adoption of Children through Jesus Christ unto himself according to the good pleasure of his will Neither will it be possible to prove that by the light of Nature setting aside the Commandment of God we are directed to believe in Christ and expect Salvation from him So that I retort the Adversaires similitude upon him and conclude firmly from thence that as the Mystery of Christ is not Moral but dependeth on the good Pleasure of God so neither is the observation of the Sabbath which he compareth therewith Pag. 25. In this Page the Adversary speaketh out and sheweth that though he often mentions the Name of Christ and Christians yet his design is by this Doctrine of the Seventh-day-Sabbath to bring us from Christ unto Moses for he expresly saith I know no newer Covenant than the Covenant of Life and Peace which was made with Levi Mal. 2.5 For is not Gods Covenant with Christ Jesus newer than his Covenant with Levi Or is not his Covenant with Levi that which he made by the hand of Moses the Levite when Israel came out of Egypt Why is Christ called the Mediator of a better Covenant and thereby opposed to the Levitical Priests Heb. 11.21 22. If there be no newer Covenant of Life and Peace than that which of Old was made with Levi Behold therefore O ye Brethren that love the Lord Jesus and his Gospel how the Adversary here doth cast off his Vizard acknowledging no new Covenant to be made with Christ but that the old Covenant with Levi is still in force For if this be so why do we not presently renounce the Gospel and take upon us the Observance of the Law which was received under the Levitical Priesthood Why do we not trun Jews For you see this is the Mark at which the Adversary notwithstanding his specious Pretences to the contrary doth indeed aim Pag. 27. That none before Moses time was under Reproof either from their own Conscience or from God that we Read of for breaking the Sabbath is an evident Proof that the Sabbath is not Moral else why should they not have been Reproved for the breach of that as well as of other Duties which are confessedly Moral Neither is it to the matter to say as you do that the Sabbath was in force before Moses unless you prove it to be therefore in force because the Law of Nature did suggest it unto Men which you have not yet nor ever shall be able to evince If you thereupon demand how it could be that God should have Commanded it from the beginning and yet the Patriarchs not be blamed for neglecting it I Answer because it was grown out of knowledge as that passage Neh. 9.14 sheweth where it is said Thou madest known unto them thy Holy Sabbath But none can be justly reproved for not observing a Ceremonial and Positive Law when it is once grown out of knowledge and forgotten and this is the Reason why the word Remember is prefixed to this and to no other of the Ten Commandments implying that the Sabbath being of Institution and no part of the Law of Nature as the other Nine Commandments are might in after Ages as well as it had formerly be utterly forgotten Page 34. Though the word Sabbath be not mentioned Exod. 16.4 5. yet is the thing it self there plainly intimated when God saith On the sixth day they shall prepare what they bring in and it shall be twice as much as they gathered daily For why should that which they brought in on the sixth day be prepared and be double to what they gathered daily but because they might not prepare or gather any Manna on the Seventh day but ought to keep it for a Sabbath of Rest So that it is truly affirmed by Moses ver 23. that the Lord had said to morrow is the Rest of the Holy Sabbath in that he had before Commanded them to gather on the sixth day twice as much as they did upon any other day and also to prepare it Wherefore it is undeniable that God Commanded the Sabbath in the fourth and fifth Verse of the sixteeth Chapter of Exodus Pag. 40. That Text Col. 2.16 17. is so directly opposite to the Adversaries Opinion and shineth with so full a Light that it is no marvel that he should strive might and main to raise up a whole Cloud of Dust to obscure it but all in vain seeing he may sooner darken the Sun it self For first when the Apostle here saith Let no man judge you in meat or drink doth he not thereby signifie that the difference of meats and drinks formerly enjoyned by God doth now cease Secondly when he addeth or in respect so I am told ought the words to be rendred as will appear by comparing 2 Cor. 3.10 and Chap. 9.3 where the same expression is so used of an Holy-day or Feast or New Moon or Sabbath Doth not this in like manner shew that neither the Feasts or New Moons formerly Commanded to the People of God do more bind Christians than the difference of meats and drinks aforesaid But if they be not obliged to observe them they are by the same Reason as little bound to keep the Sabbath which is here put in the same Rank with Feasts and New Moons Neither can it be denyed that by the Sabbath is here meant the Seventh-day-Sabbath For there is no place in all the New Testament where the word Sabbath in Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth signifie any other than the Seventh-day-Sabbath Yea being simply put so that it is not said such or such a time shall be to you a Sabbath or to the Land it doth always in the Old Testament denote the Seventh-day-Sabbath Again the Sabbath is here distinguished from Feasts and New Moons and therefore can be understood of no other than the Seventh-day-Sabbath For though as you Object the word Feasts when put by it self may comprehend the Seventh-day-Sabbath as perhaps it doth Lev. 23.23 yet when it is joyned with Sabbaths it cannot do so for then the same thing would be twice expressed and this is manifest from that Text Lev. 23.37 38. These are the Feasts of the Lord which you shall Proclaim to be Holy Convocations besides the Sabbaths of the Lord. As for other Sabbaths besides the Seventh-day-Sabbath they are comprehended under the word Feasts So that in the foresaid passage Col. 2.16 by Sabbath joyned with Feasts and New Moons can no other Sabbath be possibly meant but the Seventh-day-Sabbath as those instances which in my former Discourse I alledged out of the Old Testament do clearly prove neither shall so much as one instance be alledged out of the New to the contrary And whereas you further Object though as little to the purpose as before that we shall find one Sabbath so far from being a Feast that it is the day of severe Affliction Have I not here just cause again to tax you for Quibbling
upon words seeing it is apparent from the 4th Verse of this 23d of Levit. that by Feasts are not meant times of Belly-cheer but Holy Convocations wherein men ceased from their ordinary Labour and were employed in Religious Duties whether they made Mirth or Afflicted their Souls In the third place to return to the fore-cited Text Col. 2.16 17. Where the Apostle super-addeth which are a shadow of things to come but the Body is of Christ This hath relation to rhe five things mentioned in the 16th Verse at least to that which is immediately fore-going the Sabbath So that the Sabbath distinguished from Feasts and New Moons and so according to the perpetual usage of the Scriptures signifying no other than the Seventh-day-Sabbath is by the Apostle Paul called a shadow the Body whereof is exhibited to us in Christ namely in the Everlasting Sabbath of the Kingdom of Heaven Wherefore to bring us back to shadows after that the Body is come is not only Preposterous but tendeth to the enslaving us under the Rudiments of the World and instead of Sons to make us Servants Pag. 57. For as much as the Adversary not only here but elsewhere in his Book saith that Christ delivered the Law to Israel at Mount Sinai I would fain hear from him why the Scriptures Heb. 8.6 and 12.24 calleth Jesus the Mediator of a New and better Covenant For certainly this implyeth that some other Person was the Mediator of the Old and wose Covenant Again why doth the Apostle John prefer Christ before Moses in this regard namely that whereas the Law was given by Moses Grace and Truth came by Jesus Christ Chap. 1.17 Undoubtedly this strongly Argueth that the Law was not given by Christ wherefore you deal ridiculously in desiring me to take heed of perswading others to transgress any one word that Christ immediately Commanded at Mount Sinai To what purpose do you bestow such Elegies upon the Law of God Pag. 61. Is it not to insinuate into the Minds of the unwary Readers that I am a Contemner yea an Opposet thereof Whereas I think very Honourably of it as being Holy Just and Good Only I believe what you your self dare not disavow that all the Ceremonial and Shadowy things thereof are now done away in Christ And that the Sabbath is one of those Ceremonial and Shadowy things I have undenyably evinced as from other passages of the Scripture so especially from that Text of Paul Col. 2.16 17. which plainly signifieth that as the difference of Meats and Drinks and the Celebration of Feasts and New Moons so also the keeping of the Sabbath was a shadow of things to come the Body whereof is now held forth unto us in Christ Pag. 68. As for that passage Mat. 24.21 where our Saviour Christ bids his Disciples pray that their flight might not be on the Sabbath day the words plainly intimate that it would be Lawful to flee on that day and consequently that the Law concerning the Sabbath would cease whereby it was enjoyned that no man should remove out of his place on the seventh day Exod. 16.29 The words I say plainly intimate that it would be Lawful to flee upon that day otherways why should they pray that their flight might not be then Nevertheless it would not be expedient in that the unbelieving Jews thinking the Sabbath still to remain would be ready to offer Violence to such as should attempt to fly on that day Yea perhaps the believing Jews themselves not understanding their own Liberty in Christ but thinking the Sabbath still in force would be exceedingly grieved if they should be reduced to a Necessity either of Perishing or of Flying on the Sabbath day Of which thing I will speak more anon If you Reply that Christ calleth it the Sabbath in relation to the time that should be long after his death whereas I believe that by his death the difference of times in point of Holiness and consequently the Observation of the Sabbath was abolished according to the Doctrine of Paul Col. 2.14 I Answer that the Scripture calls the times of the Jewish Feasts after the death of Christ by the same names they had formerly See Acts 12.3 and Chap. 20.16 when notwithstanding you your self will not deny that the Obligation to observe those Feasts had then ceased Pag. 69. What needed the mention of the first day of the Week commonly called Sunday when I never affirmed that Christ hath left us any Precept for the Observation of the same Howbeit we have the Practice of all believing Gentiles down from the Apostles unto our time who have unanimously and constantly observed the same as being that day which is in Rev. 1. called the Lords day which perpetual Custom of Christians is sufficient to Warrant our keeping of the Lords day Whereas no such thing can be alledged to justifie the observing of the seventh-day-Seventh-day-Sabbath And therefore when you say that Christ hath established in his House all the Moral Duties of Moses House it is nothing to the purpose unless you first prove that the keeping of the Sabbath is a Moral Duty the contrary whereof my comparison taken out of the Scripture doth evince For Christ being as Faithful in the House of God as Moses If it had been his Will that his Disciples should have observed the Seventh-day-Sabbath he would have expresly enjoyned it and not have left them to gather it by I know not what uncertain Consequences such as you and others of your Opinion make use of For Moses openly and frequently Commanded to the Israelites that they should keep the Seventh-day-Sabbath So that your proceeding herein is just like the dealing of the Papist about the Popes pretended Supremacy For when it is Questioned whether he be the Judge of all emergent Controvercys amongst Christians the Papist having no such Precept from Christ in the Scripture where Christ Ordaineth the Pope or Bishop of Rome to such Judicature bring instead thereof certain far-fetch'd probabilities and consequences to prove it In like manner you when you are urged by me and other Christians to shew where Christ who was as faithful in the House of God as Moses hath Commanded his followers to keep the Sabbath alledge Ordinances for other things and similitudes and strains of your own Poetry and other like impertinences without producing so much as one undoubted Precept for the same But whereas you say that Christ hath confirmed all the Moral Precepts of Moses Who denies it You should have done well not to have begged the thing in Question but to have proved that the Celebration of the Sabbath is a Moral Duty But this you have not yet been nor ever shall be able to perform Pag. 79. That Paul excluded the Law touching the Seventh-day-Sabbath out of the Counsel of God towards believing Gentiles is evident both from his perpetual silence in his Writings touching such matters the contrary whereof you being unable to prove do here as well as
Hosea is meant of the Ceremonial Sacrifice of the Law amongst which the Sacrifice of Christ ought not to be reckoned for after God had said I desired Mercy and not Sacrifice he presently addeth and the knowledge of God more than Burnt Offerings By which it appeareth that by Sacrifice he meaneth such Sacrifice as was joyned with Burnt Offerings according to the prescript of the Law to which Jer. Chap. 7.21 alluding saith Put your Burnt Offerings to your Sacrifices and eat Flesh I should take little Comfort in discovering these shameful mistakes of yours were it not that I saw you went about to Rob us of our Christian Liberty and to bring us into Bondage unto the weak and Beggarly Rudiments of the World Fourthly our Saviour Warrants the violation of the Sabbath in his Disciples because the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath and therefore ought to yield to the Necessities of man Which thing also sheweth that the Sabbath is Ceremonial For as for Moral Duties the Scripture testifieth that man was made for them Thus Acts 17.26 27. Paul saith that God made mankind to seek the Lord which all will confess to be a Moral Duty And Ephes 2.10 We are his making so I am told the Greek word signifieth Created in Christ Jesus unto good Works which God hath before prepared that we should walk in them But the good Works enjoyned in the Gospel are by all confessed to be Moral and not Ceremonial Performances Fifthly It is said that for as much as the Sabbath was made for Man and not Man for the Sabbath therefore the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath Which words imply that the Son of Man could in case of Mans Necessity dispence with the Law of the Sabbath other ways how was he Lord of it For doth not his being Lord of it signifie that he was above it and had Power over it But no where is it said or intimated in the Scripture that the Son of Man yea any other is Lord of Moral Duties they being in their own Nature indispensable in that they agree to Man as he is a Rational and Sociable Creature and so bound to Act Rationably and sociably Neither did you ever Read that such Duties have in Scripture been by Christ dispensed with Wherefore those Expressions of yours which you so often inculcate in your Book That the Sabbath is made for Man and that Christ is Lord of the Sabbath do being rightly understood subvert your Opinion intimating that the Sabbath is Ceremonial and may Lawfully upon an emergent Necessity of Man be dispensed with That the Walls of Jericho were surrounded for seven days together and consequently on the Sabbath is evident But that the seventh day of the surrounding was the Sabbath appeareth not out of the Text. For to evince that you must shew that they began to surround the City on the first day of the Week whereas no such thing is so much as hinted in the Sacred Text. Wherefore that which you infer from thence touching the extraordinary Dignity that was put upon the Sabbath in that the City was taken Miraculously upon that day is altogether groundless Howbeit this is certain from the story as I before hinted that the Sabbath was broken in as much as to Compass a City in a Hostile manner on that day is to Profane it by Working upon it contrary to the Fourth Commandment So that this plainly sheweth the Observation of the Sabbath to be no Moral Duty as being dispensed with What you farther say of Jericho's being a Type of Babylon and of the man of sin's changing the Times are more groundless surmises than what you before spake concerning the taking of Jericho on the Sabbath day as would easily appear if you attempted to confirm those Notions of yours by the Scripture rightly and soundly Interpreted Pag. 20. Here you confess as much as I desire namely That the Institution of the Sabbath cometh only from the power and authority of God For this unanswerably proves it to be Ceremonial the difference between a Moral and Ceremonial Law lying in this that the one is Naturally written in the Heart of Man and so ought to be Observed though God had not Commanded it whence the Heathens to whom God had not made known himself nor given any Commandments and Judgments are nevertheless grievously Reprehended by the Prophets for not Observing Moral Duties See pag. 7. fore-going Whereas Ceremonial Laws depend meerly upon the Will and Authority of God Commanding them Where I admire that you should Reprove me for suggesting That the Sabbath receives Being and takes Rise from a Reason without us For is not the Power Will and Authority of God upon which only you your self ground the Observation of the Sabbath something without us Pag. 21. How irrational therefore are your words where contradicting your self you say 'T is unseemly to assert that the Ceremonial Laws did ever rise from any Reason without us for even their spring-head was Originally from the Pleasure and Providence of God For is not the Pleasure of God a Reason without us And are not such Laws as flow from the Pleasure of the Law-giver meer Placits and so Positive and Ceremonial things For instance the sacrificing of Beasts was it not a thing that sprang from the Pleasure of God And is it not therefore Ceremonial there being no other Obligation upon Men to perform it but the Command of God so that the injunction of God about that matter now ceasing we are no longer bound thereunto 'T is true that Moral Precepts are sometimes in the Law inforced by reason from without as Obedience to God from deliverance out of Egypt but then these Precepts do not Originally spring from such Reasons but from the Law of Nature to which those other Considerations are added and consequently Men have a new Obligation to such Duties which they were before bound by Nature to perform Pag. 24. To prove that the sabbath is not Moral I alledged that it is called a Sign and a Covenent The Adversary wanting a solid Answer hereunto and intending here as he doth pag. 16. to make a Flourish saith that I may as well prove our Saviour himself to be a Ceremony for as much as the same Titles are given to him though the Passages that he citeth reach not home to his purpose as will easily appear to him that shall confer them with those concerning the Sabbath Yet I willing joyn Issue with him and affirm that in as much as Christ is called a Sign and a Covenant it doth unavoidably follow that the Mystery of Christ is such a thing as dependeth not on the Law and light of Nature but only on the good pleasure of God as Christ himself intimateth John 6.40 This is the will of him that sent me that whosoever beholdeth the Son and believed on him should have Eternal Life And Paul Eph. 1.5 saith plainly Having predetinated us unto the
elsewhere turn aside to impertinencies and also by his ranking the Sabbath among shadows Col. 2.16 17. for the not observing of which no man ought as you not regarding his Injunction rashly do to Judge and Censure others as Offenders Pag. 80. I wonder at your boldness to aver That the Apostles did own the Sabbaths Observation as a great vertue and admonish Christians to beware of the breach thereof as a most provoking sin and that this is evident from Mat. 5.9 where it is said Whosoever therefore shall break one of the least of these Commandments and teach men so shall be called least in the Kingdom of Heaven Is here or in the whole Chapter so much as one word of the Sabbaths yea doth not this expression the least of these Commandments argue that he spake of his own Commandments differing from those in the Law For should you understand it of the Commandments in the Law would it not from thence unavoidably follow that Christians are bound to keep all the Law of Moses even to the least Commandment thereof So that of Christians we must all presently turn Jews And whether this be not indeed the bottom of your design you give me too much reason to suspect as by other expressions of yours so especially by that down-right Jewish Speech of yours p. 25. where you say that you know no newer Covenant than the Covenant of Life and Peace that was made with Levy As for that other Text from whence you endeavour to prove That the Apostles did own the Sabbath observation as a great vertue namely Luke 23.56 where it is said They rested on the Sabbath according to the Commandment Is here any mention made of the Apostles or of their owning the observation of the Sabbath after the death of Christ Is not that which is here spoken of the Commandment meant of the Commandment in the Law which the godly Jewish Women here spoken of knew not to be abolished as neither did the believing Jews in general a long time after as you may see Acts 21.20 where the Apostle James saith to Paul Thou seest Brother how many thousands of Jews there are that believe and they are all Zealous of the Law But as for any Commandment of Christ about the Sabbath you do not alledge any such out of the Gospel there being none but instead thereof bring uncertain Consequences Pag. 83. In this Page your Judaism again breaks forth and plainly discovereth it self when you tell us that Moses Writings were then namely when that Decree Acts 15.28 29. was made esteemed the most Righteous Rule for true Believers Which words of yours are directly opposite both to the Epistle of the Apostle set down in the foresaid Chapter where they blame such as taught the Disciples that they ought to keep the Law as also to the words of Christ himself Mat. 28.20 Teaching them to observe not whatsoever Moses but whatsoever Christ had commanded them Yea your words make the Law more Righteous than the Gospel for if the Law be the most Righteous Rule for Believers there is no other Rule so Righteous as it and consequently the Rule of the Gospel must stoop to the Law By this may easily be perceived what the tendency of your Doctrine is and how by those goodly words of Gods Sanctifying Presence on the Sabbath day and the like you go about to beguile the simple Pag. 84. This last Argument alledged by me out of Rom. 1â— 2 3 c. is like to that other drawn from Col. 2.16 17. and it doth so fully and exactly determine the business touching the Ceremoniality of the Seventh-day-Sabbath that it is a wonder how any man professing himself a Christian and to own the Authority of the New Testament should make any scruple of this matter And you your self sufficiently shew by your many turnings and windings in putting off this Portion of Scripture that you could by no means abide the force thereof For when it is said ver 2. One man believes he may eat all things another being weak eats herbs Doth not this clearly imply that the difference of Meats formerly observed according to the will of God whether before or after the Law doth now cease For that there was distinction between clean and unclean Beasts and Fowls before the Law and that by the approbation of the Lord God himself is apparent from Gen. 28.20 Also that by clean Beasts and Fowls are meant such as may Lawfully be eaten by unclean such as may not is evident from Lev. 11.3 4 46 47. So that if your Exception concerning days were true namely that the fifth Verse meant of such days only as were Ordained to be kept Holy under the Law and not of the Sabbath which was Instituted before the Law I might by the same Reason say as much of Meats namely that the Apostle meaneth such a difference of Meats as was introduced by the Law so that still those Meats remain unclean to us Christians which were by God himself called unclean before the Law and they it is likely were as many if not the very same with those under the Law And therefore by this kind of Arguing we are not sure of having attained any Liberty in this kind by means of Christ You may by this see how absurd your exceptions are that as the difference of Meats whether in Relation to the Will of God before or after the Law is now taken away so in like manner the difference of days and therefore that none is by the Commandment of God to be now esteemed more Holy than another For the Apostle plainly affirmeth without reprehending it that one man esteemeth every day alike and that he which esteemeth not one day above another esteemeth it not unto the Lord. But you have yet another exception and that more strange than the former for you say that by every day the Apostle only intends every one of the six daies because Exod. 16.4 which is the first place where this expression occurreth when the Lord saith the people shall go out togather a certain rate every day there is meant every one of the six daies But I pray you tell me why when you cited this place out of Exodus you would not take so much pains to consult the Hebrew Text you having skill in that Language Or if that seemed too painful why you did not cast you eye upon what the Translators set in the Margent For they there tell you that the words in Hebrew are the portion of a day in its day which being so your exception that by every day Rom. 14.5 is meant only every one of the six daies of the Week hath not so much as any colourable warrant from the aforesaid Text in Exodus and consequently as your Exception was but a meer evasion to my Argument drawn from the aforesaid Text of the Apostle it remains invincible namely that not only the difference of Meats but also the difference of daies is as to any Law of God now taken away and accordingly they are but weak and ill informed Believers who think the Obligation of the Seventh-day-Sabbath doth still remain FINIS