Computations And hence it is that whereas there are two general concernments of such a Day the Doctrine and the Practice of it or the Duties to be performed unto God thereon they are both of them solicited by such various Questions through the many Inventions which men have found out as have rendred this Day of Rest a matter of endless strife disquietment and contention And whereas all Doctrines of Truth do tend unto practice as their immediate Use and End the whole Scripture being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tit. 1. 1. the Truth which is according unto Godliness the contentions which have been raised about the Doctrine of the Holy Day of Rest have greatly influenced the minds of men and weakned them in that practice of Godliness which all men confess to be necessary in the Observation of such a Day of Rest unto the Lord if such a Day of Rest there be on what foundation soever it is to be observed For Christians in general under one notion or other do agree that a Day of Rest should be observed in and for the Celebration of the Worship of God But whereas many Controversies have been raised about the grounds of this Observance and the Nature of the Obligation thereunto advantage hath been taken thereby to introduce a great neglect of the Duties themselves for whose sakes the Day is to be observed whilst one questions the Reasons and Grounds of another for its Observation and finds his own by others despised And this hath been no small nor ineffectual means of promoting that general Prophaneness and Apostasie from strict and holy walking before God which at this day are every where so justly complained of § 3 It is far from my thoughts and hopes that I should be able to contribute much unto the composing of these Differences and Controversies as agitated amongst men of all sorts The known pertinacy of inveterate Opinions the many prejudices that the minds of most in this matter are already possessed withal and the particular Engagements that not a few are under to defend the Pretensions and Perswasions which they have published and contended for will not allow any great Expectation of a change in the minds of many from what I have to offer Besides there are almost innumerable eristical Discourses on this subject in the hands of many to whom perhaps the Report of our Endeavours will not arrive But yet these and the like considerations of the Darkness Prejudices and Interests of many ought not to discourage any man from the discharge of that Duty which he owes to the Truths of God nor cause him to cry with the Sluggard There is a Lyon in the Streets I shall be slain in the Way Should they do so no Truth should ever more be taught or contended for for the Declaration of them all is attended with the same Difficulties and lyable to the same kind of Opposition Wherefore an Enquiry into this matter being unavoidably cast upon me from the Work wherein I am engaged in the Exposition of the Epistle to the Hebrews I could not on any such accounts wave the pursuit of it For this Discourse though
upon the Desires of many now published by it self is but a Part of our remaining Exercitations on that Epistle Nor am I without all hopes but that what shall be declared and proved on this subject may be blessed to an Usefulness unto them who would willingly learn or be established in the Truth An Attempt also will be made herein for the conviction of others who have been seduced into Paths inconsistent with the Communion of Saints the Peace of the Churches of Christ or Opinions hurtful to the Practice of Godliness and left unto the Blessing of him who when he hath supplyed seed to the Sower doth himself also give the encrease And these Considerations have prevailed with me to cast my Mite into this Sanctuary and to endeavour the right stating and confirmation of that Doctrine whereon so important a part of our Duty towards God doth depend as is generally confessed and will be found by Experience that there doth on this concerning a Day of Sacred Rest. § 4 The Controversies about the Sabbath as we call it at present for Distinction sake and to determine a subject of our Discourse which have been publickly agitated are Universal as unto all its concerns Neither Name nor Thing is by all agreed on For whereas most Christians acknowledge we may say all for those by whom it is denyed are of no weight nor scarce of any number that a day on one account or other in an Hebdomadal Revolution of Time is to be set apart to the publick Worship of God yet how that Day is to be called is not agreed amongst them Neither is it granted that it hath any Name affixed unto it by any such means that should cause it justly to be preferred unto any other that men should arbitrarily consent to call it by The Names which have been and amongst some are still in use for its Denotation and Distinction are the seventh Day the Sabbath the Lords Day the first Day of the Week Sunday So was the Day now commonly observed called of Old by the Graecians and Romans before the Introduction of Religion into its Observation And this Name some still retain as a thing indifferent others suppose it were better left unto utter disuse § 5 Those about the Thing it self are various and respect all the concerns of the Day enquired after Nothing that relates unto it no part of its respect to the Worship of God is admitted by all uncontended about For it is debated amongst all sorts of persons 1. Whether any part of Time be naturally and morally to be separated and set apart to the solemn Worship of God or which is the same whether it be a natural and moral Duty to separate any part of time in any Revolution of it unto Divine Service I mean so as it should be stated and fixed in a periodical Revolution otherwise to say that God is solemnly to be worshipped and yet that no time is required thereunto is an open contradiction 2. Whether such a Time supposed be absolutely and originally moral or made so by Positive Command suited unto General Principles and Intimations of Nature And under this consideration also a part of Time is called Moral Metonymically from the Duty of its Observance 3 Whether on supposition of some part of Time so designed the Space or Quantity of it have its Determination or Limitation morally or meerly by Law Positive or Arbitrary For the Observation of some part of Time may be Moral and the quota pars arbitrary 4 Whether every Law Positive of the Old Testament were absolutely Ceremonial or whether there may not be a Law Moral Positive as given to and obligatory of all mankind though not absolutely written in the Heart of man by Nature that is whether there be no morality in any Law but what is a part of the Law of Creation 5 Whether the Institution of the seventh Day Sabbath was from the Beginning of the World and before the Fall of man or whether it were first appointed when the Israelites came into the Wilderness This in itself is only a matter of Fact yet such as whereon the Determination of the Point of Right as to the Universal Obligation unto the Observation of such a Day doth much depend and therefore hath the Investigation and true stating of it been much laboured in and after by Learned men 6 Upon a supposition of the Institution of the Sabbath from the Beginning Whether the Additions made and Observances annexed unto it at the giving of the Law on Mount Sinai with the Ends whereunto it was then designed and the Uses whereunto it was employed gave unto the seventh Day a new State distinct from what it had before although naturally the same day was continued as before For if they did so that new State of the Day seems only to be taken away under the New Testament if not the Day it self seemes to be abolished for that some change is made therein from what was fixed under the Judaical Oeconomy cannot modestly be denyed 7 Whether in the fourth Commandment there be a Foundation of a Distinction between a seventh Day in General or one Day in seven and that seventh Day which was the same numerically and precisely from the Foundation of the World For whereas an Obligation unto the strict Observation of that Day precisely is as we shall prove plainly taken away in the Gospel if the Distinction intimated be not allowed there can be nothing remaining obligatory unto us in that command whilst it is supposed that that Day is at all required therein Hence 8 It is especially enquired whether a seventh Day or one Day in seven or in the Hebdomadal Cycle be to be observed Holy unto the Lord on the Account of the fourth Commandment 9 Whether under the New Testament all Religious Observation of Dayes be so taken away as that there is no Divine Obligation remaining for the Observance of any one Day at all but that as all Dayes are alike in themselves so are they equally free to be disposed of and used by us as Occasion shall require For if the Observation of one Day in seven be not founded in the Law of Nature expressed in the Original Positive Command concerning it and if it be not seated Morally in the fourth Commandment it is certain that the necessary Observance of it is now taken away 10 On the other extream whether the seventh Day from the Creation of the world or the last Day of the Week be to be observed precisely under the New Testament by vertue of the Fourth Commandment and no other The Assertion hereof supposeth that our Lord Jesus Christ the Lord of the Sabbath hath neither changed nor reformed any thing in or about the Religious Observation of an Holy Day of Rest unto the Lord whence it follows that such an Observation can be no Part or Act of Evangelical Worship properly so called but only a Moral Duty of the Law 11 Whether on the
commonly called Sabbaths So Maimonides Tract de Sabb. cap. 29. speaking of their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Good Dayes or Feasts sayes expresly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they are all Sabbaths to the Lord. And from this usage some think to expound that vexed Expression of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luke 6. 1. which we render the second Sabbath after the first So Suidas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It was the second day of the Passeover and the first of unleavened bread And wonder not that it is called a Sabbath for they called every Feast Day a Sabbath Theophylact gives us another Day but on the same Reason Saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Jews call every Feast a Sabbath For Sabbath is as much as Rest. Oft-times therefore there fell out a Feast on the day before the Weekly Sabbath and they called it a Sabbath because it was a Feast And therefore that which was the proper Sabbath at that Time was called the second Sabbath after the first being the second from that which went before Chrysostome allows of the same Reason Hom. in Matth. 39. Isidore Pelusiota fixeth on another Day but still for the same reason Epist. 110. lib. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is called the Deuteroproton because it was the second day from the sacrificing of the Passeover and the first day of unleavened bread which he shews was called a Sabbath upon the general account of all the Jewish Feasts being so called For so he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 By the way this is expresly contrary to the Scripture which makes the Day spoken of to be the proper Weekly Sabbath as it is called without any Addition Matth. 12. 11. whereon depended the Questions that ensued about its Observation But we are beholding to Scaliger for the true meaning of this Expression which so puzled the Antients and concerning which Gregory Nazianzen turned of Hierome with a scoff scarce becoming his Gravity when he enquired of him what might be the meaning of it Scaliger therefore conjectures that it is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because it was the first Sabbath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the second Day of unleavened bread For on that Day they offered the handful or sheaf of new fruits and from that day they counted seven Weeks unto Pentecost And the Sabbaths of those Weeks were reckoned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the first that followed was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So he both in his Emendat Tempor lib. 6. and Isagog Canon p. 218. And this is subscribed unto by his Mortal Adversary Dyonisius Petavius Animad in Epiphar N. 31. p. 64. who will not allow him ever to have spoken tightly but in what the Wit of man can find no tolerable Objection against But this calling of their Feasts Sabbaths with the Reason of it is given us by all their principal Authors So Lib. Tzeror Hammor on Levit. p. 102. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Because all solemn Dayes are called holy Convocations they are all called so from the Sabbath which is called holy wherefore the Sabbath is the Head of all solemn Feasts and they are all of them called by the Name thereof Sabbaths of Rest whereof he gives Instances § 13 Some of the Antient Christians dealing with the Heathens called that Day which the Christians then observed in the Room of the Jewish seventh Day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or diem folis Sunday As those who treat and deal with others must express things by the Names that are currant amongst them unless they intend to be Barbarians unto them So speaks Justine Martyr Apol. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We meet for the Worship of God in common on Sunday Had he said on the Sabbath the Gentiles would have concluded it to have been the Judaical Sabbath To have called it to them the Lords Day had been to design no determinate Day they would not have known what day he meant And the Name of the first Day of the Week taken up signally by Christians upon the Resurrection of Christ was not in use amongst them Wherefore he called the Day he intended to determine as was necessary for him by the Name in use amongst them to whom he spake Sunday In like manner Tertullian treating with the same sort of men calls it Diem solis Apol. cap. 16. And Eusebius reporting the Edicts of Constantine for the Observation of the Lords Day as it is termed in them adds that it is the Day which we call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Sunday But yet among Christians themselves this Name was not in common use but by some was rejected as were also all the rest of the Names of the Dayes used among the Pagans So speaks August in Psal. 93. Quarta Sabbatorum quarta feria que Mercurii dies dicitur à Paganis à multis Christianis Sed noluimus ut dicant utinam corrigantur ut non dicant And Hicrome Epist. ad Algas Vna Sabbati dies dominica intelligenda est quia Hebdomada in Sabbatum ut in primam secundam tertiam quartam quintam sextam Sabbati dividitur guam Ethnici Idolorum Planetarum nominibus appellant He rejects the use of the ordinary Names unto the Heathens And Philastrius makes the usage of them amongst Christians almost Heretical Num. 3. All the Eastern Nations also amongst whom the Planetary Denomination of the Dayes of the Week first began have since their casting off that kind of Idolatry rejected the use of those Names being therein more Religious or more Superstitious than the most of Christians So is it done by the. Arabians and Persians and those that are joyned unto them in Religious Observances The Day of their Worship which is our Friday the Arabians call Giuma the Persians Adina The Rest of the Dayes of the Week they discriminate by their natural Order within their Hebdomadal Revolution the first the second the third only some of them in some places have some special Name occasionally imposed on them The Church of Rome from a Decree as they suppose or pretend of Pope Sylvester reckons all the Dayes of the Week by Feria prima secunda and so onwards only their Writers for the most part retain the Name of Sabbatum and use Dies Dominica for the first Day And the Rhemists on Revel 1. 10. condemn the name of Sunday as Heathenish And Polydore Virgil before them sayes Profccio pudendum est simulque dolendum quod non antebac data sunt istis diebus Christiana nomina ne dii Gentium tam memorabile inter nos monumentum haberent de Invent. Rer. lib. 6. c. 5. And indeed among sundry of the Antients there do many severe Expressions occurr against the use of the common Planetary Names And at the first Relinquishment of Gentilisme it had no doubt been well if those Names of Baalim had been taken away out of the mouths of men especially considering that the retaining of them hath
been of no use nor Advantage As they are now riveted into custom and usage claiming their station on such a Prescription as in some measure takes away the corruption of their use I judge that they are not to be contended about For as they are vulgarly used their Names are meer notes of Ditinction of no more signification than first second and third the original and occasional Imposition of them being utterly amongst the many unknown Only I must add that the severe Reflections and contemptuous Reproaches which I have heard made upon and poured out against them who it may be out of weakness it may be out of a better Judgement than our own do abstain from the using of them argue a want of due Charity and that Condescension in love which become those who judge themselves strong For the truth is they have a Plea sufficient at least to vindicate them from the contempt of any For there are some places of Scripture which seem so far to give countenance unto them that if they mistake in their Application it is a mistake of no other nature but what others are liable unto in things of greater importance For it is given as the Will of God Exod. 23. 13. In all things saith he that I have said be circumspect and make no mention of the names of other Gods neither let them be heard out of thy mouth And it cannot be denyed but that the Names of the Dayes of the Week were the Names of Gods among the Heathen The Prohibition is renewed Josh. 2. 7. Thou shalt not make mention of the names of their Gods which is yet extended farther Deut. 12. 3. to a command to destroy and blot out the names of the Gods of the people which by this means are retained Accordingly the Children of Ruben building the Cities formerly called Nebo and Baal Meon changed their names because they were the Names of Heathen Idols Numb 32. 38. And David mentioneth it as a part of his Integrity that he would not take up the names of Idols in his lips Psal. 16. 4. And some of the Antients as hath been observed confirme what by some at present is concluded from these places Saith Hierome Absit ab ore Christiano dicere Jupiter Omnipotens Mehercule Mecastor coetera magis Portenta quam nomina Epist. ad Damas. Now be it granted that the Objections against the Use of the Planetary Names of the Dayes of the Week from these places may be answered from consideration of the change of Times and the circumstances of things yet certainly there is an appearance of Warranty in them sufficient to secure them from contempt and reproach who are prevailed on by them to another use § 15 But of a Day of Rest there is a peculiar Reason If there be a Name given in the Scripture unto such a Day by that Name it is to be called and not otherwise So it was unquestionably under the Old Testament God himself had assigned a Name unto the Day of Sacred Rest then enjoyned the Church unto Observation and it was not lawful for the Jews to call it by any other Name given unto it or in use among the Heathen It was and was to be called the Sabbath Day the Sabbath of the Lord. In the New Testament there is as we shall see afterwards a signal Note put on the first Day of the Week So thence do some call their Day of Rest or solemn Worship and contend that so it ought to be called But this only respects the Order and Relation of such a Day to the other Dayes of the Week which is natural and hath no respect unto any thing that is Sacred It may be allowed then for the indigitation of such a Day and the Discrimination of it from the other Dayes of the Week but is no proper Name for a Day of Sacred Rest. And the first use of it upon the Resurrection of our Lord was only peculiarly to denote the Time There is a Day mentioned by John in the Revelation which we shall afterwards consider that he calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 diem dominicam the Lords Day This Appellation what Day soever is designed is neither Natural nor Civil nor doth it relate unto any thing in Nature or in the common usage of men It must therefore be Sacred and it is or may be very comprehensive of various Respects It is the Lords Day the Day that he hath taken to be his Lot or especial Portion among the Dayes of the Week as he took as it were possession of it in his Resurrection So his people are his Lot and Portion in the world therefore called his people It is also or may be his Day subjectively or the Day whereon his businesses and Affairs are principally transacted So the Poet Tydeos illa Dies that was Tydeus his Day because he was principally concerned in the Affairs of it This is the Day wherein the Affairs of the Lord Christ are transacted his Person and Mediation being the Principal Subjects and Objects of its Work and Worship And it is or may be called his the Lords Day because enjoyned and appointed to be observed by him or his Authority over the Church So the Ordinance of the Supper is called the Supper of the Lord on the same Account On supposition therefore that such a Day of Rest there is to be observed under the New Testament the Name whereby it ought to be called is the Lords Day which is peculiarly expressive of its Relation unto our Lord Jesus Christ the sole Author and immediate Object of all Gospel Worship But whereas the general Notion of a Sabbatical Rest is still included in such a Day a superaddition of its Relation to the Lord Christ will intitle it unto the Appellation of the Lords Day Sabbath that is the Day of Sacred Rest appointed by the Lord Jesus Christ. And thus most probably in the continuation of the Old Testament Phraseologie it is called the Sabbath Day Matth. 24. 20. and in our Apostle comes under the general notion of a Sabbatism Chap. 4. 9. Exercitatio Secunda 1 Of the Original of the Sabbath the importance of this Disquisition 2 Opinion of some of the Jewish Masters about the Original of the Sabbath that it began in Mara 3 The Station in Mara and the Occurrences thereof Tacitus noted Exod. 15. 25 26. Jews Exposition of it 4 This Opinion refuted by Testimonies and Reasons 5 Another Opinion of the Antient Jews about the Original of the Sabbath and of the Mahumetans 6 Opinions of Christians about the Original of the Sabbath proposed 7 That of its Original from the Foundation of the World asserted The first Testimony given unto it Gen. 2. 2. Vindicated Exceptions of Heddigerus answered 8. What intended by sanctifying and blessing the seventh Day 9 Other Exceptions removed Series and Dependance of the Discourse in Moses cleared The whole Testimony vindicated 10 Heb. 4 3 4. Vindicated 11 Observation
this matter with the Blessing that attended it was that which multitudes now at Rest do bless God for and many that are yet alive do greatly rejoyce in Let these things be despised by those who are otherwise minded to me they are of great weight and importance § 32 Let us now a sittle consider the Day that by some is set up not only in competition with this but to its utter exclusion This is the seventh Day of the week or the old Judaical Sabbath which some contend that we are perpetually obliged to the observation of by vertue of the Fourth Commandment The Grounds whereon they proceed in their Affertion have been already disproved so far as the Nature of our present undertaking will admit and such evidences given unto the change of the Day as will not easily be everted nor removed The consequences of the observation of the seventh Day should the practice of it be re-assumed amongst Christians is that which at present I shall a little enquire into when we have summed up somewhat of what hath been spoken 1 It was not directly nor absolutely required in the Decalogue but consequentially only by way of Appropriation to the Mosaical Oeconomy whereunto it was then annexed The command is to observe the Sabbath-day and the blessing is upon the Sabbath-day God blessed the Sabbath-day And the mention of the seventh day in the Body of the command fixeth the number of the Dayes in whose Revolution a Sabbatical Rest returns but determines not an everlasting Order in them seeing the Order relating to the Old Creation is inconsistent with the Law Reason and Worship of the New And if the seventh day and the Sabbath as some pretend are the same the sense of the command in the enforcing part of it is but the seventh day is the seventh day of the Lord thy God which is none at all 2 The state of the Church and the Administration of the Covenant whereunto the observation of this day was annexed are removed so that it cannot continue no more than an House can stand without a Foundation 3 The Lord Christ who was the Lord of the Sabbath and by assuming that Iitle to himself manifested his Authority as to the disposal of the Day whereon a Sabbatical Rest was to be observed hath in his own Rest from his works limited unto us another day of Sacred Rest called from his appointment of it the Lords-day his Day who is the Lord of the Sabbath 4 The Day so introduced by his Authority hath from the Day of his Rest been observed without interruption or any such difference about it as fell out among the Churches of God about other Feast dayes whose observation was introduced among them they knew not well how as of the Pascha and the like And whereas the due observation of it hath been enjoyned by Councils Edicts of Emperors Kings and Princes Laws of all sorts advised and pressed by the antient Writers amongst Christians and the practice of its observance taken notice of by all who from the beginning have committed the Affairs of Christianity unto posterity yet none of any sort pretend to give it any original but all mediately or immediately referr it unto Christ himself The observation then of this Day First is an evident Judaizing and a returnal unto those Rudiments of the World which the Apostle so severely cautioneth us against I know not how it is come to pass but so it is faln out that the nearer Judaism is unto an absolute Abolition and Disappearance the more some seem inclinable to its revival and continuance or at least to fall back themselves into its antiquated observances An end it had put to it morally and legally long ago in the coming Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. And we may say of it what the Apostle said of Idols when the World was full of Idolatry we know that Judaism is nothing in the world no such thing as by some it is esteemed The actual Abolition of it in the profession of the present Jews by the removing of the Veyle from their Hearts and Eyes and their turning unto God we hope is in its approach And yet as was said there seems in many an inclination unto their Rites and servile observances It is apparent in the Acts and Epistles of the Apostles especially that to the Hebrews that at the first preaching of the Gospel there were very many Jews who came over to the faith and profession of it Many of these continued zealous of the Law and would bring along with them all their Mosaical Institutions which they thought were to abide in force for ever In this weakness and mis-apprehension they were forborn in the patience of God and wisdome of the Holy Ghost guiding the Apostles and Disciples of Jesus Christ. In this state things continued unto the destruction of Hierusalem and the Temple when the chiefest cause of their contests was taken away In the mean time they carried themselves very variously according to the various tempers of their minds For it is apparent that some of them were not content themselves to be indulged in their opinions and practices but they endeavoured by all means to impose the observance of the whole Mosaical Law on the Churches of the Gentiles Their Circumcision their Sabbaths their Feasts and Fasts their Abstinences from this or that kind of meats they were contending about and thereby perverting the minds of the Disciples Some stop was put to the evil consequences hereof in the Synod at Hierusalem Acts 15. which yet determined nothing concerning the Jews own practice but only concerning the liberty of the Gentile-Believers After the destruction of Hierusalem City and Temple these professing Jews fell into several distinct wayes Some of them who as is probable had despised the heavenly warning of leaving the place took up their lot amongst their unbelieving Brethren relinquishing the profession of the Gospel which they had made not it may be with any express renuntiation of Christ but with a dis-regard of the Gospel which brought them not those good things they looked for of which mind Josephus the Historian seems to be one These in time became a part of that Apostate brood which have since continued in their enmity to the Gospel and into whose new and old superstitions they introduced sundry customes which they had learned among the Christians Some absolutely relinquished their old Judaism and compleatly incorporated with the new Gentile Churches unto whom the promise and Covenant of Abraham was transferred and made over These were the genuine Disciples of our great Apostle Others continued their profession of the Gospel but yet still thought themselves obliged unto the observation of the Law of Moses and all its institutions Hereupon they continued in a distinct and separate state from the Believers and Churches of the Gentiles and that for some Ages as some say to the dayes of Adrian These it may be were they whom Eusebius out
of Hegesippus calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Masbothai whom he reckons as a Sect of the Jews Histor. lib. 4. 21. The Jews call them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Sabbatarians which must be from some observation of the Sabbath in a distinct manner or for different Reasons from themselves Buxtorfe and our late learned Lexicographer render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by Sabbatarii adding this explanation Qui secundum Christi Doctrinam Sabbatum observabant by a mistake For as they are reckoned unto the Jews by Hegesippus so those who followed the Doctrine of Christ did not Sabbatize with the Jews nor were ever called Sabbatarians by them There was indeed a sort of persons among the Samaritans who are called Sabuaei whom Epiphanius makes the third sect of them But these were so called without any respect unto a Sabbatical observation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Jews call them that is Septenarii from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unless we shall think with Drusius that they were so denominated from Sebaia who came along with Dosthai to settle the new Inhabitants of Samaria Epiphanius sayes no more of them but that they observed the Feast of Pentecost in Autumn and the Feast of Tabernacles in the Spring at the time of the Jews Passeover But this gives no account why they should be so called But they got this appellation from their observation of every Day in the Week between the Passeover and the Pentecost that is for seven weeks which was the same with the second Day in the Week of unleavened bread whereon the Omer or Sheaf of first fruits was to be offered But to return After this many of them coalesced and we hear no more of them In the mean time as there were great disputes and heats between the differing parties whilest the occasion of their difference continued so the Gentile Believers did in many things either condescend unto those of the Circumcision or fell themselves in liking with their observances and received them into practice Hence it was that they embraced the Paschal solemnity with some other Festivals and also in many places admitted the sacredness of the seventh Day Sabbath though still observing according to the institution of Christ and his Apostles the Lords Day also And it is not improbable that they might be induced the rather to continue these observations that they might thereby give a publick testimony of their faith against the Marcionites who began early to blaspheme the Old Testament and the God thereof which blasphemy they thought to condemn by this practice And hence in those Writings which are falsly ascribed to the Apostles but suited to those times Can. 66. and Constitut. lib. 7. cap. 24. the observation both of the Saturday and the Lords Day are enjoyned Others of these Jews about the same season constituted a sect by themselves compounding a Religion out of the Law and Gospel with additions and interpretations of their own These the Ancients call Ebionites Circumcision with all the Sabbaths Feasts and Rites of Moses they retained from the Law That the Messiah was come and that Jesus Christ was he they admitted from the Gospel that he was only a meer man not God and man in one person they added of their own yet in compliance with the sense and expectation of the corrupt and carnal part of the Church of the Jews whereof originally they were And this sect is that which in a long tract of time hath brought forth Mahumetanisme in the East For the Religion of the Mahumetans is nothing but that of the Ebionites with a super-addition of the interests and fanatical brain-sick notions of the Impostor himself And yet so it is that some begin now to plead that these Ebionites were the only true and genuine Believers of the Circumcision in those dayes These they say and these alone retained the Doctrine preached by the Apostles to the Jews for they were the same and no other with those which were also called Nazarenes Thus do the Socinians plead expresly and have contended for it in sundry Treatises published to that purpose This they do hoping to obtain from thence some countenance unto their impious Doctrine about the person of Christ wherein they agree with the Ebionites But as to their Sabbatizing with the Jews and the rest of their ceremonial observances they will have nothing to do with them as not finding those things suited unto their interest and design But herein do they now begin to be followed by some among our selves who apparently fall in with them in sundry things condemned by our Apostle and on the account whereof they declined him and rejected his Authority as others seem almost prepared to do on other Reasons not here to be mentioned In particular some begin to Sabbatize with them yea to outgo them For Ebion and his followers although they observed the seventh Day Sabbath with the Jews yet they observed also the Lords Day with the Christians in honour of Jesus Christ as both Eusebius and Epiphanius testifie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They in like manner with us observe the Lords Day in remembrance of the saving Resurrection How great a scandal these things are to Christian Religion how evidently tending to harden the Jews in their infidelity is apparent unto all For the introduction of any part of the old Mosaical systeme of Ordinances is a tacite denial of Christs being come in the flesh at least of his being the King Lord and Law-giver of his Church And to lay the foundation of all Religious solemn Gospel-worship in the observation of a Day which as such as the seventh Day precisely hath no relation unto any natural or moral precept not instituted not approved by Jesus Christ cannot but be unpleasing to them who desire to have their consciences immediately influenced by his Authority in all their approaches unto God But Christ is herein supposed to have built the whole fabrick of his worship on the foundation of Moses and to have graffed all his institutions into a stock that was not of his own planting § 33 Moreover it is evident that this opinion concerning the necessary observation of the seventh Day Sabbath tends to the increasing and perpetuating of schismes and differences amongst the Disciples of Christ things in their own nature evil and to be avoided by all lawfull wayes and means It is known how many different opinions and practices there are amongst professors of the Gospel That they should all be perfectly healed or taken away perhaps in this world is not to be expected For the best know but in part and prophesie but in part That every good man and genuine Disciple of Christ ought to endeavour his utmost for their removal none will deny For if it be our duty so far as it is possible and as much as in us lyeth to live peaceably with all men in that peace which is the life of civil society doubtless it is so much more to live so
And hereby are we delivered from that anxious solicitude about particular instances in outward duties which was a great part of the yoke of the People of old For 1 Hence we may in all our duties look on God as a Father By the Spirit of his Son we may in them all cry Abba Father For through Christ we have an access in one Spirit unto tho Father Ephes. 2. 18. To God as a Father as one that will not alwayes chide that doth not watch our steps for our hurt but remembreth that we are but dust One who tyeth us not up to rigid exactness in outward things whilest we act in an holy spirit of filial obedience as his sons or children And there is great difference between the duties of servants and children neither hath a Father the same measure of them The consideration hereof regulated by the general Rules of the Scripture will resolve a thousand of such scruples as the Jews of old while servants were perplexed withall 2 Hence we come to know that he will be worshipped in spirit and in truth Therefore he more minds the inward frame of our hearts wherewith we serve him than the meer performance of outward duties which are alone so far accepted with him as they are expressions and demonstrations thereof If then in the observation of this Day our hearts are single and sincere in our aims at his Glory with delight it is of more price with him than the most rigid observation of outward duties by number and measure 3 Therefore the minds of Believers are no more influenced unto this duty by the curse of the Law and the terror thereof as represented in the threatned penalty of death The Authority and Love of Jesus Christ are the principal causes of our Obedience Hence our main duty lyeth in an endeavour to get spiritual joy and delight in the services of this Day which are the especial effects of spiritual liberty So the Prophet requires that we should call the Sabbath our delight holy and honourable of the Lord Isa. 58. 13. As also that on the other side we should not do our own pleasure nor do our own wayes nor find our own pleasure nor speak our own words And these Cautions seem to regard the Sabbath absolutely and not as Judaical But I much question whether they have not in the interpretation of some been extended beyond their original intention For the true meaning of them is no more but this that we should so delight our selves in the Lord on his holy Day as that being expresly forbidden our usual labour we should not need for want of satisfaction in our duties to turn aside unto our own pleasures and vain wayes which are only our own to spend our time and pass over the Sabbath a thing complained of by many whence sin and Satan have been more served on this Day than on all the Dayes of the Week beside But I no way think that here is a restraint laid on us from such Words Wayes and Works as neither hinder the performance of any religious duties belonging to the due celebration of the worship of God on the Day nor are apt in themselves to unframe our spirits or divert our affections from them And those whose minds are fixed in a spirit of liberty to glorifie God in and by this Day of Rest seeking after Communion with him in the wayes of his worship will be unto themselves a better Rule for their Words and Actions than those who may aim to reckon over all they do or say which may be done in such a manner as to become the Judaical Sabbath much more then the Lords-Day § 10 Thirdly Be sure to bring good and right Principles unto the performance of the duty of keeping a Day of Rest holy unto the Lord. Some of these I shall name as confirmed expresly in or drawn evidently from the preceding Discourses 1. Remember that there is a Weekly Rest or an holy Rest of one Day in the week due to the solemn work of glorifying God as God Remember the Sabbath to keep it holy We have had a Week unto our own occasions or we have a prospect of a Week in the patience of God for them Let us Remember that God puts in for some Time with us All is not our own We are not our own Lords Some time God will have to himself from all that own him in the World And this is that Time season or Day He esteems not himself acknowledged nor his Soveraignty owned in the World without it And therefore this Day of Rest he required the first Day as it were that the World stood upon its legs hath done so all along and will do so to the last Day of its duration When he had made all things and saw that they were good and was refreshed in them he required that we should own and acknowledge his Goodness and Power therein This duty we owe to God as God 2 That God appointed this Day to teach us that as he rested therein so we should seek after Rest in him here and look on this Day as a pledge of eternal Rest with him hereafter So was it from the beginning This was the End of the appointment of this Day Now our Rest in God in general consists in two things 1 In our Approbation of the Works of God and the Law of our Obedience with the Covenant of God thereon These things are expressive of and do represent unto us the Goodness Righteousness Holiness Faithfulness and Power of God For these and with respect unto them are we to give Glory to him What God rests in he requires that through it we should seek for our Rest in him As this was the duty of man in Innocency and under the Law so it is ours now much more For God hath now more eminently and gloriously unveiled and displayed the Excellencies of his Nature and the Counsels of his Wisdome in and by Jesus Christ than he had done under the first Covenant And this should work us to a greater and more holy admiration of them For if we are to acknowledge that the Law is holy just and good as our Apostle speaks although it is now useless as to the bringing of us to Rest in God how much more ought we to own and subscribe to the Gospel and the declaration that God hath made of himself therein that so it is 2 In an actual solemn compliance with his Will expressed in his Works Law and Covenant This brings us unto present satisfaction in him and leads us to the full enjoyment of him This is a Day of Rest but we cannot Rest in a Day nor any thing that a Day can afford only it is an help and means of bringing us to Rest in God Without this design all our Observation of a Sabbath is of no use nor advantage Nothing will thence redound to the Glory of God nor the benefit of our own souls And this they
supposition of a Non-obligation in the Law unto the Observance of the seventh Day precisely and of a New Day to be observed Weekly under the New Testament as the Sabbath of the Lord on what Ground it is so to be observed 12 Whether of the Fourth Commandment as unto one Day in seven or only as unto some part or portion of Time or whether without any respect unto that Command as purely Ceremonial For granting as most do the necessity of the Observation of such a Day yet some say that it hath no respect at all to the Fourth Decalogical Precept which is totally and absolutely abolished with the residue of Mosaical Institutions others that there is yet remaining in it an Obligation unto the Sacred Separation of some portion of our Time unto the solemn Service of God but indetermined and some that it yet precisely requires the Sanctification of one Day in seven 13 If a Day be so to be observed it is enquired on what Ground or by what Authority there is an Alteration made from the Day observed under the Old Testament unto that now in use that is from the last to the first Day of the Week Whether was this Translation of the solemn Worship of God made by Christ and his Apostles or by the Primitive Church For the same Day might have been still continued though the Duty of its Observation might have been fixed on a new Reason and Foundation For although our Lord Jesus Christ totally abolished the old solemn Worship required by the Law of Commandments contained in Ordinances and by his own Authority introduced a new Law of Worship according unto Institutions of his own yet might Obedience unto it in a solemn manner have been fixed unto the former Day 14 If this were done by the Authority of Christ and his Apostles or be supposed so to be then it is enquired Whether it were done by the express Institution of a New Day or a directive Example sufficient to design a particular Day no Institution of a new Day being needful For if we shall suppose that there is no Obligation unto the Observance of one Day in seven indispensibly abiding on us from the Morality of the Fourth Command we must have an express Institution of a new Day or the Authority of it is not Divine and on the supposition that that is so no such Institution is necessary or can be properly made as to the whole nature of it 15 If this Alteration of the Day were introduced by the Primitive Church then whether the continuance of the Observation of one Day in seven be necessary or no. For what was appointed thereby seems to be no farther Obligatory unto the Churches of succeeding Ages than their concernment lyes in the Occasions and Reasons of their Determinations 16 If the continuance of one Day in seven for the solemn Worship of God be esteemed necessary in the present State of the Church then Whether the continuance of that now in general Use namely the First Day of the Week be necessary or no or whether it may not be lawfully changed to some other Day And sundry other the like Enquiries are made about the Original Institution Nature Use and Continuance of a Day of Sacred Rest unto the Lord. § 6 Moreover amongst those who do grant that it is necessary and that indispensibly so as to the present Church State which is under an Obligation from whence ever it arise neither to alter nor omit the Observation of a Day weekly for the publick Worship of God wherein a Cessation from labour and a joint Attendance unto the most solemn Duties of Religion are required of us It is not agreed whether the Day it self or the separation of it to its proper Use and End be any Part in it self of Divine Worship or be so meerly relatively with respect unto the Duties to be performed therein And as to those Duties themselves they are not only variously represented but great Contention hath been about them and the manner of their Performances as likewise concerning the Causes and Occasions which may dispense with our Attendance unto them Indeed herein lyes secretly the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and principal Cause of all the strife that hath been and is in the World about this matter Men may teach the Doctrine of a Sabbatical Rest on what Principles they please deduce it from what Original they think good if they plead not for an exactness of Duty in its Observance if they bind not a Religious carefull Attendance on the Worship of God in Publick and private on the Consciences of other men if they require not a Watchfulness against all Diversions and Avocations from the Duties of the Day they may do it without much fear of Opposition For all the concernments of Doctrines and Opinions which tend unto Practice are regulated thereby and embraced or rejected as the Practice pleaseth or displeaseth that they lead unto Lastly On a precise supposition that the Observation of such a Day is necessary upon Divine Precept or Institution yet there is a Controversie remaining about fixing its proper bounds as to its Beginning and Ending For some would have this Day of Rest measured by the first Constitution and limitation of Time unto a Day from the Creation namely from the Evening of the Day preceding unto its own as the Evening and the Morning were said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 One Day Gen. 1. 5. Others admit only of that proportion of Time which is ordinarily designed to our labour on the six Dayes of the Week that is from its own Morning to its own Evening with the Interposition of such Diversions as our labour on other Dayes doth admit and require § 7 And thus is it come to pass that although God made man Upright and gave him the Sabbath or Day of Rest as a token of that Condition and Pledge of a future Eternal Rest with himself yet through his finding out many Inventions that very Day is become amongst us an Occasion and Means of much Disquietment and many Contentions And that which is the worst Consequent in things of this nature that belong unto Religion and the Worship of God these Differences and the Way of their Agitation whilst the several Parties htigant have sought to weaken and invalidate their Adversaries Principles have apparently influenced the minds of all sorts of men unto a neglect in the Practice of those Duties which they severally acknowledge to be incumbent on them upon those Principles and Reasons for the Observation of such a Day which themselves allow For whilst some have hotly disputed that there is now no especial Day of Rest to be observed to the Lord by vertue of any Divine Precept or Institution and others have granted that if it be to be observed only by vertue of Ecclesiastical Constitution men may have various pretences for Dispensations from the Duties of it the whole due Observation of it is much lost
pretence of certainty above Evidence produced have had any influence into those enquiries after the Truth in this matter which 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we now address our selves unto § 9 In the first place it will be necessary to premise something about the Name whereby this Day may be called For that also among some hath been controverted Under the Old Testament it had a double Appellation the One taken from the Natural Order of the Day then separated with respect unto other Dayes the Other from its Nature and Use. On the first Account it was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the seventh Day Gen. 2. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And God blessed the seventh Day and sanctified it So also Exod. 20. 11. Upon its first Institution and on the Re-introduction of its Observation it is so called But it is a meer Description of the Day from its Relation to the six precedent dayes of the Creation that is herein intended absolutely it is not so called any where Yet hence by the Hellenists it was termed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the seventh and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Sacred seventh Day So is mention made of it by Philo Josephus and others And our Apostle maketh use of this Name as that which was commonly in use to denote the Sabbath of the Jews Chap. 4. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For he speaketh or it is spoken somewhere concerning the seventh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not added because 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was used technically to denote that Day And he educeth the Reason of this Denomination from Gen. 2. 3. Being as was said the Day that ensued immediately after the six distinct Dayes wherein the World was created and putting a Period unto a measure of Time by a Numeration of Dayes alwayes to return in its Cycle it was called the seventh Day And from that course of Time compleated in seven Dayes thence recurring to its Beginning is the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hebdomas a Week which the Hebrews call only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a seven And the same word sometimes signifieth the seventh Day or one Day in seven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is septimum Diem celebrare to celebrate the or a seventh Day And the Latines use the Word in the same manner for seven Dayes or One Day in seven But this Appellation as we shall see the Apostle casts out of Consideration and Use as to the Day to be observed under the New Testament For that which was first so is passed away and another instituted in the Room thereof which although it be also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or a seventh Day absolutely or one in the Revolution of seven yet not being the seventh in their Natural Order that Name is now of no use but antiquated § 10 From its Occasion Sanctification and Use it was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Sabbath and the Sabbath Day The Occasion of this Name is expressed Gen. 2. 3. God blessed the seventh Day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because he rested shabath that Day It is called Rest the Rest because on that Day God rested And in the Decalogue it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Day of the Sabbath or of Gods Rest and ours And absolutely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Sabbath Isa. 56. 2. where also God from his Institution of it calls it my Sabbath v. 4. This being a thing so plain and evident it were meer loss of Time to insist upon the feigned Etymologies of this Name after it came to be taken notice of in the world I shall only name them Appion the Alexandrian would have it derived from the Aegyptian word Sabbo as Josephus informs us Cont. App. lib. 2. and what the signification of that Word is the Reader may see in the same place Plutarch derives it from Sabboi a Word that was used to be howled in the furious Services of Bacchus for his Priests and Devotoes used in their Bacchanals to cry out Evoi Sabboi Sympos lib. 4. c. 15. which things are ridiculous Lactantius with sundry others of the Antients fell into no less though a less offensive mistake Hic saith he est dies Sabbati qui lingua Hebraeorum à numero nomen accepit unde septenarius numerus legitimus plenus est Institut lib. 7. cap. 14. Procopius Gazaeus on the Pentateuch hath a singular conceit Speaking of the Tenth of the Month Tizri termed Sabbaton Sabbat he calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He would have it the Day of the Conception of John Baptist the fore-runner of Christ when the Remission and Repentance that he Preached began and thence conjectures the Etymologie of the Sabbath to be from Sabachta that is the Syriack 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies Remission that Day being remitted holy unto the Lord being the seventh Day which is Sabaa that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The vanity of which conjectures is apparent to all The Reason and Rise of this Appellation is manifest Hence this was the proper and usual Name of this Day under the Old Testament being expressive of its Occasion Nature and End The Word also hath other Formes as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Exod. 16. 23. Chap. 35. 2. Sabbaton and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lam. 1. 7. Mishbat the signification of the Word being still retained Neither yet is this Word peculiarly Sacred as to what it denotes but is used to express things common or Prophane even any Cessation resting or giving over The first time it occurs Gen. 2. 3. it is rendred in Targum by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a common Word to rest See Isa. 14. 4. Chap. 24. 8. and many other places It is also applyed to signifie a Week because every Week or seven of Dayes had a Sabbath or Day of Rest necessarily included in it Levit. 23. 15. You shall count to your selves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seven compleat Sabbaths that is Weeks each having a Sabbath in it for its close for the reckoning was to expire on the End of the seventh Sabbath v. 16. And this place being expounded by Onkelos in his Targum of a Week Nachmanides sayes upon it that if it be so which he also grants and pleads then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there will be two Tongues in one Verse or the same Word used twice in the same Verse with different significations namely that the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 should denote both the Holy Day of Rest and also a Week of Dayes And he gives another Instance to the same purpose in the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Judg. 10. 4. Jair the Gileadite had thirty sons 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies in the first place Colts of Asses and in the latter Cities And the common number of seven is expressed by it Levit. 25. 8. Thou shalt number unto 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seven Sabbaths of years that is as it is
various states 37 Command for the Sabbath before the Fall 38 Before and at the giving of the Law and under the Gospel 39 Whether appointed by the Church 40 Of the fourth Commandment in the Decalogue 41 The proper subject of it 42 The seventh Day precisely not primarily required therein 43 Somewhat moral in it granted by all 44 The matter of this Command a Moral Duty by the Law of Creation 45 The Morality of the Precept it self proved from its interest in the Decalogue by various Instances 46 The Law of the Sabbath only preferred above all Ceremonial and Judicial Laws 47 The Words of our Saviour Matth. 24. 20. considered 48 The whole Law of the Decalogue established by Christ. 49 Objections proposed 50 The first answered 51 The second answered 52 The third answered 53 One Day in seven not the seventh Day precisely required in the Decalogue 54 An Objection from the sense of the Law 55 Answered 56 57 Other Objections answered 58 Col. 2. 16 17. considered The Third Exercitation Causes of the Sabbath § 1 WE have fixed the Original of the Sabbatical Rest according to the best light we have received into these things and confirmed the Reasons of it with the consent of mankind The next step in our progress must be an Enquiry into its Causes And here also we fall immediately into those Difficulties and Entanglements which the various Apprehensions of Learned Men promoted and defended with much Diligence have occasioned I have no Design to oppose or contend with any although a modest Examination of the Reasons of some will be indispensibly necessary unto me All that I crave is the liberty of proposing my own Thoughts and Judgement in this matter with the Reasons and Grounds of them When that is done I shall humbly submit the whole to the Examination and Judgement of all that call upon the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ their Lord and ours § 2 First It is agreed by all that God alone is the Supream Original and Absolute Cause of the Sabbath When ever it began when ever it ends be it expired or still in force of what kind soever were its Institution the Law of it was from God It was from Heaven and not of men and the Will of God is the sole Rule and measure of our Observation of it and Obedience to him therein What may or may not be done in reference unto the Observation of a Day of holy Rest by any inferior Authority comes not here under consideration But whereas there are two sorts of Laws whereby God requires the Obedience of his Rational Creatures which are commonly called Moral and Positive it is greatly questioned and disputed to whether of these sorts doth belong the Command of a Sabbatical Rest. Positive Laws are taken to be such as have no Reason for them in themselves nothing of the matter of them is taken from the things themselves commanded but do depend meerly and solely on the Soveraign Will and Pleasure of God Such were the Laws and Institutions of the Sacrifices of old and such are those which concern the Sacraments and other things of the like nature under the New Testament Moral Laws are such as have the Reasons of them taken from the Nature of the things themselves required in them For they are Good from their respect to the nature of God himself and from that nature and order of all things which he hath placed in the creation So that this sort of Laws is but Declarative of the absolute goodness of what they do require the other is Constitutive of it as unto some certain Ends. Laws Positive as they are occasionally given so they are esteemed alterable at pleasure Being fixed by meer Will and Prerogative without respect to any thing that should make them necessary antecedent to their giving they may by the same Authority at any time be taken away and abolished Such I say are they in their own nature and as to any firmitude that they have from their own subject matter But with respect unto Gods Determination Positive Divine Laws may become eventually unalterable And this Difference is there between Legal and Evangelical Institutions The Laws of both are Positive only equally proceeding from Soveraign Will and Pleasure and in their own Natures equally alterable But to the former God had in his purpose fixed a determinate time and season wherein they should expire or be altered by his Authority the latter he hath fixed a perpetuity and unchangeableness unto during the state and condition of his Church in this world The other sort of Laws are perpetual and unalterable in themselves so far as they are of that sort that is Moral For although a Law of that kind may have an especial Injunction with such circumstances as may be changed and varied as had the whole Decalogue in the Common-wealth of Israel yet so far as it is Moral that is that its Commands or Prohibitions are necessary emergencies or expressions of the Good or Evil of the things it commands or forbids it is invariable And in these things there is an Agreement unless sometimes through mutual Oppositions men are chased into some Exceptions or Distinctions § 3 Unto these two sorts do all Divine Laws belong and unto these Heads they may be all reduced And it is pleaded by some that these kinds of Laws are contradistinct so that a Law of one kind can in no sense be a Law in the other And this doubtless is true reduplicatively because they have especial formal Reasons As far and wherein any Laws are Positive they are not Moral and as far as they are purely Moral they are not formally Positive though given after the manner of positive Commands Howbeit this hinders not but that some do judge that there may be and are Divine Laws of a mixt nature For there may be in a Divine Law a foundation in and respect unto somewhat that is Moral which yet may stand in need of the superaddition of a Positive Command for its due Observation unto its proper End Yea the Moral Reason of things commanded which ariseth out of a due natural Respect unto God and the order of the Universe may be so deep and hidden as that God who would make the Way of his Creatures plain and easie gives out express positive Commands for the Observance of what is antecedently necessary by the Law of our Creation Hence a Law may partake of both these Considerations and both of them have an equal influence into its Obligatory Power And by this means sundry Duties some Moral some Positive are as it were compounded in one Observance as may be instanced in the great Duty of Prayer Hence the whole Law of that Observance becomes of a mixt nature which yet God can separate at his pleasure and taking away that which is Positive leave only that which is absolutely Moral in force And this kind of Laws which have their Foundation in the nature of things
is now earnestly pleaded that it consisted in meer Bodily Rest which is scarcely to be reckoned as any part of Divine Service at all What is farther in it is said to be only a meer Circumstance of Time not in any thing better than that of Place which had an Arbitrary Determination also for a season It cannot therefore be thus exalted and preferred above all other Ordinances of Worship upon the account of its service seeing it is apprehended to be only a meer Adjunct of other services which were therefore more worthy than it as every thing which is for it self is more worthy than that which is only for another And take it absolutely Place is a more Noble Circumstance than Time in this Case considering that Place being determined by an Arbitrary Institution in the building of the Temple became the most glorious and significant part of Divine Worship yet had it no place in the Decalogue but only in the Samaritan Corruption added unto it It must therefore be upon the account of its signification that it was thus peculiarly exalted and honoured For the Dignity Worth and Use of all Ceremonial Institutions depended on their significancy or their fitness and aptness to represent the things whereof they were Types with the especial worth of what they did peculiarly Typifie And herein the Sabbath even with the Applications it had unto the Judaical Church State came short of many other Divine Services especially the Solemn Sacrifices wherein the Lord Christ with all the Benefits of his Death was as it were evidently set forth crucified before their eyes Neither therefore of these Reasons nor both of them in conjunction can be pleaded as the cause of the manifold preference of the Sabbath above all Ceremonial Institutions It remaineth therefore that it is solely upon the Account of its Morality and the invariable Obligation thence arising unto its Observation that it is so joyned with the Precepts of the same Nature and such we have now as I suppose sufficiently confirmed it to be § 47 I cannot but judge yet farther that in the Caution given by our Saviour unto his Disciples about praying that their flight should not be on the Sabbath Day Matth. 24. 20. He doth declare the continued Obligation of the Law of the Sabbath as a Moral Precept upon all It is answered by some that it is the Judaical Sabbath alone that is intended which he knew that some of his own Disciples would be kept for a season in bondage unto For the Ease therefore of their Consciences in that matter he gives them this Direction But many things on the other side are certain and indubitable which render this conjecture altogether improbable For 1. All real Obligation unto Judaical Institutions was then absolutely taken away and it is not to be supposed that our Lord Jesus Christ would before hand lay in provision for the edification of any of his Disciples in Error 2. Before that time came they were sufficiently instructed doctrinally in the dissolution of all Obligation in Ceremonial Institutions This was done principally by St. Paul in all his Epistles especially in that unto the Hebrews themselves at Jerusalem 3. Those who may be supposed to have continued a conscientious respect unto the Judaical Sabbath could be no otherwise perswaded of it than were the Jews themselves in those Dayes But they all accounted themselves absolved in conscience from the Law of the Sabbath upon eminent danger in time of War so that they might lawfully either fight or fly as their safety did require This is evident from the Decree made by them under the Hasmonaeans And such imminent danger is now supposed by our Saviour for he instructs them to forego all consideration of their Enjoyments and to shift meerly for their lives There was not therefore any danger in point of conscience with respect unto the Judaical Sabbath to be then feared or prevented But in general those in whose hearts are the wayes of God do know what an addition it is to the greatest of their earthly troubles if they befall them in such seasons as to deprive them of the Opportunity of the Sacred Ordinances of Gods Worship and indispensibly engage them in Wayes and Works quite of another Nature than when they stand in most need of them There is therefore another Answer invented namely that our Lord Jesus in these words respected not the Consciences of his Disciples but their trouble and therefore joyns the Sabbath Day and the Winter together in directing them to pray for an Ease and Accommodation of that Flight which was inevitable For as the Winter is unseasonable for such an occasion so the Law concerning the Sabbath was such as that if any one travelled on that Day above a commonly allowed Sabbath dayes journey he was to be put to death But neither is there any more appearance of Truth in this pretence For 1. The Power of Capital Punishments was before this time utterly taken away from the Jews and all their remaining Courts interdicted from proceeding in any Cause wherein the lives of men were concerned 2. The times intended were such as wherein there was no Course of Law Justice or Equity amongst them but all things were filled with Rapine Confusion and Hostility so that it is a vain imagination that any Cognizance was taken about such Cases as journying on the Sabbath 3. The Dangers they were in had made it free to them as to Legal Punishments upon their own Principles as was declared so that these cannot be the Reasons of the Caution here given It is at least therefore most probable that our Saviour speaks to his Disciples upon a supposition of the perpetual Obligation of the Law of the Sabbath that they should pray to be delivered from the necessity of a flight on the Day whereon the Duties of it were to be observed lest it falling out otherwise should prove a great aggravation of their distress § 48 From these particular Instances we may return to the consideration of the Law of the Decalogue in general and the perpetual Power of exacting Obedience wherewith it is accompanied That in the Old Testament it is frequently declared to be universally obligatory and hath the same Efficacy ascribed unto it without putting in any exceptions to any of its Commands or limitations of its number I suppose will be granted The Authority of it is no less fully asserted in the New Testament and that also absolutely without distinction or the least intimation of excepting the fourth Command from what is affirmed concerning the whole It is of the Law of the Decalogue that our Saviour treats Matth. 5. 17 18 19. This he affirms that he came not to dissolve as he did the Ceremonial Law but to fulfill it and then affirms that not one Jot or Tittle of it shall pass away And making thereon a Distribution of the whole into its several Commands he declares his disapprobation of them who shall break
Sabbath Dayes which are a shadow of things to come but the Body is of Christ. For hence they say it will follow that there is nothing Moral in the Observation of the Sabbath seeing it was a meer Type and Shadow as were other Mosaical Institutions as also that it is absolutely abolished and taken away in Christ. An. This place must be afterwards considered I shall here only briefly speak unto it And 1. It is known and confessed that at that time all Judaical Observations of Dayes or the Dayes which they religiously observed whether Feasts or Fasts Weekly Monthly or Annual were by themselves and all others called their Sabbaths as we have before evinced And that kind of Speech which was then in common use is here observed by our Apostle It must therefore necessarily be allowed that there were two sorts of Sabbaths amongst them The first and principal was the Weekly Sabbath so called from the Rest of God upon the finishing of his works This being designed for Sacred and Religious Uses other Dayes separated unto the same Ends in general became from their Analogie thereunto to be called Sabbaths also yea were so called by God himself as hath been declared But the Distinction and Difference between these Sabbaths was great The one of them was ordained from the foundation of the world before the Entrance of sin or giving of the Promises and so belonged unto all mankind in general the other were appointed in the Wilderness as a part of the peculiar Church Worship of the Israelites and so belonged unto them only The one of them was directly commanded in the Decalogue wherein the Law of our Creation was revived and expressed the other have their Institution expresly among the residue of Ceremonial Temporary Ordinances Hence they cannot be both comprized under the same Denomination unless upon some Reason that is common to both sorts alike So when God saith of them all You shall observe my Sabbaths it is upon a Reason common to them all namely that they were all commanded of God which is the formal Reason of our Obedience of what nature soever his Commands are whether Moral or Positive Nor can both these sorts be here understood under the same name unless it be with respect unto something that is common unto both Allow therefore the Distinctions between them before mentioned which cannot soberly be denyed and as to what they agree in namely what is or was in the Weekly primary Sabbath of the same Nature with those Dayes of Rest which were so called in allusion thereunto and they may be allowed to have the same sentence given concerning them That is so far the Weekly Sabbath may be said to be a shadow and to be abolished 2. It is evident that the Apostle in this place dealeth with them who endeavoured to introduce Judaisme absolutely or the whole Systeme of Mosaical Ceremonies into the Observation of the Christian Church Circumcision their Feasts and New Moons their distinctions of Meats and Dâ—nâ—s he mentioneth directly in this place And therefore he deals about these things so far as they were Judaical or belonged unto the Oeconomy of Moses and no otherwise If any of them fell under any other Consideration so far as they did so he designeth not to speak of them Now those things only were Mosaical which being instituted by Moses and figurative of good things to come or the things which being of the same nature with the residue of his Ceremonies were before appointed but accommodated by him to the use of the Church which he built 〈◊〉 such as Sacrifices and Circumcision For they were all of them nothing else but an obscure Adumbration of the things whereof Christ was the Body So far then as the Weekly Sabbath had any Additions made unto it or limitation given of it or directions for the manner of its Observance or respected the services then to be performed in it and by all accommodated unto that Dispensation of the Covenant which the Posterity of Abraham was then brought into it was a shadow and it taken away by Christ. Therewith falls its limitation to the seventh Day its rigorous Observation its penal Sanction its being a sign between God and that people in a word every thing in it and about it that belonged unto the then present Administration of the Covenant or was accommodated to the Judaical Church or State But now if it be proved that a septenary Sacred Rest was appointed in Paradise that it hath its foundation in the Law of Creation that thereon it was observed antecedently unto the Institution of Mosaical Ceremonies and that God renewed the Command concerning it in his Systeme of Moral Precepts manifoldly distinguished from all Ceremonial Ordinances so far and in these Respects it hath no concern in these words of the Apostle 3. It cannot be said that the Religious Observance of one Day in seven as an holy Rest unto God is abolished by Christ without casting a great Reflection of Presumption on all the Churches of Christ in the World I mean that now are or ever were so for they all have observed and do so observe such a day I shall not now dispute about the Authority of the Church to appoint dayes unto Holy or Religious uses to make holy Dayes Let it be granted to be whatever any yet hath pretended or pleaded that it is But this I say that where God by his Authority had commanded the Observation of a day to himself and the Lord Christ by the same Authority hath taken off that Command and abolished that Institution it is not in the power of all the Churches in the world to take up the Religious Observance of that Day to the same Ends and Purposes It is certain that God did appoint that a Sabbath of Rest should be observed unto him and for the celebration of his solemn Worship on one Day in seven The whole Command of God hereof is now pleaded to be dissolved and all obligation from thence unto its Observation to be abolished in and by Christ. Then say I it is unlawfull for any Church or Churches in the World to reassume this Practice and to impose the Observance of it on the Disciples of Christ. Be it that the Church may appoint Holy Dayes of its own that have no foundation in nor Relation and to the Law of Moses yet doubtless it ought not to digg any of his Ceremonies out of their Grave and impose them on the Necks of the Disciples of Christ yet so must it be thought to do on this Hypothesis that the Religious Observance of one Day in seven is absolutely abolished by Christ as a meer part of the Law of Commandments contained in Ordinances which was nailed to his Cross and buried with him by the constant Practice and Injunctions thereof 4. Herewith fall the Arguments taken from the Apostles calling the Sabbath in this place a shadow For it is said that nothing which is Moral can be
is the first express mention of the Sabbath unto and amongst that people And it sufficiently declares that this was not the absolute Original of a Sabbatical Rest. It is only an Appropriation and Application of the Old Command unto them For the words are not preceptive but directive They do not Institute any thing anew but direct in the Practice of what was before Hence it is affirmed v. 29. that God gave them the Sabbath namely in this new Confirmation of it and Accommodation of it to their present Condition For this new Confirmation of it by withholding of Manna on that day belonged meerly and solely unto them and was the especial limitation of the seventh Day precisely wherein we are not concerned who do live on the the true Bread that came down from Heaven In those words therefore to morrow is the Rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord there is a certain limitation of the Day a Direction for its Sanctification as confirmed by the New sign of withholding Manna all which belonged to them peculiarly For this was the first Time that as a People they observed the Sabbath which in Aegypt they could not do And into this Institution and the Authority of it must they resolve their Practice who adhere unto the Observation of the seventh Day precisely For that day is no otherwise confirmed in the Decalogue but as it had Relation hereunto § 9 The Jews in this place fall into a double mistake about the Practical Observation of their Sabbath For from those words Bake that which you will bake and seethe that which you will seethe and that which remaineth lay up for you to be kept untill the morning v. 23. They conclude it to be unlawful to bake or seethe any thing on the Sabbath Day whereas the words have respect only to the Manna that was to be preserved And from the words of v. 29. See for that the Lord hath given you the Sabbath therefore he giveth you on the sixth day the Bread of two Dayes abide you every man in his place let no man go out of his place on the seventh day they have made a Rule yea many Rules about what Motions or removals are lawful on the Sabbath Day and what not And hence they have bound themselves with many anxious and scrupulous Observances though the Injunction it self do purely and solely respect the people in the Wilderness that they should not go out into the Fields to look for Manna on that day which some of them having done v. 27. an occasion was taken from thence for this Injunction And hereunto do some of the Heathen Writers ascribe the Original of the Sabbatical Rest among the Jews supposing that the seventh day after their departure out of Aegypt they came to a place of Rest in Remembrance whereof they consecrated one day in seven to Rest and idleness ever after whereunto they add other fictions of an alike nature See Tacit Hist. lib. 5. § 10 Not long after ensued the giving of the Law on Sinai Exod. 20. That the Decalogue is a summary of the Law of Nature or the Moral Law is by all Christians acknowledged nor could the Heathens of old deny it And it is so perfectly Nothing belongs unto that Law which is not comprized therein Nor can any one Instance be given to the contrary Nor is there any thing directly and immediately in it but what belongs unto that Law Only God now made in it an especial Accommodation of the Law of their Creation unto that people whom he he was in a second Work now forming for himself Isa. 43. 19 20 21. Chap. 51. 15 16. And this he did as every part of it was capable of being so accommodated To this purpose he prefaceth the whole with an Intimation of his particular Covenant with them I am the Lord thy God and addeth thereunto the Remembrance of an especial Benefit that they and they alone were made partakers of That brought thee out of the Land of Aegypt out of the house of Bondage which he did in the pursuit of his especial Covenant with Abraham and his seed This made the Obligation to Obedience unto the Law as promulgated on Mount Sinai to belong unto them peculiarly to us it is only an everlasting Rule as declarative of the Will of God and the Law of our Creation The Obligation I say that arose unto Obedience from the Promulgation of the Law on Mount Sinai was peculiar unto the Israelites and sundry things were then and there mixed with it that belonged unto them alone And whereas the Mercy the consideration whereof he proposeth as the great Motive unto Obedience which was his bringing them out of Aegypt with Reference unto his setling of them in the Land of Canaan was a Typical Mercy it gave the whole Law a station in the Typical Church State which they were now bringing into It altered not the nature of the things commanded which for the substance of them were all Moral but it gave their Obedience unto it a new and Typical Respect even as it was the Tenor of the Covenant made with them in Sinai with Respect unto the promised Land of Canaan and their Typical State therein § 51 This in an especial manner was the condition of the fourth Commandment Three things are distinctly proposed in it 1. The Command for an Observance of a Sabbath Day v. 8. Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy This contains the whole substance of the Command The formal Reason whereof is contained in the last clause of it Wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath Day and hallowed it And upon the neglect of the Observance of the Sabbath in former Generations with a Prospect on the many Difficulties that would arise among the people in the Observation of it for the future as also because the Foundation and Reason of it in the Law of Creation being principally external in the Works and Rest of God that ensued thereon were not so absolutely ingrafted in the minds of men as continually to evidence and manifest themselves as do those of the other Precepts there is an especial note put upon it for Remembrance And whereas it is a positive Precept as is that which follows it all the rest being Negatives it stood more in need than they of a particular charge and special Motives of which Nature one is added also to the next Command being in like manner a Positive Enunciation 2. Secondly There is an express Determination of this Sabbath to be one Day in seven without which it was only included in the Original Reason of it v. 9 10. Six dayes shalt thou-labour and do all thy Work but the seventh Day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God And herein the Day originally fixed in the Covenant of Works is again limited unto this people to continue unto the Time of the full Introduction and Establishment of the New Covenant And this limitation of the seventh Day was
but the Renovation of the Command when given unto them in the way of an especial Ordinance Exod. 16. and belongs not to the substance of the Command it self Yea take the Command it self without respect unto its explications elsewhere and it expresseth no such limitation though vertually because of the precedent Institution Exod. 16. it be contained in it Hence Thirdly There is a Prescription for the manner of its Observance accommodated unto the state and condition of that people and that two wayes 1. In comprehending things Spiritual under things Carnal when yet the carnal are of no consideration in the Worship of God but as they necessarily attend upon things spiritual Hence that part of the Command which concerns the manner of the Observation of the Sabbath to be kept holy is given out in a Prohibition of bodily Labour and Work or a Command of bodily Rest. But it is the Expression of the Rest of God and his complacency in his Works and Covenant with the Sanctification of the Day in Obedience to his Commands in and by the holy Duties of his Worship that are principally intended in it And this he farther intimates afterwards unto them by his Institution of a double Sacrifice to be offered Morning and Evening on that Day 2. In the Distribution of the people into the Capital Persons with their Relations Servants and Strangers that God would have to live amongst them and joyn themselves unto them In the whole it appears that the Sabbath is not now commanded to be observed because it is the seventh Day as though the seventh Day were firstly and principally intended in the Command which as we have shewed that neither the substance of the Command nor the Reason of it with which the whole of the Precept is begun and ended will admit of but the seventh Day is commanded to be observed because by an antecedent Institution it was made to be the Sabbath unto that people Exod. 16. Whence it came to fall under the Command not primarily but reductively as it had been on another account from the foundation of the World The Sabbath therefore is Originally commanded as one day in seven to be dedirated unto an Holy Rest. And the seventh Day if we respect the order of the dayes is added as that especial Day which God had declared that he would have at that Time his Sabbath to be observed on Now all these things in the Law of the Sabbath are Mosaical namely the Obligation that arose unto its Observation from the Promulgation of the Law unto that people on Sinai the limitation of the Day unto the seventh or last of the Week which was necessary unto that Administration of the Covenant which God then made use of and had a respect unto a previous Institution the Manner of its Observance suited unto that servile and bondage frame of mind which the giving the Law on Mount Sinai did ingenerate in them as being designed of God so to do the ingrafting it into the systeme and series of Religious Worship then in force by the double Sacrifice annexed unto it with the various uses in and accommodations it had unto the Rule of Government in the Commonwealth of Israel in all which respects it is abolished and taken away § 12 God having disposed and setled the Sabbath as to the seventh Day and the manner of its Observation as a part of the Covenant then made with that people he thereon makes use of it in the same manner and unto the same Ends with the residue of the Institutions and Ordinances which he had then prescribed unto them This he doth Exod. 31. 13 14 14 15 16 17. And the Lord spake unto Moses saying Speak thou unto the Children of Israel saying Verily my Sabbaths ye shall keep for it is a sign between me and you throughout your Generations that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctifie you Ye shall keep the Sabbath therefore for it is holy unto you 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 Six Dayes may work be done but in the seventh is the Sabbath of Rest holy to the Lord whosoever doth any work on the Sabbath Day shall surely be put to death Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath to observe the Sabbath throughout their Generations for a perpetual Covenant It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever For in six Dayes the Lord made Heaven and Earth and on the seventh Day he rested and was refreshed This is the next mention of the Sabbath amongst that people wherein all that we have before laid down is fully confirmed God had now by Moses appointed other Sabbaths that is Monthly and Annual Sacred Rests to be observed unto himself With these he now joyns the Weekly Sabbath in Allusion whereunto they have that Name also given unto them He had sufficiently manifested a Difference between them before For the one he pronounced himself on Mount Sinai as part of his universal and eternal Law The other he Instituted by Revelation unto Moses as that which peculiarly belonged unto them The one was grounded on a Reason wherein they had no more concern or interest than all the rest of mankind namely Gods Rest on his Works and being refreshed thereon upon the Creation of the World and the establishment of his Covenant with man the other all built on Reasons peculiar unto themselves and that Church State whereinto they were admitted But here the Sabbaths of both these kinds are brought under the same Command and designed unto the same Ends and Purposes Now the sole Reason hereof lies in those temporary and Ceremonial Additions which we have manifested to have been made unto the Original Law of the Sabbath in its Accommodation to their Church State with the Place which it held therein as we shall see yet farther in particular § 13 The Occasion of this Renovation of the Command was the Building of the Tabernacle which was now designed and forthwith to be undertaken And with Respect hereunto there was a double Reason for the Repetition of this Command First Because that Work was for an holy End and so upon the matter an holy Work and whereon the people were very intent hence they might have supposed that it would have been lawfull for them to have attended unto it on the Sabbath Dayes This therefore God expresly forbids that they might have no pretence for the Transgression of his Command And therefore is the Penalty annexed unto it so expresly here appointed and mentioned Secondly As the Tabernacle now to be built was the only seat of that solemn instituted Worship which God was now setting up amongst them so the Sabbath being the great Means of its continuance and performance this they were now to be severely minded of lest by their neglect and forgetfulness thereof they might
shall be to you an holy Day a Sabbath of Rest unto the Lord whosoever doth work therein shall be put to death Ye shall kindle no fire throughout your habitations on the Sabbath Day Here again the Penalties and the Prohibition of kindling fire are Mosaical and so is on their account the whole Command as here renewed though there be that in it which for the substance of it is Moral And here the seventh Day precisely is made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 holiness unto them or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Convocation of holiness an holy Convocation as it is expressed Levit. 23. 2. where these words are again repeated whose Profanation was to be avenged with Death The Prohibition also added about kindling of fire in their habitations hath been the occasion of many anxious Observances among the Jews They all agree that the kindling of fire for Profit and Advantage in Kilns and Oasts for the making of Brick or drying of Corn or for founding or melting Mettals is here forbidden But what need was there that so it should be seeing all these things are expresly forbidden in the Command in general Thou shalt do no manner of work somewhat more is intended They say therefore that it is the kindling of fire for the dressing of Victuals And this indeed seems to be the intendment of this especial Law as the Manna that was to be eaten on the Sabbath was to be prepared on the Parasecue But withal I say this is a new additional Law and purely Mosaical the Original Law of the Sabbath making no entrenchment on the ordinary duties of humane life as we shall see afterwards Whether it forbad the kindling of fire for Light and Heat I much question The present Jews in most places employ Christian Servants about such works For the poor wretches care not what is done to their Advantage so they do it not themselves But these and the like Precepts belonged unquestionably unto their Paedagogie and were separable from the Original Law of the Sabbath § 17 Lastly The whole matter is stated Deut. 5. 15. where after the Repetition of the Commandment it is added and remember that thou wast a Servant in the Land of Aegypt and that the Lord thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched out Arm therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the Sabbath Day The Mercy and Benefit they had received in their Deliverance from Aegypt is given as the Reason not why they should keep the Sabbath as it was proposed as a Motive unto the Observation of the whole Law in the Preface of the Decalogue but wherefore God gave them the Law of it to keep and observe Therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the Sabbath Now the Reason of the Command of a Sabbatical Rost absolutely God had every where declared to be his making the world in six dayes and resting on the seventh The mention whereof in this place is wholly omitted because an especial Application of the Law unto that people is intended So that it is evident that the Mosaical Sabbath was on many Accounts and in many things distinguished from that of the Decalogue which is a Moral Duty For the Deliverance of the people out of Aegypt which was a benefit peculiar unto themselves and Typical of Spiritual Mercies unto others was the Reason of the Institution of the Sabbath as it was Mosaical which it was not nor could be of the Sabbath absolutely although it might be pressed on that people as a considerable Motive why they ought to endeavour the keeping of the whole Law § 18 From all that hath been discoursed it appears That the Observation of the seventh Day precisely from the Beginning of the world belonged unto the Covenant of Works not as a Covenant but as a Covenant of Works founded in the Law of Creation And that in the Administration of that Covenant which was revived and unto certain Ends reinforced unto the Church of Israel in the Wilderness it was bound on them by an especial Ordinance to be observed throughout their Generations or during the continuance of their Church State Moreover that as to the manner of the Observance required by the Law as delivered on Mount Sinai it was a yoke and burden to the people because that dispensation of the Law gendred unto Bondage Gal. 4. 24. For it begot a Spirit of fear and Bondage in all that were its Children and subject unto its Power In this condition of things it was applyed unto sundry Ends in their Typical State in which regard it was a shadow of good things to come And so also was it in respect of those other Additional Institutions and Prohibitions which were inseparable from its Observation amongst them whereof we have spoken On all these Accounts I doubt not but that the Mosaical Sabbath and the manner of its Observation is under the Gospel utterly taken away But as for the Weekly Sabbath as required by the Law of our Creation reinforced in the Decalogue the summary Representation of that great Original Law the Observation of it is a Moral Duty which by Divine Authority is translated unto another Day § 19 The ancient Jews have a saying which by the later Masters is abused but a Truth is contained in it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Sabbath gives firmitude and strength to all the Affairs of this World For it may be understood of the Blessing of God on the due Observation of his Worship on that Day Hence it was they say that any young clean Beast that was to be offered in Sacrifice must continue seven dayes with the Damm and not be offered until the eighth Levit. 22. 27. That a Child was not to be circumcised until the eighth Day that there might be an Interposition of a Sabbath for their Benediction And it is not unlikely that the eighth Day was also signalized hereby as that which was to succeed in the Room of the seventh as shall be manifested in our next Discourse The Fifth Exercitation OF THE Lords-Day 1 A Summary of what hath been proved a progress to the Lords-day 2 The new Creation of all things in Christ the foundation of Gospel-Obedience and Worship 3 The old and new Creation compared 4 The old and new Covenant 5 Distinct Ends of these Covenants 6 Supposition of the Heads of things before confirmed 7 Foundation of the Lords-day on those Suppositions 8 Christ the â—uthor of the new Creation his Works therein 9 His Rest from his Works the Indication of a new Day of Rest. 10 Observed by the Apostles 11 Proof of the Lords-day from Heb. 4. proposed 12 The words of the Text. 13 esign of the Apostle in general 14 His answer unto an Objection with his general Argument 15 The nature of the Rests treated on by him 16 The Church under the Law of Nature and its Rest. 17 The Church under the Law of Institution and its Rest. 18
from them so far as they are sorrowfull This is not to Rest as God rested Again when are Believers supposed to Rest from these works it cannot be in this World For here we Rest not at all from Temptations sufferings and sorrows and in that mortification of sin which we attain unto yet the conflict is still continued and that with severity unto death Rom 7. 24. It must therefore be in Heaven that they thus Rest and so it is affirmed accordingly But this excludes the Rest in and of the Gospel from the Apostles discourse which renders it altogether unsuitable to his purpose This I have so fully demonstrated in the Exposition of the Chapter as that I hope it will not be gainsayed Thirdly there is no comparison in the whole discourse between the works of God and the works of Men but between the works of God in the Creation and under the Law on the one side and those in and under the Gospel on the other And the whole comparison is summed up and closed in this Verse § 21 It appears therefore that the subject of the Apostles Proposition in this place hath been mistaken It is another who is intended even Christ himself the Son of God and his Rest from his works which is here compared with the Rest of God from his at the foundation of the world to which end alone the mention of them was introduced verse 3 4. For First The Conjunction 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For whereby he brings in his Assertion manifests that the Apostle in these words gives an account whence it is that there is a new Sabbatism remaining for the people of God There remains a Sabbath-keeping for the people of God for he that is entred into his Rest is ceased from his works Had there not been a work laying the foundation of the Gospel-Church-state and a Rest of God in it and ensuing thereon there could have been no such Sabbatism for Believers for those things are required unto a Sabbath He had proved before that there could be no such Rest but what was founded in the works of God and his Rest that ensued thereon such a foundation therefore he saith this new Rest must have and it hath it This must be and is in the Works and Rest of him by whom the Church was built that is Christ who is God as it is expresly argued Chap. 3. vers 3 4. For as that Rest which all the world was to observe was founded in his Works and Rest who made the world and all things in it so the Rest of the Church under the Gospel is to be founded in his works and Rest by whom the Church was built that is Jesus Christ For he on the account of his works and Rest is also Lord of the Sabbath to abrogate one Day of Rest and to institute another Secondly The Apostle here changeth the manner of his expression from the plural absolutely We who believe or virtually in the name of a multitude the people of God into that which is absolutely singular 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He that is entred A single person is here expressed with respect unto whom the things mentioned are asserted and of this change of phrase there can be no other reason given Thirdly The Rest which this person is said to enter into is called His Rest absolutely As God speaking of the former Rest calls it My Rest so this is the My Rest of another namely the Rest of Christ whereas when the entring of Believers into Rest is spoken of it is called either Gods Rest They shall enter into my Rest or Rest absolutely We that believe do enter into Rest but not their Rest or our Rest for it is not our own absolutely but Gods Rest whereinto we enter and wherein we rest But the Rest here is the Rest of him whose it is and who is the Author of ours Fourthly There is a direct parallel in the words between the works of the old Creation and those of the new which are compared by the Apostle For 1. There are the Authors of them which on the one side is said to be God as God did from his own that is God the Creator or God as Creator on the other He 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chap. 3. vers 3. that is He of whom we speak as the Apostle declares himself vers 13. for in these words a transition is made unto his treating of the Person of Christ. 2. The works of the one and the other are expressed The works of the Creator are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his proper works his own works the works of the old Creation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And there are the works of him of whom he speaks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his works those which he wrought in like manner as God did his own at the beginning that is the work of building the Church For these works must answer each other and have the same respect unto their Authors they must be good and compleat in their kind and such as Rest and Refreshment may be taken in and on them To compare the sins and sufferings of men with the works of God our Apostle did not intend 3. There is the Rest of the one and the other and these also have their mutual proportion Now God rested from his own works of Creation 1 By ceasing from creating only continuing all things by his Power in their order and propagating them unto his Glory 2 By his respect unto them and refreshment in them as those which expressed his Excellencies and set forth his praise and so satisfied his glorious design So also must he rest who is spoken of 1 He must cease from working in the like kind of works he must suffer no more die no more but only continue the work of his grace and power in the preservation of the new creature and the orderly increase and propagation of it by his Spirit 2 He takes delight and satisfaction in the works that he hath wrought for he sees of the travel of his soul and is satisfied and is in the possession of that Glory which was set before him whilest he was engaged in this work And these things sufficiently clear the Subject here spoken of namely that it is Jesus Christ the Mediator § 22 The Works that the Rest mentioned respects have been sufficiently intimated and I have so fully insisted on them in the Exposition of the third and fourth Verses of the third Chapter of this Epistle that I shall not here again repeat them In brief all that he did and suffered in and from his Incarnation to his Resurrection as the Mediator of the Covenant with all the fruits effects and consequences of what he so did and suffered whereby the Church was built and the new Creation finished belongs unto these works His Rest that ensued on these works hath two parts 1 A Cessation from his works which was
applying the duties and services of a Sabbath unto it hath also been demonstrated And that this was owned from the Authority of the Lord is declared by John in the Revelation who calls it the Lords Day Rev. 1. 10. whereby he did not surprize the Churches with a new name but denoted to them the Time of his Visions by the name of the Day which was well known unto them And there is no solid Reason why it should be so called but that it owes its pre-eminence and observation unto his Institution and Authority And no man who shall deny these things can give any tolerable account how when or from whence this Day came to be so observed and so called It is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Lords Day the Day of the Lord as the Holy Supper is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Cor. 11. 20. the Lords Supper by reason of his Institution 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Day of the Lord in the Old Testament which the LXX render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies indeed some illustrious Appearance of God in a way of judgement or mercy And so also in the Person of Christ this was the Day of his Appearance Mark 16. 9. So was it still called by the ancient Writers of the Church Ignatius in Epist. ad Trall ad magnes ect Dionysius of Corinth Epist. ad Rom. in Euseb. Hist. lib. 4. cap. 21. Theophilus Antioch lib. 1. in 4. Evangel Clemens Alex. stromat lib. 7. cap. 7. Origen lib. 8. con Cels. Tertul. de Coron milit cap. 3. As for those who assign the Institution of this Day to the Apostles although the supposition be false yet it weakens not the divine original of it For an Obligation lying on all Believers to observe a Sabbath unto the Lord and the Day observed under the Law of Moses being removed it is not to be imagined that the Apostles fixed on another Day without immediate direction from the Lord Christ. For indeed they delivered nothing to be constantly observed in the worship of God but what they had his Authority for 1 Cor. 11. 23. In all things of this nature as they had the infallible guidance of the Holy Ghost so they acted immediately in the Name and Authority of Christ where what they ordained was no less of divine Institution than if it had been appointed by Christ in his own person It is true they themselves did for a season whilest their Ministery was to have a peculiar regard to the Jews for the calling and conversion of the remnant that was amongst them according to the election of grace go frequently into their Synagogues on the seventh Day to preach the Gospel Act. 13. 14. Chap. 16. 13. Chap. 17. 2. Chap. 18. 4. But it is evident that they did so only to take the opportunity of their Assemblies that they might preach unto the greater numbers of them and that at such a season wherein they were prepared to attend unto sacred things Upon the same ground Paul laboured if it were possible to be at Hierusalem at the Feast of Pentecost Act. 20. 16. But that they at any time assembled the Disciples of Christ on that day for the worship of God that we read not § 29 We may now look back and take a view of what we have passed through That one Day in seven is by virtue of a divine Law to be observed Holy unto the Lord the original of such an observation Gen. 2. 2. the Letter of the fourth Commandement with the nature of the Covenant between God and man do prove and evince And hereunto is there a considerable suffrage given by learned men of all parties The Doctrine of the Reformed Divines hereabouts hath been largely represented by others They also of the Church of Rome that is many of them agree herein It is asserted in the Canon Law it self Tit. de Feriis cap. licet where the words of Alexander the third are Tam veteris quam novi Testamenti pagina septimum Diem ad humanam quietem specialiter deputavit where by septimus Dies he understands one Day in seven as Suarez sheweth De Relig. lib. 2. cap. 2. And it is so by sundry Canonists reckoned up by Covarruvias The Schoolmen also give in their consent as Bannes in 2a 2a g. 44. a. 1. Bellarmine contends expresly decultsanct lib. 3. cap. 11. that Jus divinum requirebat ut unus Dies Hebdomadae dicaretur cultui divino So doth Suarez de dieb sac cap. 1. and others might be added We have the like common consent that whatever in the institution and observation of the Sabbath under the Old Testament was peculiar unto that state of the Church either in its own nature or in its use and signification or in its manner of observance is taken away by virtue of those Rules Rom. 14. 5. Gal. 4. 10. Col. 2. 16 17. Nor can it be denied but that sundry things annexed unto the Sabbatical Rest peculiar to that Church-state which was to be removed were wholly inconsistent with the spirit grace and liberty of the Gospel I have also proved that the observation of the seventh Day precisely was a pledge of Gods Rest in the Covenant of works and of our Rest in him and with him thereby so that it cannot be retained without a re-introduction of that Covenant and the Righteousness thereof And therefore although the command for the observation of a Sabbath to the Lord so far as it is moral is put over into the Rule of the new Covenant wherein Grace is administred for the duty it requires yet take the seventh Day preeisely as the seventh Day and it is an Old Testament arbitrary institution which falls under no promise of spiritual assistance in or unto the observation of it Under the New Testament we have found a new Creation a new Law of Creation a new Covenant the Rest of Christ in that Work Law and Covenant the limiting of a Day of Rest unto us on the Day wherein he entred into his Rest a new Name given unto this Day with respect unto his Authority by whom it was appointed and an observation of it by all the Churches so that we may say of it This is the Day which the Lord hath made we will rejoyce and be glad in it as Psal. 118. 24. § 30 These foundations being laid I shall yet by some important considerations if I mistake not give some farther evidence unto the necessity of the Religious observation of the first Day of the Week in opposition unto the Day of the Law by some contended for It is therefore first acknowledged that the observation of some certain Day in and for the solemn publick Worship of God is of indispensible necessity They are beneath our consideration by whom this is denyed Most acknowledge it to be a Dictate of the Law of Nature and the Nature of these things doth require it We have proved also that there
yet surely there is nothing for it In the things that are so we have ground to expect the Assistance of the Spirit of Christ to enable us for their right observation to the Glory of God and our own edification or increase in Grace But it is a meer Precept of the Old Law as such And what the Law speaks it speaks unto them that are under the Law In all its Precepts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it exerciseth a severe Dominion over the souls and consciences of them that are under it And we have no way to extricate our selves from under that Dominion but by our being dead unto its power and Authority as such through the Death of Christ or an interest by Faith in the Benefits that through his fulfilling and satisfying the Law do redound to the Church But what is required of any one under the notion of the formal and absolute power of the Law is to be performed in and by that spirit which is administred by the Law and the strength which the Law affords and this indeed is great as to conviction of Sin nothing at all as unto Obedience and Righteousness Do men in these things appeal unto the Law unto the Law they must go For I know not any thing that we can expect Assistance of Gospel-Grace in or about but only those things which are originally moral or superadded unto them in the Gospel it self to neither of which Heads this observation of the seventh Day as such can be referred It is therefore a meer legal Duty properly so called and in a bondage frame of Spirit without any especial assistance of Grace it must be performed And how little we are beholding unto those who would in any one instance reduce us from the liberty of the Gospel unto bondage under the Law our Apostle hath so fully declared that it is altogether needless farther to attempt the manifestation of it Of the Lords-Day The Sixth Exercitation 1 Practice the end of Instruction and Learning 2 Practical observation of the Sabbath handled by many 3 Pleas concerning too much rigour and strictness in directions for the observation of the Sabbath 4 Extreams to be avoided in directions of sacred duties Extream of the Pharisees 5 The worse extream of others in giving liberty to sin 6 Mistakes in directions about the observation of the Lords Day 7 General directions unto that purpose proposed 8 Of the beginning and ending of the Sabbath The first Rule about Time 9 The frame of spirit required under the Gospel in the observation of the Lords Day 10 Rules and Principles for its due observation 11 Duties required thereunto of two sorts 12 Preparatory duties their necessity and nature 13 14 Particular account of them Meditation 15 Supplication 16 Instruction 17 18 Publick duties of the Day it self 19 What refreshments and labour consistent with them 20 Of private duties § 1 IT remains that something be briefly offered which may direct a practice suitable unto the principles laid down and pleaded For this is the End of all sacred Truth and all instruction therein This that great Rule of our blessed Saviour both teacheth us and obligeth us to an answerable duty If you know these things happy are ye if you do them Joh. 13. 17. words so filled with his wisdome that happy are they in whose hearts they are alwayes abiding The End then of our learning Scripture-Truths is to obtain such an Idea of them in our minds as may direct us unto a suitable practice Without this they are to us of no use or of none that is good 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Knowledge without practice puffeth not buildeth up For as Austin speaks with reference unto those words Con. Faust. Man lib. 15. cap. 8. Multa quibusdam sunt noxia quamvis non sint mala Things not evil yea good in themselves may be hurtfull unto others And nothing is usefull but as it is directed to its proper End This practice is unto sacred Truth § 2 I confess our endeavours herein may seem less necessary than in the foregoing Discourses For there are many Treatises on this part of our present Subject extant in our own language and in the hands of those who esteem themselves concerned in these things With some they meet indeed with no other entertainment than the Posts did that were sent by Hezekiah through Ephraim Manasseh and Zebulun to invite them unto the Passeover they are laughed to scorn and mocked at 2 Chron. 30. 10. But wisdome is justified of her children Unto some they are of great use and in great esteem And for the most part in the main of their design they do agree So that the Truth in them is established in the mouthes of many witnesses without danger of dividing the minds of men about it But yet I cannot take my self to be discharged hereby from the consideration of this concern also of a sacred Rest under the Gospel the nature of our design requiring it And there are yet important Directions for the right sanctifying of the Name of God in and by the due observance of a Day of sacred Rest which I have not taken notice to have been insisted on by others and whereas a due improvement may be expected of the peculiar principles before discussed I shall go through this part of the Work also § 3 Besides there are not a few complaints and those managed at least some of them by Persons of sobriety and learning pretending also a real care for the preservation and due observance of all duties of Piety and Religion that there hath been some excess in the Directions of many given about the due sanctification of the Lords Day And there is no small danger of mistakes on this hand whilest therein is a pretence of zeal and devotion to give them countenance Of this nature some men do judge some rigorous prescriptions to be which have been given in this matter And they say that a great disadvantage unto Religion hath ensued hereon For it is pretended that they are such as are beyond the constitution of humane nature to comply withall of which kind God certainly requires nothing at our hands Hence it is pleaded that men finding themselves no way able to come unto a satisfaction in answer unto the severe Directions for duties and the manner of their performance which by some are rigorously prescribed have taken occasion to seek for relief by rejecting the whole command which is duely interpreted in such a condescension as they were capable of a compliance withall they would have adhered unto On this account men have found out various inventions to colour their weariness of that strict course of duty which they were bound unto Hence have some taken up a plea that every Day is to them a Sabbath that so they might not keep any Some that there is no such thing as a sacred Rest on any Day required of us by the Authority of Christ and therefore that all
his Rest and thereby made known unto us that we should keep this Day as a day of an Holy Rest unto him and as a pledge that we have again given unto us an entrance into Rest with God 6 We are then to Remember that this Day is a pledge of our eternal Rest with God This is that whereunto these things do tend For therein will God glorifie himself in the full accomplishment of his great design in all his Works of Power and Grace And this is that which ultimately we aim at We do at best in this World but enter into the Rest of God the full enjoyment of it is reserved for Eternity Hence that is usually called our everlasting Sabbath as that state wherein we shall alwayes Rest with God and alwayes give Glory unto him And this Day is a pledge hereof on sundry accounts 1 Because thereon God as it were calleth us aside out of the World unto an immediate converse with himself Israel never had a more dreadfull Day than when they were called out of their Tents from their occasions and all worldly concerns 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in occursum Jehovae to a meeting with the Lord Exod. 19. God called them aside to meet and converse with him But it was unto Mount Sinai that he called them which was altogether on a smoak because the Lord descended in fire vers 18. Hence although they had been preparing themselves for it sundry Dayes they were not able to bear the terror of Gods approach unto them But under the Gospel we are this Day called out of the World and off from our occasions to converse with God to meet him at Mount Sion Heb. 12. Here he doth not give us a fiery Law but a gracious Gospel doth not converse us with Thunder and Lightning but with the sweet still voice of mercy in Jesus Christ. And as this requireth due thoughts of heart in us to prepare us for it so it is in it self a great and unspeakable Priviledge purchased for us by Christ. And herein have we a pledge of Rest with God above when he shall call us off from all Relations all occasions of life all our Interests and Concerns in this World and eternally set us apart unto himself And undoubtedly that it may be such a pledge unto us it is our duty to take off our minds and souls as far as we are able from all occasions of life and businesses of this World that we may walk with God alone on this Day Some indeed do think this a great bondage But so far as they do so and so far as they find it so they have no interest in this matter We do acknowledge that there are weaknesses attending the outward man through the frailty and imbecillity of our natures and therefore have before rejected all rigid tiresome services And I do acknowledge that there will be repisning and rebelling in the flesh against this duty But he who really judgeth in his mind and whose practice is influenced and regulated by that judgement that the segregation of a Day from the World and the occasions of it and a secession unto communion with God thereon is grievous and burdensome and that which God doth not require nor is usefull to us must be looked on as a stranger unto these things He to whom the worship of God in Christ is a burden or a bondage who sayes behold what a weariness it is that thinks a Day in a Week to be too much and too long to be with God in his especial service is much to seek I think of his duty Alas what would such Persons do if they should ever come to Heaven to be taken aside to all eternity to be with God alone who think it a great bondage to be here deiverted unto him for a Day They will say it may be Heaven is one thing and the observation of the Lords-Day is another were they in Heaven they doubt not but they should do well enough But for this observation of the Lords-Day they know not what to say to it I confess they are so they are distinct things or else one could not be the pledge of the other But yet they both agree in this that they are a separation and secession from all other things unto God And if men have not a principle to like that in the Lords-Day neither would they like it in Heaven should they ever come there Let us then be ready to attend in this matter to the Call of God and go out to meet him For where he placeth his Name as he doth on all his solemn Ordinances there he hath promised to meet us And so is this Day unto us a pledge of Heaven 2 It is so in respect of the duties of the Day wherein the sanctification of the Name of God in it doth consist All duties proper and peculiar to this Day are duties of communion with God Everlasting uninterrupted immediate communion with God is Heaven Carnal Persons had rather have Mahomets Paradise than Christs Heaven But this is that which Believers aim at eternal communion with God Hereof are the duties of this Day in a right holy performance an assured pledge For this is that which in them all we aim at and express according to the measure of our light and Grace Hereon we hear him speak unto us in his Word and we speak unto him in Prayers Supplications Praises Thanksgivings in and by Jesus Christ. In all our aim is to give Glory to him which is the End of Heaven and to be brought nearer to him which is its enjoyment In what God is pleased hereby to communicate unto our souls and in what by the secret and invisible supplyes of his Grace and Spirit he carryes out our hearts unto lye and consist those first fruits of Glory which we may be made partakers of in this World And the first fruits are a pledge of a full harvest God gives them unto us for that End that they may be so This then are we principally to seek after in the celebration of the Ordinances of God whereby we sauctifie his Name on this Day Without this bodily labour in the outward performance of a multitude of duties will profit little Men may rise early and go to bed late and eat the bread of care and diligence all the Day long yet if they are not thus in the Spirit and carried out unto spiritual communion with God in the services of the Day it will not avail them Whatever there be either in the service it self performed or in the manner of its performance or the duration of it which is apt to divert or take off the mind from being intent hereon it tends to the prophanation rather than the sanctification of this Day 3 The Rest of the Day is also a pledge of our Rest with God But then this Rest is not to be taken for a meer bodily cessation from labour but in that extent wherein it
expounded in the next words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seven times seven years seven years being called a Sabbath of years because of the Lands resting every seventh year in answer to the Rest of the Church every seventh Day see the Targum on Isa. 58. 13. Esth. 2. 9. Moreover because of the Rest that was common to the Weekly Sabbath with all other Sacred Feasts of Moses's Institution in their stated Monthly or Annual Revolution they were also called Sabbaths as shall be proved afterwards And as the Greeks and Latines made use of this Word borrowed from the Hebrew so the Jews observing that their Sabbath Day had amongst them its Name from Saturne Dies Saturni as amongst us it is still thence called Satterday they called him or the Planet of that Name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Shabbetai And even from hence some of the Jews take advantage to please themselves with vain Imaginations So R. Isaac Caro commending the Excellency of the seventh Day sayes That Saturne is the Planet of that Day the whole being denominated from the first hour whereof afterwards He therefore saith he hath power on that Day to renew the strength of our Bodies as also to influence our minds to understand the Mysteries of God He is the Planet of Israel as the Astrologers acknowledge doubtless and in his portion is the rational soul and in the parts of the earth the house of the Sanctuary and among Tongues the Hebrew Tongue and among Laws the Law of Israel So far he who whether he can make good his claim to the Relation of the Jews unto Saturne or their pretended advantage on supposition thereof I leave to our Astrologers to determine seeing I know nothing of these things And on the same Account of their Rest falling on the Day under that Planetary Denomination many of the Heathen thought they dedicated the Day and the Religion of it unto Saturne So Tacitus Histor. lib. 5. Alii Honorem eum Saturno haberi Seu Principia Religionis tradentibus Idaeis quos cum Saturno Pulsos conditores Gentis accepimus seu quod c septem syderibus queis mortales reguntur altissimo orbe praecipua Potentia stella Saturni feratur ac pleraque coelestium vim suam cursiem septimos per numeros conficiant Such Fables did the most diligent of the Heathen suffer themselves to be deluded withal whereby a prejudice was kept up in their minds against the only true God and his Worship The Word sometimes is also redoubled by a pure Hebraisme 1 Chron. 9. 32. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Shabbath Shabbath that is every Sabbath and somewhat variously used in the conjunction of another form 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Exod. 16. 23. Chap. 35. 2. And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Exod. 31. 15. Levit. 25. 4. We render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by Rest the Rest of the Sabbath and a Sabbath of Rest. Where sabbaton is preposed at least it seems to be as much as Sabbatulum and to denote the entrance into the Sabbath or the Preparation for it such as was more solemn when 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a great Sabbath an High Day ensued Such was the Sabbath before the Passeover for the Miracle as the Jews say which befell their fore-fathers that day in Aegypt The time between the two Evenings was the Sabbatulum This then was the Name of the Day of Rest under the Old Testament yet was not the Word appropriated to the denotation of that Day only but is used sometimes naturally to express any Rest or Cessation sometimes as it were Artificially in numeration for a Week or any other season whose Composition was by and Resolution into seven though this was meerly occasional from the first limitation of a periodical Revolution of Time by a Sabbath of Rest of which before § 11 And this various Use of the Word was taken up among the Grecians and Latines also As they borrowed the Word from the Jews so they did its Use. The Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is meerly the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or perhaps formed by the Addition of their usual Termination from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whence also our Apostle frames his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Latine Sabbatum is the same And they use this Word though rarely to express the last day of the Week So Suetonius in Tiber. Diogenes Grammaticus Sabbatis disputare Rhodi solitus And the LXX alwayes so express the seventh Day Sabbath and frequently they use it for a Week also And so in the New Testament 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luke 18. 12. I fast twice on the Sabbath that is two dayes in the Week And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Acts 13. 14. the Day of the Sabbath is that day of the Week which was set apart for a Sabbatical Rest. Hence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 One day of the Sabbaths which frequently occurs is the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the first day of the Week 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being often put for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Numeral for the Cardinal § 12 About the time of the Writing of the Books of the New Testament both the Jews themselves and all the Heathen that took notice of them called all their Feasts and Solemn Assemblies their Sabbaths because they did no servile work in them They had the general nature of the Weekly Sabbath in a cessation from Labour So the first day of the Feast of Trumpets which was to be on the first day of the second Month what day soever of the Week it happened to be on was called a Sabbath Levit. 23. 24. This Scaliger well observes and well proves Emendat Tempor lib. 3. Canon Isagog lib. 3. p. 213. Omnem Festivitatem Judaicam non solum Judaei sed Gentiles Sabbatum vocant Judaei quidem cum dicunt Tisri nunquam incipere à feria prima quarta sexta ne duo Sabbata continuentur Gentiles autem non alio nomine omnes eorum solennitates vocabant And this is evident from the frequent mention of the Sabbatical Fasts of the Jews when they did not nor was it lawful for them to fast on the Weekly Sabbath So speaks Augustus to Tiberius in Suetonius Ne Judaeus quidem mi Tiberi tam libenter Sabbatis jejunium servat quam ego hodie servavi And Juvenals Observant ubi Festa mero pede Sabbata Reges And Martial Et non jejuna Sabbata lege premet speaking in contradiction as he thought unto them And so Horace mentions their tricesima Sabbata which were no other but their New Moons And to this usual manner of speaking in those dayes doth our Apostle accommodate his Expressions Col. 2. 16. Let no man therefore judge you in Meat or in Drink or in part of an Holy day any part of it or respect unto it or of the New Moon or of the Sabbaths that is any of the Judaical Feasts whatever then
exegetical of the other He blessed it by sanctifying of it as Numb 7. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And he annointed them and sanctified them that is he sanctified them by annointing them or by their Unction set them apart unto an Holy Use which is the Instance of Abarbinel on this place This then is that which is affirmed by Moses On the seventh Day after he had finished his work God rested or ceased from working and thereon blessed and sanctified the seventh Day or set it apart unto holy uses for their Observance by whom he was to be worshipped in this world and whom he had newly made for that Purpose God then sanctified this Day Not that he kept it holy himself which in no sense the Divine Nature is capable of nor that he purified it and made it inherently holy which the nature of the Day is incapable of nor that he celebrated that which in it self was holy as we sanctifie his name which is the act of an inferior towards a superior but that he set it apart to sacred use authoritatively requiring us to sanctifie it in that use obedientially And if you allow not this original sanctification of the seventh Day the first Instance of its solemn joint National Observation is introduced with a strange abruptness It is said Exod. 16. where this Instance is given that on the sixth day the people gathered twice as much bread as on any other day namely two Omers for one man which the Rulers taking notice of acquainted Moses with it v. 22. And Moses in answer to the Rulers of the Congregation who had made the Information gives the Reason of it To morrow saith he is the Rest of the holy Sabbath to the Lord. v. 23. Many of the Jews can give some colour to this manner of Expression for they assign as we have shewed the Revelation and Institution of the Sabbath unto the Station in Mara Exod. 15. which was almost a Month before So they think that no more is here intended but a direction for the solemn Observance of that Day which was before instituted with particular respect unto the gathering of Manna which the people being commanded in General before to gather every day according to their eating and not to keep any of it until the next day the Rulers might well doubt whether they ought not to have gathered it on the Sabbath also not being able to reconcile a seeming contradiction between those two commands of gathering Manna every day and of resting on the seventh But those by whom the Fancy about the Station in Mara is rejected as it is rejected by most Christians and who will not admit of its Original Institution from the Beginning can scarce give a tolerable Account of this manner of Expression Without the least intimation of Institution and Command it is only said to morrow is the Sabbath holy to the Lord that is for you to keep holy But on the supposition contended for the discourse in that place with the Reason of it is plain and evident For there being a previous Institution of the seventh Dayes Rest the Observation whereof was partly gone into disuse and the Day it self being then to receive a new peculiar Application to the Church State of that people the Reason both of the peoples fact and the Rulers doubt and Moses's Resolution is plain and obvious § 9 Wherefore granting the sense of the Words contended for there is yet another Exception put in to invalidate this Testimony as to the original of a seventh Dayes Sabbatical Rest from the Foundation of the World And this is taken not from the signification of the words but the connexion and disposition of them in the Discourse of Moses For suppose that by Gods Blessing and sanctifying the seventh Day the separation of it unto sacred Uses is intended yet this doth not prove that it was so sanctified immediately upon the finishing of the Work of Creation For say some Learned men those words of v. 3. And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because that in it he had rested from all his Work which God created and made are inserted occasionally into the Discourse of Moses from what afterwards came to pass They are not therefore as they suppose a continued part of the Historical Narration there insisted on but are inserted into it by way of Prolepsis or Anticipation and are to be read as it were in a Parenthesis For supposing that Moses wrote not the Book of Genesis until after the giving of the Law which I will not contend about though it be assumed gratis in this Discourse there being a Respect had unto the Rest of God when his Works were finished in the Institution of the Sabbath upon the Historical Relation of that Rest Mises interserts what so long after was done and appointed on the Account thereof And so the sense of the Words must be that God rested on the seventh day from all his works that he had made that is the next Day after the finishing of the Works of Creation wherefore two thousand four hundred years after God blessed and sanctified the seventh day not that seventh Day whereon he rested with them that succeeded in the like Revolution of Time but a seventh Day that fell out so long after which was not blessed nor sanctified before I know not well how men Learned and Sober can offer more hardship unto a Text then is put upon this before us by this Interpretation The connexion of the Words is plain and equal And the Heavens and the Earth and all the Host of them were finished And God had finished on the seventh day all his work that he had made and he rested the seventh day from all his work that he had made And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because in it God rested from all his work which he had created and made You may as well break off the order and continuation of the Words and Discourse in any other place as in that pretended And it may be as well faigned that God finished his work on the seventh day and afterwards rested another seventh day as that he rested the seventh day and afterwards blessed and sanctified another It is true there may be sundry Instances given out of the Scripture of sundry things inserted in Historical Narrations by way of Anticipation which fell not out until after the time wherein mention is made of them But they are mostly such as fell out in the same Age or Generation the matter of the whole Narration being entire within the memory of men But of so monstrous and uncouth a Prolepsis as this would be which is supposed no Instance can be given in the Scripture or any sober Author especially without the least notice given that such it is And such Schemes of Writing are not to be imagined unless necessity from the things themselves spoken of compell us to admit them much less where the matter treated
of and the coherence of the words do necessarily exclude such an Imagination as it is in this place For without the Introduction of the words mentioned neither is the Discourse compleat nor the matter of Fact absolved And what lyeth against our Construction and Interpretation of these words from the Arguments insisted on to prove the Institution of the Sabbath in the Wilderness shall be afterwards considered § 10 The Testimony to the same purpose with the former taken out of the New Testament is that of our Apostle Heb. 4. 3 4. For we who have believed do enter into Rest as he said as I sware in my wrath if they shall enter into my Rest although the works were finished from the Foundation of the world For he speaketh somewhere concerning the seventh day in this wise And God rested on the seventh day from all his works Having insisted at large on this place with the whole ensuing Discourse in our Exposition of the Chapter it self I shall here but briefly reflect upon it referring the Reader for its full Vindication unto its proper place The present Design is to convince the Hebrews of their concernment in the Promise of entring into the Rest of God namely that Promise and Rest which yet remained and were prophesied of Psal. 91. To this purpose he manifests that notwithstanding any other Rest of God that was mentioned in the Scripture there yet remained another Rest for them that did or would believe in Christ through the Gospel In the proof and confirmation hereof he takes into consideration the several Rests of God under the several States of the Church which were now passed and gone And first he fixeth upon the Sabbatical Rest of the seventh day as that which was the first in Order first instituted first enjoyed or observed And this he sayes ensued upon the finishing of the works of Creation This the order of the words and coherence of them require Although the works were finished from the foundation of the world for he speaketh concerning the seventh Day on this wise The works and the finishing of them did not at all belong to the Apostles Discourse or Purpose but only as they denoted the Beginning of the seventh days Sabbatical Rest. For it is the several Rests of God alone that he is enquiring after The first Rest mentioned saith he cannot be that intended in the Psalm because that Rest began from the foundation of the world but this mentioned by David is promised as he speaketh so long a time after And what was this Rest Was it meerly Gods ceasing from his own works This the Apostle had no concernment in For he treateth of no Rest of God absolutely but of such a Rest as men by Faith and Obedience might enter into Such as was that afterwards in the Land of Canaan and that also which he now proposed to them in the Promise of the Gospel both which God calleth his Rests and inviteth others unto an entrance into them Such therefore must be the Rest of God here intended for concerning his Rest absolutely or his mere Cessation from working he had no Reason to treat For his Design was only to shew that notwithstanding the other Rests that were proposed unto men for to obtain an Entrance into them there yet remained another Rest to be entred into and enjoyed under the Gospel Such a Rest therefore there was instituted and appointed of God from the Foundation of the world immediately upon the finishing of the works of Creation which sixeth immoveably the Beginning of the Sabbatical Rest. The full Vindication of this Testimony the Reader may find in the Exposition it self whither he is referred And I do suppose that no cause can be confirmed with more clear and undeniable Testimonies The Observation and Tradition of this Institution whereby it will be farther confirmed are next to be enquired after § 11 That this Divine Original Institution of the seventh Day Sabbath was piously observed by the Patriarchs who retained a due Remembrance of Divine Revelations is out of Controversie amongst all that acknowledge the Institution it self by others it is denyed that they may not be forced to acknowledge such an Institution And indeed it is so fallen out with the two great Ordinances of Divine Worship before the giving of the Law the one instituted before the Fall the other immediately upon it that they should have contrary Lots in this matter namely Sacrifices and the Sabbath Sacrifices we find constantly observed by Holy men of old although we read not of their Express Institution But from their Observation we do and may conclude that they were Instituted although that Institution be not expresly recorded The Sabbath we find expresly instituted and therefore do and may justly conclude that it was constantly observed although that Observation be not directly and in terms remembred But yet as there is such light into the Institution of Sacrifices as may enable us to justifie them by whom they were used that they acted therein according to the mind of God and in Obedience unto his Will as we have elsewhere demonstrated so there want not such Instances of the Observation of the Sabbath as may confirm the Original Divine Institution of it pleaded for This therefore I shall a little enquire into Many of the Jewish Masters as we observed before ascribe the Original of the Sabbath unto the Statute given them in Mara Exod. 15. And yet the same persons grant that it was observed by the Religious Patriarchs before especially by Abraham unto whom the knowledge of it was granted by peculiar Priviledge But these things are mutually destructive of each other For they have nothing to prove the Institution of the Sabbath in Mara but those words of v. 25. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there he gave him a Statute and a Judgement And it is said of Abraham that he taught his Houshold and Children after him to keep the way of the Lord to do Justice and Judgement Gen. 18. 19. If then the Observation of the Sabbath be a Statute or Ordinance and was made known to Abraham it is certain that he instructed his household and children all his Posterity in their Duty with respect thereunto And if so it could not be first revealed unto them at Mara Others therefore of their Masters do grant as we observed also the Original of the Sabbath from the Creation and do assert the Patriarchal Observation of it upon that Foundation The Instances I confess which they make use of are not absolutely cogent but yet considered with other circumstances wherewith they are strengthned they may be allowed to conclude unto an high probability Some of them are collected by Manasse Ben Israel Lib. de Creat Problem 8. saith he Dico quemadmodum traditio creationis Mundipenes Abrahamum ejus posteros tantum fuit it a etiam ex dictamine Legis naturalis Sabbatum ab iis solis cultum fuisse De Abrahamo dicit sacra Scriptura
place in the Promise of the Covenant that they should be written in our Hearts for if it should be so especial Grace would be yet administred for the Observation of those Laws now they are abolished which would not only be vain and useless but contradictory to the whole Design of the Grace bestowed upon us which is to be improved in a due and genuine Exercise of it Neither doth God bestow any Grace upon men but withal he requires the Exercise of it at their hands If then this Law was written in Tables of Stone together with the other Nine that we might pray and endeavour to have it written in our Hearts according to the Promise of the Covenant it is and must be of the nature of the rest that is Moral and everlastingly obligatory 3. As all the rest of the Moral Precepts it was reserved in the Ark whereas the Law of Ceremonial Ordinances was placed in a Book written by Moses on the side of the Ark separable from it or whence it might be removed The Ark on many accounts was called the Ark of the Covenant whereof God assisting I shall treat elsewhere One of them was that it contained in it nothing but that Moral Law which was the Rule of the Covenant And this was placed therein to manifest that it was to have its accomplishment in him who was the End of the Law Rom. 10. 3 4. For the Ark with the Propitiatory was a Type of Jesus Christ Rom. 3. 25. And the Reason of the different disposal of the Moral Law in the Ark and of the Ceremonial in a Book on the side of it was to manifest as the inseparableness of the Law from the Covenant so the establishing accomplishment and answering of the one Law in Christ with the Removal and abolishing of the other by him For the Law kept in the Ark the Type of him he was to fulfil it in Obedidience to answer its Curse and to restore it unto its proper use in the New Covenant not that which it had originally when it was it self the whole of the Covenant but that which the nature of it requires in the Moral Obedience of Rational Creatures whereof it is a compleat and adequate Rule when the other Law was utterly removed and taken away And if that had been the End whereunto the Law of the Sabbath had been designed had it been absolutely capable of Abolition in this world it had not been safeguarded in the Ark with the other Nine which are inseparable from mans Covenant Obedience unto God but had been left with other Ceremonial Ordinances at the side of the Ark in a Readiness to be removed when the appointed time should come 4. God himself separates this Command from them which were Ceremonial in their Principal Intention and whole subject matter when he calls the whole Systeme of Precepts in the Two Tables by the name of the Ten Words or Commandments Deut. 10. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Those ten Words which the Lord spake unto you in the Mount out of the midst of the fire in the Day of the Assembly No considering Person can read these words but he will find a most signal Emphasis in the several parts of them The Day of the Assembly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is that which the Jews so celebrate under the Name of the Station in Sinai the Day that was the foundation of their Church State when they solemnly covenanted with God about the Observation of the Law Deut. 5. 24 25 26 27. And the Lord himself spake these words that is in an immediate and especial manner which is still observed where any mention is made of them as Exod. 20. Deut. 5. 10. and saith Moses he spake them unto you that is immediately unto all the Assembly Deut. 5. 22. where it is added that he spake them out of the midst of the Fire of the Cloud and of the thick Darkness with a great Voice that every individual Person might hear it and he added no more He spake not one Word more gave not one Precept more immediately unto the whole people but the whole solemnity of Fire Thunder Lightning Earthquake and sound of Trumpet immediately ceased and disappeared whereon God entred his Treaty with Moses wherein he revealed unto him and instructed him in the Ceremonial and Judicial Law for the use of the people who had now taken upon themselves the Religious Observance of what he should so reveal and appoint Now as the whole Decalogue was hereby signalized and sufficiently distinguished from the other Laws and Institutions which were of another Nature so in particular this Precept concerning the Sabbath is distinguished from all those which were of the Mosaical Paedagogie in whose Declaration Moses was the Mediator between God and the people And this was only upon the Account of its Participation in the same Nature with the rest of the Commands however it may and do contain something in it that was peculiar to that people as shall be shewed afterwards 5. Whereas there is a frequent Opposition made in the Old Testament between Moral Obedience and the outward observance of Ordinances of a meer arbitrary Institution there is no mention made of the Weekly Sabbath in that case though all Ceremonial Institutions are in one place or other enumerated It is true Isa. 1. 13. the Sabbath is joyned with the New Moons and its Observation rejected in comparison of Holiness and Righteousness But as this is expounded in the next Verse to be intended principally of the appointed annual Feasts or Sabbaths so we do grant that the Sabbath as relating unto Temple Worship there intended and described had that accompanying it which was peculiar to the Jews and Ceremonial as we shall shew hereafter But absolutely the Observation of the Sabbath is not opposed unto nor rejected in comparison of other or any Moral Duties 6. The Observation of the Sabbath is pressed on the Church on the same Grounds and with the same Promises as the greatest and most indispensible Moral Duties and together with them opposed unto those Fasts which belonged unto Ceremonial Institutions To this purpose is the Nature and Use of it at large discoursed Isa. 58. v. 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14. § 46 Now it is assuredly worth our Enquiry what are the just Reasons of the Preference of the Sabbath above all Positive Institutions both by the place given unto it in the Decalogue as also on the account of the other especial Instances insisted on Suppose the Command of it to be Ceremonial and one of these two Reasons or both of them must be alledged as the cause hereof For this Exaltation of it must arise either from the Excelency of it in it self and service or the Excellency of its signification or from both of them jointly But these things cannot be pleaded or made use of unto the purpose intended For the service of it as it was observed among the Jews it
absolutely changed or abolished but a afresh represented unto the people only with a relief provided for the Covenanters against its Curse and Severity with a direction how to use it to another End than was first given unto it it follows that the Day of the Sabbatical Rest could not be changed And therefore was the Observation of the seventh Day precisely continued because it was a Moral Pledge of the Rest of God in the first Covenant For this the instructive part of the Law of our Creation from Gods making the world in six dayes and resting on the seventh did require The Observation of this day therefore was still continued among the Israelites because the first Covenant was again represented unto them But when that Covenant was absolutely and in all Respects as a Covenant taken away and disannulled and that not only as to its formal Efficacy but also as to the manner of the Administration of Gods Covenant with men as it is under the Gospel there was a necessity that the Day of Rest should also be changed as I have more fully shewed elsewhere I say then that the precise Observation of the seventh Day enjoyned unto the Israelites had respect unto the Covenant of Works wherein the foundation of it was laid as hath been demonstrated And the whole Controversie about what day is to be observed now as a Day of holy Rest unto the Lord is resolved fully into this enquiry namely what Covenant we do walk before God in § 6 And that we may understand the whole Nature of the Judaical Sabbath it must moreover be considered that the Law in general and all the Precepts of it was the Instrument of the Politie of the people under the Government of God as we before observed For all the Judgements relating unto Civil things were but an Application of the Moral Law to their State and Condition Hence was the sanction of the transgressions of it to be punished with Death So was it in particular with respect unto the Sabbath Numb 15. 35 partly that it might represent unto them the Original Sanction of the whole Law as a Covenant of Works and partly to keep that stubborn people by this severity within due bounds of Government Nor was any thing punished by Death Judicially in the Law but the transgression of some Moral Command 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Hand of Heaven is threatned against their Presumptuous Transgressions of the Ceremonial Law where no Sacrifice was allowed I the Lord will set my Face against that man and cut him off This also made the Sabbath a yoke and a burden that wherein their Consciences could never find perfect Rest. And in this sense also it is abolished and taken away Again it was made a part of their Law for Religious Worship in their Typical Church State in which and whereby the whole Dispensation of the Covenant which they were under was directed unto other Ends. And so it had the Nature of a shadow representing the good things to come whereby the people were to be relieved from the Rigor and Curse of the whole Law as a Covenant And on these Reasons new Commands were given for the Observation of the Sabbath new Motives Ends and Uses were added thereunto every way to accommodate it to the Dispensation of the Covenant then in force which was afterwards to be removed and taken away and therewithall the Sabbath it self so far as it had Relation thereunto For the continuation of the seventh Day precisely belonged unto the new Representation that was made of the Covenant of Works The Representation of that Covenant with the sanction given unto it amongst the Judgements of Righteousness in the Government of the people in the Land of Canaan which was the Lords and not theirs made it a yoke and burden and the use it was put unto amongst Ceremonial Observances made it a shadow in all which respects it is abolished by Christ. To say that the Sabbath as given unto the Jews is not abolished is to introduce the whole Systeme of Mosaical Ordinances which stand on the same bottom with it And particularly the Observation of the seventh Day precisely lyeth as it were in the Heart of that Oeconomy And these things will the more clearly appear if we consider the dealing of God with that people about the Sabbath from first to last § 7 The Jews some of them at least as was before discoursed would have not only the first Revelation of the Sabbath unto them or the Renovation of its Command but its first Institution absolutely to have been in their station at Mara Exod. 15. The vanity of this pretence we have before sufficiently discovered And whereas this was the Opinion of the Talmudical Masters of the Middle Ages since Christ they seem to have embraced it on the same Account whereon they have invented many other Fancies For observing that a Sabbath was in esteem amongst the Christians in Opposition unto them they began to contend that the Sabbath was as they called it the Bride of the Synagogue and belonged to themselves alone being given secretly to them only The vanity of this pretence we have before laid open and so shall not again insist upon it § 8 The first peculiar dealing of God with them about the Sabbath was evidently in their first Station at Alush Exod. 16. The occasion of the whole is laid down v. 4 5. Then said the Lord unto Moses Behold I will rain Bread from Heaven for you and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day that I may prove them whether they will walk in my Laws or no And it shall come to pass that in the sixth day they shall prepare that which they bring in and it shall be twice as much as they gather dayly Here is no mention of the Sabbath nor any Reason given why they should gather a double portion on the sixth Day This Command therefore must needs have seemed somewhat strange unto them if they had before no notion at all of a seventh Dayes Sacred Rest. They must else otherwise have been at a great loss in themselves why they must double their measure on the sixth Day However it is apparent that either they had lost the true Day they were to observe through that long Bondage in Aegypt or knew not what belonged to the due Observation and Sanctification of it For when the people had observed this Command and gathered a double portion of Manna to keep one part of it for the next day although they had Experience that if at another season it were kept above one Day it would putrifie and stink v. 20. The Rulers of the Congregation fearing some mistake in the matter go and acquaint Moses with what was done amongst them v. 22. Hereon Moses replyeth unto them v. 23. This is that which the Lord hath said to morrow is the Rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord bake that which you will bake This
the nature of the several Rests here discoursed of by the Apostle which will give light and confirmation unto what we have before discoursed To this purpose will the ensuing Propositions taken from the words conduce As 1. The Rest of God is the foundation and principal cause of our Rest. Hence in general it is still called Gods Rest if they shall enter into my Rest It is on some account or other Gods Rest before it is ours not the Rest only which he hath appointed commanded and promised unto us but the Rest wherewith himself rested as is plainly declared on every head of the Rests here treated of And this confirms that foundation and reason of a Sabbatical Rest which we have laid down in our third Exercitation Gods Rest is not spoken of absolutely with respect unto himself only but with reference unto an appointed Rest that ensued thereon for the Church to rest with him in Hence it follows that the Rests here mentioned are as it were double namely the Rest of God himself and the Rest that ensued thereon for us to enter into For instance at the finishing of the works of Creation which is first proposed God ceased from his works and rested This was his own Rest the nature whereof hath been before declared He rested on the seventh day But this was not all he blessed it for the Rest of man a Rest for us ensuing on his Rest an expressive representation of it and a pledge of our entring into or being taken into a participation of the Rest of God 3. The Apostle proposeth the three-fold state of the Church unto consideration 1 The state of it under the Law of Nature or Creation 2 The state of it under the Law of Institutions and carnal Ordinances 3 That then introducing under the Gospel Accordingly have we distinguished our Discourses concerning a Sabbatical Rest in our third and fourth and this present Exercitation To each of these he assigns a distinct Rest of God a Rest of the Church entring into Gods Rest and a Day of Rest as the means and pledge thereof And withall he manifests that the two former were ordered to be previous Representations of the latter though not equally nor on the same account First He considers the Church and the state of it under the Law of nature before the entrance of sin and herein he shews first that there was a Rest of God in it for saith he the works were finished from the foundation of the world and God did rest from all his works verse 3 4. As the foundation of all he layeth down first the works of God For the Church and every peculiar state of the Church is founded in the work some especial work of God and not meerly in a Law or Command The works saith he were finished from the foundation of the world 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the works 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the work that is of God the effect of his creating power was finished or compleated 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the foundation of the world a Periphrasis of the six original Dayes wherein time and all things measured by it and existent with it had their beginning This work of God as hath been proved Exercit. 3. was the foundation of the Church in the state of Nature and gave unto it the entire Law of its obedience On this work and the compleating of it ensued the Rest of God himself verse 4. God rested the seventh day from all his works This Rest of God and his Refreshment he took in his works as comprizing the Law and Covenant of our obedience have been explained already But this alone doth not confirm nor indeed come near the purpose or Argument of the Apostle For he is to speak of such a Rest of God as men might enter into as was a foundation of Rest unto them or otherwise his Discourse was not concerned in it whereupon by â—â—citation of the words of Moses from Gen. 2. 2. he tells us that this Rest of God was on the seventh day which God accordingly blessed and sanâ—tified to be a Day of Rest unto man So that in this state of the Church there were three things considerable 1 The Rest of God himself on his works wherein the foundation of the Church was laid 2 A Rest proposed unto man to enter into with God wherein lay the Duty of the Church And 3 a Day of Rest the seventh day as a remembrance of the one and a means and pledge of the other And herewith we principally confirm our judgement in the Sabbaths beginning with the World For without this supposition the mentioning of Gods work and his Rest no way belonged to the purpose of our Apostle For he discourseth only of such Rests as men might enter into and have a pledge of And there was no such thing from the foundation of the world unless the Sabbath were then revealed Nor is it absolutely the Work and Rest of God but the Obedience of men and their duty with respect unto them which he considers And this could not be unless the Rest of God was proposed unto men to enter into from the foundation of the world § 17 Secondly the Apostle considers the Church under the Law of Institutions and herein he representeth the Rest of the Land of Canaan wherein also the three distinct Rests before-mentioned do occurre 1. There was in it a Rest of God This gives denomination to the whole He still calls it his Rest if they shall enter into my Rest. And the prayer about it was Arise O Lord into thy Rest thou and the Ark of thy strength or the pledge of his presence and Rest. And this Rest also ensued upon his work for God wrought about it works great and mighty and ceased from them when they were finished And this work of his answered in its greatness unto the work of Creation whereunto it is compared by himself Isa. 51. 15 16. I am the Lord thy God that divided the Sea whose waves roared the Lord of Hosts is his Name and have put my words in thy mouth and have covered thee in the shadow of my hand that I may plant the Heavens and lay the foundation of the Earth and say unto Zion thou art my people The dividing of the Sea whose waves roared is put by a Synecdoche for the whole work of God preparing a way for the Church-state of that people in the Land of Canaan And this he compares to the work of Creation in planting the Heavens and laying the foundation of the Earth For although those words are but a Metaphorical expression of the Political and Church-state of that people yet there is an evident Allusion in them unto the original Creation of all things This was the work of God upon the finishing whereof he entred into his Rest in the satisfaction and complacency that he had therein For after the Erection of his Worship in the Land of Canaan he sayes of
Directions for the manner of the observance of such a Day are to no purpose And many by degrees have declined from that strictness which they could not come up unto a delight in untill they have utterly lost all sense of duty towards God in this matter And these things are true only the Reasons of them are not agreed on § 4 And in things of this nature those who are called to the instruction of others are carefully to avoid Extreams For he that condemns the righteous and he that justifieth the wicked are both of them an abomination to the Lord. And several Instances there are of the miscarriages of men on the one hand and the other On the one lay the sin of the Pharisees of old When they had gotten the pretence of a command they would burden it with so many rigid observances in the manner of its performance as should make it a yoke intolerable to their Disciples getting themselves the reputation of strict observers of the Law But in truth they were not so wanting unto their own ease and interest as not to provide a secret dispensation for themselves They would scarce put a finger to the burdens which they bound and laid on the shoulders of others And this is the condition of all almost that hath an appearance of Religion or Devotion in the Papacy And a fault of the same nature though not of so signal a provocation others may fall into unadvisedly who are free from their hypocrisie They may charge and press both their own consciences and other mens above and beyond what God hath appointed And this they may do with a sincere intention to promote Religion and Holiness amongst men by engaging them into the strictest wayes of the profession of it Now in the Directions of the consciences of men about their duties to God this is carefully to be avoided For Peace is only to be obtained in keeping steady and even to the Rule To transgress on the right hand whatever the pretencebe is to lye for God which will not be accepted with him § 5 On the other hand there lyeth a rock of far greater danger And this consists in the accommodation of the Laws Precepts and Institutions of God unto the lusts with the present courses and practices of men This evil we have had exemplified in some of late no less conspicuously than the fore-mentioned was in them of old A mystery of iniquity unto this purpose hath been discovered not long since and brought forth to light tending to the utter debanchery of the consciences and lives of men And in it lyes the great contrivance whereby the famous sect of the Jesuits have prevailed on the minds of many especially of Potentates and great men in the earth so as to get into their hands the conduct of the most important affairs of Europe And this abomination as it is known hath lately been laid open by the diligence of some in whom at once concurred a commendable care of Christian Morality and an high provocation in other things by them who endeavoured to corrupt it A search hath been made into the Writings which that sort of men have published for the Direction of the consciences of men in the practice of moral duties or unto their Disciples for their guidance upon confessions And a man may say of the discovery what the Poet said upon the opening of the House of Cacus Panditur extemplo foribus domus atra revulsis Abstructaeque boves abjurataeque rapinae Caelo ostenduntur Non secus ac si qua penitus viterra dehiscens Infernas reseret sedes regna recludet Pallida Such a loathsome appearance of vizards and pretences for the extenuating of sin and countenancing of men in the practice of it was never before represented unto the eyes of men The main of their design as is now manifest hath been so to interpret Scripture-Laws Rules and Precepts as to accommodate them all to that course of corrupt conversation which prevaileth generally in the world even among them who are called Christians Gratum opus Agricolis A Work exceeding acceptable and obliging to all sorts of men who if not given up to open Atheisme would rejoyce in nothing more than in a reconciliation between the Rule of their consciences and their lusts that they might sin freely without trouble or remorse To this end having learned the inclinations and temptations of men from their private confessions and â—nding it a thing neither possible in it self nor at all conducing to their own interest to endeavour their Reformation by and recovery unto the fixed stable Rule of Truth and Duty they have by their false glosses subtle distinctions and resined imaginations made it to justifie and countenance them in the highest abominations and in wayes leading constantly to the practice of them And there is nothing in their whole course which faithfull interpreters of the mind of God ought more carefully to avoid than a falling in any instances into that evil which these men have made it their design to promote and pursue The World indeed seems to be weary of the just righteous holy wayes of God and of that exactness in walking according to his institutions and commands which it will be one day known that he doth require But the way to put a stop to this declension is not by accommodating the commands of God to the corrupt courses and wayes of men The Truths of God and the Holiness of his Precepts must be pleaded and defended though the World dislike them here and perish hereafter His Law must not be made to lacquey after the wills of men nor be dissolved by vain interpretations because they complain they cannot indeed because they will not comply with it Our Lord Jesus Christ came not to destroy the Law and the Prophets but to fulfill them and to supply men with spiritual strength to fulfill them also It is evil to break the least Commandement but there is a great aggravation of that evil in them that shall teach men so to do And this cannot be done but by giving such Expositions of them as by virtue whereof men may think themselves freed from an obligation unto that obedience which indeed they do require Wherefore though some should say now as they did of old concerning any command of God Behold what a weariness it is and what profit is it to keep his Ordinances yet the Law of God is not to be changed to give them relief We are therefore in this matter to have no consideration of the present course of the world nor of the weariness of professors in the wayes of strict obedience The sacred Truth and Will of God in all his commands is singly and sincerely to be enquired after § 6 And yet I will not deny but that there have been and are mistakes in this matter leaning towards the other extream Directions have been given and that not by a few for the observation of a Day of
there can be no tolerable Reason assigned why he should mention the works of God from the foundation of the World with his Rest that ensued thereon and referr us to the seventh Day which without respect unto another Day to be introduced doth greatly involve his whole Discourse Again his use of this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Sabbatism which is framed and as it were coyned on purpose that it might both comprise the Spiritual Rest aimed at and also a Sabbath-keeping or Observation of a Sabbath Rest manifests his purpose When he speaks of our Rest in general he still doth it by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 adding that there was an especial Day for its enjoyment Here he introduceth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Sabbatism which his way of arguing would not have allowed had he not designed to express the Christian Sabbath Adde hereunto that he subjoynes the especial Reason of such a Days observation in the next Verse as we have declared And here do we fix the Foundation and Reason of the Lords-Day or the Holy observation of the first Day of the Week the Obligation of the fourth Commandment unto a weekly Sacred Rest being put off from the seventh Day to the first on the same Grounds and Reasons whereon the state of the Church is altered from what it was under the Law unto what it is now under the Gospel And the Covenant it self also is changed whence the seventh Day is now of no more force than the old Covenant and the old Law of Institutions contained in Ordinances because the Lord Christ hath ceased from his works and entred into his Rest on the first Day § 26 Here we have fixed the foundation of the observation of the Lords-Day on the supposition of what hath been proved concerning our Duty in the Holy observance of one Day in seven from the Law of our Creation as renewed in the Decalogue The remaining Arguments evincing the change of the Day from the seventh unto the first by Divine Authority shall be but briefly touched on by me because they have been lately copiously handled and fully vindicated by others Wherefore 1 when the Lord Christ intended conspicuously to build his Church upon the foundation of his Works and Rest by sending the Holy Ghost with his miraculous Gifts upon the Apostles he did it on this Day which was then among the Jews the Feast of Pentecost or of Weeks Then were the Disciples gathered together with one accord in the observance of the Day signalized to them by his Resurrection Acts 2. 1. And by this doth their obedience receive a blessed confirmation as well as their persons a glorious endowment with abilities for the work which they were immediately to apply themselves unto And hereon did they set out unto the whole work of building the Church on that foundation and promoting the worship of it which on that Day was especially to be celebrated § 27 The Practice of the Apostles and the Apostolical Churches owned the Authority of Christ in this change of the Day of sacred Rest. For hence forward whatever apprehensions any of them might have of the continuance of the Judaical Sabbath as some of them judged that the whole service of it was still to be continued yet they observed this Day of the Lord as the time of their Assemblies and solemn worship One or two instances hereof may be called over Acts 20. 6 7. 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 to break bread Paul preached unto them ready to depart on the morrow and continued his speech untill midnight I doubt not but in the seven dayes that the Apostle abode there he taught and preached as he had occasion in the houses of the Believers but it was the first Day of the Week when they used according to their duty to assemble the whole body of them for the celebration of the solemn Ordinances of the Church synecdochically expressed by breaking of Bread This they did without any extraordinary warning or calling together for in answer to their duty they were accustomed so to do Such is the account that Justin Martyr gives of the practice of all Churches in the next Age 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 On the Day called Sunday there is an assembly of all Christians whether living in City or the Countrey and because of their constant breaking of bread on this day it was called Dies Panis August Epist 118. And Athanasius proved that he brake not a Chalice at such a time because it was not the first Day of the Week when it was to be used Socrat. lib. 5. cap. 22 And whosoever reads this passage without prejudice will grant that it is a marvellous abrupt and uncouth expression if it do not signifie that which was in common observance amongst all the Disciples of Christ which could have no other foundation but only that before laid down of the Authority of the Lord Christ requiring it of them And I doubt not but that Paul preached his farewel Sermon unto them which continued untill midnight after all the ordinary service of the Church was performed And all the Objections which I have met withall against this instance amount to no more but this that although the Scripture sayes that the Disciples met for their worship on the first Day of the Week yet indeed they did not so do 1 Cor. 16. 2. the same practice is exemplified Upon 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 The constant Day of the Churches solemn Assemblies being fixed he here takes it for granted and directs them unto the observance of an especial duty on that Day What some except that here is no mention of any such Assembly but only that every one on that Day should lay by himself what he would give which every one might do at home or where they pleased is exceeding weak and unsuitable unto the mind of the Apostle For to what end should they be limited unto a Day and that the first Day of the Week for the doing of that which might be as well to as good purpose and advantage performed at any other time on any other Day of the Week whatever Besides it was to be such a laying aside such a treasuring of it in a common stock as that there should be no need of any Collection when the Apostle came But if this was done only privately it would not of its self come together at his Advent but must be collected But all exceptions against these Testimonies have been so lately removed by others that I shall not insist farther on them § 28 That from these Times downwards the first Day of the Week had a solemn observation in all the Churches of Christ whereby they owned its substitution in the room of the seventh Day