one Obj. By this Exposition you may say that the rest of the Decalogue is excluded For Idolatry Murder c. are not here forbidden by name Answ. I have fully proved that the Decalogue as written in Stone and part of the Law or Covenant of Moses is not at all in force especially to the Gentiles nor yet as part of the Covenant or promise of Works made with Adam in Innocency For the form of the Promissory Covenant of Works ceased upon mans sin and the promise of a Saviour And the form of the Mosaical Law or Covenant never reached to the Gentile Nations and is ceased to the Jews Therefore the Matter must cease as it constituted the same Covenant when the forme ceased And Paul saith expresly that this Law Written in Stone is done away But 1. The Law of Nature as a meer Law never ceased 2. And Christ hath taken it into his Covenant as part of the Matter of it So that it is wholly in force though not as part of the Covenant of Works either Adamical or Mosaical But the Sabbath as to the seventh day was no part of the Law of Nature as is proved And Paul expresly saith that it was a shadow of things to come and is therefore vanished away Col. 2. 16. Had it been part of the Law of Nature it had bound us as such and as Christs Law or had it been one of the Enumerated particulars Act. 15. it had bound the Neighbour Gentiles pro tempore at least But being neither that Council dischargeth Christians from the observation of it as far as I can understand the Text. FINIS Postscript IT is long since the foregoing Treatise was promised to a Person of Honourable Rank who was enclined to the Jewish Sabbath but before it was finished or well begun I had a sight of a Treatise on the same subject by the late Reverend Worthy Servant of Christ Mr. Hughes of Plimouth which enclined me to take my promised work as unnecessary But yet some reasons moved me to reassume it Near two Moneths after it went from me to the Press the said Treatise of Mr. Hughes first and after another on the same subject by Dr. I. Owen came abroad Yet do I not reverse mine because many Witnesses in an Age of Enmity and Neglect can be no injury to a truth so serviceable to the Cause of Christianity and the prosperity of the Church and the good of souls Though if I were one that took the Churches prosperity to consist in the Riches Grandeur Ease and Domination of Empire of Papal Pastors rather than in the humble holy heavenly self-denying imitation of a Crucified Christ I would have forborn a subject which is all for our preparation for a Heavenly Sabbatism and carrieth men above the sensual Rest of Fleshly men and therefore is so much disrelished by them Rom. 8. 6 7 8. But supposing it my duty to do what I have done I think meet to advertise the Reader that when several men treat of the same subject though they speak the same things in the main yet usually each of them bringeth some considerable light which is omitted by the rest And as the same Spirit sets them all on work so all together give suller evidence to the truth than any one of them alone And I hope the Concourse of these three Tractates doth prognosticate that though the Devil hath so contrived the business for the Prophane that like Papists they will hear and read none but those that are not like to change them yet God will awaken the sober and serious believers of this Age to a more holy and fruitful improvement of his day which will greatly tend to the encrease of real Godliness and consequently to the recovery of the dying hopes of this apostatizing and divided Age. But that which moveth me to write this Postscript is to acquaint thee for the prevention of scandal by any seeming differences in our Writings 1. That it cannot be expected that all who plead the same Cause should say just the same things for it for matter and manner of argumentation 2. That if I own the Name Sabbath less than some others and adhere more to the name of the Lords Day I do not thereby oppose the use of the name of Sabbath absolutely nor is that in it self a Controversie about the Matter but the Name which though not contemptible yet is of far less moment than the Thing 3. That if I make not use of so many Old Testament Texts as some others I do not thereby deny the usefulness of them nor call you off from the consideration of any argumentation or evidence thence offered you 4. That if I seem to be more for the cessation of Moses Law than some others even of that part which was written in Stone yet no part of the Law of Nature is thereby denyed by me any more than by any of them And they that are angry with me for writing so much against the Antinomians should not also be angry with me for going no further from them than the force of Truth constraineth me 5. That you must pardon me for my purposely avoiding the name of the Moral Law Mr. Cawdry and Mr. Palmer who have written most largely of the Sabbath have told you the reason I love not such names as are not fitted to the nature of things but are fitted to signifie almost what the Speaker pleaseth I know no Law which is not formally Moral as being Regula actionum Moralium And men may if they will as well confine the signification of the word Law it self as of a Moral Law Nor doth use it self sufficiently notifie the distinguishing signification of it For one meaneth by that name all the Law of Nature as such Another meaneth only so much of the Law of Nature as is common to all mankind Another meaneth all Positive Laws of supernatural Revelation which are perpetual and universal as well as the Law of Nature Therefore without finding fault with others it sufficeth me to distinguish Laws by such names as plainly signifie the intended difference And though by the Law of Nature I mean not formally the same thing that some others do I have sufficiently opened my sense and the reasons of it in my Reasons of the Christian Religion 6. That they who say that the Old Covenant or the Covenant of Works made by Moses with the Jews is abrogate or ceased and the Decalogue as a part of or belonging to that Covenant do say the same thing that I do when I maintain that the Decalogue and whole Law as Mosaical is ceased but that all the Natural part is by Christ assumed into his Law or Covenant of Grace For it is the same thing which is denominated the Law of Moses or of Christ from the preceptive part and and a Covenant from the terms or sanction especially the Promissory part Nor is there any part of the Law of Moses which was not a
the Law which was written in Stone Nothing but partial violence can evade the force of this Text. So Heb. 7. 11 12. Vnder it the Levitical Priesthood the people received the Law And the Priesthood being changed there is made of necessity a change also of the Law 18. For there is verily a disanulling of the Commandment going before for the weakness and unprofitableness thereof For the Law made nothing perfect but the bringing in of a better hope 22. By so much was Jesus made a surety of a better Testament In all this it is plain that it is the whole frame of the Mosaical Law that is changed and the New Testament set up in its stead Heb. 9. 18 19. Neither was the first Dedicated without blood For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the Law c. Here the Law which is before said to be changed is said to contain Every Precept And Eph. 2. 15. It is the Law of Commandments contained in Ordinances which Christ abolished in his flesh which cannot be exclusive of the chief part of that Law Obj. This is the Doctrine of the Antinomians that the Law is abrogated even the Moral Law Ans. It is the Doctrine of the true Antinomians that we are under no Divine Law neither of Nature nor of Christ But it is the Doctrine of Paul and all Christians that the Jewish Mosaical Law as such is abolished Obj. But do not all Divines say that the Moral Law is of perpetual obligation Ans. Yes Because it is Gods Law of Nature and also the Law of Christ. Obj. But do not most say that the Decalogue written in stone is the Moral Law and of perpetual obligation Answ. Yes for by the word Moral they mean Natural and so take Moral not in the large sense as it signifieth a Law de moribus as all Laws are whatsoever but in a narrower sense as signifying that which by Nature is of Vniversal and perpetual obligation So that they mean not that it is perpetual as it is Moses Law and written in Stone formally but as it is Moral that is Natural And they mean that Materially the Decalogue containeth the same Law which is the Law of Nature and therefore is materially still in force But they still except certain points and circumstances in it as the prefatory reason I am the Lord that brought thee out of the Land of Aegypt c. And especially this of the seventh day Sabbath Q 1. How far then are we bound by the Decalogue Answ. 1. As it is the Law of Nature 2. As it is owned by Christ and made part of his Law Therefore no more of it bindeth directly than we can prove to be either the Law of Nature or the Law of Christ. 3. As it was once a Law of God to the Jews and was given them upon aâ— reason common to them with us or all mankind we must still judge that it was once a Divine determination of what is most meet and an exposition of a Law of Nature and therefore consequentially and as that which intimateth by what God once commanded what we should take for his will and is most meet it obligeth still And so when the Law of Nature forbiddeth Incest or too near marriages and God once told the Jews what degrees were to be accounted too near this being once a Law to them directly is a Doctrine and Exposition of the Law of Nature still to us and so is consequentially a Law by parity of reason And so we shall shew anon that it is by the fourth Commandment IV. The Law of Christ bindeth us not to the observation of the seventh day Sabbath Proved 1. Because it is proved that Christ abrogated Moses Law as such and it is no where proved that he reassumed this as a part of his own Law For it is no part of the Law of Nature as is proved which we confess now to be part of his Law Object Christ saith that he came not to destroy the Law and Prophets but to fulfill them and that a jot or tittle shall not pass till all be fulfilled Answ. He is the end of the Law for righteousness to every one that believeth Rom. 10. 4. The Law was a Schoolmaster to bring us to Christ Gal. 3. 24. He hath therefore fulfilled the Law according to his word by his incarnation life death and resurrection It is past away but not unfulfilled And fulfilling it is not destroying it The ends of it are all attained by him 2. And though having attained its end it ceaseth formally as Moses Law yet materially all that is of natural obligation continueth under another form that is as part of his perfect Law Therefore as our childish knowledge is said as knowledge to be increased and not done away when we come to maturity but as childish to be done away so the Mosaical Jewish Law as Gods Law in general is perfected by the cessation of the parts which were fitted to the state of bondage and by addition of more perfect parts The natural part of it is made a part of a better Covenant or frame But yet as Mosaical and imperfect it is abolished Briefly this much sufficeth for the answer of all the allegations by which any would prove the continuation of Moses Law or any part of it formally as such I only add That all Moses Law even the Decalogue was Political even Gods Law for the Government of that particular Theocrcratical Policy as a Political body Therefore when the Kingdom or Policy ceased the Law as Political could not continue 2. It is proved that Christ by his Spirit in his Apostles did institute another day And seeing the Spirit was given them to bring his words to remembrance and to enable them to teach the Churches all things whatsoever he commanded them it is most probable that this was at first one of Christs own personal Precepts 3. And to put all out of doubt that neither the Law of Nature nor any Positive Law to Adam Noah or Moses or by Christ doth oblige us to the seventh day Sabbath it is expresly repealed by the Holy Ghost Col. 2. 16. Let no man therefore judge you in meats or in drink or in respect of an Holy day or Feast or of the New Moon or of the Sabbaths which are a shadow of things to came but the body is of Christ. I know many of late say that by Sabbaths here is not meant the weekly Sabbath but only other Holy dayes as Monethly or Jubilee rests But 1. This is to limit without any proof from the word of God When God speaks of Sabbaths in general without exception what is man that he should put in exceptions without any proof of Authority from God By such boldness we may pervert all his Laws Read Dr. Young upon this Text. 2. Yea when it was the weekly Sabbath which then was principally known by the Name of a Sabbath above all
hath allowed them so liberal a portion of time wherein to provide for themselves and their families There being no other proportion of time that can so well provide for the necessities of families as six dayes of every Week and that is so well fitted to all Functions Callings and Employments And the light of Nature when cleared up will tell men that all labour and motion being in order to rest and rest being the perfection and end of labour into which labour work and motion doth pass that therefore the seventh day which is the last day in every Week is the fittest and properest day for a religious rest unto the Creator for his Worship Gen. 2. 1 c. Exod. 20. 9. Deut. 5. 13 14. Heb. 4. 1. 11. Exod. 31. 17. Rom. 14. 13. Exod. 23. 12. 34. 21. Answ. How far a day is of Natural due I have shewed before In all the words of this reason which I set down as I received them there is much which is no matter of Controversie betwen us As that there is a Light and Law of Nature which few men doubt of who are worthy to be called men And that by this Law of Nature God should be solemnly worshipped and that at a set or separated time I hope the Reader will not expect that I weary him with examining the Texts which prove this before it is denyed But the thing denyed by us is that the seventh day Sabbath as the seventh is of Natural Obligation The proofs which are brought for this I must examine For indeed this is the very hindge of all our Controversie For if this be once proved we shall easily confess that it is not abrogate For Christ came not to abrogate any of the Law of Nature though as I have said such particles of it may cease whose Matter ceaseth by a change in Nature it self The first proof is Exod. 20. 10. The stranger To which I answer Our question is not whether the Sabbath was to be rested onâ— by Strangers that are among the Jews but Whether it was part of the Law of Nature If it be intended that whatever such strangers were bound to was of the Law of Nature But strangers were bound to keep the Sabbath Ergo I deny the Major which they offer not to prove And I do more than deny it I disprove it by the Instances of Exâ—d 12. 19. Was eating leavened bread forbidden by the Law of Nature V. 48. 49. One Law shall be to him that is home-born and to the stranger that sojourneth among you Circumcision was not of the Law of Nature Lev. 16. 29. Resting from all work on the tenth day of the seventh Moneth was not of the Law of Nature though made also the strangers duty So eating blood and that which dyeth or was torn Lev. 17. 12 15. So Lev. 25. 6. Numb 15. 14 15 16 26. 29. 19. 10. 35. 15. Deut. 31. 12. Jos. 8. 33 34 35. 20. 9 c. The next pretended proof is Rom. 2. 14 c. where there is not one syllable mentioning the Decalogue as such but only in general The Law so far as it was written in the Gentiles hearts But where is it proved that the Law or the Decalogue are words of the same signification or extent any more than the whole and a part are Or where is it proved that none of the rest of the Law is written in Nature but the Decalogue only Or else that every word in the Decalogue it self is part of the Law of Nature which is the question I shall prove the contrary anon In the mean time the bare numbring of Chapters and Verses is no proof 3. It is next said that Adam was made and framed to the perfection of the ten words Answ. Adam was made in the Image of God before the ten words were given in stone But so much of them as is of the Law of Nature and had matter existent in Adams dayes no doubt was a Law to him as well as it is to us But that 's nothing to the question Whether all things in the ten words are of Natural Obligation 4. It is said that the Law of the seventh day Sabbath was given before the ten words were preclaimed in Sinai Answ. So was Circumcision and so was sacrificing yea so was the Law about the dressing of the Garden of Eden and about the eating or not eating of the fruit thereof even in innocency which yet were no parts of Natures Laws but Positives which now cease 5. It is said that it was given to Adam in respect of his humane nature and in him to all the world of humane creatures Answ. So was the Covenant of Works or Innocency which yet is at an end But what respect is it to his humane nature that you mean If you suppose this Proposition Whatever Law is given with respect to humane nature and to all men is of natural and perpetual Obligation I deny it The Law of Sâ—crinces and Oblations was given with respect to humane nature that is in order to its reparation and it was given to mankind and yet not of natural perpetual obligation The Law of distinguishing clean Beasts from unclean and the Law against eating blood were given to Noah and to all mankind with respect to humane nature Gen. 8. 20. 9. 4. and yet not wholly of natural or perpetual obligation All common Laws have some respect to humane nature But if your meaning be that this Law was given in and with the Nature of Man himself or that it is founded in and provable by the very essentials of mans nature or any thing permanent either in the nature of man or the nature of the world I still deny it and call for your proof Positives may have respect to humane Nature as obliged by them and yet not be written in humane nature nor provable by any meer natural evidence 6. It is said Set times of Divine appointment for solemn assembling c. are directed to by the great Lights c. Psal. 19. Rom. 10 c. Ans. But the question is not of set times in general that some there be But of this set time the seventh day in particular It will be long before you can fâ—tch any cogent evidence from the Lights of Heaven for it Nor do any of the Texts cited mention any such thing or any thing that can tempt a man into such an opinion It must be the Divine appointment and institution which you mention that must prove our obligation to a particular day and not any nature within us or without us 7. The only appearance of a proof is at the end that time being measured by Weeks and the end of the Weeks being fittest for Rest therefore nature points us to the last day Answ. But 1. You do not at all prove that nature teacheth all men to measure their time by Weeks 2. Nor is your Philosophy true that all motion is in order to rest
Indeed all Labour is that is all the Motion of any Creature which is out of its proper place and moveth towards it But if you will call the Action of Active natures such as our souls are by the name of spiritual motion or Metaphysical motion as many do then no doubt but cessation is as contrary to their nature as corporal motion is to the nature of a stone And the Rest that is the perfection pleasure and felicity of Spirits consisteth in their greatest activity in good They rest not saying Holy Holy c. 3. You transfer the case from a day of Worship to a day of Rest. And so make your cause worse Because nature saith much for one stated day of Worship but not for one stated day of Rest from labour further than the Worship it self must have a vacancy from other things For reason can prove no necessity to humane nature of Resting a whole day any more than for a due proportioning of Rest unto Labour every day The Rest of one hour in seven is as much as the Rest of one Day in seven Or if some more additional conveniences may be found for Dayes than Hours there being no convenience without its inconvenience this will but shew us that the Law is well made when it is made but not prove a priore that there is or must be such an universal Law As you can never prove that Nature teacheth men the distribution of Time by Weeks 1. It being a thing of Tradition Custom and Consent 2. And no man naturally knoweth it till others tell him of it 3. And many Nations do not so measure their time 4. And no man can bring a Natural Reason to prove that it must be so which they might do if it were a Law of Natural Reason so also that every Family or Countrey at least should not have leave to vary their dayes of Rest according to diversity of Riches and Poverty Health and Sickness Youth and Age Peace and War and other such cases you cannot prove necessary by Nature alone though you may prove it well done when it is done 4 You cannot prove the last day more necessary for Rest than the first or any other For there are few Countreys where Wars or some other necessities have not constrained them sometimes to violate the Sabbaths Rest which when they have done it is as many dayes from the third day to the third as from the seventh to the seventh 5. If Time were naturally measured by Weeks yet it followeth not that Rest must be so some Countreys are strong and can labour longer and others tender and weak and can labour less 6. And seeing that the Reason of a day for worshipping Assemblies is greater and more noble than the Reason of a day for Bodily Rest Nature will rather tell us that God should have the first day than the last A Jove principium As God was to have the first born the first fruits c. 7. If we might frame Laws for Divine Worship by such conceits of convenience as this is of the last day in seven as fittest for Rest and call them all the Laws of Nature what a multitude of additions would be made and of how great diversity whilst every mans conceit went for Reason and Reason for Nature and so we should have as many Laws of Nature as there are diversities of conceits And yet that there is such a thing as a Law of Nature in which all Reason should agree we doubt not But having in vain expected your proof that the seventh day Sabbath is the Law of Nature or of universal natural obligation I shall briefly prove the Negative that it is not 1. That which is of natural obligation may be proved by Natural Reason that is by Reason arguing from the nature of the thing to be a duty But that the seventh day must be kept holy as a Sabbath cannot be proved from the nature of the thing Therefore it is not of Natural obligation He that will deny the Minor let him instance in his natural proof 2. That is not an universal Law of Nature which Learned Godly men and the greatest number of these yea almost all the world know no such thing by and confess they cannot prove by Nature But such is the seventh day Sabbath c. It is not I alone that know nothing of any such Law nor am able by any Natural Evidence to prove it but also all the Divines and other Christians that I am or ever was acquainted with Nay I never knew one man that could say that he either had such a Law in his own nature unless some one did take his conceit for a Law nor that he could shew such 3 Law in natura rerum And it is a strange Law of Nature which is to be found in no ones Nature but perhaps twenty mens or very few in a whole age nor is discerned by all the rest of the world If you say that few understand nature or improve their reason I answer 1. If it be such a Law of Nature as is obliterated in almost all mankind it is a very great argument that nature being changed the Law is changed How can that oblige which cannot be known 2. Are not we men as well as you Have not several Ages had as great improvers of nature as you If grace must be the improver are there or have there been none as gracious If Learning must be the improver have there been none as learned If diligence or impartiality must be the improvers of nature have there not been many as diligent studious and impartial as your selves Let all rational men judge which of these is the better argument I and twenty men more in the world do discern in Nature an universal obligation on mankind to keep the seventh day Sabbath Therefore it is the Law of Nature Or The world of mankind godly and ungodly learned and unlearned discern no such natural obligation except you and the few of your mind Therefore it is no Law of Nature 3. That is not like to be an Universal Law of Nature which no one man since the Creation can be proved to have known and received as such by meer natural reasons without tradition But no one man since the Creation can be proved to have known and received the seventh day Sabbath by meer natural reason without tradition Therefore it is not like to be an Universal Law of Nature If you know any man name him and prove it For I never read or heard of such a man 4. If the Text mention it only as a Positive Institution then it is not to be accounted a Law of nature But the Text mentioneth it only as a Positive institution As is plain Gen. 2. 3. God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because that in it he had rested from all his work c. If it had been a Law of nature it had been made in Nature and the making
of Nature would have been the making of the Law But here are two arguments against that in the Text. 1. Blessing and sanctifying are positive acts of supernatural institution superadded to the works of nature They are not Divine Creating acts but Divine instituting acts 2. That which is blessed and sanctified Because God rested in it from all his works is not blessed and sanctified meerly by those works or that Rest And if neither the works of Nature nor the Rest of God from those works did sanctifie it then it is not of natural sanctification and so not of natural obligation 5. If the very Reason of the day be not of natural but of supernatural Revelation then the sanctification of the day is not of natural but supernatural revelation and obligation But the former is certain For no man breathing ever did or can prove by Nature without supernatural Revelation that God made and finished his works in six dayes and rested the seventh Aristotle had been like to have escaped his Opinion of the worlds eternity if he could have found out this by nature 6. The distinction of Weeks is not known by nature to be any necessary measure of our time Therefore much less that the seventh day of the Week must be a Sabbath The Antecedent is sufficiently proved in that no man can give a cogent reason for the necessity of such a measure And because it hath been unknown to a great part of the world The Peruvians Mexicans and many such others knew not the measure of Weeks And Heylin noteth out of Jos. Scaliger de Emend Temp. li. 3. 4. and Rossinus Antiq. and Dion that neither the Chaldees the Persians Greeks nor Romans did of old observe Weeks and that the Romans measured their times by eights as the Jews did by sevens Hist. Sab. P. 1. Ch. 4. p. 83 84. And p. 78. he citeth Dr. Bounds own words p. 65. Ed. 2. confessing the like citing Beroaldus for it as to the Roman custom Yea he asserteth that till near the time of Dionys. Exig an 500. they divided not their time into Weeks as now In which he must needs except the Christians and consequently the ruling powers since Constantine And if they were so unsetled through the world in their measure by Moneths as Bishop Vsher at large openeth in his Dissert de Macedonum Asianorum Anno solari see especially his Ephemeris in the end where all the dayes of each Moneth are named without Weeks the other will be no won-wonder I conclude therefore 1. That one day in seven rather than in six or eight may be Reason be discerned to be convenient when God hath so Instituted it But cannot by Nature be known to be of natural universal obligation 2. That this one day should be the seventh no Light of Nature doth discover Therefore Dr. Bound Dr. Ames and the generality of the Defenders of one day in seven against the Anti-sabbatarians do unanimously assert it to be of Positive supernatural institution and not any part of the Law of Nature Though stated dayes at a convenient distance is of the Law of Nature CHAP. IV. Whether every word in the Decalogue be of the Law of Nature and of perpetual obligation And whether all that was of the Law of Nature was in the Decalogue BUt the great argument to prove it the Law of Nature is because it was part of the ten words written in stone To which I say that the Decalogue is an excellent summary of the Generals of the Law of Nature as to the ends to which it was given but that I. It hath more in it than the Law of Nature II. It hath less in it than the Law of Nature And therefore was never intended for a meer or perfect transcript of the Law of Nature but for a perfect general summary of so much of that Law as God thought meet to give the Jews by supernatural revelation containing the chief heads of Natures Law lest they should not be clear enough in Nature it self with the addition of something more I. That the Decalogue written in stone hath more than the Law of Nature is proved 1. By these instances 1. That God brought them out of the Land of Egypt and out the house of servants and that he is to be worshipped in that relation is none of the Law of Nature universally so called 2. That God is merciful and therefore reconciled to thousand Generations of them that Love him notwithstanding mans natural state of sin and misery and all mens actual sin this is of supernatural Grace and not the Law of meer Nature 3. The great difference between the wayes of Justice and mercy expressed by the third and fourth Generation compared to Thousands is more than the meer Law of Nature 4. Those Divines who take all Gods positive Institutions of Worship to be contained in the Affirmative part of the second Commandment must needs think that it containeth more than the Law of nature Though I say not as they but only that as a General Law it obligeth us to perform them when another Law hath instituted them 5. To rest one day in seven is more than the Law of Nature 6. To rest the seventh day rather than the sixth or first is more than the Law of Nature 7. The strictness of the Rest to do no manner of Work is more than a Law of Nature 8. That there be Man servants and Maid servants besides natural inferiours is not of the primitive or universal Law of Nature 9. The distinction of the Israelites from strangers within their Gates was not by the Law of Nature 10. That Cattle should do no manner of work as for a Dog to turn the spit in a wheel or such like is more than a Law of Nature 11. That God made Heaven and Earth in six dayes and rested the seventh is not of Natural Revelation 12. That this was the reason wherefore God blessed the Sabbath day aud hallowed it is not of Natural Revelation 13. Some will say that more Relations than Natural being meant in the fifth Commandment maketh it more than a Law of Nature 14. That the Land of Canaan is made their reward is a positive respecting the Israelites only 15. That length of dayes in that Land should be given by Promise is an act of Grace and not of Nature only 16. That this promise of length of dayes in that Land is made more to the Honouring of Superiours than to the other commanded duties is more than Natural 2. I prove it also by the Abrogation of the Law written in stone which I proved before If the Decalogue had been the Only and Perfect Law of Nature it would not have been so far done away as the Apostle saith it is of which before II. All the Law of Nature was not in the Tables of Stone Here I premise these suppositions 1. That a General Law alone obligeth not to all particulars without a Particular Law E.
g. If the second Command say Thou shalt perform all Gods instituted Worship Or Thou shalt Worship me as I appoint thee This bindeth no man to Baptism the Lords Supper c. till another Law appoint them Therefore there is not so much in the general Law alone as is in that and the particular also 2. All that is presupposed in a particular Law is not part of that Law 3. It is not so much to inferr a duty indirectly and by far fetcht Consequences as to command it directly Now I prove the assertion by instances All these following are Natural duties and commanded also in other parts of Scripture and yet are not in the Law of Moses as Written in Stone 1. To believe that the soul is Immortal 2. To believe that there is a Heaven where we shall be perfectly blessed in the Knowledge Love and Fruition of God 3. To believe that there is a Hell or life of future punishment for all the impenitent 4. To Love ourselves with a just and necessary Love as such 5. To take greatest care to save our souls above our bodies 6. To tame and mortifie all our fleshly lusts in order to our own Salvation 7. To deny all bodily pleasure profit honour liberty and life for the securing of our salvation 8. To forbear all outward acts of Gluttony Drunkenness Sloth c. as they tend to our own damnation 9. To rejoice in persecution because of our great reward in Heaven 10. To pray constantly and servently for Heaven as the means of our obtaining it Let none say that many of these same things are commanded in order to God and our neighbour For I grant that the same material acts be so as they are expressions of Love to God and Man But to do them in Love to our selves and for our own Salvation is another principle and end not contrary to but necessarily conjunct with the former two And indeed all the duties of self-love as such are past by as supposed in Moses Decalogue because they are deeply written in mans Nature and because the Law was Written as Political for another use Obj. But these are all supposed in the first Command of Loving God and in the second Table Thou shalt Love thy Neighbour as thy self Answ. 1. These last are not the words of the Decalogue but a part of the summary of all the Law 2. Both Tables indeed suppose the Love of our selves but that which is supposed is not a part of them Obj. But it is the Socinians that say the Old Testament speaketh of no reward or punishment but in this life Answ. True But Camero de tripl faed and others that rightly understand the matter affirm that 1. The Law of Nature containeth future rewards and punishments in another life 2. And so doth the Covenant of Grace made with Adam and all mankind in him and renewed to Noah Abraham and the Israelites which by Paul is called The Promise as distinct from the Law 3. But the Law of Moses in its own proper Nature as such was only Political and spake but of Temporal Rewards and Punishments 4. Though yet all the faithful were bound to take the Law and Promise together and so to have respect both to Temporal and Eternal things For the Law it self connoted and supposed things Eternal as our great concernment III. There is more of the Law of Nature in other parts of Moses Law conjunct with the Decalogue than is in the Decalogue alone I will stay no longer in the proof of this than to cite the places as you do Exod. 23. 13 32. 22. 18 20. Lev. 20. 1 4 6. Deut. 13. 17. Exod. 23. 24. Deut. 12. 23. Lev. 24. 23. 3. Exod. 12. 16. Deut. 23. 18. Exod. 22. 28. 23. 20. 21. 15 17. Lev. 19. 32. Deut. 21. 1. 16. 6. 11. Exod. 21. 12 13 18 20 22 c. 22. 2 3. Lev. 13. 14. 17. Deut. 21. Exod. 22. 19. Lev. 18. 19. 29. 20. Deut. 22. Exod. 21. 16 21 32 35. 22. 1. 4. to 17. Lev. 19. 30 35. Deut. 24. 29. 14. 21. 25. Exod. 23. 1. to 9. Deut. 23. 24. Lev. 19. 11 15. Exod. 22. 21 22. 25. 26. 23. 4. Lev. 19. 14 16 18 c. By all this I shew you why 1. I allow not of your making the word Law in the New Testament to signifie the Decalogue only or taking them for equipollent terms 2. Why I take not the Decalogue and the Law of Nature for equipollent termes or their matter to be of the same extent And consequently why I take it for no proof that all things in the Decalogue are perpetual because all things in the Law of Nature are so CHAP. V. Whether the truest Antiquity be for the seventh day Sabbath as kept by the Churches of Christ IT is here further objected that the seventh day Sabbath hath the truest testimonies of Antiquity that it is controvertible when and how the Lords day came in but the Antiquity of the seventh day Sabbath is past Controversie that the Eastern Christians long observed it and Antichrist in the West did turn it into a Fast that the Empire of Abassia keepeth it to this day Answ. There is enough said of this before were it not that some Objectors causlesly look for more I answer therefore 1. That it is true that the Sabbath is more ancient than the Lords day And so is Moses more ancient than Christ Incarnate and his Law than the Gospel as delivered by Christ and his Apostles and Circumcision than Baptism and the Passover than the Lords Supper And so every mans Conception Nativity Infancie and Ignorance was before his Maturity and Knowledge And what can you gather from all this Thus the Papists say that their way of Religion was in England before ours and that the reliques of it in our Monuments Orate pro animabus c. is their standing witness which we cannot totally deface And its true if by our way they mean the Reformation of theirs as such For the Cure is ever after the disease Though its false if they speak of our Religion it self which was here before their errours as Health is before sickness But they should consider that by this prerogative the Heathens excell us both And that they may say you have yet many Monuments of our more ancient Religion which you have not been able to obliterate You still call your Week dayes by our ancient names Sunday Munday c. Your adoration towards the East was fetcht from us and so were abundance of your Customes Which we hope may recover the reputation of our Religion 2. I have shewed you already how and why the Eastern Christians kept the Sabbath 1. They kept it not as a Sabbath but only met on that day as they did on the fourth and the sixth dayes Wednesdayes and Fridayes as it is used in England to this
that he shall take of mine and shall shew it unto you John 17. 8. I have given to them the words which thou gavest me and they have received them V. 17 18. 〈◊〉 then through thy truth thy word is truth As thou hast sent me into the world so have I also sent them into the world And for their sakes I 〈◊〉 my self that they also might be sanctified through the truth Matth. 28. 20. Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you and loe I am with you alwayes to the end of the world Acts 1. 4. And being assembled together with them commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem but wait for the promise of the Father which ye have heard of me For John truly baptized with water but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many dayes hence V. 8. But ye shall receive Power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you and ye shall be witnesses uitto me both in Jerusalem and to all Judaea and in Samaria and unto the uttermost parts of the earth By these Texts it is most evident that Christ promiseth the Apostles an extraordinary Spirit or measure of the Spirit so to enable them to deliver his Commands and execute their Commission as that he will own what they do by the guidance thereof and the Churches may rest upon it as the Infallible revelation of the Will of God CHAP. IV. Prop. 3. Christ performed all these promises to his Apostles and gave them his Spirit to enable them for all their commissioned work This is proved both from the fidelity of Christ and from the express assertions of the Scripture He is faithful that hath promised Heb. 10. 23. Titus 1. 2. God that cannot lye hath promised 2 Cor. 1. 18. As God is true Rev. 6. 10. H w long O Lord Holy and True Rev. 19. 11. He was called faithful and true Rom. 3. 4. Let God be true and every man a lyar 1 John 5. 10 He that believeth not God hath made him a lyar John 20. 22. He breathed on them and saith unto them Receive ye the Holy Ghost Acts 2. Containeth the Narrative of the comeing down of the Holy Ghost upon them at large Acts 15. 28. seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us Heb. 2. 4. God also bearing them witness both with signs and wonders and with divers mighty works and distributions of the Holy Ghost according to his own will 1 Pet. 1. 12. The things which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the Gospel unto you by the Holy Ghost sent down from Heaven Rom. 15. 19 20. Through mighty signs and wonders by the power of the Spirit of God so that from Jerusalem and round about to Illyricum I have fully preached the Gospel of Christ. Read all the Texts in Acts and elsewhere that speak of all the Apostles Miracles and their giving of the Holy Ghost c. And 1 Cor. 7. 40. Acts 4. 8 31. Acts 5. 3. 6. 3. 7. 51 55. 8. 15 17 18 19. 9. 17. 10. 44 45 47. 11. 15 16 24. 13. 2 4 9 52. 16. 6. Rom. 5. 5. 9. 1. 1 Cor. 2. 13. 2 Tim. 1. 14. 1 Cor. 12. Eph. 4. 7 8 c. 3. 5. But this Proposition is confessed by all Christians CHAP. V. Prop. 4. The Apostles did actually separate and appoint the first day of the Week for holy Worship especially in Church-Assemblies Here the Reader must remember that it is 〈◊〉 matter of fact that is to be proved in the proof of this Proposition and that all till this is clearly and undenyably proved so that the whole Controversie resteth upon the proof of the fact That indeed The Apostles did separate 〈◊〉 set apart this day for ordinary publick Worship And in order to the fuller proof of this I have these 〈◊〉 Propositions to prove Prop. 1. Matter of past fact is to be known to us by History Written Verbal or Practical This is evident in the nature of the thing History is the Narration of facts that are past We speak not of the fact of meer natural agents but of Moral or humane facts It may be known without History what Eclipses there have been of the Sun what changes of the Moon c. But not what in particular Morals have been done by man The necessity of other distinct wayes of knowledge are easily disproved 1. It need not be known by Divine supernatural Revelation Otherwise no men could know what is past but Prophets or inspired persons nor Prophets but in few things For it cannot be proved that God ever revealed to Prophets or inspired persons the general knowledge of things past but only some particulars of special use as the Creation to Moses c. so that if Revelation by Inspiration Voice or Visions were necessary Scripture it self could be understood by none but inspired persons or that had such revelation 2. It is not known by Natural Causes and by arguing from the Natural Cause to the Effects It is no more possible to know all things past this way by knowing the Causes than all things future Therefore it must be ordinarily known by Humane report which we call History or Tradition Prop. 2. Scripture History is not the only certain History much less the only credible Without Scripture History we may be certain that there was in 1666. a great Fire in London and a great plague in 1665. and that there were Wars in England 1642 1643 c. and that there have been Parliaments in England which have made the Statutes now in force and that there have been such Kings of England for many Ages as our Records and Histories mention c. Prop. 3. Scripture History is not the only certain History of the things of the Ages in which it was written or of former Ages much less the only credible History of them We may know by other History certainly that there were such persons as Cyrus Alexander c. That the Macedonians had a large extended Empire that the Romans after by many Victories obtained a spacious Empire that there were such persons as Julius Caesar Augustus Tiberius Nero Cicero Virgil Horace Ovid c. Prop. 4. Scripture History is not the only means appointed by God to help us to the knowledge of Ecclesiastical matters of fact transacted in Scripture times 1. For if Humane History be certain or credible in other cases it is certain or credible in these There being no reason why these things or much of them should not be as capable of a certain delivery to us by humane History as other matters As that there were Christians in those times may be known by what Tacitus Suetonius c. say And the antient Writers oft appeal in many cases to the Heathens own History And no man pretendeth as to the Civil matters mentioned in the Scriptures that no other History of the same is credible or
You do not use if you have a Feast or a Cup of Wine before you to ask Where doth God Command me to Eat or Drink it You can do this without a Command If you hear but of a gainful Market you ask not Where doth God make it my duty to go to it If one would give you Money or Land you would scarcely ask How prove you that I am bound to take it You would be glad of Leave without Commands If the King should say to you Ask what you will and I will give it you you would not say Where am I bound of God to ask And when God saith Ask and it shall be given you you say How prove you that I am bound to ask You can sing ribbald Songs and Dance without a Command You can Feast and Play and Prate and Sleep and Loyter in idleness without a Command But you cannot learn how to be saved nor praise your Redeemer without a Command A Thief can Steal a Fornicator can Play the Bruit a Drunkard can be Drunk an Oppressour can make himself hateful to the Oppressed not only without Law but against it But you cannot Rejoice in God nor live one day together in his Love and Service without a Law no nor with it neither For because you had rather not Love him it is certain that you do not Love him And because you had rather play than pray and serve the flesh than serve your Maker it is a certain sign that you do not serve him with any thing which he will accept as Service For while he hath not your hearts he hath nothing which he accepteth Your Knee and Tongue only is forced against your will to that which you call serving him But your Hearts or Wills cannot be forced When you had rather be elsewhere and say When will the Sermon and Prayer be done that I may be at my Work or Play God taketh it as if you were there where you had rather be I pray you deal openly and tell me you that think a day too long for God and are weary of all holy work What would you be doing that while if you had your choice Is it any thing which you dare say is better Dare you say that playing is better than Praying and a Piper or Dancing is better than praising God with Psalms Or that your Sleep or Games or Chat or Worldly business is better than the Contemplation of God and Glory And will those deceivers of the people also say this who teach them that it is a tedious uncommanded thing to serve God so long I think they dare not speak it out If they dare let them not grudge that they must be for ever shut out of Heaven where there will be nothing else but holiness But if you dare not say so Why will you choose the worse before the better Why will you be weary of well doing that you may do ill Why are you not more weary of every thing than of holiness unless you think every thing better than holiness Especially those men 1. Whose judgement is for will-worship should not ask where is there a Command for any good which they are willing of But doth not this shew that you had rather there were no Command for it Be judges your selves 2. And they that are for making the Churches a great deal more work than God hath made them O what abundance hath Popery made and what a multitude of new Religious particles methinks should not for shame say that God hath tired them out and made them too much work already Do you cry out What a weariness is this one day when you would adde of your own such a multitude of more dayes and more work Yet though I talk of doing it willingly if you had no forcing Law of God but bare leave to receive such Benefits my meaning is not that God hath left any such things indifferent or made them only the matter of Counsels and not of Commands For he hath made it our duty to receive our own benefits and to do that which tendeth to our own good and Salvation But if it had been so that we had only leave to receive so great mercies without any other penalty for refusing than the loss of them it should be enough to men that Love themselves and know what is for their good Much more when commands concurr CHAP. X. How the Lords day should not be spent Or What is unlawful on it AS to the resolving of this Question also I would wish for no greater advantage on him that I dispute with but that he be a man that Loveth God and Holiness and knoweth somewhat of the difference between things temporal and things Eternal and knoweth what is for the good of his soul and preferreth it before his body and hath an appetite to relish the delights of Wisdom and of things most excellent and Divine And that he be one that knoweth his own necessities and repenteth of his former loss of time and liveth in a daily preparation for death that is that he be a real Christian And then by all this it will appear how the Lords day must not be spent or what things are unlawful to be done thereon I. Undoubtedly it must not be spent in wickedness In gluttony or drunkenness chambering or wantonness strife or envying or any of those works of the flesh which are at all times sinful An evil work is most unsuitable to a holy day And yet alas what day hath more ryotting and excess of meat and drink and wantonness and sloth and lust than it II. It ought not to be spent in our worldly businesses which are the labours allowed us on the six dayes unless Necessity or Mercy make them at any time become such duties of the Law of Nature as Positives must for that time give place to For how is it a day separated to holy employments if we spend it in the common business of the world It is the great advantage that we have by such a separated day that we may wholly call off our minds from the world and set them on the world to come and exercise them in holy communion with God and his Church without the interruptions and distractions of any earthly cogitations A divided mind doth never perform any holy work with that integrity and life as the nature of it requireth Heavenly contemplations are never well managed with the intermixture of diverting wordly thoughts So great a work as to converse in Heaven to be rapt up in the admirations of the Divine perfections to kindle a fervent Love to God by the contemplation of his Love and Goodness to triumph over sin and Satan with our triumphing glorified Head to Commemorate his Resurrection and the whole work of our Redemption with a lively working faith doth require the whole heart and will not consist with aliene thoughts and the diversion of fleshly employments or delights Nay had we no higher
twentieth because of the Belief of the Lords Resurrection which the Church truly believed was on the first day of the week for the hope of our Resurrection and which they believed will fall out on the same first day of the week which is now called the Lords day So cap. 25. the King and the Queen kept Easter on several Lords dayes and the difference made the stir And Wilfrid in his Speech there saith the same that the Scots kept Ester only on the Lords day by whom the King at that time was changed And li. 3. c. 26. Beda saith that Tuda another holy follower of the Scots being made Bishop On the Lords daies the people flockt by crowds together either to the Church or to the Monasteries not to refresh their bodies but to learn the word of God and if any Priest hapt to come into a Village presently the Inhabitants Congregati in unum gathered together took care to seek from him the word of life Cap. 2. li. 4. Theodorus his Consecration on the Lords day is mentioned Lib. 4. cap. 5. In the Synod at Herudford the first Canon is that all keep Easter on the Lords day next after the fourteenth Moon of the first Month. Lib. 5. cap. 22. Ceolfridus sendeth an Epistle to the King of the Picts in which are these words Postquam verò Pasâ—ha nostrum immolatus est Christus Diemque nobis Dominicam quae apud antiquâ—t una 〈◊〉 prima Sabbati sive Sabbatorum vocatur gaudio suae Resurrectionis fecit esse solennem ita hanc nunc Apostolica traditio festis Paschalibus inseruit that is But when Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us and by the Joy of his Resurrection made the Lords day which by the Ancients was called one or the first of the Sabbath or Sabbaths to be a solemn day to us so now Apostolical Tradition hath ingraffed it into the Paschal Festivals Where you see that the Lords day settled as solemn by the Resurrection he taketh for uncontroverted but the graffing it into the Easter Festivals he ascribeth to Apostolical Tradition meaning St. Peters And after in the same Epistle Qui tertia post immolationem suae passionis die resurgens à mortuis hanc dominicam vocari in eâ nos annuatim Paschalia ejusdem Resurrectionis voluit festa celebrare that is Christ rising from the dead the third day after the Sacrifice of his passion would have this called the Lords day and would have us on it to Celebrate the Paschal Feast of his Resurrection The like is after again in that Epistle with this addition that we hold that our own Resurrection will be on the Lords day By this Epistle the King of the Picts was brought to Conformity in that day and made Laws for it And Cap. 23. The Scots of Hy who stood out so long were brought to it by the perswasion of Eigbertus Judge now of your Historical note of England But that you may see more of this you may Read Beda's mind that lived in England in other of his Works On Act 20. In una Sabbathi eum convenissemus ad fraugendum pâ—nem id est Die Dominico qui est primus a Sabbate cum ad mysteria celebrandae Congregâ—ti essemus that is On the Lords day which is the first from the Sabbath when we were Congregated to Celebrate the Mysteries And he thinks it called The Lords day because it is the Remembrance of the Lords Resurrection or ours And on Luc. 6. fol. 78. he saith The observation of the Legal Sabbath ought of it self to cease and the natural liberty of a Sabbath to be restored which till Moses time was like other dayes That as it is not circumcision or the Ceremonies of the Law that save the Church but the faith of Abraham working by Love by which being uncircumcised he was justified so he calleth the second Sabbath after the first no other but the spiritual Sabbath in which as on other daies it is lawful to do any profitable work for distinction from the Jewish Sabbath in which it was not lawful to travel to gather Wood nor to do other needful things Pardon his Errour about that word I only cite it for the historical use And on Luc. 24. 1. fol. 143. One of the Sabbaths or the first of the Sabbaths is the first day after the Sabbath which the Christian custome hath called the Lords day because of the Lords Resurrection And ibid. fol. 143. Whence Ecclesiastical custome hath obtained that either in memory of Christs Resurrection or for the hope of ours we Pray not with bended knees but only with faces declined towards the Earth on every Lords day and all the quadragesimae And in Act. 2. 1. The Holy Ghost sent the example of the ancient sign returning did himself by his own coming most manifestly Consecrate the Lords day And on Col. 2. fol. 308. he sheweth that the Sabbath was a shadow and Christ that made it was Lord of it and ended it and that to abstain from sin is now our Sabbath See him also on Rev. 1. 10. Heb. 4. fol. 308. 2 Cor. 3. fol. 176. D. And because he was a Scot I will adde Sedulius who lived 430. In Col. 2. fol 91. The Sabbath being a shadow ceased when the Body came because the Truth being present the Image is needless And on Heb. 4 9. There remaineth a Rest that is The Eternal Rest which the Jewish Sabbath signified See Philastrius Hâ—res 8. Abundance more of this kind I might Cite but for making the Book tedious to those that need it not And so much of the History to satisfie your Objections and Mistakes CHAP. II. An Answer to more Arguments for the seventh day Sabbath Reasons 1. THat the Lord Jesus Christ is Jehovah Zach. 11. 13. 12 4 10. Gen. 19. 24. Act. 2. 25. compared with Psal. 16. 8 c. The Lord our Righteousness Jer. 23. 6. Answers 1. THis is no Controversie among us meaning of Christs Divine Nature and his person in respect thereof Reasons 2. That the World was made by Jehovah Christ Joh. 1. 3 10. Heb. 1. 2 3 10. Col. 1. 14 15 16 17. Eph. 3. 9. Psal. 102. 22 24 25. Heb. 3. 4. Rom. 11. 36. 1 Cor. 8. 6. Gen. 2. 4 c. Answers 2. Nor is this any Controversie if meant of the second person in the eternal Trinity not yet Incarnate nor in the flesh Annointed Christ. Reasons 3. The seventh day Sabbath was instituted by Jehovah Christ and kept by him Gen. 2. 2 3 4. whilest man was in innocency before the Fall Gen. 3. 6. and before any Types Answers 3. Though this have long been doubted in the Church some thinking it mentioned but by Anticipation yet I deny it not but believe that it was Sanctified and kept from the beginning because the Reason of the Consecration was from the beginning But 1. The second Person is not called Christ before the fall nor without respect to his
humane Nature 2. It is uncertain whether it was before the fall because we know not whether man fell on the same day in which he was Created which is the commonest opinion though unproved Whereupon Mr. ◠Walker in his Treat of the Sabbath maintaineth that the fall and promise went before the Sabbath and so that Gods rest had respect to Christ promised as the perfection of his works and that the Sabbath was first founded on Christ and the promise But because all this is unproved Opinion I incline to the Objectors and the common sense Reasons 4. The seventh day Sabbath was kept by Abraham Gen. 26. 5. by the Israelites Exod. 5. 5. The Law for the seventh day was repeated Exod. 16. 22 23. Answers 4. I am of the same opinion but it is uncertain so far as it is uncertain whether it was instituted actually at first But the rest Ex. 5. 5. seemeth plainly to referr to no Sabbath but to the peoples neglect of their tasks while Moses kept them in hope of deliverance and treated for them And their tasks with their desire to go into the Wilderness to Sacrifice maketh it probable that Pharaoh never allowed them the Sabbaths rest Reasons 5. The Decalogue was spoken by Jehovah Christ Exod. 20. 1. see the Assemblies lesser Catechisme on the Preamble in the Commands Because the Lord is our God c. Redeemer c. therefore we are bound to keep c. Exod. 19. 3. compared with Act. 7. 38. Esa. 63. 9. Ex. 19. 17. The Decalogue written by his Finger Ex. 31. 18. On Tables of Stone Ex. 32. 15 16 19. 34 1 28. and kept by all the Prophets Answers 5. All true and uncontroverted with these suppositions 1. That the Father as well as the Son gave the Decalogue 2. That the second person was not 〈◊〉 Incarnate Christ. 3. That the Law was given by the Ministration of Angels who its like are called the Voice and Finger of God 4. That God our Redeemer did variously Govern his Kingdom by his Law and Covenant in various Editions of which more anon Reasons 6. The Decalogue was confirmed by Jehovah Christ Ma◠5. 17 18 19. Luk. 16. 17. Mat. 28. 20. Joh. 14. 15. 15. 14. Rom 3. 31. 7. 12. Jam. 2. 8 12. NewCovenant Heb. 8. 10. 1 Joh. 3. 22 24. 1 Joh. 5. 3. 2 Ep. Joh. 5. 6. Rev. 12. 17. 14. 12. 22. 14 18. compared with Mal. 4. 4. Answers 6. Here beginneth our fundamental difference I shall first tell you what we take for the truth and then consider of what you alledge against it 1. We hold that every Law is the Law of some one some Law-maker or Soveraign power And therefore Christ being now the Head over all things to the Church Eph. 1. 22 23. whatever Law is now in Being to the Church must needs be the Law of Christ. 2. We hold that Christs Redeemed Kingdom hath been Governed by him with variety of Administrations by various Editions of his Law or Covenant That is I. Universally to Mankind viz. 1. Before his Incarnation which was first To Adam and secondly to Noah and to mankind in them both 2. After his Incarnation II. Particularly to the seed of Abraham even the Jews as a particular Political society chosen out of the World not as the only people or Church of God on Earth but for peculiar extraordinary mercies as a peculiar people 3. We believe that each of these Administrations was fittest for its proper time and subject according to the manifold Wisdom of God But yet the Alterations were many and great and all tended towards perfection so that the last Edition of the Covenant by Christ Incarnate and his Holy Spirit much excelled all that went before in the Kingdom of the Mediatour And all these changes were made by God-Redeemer himself 4. As it was the work of the Redeemer to be the Repairer of Nature and recoverer of man to God so in all the several Administrations the great Laws of Nature containing mans duty to God resulting from and manifested in our Nature as related to God and in the Natura rerum or the Works of God was still made the chief part of the Redeemers Law so that this Law of Nature whose summe is the Love of God and of his Image is ever the Primitive unchangeable Law and the rest are secondary subservient Laws either Positive or remedying or both And no tittle of this shall ever cease if nature cease not 5. But yet there are temporary Laws of Nature which are about Temporary things or where the Nature of the thing it self is mutable from whence the Natural duty doth result As it was a duty by the then Law of Nature it self for Adams Sons and Daughters to Marry Increase and multiply being made a natural Benediction and the means a natural Duty And yet now it is incest against the Law of Nature for Brother and Sister to Marry So it was a Natural duty for Adam and Eve before their Fall to love each other as innocent but not so when they ceased to be innocent For cessanie materiâ cessat obligatio 6. So also some Positive Commands made to Adam in Innocence ceased on the fall and sentence As to dress that Garden And some positives of the first Administrations of Grace did cease by the supervening of a more perfect administration As the two Symbolical or Sacramental Trees in the Garden were no longer such to man when he was turned out so no positive Ordinance of Grace was any longer in force when God himself repealed it by the introduction of a more perfect Administration 7. Accordingly we hold that a change is now made of the sanctified day Where note 1. That we take not the seventh day no nor one day in seven though that be nothing to our Controversie to be a Duty by the proper Law of Nature but by a Positive Law 2. That the seventh day is never called a Sahbath till Moses time but only a Sanctified and blessed day the word Sabbath being ever taken in Scripture for a day of Ceremonial Rest as well as of spiritual Rest and Worship 3. That Christ himself hath continued a seventh day but changed the seventh day to the first not as a Sabbath that is A day of Ceremonial Rest for he hath ended all Sabbaths as shadows of things that were to come even of rest which remained for the people of God Heb. 4. 9. Col. 2. 16. And this is it which is incumbent upon us to prove and I think I have fully proved already 4. That having proved the thing done the positive Law of the seventh day changed by the Holy Ghost to the first day it concerneth us not much to give the reasons of Gods doings But yet this reason may secondarily be observed That God having made the whole frame of Nature very good did thereby make it the glass in which he was to be seen by man and the Book