Sabbath at the beginning by God's Precept to Adam and in him to his whole Posterity to the end of the World and therefore extending to all Ages and all Mankind And this being assigned to the Jews only for that short time wherein the Law-giver was pleased to dispense with that Nation as to this Law given to all Nations and that for Reasons sufficiently palpable 5. This Hypothesis enervates the Arguments brought against the Divine Institution of the Lord's-Day and furnisheth Conscience with a solid ground of bearing a due religious Respect to it without danger of Judaizing in the manner of the Celebration thereof 1. To instance in their Herculean Argument drawn from the Gloss they put upon that Text Gen. 2. 3. as being spoke by Moses by way of Anticipation If that Day that God rested on was not Saturday but Sunday his sanctifying the Day he rested on could not have respect to the after-Institution of another Day for what Consequence can be in this because God at first rested on Sunday therefore he appointed Moses above two thousand Years after the Creation to command Saturday to be sanctified comparable to what is in this because God rested on Sunday the Seventh Day in the order of the Creation he therefore blessed it and sanctified it that is separated it by his Precept to Adam to be the weekly Sabbath Indeed the dream of a Prolepsis in this Text chargeth Moses with most gross Equivocation in the use of these words and God blessed except we fancy an Anticipation in those other Places of his Text where these words occur as Gen. 1. 22. where speaking of Fish and Fowl he saith And God blessed them saying be fruitful and multiply and vers 28. speaking of Adam and Eve he saith And God blessed them saying be fruitful and multiply 2. That this Hypothesis yields a solid Ground for the consciencious observing the Lord's-Day so as there needs not any new Constitution be made by Christ or his Apostles for the observing of it is manifest of it self For if Sunday be the Day that God separated at first to be the weekly Sabbath to the Patriarchs and was accordingly celebrated by them before the giving of the Law by Moses the standing part of the Fourth Command obliging all Mankind must necessarily refer to that and that there is a standing part of that Precept for the Breach whereof we are taught to say Lord have Mercy upon us and for the better observing whereof we are taught to pray Incline our Hearts to keep this Law is the declared Judgment of our Church And then the Temporary and Ceremonial Part both as to the Day and Mode of keeping it peculiar to the Jews being part of those carnal Ordinances that were imposed upon them until the time of Reformation Heb. 9. 10. vanish of themselves as being antiquated by Christ's Cross and give way to the Antient Patriarchal Sabbath And here now our Saviour's Rising from the Dead his frequent Appearing to his Disciples on Sunday the Practice of the Apostles and Primitive Church come in seasonably with their Auxiliary Force to strengthen my Hypothesis and to support the Divine Institution of the Lord's-Day For though as to the first Consecration therof these Examples signify nothing nor are able to stand upon that old Ground against the joynt Assaults of God's express Precept and Example for sanctifying Saturday Yet upon the Ground that I have laid they are substantial and strenuous Seconds to prove the Restauration of the antient Patriarchal Sunday-Sabbath by the Antiquation of the Jewish Ceremonial Saturday-Sabbath though they are not of Authority to appoint a new Lord's-Day yet they are safe Guides to point us to that old Patriarchal Lord's-Day whereon the Lord rested and therefore commanded the Patriarchal Church-Catholick to sanctify it as their weekly Sabbath in Conformity to and in Communion with which Church extending to all Places and Ages Our Saviour after the rending of the Vail rose upon that Day and upon that Day celebrated religious weekly Assemblies with his Apostles and taught them to do the like during those forty Days wherein he convers'd with them betwixt his Resurrection and Ascension speaking to them of the things appertaining to the Kingdom of God 3. Lastly this secures us from falling into Jewish Superstition in the manner of celebrating our Christian Sabbath for with the Jewish Day the Jewish manner of keeping that Day vanisheth So that the Christian Church is not obliged to sanctify the Lord's-Day in those strict Formalities of bodily Rest and other carnal Observances imposed upon the Jews but in the more generous and man-becoming Exercises of contemplating the Glory of God in the Creation compleated by the new Creation of believing acquiescing and triumphing in God through Christ of attending on Gospel-Ordinances publick private and secret of visiting the Sick relieving the Indigent and eating our Bread with Gladness of Heart on that day above others that being the Christian weekly Festival and the Day which God hath made for us to be glad and rejoyce in neither need we macerate our selves with studying when to begin when to end the Christian Sabbath at Even Midnight or Morning For he who having set his Secular Affairs in such order as they give no Interruption to his Sunday-Devotion goes to bed with God on Saturday-Night and riseth with God on Sunday-Morning and spends the Day in such like Exercises as have been mentioned may after he has commended himself and his Family if he have one to God go to his Rest on Sunday Night without danger of prophaning the Sabbath at his usual time Briefly the usefulness of this Hypothesis is so great and apparent both as to putting an end to all Strife even amongst the most Litigious and setling inward Peace in the truly Consciencious as I was something jealous lest the prospect thereof might make the Arguments I bring for proof of the Hypothesis seem to have more weight than indeed they have till I had communicated my Papers to several Persons of more quick Understanding in the fear of the Lord with this humble Request That they would weigh their Contents in the Ballance of their impartial Judgments which I heartily thank them they did and thereby gave me occasion to rectify some Passages and Encouragement to commit this Tract as it now stands corrected to publick view If it shall please the divine Goodness to make use of so mean a Person as my self towards the setling the Consciences of Christians upon a safe Ground and the binding up of those Wounds which the Church hath received in the House of her Friends as the poor tattard Captive Democedes cured Darius after that the Egyptian Physicians had for seven Days and Nights by violent handling of his dis-joynted Foot kept him without Sleep Let God have the Praise who chooseth the weak and foolish things of this World to confound the mighty and wise And let him have your Prayers Christian Reader whose utmost
the Decalogue declares it to be of the same nature with the rest of the Ten for how can it stand with the Wisdom of the God of Order who forbad plowing with an Ox and an Ass who prohibited the wearing of Linsy-woolsy and was so careful that the Male and Female Sex should wear different Apparel to shuffle a Ceremonial Law amongst his Moral Laws seeing that would have been a far greater Indecorum than the yoking of an Ox and an Ass together would have rendred the Decalogue a piece of Linsie-woolsie and have been the apparalling of permanent and transient of perpetual and temporary Laws which in their own nature differ more than Male and Female that is specifically in the same garb SECT II. But that which makes the greatest difference betwixt these Sabbaths is this The Sabbath of the fourth Precept and that commanded the Jews are grounded upon different Reasons The first in commemoration of the Creation which is common to all persons in all ages and places The other 1. That it might be a sign to discriminate the Jews from all other Nations Exod. 31. 13. It is a sign between me and you that I am the Lord your God that is That I have taken you to be unto me a People and an Inheritance Deut. 4. 20. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I am the Lord your God which have separated you from all other Nations Lev. 20. 24. Now if other Nations had celebrated Saturday as their weekly Sabbath and not another day of the week the Jews could not have been discriminated from them by their observing the same day this would have been no part of the Wall of Partition 2. The Jews weekly as well as their monthly Sabbaths were Shadows of good things to come the Body whereof is Christ Col. 2. 16. If therefore the Sabbath of the fourth Precept had been the Jewish Sabbath it ought to have been abolished when Christ the Substance is come as well as other Ceremonial Laws But this is contrary to the sense of the Universal Church which reckons this one of the ten Commandments And our Church hath appointed this Precept with the rest of the Decalogue to be pronounced at the Lord's Table and enjoyned her Children to beg pardon for the breach of this and Grace to encline their Hearts to keep it which would be the putting of a Cheat upon them if that Precept in the plain Letter of it were not still in force and the putting a figurative sense upon it would make it as unintelligible to vulgar capacities as if it were in Latine And so much the more hard to be understood as the Church in her Liturgies and Catechisms wherein she propounds Milk to Babes affects the greatest plainness of Speech Upon which account most serious Persons have been prejudic'd against Calvin's Interpretation of Christ's descent into Hell that being an Article of the common Faith and therefore to be interpreted in the plain literal sense Let me add that the Church no where declares her Sentiments more plainly than in publick Liturgies upon which Consideration St. Austin so often appeals from those Testimonies of Fathers which Pelagius urged to the forms of Common-Prayer And therefore tho a thousand private Doctors Opinion should thwart me yet I having the Opinion of the whole Church declared in her Liturgies for me if not in so many words yet in her general practice unavoidably inferring what I maintain to wit that the fourth Precept of the Decalogue is still in full force this is sufficient to acquit my Assertion from the imputation of Novelty or singularity as being no other but what I drew from my Mother's the Church of England's Breasts not only by good consequence as hath been shewed but in plain words for in the Homily of the time and place of Prayer she tells us that God expresly in the fourth Precept commandeth the celebration of the Sabbath which is our Sunday But I have greater Authority than this of the Church even Christ himself who could not endure that he should be thought to come to destroy the Law and assures us that not one jot or tittle should fall from the Law Mat. 5. 17. which all interpret to be meant of the Decalogue whose fourth Precept must therefore be concluded to have nothing in it that is ceremonial typical and upon that account to be abolished as instituting a Sabbath to be a shadow of good things to come 3. The Sabbath appropriate to the Jews was commanded them to be a Memorial of God's giving them rest from Egyptian Servitude Deut. 5. 15. Remember that thou wast a Servant in the Land of Egypt and that the Lord thy God brought thee out thence therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the Sabbath Day Observe here the difference betwixt the Law of the Sabbath given on Mount Sinai and this in Deuteronomy tho it be repeated in the Decalogue For this Book containing an explanation of the Law whether Moral Ceremonial or Judicial and application of it to the particular state of the Jews Moses in this Text Judaizeth the fourth Precept and therefore assigns as the reason of its institution thus applied and limited not God's resting on the Seventh Day from his Work which is common to all Mankind but his causing them to rest from their servil work under the Egyptians which was peculiar to the Jews Which is a manifest Argument that the Sabbath of the Decalogue engraven in the Tables was of larger extent than this mentioned in Deuteronomy or else why should the Reason of the one be universal of the other particular As also that the Jews were obliged to the observation of their Sabbath not from the literal and primary sense of the fourth Precept as all Mankind are and always were except the Jews to whom God appointed another Sabbath but only from the equity of it For seeing God had sanctified the precise Seventh Day whereon he had rested to be observed by all Men it was meet that the Jews should keep holy one Day of seven and that Day which God had peculiarly enjoyned them viz. Saturday tho that was not the Sabbath of the fourth Precept the Lawgiver having Right to dispense with his own Law And this is clearly the plain meaning of Moses his inserting vers 12. as the Lord hath commanded thee or rather 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 had commanded thee viz. before the publishing of the Decalogue on Mount Sinai and of his leaving out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 remember the first word of the fourth Precept as it was delivered on Sinai by which word mankind was called upon to call to mind the Patriarchal Sabbath or rather his transferring it to his mentioning their Egyptian bondage vers 15. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and remember that thou wast a Bondsman c. As if Moses had said perhaps you may interpret the fourth Precept repeating the Law of the Patriarchal Sabbath as either vacating that Law of the Sabbath he gave you
Septuagint which renders it The Seventh Day altho our last Translation of the Bible follows the Hebrew Altho the Puritans as they were called have called long and loud to our Church to rectify the Reading and conform it to the Hebrew as knowing that their opinion of the fourth Precept commandeth a Seventh not the Seventh Day is utterly overthrown by rendring it Wherefore the Lord Blessed the seventh-Seventh-day And altho our Church hath gratified their Clamours in conforming the Epistles and Gospels to our last Translation yet in the forenamed versions of the fourth Precept she adheres still to the Septuagint and persisteth in teaching her Children young and old that the Sabbath of the fourth Precept in the plain literal sense of it is the Seventh day wherein God rested and therefore sanctified and separated to be observed by us Christians in obedience to that Precept and in conformity to God's Example Or to give her sense of this Precept thus translated in her own words Homilie of the time and place of Prayer God expresly in the fourth Precept commandeth the observation of the Sabbath which is our Sunday And not only commandeth it but also by his own example doth stir and provoke us to diligent keeping of the same And a little after this Example and Command of God the Godly Christian People began to follow immediately after the Ascension of our Lord Christ It was you see in obedience to this Command urged by this Example that the Christians began to celebrate Sunday in our Churche's Judgment In Obedience I say to this Precept in the plain literal sense of it For sure the Church of England is a more indulgent Mother than to teach her Babes by Tropes and Figures and far-fetch'd Consequences what that holy Will of God is to the keeping whereof their Baptismal Vow obligeth them or to oblige them to say Lord have Mercy upon us and incline our hearts to keep this Law after the pronouncing of the fourth Precept at the Lord's Table if that did not stand intirely in every tittle of it according to its plain and primitive sense in as full force now under the Gospel as any of the rest Moses was faithful in God's House and therefore at his repeating of the Decalogue and applying it to the Israelites he lets them know that they were not concerned in that Reason for sanctifying of that Sabbath which God published on the Mount to wit because God rested on the Seventh-day but urgeth the keeping of their Sabbath by another Reason peculiar to themselves to wit their resting from Egyptian Bondage Deut. 5. which very Reason is an Argument that their Saturday-Sabbath was not the day on which God rested but local and temporary And God's urging the sanctifying of the Sabbath of the fourth Precept from his own Example argues the day therein commanded to be the day whereon God rested and to concern all Ages and Nations The reason of it being common to all and therefore to be our Sunday And this speaks the faithfulness of our Church viz. her informing her Children that the whole and intire both Precept and Reason appertains to us Christians and therefore we are bound to beg pardon for the breach thereof and Grace to observe it I had never much Artificial yet have so much Natural Logick as to think this a very strange Inference God rested the Seventh-day that is Saturday wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day that is Sunday and the common Opinion to be void of Reason viz. That the day commanded in this Precept is gon but the Precept remains seeing all that 's commanded is the sanctifying of the day whereon God rested It may with every whit as much reason be said the honouring of Father and Mother is gone but the Law commanding that Honour is still in force as that the day whereon the Command bids us rest is gone but the Precept commanding that Day of Rest remains as if that day injoyned belonged to the Jews and the Precept enjoyning to us My resentment of such horrible absurdities unavoidably issuing from the common Opinion that Saturday is the Day whereon God rested and that Day which he commanded the Jews to sanctifie in the fourth Precept And yet that the Precept is still in force to us Christians obliging us to sanctifie another day Sunday in Conjunction with the reverence I bear to the sounder Doctrine of the Church of England viz. That the fourth Precept commands us to celebrate Sunday upon the Account of God's resting on that day first put me upon that enquiry whereof my Treatise of the Sabbath is the result viz. whether that Hypothesis could be proved from Scripture and Reason and if proved whether it would secure unto us our Sunday-Sabbath without any new Institution by Christ's Precept upon better grounds than can be laid by the vulgar opinion and such as free our Necks from the yoak of those carnal austerities which attend the Jewish Temporary and Ceremonial Saturday-Sabbath This Design I confess affronts the whole World of private modern Writers but I have standing on my side the Church of England which carried on the Reformation of Christian Religion from Papal Innovations more pecately regularly cautiously and with a greater respect to Catholick Antiquity than any other Reformed Church did And that which inclined me the rather to follow her Conduct through my whole Tract of the Sabbath was this because I observed that the Writers upon the fourth Precept have fallen into inextricable perplexities meerly through this one mistake That the Sabbath injoyned in that Precept is Saturday and not as our Church teacheth Sunday And that if they had followed our Churches Clew they would have found the way out of those Labyrinths wherein they have lost themselves For if Sunday be the Day whereon God rested and therefore commanded in that Precept to be sanctified after God's Example and unless it be that day wereon God rested that Precept does not command the sanctification of it how naturally will these Consequences follow 1. That Adam and the Patriarchs could not be ignorant of that Example of God which was laid down in the Precept as the Reason why we are to sanctifie it for if that reason oblige us who only hear it It must much more oblige Adam who after a sort saw it 2. That the Law of the Saturday-Sabbath is not expresly commanded in that Precept but only reducible to it in regard of its equity and proportion of time viz. one of seven And therefore Saturday-Sabbath may depart and the Precept continue in full force Nay that Sabbath together with the Ceremonial Precepts concerning it must as the rest of Mosaick Ceremonies depart at the rending of the Vail and give way to the Sunday-Sabbath And thus the Christian Church is disburdened of those Austerities about which there hath been so much wrangling amongst Modern Writers 3. That there was no need of a new Gospel-Precept for the first Institution of Sunday-Sabbath and that
That Moses said c. but that must have the same interpretation or be rendred by the Preterpluperfect tense Moses had said that is had instructed Aaron what he should say and so must vers 11. And the Lord had said to Moses for it is manifest that God had said that to Moses before And the reson why it is repeated over and over that the Lord had said and Moses had said is to shew what part of that Revelation of his mind that God made to Moses vers 4 5. was communicated at that time by Moses to Aaron and by Aaron to the Assembly and what part of it was not then but afterwards communicated It being manifest that Moses did not acquaint them with the reason of God's precept to gather a double portion on the Sixth day till they had gathered it It remains therefore that seeing Aaron was not a Prophet who received Revelations immediatly from God but published Divine Revelations received by Moses unto the People which is the proper Work of an Ecclesiastical Minister in a Church-Assembly 1. Cor. 14. 23 24. his being appointed by Moses to speak argues this Assembly to have been a Church-Assembly Howbeit if what hath been offer'd for the proof of this second Inference shall upon serious ponderation seem too light the main Cause will suffer no other detriment than the loss of one peice of an Argument And indeed my main aim in urging this Text was to find sure footing for calculating the time backward unto the tenth day of the first month Exod. 12. whereon undoubtedly the Israelites kept a religious publick Assembly on course And that tenth day will be demonstrated to have been Sunday If it be made apparent that the fifteenth day of the second month whereon the Quails were gathered be to be reckoned the first of the six gathering dayes And that is SECT VI. The third Inference I draw from this Instance viz. that the fifteenth day of the second month whereon this solemn Church-Assembly conven'd on course was Sunday And that it was so will appear by computing the six gathering dayes immediately preceding the Jewish Saturday-Sabbath concerning which there is this only Question viz. Whether the fifteenth day be to be brought into the Account of those six gathering days For the resolution of which doubt let the divine Oracle be consulted vers 4. I will rain Bread for you from Heaven and you shall go out and gather it And the sixth day you shall gather twice as much and vers 12. ye shall eat Flesh to the full this day at even intor duas vesperas betwixt the two Evenings i.e. betwixt three a Clock in the afternoon and the shutting in This is that very time of the day wherein our Saviour was Crucified Dead and Buried and therefore their gathering dressing and eating their Belly full of Quails does as properly belong to this fifteenth day as our Saviour's Death and Burial unto Friday 2. Observe That the Precept to gather twice as much the Sixth day was given before any mention was made of Flesh and Bread distinctly and before Moses knew what they were to gather any further than was exprest by Bread rained down from Heaven Now Bread implies ver 4. all kind of Victuals as every one knows that can say the Lord's Prayer except such profound Clerks as are of that Boy 's humour who when he came to the Petition for daily Bread was wont to add and Butter too good Mother And what satisfaction could it have been to Moses to hear God promise Bread when the People murmured for want of Flesh as well as Bread if he had not conceived that both were comprehended under the name of Bread Besides David Psal 105. 40. called the Quails the Bread of Heaven which Psal 78. 27. he saith God rained upon them from Heaven the very word that God useth vers 4. I will rain Bread from Heaven Add to all this that our Saviour Joh. 6. 55 c. alluding to this very History of Quails and Manna useth the same form of expression The Bread that I will give is my Flesh Bread therefore as well here as there includes flesh and Bread Quails and Manna And to put this beyond all possibility of doubt the Septuagint and vulgar Latin express what they gathered on the sixth day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cibos duplices double necessaries double Victuals Lastly It was not for all kind of Flesh that they murmured for tho their Provision of Bread might possibly be spent yet that they should consume the Herds and Flocks they brought out of Egypt where they left not one Hoof behind Exod. 10. 26. in one months space is utterly incredible or that in that space they were grown so lean as to be unfit for Food seeing they had for that forty years long Oxen Sheep and Goats fit for Sacrifice Act. 7. 42. But for want of potted Flesh and such potted Flesh as they had plenty of in Egypt And that was no other than Quails which were so plentiful in Egypt that the Inhabitants could not consume them while they were fresh tho Josephus affirms that Egypt was so populous as it contain'd 750 Myriades besides the Inhabitants of Alexandria and therefore they potted them up for the whole year as saith Atheneus l. 1. c. 11. de Coturnicibus Now can it in reason be imagined that the Jews should make no account of that day whereon they gathered Quails their beloved and longed for Flesh that was Judaeis in deliciis saith Phavorinus From all which it is manifest that the fifteenth day on which the Quails were gathered was the first of the six gathering days The last whereof being Friday the Eve of their Saturday-Sabbath vers 22. the first must needs be Sunday the fifteenth day of the second month whereon this Assembly before the Lord was kept And therefore before this following Institution of the Jewish saturday-Saturday-Sabbath Sunday was their weekly Sabbath For the clearing of which I shall draw SECT VII This fourth Inference from this Instance viz. That the Saturday after this fifteenth day was the first Saturday Sabbath that ever was kept This is apparent from ver 22. On the sixth day they gathered twice as much And all the Rulers of the Congregation came and told Moses Now there cannot be imagined any other reason of their acquainting Moses herewith but that they might understand by him what was to be done with the overplus and to what purpose they were ordered to gather that proportion that day seeing what had been kept over-night stank the next morning vers 20. Vt ex eo cognoscerent quorsum hoc fuisset Jussum neque enim adhuc Dominus declaraverat se ob Sabbati Religionem id praescripsisse quod statim Moses explicat as Mr. Mede and Cornelius a Lapide observe They came to Moses to know of him wherefore this was commanded for the Lord had not as yet declared that he had prescribed this double portion with
that they should not inquire after the Nations way of Worship saying How did those Nations serve their Gods even so will I do that is after that manner will I serve God And in particular not after their burning of their Sons and Daughters in the Fire to their Gods Deut. 12. 30 31. Now the God to whom the Gentiles sacrificed their Children was the Sun whose Idol was called Moloch and Milchom Amos 5. 26. 1 Kings 11. 5 7. as being Molech or King of all the Planets and therefore by the 70 translated 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Prince and by the Phoenicians Door-Neighbours to the Jews called Beel-Samen the Lord of Heaven as Sanchoniatho witnesseth in Euseb Evang. Prep l. 1. And yet notwithstanding all these Prohibitions and God's discharging them from the publick Worship of himself on that day whereon the Heathens in their Apostacy from the first Institution worshipped the Sun the Jews imitated the Heathens in this most barbarous Custom of burning their Sons and Daughters in the Fire the Representation of the Sun Jer. 7. 31. 19. 5. Psal 106. 37 38. So exceeding prone was that People to imbrace strange Gods And therefore they stood so much more in need to have all Occasion thereto removed from them and especially such as God had instituted at first for the securing his own but were in process of Time perverted to the Introduction and countenancing of the Worship of false Gods as was the fate of the Patriarchal Sunday-Sabbath Upon the like account the Jews were prohibited very many other Customs if not of divine Institution yet of Patriarchal Practice yea some of them seeming to be the natural Results of the Law of Humanity such was mourning at the Funerals of dear and near Relations wherein the Patriarchs exceeded even to the Admiration of other Nations Gen. 50. 10 11. And they wailed there with a very great and heavy Wailing and he Joseph with his Brethren made a mourning for his Father seven days And the Canaanites saw the Mourning and they said This is an heavy Mourning to the Egyptians therefore the name of that Place was called The Mourning of the Egyptians Yet this so natural a Duty was prohibited the High-Priest for he must not mourn for his Father or Mother Levit. 21. 11. and that because he had the holy Anointing and the holy Garments upon him which were holy only in Type So that here the Law of Nature must yield to the Levitical in this particular Case where the High-Priest's honouring of Father and Mother could do the Dead no good but might be an occasion of Evil to the Living by the way this makes the Case of the High-Priests wholly different from the Pharisees pleading Carban But where lay the Danger Answer in drawing the Jews to Conformity to the idolatrous Heathens in their manner of mourning Baruch 6. 31 32. And the Priests sit in their Temples having their Cloaths rent and their Heads and Beards shaven and nothing upon their Heads They roar and cry before their Gods as Men do at the Feast when one is dead Hence all Communion with the Nations is so pathetically forbidden the Jews lest they should by that means be drawn to Idolatry So much less reason have we to wonder that God should appoint the Jews another Day for their weekly Sabbath than that which was instituted at first to all Mankind when the Gentiles had perverted the Celebration of that Day to the instituting the Worship of the Sun Upon the like reason at the Restitution of Sunday-Sabbath upon the expiring of the Ceremonial Saturday-Sabbath the Christian Church changed the name of Sunday into that of the Lord's-Day that she might secure her Children from the Opinion of the Heathen World that it was in honour of the Planet of the Sun that that day of the Week which bore its name was separated for holy Assembles 3. And now we need not go far to seek for a Reason why God appointed Saturday to be the Jewish Sabbath for that being the week-day immediately preceding Sunday and the whole Oeconomy of Moses's Law as of a thing imperfect pointing to good things to come Heb. 10. 1. It was necessary that their typical Day of Rest should be so placed in the order of the Septiman as from thence they might look immediately unto that Day of true Rest that was to come at the rising of the Sun of Righteousness out of the Grave But besides this the more special Reason of God's appointing them Saturday for their Sabbath was because Saturday was the first day of Rest they had from Egyptian Bondage for they marched from Rameses on Friday the 15th day of the 1st Month and set up their Booths at Succoth on Saturday where they stayed two days according to the common Opinion of Learned Men on the latter whereof Sunday the Premises considered it may be presumed that they kept an holy Rest unto the Lord according to the Patriarchal Custom and that it was in that Assembly that Moses repeated the Ordinances of the Passover and separated the first-born of Males and Firstlings of the Flocks and Herds to be holy to the Lord. SECT II. And that this Precept for saturday-Saturday-Sabbath did not vacate the Patriarchal either to all Nations or to the Jews themselves for ever but was only imposed upon them as a Carnal Ordinance of divine Service until the time of Reformation Heb. 9. 10. Or until the Seed should come Gal. 3. 19. and those good things the Body whereof is Christ whereof it was a Shadow God gave the Jews many plain Intimations 1. In his assigning their Deliverance from Egypt and their resting from their hard Labour in that Bondage as the peculiar Reason of his commanding the Jews to celebrate his Sabbaths Deut. 5. 15. That thy Man-Servant c. may rest as well as thou and remember that thou wast a Servant in the Land of Egypt 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-Sabbath-day whether weekly monthly or yearly as also the Sabbaths of Years and Jubilees which Reason cannot reach other Nations but is wholly accommodated to the Jews and to them only till the time of Restauration 2. In his suspending the Raigning of Mannah on their Sabbaths and letting it fall on Sunday's Manna being reputed by those that could not look under the Vail Angels Food the Bread of Heaven Psal 105. 40. it s not falling on their Sabbath was interpreted that the giving of true Manna that of which whosoever eateth shall live for ever was reserved for Gospel-times and the Restauration of the Patriarchal Sabbath when he whom the Father sealed would give his Flesh for the Life of the World that true Bread of Life Joh. 6. that spiritual Food which was the desire of all that hungred after Righteousness of the Distribution whereof in the Ordinances of the Gospel when
Design and Ambition is to be serviceable in promoting the Eternal Interest of Souls and the Peace of the Church Your Servant in our Common Lord. J. S. THE CONTENTS CHAP. I. THe Patriarchs had stated Assemblies for publick Worship Pag. 3. Sect. 1. They had stated Places for Divine Worship p. 4. Sect. 2. Stated Ministers with Maintenance Jacob's Vow The Egyptian Priests-Lands Cain's Offering p. 6. CHAP. II. The Patriarchs had stated Times proved from Gen. 4. 3. and Gen. 1. 4. p. 17. CHAP. III. These stated Times were weekly p. 19. Sect. 1. The Computation of Times by Septimanes common to all Ages Weeks of Years Gen. 29. 27. Affronts Sacred Chronology p. 20 c. Sect. 2. And to all Nations Computation by Months and Years of human Invention by Weeks of Divine Institution p. 25. Sect. 3. At the End of Days Gen. 4. 3. is the End of a Week p. 28. Sect. 4. Sons of God Job 1. 6. not Angels but Church-Members p. 30. Sect. 5. Sons of God different from Morning-Stars What is the Corner-Stone Job 38. p. 38. Sect. 6. The Sons of God Joh. 1. 6. proved to be the same with the Sons of God Gen. 2. 6. from the Proximity of the Times Job Contemporarian with Phaleg proved from length of his Age. Job was Jobab the Son of Joctan Daughter of Edom in the Land of Us Lam. 4. explained by Jer. 25. Job's Country Arabia Petraea p. 43. Sect. 7. Elihu wrote the History of Job p. 51. Sect. 8. Sons of God presenting themselves before the Lord was their Church-Convention on stated Days weekly p. 56. Sect. 9. The Chimaera of a Prolepsis Gen. 2. proved p. 61. CHAP. IV. The Weekly patriarchal-Patriarchal-Sabbath was Sunday p. 64. Sect. 1. The Patriarchal Sabbath was not Saturday proved from Testimony of Heathens Fathers Scripture which makes a vast difference betwixt the Sabbath of the fourth Precept and that injoyned the Jews by Moses p. 64. Sect. 2. The Sabbath of the fourth Precept and Mosaick grounded upon different Reasons p. 77. Sect. 3. The Patriarchal Sabbath was Sunday proved by two Arguments Saturday-Sabbaterians silenc'd p. 91. Sect. 4. The first Instance of celebrating Sunday before the Institution of Saturday-Sabbath Exod. 16. The pointing of the Septuagint refers the 15th day to their Morning Why that preferrable before the Hebrew p. 97. Sect. 5. The Assembly Ex. 16. 2. a Church-Assembly celebrated on course instructed by an Ecclesiastical Minister p. 115. Sect. 6. This 15th Day was Sunday p. 122. Sect. 7. The Saturday following was the first Saturday-Sabbath that ever was kept p. 126. Sect. 8. The other Instance of a Sunday-Sabbath kept before the giving of the Law by Moses Gen. 12. The Tenth Day there mentioned was Sunday It was on that day not the 14th that Moses and Aaron spake to the whole Church of the Israelites assembled not by an extraordinary Call but on Course for Religious Worship p. 132. CHAP. V. God rested on the seventh Day in his New Creation Man restored by Faith p. 146. Sect. 1. Proved in gross from the Analasis of Gen. Chap. 1 2 3 4. p. ibid. Sect. 2. Adam fell on the Day of his Creation p. 151. Sect. 3. He was restored the same day he fell The Lamb slain from the Foundation of the World The Covenant betwixt God the Father and the Son betwixt God and Adam confirmed by Oath how Sect. 4. From thence God smelt a Savour of Rest and not before CHAP. VI. Saturday-Sabbath being the sixth Day in order of the Creation was instituted upon other Grounds than that of the fourth Precept Where it has not footing but only in the Ceremonial Law was to expire at Christ's death and give place to the Patriarchal p. 179. Sect. 1. The Jewish Sabbath a discriminating Badg an Antidote against Idolatry by worshipping the Sun The day of rest from Egypt c. p. 180. Sect. 2. Plain Intimations of its being local and temporary p. 181. THE Patriarchal Sabbath CHAP. I. Sect. I. The Patriarchal Sabbath Instituted Gen. 2. 3. Celebrated by the Patriarchs before the Mosaick-Law and Reinforc'd by the fourth Precept of the Decalogue was the same Day of the Week viz. Sunday that the Christian Church celebrates in Memory of the Creation of the World and Redemption of Mankind FOR the Illustration and Proof of this Assertion it will be requisite that Proof be made of these Particulars 1. The Patriarchs had solemn stated Assemblies for Publick Worship 2. They had solemn Set Times for the Administration of Religious Worship in those Assemblies 3. These Set and Appointed Times were Weekly Sabbaths 4. These Weekly Sabbaths were Sundays 5. The New-Creature Man Restored by Faith in the Promised Seed was that perfect Finishing of the Creation that made all very Good and that from which God smelt so sweet a Savour of Rest on the Seventh Day as therefore to bless it 6. The Mosaical Saturday Sabbath being the Sixth Day in order of the Creation was instituted upon other grounds than that mentioned in the Decalogue and having no footing in the Fourth Precept but in the Ceremonial Law was to expire at Christs Death and give place to the Patriarchal CHAP. I. That the Patriarchal Church had Solemn Stated Assemblies for Publick Worship is manifest from their having Stated Places Seperate Persons and Maintenance in order to the Administration of such Worship SECT I. THat they had Sacred Places known by the name of the Houses of God the Presence of God c. is plain from Gen. 28. 17 22. This is none other but the House of God meaning the place of the Altar which his Grandfather Abraham had Erected at his first arrival in Canaan where his and Lot's Families used to call upon the Name of the Lord Gen. 12. 8. And he removed thence unto a Mountain on the East of Bethel and Pitched his Tents having Bethel on the West and Hai on the East and there he builded an Altar unto the Lord and called upon the Name of the Lord. And Chap. 13. 3. And he went on his Journey from the South even to Bethel unto the Place where his Tent had been at the beginning between Bethel and Hai unto the place of the Altar which he had made there at the firct and there Abraham called upon the Name of the Lord. In both these Texts the Place appears to be the very same where Jacob had the Visions of God to wit Bethel betwixt Ai and Bethel that is the House of God betwixt the City Ai and the City Luz for so was that City called at the first Gen. 28. 19. and afterwards Bethel from the House of God adjacent as the Towns Kirby Kendal Kirby Lunsdal Kirby Steven have their Names from the Churches there built Now that Abraham solemnized Publick Divine Worship here ut Familiam suam in Pietate instrueret that he might edifie his Family in Piety to use the words of Batablus may be rationally concluded from hence that he did not only Pray
it because that in it God rested from all his Works which he created and made For the understanding whereof and applying it for the support of a weekly Patriarchal Sabbath Let it be observed 1. That the conceit of a Prolepsis in these words of Moses is clearly overthrown by the Premises for if the Patriarchs had stated dayes of Publick Worship so long before Moses that practice of theirs could not possibly be grounded upon any other bottom but God's resting upon the Seventh-day and therefore sanctifying it to be a day of Rest by his Precept to Adam Seeing that their appointing stated dayes for such Worship on their own heads would have been no better than Will-Worship and such as God might justlie have expostulated with them about saying Who hath required this at your hands and so much a greater affront to the divine Majestie as they were further off from all possibilitie of Ignorance of God's resting the Seventh day Nay what presumption had it been in the Patriarchs to have expected God's blessing upon their celebrating other stated Days than God had sanctiâ—â—ed And sure none can imagine but that they waited upon God for his blessing upon their sacred conventions Thus the practice of the Patriarchs is a full Comment on this Text. 2. It being granted that this Text is to be understood according to the plain literal sense then it will cast light upon those Patriarchal Texts that have been alledged concerning their stated times for sacred Assemblies and clearly discover those Sons of God in Job to have presented themselves before the Lord on that Day which God had sanctified at first to that end Let this at present suffice for the proof of this third Proposition which will be further cleared in the handling the fourth viz. CHAP. IV. These weekly Sabbaths observed before the Mosaical Law were Sundays not Satterdayes SECT I. IN order to the vindication of this point from the charge of Novelty and singularity I shall first shew from the Testimonies of Heathens and Fathers as well as from Reasons deduced from Sacred Writ That the Jewish Saturday-Sabbath was not the Seventh-day Sabbath of the Patriarchs ARGUMENT I. Those Encomiums above quoted which Heathen Poets who were antiently Divines and Philosophers bestow upon the Seventh-day cannot be meant of the Jewish Sabbath partly because those ancient Poets Hesiod Homer Linus had not any acquaintance with the Jewish Affairs as Josephus contra App. lib. 1. observes And therefore those Praises appertain to that weekly Day which that part of the Gentile World that retained the old Tradition observed But especially because when the Jewish Sabbath came under the observation of the Heathens they made a mock thereat they mocked at their Sabbaths Lam. 7. 7. And they who derided them were not the scum but the most intelligent Moralists such as Seneca quoted by St. Aug. de Civ Dei 6. 11. Septimam vitae partem sic perdunt vacando The Jews saith he spend the seventh part of their life in doing nothing With him concur Plutarch de Superst Rutilin in itinerario in diriding the Jewish Sabbath As also Juvenal Sat. 14. Cui septima quaeque fuit lux Ignava et partem vitae non attigit ullam The Jewish Seventh day is a day of Idleness and contributes nothing to any part of life And Persius Sat. 5. At cum Herodis venere dies c. Labra movis tacitus recutitque Sabbata palpes Even whilst thou art celebrating speaking to a Jew Festivals the forethought of the Jewish Sabbath makes thee look pale These seem to deride the Jews for the manner of keeping their Sabbaths for leading thereon a Dog's life of hunger and ease But Agatharcides as Josephus reports cont App. l. 1. styled the Jewish Sabbath it self 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a corrupt or depraved Custom as degenerate from that weekly Holy-day which was anciently and universally observed Arg. 2. This may also be evinc'd by the Testimonies of those Fathers of the primitive Church who were nearest to the Apostles Justine Martyr Dial. cum Triphone Before Moses none of the Righteous observed the Sabbath that is the Jewish Saturday-Sabbath for the Question here discust betwixt him and Triphon the Jew was Whether the Fathers before the Law celebrated the Jewish Sabbath Of which Question the Jew held the Affirmative and Justine the Negative Tertullian contra Judaeos makes this Challenge to the Jews Let them shew that the ancient Patriarchs did Sabbatize that is observe Saturday as their weekly Holiday for that they did celebrate that Sabbath day that God instituted at the beginning Tertullian himself confesseth ad Martionem libr. 4. hoc privilegium donatum Sabbato a primordio c. This priviledge was granted to the Sabbath from the beginning c. Ireneus l. 4. c. 30. all the Patriarchs before Moses were justified without the Sabbath Eusebius hist Eccles l. 1 c. 4. there was no observation of the Sabbath among the Patriarchs as also none amongst us this cannot possibly be meant of any other Sabbath than the Jewish 1. Because Eusebius in praeparat Evang. proveth that the most antient Gentiles had knowledg of and veneration for the seventh day out of Hesiod c. which they could not have from the Jews with whom these NaNations had then no Converse 2. Because of that last clause as also none amongst us which cannot exclude the Lord's day for Christians celebrate that but only the Jewish Saturday Grotius expounds these Testimonies as if they only denied the Patriarchs to have kept the Sabbath after the rigid mode of the Jews grounding that opinion upon Tertullian's Sabbatize but that learned Man should have considered that Tertullians curt Stile and his humour to coin new words renders him the unmeetest of all the Fathers to umpire the sense of others since his own is in very many places past finding out save by the light of other Writers and therefore the other Fathers that writ upon the same Subject ought rather to interpret him than he them But Grotius his haste to wrest these Testimonies out of the hands of the Prolepsarians makes this slip more excuseable than the course that Hamon L'Estrange takes to evade the dint of this Argument by denying the competency of the Witnesses For what humane Authority can be of more weight in the esteem of indifferent Judges than this of these Fathers who were as learned Defenders of the Christian Cause against Jews Gentiles and Hereticks as the Church hath been blest with especially in this case wherein they had to deal with most subtil Adversaries and therefore it is to be presumed that here they did not glance on the Question but examined and discuss'd it throughly neither indeed could these great Defenders of the Christian Cause have stood their Ground in maintaining the Christian Practice of Celebrating Sunday for their weekly Sabbath against the Assaults made from God's Command to the Jews to celebrate Saturday but by denying as our Saviour did
a religious respect to the Sabbath which Moses forthwith explains vers 23. To morrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath c. and vers 29. See because the Lord hath given you this Sabbath therefore he hath given you on the sixth day the Bread of two days Philo Judaeus saith that the Hebrews were taught by this which was the birth-day of the World whereof their Forefathers were ignorant a very likely thing that Abraham should not know the Patriarchal Sabbath L'Estrange will have it thus That the Elders made not strange at the Sabbath but at the strictness of the Rest now commanded But he should have called to mind that nothing was spoken of that till after the Elders were come to Moses And if we duly weigh the Story the Elders will be found to have thought it strange why the People gathered this double portion on Friday for the Elders knew that a double portion was to be gathered on the sixth day six days before And therefore would doubtless have applied themselves to Moses before now for a resolution if they had then questioned for what end they were to gather double on the sixth day and no other reason can be imagined of that delay but that their thoughts were suspended all that while upon the sixth day of the Patriarchal-week which is Saturday till they saw the People gather on the sixth day in the order of the gathering days and then and not till then they came to Moses that he might resolve them whether the Precept was to be interpreted of the sixth day in the order of the Creation which had hitherto been the preparation for the Sabbath or whether it was God's purpose to alter the Sabbath and transfer it from Sunday to Saturday and that therefore Friday now must be their preparation day or which comes all to one whether the six days were to comense at the first gathering-day or the first of the Patriarchal week And this seruple propounded by all the Elders that is all the grave men of the Congregation who had been longest acquainted with the Ancient Sabbath for Elders in the Text does not imply a name of Office but of Age Elders by Office not being constituted till Jethro had advised Moses to constitute them Exod. 18. 21. These it seems had not themselves gathered a double portion but thought the younger sort timerarious in their account of days and therefore acquaint Moses with it whom Moses thus resolves This is that the Lord hath said to morrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord. When did God say this but in his Precept to gather twice as much on the sixth day So that here Moses comments upon the Precept telling them that thereby God appointed to the Jews the morrow following to be thence-forward their weekly Sabbath Whereas if they had been used before to keep Saturday-Sabbath the Rulers needed not to have applied themselves to Moses for the resolution of such a question as a Child might have unriddled for it cannot be imagined but the day before the Patriarchal Sabbath was from the beginning a preparation to it whereon Reason would tell Men that they ought to set their secular Affairs in such good order as they might not be distracted by them in the sacred exercises of the Sabbath which from the first was so to be sanctified as no servile work was to be done thereon And seeing the Israelites at this time had no other servile work to do but gathering and dressing of Manna if they had not been restrained from that on the Sabbath there would have been no difference betwixt that and other days in respect of cessation from common work And therefore upon that supposition that Saturday was their ancient Sabbath the Elders must have been Children in understanding if they perceived not the reason of the Precept for gathering twice as much on Friday To sum up the whole of this Argument This is the first Saturday-Sabbath we find celebrated in the Wrold for 2453 Years at the lowest account and that the whole World should live to that age without a Sabbath is the most incredible of Incredibles In order to the vindication of the Patriarchal-Church from so black a Crime I have endeavoured to shew that Sunday-Sabbath was observed before the Institution of the Jewish Saturday-Sabbath from the first instance And I shall give more clear and unexceptionable proof thereof in the other forenamed instance drawn from Exod. 12. 3. Speak ye unto all the Congregation of Israel saying On the tenth day of this mouth they shall take to them a Lamb c. SECT VIII 2d Instance If we reckon backward from the 15th day of the second month which we demonstrated to have been Sunday till we come to the tenth day of the first month we shall find that tenth day to have been Sunday and to have been celebrated by the Israelites and by consequence the Egyptians also their keeping thereon a solemn religious stated Assembly on course 1. That this tenth day fell on Sunday may be thus collected by a retrograde calculation of days from the fifteenth of the second month to the tenth of the first Second month Days 15 8 1. First month days 24 17 10 were 〈◊〉 For the proof of this Account wherein I assign 30 days to a month I have the plain testimony of Moses Gen. 7. 24. compared with Chap. 8. 4. where the beginning of the 150 days of the Waters prevailing above the Earth is said to be the 17th day of the month and the end of those days the 17th of the 7th month that is just five months if we assign to each month 30 days And Deut. 12. 13. She shall bewail her Father and Mother a month of days This would have been a Lesbian Rule if their months had not consisted of an equal number of days And if the days of every of those months wherein the Waters prevailed had not been thirty the space from the 17th of the second to the 17th of the seventh month would not have amounted to 150 days These Texs are so plain as I wonder how so many Men of great and deserved name came to be lulled except by Rabbinical Sorcery into so deep a sleep as to dream of the Jewish months having assigned to them alternatim 30 and 29 days and to forsake Moses his conduct in so plain a path An Errour which the industrious and learned Vsher gives his Testimony against in the Preface to his Annals The Year saith he there of the Patriarchs Egyptians and Hebrews consisted of twelve equal months of thirty days aepiece For that the Hebrews used Lunary months before the Babylonish Captivity is more than can be proved from this so infallible an Evidence that the Patriarchs reckoned thirty days to the month what ever Innovation after-Ages introduc'd is not here material A demonstrative proof may be drawn of the truth of the first Instance also that the 15th of the second month Exod. 16.
could wish was the Rest of Redemption And the Jewish Saturday-Sabbath the rest of the Creation uncompleated on the sixth day before Man was capacitated by Faith in Christ to glorify God through his Redeemer Saturday and Sunday-Sabbath came into the World not like Esau and Jacob but like Phares and Zara. The Jewish Saturday-Sabbath was not born first and afterwards the Christian Sunday-Sabbath catching the Jewish by the Heel supplanted it and obtained the Blessing of Primogeniture But the Christian Sabbath like Zara first put out its Hand and upon Sunday's Wrist was tied the Thred the Bond of God's Injunction to sanctify that Day and the Scarlet-Thred the Bond of the Covenant of Grace sealed in the Blood of the promised Seed for by binding is signified the imposing of the Law of hallowing the Sunday-Sabbath whence God's Laws are called Bonds and Cords Let us break their Bonds asunder and cast their Cords from us that is the Laws of God and of his Christ Psal 2. 2 3. And a Bond or Cord of Scarlet Thred was to Rahab a sign of the Covenant confirmed by the Blood of Christ Josh 2. 18. compared with Heb. 11. 31. By Faith the Harlot Rahab perished not And the Patriarchal Church unto the Flood and all since the Flood who adhered to that Church in their Sunday-Sabbath Celebrities had an Eye of Faith upon that Scarlet-Thred bound to the Wrist of that Day But when the villanous Subtilty of such Politicians as designed to make themselves absolute Soveraigns over the Nations independent from God had perverted that custom of worshipping God in publick Assemblies on Sundays by inacting the Worship of the Sun on that day that bare the name of that Planet making that Hand which God had set at the end of the Volumn of his Book as the Index pointing to the chief Contents of that Volumn the eternal Word making Propitiation through his Blood to point the contrary way to the Worship of the Creature Then the Scarlet-Thred was drawn back out of the Jews sight till the fullness of time and now comes forth the Jewish Saturday-Sabbath more than 2400 Years after the Patriarchal Sunday-Sabbath which Saturday-Sabbath was not imposed upon any Nation but the Jews nor upon them in room of the Patriarcal but upon other accounts as will be shewed in the handling of the sixt and last Branch of our Discourse upon the Sabbath CHAP. VI. The Mosaical Saturday-Sabbath fixt on the sixth Day of the Week in the order of Creation was instituted upon other Grounds than that mentioned in the Decalogue and having no footing in the forth Precept but in the Ceremonial Law was to expire at Christ's Death and give place to the Patriarchal Sabbath SECT I. THat Saturday-Sabbath as well as the rest was appointed the Jews to be a Ceremonial Badg to difference them from all other Nations who celebrated Sunday as their weekly Sabbath is so frequently affirmed in Sacred Scripture in these or equivalent Terms It is a sign between me and you throughout your Generations that you may know that I am the Lord that sanctifieth you As all that is requisite for the proof hereof is to shew that in those places by God's sanctifying of them is meant his visible separating them from all other People for his own Inheritance by a Covenant of Peculiarity For evincing of which let it be considered that in Ezek. 20. God's giving them Statutes and Judgments that is Moral and Judicial Laws is not said to be to this end that they might know that he was the Lord that sanctified them as his giving them his Sabbaths to be a sign between him and them was vers 11 12. and vers 19 20. I am the Lord your God hallow my Sabbaths and they shall be a Sign between me and you that ye may know that I am the Lord your God That is That I have taken you to be unto me a People and an Inheritance as ye are at this day Deut. 4. 20. Levit. 20. 24. And yet more plain Exod. 31. 13. it is affirmed of all the Sabbaths Indefinitely that the keeping of them is a sign between God and the Jews That he is the Lord their God c. and vers 16. The Children of Israel shall keep my Sabbaths throughout their Generations by an everlasting Ordinance It is a Sign betwixt me and the Children of Israel for ever 2. The reason why God would not have the Jews to celebrate the Sunday which the Patriarchs and themselves till the Institution of the Saturday-Sabbath celebrated as the weekly Sabbath but appointed them another day was to secure them from idolizing the Sun with the Heathens who had perverted Sunday-Sabbath from the Worship of God to the Worship of the Sun from the Guilt of which Idolatry in celebrating the Patriarchal Sabbath Job purgeth himself Job 31. 26 27 28. If I beheld the Sun when it shined and my Heart hath been secretly enticed or my Mouth hath kissed my Hand this also were an Iniquity to be punished by the Judg For I should have denied the God that is above That is if I had worship'd the the Sun secretly in my Heart it would have been a denying of God But if I had worship'd it openly by kissing my Hand at the sight of it I had become obnoxious to the sentence of the Judg where note that in Job's time who lived some Generations before Abram the World grew propense to this idolizing of the Sun but hitherto the Noachal Religion was so prevalent as the publick Law of the Nations opposed its Incroachment Mercer in locum Vnde videatur Jobi conterraneos tum non fuisse idolatras quia dicit se non clam id fecisse nedum palam non prodit statim in publicum ista temeritas nisi postquam cor plane occaecatum fuerit consensus favorque plurium accesserint Job's Contemporaries and Country-men were not Idolaters because he saith he did not worship the Sun either secretly or openly such Temerity as this doth not forthwith appear in publick but after that the Heart is altogether blinded and common Consent and Favour come to take its part However in Moses's time this idolizing of the Sun had universally prevail'd and even in Abraham's time was back't by the secular Law in Vr of the Chaldees for the Contempt whereof in his refusing to worship the Caldean Emblem of the Sun Abraham with his Father Terah found Vr of the Caldees too hot for them By the way observe that the word which in this place of Job is translated the Sun 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is that from whence Vr of the Caldees deriv'd its Name and the Egyptians the Name they give the Sun 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Macrob. Saturnal 1. 21. Hence Moses so frequently reneweth this Caution that the Jews should take heed of making any Representations of the Sun or any of the Host of Heaven Deut. 4. 19. and Chap. 7. 3. in special to the Sun and Moon
they heard Christ discourse they cried out Lord evermore give us of this Bread Not so much as the Type of that Bread which can give Satisfaction and Rest to the Soul was communicated on their Sabbath and that was a plain enough Indication that their Sabbath was not the true Rest 3. In the very form of its first Institution Exod. 16. 23. the Imposition of the Name bewrays the nature of the thing is the Rest of the Sabbath Sabbathon Sabbath the Sabbatism the Sabbath holy to the Lord so Ainsworth reads it But he is exceeding wide of the sense of the Hebrew Word Sabbathon in translating it Sabbatism except he takes Sabbatism for a Diminitive for Schindler in his Penteglot and P. Fagius on the Chaldee Paraphrase Exod. 31. 15. affirm that Sabbathon hath the form of a Diminitive which saith he the Hebrews form by adding on to the end of the Primitive as Isch viz. Ishcon virunculus so of Sabbath comes Sabbathon Sabbatulum And Fagius observes that the Hebrew Doctors do thus distinguish these two words that Sabbath signifies the whole day from beginning to end Sabbathon that part of the Eve before the just beginning of the Sabbath which was taken from the prophane and added to the sacred Time by such as chose rather to over-do than to come short The Name therefore given Saturday-Sabbath at first was the Puny Sabbath the demy-Rest or the Eve-rest of the true Sabbath A Diminitive Rest for Children under Age preparative to that holy Rest suitable to Men which was to succeed 4. David speaking of another day of Rest than that which Moses had instituted the Celebration of and of another Rest than that which Joshua brought them into the Possession of made so clear a Comment upon the Precept of the Sabbath as well as of their Rest in Canaan as from thence the Jews might have collected that both were but shadows of a better Rest and better Day of Rest approaching by the same way of Ratiocination that the Apostle useth in the 3d and 4th Chapters to the Hebrews Touching the Rest of Canaan it is not material to my Business and therefore I shall not speak of that but occasionally But what the Author of that Epistle argueth from David's speaking of another day so long a time after the giving of the Precept touching Saturday-Sabbath is of such moment towards the right Perception of the Strenuousness of his Arguments for both and of so great Concernment towards the Illustration of that Point I am now handling as I shall for the clearing of the Apostle's Discourse on that Subject commit to the Censure of the pious and learned these Annotations 1. The Rest of Joshua and the Sabbath of Moses as reflected on by David are that Yoke of Heifers wherewith the Apostle plows to find out the Riddle of the Lord's-day-Sabbath and the not making them to draw equally is the main reason why Commentators make no better Work of St. Paul's Arguments touching another Day and why they make a balk or a bungle of the Christian Sabbath though all the Texts alledged not only in their own most natural Tendency but in the Apostle's express Application of them look directly thitherward I will begin with that which Beza confesses to be a most obscure place Heb. 4. 3. For we which have believed do enter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into that Rest as he said as I have sworn in my Wrath if they shall enter into my Rest although the Works were finished from the Foundation of the World It is the Mis-translation of this last Clause makes this Text unintelligible but if Men did not shut their Eyes for fear of seeing the Light of the Christian-Sabbath dart in upon them from hence or cast the Vail of their own Pre-occupations upon the face of it there would be no Obscurity at all in it for take it as the Apostle gave it if it were writ by him in Greek and it is as light as Day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If they shall enter into my Rest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 equidem scilicet nempe I mean or that is to say or to wit in the Works when they were finished from the Foundation of the World i. e. They shall not enter into that Rest I took on the seventh Day when I saw all things that I had made and lo it was very good For he speaks in a certain place of the seventh Day on this wise And God did rest the seventh Day from all his Works as it immediately follows vers 4. by which Quotation of what is said Gen. 2. 2. the Apostle proves that he hath given a right Explanation of David's Words when he saith the Rest of God there meant is God's resting in the Contemplation of the Perfections of his Works on the seventh Day upon the account whereof he blessed the seventh Day because it is there said of the seventh Day that God rested from all his Works And that he had rightly concluded from God's swearing Unbelievers out of his Rest that Believers that is Christians had entred into it seeing the only Bar put in against entering is Unbelief he proves vers 5. from that place of David which the Apostle had taken for his Text Chap. 3. and in this place again that is he speaks again of the seventh Day on this wise If they shall enter into my Rest The reason of which Consequence the Apostle gives vers 6. Seeing then some must enter in for to what purpose else serves the Promise of entring and they to whom it was first preached entred not in because of Vnbelief The Consequence is so plain that it needs not be repeated to wit that therefore they that have believed are entred And again or furthermore vers 7. He limiteth a certain day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saying to David to day after so long a time it is said To day if you will hear my Voice That is the Day that David speaks of cannot be the Jewish Saturday-Sabbath for the Jews were very zealous in keeping that carnal Commandment insomuch as he that did but gather a few Sticks was stoned to death and in recompence thereof had bodily Rest given them by Joshua in Canaan but it was many hundreds of Years after that that David spake of another Day and another Rest which he would not have done if that had been God's seventh Day 's Rest conducting them to the true Rest For if Jesus i. e. Joshua had given them Rest then would he not afterwards have spoken of another Day vers 8. From all which Premises the Apostle draws this Conclusion There remaineth therefore a Rest to the People of God ver 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. therefore the Sabbatism remains or is left or falls to the share of the People of God i.e. to the Christian Church according to that Rom. 9. 25. I will call them my People that were not my People And now Sabbatism is not so hard to be
from his own Works as God did from his For as God rested on the seventh Day from his proper Works as Creator that being the proper Work of God the Father who made me and all the World though as to other kind of Works the Father worketh hitherto Even so he that is entred into the Rest of the People of God the Christian-Sabbath doth therein most genuinely imitate God in that he also hath ceased from his Works that is the Works of the Law of Moses that being the proper Notion of Works in St. Paul's Sence whensoever he makes Comparison betwixt the Law and the Gospel And the Works of the Law being the proper Works of the Hebrews to whom this Epistle was directed as differencing them from all other Nations He hath cast off that Yoak of Ceremonies which neither we nor our Fathers could bear and hath taken the easy Yoke of Christ upon him that he may find rest to his Soul And what an apt Introduction is this to what is immediately subjoyned vers 11. Let us therefore strive to enter into this same Rest lest any Man fall after the same Example of Vnbelief Let me therefore perswade you to imitate God in his Seventh-Day's Rest lest you imitate your fore-Fathers in Unbelief and be excluded from eternal Rest From which fearful State the best way to be secured is to attend upon Christian Lord's-Day's Assemblies and Administrations where you shall hear Moses in the Newness of his Spirit not in the Oldness of the Letter you will see that Vail that Moses put upon his Face done away if you will turn unto the Lord and will find the Word of God as a sharp two-edged Sword drawn out of the Scabbard of Types and Ceremonies wherein it could not do any Execution upon the Soul and so weilded as it shall pierce even to the dividing asunder of the Soul and Spirit which is the plain Importance of vers 12. For the Word of God is quick c. that is as it is dispenc'd in Christian-Assembles into which if an Unbeliever should come while they are prophesying 1 Cor. 14. 24. that is applying Old-Testament Prophesies unto Christ and proving thence that Jesus is the Christ he is judg'd convinc'd of all convinc'd of the Sin of Unbelief Joh. 16. 8. convinc'd and judg'd of all that is all that prophesy one by one 1 Cor. 14. 31. not only by the prophesying of such as like Apollos are mighty in the Scriptures Act. 18. 28. but is so mightily convinc'd that Jesus is the Christ even of the weakest of them that have the Gift of Prophesying that is of applying the Old-Testament for proof of the truth of the Gospel he is I say by this powerful Word so convinc'd as the Secrets of his Heart are made manifest and so falling down on his Face he glorifieth God and confesseth that God is in you of a Truth 1 Cor. 14. 25. By the Premises it appears that the Apostle's scope in his Discourse of the Sabbath is to withdraw the Jews from the Celebration of their Fruitless Sabbath to the Observation of the Christian-Sabbath As also how well God provided for the Settlement of publick-stated Assemblies in the Church when the Jewish Sabbaths were antiquated by letting the Apostles see that though the Law for that was out of date Col. 2. 16. yet there remained a Sabbath to the People of God viz. That which was instituted from the beginning and commanded in the Decalogue Had the Apostle indeed only decried that and not establish'd this it might have been thought that the Church had been left to her choice what Day of the Week to have celebrated as Calvin and the Prolepsarians conceive But as if the holy Ghost had purposely intended to obviate that Errour the admitting whereof would unavoidably bring Confusion into the Christian World he was pleased to direct the same Apostle whose Pen had cancel'd the Jewish to write in Vindication of the Christian-Sabbath and to inform him that seeing the Partition-wall was taken down there was a plain and open way made for the Restauration of the Patriarchal Sunday-Sabbath that Sabbath in the sanctifying whereof the greatest part of those Worthies mentioned Heb. 11. had received Grace to offer acceptable Sacrifices to God by Faith in the promised Seed to walk with God to be upright before him in the most general Apostacies to obey his Call unreservedly though they knew not whither To exert such Heroick Acts of Faith Patience Contempt of the World Dependance on God c. as made them the Wonders of that World which was unworthy of them and Paterns to the best of Christians That Sabbath in the Celebration whereof the Christian-Church forsook the Jewish Synagogue then became the Synagogue of Satan and betook themselves to the Communion of the General-Assembly and Church of the First-born consisting of all those who from the Publication of the Promise of Christ to Adam had been begotten again of the immortal Seed of that ever-induring Word administred to the Patriarchs and all that adhere to the Patriarchal Religion in all Nations and Ages and administred without those carnal Ordinances and unprofitable bodily Exercises wherewith the Jews Sabbath was incumbred if not wholly taken up therewith For the Jews that out-went the Ox and Ass in keeping the Mosaical Sabbath as such did not go beyond them in the Strength of the Services thereof which could not perfect them that frequented them as touching Conscience but in the strength of the Ordinances of the Patriarchal Sabbath so that it was their doing Sunday's Work on their Saturdays that sanctified the Jews as to Conscience Their own Sabbath's Rest from Work sanctifying them only by the external visible separating of them from other Nations to the end that our Saviour's Descent from Abraham might be more conspicuous And therefore as their fore-Fathers sell short through their looking no further than Canaan so those then Moderate Jews to whom he writes would also fall short of Eternal Rest if they did not look forward beyond their Sabbath-Day to Sunday or the Lord's-Day-Sabbath in the Ordinances whereof Saving Grace is so plentifully dispenc'd as the Eunuch shall have no cause to say I am a dry Tree nor the Sun of the Stranger to complain I am utterly cut off from God's People If they take hold of God's Covenant and keep his Sabbaths now under the Gospel tho they were excluded from the Congregation of the Lord under the Mosaical Sabbath Isa 56. 4 c. but their Sacrifices shall be accepted upon his Altar and he will make them joyful in his House of Prayer To this God of all Grace who deals thus bountifully with us Gentiles even to the Father Son and Holy-Ghost be given all Praises and Adoration now and for ever Amen FINIS Books printed for and sold by RICHARD CHISWELL FOLIO Dr. Cave's Lives of the Primitive Fathers in 2 Vol. Dr. Cary's Chronological Account of Ancient Time Wilson's Compleat Christian