with all Believers in a peaceable agreement in the worship of God And therefore of all differences in judgement which lead unto practice those are the worst and most pernicious which occasion or draw after them any thing whereby men are hindred from joyning together in the same publick solemn worship whereby they yield unto God that Revenue of his Glory which is due unto him in this world And that many of these are found at this day is not so much from the Nature of the things themselves about which men differ as from the weakness prejudices and corrupt affections of them who are possessed with different Apprehensions about them But now upon a supposition of an Adherence by any unto the seventh day Sabbath all Communion amongst Professors in solemn Gospel-Ordinances is rendred impossible For if those of that perswasion do expect that others will be brought unto a relinquishment of an Evangelical observance of the Lords-day Sabbath they will find themselves mistaken The Evidence which they have of its Appointment and the Experience they have had of the presence of God with them in its Religious Observation will secure their Faith and Practise in this matter Themselves on the other hand supposing that they are obliged to meet for all solemn worship on the seventh day which the other account unwarrantable for them to do on the pretence of any binding Law to that purpose and esteem it unlawfull to assemble Religiously with others on the first Day on the Plea of an Evangelical warranty they absolutely cut off themselves from all possibility of Communion in the Administration of Gospel-Ordinances with all other Churches of Christ. And whereas most other Breaches as to such Communion are in their own nature capable of healing without a Renunciation of those Principles in the minds of men which seem to give countenance unto them the Distance is here made absolutely irreparable whilst the Opinion mentioned is owned by any I will press this no farther but only by affirming that persons truely fearing the Lord ought to be very carefull and jealous over their own understandings before they embrace an Opinion and Practice which will shut them up from all visible Communion with the generality of the Saints of God in this World § 34 We have seen the least part of the inconveniences that attend this perswasion and its practise nor do I intend to mention all of them which readily offer themselves to consideration One or two more may yet be touched on For those by whom it is owned do not only affirm that the Law of the seventh day Sabbath is absolutely and universally in force but also that the Sanction of it in its penalty against Transgressors is yet continued This was as is known the Death of the offender by stoning So did God himself determine the Application of the Curse of the Law unto the breach of this Command in the instance of the man that gathered wood on that day and was stoned by His direction Numb 45. 35. Now the consideration of this penalty as expressive of the Curse of the Law influenced the minds of the Jews into that bondage frame wherein they observed the Sabbath And this alwayes put them upon many anxious arguings how they might satisfie the Law in keeping the Day so as not to incurr the penalty of its Transgression Hence are the Questions among the Jews no less endless than those about their Genealogies of old about what work may be done and what not how far they might journey on that day which when they had with some indifferent consent reduced unto 2000 Cubits which they called a Sabbath-dayes journey yet where to begin their measure from what part of the City where a man dwelt from his own House or the Synagogue or the Walls or Suburbs of it they are not agreed And the dread hereof was such amongst them of old from the rigorous Justice wherewith such Laws with such penalties were imposed on them that untill they had by common consent in the beginning of the Rule of the Hasmonaeans agreed to defend themselves from their Enemies on that Day they sate still in a neglect of the Law of Nature requiring all men to look to their preservation against open violence and suffered themselves to be slain to their satiety who chose to assault them thereon And certainly it is the greatest madness in the world for a people to engage in War that do not think it at least lawfull at all times to defend themselves And yet they lost their City afterwards by some influence from this Superstition And do men know what they do when they endeavour to introduce such a Bondage into the observance of Gospel-worship a yoke and bondage upon the Persons and Spirits of men which those before us were not able to bear Is it according to the mind of Christ that the Worship of God which ought to be in Spirit and Truth now under the Gospel should be enforced on men by capital penalties And let men thus state their Principles The seventh Day is to be kept precisely a Sabbath unto the Lord by virtue of the Fourth Commandment for not one Day in seven but the seventh Day it self is rigorously and indispensibly enjoyned unto observation and that the Transgression of this Law not as to the Spiritual Worship to be observed on it but as to every outward Transgression by journeying or other bodily labour is to be avenged with Death undoubtedly in the practice of these Principles besides that open contradiction which they will fall into unto the Spirit Rule and Word of the Gospel they will find themselves in the same entanglements wherein the Jews were and are And as the Cases that may occur about what may be done and what not what Cases of necessity may interpose for relief are not to be determined by private persons according to their own light and understanding because they have respect unto the publick Law but by them unto whom power is committed to judge upon it and to execute its penalty so there will so many Cases and those almost inexplicable emerge hereon as will render the whole Law an intolerable Burden unto Christians And what then is become of the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free and wherein is the preheminence of the Spiritual Worship of the Gospel above the Carnal Ordinances of the Law § 35 And this introduceth an Evil of no less hainous importance than any of those before enumerated The precise observation of the seventh Day as such is undoubtedly no part of the Law naturally moral This we have sufficiently proved before as I suppose That Law is written in the Hearts of Believers by virtue of the Covenant of Grace and strength is administred thereby unto them for the due performance of the Duties that it doth require Nor is it an Institution of the Gospel none ever pretended it so to be If there be not much against it in the New Testament
John Owen D.D. Exercitations Concerning the Name Original Nature Use and Continuance of a DAY OF Sacred Rest. Wherein The Original of the SABBATH from the Foundation of the World the Morality of the Fourth Commandment with the Change of the Seventh Day are enquired into Together with an Assertion of the Divine Institution of the LORD'S DAY and Practical Directions for its due Observation By John Owen D D. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Cor. 6. 8. John 5. 39. Search the Scripture LONDON Printed by R. W. for Nath. Ponder at the Peacock in Chancery Lane near Fleetstreet 1671. TO THE READER Christian Reader THERE are Two great Concerns of that Religion whose Name thou bearest the Profession of its Truth and the Practice or Exercise of its Power And these are mutually assistant unto each other Without the Profession of Faith in its Truth no man can express its Power in Obedience And without Obedience Profession is little worth Whatever therefore doth contribute Help and Assistance unto us in either of these according to the mind of God is highly to be prized and valued Especially it is so in such a season wherein the Former of them is greatly questioned and the Later greatly neglected if not despised But if there be any thing which doth equally confirm and strengthen them both it is certainly of great Necessity in and unto Religion and will be so esteemed by 〈◊〉 who place their principal concerns in these things Now such is the Solenm Observation of a Sacred Weekly Day of Rest unto God For amongst all the outward Means of conveying to the present Generation that Religion which was at first taught and delivered unto men by Jesus Christ and his Apostles there hath been none more effectual than the Catholick uninterrupted Observation of such a Day for the Celebration of the Religious Worship appointed in the Gospel And many material parts of it were unquestionably preserved by the successively continued Agreement of Christians in this Practice So far then the Profession of our Christian Religion in the World at this Day doth depend upon it How much it tends to the Exercise and Expression of the Power of Religion cannot but be evident unto all unless they be such as hate it who are not a few With others it will quickly appear unto a sober and unprejudicated Consideration For no small part hereof doth consist in the constant payment of that Homage of Spiritual Worship which we owe unto God in Jesus Christ. And the Duties designed thereunto are the Means which he hath appointed for the Communication of Grace and Spiritual Strength unto the due performance of the Remainders of our Obedience In these things consist the Services of this Day and the End of its Observation is their due performance unto the Glory of God and the Advantage of our own souls Whereas therefore Christian Religion may be considered two wayes First As it is Publickly and Solemnly professed in the World whereon the Glory of God and the Honor of Jesus Christ do greatly depend And Secondly As it prevails and rules in the Minds and Lives of Private Men neither of them can be maintained without a due Observance of a Stated Day of Sacred Rest. Take this away Neglect and Confusion will quickly cast out all Regard unto Solemn Worship Neither did it ever thrive or flourish in the World from the Foundation of it nor will do so unto its End without a due Religious Attendance unto such a Day Any man may easily foresee the Disorder and Prophaness which would ensue upon the taking away of that whereby our Solemn Assemblies are guided and preserved Wherefore by Gods own Appointment it had its Beginning and will have its End with his Publick Worship in this World And take this off from the Basis whereon God hath fixed it and all Humane Substitutions of any thing in the like kind to the same purposes will quickly discover their own Vanity Nor without advantage which it affords as it is the Sacred Repository of all sanctifying Ordinances will Religion long prevail in the Minds and Lives of private Men. For it would be just with God to leave them to their own Weaknesse and Decayes which are sufficient to ruine them who despise the Assistance which he hath provided for them and which he tenders unto them Thus also we have known it to have fallen out with many in our Dayes whose Apostasies from God have hence taken their Rise and Occasion This being the case of a Weekly Sacred Day of Rest unto the Lord it must needs be our Duty to enquire and discern aright both what Warrant we have for the Religious Observance of such a Day as also what Day it is in the Hebdomadal Revolution that ought so to be observed About these things there is an Enquiry made in the ensuing Discourses and some Determinations on that Enquiry My Design in them was to discover the Fundamental Principles of this Duty and what Ground Conscience hath to stand upon in its Attendance thereunto For what is from God in these things is assuredly accepted with him The Discovery hereof I have endeavoured to make and therewithall a safe Rule for Christians to walk by in this matter so that for want thereof they may not lose the Things which they have wrought What I have attained unto of Light and Truth herein is submitted to the Judgement of Men Learned and Judicious The Censures of Persons heady ignorant and proud who speak evil of those things which they know not and in what they naturally know corrupt themselves I neither fear nor value If any Discourses seem somewhat dark or obscure unto Ordinary Readers I desire they would consider that the Foundations of the things discoursed of lye deep and no Expression will render them more familiar and obvious unto all Understandings than their Nature will allow Nor must we in any Case quit the Strengths of Truth because the Minds of some cannot easily possess themselves of them However I hope nothing will occurr but what an Attentive Redder though otherwise but of an Ordinary Capacity may receive and digest And they to whom the Argument seems hard may find those Directions which will make the Practice of the Duty insisted on easie and beneficial The especial Occasion of my present handling this Subject is declared afterwards I shall only add that here is no Design of contending with Any of opposing or contradicting any of censuring or reflecting on those whose Thoughts and Judgements in these things differ from ours begun or carried on Even those by whom an Holy Day of Rest under the Gospel and its Services are laughed to scorn are by me left unto God and themselves My whole endeavour is to find out what is agreeable unto Truth about the Observance of such a Day unto the Lord what is the Mind and Will of God concerning it on what Foundation we may attend unto the Services of it as that God may be
expounded in the next words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seven times seven years seven years being called a Sabbath of years because of the Lands resting every seventh year in answer to the Rest of the Church every seventh Day see the Targum on Isa. 58. 13. Esth. 2. 9. Moreover because of the Rest that was common to the Weekly Sabbath with all other Sacred Feasts of Moses's Institution in their stated Monthly or Annual Revolution they were also called Sabbaths as shall be proved afterwards And as the Greeks and Latines made use of this Word borrowed from the Hebrew so the Jews observing that their Sabbath Day had amongst them its Name from Saturne Dies Saturni as amongst us it is still thence called Satterday they called him or the Planet of that Name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Shabbetai And even from hence some of the Jews take advantage to please themselves with vain Imaginations So R. Isaac Caro commending the Excellency of the seventh Day sayes That Saturne is the Planet of that Day the whole being denominated from the first hour whereof afterwards He therefore saith he hath power on that Day to renew the strength of our Bodies as also to influence our minds to understand the Mysteries of God He is the Planet of Israel as the Astrologers acknowledge doubtless and in his portion is the rational soul and in the parts of the earth the house of the Sanctuary and among Tongues the Hebrew Tongue and among Laws the Law of Israel So far he who whether he can make good his claim to the Relation of the Jews unto Saturne or their pretended advantage on supposition thereof I leave to our Astrologers to determine seeing I know nothing of these things And on the same Account of their Rest falling on the Day under that Planetary Denomination many of the Heathen thought they dedicated the Day and the Religion of it unto Saturne So Tacitus Histor. lib. 5. Alii Honorem eum Saturno haberi Seu Principia Religionis tradentibus Idaeis quos cum Saturno Pulsos conditores Gentis accepimus seu quod c septem syderibus queis mortales reguntur altissimo orbe praecipua Potentia stella Saturni feratur ac pleraque coelestium vim suam cursiem septimos per numeros conficiant Such Fables did the most diligent of the Heathen suffer themselves to be deluded withal whereby a prejudice was kept up in their minds against the only true God and his Worship The Word sometimes is also redoubled by a pure Hebraisme 1 Chron. 9. 32. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Shabbath Shabbath that is every Sabbath and somewhat variously used in the conjunction of another form 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Exod. 16. 23. Chap. 35. 2. And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Exod. 31. 15. Levit. 25. 4. We render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by Rest the Rest of the Sabbath and a Sabbath of Rest. Where sabbaton is preposed at least it seems to be as much as Sabbatulum and to denote the entrance into the Sabbath or the Preparation for it such as was more solemn when 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a great Sabbath an High Day ensued Such was the Sabbath before the Passeover for the Miracle as the Jews say which befell their fore-fathers that day in Aegypt The time between the two Evenings was the Sabbatulum This then was the Name of the Day of Rest under the Old Testament yet was not the Word appropriated to the denotation of that Day only but is used sometimes naturally to express any Rest or Cessation sometimes as it were Artificially in numeration for a Week or any other season whose Composition was by and Resolution into seven though this was meerly occasional from the first limitation of a periodical Revolution of Time by a Sabbath of Rest of which before § 11 And this various Use of the Word was taken up among the Grecians and Latines also As they borrowed the Word from the Jews so they did its Use. The Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is meerly the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or perhaps formed by the Addition of their usual Termination from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whence also our Apostle frames his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Latine Sabbatum is the same And they use this Word though rarely to express the last day of the Week So Suetonius in Tiber. Diogenes Grammaticus Sabbatis disputare Rhodi solitus And the LXX alwayes so express the seventh Day Sabbath and frequently they use it for a Week also And so in the New Testament 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luke 18. 12. I fast twice on the Sabbath that is two dayes in the Week And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Acts 13. 14. the Day of the Sabbath is that day of the Week which was set apart for a Sabbatical Rest. Hence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 One day of the Sabbaths which frequently occurs is the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the first day of the Week 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being often put for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Numeral for the Cardinal § 12 About the time of the Writing of the Books of the New Testament both the Jews themselves and all the Heathen that took notice of them called all their Feasts and Solemn Assemblies their Sabbaths because they did no servile work in them They had the general nature of the Weekly Sabbath in a cessation from Labour So the first day of the Feast of Trumpets which was to be on the first day of the second Month what day soever of the Week it happened to be on was called a Sabbath Levit. 23. 24. This Scaliger well observes and well proves Emendat Tempor lib. 3. Canon Isagog lib. 3. p. 213. Omnem Festivitatem Judaicam non solum Judaei sed Gentiles Sabbatum vocant Judaei quidem cum dicunt Tisri nunquam incipere à feria prima quarta sexta ne duo Sabbata continuentur Gentiles autem non alio nomine omnes eorum solennitates vocabant And this is evident from the frequent mention of the Sabbatical Fasts of the Jews when they did not nor was it lawful for them to fast on the Weekly Sabbath So speaks Augustus to Tiberius in Suetonius Ne Judaeus quidem mi Tiberi tam libenter Sabbatis jejunium servat quam ego hodie servavi And Juvenals Observant ubi Festa mero pede Sabbata Reges And Martial Et non jejuna Sabbata lege premet speaking in contradiction as he thought unto them And so Horace mentions their tricesima Sabbata which were no other but their New Moons And to this usual manner of speaking in those dayes doth our Apostle accommodate his Expressions Col. 2. 16. Let no man therefore judge you in Meat or in Drink or in part of an Holy day any part of it or respect unto it or of the New Moon or of the Sabbaths that is any of the Judaical Feasts whatever then
by it unto this end unspeakable Let then this help be supposed and let a Judgement be made of the Injunctions of the Law of Nature rather by its condemning Right and Power than by its Directive Light for that in our lapsed estate is a better 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of its Commands than the other and we shall find it manifesting it self in this matter For on this supposition let those who will not acknowledge that the Observation of one Day in seven is to be separated unto God for the Ends declared allowing the Assertion before laid down of the necessity of the separation of some stated Time to that purpose fixe to themselves any other Time in a certain Revolution of Dayes and they will undoubtedly find themselves pressed with so many Considerations from the Law of their Creation to the contrary as will give them little Rest or satisfaction in their minds in what they do § 27 Farther to manifest this we may enquire what is necessary unto any Duty of Obedience towards God to evince it to be a Requisite of the Law of our Creation And here our Diligence is required For it must be said again expresly what was before intimated that it is a childish mistake to imagine that whatever is required by the Law of Nature is easily discernible and alwayes known to all Some of its Directions it may be are so especially such as are inculcated on the minds of men by their Common Interest and Advantage Such are neminem laedere and jus suum cuique tribuere But it is far from being true that all the Dictates of the Law of Nature and Requisites of Right Reason are evident and incapable of Controversie as they would have been unto man had he continued in his Integrity Many things there are between men themselves concerning which after all helps and advantages and a continued Observation of the course of the world unto this day it is still disputed what is the sense of the Law of Nature about them and wherein or how far they belong unto it The Law of Nations among themselves with respect unto one another on which is founded the Peace and Order of mankind is nothing but the Law of Nature as it hath been expressed in Instances by the Customs and Usages of them who are supposed to have most diligently attended unto its Directions And how many Differences never to be determined by common consent there are in and about these things is known For there are degrees of Evidence in the things that are of Natural Light And many things that are so are yet in Practice accompanied with the consideration of Positive Laws as also of Civil Usages and Customs amongst men And it is not easie to distinguish in many Observances what is of the Law of Nature and what of Law Positive or of useful Custom But of these things we have discoursed before in general We are now to enquire what is requisite to warrant the Ascription of any thing unto this Law § 28 And 1. It is required that it be congruous unto the Law of Nature and all the other known principles of it Unto us it may be enjoyned by Law Positive or otherwise made necessary for us to observe But it must in it self or materially hold a good correspondency with all the known Instances of the Law of our Creation and this manifested with satisfying Evidence before its Assignation thereunto It is of Natural Right that we should obey God in all his Commands but this doth not cause every command of God to belong to the Law of Nature It is as was said moreover required thereunto that it be in it self and the subject matter of it congruous unto the Principles of that Law whereof there is nothing in things meerly arbitrary and positive setting aside that general notion that God is to be obeyed in all his Laws which belongs not to this Question Now when this Congruity unto the Law of Nature or Right Reason in the matter of any Law or Command is discovered and made evident it will greatly direct the mind in its Enquiry after its whole Nature and manifest what is superadded unto it by Positive Command And this will not be denyed unto the Sabbath its Command and Observation Let the Ends of it before laid down be considered and let them be compared with any other Guidances or Directions which we have by Natural Light concerning our living to God and there will not only an Harmony appear amongst them but also that they contribute Help and Assistance to one another towards the same Ultimate End § 29 2. It is required that it have a general Principle in the Light of Nature and Dictates of Right Reason from whence it may be educed or which it will necessarily follow upon supposing that Principle rightly and duly improved It is not enough that it be at Agreement that it no way interfere with other Principles it must also have one of its own from whence it doth naturally arise So doth the second Commandment of the Decalogue belong to the Law of Nature It s Principle lyeth in that Acknowledgement of the Being of God which is required in the first For therein is God manifested to be of that Nature to be such a Being that it is and must be an absurd unreasonable foolish and impious thing in it self implying a renunciation of the former Acknowledgements to make any Images or limited Representations of his Being or to adore him any way otherwise than himself hath declared So is it here also The separation of a stated Time unto the Solemn Worship of God is so fixed on the mind of man by its own inbred Light as that it cannot be omitted without open sin against it in those who have not utterly sinned away all the Efficacy of that Light it self However that this is required of us by the Law of our Creation may be proved against all contradiction Hence whatever guiding directing determining Positive Law may ensue or be superadded about the Limitation of this time so to be separated it being only the Application of this Natural and Moral Principle as to some circumstances of it it hinders not but that the Law if self concerning it is of the Law of Nature and Moral For the Original Power unto Obligation of such a superadded Law lyes in the Natural Principle before mentioned § 30 3. What all men are taught by the Works of Creation themselves their Order Harmony and mutual Respect to each other with reference unto their Duty towards God and among themselves is of the Law of Nature although there be not an absolute distinct notion of it inbred in the mind discoverable It is enough that the mind of man is so disposed as to be ready and fit to receive the Discovery Revelation of it For the very Creation it self is a Law unto us and speaks out that Duty that God requireth of us towards himself For he hath not
those Works and Rest of God or it could not be proposed as the reason of their suitable practice and for this end did God so Work and Rest. The Law therefore of this holy Rest he reneweth in the Decalogue amongst those other Laws which being of the same nature and original namely branches of the Law of our Creation were to be unto us moral and eternal For God would no longer entrust his mind and will in that Law unto the depraved nature of man wherein if he had not in the best often guided and directed it by fresh extraordinary revelations it would have been of little use to his glory but committed it by vocal revelation to the minds of the people as the doctrinal object of their consideration and recorded it in tables of stone Moreover the nature of the first Covenant and the way of Gods instructing man in the condition of it by his Works and Rest had limited this holy Day unto the seventh Day the observation whereof was to be commensurate unto that Covenant and its administration however the outward forms thereof might be varied § 7 On these suppositions we lay and ought to lay the observation of the Lords Day under the New Testament according to the institution of it or declaration of the mind of Christ who is our Lord and Law-giver concerning it 1. A new work of Creation or a work of a new Creation is undertaken and compleated Isa. 65. 17. Chap. 66. 22 23. 2 Pet. 3. 13. Rev. 21. 1. Rom. 8. 19 20. 2 Cor. 5. 17. Gal. 6. 15. 2. This new Creation is accompanied with a new Law and a new Covenant or the Law of faith and the Covenant of Grace Rom. 3. 27. Chap. 8. 2 3 4. Jer. 31. 32 33 34. Heb. 8. 8 9 10 11 12 13. 3. Unto this Law and Covenant a Day of holy Rest unto the Lord doth belong which cannot be the same Day with the former no more than it is the same Law or the same Covenant which were originally given unto us Heb. 4. 9. Rev. 1. 10. 4. That this Day was limited and determined to the first Day of the Week by our Lord Jesus Christ is that which shall now further be confirmed only I must desire the Reader to consider that whereas the Topical Arguments whereby this Truth is confirmed have been pleaded improved and vindicated by many of late I shall but briefly mention them and insist principally on the declaration of the proper grounds and foundations of it § 8 As our Lord Jesus Christ as the eternal Son and Wisdom of the Father was the immediate cause and Author of the old Creation Joh. 1. 3. Col. 1. 16. Heb. 1. 2 10. so as Mediatour he was the Author of this new Creation Heb. 3. 3 4. He built the House of God he built all these things and is God Herein he wrought and in the accomplishment of it saw of the travail of his soul and was satisfied Isa. 53. 11. that is he rested and was refreshed Herein he gave a new Law of life faith and obedience unto God Isa. 42. 4. not by an addition of new Preceps to the moral Law of God not virtually comprized therein and distinct from his own positive institutions of worship but in his revelation of that new way of obedience unto God in and by himself with the especial causes means and ends of it which supplyes the use and end whereunto the Moral Law was at first designed Rom. 8. 2 3. Chap 10. 3 4. whereby he becomes the Author of eternal salvation unto all that do obey him Heb. 5. 9. This Law of life and obedience he writes by his Spirit in the hearts of his people that they may be willing in the day of his power Psal. 110. 3. 1 Cor. 3. 3 6. Heb. 8 10. not at once and in the foundation of his work actually but only in the causes of it For as the Law of nature should have been implanted in the hearts of men in their conception and natural nativity had that dispensation of righteousness continued so in the new birth of them that believe in him is this Law written in their hearts in all generations Joh. 3. 6. Hereon was the Covenant established and all the promises thereof of which he was the Mediatour Heb. 8. 6. And for an holy Day of Rest for the ends before declared and on the suppositions before laid down evincing the necessity of such a Day he determined the observation of the first Day of the Week For § 9 First On this Day he rested from his works in and by his Resurrection for then had he laid the foundation of the new Heavens and new Earth and finished the works of the new Creation when all the Stars sang together and all the Sons of God shouted for joy On this Day he rested from his works and was refreshed as God did and was from his For although he worketh hitherto in the communication of his Spirit and Graces as the Father continued to do in his works of providence after the finishing of the works of the old Creation though these works belonged thereunto yet he ceaseth absolutely from that kind of work whereby he laid the foundation of the new Creation henceforth he dieth no more And on this Day was he refreshed in the view of his works for he saw that it was exceeding good Now as Gods Rest and his being refreshed in his work on the seventh Day of old was a sufficient indication of the precise Day of Rest which he would have observed under the administration of that original Law and Covenant so the Rest of our Lord Jesus Christ and his being refreshed in and from his works on the first Day is a sufficient indication of the precise Day of Rest to be observed under the dispensation of the new Covenant now confirmed and established And the Church of Christ could not pass one Week under the New Testament or in a Gospel-state of worship without this indication For the Judaical Sabbath as sure as it was so and as sure as it was annexed unto the Mosaical administration of the Covenant was so far abolished as not to oblige really the Disciples of Christ in conscience unto the observation of it whatever any of them might for a season apprehend And if a new Day was not now determined there was no Day or season appointed for an observance of an holy Rest unto the Lord nor any pledge given us of our entring into the Rest of Christ. And those who say that it is required that some time be set apart unto the ends of a Sabbatical Rest but that there is no divine indication of that time when not what it is or shall be if we consider what are the ends of such a Rest as before declared must allow us to expect firmer proofs of their uncouth Assertion than any as yet we have met withall § 10 Accordingly this Indication of the Gospel Day of Rest
God provided in his services of old that he who was not able to offer a Bullock might offer a Dove with respect unto their outward condition in the world so here there is an allowance also for the natural temperaments and abilities of men Only whereas if Persons of old had pretended poverty to save their charge in the procuring of an offering it would not have been acceptable yea they would themselves have fallen under the curse of the Deceiver so no more will now a pretence of weakness or natural inability be any excuse unto any for neglect or profaneness Otherwise God requires of us and accepts from us according to what we have and not according to what we have not And we see it by experience that some mens natural spirits will carry them out unto a continuance in the outward observance of duties much beyond nay doubly perhaps unto what others are able who yet may observe an Holy Sabbath unto the Lord with acceptation And herein lyes the spring of the accommodation of these duties to the sick the aged the young the weak or Persons any way distempered God knoweth our frame and remembreth that we are dust as also that that dust is more discomposed and weakly compacted in some than others As thus the People gathered Manna of old some more some less 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 every man according to his appetite yet he that gathered much had nothing over and he that gathered little had no lack Exod. 16. 17 18. So is every one in sincerity according to his own ability to endeavour the sanctifying of the Name of God in the duties of this Day not being obliged by the examples or prescriptions of others according to their own measures § 9 Secondly Labour to observe this Day and to perform the duties required in it with a frame of mind becoming and answering the spirit freedom and liberty of the Gospel We are now to serve God in all things in the newness of the spirit and not in the oldness of the letter Rom. 7. 6. with a spirit of peace delight joy liberty and a sound mind There were three Reasons of the bondage servile frame of spirit which was in the Judaical Church in their observance of the duties of the Law and consequently of the Sabbath First The dreadfull giving and promulgation of it on Mount Sinai which was not intended meerly to strike a terror into that Generation in the wilderness but through all Ages during that Dispensation to influence and awe the hearts of the People into a dread and terror of it Hence the Apostle tells us that Mount Sinai gendered unto bondage Gal. 4. 24. that is the Law as given thereon brought the People into a spiritually servile state wherein although secretly on the account of the Ends of the Covenant they were children and heirs yet they differed nothing from servants Chap. 4. 1 3. Secondly The renovation and re inforcement of the old Covenant with the promises and threatnings of it which was to be upon them during the continuance of that state and condition And although the Law had a new Use and End now given unto it yet they were so in the dark and the proposal of them attended with so great an obscurity that they could not clearly look into the comfort and liberty finally intended therein For the Law made nothing perfect and what was of Grace in the administration of it was so veiled with Types Ceremonies and shadows that they could not see into the End of the things that were to be done away 2 Cor. 3. 13. Thirdly The sanction of the Law by death encreased their bondage For as this in it self was a terror unto them in their services so it was expressive and a representation of the original curse of the whole Law Gal. 3. 13. And hereby were they greatly awed and terrified although some of them by especial Grace were enabled to delight themselves in God and his Ordinances And in these things was administred a spirit of bondage unto fear which by the Apostle is opposed to the spirit of Adoption whereby we cry Abba Father Rom. 8. 15. Which where it is there is liberty where the spirit of the Lord is there is liberty 2 Cor. 3. 17. and there only And therefore although they boasted that they were the children of Abraham and on that reason free and never in bondage yet our Saviour lets them know that whatever they pretended they were not free untill the Son should make them so And from these things arose those innumerable anxious scrupulosities which were upon them in the observation of this Day accompanied with the severe nature of those Additions in its observation which were made unto the Law of it as appropriated unto them for a season Now all these things we are freed from under the Gospel For 1 We are not now brought to receive the Law from Mount Sinai but are come unto Mount Sion So the Apostle at large Heb. 12. 18 19 20 21 22 23 24. For ye are not come unto the Mount that might be touched that is which naturally might be so by mens hands though morally the touching of it was forbidden and that burned with fire nor unto blackness and darkness and tempest And the sound of a Trumpet and a voice of words which they that heard entreated that the Word should not be spoke unto them any more for they could not endure that which was commanded and if so much as a Beast touch the Mountain it shall be stoned or thrust through with a dart And so terrible was the sight that Moses said I exceedingly fear and quake which it seems were the words he used where it is on this occasion said of him And Moses spake but nothing is added of what he said Exod. 19 19. which things are insisted on by him to shew the Grounds of that bondage which the People were in under the Law whereunto he addes But you are come to Mount Sion unto the City of the living God the heavenly Hierusalem Hierusalem that is above which is free which is the mother of us all Gal. 4. 26. That is we receive the Law of our Obedience from Jesus Christ who speaks from Heaven to be observed with a spirit of liberty 2 The Old Covenant is now absolutely abolished nor is the remembrance of it any way revived Heb. 8. 13. It hath no influence into nor upon the minds of Believers They are taken into a Covenant full of Grace Joy and Peace For the Law was given by Moses but Grace and Truth came by Jesus Christ Joh. 1. 17. 3 In this Covenant they receive the Spirit of Christ or Adoption to serve God without legal fear Luk. 1. 74. Rom. 8. 15. Gal. 4. 6. And there is not any thing more insisted on in the Gospel as the principal priviledge thereof It is indeed nothing to have liberty in the Word and Rule unless we have it in the Spirit and Principle
hath before been at large described These are some of the Rules which we are to have a respect unto in our observation of this Day A due application of them unto particular occasions and emergencies will guide us through the difficulties of them Therefore did I choose rather to lay them thus down in general than to insist on the determination of particular Cases which when we have done all must be resolved into them according to the light and understanding of them who are particularly concerned § 11 It remains that we offer some Directions as to the duties themselves wherein the sanctification of this Day doth consist And this I shall do briefly It hath been done already at large by others so as that from thence they have taken occasion to handle the nature of all the Religious duties with the whole manner of their performance which belong to the service of this Day which doth not properly appertain unto this place I shall therefore only name the duties themselves which have a respect unto the sanctification of the Day supposing the nature of them and the due manner of their performance to be otherwise known Now these duties are of two sorts 1 Preparatory for the Day and 2 Such as are actually to be attended unto in it § 12 1 There are duties preparatory for it For although as I have declared I do not judge that the preceding Evening is to be reckoned unto this Holy Rest as a part of it yet doubtless it ought to be improved unto a due preparation for the Day ensuing And hereby the opinion of the beginning of the Sabbatical Rest with the Morning is put into as good a condition for the furtherance of the duties of Piety and Religion as the other about its beginning in the Evening preceding Now Preparation in general is necessary 1 On the account of the Greatness and Holiness of God with whom in an especial manner we have to do The Day is his The duties of the Day are his prescriptions The Priviledges of the Day are his gracious concessions he is the beginning and ending of it And we observed before on this Day he calleth us aside unto a converse with himself And certainly some special preparation of our hearts and minds is necessary hereunto This belongs to the keeping of our foot when we go to the House of God Eccl. 5. 1. namely to consider what we are to do whither we are going to whom we make our approaches in the solemn worship of God The Rule which he gives Lev. 10. 3. is moral perpetual or everlasting I will be sanctified in them that come nigh me and before all the people I will be glorified He loves not a rude careless rushing of poor sinners upon him without a sense of his Greatness and a due reverence of his Holiness Hence is that advice of our Apostle Heb. 12. 28 2. 9. Let us have Grace be graciously prepared in our hearts and minds whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear for our God is a consuming fire And this will not be answered by meer bodily postures of veneration Hence there is a due preparation necessary 2 It is so from our own distractions and intanglements in the businesses and occasions of life I speak not of such who spend the whole Week in the pursuit of their lusts and pleasures whose Sabbath-Rest hath an equal share in prophaneness with all other parts of their lives But we treat of those who in general make it their design to live unto God The greatest part of these I do suppose to be engaged industriously in some Calling or course of life And these things are apt to fill their minds as well as to take up their time and much to conform them to their own likeness Much converse with the world is apt to beget a worldly frame in men and earthly things will taint the mind with earthlyness And although it be our duty in all our secular occasions also to live to God and whether we eat or drink to do all things unto his Glory yet they are apt to unframe the mind so as to make it unready unto Spiritual things and Heavenly contemplations There is a Command indeed that we should pray alwayes which at least requires of us a readiness of mind to lay hold of all occasions and opportunities for prayer yet none will deny but that there is great advantage in a due preparation for that and all other Duties of Religion To empty therefore and purge our minds of secular earthly businesses designs projections accounts dependencies of things one on another with reasonings about them as far as in us lyeth is a Duty required of us in all our solemn approaches unto God And if this be not done but men go full of their occasions into Religious services they will by one means or other return upon them and prevail upon them to their disturbance Great care is to be taken in this matter and those who constantly exercise themselves unto a good conscience herein will find themselves fitted for the Duties of the Day to a good success § 13 For these preparatory Duties themselves I should referr them to three Heads if the Reader will take along with him these Advertisements 1. That I am not binding burdens on men or their consciences nor tying them up unto strict observances under the consideration of sin if not precisely attended unto Only I desire to give direction such as may be helpfull unto the Faith and Obedience of those who in all things desire to please God And if they apply themselves to those wayes in other instances which they find more to their own edification all is done that I aim at 2. That I propose not these Duties as those which fall under an especial command with reference unto this season but only as such which being commanded in themselves may with good spiritual advantage be applyed unto this season Whence it follows 3. That if we are by necessary occasions at any time diverted from attending unto them we may conclude that we have lost an opportunity or advantage not that we have contracted the guilt of sin unless it be from the occasion it self or some of its circumstances § 14 These things premised I shall recommend to the Godly Reader a threefold preparatory Duty to the right observation of a Day of Holy Rest unto the Lord. 1 Of Meditation 2 Of Supplication 3 Of Instruction unto such as have others depending on them 1 Of Meditation and this answers particularly the Reasons we have given for the necessity of these preparatory Duties For herein are the minds of Believers to exercise themselves unto such Thoughts of the Majesty Holiness and Greatness of God as may prepare them to serve him with reverence and Godly fear The nature of the Duty requires that this Meditation should first respect God himself and then the Day and its Services in its Causes and Ends. God
glorified in us and by us and the Interest of Religion in Purity Holiness and Righteousness be promoted amongst Men. J. O. Jan. 11. 1670. Exercitations Concerning the Name Original Nature Use and Continuance of a Day of Sacred Rest. Exercitatio Prima HEBR. Chap. IV. Ver. IX 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Trouble and Confusion from mens Inventions 2 Instanced in Doctrines and Practices of a Sabbatical Rest. 3 Reason of their present Consideration 4 Extent of the Controversies about such a Rest. 5 A particular Enumeration of them 6 Special Instances of Particular Differences upon an Agreement in more general Principles 7 Evil Consequences of these Controversies in Christian Practice 8 Principles and Rules proposed for the right Investigation of the Truth in this matter 9 Names of a Sacred Day of Rest. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gen. 2. 3. Heb. 4. 4. 10 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gen. 2. 3. Exodus 16. 23. Chap. 35. 2. Lam. 1. 7. Saturn called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the Jews and why The Word doubled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Reason of it 11 Translation of this Word into the Greek and Latin Languages 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 12 All Judaical Feasts called Sabbata by the Heathen Suetonius Horace Juvenal cited to that purpose 13 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sunday Used by Justine Martyr Tertullian Eusebius Blamed by Austin Hierom and Philastrius 14 Use of the Names of the Dayes of the Week derived from the Heathen of old Custom of the Roman Church 15 First day of the Week Lords Day Lords Day Sabbath The First Exercitation § 1 SOLOMON tells us that in his Disquisition after the Nature and State of things in the world this alone he had found out that is absolutely and unto his satisfaction namely that God made man upright but they have sought out many Inventions Eccles. 7. 29. And the Truth hereof we also find by woful experience not only in sundry particular Instances but in the whole course of men in this world and in all their concerns with respect unto God and themselves There is not any thing wherein and whereabout they have not found out many Inventions to the Disturbance and perverting of that state of peace and quietness wherein all things were made of God Yea with the fruits and effects of this perverse Apostasie and Relinquishment of that universally Harmonious state of things wherein we were created not only is the whole world as it lyes in evil filled and as it were overwhelmed but we have the Reliques of it to conflict withal in that Reparation of our condition which in this life by Grace we are made partakers of In all our Wayes Actions and Duties some of these Inventions are ready to immix themselves unto our own disturbance and the perverting of the right wayes of God § 2 An evident Instance we have hereof in the business of a Day of Sacred Rest and the Worship of God therein required God originally out of his Infinite Goodness when suitably thereunto by his own Eternal Wisdom and Power he had made all things Good gave unto men a day of Rest as to express unto them his own Rest Satisfaction and Complacency in the Works of his Hands so to be a day of Rest and composure to themselves and a Means of their Entrance into and Enjoyment of that Rest with himself here and for ever which he had ordained for them Hence it became unto them a Principle and Pledge a Cause and Means of Quietness and Rest and that in and with God himself So might it be still unto the Sons of men but that they are in all things continually finding out new Inventions or immixing themselves in various Questions and Accounts for so saith the Wise man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 themselves have sought out many Computations And hence it is that whereas there are two general concernments of such a Day the Doctrine and the Practice of it or the Duties to be performed unto God thereon they are both of them solicited by such various Questions through the many Inventions which men have found out as have rendred this Day of Rest a matter of endless strife disquietment and contention And whereas all Doctrines of Truth do tend unto practice as their immediate Use and End the whole Scripture being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tit. 1. 1. the Truth which is according unto Godliness the contentions which have been raised about the Doctrine of the Holy Day of Rest have greatly influenced the minds of men and weakned them in that practice of Godliness which all men confess to be necessary in the Observation of such a Day of Rest unto the Lord if such a Day of Rest there be on what foundation soever it is to be observed For Christians in general under one notion or other do agree that a Day of Rest should be observed in and for the Celebration of the Worship of God But whereas many Controversies have been raised about the grounds of this Observance and the Nature of the Obligation thereunto advantage hath been taken thereby to introduce a great neglect of the Duties themselves for whose sakes the Day is to be observed whilst one questions the Reasons and Grounds of another for its Observation and finds his own by others despised And this hath been no small nor ineffectual means of promoting that general Prophaneness and Apostasie from strict and holy walking before God which at this day are every where so justly complained of § 3 It is far from my thoughts and hopes that I should be able to contribute much unto the composing of these Differences and Controversies as agitated amongst men of all sorts The known pertinacy of inveterate Opinions the many prejudices that the minds of most in this matter are already possessed withal and the particular Engagements that not a few are under to defend the Pretensions and Perswasions which they have published and contended for will not allow any great Expectation of a change in the minds of many from what I have to offer Besides there are almost innumerable eristical Discourses on this subject in the hands of many to whom perhaps the Report of our Endeavours will not arrive But yet these and the like considerations of the Darkness Prejudices and Interests of many ought not to discourage any man from the discharge of that Duty which he owes to the Truths of God nor cause him to cry with the Sluggard There is a Lyon in the Streets I shall be slain in the Way Should they do so no Truth should ever more be taught or contended for for the Declaration of them all is attended with the same Difficulties and lyable to the same kind of Opposition Wherefore an Enquiry into this matter being unavoidably cast upon me from the Work wherein I am engaged in the Exposition of the Epistle to the Hebrews I could not on any such accounts wave the pursuit of it For this Discourse though
among Christians Neither is it a small evil amongst us that the Disputes of some against the Divine Warranty of one Day in seven to be separated unto Sacred Uses and the Pretence of others to an equal regard unto all Dayes from their Christian Liberty together with an open visible neglect in the most of any conscientious Care in the Observance of it have cast not a few unwary and unadvised Persons to take up with the Judaical Sabbath both as to its Institution and manner of its Observation Now whereas the solemn Worship of God is the Spring Rule and Measure of all our Obedience unto him it may justly be thought that the neglect thereof so brought about as hath been declared hath been a great if not a principal Occasion of that sad Degeneracy from the Power Purity and Glory of Christian Religion which all men may see and many do complain of at this Day in the World The Truth is most of the Different Apprehensions recounted have been entertained and contended for by Persons Learned and Godly all equally pretending to a Love unto Truth and Care for the Preservation and Promotion of Holiness and Godliness amongst men And it were to be wished that this were the only Instance whereby we might evince that the best of men in this World do know but in part and Prophesie but in part But they are too many to be recounted although most men act in themselves and towards others as if they were themselves lyable to no mistakes and that it is an inexpiable crime in others to be in any thing mistaken But as this should make us jealous over our selves and our own Apprehensions in this matter so ought the Consideration of it to affect us with Tenderness and Forbearance towards those who dissent from us and whom we therefore judge to err and be mistaken But that which principally we are to learn from this Consideration is with what care and Diligence we ought to inquire into the certain Rule of Truth in this matter For whatever we do determine we shall be sure to find men Learned and Godly otherwise minded And yet in our Determinations are the Consciences of the Disciples of Christ greatly concerned which ought not by us to be causelesly burthened nor yet countenanced in the neglect of any Duty that God doth require Slight and Perfunctory Disquisitions will be of little use in this matter nor are men to think that their Opinions are firme and established when they have obtained a seeming countenance unto-them from two or three doubtful Texts of Scripture The Principles and Foundations of Truth in this matter lye deep and require a diligent Investigation And this is the Design wherein we are now engaged Whether we shall contribute any thing to the Declaration or Vindication of the Truth depends wholly on the Assistance which God is pleased to give or withhold Our part it is to use what Diligence we are able neither ought we to avoid any thing more than the assuming or ascribing of any thing unto our selves It is enough for us if in any thing or by any means God will use us not as Lords over the Faith of men but as Helpers of their Joy Now for the Particular Controversies before mentioned I shall not insist upon them all for that were endless but shall reduce them unto those general Heads under which they may be comprehended and by the right stating whereof they will be determined Nor shall I enter into any especial contest unless it be occasionally only with any particular Persons who of old or of late have eristically handled this subject Some of them have I confess given great provocations thereunto especially of the Belgick Divines whose late Writings are full of Reflections on the Learned Writers of this Nation Our only design is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And herein I shall lay down the general regulating Principles of the Doctrine of the Scriptures in this matter confirming them with such Arguments as occurr to my mind and vindicating them from such Exceptions as they either seem liable unto or have met withal All with respect unto the Declaration given of the Doctrine and Practice of the Sabbath in the different Ages of the Church by our Apostle Chap. 4. of the Epistle to the Hebrews § 8 The Principles that I shall proceed upon or the Rules that I shall proceed by are 1. Express Testimonies of Scripture which are not wanting in this Cause Where this Light doth not go before us our best course is to sit still and where the Word of God doth not speak in the things of God it is our Wisdom to be silent Nothing I confess is more nauseous to me than Magisterial Dictates in Sacred things without an evident deduction and Confirmation of Assertions from Scripture Testimonies Some men write as if they were inspired or dreamed that they had obtained to themselves a Pythagorean Reverence Their Writings are full of strong Authoritative Assertions arguing the good Opinion they have of themselves which I wish did not include an equal contempt of others But any thing may be easily affirmed and as easily rejected 2. The Analogie of Faith in the Interpretation Exposition and Application of such Testimonies as are pleadable in this Cause Hic labor hoc opus Herein the Writers Diligence and the Readers Judgement are principally to be exercised I have of late been much surprised with the Plea of some for the Use of Reason in Religion and Sacred things not at all that such a Plea is insisted on but that it is by them built expresly on a supposition that it is by others whom they reflect upon denyed whereas some probably intended in those Reflections have pleaded for it against the Papists to speak within the bounds of sobriety with as much Reason and no less effectually than any amongst themselves I cannot but suppose their mistake to arise from what they have heard but not well considered that some do teach about the darkness of the mind of man by Nature with respect unto spiritual things with his disability by the utmost use of his rational faculties as corrupted or unrenewed spiritually and savingly to apprehend the things of God without the especial assistance of the Holy Ghost Now as no Truth is more plainly or evidently confirmed in the Scripture than this so to suppose that those by whom it is believed and asserted do therefore deny the use of Reason in Religion is a most fond imagination No doubt but whatever we do or have to do towards God or in the things of God we do it all as rational creatures that is in and by the use of our Reason And not to make use of it in its utmost improvement in all that we have to do in Religion or the Worship of God is to reject it as to the principal End for which it is bestowed upon us In particular in the pursuit of the Rule now laid down is the utmost exercise
it unto his Posterity and to teach them its Observance They must therefore of necessity on those mens Principles be instructed in the Doctrine and Observation of the Sabbath before this pretended Institution of it Should we then allow that the Generality of the Jewish Masters and Talmudical Rabbies do assert that the Law of the Sabbath was first given in Mara yet the whole of what they assert being a meer curious groundless conjecture it may and ought to be rejected Not what these men say but what they prove is to be admitted And he who with much diligence hath collected Testimonies out of them unto this purpose hath only proved what they thought but not what is the Truth And upon this fond Imagination is built their General Opinion that the Sabbath was given only unto Israel is the Spouse of the Synagogue and that it belongs not to the rest of mankind Such Dreams they may be permitted to please themselves withal But that these things should be pleaded by Christians against the true Original and Use of the Sabbath is somewhat strange If any think their Assertions in this matter to be of any weight they ought to admit what they add thereunto namely that all the Gentiles shall once a Week keep a Sabbath in Hell § 5 Neither is this Opinion amongst them Universal Some of their most famous Masters are otherwise minded For they both judge that the Sabbath was instituted in Paradise and that the Law of it was equally obligatory unto all Nations in the World Of this mind are Maimonides Aben-Ezra Abarbinel and others For they expresly refer the Revelation of the Sabbath unto the Sanctification and Benediction of the first seventh Day Gen. 2. 2. The Targum on the Title of Psal. 92. ascribes that Psalm to Adam as spoken by him on the Sabbath Day Whence Austin esteemed this rather the general Opinion of the Jews Tractat. 20. in Johan And Manasse Ben Israel Lib. de Creat Problem 8. proves out of sundry of their own Authors that the Sabbath was given unto and observed by the Patriarchs before the coming of the people into the Wilderness In particular that it was so by Abraham Jacob and Joseph he confirms by Testimonies out of the Scripture not to be despised Philo Judaeus and Josephus both of them more antient and more learned than any of the Talmudical Doctors expresly assign the Original of the Sabbath unto that of the World Philo calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Day of the Worlds Nativity And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Feast not of One City or Country but of the whole World De Opificio Mundi de Vita Mos. lib. 2. To the same purpose speaks Josephus lib. 2. cont Appion And the words of Abarbinel are sufficiently express in this matter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He sanctified and separated the seventh Day unto Glory and Honour because on its approach the work of Heaven and Earth was perfected and finished Even as a man when he hath performed an honourable Work and perfected it maketh a Banquet and a day of feasting And yet more evident is that of Maimon Tract Ridush Hachodesch cap. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The vision or sight of the Moon is not delivered to all men as was the Sabbath Bereschith or in the Beginning For every man can number six Dayes and rest on the seventh But it is committed to the House of Judgement the Sanedrims that is to observe the Appearances of the Moon and when the Sanedrym declareth and pronounceth that it is the New Moon or the beginning of the Month then it is to be taken so to be He distinguisheth their Sacred Feasts into the Weekly Sabbath and the New Moons or those that depended 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon the Appearing of the New Moon The first he calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sabbath Bereschith the Sabbath instituted at the Creation for so from the first of Genesis they often express tecnically the work of the Creation This he sayes was given to every man for there is no more required to the due Observation of it in point of Time but that a man be able to reckon six Dayes and so rest on the seventh But now for the Observation of the New Moons all Feasts that depended on the variations of her Appearances this was peculiar to themselves and the Determination of it left unto the Sanedrym For they trusted not unto Astrological Computations meerly as to the Changes of the Moon but sent Persons unto sundry high places to watch and observe her first Appearances which if they answered the general established Rules then they proclaimed the Beginning of the Feast to be So Maimon Ridush Hackodesh cap. 2. And Philippus Guadagnolus Apol. pro Christiana Relig. Part. 1. cap. 8. shews that Ahmed Ben Zin a Persian Mahumetan whom he confutes affirmed that the Institution of the Sabbath was from the Creation of the world This indeed he reflects upon in his Adversary with a saying out of the Alcoran Azoar 3. where those that Sabbatize are cursed which yet will not serve his purpose For in the Alcoran respect is had to the Jewish Sabbath or the seventh Day of the Week precisely when one day of seven only is pleaded by Ahmed to have been appointed from the foundation of the world I know some Learned men have endeavoured to elude most of the Testimonies which are produced to manifest the Opinion of the most antient Jews in this matter But I know also that their Exceptions might be easily removed would the nature of our present Design admit of a Contest to that purpose § 6 We come now to the consideration of those different Opinions concerning the Original of the Sabbath which are embraced and contended about amongst Learned men yea and unlearned of the present Age and Church And rejecting the conceit of the Jews about the Station in Mara which very few think to have any probability attending it there are two Opinions in this matter that are yet pleaded for The first is that the Sabbath had its Institution Precept or Warranty for its Observation in Paradise before the Fall of man immediately upon the finishing of the Works of Creation This is thought by many to be plainly and positively asserted Gen. 2. 2. and our Apostle seems directly to confirm it by placing the Blessing of the seventh Day as the immediate consequent of the finishing of the Works of God from the Foundation of the World Hebrews Chap. 4 5 6. Others refer the Institution of the Sabbath to the Precept given about its Observation in the Wilderness of Sin Exod. 16. 22 23 24 25 26. For those who deny its Original from the Beginning or a Morality in its Law cannot admit that it was first given on Sinai or had its Spring in the Decalogue nor can give any peculiar Reason why it should be inserted therein seeing express mention is made of its Observation some while before the giving
of and the coherence of the words do necessarily exclude such an Imagination as it is in this place For without the Introduction of the words mentioned neither is the Discourse compleat nor the matter of Fact absolved And what lyeth against our Construction and Interpretation of these words from the Arguments insisted on to prove the Institution of the Sabbath in the Wilderness shall be afterwards considered § 10 The Testimony to the same purpose with the former taken out of the New Testament is that of our Apostle Heb. 4. 3 4. For we who have believed do enter into Rest as he said as I sware in my wrath if they shall enter into my Rest although the works were finished from the Foundation of the world For he speaketh somewhere concerning the seventh day in this wise And God rested on the seventh day from all his works Having insisted at large on this place with the whole ensuing Discourse in our Exposition of the Chapter it self I shall here but briefly reflect upon it referring the Reader for its full Vindication unto its proper place The present Design is to convince the Hebrews of their concernment in the Promise of entring into the Rest of God namely that Promise and Rest which yet remained and were prophesied of Psal. 91. To this purpose he manifests that notwithstanding any other Rest of God that was mentioned in the Scripture there yet remained another Rest for them that did or would believe in Christ through the Gospel In the proof and confirmation hereof he takes into consideration the several Rests of God under the several States of the Church which were now passed and gone And first he fixeth upon the Sabbatical Rest of the seventh day as that which was the first in Order first instituted first enjoyed or observed And this he sayes ensued upon the finishing of the works of Creation This the order of the words and coherence of them require Although the works were finished from the foundation of the world for he speaketh concerning the seventh Day on this wise The works and the finishing of them did not at all belong to the Apostles Discourse or Purpose but only as they denoted the Beginning of the seventh days Sabbatical Rest. For it is the several Rests of God alone that he is enquiring after The first Rest mentioned saith he cannot be that intended in the Psalm because that Rest began from the foundation of the world but this mentioned by David is promised as he speaketh so long a time after And what was this Rest Was it meerly Gods ceasing from his own works This the Apostle had no concernment in For he treateth of no Rest of God absolutely but of such a Rest as men by Faith and Obedience might enter into Such as was that afterwards in the Land of Canaan and that also which he now proposed to them in the Promise of the Gospel both which God calleth his Rests and inviteth others unto an entrance into them Such therefore must be the Rest of God here intended for concerning his Rest absolutely or his mere Cessation from working he had no Reason to treat For his Design was only to shew that notwithstanding the other Rests that were proposed unto men for to obtain an Entrance into them there yet remained another Rest to be entred into and enjoyed under the Gospel Such a Rest therefore there was instituted and appointed of God from the Foundation of the world immediately upon the finishing of the works of Creation which sixeth immoveably the Beginning of the Sabbatical Rest. The full Vindication of this Testimony the Reader may find in the Exposition it self whither he is referred And I do suppose that no cause can be confirmed with more clear and undeniable Testimonies The Observation and Tradition of this Institution whereby it will be farther confirmed are next to be enquired after § 11 That this Divine Original Institution of the seventh Day Sabbath was piously observed by the Patriarchs who retained a due Remembrance of Divine Revelations is out of Controversie amongst all that acknowledge the Institution it self by others it is denyed that they may not be forced to acknowledge such an Institution And indeed it is so fallen out with the two great Ordinances of Divine Worship before the giving of the Law the one instituted before the Fall the other immediately upon it that they should have contrary Lots in this matter namely Sacrifices and the Sabbath Sacrifices we find constantly observed by Holy men of old although we read not of their Express Institution But from their Observation we do and may conclude that they were Instituted although that Institution be not expresly recorded The Sabbath we find expresly instituted and therefore do and may justly conclude that it was constantly observed although that Observation be not directly and in terms remembred But yet as there is such light into the Institution of Sacrifices as may enable us to justifie them by whom they were used that they acted therein according to the mind of God and in Obedience unto his Will as we have elsewhere demonstrated so there want not such Instances of the Observation of the Sabbath as may confirm the Original Divine Institution of it pleaded for This therefore I shall a little enquire into Many of the Jewish Masters as we observed before ascribe the Original of the Sabbath unto the Statute given them in Mara Exod. 15. And yet the same persons grant that it was observed by the Religious Patriarchs before especially by Abraham unto whom the knowledge of it was granted by peculiar Priviledge But these things are mutually destructive of each other For they have nothing to prove the Institution of the Sabbath in Mara but those words of v. 25. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there he gave him a Statute and a Judgement And it is said of Abraham that he taught his Houshold and Children after him to keep the way of the Lord to do Justice and Judgement Gen. 18. 19. If then the Observation of the Sabbath be a Statute or Ordinance and was made known to Abraham it is certain that he instructed his household and children all his Posterity in their Duty with respect thereunto And if so it could not be first revealed unto them at Mara Others therefore of their Masters do grant as we observed also the Original of the Sabbath from the Creation and do assert the Patriarchal Observation of it upon that Foundation The Instances I confess which they make use of are not absolutely cogent but yet considered with other circumstances wherewith they are strengthned they may be allowed to conclude unto an high probability Some of them are collected by Manasse Ben Israel Lib. de Creat Problem 8. saith he Dico quemadmodum traditio creationis Mundipenes Abrahamum ejus posteros tantum fuit it a etiam ex dictamine Legis naturalis Sabbatum ab iis solis cultum fuisse De Abrahamo dicit sacra Scriptura
in his Apologie cap. 16. tells the Gentiles of their Sabbaths or Feasts on Saturday But yet as was intimated I shall grant that the Observation of a Weekly Sacred Feast is not proved by the Testimonies produced which is all that those who oppose them do labour to disprove But I desire to know from what Original these Traditions were derived and whether any can be assigned unto them but that of the Original Institution of the Sabbatical Rest. It is known that this was common amongst them that when they had a general Notion or Tradition of any thing whose true Cause Reason and Beginning they knew not they would faign a Reason or occasion of it accommodate to their present Apprehensions and Practices as I have elsewhere evinced and cleared Having therefore amongst them the Tradition of a seventh Days Sacred Rest which was originally Catholick and having long lost the Practice and Observance of it as well as its Cause and Reason they laid hold on any thing to affix it unto which might have any Resemblance unto what was vulgarly received amongst them or what they could divine in their more curious speculations § 15 The Hebdomadal Revolution of Time generally admitted in the world is also a great Testimony unto the Original Institution of the Sabbath Of old it was Catholick and is at present received among those Nations whose converse was not begun until of late with any of those parts of the world where there is a light gone forth in these things from the Scripture All Nations I say in all Ages have from Time immemorial made the Revolution of seven Dayes to be the first stated Period of Time And this Observation is still continued throughout the world unless amongst them who in other things are openly degenerated from the Law of Nature as those barbarous Indians who have no computation of times but by Sleeps Moons and Winters The measure of time by a Day and Night is directed unto sense by the diurnal course of the Sun Lunar Months and Solar years are of an unavoidable Observation unto all Rational Creatures Whence therefore all men have reckoned Time by Dayes Months and Years is obvious unto all But whence the Hebdomadal Revolution or Weekly Period of Time should make its Entrance and obtain a Catholick Admittance no man can give an Account but with respect to some Impressions on the minds of men from the Constitution and Law of our Natures with the Tradition of a Sabbatical Rest instituted from the Foundation of the world Other Original whether Artificial and Arbitrary or Occasional it could not have Nothing of any such thing hath left the least footsteps of its ever being in any of the Memorials of Times past Neither could any thing of so low an Original or Spring be elevated to such an Height as to diffuse it self through the whole world A derivation of this Observation from the Chaldaeans and Aegyptians who retained the deepest tincture of Original Traditions hath been manifested by others And so fixed was this computation of time on their minds who knew not the Reason of it that when they made a disposition of the Dayes of the year into any other Period on accounts Civil or Sacred yet they still retained this also So the Romans as appears by the Fragments of their old Kalendars had their Nundinae which were dayes of Vacation from Labour on the eighth or as some think the ninth Dayes recurring but yet still made use of the stated Weekly period It is of some consideration in this cause and is usually urged to this purpose that Noah observed the septenary Revolution of Dayes in sending forth the Dove out of the Ark Gen. 8. 10 12. That this was done casually is not to be imagined Nor can any Reason be given why notwithstanding the disappointment he met with the first and second time he should still abide seven dayes before he sent again if you consider only the natural condition of the Flood or the Waters in their abatement A Revolution of Dayes and that upon a sacred account was doubtless attended unto by him And I should suppose that he still sent out the Dove the next day after the Sabbath to see as it were whether God had returned again to Rest in the works of his hands And Gen. 29. 27. a Week is spoken of as a known account of Dayes or Time Fulfill her Week that is not a Week of years as he had done for Rachel but fulfill a Week of Dayes in the Festivals of his marriage with Leah For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 can have no other sense seeing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Feminine Gender relates unto Leah whose Nuptials were to be celebrated and not to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Week which is of the Masculine And it was the custom in those antient times of the world to continue the celebration of a Marriage Feast for seven Dayes or a Week as Judg. 14. 12 15 17. The seven dayes of the Feast is spoken of as a thing commonly known and in vulgar use § 16 Let us therefore consider what is offered to weaken the Force of this Observation It is pretended that the Antient Heathen or the contemplative Persons amongst them observing the unfixed various Motions of the seven Planetary Luminaries as they used and abused it to other Ends so they applyed their Number and Names unto so many dayes which were thereby as it were dedicated unto them which shut them up in that septenary Number But that the Observation of the Weekly Revolution of Time was from the Philosophers and not the common consent of the people doth not appear For those observed also the twelve Signs of the Zodiack and yet made that no Rule to reckon Time or Dayes by Besides the Observation of the Site and Positure of the seven Planets as to their Height or Elevation with Respect unto one another is as antient as the Observation of their peculiar and various motions And upon the first discovery thereof all granted this to be their Order Saturne Jupiter Mars Sol Venus Mercury Luna What Alteration is made herein by the late Hypothesis fixing the Sun as in the Center of the World built on fallible Phaenomena and advanced by many arbitrary Presumptions against evident Testimonies of Scripture and Reasons as probable as any are produced in its confirmation is here of no consideration For it is certain that all the world in former Ages was otherwise minded And our Argument is not taken in this matter from what really was true but from what was universally apprehended so to be Now whence should it be that if this limiting the first Revolution of Time unto seven Dayes proceeded from the Planetary Denominations fixed to the Dayes of the year arbitrarily the Order among the Planets should be so changed as every one sees it to be For in the Assignation of the Names of the Planets to the Dayes of the Week the midst is taken out first
under an Obligation unto all those Duties which the Nature of God and his own and the Relation of the one to the other made necessary Under this consideration alone it was required by the Law of mans Creation that some time should be separated unto the solemn Expression of his Obedience and due Performance of the Worship that God required of him For in vain was he indued with intellectual Faculties and appointed unto society if he were not to honour God by them in all his Relations and openly express the Homage which he owed him And this could not be done but in a Time appointed for that purpose the neglect whereof must be a deviation from the Law of the Creation And as this is generally acknowledged so no man can fancy the contrary Here then do we fix the necessity of the separation of some time to the Ends of a Sabbatical Rest even on the Nature of God and man with the Relation of one to the other For who can say no part of our time is due to God or so to be disposed Secondly Man in his Creation with respect unto the Ends of God therein was constituted under a Covenant That is the Law of his Obedience was attended with Promises and Threatnings Rewards and Punishments suited unto the Goodness and Holiness of God For every Law with Rewards and Recompences annexed hath the nature of a Covenant And in this case although the Promise wherewith man was incouraged unto Obedidience which was that of Eternal Life with God did in strict Justice exceed the worth of the Obedience required and so was a superadded Effect of Goodness and Grace yet was it suited unto the Constitution of a Covenant meet for man to serve God in unto his Glory and on the other side the Punishment threatned unto Disobedience in Death and an everlasting separation from God was such as the Righteousness and Holiness of God as his Supream Governour and Lord of him and the Covenant did require Now this Covenant belonged unto the Law of Creation For although God might have dealt with man in a way of absolute Soveraignty requiring Obedience of him without a Covenant of a Reward infinitely exceeding it yet having done so in his Creation it belongs unto and is inseparable from the Law thereof And under this Consideration the Time required in general for a Rest unto God under the first general notion of the Nature and Being of man is determined unto one Day in seven For as we shall find that in the various dispensations of the Covenant with man and the change of its Nature yet so long as God is pleased to establish any Covenant with man he hath and doth invarilably require one Day in seven to be set apart unto the Assignation of Praise and Glory to himself so we shall see afterwards that there are indications of his mind to this purpose in the Covenant it self Thirdly Man is to be considered with especial Respect unto that Covenant under which he was created which was a Covenant of Works For herein Rest with God was proposed unto him as the End or Reward of his own works or of his Personal Obedience unto God by absolute strict Righteousness and Holiness And the peculiar form of this Covenant as relating unto the way of Gods entring into it upon the finishing of his own works designed the seventh day from the Beginning of the Creation to be the Day precisely for the Observation of an holy Rest. As men then are alwayes rational creatures so some portion of Time is by them necessarily to be set apart to the solemn Worship of God As they are under a Covenant so this time was originally limited unto one day in seven And as the Covenant may be varied so may this day also which under the Covenant of Works was precisely limited unto the seventh day and these things must be further illustrated and proved § 11 This was the State and Condition wherein man was originally created Our next enquiry is after the Law of his Creation commonly called the Law of Nature with what belongeth thereunto or what is required of us by vertue thereof Now by the Law of Nature most understand the Dictates of Right Reason which all men or men generally consent in and agree about For we exclude wholly from this consideration the Instinct of Brute Creatures which hath some Appearance of a Rule unto them So Hesiod of old determined this matter speaking of them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They devour one another because they have no Right or Law amongst them Hence the Prophet complaining of force and violence amongst men with a neglect of Right Justice and Equity sayes men are as the Fishes of the Sea as creeping things that have no Ruler over them Habbuk 1. 14. They devour one another without regard to Rule or Right As he in Varro Natura humanis omnia sunt paria Qui pote plus urget pisces ut saepe minutos Magnu ' comest ut aves enecat accipiter Most learned men therefore conclude that there is no such thing as Jus or Lex Naturae among irrational creatures and consequently nothing of Good or Evil in their Actions But the consent of men in the Dictates of Reason is esteemed the Law of Nature So Cicero Tuse 1. Omni in re consensio omuium Gentium Lex Naturae putanda est The common consent of all Nations in any thing is to be thought the Law of Nature And Aristotle also Rhetoric lib. 1. cap. 14. calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a common Law unwritten pertaining unto all whose Description he adds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That which is common is according to Nature For there is somewhat which all men think and this is common Right or injustice by Nature although there should be neither society nor compact between them And this he confirms out of Empedocles that it is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not which is just to some and unjust to others 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But it is Right amongst all spread out with immense Light by the broad ruling Skie The like he affirms in his Ethicks lib. 5. cap. 10. defining it to be that which 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that which hath alwayes or every where the same Force or Power and doth not seem or not seem so to be This his Expositors affirm to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 amongst the most of men who live according to the light of Nature with the Principles of it uncorrupted This 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to the Dictates of Reason So 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Right Reason is the same with many as jus naturae or naturale Tully in his first de Legib. pursues this at large Est unum jus saith he quo devincta est hominum societas quod Lex constituit una Quae Lex est recta Ratio prohibendi imperandi
nor any Rest to follow thereon For that Rest was not a cessation from working absolutely much less meerly so Hence did he learn the Nature of the Covenant that he was taken into namely how he was first to work in Obedience and then to enter into Gods Rest in Blessedness For so had God appointed and so did he understand his Will from his own present State and Condition Hence was he instructed to dedicate to God and his own more immediate communion with him one day in a Weekly Revolution wherein the whole Law of his Creation was consummate as a Pledge and Means of entring eternally into Gods Rest which from hence he understood to be his End and Happiness And for the sanctification of the seventh Day of the Week precisely he had it by Revelation or Gods sanctification of it which had unto him the nature of a Positive Law being a Determination of the day suited unto the Nature and Tenour of that Covenant wherein he walked with God § 21 And by this superadded Command or Institution the mind of man was confirmed in the meaning and intention of his innate Principles and other Instructions to the same purpose in general All these things I say the last only excepted was he directed unto in and by the innate Principles of Light and Obedience wherewith the Faculties of his soul were furnished every way suited to guide him in the whole of the Duty required of him and by the farther Instruction he had from the other Works of God and his Rest upon the whole And although it may be we cannot now discern how in particular his Natural Light might conduct and guide him to the Observance of all these things yet ought we not therefore to deny that so it did seeing there is evidence in the things themselves and we know not well what that Light was which was in him For although we may have some due Apprehensions of the substance of it from its remaining Ruines and Materials in our lapsed condition yet we have no acquaintance with that Light and glorious Lustre that extent of its directive beams which it was accompanied withal when it was in him as he came immediately from the hand of God created in his Image We have lost more by the Fall than the best and wisest in the world can apprehend whilst they are in it much more than most will acknowledge whose principal design seems to be to extenuate the sin and misery of man which issueth necessarily in an undervaluation of the Love and Grace of Jesus Christ. But if a natural or carnal man cannot discern how the Spirit or Grace of the New Covenant which succeeds into the room of our first innate Light as unto the Ends of our living unto Gods glory in a new way directs and guides those in whom it is unto the Observance of all the Duties of it let us not wonder if we cannot easily and readily comprehend the Brightness and Extent and Conduct of that Light which was suited unto an estate of things that never was in the world since the Fall but only in the Man Christ Jesus whose Wisdom and Knowledge in the Mind and Will of God even thereby without his superadded peculiar Assistances we may rather admire than think to understand § 22 Thus then were the Foundations of the Old World laid and the Covenant of mans Obedience established when all the Sons of God sang for joy even in the first Rest of God and in the expression of it by the sanctification of a Sacred Rest to return unto him a Revenue of Glory in mans Observance of it And on these grounds I do affirm that the Weekly Observation of a Day to God for Sabbath Ends is a Duty Natural and Moral which we are under a perpetual indispensible Obligation unto namely from that Command of God which being a part of the Law of our Creation is Moral indispensible perpetual And these things with the different Apprehensions of others about them and Oppositions unto them must now be farther explained and considered For that we now enter upon namely the consideration of the Judgement and Opinions of others about these things with the Confirmation of our own § 23 In the Enquiry after the Causes of the Sabbath the first Question usually insisted on is concerning the Nature of the Law whereby its Observation is commanded This some affirm to be Moral some only Positive as we have shewed before And many Disputes there have been about the true Notion and Distinction of Laws Moral and Positive But whereas these Terms are invented to express the conceptions of mens minds and that of Moral at least includes not any absolute determinate sense in the meaning of the Word those at variance about them cannot impose their sense and understanding of them upon one another For seeing this Denomination of Moral applyed unto a Law is taken from the subject matter of it which is the Manners or Duties of them to whom the Law is given if any one will assert that every command of God which respects the manners of men that is of all men absolutely as men is Moral I know not how any one can compel him to speak or think otherwise for he hath his liberty to use the Word in that sense which he judgeth most proper And if it can be proved that there is a Law and ever was binding all men universally to the Observation of an Hebdomadal Sacred Rest I shall not contend with any how that Law ought to be called whether Moral or Positive This contest therefore I shall not engage into though I have used and shall yet further use those terms in their common sense and acceptation My way shall be plainly to enquire what force there is in the Law of our Creation unto the Observation of a Weekly Sabbath and what is superadded thereunto by the Vocal Declararion of the Will of God concerning it § 24 And here in the first place it is generally agreed so that the Opposition unto it is not considerable nor any way deserving our notice that in and by the Light of Nature or the Law of our Creation some Time ought to be separated unto the Obserservance of the solemn Worship of God For be that Worship what it will meerly Natural or any thing superadded by voluntary and arbitrary Institutions the Law for its Observance is natural and requires that Time be set apart for its Celebration seeing in time it is to be performed When there was but one Man and Woman this was their Duty and so it continued to be the Duty of their whole Race and Posterity in all the Societies Associations and Assemblies whereof they were capable But the first Object of this Law or Command is the Worship of God it self Time falls under it only consequentially and reductively Wherefore the Law of Nature doth also distinctly respect Time it self For we are bound thereby to serve God with all that
is ours and with the first fruits of our substance in every kind Somewhat of whatever God hath given unto us is to be set apart from our own use and given up absolutely to him as an Homage due unto him and a necessary acknowledgement of him To deny this is to contradict one of the principal Dictates of the Law of Nature For God hath given us nothing ultimately for our selves seeing we and all that we have are wholly his And to have any thing whereof no part as such is to be spent in his service is to have it with his displeasure Let any one endeavour to assert and prove this Position No part of our Time is to be set apart to the Worship of God and his Service in an holy and peculiar manner and he will quickly find himself setting up in a full contradiction to the Law of Nature and the whole Light of the knowledge of God in his mind and conscience Those who have attempted any such thing have done it under this deceitful pretence that all our Time is to be spent unto God and every day is to be a Sabbath For whereas notwithstanding this pretence they spend most of their time directly and immediately to themselves and their own Occasions it is evident that they do but make use of it to rob God of that which is his due directly and immediately For unto the holy separation of any thing unto God it is required as well that it be taken from our selves as that it be given unto him This therefore the Law of our Creation requires as unto the separation of some part of our Time unto God And if this doth not at first consideration discover it self in its Directive Power it will quickly do so in its condemning Power upon a contradiction of it Thus far then we have attained § 25 Moreover men are to worship God in Assemblies and Societies such as he appoints or such as by his Providence they are cast into This will not be denyed seeing it stands upon as good yea better Evidence than the Associations of mankind for Ends Political unto their own Good by Government and Order which all men confess to be a Direction of the Law of Nature For what concerns our living to God naturally is as clear in that Light and Conduct as what concerns our living among our selves Now a part of this Worship it is that we honour him with what by his Gift is made ours Such is our Time in this world Nor can the Worship it self be performed and celebrated in a due manner without the Designation and Separation of some Time unto that purpose and thereby secondly this Separation of Time becomes a branch of the Law of Nature by an immediate natural and unavoidable consequence And what is so is no less to be reckoned among the Rules of it than the very first notions or impressions that it gives us concerning the nature of any thing Good or Evil. For whatever Reason can educe from the Principles of Reason is no less Reason than those Principles themselves from whence it is educed And we aim no more from this discourse but that the separation of some Time to the Worship of God according to the Ends before insisted on is Reasonable so that the contrary in its first conception is unreasonable and foolish And this I suppose is evident to all I am sure by most it is granted Could men hereupon acquiesce in the Authority and Wisdom of God indigitating and measuring out that Portion of Time in all seasons and Ages of the Church there might be a Natural Rest from these contentions about a Rest Sacred and Holy However I cannot but admire at the Liberty which some men take positively to affirm and contend that the Command for the Observation of the Sabbath when or however it were given was wholly umbratile and Ceremonial For there is that in it confessedly as its Foundation and that which all its concernments are educed from which is as direct an Impression on the mind of man from the Law of Creation as any other Instance that can be given thereof § 26 Upon this Foundation therefore we may proceed And I say in the next place that the stated Time directed unto for the Ends of a Sacred Rest unto God by the Light and Law of Nature that is Gods Command impressed on the mind of man in and by his own Creation and that of the rest of the Works of God intended for his Direction in Obedience is that it be one day in seven For the confirmation hereof what we have discoursed concerning the Law of Creation and the Covenant ratified with man therein is to be remembred On the supposition thereof the Advancement or Constitution of any other Portion of Time in the stead and to the Exclusion thereof as a Determination and Limitation of the Time required in general in the first Instance of that Law is and would appear a contradiction unto it God haveing finished his Works in six Dayes and rested on the seventh giving man thereby and therein the Rule and Law of his Obedience and Rewards for him to assign any other measure or portion of Time for his Rest unto God in his Solemn Worship is to decline the Authority of God for the sake of his own inventions and to assign no portion at all unto that End is openly to transgress a principal Dictate of the Law of Nature as hath been proved Neither this Direction nor Transgression I confess will evidently manifest themselves in the meer Light of Nature as now depraved and corrupted No more will sundry Instances of its Authority unless its voice be diligently attended unto and its Light cultivated and improved in the minds of men by the Advantage of Consequential Revelations given unto us for that purpose For that by the Assistance of Scripture Light and Rational Considerations thence arising we may discover many things to be dictates of and to be directed unto by the Law of Nature which those who are left unto the meer Guidance and Conduct of it could not discover so to be may be easily proved from the open Transgression of it in sundry Instances which they lived and approved themselves in who seemed most to have lived according unto it and professed themselves to be wise in following the Light and Conduct of Reason in all things as was before at large discoursed The Polutheisme that prevailed amongst the best of the Heathens their open profession of living unto themselves and seeking after their Happiness in themselves with many other Instances make this evident And if Revelation or Scripture Light contributed no more to the Discovery of the Postulata of the Law of Nature but by a removal of those Prejudices which the manner and fashion of the world amongst men and a corrupt conversation received by Tradition from one Generation to another had fixed on and possessed their minds withal yet were the Advantages we have
in the Law of Nature but its entire Practice is regulated by a Positive Law From all the Instances insisted on it is manifest that the Law of the Sabbatical Observation is Moral a branch of the Law of Nature however it be enforced directed and the especial Day in seven be limited and determined by Positive Commands § 33 These things by many are denyed They will not grant that there is any Rule or Direction in the Law of Creation for a Sacred Rest unto God on one day in seven For they say that no such can be made to appear with that Evidence which the common Anticipations of the minds of men are accompanied withal But this Objection hath been sufficiently obviated by a due stating of the Law of Nature which is not to be confined unto inbred natural Anticipations only And it is certain also that some say the very same concerning the Being of God himself of the Difference between Good and Evil namely that there are no manifest and stedfast Presumptions of them in the mind of man which yet hinders not but that the Acknowledgement of a Divine Being as also the Difference that is between Good and Evil is natural and inseparable from the faculties of our souls Hence Julian in Cyril lib. 5. con Jul. joyns the first and fourth Precept together saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He sayes and swears that all Nations judged that the Commandments of the Decalogue ought to be kept excepting the first forbidding other Gods and the other of remembring the Sabbath to keep it the One may be rejected as well as the other Besides the Law of Nature as to an Obligatory Indication of our Duty is not no not in the Extent insisted on as comprizing the Objective Documents that are in the Works and Order of the Creation to be considered alone by it self in this matter but in conjunction with the Covenant that it was the Rule of For whatever was required of man by vertue of that Covenant was part of the Moral Law of God or belonged unto the Law of his Creation From all which the Rest pleaded for to be Moral doth arise And considering the Nature of this Duty with the Divine Positive Direction whereby its first practice was regulated and stood in need so to be when God blessed the seventh Day and sanctified it And it is marvellous that the remaining Light of Nature about it should put forth it self by so many Intimations as it doth and in so many Instances to express the first impressions that it had from God in this matter For I think we have manifested that they are many and those pleadable against any probability of contradiction In a word we may in all Ages find the generality of mankind feeling and as it were groping in the Dark after a stated Sacred Rest to be observed unto God And however the most of men destitute of Divine Revelation missed the Season the Ends and the Object of this Rest yet they were plainly influenced unto all their stated Sacred or Religious Solemnities both Feasts and Abstinences by the remainders of an innate Perswasion that such a Rest was to be observed Besides we know that the present Indications of Nature as corrupt are no just Rule and Measure of its Original Abilities with respect unto living to God And they do but wofully bewray their Ignorance and Impudence who begin to plead that our Minds or Understandings were no way impaired or worsted by the Fall but that the Principles or Abilities in them in reference unto God and our selves are the same as originally and that unimpaired Either such men design to overthrow the Gospel and Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ or they know not what they say nor whereof they do affirm But hereof we shall treat elsewhere by Gods Assistance At present we know that the Light of Nature is so defective or so impotent in giving Indications of it self that many Nations left destitute of Divine Revelation or wilfully rejecting it have lived and approved themselves in open Transgressions of the Law of it as hath been shewed The Apostle gives sundry Instances of that kind amongst them who most boasted themselves to attend to the Dictates of Right Reason Rom. 1. All Idolaters Polygamists Fornicators and those who constantly lived on Spoil and Rapine approving themselves or not condemning themselves in what they did are Testimonies hereof That alone then is not to be pretended to be of the Law of Nature which all men acknowledge to be a part of it nor is every thing to be rejected from having a place therein which some have lived in a secure transgression of and others say that it gives no Indications of it self but that is to be understood to belong thereunto which by the diligent consideration of all means and advantages of knowledge may be found to be congruous to all the other knwon and allowed Principles and Maximes of it and to have its Foundation in it being what Originally God by any means instructed our Nature in as that which belonged unto our living unto him And it may be a man may sooner learn what is Natural Duty to God in and from corrupted Nature by the Opposition that it will make unto its Practice as it is corrupted than by the Light and Guidance it will give unto it as Nature It is also as we have observed more discernible in its judging and condemning what is done contrary unto it than in directing unto what it did originally require § 34 Having given Evidence unto the Morality of the Sabbath from the Indications of it and Directions unto it in the Light and Law of Nature which will be found to be such as not to be by any modest or sober man contemned we proceed to add those other consequential confirmations of the same Truth which God hath given us in the following Revelations of his Will about it And First this gives no small countenance unto an Apprehension of an unchangeable Morality in the Law of the Sabbath that in all Estates of the Church from the foundation of the world under the several Covenants wherein it hath walked with God and the various Dispensations of them there is a fall Evidence that in them all God hath still required of his people the Observation of a Sacred Rest unto himself in an Hebdomadal Revolution of Time or Dayes A full confirmation hereof with its proofs and illustrations the Reader will find at large in our Exposition of the fourth Chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews so soon as God shall give an Opportunity to have it communicated unto him At present I shall touch only on the Heads of things § 35 That any Religious Observance hath been required through all Estates of the Church having no foundation but only in Arbitrary Institution cannot be proved by any one single Instance The Institutions of the State of Innocency in the matters of the Garden with the Trees of Life
but the Renovation of the Command when given unto them in the way of an especial Ordinance Exod. 16. and belongs not to the substance of the Command it self Yea take the Command it self without respect unto its explications elsewhere and it expresseth no such limitation though vertually because of the precedent Institution Exod. 16. it be contained in it Hence Thirdly There is a Prescription for the manner of its Observance accommodated unto the state and condition of that people and that two wayes 1. In comprehending things Spiritual under things Carnal when yet the carnal are of no consideration in the Worship of God but as they necessarily attend upon things spiritual Hence that part of the Command which concerns the manner of the Observation of the Sabbath to be kept holy is given out in a Prohibition of bodily Labour and Work or a Command of bodily Rest. But it is the Expression of the Rest of God and his complacency in his Works and Covenant with the Sanctification of the Day in Obedience to his Commands in and by the holy Duties of his Worship that are principally intended in it And this he farther intimates afterwards unto them by his Institution of a double Sacrifice to be offered Morning and Evening on that Day 2. In the Distribution of the people into the Capital Persons with their Relations Servants and Strangers that God would have to live amongst them and joyn themselves unto them In the whole it appears that the Sabbath is not now commanded to be observed because it is the seventh Day as though the seventh Day were firstly and principally intended in the Command which as we have shewed that neither the substance of the Command nor the Reason of it with which the whole of the Precept is begun and ended will admit of but the seventh Day is commanded to be observed because by an antecedent Institution it was made to be the Sabbath unto that people Exod. 16. Whence it came to fall under the Command not primarily but reductively as it had been on another account from the foundation of the World The Sabbath therefore is Originally commanded as one day in seven to be dedirated unto an Holy Rest. And the seventh Day if we respect the order of the dayes is added as that especial Day which God had declared that he would have at that Time his Sabbath to be observed on Now all these things in the Law of the Sabbath are Mosaical namely the Obligation that arose unto its Observation from the Promulgation of the Law unto that people on Sinai the limitation of the Day unto the seventh or last of the Week which was necessary unto that Administration of the Covenant which God then made use of and had a respect unto a previous Institution the Manner of its Observance suited unto that servile and bondage frame of mind which the giving the Law on Mount Sinai did ingenerate in them as being designed of God so to do the ingrafting it into the systeme and series of Religious Worship then in force by the double Sacrifice annexed unto it with the various uses in and accommodations it had unto the Rule of Government in the Commonwealth of Israel in all which respects it is abolished and taken away § 12 God having disposed and setled the Sabbath as to the seventh Day and the manner of its Observation as a part of the Covenant then made with that people he thereon makes use of it in the same manner and unto the same Ends with the residue of the Institutions and Ordinances which he had then prescribed unto them This he doth Exod. 31. 13 14 14 15 16 17. And the Lord spake unto Moses saying Speak thou unto the Children of Israel saying Verily my Sabbaths ye shall keep for it is a sign between me and you throughout your Generations that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctifie you Ye shall keep the Sabbath therefore for it is holy unto you Every one that defileth it shall surely be put to death for whosoever doth any work therein that soul shall be cut off from amongst his people Six Dayes may work be done but in the seventh is the Sabbath of Rest holy to the Lord whosoever doth any work on the Sabbath Day shall surely be put to death Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath to observe the Sabbath throughout their Generations for a perpetual Covenant It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever For in six Dayes the Lord made Heaven and Earth and on the seventh Day he rested and was refreshed This is the next mention of the Sabbath amongst that people wherein all that we have before laid down is fully confirmed God had now by Moses appointed other Sabbaths that is Monthly and Annual Sacred Rests to be observed unto himself With these he now joyns the Weekly Sabbath in Allusion whereunto they have that Name also given unto them He had sufficiently manifested a Difference between them before For the one he pronounced himself on Mount Sinai as part of his universal and eternal Law The other he Instituted by Revelation unto Moses as that which peculiarly belonged unto them The one was grounded on a Reason wherein they had no more concern or interest than all the rest of mankind namely Gods Rest on his Works and being refreshed thereon upon the Creation of the World and the establishment of his Covenant with man the other all built on Reasons peculiar unto themselves and that Church State whereinto they were admitted But here the Sabbaths of both these kinds are brought under the same Command and designed unto the same Ends and Purposes Now the sole Reason hereof lies in those temporary and Ceremonial Additions which we have manifested to have been made unto the Original Law of the Sabbath in its Accommodation to their Church State with the Place which it held therein as we shall see yet farther in particular § 13 The Occasion of this Renovation of the Command was the Building of the Tabernacle which was now designed and forthwith to be undertaken And with Respect hereunto there was a double Reason for the Repetition of this Command First Because that Work was for an holy End and so upon the matter an holy Work and whereon the people were very intent hence they might have supposed that it would have been lawfull for them to have attended unto it on the Sabbath Dayes This therefore God expresly forbids that they might have no pretence for the Transgression of his Command And therefore is the Penalty annexed unto it so expresly here appointed and mentioned Secondly As the Tabernacle now to be built was the only seat of that solemn instituted Worship which God was now setting up amongst them so the Sabbath being the great Means of its continuance and performance this they were now to be severely minded of lest by their neglect and forgetfulness thereof they might
there can be no tolerable Reason assigned why he should mention the works of God from the foundation of the World with his Rest that ensued thereon and referr us to the seventh Day which without respect unto another Day to be introduced doth greatly involve his whole Discourse Again his use of this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Sabbatism which is framed and as it were coyned on purpose that it might both comprise the Spiritual Rest aimed at and also a Sabbath-keeping or Observation of a Sabbath Rest manifests his purpose When he speaks of our Rest in general he still doth it by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 adding that there was an especial Day for its enjoyment Here he introduceth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Sabbatism which his way of arguing would not have allowed had he not designed to express the Christian Sabbath Adde hereunto that he subjoynes the especial Reason of such a Days observation in the next Verse as we have declared And here do we fix the Foundation and Reason of the Lords-Day or the Holy observation of the first Day of the Week the Obligation of the fourth Commandment unto a weekly Sacred Rest being put off from the seventh Day to the first on the same Grounds and Reasons whereon the state of the Church is altered from what it was under the Law unto what it is now under the Gospel And the Covenant it self also is changed whence the seventh Day is now of no more force than the old Covenant and the old Law of Institutions contained in Ordinances because the Lord Christ hath ceased from his works and entred into his Rest on the first Day § 26 Here we have fixed the foundation of the observation of the Lords-Day on the supposition of what hath been proved concerning our Duty in the Holy observance of one Day in seven from the Law of our Creation as renewed in the Decalogue The remaining Arguments evincing the change of the Day from the seventh unto the first by Divine Authority shall be but briefly touched on by me because they have been lately copiously handled and fully vindicated by others Wherefore 1 when the Lord Christ intended conspicuously to build his Church upon the foundation of his Works and Rest by sending the Holy Ghost with his miraculous Gifts upon the Apostles he did it on this Day which was then among the Jews the Feast of Pentecost or of Weeks Then were the Disciples gathered together with one accord in the observance of the Day signalized to them by his Resurrection Acts 2. 1. And by this doth their obedience receive a blessed confirmation as well as their persons a glorious endowment with abilities for the work which they were immediately to apply themselves unto And hereon did they set out unto the whole work of building the Church on that foundation and promoting the worship of it which on that Day was especially to be celebrated § 27 The Practice of the Apostles and the Apostolical Churches owned the Authority of Christ in this change of the Day of sacred Rest. For hence forward whatever apprehensions any of them might have of the continuance of the Judaical Sabbath as some of them judged that the whole service of it was still to be continued yet they observed this Day of the Lord as the time of their Assemblies and solemn worship One or two instances hereof may be called over Acts 20. 6 7. We came to Troas in five dayes where we abode seven dayes And upon the first day of the week when the Disciples came together to break bread Paul preached unto them ready to depart on the morrow and continued his speech untill midnight I doubt not but in the seven dayes that the Apostle abode there he taught and preached as he had occasion in the houses of the Believers but it was the first Day of the Week when they used according to their duty to assemble the whole body of them for the celebration of the solemn Ordinances of the Church synecdochically expressed by breaking of Bread This they did without any extraordinary warning or calling together for in answer to their duty they were accustomed so to do Such is the account that Justin Martyr gives of the practice of all Churches in the next Age 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 On the Day called Sunday there is an assembly of all Christians whether living in City or the Countrey and because of their constant breaking of bread on this day it was called Dies Panis August Epist 118. And Athanasius proved that he brake not a Chalice at such a time because it was not the first Day of the Week when it was to be used Socrat. lib. 5. cap. 22 And whosoever reads this passage without prejudice will grant that it is a marvellous abrupt and uncouth expression if it do not signifie that which was in common observance amongst all the Disciples of Christ which could have no other foundation but only that before laid down of the Authority of the Lord Christ requiring it of them And I doubt not but that Paul preached his farewel Sermon unto them which continued untill midnight after all the ordinary service of the Church was performed And all the Objections which I have met withall against this instance amount to no more but this that although the Scripture sayes that the Disciples met for their worship on the first Day of the Week yet indeed they did not so do 1 Cor. 16. 2. the same practice is exemplified Upon the first Day of the Week let every one of you lay by him in store as God hath prospered him that there be no gatherings when I come The constant Day of the Churches solemn Assemblies being fixed he here takes it for granted and directs them unto the observance of an especial duty on that Day What some except that here is no mention of any such Assembly but only that every one on that Day should lay by himself what he would give which every one might do at home or where they pleased is exceeding weak and unsuitable unto the mind of the Apostle For to what end should they be limited unto a Day and that the first Day of the Week for the doing of that which might be as well to as good purpose and advantage performed at any other time on any other Day of the Week whatever Besides it was to be such a laying aside such a treasuring of it in a common stock as that there should be no need of any Collection when the Apostle came But if this was done only privately it would not of its self come together at his Advent but must be collected But all exceptions against these Testimonies have been so lately removed by others that I shall not insist farther on them § 28 That from these Times downwards the first Day of the Week had a solemn observation in all the Churches of Christ whereby they owned its substitution in the room of the seventh Day
is such a Determination of this Time unto one Day in seven as it must needs be the highest Impudence in any Person Persons or Churches to attempt any alteration herein And notwithstanding the pretences of some about their liberty none yet have been so hardy from the foundation of the World as practically to determine a Day for the Worship of God in any other Revolution of Dayes or Times to the neglect and exclusion of one Day in seven Yea the Light hereof is such and the use of it so great that those who have taken up with the worst of Superstitions instead of Religion as the Mahumetans yet complying in general with the performance of a solemn Worship to God have found it necessary to fix on one certain Day in the Hebdomadal Revolution for that purpose And indeed partly from the Appointment of God partly from the Nature of the Thing it self the Religious observation of such a Day is the great preservative of all solemn Profession of Religion in the World This the Law of Nature this the written Word directs unto and this Experience makes manifest unto all Take away from amongst men a conscience of observing a fixed stated Day of Sacred Rest to God and for the celebration of his Worship in Assemblies and all Religion will quickly decay if not come to nothing in this World And it may be observed though it be not evident whether be the Cause or the Effect that where and amongst whom Religion flourisheth in its power there and amongst them is conscience the most exercised and the most diligence used in the observation of such a Day I will not say absolutely that it is Religion or other Principles that teacheth men exactness in the observation of this Day nor on the other hand that a conscience made of this observation doth procure an universal strictness in other Duties of Religion But this is evident that they are mutually helpfull unto one another And therefore though some have laboured to divest this Observation of any immediate Divine Authority yet they are forced to supply such a Constitution for the Observation of one Day in seven as that they affirm that none can omit its Observation without Sin in ordinary cases whether they have done well to remove from it the command of God and to substitute their own in the room of it they may do well to consider § 31 Let then the state of things in reference unto the first day of the week with the presence of God in and his blessing upon the Worship of the Church therein be considered And this is a consideration as I think by no means to be despised It is manifest to all unprejudiced persons that the Apostles and Apostolical Churches did religiously observe this Day And no man can with any modesty question the celebration of the Worship of God therein in the next succeeding Generations In the possession of this practise are all the Disciples of Christ at this day in the World some very few only excepted who Sabbatize with the Jews or please themselves with a vain pretence that every Day is unto them a Sabbath Nor is it simply the Catholicism of this practise which I insist upon though that be such and hath such weight in things of this nature as that for my part I shall not dissent from any practise that is so attested But it is the blessing of God upon it and the Worship on this Day performed which is pleaded as that which ought to be of an high esteem with all humble Christians On this Day throughout all Ages hath the Edification of the Churches been carried on and that publick revenue of Glory been rendred unto God which is his due On this Day hath God given his presence unto all his solemn Ordinances for all the Ends for which he hath appointed them Nor hath he by any means given the least intimation of his displeasure against his Churches for their continuance in the observation of it On the other side not only have the wisest and holiest men who have complained of the Sins of their several times and Ages wherein they lived which procured the pouring out of the Judgements of God upon them constantly reckoned the neglect and prophanation of the Lords-day among them but such instances have been given of particular severities against them who have openly prophaned this Day and that upon unquestionable Testimonies as may well affect the minds and consciences of those who profess a Reverence of God in the holy dispensations of his Providence Nor can any of these things be pleaded to give countenance unto any other Day that should be set up in competition with the Lords-day or the first day of the week What of this nature can be spoken concerning the seventh Day now by some contended for and that which is grievous by some persons Holy and Learned Of what use hath it ever been to the Church of God setting aside the occasional Advantages taken from it by the Apostles of preaching the Gospel in the Synagogues of the Jews What Testimonies have we of the presence of God with any Churches in the Administration of Gospel-Ordinances and Worship on that Day And if any lesser Assemblies do at present pretend to give such a Testimony wherein is it to be compared with that of all the holy Churches of Christ throughout the World in all Ages especially in those last past Let men in whose hearts are the wayes of God seriously consider the use that hath been made under the blessing of God of the conscientious observation of the Lords-day in the past and present age unto the promotion of Holiness Righteousness and Religion universally in the power of it and if they are not under invincible prejudices it will be very difficult for them to judge that it is a Plant which our Heavenly Father hath not planted For my part I must not only say but plead whilst I live in this World and leave this Testimony to the present and future ages if these Papers see the light and do survive that if I have ever seen any thing in the wayes and worship of God wherein the power of Religion or Godliness hath been expressed any thing that hath represented the Holiness of the Gospel and the Author of it any thing that hath looked like a Proeludium unto the everlasting Sabbath and Rest with God which we aim through Grace to come unto it hath been there and with them where and amongst whom the Lords-day hath been had in highest esteem and a strict observation of it attended unto as an Ordinance of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Remembrance of their Ministry their Walking and Conversation their Faith and Love who in this Nation have most zealously pleaded for and have been in their persons Families and Churches or Parishes the most strict observers of this Day will be precious with them that fear the Lord whilst the Sun and Moon endure Their Doctrine also in
this matter with the Blessing that attended it was that which multitudes now at Rest do bless God for and many that are yet alive do greatly rejoyce in Let these things be despised by those who are otherwise minded to me they are of great weight and importance § 32 Let us now a sittle consider the Day that by some is set up not only in competition with this but to its utter exclusion This is the seventh Day of the week or the old Judaical Sabbath which some contend that we are perpetually obliged to the observation of by vertue of the Fourth Commandment The Grounds whereon they proceed in their Affertion have been already disproved so far as the Nature of our present undertaking will admit and such evidences given unto the change of the Day as will not easily be everted nor removed The consequences of the observation of the seventh Day should the practice of it be re-assumed amongst Christians is that which at present I shall a little enquire into when we have summed up somewhat of what hath been spoken 1 It was not directly nor absolutely required in the Decalogue but consequentially only by way of Appropriation to the Mosaical Oeconomy whereunto it was then annexed The command is to observe the Sabbath-day and the blessing is upon the Sabbath-day God blessed the Sabbath-day And the mention of the seventh day in the Body of the command fixeth the number of the Dayes in whose Revolution a Sabbatical Rest returns but determines not an everlasting Order in them seeing the Order relating to the Old Creation is inconsistent with the Law Reason and Worship of the New And if the seventh day and the Sabbath as some pretend are the same the sense of the command in the enforcing part of it is but the seventh day is the seventh day of the Lord thy God which is none at all 2 The state of the Church and the Administration of the Covenant whereunto the observation of this day was annexed are removed so that it cannot continue no more than an House can stand without a Foundation 3 The Lord Christ who was the Lord of the Sabbath and by assuming that Iitle to himself manifested his Authority as to the disposal of the Day whereon a Sabbatical Rest was to be observed hath in his own Rest from his works limited unto us another day of Sacred Rest called from his appointment of it the Lords-day his Day who is the Lord of the Sabbath 4 The Day so introduced by his Authority hath from the Day of his Rest been observed without interruption or any such difference about it as fell out among the Churches of God about other Feast dayes whose observation was introduced among them they knew not well how as of the Pascha and the like And whereas the due observation of it hath been enjoyned by Councils Edicts of Emperors Kings and Princes Laws of all sorts advised and pressed by the antient Writers amongst Christians and the practice of its observance taken notice of by all who from the beginning have committed the Affairs of Christianity unto posterity yet none of any sort pretend to give it any original but all mediately or immediately referr it unto Christ himself The observation then of this Day First is an evident Judaizing and a returnal unto those Rudiments of the World which the Apostle so severely cautioneth us against I know not how it is come to pass but so it is faln out that the nearer Judaism is unto an absolute Abolition and Disappearance the more some seem inclinable to its revival and continuance or at least to fall back themselves into its antiquated observances An end it had put to it morally and legally long ago in the coming Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. And we may say of it what the Apostle said of Idols when the World was full of Idolatry we know that Judaism is nothing in the world no such thing as by some it is esteemed The actual Abolition of it in the profession of the present Jews by the removing of the Veyle from their Hearts and Eyes and their turning unto God we hope is in its approach And yet as was said there seems in many an inclination unto their Rites and servile observances It is apparent in the Acts and Epistles of the Apostles especially that to the Hebrews that at the first preaching of the Gospel there were very many Jews who came over to the faith and profession of it Many of these continued zealous of the Law and would bring along with them all their Mosaical Institutions which they thought were to abide in force for ever In this weakness and mis-apprehension they were forborn in the patience of God and wisdome of the Holy Ghost guiding the Apostles and Disciples of Jesus Christ. In this state things continued unto the destruction of Hierusalem and the Temple when the chiefest cause of their contests was taken away In the mean time they carried themselves very variously according to the various tempers of their minds For it is apparent that some of them were not content themselves to be indulged in their opinions and practices but they endeavoured by all means to impose the observance of the whole Mosaical Law on the Churches of the Gentiles Their Circumcision their Sabbaths their Feasts and Fasts their Abstinences from this or that kind of meats they were contending about and thereby perverting the minds of the Disciples Some stop was put to the evil consequences hereof in the Synod at Hierusalem Acts 15. which yet determined nothing concerning the Jews own practice but only concerning the liberty of the Gentile-Believers After the destruction of Hierusalem City and Temple these professing Jews fell into several distinct wayes Some of them who as is probable had despised the heavenly warning of leaving the place took up their lot amongst their unbelieving Brethren relinquishing the profession of the Gospel which they had made not it may be with any express renuntiation of Christ but with a dis-regard of the Gospel which brought them not those good things they looked for of which mind Josephus the Historian seems to be one These in time became a part of that Apostate brood which have since continued in their enmity to the Gospel and into whose new and old superstitions they introduced sundry customes which they had learned among the Christians Some absolutely relinquished their old Judaism and compleatly incorporated with the new Gentile Churches unto whom the promise and Covenant of Abraham was transferred and made over These were the genuine Disciples of our great Apostle Others continued their profession of the Gospel but yet still thought themselves obliged unto the observation of the Law of Moses and all its institutions Hereupon they continued in a distinct and separate state from the Believers and Churches of the Gentiles and that for some Ages as some say to the dayes of Adrian These it may be were they whom Eusebius out
Holy Rest which either for the matter of them or the manner prescribed have had no sufficient warrant or foundation in the Scripture For whereas some have made no distinction between the Sabbath as Moral and as Mosaical unless it be meerly in the change of the Day they have endeavoured to introduce the whole practice required on the latter into the Lords Day But we have already shewed that there were sundry additions made unto the command as to the manner of its observance in its accommodation unto the Mosaical Pedagogie besides that the whole required a frame of spirit suited thereunto Others again have collected whatever they could think of that is good pious and usefull in the practice of Religion and prescribed it all in a multitude of instances as necessary to the sanctification of this Day so that a man can scarcely in six Dayes read over all the duties that are proposed to be observed on the seventh And it hath been also no small mistake that men have laboured more to multiply Directions about external duties giving them out as it were by number or tale than to direct the mind or inward man in and unto a due performance of the whole duty of the sanctification of the Day according to the spirit and genius of Gospel Obedience And lastly it cannot be denied but that some it may be measuring others by themselves and their own abilities have been apt to tye them up unto such long tiresome duties and rigid abstinences from refreshments as have clogged their minds and turned the whole service of the Day into a wearisome bodily exercise that profiteth little § 7 It is not in my design to insist upon any thing that is in controversie amongst Persons learned and sober Nor will I now extend this Discourse unto a particular consideration of the especial duties required in the sanctification or services of this Day But whereas all sorts of men who wish well to the furtherance and promotion of Piety and Religion in the World on what Reasons or foundations soever they judge that this Day ought to be observed an holy Rest to the Lord do agree that there is a great sinfull neglect of the due observation of it as may be seen in the Writings of some of the principal of those who cannot grant unto it an immediate divine Institution I shall give such Rules and general Directions about it as a due application whereof will give sufficient guidance in the whole of our duty therein § 8 It may seem to some necessary that something should be premised concerning the measure or continuance of the Day to be set apart unto an Holy Rest unto the Lord. But it being a matter of controversie and to me on the Reasons to be mentioned afterwards of no great importance I shall not insist upon the examination of it but only give my judgement in a word concerning it Some contend that it is a natural Day consisting of 24 hours beginning with the evening of the preceding Day and ending with the same of its own And accordingly so was the Church of Israel directed Lev. 23. 32. From even unto even shall you celebrate your Sabbath although that doth not seem to be a general Direction for the observation of the Weekly Sabbath but to regard only that particular extraordinary Sabbath which was thus instituted namely the Day of Atonement on the tenth Day of the seventh moneth vers 27. However suppose it to belong also unto the weekly Sabbath it is evidently an addition unto the command particularly suited unto the Mosaical Pedagogie that the Day might comprize the Sacrifice of the preceding evening in the services of it from an obedience whereunto we are freed by the Gospel Neither can I subscribe unto this opinion and that because 1 In the description and limitation of the first original seven Dayes it is said of each of the six that it was constituted of an evening and a morning but of the Day of Rest there is no such description it is only called the seventh Day without any assignation of the preceding evening unto it 2 A Day of Rest according to Rules of natural equity ought to be proportioned unto a Day of work or labour which God hath granted unto us for our own use Now this is to be reckoned from morning to evening Psal. 104. 20 21 22 23. Thou makest darkness and it is night wherein all the Beasts of the forest do creep from whose yelling the Night hath its name in the Hebrew Tongue The young Lions rear after their prey and seek their meat from God The Sun riseth they gather themselves together and lay them down in their dens Man goeth forth to his work and his labour untill the evening The Day of labour is from the removeal of darkness and the night by the light of the Sun untill the return of them again which allowing for the alterations of the Day in the several seasons of the year seems to be the just measure of our Day of Rest. 3 Our Lord Jesus Christ who in his Resurrection gave beginning and being to the especial Day of Holy Rest under the Gospel rose not untill the morning of the first Day of the Week when the beamings of the light of the Sun began to dispel the darkness of the night or when it dawned towards day as it is variously expressed by the Evangelists This with me determines this whole matter 4 Meer Cessation from labour in the night seems to have no place in the spiritual Rest of the Gospel to be expressed on this Day nor to be by any thing distinguished from the night of other Dayes of the Week 5 Supposing Christians under the obligation of the Direction given by Moses before-mentioned and it may entangle them in the anxious scrupulous intrigues which the Jews are subject unto about the beginning of the evening it self about which their greatest Masters are at variance which things belong not to the Oeconomy of the Gospel Upon the whole matter I am inclinable to judge and do so that the observation of the Day is to be commensurate unto the use of our natural strength on any other Day from morning to night And nothing is hereby lost that is needfull unto the due sanctification of it For what is by some required as a part of its sanctification is necessary and required as a due preparation thereunto This therefore is our first Rule or Direction The first Day of the Week or the Lords-Day is to be set apart unto the ends of an Holy Rest unto God by every one according as his natural strength will enable him to employ himself in his lawfull occasions any other Day of the Week There is no such certain standard or measure for the observance of the duties of this Day as that every one who exceeds it should by it be cut short or that those who on important Reasons come short of it should be stretched out thereunto As
And hereby are we delivered from that anxious solicitude about particular instances in outward duties which was a great part of the yoke of the People of old For 1 Hence we may in all our duties look on God as a Father By the Spirit of his Son we may in them all cry Abba Father For through Christ we have an access in one Spirit unto tho Father Ephes. 2. 18. To God as a Father as one that will not alwayes chide that doth not watch our steps for our hurt but remembreth that we are but dust One who tyeth us not up to rigid exactness in outward things whilest we act in an holy spirit of filial obedience as his sons or children And there is great difference between the duties of servants and children neither hath a Father the same measure of them The consideration hereof regulated by the general Rules of the Scripture will resolve a thousand of such scruples as the Jews of old while servants were perplexed withall 2 Hence we come to know that he will be worshipped in spirit and in truth Therefore he more minds the inward frame of our hearts wherewith we serve him than the meer performance of outward duties which are alone so far accepted with him as they are expressions and demonstrations thereof If then in the observation of this Day our hearts are single and sincere in our aims at his Glory with delight it is of more price with him than the most rigid observation of outward duties by number and measure 3 Therefore the minds of Believers are no more influenced unto this duty by the curse of the Law and the terror thereof as represented in the threatned penalty of death The Authority and Love of Jesus Christ are the principal causes of our Obedience Hence our main duty lyeth in an endeavour to get spiritual joy and delight in the services of this Day which are the especial effects of spiritual liberty So the Prophet requires that we should call the Sabbath our delight holy and honourable of the Lord Isa. 58. 13. As also that on the other side we should not do our own pleasure nor do our own wayes nor find our own pleasure nor speak our own words And these Cautions seem to regard the Sabbath absolutely and not as Judaical But I much question whether they have not in the interpretation of some been extended beyond their original intention For the true meaning of them is no more but this that we should so delight our selves in the Lord on his holy Day as that being expresly forbidden our usual labour we should not need for want of satisfaction in our duties to turn aside unto our own pleasures and vain wayes which are only our own to spend our time and pass over the Sabbath a thing complained of by many whence sin and Satan have been more served on this Day than on all the Dayes of the Week beside But I no way think that here is a restraint laid on us from such Words Wayes and Works as neither hinder the performance of any religious duties belonging to the due celebration of the worship of God on the Day nor are apt in themselves to unframe our spirits or divert our affections from them And those whose minds are fixed in a spirit of liberty to glorifie God in and by this Day of Rest seeking after Communion with him in the wayes of his worship will be unto themselves a better Rule for their Words and Actions than those who may aim to reckon over all they do or say which may be done in such a manner as to become the Judaical Sabbath much more then the Lords-Day § 10 Thirdly Be sure to bring good and right Principles unto the performance of the duty of keeping a Day of Rest holy unto the Lord. Some of these I shall name as confirmed expresly in or drawn evidently from the preceding Discourses 1. Remember that there is a Weekly Rest or an holy Rest of one Day in the week due to the solemn work of glorifying God as God Remember the Sabbath to keep it holy We have had a Week unto our own occasions or we have a prospect of a Week in the patience of God for them Let us Remember that God puts in for some Time with us All is not our own We are not our own Lords Some time God will have to himself from all that own him in the World And this is that Time season or Day He esteems not himself acknowledged nor his Soveraignty owned in the World without it And therefore this Day of Rest he required the first Day as it were that the World stood upon its legs hath done so all along and will do so to the last Day of its duration When he had made all things and saw that they were good and was refreshed in them he required that we should own and acknowledge his Goodness and Power therein This duty we owe to God as God 2 That God appointed this Day to teach us that as he rested therein so we should seek after Rest in him here and look on this Day as a pledge of eternal Rest with him hereafter So was it from the beginning This was the End of the appointment of this Day Now our Rest in God in general consists in two things 1 In our Approbation of the Works of God and the Law of our Obedience with the Covenant of God thereon These things are expressive of and do represent unto us the Goodness Righteousness Holiness Faithfulness and Power of God For these and with respect unto them are we to give Glory to him What God rests in he requires that through it we should seek for our Rest in him As this was the duty of man in Innocency and under the Law so it is ours now much more For God hath now more eminently and gloriously unveiled and displayed the Excellencies of his Nature and the Counsels of his Wisdome in and by Jesus Christ than he had done under the first Covenant And this should work us to a greater and more holy admiration of them For if we are to acknowledge that the Law is holy just and good as our Apostle speaks although it is now useless as to the bringing of us to Rest in God how much more ought we to own and subscribe to the Gospel and the declaration that God hath made of himself therein that so it is 2 In an actual solemn compliance with his Will expressed in his Works Law and Covenant This brings us unto present satisfaction in him and leads us to the full enjoyment of him This is a Day of Rest but we cannot Rest in a Day nor any thing that a Day can afford only it is an help and means of bringing us to Rest in God Without this design all our Observation of a Sabbath is of no use nor advantage Nothing will thence redound to the Glory of God nor the benefit of our own souls And this they
his Rest and thereby made known unto us that we should keep this Day as a day of an Holy Rest unto him and as a pledge that we have again given unto us an entrance into Rest with God 6 We are then to Remember that this Day is a pledge of our eternal Rest with God This is that whereunto these things do tend For therein will God glorifie himself in the full accomplishment of his great design in all his Works of Power and Grace And this is that which ultimately we aim at We do at best in this World but enter into the Rest of God the full enjoyment of it is reserved for Eternity Hence that is usually called our everlasting Sabbath as that state wherein we shall alwayes Rest with God and alwayes give Glory unto him And this Day is a pledge hereof on sundry accounts 1 Because thereon God as it were calleth us aside out of the World unto an immediate converse with himself Israel never had a more dreadfull Day than when they were called out of their Tents from their occasions and all worldly concerns 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in occursum Jehovae to a meeting with the Lord Exod. 19. God called them aside to meet and converse with him But it was unto Mount Sinai that he called them which was altogether on a smoak because the Lord descended in fire vers 18. Hence although they had been preparing themselves for it sundry Dayes they were not able to bear the terror of Gods approach unto them But under the Gospel we are this Day called out of the World and off from our occasions to converse with God to meet him at Mount Sion Heb. 12. Here he doth not give us a fiery Law but a gracious Gospel doth not converse us with Thunder and Lightning but with the sweet still voice of mercy in Jesus Christ. And as this requireth due thoughts of heart in us to prepare us for it so it is in it self a great and unspeakable Priviledge purchased for us by Christ. And herein have we a pledge of Rest with God above when he shall call us off from all Relations all occasions of life all our Interests and Concerns in this World and eternally set us apart unto himself And undoubtedly that it may be such a pledge unto us it is our duty to take off our minds and souls as far as we are able from all occasions of life and businesses of this World that we may walk with God alone on this Day Some indeed do think this a great bondage But so far as they do so and so far as they find it so they have no interest in this matter We do acknowledge that there are weaknesses attending the outward man through the frailty and imbecillity of our natures and therefore have before rejected all rigid tiresome services And I do acknowledge that there will be repisning and rebelling in the flesh against this duty But he who really judgeth in his mind and whose practice is influenced and regulated by that judgement that the segregation of a Day from the World and the occasions of it and a secession unto communion with God thereon is grievous and burdensome and that which God doth not require nor is usefull to us must be looked on as a stranger unto these things He to whom the worship of God in Christ is a burden or a bondage who sayes behold what a weariness it is that thinks a Day in a Week to be too much and too long to be with God in his especial service is much to seek I think of his duty Alas what would such Persons do if they should ever come to Heaven to be taken aside to all eternity to be with God alone who think it a great bondage to be here deiverted unto him for a Day They will say it may be Heaven is one thing and the observation of the Lords-Day is another were they in Heaven they doubt not but they should do well enough But for this observation of the Lords-Day they know not what to say to it I confess they are so they are distinct things or else one could not be the pledge of the other But yet they both agree in this that they are a separation and secession from all other things unto God And if men have not a principle to like that in the Lords-Day neither would they like it in Heaven should they ever come there Let us then be ready to attend in this matter to the Call of God and go out to meet him For where he placeth his Name as he doth on all his solemn Ordinances there he hath promised to meet us And so is this Day unto us a pledge of Heaven 2 It is so in respect of the duties of the Day wherein the sanctification of the Name of God in it doth consist All duties proper and peculiar to this Day are duties of communion with God Everlasting uninterrupted immediate communion with God is Heaven Carnal Persons had rather have Mahomets Paradise than Christs Heaven But this is that which Believers aim at eternal communion with God Hereof are the duties of this Day in a right holy performance an assured pledge For this is that which in them all we aim at and express according to the measure of our light and Grace Hereon we hear him speak unto us in his Word and we speak unto him in Prayers Supplications Praises Thanksgivings in and by Jesus Christ. In all our aim is to give Glory to him which is the End of Heaven and to be brought nearer to him which is its enjoyment In what God is pleased hereby to communicate unto our souls and in what by the secret and invisible supplyes of his Grace and Spirit he carryes out our hearts unto lye and consist those first fruits of Glory which we may be made partakers of in this World And the first fruits are a pledge of a full harvest God gives them unto us for that End that they may be so This then are we principally to seek after in the celebration of the Ordinances of God whereby we sauctifie his Name on this Day Without this bodily labour in the outward performance of a multitude of duties will profit little Men may rise early and go to bed late and eat the bread of care and diligence all the Day long yet if they are not thus in the Spirit and carried out unto spiritual communion with God in the services of the Day it will not avail them Whatever there be either in the service it self performed or in the manner of its performance or the duration of it which is apt to divert or take off the mind from being intent hereon it tends to the prophanation rather than the sanctification of this Day 3 The Rest of the Day is also a pledge of our Rest with God But then this Rest is not to be taken for a meer bodily cessation from labour but in that extent wherein it
himself I say not absolutely but as the Cause and Author of our Sabbatical Rest. God is to be meditated on with respect unto his Majesty Greatness and Holiness in all our Addresses unto him in his Ordinances But a peculiar consideration is to be had of him as the especial Author of that Ordinance which we address our selves to the celebration of and so to make our access unto him therein His Rest therefore in Jesus Christ his satisfaction and complacency in the way and Covenant of Rest for us through him are the objects of a suitable Meditation in our preparation for the observance of this Day of Rest. But especially the person of the Son whose works and Rest thereon is the Foundation of our Evangelical Rest on this Holy Day is to be considered It were easie to supply the Reader with proper Meditations on these blessed subjects for him to exercise himself in as he finds occasion But I intend only Directions in general leaving others to make Application of them according to their ability Again the Day it self and its sacred Services are to be thought upon The Priviledges that we are made partakers of thereby the Advantages that are in the Duties of it and the Duties themselves required of us should be well digested in our minds And where we have an habitual apprehension of them yet it will need to be called over and excited To this end those who think meet to make use of these Directions may do well to acquaint themselves with the true nature of a Sabbatical Rest from what hath been before discoursed It will afford them other work for Faith and Thankfulness than is usually taken notice of by them who have no other notion of it than merely a portion of Time set apart unto the solemn Worship of God There are other mysteries of God and his Love other Directions for our Obedience unto God in it than are commonly taken notice of By these means the ends of preparatory Duties above mentioned will be effected the Mind will be filled with due reverential apprehensions of God on the one hand and disentangled on the other from those cares of the world and other cumbersome thoughts wherewith the occasions of life may have possessed it § 15 Secondly Supplication that is Prayer with especial respect unto the Duties of the Day This is the life of all preparation for every Duty It is the principal means whereby we express our universal dependance on God in Christ as also work our own Hearts to a sense of our indigent estate in this world with all our especial wants and the means whereby we obtain that supply of Grace Mercy and Spiritual strength which we stand in need of with respect unto the Glory of God with the encrease of Holiness and Peace in our own souls Special Directions need not be given about the performance of this known duty Only I say some season for it by way of Preparation will be an eminent means to further us in the due sanctification of the Name of God on this Day And it must be founded on Thanksgiving for the Day it self with the Ends of it as an advantage for our converse with God in this World His Goodness and Grace in this condescension and care are to be acknowledged and celebrated And in the petitory part of preparatory Prayer two things are principally to be regarded 1 A supply of Grace from God the God and Fountain of it And herein respect must be had 1 Unto that Grace or those Graces which in their own nature are most immediately serviceable unto the sanctification of the Name of God in this Ordinance Such are reverence of his Authority and delight in his Worship 2 Such Graces in particular as we have found advantage by in the exercise of holy duties as it may be contriteness of spirit Love Joy Peace 3 Such as we have experienced the want of or a defect in our selves as to the exercise of them on such occasions as it may be Diligence Stedfastness and Evenness of mind 2ly A removeal of Evils or that God would not lead us into temptation but deliver us from evil And herein a regard is to be had 1 Unto the temptations of Satan He will be casting his fiery darts in such a season He is seldome busier than upon our engagement into solemn duties 2 To the inconstancy wavering and distraction of our own minds These are indeed a matter of unspeakable abasement when we consider aright the Majesty of God with whom we have to do 3 To undue and unjust offences against Persons and things that we may lift up pure hands to God without wrath and without doubting Sundry things of the like nature might be instanced in but that I leave all to the great Direction Rom. 8. 26 27. § 16 Thirdly Instruction This in such cases was peculiarly incumbent on the People of old namely that they should instruct their Children and their Families in the nature of the Ordinances whereby they worshipped God This is that which God so commended in Abraham Gen. 18. 19. I know saith he Abraham that he will command his Children and his Houshold after him and they shall keep the way of the Lord to do justice and judgement In which expression the nature and observance of all Ordinances is required Thus is it incumbent on them who have others under their charge to instruct them in the nature of this service which we observe unto the Lord. It may be this is not this will not be necessary upon every return of this Day But that it should be so done at some appointed season no man that endeavours to walk uprightly before God can deny And the omission of it hath probably caused the whole service amongst many to be built on Custome and Example only Hereon hath that great neglect of it which we see ensued For the power of their influence will not long abide § 17 We have done with preparatory duties Come we now to the Day it self the duties whereof I shall pass through with an equal brevity And they are of two sorts 1 Publick 2 Private whereof the former are the principal and the latter subordinate unto them And those of the latter sort are either Personal or Domestical § 18 The publick duties of the Day are principally to be regarded By publick duties I intend the due attendance unto and the due performance of all those parts of his solemn worship which God hath appointed to be observed in the Assemblies of his People and in the manner wherein he hath appointed them to be observed One End of this Day is to give Glory to God in the celebration of his solemn worship That this may be done aright and unto his Glory he himself hath appointed the wayes and means or the Ordinances and duties wherein it doth consist Without this we had been at an utter loss how we might sanctifie his Name or ascribe Glory to him Most probably