to make Conscience of namely the spiritual duty of meditation and the celestial duty of praise First how seasonable it is on the Sabbath to meditate not only on the Word but the Works of God appears from Psal 92. which is a Psalm for the Sabbath-day How does the Psalmist there search and dive into the wonderful works of God Vers 5. How great are thy works O Lord and thy thoughts are very deep Here we have a large field works of Creation and works of Providence here our souls may wander from sea to land See Mr. Baxter Saints ever-lasting Rest from earth to Heaven from time to eternity yea walk upon the Sun Moon and Stars and enter into Heaven it self the Paradise of God How manifold are thy works O Lord in wisdome hast thou made them all Every creature of God that we cast our eyes upon this day should be as a flower to feed our Meditations I speak of cursory Meditation or that which is occasional one special use whereof is to feed our graces by our senses and as we are Christians to conduct us to Christ by the view of all creatures and actions when we look upon the Sun it bids us look up to Christ the Sun of righteousness every star may mind us of that star of Jacob that bright and morning star if we look upon our houses Christ is the door if upon our bodies he is the head if upon our clothes he is the garment of salvation if upon our friends and relations he is our husband our friend our Lord our Law-giver our King if we walk he is the way if we read he is the word if we eat and drink he is our food if we live Christ is our life that is a holy heart may make this spiritual use of all earthly objects and occasions to contemplate Christ in them and if we improve not our senses this way 't is all one as if we were blind or brutish But besides this there is a more distinct deliberate solemn and set meditation required on the Lords day and the work of Redemption being the occasion of the day how should our hearts work upon this blessed subject Come Christian call in thy thoughts from all worldly concernments and contemplate this rare contrivance of thy Redemption by Jesus Christ ponder it deeply get lively and strong apprehensions of it that it may leave deep and lasting impressions upon thy soul view over the several passages and transactions in this Master-piece of all Gods works view it first in the platform how gloriously was this laid in the eternal projects and a Ephes 1.4 purposes of Gods love yea in that eternal promise past between the Father and the Son b Titus 1.2 In hopes of eternal life which God that cannot lie promised before the world began Mark it here was a promise a promise of eternal life made by God by God that cannot lie and that before there was a world or man in the world Oh the everlastingness infiniteness unsearchableness of this love of God! that the everlasting God the Majesty of heaven and earth should take care of me before the world was that he should busie himself and his Son about a worthless wretched worm born out of due time the least of Saints the greatest of sinners O my soul admire adore this first love this free love of God and Christ Next see the early discovery and shining forth of this mystery in the very morning of the world no sooner is man fallen but God reaches out a c Gen. 3.15 promise to him and after many ages sends his blessed Son out of his bosome to fulfil it in the d Gal. 4.4 fulness of time Christ comes we could not come up to him lo he comes down to us O see the King of glory stooping bowing the Heavens to come down and dwell in a dungeon to lodge amongst prisoners and pitch his tent in the rebels camp Think O my soul how did the holy Angels wonder to see the King of Heaven stepping down from his throne to sit on his footstool yea putting off to the view the robes of a prince to put on the livery of a e Phil. 2.7 8. servant and that after treason had been stampt upon it taking our nature I mean after it had been up in arms against God not that he took the sin of our nature he that could make our nature without sin could also and did take it without sin but the shame of it he took in that he took it when it was under a cloud under a blot before God and Angels How does this express the love of Christ a heart full of love to lost sinners q. d. poor soult I cannot keep from you I love your very nature and will joyn it to my self and so I may save you from sin and wrath I care not if I become one with you and dwell in your very flesh My glory shall not hinder I will rather veil it for a while and take the form of a servant and become of no reputation than you shall perish for ever Again how does this speak the unspeakable love of God See Mr. Ambrose looking to Jesus p. 342. as one sweetly observes God did so love the very nature of his elect that though for the present he had them not all with him in heaven yet he must have their picture in his Son to see them in and love them in O meditate much on this admirable strein of love till it melt thy heart and make it burn within thee From the Incarnation of our blessed Saviour we may trace him through the several passages of his life to his death and passion and here with an eye of faith look upon him whom thou hast pierced behold the man as he said even that man of sorrows suffering bleeding dying on that tree of shame and ignominy dwell upon the death of Christ till it put life into thy dead heart then follow thy crucified Lord from the cross to the Sepulchre and by the way ponder deeply the severity of Gods justice the sinfulness of sin the love of Christ and the worth of souls which are not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold but with the precious blood of Jesus Christ 1 Pet. 1.18 19. as a lamb without blemish and without spot Why did the Primitive Saints sacramentally shew forth the Lords death on the Lords day Acts 20.7 but to signifie to us that to contemplate and commemorate the death of Christ is a special duty of the day So also his Resurrection which was the great transaction of the day therefore a proper subject for serious meditation It is Christ that died yea rather that is risen again and become the first-fruits of them that slept Consider O my souls the holy triumph of thy Redeemer this day when he trod on the serpents head took from death its sting from hell its standard Suppose thou hadst
Jewes Sabbath was not at least not as a Sabbath nor with equal solemnity as the Lords day nor as of necessity so it was ever condemned and the Lords day was ever preferred before it if not observed without it in the purest Churches for the first two hundred years after Christ to say no more Let us examin witnesses in order as they come First Ignatius Let us hear what Ignatius saies who lived some thirty years in the Apostles times and in his Epistle to the Magnesians in the Vulgar Edition is brought in speaking to this purpose * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let us therefore no longer keep the Jewish Sabbath as rejoicing in idleness for it is written He that will not labour let him not eat and in the sweat of thy browes shalt thou eat thy bread But let every of us keep Sabbath spiritually not in bodily ease but in the meditation of the Law not eating meat drest yesterday or drinking luke-warm drinks or walking out a limited space nor in dancings and sensless sportings but in admiration of the workes of God And setting aside the Sabbath let every one that loves Christ keep holy the Lords day the Queen of days the Resurrection day the highest of all dayes I do the rather insert this Testimony though Dr. Vsher except against this Edition of Ignatius his Epistles because T. T. cites it also for the Saturday-Sabbath only he mangles and misinterprets it dealing with Ignatius as men use to deal with Mag-pyes slitting their tongues to make them speak what they would have them Just thus he deals with this renowned father severing the last clause from the rest of the sentence and singling out a little piece of it to serve his own turn for he insists only upon the last branch and mistranslates it too his words are these Next after the Sabbath-day let every friend of Christ make the Lords day a Solemn festivall As if Ignatius had preferred the Jewes Sabbath before the Lords day but by his favour this clashes with the context for in the foregoing words Christians are counselled no longer to keep the Jewes Sabbath but to work upon it for it is written He that will not labour let him not eat Whereas on the contrary all that love Christ are charged to keep the Lords day a solemn Festival Exam. Concil Trid. de dieb Fest p. 257. being the Queen and princess of dayes Besides these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are well rendred by setting aside the Sabbath So learned Chemnitius and others translate them If any desire further satisfaction I referr them to judicious Mr. Cawdrey who ha's dexterously discuss'd this Testimony The more * Approved by Dr. Twiss after it had been compared with a latin translation found in Caius Col. library in Cambrig and two other Manuscripts in Oxon the one in Magdal the other in Balliot Coll. Library correct copy of Ignatius ' Epistle to the Magnesians presented by Dr. Vsher as agreeable to the citations of Eusebius Athanasius and Theodoret ha's this material and remarkable passage in it The Blessed Martyr speaking of the Jewes converted to the Faith of Christ in his dayes gives this most Christian Character of them * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ad Magnesian That they did no longer keep the Sabbath but led their life according to the Lords day in which our life arose in which words First He expounds what St. John meant by the Lords day Rev. 1.10 namely the day of our Saviours Resurrection and that not as an anniversary but a weekly holy-day contradistinct to the Jewes Sabbath Seconly He acquaints us with the practice of the Church in those Apostolick times which was to observe the Lords day in stead of the old Sabbath If the converted Jewes did thus how much more the Christian Gentiles Therefore blessed Ignatius his preface to this discourse shall be my conclusion by way of caution to my Christian brethren a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Idem Suffer not your selves to be carried about with diverse and strange doctrines for if we shall still live according to the Jewish Law we deny that we have received grace And a litle after b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. ibid. Since we are become the disciples of Christ let us learn to live according to Christianity For it is absurd to profess Christ and Judaize For Christianity ha's not beleeved into Judaism but Judaism into Christianity As for Ignatius's Epistle to the Philippians which the adversary glories it is rejected as spurious and counterfeit and indeed there is nothing of an Apostolical spirit breathing in it See Mr. Perkins Praep. to the dem of the problem Our next witness is Justin Martyr who lived in the very prime of the primitive times about a hundred and fifty years after Christ's Nativity Justin Martyr at * Vide Alfied Chron. Patr. p. 450. what time he wrote a learned Apology for the poor persecuted Christians to Antoninus pius the Emperour wherein among other things he mentions the manner of their publick meetings on the Lords day which he calls Sunday because he had to do with a Pagan Emperour his words are these Vpon the day called Sunday 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Apol 2. ad Cal◠all that abide within the cities or the villages do meet together in some place where the Records of the Apostles and the writings of the Prophets as much as is appointed are read unto us The reader having done the Priest or President ministreth a word of Exhortation that we do imitate those good things which are there rehearsed then standing up together we send up our prayers to Heaven which being ended there is delivered unto us bread and wine with water Water to mingle with their Wine in those hot countries of which as he sayes a little before none are allowed to partake but baptized persons Beleevers and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such as live according to the rule of Christ After this the Priest or President offers up as much as in him is our prayers and thanksgivings to God and all the people say Amen then those of the richer sort every one as his good will is contribute something towards the relief of the poorer Brethren c. What an excellent pattern is here for after-ages and how agreeable to the practice of the Apostles themselves here we have publike assemblies prayer preaching reading the Scriptures breaking of Bread distributing to the poor and all this upon the day called Sunday that is the Lords day and why upon this day rather than any other let Justin himself resolve this as he doth in the next words * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ib. On the Sunday saies he we all make a publike Assembly in as much as it is the first day in which God who changed the darkness and the first matter made the world and because on this day Jesus Christ our Saviour arose from
wants and if we have hearts to weep over our week day sins and stir up our selves to take hold of Christ that we may make peace with God they that have any acquaintance with heart-work find it hard to have to do with a dusty world full of sins and snares and not be defiled or intangled with it earthly things are apt to leave a tincture upon the most holy and heavenly hearts There must therefore be a rubbing off this rust of the world a washing these dirty hearts and hands before we are fit to draw nigh to God in solemn Worship Exod. 19.14 What were those Ceremonial washings of old but emblematical predictions and documents of preparation to Gospel-worship and if I mistake not something to this purpose is prophesied concerning the purest times and Churches in these later days Rev. 15.2 3. Revel 15. We read of those that had gotten the victory over the Beast and his Image i. e. those that had shaken off the yoke of Anti-Christian Tyranny and Superstition standing upon a sea of glass with the harps of God in their hands those harps in their hands speak them in a posture of publike worship But what means their standing upon a sea of glass Why among other things I conceive it alludes to that Laver or * 1 Kings 7.23 sea in Solomons Temple in which the the Priests were wont to * 2 Chron. 4.6 wash when they went to worship and it may teach us thus much that the people of God under the Gospel as well as they under the Law must wash before they worship there must be some preparation Secondly the sanctification of the Sabbath follows and this also consists in two things Holy rest and holy work First we must keep it as a day of holy rest to the Lord resting from our own works our own words and our own thoughts 1. We are bound upon the Lords day to rest and cease from our own works whether works of labour or works of pleasure if I may so distinguish The Lords day must neither be our working-day nor our play-day both these are prohibited by the letter of the fourth Commandment and the analogy of that Text which seems to be written as a Commentary upon the Commandment Isai 58.13 14. If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath from doing thy pleasure on my holy day and call the Sabbath a delight the holy of the Lord honourable and shalt honour him not doing thine own ways nor finding thine own pleasure nor speaking thy own words c. In which words we have the lively Picture and Pourtraiture of a true Sabbath in both parts of it it must be celebrated with rest from our own ways works words pleasures and this rest must be accompanied with a spiritual rejoycing in God and delight in his Sabbath arising from an honourable esteem of the day considering whose day it is namely the Lords Now the scope of this Text is as applicable to our Christian Sabbath as ever it was to the Jews Sabbath ours being first a day of holy rejoycing in the Lord as well as theirs Psal 118.24 Secondly a day which hath the Lord for its author as well as theirs Thirdly a day every whit as honourable as theirs yea a degree above it being instituted upon a more noble account Viz. The most gracious and glorious work of Redemption Fourthly a day in all respects as holy as theirs holy I mean in respect of separation and dedication to holy duties as prayer preaching breaking of bread praise and thanksgiving Acts 2.1 and 20.7 Psal 118.27 28. Therefore it must be kept with rest from accustomed labour and pleasure as well as theirs and that by vertue of the fourth Commandment which requires the sanctifying of one day in seven of divine appointment as a Sabbath with rest from servile works and secular imployments And let it be further considered both the fourth Commandement and the Prophet Isaiah in commenting upon it do first and chiefly call for sanctity Secondarily for rest First Remember the Sabbath to sanctifie it then Thou shalt do no work Sanctification is required as the end cessation from labour as the means the one as principal the other as accessary Now both Prophets and Apostles have markt out the Lords day as a holy day to be spent in holy duties of solemn worship and that weekly therefore by the Law of God and nature we are bound to keep it as a day of weekly rest otherwise we separate the end from the means which cannot be rest from servile work being an inseparable adjunct to a day of solemn worship What then shall we say to those that afterwarning make the Lords day either a common working-day or a sporting day the former I may fitly call the Devils workmen who will one day pay them their wages the other the flesh's Bondmen whose pleasure in the end will prove torment without end The Lord awaken both to repentance better then that of Esau whose sin of the two is greater then his * Hebr. 12.16 there are prophane Esau's under the Gospel and they are the worst of Esau's there is also a sin called * Rom. 2.22 Sacrilege condemned in the Gospel and Sabbath-breaking is very like it when sinners lay sacrilegious hands upon that which is consecrated to the Lord for a sin much like to which Ananias and his wife were once stricken with sudden death and how many such dreadful strokes have been felt and heard in these later days I shall not repeat what has been already committed to record by others Mr. Bernard Mr. Byfield and sundry others have been serious observers of Gods heavy hand in this kind I could say something of what I have seen with my own eyes and heard with my own ears But I shall forbear Numb 10.1 2. when men are struck dead in the very act of their sin as Vzzah in touching the Ark Nadab and Abihu in offering strange fire when the sin and the judgement meet together and do one point at the other surely Gods hand is not to be slighted Mr. Byfield has related many such tremendous strokes upon those that have presumed to work on the Lords day and ended their lives and their work together having no more respit between their sin and their execution or expiration then with trembling lips to tell others the secret reflections of their own guilty Consciences and how many Malefactors have we heard at their execution bewailing their profanation of the Lords day as the leading-cause of all their mischiefs and miseries Now the Conscience of the sinner smarting under Gods revengeful rod is many times like a finger to point out the sin for which God smites as we see in the case of a Judges 1.7 8. Adonibezek To be short the exemplary judgments of God against this sin of Sabbath-breaking falling in so great variety and happening so thick together in many places do call aloud to the
as long as you live Take heed of corrupt Books and broachers of error you may be too credulous too cautelous you cannot be Let neither the pompous Phrases nor proud threats of men either allure you or affright you from the truths of God T. T. abounds in both these Artifices charming some with his Rhetorick scaring others with his Bulls and big words as he does William Sloat by name leaving him as his Printed Book speaks under the unpardonable sin to the judgement of the great day and yet this William Sloat is known to be a man of sober conversation professing Repentance towards God and Faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ only he must be expunged out of the Catalogue of Christians for not being able to keep the Jews Sabbath and damned to the fiery furnace of Hell because he could no longer dance after this mans Pipe or bow down to Images that he has set up in his fancy Opinions I mean To conclude I beseech you Christians for the Lords sake and your souls sake hold fast the Good Old Truths of Christ in this hour of Englands temptation and cleave to that Good Old Cause the Christian Sabbath which the rigid Prelatical party sought to subvert by the Book of Sports and many pernicious Pamphlets and practises till the wrath of God brake out upon the land in those late bloody showers the Remembrance whereof methinks should daunt the heart of the most Goliah-like Adversary that shall dare to draw the sword of defiance the second time against this Christian Cause If any will be so fool-hardy as still to fight against God and the Lamb in profaning and teaching others to profane his day by working as formerly some did by sporting yet be exhorted all you that fear God and love the Lord Jesus to keep holy the Lords day making it no otherwise a working-day then by working out your salvation with fear and trembling which is the humble and hearty advice of Yours in all Gospel-Offices EDM. WARREN A TABLE of the Contents Position 1. THe Sabbath made alterable as to the day in the first institution of it evidenced by three Arguments Arg. 1. From the time when it was instituted Viz. after the fall Adam sinned the same day in which he was created proved by five Arguments page 1. to 7. Two Objections answered to p. 17. Arg. 2. From the command by which it was instituted p. 17. to 21. Arg. 3. From the ground or occasion on which it was instituted either Gods providence or promise p. 21. to 32. Seven Considerations premised to clear it p. 33 34 35. Two Scruples resolved p. 37 38 39. Position 2. THat the Old Sabbath was further manifested to be alterable as to the day in the second Edition of the Sabbath For 1. It was never propounded as the substance of any moral Law Here the fourth Commandement is vindicated at large p. 46. to 58. 2. It seems to be pointed at as a sign in the Ceremonial Law p. 70. Sundry Objections answered p. 59. to 70 78. Position 3. THe Old Sabbath was further evidenced to be alterable in the after-Observation of it p. 78 to 83. Position 4. THat the Sabbath was actually altered and changed from the Last to the First day of the Week by the authority of Christ upon the account of his Resurrection c. Four main Arguments to prove it Arg. 1. From the New Creation p. 83 to 90. Arg. 2 From the New Covenant The Covenant changed in a threefold expressure of it in the Mandatory the Promissory and shadowy part p. 90. to 105. The Old Sabbath proved to be of a shadowy nature from Col. 2.16 17. p. 106 107 108. Four Objections answered from p. 109 to 112. Arg. 3. From the Introduction of a new rest Hebr. 4. explained and vindicated to p. 122. Four Objections answered to p. 130. Arg. 4. From the designation of a new day with the discharge of the old The old seventh day Sabbath is discharged from Obligation under the Gospel p. 130. to 138 Four Objections removed The First day of the week is designed for a day of weekly solemn Worship For 1. This is the day above all others on which in the vacancy of the old seventh day God hath set his mind in the Law p. 158 159. 2. This is the day above all days on which Christ has set his special mark in the Gospel A seven-fold mark he has set upon it 1. His resurrection from the dead this day p. 161. to 169. 2. His frequent apparitions on this day p. 169. to 175. Four Objections silenced 3. His gracious speeches and actions at those apparitions 4. The Mission of the Holy Ghost this day The day of Pentecost proved to be the first day of the week p. 179. to 187. Two Objections answered 5. The Inscription of Christs blessed name on this day 't is the Lords day p. 190 191 192. Three Objections answered 6. The Apostles and Apostolical Churches observation of it Acts 20.7 cleared Six Objections satisfied 7. Apostolical prescription about it 1 Cor. 16.1 2. Four Objections answered to p. 214. The Best Antiquity for the Change of the Day TEstimonies of the Antients 1. Ignatius 2. Justin Martyr 3. Dionysius 4. Tertullian 5. Origen 6. Cyprian 7. Athanasius 8. Hilary 9. Ambrose 10. Hierome 11. Chrysostome 12. Augustine 13. Eusebius from p. 216. to 232. Opposite Testimonies answered to p. 245. Position 5. THe Lords day the Christian Sabbath proved and Cavils refuted from p. 236. to 242. Position 6. THe Sabbath begins in the morning Four Objections answered from p. 242. to 246. Position 7. THe Lords day must be kept holy to the Lord. Rules of Direction 1. For Preparation to the Sabbath 2. Sanctification of it 1. By holy rest from our own works words and thoughts 2. By holy work both in private and in publike from p. 246. to the end ERRATA PAge 4. Marg. for John 29. read John 19. p. 54. marg for evening Communicant r. Evangelical Communicant p. 80. for merval r. marvel p. 86. l. 5. for latter r. letter p. 91. marg for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 97. for must with a promise r. meet with a promise p. 107. for â—â—brae and praeterita r. umbra praeteritae p. 109. after it is very questionable add I say p. 126. marg for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 132. for stay r. stop p. 180. l. 1. r. wonderful p. 181. l. 5. for there r. their p. 182. l. 9. r. where ibid. for some r. come for were r. was p. 192. for constitution r. contestation p. 194. l. 31. add the p. 216. marg for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Other false spellings and false pointings there are which the Reader is requested to look upon rather as Errors of the Press then the Pen yet no other then such as are common and ordinary in all Treatises printed in the Authors absence POSITION
too dark to ground an institution upon We must have a Law written in God's book And there is no other that I know of but Gen. 2.3 which if I grant the Adversary to be a command for some do stiffly deny it yet I must be bold to tell him it is but a consequential command For although it be said God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it yet it is not said Let man sanctifie it Here is included God's example but no express command And if the New Testament do not afford us as much warrant for the Lord's day as this amounts to I will yield the Cause But of that hereafter Let the Reader onely take notice by the way how mortally T. T. hath wounded his own cause Pa. 36. by exclaiming so bitterly against Consequences He calls it Philosophie and the deceit of men to establish Ordinances by Consequences Why let me ask him Was the Patriarchal Sabbath for above two thousand years together an Ordinance of God for my part I never doubted of it But he can never make it good without a Consequence he must make a new Bible first for express command there is none onely God's example which without a precept is not alwayes binding And so to use his own words the Lord hath disappointed the devices of the crafty and snared him in his own wisdom he digged a pit for the Lord's day and his Saturdays Sabbath is fallen into it help it out how he can For his life he can find no more in Gen. 2. then an implicit command for that old seventh day And now the next question will be Whether it be a temporary or a perpetual precept If perpetual it must be moral But that it cannot be by his own rule for he has fairly granted That a Moral Law is not meerly good because commanded but therefore commanded because it is good understand it of a Moral natural Law Now I beseech you Sir what natural goodness was there in the seventh day more then in the sixth or fifth Is one day in it self any better then another as to God And as to man if any day had been naturally or morally good above the rest Gen. 1.28 Psal 8.56 in all reason it had been the sixth day on which God made man crowned him with his blessings and gave him dominion over his creatures or the first day in which he made the heavens the Angels and the elements Therefore his threefold mystery to the seventh-days morality is but a threefold miserable mistake to make the best of it 1. That it was written in innocent Adam's heart for which he cites Rom. 2. where there is not a word of any such thing â— 10.11 2. That it was afterwards written in Tables of stone for which he quotes Gal. 3.19 as little to his purpose as the other 3. That it is also written in the fleshly tables of renewed hearts which the experience of almost all renewed hearts in heaven and earth does contradict For to speak in the language of Eliphas Job 5.1 S. Paul Col. 2.16 17. Call now if there be any that will answer thee and to which of the Saints wilt thou turn either Scripture-Saints Cyprian cp ad Fidum 59. Chryso Tom de Res. or Church Saints Ask S. Paul S. Cyprian S. Chrysostom S. Augustine and they will tell you that your antiquated Sabbath was so far from being written in their hearts that they have written against it with their pens August de lit Spir. c. 14. Turn over the works of the eminent Fathers whose books neither you nor I are worthy to bear and their writings are so voluminous that we are not able to bear them Mr. Cawdrey Mr. Palmer Mr. Sheph. Mr. Byfield Mr. White of Dorch and the whole Assembly of Divines Confe of faith Chap. 21. Add to these the most judicious pious and zealous Ministers and Martyrs of Christ who have lived and died within the compass of these sixteen hundred years and most if not all of them will tell you That they never owned your Saturday-Sabbath they lived without it dyed without it and are I doubt not gone to their everlasting rest in heaven without it Besides how many faithful witnesses of late years has the Lord raised up to bear testimony against it of whom I suppose the greatest part are yet alive though some are fallen asleep In a word God has promised to write his laws in the hearts of all his people Jer. 31.33 Hebr. 8.10 Char. 16. But not one of ten thousand has the Saturday-Sabbath written in his heart therefore it is now none of Gods laws how many precious gracious and pious Christians are yet upon earth men and women redeemed from the earth and crucified to the world of whom the world is not worthy who look upon your Sabbath as a cypher can freely labour and travel upon it buy and sell upon it and that after accurate inquiries about it and to this day their consciences never reproched them their hearts never smote them for it what will you say all these are Hypocrites unrenewed unsanctified ones This were to condemn the generation of Gods Children and Canonize your self with your few misled associates for the only Saints in Christendome which I would hope you dare not do though I know you dare as much as another Well the adversary is brought to this Dilemma Either God has no people in the world but such as are of his perswasion or his moral and immutable Laws are not written in their hearts or the Saturday-Sabbath is none of those Lawes The last is the likeliest in the judgment of any indifferent Reader let his cause be tryed where he pleases either at Natures tribunal or the throne of Grace in the hearts of believers and he will be cast at both Nature is both blind and dumb in the business and if he plead the law of Grace which is rectifyed and refined nature the whole Christian world will give in evidence against him A Sabbath a day of holy rest indeed it will own and one day of seven in proportion but the particularity of the day the seventh from the Creation it utterly disclaims And where he will find advocates for it but either among the unbelieving Jews or a few misbelieving Christians Judaizing I know not Therefore surely it is no ingredient of Gods moral and immutable Lawes The conclusion then is that it was but a temporary precept by which it was established which some call ceremonial others had rather term it positive but none perpetual unless such as are more apt to say anything then able to prove it when then have said it We deny not the fourth Commandement to be a perpetual precept but we are now speaking of Gen. 2. which at most is but a positive Law and positive precepts are alterable at the law-givers pleasure yea though they were given in Paradise as the precept concerning the forbidden fruit though it
were given before the fall and should undoubtedly have bound Adam and all his posterity if he had not fallen Gen. 2.17 yet now it binds none neither should it if the tree were known So also that positive law of keeping and dressing the Garden Mr. â—â— Strange which to Adam was a binding precept yet now it is wholly abrogated in the letter of it or else as one sayes we must all tag and rag turn gardeners True there was something moral and of the law of nature in that precept Yates Model of Divin Haec lex naturalis est conjunctam habens designationem diei ceremonialem quia verò partim naturalis partimque ut loquuntur Scholae positiva est Propterea discrimen oportet in eo ordine adhiberi quod enim naturale est puta diem septimum quemque Deo sacrum esse illud permanet quod positivum nempe illum diem qui septimus est creationis esse Diem Sabbathi hoc mutatum est Juni prae'ec in Gen. 2. p. 27. man must alwayes be exercised and imployed the earth his store-house must also be his work-house Idleness and happiness could never consist together But that his imployment must be limited to the culture of a Garden that was meerly positive The like may be said for the Law of the Sabbath supposing not granting it had been given in paradise that man should celebrate a Sabbath was moral and perpetual but that it must be on the seventh day from the Creation was meerly positive temporary and alterable at the law-givers pleasure And this may serve as a proper Engine to undermine that grand argument founded on the institution of marriage P. 155. The Sabbath is a precept saith he as ancient as Vniversal as marriage both were instituted in paradise for Adam and all his posterity Ans We grant that the institution of marriage was made in pure paradise which ever since has made it honorable amongst all men Heb. 13.4 And thus far we also grant the first institution is a perpetual obligation viz. That one man is bound to one woman yet I hope no man is tyed by that first institution to make choice of this or that particular woman but he is at liberty to marry whom he lists provided it be in the Lord so also admitting the Sabbath to be instituted in paradise yet I can see no reason why it should limit us to that particular day but that notwithstanding we may observe any other day that shall appear to be of the Lords appointment as the first day of the week infallibly is and therefore it bears the Lords name being styled the Lords Day by way of eminency Indeed now the day is fixed and we cannot chuse another nor change it to another Psa 118.29 Rev. 1.10 for reasons hereafter to be rendered But enough is said to prove the command whatever it was whereby the old Sabbath was instituted to be but temporary though it had been given in Innocency A positive precept given in innocency might suffer much alteration by mans apostasie Mr. Sheph. Thes 17.19 For to borrow the words of a reverend Author the sin of man made the Lord repent that ever he had made man and consequently that ever he made the world for man which might be a sufficient ground of the Law-givers pleasure to alter and change the day stated upon the worlds Creation to another day stated upon the worlds Redemption of which the Lord will never repent Now if a precept or institution given before the fall might be mutable at the Law givers pleasure how much more this of the seventh day which was rather imposed since the fall as the institution of Sacrifices the prohibition of blood c. Gen. 9.4 3. That the old seventh day was made alterable in the first institution of the Sabbath is most of all evident from the ground or occasion upon which it was instituted and this is hinted unto us in those words Gen. 2.2 See Ainsworth annot in Gen. 2.2 On the seventh day God ended his works which he had made and rested the seventh day wherefore he blessed and sanctified it Now it much concerns us to enquire in what sense the Lord is said to have ended his works on the seventh day since we must not imagine with Hierome and Catharinus that God made any new creatures on the seventh day for doubtless the creation was finished on the sixth day How then it is said on the seventh day God ended his works Why without resting and torturing the words as some do we may understand it in one or both of these two respects either 1. In respect of Providence or 2. In respect of the Promise 1. In respect of Providence So judicious Mr. White in Gen. 2. and why may not this be the meaning of the holy Ghost That on the seventh day God was pleased by a signal hand of Providence to perfect his works of Creations either by establishing them to continue as they do this day or at least by manifesting their accomplishment in his rest and cessation from Creating-work Take the word Ended in this sense and so it informs us that the ground of Gods sanctifying the seventh day was not simply his rest upon that day but also the reason of that rest Heb. 4. v. 3.4 namely the finishing of his works witnessed by his resting as the Author to the Hebrews plainly intimates And not only that but also the result and consequent of both namely the dignifying and honouring of that day above all other dayes for the time being by crowning it with the accomplishment of the greatest work then made or manifested to be made perfect Isa 58.3 Hence the seventh day was styled The Honorable of the Lord not that in it self one day is more honorable and observable then another but that which differences the one from the other and dignifies one above another is Gods casting honour upon it by some memorable work of Providence either begun or finished upon that day Upon which account most of the Jewes Festivals were instituted as their Passeover in the 14th of Abib Lev. 23.5 Esth 9.21 the Feast of Purim on the 14th of Adar like our Gunpowder-treason-day on the 5. of November because the noble acts of God have been done upon these dayes And this was a main ground of their weekly Sabbath upon the seventh day being a day crowned with the greatest work then visible a work manifested to be finished on the seventh day by Gods resting on that day Yet this must be noted that the finishing of Gods work did not make the day more honorable then others by any natural necessity but only by positive right and equity There was no necessary and natural cause why the seventh day on which the work was declaratively ended should be more honorable then the sixth day on which it was really ended and finished only it was Gods will and pleasure to have
it so Having premised this by the way now let us see how the old Sabbath was founded upon the finishing of his works As thus That day which God hath honoured and crowned with the accomplishment of the greatest work must be the day of solemn worship or Sabbath-day But the seventh day from the Creation was thus honoured and crowned in the Cradle or infancy of the world Therefore that day must be the Sabbath day viz. till a greater work take place And then the argument will conclude as strongly for the change of the day as ever it did for the choice of it For we shall argue thus If the ground of stating the Sabbath on the seventh day were applicable to another day then the Sabbath in the first ground-work of it was alterable to another day But the ground of stating it upon that old seventh day was applicable to another day therefore c. The consequence is cleere as the Sun for as it is with duties so with dayes of worship the grounds upon which they are setled being applicable to other times and places the dayes and duties themselves have alwayes been moveable and circumstantially mutable also as that duty of reverencing of Gods Sanctuary which is mated and coupled with keeping his Sabbaths the ground of it being applicable to the Temple as well as the Tabernacle Levit. 19.30 the duty it self was also moveable from the Tabernacle to the Temple although the first were only in being when the precept was given And the like must be said of the Sabbath The consequence hath evidence enough in it self to every vulgar eye If the foundation be moveable so is the building If the Assumption be questioned viz. That the ground of fixing the Sabbath on the seventh day was moveable and applicable to another day we shall thus confirm it The ground of fixing the Sabbath on the old seventh day was Gods honouring and advancing that day above all other dayes for the time being by his most eminent work of Creation manifested to be accomplished on that day therefore when another day shall be crowned with the accomplishment of a more eminent Creation the same ground and reason which cast the Sabbath on the old day will unavoidably carry it to the new Now the work of Redemption is a new Creation 2 Cor. 5.17 and it was long ago prophesied that as the a Hag. 2.9 glory of the second Temple should out shine that of the first so the glory of this new Creation should excell that of the old and comparatively eate out the memory of it b Isai 65.17 Behold I create new heavens and a new earth sayes the Lord and the old shall not be remembered nor come into mind Not that the Lord would simply and absolutely have the memory of the Creation to be lessened but respectively and in comparison of Redemption it must not be obliterated but only subordinated retained and remembred it must be still but as a lesser work then Redemption and as a lesser good to us as the Law is to the Gospel or the Old Testament to the New Redemption must be owned as the greater and better work in as much as Spiritual things are better then Natural and Gods last works are his best the first being only preparative to the last as Dr. Sibbs excellently observes Mat. 16.26 Mark 8.36 And verily he that shall question whether Redemption be a greater and better work then Creation knows little what a Redeemer is or what the ransome of an immortal soul is worth See Mr. Phil. Goodw. Dies Dominic rediv. pa. 11.12 13. I should think as mans gaining the world cannot recompense the loss of his soul so Gods creating of the world doth not equalize Christs redeeming the soul In creating the world indeed the Lord has done much for me but in shedding his precious blood in conquering sin and death he hath done more then if he had created another world for me Let the redeemed of the Lord say so yea the work is not only better to me but greater in it self too In creation there was but a words speaking and the work was presently done 2 Cor. 5.21 Gal. 3.13 See more in Dr. Gouge Heb. 9. S. 63. but in Redemption there was doing and dying God must come down from heaven God must be made man yea God-man must be made sin and a curse for me Here was a work exceeding wonder Besides in the work of Creation there was nothing to with stand But in the work of Redemption here was Justice against Mercy wrath against pity In a word in the Creation God brought something out of nothing but in redemption he hath out of one contrary brought another good out of evil life out of death Is not thy soul ravished Christian at these discoveries of wisdome grace and power shining forth in thy souls Redemption Canst thou see the like in the worlds Creation Is there not more glory in one Christ then in many worlds What a sapless unsavory question therefore to a soul that knows any thing of Christ Pa. 130. is that which T. T. propounds Who told thee the work of Redemption was the greater work A question more beseeming a Jew then a Christian But the answer is ready at hand He that hath told me the heavens are the works of his a Psalm 8.3 fingers and Redemption the work of his b Isal 52.9 10. arm his out-stretched unbared arm hath sufficiently taught me that Redemption is the greater work a work of greater might I am sure of greater mercy And so for his next question If it be the greater work who told thee that it deserves the honour of the day I answer a wiser and better man then you or I that man after Gods own heart who was most likely to know the mind of the Lord he has foretold it in that 118th Psalm when by a prophetick spirit foreseeing the glory of the resurrection day as a day amongst the seven dayes like the Sun amongst the seven planets he accordingly salutes it with a magnificent Title This is the day which the Lord hath made yea magnified for the word signifies not only to make but to magnifie and advance above all others c 1 Sam. 12.6 And such was the power of God in raising Christ hat the Psalmist cryes our it is marvellous in our sight Acts 4.10.11 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 est vel imus vel summus lapis Arretius in 1 Pet. 2.7 Mat. 11.11 As by the same word the Lord is said to advance Moses and Aaron 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to lift them up in dignity and preeminency above the rest of the people Thus he foresaw that the Lord would magnifie and exalt the resurrection day and why Because on this day the most glorious work of redemption was to be accomplished the stone which the builders resused being made the head of the corner i. e. to perfect
to follow our worldly imployments worldly labour and the sweat of the brow has too much of the curse in it to consist with a day of thanksgiving or holy rejoycing in the Lord. The Scripture frequently calls festival dayes Sabbaths and if Sabbath be a sit name for other dayes of the same nature Why not for this And therefore I cannot but wonder that T.T. who grants the Lords day to be a day of rejoycing according to that of the Psalmist Let us rejoyce and be glad therein should deny it to be a Sabbath or a day of holy rest as he wickedly and profanely doth calling a mans Sabbath discovering his enmity against the thing by carping at the name yea condemning of it why has he the face to call the Jewish festivals Sabbaths or dayes of rest as being either fasting dayes or feasting dayes and yet deny the Lords day this titular honour Inenaem Phil. p. 74. Is it a day of less account then the Passeover day Pentecost day Expiation day and other Ceremonial dayes which the Scripture terms Sabbaths How suitable is a name of rest to a day of rest as the Lords day is Nay I have already proved that it is greater then these yea greater then the old Sabbath it self therefore sure its a day of rest as shall be farther proved in the close of this Treatise And if this be a day of holy rest it is as much intended in these words Remember the Sabbath day to sanctifie it as ever the Jewes Sabbath was But the seventh day was Sabbath day when the Law was given Obj. therefore it is to be understood of that day and none but that You may as well say Answ the fifth Commandment Honour thy father and mother is to be understood of such particular parents as were then living and none but them And then the Quakers will have a fine plea for their barbarous rudeness and unmannerly behaviour towards superiours Tell them of honouring their parents that 's a wilderness-duty may they say it intended only the Israelites parents now t is a dead letter and out of date As simple and sottish a plea as this would be yet it is no better to say the fourth Commandment intended only the Jews Sabbath and the old seventh day because that was only in being when the precept was given Alas that was meerly occasional and accidental to the Commmandment not at all of the essence or substance of it True that was the only weekly Sabbath then but it was not alwayes so to be as the event hath proved But the truth is this first clause Remember the Sabath day to keep it holy did directly point at no peculiar day more then another but being the law of nature it only requires a day of rest in general to be sanctified to wit what day soever it fall upon And this is very considerable since in the judgment of all the learned and godly Deut. 5.12 the prime morality and main substance of the Commandment lies in this clause And hence it is observed that Moses in the repetition of the Law inserts this memorable parenthesis when he had said See Mr. Shepheard Thes 122 and Dr. Twiss Sect. 6. Keep the Sabbath day to sanctifie it immediately he addes these words as the Lord thy God hath commanded thee between the preceptive and the following parts intimating that the substance of the command lies mainly though not only here Well a day of rest must be sanctified sometimes * Natura dictat aliquan to vacuam quieti diem Gerson the light of nature teaches it and the law of God requires it But the next question will be in what proportion and number of dayes it must be stated how seldome or how often it must return If this be left to mans determination there will be nothing but confusion superstition or irreligion One man perhaps will contend that one day in a * As the eighth day of every moneth was observed by the Grecians and the ninth day by the Romans Plutarch in vita Thes Macrobius Saturn lib. 1. c. 16. moneth is sufficient another a little more devout will say nay it must be once a fortnight at least a third with T.T. will run into another Ebionitish extreem and exact two dayes in a week though he bear little good will to one of them Well to end the strife we must consult the Divine oracle to the law and to the testimony have recourse to the Commandment in the second part of it 2. The Directive part in these words six dayes shalt thou labour but the seventh day is the Sabbath to the Lord thy God as if the Lord had said Your Sabbath shall be once a week or one day in seven at my appointment this agrees best with the order of the precept The law of nature being setled in the first clause that a day of rest must sometimes be kept and kept holy the very next scruple is about the number how often it must be kept whether once a quarter or once a moneth or once a week The order whether it shall be the first or last day of such a number is not the next inquiry in all reason the number and proportion must first be stated For the order presupposes the number the moneth must be agreed upon before the day of the moneth and the week before such a day of the week And accordingly this positive directory is given us to point out the number principally Six dayes shalt thou labour but a seventh day is the Sabbath that is your Sabbath shall be neither a daily nor a monethly nor a yearly but a weekly Sabbath The Phrase is exclusive as one observes implying thus much thou art not to keep the sixth day or one of six Dies septimus ipse unus est dierum qui omnes septem sunt August de Oen. ad lit l. 4. c. 18. or the tenth day or one of ten but the seventh day that is one of seven or one in a week The terme seventh is opposed to all other numbers either ninth tenth or twentieth as also to the six working-dayes which clearly intend such a number as six in seven and so the seventh day is as much as one in seven Six dayes shalt thou labour but a seventh day is the Sabbath a seventh what seventh pray note it the Lord sayes not the seventh from the Creation he nameth no day if he had the law had been limitted to that day but because the law-giver intended to chuse a new day and not to change his old law you see he has left it in large and general terms neither can it be restrained to one day more then to another To make it plain by a similitude or two Suppose a rich man who has seven Lambs in a way of unusual bounty make such a proposal as this to his poor neighbour I will freely give you six of them upon condition you keep
or perpetual precept unless from the fourth Commandment Gen. 2. is not plain and direct Exod. 16.15 no perpetual precept The Old Testament affords no other but the fourth Commandment for one day in seven as direct Alter Gods proportion which way you will and religion will be substantially damnified by it but no such damage arises from the change of the particular day for another and a better since God and the soul have the same proportion still one day in seven though the old seventh day be displaced Therefore I conclude the proportion and not the particular day is directly determined in this moral and perpetual law for elsewhere it is not As for the particular day whether first or last of seven it falls under the proportion as having a seventh part of time appointed falling upon it and no otherwise But I might have spared this argument for the term seventh day is large enough in it self since it is not said the seventh day from the Creation or any other period or date of time but seventh day in general And what high presumption is it in T.T. to restrain the word seventh where no reason doth constrain What 's this but to limit the holy one of Israel Isalm 119.96 to clip the wings of Gods Commandment and narrow it up to his own notion when the Commandment in it self is exceeding broad but to proceed 3. Let us consult the argumentative part of the precept viz. that which contains the principal argument and reason to inforce the Sabbaths observation and that is Gods example in these words for in six dayes the Lord made heaven and earth and rested the seventh day as if the Lord had said the reason why I would have you observe the forementioned proportion of weekly time six dayes for labour and a seventh for rest is this because I my self kept this proportion in the beginning of time working six dayes and resting but one in seven Note it well Gods example is not propounded as an argument for the seventh day from Creation directly but more generally for a seventh day in proportion For the example can intend no more then the foregoing clause of which it is brought as a reason and that is no more but one day in seven directly not appropriated to any particular day as we proved before But that special seventh day is intimated in Gods exampie Obj. for God not only rested one day in seven but the last of seven and the seventh from Creation What then Answ Does it therefore unavoidably follow that we must observe the same day the same singular seventh day we cannot observe for that is past and gone therefore it must be such a seventh day in likeness and correspondency to that and why not such a seventh in number or one in seven as well as such as seventh for order or the last of seven If you say the last of seven is intended in the argument of Gods example I answer every circumstance in an argument is not argumentative and although that day be intimated in the example yet it is not so much argumentatively as historically propounded An example is not to be necessarily imitated in every circumstance of it I will make it plain by a parallel and pertinent instance I hope you will grant that we are as much bound to imitate the example of Christ in the celebration of the supper as the example of God the Father in the observation of the Sabbath we have a plain command for it Do this in remembrance of me What then does it therefore follow that we are tyed to the same night in which Christ was betrayed For this is mentioned in the words of institution and that expresly 1 Cor. 11.23 I have received of the Lord that which I also delivered unto you that the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed tock bread c. Mark it here is Christs institution and example recommended to us as a rule to guide our practise and in the proposal of his example not only the season in the night but also the punctual circumstance of it the same night in which he was betrayed is set down what followes from hence Is this a good argument for Easter-Communions Haec verba historic am tantummodò relationem nequaquam verò determinatum de tempore mandatum continent Gerar. de S. C Loo Com. p. 536. ot after supper-Sacraments No such matter for these circumstances are but historically in timated not argumentatively propounded yet this I must needs say we may as well argue for sacrament-celebration the same night in which Christ was betrayed and no other as for Sabbath-observation the same day in which God rested and no other However If any one ask why we continue the name of the Lords supper and not the time we answer 1. Because we keep it as the Lords supper not our own supper It retains the name from the first administration 2. Because we celebrate it in the evening though not of the day this is argumentum ad hominem For T.T. is a great stickler for night-celebration of the supper and frequently tells us in his book That Antic hrist changed the Lords supper-time as well as the Lords Sabbath-time And I think as much the one as the other But by the way let me tell him that in arguing for the night from Christs example See Mr. Phil Goodwin Evening Communicant ad finem he runs himself upon an inevitable necessity of concluding for the same night in which Christ was betrayed or else his argument runs a ground and concludes just nothing for the same night as well as the night is put into the words of institution Although I judg that neither the one nor the other is obligatory because both were occasional Christ instituted the supper in the evening indeed because it was immediately to succeed the Passeover which was an evening ordinance and the same evening or night in which he was betrayed because the next day he was to suffer Both these were occasional and therefore neither of them perpetual and besides we may well conceive that our Lord did this in the evening and after the Passeover to signifie the abolishing both of the passeover and the evening and to leave the time free to his Church ever after as a late Writer has judiciously observed Let not the Reader call this a digression Non est ociosum quia non infructuosum loqua citas nulla in aedificatione turpis Tertull. de patientia for there is properly no digression in that which may conduce to edification neither is it impertinent as long as it is not unprofitable But to return to our argument suppose the old seventh day were indirectly and circumstantially commended to the Jews by Gods example yet it followes not that the same day is still in force to us because circumstantials in a moral law as we said before are changeable without any change in the
substance of the law I do not say they are abrogable as ceremonies but alterable as circumstances they may be changed for better things and not a tittle of the law annulled but rather fulfilled by it according to that of our Saviour till heaven and earth pass one jot Mat. 5.18 or one tittle shall not pass from the law till all be fulfilled I say the law is not destroyed but rather fulfilled by the varying of some circumstances as by changing their typical deliverance from Egypt into our spiritual deliverance from sin and the land of Canaan meant in the fifth Commandment into England where we dwell And because the fourth Commandment and the fifth are neer neighbours methinks the one may fairly expound the other It cannot be denyed Ephes 6.3 The Apostle in repeating that promise leaves out the words which the Lord thy God giveth thee because they were more appropriate to the Jews and to us the argument is entire without them See Weems Chris Syn. that the promised land intended occasionally in the fifth Commandment was the land of Canaan neither do I deny that the day on which God is said to rest in the fourth Commandment was the seventh day from Creation yet all will grant that the argument or inducement of the fifth Commandment is not to be restrained to that land only for then it were no argument at all to us Now I would ask any rational man why the argument of this fourth Commandment should be limited to that particular day from Creation more then the argument of the fifth Commandment to that particular land of Canaan since both the one and the other are but occasionally insinuated And to limit the inducement of a moral law to an occasional circumstance is the ready way to evacuate and make void the whole law But we shall put it out of all doubt that Gods example here propounded is only for one day in seven directly substantially and properly for the old seventh only consequentially indirectly or occasionally and that by a double consideration 1. Because it is here urged as a reason of what went before 2. Because the reason of this reason is chiefly for one day in seven 1. This example of God in six dayes the Lord made heaven and earth and rested the seventh day is alleged as a reason of the forementioned clause six dayss shalt thou labour but the seventh is the Sabbath so much is clearly implyed in the connexive or causal particle For six dayes shalt thou labour and rest a seventh For so did Jehovah thy God Now the reason annexed to any rule must if there be any amiguity in it be expounded by the rule the rule must not be interpreted by the reason for the rule is not brought for the reason but that for the rule Therefore as the former receives strength by the latter so the latter must receive light from the fotmer Now the standing rule for the weekly Sabbath is this Six dayes shalt thou labour but a seventh is the Sabbath Here the term seventh is general 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Indifferently signifies a seventh or the seventh a and the being particles proper to the English tongue are defective in the Hebrew and Latine To supply which defect the schooles distinguish of Diet septimus formaliter and Dies septimus materialiter as was noted before 'T is not said this or that seventh but leftat large And where God has left a latitude we may not dare to put a limitation that were to enclose Gods Common and intrench upon his Royalty Well then the Rule being only express for a seventh day in general the reason or argument here brought to perswade to the observation of such a general seventh is taken from Gods example who also rested a seventh day which although it were the last of seven yet being only alledged as a reason of the forementioned rule it can signifie no more then the rule it self of which it is a reason And so it is clear that the sense of this latter clause in six dayes the Lord made heaven and earth and rested the seventh must be only according to the sense of the former clause six dayes shalt thou labour but a seventh is the Sabbath that is a seventh in proportion directly And thus the first day of the week is as much the Sabbath of the fourth Commandment to Christians as ever the last of the week was to the Jewes being one day in seven as well as that To dispute for the same day on which God rested and infer a necessity of observing that day because we must observe that proportion is to argue à dicto secundum quid ad dictum simpliciter a well known fallacy For the argument is only direct for such a proportion six for labour and a seventh every week for rest not this or that seventh from any prefixed period 2. Let us look into the reason of this reason and then the case will be yet more clear the reason or equity of any law is the life and strength of the law And it is the design of Gods wisdome in imposing laws upon his creatures to propose such reasons in those lawes as shall make them appear congruous and suitable to those common principles of right and equity Psalm 119.18 Rom. 7.12 Deus ideò leges suas judicia vocat quod aequiffima sunt quae praescribit impressed upon the creature And hence Gods lawes are so often styled Judgments because in all things they are just and equal and certainly that sense of the argument which doth most shew the equity of the Commandment is the best and truest sense Now let us consider the equity that Gods example carryes with it in reference to the aforesaid proportion of six dayes for labour and one in seven for rest As thus if the great God who needs not a moment of time either for work or rest as being neither subject to weakness nor weariness if he I say were pleased when he had work to do even a world to make to take six dayes for his work and one in seven for rest how much more should we men still hold to this proportion who by reason of corporal weakness and spiritual wants need such a competency of time both for secular imployments and soul refreshments Thus there is convincing strength of reason and equity in it But now to argue for the particular day God wrought first six dayes and then rested the last of seven therefore we must first work and then rest has no such argumentative force in it especially to us Christians who living under a Covenant of pure grace do rather work by rest then rest by works and therefoe the Sabbath being suitable to the Covenant we may rather judg it equitable to begin the week with a day of rest and work the six dayes after then to work the six first dayes and then rest the last seventh Even dim-eyed nature judges it most
equal to a A Jove principium begin with God b Supervacua necessariis post-ponenda sunt Senec. ep 49. and give the precedency to things most necessary and grace both not gain-say it but rather approve it for is it not most reasonable that I should serve my gracious Lord in the duties of his worship because I serve my self in the works of my calling But the truth is Gods example is neither directly for first or last of seven but for one in seven perpetually The force of Gods argument lies in this that we should dedicate one day in seven to rest for six working dayes indulged to our selves And herein we imitate Gods example in labouring six dayes and resting one in seven weekly For farther satisfaction in this argument let the ingenuous Reader consult Mr. Cawdrey and Mr. White of Dorch two burning and shining Lights who have gone before me if any little spark be here added let the Father of lights have all the glory 4. And lastly let us come to that which for memories-sake I call the benedictive part of the Commandment wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day c. observe the phrase not seventh day but Sabbath day or day of rest is blessed The Commandment both opens and shuts begins and ends with the term Sabbath day not seventh day Certainly if the foregoing argument drawn from Gods example had intended only the seventh day from Creation this conclusion flowing from that argument had fallen upon that day also but we see the term is evidently changed that we may not mistake Gods meaning by a supposed strictness in the term seventh day see how the Lord condescends to our weakness writing Sabbath day or day of rest instead of seventh day The Word Abbath like a finger points both forward and backward directiug us how to expound the whole precept in a large and not in a limited sense Doubtless if the Lord God had intended to tye up his Church in all ages to the seventh day from the Creation he would have fixed the command upon that day only especially in the conclusion of it why should not that precise day be mentioned here as well as in the Institution Gen. 2. There he is said to bless and sanctifie the seventh day here only the Sabbath day a more probable reason to me is not imaginable then this the Commandment is of a larger extent then the Institution And besides the Institution of the old day Gen. 2. was but temporary and mutable whereas the precept it self is more and perpetual see then how wisely the Lord our Law-giver has contrived it that it should not be restrained to that particular seventh day To conclude with this conclusion the whole weight and stress of the Commandment you see leans upon large and general terms the Preceptive part is for a day of rest in general the Benedictive part is of the same latitude and although the seventh day be placed in the middle betwixt both yet it is not fixed upon one day more then another unless it be occasionally which indeed is no fixure at all what hinders therefore but the whole substance of the precept may stand in the fall of the day since it was never incorporated into the moral substance of this or any other command It is I must needs say a truth to me as evident as the light it self that the fourth Commandment in all the substantials of it makes as much for the Lords day being one in seven of Gods appointment as ever it did for the old Sabbath And here I cannot sufficiently admire and adore the depth of Divine wisdome that the ever glorious God foreseeing and foreappointing the change of the day took care to contrive and pen the commandment in such expressions as might aptly suite the old day while it lasted and as equally sort with the new now it is substituted in the roome of the old That the Jewes upon the discovery of so happy a change might not loath their old Sabbath the precept was occasionally and circumstantially fitted to that and that we Christians having a new might not be limited to the old it is substantially adapted to this I shall need add no more if men did not wilfully wink I should thinke here were light enough in this Lamp of the Law to convince them As for the adversaries objections scattered here and there in his book they vanish like so many vapours before the Sun being brought forth and tryed by the evidence of this truth To assert the whole Lawes morality T.T. Obj. 1. p. 14. Answ and yet plead the Sabbaths mutability scarce savours of rationality These are fine words but feeble arguments and indeed his book is full of them But to answer his Jingle if by Sabbath he mean the seventh day from Creation what irrationality is it to plead the mutability of that day and yet hold the morality of the Law Since that day was never a tittle of the Lawes morality Neither can he affirm it without gross absurdity prove it I am sure he cannot by all his sophistry If God by a positive moral law bind all men in all ages to such a particular day as himself appointed Obj. 2 p. 119. then either they must prove that God hath made his moral law mutable by appointing some other day or else restore the seventh day-Sabbath What pitiful chopt Logick is this Ans Why can the particular day be no where appointed but in the moral law his not he himself often affirmed that it was instituted elsewhere And must the moral law needs go to wrack when a new day is appointed Let him first prove that the old day was any essential part of the moral law till I see that I may safely affirm that in the change of the day as an occasional circumstance the substance of the law remains unchangeable as a man may change his old clothes for new yea and alter his temperament too and yet be still the same man as long as for substance he has the same soul and body Some do assert but not for want of ignorance that t is not that special seventh day Obj. 3 pa. 47. but a seventh day that is injoyned whereas we have not only the pattern in the mount namely the precise time of Gods rest to point out the day but to end all cavil he points twice in the Commandment to that very day on which he rested by the Emphatical demonstrative particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so that 't is not a seventh but Hashebigni the seventh day therefore they had need make sure of a very clear word for the change of the day for fear of being left speechless at the day of Judgment And so he runs on to th end of the page spinning a large web but when all comes to all it is but a cobweb we shall sweep it down by degrees And If by the assertours of the forementioned truth Answ 1 he mean
is not said it shall be a sign that in six dayes the Lord made heaven and earth For there is a notable pause in the middle which divides the sentence and the sense also The seventeenth verse containes two distinct arguments or reasons why they should keep the Sabbath 1. Because it was a sign 2. Because it was set apart upon the occasion of Gods work and rest in the beginning 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Joh. 2.3 1 Joh. 3.18 There are indicating or evidencing signes such are the Characters of saving grace But neither can this be the sense of the word sign in this place It is a sign that I the Lord do sanctifie you What savingly why then all were Israel that were of Israel for the Sabbath was given to all neither was it so much their keeping the Sabbath as Gods giving them a Sabbath to keep which is here made a sign Witness Ezekiel Moses his interpretor I have given them my Sabbath for a sign Ezek. 20.13 to know that I the Lord do sanctifie them Therefore 3. There are distinguishing or differencing signs 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such as do visibly mark out a people for Gods peculiar select and sanctified ones above all other people of the earth And in this sense the Sabbath is here given the Jews as a sign a sign of his sanctifying them that is in one word as Calvin speaks a sign of his segregating and singling them out from the rest of the nations as his peculiar people Siquis un◠verbo reddere vellet sanctificare est segregare Cal. Praelec in Ezek. 20. Ita Simler in Exo Levit. 21.8 ch 2.32 So also Simlerus and to the same effect is that of Lavater aforementioned The Sabbath was a sign of Gods sanctifying them as the Sabbath it self was sanctified that is separated from other common dayes and set a part for holy ends and uses And so the Word sanctifie is usually if not only taken in Scripture when it is applyed to the whole bulk or body of a people as here it is Well the Sabbath was given to the people of Israel as a sign of Gods sanctifying them but how long throughout their generations That is during the Oeconomy of the Law as long as the people of Israel should be the only peculiar people of God Exod. 12.14 The very same Phrase is used concerning the Passeover ye shall keep it a feast to the Lord throughout your generations by an ordinance or ever which clearly speaks it a temporary ordinance But Secondly We must distinguish of Sabbaths as well as of signes very briefly the Word Sabbath signifies one of these three things either 1. The moral duty holy rest or 2. The penal rigour of that rest or 3. The precise day of rest Now 1. It cannot be meant of the moral duty simply considered since that extends beyond their generations for there remaineth a rest Heb. 4.9 10. or keeping of a Sabbath to the people of God still neither 2. Can itwell be understood of that penal rigour resting from all work upon pain of corporal death for this in all likelihood lasted not out half their generations being calculated chiefly for their wilderness estate as was saidbefore Therefore 3. It must be the precise day of rest the old seventh-day-Sabbath or nothing which is here set as a sign throughout their generations and this I take to be the true intent of the Holy-Ghost both here and Ezek. 20. The case seems clearly to me to be stated in this wise The old seventh day was at first given to Adam and his posterity as the only true Sabbath during the pre-eminency of the Creation and Christ in the promise and that it was conscientiously kept by the holy Patriarchs for some ages after I doubt not though some of the Ancients seem to deny it but to be sure in tract of time the sinful race of Adam forsaking the true God did also forget the true Sabbath Now when it pleased God out of that degenerate lump of mankind to form Israel or the seed of Abraham a peculiar people to himself he gave them his old Sabbath again in a new Edition That among other ends it might be a visible sign to distinguish them from the rest of the world Other nations no doubt had their Sabbaths as well as their gods but as Israel must serve the only true God so they must also observe the then only true Sabbath Ezod 31.13 So much is implyed in the text Verily my Sabbath ye shall keep saith the Lord. The Word my is Emphatical 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it points at the precise day of Gods appointment the seventh and last day of the week therefore this and mainly this was made a sign of Gods sanctifying the Jews throughout their generations which being so how evidently doth it follow that the day was design'd for change and that now it is certainly changed by the will and appointment of God For if the Jews generation be extinct and they that were once the people of God have now a Lo-ammi written upon them Ho. 11.20 1 Thes 2.15 16. Ye are none of my people how shall that day any longer stand as a Sabbath wich was given them as a sign of their being the peculiar people of God and that for a season only till their generations were expired Maledic domine Nazarais Lord curse the Christians is one of their daily imprecations vid Trapp in Hosea Either let the adversay say the blaspheming Jews who powre out daily curses instead of prayers are still the Covenant-people of God in so much as still they retain that Saturday-Sabbath And then he shall speak like a true Jew indeed or let him confess their saturday-Sabbath which was once the crown of their glory is now no better then the badge of their blasphemy whereby they would make the world believe that they are still the sanctified people of God though they trample underfoot the blood of his Son whereby they should be sanctified I speak not this as insulting over the misery of the Jews but as lamenting the sin of apostate Christians who take up that day as a badge of their Saintship which the infidel Jews wear as a badge of their blasphemy and enmity against Christ and Christians Indeed it was once an illustrious sign of their sanctification but it was limited to their generations as the Passeover was and therefore if the one be expired so is the other upon the same account And in this respect I dare boldly affirm and I doubt not to maintain it that it is every whit as lawful for a Christian to celebrate that old Sacrament the Passeover as to observe the old Sabbath For the one was as well a sign as the other and the one was ordained for a season as well as the other There are a few feeble objections to face this argument but the bare repetion with the premises will be
sufficient refutation of them 1. The seventh day being a sign makes it not a ceremony T.T. Obj. 1. p. 18. for Christ was a sign Isai 7.14 Luk. 2.34 the Saints are set for signs Isai 8.18 So is the holy Spirit 1 Joh. 4.13 yea for the same sign as the Sabbath is c. He might have added that circumcision Answ Exod. 13.9 Rom. 4.11 and the Passe over also were signs but then he had spoiled his argument for it is certain that both these were ceremonial yet doubtlesss it had been more proper and pertinent to have compared the old Sabbath with other old Ordinances then to have thus equalized it with Christ and his blessed spirit But to answer his instances Christ was propounded as a sign of Confirmation Isai 7. as a sign of Contradiction or a sign to be spoken against Luke 2. The Saints were set for signs of Wonder Isai 8. The holy spirit for a Witness and not properly a sign now what cognation and alliance is there betwixt these and the old Sabbath which as to the day was a distinguishing sign and that for a season only therefore temporary I will not say ceremonial The Sabbath is set for a sign of things past as the worlds Creation not of good things to come Obj. 2 as the ceremonial Sabbaths So also are the annual Sabbaths Answ Deut. 16.1 c. Passeover and Pentecost ordained in memorial of things past as their deliverance from Egypt and the giving of the Law on Mount Sinai yet both are abolished although I grant the Sabbath was never abolished or abrogated as to the substance of it only altered in respect of the circumstance If the morality of the Sabbath cease by being a sign Obj. 3 upon the same account must the whole law cease to be moral since Gods spirit hath set it also for such a sign Deut. 8.6 Thou shalt bind it as a sign upon thine hand But This is frivolous for every child can distinguish between the book and the binding of it Answ Numb 15.38 39 40. The law it self was not a sign but the binding it on their hands and that for a remembrancing sign only the proper use of their fringes and Phylacteries By the way if I mistake not here is a plain contradiction for a little before he had argued that the Sabbath was such a sign as the holy spirit is and now he makes it such a sign as the wearing of the law upon their hands was If one of these be true the other must needs be false for the one is internal the other was external and visible only And this is the Goliahs sward he talks of wherewith He fights with his own fancy Answ 2 for who of sound judgment ever affirmed that the morality of the Sabbath must cease as a sign still he runs upon his ol mistake that the old seventh day was the morality of the Sabbath which we have constantly denyed and disproved The term seventh day is not set for a sign but the term Obj. 4 p. 19. Sabbath The Word Sabbath is very often Answ Levit. 19.3 Isai 1.13 Lam. 1.7 Mat. 12.5.11 Mark 1.21 Luk. 4.31 Acts 13.14 Chap. 17.2 though not alwayes put for the old seventh day especially when it is used in the plural number as here it is Therefore I conclude as before that the day and not the duty is hee set for a temporary sign the duty no otherwise then as it is peculiarly related to the day T is not a Sabbath in general much less the Commandment concerning a weekly Sabbath but the old Sabbath then in use which was given the Jews as a sign and so designed for change for change I mean in respect of the time not of the thing according to that of Augustine who writing against Faustus the Manichee who sought to overthrow the faith of Christians by maintaining that Moses and Christ were opposite in their Doctrines alledging among other things that there was one tradition of Moses another of Christ concerning the Sabbath answers him thus Their doctrine was not divers Non diversa doctrina sed diversum tempus August contra Faust Man lib. 16. cap. 28. only the time or day was different intimating that Moses and Christ were both for a weekly Sabbath but Moses for the last Christ for the first day of the week And thus we have made good the second Position That the old Sabbath being made alterable in the first Institution was further manifested to be alterable in the second Edition of the Sabbath A few words shall suffice for the third POSITION III. That the Old Sabbath was yet further evidenced to be alterable and changeable in the after Observation of it FOr proof whereof I shall only cite the practise of our blessed Saviour in which the Adversary glories most as if it made only for him T is his ground argument for the perpetuity of the old seventh day that Christ did most of his cures and famous miracles on that day Now learned Chemnitius takes the same argument and turns the edge of it against him thus De abrogatione Sabbathi Mosaici dictis docuit Christus libertatem factis sapiuo testatam fecit cum Sabbathis sanaret c. Chemn Examen Concil Trident. cap. de Festis ubiplura The Lord Jesus both by word and deed hath taught us that the Mosaical Sabbath was to be abrogated not only in that he proclaimed himself Lord of the Sabbath but in that he often witnessed his liberty and power over it by sundry of his cures performed on that day Some instance in the cure of the man born blind John 9.6 7 14. Others in the miraculous cure of that cripple or impotent man John 5 whereas Dr. Lightfoot learnedly observes there was the most apparent sign towards the shaking and alteration of the Sabbath as to the day that we meet withall in the New Testament till the alteration it self came To this purpose let the context be duly considered and we shall find two things observable in it 1. What our Saviour did on the Sabbath day he healed a long languishing malady a disease of 38. years standing 2 What he sayed upon this occasion and that 1. To the man his patient 2. To the Jewes his persecutors who call him in question about it To the man he said Take up thy bed and walk Now the question is why our Lord should enjoyn this man to carry his bed on the Sabbath day the expresse letter of the law prohibiting the bearing of any burthens on that day T. T. Supposes that it was either for the confirmation of the miracle to shew the perfectness of the cure Jerem. 17.21 p. 21. or for the publication of Gods glory but it is answerd that both these might have been done as well by his walking upon his feet and leaping as in the like case wee read elsewhere or at least by bearing his bed the next day
the mighty God King of Saints and King of Nations having all power in heaven and earth put into his hands alter a circumstance concerning the Sabbath by translating it from the last to the first day of the week Well if he had power to alter it then it was alterable which was the thing to be proved If it be said the question is not what the Lord could do but what he did whether he did indeed alter the Sabbath as to the day I answer we shall put this question out of question in the next Position POSITION IV. That the Old Sabbath was actually altered and changed from the last to the first day of the week by the authority of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and that upon the noble account of our Redemption manifestly accomplished by his most glorious resurrection from the dead on that day FOR the Confirmation whereof I shall First propound some Scripture-Arguments Secondly Produce some Authentick Records of antiquity both which we shall find harmoniously concurring in all the three branches of this Position First That the day is certainly changed Secondly That this change was occasioned by our Saviours most glorious Resurrection Thirdly That this was done by the Soveraign authority of Christ himself either immediately in his own person or mediately by the prescript and practise of his inspired Apostles either or which will be sufficient We shall begin with Scripture-proof and argument in way of Preface whereunto let it be premised that this truth is not Syllabically and totidem verbis in so many words at length set down in Scripture neither needs it considering the question in not about the change of the septenary number one day in seven but the order only the last for the first of seven and besides it is not the Lords method and manner of speaking in many other New Testament-cases as Church-Government Family-worship and sundry others which were plain enough in the Old Testament to express himself in full sentences but very briefly in short hints and touches here a little and there a little to exercise the ingenuity of believers not to fatisfie the curiosity of Cavillers The Scriptures were no more designed to answer all the cavilling questions of wanton wits then the Sun was made for them to see that shut their eyes yet I deny not the sufficiency of Scripture-light to make us wise unto salvation only we must not presume to give laws to Heaven and teach the Lord how to speak But a Hebr. 12.25 see that ye refuse not him that speaketh from heaven that speaketh I say not only by express word but by his b V. 24. blood or death and so also by his c Joh. 2.19 21. Rom. 1.3 4. resurrection from the dead by the d John 15.26 mission of his Spirit by the unction and inspiration of his Apostles whose writings are his words their counsels his commands their pattern and practise his e 1 Cor. 14.37 precept f Luke 10.16 for he that heareth them heareth him therefore let him that hath an ear hear the voice of Christ yea though he open his mouth in a parable to carnal reason g Psalm 78.1 Mat. 13.9 35. as it seems he does even in some of his Gospel-law yea let us hear Christ speaking by his Spirit I mean the spirit of Prophecy breathing in the Old Testament for h Rev. 19.10 the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of Prophecy nay let us learn to spell his word out of his works for his i John 5 36. ch 10. 25. works do testifie of him In a word consider it is k Luke 11.49 Wisdome it self that uttereth her voice in the written word and she useth to speak 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 much in a little yea to speak by l Mat. 22.32 Acts 14.47 arguments couched in Scripture as well as express affirmations and what those Scripture-arguments are which speak the change of the Sabbath as here stated we come now to shew The first may be taken from the new Creation Arg. 1 or reparation of the world by Christ as thus Incongruum erat veteris Creationis Sabbathum novae Creatimi Lighâ—f Horae Hebr. p. 321. ubi plura The new Creation must have a new Sabbath or set-day of Commemoration now this new Creation came in by Christs resurrection Therefore a new Sabbath The form of this argument I grant is not found in Scripture but the force of it is as shall be seen in the proof of each proposition 1. That the new Creation must have a Sabbath of Commemoration This may not only be gathered from parity of reason but plain Scripture prophecy I might recite that forementioned famous Text in Isai ch 65. 17. Behold I create new heavens and a new earth and the former shall no more be remembred i. e. in respect of solemnity for otherwise remember the work of Creation we do and must but not as the greater work for look as the Jews m Isai 43.18 19. Jer. 16.15 16. ch 23. 7 8. deliverance out of Egypt was subordinated by their after-deliverance out of Babylon so is the work of Creation by that of Redemption whereby the world at least the Church was put into a new frame and form Anno Mundi changed for Anno Domini upon the account whereof as the year of the world was worthily changed for the year of our Lord so was the old Sabbath for the Lords day But that which I would further argue from Isai 65. is this The old Sabbath cannot stand with the new Creation therefore it must have a new or none This was touched before Posit 1. that there should be none at all none but old Anabaptists Familists and Atheists will affirm And that the old cannot stand is evident because the foundation on which it stood the memory and celebrity of the worlds Creation is swallowed up by the glory of a greater work Sicuti Sol exoriens stellis eripit suum fulgorem Calv. in Loc. and we cannot possibly retain that old seventh day but we must memorize our Creation above our Redemption our being above our well-being which were expresly to contradict this ancient promise and Prophecy If it be objected that this Scripture is not yet fulfilled because the Apostle sayes 2 Pet. 3.12 we look for new heavens and a new earth viz. at the end of the world I answer Although it shall then receive a further accomplishment in the latter yet inchoatively and sufficiently as to the thing in question it was fulfilled long ago even before the name Jew was laid aside and the name Christian take up Isai 65.15 So ch 62. 2. for let the context be minded vers 15. the Prophet foretels the rejection of the Jews and the change of their name for the Christian name Ye shall leave your name for a curse to my people Ac si Dominus diceret non amplius nomen
ch 37.25 David who dyed many hundred years before Christ cannot be the same David who is promised to be a Prince amongst Christians So here the day or rest of which David speaks being to come and not then entred into could not be the rest of the old seventh day since that was entred into long before even from the foundation of the world This is the true and genuine sense of those words although and again Although is a discretive term * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or a note of distinction importing thus much that albeit there is mention made of a day of rest in the beginning of the world yet it is as another distinct day and rest that is here intended So also this Adverb again is to be taken of another rest-day then that which is mentioned in the former verse for although the old seveuth day were spoken of by Moses as the first and most famons rest in the beginning yet now again so many thousand years after that David speaks of another rest if not another rest-day and if any Sabbath or day of rest be here intended either by David or Paul it will certainly prove fatal to the old Sabbath for I would humbly propose this quere to the consideration of the learned Whether the Psalmists intimation that there should be a day of solemn worship under the Gospel and the Apostles assumption that it could not be meant of the old seventh day will not amount to this conclusion that the old seventh-day-Sabbath is to be no day of rest or solemn worship under the Gospel If T.T. quarrel at this conclusion let him thank himself for the premises one of them at least for he grants a moral rest or Sabbath to be here meant and I will thank the Holy-Ghost and S. Paul for the other for they have assured me that the seventh day from the Creation could not be meant by David no nor Secondly The rest of Canaan neither in the sense above mentioned for although that be sometimes termed the * Deut. 12.9 Josh 1.15 rest which God gave Israel under the conduct of Jesus or Joshua yet sayes the Apostle v. 8. If Jesus had given them rest that is if he had given them the rest of which David here speaks then would he not afterward have spoken of another day where note by the way t is a day of rest which the Psalmist seems to scope at else why should the Apostle thus interweave the one with the other If Joshuah or Jesus had given them rest then would he not afterwards have spoken of another day Note again the same Argument is here used against the supposed place of rest that was urged before against their conceived time of rest the old seventh day both these were entred into long before Davids time whereas he spake by the spirit of prophecy concerning things to come a long time after and hereupon the Apostle concludes There remaineth therefore a rest or the keeping of a Sabbath to the people of God distinct and different from the old Sabbath yet not much unlike it in respect of the ground of it for he that hath entred into his rest hath ceased from his works as God did from his own works And this is spoken only of Christ sayes T.T. Be it so then I hope our proposition will not offend him that when our blessed Lord Jesus ended his work and entred into his rest he laid the foundation of a new Sabbath on that day of his rest only t is like this word new Sabbath will stick in his stomach yet it needs not for we cannot put the old Sabbath into the Apostles conclusion because he himself puts it out of the premises But we shall not wrangle about words by new Sabbath I mean only a new Sabbath-day and for peace-sake I am content the proposition should pass in these terms The day on which Christ ended his works and entred into his rest must be our Christian Sabbath day The assumption followes Secondly That Christ ended his work and entred into his rest by his resurrection from the dead on the first day of the week for proof whereof we may proceed upon another of the Adversaries Principles for thus he argue Christs entring into his rest on the seventh day T.T. p. 144 145. Our dear Redeemers soul was no sooner separated from his body but his better part immediately entred into glory and soon after his blessed body was laid to rest in the grave Where although I cannot but mind him of his gross mistake about the cricumstance of time for t is evident that as our blessed Redeemers soul entred into Paradise on the sixth day the same day that he dyed witness his words to the dying theef this day thou shalt be with me in Paradise so also his sacred body was interr'd the same day even a Mark 16.42 Luke 23.53 54. the day before the Sabbath not on the seventh day as this sophister would make silly people believ e yet I shall take him at his word in the main of his argument namely that when our Saviour entred into his glory he entred into his rest But I assume By his resurrection from the dead on the first day of the week our Lord entred into his glory and for this I have his own word more then once or twice in the 24 of Luke he overtakes the two Disciples going to Emmaus and as they were talking together with sad hearts about the sufferings and the death of Christ and also relating what they had heard but could hardly believe concerning his resurrection he takes them up with a sharp rebuke b Luke 24.25 26. O fools and slow of heart to believe all that the Prophets have spoken Ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into his glory to enter into his glory you will say that is to be understood of his ascention into Heaven nay verily he spake it of his resurrection from the dead where their chief doubt lay and so himself expounds it for the same day at night he appears to the rest of his Disciples and these among them preaching the same Doctrine and saying c V. 46. Thus it is written and thus it behoved Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day this was that he had so often inculcated before his death d Math. 16.21 ch 17. 23. Mark 9.31 ch 10. 34. Luke 9.22 ch 18. 31 32 33. That he must go up to Jerusalem and suffer and die that all things which were written in the prophets concerning him should be accomplished that he should be delivered up to the gentiles that they should crucifie and kill him and that the third day he should rise again according to the Scriptures so that what one Text speaks of his suffering and entring into glory others interpret of his dying and rising again the third day and that Christ by his resurrection entred into his glory
grave But a word with you Sir did the Lord Jesus indeed enter into that rest of the grave the seventh day of the week why then it seems he rose again from the dead the second day and rested but two dayes and two nights in the grave and had he not need be greater then an Angel that shall take upon him to coine such new Creeds and preach such new Gospels for sear of the Apostles d Gal. 1.7 8. Anathema To salve this he tells us p. 145. that our Saviours body was laid to rest in the Sepulchre in the close of the sixth day Very good Why then does he say in the next page that he entred into this rest on the seventh day Thus at once he contradicts both himself and the Scriptures But to conclude this author has little reason to vaunt and glory as he does in this new invention For to make Christs rest in the grave a ground of the weekly Sabbath is neither proper in respect of the thing nor proportionable in respect of the time For the thing it self how altogether improper and incongruous is it to keep a weekly festival in memory of our Saviours Funeral to make that day a day of rejoycing which was rather a day of mourning For so the Ancients held it and therefore kept it as a Fast ergo not as a Sabbath for the Sabbath was ever reckoned among the solemn c Ier. 23.2 3. Feasts of the Lord which one consideration is sufficient to shew the judgment of antiquity in this controversie For they kept the * Diem Solis laetitiae indulgemus Tertul. Apol. c. 36. Sabbato usque ad galli cantum jejunium producite et illucescente uno Sabbatorum qui est dominicus desinite Constit lib. 5. c. 16. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epiphan lib. â—3 Tom. 3. Haeres 75. Lords day as a day of spiritual joy and gladness and spent the whole Saturday the time of Christs lying in the grave in Fasting and mourning alledging for their practise that speech of our Saviour When the Bride-groom is taken from them then shall they fast Luke 5.35 Again it holds no proportion in respect of the time for our Saviour lay three dayes and three nights in the grave therefore this can be no pattern for a weekly Sabbath I doubt the best of our new Sabbath-keepers would be weary of resting so long at a time But the stress of T. T s Argument is laid upon Christs entring into rest therefore there remaineth the keeping of a Sabbath to the people of God and here I shall lay the stress of my answer having manifestly proved that Christs entrance into rest was not on the seventh day no not in this authors own new notion of rest And whereas he addes that the taking down of our Saviours body from the Cross and laying it in the sepulchre in the close of the sixth day was providentially ordered I answer true providentially indeed for hereby the Holy Ghost has admirably provided against this future error of raising the old seventh-day-Sabbath from the dead and building it up anew upon the grave of Christ where it rather lies buried never to rise again For if the blessed body of Christ were laid in the grave on the sixth day then he entred not into that rest nor indeed any rest at all on the seventh day But on the first day of the week he entred into his true rest and ceased from his work of Redemption as God the Father did the seventh day from his work of Creation therefore there remaineth the keeping of a Sabbath to the people of God upon the day of Christs resting from his work the day of his rising from the dead And we have grand reason to think that Christ had a significant meaning in prolonging his Resurrection to the third day which was the first of the week as the Father had in lengthening out the Creation to the seventh day which was the last of the week For as the Father could have created the world in a moment so could the Son have quickned and raised himself from the grave assoon as he was in it either the same day or the seventh if he had pleased But he purposely and providentially passed over that day and crowned the first of the week with the glory of his resurrection which plainly speakes it his will and pleasure to make that day the day of our weekly rest in which our Lord himself rested from his greatest work Oh! But Christ rested not on the day of his Resurrection Obj. 4 T. T. p. 120. for he journeyed fifteen miles that very day which was no fair president for celebrating a Sabbath And again he travelled fifteen miles upon this supposed new Sabbath and this not to any Church-meeting but from Jerusalem where most of his disciples were purposely joyning with the two disciples that were journeying on foot seven miles and a half into the Countrey He means the disciples going to Emmaus Luke 24.13 14. This is his last refuge and 't is a very sorry one For First This travel was without labour and if he had journeyed that day from earth to Heaven and back again from Heaven to earth it had been no impeachment to his holy rest any more then the motion of an Angel sent upon Gods errand would be a profanation of his Sabbath certainly the body of Christ at his resurrection was a glorious body and able to move from earth to Heaven as some think in a moment And whether he did not locally though not so solemnly as afterwards ascend into Heaven and descend again the very day of his resurrection is disputed by some I shall not positively assert it but modestly propound it to further inquiry whether those words a John 20.17 Touch me not for I am not yet ascended to my Father but go and tell my brethren I ascend do not seem to imply that even now in the morning of the resurrection-day he was about to ascend and whether the same day at night returning again and bidding them touch or b Luke 24.39 handle him do not argue that now he had ascended Again whether those words c Eph. 4.8 11. When he ascended up on high he gave gifts unto men some Apostles some Prophets c. must be necessarily limited to his last ascention or whether they may not be construed of some former ascention Since it seems those gifts were given upon the very day of his resurrection for then d John 20. towards the evening or end of that day the Gospel-Ministry was constituted then the Apostles received their mission and commission e v. 19. As my Father hath sent me even so send I you f v. 21. whose soever sins ye remit they are remitted and whose soever sins ye retain they are retained Yea then they received the g v. 22. Holy Ghost For he breathed on them and saith unto them receive ye the
enough is said to shew the discharge of the old seventh day from obligation under the new Testament We shall only remove some of the Adversaries chief objections and then lay down our grounds for the Christian Sabbath He objects Obj. 1 The Fathers institution of the seventh day which makes it as perpetual as the Ordinance of marriage But This is fully answered in the first Position Answ where we have proved that the Fathers institution of the old seventh day was upon such grounds as exposed it to alteration Thither I referr the Reader and shall follow the objector to his next Argument From the Sons confirmation of the seventh day Obj. 2 Christ has confirmed it sayes he 1. T. T. p. 72. to p. 79. By his words 2. By his works By his words more generally among the rest of his royal Lawes which he hath ratified even to a point or Tittle Math. 5.18 Teaching his Apostles to do the like Rom 3. James 2.10 More particularly by proclaiming himself Lord of the Sabbath day Mark 2.28 As if he had said the Sabbath is mine I am Lord of it I made it for Man and having given him a precept and pattern to sanctifie it I shall not make my self a president to profane it Now that which Christ layes claim to as Lord must needs be confessed his Therefore do we celebrate the holy Supper because t is the Lords Supper Again Math. 24.20 He instructs his disciples to pray that their flight might not be on the Sabbath day namely forty years after his death at what time all Ceremonies were abolished by Apostolical proclamation And as thus he has owned the seventh day Sabbath by his words so he has also crowned it by his workt c. This is the main strength and force of his Argument But alas it is to feeble to fetch life into a dead Sabbath that has lain sixteen hundred years in the grave we shall discuss every particular in it and return several answers to it We grant indeed that the Lord our Lawgiver has ratified his royal Moral Law even to a point or a tittle Answ 1 inasmuch as he came to fulfil the Law not to dissolve and destroy it But how is every tittle to be taken Not strictly and graphically for every vowel point and prick of a letter in the Law but for the substance and least matter of it the least Commandment in it so our Saviour expounds himself Matth. 5.19 Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least Commandments and teach men so shall be least in the Kingdome of God teaching us that by jot or tittle of the Law verse 18. he meant the least Commandment of the Moral Law v. 19. Thus also St. James ch 2.10 He that shall offend in one point is guilty of all By one point he means any one precept or Commandment in the Decalogue He explains himself by the reason rendred verse 11. For he that said Do not commit adultery said also Do not kill As if he had said the same God that gave one Commandment gave all therefore when any one point or precept is violated the contempt reflects upon the whole Law the least sin being an affront to Gods soveraignty So then the sense of both places is the same the least point or precept of the Moral Law is in force under the Gospel and if the least much more the fourth Commandment which indeed is none of the least But what of all this The fourth Commandment is established by Christ therefore the seventh day in weekly succession from the Creation the Consequence is infirm For that day was never directly stated in the Commandment the fourth Commmandement sayes not Thou shalt keep holy the last day of the week and not the first but a seventh day Sabbath or one in seven the old seventh day may be and is repealed and yet the Commandement ratyfied to a tittle in the matter yea in the very letter of it evangelically considered to wit as it is explained by Christ according to the will of God though not the carnal reasonings of men But of this formerly That Text Mark 2.28 rightly interpreted makes nothing for the old Sabbath but much against it For these words The Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath day do speak Christs power to alter and change it not his purpose to establish confirm it under the Gospel 't is a title much like that Math. 21. where he stiles himself Lord of the vineyard as having power to let and lease it out to other Husbandmen Mark 12.9 Dominus rectè dicitur alicujus rei qui in illam jua potestatem habet extollendi immutandi Aretius in Luc. 6. Christ was Lord of the Sabbath that is had power to change the day Engl. Annot. in Mar. 2. Luke 20.15.16 And thus he was Lord of the Sabbath having authority to alter and adjourn it to another day the Sabbath was the vineyards Land-mark or the Churches distinctive limit he that had power to transplant the vineyard had no less power to transpose the Sabbath He was Lord of the vineyard and Lord of the Sabbath in a like notion Suppose it spake as the objector speaks I am Lord of the Sabbath the Sabbath is mine yet still the same sense recurres is it not lawful for me to do what I will with my own As our Lord speaks in another case Math. 20.15 The Temple was his as well as the Sabbath Mal. 3.1 and styled his a Ps 132.14 rest forever and his b Isai 56.7 house of prayer for all people more then I remember was ever said of the seventh day Sabbath yet the Temple is destroyed and as Christ never meant to tye up his Gospel worshippers to that typical place of worship so neither to that typical time of worship He was Lord of both while they lasted that he might dissolve both when their season was expired that he might legally and ex officio give his people a discharge from both As for the Authors crafty collation of these two expressions Lord of the Sabbath day and Lords Supper whereby he would insinuate the equall authority and perpetuity of that Legal Sabbath with this Evangelical Sacrament it savours of more sophistry then solidity of Argumentation let the unlearned know that as the terms are different in the Greek so the phrase in our English Dialect imports different things 't is one thing to call Christ Lord of this or that another thing to say t is the Lords to say he was Lord of the Sabbath and that before his death is nothing so much as to to say this is the Lords Supper and that after his resurrection The former imports the office or authority of Christ the latter implyes his Ordinance And let the objector know that this Epithet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is never used but twice in the new Testament namely for the Lords Supper the Lords day Rev. 1.10 The Holy Ghost
the first day of the week not directly indeed but by very good consequence as Mr. Cawdrey and Mr. Byfield do convincingly argue it For sayes the one our Saviour does here speak of a Sabbath indefinitely and a Sabbath to be observed long after his death even at the destruction of Jerusalem and this was spoken to his disciples apart from the multitude sayes the other v. 3. and the period of time here pointed at was forty years after his death when the Jewish Sabbath was gone and the Gospel sufficiently published whereby the ceremonial Law was evacuated and become not only dead but deadly Not that the old Law of a Sabbath the fourth Commandment was then out of force but the Law of the old Sabbath And then the conclusion is this Christ shewes a Sabbath to continue and a religious respect due to a Sabbath still after his death yet not the Jewes Sabbath therefore he intended the Christian Sabbath to be observed according to the fourth Commandment As for the Jewes Sabbath t is certain that it was void at this point of time yea long before this forewarned flight the Apostles and Christians had their assemblies apart from the other Jewes and kept the Lords day the first day of the week as on the Great day of Pentecost Acts 2. and at Troas Acts 20.7 And although sometimes the Apostles did preach on the seventh day yet as Mr. C. notes it was only before the time mentioned Acts 20 never after and only in other Cities abroad not at Jerusalem for there we never read a word of the Sabbath in all the story of the Acts. I conclude therefore with that reverend Author that no reason can be given why our Saviour in this prophetical caution should regard the Jewish Sabbath but altogether the contrary in regard the Christians inhabiting in Jerusalem and the Coasts about Judea preferred the Lords day before it and it would be grievous to gracious hearts to have their holy rest interrupted with the noise of warlike tumults and the hurry of a tumultuous flight well might the disciples be taught to pray Lord when ever we be driven from the place of our Residence let it not be on a day of holy rest for that would be as uncomfortable to our souls as a winters flight would be cumbersome to our bodies Not that it would be sinful or unlawful when life lay at stake to flye on the Sabbath for to save a mans life is a Sabbath-dayes duty and a matter of far greater moment then to leade a beast to the water or pull an oxe out of a pit both which are allowable it may therefore be scored down among the rest of T. T 's errors and oversights that he makes it a sin to flye on the Sabbath day when peril of life puts a man upon it for hâ— terms it a dishonor to God and prophaning his sacred season p. 77. and yet he sayes in the next page That had their flight bin on the Sabbath as long as they carried nothing they could not be counted Transgressors Which may pass for another of his contradictions But for a closure to this answer we have deliberately weighed our Saviours words and sayings concerning the Sabbath but cannot find that ever he spake one word or one syllable in countenance of the old seventh day as the Sabbath of Christians his words prove no such thing And lastly Whereas his workes are pleaded as the crown of that day Answ 4 I am content if the author think good to venture the whole weight of the cause in this bottom That day which Christ has crowned with his greatest wonders is to be most highly esteemed among Christians 'T is his own grant p. 78. and 't is a truth now let him have but a little patience and we shall prove by undeniable Arguments that in this respect the first day of the week carries away the Crown from all other dayes old Sabbath and all If Christs resurrection his often apparitions the mission of his Spirit the inspiration of his Apostles the conversion of three thousand souls ot once be worthy the name of wonders surely the first day of the week is a day of wonder a day of honor and renown above all the dayes that ever the Sun shone upon The most glorious day that ever God created the most solemn day that ever the Church celebrated a day that has crowned Christ and a day that Christ himself has crowned with the greatest glory of any day that ever dawned upon the world Rom. 1.4 I speak but the words of truth and soberness Luke 13.32 Psalm 118.24 Joh. 20.22 23. Cant. 3.11 the Lords day is no day of small things 't is the day of the Lords power the day of his perfection the day of his praise and glory the day of his bounty and blessing the day of his espousals and of the gladness of his heart which can be understood so properly of no day as of this the Resurrection day Let prophane Esaus despise it and proud Notionists oppose it at their peril Behold King Solomon with the crown wherewith his mother crowned him in the day of his espousals and in the day of the gladness of his heart never was Christ more visibly Crowned by his Church then on the Lords day which also was the day of his espousals when he was made sure to his Church by a sure Covenant even the sure mercies of David Hos 2.19 20. Acts 13.34 but let neither of them blame me if I honor and esteem it above all dayes till they can shew me another day which the Saviour of the world has honored and exalted above it Never tell me of one or two miracles wrought on the seventh day yet I desire to adore Christ in all his miracles but shew me such a confluence of wonders and wonderful transactions wrought by him whose name is wonderful on that day as on this and I will confess I have lost the day Alas It cannot be that one transcendent act the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus from the dead the finishing act of our Redemption weighs down all the honor of the seventh day with advantage 'T is objected that our Saviour was pleased to put forth his Divine vertue on the seventh day in sundry miracles miracles of healing and the like I answer 'T is very true and to him be all the glory But if it were an honor to that day that our Heavenly physitian healed the sick what a Crown of glory was it to his own day that he raised the dead Yea that being dead he raised himself from the dead so also if he dignified the seventh day by casting out unclean Spirits how much more the first day by sending his holy Spirit If his preaching in the Synagogues were an honor to the seventh day how much more his presenting himself in that great Assembly of Divines twice at least on the first day of the week Did Christ ever
is causelesse What if they translate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 preaching Acts 20.7 and reasoning Acts 18.4 or disputing as it is rendred Acts 19.9 Sure they saw good ground for this variation Though the word be the same yet the scope of the Texts is not the same for Acts 20. Paul was among Christians and Christians that came together to communicate at the Lords table and that 's no time to dispute but to beleeve to act faith and not reason therefore well is it said there Paul preached to them some quickening Sermon doubtless to excite their Sacramental graces But Acts 18. he was among a company of unbeleeving wrangling Jewes and there they do well to render it reasoning Mark 9.34 Acts 17.17 which unless the context carry it another way is the most apt and usuall signification of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The very art of reasoning Logick has its name from this compound What rashnesse therefore and sinful saucy boldness is it in this Author to throw dirt in the faces of those eminent instruments the Translators of the Bible charging them with inexcuseable sin because they cross his humours and erroneous conceipts To say Answ 7 as we do that Paul took the opportunity of the old Sabbath to preach to the people is not to render him a constant dissembler as he reproachfully accuseth us but to commend him as a diligent dispenser of the word of truth who for the quicker progress of the Gospel was willing to embrace all opportunities to preach in season and out of season wherever he came Neither is it to speak without book as we shewed above nor does it charge Christ with any criminal imputation he kept the Sabbath while it was in force from a principle of conscience in obedience to the Law Paul from a principle of Christian prudence and indulgence the better to promote the Gospel and so his custom was not formally the same with Christs neither does his custom argue his commission unlesse it be in things Moral and Evangelical and among the Gentiles * Ro. 11.13 ch 15.16 Gal. 2.7 1 Tim. 2.7 to whom he was cheifly sent as a commission-officer of Christ to preach the Gospel of the uncircumcision Lastly Pauls reasoning in the Jewes Synagogue at Corinth and that every Sabbath till he were persecuted and his general precept to the Corinthians and other Christians to be followers of him is as good a plea for the Synagogue as the seventh day and indeed a Jewes Sabbath and a Jewes Synagogue would do well together So that all objections to the contrary notwithstanding it remains a firm and immoveable truth of God that the old seventh day is discharged from being a Sabbath or day of weekly solemn worship to the people of God Now by way of Transition to the second branch of my Argument that the first day of the week is designed for a day of weekly solemn worship under the Gospell I would remind the Reader of what was premised and proved before viz. That the Law of the fourth Commandment for the proportion of six working dayes and a seventh every week for solemn worship ordinarily is still in force under the Gospel Which being made good and the old seventh day manifested to be void one Argument will put it out of all question that the first day of the week is the only day of weekly worship to be observed under the Gospel As thus That day of the week upon which above all others in the vacancy of the old seventh day God has set his mind in the Law and upon which above all other dayes Christ has set his mark in the Gospel must needs be the Christians weekly day of solemn worship or Sabbath day But the first day of the week the old seventh day being void is the day above all others in the week upon which God has set his mind in the Law and upon which above all other dayes Christ has set his mark in the Gospel Therefore The first day of the week must needs be the Christians weekly day of solemn worship or Sabbath day The proposition is undeniable for what better warrant can be pretended for a weekly Sabbath then Gods mind or will in the Law and Christ Mark in the Gospel The Assumption is all that requires proof namely That the seventh day being void the first day of the week is the day above all others upon which God has set his mind in the Law and Christ his mark his signal mark in the Gospel Both which shall be distinctly and demonstratively proved by Scripture-consequence and evidence 1. That the seventh or last day of the week being void as we have proved the first day of the week is the only day upon which it appears that God has set his mind in the Law I mean the Law of the fourth Commandment which may be thus made out It was the mind and pleasure of God that the proportion stated in the Commandment six dayes in the week for civil imployment and one for sacred and religious rest should be observed in all ages Exod. 35.2 Ezek. 46.1 See Mr. Gawdrey p. 1. ch 9. S. 53. and part 3. ch 3. both under the Law and under the Gospel Now the seventh day which was observed under the Law being discharged there is no other day but the first day of the week on which Gods proportion can be preserved and perpetuated without intermission and interruption For take any other day as the second or third or fifth or sixth and there would be losse of time it would not be for once at least one day in seven but one of some other number and besides the six working dayes would not come all together but some of them would go before the day of rest and others would come after it in one and the same week Both which would offer violence to the Holy Commandment which as it requires but one day in a week for religion to six for worldly businesse and allots six for worldly business to one for religion ordinarily so it takes order that the six working dayes must go together and the day of rest not come between them in the same week but either go before or follow them Now in pitching upon the first day of the week both these were punctually observed at the first change of the day for in the revolution of twice seven dayes there were two dayes for religion the last of the first seven and the first of the latter seven and in each revolution the six working dayes are all together And thus it is still successively week after week and thus it shall be perpetually I question not to the last week of the world for I am assured that the old seventh day is void and I am fully convinced that whatever the Lord Christ could have done we cannot make choice of any other weekly day of worship but the first of the week to hold up the morality of
Zech. 4.7 Temple was finished the head-stone was brought forth with shouting crying grace grace thereunto So here when the work of our redemption should be finished and Christ exalted as head and corner-stone of his Church by his triumphant Resurrection the Holy Ghost intimates the solemn gratulation and publick praise that the Church should offer on that day So we are to understand the next words were as c Isal 56.7 Mal. 1.11 usually New Testament-worship is set forth in an old Testament-dress v. 27. God is the Lord which hath she wed us light light indeed when the Sun of righteousness arises he has made it a day of light and gladness to poor self-condemned sinners therefore bind ye the sacrifice with cords to the horns of the altar That is offer to the Lord the sacrifice of publick praise and thanksgiving verse 29. Oh give thanks unto the Lord for he is good his mercy endureth for ever So that t is evident a day of solemn worship is here intended and Christs resurrection day is principally pointed at as a day which the Lord would institute and a day which the Church should celebrate Saying This is the day which the Lord hath made let us be gland and rejoyce therein What a plain Scripture-proof is this of Divine authority of the Lords day So plain that the adversary is forced to grant it page 61. It must needs be meant of Christs resurrection-day saies he and when he wrote his first book he excited Christians to the weekly celebration of it Whereas in a late railing pamphlet since he seekes to smother the light and evidence of this Text by a silly evasion that the Psalmist speaks not of every first day of the week but Easter-day as may be conjectured But I shall easily shake off this slight exception Away with conjectures let us search the Scriptures what day does the Holy Ghost in Scripture call Christs resurrection-day Ask Matthew Mark Luke and John they 'l tell you Math. 28.1 Mark 6.2 Luke 24.1 John 20.1 19. t is the first day of the week the day of the year is never mentioned nor the day of the month on which Christ arose but the day of the week only to teach us doubtless that Christs resurrection-day must be no yearly or monthly but a weekly solemnity Good reason that the work of Redemption should have as frequent a commemoration as the work of Creation had Now ponder this good Reader and the Lord print it upon thy heart the day of the Saviours Resurrection prophetically extolled in the old Testament as the day which the Lord hath made is historically noted down in the New Testament as the first day of the week and now we shall draw an argument which I hope will be an arrow of conviction to the contrary-minded the rather because it comes out of Gods own quiver thus the day of Christs resurrection is the day which he Lord hath made for duties of solemn worship but the first day of the week is the day of Christs Resurrection therefore the first day of the week is the day which the Lord hath made for duties of solemn worship The proposition is warranted by the Testimony of the Psalmist the assumption is confirmed by the harmony of all the four Evangelists the conclusion therefore will stand as long as the world stands namely that the first day of the week is a day of divine institution mark'd out by the finger of God the spirit of Christ for a day of solemn weekly worship under the Gospel For as I hinted before the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy * Acts 1.16 2 Tim. 3.16 1 Pet. 1.11 and ch 3.19 Rom. 15.4 It was by the spirit of our great Prophet that all the Prophets of old did speak Like stars they all borrowed their light from this Sun they were irradiated and inspired by Christ and when a holy Prophet foretels such a thing shall be we may as confidently build upon it as if Christ himself had said I will have it so For indeed it is the voice of Christ that speaks in the old Testament as well as in the new And possibly this may be one reason why the Lord Christ has spoken so little in the Gospel concerning some new Testament-ordinances as the Lords day for one namely because the Prophets had spoken so much before and Christ would not take off his people from the study of the old Testament upon which the authority of the new does so much depend Me thinks as to the controversie of the Christian Sabbath this should abundantly satisfie any sober Christian that the day of Christs resurrection was prophesied of by David and others as a day which the Lord would make and institute and accordingly practised by the inspired Apostles upon the first day of the week and this practice perpetuated by the Church of Christ the Catholick Church in all ages since for above sixteen hundred years What can be objected with any colour of reason against so clear a truth Christ hath not left one syllable for the institution or celebration of this day T.T. p. 120. Answ Not one syllable Why did he not grant before that Psalm 118. compared with Acts 4. Must needs be meant of the resurrection-day and does not the spirit speak expresly Mr. Perkins in his cases of conscience argues for the Christian Sabbath from this text Cyprian Austin and Ambrose and all the ancients who have ever cited or saluted this place Psalm 118. do expound it and understand it of the Lords day See Mr. L. strange This is the day which the Lord hath made Is it a day of the Lords making and will he make nothing of that What else can be made of it but a prediction of a Divine institution which is equivalent to a precept especially when expounded by Apostolical practice as this has been Let it be seriously considered in what other sense can a day made long before in respect of Creation be stiled the day which the Lord hath made than in respect to a divine institution An institution then it is and the occasion of it Christs resurrection which was the concluding act of our Redemption and what an impression of glory does this stamp upon the day above all the dayes that God ever made the seventh day and all As some * years are crowned with Gods goodness above others so dayes also The work crownes the day as I have often said and the greater the work the greater the day now that work in which God is most glorified in all his attributes must needs be the greatest work such is the work of Redemption Quasi hactenus nullus fuerit in orbe dies Mollerus in Loc. therefore the day set apart in commemoration of it must wear away the crown from all other dayes Such is Christs resurrection-day therefore Emphatically stiled The day which the Lord hath made as if there had never been
other arguments as prophetical prediction Psalm 118. and Apostolical practice Acts 20. allege this as one proof of our Christian Sabbath That Christ Jesus our Lord was often seen upon it seen in assemblies of his Saints seen in his royal robes in his state of immortality and not only seen but heard preaching peace to poor sinners opening Scriptures cheering quickening warming cold dead sad hearts for when the disciples saw him they were * Luke 24.32 John 20.21 glad and their hearts did burn within them while he opened the Scriptures to them and all this on the first day of the week T is true after this double apparition our Saviour appeared on a working day as the disciples were a fishing and that was the third time of shewing himself or the third day of his appearing John 21.3.14 But what of this The disciples were sufficiently confirmed in the authority and solemnity of the Lords day by the two former apparitions therefore well might Christ appear the third time upon a working day and countenance worki-day-business by his presence to teach his disciples and us that every day is not a Sabbath day But this fishing-day is not named it might as well be on the Jewes Sabbath as any other day of the week for ought appeares to the contrary in the Text yet I do not say it was I will not speak where the Scripture is silent How often the first day of the week was celebrated by our Saviour between his Resurrection and ascension is not punctually set down in Scripture Junius is confident for every week But there is good evidence for the two first and none against the three last Much may be said for that famous apparition on a Mountaine in Galilee which learned Lightfoot Math. 28.16 17 19 20. Fenner and others conclude without doubt to have been on the first day of the week Mar. 16.15 16. Now the ascension-day drawes on and Christ withdrawes his Corporal presence from his disciples but on the day of Pentecost he visits them again by his spiritual presence Acts 2. And that this also was on the first day of the week shall be fully clear'd when we come to the fourth mark Lastly Rev. 1.10 Some years after all these it pleased the Lord Jesus to appear again on this day Namely to his servant John in the Isle of Patmos little paradise we may call it for the presence of Christ makes a wilderness a paradise especially so much of his presence as this blessed Apostle now enjoyed more than ever was vouchsafed to any man upon earth since Christ went up to Heaven I was in the spirit sayes he upon the Lords day what then Why v. 12. I saw seven Golden Candle-sticks and v. 13. In the midst of them one like the son of man So like him that indeed it was the son of man the man Christ Jesus on the Lords day then John saw Jesus Christ in the midst of his Churches filling them with his blessed presence that day above all others and holding the stars in his right hand that is holding forth Heavenly light by the Ministry of the word on that day especially this John saw and this he is commanded to set down in writing verse 19. and accordingly written it is and written for our learning upon whom the ends of the world are come And what may we learn from it Surely this at first view viz. That in St. Johns time the Golden Churches of Christ were wont to meet Gospel-Ministers to preach and Christ himself to be present with them by his spirit on the Lords day And this is written for a pattern to after-ages and there is a * Verse 3. blessing pronounced on those that read and keep the things that are written in this book Blessed be Christ for this blessed book here we have another glorious appearance of Christ on the Lords day not to one man only or one Church only but seven Churches in which no doubt there were more then seven thousand soules and that this Lords day was also the first day of the week none but peevish spirits ever question'd Ignatius who was trained up in the School of this great Apostle and in all reason was most likely to know his terms * Epist ad Magnes clearly makes it a weekly holy-day observed by Christians in the room of the abrogated Sabbath of the Jewes Yea the Lords day was never taken for other than the first day of the week by any Christian writer in any age since the dayes of St. John till this last age of liberty and lyes that ever I could see or learn Fathers Councils Schoolmen ancient modern writers two or three of this generation excepted do constantly understand it of Christs Resurrection-day the first day of the week and one would think the constant Dialect of the Church of Christ a sufficient Dictionary to interpret a word or phrase in Scripture especially in such a sense as does not cross but correspond with Scripture So does this for how agreeable to Scripture is it to take the Lords day for that day which the Lord hath made Besides 't is observable that this same beloved disciple who was so exact in penning the first apparition John 20. is a spectator of the last Rev. 1. and just as he had related that he sees this the circumstances are remarkable John 26.19 26. Christ appears in the midst of the disciples and Rev. 1.13 in the midst of the Candle-sticks or Churches John 20.19 he appears upon the Resurrection-day arguing his Resurrection and Rev. 1.18 repeating the same argument Saying I am he that liveth and was dead and have the keyes of death and hell To say no more John 20. he appeared on the first day of the week and here again upon the day under a new name the Lords day because it appeared by his Resurrection and former apparitions to be the day which the Lord had owned above other dayes yea the day which the Lord had made and instituted Thus we see how Christs often appearing on this day tends to the further marking out of the day But this mark is sorely shot at objections come thick but short answers will serve when nothing is objected but what has been answered by others or nothing to any purpose He is not ashamed to say T. T. Obj. 1. p. 121. I beleeve it will be found upon inquiry that Christ never appeared to any assembly no not any one first day for it is most certain that the day upon the Scripture-account begins with the evening Now upon the Resurrection-day we find Christ at the village seven miles from Jerusalem when it was towards evening and the day far spent Luke 24.29 30. after which he supped with the two which took up some time then they returned that seven miles and a half to Jerusalem on foot so that by that time they came there the day must be quite spent and though t is
offering of the loaves on the fiftieth day was not only an eucharistical oblation but also a token of the harvest 's being finished and ended 3. It is called the Feast of Pentecost because it was ever kept the fiftieth day the fiftieth day how reckoned From the morrow after the Sabbath that is the first day of the week but what mark had they to know this morrow by Moses tells them When you shall reap the harvest of yur land or when you begin to reap it for so t is expounded in Deuteronomie Deut. 16.9 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Begin to number the seven weekes from such time as thou beginnest to put the sickel to the corn In the Hebrew it runs thus from beginning to put the sickle into the standing corn thou shalt begin to number the seven weekes So that when they began their harvest they must begin their account of the fifty dayes and the first of the fifty was the morrow of the Sabbath or the day following the Sabbath namely the first day of the week and as they began so they must end the account on the same day as the first so the fiftieth day or day of Pentecost must be on the morrow of the Sabbath Levit. 23.15 16. and this is injoyned by the express command of God to be observed as a statute forever throughout their generations this is the plain Scripture-account and who can but observe the wisdom of God in it in ordering the matter thus that this Feast of weeks should never fall upon the seventh day but ever upon the first of the week the morrow after the Sabbath or the day immediatly following it if at least his statute-law had been observed What else could this presignifie as learned Dr. Vsher speakes but that under the state of the Gospel the solemnity of the weekly service should be celebrated upon that day Now I hope that famous Pentecost Acts 2.1 will be no Parable although we state it according to the Divine oracle upon the first day of the week the morrow after the Jewes Sabbath we need no Almanacks to help us here the Bible is sufficient And because the Sabbatrians stand so much upon supposed mysteryes in the Feast of Pentecost according to their traditional account I shall acquaint them with the reall mysteries of Christ accomplished exactly according to this true scripturall account See Dr. Usher there they may see the type and the truth admirably concurring For as at the time of the Passeover a 1 Cor. 5.7 Christ our Passeover was Sacrificed for us and lay in his grave the whole Sabbath following so on the morrow after the Sabbath when the sheaf of first-fruits was offered to God Christ rose from the dead and became the b 1 Cor. 15.20 first-fruits of them that slept c Math. 27.52 53. many dead bodies of Saints that slept arising likewise after him From thence was the count taken of the seven Sabbaths or fifty dayes Numb 28.26 Exod. 34.22 and upon the morrow after the seventh Sabbath which was our Lords day was that famous feast of weekes that day of Pentecost Acts 2.1 upon which day the Apostles having themselves received the first-fruits of the spirit Acts 2.1.4 5 41. begat three thousand souls with the word of truth and presented them as the first-fruits of the Christian Church unto God James 1.18 Rev. 4.14 and unto the Lamb and from that time forward doth Waldensis note that the Lords day was observed in the Christian Church in the place of the Sabbath In his learned letter to Dr. Twisse p. 91.92 Thus Dr. Vsher that Library of learning If it be objected that in this discourse he states Christ suffering at the feast of the Passeover and so falls in which the vulgar opinion which takes the morrow after the Sabbath Levit. 23. For the morrow after the Passeover-Sabbath I answer that cannot be for he had declared before that the Sabbath there intended is the ordinary weekly Sabbath and the morrow after it the first day of the week and he cites Isychius and Rupertus as interpreting it so before him to whom I shall mae bold to add Nazianzen who was before them all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Orat. in Sanct. Pentecost and in his 44th oration speaking of the Feast of Pentecost This nation sayes he meaning the Jewish nation uses to consecrate to God not only the first of their fruits and first-born but the first-fruits of their dayes and years also Thus the illustrious number of seven ha's carried the honour of Pentecost for seven being composed upon its self makes fifty wanting but one day which we have taken from this future age being both the eighth and the first day His phrase is something dark but his argument is clearly this that the Jewes Pentecost was fain to be beholding to the Christians eighth day or first day of the week to make up the complete number of fity dayes And the like he sayes a little before concerning their Jubilee every fiftieth year for seven times seven makes but fourty nine to perfect the number therefore they borrowed the first day of the week and so consecrated to God the first fruits of their dayes as well as of their land So that this computation of the fifty-dayes to Pentecost from the morrow of the weekly Sabbath wants no authority to back it neither humane nor Divine But the plain word of God is our best warrnat and methinks that should satisfie Dr. Twiss was no child at argument nor one that would be satisfied upon slight grounds but upon Bp. Vshers discovery of this truth by the fore-mentioned Scripture-evidence he professes that he had received great * In his printed letter to Bp. Usher satisfaction and acknowledges that the mystery of the feast of first-fruits was opened to the singular advantage of the honour of the Lords day The only material objection against this interpretation is the judgment of Mr. Ainsworth and the English Annotatours who take the Sabbath Levit. 23. For the Passe-over-Sabbath t is true they do so but herein they are led by the common opinion of the Hebrew Doctors who indeed are excellent guides when they keep the beaten rode of Scripture and sometimes to direct us at a doubtfull turning but here it may be proved that they themselves are out of the way I do not say our Christian writers but the Hebrew Doctors who in many things did make voyd the Commandments of God by their own traditions and if there be any mistake let it lie at their doores And cerainly a mistake there is in this point For that the morrow after the Sabbath could not be meant of the Passeover-Sabbath is clear For First It must be such a morrow after the Sabbath as must never fall upon the weekly Sabbath the reason is plain because it was the begining of their harvest when they put their sickle to the corn or harvested their harvest
this last book of the Bible to the praise of him who is our Alpha and Omega the very name speaks Christ the Author of it if not his Resurrection whereby he was declared both Lord and Christ the occasion of it The antients had it in singular esteem for the very name sake 't is an elegant and pious poem which I find written upon it by Sedlius an antient Christian Poet who was but a few years * Vid. Sixti Senesis Biblioth sanct p. 308. Jerome's Junior Caeperat intereà post tristia Sabbata felix Irradiare dies Libr. 5. Carm. Culmen qui nominis alti A domino dominante trahit primusque videri Promeruit nasci mundum atque resurgere Christum In English thus After sad Sabbaths th' happy day'gan dawn Whose lofty name from Lord of Lords is drawn A blessed day that first was grac'd to see Christs Rising and the worlds Nativity But we have more antient Records than this appropriating the title of Lords day to our Christian Sabbath Omnes ferè sacrae Scripturae interp etes tam veteres quam Recentiores de primo dïe hebdomadis intelligunt Wallaeus dissert de 4. prae cap. 6. p 150. Ignatius who lived in St. Johns time makes it a weekly holy day of the Christians observed in the room of the Jewes Sabbath So Tertullian Atharasius Hierom Austin who not By this title we may trace it down from the Apostles times through the Ocean of the Fathers Councills Schoolmen to this present age wherein we live And to come to Scripture there seemes to be much in that which Beza observes out of an antient Greek manu-script wherein that first day of the week 1 Cor. 16.2 is expresly called the Lords day and the Syriack translation tells us * Institut Theol loc 48. de cana Dom. that the Christians meeting together to receive the Lords Supper 1 Cor. 11.20 was upon the Lords day And Bucanus saith this Sacrament is called the Lords Supper as in respect of the institutor and the end of it I had rather interpret the Lords day by the Lords Supper than as Bucan does the Lords Supper by the Lords day so also in respect of the day on which it was wont to be administ viz. The Lords day citeing that Text Acts 20.7 and hence also the antients stiled it Dies panis the day of bread because the Churches of Christ ever used to break bread on this day But to end all disputes if Scripture may be safely interpreted by Scripture and dark places by plain ones then let us expound the Lords day Rev. 1.10 by the Lords Supper 1 Cor. 11.20 Here let the reader take notice that the blessed Spirit of God who had his choice of words and never spake any thing but upon admirable reason never vouchsafed this title of honour in the new Testament but only to the Supper and the day the Lords Supper and the Lords day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Cor. 11.20 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rev. 1.10 Neither can any third Text be produced where this Epithet is applyed to any thing else Now the phrase being the same and thus singular the sense must needs be the same Look therefore in what notion the Supper is the Lords Supper in the same sense is the day stiled the Lords day The supper is the Lords because the Lord Christ instituted it yea and substituted it in the room of the Passeover and why not the day His * So Mr. Perkins in his cases of conscience because he instituted and substituted it in the room of the old Sabbath T is evidently a day of Christs institution a day of the Lords own making and with reference to his Resurrection he made it such a day of the week not such a day of the year as we proved before in a word let any other day be set up in constitution with the first day of the week for the title of Lords day and we shall easily non-suit it Our Saviours birth-day bids fair for it Obj. 1 T.T. Answ Then it must be a day of divine institution which I hope he will not say But I answer further if the day of Christs nativity or any other day besides the first day of the week had been devoted to Christ and intended by John in this place he had spoken very obscurely to say I was in the spirit on the Lords day he would rather have said I was in the spirit on one of the Lords dayes Annot. ad loc But to put this fancy to flight observe the day here dignified with this magnificet title must needs be some noted day the circumstances of time place and person are set down as Beza observes the better to conciliate credit to the truth of these heavenly visions therefore all but that of the place have an eminent badge of cognizance upon them John was a known person and the Lords day with an emphatical Article 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a well-known day doubtless he that relates to others such a thing done such a day presupposes the day sufficiently and certainly known for a doubtfull circumstance darkens a story and drawes a curtain in stead of opening a casement to give light to the matter now let us put it to the question what day was more eminently and unquestionably known in all the Churches of Christ than the first day of the week Which the Secretaries of Christ all the four Evangelists had so exactly noted and the Psalmist so prophetically extolled as a day of the Lords making St. John could not but know that these seven Churches knew the first day of the week to be Christs Resurrection-day and neither he nor they could be ignorant that Christs Resurrection-day was the day which the Lord had made and what 's that but the Lords day As for our Saviours Birth-day although it were a day of wonderful mercy yet it is left in great obscurity not one of the Evangelists marking it out by name neither can it be so clearly resolved either what day of the * Unless the adversary will grant Mr. A. that it was the first day of the week week or what day of the month or what month of the year nor hardly what year of the world our Saviour was born in but it may be matter of controversie See divers disputes about it in Dr. Willets Hexapl. on Dan. chapter 11. If John intends any single day t is most likely to be the seventh day which was antiently stiled the Lords holy day Obj. 2 Isai 57.6 and is declared by Christ to be his day Mark 2. last and no other day throughout the Gospel does he declare to be his This he and Mr. Braburn in contradiction to the whole Christian world would fain perswade us that the Lords day which St. John speaks was the old Sabbath But He may as well say that the Lords Supper which St. Paul speakes of was the old Passeover Ans
1 since that was the * Exod. 12.11 Luke 22.20 Lords Supper in the old Testament as much as the seventh day was the Lords Sabbath Christ never declared the seventh day to be the Lords day Ans 2 although he declared himself to be Lord of the Sabbath-day My meaning is that he never owned the seventh day as the Author and institutor of it in a strict Evangelical sense neither could he for it was instituted long before Heb. 4.4 therefore let it be well considered the Lords day Rev. 1.10 for this very reason cannot possibly be understood of the Jewes Sabbath because it is such a Lords day as relates peculiarly to the Lord Christ not as the Lord our Creator but the Lord our Redeemer to Christ actually exalted to be Lord over all relates to him I say as the Lords Supper does not only as his by possession but his by institution for these two and these only the Supper and the day are called the Lords in Scripture The Greek word is used but twice in all the new Testament only these two have the honour to be matcht in this glorious appellation and we must interpret the one by the other therefore if the Lords Supper be a Gospel-ordinance and institution of Jesus Christ so is the Lords day This paralel will pinch the adversary he cannot so much as pretend that the seventh day nor indeed any other day but the first of the week was instituted by Christ so as to be equalized in phrase with that pure Evangelicall ordinance the Lords Supper There is a vulgar objection abroad that every day is the Lords day therefore this Text makes as much for an every-day-Sabbath as the weekly Lords day Sabbath But the answer is easie they may as well say every Table is the Lords table and every Supper the Lords Supper and so turn levellers of dayes and duties together Well we have brought it to this issue that there is a day a speciall day under Gospel but not Jewes seventh day which the Lord Jess ha's instituted and owned above all dayes by stamping his own most blessed name upon it as upon his sacred Supper and this we are sure can be no other than the first day of the week The objector fearing belike that the former shift would faile him ha's another evasion to second it Obj. 3 namely that old thread bare Notion of Gomarus I rather think sayes he that the Lords day which S. John spake of was the Lords Judgment-day which the Lord himself calls his day Luke 17. Phil. 1.16 And so he dreams that the day on which S. John dated his Epistles to the seven Churches was the day of Judgment But This as one sayes0 is void of all judgment Answ See Mr. Ley Sund. Sab. For in the readiest construction of the words S. John spake of a day that was in being before the Vision came and so known that the Reader might take notice when it came But the day of Judgment is not yet come unless it be to such dreamers and so utterly unknown to man that our Saviour hath taught us Mat. 24.36 Mark 13.32 Of that day and hour knoweth no man no not the Angels in heaven but my Father only The prooses he alleges are impertinent for although the day of Judgment be stiled the day of the Lord appellatively yet is it never termed the Lords day denominatively as Mr. Cawdrey might have taught him if he had not thought himself too wise to learn of his betters Thus all his cloudy notions are scattered and the Lords day Rev. 1.10 discovered by evidence of Scripture and Antiquity to be the first day of the week Now as the blessed Martyr Ignatius exhorteth Let every one that loves the Lord Jesus Christ keep holy the Lords day Let the zeale of Primitive Christians herein provoke us to holy emulation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ignat. ad Magnes Plinius sub Trajano scripsit Solitos hoc stato die convenire Christianos ante lucem carmenque Christo quasi Deo Communi voce dicere postea Sacramento se obstringere ne scelus aliquid ne furta ne latrocinia ne adulteria committerent Magdeb. Cent. 2. c. 6. Even a Heathen could observe how those precious morning stars used to meet early on this day and sing Hymnes to Christ an not only to sing his praises but to celebrate his holy Supper the Lords Supper upon the Lords day doubtless binding themselves in a holy Covenant to hate and flie sin And 't is known to have been the common question put to Christians by Pagan persecuing Governours Dost thou observe the Lords day the usual answer was I am a Christian I dare not intermit it This was wont to be the distinguishing Shibboleth the cognizance of Christians in the purest times of Christinity O blessed souls because they were Christians they durst not intermit the Lords day no though they lost their dearest lives for keeping of it How ill do they deserve the Name of Christians in these dayes who make no Conscience of this day yea who have the impudence to Preach against it Write against it Work upon it as if it were a common day I remember what the holy Apostle spake in a like case to those that polluted the Lords Table using it as if it were their own table What have ye not houses of your own ot eat and drink in 1 Cor. 11.22 or despise ye the Church of God The like may I say to all prophaners of the Lords day Have ye not dayes enough of your own to work and to play in or despise ye the Lords day Is it a sin a prooking sin to use the Lords Table as if it were your own table to eat Sacramental Bread as if it were common bread and is it no sin to use the Lords day as a common day as if it were your own day Why is it not paralel in phrase with the Lords Supper Is not the Lords Name and Superscrition found upon the one as well as the other I charge thee therefore Reader in the Name of the Lord Jesus so visibly graven upo this day render to Christ the things that are Christs Be assured the Lord will not hold thee guiltless for taking his Name in vain and spending his time in vain his time I mean upon which he has stampt his noble and royal Name This is the fifth Mark or Seal of the day The Inscription of Christs glorious Name upon it 6. The sixth is The Apostles and Apostolical Churches observation of it The holy Apostles were men intimately acquainted with the Secrets of Christ being most of them trained up in his School and personally conversant with him by the space of a Acts 1.3 forty dayes between his Resurrection and Ascension as b Drut 9.11 Moses was forty dayes with god upon the Mount Besides they had immediate Inspiration and authoritative Mission from Christ himself to manage the publick affairs
day an holy day Now to spend the Lords day throughout an holy day is not to spend any part of it in servilework but to sanctifie it as a Sabbath But in regard this Testimony touches but one half of the question I only touch upon it by the way and proceed to a fourth who speakes the truth and the whole truth Tertullian by name Tertullian 4. who flourished in the year of grace 200. or two hundred and four His African phrase is somwhat dark yet some light it affords us as to this controversy In his book of the souldiers Crown he speaks thus On i Die dominico jejunare nefas ducimus vel de geniculis adorare De Colon Mil. the Lords day we hold it unlawful either to fast or to pray kneeling And elswhere he seems to intimate the reason of it viz. k Diem solis laetitiae indulgemus alia longe ratione quam religione solis seeundo loco ab eis sumus qui diem Saturni otio viotui decernunt exorbitantes ipsi a Judaico more quem ignorant Apol. adv Gent. c. 16. â—And ch 3. de anima he speaks of the Lords dayes solemnities namely Scripturarum lectio Psalmi cantus adlocutiones petitiones reading the scriptures singing of Psams conference and prayer Dominica solennia Because it was a day of joy and gladness For upon the Sunday saies he we give our selves to joy or gladness Where note that in Tertullian's time also the title of Lords day Rev. 1.10 was appropriate to Sunday which the primitive Christians so universally observed that the Heathens began to calumniate them as worshippers of the Sun But Tertullian in this place clears them For saies he although upon the Sunday we give our selves to gladness yet it is for another farre wide reason than in honour of the Sun And again in the second place are we from them meaning the Jewes who appoint the Saturday to idleness and eating wandring from the Jewish custom which they know not In which words he gives us to understand that although the Christians then devoted the Lords day to joy and gladness yet they made it not a play-day or a day of pampering their bodies and riotous feastings as the degenerate Jewes did their Sabbath but they spent it in the spiritual exercises of prayer and praise they kept it as a solemn holy day but how often What once a year Nay once a week as he testifies in the 14. ch of his book concerning Idolatry where he speaks l Ethnicis sentel annuus dies quisque festus est tibi vero octavus Excerpe fingulas solennitates nationum in ordinem texe Pentecostem implere non poterunt de Idol p. 736. Edit Basil â—O melior fides nationum in suam sectam quae nullam Christianorum seleuitatem fibi vendicat non dominicam non Pentecostem etiam si nossent nobiscunt non communicassent ne Christiani viaerentur nos ne Ethnici pronunciemur non veremur Ibid. thus to the Christian who observed 52. Lords dayes every year whereas all the Annual festivities of Pagans came short of Pentecost or 50 To the Heathens every Festival is some annual day but to thee every eighth day c. and here he takes up a sad complaint against some Apostatizing Christians who kept heathenish holy-dayes as if there were not Lords dayes enough in the year O the Faith of the nations better than ours to Wards their own sect as who challenge not to themselves any Christian solemnity not that of the Lords day nor that of Pentecost Did they know it they would not communicate with us lest they should seem Christians we Christians are not afraid to be accounted Heathens Where two things are worthy of note First that he stiles the Lords day the Christians solemnity or solemn day Secondly that he makes it the Christians livery or badge of cognizance Therefore the Heathens would not keep it lest they should be taken for Christians and indeed so it was the keeping holy of the Lords day was ever the distinguishing Character of a true Christian Hence as we noted before the persecuting Pagans used to question the primitive Christians upon this interrogatory hast thou kept the Lords day Anno 303. Just as the bloudy Papists in Queen Maries time examined the Protestants about the Lords Supper and the common answer was I am a Christian I date not intermit it for the Law admonishes me of it Lex eos de eo agendo admonuisset seil lex dei ut ipfi martyres exponunt num 51. non ecclesia ut in Margine a Baronio annotatur Num. 48. vide Theoph. Philokur lib. ch 4. Namely The law of God of Christ and Christianity which answer cost many a Christian his life never were two truths more deeply dyed with the blood of Martyrs than the Lords Supper and the Lords day have been the one under Popish the other under Pagan persecution But to return to our Author Tertullian's Testimony is clear for the Christians keeping of the Lord's day But did they not keep the Saturday-Sabbath too in his time No he denies that once and again as in the fore-mentioned Book concerning Idolatry m Nobis quibus Sabbata extranea Sunt Neomenia seriae aliquando à Deo dilectae Saturnalia Januriae frequentantur c. Shall we says he frequent Heathenish Festivals to whom the Sabbaths new Moons and Holy days sometimes so dearly beloved of God are strange Strange through dis-use doubtless not through ignorance therefore 't is clear they did not keep them But more clear is that which he writes in his Apologetick against theGentiles where he acknowledgeth n Neque de victus exceptionibus neque de solennitatibus dierum neque de ipso signaculo corporis neque de consortio nominis cum Judaeis agimus p. 848. That the Christians had no correspondence with the Jews neither in difference of meants nor solemnities of days nor in signature of body meaning Circumcision nor in society of name Mark it they had nothing to do with the Jews in solemnities of dayes i e. Jewish days therefore not in the solemnization of the seventh day which Tertullian expressly calls * Lib. advers Iudaeos p. 125. Sabbatum temporale a temporary Sabbath thus we have the practice of the Church in his time adding further proof to the change of the day Our next Author is Origen whose testimony concerning the Lords day is not to be contemned however his judgement in all things-cannot be approved We are not now pleading his Orthodoxy but his veracity he might erre but sure he would not lie being so ready to die for Christ let us hear what he ha's to say to this Christian cause treating upon the story of the Israelites gathering a double portion of Manna on the sixt day because none was to be found on the seventh day o Quare ergo qua die caeperit Manna caelitus dari
volo comparare Dominicam nostram cum Sabbato Judaeorum Ex divinis namque apparet Scripturis quod in die Dominica primo in terris datum est Manna Sienim ut Scriptura dicit sex diebus continuis collectum est septima autem die quae est Sabbati cessatum est sine dubid initium ejus a die prima quae est dies Dominica fuit quod si ex divinis Scripturis boc constat quod Die Dominica Deus pluit Manna de Coelo in Sabbato non pluit intelligant Judaei jam tunc praelatam esse Dominicam nostram Judaico Sabbato c. I demand saies he when the Manna began to fall from heaven and it is apparent from the Holy scriptures that Manna was first given upon the Lord's day For if as the Scripture says they gathered it six days together and ceased the seventh being the Sabbath day without controversie it began to fall on the first day which is is the Lord's day which being manifest from the Divine Scriptures that upon the Lords day God rained Manna from Heaven and upon the Sabbath none let the Jews understand that even then our Lords day was preferred before the Jewish Sabbath And presently after he adds Vpon our Lords day the Lord always rains Manna from heaven and what he means by Manna he tells them Viz. The heavenly Oracles the Word read and preacht to the people Where note First That he calls the seventh day the Jews Sabbath In nostra enim Dominica die semper pluit Domnius Manua de coelo Caelestia namque sunt eloquia ista c. Orlg. in Exod. 16. Hom. 7. not the the Christians Sabbath Secondly He titles the first day of the week the Lords day and our Lords day Thirdly he testifies that on this day the Church in his time had always Manna from Heaven in the publike Ministry of the Word and all this in opposition to the Jews Sabbath which what else can it signifie but the change of the day I might also allege that 23. Homily upon Humbers where this Antient Father calls the Lords day our Christian Sabbath and that in a literal sense as being a day of rest or cessation ab omnibus secularibus operibus from all secular works 6. Cyptian Hier. Cat. log Nam quia octavus dies i. e. post Sabbatum primus dies futurus erat quo Dominus resurgeret nos vivificaret spiritualem nobis daret circumcisionem hic dies octavus i.e. post Sabbatum primus Dominicus praecessit in imagine Câ—pr ep 59. ad Fid. which could not be meant of an every days Sabbath But I pass on to the next Witness namely Cyprian who flourished about the year of Christ 250 or 54. and received the crown of Martyrdom under Valerianus His words to our purpose are these For because the eighth day that is the first after the Sabbath was to be the day in which the Lord should arise and quicken us and give us the spiritual Circumcision this eighth day that is the first after the Sabbath and the Lords day went before in the shadow c. Where observe That he calls the first day of the week the Lords day and that in reference to Christ's resurrection secretly hinting the change of the day prefigured by Circumcision which was tied to the eighth day upon which the Infant being circumcised was accounted as a new creature as if it were risen again from death to life and this did typifie our first Resurrection from the death of sin to the life of grace by virtue of Christ's Refurrection whose Resurrection-day is called the eighth day John 20.26 Justin Martyr also insists upon this in his Dialogue with Trypho and it was the judgment of the Fathers generally that the change of the Sabbath was lapped up in that Sacrament of Circumcision About the year of our Lord 326. Anhanasius shone like a star in the eastern Church And his Testimony is clear as the light p 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Homil de Sement ad init Of old saies he the Sabbath was in great esteem among the anients but the Lord hath changed the Sabbath-day into the Lord's day The Lord himself did it sayes Athanasius And again Not we by our authority haue slighted the old Sabbath but in regard it did belong to the Pedagogy of the Law when Christ the great master came in place it became useless 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the candle is put out when the Sun shines What can be more plain T is true he seems to intimate that they did then occasionally meet upon the Jewes Sabbath but he gives a good account of it q 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Not saies he as if we were infected with Judaism but therefore we meet upon the Sabbath that we may worship the Lord of the Sabbath not out of any religious respect to that false Sabbath as he calls it but meerly in Devotion to Christ whereas on the contrary they celebrated the Lord's day with an honourable esteem of the day as it followes r 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ibid. p. 839. Therefore we honony the Lord's day because of the Lord's Resurrection Thus far famous Athanasius whose next neighbour was Hilary a French divine who livedi n the year 355. Hilarius 8. and left a most memorable record behind him of the Church's practice in his time r Nos ectava die quae ipsa prima est per fecti Sabbati festivi tate laetamur plolog in Isalm explan p. 335. Vpon the eighth day saith he which also is the first day we rejoyce in the Festivity of a perfect Sabbath Where we have enough to answer the imputation of Novelty for calling the Lord's day Sabbath however it was called it seem it was kept as a Sabbath in Hilarie's time yea long before t is true he calls it the 8th day also though it have a weekly return in the number of seven because counting on beyond the Jewish tale of weekly dayes comming next after their seventh it made the eighth See Mr. Ley. Sunday a Sabbath About the year 374. Ambrose 9 Ambrose was Bishop of Millain and he also ha's set his hand and seal to this sacred truth in sundry of his writings in his commentary upon the Colossians Or 377. acord to Chytraeus Chronol he expounds Ch. 2.17 Of the weekly Sabbath of the Jewes and paralels that place with Math. 12. The Son of man is Lord of the Sabbath day And indeed the change of the Sabbath does most powerfully preach Christ's Lordship and dominion over it Again to shew the high esteem that he and other Saints in his time had of the Lords day he Rhetoricates thus upon it Å¿ Dominica nobis ideo venerabilis atque solennis quia in co Salvator velut Sol exoriens discussis infernorum tenebris luce Resurrectionis emicuit de rat Fest Pent. Tom. 5. To us the Lords day is therefore
venerable and solemn because thereon our Saviour as the rising Sun having dispellea the darkness of death shone forth by the light of his resurrection And elswhere t Dies Sabbati evat dierum Ordine posterior sanctificatione legis anierior sea ubi finis legis advenit qui est Christus Jesus Rom. 10.4 resurrectione sua octavam sanctificavit caepit eadem prima esse quae octava est habens ex numeriordine praerogativam ex resurrectione Domini sanctitatem The Sabbath day was the last in order of dayes but the first in sanctification under the Law but when the end of the Law was come to wit Jesus Christ Rom. 10.4 and by his Resurrection had consecrated the eighth day that which is the eighth began to be the first being dignified by the precedency of the number and sanctified by the Resurrection of the Lord. Then speaking further by way of allusion to Luke 6. he addes u Vbi Dies Dominica â—aepit praecellere qua Dominus Resurrexerit Sabbatum quod primum erat secundum haberi caepit a primo prima enim requies Cessavit secunda successit unde ad Hebr. scribens Apostolus ait post hac die restat ergo requies populo Deim requies ergo vera non in operis cessatione sed in Kesurrectionis est tempore Ambr. Enar. in Tit. Psalm 47. When the Lords day on which our Lord arose began to excel the Sabbath which was the first began to be accounted the Second from the first For the first rest ceased and the second succeeded Whence the Apostle writing to the Hebrewes Ch. 4. speaks of another day there remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God Therefore the true rest is not now in the cessation of the work meaning the work of Creation but in the time of the Resurrection 'T is as much as if he had said the true Sabbath is not now the seventh day or last day of the week but the first day of the week this is that other day mentioned Heb. 4. this is the rest or Sabbatism that remaineth to the people of God I do the rather cite these sayings of the two worthy Father Ambrose because T.T. quotes him also for the Saturday-Sabbath which he was a zealous disputer against And although he preacht on that day it was but in preparation to the Lords day Hierom 10. Anno 385. Hierom is the next writer of note and eminency in the Church of God and he also speaks very honourably of the of the Lords day In his book against Vigilantius (w) Per unam Sabbati hoc est in die Dominico omnes conferre quae Hierosolymam in solatium dirigerentur praecipit Paulus Item ad Hedib quaestio 4. the Apostle Paul saith he commanded almost all Churches that there should be collections for the poor upon the first day of the week which is the Lords day And elsewhere he informs us how it was observed by the religious in his time x Dominicos dies orationi tantum lectioni vacant Ad Eustoch namely That they designed the Lords day wholly unto prayer and reading of the holy Scriptures For which he commends them and by commending approves their practice But of observing the Jewes Sabbath he speaks not a word only he interprets Gal. 4.10 as a repeal of the Saturday Sabbath and so does Tertullian also Libr. 1. Contr. Marc. Ch. 20. After Hierom comes Chrysostom Chrysostom 11. Anno 398. a painful and powerful preacher in his time and her how he thunders against Judaizing Christians y 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I will close my Sermon saies he with the words of Moses I call heaven and earth to witness against you that if any of us present or those that are absent shall go to look upon the Trumpets or meet in the Synagogues or go up to Matrona a Synagogue of the Jewes two or three miles from Antiochia in Daphne a pleasant village as himself describes it elswhere or joy in their Fasts or partake of their Sabbaths or perform any other Jewish custom great or small I am clear from the blood of you all these words shall stand up in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ between me and you and if you obey they shall give you great boldness but if you disobey or conceal any of them that presume to commit such like things they shall rife up as vehement witnesses against you c. See how zealous this holy man was against Jewish rites and customes and amongst the rest against their Sabbaths Neither was it blind zeal but zeal according to knowledge for he knew and ha's told us z 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That Paul perswaded the Churches of Christ to leave off Circumcision to slight the Sabbaths and dayes legal dayes he means and all other ceremonials And again a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Christ ha's freed us from these Jewish observances neither was his practice in these things intended for ouru pattern for as he kept the passeover with the Jewes not that we should keep it with them but that he might introduce the truth in stead of the shadow in like manner he also endured Circumcision and observed Sabbaths and celebrated their Festivals and did all these things at Jerusalem but to none of these are we subject Yet lest we should think Chrysostom an enemy to the Christian as well as the Jewes Sabbath consider what he sayes in another place treating of almes where he occasionally touches that Text 1 Cor. 16.1 2. concerning the collection for the Saints on the first day of the week and asks this question what reason the Apostle had to command this day for the oblation of their alms And answers it thus b Hom. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Item 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ubi supre Because this day they did abstain from all workes and the Soul was more cheerful by the rest of the day besides the good things received this day for on this day death was destroyed the curse was dissolved sin vanquished the gates of Hell broken in peices therefore saies he if we so honour our Birth-dayes how much more ought we to honour this day which may well be called the Birth-day of all Mankind and how often does this Father call the First day of the week the c 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In John 20. 1 Cor. 16.2 Lords day a royal day a day of rest and the like so others extol it Ignatius calls it the Queen of days the first day of the week and the first day of the world as truly the chiefest as it is undoubtedly the first of dayes saies Eusebius a most Holy day sayes Athanasius higher than the highest saith Nazianzen So sincerely were the Antients devoted to the solemnity of this day that in honour of Christ the Author of it they thought they could never sufficiently grace and garnish it
man that as the Christian religion was professed so the Christian Sabbath was practised when there was no Christian Magistrate in the world and that all the Christian world over long before Constantines time Which one would think were enough to put to silence lying lips O Obj. 3 but Merator and Dr. Hen in tell us that in the Aethiopick Churches both dayes are still observed True Answ but they tell us also Dr. Heylin I am sure does that both dayes are observed as Sabbaths and accordingly called For they call the Saturday the Jewes Sabbath and the Lords day the Christian Sabbath so that what ever their practice be 'T is none of their pinciples that the Saturday-Sabbath is the Christian Sabbath And as for their practice 't is little to be regarded considering their corruption For together with the Saturday-Sabbath they observe * Mr. Breerwoods inquiries circumcision too on the eighth day with many other Jewish and Anti-Christian customes Blessed be God for that better light which shines in the Churches of Europe The testimonies taken out of Socrates do only prove that in his time namely 400 years after Christ some Churches did meet together and break bread on the old Sabbath Which we deny not only we say that the Lords day had stil the preheminence and that in four things as learned Dr. Young ha's observed 1. That the Saturday-Sabbath was never the day of solemn assemblies in all Churches for the constom of holding assemblies on that day never obtained in the Churches of Rome and Alexandria as Sozomon testifies lib. 7. c. 19. Whereas all Churches had their Church-meetings on the Lords day not one excepted 2. The Saturday or old Sabbath was never kept as a solemn Festival for in many Churches it was a weekly Fasting-day and once a year in all Churches namely Easter-Eve Constit lib. 7. c. 24. and lib. 5. c. 15. being the day of Christs greatest abasement while he lay in the grave and under the sorrowes of death whereas every Lords day throughout the year was held a solemn Festival Constit lib. 7. c. 31. 3. All Ordinances were never administred with that uniformity on the old Sabbath as on the Lords day August ep 118. Socrates lib 5. c. 22. as the Ordinance of the Lords Supper which in the purest Churches was appropriate to the Lords day which was therefore called the day of bread as we noted before Athan. Apol. 2. Hence that memorable passage of Athanasius who being accused for Breaking a Communion-cup clears himself thus That time instanced by his accusers was no Communion-time for it was not the Lords day 4. Their conventions on the old Sabbath were ever arbitrary not urged as of necessity unless by Ebion and his followers who were therefore condemned as Hereticks But the observation of the Lords day was ever held a Christian duty and never were any stigmatized with that black brand of Heresie for observing of it nay it was the badge of Christianity I am a Christian I dare not intermit it to all these I may add 5. The old Sabbath was never the Christian Sabbath or day of rest but a working-day So in Ignatius's time Anno 314. he counselled Christians to work upon it and the Council of Laodicea made a decree to this purpose That Christians ought not to Judaize and to rest from work on the Sabbath-day but to prefer the Lords day before it and to rest thereon from labour In which words as Mr. Cawdrey well observes this Synod did but expound the sentence of of holy Ignatius I might instance also the Council at Eliberis Carthage Arragon Mascon Chalons and other both Fathers Councills and Christian Emperours but others have prevented me in this kind of Antiquity So much for the fourth Position POSITION V. That the Lords day or first day of the week commonly called Sunday is the Christian Sabbath or day of holy rest THis does naturally result from the premises For the day being changed and yet the law concerning the Sabbath continued and established the new day must needs be a day of rest as it rests on the authority and morality of the fourth Commandment and as it succeeds the old day in Sabbath-solemnity Yet it is not so much the name as the thing that I contend for For although I am fully convinced that as our spirituall exercises are called Sacrifices because they succeed in the place of the Jewes Sacrifices so and much more significantly may our Lords day be termed Sabbath because it * Succeeds I mean not in any ceremonious respect but in relation to the fourth Commandment succeeds in the place of the Jewes Sabbath yet I had rather insist upon the thing than the name because the one being proved the other cannot well be denyed No rational man will stick at nominal respect where there is a real right to it A name of rest will be easily granted due to a day of rest now that the Lords day is without dispute a day of rest appears thus Cum de re constat propier quam vorba dicuntur de verbis non debore contendi c. August cont Acad. l. 3. c. 13. First As it is the day of our Redeemers rest from his painful work of Redemption his rising from the dead was his resting from his work By his Resurrection this day he entred into his rest for hereby as was said before he entred into his glory which will further appear by comparing two texts together viz. John 7.39 with John 20.22 The first tells us That the spirit was not yet given because Jesus was not yet glorified therefore when the Spirit was given surely then Christ was glorified Now the other Text informs us That upon the day of Christs Resurrection the Spirit was given For he breathed on them and said Receive the Holy Ghost Now therefore undoubtedly the Lord of glory was crowned with glory not that he entred into the place of rest and glory upon the day of his Resurrection but into the state of rest and glory the place is but accidental to the state that which I modestly propounded to further inquiry page 128. Namely Whether Christ did not locally ascend into Heaven on the very day of his Resurrection has been since concluded and resolved in the Negative by a Reverend Brother from that Text of Scripture Hebr. 9 12. by his own blood he entred once into the Holy place Which seems to a gue strongly that our blessed High Priest entred once and but once into Heaven To which I do now freely subscribe Errare possum Haereticus esse nolo Secondly The Lords day is a day of Religious Assemblies for solemn weekly worship therefore also a day of religious rest from civil and secular imployments Since 't is impossible for men to meet together about solemn Worship and at the same time to follow their worldly occasions observed as Sabbaths as the Feast of unleavened bread * Deut.
16.8 On the seventh day shall be a solemn Assembly to the Lord thy God thou sahlt do not work therein And as the seventh or last so also the first day of that Feast was to be a day of rest because a day of Convocation On the first day shall be a holy convocation ye shall do no servile work therein saith the Lord. Numb 28.17 18. Now that first day of unleavened bread being a memorial of their Redemption from Egypt was typical of our Christian Sabbath as was noted before And besides there being a moral equity in Gods argument that a day of holy Worship and holy Convocations must be a day of rest it is as applicable to the Lords day as ever it was to any day for we have abundantly proved that this is a holy Convocation-day and 't is a good note that of Mr. Ainsworth on Deut. 16.8 That the Hebrew word Gnat-sereth which we translate solemn Assemblies does also signifie restraint from labour whereby the Holy Ghost would teach us that Holi days set apart for solemn assemblies must be days of holy rest and restraint from work Such is the Lords day to us Christians and no other day but that a day of solemn Assembly it is and has bin from the Apostles days till now yea a day of solemn Worship therfore a day of rest or Sabbath day yea a day of solemn weekly worship therefore the undoubted Sabbath of the fourth Commandment which is the standing rule for a day of weekly worship and but a day ordinarily for the Commandment numbers out six days in the week for worldly business As when a man makes two Wils the last does ipso facto make void the first although there be no express clause to signifie the repeal or revocation and one for religious exercises neither more nor lesse So that supposing there were no repeal of the last day of the week yet the first day being instituted by Divine Authority makes void the last and takes possession of its place by the warrant of the Divine Precept it self Again as the Ministry and the Sacraments appointed by Christ are used by virtue of the second Commandment so the day appointed by Christ must be observed by virtue of the fourth Commandment because this is the general scope both of the second and fourth Commandment that we must observe all the Institutions of God from time to time I might argue further from that prophetical speech of our Saviour Matth. 24.20 where he presignifies to his Disciples that there should be a Sabbath in force long after his death at such time as the old seventh-day-Sabbath was either quite out of doors or out of date at least therefore he spake of the Christian Sabbath which we are obliged both by Law and Gospel to observe The Ancients indeed do seldom apply the title of Sabbath to the Lords day yet sometimes they do They were but too jealous of Judaizing in this particular Orat. in Christi Resurrect Ex illo Sabbato praesens hoc Sabbatum agnosce c. Sic quâ— que ritè sanctificamus Sabbatum Domini Dicente Domino omne â—pus c. Tract de tempore 152. Gregory Nyssen is express for having spoken of the old Sabbath he presently adds from that Sabbath acknowledge thou this present Sabbath the Lords day this day of rest which God hath blessed above other days For in this the only begotten Son of God did truly rest from all his works So also Austin or he that writ the Book De tempore having pleaded the due celebration of the Lords day he concludes with respect to the fourth Commandment concerning the Sabbath so do we rightly sanctifie the Sabbath of the Lord as the Lord hath said In it thou shalt do no work Hence that Royal Edict of Charles the Great published in the year 789. We ordain says he according as it is commanded in the Law of God that no man do servile work on the Lords day To which may be added the decree of King Edgar expresly stiling the Lords day the Sabbath day Diem Sabbati ab ipsa Die Saturni hora pomeridiara tertia usque in Lunaris diei dilaculum festum agitari taking order that the Sabbath should be celebrated from Saturday three a clock in the afternoon till Munday morning at break of day and this was in the year of Christ 959. seven hundred years ago better Antiquity than any can be produced or so much as pretended against this appellation If it be objected That this was in times of Popery I answer That even since the Reformation the Lords day hath been frequently called by the name Sabbath Those precious but persecuted Saints To all these might be added the Church of England Can. 70. So Hom. of time and place of prayer the Waldenses in a Catechism of theirs teach their children to call it by this name And the holy Martyr Bp Hooper in his treatise on the ten Commandements uses the same Dialect some scores more might be reckoned if need were But leaving these Authors I return to the Objector who sets all his wits a work to prove the Lords day a working day most sinfully and shamefully abusing the Scriptures to this purpose I am loth to stain my Paper with his profane Sophisms yet lest his ignorant and erroneous Proselites should take them for unanswerable Arguments I shall briefly sum up all into one Objection and return several answers to it Object T.T. p. 14. of his Pamphlet In stead of that honour put upon the first day of the week First The Father wrought upon it Gen. 1. and therefore we should be his followers as dear children Ephes 5.1 Secondly The son travelled upon it Luke 24.13 15. And he hath given us an example that we should do as he hath done John 13.15 Thirdly The Saints cast their accounts upon it 1 Cor. 16.2 And so may we Thus he quotes Scripture to as good purpose as that Arch Sophister did Matth. 4 But we shall answer him soberly though he deserve it not Answ 1. That which was the Fathers working-day at the Worlds Creation was the Sons Rest day from the work of Redemption and we must not be sollowers of God in contradiction to Christ or oppose the works of God against the Word of God lest in stead of followers as dear children we be found fighters against him as desperate enemies the first day of the week was a common day when it was made at first Gen. 1. but since it is made again and made a solemn day a day of holy worship Psal 118.24 therefore no working day now but to such as have no God to worship or no hearts to worship him God the Father wrought upon the first day of the week yet Israel must not work on this day once a year at least Viz. on the day of unleavened bread as often as it fell on this day Numb 23.18 why because it was a day
of holy Convocation and so is every first day of the week to us which as some conceive the Holy Ghost foretold long since by the Prophet Ezekiel saying Ezek. 43.27 It shall be that upon the eight day and so forward the Priests shall make your burnt offerings upon the altar and your peace-offerings or thank offerings and I will accept you saith the Lord 't is a clear prophecy of Gospel-times if not the special time of Gospel-worship upon the eighth day i.e. the first day of the week Answ 2. Touching our Saviours travelling this day I have answered before That it was without labour such as is the motion of immortal and glorified bodies and therefore no President for us who dwell in these corruptible houses of clay And I add moreover That Christs walking with his Disciples that day was no more an impeachment to the holy rest of the first day than the Fathers working every day to the Sabbatical rest of the seventh day 'T is our Saviours own Argument in answer to a like objection My Father worketh hitherto and I work John 5.17 That I termed this journey to Emmaus a Sabbath-days journey was in reference to the discourse by the way not the length of the way To which upon second thoughts I add this further answer That 't is very uncertain whether Christ travelled all the way on foot to Emmaus and back again The Scripture is silent and therefore we may not speak The Objector indeed has it often up That Christ travelled fifteen miles on his Resurrection-day but he speaks without Book and can never prove it by Scripture for he might overtake the two Disciples near Emmaus and how he came there we read not neither can we tell how he conveyed himself back again to Jerusalem Guesses and conjectures are no arguments Answ 3. That the Saints cast their accounts on this day I utterly deny we have nothing but the bold and bare word of the Objector to prove it and let him not blame us if we look not upon him as such a Pythagoras that his Ipse dixit should carry it More might be added in pursuance and prosecution of this Thesis that the Lords day is the Christian Sabbath but Mr. Cawdrey Mr. Bernard Mr. Ley and sundry others have spared me this labour POSITION VI. That the Sabbath begins in the Morning THis Position hath been also handled and proved abundantly by others chiefly by Mr. Cawdrey and Mr. Pynchon whose Arguments I judge unanswerable 'T is to me an unquestionable conclusion That the Sabbath being a natural day consisting of 24 hours it must begin and end as the natural day it self does Now in Scripture-account the natural day begins and ends at or about midnight that it begins in the dark night is evident from that fore-mentioned place Mark 1.35 Where we read of our Saviours rising in the morning a great while before day or while it was deep in the night Hence also the evening of the natural day is reckoned from about noon or mid-day Matth. 14.13 When the evening was come the Disciples came to Christ The Scripture speaks of two evenings Exod. 30.8 Chap. 16.12 about sending away the multitude to seek their dinner in the Villages and that this was not the sun-set-evening is clear for after the multitude had dined and were dismissed we read of another evening v. 23. so that the former evening all circumstances considered must needs be about mid-day therefore it must have a morning answerable to it which must necessarily begin about mid-night when the a Jonah 4.7 morning-Sun begins to ascend as it does from mid-night till mid-day or b Prov. 4.18 perfect day and then it declines again and the c Jer. 6.4 shadows begin to be stretched out called the shadows of the evening till they fall into the darkness of the night which is deepest at mid-night Against those that begin the natural day and so the Sabbath at Sun-set evening we may object this which they can never answer That by their reckoning Christ must rise from the dead the second not the third day after his burial For 't is clear that he was not buried or inclosed in the heart of the earth till after the sun-set evening Matth. 27.57 Mark 15.42 For Joseph went not to Pilate to beg the body till the even was come namely the later evening which begins at Sun-set and after this there were many things to be done before the blessed body of Christ was laid in the Sepulchre As the (c) Mark 15.46 buying of fine linnen to wrap it in besides the imbalming or perfuming it with d John 19.40 spices and odours as the manner of the Jews was to bury This together with other Funeral rites took up some time so that it must needs be after Sun-set before this sad Funeral was finished Now if the Sabbath had begun with the Sun-set evening Christs Resurrection-day being the morrow after the Sabbath could be but the second day whereas it is a great Article of our faith grounded upon the e 1 Cor. 15.4 Scriptures That Christ rose from the dead the third day to fulfill the type of Jonas Further however the Jews in later times begun their Sabbath at evening as we grant they did superstitiously reckoning their preparation-time part of their Sabbath-time yet it is very considerable that the Holy Ghost keeps a contrary account stating the end of the Sabbath towards the dawning of the day following as Matth. 28.1 in the end of the Sabbath which dawned towards the first day of the week Now if the Sabbath ended at the dawning towards the next day then it must needs begin about the same time the day before and as the old Sabbath began and ended in Gods account so must the Lords day In a word how preposterous is it and incongruous both to Scripture and nature to begin the day at evening how ill does this agree with those Texts of Scripture that make the morning the first part of the day and evening the last The Angels we know are called f Job 38.7 morning stars not evening start because they were created in the beginning of the Creation and the days of the Gospel are called g Zech. 14.7 evening in the evening it shall be light because they are the last days according to the common Dialect of Scripture h Psal 5.3 Psal 143.8 Gen. 49.27 morning time is first evening last and evening never signifies early but late because it is the later part of the day But others have sufficiently cleared this truth already to add any more were but to light a candle to the Sun A word or two in answer to the Objections and we have done First Object 1 T. T. p. 56. We are told that Gen. 1. the day began at evening for the darkness went before the light and this darkness with the ensuing light saies the Objector made the first day and
inhabitants of the earth to b Isai 26.9 10. learn righteousness and it is doubtless our duty with humble reverence and holy awfulness of the divine Majesty soberly to observe and improve them inadvertency of Gods judiciary proceedings is a c Psal 28.5 and 10.4 5. Isai 5.12 sin frequently condemned in Scripture and severely threatned Reader if neither Scripture-Arguments nor exemplary judgments will reclaim thee from violation of the Lords day proceed on in thy prophaneness still it may be the Lord will make thee the next example to teach others what thou wilt not learn thy self Something might also be added from Christian experience 't is observable that when the Spirit comes effectually to convince of sin commonly one of the first sins which the eye of inlightned Conscience fixes upon is the neglect of the Lords day and conviction ending in conversion one of the first duties which the soul comes seriously to close withal is the strict observing of the Lords day grace works much this way and does exceedingly dispose the heart to this duty for which I dare appeal to the Consciences of many thousand living Witnesses Add to this the spiritual profit and sensible growth of grace with the sweet comfort and final peace experienced this way Tell me where does true Religion thrive better and the power of godliness flourish and prosper more than in Families Cities Countries and Kingdoms where the Lords day is duly observed on the contrary where does superstition irreligion Atheism and profaneness abound more than where this day is neglected and vilified 't is a serious Observation of a learned * Dr. Hakewils discourse of the Institution dignity and end of the Lords day Author concerning the ingress and progress of Popery in former times Namely That after-ages much degenerating from the simplicity of the Primitive times so infinitely multiplied and magnified their holy-days beyond all measure and reason that the Lords day began to be slighted and accounted with many a common Holy-day perchance inferiour to some of their Saints days which no doubt was a special occasion of that thick cloud of Superstition which afterwards overshadowed the face of the Church and in appearance the reducing of this day to its original honour would prove the readiest means to restore the Church again to her original lustre and beauty even in those places where that cloud is not yet dispelled c. But this by the way Secondly In order to the sanctifying of the Lords day we must cease not only from doing our own works but from speaking our own words Good reason for it is none of our own day therefore let none say Our tongue is our own on this day Christian if thou canst not speak religiously on the Lords day learn to speak sparingly rather be silent then sinful in thy speeches Valerius Maximus reporteth of Zenocrates that being in company with some who used ill language he was very mute and being asked the reason he replyed It hath often repented me that I have spoken never that I have held my peace Thus much the Scripture teaches us That in the multitude of words there wanteth not sin therefore d Prov. 17.27 28. he that spareth his words is wise Indeed if a man speak of heavenly things on the Lords holy day he may with Paul continue his discourse till mid-night and never speak too much but of earthly things we cannot speak too little Oh that our hearts and lips were more heavenly on the Lords day that there might be more sprinklings of grace and heaven in all our Sabbath-day discourses how much were it to be wished that on this day Christians would speak less of what they saw more of what they heard in the publike assemblies Alas should the Lord put that Question to many Christians now which once he did on this day to the two Disciples going to Emmaus What manner of communication is this that ye have one with another how would it put some thousands to the blush who have nothing but earth or froth in their mouths Thirdly we must also lay a charge upon our hearts not to think our own thoughts on the Lords day Rom. 7.14 For the Law of God is spiritual and bindeth the heart from thinking as well as the tongue from speaking or the hand from working Besides what vile hypocrisie is it to lay a restraint upon our words and actions when in the mean time we give scope and liberty to our thoughts to wander after a thousand vanities this is just like painted Sepulchres fair without but full of rottenness and dead mens bones within Further our own vain and worldly thoughts are great distractions and obstructions to the duties of the day Exod. 8.24 like that plague of flies in Egypt which was so vexatious that they could neither work nor eat nor drink and 10.12 but the Flies molested them Such a plague is a worldly heart on the Lords day a man can neither pray nor hear nor meditate but earthly thoughts pester and disturb him yea like that plague of Locusts that devoured all earthly thoughts eat up all the pleasant fruit of Sabbaths and Sermons Luke 8.14 yea like thorns they choak the very seed of the Word and render it unprofitable How highly does it concern us therefore on the Lords day especially to look to our hearts Now if ever Solomons counsel is seasonable * Prov. 4.23 Keep thy heart with all diligence Or Cum omni custodiâ with all keeping as some read it set guards and double guards upon it for as Bernard truly speaks Corde nihil fugacius Nothing is more flitting then the heart of man 't is a wandring Dinah we had need watch it warily and check it speedily when it begins to hanker-after the world In a word to cure evill and earthly thoughts on the Lords day we should do well to awe our hearts with the apprehension of Gods all-seeing eye 'T is observable that our Lord appeared to his servant John upon his own day in a heart-searching-similitude His eyes were as a flame of fire Rev. 1.14 not only burning in jealousie against sin and sinners but bright and shining as the searcher of hearts and tryer of reins by which title he then also stiled himself Rev. 2.23 Consider Christian that on the Lords day especially thy heart lies under the view of that fiery flaming eye of Christ therefore let thy thoughts be none but such as that pure and piercing eye will approve and if Christ as the searcher of hearts be not awful to thee yet me thinks Christ as the judge of secrets should O let the terror of that last day work upon our hearts every Lords day the seat of the Judge is fitly resembled by a cloud not a throne of silver or gold but a cloud Rev. 14.14 Now as we know the clouds are storehouses of refreshing showres so also of storms and tempests and thus doubtless that
stood by the Sepulchre and seen the Sun of righteousness covered with a cloud before shining forth most gloriously in the morning of the Resurrection-day how would this have raised and ravished thy heart How glad were the Disciples when they saw the Lord so glad that 't is said They beleeved not for joy O the day of Christs rising from the dead was a day of joy and gladness John 20.20 Luke 24.41 No day like this when our surety was released the Covenant and sure mercies of David confirmed hope revived heaven and eternal life assured In the midst of these thoughts who can but cry out with the Apostle O that I may know him and the power of his resurrection Phil. 3.10 That I may feel the working of that mighty power which God wrought in Christ Eph. 1.19 when he raised him from the dead O that the same * Rom. 1.4 and 6.4 5. spirit of holiness which quickned Christ from the dead this day and so made the day holy would also quicken my soul from the death of sin to the life of holiness that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father even so I also might walk in newness of life being planted into the likeness of his resurrection as also of his death Our hearts being thus tuned by meditation how should our tongues shew forth the praises of our precious Redeemer Let him have the praise and the glory of the whole work of our Redemption Awake my glory utter a song Sing that Psalm of John the Divine Vnto him that loved us Rev. 1.5 6. and washed us from our sins in his own blood and hath made us Kings and Priests unto God and his Father To him be glory and dominion for ever and ever Thus give unto Christ the glory of his death yea the praise of his Resurrection say with Peter Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ 1 Pet. 1.3 4. who acording to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again to a lively hope by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled reserved in heaven for us Surely God requires a thousand thousand Hallelujahs for this blessed work of our Redemption he calls upon all creatures to join with us in rejoycing upon this account Isai 44.23 Sing O ye Heavens for the Lord hath done it shout O ye lower parts of the earth break forth into singing ye mountains O forrest and every tree therein for the Lord hath redeemed Jacob Let us therefore devote our selves more solemnly to this Angelical service begin the day with prayer and end it with praise not only in publike but in private O that every house were in this respect a temple that the songs of the Temple might be heard in all our tabernacles on the Lords day that the streets might ring with our praises even the high praises of our Creator and Redeemer 'T is Scripture counsel That we should speak to our selves in Psalms Ephes 5 19. and Hymns and spiritual songs singing and making melody in our hearts to the Lord and singing with grace in our hearts grace in the heart as one saies well is the best tune to every Psalm We must sing with the Spirit as well as pray with the spirit And therefore we should labour to be with S. John in the Spirit on the Lords day In a word Christian prudence should direct us to chuse out sutable Psalms for such a solemn day Psal 118. is very proper and pertinent The stone which the builders refused is become the head of the corner this is the Lords doing and it is marvellons in our eyes This is the day which the Lord hath made we will be glad and rejoyce in it God is the Lord which hath shewed us light c. Thou art my God and I will praise thee Thou art my God I will exalt thee O give thanks unto the Lord for he is good for his mercy endureth for ever Thus much in brief concerning the prime duties of the day I shall conclude all with the words of that Prince of English Poets HERBERT O day most calm and bright The week were dark but for thy light The other days and thou Make up one man whose face thou art Knocking at heaven with thy brow The working days are the back-part The Sundays of mans life Thredded together on times string Make bracelets to adorn the wife Of the eternal glorious King Thou art the day of mirth And where the work-days trail on ground Thy Flight is higher as thy birth O let me take thee at thy bound Leaping with thee from seven to seven Till that we both being toss'd from earth Fly hand in hand to heaven FINIS Books sold by John Rothwel at the Fountain in Goldsmiths Row in Cheapside THe Use and Practise of Faith or Faiths Universal usefulness and quickning influence into every kind and degree of the Christian life Delivered in the Publike Lectures at Ipswich by the late eminent and Faithful Servant of his Lord Mr. Matthew Laurence Preacher to the said Town 4o. Festered Conscience new lanced The Good Masters Plea and the Evil Servants Cavil Orthodxal Navigation by Benjamin Hubbard The Saints Rest in an Evil day both in their dependance upon God and assistance from him Together with Bowels of Mercy interceding for the Saints in danger Or Sacred Sympathy unsealed by Alex. Pringle late Minister of the Gospel at Georges Southwark The Universal Character by which all Nations in the World may understand one another Conceptions reading out of one common Writing their own Mother-tongues an invention of general use the Practise whereof may be atteined in two hours space observing the Grammatical Directions which Character is so contrived that it may be spoken as well as written By Cave Beck M. A. The same Book is also Printed in French for the use of that Nation The Reign of Gustavus King of Sweden son of Ericus collected out of the Histories of those times and offered to the service of these A Sermon preached at the Funeral of Mr. Samuel Collins Minister of Braintree in Essex By Matthew Newcomen Minister of Dedham in the same County The Saints Delight in the Spring of Salvation Or Christ saving Delivered in a Sermon at Gregories by Pauls the day of their solemn Weekly Lecture there by Alex. Pringle late Pastor of Georges Southwark
Man cannot make perfecter distributions of time then God himself hath made since therefore there must be a time or season of solemn worship it must of necessity be taken out of one of these it must be either a day out of a week or a day or week out of a moneth or a moneth out of a year less then a day out of a week I cannot yield since I cannot so much as pretend that lest is sufficient for God and my soul when more may conveniently be had Again a week out of a moneth or a moneth out of a year I cannot subscribe unto as either convenient or equal See Iren. philal uâ—â— plur since experience tells me that the necessities both of civil and soul-affaires require a mutual interchange of speedier dispatches and quicker returns therefore I must conclude Gods proportion is most just and equal when all is done viz. one day of seven and but one of seven ordinarily two dayes in a week or out day in two weeks I find no rule for in the written word Gods first division of time was into dayes and his first multiplication of dayes into weeks and ever since his select portion has been one day in the circle of every week This was the constant tribute paid him under the Old Testament on the last day and under the New Testament on the first day of the week this therefore is moral and perpetual being of Gods own assignation of the Churches constant observation and in it self the most exact proportion consequently the Commandment in this respect must needs be moral the rather because in all this there can beno ceremony the number of seven is generally taken for a number of perfection but who ere fancied it to be of a ceremonlous signification What type or ceremony can there be imagined in seven more then in six to make types of meer figures is such a kind of Cabalism as I suppose never came into any sober mind But here I must resolve a scruple or two The Jews seventh day was ceremonious Scrup. 1. See Dr. Willes on Exod. â—o Dr. Twiss p. 74. as the learned generally assert and if so why not one day in seven also If the particular day were shadowy why not the proportion also It followes not at all unless you will say Resol that those particular Sacraments under the law Circumcision and the Passeover being ceremonial make the like number of Sacraments under the Gospel viz. Baptism and the Lords Supper ceremonial too the reason is alike in both for the Ceremony stood not in the proportion or number but in the particularity or nature of that day and those duties But you have formerly granted Scrup. 2. that the fourth Commandment did point at that particular seventh day under the term seventh day therefore the fourth Commandment was in that respect ceremonial I have indeed granted Res that the Commandment did indirectly and occasionally point at that precise seventh day but not particularly only within the general scope of it or as a general rule equally communicable to that day as being elswhere appointed of God while it stood and to our day now it is substituted in the room of that by the same Divine appointment And if this were heedfully observed the scruple were soon answered But here lies the mistake men would fain scrue in the seventh day from that presixed period of creation into the heart of the Commandment and make that seventh day and a seventh day of equal dimensions which can never be unless they will render the Commandment ceremonial whereas to affirm as I do that the Commandment indirectly pointed at that day as being then under Divine Sanction does no more place a ceremony in the fourth Commandment then it does in the fifth to say that by Father and Mother were meant not only natural but civil and Ecclesiastical parents and occasionally such as were Typical as not only the Priests and Levites but Moses and Aaron also who were to be honoured by vertue of the fifth Commandment and that as Fathers in a figutative sense From which instance thus much is manifest that a moral precept may occasionally point at something ceremonial and yet retaine its own morality So that neither a Sabbath nor a weekly Sabbath were ever shadowes of things to come But Secondly That Sabbath and particular seventh day which the Jewes observed was certainly of a shadowy nature Dr. Tailour observes in his Christ revealed p. 4. 1. That as the body is the cause of the shadow so was Christ of the ceremonies 2. As the shadow represents the shape motions and actions of the body so did the legall shadows resemble Christ in his actions and passions and I add why may not both these be affirmed of the old Sabbath For 1. It was occasioned at first by Christ as the shadow is by the body B. Christ I say in the promise 2. It shadowed out something of Christ and the ancients generally understood it as a shadow of his rest that day in the grave being instituted at first with reference to Christ as all other shadowes were and having an accessory type afterwards affixed to it And of this we may safely expound that forementioned Text Colos 2.16 Let no man judge you in meat or in drink or in respect of an holy day or now moon or Sabbaths which were shadown of things to come but the body is of Christ The only question is whether their weekly Sabbath were here intended Some are jealous lest in pressing it so farr it should prove prejudicial to our weekly Christian Sabbath but this is meet causless jealously For let us but ponder the scope of the place and it will appear that the Apostles design is not to level Christian dayes and duties but such as the Jewes observed and would have intruded together with circumcision and other legal rites into the Church of Christ This is evident for he writes both against distinctions of meats and dayes Now under that clause of meats and drink shall we say he condemns all distinctions of meats and drinks in matters of religion What of bread and Wine in the Lords Supper too or in disputing against the Jewes Sacraments especially circumcumcision does Paul strike at all Sacraments what baptism and all no 't is aparent that in all those three Texts usually alledged Rom. 10.5 6 Gal. 4.10 Colos 2.16 He cryes down the Ordinances of the Law or old Testament not the institutions of the Gospel Look what the Jewish fals-teachers cryed up St. Paul cryes down i. e. their Sabbaths and their Sacraments 'T is not likely that they ever pleaded for the Christian Sabbath the first day of the week and therefore t is most improbable that the Apostle in opposing them should implead that In a word Dies Dominicus non est umbrae rerum futurarum sed rei praeterita viz. gloriosae Christi resurrectionis grata Recordatio Brochmand Syst Theol.
the Sabbaths here specified were a shadow of things to come whereas the Lords day as one well observes is only a memorial of something past to wit the glorious resurrection of Jesus Christ So that to argue from hence against all difference of dayes under the Gospel as the old Anabaptists and Familists do is evidently to stretch the Text beyond the stapse But to urge it against all the Jewes Holy-dayes their weekly Sabbath and all is not at all to force it For First The Apostle seemes to speak distinctly and distributively enumerating the several sorts of dayes in observation among the Jewes Holy-day New moons Sabbaths and the gradation from yeerly holy-dayes to monthly new Moons and from them to weekly Sabbaths is visible enough to such as are not blinded with prejudice See Mr. Shepheard Thes 20. part 2. Secondly The plural term Sabbaths is usually put for the singular the Sabbath or seventh day now under dispute Yea I cannot find any one Text in all the new Testament where it is applied in the same number to any other day or Sabbath but the old seventh-day-Sabbath * Math. 12.1.5.10.12 Mark 1.21 ch 2 24. ch 3. v. 2. Lu. 4.31 ch 13 v. 10. Acts 13 14. in all these Texts t is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Seven or eight times the same word as it is here set down in the plural number is used for that old weekly Sabbath and not so much as once for any yearly Sabbath therefore inall reason that precise weekly Sabbath must be here I willnot say in cluded only but principally intended Thirdly * 2 Kin. 4.23 even in the old Testament where ever New Moons and Sabbaths go coupled together unless the phrase be figurative 1 Chro. 23.31 2 Cron. 1.4 ch 8.13 ch 31 v. 3. Nehem. 10.33 Ezek. 45.17 Hos 2.11 Amos 8.5 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as in Isai 66.23 the Jews weekly Sabbath is denoted by it as appears by those several Scriptures cited in the margin in most of which their annual Sabbaths are excepted and distinguished by another name scil Feasts to which answers the words holy-day in this place Colos 2.16 For indeed the word in the original fignifies a feast or festival day Thus let Scripture expound Scripture and truth will be truth in spight of errour take the whole sentence together holy-day new Moon Sabhaths and if it be an Old Testament-phrase it alwayes implies the old seventh day-Sabbath or take the words Sabbaths singly by it self and if it be a New Testament-term as 't is like it is it ever I think I may truely say ever signifies the same seventh day unless when it is put for the week which here it cannot be The conclusion then is undeniable that the Jews seventh day Sabbath was a shadowy Sabbath and therefore it cannot be our Christian Sabbath for what have we to do with shadowes under the Sun-shine of the Gospel under the clear and bright discoveries of Christ 2 Cor. 3.18 when we may with open face as in a glass behold the glory of the Lord. Oh that the spirit of truth would take away that vail that lies upon the hearts of men that vail of errour and darkness which keeps out the light of this truth for a truth it is a plain truth as plain as Scripture can make it that the Sabbaths here mentioned were a shadow of things to come and I have made it evident that the old Sabbath as to the day is here chiefly intended it is not necessary that I should trouble the Reader to tell him my judgment what kind of shadow it was or what was shadowed by it in particular whether Christs rest that day full and whole in the grave or his rest the next day from the grave or a believers rest in Christ a compleat Saviour But this is certain a shadow it was of which something in Christ was the body and the body being come the shadow must be gone And so I might proceed to another argument but I must first remove some objections wherewith the Adversary has indeavoured to block up our way But all in vain First he tells us T.T. Obj. 1. p. 23.24 25. 't is evident at first sight that only such Sabbaths are ceased as were shadows of good things to come but the seventh day was never such a Sabbath A sign indeed of good things past and present it was but never termed a shadow of things to come This proceeds upon his accustomed fallacy Answ petitio principij a begging of the thing in question for he would make us believe that the old seventh day was none of the Sabbaths here intended which if we deny as we do then he has lost his conclusion for in this very Text it is termed a shadow of things to come what if we grant it a sign of something past so were the annual Sabbaths as he calls them Passeover Pentecost c. the one of their preservation in Egypt the other of the giving of Gods law yet both shadowes of things to come or else the Apostle was much mistaken The blessed Spirit by two other terms declares clearly what Sabbaths are ceased Ob. 2 1. Such as were against us 2. Contrary to us and such were those annual Sabbaths requiring great labour and travel in coming three times a year from all parts to Jerusalem the seventh day-Sabbath was never in the least against us nor contrary to us unless so far as we are against God and contrary to him as 't is elsewhere added 'T is very questionable Answ 1 whether these three annual Festivals Passeover Pentecost and the feast of Tabernacles be ever termed Sabbaths in Scripture indeed the Sabbatical years as every seventh year and every fiftieth year ae five or six times termed a Levit. 25.8 c. 26.34 35 43. Sabbaths 2 Chron. 36.21 but the Jews themselves could never say these were against them or contrary tot hem the one being a year of rest to their lands the other a year of release to their servants The weekly Sabbath or seventh day directly intended in the fourth Commandment I grant is nto againt us Answ 2 neither are we against it we own it we observe it and shall do I trust till we enjoy our everlasting Sabbath in Heaven But The seventh-day-Sabbath imposed upon the Jews or rather the hand-writing of Ordinances not Gods hand-writing but Moses hand writing was in some sense against us Gentiles and contrary to us as it was a piece of that old partition-wall which separated the Jewes from the Gentiles and occasioned b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Compare Col. 2.14 with Ephes 2.14 15 16. See the Dutch Annot. enmity between them that such a division or partition-wall there was we read in Ephes 2. whereby the Jews and Gentiles were parted and shut up as it were one from another that there was no correspondency between them and the symboll of this
at his own house in the poores box c. At his own house Answ How then could it be avoided but there must have been gatherings at Pauls coming Which the Text forbiddeth The Apostles care was to have their collections ready i. e. in a publick stock or bank against his coming lest haply they of Macedonid coming along with him to whom it seems he had boasted of the Corinthians forwardness should find them unprepared * 2 Cor. 9.3 4. and so both he and they should be ashamed of his boasting That phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is translated by himself may as well be rendred of himself that is Answ 2 sponte sua of his own accord And so Musculus interprets it when t is said Puta illud in Graco 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non esse positum pro apud se seponat sed hoc sensu quisque vestrûm suapta sponte i. e. in caetu sacro thesaurizans cui proposito nonsatisfecisset si quisque aqud se domi reposuisset etjusmodi namque reposita tum demum collidenda essent cum ipse ad eos venisset quod vitari volehat Wolph Museul ad Loe. let every one lay by treasuring up in store t is not meant let every one lay by himself apart and privately but at your publick meetings casting it into the publick treasury of the Church and that freely of his own good will That there may be no gatherings when I come whereas if every one had laid by in private onely at his own house there would have been need of gatherings at his coming the thing which he takes special care to prevent it seems the Apostle came but seldom and could not tarry long when he came for he had the care of all the Churches upon him especially the Gentiles the world through 2 Cor. 11.28 His work was to gather and govern Churches he must not therefore spend his time in gathering moneyes or going from house to house to call for every mans weekly contribution this had been a leaving the word of God to serve tables as the other Apostles said in a like case Acts 6.2 The survey the Apostle exhorts every man to take of his own estate that he might give thereafter Obj. 3 does notably overthrow the conceit of a first-day-Sabbath for he orders every man to lay by in store as God hath prospered him that is according as his yearly revenue increaseth or his weekly trade proves more or lesse gainful If the first day had been a Sabbath the Apostle knowing the proneness of our nature to mind earthly things would never have put them upon the consideration of their outward estates That the first day of the week is a Sabbath Ans 1 or day of rest is no conceit but a Scripture-truth as it shall ere long appear to the shame of such reviling adversaries 2. That upon this day they must take a survey of their estates because they must give according to their estates and incomes is a conceit indeed there is no colour of consequence in it for I hope they might take their survey on the Saturday night no necessity of deferring it to the Lords day Suppose a Minister of Christ should urge this Apostolical ordinance still as I am informed Mr. White of Dorchester did pressing his people to contribute and lay up something in a common stock every first day of the week for the releif of the poore and that according as God should blesse and prosper them in their callings the week before Does it follow that therefore when the people are assembled together on the Lords day they must make the Church their Counting-house or before they come there turn over their shop-bookes in stead of their Bibles What a ridiculous inference were this Good huâ—â—ands I should think would end the week and their work together good Christians to be sure will do so and not make the Lords day their counting-day a recounting-day indeed they may and must make it to recount the blessings of providence in a way of praise and thankfulness and this is a Sabbath-day duty as appeares by that * Psalm 92. Psalm for the Sabbath But further to dash this dream of the adversary let him consider that in effect as much is * Ez. 46.5 6. said of the Sabbath in the old Testament as here of the Lords day and it may be t is meant of the Lords day-Sabbath T is further objected That Pauls Epistle was read in these Churches on the Sabbath-day Saturday he means and then the Apostle exhorted them to Charity and would have it to be their first work the next day while the sweet sense of the Epistle was upon their Spirits c. But This is frivolous For Gal. 4.10 The Apostle had utterly condemned the Saturday-Sabbath among the rest of those legal dayes and that he should build again the things he had destroyed we are not so much as to suppose Now take the sum of all On the first day of the week our Saviour was raised from the dead on this day he often appeared after his resurrection sent his holy Spirit on this day after his ascension and stampt his own blessed name upon it on this day the Saints assembled the Apostles preached the Sacraments were administred Charities Collected and concerning this day the Holy Prophets prophecyed what day was ever markt out with more shining and illustrious Characters The Best Antiquity for the Change of the day TO this Scripture-evidence for the change of the day we shall now add something by way of Testimony from the Records of Antiquity I may truly say 't is the glory of this truth that besides Scripture authority it ha's the most luculent Testimony in the writings of the Antients of any paralel-truth controverted in these disputeing times we may trace it all along from age to age ever since the Apostles times and with much contentment behold how providentially it hath pleased the Lord to guide the pens of his faithfull Martyrs and Ministers in their witness-bearing to this sacred truth especially in the first five hundred yeares after Christ wherein we shall find enough to silence the vain glorious vapourings of the adversary who affirms That the spotless spouse of Christ in her primitive purity and while she was decked with the Diadem of infallibility T. T. p. 62. and 106. namely during the first three Centuries did constantly observe both the seventh day and the first day of the week yea for the first 400. years if he may be beleeved By the way let the reader take notice of two considerable grants here First That the Church was decked with the Diadem of infallibility as he calls it for the first three hundred years Secondly That the Lords day was constantly observed during this state of the Church's infabllility For both dayes were observed saies he The Lords day was indeed besides his bare word I will bring sufficient witness for it But the