Hebraick Critick Dr. Lightfoot informs us Yet here our Lord expresly commands the Healed Person to take up his Bed and walk that is to carry it either to his own House or to some other convenient place for so he did in obedience to this Command v. 10. Whereat the Jews were very highly offended and condemned it as an unlawful Act and sought to persecute and kill Christ for enjoyning of it v. 16. Now we would enquire to what end our Lord Christ did enjoyn this Person to carry such a Burden on the Sabbath If it be said it was to try his Faith and Obedience or clearly to evince the Perfection of his miraculous Cure or both of these 'T is replied that these things could be as well done without the carriage of his Bed He might have gone every where and proclaimed his Cure and his Restorer he might have done it by leaping dancing and praising God as the Cripple in Acts 3. Wherefore 't is probably apprehended by learned Men that it was a practical Proof of his being Supream Lord of the Sabbath and of his Authority to change the old day into another of his own appointment and this was a real blow begun to be given to it Besides all that was said against these his Arguments for the Seventh day to be the Lords day meant in the Revelation 'T is observable that the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is used but once more in the New Testament and that is 1 Cor. 11.20 where the Sacrament of our Saviours Body and Blood is called the Lords Supper in which it is clear it signifies both his Authoritative Institution thereof and that his own Death is signified thereby The Lord is both the Institutor thereof and his Death the thing commemorated thereby And therefore Reason and comparing Scripture with Scripture would require that it should be so understood here also even as a day of his own Institution as the Son of Man For so he appeared to John to be in the Vision And so St. John calls him Rev. 1.13 and so a day for his own Commemoration even of his Resurrection viz. the First day of the Week which none deny to be that day And 't was on that day whereon the Author of the Revelations saw the Lord Jesus walking in the midst of the Golden Candlesticks with the Seven Stars in his Right Hand that is with his Orthodox and Zealous Ministers receiving their Light and Heat from him the Sun of Righteousness And then diffusing it abroad in the Churches or in the midst of the Congregations which we know the Orthodox Fathers throughout all Ages of the Church have principally done upon the First day of the Week the day of the Resurrection And so the future Practice of the Church proves the Lords day to be the First day of the Week Again St. John calls this the Lords day after his Resurrection and our Saviour tells him Verse 18. I am he that liveth and was dead and behold I live forevermore Implying that as after his Incarnation Obedience Death Resurrection Ascension Session on the Right Hand of God and Mission of the Holy Ghost all the former carnal and ceremonial Administrations vanished and a new Government new external Modes of Worship were introduced which were properly the Lords and bear the Stamp of his Authority as Mediator as God-Man over the Church and all her Ordinances So this was also the Day of his own Institution after his Humiliation and Exaltation for the Celebration of his new Institutions the other being excluded with the former Appendixes thereto What follows under this Head being what has been spoken to before and is frequently inculcated as of great Moment for him as the Moral Law as the now changing of the Sabbath meer Pretences of the other party c. as being but a little better than the begging the Question and taking that for granted which we utterly deny These I tacitly pass by and leave the Judicious Reader to judge if after all has been said it be not far more probable that the Lords day spoken of in the Revelations is the First day of the Week as all Schollars and Churches almost have hitherto believed than the Seventh day thereof which a very few scarce deserving the Title of Number have pitched upon as a Prop to their tottering Seventh-day-Sabbath SECT XV. THere are other Texts which he produces Page 69.70 as Rom. 14.5 6. Gal. 4.9 10 11. Col. 2.16 17. from whence we hold and contend the Seventh day to be everlastingly excluded from the Christian future Sabbath the chief being the Two latter of these We say in Gal. by Days are meant the Jewish Seventh day because the Apostle mentions their Months that is their Observance of the New-Moon Festivals Times Which some apply to Easter Pentecost Feast of Tabernacles c. and Years which some think is meant of the yearly Feast of Atonement and Expiation Or it may be understood of the year of Jubilee if not the Great Jubilee every Fiftieth year yet the less of every Seventh year which St. Paul probably observed them very Superstitious in But whatever the Difference may be in the particular Applications of these Terms yet they generally hold the more rare or seldom Jewish Festivals to be meant and by Days then what other Festival of the Jews can be understood but the Seventh day If he do not mean their Weekly Sabbath by Days it cannot well be conceived what it should be We doubt not but by the latter Three Expressions Months Times and Years are meant Jewish Festivals And why Days should not signify the same cannot well be imagined Besides we find that these Galatians were greatly infected with the false Leven of Judaical Doctors who taught them to observe Circumcision c. as is seen clearly by the Epistle and seems to be the chief occasion of Writing it to turn them from and sortify them against such false Doctrins and dangerous Observances And therefore hence we conclude St. Paul condemns the Galatian Church for keeping the Seventh-day-Sabbath as well as other Judaical Rites and Festivals and tells them he is afraid he had bestowed his labour in vain upon them In that Text to the Colossians we have the Observance of Sabbaths expresly spken of and thereby St. Paul discarded from their Observance as Shadows which were to vanish when Christ the Body was come By which we contend is meant the Weekly-Sabbath because that in the Scripture is Chiefly Mostly if not Solitarily the Acceptation thereof And we have heard him again and again asserting that 't is the Intent of this Word every where And I believe so whenever it stands absolutely as here without some Annexion or other to alter its Signification And what Reason can be given why here it should not so be understood that only here and no place else in the Bible it should not be taken for the Weekly-Seventh-day Moreover here the Apostle seems plainly to intend
him to all Mankind without distinction and that before the Sin and Fall of Adam And hence concludes that 't is a Moral Law incumbent upon Adam and all his Posterity which is a Conclusion either from rotten Premises or from such as will never logically infer the Conclusion Which we shall shew as briefly as we can and what is spoken here may lessen some of our Work hereafter 1. Hereby is implyed that this Command of the Seventh-day-Sabbath was given to Man in the State of Innocency which he can never prove For though the Institution thereof be inserted in the beginning of the 2. of Genesis yet 't is clear the Scripture doth not always keep a Chronical Order We must not expect in our Bible a constant Prius and Posterius as they say but the sacred History admits of many hysterons proterons of many Misplacings with respect to the order of time relating those thigns before which were done after and Vice Versa And 't is most clear that 't is so in this very place For here the Sabbath is recorded before the Plantation of Paradice v. 8. which was not spoken of before yet was Paradice part of the Works of the Creation and consequently created before the Seventh day though spoken of afterward which proves that the order of the relation of the Sabbath is no infallible proof that it was instituted before the Fall but might be after it though antecedently mentioned And Mr. Warren brings many probable Arguments to prove that Adam fell before the Sabbath-day and consequently before the giving or declaring of that Precept because therein God's resting on the Seventh-day is proposed as an Example and Motive to his keeping of it which could not be done before the Seventh-day came And so the Command must be given after the Fall Which Arguments of his ought to have been fairly debated their Moment considered and a due Answer and Solution given to them before this had been so peremptorily asserted But 2ly This seems to imply that whatever Injunction God gave to Adam before the Fall was of things that are purely Moral or so in themselves or else it can never regularly be drawn from this Medium that therefore the Seventh-day-Sabbath was so But this we know was not so for God prohibited him to eat of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil which was purely positive and a Duty only resulting from the Will of the Legislator Again if we should take it for granted that the Institution and Injunction of the Seventh-day was antecedent to the Fall yet this would rather prove the Negative than the Affirmative of its pure Morality For whatever was purely Moral and a Duty of its self resulting from the Nature Qualifications and Obligations of the rational Creature Adam in the perfect Knowledge of that Nature must know and discern in and of himself and consequently would have known the Seventh-day to be so And if he knew it there needed no Institution thereof by God at all Besides 't is very observable that from the Creation of our first Parents till their Fall we do not read of one Moral Duty enjoyned them either of the First or Second Table unless this be supposed to be so and what reason can be given for it but this that it needed not because they were all fully and distinctly implanted in Mans Soul If therefore the Seventh-day-Sabbath had been so Moral 't would not have needed a singular Institution much less such Arguments to inforce its Observance upon perfectly wise and holy Adam From whence in my Apprehension a good Argument may be drawn against its Morality 3. It implies that all the Commands that were given to Adam in Innocency are authoritatively incumbent upon all his Posterity The contrary whereto is clear in the prohibition of the Tree in the midst of the Garden for that ceased both to himself and all his Posterity upon his Fall By all which we see the weak reasonings of this Author In the following Paragraph he tells us that all those things were recorded for the Glory of the Lord Jesus Christ where as none of them do at all concern Jesus Christ For all those things in the foregoing Paragraph by his own Doctrin and according to his own Sentiments were effected and agitated before the Fall of Man In which time there could not be so much as any need or use of a Jesus or a Christ Nor was there so much as the least Hint of him given by either Prophesie or Promise much less was he himself in being And consequently none of these things could conduce to his glory for there can nothing appertain to that which is not And thus these supposed unmoveable Foundations of this Tenent are found not to be so much as Sandy For they are found to be nothing at all as he would have them refer to our Lord Christ We acknowledge therefore that all these Particulars which he named are for the Glory of Jehovah and that the Observance of the Seventh-day-Sabbath home to the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ from the Dead was to his Praise as Creator and Legislator But withal we hope to prove that the Change of it and dedicating another day of the Week to our Lord Jesus Christ the same Jehovah and spotless Son of the Virgin does highly conduce to his Honour as Lord and Glorious Redeemer as Conqueror of Hell and Death as Accomplisher of that Great and Glorious Work of our merited Salvation A Work unconceivably more glorious in it self and insinitely more advantageous to us and really laborious and grievous to himself and as he entred into his real Rest on that day even the first day out of the Depths of his Humilitation Here in the next Paragraph he quotes Mat. 12.8 The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath with that Gloss or Interpretation which he puts upon it which I doubt not is very false and has been already proved to be so But because he refers it to another Place we shall attend him there and then endeavour to give its true meaning About the Fourhth Question Page 23. I shall not contend for I verily believe the antient Patriarchs did Observe and Sanctify the Seventh-day SECT IV. THE fifth Question Whether the Ten Commands were given by Christ to Jews and Gentiles Page 24. He thinks he hath proved the Legislation of Christ from the Beginning But how this is to be understood and wherein he has taken false Measures has been before shewn Whether he gave them to Jews and Gentiles that is to all Mankind he takes this for granted also Which we also assert even that all the Moral Law was given to the Humane Nature and so to all Mankind in Adam But withall that the Seventh-day-Sabbath was no part of the Moral Law no nor yet a seventh part of time to be Consecrated and Sanctified to Divine Worship I mean not Primarily and in it self Moral which I should endeavour here to prove if I
in this Conjecture And according to his Conjecture and the usual Phrase of Scripture our Saviour would have continued Forty Two days upon Earth For the Scripture in the number of Days does usually include both the First and Last day As in calling the last day of the Week the Seventh it takes into the Number both it and the First day of the Week for there are but Seven in all And so when it saith that our Saviour rose the Third day from the Dead it includes the First and Last days of the Three and therefore having the scriptural usual Phrase on our side and the Tradition of the Churches we have very good Ground to conclude that he ascended upon Thursday and he has no Ground but his own Conjecture for his Opinion of his Ascension upon Saturday But every little Surmise is made use of to exalt the Seventh above all the days of the Week and especially above the Lords day in this Controversie As to that Fancy of our Saviours coming to Judgment on the Seventh day I leave it as a Pure Fancy Here also he takes it for granted that our Saviour after his Resurrection appeared to his Disciples upon the Seventh day or at least he supposes it may well be granted because they were then assembled c. But he knows they met together on other days and particularly upon the First day on which our Lord appeared unto them And that Assembly in the First of the Acts if 't were on the Ascension day was according to Scripture numbering of days upon our Thursday But seeing he would make use of if we would grant our Lords appearing to his Disciples once on the Seventh day what an Advantage may we justly take for the First day from our Saviour's appearing so often unto them on the same so that there is no other day of the Week named whereon our Saviour manifested himself unto them after the Resurrection but this First day 'T is not said that he appeared unto them on the Second or Third nor at all on the Seventh and 't is very probable that all the Appearances of our Saviour which were not a few were on the First day Except only that on his Ascension day 'T is worth our serious Observance that as our Saviour would not grace the Seventh day with one particular express word of his Mouth about it during his Life-time so he would not honour it with one Appearance of his Human Nature to his Disciples throughout all the Forty days after his Resurrection Which to me seems plainly to signify that he would have a perpetual Silence thereof in his future Churches and that he had buried it in his Grave and would have it lye dormant there for ever SECT XI HAving done with this Conjecture we proceed to the Author's Question in the same Page Whether the Seventh-day-Sabbath was observed after the Resurrection and Ascension of Christ Whereof he thinks he demonstrates the Affirmative But is far enough from it by those Instances which he brings from the Apostles and especially and mostly from St. Paul yea only from him For though we take it for granted that many of the newly Proselyted Jews to the Doctrin and Faith of the Lord Jesus the ordinary and common sort of them did continue to observe the Seventh-day-Sabbath out of an Erroneous Conscience toward God and a Persuasion of the perpetual Obligation of the Fourth Command as to this Seventh day as they did also Circumcision the Passover and other Mosaical Rites and Consecrated Times for all which St. Paul in his Epistles to the Galatians and Colossians does clearly and severely reprove them Yet we say that the Apostles themselves never did so much less St. Paul the great Doctor of the Gentiles and the great Vindicator of their Freedom from the Rites and Days of the Old Testament-Administration For they were otherwise and better taught by their Lord and instructed by the Holy Ghost for they went indeed I mean Paul and his Companions into the Synagogues on the Sabbath-day I mean here the Seventh-day though it deserves not now that Name But 't was not in any Observance of that day as more Holy than another as 't was not in any Observance or Deference to the Synagogue as a more Holy Place than another that he went into it But 't was because that then and there the Jews were assembled in great Numbers because that was the time and that the place of their Solemn and Numerous Associations for their Divine Worship And he could not find so fit an Opportunity any other day nor so convenient a Room in any other place to Converse with them to Preach the Gospel to them to prove the Lord Jesus to be Gods promised and their expected Messiah to Convince them hereof and to Exhort them to Believe on him and Embrace him as such which his Zeal for Christs Glory and his Love to their Souls strongly constrained him to And this we assert was the only cause of his so often and so unusal going into their Synagogue on the Seventh day without any Difference as to Time and Place as if it were more holy than any other We know how ardently he longed after the Conversion and Salvation of his own Countrymen and Kinsfolk according to the Flesh how fervently he panted after our Lord Christs being acknowledged by them as that which would be their greatest Good and his greatest Glory in the World For so his Enemies would become his Friends his Basphemers of him as the worst of Deceivers would be turned to be his Praisers Adorers and Relyers on him as the Son of God the King of Israel and Saviour of the World And therefore this constrained him to apply himself to them in every Place and at every Time where he might discourse with most of them and with greatest Freedom and Advantage And if the Jews had convened on other Days in other Places in as great Crowds he could doubtless then and there have applyed himself unto them And had they accustomed their Assemblies at any other time or in any other place he would have made it his Custom and usual Manner to have associated with them The Reason that the Holy Ghost gives us of Paul's going into the Jews Synagogues on the Seventh day and making it his usual Custom is no where said as I remember that he might Worship with them much less that he might observe the day with them but only that he might Preach the Gospel to them and prove the Lord Christ to be their Messiah Wherefore seeing the Holy Ghost tells us every where that this was his great Design and this his great Work in their Synagogue Therefore it hence follows That if he could not have had such Advantages for this Work among them he would never then nor there have accompanied with them So far was he from any Respect either to Time or Place in this his Custom that he only made use of them in a
rested in his works So that 't is clear from hence that 't is not a Pretence to honour the Lord Christ that is pleaded for the first day but 't is really an Honour a great Honour to the Redeemer that it should be dedicated to a holy Commemoration of his Rest That the First-day-Sabbath hath the same Argument and Motive in this particular that the Seventh hath even God's Resting from his work and herein a stronger as far as the Glory and Profit of Redemption excels that of Creation I have been somewhat long here and the Subject is very Glorious Delightful and Profitable and the Argument with others weighty and convincing and ought not to be slightly passed over how little soever is said against it the Author seeming to fancy he could blow it out of door with a puff SECT XIII HE proposes Page 49. our Argument from our Saviour's appearing to his Disciples on the first day of the Week for its being the day of Christian and solemn Worship from John 20. to 26. To which he answers all this amounts not to an Institution but with other Arguments it bids fairly for it and shews the Honour our Saviour put upon this day beyond all others As to his other 't is replied that 't is probable that first day spoken of in v. 19. here may be the same with that spoken of Luke 24.13 c. and 't is probable 't is not so for our Lord appeared to his Disciples on several Lord-days But fairly to grant what he cannot get Suppose it were so could the two Disciples travelling to Emaus and our Saviour's coming to them walking and conversing with them any way disparage this day or weaken this Argument Not at all For 1. These Disciples were yet Unbelievers of Christ's Resurrection and so could have no thoughts of keeping a First-day-Sabbath to the Commemoration thereof 2. Their Journey to Emaus might be but a Sabbath-days Journey It might be for religious Ends and we know many among us do go and ride or have gone or rid several Miles to hear Sermons and receive Sacraments and yet not be adjudged as Profaners of the Lords day And our Lord by several Discourses of his about and Actions of his upon the Sabbath might well take them off from too scrupulous and nice Observation of the Lords day 3. The Journey seems not to be so great nor the distance between Emaus and Jerusalem so many Miles as Geographers relate And therefore Beza saith as Mr. Warren informs me that they were mistaken And there seems a great probability thereof because 't is said Luke 24.33 That they rose up the same hour and went to Jerusalem and came to the Congregation of the Eleven and the other Disciples before ever they were dismissed And therefore 't is very improbable that it should be seven Miles and a half from that City and much more probable that it was but a Sabbath-days Journey 4. Our Saviour being risen and entred into his Glory at least the first degree thereof was now no longer subject to Sabbath Observance neither could he be a Profaner thereof whatever he did thereon And beside having a glorified Body he might be with them in an instant upon the way and so in a very small particle of time return to Jerusalem and all his Discourse to them was most proper for the Holy Sabbath opening to them the Scriptures reproving them for their Unbelief and making their Hearts to burn within them So that our Saviour's Discourses and walking with them do rather serve to confirm the First-days-Sabbath and their going to Emaus no way to infringe it As to that which is produced Page 50. from John 20.26 he replies that they might not be gathered together for religious Worship For what else then For fear of the Jews A very probable Conjecture indeed For if it had been only for fear it had been safer to have been divided and every one have hid and concealed himself in some Friends House or unsuspected and safe place or other But to be all assembled together in a suspected House for the Text plainly hints that was either in a Disciples House or some other usual meeting place would be rather to expose themselves and to do this without any design of religious Worship would argue them very indiscreet But now 't was their duty to meet together to worship God though with hazard and this they did and shut the doors upon them that they might not be disturbed by the Jews His denial of this second Appearing to be on the Lords day is taken from a Criticism about a Greek Preposition which we translate after Now all that know any thing of that Language know that their Prepositions are very Polysemous and admit of divers Interpretations or include many of ours and that two joyned to one Case of the following Noun as this Meta does for it might be rendred before the Accusative in within as well as after and it might have been so translated here but they would render it by after well knowing that even so rendred it would no way alter the Sense of the Holy Ghost but according to Scripture Phrase still intend the first day of the week following according to the Expression in Mark 8.31 After three days the Son of Man shall rise again Three days after he was killed he should rise again for so the Text says expresly where the meaning must needs be upon the third day and the English Translation of Queen Elizabeth render this place within three days he shall rise again And thought it well rendred according to the purport of Meta which the Criticks tell us is usually written and spoken by the Grecians in the meaning of in or upon Other Translation render Meta by an Adverb and not by a Preposition as afterward in three days and so in John afterward in eight days in which eight days are comprised the first Lords day and the second as compleating the number and so this second meeting of Christ and his Disciples was on the first day as his Circumcision was on the eighth day which the Scripture expresses by another such like Phrase as this When eight days were accomplished for the Circumcision of the Child Luke 2.21 As for his Evasion of that passage in Mark by telling us the same Expositors think that Mark reckons the time from his first being betrayed and apprehended This no way helps him for suppose he do so yet his after must signifie upon or on the third day for 't is clear that he was betrayed in the Evening late of the sixth day for St. John tells us chap. 18.3 that they came with Lanthorns and Torches to take him and 't is very probable that that young Man who followed him with only a Linnen Cloth upon his Body as he was immediately upon his Apprehension led to the High Priests Palace Mark 14.51 was one startled out of his Sleep and Bed by the rude Violence of the Souldiers
for that of the First and well he may For 't is an eminent one and such an one as he will find very difficult to answer but yet we must expect the utmost of his Efforts to do it I shall track his Endeavours 1. He says we guess that he First day of the Week was that day we call Sunday as though this were but a bare Guess as a Blind Man shoots the Mark or catches the Hare as the other Three Guesses he says we make in the very next Paragraph But yet 't is such a Guess as he will not controvert and we think 't is because he cannot gain-say it But yet this great Condescension to us must be with a Grant from us to him that St. Paul was a Keeper of the Seventh day and an Observer of it as a Sabbath and so for his granting us what he cannot deny we must grant him what he can never prove Yea what we have denyed and still do viz. that Paul was a Keeper of the Old Sabbath-day We grant indeed as before that he Preached on that day usually to the Jews in their Synagogues because he could have no other such convenient Time and Place for it But that he kept that Sabbath we utterly deny For then he would have done it among the Gentiles as well as among the Jews which yet we never read he did Or if he saith he did let him prove it which we are sure from Scripture he can never do Nor after the former Chapter that ever he did go so much as to the Jewish Synagogue for this is all the Proof of his keeping it upon the Seventh day But here we find that the Disciples came together uon the First day and Paul came to them and associated with them in Religious Duties And why is the First day now named and the Seventh never after as the Solemn Dedicated Day to their Worship but because it was never so from that time But yet this is not all the Condition upon which he will be so exceedingly kind to us as to grant the First day of the Week to be Sunday or our Lords day but it must be bought with another Information even on what part of the Sunday 't was that this Assembly was and St. Pauls associating in them which he takes for granted and I am sure does but guess that his Opponents do that 't was in the Evening after the Seventh day Which he takes for the beginning of the First day and so Paul Preached till the Midnight and brake Bread and discoursed only till the Light of the First day but performed no Religious Duty upon the Morning of that day at all but as soon as ever the first Day-light began to dawn he betook himself to what was Profane and Travelled Which I think is a begging of the Question and in a scriptural Sense is to say that he performed no Religious Duties at all thereon for 't was the Light that God called day and the dakness he called night Gen. 1.5 and so to contradict the express words of the Text. Besides I would fain know of him which is the chiefest part of a natural Day either the dark part of it which we with Scripture call Night or the light part of it which with it we call Day If the light part as I think an unprejudiced Mind will grant why should he suppose that all the Religious Duties of that Day should be done in the Dark thereof and not in the Light Again we think that the Lords day did not begin at Even but rather in the Morning when our Lord rose out of the Grave that being the great occasion of its Sanctification to sacred Duties and its being imployed therein by those Disciples and Paul And for this we have express Scripture I mean for the First day of the Weeks beginning in the Morning as Mat. 28.1 in the end of the Sabbath as it began to dawn towards the First day of the Week where the Scripture determines the Sabbath to end with the Darkness of the Night before the First-day Morning and the Lords day to begin at the dawning of the Morning of the First day So far is it from Truth that the Evening and Night before the Morning of it were part of that day at least in this Scripture Phrase and hence we say that Paul began to Preach to them in the light part of that Day as the beginning thereof and continued with them till the following Midnight Yea throughout that Night and so the next Morning being the Second day on Monday took his Journy as a proper day for it And now we have another of our Guesses which is that the breaking of bread here spoken of was the Lords Supper and we would fain know what other breaking of Bread should be meant Can it be imagined that all the Disciples should come together to Feast it with Paul and that too in the Night-season as he would fain have it They had Houses of their own to Eat and Drink in and they would doubtless rather choose to receive the Consecrated Bread from the Apostle that day being the last he was to tarry with them having as 't is probable no other Apostle or Evangelist or Pastor with them at that time than to eat common Bread which they could do when they pleased in his Absence And the Sacrament is more suitable to the Society of Disciples as such to the Preaching of the Word of God by the Apostle than the feeding their Bodies Wherefore we say that seeing 't is clearly here implied that the Disciples gathered themselves together uon this day as upon the usual time and the Apostle ministerially served them then 't is very probable and more than a bare Guess that this day was the usual day and so to be the future day of their Solemn and Religious Devotions Dedicated thereunto As to what follows in the other Paragraph about Preaching and Reasoning we may with good reason pass it over seeing we can see in it but little to the present Case Next by way of Concession he tells us that though this were a Religious Assembly and the breaking of Bread was the Lords Supper yet then all this is but once But this is such an once as leaves the Seventh day for ever out of mention from being the day of Association Such an once as clearly seems to imply the Custom of the Disciples to be their Convention on the First day Such an once as the Holy Ghost is pleased here so particularly to mention after he had shewed us before that 't was the usual day of the Disciples Religious Association and our Saviours personal Presence with them and his gracious Discourse to them Such an once indeed now as no Meeting can be but once at a time as with the former makes more than once and such an once as with what hath been said and what may be said will be of force enough not to repeal a Law or
the Fourth Command but only to alter a Circumstance and Motive therein the whole Substance thereof continuing in its full Vigour and Authority Once he saith occasioned by Paul's being to depart to Morrow Which very Circumstance seems to me to be of some Moment against the Seventh or for the First day For we may well suppose that St. Paul had determined some days before the very day of his Departure and therefore seeing he intended the Second day of the Week to be it he might with much more Conveniency have Met and Preached and Administred the Lords Supper to the Disciples on the Seventh day If that had been now the Consecrated day of the Week and so have had more Time and Leisure with them for his Work and not have so straitned himself or incommoded them throughout a whole Night But becaust the Lords day was the sacred day of the Week to be observed and kept therefore he would defer it till then though to his own and their greater Inconvenience Here we have a Conjecture somewhat strange viz. that the Apostle kept the Seventh day at Troas What was it alone by himself and without any other with him as a private Person and not as an Apostle and then would keep the First day of the Week as an Apostle and with the Assembly of Believers Doubtless St. Paul was no such Dissembler on one hand nor Supersticious Bigot on the other to observe Two Sabbaths in the Week one by himself and another with the Church when God commands but one only But he seems to do all he can to turn the First day into the Seventh and to persuade us that the Assembly of the Disciples was begun on the last day of the Week and continued some time of the First Whereas the Text expresly tells us they came together on the First day and so continued together the First day till its Conclusion in the Second days Morning Here he takes no notice at all or to no purpose that the Holy Ghost tells us expresly that Paul abode Seven days at Troas of which one must necessarily be the last day the Seventh day in order of the Week And yet never tells us that the Disciples met on that day or Paul with them but only on the First day And why should this be if for any reason but to shew us that the Lords day was the day of their Religious Conventions and the Seventh day antiquated and no more to be mentioned and observed among Christians as such a day What follows has been if I mistake not satisfactorily answered already 'T is well he recedes from and stands not much upon the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be interpeted one for he knows that in both the Sacred Languages the Numerical word is frequently used for the Ordinal and if we should render this word here one it would make the Language of the Scripture very Impertinent and Uncertain It would be Impertinent and Superfluous because if it were upon any day it must be upon one day of the Week for there is no day that is not one of the Week and what need the Holy Ghost to tell us that was which we are sure could not but be And it would be uncertain and dubious for according to this meaning we could never know what day of the Week this religious Congregation met whether on the first or second or third or fourth c. and the Expression seems to hint that the Holy Ghost would acquaint us with the particular day thereof But such an uncertain Translation would greatly befriend this Author for then he might more confidently suppose it to be the Seventh day Seeing that now when the Spirit clearly asserts it was upon the First day he does perswade himself and would perswade us that it was upon the Seventh What follows after being Conjectures and Consequences drawn from his former weak Premises I shall say nothing more to them SECT XIV HE next proposes Page 58. the Objection against his Sabbath and Argument for our Lords day which is in 1 Cor. 16.1 2. which is taken as we say from the Collections for the Poor made in the publick Congregations on the first day of the Week and does what he can to enervate it Let us see how successfully 1. He tells us he knows not what the order to the Church of Galatia was But St. Paul tells him plainly that in this particular it was to collect Mony for the Poor on the Lords-day 2. That he does not find written that this order to that Church should oblige all others The like may be said of all the other Orders and Directions given in Scripture to all particular Churches therein mentioned and written to For 't is not there said that they are intended for all other Churches to the end of the World Yet I hope he looks upon the Doctrins taught them the Ordinance and Discipline established amongst them to be Obligatory upon the Churches now And we may well suppose the Apostles being inspired by the Holy Ghost in these Matters in all their Constitutions of their prime Primitive Churches to lay the Platform for all succeeding ones except there may be some particular Circumstance which may necessitate or allow a Deviation therefrom which in this matter of Collection cannot well be pretended 3. That it was a general order for a charitable Seposition but no order to observe the first day True indeed but it does imply the Observance of that day else why should it be enjoyned on that day more than on another but because thereon publick Assemblies met 4. 'T is an Order he tells us for a profane Employment as to cast up their Accounts on that day and to tell their Mony they have got and to reckon up how much their Stock is increased for he here supposes a Man must on this day look over all his Stock cast up all his Charges c. But certainly this is a pretty far fetch'd Invention for they are commanded only to lay up by them on the Lords-day what God had graciously enabled them to give to the Poor by his Success on their Labours and his providential Blessing on them as to Earthly things which they might very well enquire into the day before even the Seventh and having then discovered how God had succeeded them the next day even the Lords-day to separate that charitable Portion from the rest and carry it unto the publick Assembly and so cast it into the Poors Box. And I think 't is clear that the Text necessarily implies a former Inquisition into their Stock before this Seposition but where it implies it must be done on that day no Man can see Wherefore we say that a former Examination being had of these Matters this day that consecrated part was taken carried to the Congregation and put into the common Stock that so the Apostle when he came amongst them might not be forced to go from House to House to
spoken of Rev. 1.10 But I think I have disproved that Proof Page 91 He himself recurs to Tradition and undertakes to prove that throughout several Centuries there have been Churches who assembled themselves themselves for religious Worship on the Seventh Day And so this is set as a Bar against and a Counterplea to that Prime Primitive and universal Tradition for the Lords-day To which I answer in general 1. That a few Exceptions against a general Rule do rather confirm than weaken it 2. Every Antiquity or Tradition will not cannot serve to prove either Practice or Doctrin to be commendable or orthodox nor derogate from what is so For the Denyal of the Deity of our Lord Jesus Christ is as ancient as the Apostles Days in which Corinthus was such an Heretick and the Ebionites Photinians and Arains have handed down that damning Doctrin to our Socinians 3. Scarce any Church since the Apostles Days have been without out their Flaws in Doctrin or Worship or both and we doubt not but this hath been one of them if it can be proved to be practised 4. In many Churches where they did observe the Seventh-day as a Day of publick Assemblies yet in them the Lord's-day was also kept and observed and that too as the chief Day For on the Lord's-day all in general were ingaged to wait upon God's publick Worship not so on Saturdays On the Lord's-day all the Ordinances of the Gospel were administred not so on Saturdays And so still the Lords-day had the Preheminence even in those very Churches Which general Answers may be enough to stop the Mouths of all his ancient Witnesses Yet I will take a little Pains and imploy a little Time to inquire into the Particulars for I think they neither deserve nor require much of either As to his first Instance if all the following be such I am sure they are stark naught yea they are not at all For he asserts that in the Apostles times the Seventh Day was observed as the publick Day of divine Worship Here he must meau by Christins or else he trifles But he can never find in all the Scripture that in the Apostles Days there was ever one Society of Christians gathered on the Seventh Day Indeed St. Paul did go on that Day into the Assemblies of the Jews to preach the Gospel to many of them which he could not conveniently do on any other Day But never did he invite any to keep that Day never did he assemble afterward on that Day when he was separated from their Synagogues finding them imperswasible and obstinate But now we can produce several Christian-Assemblies on the First day the Lords day after our Saviours Resurrection in which our Lord appeared to them And 't was then their Custom to Assemble and bring their Publick Alms to the Publick Treasure wherefore I cannot but marvel at this bold Assertion The Basis of traditionary Structue being so visibily sunk and come to nought makes me suspect that the erected Stories thereof will tumble and fall So that 't is clear we have the Apostle Examples the Churches Use in their days and their Commands against the Seventh day and for the Lords day as a sufficient Demurr to all his future Tradition Into which I now descend and must say that I have searched the Magdeburgenses for his Quotations but cannot find them where he quotes them and therefore believe that the Author used either another Edition or another that is various either in the Bulk or in the Pages I found in them the Eliberine Council but there he Twenty Third Canon hath nothing of a Fast upon a Sabbath day As to the other Authors I have them not and know not where to get them that I might peruse them neither is it needful for the matter of these Quotations makes very little for his Cause For whoever considers them will find 1. That very many if not most of them declare the Establishment and Separation of the Dominical day for Divine Service 2. That another great part of them prove the Observation or keeping both of the Dominical day and the Sabbath in very many of the Churches 3. These tell us that the Sabbath was kept as a Fast by the most if not by all of the Churches that kept it and the Lords-day as a Festival which all our Ecclesiastical Writers acknowledge as before And so evince that it was not kept with so equal Authority as the Lords day So does Dr. Young at large which also shews that they never observed it as the ancient Sabbath or 't was enjoyned in the Fourth Command But upon a new Account or for a new Reason even because our Lord Christ lay dead in the Grave on that day Therefore they would Fast and Humble themselves because their Lord and Saviour was on that day in his lowest Humiliation So far were they from this Gentleman's Opinion that his State of Death was his Rest after his Work of Redemption and they would observe the First day with Praises and Holy Rejoycings as the Christian Festival because 't was the Lords day of Triumph over his Enemies even of his Resurrection These include the greatest part by far of his Historical Examples and a very few are left which do not expresly acknowledge these things And they that do not express them may well be thought to include them I mean though some of these Quotations do not verbally tell us that when they kept this Sabbath they also kept the Lords day yet it may well be presumed they did so seeing 't was the common Practice of such Churches to observe both of them in the foresaid manner Such an one for Example is that of Socrates Scholasticus who tells us for I have examined him and find he does verbatim tell us in a manner all the Churches in the World do Celebrate and Receive the Holy Mysteries every Sabbath day after other Yet the People inhabiting Alexandria and Rome of an old Tradition do not use it Yet doubtless they also observed the Lords-day seeing 't was that which Constantine had before by Edict enjoyned the Churches to do And he saith in the very next Page and in the same Chapter of this Quotation that at Caesarea in Cappadocia and at Cyprus the Priests and Bishops do Preach and Expound Holy Scripture at Evening-Prayer on the Saturdays and Sundays by Candle-Light and therefore we may well presume that the other Churches did which before he spake of These being some of these all As for his Historical Account when the Lord's day was brought into Scotland viz. An. 1208. It may be very well answered that the initiating or bringing in of the Dominical day does not refer to the day it self but only to the Authority that introduced it even that in that Year it began to be Established by the Authority of a Council which before it had not been Or if it refer to the day it self it may not simply be understood as if that
Martyr An. 250. Athanasius An. 326. Hilary 355. Ambrose 374. Hierome 385. Chrysostom 398. Augustine in their Time Eusebius saith my Author testifies 't was observed all the World over And Bp. Andrews as I have read him in his Speech against Thrask a Sabbatarian in the Star-Chamber avows it on his Credit that there is not any Ecclesiastical Writer in whom 't is not found Viz. The sacred Observance of the Lord's Day that is the First Day of the Week Which Testimonies of so many excellent Doctors yea saith Bp. Andrews of all eminent Doctors of so many great and flourishing Churches carry much more Weight with them than all his Collections can pretend to do against them As touching Easter and it's Observance that is no Part of this Controversy therefore I shall only say that I am no Zelot for it's Observance and am perswaded it has less Grounds for it's Celebration than any other of those Festivals which are appropriated to our Lord and in Commemoration of his Birth of his Manifestation of his Ascension of his Mission of the Holy Ghost because the Lord's Day is a constant Memorial of that Resurrection being that Day of the Week whereon he rested from all the Work of his Redemption wherefore seeing there is a weekly religious and solemn Commemoration thereof there must needs be the less Cause for an Annual As for the other Festivals which are appropriated to meer Men and dedicated to their Remembrance and Praise as I have nothing to say for them so I think it neither prudent nor seasonable to say any thing against them But let him that keepeth a Day keep it to the Lord and he that keepeth not a Day unto the Lord let him not keep it And let both maintain the Unity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace Here I hoped to have annexed my Epilogue but some Passages in the Discourse of Easter do require a little Animadversion As when He tells us Page 134. which he had done several Times before that the Change of the Seventh Day to the First was introduced by the Bp. of Rome and so imposed by him upon the other Churches which he thinks evidenced by his former Collection But 1. We have seen it observed before there was a Bp. of Rome and he received it from the Assemblies of the Disciples and Christians just upon our Saviour's Resurrection and in the Apostles Days 2. We have seen it observed by very great Churches in the Purity of the Roman Faith and the Moderation of the Roman Ecclesiastical Government when either the Roman Bishop did not pretend to any Authority over them or if he did they rightly and stoutly resisted and refused it And therefore 't was rather an universal Reception of all the Churches conjunctly as from the Apostles and scriptural Authority than any Imposition of Rome upon them He has a strange Notion Page 130. as it appears to me which is that first Rome endeavoured to introduce the Observation of the Passover upon the Lords-day and so the weekly Holy Rest upon that day which to my Apprehension implies that Rome her self observed the Passover Lords-day before she did the weekly Whereas 't is clear that Rome observed the first day of the week because 't was the Dominical day the day of our Lord's Resurrection whereas the proper Paschal-day was two or three days before the Lords day And therefore in Honour to that day did the Bishop of Rome require Easter to be kept and not ordained Easter First-day as a Shooe-horn to bring in the weekly first day after Moreover in those Churches wherein they dissented from Rome as to the day of Easter they concurred with her in the weekly Lords-day So that the Lords-day was weekly observed by them before Easter was kept upon that day and therefore the yearly first day could not be an usherer in of that week-day which was before it SECT XXI AS the Conclusion and Result of all this Discourse I think I have shewn that the Lord Christ did not make the World that Jehovah was not Christ before the World that he never instituted the Seventh day nor rested on it till his Incarnation nor being Christ really till then that he gave not the Commands on Mount Sinai Neither were they there given to the Gentiles but to the Jews only and those mixed People that came out of Egypt That the Ten Commands were confirmed by our Lord Christ in his Sermons and Discourses but the Seventh-day-Sabbath never so much as mentioned by him in them all as that which was no part at all of the Moral Law but purely positive both in it self and in its Grounds and Motive upon which 't is founded and imposed upon its Observers in the Old Testament and therefore was liable to be changed with the other positive and ceremonial Precepts of the Law of God that our Lord Christ indeed observed it in his own Person in the Flesh because he was made under the antecedent Law of all the Ceremonies and Mosaical Administration and observed them all as well as the Sabbath but yet he then spake and did such things as declared its approach to Dissolution and its Non-Morality that he rested no more in the Grave on the Seventh day than he did on the Cross on the Sixth when he hung dead thereon but the day of his Rest from the work of Redemption was the first day of the week which day he supreamly honoured above all the days of the week by his Resurrection thereon from the Dead by his several Appearances thereon to his Disciples after his Death by his most gracious Discourses thereon unto them which he never did nor made on the Seventh day after his Resarrection and by the Mission of the Holy Ghost upon his Disciples thereon Upon which account St. John calls it the Lords day and by all the Churches ever since that Lords day has been taken to be the first day of the Week That the Apostles and Believers kept the Lords day or the first day of the week as their religious Rest and met together on that day as the day of their publick Assemblies and we never read of any Assemblies on the Seventh day save those of the Jews our Lords Enemies in their Synagogues to whom Paul went to preach the Gospel then and there but when he experienced their desperate Obstinacy left that time and those Synagogues and we never read that ever on that day he joyned with any religious Society after that at Troas he preached and administred the Sacrament to the Believers on the first day the Lords day and that the Holy Ghost does call the first day of the week the Lords day being the day of the Redeemer's Rest from a far more glorious laborious gracious and beneficial Work than that of the Creation And that there is an express Prohibition of the Seventh-day-Sabbath in St. Paul's Epistles and consequently seeing the positive Morality of one day in Seven in the Fourth
The Lords day Vinaicated OR The First day of the WEEK THE Christian Sabbath In Answer to Mr. Bampfields Plea for the Seventh day in his Enquiry Whether Jesus Christ be Jehovah and gave the Moral Law And whether the Fourth Command be Repealed or Altered BY G. T. a Well-wisher to Truth and Concord Prov. 18.17 He that is first in his own Cause seemeth just but his Neighbour cometh and searcheth him LONDON Printed for Samuel Clement at the White Swan in St. Paul's Church-yard 1692. TO THE READER THo' there be many Books already written on this Subject the following Preface will justify the Seasonableness of this Modest and Judicious Reply to Mr. B. especially among serious Professors in the West of England But it cannot be unfit upon other Considerations that such a Discourse be now Publish'd when the Doctrinal Truth in the Controversie of a Weekly Sabbath is opposed by so many and the Practical Sanctification of it neglected by so many more It has been generally observed that the Power of Godliness hath Flourished or Abated in every Age and in every part of Christendom as the strict and consciencious Observation of a Weekly-Day of Holy Rest did obtain or not And particularly in our own Country no outward Means can be assigned that hath more availed to help the Preservation of Pure Reformed Christianity among us On which account it concerns all Christians to enquire what is our Warrant for the Observation of One day in Seven and likewise whether the Seventh or the First day of the Week which according to a true Account may also be called the Seventh ought to be observed as the Christian Sabbath What is said on this Argument in the following Reply to Mr. B. discovers so much the Candor and Moderation of the Author as will recommend it to every Impartial Reader His Distance from London and nothing else occasions or needs this Epistle as will doubtless be thought even by such as have some different Conceptions from him in some lesser Matters of this Controversie That it may advance the Honour of Christ and help to satisfy the Minds of some Wavering and less Established Christians and promote the real Interest of Practical Godliness upon which the Doctrin of the Weekly Sabbath will have a great Influence as it will answer the Authors Design so our Desires and Prayers John Howe John Shower The PREFACE IT may afford cause of Wonder to considering and serious Persons what should be the Inducements of the Author of the Enquiry whether the Lord Jesus c. to Print and divulge it at such a time and under such circumstances as we are brought into And though he hath proposed no Preface to his Book to plead for it's Emission yet I think there has scarce been a Piece sent into the World these many Years that more required and needed it For 1. He well knows that the whole Christian World is engaged against him herein and that they have Sciptural grounds and the practice of the most ancient Churches the Doctrin and Testimonies of the must Orthodox and Learned Fathers derived immediately from the Apostles with an uninterrupted Succession through several Centuries and their own Education Custom and Practice received down from many Generations with their own blessed Experiences of the Light of Gods countenance the operations of his Spirit the activity and growth of their own Graces on that blessed Day c. for their consecrating of the first day of the Week to Divine Service and their Religious and Devout appropriating it to and imploying it in those Duties which immediately concern the Glory of God and the Spiritual and Eternal Weal of their own Souls Which things are not easily overcome and laid aside with as great and Rooted Prejudices against his opinion of the Seventh-day-Sabbath as that 't is Judaical Fanciful and Singular such at least as has had but very few Favourers and Abetters either in the ancient Churches and these branded for Heresie or else in the modern some three or four starting up of late years among our selves daring by Writing and Printing to endeavour the Introduction of this Novelty into the belief and practice of Vniversal Church All which and other Prejudices against this Opinion cannot slightly be eradicated out of the minds of Men and therefore he could hardly imagin any great success to this undertaking unless he could have produced undeniable demonstrations to our Reason or irrefragable Testimonies of Scripture to our Faith Which I hope we shall see he has been far enough from 2. He should also have considered and concluded that these Arguments which have been produced heretofore by those of his perswasion are not likely now to convince and convert the whole Christian World to his thoughts and practice Seeing they have been so often and by so many worthy Learned Orthodox and Pious Divines answered and in the judgment of Wise and gracious Persons fully confuted and satisfactorily baffled to the deeper Rooting and more firm Establishment of the Churches of Christ in their constant Observance of the Lords day Wherefore if he would have effected any thing by this attempt he should have offered some new Inventions of his own that have never yet encountered with any opposition But in all his Book to the best of my Remembrance I have not met with any one place of Scripture nor argument drawn therefrom nor Improvement thereof for his own Sentiments Nor yet any Text of Gods word or Topick against ours no nor any one solution of our Authoritative or Rational proofs for the confirmation of our Contrary Belief and Practice to his which has not been already produced by others and as largely and strenuously managed as by himself and that too in the same manner 'T is no great Prudence in a Combatant to make use of the same Weapons Modes and Arts against his Antagonists which have been frequently Baffled Defeated Broken and retorted into his own Bowels Wherefore 't is strange to me if any Victory over any considerate studious Person could be hoped for by such a casting of the Gantlet 3. But suppose he could have expected to have proselited some to his Opinion as who has not though the Doctrin be never so absurd Heterodox and Impious yet sure it could not be thought a sufficient means to prevail upon all the Churches no nor upon the universality of the National Church of that Collection of so many millions of counterminded Christians and Protestants whereof he is He could not certainly presume that all the Authority of these Nations both Ecclesiastical and Civil would follow his Dictates or receive new Light from his Torch and acknowledg themselves to have been in gross Error and in a sinful Practice ever since and always before the Reformation since they Professed Faith in the Lord Christ And that they should alter all their Acts and Statutes all their Canons and Articles in this particular And herein acknowledg him to be the infallible Apostle
or at least the only happy Doctor of this great part of the Christian World no nor of the greatest or any considerable part thereof but only of a few here and there of unsetled Scruplous Superstitious minds No person could have a Rational and probable Prospect of a greater Return from such an Adventure or Crop from such a sowing And so wisely have judged that all his expectations would never quit his cost nor be worth his Risk Especially considering that 4. He should deeply have weighed the sad and sinful Consequences and scandalous Effects that his appearance in Print has a direct tendency to produce Though I trust such a tendency will be obstructed and frustrated by the good Spirit of God and by the Wise and setled Principles of our people The Natural Tendencies are such as these 1. An encouragement to the Profaners and deniers of the Lords-Day in their Principles and Practices They who have no Inclination to separate any Day as Holy to the Holy God in a performance of Holy Duties will take advantages from hence to decry the strict observance of the Lords-day and to fortifie themselves in their Idleness Recreations Worldliness and sinfulness thereon and withall slight and deride the Seventh-day-Sabbath as Judaical Fanatical and Singular and so being taken off from the First-day-Sabbath they will acknowledg none but give that and all the following days of the Week to their Interests and to their Lusts to Earth and to Hell And we have heard that this Book has already produced this fearful effect in our City 2. An Offence and Stumbling-Block to sincere and affectionate Saints who have their Hearts established in Grace and their Heads in the grand Fundamentals of Faith and Practice but are not acquainted with disputations about such remote things as these and therefore having very tender Consciences and dreading to offend God and to approach unto any moral evil hearing of such a piece as this from such an Author so known to some of them will be apt to be startled and excessively troubled with Fear lest they have hitherto lived in Sin and provoked God all their days by a Holy resting upon the Lords day and Working upon Saturday and so all their Services of God upon the one in the works of their General and the services of themselves their Families and the humane Society of which they are Members upon the other in the works of their particular Callings have been provocations and evils to be Repented of for we know what Aggravations scrupulous Consciences and a tempting Devil are apt to make of smallest things and to live in perpetual fears and doubts in their continuance in attendance upon Gods Ordinances on those days whereon they are only to be had in the most solemn manner and all of them at least in the professing Church of God And so they will be deprived of much of that Spiritual Comfort and saving profit thereby which they formely received in and by them And still would had not such an unhappy Scandal been laid in their way Which is no small Offence and Sin against Christ And this also we know to be another product thereof such Christians not daring to neglect the observance and Ordinances of the Lords-day because of their former Perswasion Practice and Experience and yet doing it with doubts and fears lest they should Sin thereby because of this Piece 2. A perverting and withdrawing of the more simple and unstable into this Opinion which we doubt not to assert and question not to evidence to be ill grounded and false and so will prove a scandal indeed even to lead into and to build up in Sin and an unwarrantable Practice And thus to Offend weak ones in Christ is a very great Evil 1 Cor. 8.11 12. But suppose the Authors notion be Orthodox and the contrary Heterodox yet another pernicious Tendencie of it is 4. By a Proselyting of some Persons or some Ministers so many as may make Assemblies and Congregations he will be the Author of a needless Schism and Separation and of inevitable Feuds Rancors and mutual Reproaches and Condemnations The Observers of the Lords day will decry and exclaim against the others as Jews and proud Schismaticks and the keepers of the Seventh day will censure and condemn the other as willful breakers of Gods express Command and profane compliers with the will and Traditions of Men. And he that has not the Gift of Prophesie may easily foretel what sinful and dismall fruits will grow upon such a Root of Bitterness Men should be cautious how they disturb the peace of the Church and rent our Saviours seamless Garment 5. He should seriously have pondered the Days and Times we are faln into the sad and deplorable Divisions of the Church of God among us and the dangerous and fearful Prejudices Rancours and Enmities begotten and fomented thereby with the uncharitable and inexcusable Effects they have produced already in Tongue Pen and Hand as the general Division between Conformists and Non-Conformists and the divers Opinions Parties and Separated Societies of the Latter Though blessed be God the most considerable and Orthodox of them the Independents and Presbyterians have coalesced in their Subscriptions to Articles of Agreement and how unseasonable and inconvenient 't is therefore to broach new Opinions among them and to increase their Divisions and Animosities and so also give an Advantange to their observers to encrease their prejudices and augment their Accusations against them and their Insultings over them as fickle inconstant and heady not knowing where to fix nor what to hold and Practise now that they have forsaken an universal and uninterrupted Conformity unto them Such a stout Non-Conformist to the Church of England ought to have used all caution not to have given the least occasion of weakning or vilifying his own Party 6 Lastly All these things laid together in the Ballance of a sound Judgment would have informed him that no such thing as he hath hereby attempted should have been undertaken unless it had been about the most weighty and necessary Truths of our Religion such as do necessarily concern the Glory of God and the Salvation of Souls or very near bordering thereupon Which I hope he does not beleive the Controversie to be seeing 't is not not about the Substance of Duty or the very heart of a Command but only about the least Circumstance if I may so term it of it Not about what Proportion of time God shall have Consecrated to his service For that is agreed to be the Seventh But only what day of two of them must be that day of the Week And therefore he that observes the First-day gives and devotes to God the Seventh part of his time as well and as much as he that does the Seventh-day Wherefore though the Authors Integrity and Intent may not be questioned yet certainly his Prudence in this Work and the Work under such Circumstances are no way plausible And he