is the first express mention of the Sabbath unto and amongst that people And it sufficiently declares that this was not the absolute Original of a Sabbatical Rest. It is only an Appropriation and Application of the Old Command unto them For the words are not preceptive but directive They do not Institute any thing anew but direct in the Practice of what was before Hence it is affirmed v. 29. that God gave them the Sabbath namely in this new Confirmation of it and Accommodation of it to their present Condition For this new Confirmation of it by withholding of Manna on that day belonged meerly and solely unto them and was the especial limitation of the seventh Day precisely wherein we are not concerned who do live on the the true Bread that came down from Heaven In those words therefore to morrow is the Rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord there is a certain limitation of the Day a Direction for its Sanctification as confirmed by the New sign of withholding Manna all which belonged to them peculiarly For this was the first Time that as a People they observed the Sabbath which in Aegypt they could not do And into this Institution and the Authority of it must they resolve their Practice who adhere unto the Observation of the seventh Day precisely For that day is no otherwise confirmed in the Decalogue but as it had Relation hereunto § 9 The Jews in this place fall into a double mistake about the Practical Observation of their Sabbath For from those words Bake that which you will bake and seethe that which you will seethe and that which remaineth lay up for you to be kept untill the morning v. 23. They conclude it to be unlawful to bake or seethe any thing on the Sabbath Day whereas the words have respect only to the Manna that was to be preserved And from the words of v. 29. See for that the Lord hath given you the Sabbath therefore he giveth you on the sixth day the Bread of two Dayes abide you every man in his place let no man go out of his place on the seventh day they have made a Rule yea many Rules about what Motions or removals are lawful on the Sabbath Day and what not And hence they have bound themselves with many anxious and scrupulous Observances though the Injunction it self do purely and solely respect the people in the Wilderness that they should not go out into the Fields to look for Manna on that day which some of them having done v. 27. an occasion was taken from thence for this Injunction And hereunto do some of the Heathen Writers ascribe the Original of the Sabbatical Rest among the Jews supposing that the seventh day after their departure out of Aegypt they came to a place of Rest in Remembrance whereof they consecrated one day in seven to Rest and idleness ever after whereunto they add other fictions of an alike nature See Tacit Hist. lib. 5. § 10 Not long after ensued the giving of the Law on Sinai Exod. 20. That the Decalogue is a summary of the Law of Nature or the Moral Law is by all Christians acknowledged nor could the Heathens of old deny it And it is so perfectly Nothing belongs unto that Law which is not comprized therein Nor can any one Instance be given to the contrary Nor is there any thing directly and immediately in it but what belongs unto that Law Only God now made in it an especial Accommodation of the Law of their Creation unto that people whom he he was in a second Work now forming for himself Isa. 43. 19 20 21. Chap. 51. 15 16. And this he did as every part of it was capable of being so accommodated To this purpose he prefaceth the whole with an Intimation of his particular Covenant with them I am the Lord thy God and addeth thereunto the Remembrance of an especial Benefit that they and they alone were made partakers of That brought thee out of the Land of Aegypt out of the house of Bondage which he did in the pursuit of his especial Covenant with Abraham and his seed This made the Obligation to Obedience unto the Law as promulgated on Mount Sinai to belong unto them peculiarly to us it is only an everlasting Rule as declarative of the Will of God and the Law of our Creation The Obligation I say that arose unto Obedience from the Promulgation of the Law on Mount Sinai was peculiar unto the Israelites and sundry things were then and there mixed with it that belonged unto them alone And whereas the Mercy the consideration whereof he proposeth as the great Motive unto Obedience which was his bringing them out of Aegypt with Reference unto his setling of them in the Land of Canaan was a Typical Mercy it gave the whole Law a station in the Typical Church State which they were now bringing into It altered not the nature of the things commanded which for the substance of them were all Moral but it gave their Obedience unto it a new and Typical Respect even as it was the Tenor of the Covenant made with them in Sinai with Respect unto the promised Land of Canaan and their Typical State therein § 51 This in an especial manner was the condition of the fourth Commandment Three things are distinctly proposed in it 1. The Command for an Observance of a Sabbath Day v. 8. Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy This contains the whole substance of the Command The formal Reason whereof is contained in the last clause of it Wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath Day and hallowed it And upon the neglect of the Observance of the Sabbath in former Generations with a Prospect on the many Difficulties that would arise among the people in the Observation of it for the future as also because the Foundation and Reason of it in the Law of Creation being principally external in the Works and Rest of God that ensued thereon were not so absolutely ingrafted in the minds of men as continually to evidence and manifest themselves as do those of the other Precepts there is an especial note put upon it for Remembrance And whereas it is a positive Precept as is that which follows it all the rest being Negatives it stood more in need than they of a particular charge and special Motives of which Nature one is added also to the next Command being in like manner a Positive Enunciation 2. Secondly There is an express Determination of this Sabbath to be one Day in seven without which it was only included in the Original Reason of it v. 9 10. Six dayes shalt thou-labour and do all thy Work but the seventh Day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God And herein the Day originally fixed in the Covenant of Works is again limited unto this people to continue unto the Time of the full Introduction and Establishment of the New Covenant And this limitation of the seventh Day was
shall be to you an holy Day a Sabbath of Rest unto the Lord whosoever doth work therein shall be put to death Ye shall kindle no fire throughout your habitations on the Sabbath Day Here again the Penalties and the Prohibition of kindling fire are Mosaical and so is on their account the whole Command as here renewed though there be that in it which for the substance of it is Moral And here the seventh Day precisely is made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 holiness unto them or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Convocation of holiness an holy Convocation as it is expressed Levit. 23. 2. where these words are again repeated whose Profanation was to be avenged with Death The Prohibition also added about kindling of fire in their habitations hath been the occasion of many anxious Observances among the Jews They all agree that the kindling of fire for Profit and Advantage in Kilns and Oasts for the making of Brick or drying of Corn or for founding or melting Mettals is here forbidden But what need was there that so it should be seeing all these things are expresly forbidden in the Command in general Thou shalt do no manner of work somewhat more is intended They say therefore that it is the kindling of fire for the dressing of Victuals And this indeed seems to be the intendment of this especial Law as the Manna that was to be eaten on the Sabbath was to be prepared on the Parasecue But withal I say this is a new additional Law and purely Mosaical the Original Law of the Sabbath making no entrenchment on the ordinary duties of humane life as we shall see afterwards Whether it forbad the kindling of fire for Light and Heat I much question The present Jews in most places employ Christian Servants about such works For the poor wretches care not what is done to their Advantage so they do it not themselves But these and the like Precepts belonged unquestionably unto their Paedagogie and were separable from the Original Law of the Sabbath § 17 Lastly The whole matter is stated Deut. 5. 15. where after the Repetition of the Commandment it is added and remember that thou wast a Servant in the Land of Aegypt and that the Lord thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched out Arm therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the Sabbath Day The Mercy and Benefit they had received in their Deliverance from Aegypt is given as the Reason not why they should keep the Sabbath as it was proposed as a Motive unto the Observation of the whole Law in the Preface of the Decalogue but wherefore God gave them the Law of it to keep and observe Therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the Sabbath Now the Reason of the Command of a Sabbatical Rost absolutely God had every where declared to be his making the world in six dayes and resting on the seventh The mention whereof in this place is wholly omitted because an especial Application of the Law unto that people is intended So that it is evident that the Mosaical Sabbath was on many Accounts and in many things distinguished from that of the Decalogue which is a Moral Duty For the Deliverance of the people out of Aegypt which was a benefit peculiar unto themselves and Typical of Spiritual Mercies unto others was the Reason of the Institution of the Sabbath as it was Mosaical which it was not nor could be of the Sabbath absolutely although it might be pressed on that people as a considerable Motive why they ought to endeavour the keeping of the whole Law § 18 From all that hath been discoursed it appears That the Observation of the seventh Day precisely from the Beginning of the world belonged unto the Covenant of Works not as a Covenant but as a Covenant of Works founded in the Law of Creation And that in the Administration of that Covenant which was revived and unto certain Ends reinforced unto the Church of Israel in the Wilderness it was bound on them by an especial Ordinance to be observed throughout their Generations or during the continuance of their Church State Moreover that as to the manner of the Observance required by the Law as delivered on Mount Sinai it was a yoke and burden to the people because that dispensation of the Law gendred unto Bondage Gal. 4. 24. For it begot a Spirit of fear and Bondage in all that were its Children and subject unto its Power In this condition of things it was applyed unto sundry Ends in their Typical State in which regard it was a shadow of good things to come And so also was it in respect of those other Additional Institutions and Prohibitions which were inseparable from its Observation amongst them whereof we have spoken On all these Accounts I doubt not but that the Mosaical Sabbath and the manner of its Observation is under the Gospel utterly taken away But as for the Weekly Sabbath as required by the Law of our Creation reinforced in the Decalogue the summary Representation of that great Original Law the Observation of it is a Moral Duty which by Divine Authority is translated unto another Day § 19 The ancient Jews have a saying which by the later Masters is abused but a Truth is contained in it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Sabbath gives firmitude and strength to all the Affairs of this World For it may be understood of the Blessing of God on the due Observation of his Worship on that Day Hence it was they say that any young clean Beast that was to be offered in Sacrifice must continue seven dayes with the Damm and not be offered until the eighth Levit. 22. 27. That a Child was not to be circumcised until the eighth Day that there might be an Interposition of a Sabbath for their Benediction And it is not unlikely that the eighth Day was also signalized hereby as that which was to succeed in the Room of the seventh as shall be manifested in our next Discourse The Fifth Exercitation OF THE Lords-Day 1 A Summary of what hath been proved a progress to the Lords-day 2 The new Creation of all things in Christ the foundation of Gospel-Obedience and Worship 3 The old and new Creation compared 4 The old and new Covenant 5 Distinct Ends of these Covenants 6 Supposition of the Heads of things before confirmed 7 Foundation of the Lords-day on those Suppositions 8 Christ the â—uthor of the new Creation his Works therein 9 His Rest from his Works the Indication of a new Day of Rest. 10 Observed by the Apostles 11 Proof of the Lords-day from Heb. 4. proposed 12 The words of the Text. 13 esign of the Apostle in general 14 His answer unto an Objection with his general Argument 15 The nature of the Rests treated on by him 16 The Church under the Law of Nature and its Rest. 17 The Church under the Law of Institution and its Rest. 18
of Hegesippus calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Masbothai whom he reckons as a Sect of the Jews Histor. lib. 4. 21. The Jews call them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Sabbatarians which must be from some observation of the Sabbath in a distinct manner or for different Reasons from themselves Buxtorfe and our late learned Lexicographer render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by Sabbatarii adding this explanation Qui secundum Christi Doctrinam Sabbatum observabant by a mistake For as they are reckoned unto the Jews by Hegesippus so those who followed the Doctrine of Christ did not Sabbatize with the Jews nor were ever called Sabbatarians by them There was indeed a sort of persons among the Samaritans who are called Sabuaei whom Epiphanius makes the third sect of them But these were so called without any respect unto a Sabbatical observation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Jews call them that is Septenarii from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unless we shall think with Drusius that they were so denominated from Sebaia who came along with Dosthai to settle the new Inhabitants of Samaria Epiphanius sayes no more of them but that they observed the Feast of Pentecost in Autumn and the Feast of Tabernacles in the Spring at the time of the Jews Passeover But this gives no account why they should be so called But they got this appellation from their observation of every Day in the Week between the Passeover and the Pentecost that is for seven weeks which was the same with the second Day in the Week of unleavened bread whereon the Omer or Sheaf of first fruits was to be offered But to return After this many of them coalesced and we hear no more of them In the mean time as there were great disputes and heats between the differing parties whilest the occasion of their difference continued so the Gentile Believers did in many things either condescend unto those of the Circumcision or fell themselves in liking with their observances and received them into practice Hence it was that they embraced the Paschal solemnity with some other Festivals and also in many places admitted the sacredness of the seventh Day Sabbath though still observing according to the institution of Christ and his Apostles the Lords Day also And it is not improbable that they might be induced the rather to continue these observations that they might thereby give a publick testimony of their faith against the Marcionites who began early to blaspheme the Old Testament and the God thereof which blasphemy they thought to condemn by this practice And hence in those Writings which are falsly ascribed to the Apostles but suited to those times Can. 66. and Constitut. lib. 7. cap. 24. the observation both of the Saturday and the Lords Day are enjoyned Others of these Jews about the same season constituted a sect by themselves compounding a Religion out of the Law and Gospel with additions and interpretations of their own These the Ancients call Ebionites Circumcision with all the Sabbaths Feasts and Rites of Moses they retained from the Law That the Messiah was come and that Jesus Christ was he they admitted from the Gospel that he was only a meer man not God and man in one person they added of their own yet in compliance with the sense and expectation of the corrupt and carnal part of the Church of the Jews whereof originally they were And this sect is that which in a long tract of time hath brought forth Mahumetanisme in the East For the Religion of the Mahumetans is nothing but that of the Ebionites with a super-addition of the interests and fanatical brain-sick notions of the Impostor himself And yet so it is that some begin now to plead that these Ebionites were the only true and genuine Believers of the Circumcision in those dayes These they say and these alone retained the Doctrine preached by the Apostles to the Jews for they were the same and no other with those which were also called Nazarenes Thus do the Socinians plead expresly and have contended for it in sundry Treatises published to that purpose This they do hoping to obtain from thence some countenance unto their impious Doctrine about the person of Christ wherein they agree with the Ebionites But as to their Sabbatizing with the Jews and the rest of their ceremonial observances they will have nothing to do with them as not finding those things suited unto their interest and design But herein do they now begin to be followed by some among our selves who apparently fall in with them in sundry things condemned by our Apostle and on the account whereof they declined him and rejected his Authority as others seem almost prepared to do on other Reasons not here to be mentioned In particular some begin to Sabbatize with them yea to outgo them For Ebion and his followers although they observed the seventh Day Sabbath with the Jews yet they observed also the Lords Day with the Christians in honour of Jesus Christ as both Eusebius and Epiphanius testifie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They in like manner with us observe the Lords Day in remembrance of the saving Resurrection How great a scandal these things are to Christian Religion how evidently tending to harden the Jews in their infidelity is apparent unto all For the introduction of any part of the old Mosaical systeme of Ordinances is a tacite denial of Christs being come in the flesh at least of his being the King Lord and Law-giver of his Church And to lay the foundation of all Religious solemn Gospel-worship in the observation of a Day which as such as the seventh Day precisely hath no relation unto any natural or moral precept not instituted not approved by Jesus Christ cannot but be unpleasing to them who desire to have their consciences immediately influenced by his Authority in all their approaches unto God But Christ is herein supposed to have built the whole fabrick of his worship on the foundation of Moses and to have graffed all his institutions into a stock that was not of his own planting § 33 Moreover it is evident that this opinion concerning the necessary observation of the seventh Day Sabbath tends to the increasing and perpetuating of schismes and differences amongst the Disciples of Christ things in their own nature evil and to be avoided by all lawfull wayes and means It is known how many different opinions and practices there are amongst professors of the Gospel That they should all be perfectly healed or taken away perhaps in this world is not to be expected For the best know but in part and prophesie but in part That every good man and genuine Disciple of Christ ought to endeavour his utmost for their removal none will deny For if it be our duty so far as it is possible and as much as in us lyeth to live peaceably with all men in that peace which is the life of civil society doubtless it is so much more to live so
glorified in us and by us and the Interest of Religion in Purity Holiness and Righteousness be promoted amongst Men. J. O. Jan. 11. 1670. Exercitations Concerning the Name Original Nature Use and Continuance of a Day of Sacred Rest. Exercitatio Prima HEBR. Chap. IV. Ver. IX 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Trouble and Confusion from mens Inventions 2 Instanced in Doctrines and Practices of a Sabbatical Rest. 3 Reason of their present Consideration 4 Extent of the Controversies about such a Rest. 5 A particular Enumeration of them 6 Special Instances of Particular Differences upon an Agreement in more general Principles 7 Evil Consequences of these Controversies in Christian Practice 8 Principles and Rules proposed for the right Investigation of the Truth in this matter 9 Names of a Sacred Day of Rest. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gen. 2. 3. Heb. 4. 4. 10 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gen. 2. 3. Exodus 16. 23. Chap. 35. 2. Lam. 1. 7. Saturn called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the Jews and why The Word doubled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Reason of it 11 Translation of this Word into the Greek and Latin Languages 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 12 All Judaical Feasts called Sabbata by the Heathen Suetonius Horace Juvenal cited to that purpose 13 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sunday Used by Justine Martyr Tertullian Eusebius Blamed by Austin Hierom and Philastrius 14 Use of the Names of the Dayes of the Week derived from the Heathen of old Custom of the Roman Church 15 First day of the Week Lords Day Lords Day Sabbath The First Exercitation § 1 SOLOMON tells us that in his Disquisition after the Nature and State of things in the world this alone he had found out that is absolutely and unto his satisfaction namely that God made man upright but they have sought out many Inventions Eccles. 7. 29. And the Truth hereof we also find by woful experience not only in sundry particular Instances but in the whole course of men in this world and in all their concerns with respect unto God and themselves There is not any thing wherein and whereabout they have not found out many Inventions to the Disturbance and perverting of that state of peace and quietness wherein all things were made of God Yea with the fruits and effects of this perverse Apostasie and Relinquishment of that universally Harmonious state of things wherein we were created not only is the whole world as it lyes in evil filled and as it were overwhelmed but we have the Reliques of it to conflict withal in that Reparation of our condition which in this life by Grace we are made partakers of In all our Wayes Actions and Duties some of these Inventions are ready to immix themselves unto our own disturbance and the perverting of the right wayes of God § 2 An evident Instance we have hereof in the business of a Day of Sacred Rest and the Worship of God therein required God originally out of his Infinite Goodness when suitably thereunto by his own Eternal Wisdom and Power he had made all things Good gave unto men a day of Rest as to express unto them his own Rest Satisfaction and Complacency in the Works of his Hands so to be a day of Rest and composure to themselves and a Means of their Entrance into and Enjoyment of that Rest with himself here and for ever which he had ordained for them Hence it became unto them a Principle and Pledge a Cause and Means of Quietness and Rest and that in and with God himself So might it be still unto the Sons of men but that they are in all things continually finding out new Inventions or immixing themselves in various Questions and Accounts for so saith the Wise man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 themselves have sought out many Computations And hence it is that whereas there are two general concernments of such a Day the Doctrine and the Practice of it or the Duties to be performed unto God thereon they are both of them solicited by such various Questions through the many Inventions which men have found out as have rendred this Day of Rest a matter of endless strife disquietment and contention And whereas all Doctrines of Truth do tend unto practice as their immediate Use and End the whole Scripture being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tit. 1. 1. the Truth which is according unto Godliness the contentions which have been raised about the Doctrine of the Holy Day of Rest have greatly influenced the minds of men and weakned them in that practice of Godliness which all men confess to be necessary in the Observation of such a Day of Rest unto the Lord if such a Day of Rest there be on what foundation soever it is to be observed For Christians in general under one notion or other do agree that a Day of Rest should be observed in and for the Celebration of the Worship of God But whereas many Controversies have been raised about the grounds of this Observance and the Nature of the Obligation thereunto advantage hath been taken thereby to introduce a great neglect of the Duties themselves for whose sakes the Day is to be observed whilst one questions the Reasons and Grounds of another for its Observation and finds his own by others despised And this hath been no small nor ineffectual means of promoting that general Prophaneness and Apostasie from strict and holy walking before God which at this day are every where so justly complained of § 3 It is far from my thoughts and hopes that I should be able to contribute much unto the composing of these Differences and Controversies as agitated amongst men of all sorts The known pertinacy of inveterate Opinions the many prejudices that the minds of most in this matter are already possessed withal and the particular Engagements that not a few are under to defend the Pretensions and Perswasions which they have published and contended for will not allow any great Expectation of a change in the minds of many from what I have to offer Besides there are almost innumerable eristical Discourses on this subject in the hands of many to whom perhaps the Report of our Endeavours will not arrive But yet these and the like considerations of the Darkness Prejudices and Interests of many ought not to discourage any man from the discharge of that Duty which he owes to the Truths of God nor cause him to cry with the Sluggard There is a Lyon in the Streets I shall be slain in the Way Should they do so no Truth should ever more be taught or contended for for the Declaration of them all is attended with the same Difficulties and lyable to the same kind of Opposition Wherefore an Enquiry into this matter being unavoidably cast upon me from the Work wherein I am engaged in the Exposition of the Epistle to the Hebrews I could not on any such accounts wave the pursuit of it For this Discourse though
upon the Desires of many now published by it self is but a Part of our remaining Exercitations on that Epistle Nor am I without all hopes but that what shall be declared and proved on this subject may be blessed to an Usefulness unto them who would willingly learn or be established in the Truth An Attempt also will be made herein for the conviction of others who have been seduced into Paths inconsistent with the Communion of Saints the Peace of the Churches of Christ or Opinions hurtful to the Practice of Godliness and left unto the Blessing of him who when he hath supplyed seed to the Sower doth himself also give the encrease And these Considerations have prevailed with me to cast my Mite into this Sanctuary and to endeavour the right stating and confirmation of that Doctrine whereon so important a part of our Duty towards God doth depend as is generally confessed and will be found by Experience that there doth on this concerning a Day of Sacred Rest. § 4 The Controversies about the Sabbath as we call it at present for Distinction sake and to determine a subject of our Discourse which have been publickly agitated are Universal as unto all its concerns Neither Name nor Thing is by all agreed on For whereas most Christians acknowledge we may say all for those by whom it is denyed are of no weight nor scarce of any number that a day on one account or other in an Hebdomadal Revolution of Time is to be set apart to the publick Worship of God yet how that Day is to be called is not agreed amongst them Neither is it granted that it hath any Name affixed unto it by any such means that should cause it justly to be preferred unto any other that men should arbitrarily consent to call it by The Names which have been and amongst some are still in use for its Denotation and Distinction are the seventh Day the Sabbath the Lords Day the first Day of the Week Sunday So was the Day now commonly observed called of Old by the Graecians and Romans before the Introduction of Religion into its Observation And this Name some still retain as a thing indifferent others suppose it were better left unto utter disuse § 5 Those about the Thing it self are various and respect all the concerns of the Day enquired after Nothing that relates unto it no part of its respect to the Worship of God is admitted by all uncontended about For it is debated amongst all sorts of persons 1. Whether any part of Time be naturally and morally to be separated and set apart to the solemn Worship of God or which is the same whether it be a natural and moral Duty to separate any part of time in any Revolution of it unto Divine Service I mean so as it should be stated and fixed in a periodical Revolution otherwise to say that God is solemnly to be worshipped and yet that no time is required thereunto is an open contradiction 2. Whether such a Time supposed be absolutely and originally moral or made so by Positive Command suited unto General Principles and Intimations of Nature And under this consideration also a part of Time is called Moral Metonymically from the Duty of its Observance 3 Whether on supposition of some part of Time so designed the Space or Quantity of it have its Determination or Limitation morally or meerly by Law Positive or Arbitrary For the Observation of some part of Time may be Moral and the quota pars arbitrary 4 Whether every Law Positive of the Old Testament were absolutely Ceremonial or whether there may not be a Law Moral Positive as given to and obligatory of all mankind though not absolutely written in the Heart of man by Nature that is whether there be no morality in any Law but what is a part of the Law of Creation 5 Whether the Institution of the seventh Day Sabbath was from the Beginning of the World and before the Fall of man or whether it were first appointed when the Israelites came into the Wilderness This in itself is only a matter of Fact yet such as whereon the Determination of the Point of Right as to the Universal Obligation unto the Observation of such a Day doth much depend and therefore hath the Investigation and true stating of it been much laboured in and after by Learned men 6 Upon a supposition of the Institution of the Sabbath from the Beginning Whether the Additions made and Observances annexed unto it at the giving of the Law on Mount Sinai with the Ends whereunto it was then designed and the Uses whereunto it was employed gave unto the seventh Day a new State distinct from what it had before although naturally the same day was continued as before For if they did so that new State of the Day seems only to be taken away under the New Testament if not the Day it self seemes to be abolished for that some change is made therein from what was fixed under the Judaical Oeconomy cannot modestly be denyed 7 Whether in the fourth Commandment there be a Foundation of a Distinction between a seventh Day in General or one Day in seven and that seventh Day which was the same numerically and precisely from the Foundation of the World For whereas an Obligation unto the strict Observation of that Day precisely is as we shall prove plainly taken away in the Gospel if the Distinction intimated be not allowed there can be nothing remaining obligatory unto us in that command whilst it is supposed that that Day is at all required therein Hence 8 It is especially enquired whether a seventh Day or one Day in seven or in the Hebdomadal Cycle be to be observed Holy unto the Lord on the Account of the fourth Commandment 9 Whether under the New Testament all Religious Observation of Dayes be so taken away as that there is no Divine Obligation remaining for the Observance of any one Day at all but that as all Dayes are alike in themselves so are they equally free to be disposed of and used by us as Occasion shall require For if the Observation of one Day in seven be not founded in the Law of Nature expressed in the Original Positive Command concerning it and if it be not seated Morally in the fourth Commandment it is certain that the necessary Observance of it is now taken away 10 On the other extream whether the seventh Day from the Creation of the world or the last Day of the Week be to be observed precisely under the New Testament by vertue of the Fourth Commandment and no other The Assertion hereof supposeth that our Lord Jesus Christ the Lord of the Sabbath hath neither changed nor reformed any thing in or about the Religious Observation of an Holy Day of Rest unto the Lord whence it follows that such an Observation can be no Part or Act of Evangelical Worship properly so called but only a Moral Duty of the Law 11 Whether on the
commonly called Sabbaths So Maimonides Tract de Sabb. cap. 29. speaking of their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Good Dayes or Feasts sayes expresly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they are all Sabbaths to the Lord. And from this usage some think to expound that vexed Expression of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luke 6. 1. which we render the second Sabbath after the first So Suidas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It was the second day of the Passeover and the first of unleavened bread And wonder not that it is called a Sabbath for they called every Feast Day a Sabbath Theophylact gives us another Day but on the same Reason Saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Jews call every Feast a Sabbath For Sabbath is as much as Rest. Oft-times therefore there fell out a Feast on the day before the Weekly Sabbath and they called it a Sabbath because it was a Feast And therefore that which was the proper Sabbath at that Time was called the second Sabbath after the first being the second from that which went before Chrysostome allows of the same Reason Hom. in Matth. 39. Isidore Pelusiota fixeth on another Day but still for the same reason Epist. 110. lib. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is called the Deuteroproton because it was the second day from the sacrificing of the Passeover and the first day of unleavened bread which he shews was called a Sabbath upon the general account of all the Jewish Feasts being so called For so he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 By the way this is expresly contrary to the Scripture which makes the Day spoken of to be the proper Weekly Sabbath as it is called without any Addition Matth. 12. 11. whereon depended the Questions that ensued about its Observation But we are beholding to Scaliger for the true meaning of this Expression which so puzled the Antients and concerning which Gregory Nazianzen turned of Hierome with a scoff scarce becoming his Gravity when he enquired of him what might be the meaning of it Scaliger therefore conjectures that it is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because it was the first Sabbath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the second Day of unleavened bread For on that Day they offered the handful or sheaf of new fruits and from that day they counted seven Weeks unto Pentecost And the Sabbaths of those Weeks were reckoned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the first that followed was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So he both in his Emendat Tempor lib. 6. and Isagog Canon p. 218. And this is subscribed unto by his Mortal Adversary Dyonisius Petavius Animad in Epiphar N. 31. p. 64. who will not allow him ever to have spoken tightly but in what the Wit of man can find no tolerable Objection against But this calling of their Feasts Sabbaths with the Reason of it is given us by all their principal Authors So Lib. Tzeror Hammor on Levit. p. 102. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Because all solemn Dayes are called holy Convocations they are all called so from the Sabbath which is called holy wherefore the Sabbath is the Head of all solemn Feasts and they are all of them called by the Name thereof Sabbaths of Rest whereof he gives Instances § 13 Some of the Antient Christians dealing with the Heathens called that Day which the Christians then observed in the Room of the Jewish seventh Day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or diem folis Sunday As those who treat and deal with others must express things by the Names that are currant amongst them unless they intend to be Barbarians unto them So speaks Justine Martyr Apol. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We meet for the Worship of God in common on Sunday Had he said on the Sabbath the Gentiles would have concluded it to have been the Judaical Sabbath To have called it to them the Lords Day had been to design no determinate Day they would not have known what day he meant And the Name of the first Day of the Week taken up signally by Christians upon the Resurrection of Christ was not in use amongst them Wherefore he called the Day he intended to determine as was necessary for him by the Name in use amongst them to whom he spake Sunday In like manner Tertullian treating with the same sort of men calls it Diem solis Apol. cap. 16. And Eusebius reporting the Edicts of Constantine for the Observation of the Lords Day as it is termed in them adds that it is the Day which we call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Sunday But yet among Christians themselves this Name was not in common use but by some was rejected as were also all the rest of the Names of the Dayes used among the Pagans So speaks August in Psal. 93. Quarta Sabbatorum quarta feria que Mercurii dies dicitur à Paganis à multis Christianis Sed noluimus ut dicant utinam corrigantur ut non dicant And Hicrome Epist. ad Algas Vna Sabbati dies dominica intelligenda est quia Hebdomada in Sabbatum ut in primam secundam tertiam quartam quintam sextam Sabbati dividitur guam Ethnici Idolorum Planetarum nominibus appellant He rejects the use of the ordinary Names unto the Heathens And Philastrius makes the usage of them amongst Christians almost Heretical Num. 3. All the Eastern Nations also amongst whom the Planetary Denomination of the Dayes of the Week first began have since their casting off that kind of Idolatry rejected the use of those Names being therein more Religious or more Superstitious than the most of Christians So is it done by the. Arabians and Persians and those that are joyned unto them in Religious Observances The Day of their Worship which is our Friday the Arabians call Giuma the Persians Adina The Rest of the Dayes of the Week they discriminate by their natural Order within their Hebdomadal Revolution the first the second the third only some of them in some places have some special Name occasionally imposed on them The Church of Rome from a Decree as they suppose or pretend of Pope Sylvester reckons all the Dayes of the Week by Feria prima secunda and so onwards only their Writers for the most part retain the Name of Sabbatum and use Dies Dominica for the first Day And the Rhemists on Revel 1. 10. condemn the name of Sunday as Heathenish And Polydore Virgil before them sayes Profccio pudendum est simulque dolendum quod non antebac data sunt istis diebus Christiana nomina ne dii Gentium tam memorabile inter nos monumentum haberent de Invent. Rer. lib. 6. c. 5. And indeed among sundry of the Antients there do many severe Expressions occurr against the use of the common Planetary Names And at the first Relinquishment of Gentilisme it had no doubt been well if those Names of Baalim had been taken away out of the mouths of men especially considering that the retaining of them hath
been of no use nor Advantage As they are now riveted into custom and usage claiming their station on such a Prescription as in some measure takes away the corruption of their use I judge that they are not to be contended about For as they are vulgarly used their Names are meer notes of Ditinction of no more signification than first second and third the original and occasional Imposition of them being utterly amongst the many unknown Only I must add that the severe Reflections and contemptuous Reproaches which I have heard made upon and poured out against them who it may be out of weakness it may be out of a better Judgement than our own do abstain from the using of them argue a want of due Charity and that Condescension in love which become those who judge themselves strong For the truth is they have a Plea sufficient at least to vindicate them from the contempt of any For there are some places of Scripture which seem so far to give countenance unto them that if they mistake in their Application it is a mistake of no other nature but what others are liable unto in things of greater importance For it is given as the Will of God Exod. 23. 13. In all things saith he that I have said be circumspect and make no mention of the names of other Gods neither let them be heard out of thy mouth And it cannot be denyed but that the Names of the Dayes of the Week were the Names of Gods among the Heathen The Prohibition is renewed Josh. 2. 7. Thou shalt not make mention of the names of their Gods which is yet extended farther Deut. 12. 3. to a command to destroy and blot out the names of the Gods of the people which by this means are retained Accordingly the Children of Ruben building the Cities formerly called Nebo and Baal Meon changed their names because they were the Names of Heathen Idols Numb 32. 38. And David mentioneth it as a part of his Integrity that he would not take up the names of Idols in his lips Psal. 16. 4. And some of the Antients as hath been observed confirme what by some at present is concluded from these places Saith Hierome Absit ab ore Christiano dicere Jupiter Omnipotens Mehercule Mecastor coetera magis Portenta quam nomina Epist. ad Damas. Now be it granted that the Objections against the Use of the Planetary Names of the Dayes of the Week from these places may be answered from consideration of the change of Times and the circumstances of things yet certainly there is an appearance of Warranty in them sufficient to secure them from contempt and reproach who are prevailed on by them to another use § 15 But of a Day of Rest there is a peculiar Reason If there be a Name given in the Scripture unto such a Day by that Name it is to be called and not otherwise So it was unquestionably under the Old Testament God himself had assigned a Name unto the Day of Sacred Rest then enjoyned the Church unto Observation and it was not lawful for the Jews to call it by any other Name given unto it or in use among the Heathen It was and was to be called the Sabbath Day the Sabbath of the Lord. In the New Testament there is as we shall see afterwards a signal Note put on the first Day of the Week So thence do some call their Day of Rest or solemn Worship and contend that so it ought to be called But this only respects the Order and Relation of such a Day to the other Dayes of the Week which is natural and hath no respect unto any thing that is Sacred It may be allowed then for the indigitation of such a Day and the Discrimination of it from the other Dayes of the Week but is no proper Name for a Day of Sacred Rest. And the first use of it upon the Resurrection of our Lord was only peculiarly to denote the Time There is a Day mentioned by John in the Revelation which we shall afterwards consider that he calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 diem dominicam the Lords Day This Appellation what Day soever is designed is neither Natural nor Civil nor doth it relate unto any thing in Nature or in the common usage of men It must therefore be Sacred and it is or may be very comprehensive of various Respects It is the Lords Day the Day that he hath taken to be his Lot or especial Portion among the Dayes of the Week as he took as it were possession of it in his Resurrection So his people are his Lot and Portion in the world therefore called his people It is also or may be his Day subjectively or the Day whereon his businesses and Affairs are principally transacted So the Poet Tydeos illa Dies that was Tydeus his Day because he was principally concerned in the Affairs of it This is the Day wherein the Affairs of the Lord Christ are transacted his Person and Mediation being the Principal Subjects and Objects of its Work and Worship And it is or may be called his the Lords Day because enjoyned and appointed to be observed by him or his Authority over the Church So the Ordinance of the Supper is called the Supper of the Lord on the same Account On supposition therefore that such a Day of Rest there is to be observed under the New Testament the Name whereby it ought to be called is the Lords Day which is peculiarly expressive of its Relation unto our Lord Jesus Christ the sole Author and immediate Object of all Gospel Worship But whereas the general Notion of a Sabbatical Rest is still included in such a Day a superaddition of its Relation to the Lord Christ will intitle it unto the Appellation of the Lords Day Sabbath that is the Day of Sacred Rest appointed by the Lord Jesus Christ. And thus most probably in the continuation of the Old Testament Phraseologie it is called the Sabbath Day Matth. 24. 20. and in our Apostle comes under the general notion of a Sabbatism Chap. 4. 9. Exercitatio Secunda 1 Of the Original of the Sabbath the importance of this Disquisition 2 Opinion of some of the Jewish Masters about the Original of the Sabbath that it began in Mara 3 The Station in Mara and the Occurrences thereof Tacitus noted Exod. 15. 25 26. Jews Exposition of it 4 This Opinion refuted by Testimonies and Reasons 5 Another Opinion of the Antient Jews about the Original of the Sabbath and of the Mahumetans 6 Opinions of Christians about the Original of the Sabbath proposed 7 That of its Original from the Foundation of the World asserted The first Testimony given unto it Gen. 2. 2. Vindicated Exceptions of Heddigerus answered 8. What intended by sanctifying and blessing the seventh Day 9 Other Exceptions removed Series and Dependance of the Discourse in Moses cleared The whole Testimony vindicated 10 Heb. 4 3 4. Vindicated 11 Observation
Sabbath Dayes which are a shadow of things to come but the Body is of Christ. For hence they say it will follow that there is nothing Moral in the Observation of the Sabbath seeing it was a meer Type and Shadow as were other Mosaical Institutions as also that it is absolutely abolished and taken away in Christ. An. This place must be afterwards considered I shall here only briefly speak unto it And 1. It is known and confessed that at that time all Judaical Observations of Dayes or the Dayes which they religiously observed whether Feasts or Fasts Weekly Monthly or Annual were by themselves and all others called their Sabbaths as we have before evinced And that kind of Speech which was then in common use is here observed by our Apostle It must therefore necessarily be allowed that there were two sorts of Sabbaths amongst them The first and principal was the Weekly Sabbath so called from the Rest of God upon the finishing of his works This being designed for Sacred and Religious Uses other Dayes separated unto the same Ends in general became from their Analogie thereunto to be called Sabbaths also yea were so called by God himself as hath been declared But the Distinction and Difference between these Sabbaths was great The one of them was ordained from the foundation of the world before the Entrance of sin or giving of the Promises and so belonged unto all mankind in general the other were appointed in the Wilderness as a part of the peculiar Church Worship of the Israelites and so belonged unto them only The one of them was directly commanded in the Decalogue wherein the Law of our Creation was revived and expressed the other have their Institution expresly among the residue of Ceremonial Temporary Ordinances Hence they cannot be both comprized under the same Denomination unless upon some Reason that is common to both sorts alike So when God saith of them all You shall observe my Sabbaths it is upon a Reason common to them all namely that they were all commanded of God which is the formal Reason of our Obedience of what nature soever his Commands are whether Moral or Positive Nor can both these sorts be here understood under the same name unless it be with respect unto something that is common unto both Allow therefore the Distinctions between them before mentioned which cannot soberly be denyed and as to what they agree in namely what is or was in the Weekly primary Sabbath of the same Nature with those Dayes of Rest which were so called in allusion thereunto and they may be allowed to have the same sentence given concerning them That is so far the Weekly Sabbath may be said to be a shadow and to be abolished 2. It is evident that the Apostle in this place dealeth with them who endeavoured to introduce Judaisme absolutely or the whole Systeme of Mosaical Ceremonies into the Observation of the Christian Church Circumcision their Feasts and New Moons their distinctions of Meats and Dâ—nâ—s he mentioneth directly in this place And therefore he deals about these things so far as they were Judaical or belonged unto the Oeconomy of Moses and no otherwise If any of them fell under any other Consideration so far as they did so he designeth not to speak of them Now those things only were Mosaical which being instituted by Moses and figurative of good things to come or the things which being of the same nature with the residue of his Ceremonies were before appointed but accommodated by him to the use of the Church which he built 〈◊〉 such as Sacrifices and Circumcision For they were all of them nothing else but an obscure Adumbration of the things whereof Christ was the Body So far then as the Weekly Sabbath had any Additions made unto it or limitation given of it or directions for the manner of its Observance or respected the services then to be performed in it and by all accommodated unto that Dispensation of the Covenant which the Posterity of Abraham was then brought into it was a shadow and it taken away by Christ. Therewith falls its limitation to the seventh Day its rigorous Observation its penal Sanction its being a sign between God and that people in a word every thing in it and about it that belonged unto the then present Administration of the Covenant or was accommodated to the Judaical Church or State But now if it be proved that a septenary Sacred Rest was appointed in Paradise that it hath its foundation in the Law of Creation that thereon it was observed antecedently unto the Institution of Mosaical Ceremonies and that God renewed the Command concerning it in his Systeme of Moral Precepts manifoldly distinguished from all Ceremonial Ordinances so far and in these Respects it hath no concern in these words of the Apostle 3. It cannot be said that the Religious Observance of one Day in seven as an holy Rest unto God is abolished by Christ without casting a great Reflection of Presumption on all the Churches of Christ in the World I mean that now are or ever were so for they all have observed and do so observe such a day I shall not now dispute about the Authority of the Church to appoint dayes unto Holy or Religious uses to make holy Dayes Let it be granted to be whatever any yet hath pretended or pleaded that it is But this I say that where God by his Authority had commanded the Observation of a day to himself and the Lord Christ by the same Authority hath taken off that Command and abolished that Institution it is not in the power of all the Churches in the world to take up the Religious Observance of that Day to the same Ends and Purposes It is certain that God did appoint that a Sabbath of Rest should be observed unto him and for the celebration of his solemn Worship on one Day in seven The whole Command of God hereof is now pleaded to be dissolved and all obligation from thence unto its Observation to be abolished in and by Christ. Then say I it is unlawfull for any Church or Churches in the World to reassume this Practice and to impose the Observance of it on the Disciples of Christ. Be it that the Church may appoint Holy Dayes of its own that have no foundation in nor Relation and to the Law of Moses yet doubtless it ought not to digg any of his Ceremonies out of their Grave and impose them on the Necks of the Disciples of Christ yet so must it be thought to do on this Hypothesis that the Religious Observance of one Day in seven is absolutely abolished by Christ as a meer part of the Law of Commandments contained in Ordinances which was nailed to his Cross and buried with him by the constant Practice and Injunctions thereof 4. Herewith fall the Arguments taken from the Apostles calling the Sabbath in this place a shadow For it is said that nothing which is Moral can be
absolutely changed or abolished but a afresh represented unto the people only with a relief provided for the Covenanters against its Curse and Severity with a direction how to use it to another End than was first given unto it it follows that the Day of the Sabbatical Rest could not be changed And therefore was the Observation of the seventh Day precisely continued because it was a Moral Pledge of the Rest of God in the first Covenant For this the instructive part of the Law of our Creation from Gods making the world in six dayes and resting on the seventh did require The Observation of this day therefore was still continued among the Israelites because the first Covenant was again represented unto them But when that Covenant was absolutely and in all Respects as a Covenant taken away and disannulled and that not only as to its formal Efficacy but also as to the manner of the Administration of Gods Covenant with men as it is under the Gospel there was a necessity that the Day of Rest should also be changed as I have more fully shewed elsewhere I say then that the precise Observation of the seventh Day enjoyned unto the Israelites had respect unto the Covenant of Works wherein the foundation of it was laid as hath been demonstrated And the whole Controversie about what day is to be observed now as a Day of holy Rest unto the Lord is resolved fully into this enquiry namely what Covenant we do walk before God in § 6 And that we may understand the whole Nature of the Judaical Sabbath it must moreover be considered that the Law in general and all the Precepts of it was the Instrument of the Politie of the people under the Government of God as we before observed For all the Judgements relating unto Civil things were but an Application of the Moral Law to their State and Condition Hence was the sanction of the transgressions of it to be punished with Death So was it in particular with respect unto the Sabbath Numb 15. 35 partly that it might represent unto them the Original Sanction of the whole Law as a Covenant of Works and partly to keep that stubborn people by this severity within due bounds of Government Nor was any thing punished by Death Judicially in the Law but the transgression of some Moral Command 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Hand of Heaven is threatned against their Presumptuous Transgressions of the Ceremonial Law where no Sacrifice was allowed I the Lord will set my Face against that man and cut him off This also made the Sabbath a yoke and a burden that wherein their Consciences could never find perfect Rest. And in this sense also it is abolished and taken away Again it was made a part of their Law for Religious Worship in their Typical Church State in which and whereby the whole Dispensation of the Covenant which they were under was directed unto other Ends. And so it had the Nature of a shadow representing the good things to come whereby the people were to be relieved from the Rigor and Curse of the whole Law as a Covenant And on these Reasons new Commands were given for the Observation of the Sabbath new Motives Ends and Uses were added thereunto every way to accommodate it to the Dispensation of the Covenant then in force which was afterwards to be removed and taken away and therewithall the Sabbath it self so far as it had Relation thereunto For the continuation of the seventh Day precisely belonged unto the new Representation that was made of the Covenant of Works The Representation of that Covenant with the sanction given unto it amongst the Judgements of Righteousness in the Government of the people in the Land of Canaan which was the Lords and not theirs made it a yoke and burden and the use it was put unto amongst Ceremonial Observances made it a shadow in all which respects it is abolished by Christ. To say that the Sabbath as given unto the Jews is not abolished is to introduce the whole Systeme of Mosaical Ordinances which stand on the same bottom with it And particularly the Observation of the seventh Day precisely lyeth as it were in the Heart of that Oeconomy And these things will the more clearly appear if we consider the dealing of God with that people about the Sabbath from first to last § 7 The Jews some of them at least as was before discoursed would have not only the first Revelation of the Sabbath unto them or the Renovation of its Command but its first Institution absolutely to have been in their station at Mara Exod. 15. The vanity of this pretence we have before sufficiently discovered And whereas this was the Opinion of the Talmudical Masters of the Middle Ages since Christ they seem to have embraced it on the same Account whereon they have invented many other Fancies For observing that a Sabbath was in esteem amongst the Christians in Opposition unto them they began to contend that the Sabbath was as they called it the Bride of the Synagogue and belonged to themselves alone being given secretly to them only The vanity of this pretence we have before laid open and so shall not again insist upon it § 8 The first peculiar dealing of God with them about the Sabbath was evidently in their first Station at Alush Exod. 16. The occasion of the whole is laid down v. 4 5. Then said the Lord unto Moses Behold I will rain Bread from Heaven for you and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day that I may prove them whether they will walk in my Laws or no And it shall come to pass that in the sixth day they shall prepare that which they bring in and it shall be twice as much as they gather dayly Here is no mention of the Sabbath nor any Reason given why they should gather a double portion on the sixth Day This Command therefore must needs have seemed somewhat strange unto them if they had before no notion at all of a seventh Dayes Sacred Rest. They must else otherwise have been at a great loss in themselves why they must double their measure on the sixth Day However it is apparent that either they had lost the true Day they were to observe through that long Bondage in Aegypt or knew not what belonged to the due Observation and Sanctification of it For when the people had observed this Command and gathered a double portion of Manna to keep one part of it for the next day although they had Experience that if at another season it were kept above one Day it would putrifie and stink v. 20. The Rulers of the Congregation fearing some mistake in the matter go and acquaint Moses with what was done amongst them v. 22. Hereon Moses replyeth unto them v. 23. This is that which the Lord hath said to morrow is the Rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord bake that which you will bake This
but the Renovation of the Command when given unto them in the way of an especial Ordinance Exod. 16. and belongs not to the substance of the Command it self Yea take the Command it self without respect unto its explications elsewhere and it expresseth no such limitation though vertually because of the precedent Institution Exod. 16. it be contained in it Hence Thirdly There is a Prescription for the manner of its Observance accommodated unto the state and condition of that people and that two wayes 1. In comprehending things Spiritual under things Carnal when yet the carnal are of no consideration in the Worship of God but as they necessarily attend upon things spiritual Hence that part of the Command which concerns the manner of the Observation of the Sabbath to be kept holy is given out in a Prohibition of bodily Labour and Work or a Command of bodily Rest. But it is the Expression of the Rest of God and his complacency in his Works and Covenant with the Sanctification of the Day in Obedience to his Commands in and by the holy Duties of his Worship that are principally intended in it And this he farther intimates afterwards unto them by his Institution of a double Sacrifice to be offered Morning and Evening on that Day 2. In the Distribution of the people into the Capital Persons with their Relations Servants and Strangers that God would have to live amongst them and joyn themselves unto them In the whole it appears that the Sabbath is not now commanded to be observed because it is the seventh Day as though the seventh Day were firstly and principally intended in the Command which as we have shewed that neither the substance of the Command nor the Reason of it with which the whole of the Precept is begun and ended will admit of but the seventh Day is commanded to be observed because by an antecedent Institution it was made to be the Sabbath unto that people Exod. 16. Whence it came to fall under the Command not primarily but reductively as it had been on another account from the foundation of the World The Sabbath therefore is Originally commanded as one day in seven to be dedirated unto an Holy Rest. And the seventh Day if we respect the order of the dayes is added as that especial Day which God had declared that he would have at that Time his Sabbath to be observed on Now all these things in the Law of the Sabbath are Mosaical namely the Obligation that arose unto its Observation from the Promulgation of the Law unto that people on Sinai the limitation of the Day unto the seventh or last of the Week which was necessary unto that Administration of the Covenant which God then made use of and had a respect unto a previous Institution the Manner of its Observance suited unto that servile and bondage frame of mind which the giving the Law on Mount Sinai did ingenerate in them as being designed of God so to do the ingrafting it into the systeme and series of Religious Worship then in force by the double Sacrifice annexed unto it with the various uses in and accommodations it had unto the Rule of Government in the Commonwealth of Israel in all which respects it is abolished and taken away § 12 God having disposed and setled the Sabbath as to the seventh Day and the manner of its Observation as a part of the Covenant then made with that people he thereon makes use of it in the same manner and unto the same Ends with the residue of the Institutions and Ordinances which he had then prescribed unto them This he doth Exod. 31. 13 14 14 15 16 17. And the Lord spake unto Moses saying Speak thou unto the Children of Israel saying Verily my Sabbaths ye shall keep for it is a sign between me and you throughout your Generations that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctifie you Ye shall keep the Sabbath therefore for it is holy unto you Every one that defileth it shall surely be put to death for whosoever doth any work therein that soul shall be cut off from amongst his people Six Dayes may work be done but in the seventh is the Sabbath of Rest holy to the Lord whosoever doth any work on the Sabbath Day shall surely be put to death Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath to observe the Sabbath throughout their Generations for a perpetual Covenant It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever For in six Dayes the Lord made Heaven and Earth and on the seventh Day he rested and was refreshed This is the next mention of the Sabbath amongst that people wherein all that we have before laid down is fully confirmed God had now by Moses appointed other Sabbaths that is Monthly and Annual Sacred Rests to be observed unto himself With these he now joyns the Weekly Sabbath in Allusion whereunto they have that Name also given unto them He had sufficiently manifested a Difference between them before For the one he pronounced himself on Mount Sinai as part of his universal and eternal Law The other he Instituted by Revelation unto Moses as that which peculiarly belonged unto them The one was grounded on a Reason wherein they had no more concern or interest than all the rest of mankind namely Gods Rest on his Works and being refreshed thereon upon the Creation of the World and the establishment of his Covenant with man the other all built on Reasons peculiar unto themselves and that Church State whereinto they were admitted But here the Sabbaths of both these kinds are brought under the same Command and designed unto the same Ends and Purposes Now the sole Reason hereof lies in those temporary and Ceremonial Additions which we have manifested to have been made unto the Original Law of the Sabbath in its Accommodation to their Church State with the Place which it held therein as we shall see yet farther in particular § 13 The Occasion of this Renovation of the Command was the Building of the Tabernacle which was now designed and forthwith to be undertaken And with Respect hereunto there was a double Reason for the Repetition of this Command First Because that Work was for an holy End and so upon the matter an holy Work and whereon the people were very intent hence they might have supposed that it would have been lawfull for them to have attended unto it on the Sabbath Dayes This therefore God expresly forbids that they might have no pretence for the Transgression of his Command And therefore is the Penalty annexed unto it so expresly here appointed and mentioned Secondly As the Tabernacle now to be built was the only seat of that solemn instituted Worship which God was now setting up amongst them so the Sabbath being the great Means of its continuance and performance this they were now to be severely minded of lest by their neglect and forgetfulness thereof they might
this matter with the Blessing that attended it was that which multitudes now at Rest do bless God for and many that are yet alive do greatly rejoyce in Let these things be despised by those who are otherwise minded to me they are of great weight and importance § 32 Let us now a sittle consider the Day that by some is set up not only in competition with this but to its utter exclusion This is the seventh Day of the week or the old Judaical Sabbath which some contend that we are perpetually obliged to the observation of by vertue of the Fourth Commandment The Grounds whereon they proceed in their Affertion have been already disproved so far as the Nature of our present undertaking will admit and such evidences given unto the change of the Day as will not easily be everted nor removed The consequences of the observation of the seventh Day should the practice of it be re-assumed amongst Christians is that which at present I shall a little enquire into when we have summed up somewhat of what hath been spoken 1 It was not directly nor absolutely required in the Decalogue but consequentially only by way of Appropriation to the Mosaical Oeconomy whereunto it was then annexed The command is to observe the Sabbath-day and the blessing is upon the Sabbath-day God blessed the Sabbath-day And the mention of the seventh day in the Body of the command fixeth the number of the Dayes in whose Revolution a Sabbatical Rest returns but determines not an everlasting Order in them seeing the Order relating to the Old Creation is inconsistent with the Law Reason and Worship of the New And if the seventh day and the Sabbath as some pretend are the same the sense of the command in the enforcing part of it is but the seventh day is the seventh day of the Lord thy God which is none at all 2 The state of the Church and the Administration of the Covenant whereunto the observation of this day was annexed are removed so that it cannot continue no more than an House can stand without a Foundation 3 The Lord Christ who was the Lord of the Sabbath and by assuming that Iitle to himself manifested his Authority as to the disposal of the Day whereon a Sabbatical Rest was to be observed hath in his own Rest from his works limited unto us another day of Sacred Rest called from his appointment of it the Lords-day his Day who is the Lord of the Sabbath 4 The Day so introduced by his Authority hath from the Day of his Rest been observed without interruption or any such difference about it as fell out among the Churches of God about other Feast dayes whose observation was introduced among them they knew not well how as of the Pascha and the like And whereas the due observation of it hath been enjoyned by Councils Edicts of Emperors Kings and Princes Laws of all sorts advised and pressed by the antient Writers amongst Christians and the practice of its observance taken notice of by all who from the beginning have committed the Affairs of Christianity unto posterity yet none of any sort pretend to give it any original but all mediately or immediately referr it unto Christ himself The observation then of this Day First is an evident Judaizing and a returnal unto those Rudiments of the World which the Apostle so severely cautioneth us against I know not how it is come to pass but so it is faln out that the nearer Judaism is unto an absolute Abolition and Disappearance the more some seem inclinable to its revival and continuance or at least to fall back themselves into its antiquated observances An end it had put to it morally and legally long ago in the coming Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. And we may say of it what the Apostle said of Idols when the World was full of Idolatry we know that Judaism is nothing in the world no such thing as by some it is esteemed The actual Abolition of it in the profession of the present Jews by the removing of the Veyle from their Hearts and Eyes and their turning unto God we hope is in its approach And yet as was said there seems in many an inclination unto their Rites and servile observances It is apparent in the Acts and Epistles of the Apostles especially that to the Hebrews that at the first preaching of the Gospel there were very many Jews who came over to the faith and profession of it Many of these continued zealous of the Law and would bring along with them all their Mosaical Institutions which they thought were to abide in force for ever In this weakness and mis-apprehension they were forborn in the patience of God and wisdome of the Holy Ghost guiding the Apostles and Disciples of Jesus Christ. In this state things continued unto the destruction of Hierusalem and the Temple when the chiefest cause of their contests was taken away In the mean time they carried themselves very variously according to the various tempers of their minds For it is apparent that some of them were not content themselves to be indulged in their opinions and practices but they endeavoured by all means to impose the observance of the whole Mosaical Law on the Churches of the Gentiles Their Circumcision their Sabbaths their Feasts and Fasts their Abstinences from this or that kind of meats they were contending about and thereby perverting the minds of the Disciples Some stop was put to the evil consequences hereof in the Synod at Hierusalem Acts 15. which yet determined nothing concerning the Jews own practice but only concerning the liberty of the Gentile-Believers After the destruction of Hierusalem City and Temple these professing Jews fell into several distinct wayes Some of them who as is probable had despised the heavenly warning of leaving the place took up their lot amongst their unbelieving Brethren relinquishing the profession of the Gospel which they had made not it may be with any express renuntiation of Christ but with a dis-regard of the Gospel which brought them not those good things they looked for of which mind Josephus the Historian seems to be one These in time became a part of that Apostate brood which have since continued in their enmity to the Gospel and into whose new and old superstitions they introduced sundry customes which they had learned among the Christians Some absolutely relinquished their old Judaism and compleatly incorporated with the new Gentile Churches unto whom the promise and Covenant of Abraham was transferred and made over These were the genuine Disciples of our great Apostle Others continued their profession of the Gospel but yet still thought themselves obliged unto the observation of the Law of Moses and all its institutions Hereupon they continued in a distinct and separate state from the Believers and Churches of the Gentiles and that for some Ages as some say to the dayes of Adrian These it may be were they whom Eusebius out
yet surely there is nothing for it In the things that are so we have ground to expect the Assistance of the Spirit of Christ to enable us for their right observation to the Glory of God and our own edification or increase in Grace But it is a meer Precept of the Old Law as such And what the Law speaks it speaks unto them that are under the Law In all its Precepts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it exerciseth a severe Dominion over the souls and consciences of them that are under it And we have no way to extricate our selves from under that Dominion but by our being dead unto its power and Authority as such through the Death of Christ or an interest by Faith in the Benefits that through his fulfilling and satisfying the Law do redound to the Church But what is required of any one under the notion of the formal and absolute power of the Law is to be performed in and by that spirit which is administred by the Law and the strength which the Law affords and this indeed is great as to conviction of Sin nothing at all as unto Obedience and Righteousness Do men in these things appeal unto the Law unto the Law they must go For I know not any thing that we can expect Assistance of Gospel-Grace in or about but only those things which are originally moral or superadded unto them in the Gospel it self to neither of which Heads this observation of the seventh Day as such can be referred It is therefore a meer legal Duty properly so called and in a bondage frame of Spirit without any especial assistance of Grace it must be performed And how little we are beholding unto those who would in any one instance reduce us from the liberty of the Gospel unto bondage under the Law our Apostle hath so fully declared that it is altogether needless farther to attempt the manifestation of it Of the Lords-Day The Sixth Exercitation 1 Practice the end of Instruction and Learning 2 Practical observation of the Sabbath handled by many 3 Pleas concerning too much rigour and strictness in directions for the observation of the Sabbath 4 Extreams to be avoided in directions of sacred duties Extream of the Pharisees 5 The worse extream of others in giving liberty to sin 6 Mistakes in directions about the observation of the Lords Day 7 General directions unto that purpose proposed 8 Of the beginning and ending of the Sabbath The first Rule about Time 9 The frame of spirit required under the Gospel in the observation of the Lords Day 10 Rules and Principles for its due observation 11 Duties required thereunto of two sorts 12 Preparatory duties their necessity and nature 13 14 Particular account of them Meditation 15 Supplication 16 Instruction 17 18 Publick duties of the Day it self 19 What refreshments and labour consistent with them 20 Of private duties § 1 IT remains that something be briefly offered which may direct a practice suitable unto the principles laid down and pleaded For this is the End of all sacred Truth and all instruction therein This that great Rule of our blessed Saviour both teacheth us and obligeth us to an answerable duty If you know these things happy are ye if you do them Joh. 13. 17. words so filled with his wisdome that happy are they in whose hearts they are alwayes abiding The End then of our learning Scripture-Truths is to obtain such an Idea of them in our minds as may direct us unto a suitable practice Without this they are to us of no use or of none that is good 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Knowledge without practice puffeth not buildeth up For as Austin speaks with reference unto those words Con. Faust. Man lib. 15. cap. 8. Multa quibusdam sunt noxia quamvis non sint mala Things not evil yea good in themselves may be hurtfull unto others And nothing is usefull but as it is directed to its proper End This practice is unto sacred Truth § 2 I confess our endeavours herein may seem less necessary than in the foregoing Discourses For there are many Treatises on this part of our present Subject extant in our own language and in the hands of those who esteem themselves concerned in these things With some they meet indeed with no other entertainment than the Posts did that were sent by Hezekiah through Ephraim Manasseh and Zebulun to invite them unto the Passeover they are laughed to scorn and mocked at 2 Chron. 30. 10. But wisdome is justified of her children Unto some they are of great use and in great esteem And for the most part in the main of their design they do agree So that the Truth in them is established in the mouthes of many witnesses without danger of dividing the minds of men about it But yet I cannot take my self to be discharged hereby from the consideration of this concern also of a sacred Rest under the Gospel the nature of our design requiring it And there are yet important Directions for the right sanctifying of the Name of God in and by the due observance of a Day of sacred Rest which I have not taken notice to have been insisted on by others and whereas a due improvement may be expected of the peculiar principles before discussed I shall go through this part of the Work also § 3 Besides there are not a few complaints and those managed at least some of them by Persons of sobriety and learning pretending also a real care for the preservation and due observance of all duties of Piety and Religion that there hath been some excess in the Directions of many given about the due sanctification of the Lords Day And there is no small danger of mistakes on this hand whilest therein is a pretence of zeal and devotion to give them countenance Of this nature some men do judge some rigorous prescriptions to be which have been given in this matter And they say that a great disadvantage unto Religion hath ensued hereon For it is pretended that they are such as are beyond the constitution of humane nature to comply withall of which kind God certainly requires nothing at our hands Hence it is pleaded that men finding themselves no way able to come unto a satisfaction in answer unto the severe Directions for duties and the manner of their performance which by some are rigorously prescribed have taken occasion to seek for relief by rejecting the whole command which is duely interpreted in such a condescension as they were capable of a compliance withall they would have adhered unto On this account men have found out various inventions to colour their weariness of that strict course of duty which they were bound unto Hence have some taken up a plea that every Day is to them a Sabbath that so they might not keep any Some that there is no such thing as a sacred Rest on any Day required of us by the Authority of Christ and therefore that all
And hereby are we delivered from that anxious solicitude about particular instances in outward duties which was a great part of the yoke of the People of old For 1 Hence we may in all our duties look on God as a Father By the Spirit of his Son we may in them all cry Abba Father For through Christ we have an access in one Spirit unto tho Father Ephes. 2. 18. To God as a Father as one that will not alwayes chide that doth not watch our steps for our hurt but remembreth that we are but dust One who tyeth us not up to rigid exactness in outward things whilest we act in an holy spirit of filial obedience as his sons or children And there is great difference between the duties of servants and children neither hath a Father the same measure of them The consideration hereof regulated by the general Rules of the Scripture will resolve a thousand of such scruples as the Jews of old while servants were perplexed withall 2 Hence we come to know that he will be worshipped in spirit and in truth Therefore he more minds the inward frame of our hearts wherewith we serve him than the meer performance of outward duties which are alone so far accepted with him as they are expressions and demonstrations thereof If then in the observation of this Day our hearts are single and sincere in our aims at his Glory with delight it is of more price with him than the most rigid observation of outward duties by number and measure 3 Therefore the minds of Believers are no more influenced unto this duty by the curse of the Law and the terror thereof as represented in the threatned penalty of death The Authority and Love of Jesus Christ are the principal causes of our Obedience Hence our main duty lyeth in an endeavour to get spiritual joy and delight in the services of this Day which are the especial effects of spiritual liberty So the Prophet requires that we should call the Sabbath our delight holy and honourable of the Lord Isa. 58. 13. As also that on the other side we should not do our own pleasure nor do our own wayes nor find our own pleasure nor speak our own words And these Cautions seem to regard the Sabbath absolutely and not as Judaical But I much question whether they have not in the interpretation of some been extended beyond their original intention For the true meaning of them is no more but this that we should so delight our selves in the Lord on his holy Day as that being expresly forbidden our usual labour we should not need for want of satisfaction in our duties to turn aside unto our own pleasures and vain wayes which are only our own to spend our time and pass over the Sabbath a thing complained of by many whence sin and Satan have been more served on this Day than on all the Dayes of the Week beside But I no way think that here is a restraint laid on us from such Words Wayes and Works as neither hinder the performance of any religious duties belonging to the due celebration of the worship of God on the Day nor are apt in themselves to unframe our spirits or divert our affections from them And those whose minds are fixed in a spirit of liberty to glorifie God in and by this Day of Rest seeking after Communion with him in the wayes of his worship will be unto themselves a better Rule for their Words and Actions than those who may aim to reckon over all they do or say which may be done in such a manner as to become the Judaical Sabbath much more then the Lords-Day § 10 Thirdly Be sure to bring good and right Principles unto the performance of the duty of keeping a Day of Rest holy unto the Lord. Some of these I shall name as confirmed expresly in or drawn evidently from the preceding Discourses 1. Remember that there is a Weekly Rest or an holy Rest of one Day in the week due to the solemn work of glorifying God as God Remember the Sabbath to keep it holy We have had a Week unto our own occasions or we have a prospect of a Week in the patience of God for them Let us Remember that God puts in for some Time with us All is not our own We are not our own Lords Some time God will have to himself from all that own him in the World And this is that Time season or Day He esteems not himself acknowledged nor his Soveraignty owned in the World without it And therefore this Day of Rest he required the first Day as it were that the World stood upon its legs hath done so all along and will do so to the last Day of its duration When he had made all things and saw that they were good and was refreshed in them he required that we should own and acknowledge his Goodness and Power therein This duty we owe to God as God 2 That God appointed this Day to teach us that as he rested therein so we should seek after Rest in him here and look on this Day as a pledge of eternal Rest with him hereafter So was it from the beginning This was the End of the appointment of this Day Now our Rest in God in general consists in two things 1 In our Approbation of the Works of God and the Law of our Obedience with the Covenant of God thereon These things are expressive of and do represent unto us the Goodness Righteousness Holiness Faithfulness and Power of God For these and with respect unto them are we to give Glory to him What God rests in he requires that through it we should seek for our Rest in him As this was the duty of man in Innocency and under the Law so it is ours now much more For God hath now more eminently and gloriously unveiled and displayed the Excellencies of his Nature and the Counsels of his Wisdome in and by Jesus Christ than he had done under the first Covenant And this should work us to a greater and more holy admiration of them For if we are to acknowledge that the Law is holy just and good as our Apostle speaks although it is now useless as to the bringing of us to Rest in God how much more ought we to own and subscribe to the Gospel and the declaration that God hath made of himself therein that so it is 2 In an actual solemn compliance with his Will expressed in his Works Law and Covenant This brings us unto present satisfaction in him and leads us to the full enjoyment of him This is a Day of Rest but we cannot Rest in a Day nor any thing that a Day can afford only it is an help and means of bringing us to Rest in God Without this design all our Observation of a Sabbath is of no use nor advantage Nothing will thence redound to the Glory of God nor the benefit of our own souls And this they
John Owen D.D. Exercitations Concerning the Name Original Nature Use and Continuance of a DAY OF Sacred Rest. Wherein The Original of the SABBATH from the Foundation of the World the Morality of the Fourth Commandment with the Change of the Seventh Day are enquired into Together with an Assertion of the Divine Institution of the LORD'S DAY and Practical Directions for its due Observation By John Owen D D. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Cor. 6. 8. John 5. 39. Search the Scripture LONDON Printed by R. W. for Nath. Ponder at the Peacock in Chancery Lane near Fleetstreet 1671. TO THE READER Christian Reader THERE are Two great Concerns of that Religion whose Name thou bearest the Profession of its Truth and the Practice or Exercise of its Power And these are mutually assistant unto each other Without the Profession of Faith in its Truth no man can express its Power in Obedience And without Obedience Profession is little worth Whatever therefore doth contribute Help and Assistance unto us in either of these according to the mind of God is highly to be prized and valued Especially it is so in such a season wherein the Former of them is greatly questioned and the Later greatly neglected if not despised But if there be any thing which doth equally confirm and strengthen them both it is certainly of great Necessity in and unto Religion and will be so esteemed by 〈◊〉 who place their principal concerns in these things Now such is the Solenm Observation of a Sacred Weekly Day of Rest unto God For amongst all the outward Means of conveying to the present Generation that Religion which was at first taught and delivered unto men by Jesus Christ and his Apostles there hath been none more effectual than the Catholick uninterrupted Observation of such a Day for the Celebration of the Religious Worship appointed in the Gospel And many material parts of it were unquestionably preserved by the successively continued Agreement of Christians in this Practice So far then the Profession of our Christian Religion in the World at this Day doth depend upon it How much it tends to the Exercise and Expression of the Power of Religion cannot but be evident unto all unless they be such as hate it who are not a few With others it will quickly appear unto a sober and unprejudicated Consideration For no small part hereof doth consist in the constant payment of that Homage of Spiritual Worship which we owe unto God in Jesus Christ. And the Duties designed thereunto are the Means which he hath appointed for the Communication of Grace and Spiritual Strength unto the due performance of the Remainders of our Obedience In these things consist the Services of this Day and the End of its Observation is their due performance unto the Glory of God and the Advantage of our own souls Whereas therefore Christian Religion may be considered two wayes First As it is Publickly and Solemnly professed in the World whereon the Glory of God and the Honor of Jesus Christ do greatly depend And Secondly As it prevails and rules in the Minds and Lives of Private Men neither of them can be maintained without a due Observance of a Stated Day of Sacred Rest. Take this away Neglect and Confusion will quickly cast out all Regard unto Solemn Worship Neither did it ever thrive or flourish in the World from the Foundation of it nor will do so unto its End without a due Religious Attendance unto such a Day Any man may easily foresee the Disorder and Prophaness which would ensue upon the taking away of that whereby our Solemn Assemblies are guided and preserved Wherefore by Gods own Appointment it had its Beginning and will have its End with his Publick Worship in this World And take this off from the Basis whereon God hath fixed it and all Humane Substitutions of any thing in the like kind to the same purposes will quickly discover their own Vanity Nor without advantage which it affords as it is the Sacred Repository of all sanctifying Ordinances will Religion long prevail in the Minds and Lives of private Men. For it would be just with God to leave them to their own Weaknesse and Decayes which are sufficient to ruine them who despise the Assistance which he hath provided for them and which he tenders unto them Thus also we have known it to have fallen out with many in our Dayes whose Apostasies from God have hence taken their Rise and Occasion This being the case of a Weekly Sacred Day of Rest unto the Lord it must needs be our Duty to enquire and discern aright both what Warrant we have for the Religious Observance of such a Day as also what Day it is in the Hebdomadal Revolution that ought so to be observed About these things there is an Enquiry made in the ensuing Discourses and some Determinations on that Enquiry My Design in them was to discover the Fundamental Principles of this Duty and what Ground Conscience hath to stand upon in its Attendance thereunto For what is from God in these things is assuredly accepted with him The Discovery hereof I have endeavoured to make and therewithall a safe Rule for Christians to walk by in this matter so that for want thereof they may not lose the Things which they have wrought What I have attained unto of Light and Truth herein is submitted to the Judgement of Men Learned and Judicious The Censures of Persons heady ignorant and proud who speak evil of those things which they know not and in what they naturally know corrupt themselves I neither fear nor value If any Discourses seem somewhat dark or obscure unto Ordinary Readers I desire they would consider that the Foundations of the things discoursed of lye deep and no Expression will render them more familiar and obvious unto all Understandings than their Nature will allow Nor must we in any Case quit the Strengths of Truth because the Minds of some cannot easily possess themselves of them However I hope nothing will occurr but what an Attentive Redder though otherwise but of an Ordinary Capacity may receive and digest And they to whom the Argument seems hard may find those Directions which will make the Practice of the Duty insisted on easie and beneficial The especial Occasion of my present handling this Subject is declared afterwards I shall only add that here is no Design of contending with Any of opposing or contradicting any of censuring or reflecting on those whose Thoughts and Judgements in these things differ from ours begun or carried on Even those by whom an Holy Day of Rest under the Gospel and its Services are laughed to scorn are by me left unto God and themselves My whole endeavour is to find out what is agreeable unto Truth about the Observance of such a Day unto the Lord what is the Mind and Will of God concerning it on what Foundation we may attend unto the Services of it as that God may be
supposition of a Non-obligation in the Law unto the Observance of the seventh Day precisely and of a New Day to be observed Weekly under the New Testament as the Sabbath of the Lord on what Ground it is so to be observed 12 Whether of the Fourth Commandment as unto one Day in seven or only as unto some part or portion of Time or whether without any respect unto that Command as purely Ceremonial For granting as most do the necessity of the Observation of such a Day yet some say that it hath no respect at all to the Fourth Decalogical Precept which is totally and absolutely abolished with the residue of Mosaical Institutions others that there is yet remaining in it an Obligation unto the Sacred Separation of some portion of our Time unto the solemn Service of God but indetermined and some that it yet precisely requires the Sanctification of one Day in seven 13 If a Day be so to be observed it is enquired on what Ground or by what Authority there is an Alteration made from the Day observed under the Old Testament unto that now in use that is from the last to the first Day of the Week Whether was this Translation of the solemn Worship of God made by Christ and his Apostles or by the Primitive Church For the same Day might have been still continued though the Duty of its Observation might have been fixed on a new Reason and Foundation For although our Lord Jesus Christ totally abolished the old solemn Worship required by the Law of Commandments contained in Ordinances and by his own Authority introduced a new Law of Worship according unto Institutions of his own yet might Obedience unto it in a solemn manner have been fixed unto the former Day 14 If this were done by the Authority of Christ and his Apostles or be supposed so to be then it is enquired Whether it were done by the express Institution of a New Day or a directive Example sufficient to design a particular Day no Institution of a new Day being needful For if we shall suppose that there is no Obligation unto the Observance of one Day in seven indispensibly abiding on us from the Morality of the Fourth Command we must have an express Institution of a new Day or the Authority of it is not Divine and on the supposition that that is so no such Institution is necessary or can be properly made as to the whole nature of it 15 If this Alteration of the Day were introduced by the Primitive Church then whether the continuance of the Observation of one Day in seven be necessary or no. For what was appointed thereby seems to be no farther Obligatory unto the Churches of succeeding Ages than their concernment lyes in the Occasions and Reasons of their Determinations 16 If the continuance of one Day in seven for the solemn Worship of God be esteemed necessary in the present State of the Church then Whether the continuance of that now in general Use namely the First Day of the Week be necessary or no or whether it may not be lawfully changed to some other Day And sundry other the like Enquiries are made about the Original Institution Nature Use and Continuance of a Day of Sacred Rest unto the Lord. § 6 Moreover amongst those who do grant that it is necessary and that indispensibly so as to the present Church State which is under an Obligation from whence ever it arise neither to alter nor omit the Observation of a Day weekly for the publick Worship of God wherein a Cessation from labour and a joint Attendance unto the most solemn Duties of Religion are required of us It is not agreed whether the Day it self or the separation of it to its proper Use and End be any Part in it self of Divine Worship or be so meerly relatively with respect unto the Duties to be performed therein And as to those Duties themselves they are not only variously represented but great Contention hath been about them and the manner of their Performances as likewise concerning the Causes and Occasions which may dispense with our Attendance unto them Indeed herein lyes secretly the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and principal Cause of all the strife that hath been and is in the World about this matter Men may teach the Doctrine of a Sabbatical Rest on what Principles they please deduce it from what Original they think good if they plead not for an exactness of Duty in its Observance if they bind not a Religious carefull Attendance on the Worship of God in Publick and private on the Consciences of other men if they require not a Watchfulness against all Diversions and Avocations from the Duties of the Day they may do it without much fear of Opposition For all the concernments of Doctrines and Opinions which tend unto Practice are regulated thereby and embraced or rejected as the Practice pleaseth or displeaseth that they lead unto Lastly On a precise supposition that the Observation of such a Day is necessary upon Divine Precept or Institution yet there is a Controversie remaining about fixing its proper bounds as to its Beginning and Ending For some would have this Day of Rest measured by the first Constitution and limitation of Time unto a Day from the Creation namely from the Evening of the Day preceding unto its own as the Evening and the Morning were said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 One Day Gen. 1. 5. Others admit only of that proportion of Time which is ordinarily designed to our labour on the six Dayes of the Week that is from its own Morning to its own Evening with the Interposition of such Diversions as our labour on other Dayes doth admit and require § 7 And thus is it come to pass that although God made man Upright and gave him the Sabbath or Day of Rest as a token of that Condition and Pledge of a future Eternal Rest with himself yet through his finding out many Inventions that very Day is become amongst us an Occasion and Means of much Disquietment and many Contentions And that which is the worst Consequent in things of this nature that belong unto Religion and the Worship of God these Differences and the Way of their Agitation whilst the several Parties htigant have sought to weaken and invalidate their Adversaries Principles have apparently influenced the minds of all sorts of men unto a neglect in the Practice of those Duties which they severally acknowledge to be incumbent on them upon those Principles and Reasons for the Observation of such a Day which themselves allow For whilst some have hotly disputed that there is now no especial Day of Rest to be observed to the Lord by vertue of any Divine Precept or Institution and others have granted that if it be to be observed only by vertue of Ecclesiastical Constitution men may have various pretences for Dispensations from the Duties of it the whole due Observation of it is much lost
pretence of certainty above Evidence produced have had any influence into those enquiries after the Truth in this matter which 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we now address our selves unto § 9 In the first place it will be necessary to premise something about the Name whereby this Day may be called For that also among some hath been controverted Under the Old Testament it had a double Appellation the One taken from the Natural Order of the Day then separated with respect unto other Dayes the Other from its Nature and Use. On the first Account it was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the seventh Day Gen. 2. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And God blessed the seventh Day and sanctified it So also Exod. 20. 11. Upon its first Institution and on the Re-introduction of its Observation it is so called But it is a meer Description of the Day from its Relation to the six precedent dayes of the Creation that is herein intended absolutely it is not so called any where Yet hence by the Hellenists it was termed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the seventh and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Sacred seventh Day So is mention made of it by Philo Josephus and others And our Apostle maketh use of this Name as that which was commonly in use to denote the Sabbath of the Jews Chap. 4. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For he speaketh or it is spoken somewhere concerning the seventh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not added because 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was used technically to denote that Day And he educeth the Reason of this Denomination from Gen. 2. 3. Being as was said the Day that ensued immediately after the six distinct Dayes wherein the World was created and putting a Period unto a measure of Time by a Numeration of Dayes alwayes to return in its Cycle it was called the seventh Day And from that course of Time compleated in seven Dayes thence recurring to its Beginning is the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hebdomas a Week which the Hebrews call only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a seven And the same word sometimes signifieth the seventh Day or one Day in seven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is septimum Diem celebrare to celebrate the or a seventh Day And the Latines use the Word in the same manner for seven Dayes or One Day in seven But this Appellation as we shall see the Apostle casts out of Consideration and Use as to the Day to be observed under the New Testament For that which was first so is passed away and another instituted in the Room thereof which although it be also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or a seventh Day absolutely or one in the Revolution of seven yet not being the seventh in their Natural Order that Name is now of no use but antiquated § 10 From its Occasion Sanctification and Use it was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Sabbath and the Sabbath Day The Occasion of this Name is expressed Gen. 2. 3. God blessed the seventh Day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because he rested shabath that Day It is called Rest the Rest because on that Day God rested And in the Decalogue it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Day of the Sabbath or of Gods Rest and ours And absolutely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Sabbath Isa. 56. 2. where also God from his Institution of it calls it my Sabbath v. 4. This being a thing so plain and evident it were meer loss of Time to insist upon the feigned Etymologies of this Name after it came to be taken notice of in the world I shall only name them Appion the Alexandrian would have it derived from the Aegyptian word Sabbo as Josephus informs us Cont. App. lib. 2. and what the signification of that Word is the Reader may see in the same place Plutarch derives it from Sabboi a Word that was used to be howled in the furious Services of Bacchus for his Priests and Devotoes used in their Bacchanals to cry out Evoi Sabboi Sympos lib. 4. c. 15. which things are ridiculous Lactantius with sundry others of the Antients fell into no less though a less offensive mistake Hic saith he est dies Sabbati qui lingua Hebraeorum à numero nomen accepit unde septenarius numerus legitimus plenus est Institut lib. 7. cap. 14. Procopius Gazaeus on the Pentateuch hath a singular conceit Speaking of the Tenth of the Month Tizri termed Sabbaton Sabbat he calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He would have it the Day of the Conception of John Baptist the fore-runner of Christ when the Remission and Repentance that he Preached began and thence conjectures the Etymologie of the Sabbath to be from Sabachta that is the Syriack 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies Remission that Day being remitted holy unto the Lord being the seventh Day which is Sabaa that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The vanity of which conjectures is apparent to all The Reason and Rise of this Appellation is manifest Hence this was the proper and usual Name of this Day under the Old Testament being expressive of its Occasion Nature and End The Word also hath other Formes as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Exod. 16. 23. Chap. 35. 2. Sabbaton and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lam. 1. 7. Mishbat the signification of the Word being still retained Neither yet is this Word peculiarly Sacred as to what it denotes but is used to express things common or Prophane even any Cessation resting or giving over The first time it occurs Gen. 2. 3. it is rendred in Targum by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a common Word to rest See Isa. 14. 4. Chap. 24. 8. and many other places It is also applyed to signifie a Week because every Week or seven of Dayes had a Sabbath or Day of Rest necessarily included in it Levit. 23. 15. You shall count to your selves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seven compleat Sabbaths that is Weeks each having a Sabbath in it for its close for the reckoning was to expire on the End of the seventh Sabbath v. 16. And this place being expounded by Onkelos in his Targum of a Week Nachmanides sayes upon it that if it be so which he also grants and pleads then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there will be two Tongues in one Verse or the same Word used twice in the same Verse with different significations namely that the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 should denote both the Holy Day of Rest and also a Week of Dayes And he gives another Instance to the same purpose in the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Judg. 10. 4. Jair the Gileadite had thirty sons 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies in the first place Colts of Asses and in the latter Cities And the common number of seven is expressed by it Levit. 25. 8. Thou shalt number unto 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seven Sabbaths of years that is as it is
of the Sabbath by the Patriarchs before the giving of the Law Instances hereof collected by Manasse Ben Israel Farther confirmation of it 12 Tradition among the Gentiles concerning it Sacredness of the septenary Number 13 Testimonies of the Heathen collected by Aristobulus Clemens Eusebius 14 Importance of these Testimonies examined and vindicated 15 Ground of the Hebdomadal Revolution of time It s Observation Catholick 16 Planetary Denominations of the Dayes of the Week whence 17 The contrary Opinion of the Original of the Sabbath in the Wilderness proposed and examined 18 First Argument against the Original of the Sabbath Answered c. The Second Exercitation Of the Original of the Sabbath § 1 HAving fixed the Name the Thing it self falls nextly under Consideration And the Order of our Investigation shall be to enquire first into its Original and then into its Causes And the true stating of the former will give great light into the latter as also into its Duration For if it began with the World probably it had a cause cognate to the Existence of the World and the Ends of it and so must in Duration be commensurate unto it If it ows its Rise to succeeding Generations amongst some peculiar sort of men its Cause was arbitrary and occasional and its continuance uncertain For every thing which had such a Beginning in the Worship of God was limited to some seasons only and had a Time determined for its Expiration This therefore is first to be stated And indeed no Concern of this Day hath fallen under more diligent severe and Learned Dissertations Very Learned men have here engaged into contrary Opinions and defended them with much Learning and Variety of Reading Summa sequar Vestigia rerum and shall briefly call the different Apprehensions both of Jews and Christians in this matter unto a just Examination Neither shall I omit the consideration of any Opinion whose Antiquity or the Authority of its Defenders did ever give it Reputation though now generally exploded as not knowing in that Revolution of Opinions which we are under how soon it may have a Revival § 2 The Jews that we may begin with them with whom some think the Sabbath began are divided among themselves about the Original of the Sabbath no less than Christians yea to speak the Truth their Divisions and different Apprehensions about this matter of Fact have been the occasion of ours and their Authority is pleaded to countenance the mistakes of others Many therefore of them assign the Original or first Revelation of the Sabbath unto the Wilderness Station of the people in Mara others of them make it Coaeval with the World The first Opinion hath countenance given unto it in the Talmud Gemar Babylon Tit. Sab. cap. 9. and Tit. Sanedr cap. 7. And the Tradition of it is embraced by so many of their Masters and Commentators that our Learned Selden de Jur. Gen. apud Heb. lib. 3. cap. 12 13 14. contends for it as the common and prevailing Opinion amongst them and indeavours an Answer unto all Instances or Testimonies that are or may be urged to the contrary And indeed there is searce any thing of moment to be observed in all Antiquity as to matter of Fact about the Sabbath whether it be Jewish Christian or Heathen but what he hath heaped together or rather treasured up in the Learned Discourses of that third Book of his Jus Gentium apud Hebraeos Whether the Questions of Right belonging thereunto have been duly determined by him is yet left unto further enquiry That which at present we are in the consideration of is the Opinion of the Jews about the Original of the Sabbath at the Station of Marah which he so largely confirms with Testimonies out of all sorts of their Authors and those duly alledged according to their own Sense and Conceptions § 3 Mara was the first Station that the Children of Israel fixed in in the Wilderness of Shur five Dayes after their coming up out of the Red Sea Before their coming hither they had wandred three dayes in the Wilderness without finding any Water until they were ready to faint The Report of this their thirst and wandring was famous amongst the Heathen and mixed by them with vain and monstrous Fables One of the Wisest amongst them puts as many Lies together about it as so few words can well contain Effigiem saith he Animalis quo monstrante errorem sitimque depulerant penetrali sacravere Tacit. Histor. lib. 5. He feigns that by following some Wild Asses they were led to Waters and so made an End of their Thirst and wandring on the Account whereof they afterwards consecrated in their Temple the Image of an Ass. Others of them besides him say that they wandred six dayes and finding Water on the seventh that was the Occasion and Reason of their perpetual Observation of the seventh Dayes Rest. In their Journey from the Red Sea to Mara they were particularly pressed with Wandring and Thirst Exod. 15. 22. But this was only for three dayes not seven They went three Dayes in the Wilderness and found no Water The Story of the Asses Image or Head consecrated amongst them was taken from what fell out afterwards about the Golden Calf This made them vile among the Nations and exposed them to their Obloquy and Reproaches Upon the third Day therefore after their coming from the Red Sea they came to Mara that is the place so called afterwards from what there befell them For the Waters which there they found being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bitter they called the Name of the place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Bitterness Hither they came on the third Day For although it is said that they went three Dayes in the Wilderness and found no Water Exod. 15. 22. after which mention is made of their coming to Mara v. 23. Yet it was in the Evening of the third Day for they pitched that night in Mara Numb 33. 8. Here after their murmuring for the bitterness of the Waters and the Miraculous Cure of them it is added in the Story There the Lord made for them a Statute and an Ordinance and there he proved them And said If thou wilt diligently hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God and wilt do that which is right in his sight and wilt give ear to all his Commandments and keep all his Statutes I will put none of those diseases upon thee which I have brought upon the Aegyptians for I am the Lord that healeth thee v. 26. It is said that he gave them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Words whereby Sacred Ordinances and Institutions are expressed What this Statute and Judgement were in particular is not declared These therefore are suggested by the Talmudical Masters One of them they say was the Ordinance concerning the Sabbath About the other they are not so well agreed Some refer it to the fifth Commandment of honouring Father and Mother others to the Ceremonies of
the Red Heifer with whose ashes the water of sprinkling was to be mingled for which conjecture they want not such Reasons as are usual amongst them The two first they confirm from the Repetition of the Law Deut. 5. 14 15. For there those Words as the Lord thy God commanded thee are distinctly added to those two Precepts the Fourth and Fifth and to no other And this could arise from no other cause but because God had before given them unto the people in Mara where he said he had given them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is the Ordinance and Law of the Sabbath and the Judgement of Obedience to Parents and Superiors This is one of the principal wayes whereby they confirm their Imaginations And fully to establish the Truth hereof Baal Hatturim or the small Gematrical Annotations on the Masoretical Bibles adds that in those words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the final numeral Letters make up the same number with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Name of the Place where these Laws were given And this is the summ of what is pleaded in this case § 4 But every one may easily see the Vanity of these Pretences and how easie it is for any one to frame a thousand of them who knows not how better to spend his time Aben Ezra and Abarbinel both confess that the words used in the Repetition of the Law Deut. 5. do refer to the giving of it on Mount Sinai And if we must seek for especial Reasons of the inserting of those words besides the Soveraign Pleasure of God they are not wanting which are far more probable than these of the Masters 1 The one of these Commandments closing up the first Table concerning the Worship of God and the other heading the second Table concerning our Duties amongst our selves and towards others this Memorial as the Lord thy God commanded thee is on that account expresly annexed unto them being to be distinctly applyed unto all the Rest. 2 The Fourth Command is as it were Custos primae Tabulae the Keeper of the whole first Table seeing our owning of God to be our God and our Worship of him according to his mind were solemnly to be expressed on the Day of Rest commanded to be observed for that purpose and in the neglect whereof they will be sure enough neglected whence also a Remembrance to observe this Day is so strictly injoyned And the Fifth Commandment is apparently Custos secundae Tabulae as appointed of God to contain the means of exacting the observation of all the Duties of the second Table or of punishing the neglect of them and disobedience unto them And therefore it may be the Memorial is not peculiarly annexed unto them on their own distinct Account but equally upon that of the other Commandments whereunto they do refer 3 There is yet an especial Reason for the peculiar Appropriation of these two Precepts by that Memorial unto this people For they had now given unto them an especial Typical Concern in them which did not at all belong unto the rest of mankind who were otherwise equally concerned in the Decalogue with themselves For in the Fourth Commandment whereas no more was before required but that one Day in seven should be observed as a Sacred Rest they were now precisely confined to the seventh Day in order from the finishing of the Creation or the establishing of the Law and Covenant of Works or a day answering thereunto For the Determination of the Day in the Hebdomadal Revolution was added in the Law Decalogical to the Law of Nature And this was with respect unto and in the confirmation of that Ordinance which gave them the seventh Day Sabbath in a peculiar manner that is the seventh Day after six dayes raining of Manna Exod. 16. And in the other the Promise annexed unto it of prolonging their Dayes had peculiar respect unto the Land of Canaan There is neither of these but is a far more probable Reason of the annexing those words as the Lord thy God commanded thee unto those two Commandments than that fixed on by the Talmudical Masters Herein only I agree with them that both these Commands were given alike in Mara and one of them I suppose none will deny to be a principal Dictate of the Law of Nature For the words mentioned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Ordinance and a Statute the meaning of them is plainly expounded v. 26. God then declared this unto them as his unchangeable Ordinance and Institution that he would bless them on their Obedience and punish them upon their Unbelief and Rebellion wherein they had Experience of his Faithfulness to their cost The Reader may see this Fiction farther disproved in Tostatus on the place though I confess some of his Reasons are inconstringent and frivolous Moreover this Station of Mara was on or about the twenty fourth Day of Nisan or April And the first solemn Observation of the Sabbath in the Wilderness was upon the twenty second of Jiar the Month following as may easily be evinced from Moses Journal There were therefore twenty seven dayes between this Fictitious Institution of the Sabbath and the first solemn Observation of it which was at their Station in Alush as is generally supposed certainly in the Wilderness of Sin after they had left Mara and Elim and the Coast of the Red Sea whereunto they returned from Elim Exod. 16. 1. Numb 33. 8 9 10 11. For they first began their journey out of Aegypt on the fifteenth Day of Nisan or the first Month Exod. 12. 37. Numb 33. 3. And they passed through the Sea into the Wilderness about the nineteenth Day of that Month as is evident from their journyings Numb 33. 5 6 7 8 9. On the twentifourth of that Month they pitched in Mara and it was the fifteenth day of Jiar or the second Month before they entred the Wilderness of Sin where is the first mention of their solemn Observation of the Sabbath upon the occasion of the gathering of Manna Between these two seasons three Sabbaths must needs intervene and those immediately upon its first Institution if this Fancy may be admitted And yet the Rulers of the Congregation looked upon the peoples Preparation for its Observation as an unusual thing Exod. 16. 22. Which could not have fallen out had it received so fresh an Institution Besides these Masters themselves and Raski in particular who in his Comment on the place promotes this Fancy grants that Abraham observed the Sabbath But the Law and Ordinances hereof they say he received on peculiar Favour and by especial Revelation But be it so it was the great Commendation of Abraham and that given him by God himself that he would command his Children and Houshold after him to keep the Way of the Lord Gen. 18. 19. What ever Ordinance therefore he received from God of any thing to be observed in his Worship it was a part of his Fidelity to communicate the knowledge of
exegetical of the other He blessed it by sanctifying of it as Numb 7. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And he annointed them and sanctified them that is he sanctified them by annointing them or by their Unction set them apart unto an Holy Use which is the Instance of Abarbinel on this place This then is that which is affirmed by Moses On the seventh Day after he had finished his work God rested or ceased from working and thereon blessed and sanctified the seventh Day or set it apart unto holy uses for their Observance by whom he was to be worshipped in this world and whom he had newly made for that Purpose God then sanctified this Day Not that he kept it holy himself which in no sense the Divine Nature is capable of nor that he purified it and made it inherently holy which the nature of the Day is incapable of nor that he celebrated that which in it self was holy as we sanctifie his name which is the act of an inferior towards a superior but that he set it apart to sacred use authoritatively requiring us to sanctifie it in that use obedientially And if you allow not this original sanctification of the seventh Day the first Instance of its solemn joint National Observation is introduced with a strange abruptness It is said Exod. 16. where this Instance is given that on the sixth day the people gathered twice as much bread as on any other day namely two Omers for one man which the Rulers taking notice of acquainted Moses with it v. 22. And Moses in answer to the Rulers of the Congregation who had made the Information gives the Reason of it To morrow saith he is the Rest of the holy Sabbath to the Lord. v. 23. Many of the Jews can give some colour to this manner of Expression for they assign as we have shewed the Revelation and Institution of the Sabbath unto the Station in Mara Exod. 15. which was almost a Month before So they think that no more is here intended but a direction for the solemn Observance of that Day which was before instituted with particular respect unto the gathering of Manna which the people being commanded in General before to gather every day according to their eating and not to keep any of it until the next day the Rulers might well doubt whether they ought not to have gathered it on the Sabbath also not being able to reconcile a seeming contradiction between those two commands of gathering Manna every day and of resting on the seventh But those by whom the Fancy about the Station in Mara is rejected as it is rejected by most Christians and who will not admit of its Original Institution from the Beginning can scarce give a tolerable Account of this manner of Expression Without the least intimation of Institution and Command it is only said to morrow is the Sabbath holy to the Lord that is for you to keep holy But on the supposition contended for the discourse in that place with the Reason of it is plain and evident For there being a previous Institution of the seventh Dayes Rest the Observation whereof was partly gone into disuse and the Day it self being then to receive a new peculiar Application to the Church State of that people the Reason both of the peoples fact and the Rulers doubt and Moses's Resolution is plain and obvious § 9 Wherefore granting the sense of the Words contended for there is yet another Exception put in to invalidate this Testimony as to the original of a seventh Dayes Sabbatical Rest from the Foundation of the World And this is taken not from the signification of the words but the connexion and disposition of them in the Discourse of Moses For suppose that by Gods Blessing and sanctifying the seventh Day the separation of it unto sacred Uses is intended yet this doth not prove that it was so sanctified immediately upon the finishing of the Work of Creation For say some Learned men those words of v. 3. And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because that in it he had rested from all his Work which God created and made are inserted occasionally into the Discourse of Moses from what afterwards came to pass They are not therefore as they suppose a continued part of the Historical Narration there insisted on but are inserted into it by way of Prolepsis or Anticipation and are to be read as it were in a Parenthesis For supposing that Moses wrote not the Book of Genesis until after the giving of the Law which I will not contend about though it be assumed gratis in this Discourse there being a Respect had unto the Rest of God when his Works were finished in the Institution of the Sabbath upon the Historical Relation of that Rest Mises interserts what so long after was done and appointed on the Account thereof And so the sense of the Words must be that God rested on the seventh day from all his works that he had made that is the next Day after the finishing of the Works of Creation wherefore two thousand four hundred years after God blessed and sanctified the seventh day not that seventh Day whereon he rested with them that succeeded in the like Revolution of Time but a seventh Day that fell out so long after which was not blessed nor sanctified before I know not well how men Learned and Sober can offer more hardship unto a Text then is put upon this before us by this Interpretation The connexion of the Words is plain and equal And the Heavens and the Earth and all the Host of them were finished And God had finished on the seventh day all his work that he had made and he rested the seventh day from all his work that he had made And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because in it God rested from all his work which he had created and made You may as well break off the order and continuation of the Words and Discourse in any other place as in that pretended And it may be as well faigned that God finished his work on the seventh day and afterwards rested another seventh day as that he rested the seventh day and afterwards blessed and sanctified another It is true there may be sundry Instances given out of the Scripture of sundry things inserted in Historical Narrations by way of Anticipation which fell not out until after the time wherein mention is made of them But they are mostly such as fell out in the same Age or Generation the matter of the whole Narration being entire within the memory of men But of so monstrous and uncouth a Prolepsis as this would be which is supposed no Instance can be given in the Scripture or any sober Author especially without the least notice given that such it is And such Schemes of Writing are not to be imagined unless necessity from the things themselves spoken of compell us to admit them much less where the matter treated
of and the coherence of the words do necessarily exclude such an Imagination as it is in this place For without the Introduction of the words mentioned neither is the Discourse compleat nor the matter of Fact absolved And what lyeth against our Construction and Interpretation of these words from the Arguments insisted on to prove the Institution of the Sabbath in the Wilderness shall be afterwards considered § 10 The Testimony to the same purpose with the former taken out of the New Testament is that of our Apostle Heb. 4. 3 4. For we who have believed do enter into Rest as he said as I sware in my wrath if they shall enter into my Rest although the works were finished from the Foundation of the world For he speaketh somewhere concerning the seventh day in this wise And God rested on the seventh day from all his works Having insisted at large on this place with the whole ensuing Discourse in our Exposition of the Chapter it self I shall here but briefly reflect upon it referring the Reader for its full Vindication unto its proper place The present Design is to convince the Hebrews of their concernment in the Promise of entring into the Rest of God namely that Promise and Rest which yet remained and were prophesied of Psal. 91. To this purpose he manifests that notwithstanding any other Rest of God that was mentioned in the Scripture there yet remained another Rest for them that did or would believe in Christ through the Gospel In the proof and confirmation hereof he takes into consideration the several Rests of God under the several States of the Church which were now passed and gone And first he fixeth upon the Sabbatical Rest of the seventh day as that which was the first in Order first instituted first enjoyed or observed And this he sayes ensued upon the finishing of the works of Creation This the order of the words and coherence of them require Although the works were finished from the foundation of the world for he speaketh concerning the seventh Day on this wise The works and the finishing of them did not at all belong to the Apostles Discourse or Purpose but only as they denoted the Beginning of the seventh days Sabbatical Rest. For it is the several Rests of God alone that he is enquiring after The first Rest mentioned saith he cannot be that intended in the Psalm because that Rest began from the foundation of the world but this mentioned by David is promised as he speaketh so long a time after And what was this Rest Was it meerly Gods ceasing from his own works This the Apostle had no concernment in For he treateth of no Rest of God absolutely but of such a Rest as men by Faith and Obedience might enter into Such as was that afterwards in the Land of Canaan and that also which he now proposed to them in the Promise of the Gospel both which God calleth his Rests and inviteth others unto an entrance into them Such therefore must be the Rest of God here intended for concerning his Rest absolutely or his mere Cessation from working he had no Reason to treat For his Design was only to shew that notwithstanding the other Rests that were proposed unto men for to obtain an Entrance into them there yet remained another Rest to be entred into and enjoyed under the Gospel Such a Rest therefore there was instituted and appointed of God from the Foundation of the world immediately upon the finishing of the works of Creation which sixeth immoveably the Beginning of the Sabbatical Rest. The full Vindication of this Testimony the Reader may find in the Exposition it self whither he is referred And I do suppose that no cause can be confirmed with more clear and undeniable Testimonies The Observation and Tradition of this Institution whereby it will be farther confirmed are next to be enquired after § 11 That this Divine Original Institution of the seventh Day Sabbath was piously observed by the Patriarchs who retained a due Remembrance of Divine Revelations is out of Controversie amongst all that acknowledge the Institution it self by others it is denyed that they may not be forced to acknowledge such an Institution And indeed it is so fallen out with the two great Ordinances of Divine Worship before the giving of the Law the one instituted before the Fall the other immediately upon it that they should have contrary Lots in this matter namely Sacrifices and the Sabbath Sacrifices we find constantly observed by Holy men of old although we read not of their Express Institution But from their Observation we do and may conclude that they were Instituted although that Institution be not expresly recorded The Sabbath we find expresly instituted and therefore do and may justly conclude that it was constantly observed although that Observation be not directly and in terms remembred But yet as there is such light into the Institution of Sacrifices as may enable us to justifie them by whom they were used that they acted therein according to the mind of God and in Obedience unto his Will as we have elsewhere demonstrated so there want not such Instances of the Observation of the Sabbath as may confirm the Original Divine Institution of it pleaded for This therefore I shall a little enquire into Many of the Jewish Masters as we observed before ascribe the Original of the Sabbath unto the Statute given them in Mara Exod. 15. And yet the same persons grant that it was observed by the Religious Patriarchs before especially by Abraham unto whom the knowledge of it was granted by peculiar Priviledge But these things are mutually destructive of each other For they have nothing to prove the Institution of the Sabbath in Mara but those words of v. 25. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there he gave him a Statute and a Judgement And it is said of Abraham that he taught his Houshold and Children after him to keep the way of the Lord to do Justice and Judgement Gen. 18. 19. If then the Observation of the Sabbath be a Statute or Ordinance and was made known to Abraham it is certain that he instructed his household and children all his Posterity in their Duty with respect thereunto And if so it could not be first revealed unto them at Mara Others therefore of their Masters do grant as we observed also the Original of the Sabbath from the Creation and do assert the Patriarchal Observation of it upon that Foundation The Instances I confess which they make use of are not absolutely cogent but yet considered with other circumstances wherewith they are strengthned they may be allowed to conclude unto an high probability Some of them are collected by Manasse Ben Israel Lib. de Creat Problem 8. saith he Dico quemadmodum traditio creationis Mundipenes Abrahamum ejus posteros tantum fuit it a etiam ex dictamine Legis naturalis Sabbatum ab iis solis cultum fuisse De Abrahamo dicit sacra Scriptura
various states 37 Command for the Sabbath before the Fall 38 Before and at the giving of the Law and under the Gospel 39 Whether appointed by the Church 40 Of the fourth Commandment in the Decalogue 41 The proper subject of it 42 The seventh Day precisely not primarily required therein 43 Somewhat moral in it granted by all 44 The matter of this Command a Moral Duty by the Law of Creation 45 The Morality of the Precept it self proved from its interest in the Decalogue by various Instances 46 The Law of the Sabbath only preferred above all Ceremonial and Judicial Laws 47 The Words of our Saviour Matth. 24. 20. considered 48 The whole Law of the Decalogue established by Christ. 49 Objections proposed 50 The first answered 51 The second answered 52 The third answered 53 One Day in seven not the seventh Day precisely required in the Decalogue 54 An Objection from the sense of the Law 55 Answered 56 57 Other Objections answered 58 Col. 2. 16 17. considered The Third Exercitation Causes of the Sabbath § 1 WE have fixed the Original of the Sabbatical Rest according to the best light we have received into these things and confirmed the Reasons of it with the consent of mankind The next step in our progress must be an Enquiry into its Causes And here also we fall immediately into those Difficulties and Entanglements which the various Apprehensions of Learned Men promoted and defended with much Diligence have occasioned I have no Design to oppose or contend with any although a modest Examination of the Reasons of some will be indispensibly necessary unto me All that I crave is the liberty of proposing my own Thoughts and Judgement in this matter with the Reasons and Grounds of them When that is done I shall humbly submit the whole to the Examination and Judgement of all that call upon the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ their Lord and ours § 2 First It is agreed by all that God alone is the Supream Original and Absolute Cause of the Sabbath When ever it began when ever it ends be it expired or still in force of what kind soever were its Institution the Law of it was from God It was from Heaven and not of men and the Will of God is the sole Rule and measure of our Observation of it and Obedience to him therein What may or may not be done in reference unto the Observation of a Day of holy Rest by any inferior Authority comes not here under consideration But whereas there are two sorts of Laws whereby God requires the Obedience of his Rational Creatures which are commonly called Moral and Positive it is greatly questioned and disputed to whether of these sorts doth belong the Command of a Sabbatical Rest. Positive Laws are taken to be such as have no Reason for them in themselves nothing of the matter of them is taken from the things themselves commanded but do depend meerly and solely on the Soveraign Will and Pleasure of God Such were the Laws and Institutions of the Sacrifices of old and such are those which concern the Sacraments and other things of the like nature under the New Testament Moral Laws are such as have the Reasons of them taken from the Nature of the things themselves required in them For they are Good from their respect to the nature of God himself and from that nature and order of all things which he hath placed in the creation So that this sort of Laws is but Declarative of the absolute goodness of what they do require the other is Constitutive of it as unto some certain Ends. Laws Positive as they are occasionally given so they are esteemed alterable at pleasure Being fixed by meer Will and Prerogative without respect to any thing that should make them necessary antecedent to their giving they may by the same Authority at any time be taken away and abolished Such I say are they in their own nature and as to any firmitude that they have from their own subject matter But with respect unto Gods Determination Positive Divine Laws may become eventually unalterable And this Difference is there between Legal and Evangelical Institutions The Laws of both are Positive only equally proceeding from Soveraign Will and Pleasure and in their own Natures equally alterable But to the former God had in his purpose fixed a determinate time and season wherein they should expire or be altered by his Authority the latter he hath fixed a perpetuity and unchangeableness unto during the state and condition of his Church in this world The other sort of Laws are perpetual and unalterable in themselves so far as they are of that sort that is Moral For although a Law of that kind may have an especial Injunction with such circumstances as may be changed and varied as had the whole Decalogue in the Common-wealth of Israel yet so far as it is Moral that is that its Commands or Prohibitions are necessary emergencies or expressions of the Good or Evil of the things it commands or forbids it is invariable And in these things there is an Agreement unless sometimes through mutual Oppositions men are chased into some Exceptions or Distinctions § 3 Unto these two sorts do all Divine Laws belong and unto these Heads they may be all reduced And it is pleaded by some that these kinds of Laws are contradistinct so that a Law of one kind can in no sense be a Law in the other And this doubtless is true reduplicatively because they have especial formal Reasons As far and wherein any Laws are Positive they are not Moral and as far as they are purely Moral they are not formally Positive though given after the manner of positive Commands Howbeit this hinders not but that some do judge that there may be and are Divine Laws of a mixt nature For there may be in a Divine Law a foundation in and respect unto somewhat that is Moral which yet may stand in need of the superaddition of a Positive Command for its due Observation unto its proper End Yea the Moral Reason of things commanded which ariseth out of a due natural Respect unto God and the order of the Universe may be so deep and hidden as that God who would make the Way of his Creatures plain and easie gives out express positive Commands for the Observance of what is antecedently necessary by the Law of our Creation Hence a Law may partake of both these Considerations and both of them have an equal influence into its Obligatory Power And by this means sundry Duties some Moral some Positive are as it were compounded in one Observance as may be instanced in the great Duty of Prayer Hence the whole Law of that Observance becomes of a mixt nature which yet God can separate at his pleasure and taking away that which is Positive leave only that which is absolutely Moral in force And this kind of Laws which have their Foundation in the nature of things
themselves which yet stand in need of farther Direction for their due Observation which is added unto them by Positive Institution some call Moral Positive § 4 According to these Distinctions of the Nature of the Laws which God expresseth his Will in and by are mens Apprehensions different about the immediate and instrumental Cause of the Sabbatical Rest. That God was the Author of it is as was said by all agreed But say some the Law whereby he appointed it was purely Positive the matter of it being arbitrary stated and determined only in the Command it self and so the whole Nature of the Law and that commanded in it changeable And because Positive Laws did and alwayes do respect some other things besides and beyond themselves it is pleaded that this Law was Ceremonial and Typical that is it was an Institution of an outward present Religious Observation to signifie and represent some thing not present nor yet come such were all the particulars of the whole systeme of Mosaical Worship whereof this Law of the Sabbath was a part and an Instance In brief some say that the whole Law of the Sabbath was as to its general Nature positive and arbitrary and so changeable and in particular Ceremonial and Typical and so actually changed and abolished But yet it is so fallen out that those who are most positive in these Assertions cannot but acknowledge that this Law is so ingrafted into and so closed up with somewhat that is Moral and unalterable that it is no easie thing to hit the joint aright and make a separation of the one from the other But concerning any other Law expresly and confessedly Ceremonial no such thing can be observed They were all evidently and entirely arbitrary Institutions without any such neer Relation to what is Moral as might trouble any one to make a distinction between them For Instance the Law of Sacrifices hath indeed an answerableness in it to a great Principle of the Law of Nature namely that we must honour God with our substance and the best of our Increase yet that this might be done many other wayes and not by Sacrifice if God had pleased so to ordain every one is able to apprehend It is otherwise in this matter for none will deny but that it is required of us in and by the Law of Nature that some Time be set apart and dedicated unto God for the Observation of his solemn Worship in the world And it is plain to every one that this natural dictate is inseparably included in the Law of the Sabbath It will therefore surely be difficult to make it absolutely and universally positive I know some begin to whisper things inconsistent with this concession But we have as yet the Universal consent of all Divines Antient and Modern Fathers Schoolmen and Casuists concurring in this matter For they all unanimously affirm that the separation of some part of our Time to sacred uses and the solemn honouring of God is required of us in the Light and by the Law of Nature And herein lyes the fundamental notion of the Law now enquired after This also may be farther added that whereas this Natural dictate for the observation of some time in the solemn worship of God hath been accompanied with a Declaration of his will from the foundation of the world that this Time should be one day in seven it will be a matter of no small Difficulty to find out what is purely positive therein § 5 Others building on this Foundation that the Dedication of some part of our Time to the Worship of God is a duty Natural or Moral as required by the Law of our Creation not that Time in it self which is but a circumstance of other things can be esteemed Moral but that our observation of Time may be a Moral Duty do add that the Determination of one Day in seven to be that portion of Time so to be dedicated is inseparable from the same foundation and is of the same Nature with it That is that the Sabbatical Observation of one Dayes Holy Rest in seven hath a Moral Precept for its Warranty or that which hath the nature of a Moral Precept in it so that although the Revolution of Time in seven Dayes and the confining of the Day to that determined season do depend on Revelation and a Fositive Command of God for its Observance yet on fupposition thereof the Moral Precept prevails in the whole and is everlastingly Obligatory And there are some Divines of great Piety and Learning who do judge that a Command of God given unto all men and equally Obligatory unto all respecting their manner of living unto God is to be esteemed a Moral Command and that indispensible and unchangeable although we should not be able to discover the Reason of it in the Light and Law of Nature Nor can such a Command be reckoned amongst them that are meerly positive arbitrary and changeable all which depend on sundry other things and do not firstly affect men as men in general And it is probable that God would not give out any such Catholick Command which comprized not somewhat naturally Good and Right in it And this is the best measure and Determination of what is Moral and not our Ability of discovering by Reason what is so and what is not as we shall see afterwards § 6 Moreover there are some who stay not here but contend that the precise Observation of the seventh Day in the Hebdomadal Revolution lyeth under a Command Moral and indispensible For God they say who is the Soveraign Lord of us and our Times hath taken by an Everlasting Law this Day unto himself for his honour and service And he hath therein obliged all men to an holy Rest not on some certain fixed and stated time not on one Day in seven originally as the first Intention of his Command but on the seventh Day precisely whereunto those other considerations of some stated and fixed time and of one Day in seven are Consequential and far from previous foundations of it The seventh Day as the seventh Day is they say the first proper Object of the Command the other things mentioned of a stated Time and of one Day in seven do only follow thereon and by vertue thereof belong to the Command of the Sabbath and no otherwise Herein great Honour indeed is done unto the seventh Day above all other Ordinances of Worship whatever even of the Gospel it self but whether with sufficient Warranty we must afterwards enquire At present I shall only observe that this Observation of the seventh Day precisely is resolved into the Soveraignty of God over us and our Times and into an Occasion respecting purely the Covenant of Works on which bottoms it is hard to fix it in an absolute unvariable station § 7 It is the second Opinion for the substance of it which I shall indeavour to explain and confirm and therein prove a Sacred Sabbatical Rest unto God
Worship of God as he was a rational creature made to give glory unto him so the Instruction he received by the Works and Rest of God as made under a Covenant taught him that one day in seven was required unto that purpose as also to be a pledge of his resting with God It may be it will be said that man could not know that the world was made in six dayes and that the Rest of God ensued on the seventh without some especial Revelation I answer 1. That I know not He that knew the nature of all the creatures and could give them names suited thereunto upon his first sight and view of them might know more of the Order of their creation than we can well imagine For we know no more in our lapsed condition what the Light of Nature directed man unto as walking before God in a Covenant than men meerly natural do know of the Guidance and Conduct of the Light and Law of Grace in them who are taken into a New Covenant 2. However what God instructed him in even by Revelation as to the due Consideration and improvement of the things that belonged unto the Law of his Creation that is to be esteemed as a part thereof Institutions of things by especial Revelation that had no Foundatiin the Law or Light of Nature were meerly positive such were the Commands concerning the Trees of Life and of the knowledge of Good and Evil. But such as were directive of Natural Light and of the Order of the Creation were Moral and belonged unto the general Law of Obedience Such was the especial Command given unto man to till and keep the Garden Gen. 2. 15. or to dress and improve the place of his Habitation For this in General the Law of his Creation required Now this God did both as to his Works and his Rest. Neither do I know any one as yet that questioneth whither Adam and the Patriarchs that ensued before the giving of the Law knew that the world was created in six dayes Though some seem to speak doubtfully hereof and some by direct consequent deny it yet I suppose that hitherto it passeth as granted Nor have they who dispute that the Sabbath was neither instituted known nor observed before the people of Israel were in the Wilderness once attempted to confirm their Opinion with this supposition that the Patriarchs from the Foundation of the world knew not that the world was made in six dayes which yet alone would be effectual unto their purpose Nor on the other side can it be once rationally imagined that if they had knowledge hereof and therewithal of the Rest which ensued thereon that they had no regard unto it in the Worship of God § 18 And thus was the Sabbath or the Observation of one day in seven as a Sacred Rest fixed on the same Moral grounds with Monogamy or the marriage of one man to one only Woman at the same time which from the very fact and Order of the Creation our Saviour proves to have been an unchangeable part of the Law of it For because God made them two single Persons Male and Female fit for individual conjunction he concludes that this course of life they were everlastingly obliged not to alter nor transgress As therefore men may dispute that Polygamy is not against the Law of Nature because it was allowed and practised by many by most of those who of old observed and improved the Light and Rule thereof to the uttermost when yet the very factum and Order of the Creation is sufficient to evince the contrary so although men should dispute that the Observation of one Dayes Sacred Rest in seven is not of the Light nor Law of Nature all whose Rules and Dictates they say are of an easie discovery and prone to the Observation of all men which this is not yet the Order of the Creation and the Rest of God that ensued thereon is sufficient to evince the contrary And in the renewing of the Law upon Mount Sinai God taught the people not only by the words that he spake but also by the Works that he wrought Yea he instructed them in a Moral Duty not only by what he did but by what he did not For he declares that they ought to make no Images of or unto him because he made no Representation of himself unto them they saw no manner of similitude on the day that the Lord spake unto them in Horeb out of the midst of the fire Deut. 4. 15 16. § 19 But now to shut up this Discourse whereas the Covenant which man Originally was taken into was a Covenant of Works wherein his obtaining Rest with God depended absolutely on his doing all the Work he had to do in a way of Legal Obedience he was during the Dispensation of that Covenant tyed up precisely to the Observation of the seventh Day or that which followed the whole Work of Creation And the seventh Day as such is a Pledge and Token of the Rest promised in the Covenant of Works and no other And those who would advance that Day again into a necessary Observation do consequentially introduce the whole Covenant of Works and are become Debtors unto the whole Law For the works of God which preceded the seventh Day precisely were those whereby man was initiated into and instructed in the Covenant of Works and the Day it self was a token and pledge of the Righteousness thereof or a Moral and Natural Sign of it and of the Rest of God therein and the Rest of man with God thereby And it is no service to the Church of God nor hath any tendency unto the Honor of Christ in the Gospel to endeavour a Reduction of us unto the Covenant of Nature § 20 Thus was Man instructed in the whole Notion of a Weekly Sacred Rest by all the Wayes and Means which God was pleased to use in giving him an acquaintance with his Will and that Obedience unto his Glory which he expected from him For this knowledge he had partly by the Law of his Creation as innate unto him or concreated with the Principles of his nature being the necessary exurgency of his Rational Constitution and partly by the Works and Rest of God thereon proposed unto his consideration both firmed by Gods Declaration of his Sanctification of the seventh Day Hence did he know that it was his Duty to express and celebrate the Rest of God or the complacency that he had in the Works of his Hands in reference unto their great and proper End or his Glory in the Honour Praise and Obedience of them unto whose contemplation they were proposed for those Ends. This followed immediately from the Time spent in the Creation and the Rest that ensued thereon which were so ordered for his Instruction and not from any other Cause or Reason taken either from the Nature of God or of the things themselves which required neither six dayes to make the world in
and of the knowledge of Good and Evil ceased as all men confess with that Estate And although God did not immediately upon the sin of man destroy that Garden no nor it may be untill the Flood leaving it as a Testimony against the wickedness of that Apostate Generation for whose sin the world was destroyed yet was neither it nor the Trees of it of any use or lawful to be used as to any significancy in the Worship of God And the Reason is because all Institutions are Appendixes and things annexed unto a Covenant and when that Covenant ceaseth or is broken they are of no use or signification at all § 36 There was a new state of the Church erected presently after the Fall and this also attended with sundry new Institutions especially with that concerning Sacrifices In this Church state some Alterations were made and sundry additional Institutions given unto it upon the Erection of the peculiar Church State of the Israelites in the Wilderness which yet hindred not but that it was in General the same Church State and the same Dispensation of the Covenant that the people of God before and after the giving of the Law enjoyed and lived under Hence it was that sundry Institutions of Worship were equally in force both before and after the giving of the Law on Mount Sinai as is evident in Sacrifices and some other Instances may be given But now when the State of the Church and the Dispensation of the Covenant came to be wholly altered as they were by the Gospel not any one of the old Institutions was continued or to be continued but they were all abolished and taken away Nothing at all was traduced over from the Old Church States neither from that in Innocency nor from that which ensued on the Fall in all its variations with any Obligatory Power but what was founded in the Law of Nature and had its force from thence We may then confidently assert that what God requireth equally in all Estates of the Church that is Moral and of an everlasting Obligation unto us and all men And this is the State of matters with the Sabbath and the Law thereof § 37 Of the Command of the Sabbath in the State of Innocency we have before treated and vindicated the Testimony given unto it Gen. 2. 2 3. It will God assisting be farther discoursed and confirmed in our Exposition of the fourth Chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews The Observation of it by vertue of its Original Law and Command before the Promulgation of the Decalogue in Sinai or the first Wilderness Observation of the Sabbath recorded on the occasion of giving Manna hath also been before confirmed Many Exceptions I acknowledge are laid in against the Testimonies insisted on for the proof of these things but those such as I suppose are not able to invalidate them in the minds of men void of Prejudice And the Pretence of the Obscurity that is in the Command will be easily removed by the consideration of another Instance of the same Antiquity All men acknowledge that a Promise of Christ for the Object and Guide of the Faith of the ancient Patriarchs was given in those Words of God immediately spoken unto the Serpent Gen. 3. 15. I will put Enmity between thee and the Woman and between thy seed and her seed it shall bruize thy head and thou shalt bruize its heel The Words in themselves seem obscure unto any such End or Purpose But yet there is such light given into them and the mind of God in them from the circumstances of Time Place Persons Occasions from the Nature of the things treated of from the whole ensuing Oeconomy or dealing of God with men revealed in the Scripture as that no sober man doubts of the Promissory Nature of those Words nor of the Intention of them in General nor of the proper subject of the Promise nor of the Grace intended in it This Promise therefore was the immediate Object of the faith of the Patriarchs of old the great motive and encouragement unto and of their Obedience But yet it will be hard from the Records of Scripture to prove that any particular Patriarch did believe in trust or plead that Promise which yet we know that they did all and every one nor was there any need for our Instruction that any such practice of theirs should be recorded seeing it is a general Rule that those Holy men of God did observe and do whatever he did command them Wherefore from the record of a Command we may conclude unto a suitable Practice though it be not recorded and from a recorded approved Practice on the other side we may conclude unto the Command or Institution of the thing practised though no where plainly recorded Let unprejudiced men consider those words Gen. 2. 2 3. and they will find the Command and Institution of the Sabbath as clear and conspicuous in them as the Promise of Grace in Christ is in them before considered especially as they are attended with the Interpretation given of them in Gods following dealings with his Church And therefore although particular Instances of the Obedience of the old Patriarchs in this part of it or the Observation of the Sabbath could not be given and evinced yet we ought no more on that account to deny that they did observe it than we ought to deny their Faith in the promised Seed because it is no where expresly recorded in the Story of their lives § 38 Under the Law that is after the giving of it in the Wilderness it is granted that the portion of Time insisted on was precisely required to be dedicate unto God although it may be for some Ages it will be hard to meet with a recorded Instance of its Observation But yet none dares take any countenance from thence to question whether it were so observed or no. All therefore is secure unto the great alteration that was made in Instituted Worship under the Gospel And to proceed unto that season there is no Practice in any part of Gods Publick Worship that appears earlier in the Records of the New Testament as to what was peculiar thereunto than the Observation of one Day in seven for the Celebration of it Hereof more must be spoken afterwards Some say indeed that the Appointment of one Day in seven and that the first Day of the Week for the Worship of God was only a voluntary Agreement or a matter consented unto by the Apostolical or first Churches meerly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gratia or to keep good Order and decorum amongst them without respect unto any Moral Command of God to that purpose This they say directly with respect to the first Day of the Week or the Lords Day and its Religious Observation But those who appoint the first Day of every Week to be so observed do without doubt appoint that that should be the Condition of one Day in seven Now I could incline to this
place in the Promise of the Covenant that they should be written in our Hearts for if it should be so especial Grace would be yet administred for the Observation of those Laws now they are abolished which would not only be vain and useless but contradictory to the whole Design of the Grace bestowed upon us which is to be improved in a due and genuine Exercise of it Neither doth God bestow any Grace upon men but withal he requires the Exercise of it at their hands If then this Law was written in Tables of Stone together with the other Nine that we might pray and endeavour to have it written in our Hearts according to the Promise of the Covenant it is and must be of the nature of the rest that is Moral and everlastingly obligatory 3. As all the rest of the Moral Precepts it was reserved in the Ark whereas the Law of Ceremonial Ordinances was placed in a Book written by Moses on the side of the Ark separable from it or whence it might be removed The Ark on many accounts was called the Ark of the Covenant whereof God assisting I shall treat elsewhere One of them was that it contained in it nothing but that Moral Law which was the Rule of the Covenant And this was placed therein to manifest that it was to have its accomplishment in him who was the End of the Law Rom. 10. 3 4. For the Ark with the Propitiatory was a Type of Jesus Christ Rom. 3. 25. And the Reason of the different disposal of the Moral Law in the Ark and of the Ceremonial in a Book on the side of it was to manifest as the inseparableness of the Law from the Covenant so the establishing accomplishment and answering of the one Law in Christ with the Removal and abolishing of the other by him For the Law kept in the Ark the Type of him he was to fulfil it in Obedidience to answer its Curse and to restore it unto its proper use in the New Covenant not that which it had originally when it was it self the whole of the Covenant but that which the nature of it requires in the Moral Obedience of Rational Creatures whereof it is a compleat and adequate Rule when the other Law was utterly removed and taken away And if that had been the End whereunto the Law of the Sabbath had been designed had it been absolutely capable of Abolition in this world it had not been safeguarded in the Ark with the other Nine which are inseparable from mans Covenant Obedience unto God but had been left with other Ceremonial Ordinances at the side of the Ark in a Readiness to be removed when the appointed time should come 4. God himself separates this Command from them which were Ceremonial in their Principal Intention and whole subject matter when he calls the whole Systeme of Precepts in the Two Tables by the name of the Ten Words or Commandments Deut. 10. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Those ten Words which the Lord spake unto you in the Mount out of the midst of the fire in the Day of the Assembly No considering Person can read these words but he will find a most signal Emphasis in the several parts of them The Day of the Assembly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is that which the Jews so celebrate under the Name of the Station in Sinai the Day that was the foundation of their Church State when they solemnly covenanted with God about the Observation of the Law Deut. 5. 24 25 26 27. And the Lord himself spake these words that is in an immediate and especial manner which is still observed where any mention is made of them as Exod. 20. Deut. 5. 10. and saith Moses he spake them unto you that is immediately unto all the Assembly Deut. 5. 22. where it is added that he spake them out of the midst of the Fire of the Cloud and of the thick Darkness with a great Voice that every individual Person might hear it and he added no more He spake not one Word more gave not one Precept more immediately unto the whole people but the whole solemnity of Fire Thunder Lightning Earthquake and sound of Trumpet immediately ceased and disappeared whereon God entred his Treaty with Moses wherein he revealed unto him and instructed him in the Ceremonial and Judicial Law for the use of the people who had now taken upon themselves the Religious Observance of what he should so reveal and appoint Now as the whole Decalogue was hereby signalized and sufficiently distinguished from the other Laws and Institutions which were of another Nature so in particular this Precept concerning the Sabbath is distinguished from all those which were of the Mosaical Paedagogie in whose Declaration Moses was the Mediator between God and the people And this was only upon the Account of its Participation in the same Nature with the rest of the Commands however it may and do contain something in it that was peculiar to that people as shall be shewed afterwards 5. Whereas there is a frequent Opposition made in the Old Testament between Moral Obedience and the outward observance of Ordinances of a meer arbitrary Institution there is no mention made of the Weekly Sabbath in that case though all Ceremonial Institutions are in one place or other enumerated It is true Isa. 1. 13. the Sabbath is joyned with the New Moons and its Observation rejected in comparison of Holiness and Righteousness But as this is expounded in the next Verse to be intended principally of the appointed annual Feasts or Sabbaths so we do grant that the Sabbath as relating unto Temple Worship there intended and described had that accompanying it which was peculiar to the Jews and Ceremonial as we shall shew hereafter But absolutely the Observation of the Sabbath is not opposed unto nor rejected in comparison of other or any Moral Duties 6. The Observation of the Sabbath is pressed on the Church on the same Grounds and with the same Promises as the greatest and most indispensible Moral Duties and together with them opposed unto those Fasts which belonged unto Ceremonial Institutions To this purpose is the Nature and Use of it at large discoursed Isa. 58. v. 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14. § 46 Now it is assuredly worth our Enquiry what are the just Reasons of the Preference of the Sabbath above all Positive Institutions both by the place given unto it in the Decalogue as also on the account of the other especial Instances insisted on Suppose the Command of it to be Ceremonial and one of these two Reasons or both of them must be alledged as the cause hereof For this Exaltation of it must arise either from the Excelency of it in it self and service or the Excellency of its signification or from both of them jointly But these things cannot be pleaded or made use of unto the purpose intended For the service of it as it was observed among the Jews it
is now earnestly pleaded that it consisted in meer Bodily Rest which is scarcely to be reckoned as any part of Divine Service at all What is farther in it is said to be only a meer Circumstance of Time not in any thing better than that of Place which had an Arbitrary Determination also for a season It cannot therefore be thus exalted and preferred above all other Ordinances of Worship upon the account of its service seeing it is apprehended to be only a meer Adjunct of other services which were therefore more worthy than it as every thing which is for it self is more worthy than that which is only for another And take it absolutely Place is a more Noble Circumstance than Time in this Case considering that Place being determined by an Arbitrary Institution in the building of the Temple became the most glorious and significant part of Divine Worship yet had it no place in the Decalogue but only in the Samaritan Corruption added unto it It must therefore be upon the account of its signification that it was thus peculiarly exalted and honoured For the Dignity Worth and Use of all Ceremonial Institutions depended on their significancy or their fitness and aptness to represent the things whereof they were Types with the especial worth of what they did peculiarly Typifie And herein the Sabbath even with the Applications it had unto the Judaical Church State came short of many other Divine Services especially the Solemn Sacrifices wherein the Lord Christ with all the Benefits of his Death was as it were evidently set forth crucified before their eyes Neither therefore of these Reasons nor both of them in conjunction can be pleaded as the cause of the manifold preference of the Sabbath above all Ceremonial Institutions It remaineth therefore that it is solely upon the Account of its Morality and the invariable Obligation thence arising unto its Observation that it is so joyned with the Precepts of the same Nature and such we have now as I suppose sufficiently confirmed it to be § 47 I cannot but judge yet farther that in the Caution given by our Saviour unto his Disciples about praying that their flight should not be on the Sabbath Day Matth. 24. 20. He doth declare the continued Obligation of the Law of the Sabbath as a Moral Precept upon all It is answered by some that it is the Judaical Sabbath alone that is intended which he knew that some of his own Disciples would be kept for a season in bondage unto For the Ease therefore of their Consciences in that matter he gives them this Direction But many things on the other side are certain and indubitable which render this conjecture altogether improbable For 1. All real Obligation unto Judaical Institutions was then absolutely taken away and it is not to be supposed that our Lord Jesus Christ would before hand lay in provision for the edification of any of his Disciples in Error 2. Before that time came they were sufficiently instructed doctrinally in the dissolution of all Obligation in Ceremonial Institutions This was done principally by St. Paul in all his Epistles especially in that unto the Hebrews themselves at Jerusalem 3. Those who may be supposed to have continued a conscientious respect unto the Judaical Sabbath could be no otherwise perswaded of it than were the Jews themselves in those Dayes But they all accounted themselves absolved in conscience from the Law of the Sabbath upon eminent danger in time of War so that they might lawfully either fight or fly as their safety did require This is evident from the Decree made by them under the Hasmonaeans And such imminent danger is now supposed by our Saviour for he instructs them to forego all consideration of their Enjoyments and to shift meerly for their lives There was not therefore any danger in point of conscience with respect unto the Judaical Sabbath to be then feared or prevented But in general those in whose hearts are the wayes of God do know what an addition it is to the greatest of their earthly troubles if they befall them in such seasons as to deprive them of the Opportunity of the Sacred Ordinances of Gods Worship and indispensibly engage them in Wayes and Works quite of another Nature than when they stand in most need of them There is therefore another Answer invented namely that our Lord Jesus in these words respected not the Consciences of his Disciples but their trouble and therefore joyns the Sabbath Day and the Winter together in directing them to pray for an Ease and Accommodation of that Flight which was inevitable For as the Winter is unseasonable for such an occasion so the Law concerning the Sabbath was such as that if any one travelled on that Day above a commonly allowed Sabbath dayes journey he was to be put to death But neither is there any more appearance of Truth in this pretence For 1. The Power of Capital Punishments was before this time utterly taken away from the Jews and all their remaining Courts interdicted from proceeding in any Cause wherein the lives of men were concerned 2. The times intended were such as wherein there was no Course of Law Justice or Equity amongst them but all things were filled with Rapine Confusion and Hostility so that it is a vain imagination that any Cognizance was taken about such Cases as journying on the Sabbath 3. The Dangers they were in had made it free to them as to Legal Punishments upon their own Principles as was declared so that these cannot be the Reasons of the Caution here given It is at least therefore most probable that our Saviour speaks to his Disciples upon a supposition of the perpetual Obligation of the Law of the Sabbath that they should pray to be delivered from the necessity of a flight on the Day whereon the Duties of it were to be observed lest it falling out otherwise should prove a great aggravation of their distress § 48 From these particular Instances we may return to the consideration of the Law of the Decalogue in general and the perpetual Power of exacting Obedience wherewith it is accompanied That in the Old Testament it is frequently declared to be universally obligatory and hath the same Efficacy ascribed unto it without putting in any exceptions to any of its Commands or limitations of its number I suppose will be granted The Authority of it is no less fully asserted in the New Testament and that also absolutely without distinction or the least intimation of excepting the fourth Command from what is affirmed concerning the whole It is of the Law of the Decalogue that our Saviour treats Matth. 5. 17 18 19. This he affirms that he came not to dissolve as he did the Ceremonial Law but to fulfill it and then affirms that not one Jot or Tittle of it shall pass away And making thereon a Distribution of the whole into its several Commands he declares his disapprobation of them who shall break
nature soever on other Reasons the Covenant be between them whether that of Works or that of Grace by Jesus Christ. The seventh Day precisely belonging unto the Covenant of Works cannot therefore be firstly but only occasionally intended in the Decalogue Nor doth it nor can it invariably belong unto our absolute Obedience unto God because it is not of the substance of it but is only an occasional determination of a duty such as all other Positive Laws do give us And hence there is in the Command it self a difference put between a Sabbath Day and the arbitrary limitation of the seventh Day to be that day For we are commanded to remember the Sabbath Day not the seventh Day and the Reason given as is elsewhere observed is because God blessed and sanctified the Sabbath Day in the close of the Command where the formal Reason of our Obedience is expressed not the seventh Day Nor is indeed the joint Observation of the seventh Day precisely unto all to whom this Command is given that is to all who take the Lord to be their God possible though it were to the Jews in the Land of Palestina who were obliged to keep that Day For the difference of the Climate in the world will not allow it Nor did the Jews ever know whether the Day they observed was the seventh from the Creation only they knew it was so from the day whereon Manna was first given unto them And the whole Revolution and Computation of Time by Dayes was sufficiently interrupted in the dayes of Joshua and Hezekiah from allowing us to think the Observation of the seventh Day to be Moral And it is a Rule to judge of the intention of all Laws Divine and Humane that the meaning of the preceptive part of them is to be collected from the Reasons annexed to them or inserted in them Now the Reasons for a Sacred Rest that are intimated and stated in this Command do no more respect the seventh Day than any other in seven Six dayes are granted to labour that is in number and not more in a septenary Revolution Nor doth the Command say any thing whether these six dayes shall be the first or the last in the order of them And any day is as meet for the performance of the Duties of the Sabbath as the seventh if in an alike manner designed thereunto which things are at large pleaded by others § 54 It hath hitherto been allowed generally that the fourth Commandment doth at least include something in it that is Moral or else indeed no colour can be given unto its Association with them that are absolutely so in the Decalogue This is commonly said to be that some part of our Time be Dedicated to the Publick Worship of God But as this would overthrow the Pretension before mentioned that there can be no Moral Command about Time which is but a Circumstance of Moral Duties so the Limitation of that Time unto one Day in seven is so evidently a perpetually binding Law that it will not be hard to prove the unchangeable Obligation that is upon all men unto the Observance of it which is all for the substance that is contended for To avoid this it is now affirmed Disquisit p. 14. That Moralc Quarti Praecepti est non unum Diem sed totum tempus vitae nostrae quantum id fieri potest impendendum esse cultui Dei quaerendo regnum Dei Justitiam ejus atque inserviendo aedificationi proximi quo pertinet ut Deo serviamus ejus beneficia agnoscamus celeberemus cum invocemus Spiritu fidem nostram testemur confessione oris c. This is that which is Moral in the fourth Commandment namely that not one Day but as much as may be our whole lives be spent in the Worship of God seeking his Kingdom and the Righteousness thereof and furthering the edification of our neighbour Hereunto it belongeth that we should serve God acknowledge and celebrate his Benefits pray unto him in Spirit and testifie our faith by our Confession § 55 An. It is hard to discover how any of these things have the least respect to the fourth Commandment much more how the Morality of it should consist in them For all the Instances mentioned are indeed required in the first Precept of the Decalogue that only excepted of taking care to promote the edification of our Neighbour which is the summ and substance of the second Table expressed by our Saviour by loving our Neighbour as our selves To live unto God to believe and trust in him to acknowledge his Benefits to make Confession of him in the world are all especial Moral Duties of the first Commandment It cannot therefore be apprehended how the Morality of the fourth Commandment should consist in them And if there be nothing else Moral in it there is certainly nothing Moral in it at all For these things and the like are claimed from it and taken out of its possession by the first Precept And thereunto doth the General Consideration of Time with respect unto these Duties belong namely that we should live unto God whilst we live in this World For we live in Time and that is the measure of our duration and continuance Something else therefore must be found out to be Moral in the fourth Commandment or it must be denyed plainly to have any thing Moral in it § 56 It is farther yet pleaded that the Sabbath was a Type of our Spiritual Rest in Christ both that which we have in him at present by Grace and that which remains for us in Heaven Hence it was a shaddow of good things to come as were all other Ceremonial Institutions But that the same thing should be Moral and a shadow is a contradiction That which is a shadow can in no sense be said to be Moral nor on the contrary The Sabboth therefore was meerly Ceremonial An. It doth not appear it cannot be proved that the Sabbath either as to its first Original or as to the substance of the Command of it in the Decalogue was Typical or instituted to prefigure any thing that was future Yea the contrary is evident For the Law of it was given before the first Promise of Christ as we have proved and that in the state of Innocency and under the Covenant of Works in perfect force wherein there was no respect unto the Mediation of Christ. I do acknowledge that God did so order all his Works in the first Creation and under the Law of Nature as that they might be suitable Morally to represent his Works under the New Creation which from the Analogie of our Redemption to the Creation of all things is so called And hence according to the Eternal Counsel of God were all things meet to be gathered into an Head in Christ Jesus On this account there is an Instructive Resemblance between the Works of one sort and of the other So the Rest of God after the Works of the old
Creation is answered by the Rest of the Son of God upon his laying the Foundation of the New Heavens and New Earth in his Resurrection But that the Sabbath Originally and in its whole nature should be a free Institution to prefigure and as in a shadow to represent any thing Spiritual or Mystical after wards to be introduced is not nor can be proved It was indeed originally a Moral Pledge of Gods Rest and of our Interest therein according to the Tenor of the Covenant of Works which things belong unto our Relation unto God by vertue of the Law of our Creation It continueth to retain the same nature with respect unto the Covenant of Grace What it had annexed unto it what Applications it received unto the state of the Mosaical Paedagogie which were temporary and umbratile shall be declared afterwards § 57 But it is yet pleaded from an Enumeration of the Parts of the fourth Commandment that there can be nothing Moral as to our purpose in it And these are said to be three First The Determination of the seventh Day to be a Day of Rest. Secondly The Rest it self commanded on that Day Thirdly The sanctification of that Rest unto holy Worship Now neither of these can be said to be Moral Not the first for it is confessedly Ceremonial The second is a thing in its own nature indifferent having nothing of Morality in it antecedent unto a Positive Command Neither is the third Moral being only the means or manner of performing that Worship which is Moral An. It will not be granted that this is a sufficient Analysis or Distribution of the parts of this Command The principal subject matter of it is omitted namely the Observation of one Day in seven unto the Ends of a Sacred Rest. For we are required in it to sanctifie the Sabbath of the Lord our God which was a seventh Day in an Hebdomadal Revolution of Dayes Supply this in the first place in the room of the Determination of the seventh Day to be that day which evidently follows it in the Order of Nature and this Argument vanisheth Now it is here only tacitly supposed not at all proved that one Day in seven is not required 2. Rest in it self absolutely considered is no part of Divine Worship antecedently unto a Divine Positive Command But a Rest from our own works which might be of use and advantage unto us which by the Law of our Creation we are to attend unto in this world that we may intend and apply our selves to the Worship of God and solemnly express our universal Dependance upon him in all things a Rest representing the Rest of God in his Covenant with us and observed as a pledge of our entring into his Rest by vertue of that Covenant and according to the Law of it such as is the Rest here injoyned is a part of the Worship of God This is the Rest which we are directed unto by the Law of our Creation and which by the Moral Reason of this Command is injoyned unto us on one Day in seven and in these things consists the Morality of this Precept on whose account it hath a place in the Decalogue which on all the Considerations before mentioned could not admit of an Association with one that was purely Ceremonial 3. Granting the Dedication of some Time or part of Time unto the Solemn Worship of God to be required in this Command as is by all generally acknowledged and let a Position be practically advanced against this we insist on namely that one Day in seven is the Time determined and limited for that purpose and we shall quickly perceive the mischievous consequents of it For when men have taken out of the hand of God the division between the Time that is allowed unto us for our own occasions and what is to be spent in his service and have cast off all influencing Direction from his Example of working six dayes and resting the seventh and all guidance from that seemingly perpetual Direction that is given us of imploying ordinarily six Days in the necessary affairs of this life they will find themselves at no small loss what to fix upon or wherein to acquiesce in this matter It must either be left to every individual man to do herein as seems good unto him or there must an Umpirage of it be committed unto others either the Church or the Magistrate And hence we may expect as many different Determinations and Limitations of Time as there are distinct Ecclesiastical or Political Powers amongst Christians What variety Changeableness would hence ensue what Confusion this would cast all the Disciples of Christ into according to the prevalency of Superstition or Profaneness in the minds of those who claim this power of determining and limiting the time of Publick Worship is evident unto all The Instance of Holy Dayes as they are commonly called will farther manifest what of it self lyes naked under every rational Eye The Institution and Observation of them was ever resolved into the Moral Part of this Command for the dedicating of some part of our Time unto God but the Determination hereof being not of God but left un-the Church as it is said one Church multiplyes them without End until they grew an unsupportable yoke unto the people another reduceth this number into a narrower compass a third rejects them all and no two Churches that are Independent Ecclesiastically and Politically one on the other do agree about them And so will and must the matter fall out as to the especial Day whereof we discourse when once the Determination of it by Divine Authority is practically rejected As yet men deceive themselves in this matter and pretend that they believe otherwise then indeed they do Let them come once soberly to joyn their Opinion of their Liberty and their Practice together actually rejecting the Divine limitation of one day in seven and they will find their own consciences under more disorder then yet they are aware of Again if there be no day determined in the fourth Command but only the seventh precisely which is Ceremonial with a general Rule that some time is to be dedicated to the service of God there is no more of Morality in this Command then in any of those for the Observation of New Moons and annual Feasts with Jubilees and the like in all which the same general Equity is supposed and a Ceremonial Day limited and determined And if it be so as far as I can understand we may as lawfully observe New Moons and Jubilees as a Weekly Day of Rest according to the custome of all Churches § 58 The words of the Apostle Paul Col. 2. 16 17. are at large insisted on to prove that the Sabbath was only Typical and a shadow of things future Let no man therefore judge you in Ment or in Drink or in respect of an Holy Day or of the New Moon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or of the Sabbaths or
come to a neglect and contempt of all that Worship which was as it were built upon it And as we observed before more than once the Weekly Sabbath being inserted into the Oeconomy of their Laws as to the matter of Works and Rest it is comprized in the General with other Feasts called Sabbaths also Verily my Sabbaths ye shall keep And in this regard they are all cast together by our Apostle Col. 2. 16. and the Sabbath Dayes And they who by vertue of this and the like Commands would bind us up to the Judaical Sabbath do certainly lose both that and all other ground for the Observance of any Sabbath at all For look in what respects it is joyned with the other Sabbaths by Moses in the same it is taken away with them by the Apostle § 14 There is a treble Appropriation of the Weekly Sabbaths in this place made unto the Church of the Israelites 1. In that the Observation of it is required of them in their Generations that is during the continuance of that Church State which was to abide to the coming of Christ. For what was required of them in their Generations as it was required was then to expire and be abolished 2. That they were to observe it as a perpetual Covenant or as a part of that Covenant which God then made with them which is called everlasting because it was to be so unto them seeing God would never make any other peculiar Covenant with them And whereas all the Statutes and Ordinances that God then gave them belonged unto and altogether entirely made up that Covenant some of this as this especial Command for the Sabbath and that of Circumcision are distinctly called the Covenant and ceased with it 3. It was given unto them as an especial Pledge of the Covenant that God then made with them wherein he rested in his Worship and brought them to rest therein in the Land of Canaan whereby they entred into Gods Rest. Hence it is called a sign between them v. 13 14 which is repeated and explained Ezek. 20. 12. A sign it was or an evident Expression of the present Covenant of God between them and him not a Sacramental or Typical sign of future Grace in particular any otherwise than as their whole Church Constitution and their Worship in general whereof by these means it was made a part were so that is not in it self or its own nature but as prescribed unto them And a present sign between God and them it was upon a double account 1. On the part of the people Their assembling on that Day for the Celebration of the Worship of God and the avowing him alone therein to be their God was a sign or an evident express Acknowledgement that they were the people of the Lord. And this doth not in the least impeach its Original Morality seeing there is no Moral Duty but in its Exercise or actual Performance may be so made a sign 2. On the part of God namely that it was he who sanctified them For by this Observance they had a visible pledge that God had separated them unto and for himself and therefore had given them his Word and Ordinances as the outward means of their further sanctification to be peculiarly attended unto on that Day And on these Grounds it is that God is elsewhere said to give them his Sabbaths to reveal them unto them as their peculiar Priviledge and Advantage And their Priviledge it was For although in comparison of the substance and Glory of things to be brought in by Christ with the Liberty and Spirituality of Gospel Worship all their Ordinances and Institutions were a yoke of Bondage yet considering their Use with their End and Tendency compared with the Rest of the World at that time they were an unspeakable Priviledge Psal. 147. v. 19 20. However therefore the Sabbath was originally given before unto all mankind yet God now by the Addition of his Institutions to be observed on that Day whereby he sanctified the people made an enclosure of it so far unto them alone Lastly Here is added a peculiar sanction under the Penalty of Death He that transgresseth it shall surely be put to Death v. 14. God sometimes threatneth cutting off and extermination unto Persons concerning whom yet the people had no warranty to proceed Capitally against them only he took it upon himself as the Supream Legislator and Rector of that people to destroy them and cut them off as they speak by the hand of Heaven But where ever this expression is used he shall surely be put to death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dying he shall dye there the people or the Judges among them are not only warranted but commanded to proceed Judicially against such an Offendor And in this respect it belonged unto that severe Government which that people stood in need of as also to mind them of the sanction of the whole Law of Creation as a Covenant of Works with the same Commination of Death unto all Transgressors In all these regards the Sabbath was Judaical and is absolutely abolished and taken away § 15 The Command is renewed again Exod. 34. 21. Six Dayes thou shalt work but on the seventh Day thou shalt Rest in Earing time and in Harvest thou shalt rest Earing time and Harvest are the seasons wherein those who till the Ground are most intent upon their Occasions and do most hardly bear with Intermissions because they may be greatly to their Dammage Wherefore they are insisted on or specified to manifest that no Avocation nor pretence can justifie men in working or labour on that Day For by expressing Earing and Harvest all those Intervenings also are intended in those seasons whereon damage and loss might redound unto men by omitting the gathering in of their Corn. And it should seem on this Ground that on that day they might not labour neither to take it away before a flood nor remove it from an approaching fire So some of the Masters think although our Saviour convince them from their own Practice in relieving Cattel fallen into Pits on that day Luke 14. 5. and by loosing them that were tyed to lead them to watering Chap. 13. 15. that they did not conceive this universally to be the intendment of that Law that in no case any work was to be done And it seems they were wiser for their Asses in those Dayes than the poor wretch was for himself in latter Ages who falling into the Jakes at Tewkesbury on that Day would not suffer himself to be drawn out if the Story be truely reported in our Chronicles In general I doubt not but that this Additional Explanation in a way of severity is in its proper sense purely Judaical and contains something more of Rigidness that is required by the Law of the Sabbath as purely Moral § 16 Mentioned it is again with a new Addition Exod. 35. 2 3. Six Dayes shall work be done but on the seventh Day there
those Works and Rest of God or it could not be proposed as the reason of their suitable practice and for this end did God so Work and Rest. The Law therefore of this holy Rest he reneweth in the Decalogue amongst those other Laws which being of the same nature and original namely branches of the Law of our Creation were to be unto us moral and eternal For God would no longer entrust his mind and will in that Law unto the depraved nature of man wherein if he had not in the best often guided and directed it by fresh extraordinary revelations it would have been of little use to his glory but committed it by vocal revelation to the minds of the people as the doctrinal object of their consideration and recorded it in tables of stone Moreover the nature of the first Covenant and the way of Gods instructing man in the condition of it by his Works and Rest had limited this holy Day unto the seventh Day the observation whereof was to be commensurate unto that Covenant and its administration however the outward forms thereof might be varied § 7 On these suppositions we lay and ought to lay the observation of the Lords Day under the New Testament according to the institution of it or declaration of the mind of Christ who is our Lord and Law-giver concerning it 1. A new work of Creation or a work of a new Creation is undertaken and compleated Isa. 65. 17. Chap. 66. 22 23. 2 Pet. 3. 13. Rev. 21. 1. Rom. 8. 19 20. 2 Cor. 5. 17. Gal. 6. 15. 2. This new Creation is accompanied with a new Law and a new Covenant or the Law of faith and the Covenant of Grace Rom. 3. 27. Chap. 8. 2 3 4. Jer. 31. 32 33 34. Heb. 8. 8 9 10 11 12 13. 3. Unto this Law and Covenant a Day of holy Rest unto the Lord doth belong which cannot be the same Day with the former no more than it is the same Law or the same Covenant which were originally given unto us Heb. 4. 9. Rev. 1. 10. 4. That this Day was limited and determined to the first Day of the Week by our Lord Jesus Christ is that which shall now further be confirmed only I must desire the Reader to consider that whereas the Topical Arguments whereby this Truth is confirmed have been pleaded improved and vindicated by many of late I shall but briefly mention them and insist principally on the declaration of the proper grounds and foundations of it § 8 As our Lord Jesus Christ as the eternal Son and Wisdom of the Father was the immediate cause and Author of the old Creation Joh. 1. 3. Col. 1. 16. Heb. 1. 2 10. so as Mediatour he was the Author of this new Creation Heb. 3. 3 4. He built the House of God he built all these things and is God Herein he wrought and in the accomplishment of it saw of the travail of his soul and was satisfied Isa. 53. 11. that is he rested and was refreshed Herein he gave a new Law of life faith and obedience unto God Isa. 42. 4. not by an addition of new Preceps to the moral Law of God not virtually comprized therein and distinct from his own positive institutions of worship but in his revelation of that new way of obedience unto God in and by himself with the especial causes means and ends of it which supplyes the use and end whereunto the Moral Law was at first designed Rom. 8. 2 3. Chap 10. 3 4. whereby he becomes the Author of eternal salvation unto all that do obey him Heb. 5. 9. This Law of life and obedience he writes by his Spirit in the hearts of his people that they may be willing in the day of his power Psal. 110. 3. 1 Cor. 3. 3 6. Heb. 8 10. not at once and in the foundation of his work actually but only in the causes of it For as the Law of nature should have been implanted in the hearts of men in their conception and natural nativity had that dispensation of righteousness continued so in the new birth of them that believe in him is this Law written in their hearts in all generations Joh. 3. 6. Hereon was the Covenant established and all the promises thereof of which he was the Mediatour Heb. 8. 6. And for an holy Day of Rest for the ends before declared and on the suppositions before laid down evincing the necessity of such a Day he determined the observation of the first Day of the Week For § 9 First On this Day he rested from his works in and by his Resurrection for then had he laid the foundation of the new Heavens and new Earth and finished the works of the new Creation when all the Stars sang together and all the Sons of God shouted for joy On this Day he rested from his works and was refreshed as God did and was from his For although he worketh hitherto in the communication of his Spirit and Graces as the Father continued to do in his works of providence after the finishing of the works of the old Creation though these works belonged thereunto yet he ceaseth absolutely from that kind of work whereby he laid the foundation of the new Creation henceforth he dieth no more And on this Day was he refreshed in the view of his works for he saw that it was exceeding good Now as Gods Rest and his being refreshed in his work on the seventh Day of old was a sufficient indication of the precise Day of Rest which he would have observed under the administration of that original Law and Covenant so the Rest of our Lord Jesus Christ and his being refreshed in and from his works on the first Day is a sufficient indication of the precise Day of Rest to be observed under the dispensation of the new Covenant now confirmed and established And the Church of Christ could not pass one Week under the New Testament or in a Gospel-state of worship without this indication For the Judaical Sabbath as sure as it was so and as sure as it was annexed unto the Mosaical administration of the Covenant was so far abolished as not to oblige really the Disciples of Christ in conscience unto the observation of it whatever any of them might for a season apprehend And if a new Day was not now determined there was no Day or season appointed for an observance of an holy Rest unto the Lord nor any pledge given us of our entring into the Rest of Christ. And those who say that it is required that some time be set apart unto the ends of a Sabbatical Rest but that there is no divine indication of that time when not what it is or shall be if we consider what are the ends of such a Rest as before declared must allow us to expect firmer proofs of their uncouth Assertion than any as yet we have met withall § 10 Accordingly this Indication of the Gospel Day of Rest
and Worship was embraced by the Apostles who were to be as the chief corner-stones the foundation of the Christian Church For immediately hereon they assembled themselves on that Day and were confirmed in their Obedience by the Grace of our Lord in meeting with them thereon Joh. 20. 19 26. And it seems that on this Day only he appeared unto them when they were assembled together although occasionally he shewed himself to sundry of them at other seasons Hence he left Thomas under his doubts an whole Week before he gave him his gracious conviction that he might do it in the Assembly of his Disciples on the first day of the week From which time forward this Day was never without its solemn Assemblies as shall further be cleared afterwards § 11 Now because I am perswaded that the substance of all that we have laid down and pleaded for in all the preceding Discourses especially in what we have proposed concerning the foundation and causes of the Lords-day is taught by the Apostle Paul in his Epistle to the Hebrews chap. 4. I shall present unto the Reader the sum of his design and scope in that place from vers 3. to vers 11. with an Application of it unto our present purpose referring him yet for farther satisfaction unto our full Exposition of the Chapter it self For this place is touched on by all who have contended about the original and duration of the Sabbatical Rest but not yet that I know of diligently examined by any I shall not fear to lay much of the weight of the cause wherein I am engaged upon it and therefore shall take a view of the whole Context and the Design of the Apostle therein § 12 The words of the Apostle are For we which have believed do enter into 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 For he spake in a certain place of the seventh Day on this wise And God did Rest the seventh Day from all his works And in this place again If they shall enter into my Rest. Seeing therefore it remaineth taht some must enter therein and they to whom it was first preached entred not in because of unbelief Again he limiteth a certain Day saying in David To day after so long a time as it is said To day if you will hear his voice harden not your hearts For if Jesus had given them Rest then wonld he not afterwards have spoken of another Day There remaineth therefore a Rest to the people of God For he that is entred into his Rest he hath also ceased from his own works as God did from his Heb. 4. v. 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11. § 13 The design of the Apostle in this Discourse is to confirm what he had laid down and positively asserted in the beginning of the Chapter Now this is That there is yet under the Gospel a promise of entring into the Rest of God left or remaining unto Believers and that they do enter into that Rest by mixing the promise of it with Faith This he declares and the declaration of it was usefull unto and necessary for the Hebrews For he lets them know that notwithstanding their present and antient enjoyment of the Land of Canaan with the Worship and Rest of God therein which their Forefathers fell short of by their unbelief they were under a new Tryal a new Rest being proposed unto them in the promise This he proves by a Testimony out of the 95th Psalm the words whereof he had insisted on at large Chap. 3. and doth so again in this But the Application of that Testimony unto his purpose is obnoxious to a great Objection For the Rest mentioned in that Psalm seems to be a Rest long since past and enjoyed either by themselves or others They therefore could have no new or fresh concernment in it nor be in danger of coming short of it And if this were so all the Arguments and Exhortations of the Apostle in this place must needs be weak and incogent as drawn from a mistaken and misapplyed Testimony § 14 To remove this Objection and thereby confirm his former Assertions and Exhortations thereon is the Design of the Apostle in this Discourse To this End he proceeds unto the Exposition and Vindication of the Testimony it self which he had cited out of the Psalms And herein he shews from the proper signification of the words from the Time when they were spoken and the Persons to whom that no other Rest was intended in them but what was now by him proposed unto them as the Rest of God and his people in the Gospel The general Argument which to this purpose he insists upon consists in an enumeration of all the several Rests of God and his people which are mentioned in the Scriptures For from the consideration of them all he proves that no other Rest could be intended in the words of David but only the Rest of the Gospel whereinto they enter who do believe Moreover from that Respect which the â—â—â—ds of the Psalmist have unto the other foregoing Rests of God and his people he manifests that they 〈◊〉 were appointed of God to be Representations of that spiritual Rest which was now brought in and established This is the general Design of this Discourse In pursuit hereof he declares in particular 1 That the Rest mentioned in the Psalm is not that which ensued immediately on the Creation of all things This he evinceth because it was spoken of afterwards a long time after and that to another purpose v. 4 5. 2 That it was not the Rest of the Land of Canaan because that was not entred into by them unto whom it was first proposed and promised for they came short of it by their unbelief and perished in the Wilderness but this Rest which is now afresh proposed is such as the people of God must and will enter into v. 6 7. 3 Whereas it may be objected that although the Wilderness Generation entred not in yet their posterity did so under the conduct of Joshua v. 8. he answers that this Rest in the Psalm being proposed and promised in David so long a time above 400 years after the people had quietly possessed the Land whereinto they were conducted by Joshua it must needs be that another Rest then yet to come was intended in those words of the Psalmist v. 9. And 4 to conclude his Argument he declareth that this new Rest had a new peculiar foundation which the other had no interest or concernment in namely his ceasing from his works and entring into his Rest who is the Author of it verse 10. This is his way and manner of arguing for the proof of what he had before laid down and which he issueth in that Conclusion verse 9. There remaineth therefore a Rest for the people of God § 15 But we must yet further consider
it this is my Rest aná here will I dwell 2. God being thus entred into his Rest. in like manner as formerly two things ensue thereon 1 That the people are invited and encouraged to enter into the Rest of God This the Apostle treats concerning in this and the foregoing Chapter And this their entrance into Rest was their coming by Faith and Obedience into a participation of the Worship of God wherein he Rested as a means and pledge of their everlasting Rest in him And although some of them came short hereof by reason of their unbelief yet others entred into it under the conduct of Joshua 2 Both these his own Rest and Rest of the people God expressed by appointing a Day of Rest. This he did that it might be a token sign and pledge not now as given to this people absolutely of his first Rest at the Creation but of his present Rest in his instituted Worship and to be a means in the solemn observation of that Worship to farther their entrance into his Rest eternally Hence had the seventh Day a peculiar Institution among that people whereby it was made to them a sign and token that he was their God and they were his people And here lies the foundation of all that we have before discoursed concerning the Judaical Sabbath in our fourth Exercitation It is true this Day was the same in order of the Dayes with that before observed namely the seventh Day of the Week But it was now re-established upon new considerations and unto new ends and purposes The time of the change of the Day was not yet come for this Work was but preparatory for a greater And the Covenant whereunto the seventh Day was originally annexed being not yet to be abolished that day was not to be yet changed nor another to be substituted in the room of it Hence this Day became now to fall under a double consideration First as it was such a proportion of time as was requisite unto the Worship of God and appointed as a pledge of his Rest in his Covenant Secondly as it received a new Institution with superadded ends and significations as a token and pledge of Gods Rest in the Law of Institutions and the Worship erected therein So both these states of the Church had these three things distinctly a Rest of God on his Works for their foundation a Rest in Obedience and Worship for man to enter into and a Day of Rest as a pledge and token of both the other § 18 Thirdly The Apostle proves from the words of the Psalmist that there was yet to be a Third state of the Church an especial state under the Messia which he now proposed unto the Hebrews and exhorted them to enter into And in this Church-state there is to be also a peculiar state of Rest distinct from them which went before To the constitution hereof there are Three things required First that there be some signal work of God compleated and finished whereon he enters into his Rest. This was to be the foundation of the whole new Church-state and of the west to be obtained therein Secondly that there be a spiritual Rest ensuing thereon and arising thence for them that believe to enter into Thirdly that there be a new or renewed Day of Rest to express that Rest of God and to be a pledge of our eâ—tring into it If any of these or either of them be wanting the whole structure of the Apostles discourse will be dissolved neither will there be any colour remaining for his mentioning the seventh day and the Rest thereof These things therefore we must farther enquire into § 19 First the Apostle sheweth that there was a great work of God and that finished for the foundation of the whole This he had made way for chap. 3. vers 4 5. where he both expresly asserts the Son to be God and shews the Analogie that is between the Creation of all things and the building of the Church that is the works of the Old and New Creation As then God wrought in the Creation of all so Christ who is God wrought in the setting up of this new Church-state And upon his finishing of it he entred into his Rest as God did into his whereby he limited a certain Day of Rest unto his people So he speaks There remaineth therefore a Sabbatism for the people of God For he that is entred into Rest hath ceased from his works as God did from his own A new Day of Rest accommodated unto this new Church-state ariseth from the Rest that the Lord Christ entred into upon his ceasing from his works And as to this Day we may observe 1 That it hath this in common with the former Dayes that it is a Sabbatism or one day in seven which that name in the whole Scripture use is limited unto For this portion of time to be dedicated unto Sacred Rest having its foundation in the light and Law of Nature was equally to be observed in every state of the Church 2 That although both the former states of the Church had one and the same Day though varied in some Ends of it now the Day it self is changed as belonging to another Covenant and having its foundation in a work of another Nature than what They had respect unto 3 That the observation of it is suited unto the spiritual state of the Church under the Gospel delivered from the bondage frame of spirit wherewith it was observed under the Law And these things must be farther confirmed from the Context § 20 The foundation of the whole is laid down v. 10. For he that is entred into his Rest is ceased from his works as God from his own Expositors generally apply these words unto Believers and their entring into the Rest of God whether satisfactorily to themselves and others as to their design coherence scope or signification of particular expressions I know not The contrary appears with good evidence to me For what are the works that Believers should be said here to Rest from Their sins say some their labours sorrows and sufferings say others But how can they be said to Rest from these works as God rested from his own For God so rested from his as to take the greatest delight and satisfaction in them to be refreshed by them In six dayes the Lord made Heaven and Earth and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed Exod. 31. 17. He so rested from them as that he rested in them and blessed them and blessed and sanctified the Time wherein they were finished We have shewed before that the Rest of God was not only a cessation from working nor principally but the satisfaction and complacency that he had in his works But now if those mentioned be the works here intended men cannot so Rest from them as God did from his But they cease from them with a detestation of them so far as they are sinfull and joy for their deliverance
from them so far as they are sorrowfull This is not to Rest as God rested Again when are Believers supposed to Rest from these works it cannot be in this World For here we Rest not at all from Temptations sufferings and sorrows and in that mortification of sin which we attain unto yet the conflict is still continued and that with severity unto death Rom 7. 24. It must therefore be in Heaven that they thus Rest and so it is affirmed accordingly But this excludes the Rest in and of the Gospel from the Apostles discourse which renders it altogether unsuitable to his purpose This I have so fully demonstrated in the Exposition of the Chapter as that I hope it will not be gainsayed Thirdly there is no comparison in the whole discourse between the works of God and the works of Men but between the works of God in the Creation and under the Law on the one side and those in and under the Gospel on the other And the whole comparison is summed up and closed in this Verse § 21 It appears therefore that the subject of the Apostles Proposition in this place hath been mistaken It is another who is intended even Christ himself the Son of God and his Rest from his works which is here compared with the Rest of God from his at the foundation of the world to which end alone the mention of them was introduced verse 3 4. For First The Conjunction 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For whereby he brings in his Assertion manifests that the Apostle in these words gives an account whence it is that there is a new Sabbatism remaining for the people of God There remains a Sabbath-keeping for the people of God for he that is entred into his Rest is ceased from his works Had there not been a work laying the foundation of the Gospel-Church-state and a Rest of God in it and ensuing thereon there could have been no such Sabbatism for Believers for those things are required unto a Sabbath He had proved before that there could be no such Rest but what was founded in the works of God and his Rest that ensued thereon such a foundation therefore he saith this new Rest must have and it hath it This must be and is in the Works and Rest of him by whom the Church was built that is Christ who is God as it is expresly argued Chap. 3. vers 3 4. For as that Rest which all the world was to observe was founded in his Works and Rest who made the world and all things in it so the Rest of the Church under the Gospel is to be founded in his works and Rest by whom the Church was built that is Jesus Christ For he on the account of his works and Rest is also Lord of the Sabbath to abrogate one Day of Rest and to institute another Secondly The Apostle here changeth the manner of his expression from the plural absolutely We who believe or virtually in the name of a multitude the people of God into that which is absolutely singular 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He that is entred A single person is here expressed with respect unto whom the things mentioned are asserted and of this change of phrase there can be no other reason given Thirdly The Rest which this person is said to enter into is called His Rest absolutely As God speaking of the former Rest calls it My Rest so this is the My Rest of another namely the Rest of Christ whereas when the entring of Believers into Rest is spoken of it is called either Gods Rest They shall enter into my Rest or Rest absolutely We that believe do enter into Rest but not their Rest or our Rest for it is not our own absolutely but Gods Rest whereinto we enter and wherein we rest But the Rest here is the Rest of him whose it is and who is the Author of ours Fourthly There is a direct parallel in the words between the works of the old Creation and those of the new which are compared by the Apostle For 1. There are the Authors of them which on the one side is said to be God as God did from his own that is God the Creator or God as Creator on the other He 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chap. 3. vers 3. that is He of whom we speak as the Apostle declares himself vers 13. for in these words a transition is made unto his treating of the Person of Christ. 2. The works of the one and the other are expressed The works of the Creator are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his proper works his own works the works of the old Creation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And there are the works of him of whom he speaks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his works those which he wrought in like manner as God did his own at the beginning that is the work of building the Church For these works must answer each other and have the same respect unto their Authors they must be good and compleat in their kind and such as Rest and Refreshment may be taken in and on them To compare the sins and sufferings of men with the works of God our Apostle did not intend 3. There is the Rest of the one and the other and these also have their mutual proportion Now God rested from his own works of Creation 1 By ceasing from creating only continuing all things by his Power in their order and propagating them unto his Glory 2 By his respect unto them and refreshment in them as those which expressed his Excellencies and set forth his praise and so satisfied his glorious design So also must he rest who is spoken of 1 He must cease from working in the like kind of works he must suffer no more die no more but only continue the work of his grace and power in the preservation of the new creature and the orderly increase and propagation of it by his Spirit 2 He takes delight and satisfaction in the works that he hath wrought for he sees of the travel of his soul and is satisfied and is in the possession of that Glory which was set before him whilest he was engaged in this work And these things sufficiently clear the Subject here spoken of namely that it is Jesus Christ the Mediator § 22 The Works that the Rest mentioned respects have been sufficiently intimated and I have so fully insisted on them in the Exposition of the third and fourth Verses of the third Chapter of this Epistle that I shall not here again repeat them In brief all that he did and suffered in and from his Incarnation to his Resurrection as the Mediator of the Covenant with all the fruits effects and consequences of what he so did and suffered whereby the Church was built and the new Creation finished belongs unto these works His Rest that ensued on these works hath two parts 1 A Cessation from his works which was
eminent and answered Gods Rest from his own 2 Satisfaction in his works and the glorious product of them as those which had an impression on them of his Love and Grace Psal. 16. 7. § 23 It remains only that we enquire into his Entrance into his Rest both how and when he did so even as God entred into his on the seventh day for this must limit and determine a Day of Rest to the Gospel-Church Now this was not his lying down in the Grave His Body indeed there rested for a while but that was no part of his mediatory Rest as be was the founder and builder of the Church For 1 It was a part of his Humiliation Not only his Death but his abode and continuance in the state of Death was so and that a principal part of it For after the whole Humane Nature was personally united unto the Son of God to have it brought into a state of Dissolution to have the Body and Soul separated from each other was a great Humiliation And every thing of this nature belonged unto his Works and not his Rest. 2 This separation of Body and Soul under the power of Death was poenal a part of the sentence of the Law which he underwent And therefore Peter declares that the pains of Death were not loosed but in his Resurrection Act. 2. 24. Whom God saith he hath raised up loosing the pains of Death because it was not possible that he should be holden of it Whilst he was held of it he was under it penally This therefore could not be his Rest nor any part of it Nor did he in it enter into his Rest but continued in his Work Nor 2dly did he first enter into his Rest at his Ascension Then indeed he took actual possession of his Glory as to the full publick manifestation of it But to enter into Rest is one thing and to take possession of Glory another And it is placed by our Apostle as a consequent of his being justified in the Spirit when he entred into Rest 1 Tim. 3. 16. But this his entrance into Rest was in by and at his Resurrection from the dead For 1 Then and therein was he freed from the sentence power and stroke of the Law being discharged of all the Debts of our sins which he had undertaken to make satisfaction for Acts 2. 24. 2 Then and therein were all Types all Predictions and Prophesies fulfilled which concern the work of our Redemption 3 Then therefore his work was done I mean that which answereth Gods creating work though he still continue that which answers his work of preservation Then was the Law fulfilled and satisfied Sathan subdued Peace with God made the Price of our Redemption paid the Promise of the Spirit received and the whole Foundation of the Church of God gloriously laid on his Person in his Works and Rest. 4 Then and therein was he declared to be the Son of God with power Rom. 1. 4. God manifesting unto all that this was he concerning and unto whom he said Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee Acts 13. 33. § 24 Thus did the Author of the New Creation the Son of God the Builder of the Church having finished his works enter into his Rest. And this was as all know on the morning of the first day of the week And hereby did he limit and determine the Day for a sacred Sabbatical Rest under the New Testament For now was the Old Covenant utterly abolished and therefore the Day which was the pledge of Gods and Mans Rest therein was to be taken away and was so accordingly as we have shewed As the Rest from the beginning of the World had its foundation from the works of God and his Rest which ensued thereon which was determined unto the seventh Day because that was the Day wherein God ceased from those works which Day was continued under the legal administration of the Covenant by Moses so the Rest of the Lord Christ the Son of God is the foundation of our Rest which changing the old Covenant and the day annexed unto it he hath limited unto the first Day of the Week whereon he ceased from his works and entred into his Rest. And hereby the Apostle compleats the due Analogy that is between the several Rests of God and his people which he hath discoursed of in this Chapter For as in the beginning of the World there was first the work of God and his Rest thereon which made way unto a Rest for his people in himself and in his worship by the contemplation of his works that he had made on whose finishing he rested and a Day designed determined blessed and sanctified to express that Rest of God whence mention is made of those works in the command for the observation of that Day seeing the workship of God in and on it consisted principally in the glorifying of him by and for those works of his as also to be a means to further men in their entrance into eternal Rest whereunto all these things do tend and as at the giving of the Law there was a great Work of God and his Rest thereon in his establishing his Worship in the Land of Canaan which made way for the peoples entring into his Rest in that Worship and Countrey and had a Day of Rest enjoyned unto them to express the one and the other as also to help them to enter finally into the Rest of God so now under the Gospel there is a Rest answering all these in and by the instances which we have given § 25 And this is that which the Apostle affirms as the substance of all which he hath evinced Namely that there is a Sabbatism for the people of God v. 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The word is framed by our Apostle from an Hebrew original with a Greek Termination And he useth it as that which is comprehensive of his whole sense which no other word would be For he would shew that there is a Sabbatical Rest founded in the Rest of God remaining for the Church and therefore makes use of that word whereby God expressed his own Rest when he sanctified the seventh Day for a Day of Rest thereon That Day of Rest being removed and another on a new foundation namely the Rest of Christ upon his works introduced he calls it a Sabbatism or a Sabbath-keeping He doth not do this only and separately averring the necessity of a Sabbath-observation in the first place distinctly from a Spiritual Rest in Christ with an Eternal Rest ensuing thereon but in the manner and Order before laid down wherein the necessity of such a Day is included And besides the evidence that ariseth from the consideration of the whole Context there are two things which make it undeniably evident that our Apostle asserts an Evangelical Sabbath or Day of Rest to be constantly observed in and for the Worship of God under the Gospel For first without this design
there can be no tolerable Reason assigned why he should mention the works of God from the foundation of the World with his Rest that ensued thereon and referr us to the seventh Day which without respect unto another Day to be introduced doth greatly involve his whole Discourse Again his use of this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Sabbatism which is framed and as it were coyned on purpose that it might both comprise the Spiritual Rest aimed at and also a Sabbath-keeping or Observation of a Sabbath Rest manifests his purpose When he speaks of our Rest in general he still doth it by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 adding that there was an especial Day for its enjoyment Here he introduceth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Sabbatism which his way of arguing would not have allowed had he not designed to express the Christian Sabbath Adde hereunto that he subjoynes the especial Reason of such a Days observation in the next Verse as we have declared And here do we fix the Foundation and Reason of the Lords-Day or the Holy observation of the first Day of the Week the Obligation of the fourth Commandment unto a weekly Sacred Rest being put off from the seventh Day to the first on the same Grounds and Reasons whereon the state of the Church is altered from what it was under the Law unto what it is now under the Gospel And the Covenant it self also is changed whence the seventh Day is now of no more force than the old Covenant and the old Law of Institutions contained in Ordinances because the Lord Christ hath ceased from his works and entred into his Rest on the first Day § 26 Here we have fixed the foundation of the observation of the Lords-Day on the supposition of what hath been proved concerning our Duty in the Holy observance of one Day in seven from the Law of our Creation as renewed in the Decalogue The remaining Arguments evincing the change of the Day from the seventh unto the first by Divine Authority shall be but briefly touched on by me because they have been lately copiously handled and fully vindicated by others Wherefore 1 when the Lord Christ intended conspicuously to build his Church upon the foundation of his Works and Rest by sending the Holy Ghost with his miraculous Gifts upon the Apostles he did it on this Day which was then among the Jews the Feast of Pentecost or of Weeks Then were the Disciples gathered together with one accord in the observance of the Day signalized to them by his Resurrection Acts 2. 1. And by this doth their obedience receive a blessed confirmation as well as their persons a glorious endowment with abilities for the work which they were immediately to apply themselves unto And hereon did they set out unto the whole work of building the Church on that foundation and promoting the worship of it which on that Day was especially to be celebrated § 27 The Practice of the Apostles and the Apostolical Churches owned the Authority of Christ in this change of the Day of sacred Rest. For hence forward whatever apprehensions any of them might have of the continuance of the Judaical Sabbath as some of them judged that the whole service of it was still to be continued yet they observed this Day of the Lord as the time of their Assemblies and solemn worship One or two instances hereof may be called over Acts 20. 6 7. We came to Troas in five dayes where we abode seven dayes And upon the first day of the week when the Disciples came together to break bread Paul preached unto them ready to depart on the morrow and continued his speech untill midnight I doubt not but in the seven dayes that the Apostle abode there he taught and preached as he had occasion in the houses of the Believers but it was the first Day of the Week when they used according to their duty to assemble the whole body of them for the celebration of the solemn Ordinances of the Church synecdochically expressed by breaking of Bread This they did without any extraordinary warning or calling together for in answer to their duty they were accustomed so to do Such is the account that Justin Martyr gives of the practice of all Churches in the next Age 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 On the Day called Sunday there is an assembly of all Christians whether living in City or the Countrey and because of their constant breaking of bread on this day it was called Dies Panis August Epist 118. And Athanasius proved that he brake not a Chalice at such a time because it was not the first Day of the Week when it was to be used Socrat. lib. 5. cap. 22 And whosoever reads this passage without prejudice will grant that it is a marvellous abrupt and uncouth expression if it do not signifie that which was in common observance amongst all the Disciples of Christ which could have no other foundation but only that before laid down of the Authority of the Lord Christ requiring it of them And I doubt not but that Paul preached his farewel Sermon unto them which continued untill midnight after all the ordinary service of the Church was performed And all the Objections which I have met withall against this instance amount to no more but this that although the Scripture sayes that the Disciples met for their worship on the first Day of the Week yet indeed they did not so do 1 Cor. 16. 2. the same practice is exemplified Upon the first Day of the Week let every one of you lay by him in store as God hath prospered him that there be no gatherings when I come The constant Day of the Churches solemn Assemblies being fixed he here takes it for granted and directs them unto the observance of an especial duty on that Day What some except that here is no mention of any such Assembly but only that every one on that Day should lay by himself what he would give which every one might do at home or where they pleased is exceeding weak and unsuitable unto the mind of the Apostle For to what end should they be limited unto a Day and that the first Day of the Week for the doing of that which might be as well to as good purpose and advantage performed at any other time on any other Day of the Week whatever Besides it was to be such a laying aside such a treasuring of it in a common stock as that there should be no need of any Collection when the Apostle came But if this was done only privately it would not of its self come together at his Advent but must be collected But all exceptions against these Testimonies have been so lately removed by others that I shall not insist farther on them § 28 That from these Times downwards the first Day of the Week had a solemn observation in all the Churches of Christ whereby they owned its substitution in the room of the seventh Day
applying the duties and services of a Sabbath unto it hath also been demonstrated And that this was owned from the Authority of the Lord is declared by John in the Revelation who calls it the Lords Day Rev. 1. 10. whereby he did not surprize the Churches with a new name but denoted to them the Time of his Visions by the name of the Day which was well known unto them And there is no solid Reason why it should be so called but that it owes its pre-eminence and observation unto his Institution and Authority And no man who shall deny these things can give any tolerable account how when or from whence this Day came to be so observed and so called It is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Lords Day the Day of the Lord as the Holy Supper is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Cor. 11. 20. the Lords Supper by reason of his Institution 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Day of the Lord in the Old Testament which the LXX render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies indeed some illustrious Appearance of God in a way of judgement or mercy And so also in the Person of Christ this was the Day of his Appearance Mark 16. 9. So was it still called by the ancient Writers of the Church Ignatius in Epist. ad Trall ad magnes ect Dionysius of Corinth Epist. ad Rom. in Euseb. Hist. lib. 4. cap. 21. Theophilus Antioch lib. 1. in 4. Evangel Clemens Alex. stromat lib. 7. cap. 7. Origen lib. 8. con Cels. Tertul. de Coron milit cap. 3. As for those who assign the Institution of this Day to the Apostles although the supposition be false yet it weakens not the divine original of it For an Obligation lying on all Believers to observe a Sabbath unto the Lord and the Day observed under the Law of Moses being removed it is not to be imagined that the Apostles fixed on another Day without immediate direction from the Lord Christ. For indeed they delivered nothing to be constantly observed in the worship of God but what they had his Authority for 1 Cor. 11. 23. In all things of this nature as they had the infallible guidance of the Holy Ghost so they acted immediately in the Name and Authority of Christ where what they ordained was no less of divine Institution than if it had been appointed by Christ in his own person It is true they themselves did for a season whilest their Ministery was to have a peculiar regard to the Jews for the calling and conversion of the remnant that was amongst them according to the election of grace go frequently into their Synagogues on the seventh Day to preach the Gospel Act. 13. 14. Chap. 16. 13. Chap. 17. 2. Chap. 18. 4. But it is evident that they did so only to take the opportunity of their Assemblies that they might preach unto the greater numbers of them and that at such a season wherein they were prepared to attend unto sacred things Upon the same ground Paul laboured if it were possible to be at Hierusalem at the Feast of Pentecost Act. 20. 16. But that they at any time assembled the Disciples of Christ on that day for the worship of God that we read not § 29 We may now look back and take a view of what we have passed through That one Day in seven is by virtue of a divine Law to be observed Holy unto the Lord the original of such an observation Gen. 2. 2. the Letter of the fourth Commandement with the nature of the Covenant between God and man do prove and evince And hereunto is there a considerable suffrage given by learned men of all parties The Doctrine of the Reformed Divines hereabouts hath been largely represented by others They also of the Church of Rome that is many of them agree herein It is asserted in the Canon Law it self Tit. de Feriis cap. licet where the words of Alexander the third are Tam veteris quam novi Testamenti pagina septimum Diem ad humanam quietem specialiter deputavit where by septimus Dies he understands one Day in seven as Suarez sheweth De Relig. lib. 2. cap. 2. And it is so by sundry Canonists reckoned up by Covarruvias The Schoolmen also give in their consent as Bannes in 2a 2a g. 44. a. 1. Bellarmine contends expresly decultsanct lib. 3. cap. 11. that Jus divinum requirebat ut unus Dies Hebdomadae dicaretur cultui divino So doth Suarez de dieb sac cap. 1. and others might be added We have the like common consent that whatever in the institution and observation of the Sabbath under the Old Testament was peculiar unto that state of the Church either in its own nature or in its use and signification or in its manner of observance is taken away by virtue of those Rules Rom. 14. 5. Gal. 4. 10. Col. 2. 16 17. Nor can it be denied but that sundry things annexed unto the Sabbatical Rest peculiar to that Church-state which was to be removed were wholly inconsistent with the spirit grace and liberty of the Gospel I have also proved that the observation of the seventh Day precisely was a pledge of Gods Rest in the Covenant of works and of our Rest in him and with him thereby so that it cannot be retained without a re-introduction of that Covenant and the Righteousness thereof And therefore although the command for the observation of a Sabbath to the Lord so far as it is moral is put over into the Rule of the new Covenant wherein Grace is administred for the duty it requires yet take the seventh Day preeisely as the seventh Day and it is an Old Testament arbitrary institution which falls under no promise of spiritual assistance in or unto the observation of it Under the New Testament we have found a new Creation a new Law of Creation a new Covenant the Rest of Christ in that Work Law and Covenant the limiting of a Day of Rest unto us on the Day wherein he entred into his Rest a new Name given unto this Day with respect unto his Authority by whom it was appointed and an observation of it by all the Churches so that we may say of it This is the Day which the Lord hath made we will rejoyce and be glad in it as Psal. 118. 24. § 30 These foundations being laid I shall yet by some important considerations if I mistake not give some farther evidence unto the necessity of the Religious observation of the first Day of the Week in opposition unto the Day of the Law by some contended for It is therefore first acknowledged that the observation of some certain Day in and for the solemn publick Worship of God is of indispensible necessity They are beneath our consideration by whom this is denyed Most acknowledge it to be a Dictate of the Law of Nature and the Nature of these things doth require it We have proved also that there
is such a Determination of this Time unto one Day in seven as it must needs be the highest Impudence in any Person Persons or Churches to attempt any alteration herein And notwithstanding the pretences of some about their liberty none yet have been so hardy from the foundation of the World as practically to determine a Day for the Worship of God in any other Revolution of Dayes or Times to the neglect and exclusion of one Day in seven Yea the Light hereof is such and the use of it so great that those who have taken up with the worst of Superstitions instead of Religion as the Mahumetans yet complying in general with the performance of a solemn Worship to God have found it necessary to fix on one certain Day in the Hebdomadal Revolution for that purpose And indeed partly from the Appointment of God partly from the Nature of the Thing it self the Religious observation of such a Day is the great preservative of all solemn Profession of Religion in the World This the Law of Nature this the written Word directs unto and this Experience makes manifest unto all Take away from amongst men a conscience of observing a fixed stated Day of Sacred Rest to God and for the celebration of his Worship in Assemblies and all Religion will quickly decay if not come to nothing in this World And it may be observed though it be not evident whether be the Cause or the Effect that where and amongst whom Religion flourisheth in its power there and amongst them is conscience the most exercised and the most diligence used in the observation of such a Day I will not say absolutely that it is Religion or other Principles that teacheth men exactness in the observation of this Day nor on the other hand that a conscience made of this observation doth procure an universal strictness in other Duties of Religion But this is evident that they are mutually helpfull unto one another And therefore though some have laboured to divest this Observation of any immediate Divine Authority yet they are forced to supply such a Constitution for the Observation of one Day in seven as that they affirm that none can omit its Observation without Sin in ordinary cases whether they have done well to remove from it the command of God and to substitute their own in the room of it they may do well to consider § 31 Let then the state of things in reference unto the first day of the week with the presence of God in and his blessing upon the Worship of the Church therein be considered And this is a consideration as I think by no means to be despised It is manifest to all unprejudiced persons that the Apostles and Apostolical Churches did religiously observe this Day And no man can with any modesty question the celebration of the Worship of God therein in the next succeeding Generations In the possession of this practise are all the Disciples of Christ at this day in the World some very few only excepted who Sabbatize with the Jews or please themselves with a vain pretence that every Day is unto them a Sabbath Nor is it simply the Catholicism of this practise which I insist upon though that be such and hath such weight in things of this nature as that for my part I shall not dissent from any practise that is so attested But it is the blessing of God upon it and the Worship on this Day performed which is pleaded as that which ought to be of an high esteem with all humble Christians On this Day throughout all Ages hath the Edification of the Churches been carried on and that publick revenue of Glory been rendred unto God which is his due On this Day hath God given his presence unto all his solemn Ordinances for all the Ends for which he hath appointed them Nor hath he by any means given the least intimation of his displeasure against his Churches for their continuance in the observation of it On the other side not only have the wisest and holiest men who have complained of the Sins of their several times and Ages wherein they lived which procured the pouring out of the Judgements of God upon them constantly reckoned the neglect and prophanation of the Lords-day among them but such instances have been given of particular severities against them who have openly prophaned this Day and that upon unquestionable Testimonies as may well affect the minds and consciences of those who profess a Reverence of God in the holy dispensations of his Providence Nor can any of these things be pleaded to give countenance unto any other Day that should be set up in competition with the Lords-day or the first day of the week What of this nature can be spoken concerning the seventh Day now by some contended for and that which is grievous by some persons Holy and Learned Of what use hath it ever been to the Church of God setting aside the occasional Advantages taken from it by the Apostles of preaching the Gospel in the Synagogues of the Jews What Testimonies have we of the presence of God with any Churches in the Administration of Gospel-Ordinances and Worship on that Day And if any lesser Assemblies do at present pretend to give such a Testimony wherein is it to be compared with that of all the holy Churches of Christ throughout the World in all Ages especially in those last past Let men in whose hearts are the wayes of God seriously consider the use that hath been made under the blessing of God of the conscientious observation of the Lords-day in the past and present age unto the promotion of Holiness Righteousness and Religion universally in the power of it and if they are not under invincible prejudices it will be very difficult for them to judge that it is a Plant which our Heavenly Father hath not planted For my part I must not only say but plead whilst I live in this World and leave this Testimony to the present and future ages if these Papers see the light and do survive that if I have ever seen any thing in the wayes and worship of God wherein the power of Religion or Godliness hath been expressed any thing that hath represented the Holiness of the Gospel and the Author of it any thing that hath looked like a Proeludium unto the everlasting Sabbath and Rest with God which we aim through Grace to come unto it hath been there and with them where and amongst whom the Lords-day hath been had in highest esteem and a strict observation of it attended unto as an Ordinance of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Remembrance of their Ministry their Walking and Conversation their Faith and Love who in this Nation have most zealously pleaded for and have been in their persons Families and Churches or Parishes the most strict observers of this Day will be precious with them that fear the Lord whilst the Sun and Moon endure Their Doctrine also in
with all Believers in a peaceable agreement in the worship of God And therefore of all differences in judgement which lead unto practice those are the worst and most pernicious which occasion or draw after them any thing whereby men are hindred from joyning together in the same publick solemn worship whereby they yield unto God that Revenue of his Glory which is due unto him in this world And that many of these are found at this day is not so much from the Nature of the things themselves about which men differ as from the weakness prejudices and corrupt affections of them who are possessed with different Apprehensions about them But now upon a supposition of an Adherence by any unto the seventh day Sabbath all Communion amongst Professors in solemn Gospel-Ordinances is rendred impossible For if those of that perswasion do expect that others will be brought unto a relinquishment of an Evangelical observance of the Lords-day Sabbath they will find themselves mistaken The Evidence which they have of its Appointment and the Experience they have had of the presence of God with them in its Religious Observation will secure their Faith and Practise in this matter Themselves on the other hand supposing that they are obliged to meet for all solemn worship on the seventh day which the other account unwarrantable for them to do on the pretence of any binding Law to that purpose and esteem it unlawfull to assemble Religiously with others on the first Day on the Plea of an Evangelical warranty they absolutely cut off themselves from all possibility of Communion in the Administration of Gospel-Ordinances with all other Churches of Christ. And whereas most other Breaches as to such Communion are in their own nature capable of healing without a Renunciation of those Principles in the minds of men which seem to give countenance unto them the Distance is here made absolutely irreparable whilst the Opinion mentioned is owned by any I will press this no farther but only by affirming that persons truely fearing the Lord ought to be very carefull and jealous over their own understandings before they embrace an Opinion and Practice which will shut them up from all visible Communion with the generality of the Saints of God in this World § 34 We have seen the least part of the inconveniences that attend this perswasion and its practise nor do I intend to mention all of them which readily offer themselves to consideration One or two more may yet be touched on For those by whom it is owned do not only affirm that the Law of the seventh day Sabbath is absolutely and universally in force but also that the Sanction of it in its penalty against Transgressors is yet continued This was as is known the Death of the offender by stoning So did God himself determine the Application of the Curse of the Law unto the breach of this Command in the instance of the man that gathered wood on that day and was stoned by His direction Numb 45. 35. Now the consideration of this penalty as expressive of the Curse of the Law influenced the minds of the Jews into that bondage frame wherein they observed the Sabbath And this alwayes put them upon many anxious arguings how they might satisfie the Law in keeping the Day so as not to incurr the penalty of its Transgression Hence are the Questions among the Jews no less endless than those about their Genealogies of old about what work may be done and what not how far they might journey on that day which when they had with some indifferent consent reduced unto 2000 Cubits which they called a Sabbath-dayes journey yet where to begin their measure from what part of the City where a man dwelt from his own House or the Synagogue or the Walls or Suburbs of it they are not agreed And the dread hereof was such amongst them of old from the rigorous Justice wherewith such Laws with such penalties were imposed on them that untill they had by common consent in the beginning of the Rule of the Hasmonaeans agreed to defend themselves from their Enemies on that Day they sate still in a neglect of the Law of Nature requiring all men to look to their preservation against open violence and suffered themselves to be slain to their satiety who chose to assault them thereon And certainly it is the greatest madness in the world for a people to engage in War that do not think it at least lawfull at all times to defend themselves And yet they lost their City afterwards by some influence from this Superstition And do men know what they do when they endeavour to introduce such a Bondage into the observance of Gospel-worship a yoke and bondage upon the Persons and Spirits of men which those before us were not able to bear Is it according to the mind of Christ that the Worship of God which ought to be in Spirit and Truth now under the Gospel should be enforced on men by capital penalties And let men thus state their Principles The seventh Day is to be kept precisely a Sabbath unto the Lord by virtue of the Fourth Commandment for not one Day in seven but the seventh Day it self is rigorously and indispensibly enjoyned unto observation and that the Transgression of this Law not as to the Spiritual Worship to be observed on it but as to every outward Transgression by journeying or other bodily labour is to be avenged with Death undoubtedly in the practice of these Principles besides that open contradiction which they will fall into unto the Spirit Rule and Word of the Gospel they will find themselves in the same entanglements wherein the Jews were and are And as the Cases that may occur about what may be done and what not what Cases of necessity may interpose for relief are not to be determined by private persons according to their own light and understanding because they have respect unto the publick Law but by them unto whom power is committed to judge upon it and to execute its penalty so there will so many Cases and those almost inexplicable emerge hereon as will render the whole Law an intolerable Burden unto Christians And what then is become of the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free and wherein is the preheminence of the Spiritual Worship of the Gospel above the Carnal Ordinances of the Law § 35 And this introduceth an Evil of no less hainous importance than any of those before enumerated The precise observation of the seventh Day as such is undoubtedly no part of the Law naturally moral This we have sufficiently proved before as I suppose That Law is written in the Hearts of Believers by virtue of the Covenant of Grace and strength is administred thereby unto them for the due performance of the Duties that it doth require Nor is it an Institution of the Gospel none ever pretended it so to be If there be not much against it in the New Testament
Holy Rest which either for the matter of them or the manner prescribed have had no sufficient warrant or foundation in the Scripture For whereas some have made no distinction between the Sabbath as Moral and as Mosaical unless it be meerly in the change of the Day they have endeavoured to introduce the whole practice required on the latter into the Lords Day But we have already shewed that there were sundry additions made unto the command as to the manner of its observance in its accommodation unto the Mosaical Pedagogie besides that the whole required a frame of spirit suited thereunto Others again have collected whatever they could think of that is good pious and usefull in the practice of Religion and prescribed it all in a multitude of instances as necessary to the sanctification of this Day so that a man can scarcely in six Dayes read over all the duties that are proposed to be observed on the seventh And it hath been also no small mistake that men have laboured more to multiply Directions about external duties giving them out as it were by number or tale than to direct the mind or inward man in and unto a due performance of the whole duty of the sanctification of the Day according to the spirit and genius of Gospel Obedience And lastly it cannot be denied but that some it may be measuring others by themselves and their own abilities have been apt to tye them up unto such long tiresome duties and rigid abstinences from refreshments as have clogged their minds and turned the whole service of the Day into a wearisome bodily exercise that profiteth little § 7 It is not in my design to insist upon any thing that is in controversie amongst Persons learned and sober Nor will I now extend this Discourse unto a particular consideration of the especial duties required in the sanctification or services of this Day But whereas all sorts of men who wish well to the furtherance and promotion of Piety and Religion in the World on what Reasons or foundations soever they judge that this Day ought to be observed an holy Rest to the Lord do agree that there is a great sinfull neglect of the due observation of it as may be seen in the Writings of some of the principal of those who cannot grant unto it an immediate divine Institution I shall give such Rules and general Directions about it as a due application whereof will give sufficient guidance in the whole of our duty therein § 8 It may seem to some necessary that something should be premised concerning the measure or continuance of the Day to be set apart unto an Holy Rest unto the Lord. But it being a matter of controversie and to me on the Reasons to be mentioned afterwards of no great importance I shall not insist upon the examination of it but only give my judgement in a word concerning it Some contend that it is a natural Day consisting of 24 hours beginning with the evening of the preceding Day and ending with the same of its own And accordingly so was the Church of Israel directed Lev. 23. 32. From even unto even shall you celebrate your Sabbath although that doth not seem to be a general Direction for the observation of the Weekly Sabbath but to regard only that particular extraordinary Sabbath which was thus instituted namely the Day of Atonement on the tenth Day of the seventh moneth vers 27. However suppose it to belong also unto the weekly Sabbath it is evidently an addition unto the command particularly suited unto the Mosaical Pedagogie that the Day might comprize the Sacrifice of the preceding evening in the services of it from an obedience whereunto we are freed by the Gospel Neither can I subscribe unto this opinion and that because 1 In the description and limitation of the first original seven Dayes it is said of each of the six that it was constituted of an evening and a morning but of the Day of Rest there is no such description it is only called the seventh Day without any assignation of the preceding evening unto it 2 A Day of Rest according to Rules of natural equity ought to be proportioned unto a Day of work or labour which God hath granted unto us for our own use Now this is to be reckoned from morning to evening Psal. 104. 20 21 22 23. Thou makest darkness and it is night wherein all the Beasts of the forest do creep from whose yelling the Night hath its name in the Hebrew Tongue The young Lions rear after their prey and seek their meat from God The Sun riseth they gather themselves together and lay them down in their dens Man goeth forth to his work and his labour untill the evening The Day of labour is from the removeal of darkness and the night by the light of the Sun untill the return of them again which allowing for the alterations of the Day in the several seasons of the year seems to be the just measure of our Day of Rest. 3 Our Lord Jesus Christ who in his Resurrection gave beginning and being to the especial Day of Holy Rest under the Gospel rose not untill the morning of the first Day of the Week when the beamings of the light of the Sun began to dispel the darkness of the night or when it dawned towards day as it is variously expressed by the Evangelists This with me determines this whole matter 4 Meer Cessation from labour in the night seems to have no place in the spiritual Rest of the Gospel to be expressed on this Day nor to be by any thing distinguished from the night of other Dayes of the Week 5 Supposing Christians under the obligation of the Direction given by Moses before-mentioned and it may entangle them in the anxious scrupulous intrigues which the Jews are subject unto about the beginning of the evening it self about which their greatest Masters are at variance which things belong not to the Oeconomy of the Gospel Upon the whole matter I am inclinable to judge and do so that the observation of the Day is to be commensurate unto the use of our natural strength on any other Day from morning to night And nothing is hereby lost that is needfull unto the due sanctification of it For what is by some required as a part of its sanctification is necessary and required as a due preparation thereunto This therefore is our first Rule or Direction The first Day of the Week or the Lords-Day is to be set apart unto the ends of an Holy Rest unto God by every one according as his natural strength will enable him to employ himself in his lawfull occasions any other Day of the Week There is no such certain standard or measure for the observance of the duties of this Day as that every one who exceeds it should by it be cut short or that those who on important Reasons come short of it should be stretched out thereunto As
may do well to consider who plead for the observation of the seventh Day precisely For they do profess thereby that they seek for Rest in God according to the tenor of the first Covenant That they approve of and that they look by that profession to be brought to Rest by though really and on other Principles they do otherwise Whatever then be the Covenant wherein we walk with God the great Principle which is to guide us in the holy observation of this Day is that we celebrate the Rest of God in that Covenant approve of it rejoyce in it and labour to be partakers of it whereof the Day it self is given us as a pledge We must therefore 3 Remember that we have lost our original Rest in God by sin God made us upright in his own Image meet to take our Rest satisfaction and reward in himself according to the tenor of the Law of our Creation and the Covenant of Works established thereon Hereof the seventh Day was a Token and Pledge All this we must consider that we have lost by sin God might justly have left us in a wandring condition without either Rest or any pledge of it Our Reparation indeed is excellent and glorious yet so as that on our part the loss of our former estate was shamefull and in the Remembrance whereof we ought to be humbled And hence we may know that it is in vain for us to lay hold of the seventh Day again which is but an Attempt to return into the Garden after we are shut out and kept out by a Flaming Sword For although it was made use of as a Type and shadow under the Law yet to us who must live on the substance of things or not at all it cannot be possessed with robbery and is of no use when attained For we are to remember 4 That the Rest in God and with God which we now seek after enter into and celebrate the pledge of using the means for the farther enjoyment of it in the observation of this Day is a Rest by a Recovery by a Reparation in Jesus Christ. There is now a new Rest of God and a new Rest for us in God God now Rests and is refreshed in Christ in his Person in his Works in his Law in the Covenant of Grace in him in all these things is his soul well pleased He is the Brightness of his Glory and the express Image of his Person making a far more glorious Representation of him than did the works of Creation of old which yet he had left such impressions of his Goodness Power and Wisdom upon as that he Rested in them was refreshed on them and appointed a Day for man to Rest in his Approbation of them and giving Glory to him for them How much more is it so with him with respect unto this glorious Image of the invisible God This he now dealeth with us in For as of old he commanded light to shine out of darkness whereby we might see and behold his Glory which he had implanted and was implanting on the work of his hands so now he shines into our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of his Glory in the face of Jesus Christ 2 Cor. 4. 6. That is enableth us to behold all the excellencies of his nature made manifest in the person and works of Jesus Christ. The way also of bringing them unto him through Christ who had by sin come short of his Glory is that which he approveth of is delighted with and resteth in giving us a pledge thereof in this Day of Rest. Herein lyes the principal duty of this Dayes observances namely to admire this Retriveal of a Rest with God and of a Rest for God in us This is the fruit of eternal Wisdom Grace and Goodness Love and Bounty This I say belongs unto the sanctification of this Day and this ought to be our principal Design therein namely in it to give Glory unto God for the wonderfull Recovery of a Rest for us with himself and an endeavour to enter by Faith and Obedience into that Rest. And for those ends and purposes are we to make use of all the sacred Ordinances of Worship wherein and whereby this Day is sanctified unto the Lord. 5 That in the Observation of the Lords-day which is the first day of the week we subject our consciences immediately to the Authority of Jesus Christ the Mediator whose Day of Rest originally it was and which thereby and for that Reason is made ours And hereby in the observation of this Day have we fellowship with the Father and his Son Jesus Christ. Of old there was nothing appeared in the Day whilst the seventh Day was in force but the Rest of God the Creator and his Soveraign Authority intimated unto us thereby for the observing of an Holy Rest unto him according to the Tenor of the first Covenant But now the immediate Foundation of our Rest on the Lords-day is the Lords Rest the Rest of Christ when upon his Resurrection he ceased from his works as God did from his own This gives great direction and encouragement in the duty of observing this Day aright Faith truely exercised in bringing the Soul into an actual subjection unto the Authority of Christ in the observance of this Day and directing the thoughts unto a contemplation of the Rest that he entred into after his works with the Rest that he hath procured for us to enter into with him doth more thereby towards the true Sanctification of this Day than all outward Duties can do performed with a legal Spirit when men are in bondage unto the Command as taught to them and dare not do otherwise God in several places instructs the Israelites what account they shall give unto their Children concerning their observation of sundry Rites and Ceremonies that he had instituted in his Worship Exod. 13. 14. And it shall be when thy son asketh thee in time to come saying What is this that thou shalt say unto him By strength of hand the Lord brought us out of the Land of Egypt c. It was in remembrance of such works of God amongst them whereof those Rites were a Token and Representation And we have here a special observance in the Worship of God what account can we give unto our selves and our Children concerning our observation of this Day Holy unto the Lord Must we not say nay may we not do so with joy and rejoycing That whereas we were lost and undone by sin excluded out of the Rest of God so far as that the Law of the observation of the outward pledge of it being attended with the Curse was a burden and no relief unto us our Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God undertook a great work to make peace for us to redeem and save us and when he had so done and finished his work even the erecting of the new Heavens and new Earth wherein dwelleth Righteousness he entred into
his Rest and thereby made known unto us that we should keep this Day as a day of an Holy Rest unto him and as a pledge that we have again given unto us an entrance into Rest with God 6 We are then to Remember that this Day is a pledge of our eternal Rest with God This is that whereunto these things do tend For therein will God glorifie himself in the full accomplishment of his great design in all his Works of Power and Grace And this is that which ultimately we aim at We do at best in this World but enter into the Rest of God the full enjoyment of it is reserved for Eternity Hence that is usually called our everlasting Sabbath as that state wherein we shall alwayes Rest with God and alwayes give Glory unto him And this Day is a pledge hereof on sundry accounts 1 Because thereon God as it were calleth us aside out of the World unto an immediate converse with himself Israel never had a more dreadfull Day than when they were called out of their Tents from their occasions and all worldly concerns 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in occursum Jehovae to a meeting with the Lord Exod. 19. God called them aside to meet and converse with him But it was unto Mount Sinai that he called them which was altogether on a smoak because the Lord descended in fire vers 18. Hence although they had been preparing themselves for it sundry Dayes they were not able to bear the terror of Gods approach unto them But under the Gospel we are this Day called out of the World and off from our occasions to converse with God to meet him at Mount Sion Heb. 12. Here he doth not give us a fiery Law but a gracious Gospel doth not converse us with Thunder and Lightning but with the sweet still voice of mercy in Jesus Christ. And as this requireth due thoughts of heart in us to prepare us for it so it is in it self a great and unspeakable Priviledge purchased for us by Christ. And herein have we a pledge of Rest with God above when he shall call us off from all Relations all occasions of life all our Interests and Concerns in this World and eternally set us apart unto himself And undoubtedly that it may be such a pledge unto us it is our duty to take off our minds and souls as far as we are able from all occasions of life and businesses of this World that we may walk with God alone on this Day Some indeed do think this a great bondage But so far as they do so and so far as they find it so they have no interest in this matter We do acknowledge that there are weaknesses attending the outward man through the frailty and imbecillity of our natures and therefore have before rejected all rigid tiresome services And I do acknowledge that there will be repisning and rebelling in the flesh against this duty But he who really judgeth in his mind and whose practice is influenced and regulated by that judgement that the segregation of a Day from the World and the occasions of it and a secession unto communion with God thereon is grievous and burdensome and that which God doth not require nor is usefull to us must be looked on as a stranger unto these things He to whom the worship of God in Christ is a burden or a bondage who sayes behold what a weariness it is that thinks a Day in a Week to be too much and too long to be with God in his especial service is much to seek I think of his duty Alas what would such Persons do if they should ever come to Heaven to be taken aside to all eternity to be with God alone who think it a great bondage to be here deiverted unto him for a Day They will say it may be Heaven is one thing and the observation of the Lords-Day is another were they in Heaven they doubt not but they should do well enough But for this observation of the Lords-Day they know not what to say to it I confess they are so they are distinct things or else one could not be the pledge of the other But yet they both agree in this that they are a separation and secession from all other things unto God And if men have not a principle to like that in the Lords-Day neither would they like it in Heaven should they ever come there Let us then be ready to attend in this matter to the Call of God and go out to meet him For where he placeth his Name as he doth on all his solemn Ordinances there he hath promised to meet us And so is this Day unto us a pledge of Heaven 2 It is so in respect of the duties of the Day wherein the sanctification of the Name of God in it doth consist All duties proper and peculiar to this Day are duties of communion with God Everlasting uninterrupted immediate communion with God is Heaven Carnal Persons had rather have Mahomets Paradise than Christs Heaven But this is that which Believers aim at eternal communion with God Hereof are the duties of this Day in a right holy performance an assured pledge For this is that which in them all we aim at and express according to the measure of our light and Grace Hereon we hear him speak unto us in his Word and we speak unto him in Prayers Supplications Praises Thanksgivings in and by Jesus Christ. In all our aim is to give Glory to him which is the End of Heaven and to be brought nearer to him which is its enjoyment In what God is pleased hereby to communicate unto our souls and in what by the secret and invisible supplyes of his Grace and Spirit he carryes out our hearts unto lye and consist those first fruits of Glory which we may be made partakers of in this World And the first fruits are a pledge of a full harvest God gives them unto us for that End that they may be so This then are we principally to seek after in the celebration of the Ordinances of God whereby we sauctifie his Name on this Day Without this bodily labour in the outward performance of a multitude of duties will profit little Men may rise early and go to bed late and eat the bread of care and diligence all the Day long yet if they are not thus in the Spirit and carried out unto spiritual communion with God in the services of the Day it will not avail them Whatever there be either in the service it self performed or in the manner of its performance or the duration of it which is apt to divert or take off the mind from being intent hereon it tends to the prophanation rather than the sanctification of this Day 3 The Rest of the Day is also a pledge of our Rest with God But then this Rest is not to be taken for a meer bodily cessation from labour but in that extent wherein it
hath before been at large described These are some of the Rules which we are to have a respect unto in our observation of this Day A due application of them unto particular occasions and emergencies will guide us through the difficulties of them Therefore did I choose rather to lay them thus down in general than to insist on the determination of particular Cases which when we have done all must be resolved into them according to the light and understanding of them who are particularly concerned § 11 It remains that we offer some Directions as to the duties themselves wherein the sanctification of this Day doth consist And this I shall do briefly It hath been done already at large by others so as that from thence they have taken occasion to handle the nature of all the Religious duties with the whole manner of their performance which belong to the service of this Day which doth not properly appertain unto this place I shall therefore only name the duties themselves which have a respect unto the sanctification of the Day supposing the nature of them and the due manner of their performance to be otherwise known Now these duties are of two sorts 1 Preparatory for the Day and 2 Such as are actually to be attended unto in it § 12 1 There are duties preparatory for it For although as I have declared I do not judge that the preceding Evening is to be reckoned unto this Holy Rest as a part of it yet doubtless it ought to be improved unto a due preparation for the Day ensuing And hereby the opinion of the beginning of the Sabbatical Rest with the Morning is put into as good a condition for the furtherance of the duties of Piety and Religion as the other about its beginning in the Evening preceding Now Preparation in general is necessary 1 On the account of the Greatness and Holiness of God with whom in an especial manner we have to do The Day is his The duties of the Day are his prescriptions The Priviledges of the Day are his gracious concessions he is the beginning and ending of it And we observed before on this Day he calleth us aside unto a converse with himself And certainly some special preparation of our hearts and minds is necessary hereunto This belongs to the keeping of our foot when we go to the House of God Eccl. 5. 1. namely to consider what we are to do whither we are going to whom we make our approaches in the solemn worship of God The Rule which he gives Lev. 10. 3. is moral perpetual or everlasting I will be sanctified in them that come nigh me and before all the people I will be glorified He loves not a rude careless rushing of poor sinners upon him without a sense of his Greatness and a due reverence of his Holiness Hence is that advice of our Apostle Heb. 12. 28 2. 9. Let us have Grace be graciously prepared in our hearts and minds whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear for our God is a consuming fire And this will not be answered by meer bodily postures of veneration Hence there is a due preparation necessary 2 It is so from our own distractions and intanglements in the businesses and occasions of life I speak not of such who spend the whole Week in the pursuit of their lusts and pleasures whose Sabbath-Rest hath an equal share in prophaneness with all other parts of their lives But we treat of those who in general make it their design to live unto God The greatest part of these I do suppose to be engaged industriously in some Calling or course of life And these things are apt to fill their minds as well as to take up their time and much to conform them to their own likeness Much converse with the world is apt to beget a worldly frame in men and earthly things will taint the mind with earthlyness And although it be our duty in all our secular occasions also to live to God and whether we eat or drink to do all things unto his Glory yet they are apt to unframe the mind so as to make it unready unto Spiritual things and Heavenly contemplations There is a Command indeed that we should pray alwayes which at least requires of us a readiness of mind to lay hold of all occasions and opportunities for prayer yet none will deny but that there is great advantage in a due preparation for that and all other Duties of Religion To empty therefore and purge our minds of secular earthly businesses designs projections accounts dependencies of things one on another with reasonings about them as far as in us lyeth is a Duty required of us in all our solemn approaches unto God And if this be not done but men go full of their occasions into Religious services they will by one means or other return upon them and prevail upon them to their disturbance Great care is to be taken in this matter and those who constantly exercise themselves unto a good conscience herein will find themselves fitted for the Duties of the Day to a good success § 13 For these preparatory Duties themselves I should referr them to three Heads if the Reader will take along with him these Advertisements 1. That I am not binding burdens on men or their consciences nor tying them up unto strict observances under the consideration of sin if not precisely attended unto Only I desire to give direction such as may be helpfull unto the Faith and Obedience of those who in all things desire to please God And if they apply themselves to those wayes in other instances which they find more to their own edification all is done that I aim at 2. That I propose not these Duties as those which fall under an especial command with reference unto this season but only as such which being commanded in themselves may with good spiritual advantage be applyed unto this season Whence it follows 3. That if we are by necessary occasions at any time diverted from attending unto them we may conclude that we have lost an opportunity or advantage not that we have contracted the guilt of sin unless it be from the occasion it self or some of its circumstances § 14 These things premised I shall recommend to the Godly Reader a threefold preparatory Duty to the right observation of a Day of Holy Rest unto the Lord. 1 Of Meditation 2 Of Supplication 3 Of Instruction unto such as have others depending on them 1 Of Meditation and this answers particularly the Reasons we have given for the necessity of these preparatory Duties For herein are the minds of Believers to exercise themselves unto such Thoughts of the Majesty Holiness and Greatness of God as may prepare them to serve him with reverence and Godly fear The nature of the Duty requires that this Meditation should first respect God himself and then the Day and its Services in its Causes and Ends. God
we should have set up the Calves of our own imaginations to his greater provocation But he hath relieved us herein himself appointing the worship which he will accept Would we therefore give full Direction in particular for the right sanctifying of the Name of God on this Day we ought to go over all the Ordinances of worship which the Church is bound to attend unto in its Assemblies But this is not my present purpose Besides somewhat of that kind hath been formerly done in another way I shall therefore here content my self to give some general Rules for the guidance of men in the whole As 1 That the publick and solemn worship of God is to be preferred above that which is private They may be so prudently managed as not to interfer nor ordinarily to entrench on one another But where-ever on any occasion they seem so to do the private are to give place to the publick For one chief End of the sacred setting apart of this Day is the solemn acknowledgement of God and the performance of his worship in Assemblies It is therefore a marvellous undue custome on the pretence of private duties whether Personal or Domestical to abate any part of the Duties of solemn Assemblies For there is in it a setting up of our own choice and inclinations against the Wisdome and Authority of God The End of the Day is the solemn worship of God and the End is not to give way to the most specious helps and means 2 Choice is to be made of those Assemblies for the celebration of publick worship where we may be most advantaged as unto the Ends of them in the sanctification of this Day so far as it may be done without breach of any Order appointed of God For in our joyning in any concurrent acts of Religious worship we are to have regard unto Helps suited unto the furtherance of our own Faith and Obedience And also because God hath appointed some parts of his Worship as in their own nature and by virtue of his appointment are means of conveying light knowledge Grace in spiritual supplyes unto our souls it is certainly our duty to make choice and use of them which are most meet so to do 3 For the manner of our Attendance on the publick worship of God with Reverence Gravity Order Diligence Attention though it be a matter of great use and moment yet not of this place to handle nor doth it here belong unto us to insist on those wayes whereby we may excite particular Graces unto due actings of themselves as the nature of the Duties wherein we are engaged doth require § 19 4 Although the Day be wholly to be dedicated unto the Ends of a Sacred Rest before insisted on yet 1. Duties in their performance drawn out unto such a length as to beget wearisomness and satiety tend not unto edification nor do any way promote the Sanctification of the Name of God in the Worship it self Regard therefore in all such performances is to be had 1 Unto the weakness of the natural constitution of some the Infirmities and Indispositions of others who are not able to abide in the outward part of Duties as others can And there is no wise Shepherd but will rather suffer the stronger sheep of his flock to lose somewhat of what they might reach unto in his guidance of them than to compell the weaker to keep pace with them to their hurt and it may be their ruine Better a great number should complain of the shortness of some Duties who have strength and desires for a longer continuance in them than that a few who are sincere should be really discouraged by being overburdened and have the service thereby made useless unto them I alwayes loved in sacred Duties that of Seneca concerning the Orations of Cassius Severus when they heard him Timebamus ne desineret we were afraid that he would end 2 To the spiritual edge of the affections of men which ought to be whetted and not through tediousness in Duties abated and taken off Other things of a like nature might be added which for some considerations I shall forbear 2. Refreshments helpfull to nature so far as to refresh it that it may have a supply of spirits to go on chearfully in the Duties of Holy Worship are lawfull and usefull To macerate the Body with Abstinences on this Day is required of none and to turn it into a Fast or to Fast upon it is generally condemned by the Antients Wherefore to forbear provision of necessary food for Families on this Day is Mosaical and the enforcement of the particular precepts about not kindling fire in our Houses on this Day baking and preparing the Food of it the Day before cannot be insisted on without a Re-introduction of the seventh Day precisely to whose observation they were annexed and thereby of the Law and Spirit of the old Covenant Provided alwayes that these Refreshments be 1 Seasonable for the time of them and not when publick Duties require our Attendance on them 2 Accompanied with a singular regard unto the Rules of Temperance as 1 That there be no appearance of evil 2 That Nature be not charged with any kind of Excess so far as to be hindred rather than assisted in the Duties of the Day 3 That they be accompanied with Gravity and Sobriety and purity of conversation Now whereas these things are in the substance of them required of us in the whole course of our lives as we intend to please God and to come to the enjoyment of him none ought to think an especial Regard unto them on this Day to be a bondage or troublesome unto them 3. Labour or pains for the enjoyment of the benefit and advantage of the solemn Assemblies of the Church and in them of the appointed Worship of God is so far from entrenching on the Rest of this Day that it belongs unto its due observation A mere Bodily Rest is no part of Religious Worship in it self nor doth it belong unto the Sanctification of this Day any farther then as it is a means for the due performance of the other Duties belonging unto it We have no bounds under the Gospel for a Sabbath-dayes journey provided it be for Sabbath ends In brief all pains or labour that our station and condition in this world that our troubles which may befall us or any thing else make necessary as that without which we cannot enjoy the solemn Ends and Uses of this Holy Day of Rest are no way inconsistent with the due observation of it It may be the lot of one man to take so much pains and to travel so far for and in the due celebration of the Lords day as if another should do the like without his occasions and circumstances it would be a prophanation of it 4. Labour in works of charity and necessity such as are to visit the sick to relieve the poor to help the distressed to relieve or assist Creatures