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
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
CHAP. IV. Christ performed all these Promises to his Apostles and gave them his Spirit to enable them to all their commissioned work p. 11 CHAP. V. The Apostles did actually separate and appoint the first day of the Week for Holy Worship especially in Church Assemblies Which is explained in several subordinate Propositions And proved 1. By Scripture 2. By unquestionable History And the validity of this proof evinced and the denyers of it proved to subvert the Churches certainty of greater matters p. 12 CHAP. VI. This act of the Apostles appointing the Lords Day for holy Worship was done by the especial inspiration and guidance of the Holy Ghost p. 69 CHAP. VII Whether the seventh day Sabbath should be still kept by Christians as of Divine obligation Neg. proved Where is shewed how far the fourth Commandment is abrogated and all the Law of Moses p. 71 CHAP. VIII Of the Beginning of the Day p. 91 CHAP. IX How the Lords Day should be kept Of the length of the time and the Objection about weariness p. 93 CHAP. X. How the Lords Day should not be spent or what is unlawful on it Of worldly business Of recreations of Idleness c. p. 108 CHAP. XI What things should not be scrupled as un lawful on the Lords Day p. 129 CHAP. XII Of what importance the due observing of the Lords Day is Many great Reasons for it p. 139 CHAP. XIII What other Church Festivals or separated Dayes are lawful p. 148 THE CONTENTS OF THE Appendix CHAP. I. An Answer to certain Objections against the Lords Day p. 157 CHAP. II. An Answer to more Arguments for the seventh day Sabbath p. 180 CHAP. III. Whether the seventh day Sabbath be part of the Law of Nature or only a Positive Law p. 202 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 p. 214 CHAP. V. Whether the truest Antiquity be for the seventh day Sabbath as kept by the Churches of Christ p. 220 The Divine Appointment of the LORDS DAY proved as a separated Day for holy Worship especially in the Church-Assemblies And consequently the Cessation of the Seventh-day-Sabbath CHAP. I. Though the principal thing desired by the Enquirers is That I would prove to them the Cessation of the Seventh-day Sabbath yet because they cast off the Lords day which I take to be a far greater error and sin than the observation of both dayes and because that when I have proved the Institution of the Lords Day I shall the more easily take them off the other by proving that there are not two weekly dayes set apart by God for holy Worship Therefore I will begin with the first Question Whether the Lords day or first day of the week be separated by Gods Institution for holy Worship especially in publick Church-conventions Aff. And here for the right stating of the Question let it be noted 1. That it is not the Name of a Sabbath that we now meddle with or stand upon Let us agree in the Thing and we shall easily bear a difference about the name Grant that it is A day separated by Gods Institution for holy Assemblies and Worship and then call it a Sabbath or the Lords day as you please Though for my self I add That the Lords day is the name that the Holy Ghost hath set upon it and the name which the first Churches principally used and that they call it also sometimes by the name of the Christian Sabbath but that is only Analogically as it is resembled to the Jewish Sabbath and as they used the names Sacrifice and Altar at the same time for the Christians Commemoration of Christs Sacrifice in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper and for the Table or as Dr. Young saith pag. 23. As in Scripture Baptism is called Circumcision And that very rarely too 2. That the Question of the manner of observing the Lords day and what exercises of Worship it must be spent in and what Diversions are lawful or unlawful as also when the day beginneth are not to be here medled with in the beginning but afterwards when the Divine Institution of the Day it self is first sufficiently proved Which is done as followeth Arg. That day which was separated to holy Worship by the Holy Ghost was separated to holy Worship by God the Father and the Son But the first day of the Week was separated to holy Worship by the Holy Ghost Therefore the first day of the Week was separated to holy Worship by God the Father and the Son The Minor only needeth proof among Christians That day which was separated to holy Worship by the Apostles by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost was separated to holy Worship by the Holy Ghost But the first day of the Week was separated to holy Worship by the Apostles by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost Therefore the first day of the Week was separated to holy Worship by the Holy Ghost The Minor which only needeth proof is thus proved That day which was separated to holy Worship by the Apostles who had the Holy Ghost promised them by Christ and given them to lead them into all truth and to bring all his Doctrines to their remembrance and to teach the Churches to do all his Commands and to feed and guide and order them as his principal commissioned Church-Minister was separated to holy Worship by the Apostles by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost But such is the first day of the Week Therefore the first day of the Week is separated to holy Worship by the Apostles by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost I have five Propositions now distinctly to be proved four for the proof of the Major and one for the proof of the Minor The first Proposition is That Christ commissioned his Apostles as his principal Church-Ministers to teach the Churches all his Doctrine and deliver them all his Commands and Orders and so to settle and guide the first Churches The second Proposition is That Christ promised them his Spirit to enable them to do what he had commissioned them to do by leading them into all truth and bringing his words and deeds to their remembrance and by guiding them as his Churches Guides The third Proposition is That Christ performed this promise and gave his Spirit accordingly to his Apostles to enable them to all their commissioned work The fourth Proposition is That the Apostles did actually separate or appoint the first day of the Week for holy Worship especially in Church-assemblies The fifth Proposition is That this act of theirs was done by the Guidance or inspiration of the Holy Ghost which was given them And when I have distinctly proved these five things no sober understanding Christian can expect that I should prove any more towards the proof of the Question in hand Whether the first day of the Week be separated by Gods
Original is not known 4. That the Antients joyn not the Lords day with these but take the Lords day for an Apostolical institution written in Scripture though the universal practice of all Churches fullier deliver the certain History of it But the rest they take for unwritten Customs as distinct from Scripture Ordinances As Epiphanius fully sheweth 5. That most Christians are agreed that if these later could be proved Apostolical Institutions for the Church universal it would be our duty to use them though they were not in Scripture So that we reject them only for want of such proof But the proof of the Lords dayes separation being far better by concurrence of Scripture and all antient History it followeth not that we must doubt of that which hath full and certain proof because we must doubt of that which wants it 6. And if it were necessary that they stood or fell together as it is not it were necessary that we did receive those three or four Ceremonies for the sake of the Lords day which â—ath so great evidence rather than that we cast off the Lords day because of these Ceremonies Not only because there is more Good in the Lords dâ—y than there is evil to be any way suspected by a doubter in these Ceremonies but especially because the Evidence for the day is so great that if the said Ceremonies had but the same they were undoubtedly of Divine authority or institution In a word I have shewed you somewhat of the evidence for the Lords day Do you now shew me the like for them and then I will prove that both must be received But if you cannot do not pretend a parity 7. And the same Churches laying by the Customs aforesaid or most of them did shew that they â—â—ok them not indeed for Apostolical institutions as they did the Lords day which they continued to observe not as a Ceremony but as a necessary thing 8. And the ancient Churches did believe that even in the Apostles dayes some things were used as Indifferent which were mutable and were not Laws but temporary customs And some things were necessary setled by Law for perpetuity Of the former kind they thought were the greeting one another with a holy kiss the Womens praying covered with a Veil of which the Apostle saith that it was then and there so decent that the contrary would have been unseemly and the Churches of God had no such custom by which he answereth the contentious yet in other Countreys where custom altereth the signification it may be otherwise Also that a man wear not long hair and that they have a Love Feast on the Lords day which yet Paul seemeth to begin to alter in his rebuke of the abusers of it 1 Cor. 11. And if these ancient Churches thought the Milk and Honey and the white Garment and the Station and Adoration Eastwards to be also such like indifferent mutable customs as it is apparent they did this is nothing at all to invalidate our proof that the Lords day was used and consequently appointed in the dayes of the Apostles Obj. At least it will prove it mutable as they were Answ. No such matter Because the very nature of such Circumstances having no stated necessity or usefulness sheweth them to be mutable But the reason of the Lords dayes use is perpetual And it is founded partly in the Law of nature which telleth us that some stated dayes should be set apart for holy things and partly in the positive part of the fourth Commandment which telleth us that once God determined of one day in seven yea and this upon the ground of his own Cessation of his Creation-work that man on that day might observe a Holy Rest in the worshipping of the great Creator which is a Reason belonging not to the Jews only but to the whole world Yea and that Reason whatever Dr. Heylin say to the contrary from the meer silence of the former History in Genesis doth seem plainly to intimate that this is but the repetition of that Law of the Sabbath which was given to Adam For why should God begin two thousand years after to give men a Sabbath upon the reason of his rest from the Creation and for the Commemoration of it if he had never called man to that Commemoration before And it is certain that the Sabbath was observed at the falling of Manna before the giving of the Law And let any considerate Christian judge between Dr. Heylin and us in this 1. Whether the not falâ—ing of Manna or the Rest of God after the Creation was like to be the Original reason of the Sabbath 2. And whether if it had been the first it would not have been said Remember to keep holy the Sabbath day for on six dayes Manna fell and not on the seventh rather than For in six dayes God created Heaven and Earth c. and rested the seventh day And it is causally added Wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it Nay consider whether this annexed Reason intimate not that the day on this ground being hallowed before therefore it was that God sent not down the Manna on that day and that he prohibited the people from seeking it And he that considereth the brevity of the History in Genesis will think he is very bold that obtrudeth on the world his Negative Argument The Sabbath is not there mentioned therefore it was not then kept And if it was a Positive Law given to Adam on the reason of the Creation Rest it was then such a Positive as must be next to a Law of Nature and was given to all mankind in Adam and Adam must needs be obliged to deliver it down to the world So that though the Mosaical Law even as given in Stone be ceased yea and Adams Positives too formally as such yet this is sure that once God himself determined by a Law that one stated day in seven was the fittest proportion of time to be separated to holy Worship And if it was so once yea to all the world from the Creation it is so still Because there is still the same reason for it And we are bound to judge Gods determination of the proportion to be wiser than any that we can make And so by parity of Reason consequentially even those abrogated Laws do thus far bind us still not so far as abrogated but because the record and reason of them is still a signification of the due proportion of time and consequently of our duty Now the Lords day supposing one weekly day to be due and being but that day determined of and this upon the Reason of the Resurrection and for the Commemoration of our Redemption and that by such inspired and authorized persons it followeth clearly that this is no such mutable ceremony as a Love Feast or the Kiss of Love or the Veil or the washing of feet or the anointing of the sick which were mostly occasionall actions and
History assureth us that they did III. Nor have we any fuller Scripture proof that the Apostles used to require of those that were to be Baptized any more than a general Profession of the substance of the Christian faith in God the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost Or of the ancient use of the Christian Creed either in the words now used or any of the same importance From whence many would inferr that any one is to be Baptized who will but say that I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God with the Eunuch Act. 8. 37. or that Christ is come in the flesh 1 Joh. 4. 2 3. But Historical evidence assureth us that it was usual in those times to require of men a more explicite understanding profession of the Christian faith before they were admitted to Baptisme And that they had a summary or Symbole fitted to that use commonly called The Apostles Creed at least as to the constant tenour of the matter though some words might be left to the speakers will and some little subordinate Articles may be since added And that it was long after the use to keep men in the state of Catechised persons till they understood that Creed And it is in it self exceeding probable that though among the intelligent Jews who had long expected the Messiah the Apostles did Baptize thousands in a day Act. 2. Yet where the Miraculous communication of the Spirit did not antecede as it did Act. 10. they would make poor Heathens who had been bred in ignorance to understand what they did first and would require of them an understanding profession of their Belief in God the Father Son and Holy Ghost which could not possibly if understanding contain much less than the Symbolum fidâ—i the Apostles Creed IV. Nor have we any Scripture proof except by inferring obedience from the precept that ever the Lords Prayer was used in words after Christ commanded or delivered it Whence some inferr that it should not be so used But Church History putteth that past doubt Other such instances I pretermit I think now that I have fully proved to sober considerate Christians that the matter of fact that the Lords day was appointed by the Apostles peculiarly for Church-Worship is certain to us by historical Evidence added to the historical intimations in Scripture as a full exposition and confirmation of it And that this is a proof that no Christian can deny without unsufferable injury to the Scriptures and the Christian cause CHAP. VI. Prop. 5. This Act of the Apostles appointing the Lords day for Christian Worship was done by the special inspiration or guidance of the Holy Ghost THis is proved 1. Because it is one of those Acts or works of their Office to which the Holy Ghost was promised them 2. Because that such like or smaller things are by them ascribed to the Holy Ghost Act. 15. 28. Iâ— seemed good to the Holy Ghost and us when they did but declare an antecedent duty and decide a Controversie thereabout See also Act. 4. 8. Act. 5. 3. 6. 3. with 7. 55. Act. 13. 2 4. 16. 6 7. 20. 23 28. 21. 11. 2 Tim. 1. 14. Jud. 20. Act. 11. 12 28. 19. 21. 20. 22. 1 Cor. 5. 3 4. 14. 2 15 16. And 1 Cor. 7. 40. When Paul doth but counsel to a single life he ascribeth it to the Spirit of God 3. And if any will presume to say that men purposely indued with the Spirit for the works of their commission did notwithstanding do such great things as this without the conduct of that Spirit they may by the same way of proceeding pretend it to be as uncertain of every particular Book and Chapter in the New Testament whether or no they wrote it by the Spirit For if it be a sound inference They had the promise and gift of the Spirit that they might infallibly leave in writing to the Churches the doctrines and precepts of Christ Ergo whatever they have left in Writing to the Churches as the doctrine and precepts of Christ is Infallibly done by the Guidance of that Spirit Then it will be as good an inference They had the promise and gift of the Spirit that they might infallibly settle Church-orders for all the Churches universalâ—y ergo Whatever Church-orders they setled for all the Churches universally they setled them by the infallible guidance of that Spirit But this few Christians will deny except some Papists who would bring down Apostolical Constitutions to a lower rank and rate that the Pope and his General Council may be capable of â—â—ying claim to the like themselves and so may make as many more Laws for the Church as they please and pretend such an authority for it as the Apostles had for theirs By which preâ—ense many would make too little distinction between Gods Laws given by his Spirit and the Laws 〈◊〉 a Pope and Popish Council and call then all but The Laws of the Church Whereas there is no Universal Head of the Church but Christ who hath reserved Universal Legislation to Himself alone to be performed by himself personally and by his Advocate the Holy Ghost in his Authorized and Infallibly-inspired Apostles who were the Promulgators and Recorders of them All following Pastors being but as the Jewish Priests were to Moses and the Prophets the preservers the expositers and the applyers of that Law CHAP. VII Qu. 2. Whether the seventh day Sabbath should be still kept by Christians as of Divine obligation Neg. I Shall here premise That as some superstition is less dangerous than prophaneness though it be troublesome and have ill consequents so the Errour of them who keep both daies as of Divine appointment is much less dangerous than theirs that keep none yea and less dangerous I think than theirs who reject the Lords day and keep the seventh day only Because these latter are guilty of two sins the rejecting of the right day and the keeping of the wrong but the other are guilty but of one the keeping of the wrong day Besides that if it were not done with a superstitious conceit that it is Gods Law in some cases a day may be voluntarily set apart for holy duties as daies of Thanksgiving and Humiliation now are But yet though the rejecting of the Lords day be the greater fault and I have no uncharitable censures of them that through weakness keep both daies I must conclude it as the truth that We are not obliged to the observation of the Saturday or seventh day as a Sabbath or separated day of holy Worship Arg. 1. That dayes observation which we are not obliged to either by the Law of Nature the Positive Law given to Adam the Positive Law given to Noah the Law of Moses nor the Law of Christ incarnate we are not obliged to by any Law of God as distinct from humane Laws But such is the observation of the seventh day as a Sabbath Ergo we are
not obliged to the observation of the seventh day as a Sabbath by any Law of God The Minor I must prove by parts For I think none will deny the sufficient enumeration in the Major And 1. That the Law of Nature bindeth us not to the seventh or any one day of the seven more than other appeareth 1. In the nature and reason of the thing There is nothing in nature to evidence it to us to be Gods will 2. By every Christians experience No man findeth himself convinced of any such thing by meer nature 3. By all the Worlds experience No man can say that a man of that opinion can bring any cogent evidence or argument from nature alone to convince another that the seventh day must be the Sabbath Nor is it any where received as a Law of Nature but only as a Tradition among some few Heathens and as Law positive by the Jews and some few Christians I am not solicitous to prosecute this argument any further because I can consent that all they take the seventh day for the Sabbath who can prove it to be so by meer natural Evidence which will not be one II. That the Positive Law made to Adam before or after the fall or to Noah bindeth not us to keep the seventh day as a Sabbath is proved 1. Because we are under a more perfect subsequent Law which being in force the former more imperfect ceaseth As the force of the Promise of the Incarnation of Christ is ceased by his incarnation and so is the precept which bound men to believe that he should de future be incarnate and the Law of Sacrificing which Abel doubtless received from Adam though one of late would make it to be but will-worship so also is the Sabbath day as giving place to the day in which our Redemption is primarily commemorated as the imperfect is done away when that which is more perfect cometh 2. Because that the Law of Christ containeth an express revocation of the seventh day Sabbath as shall be shewed anon 3. Because God never required two dayes in seven to be kept as holy Therefore the first day being proved to be of Divine institution the cessation of the seventh is thereby proved For to keep two dayes is contrary to the command which they themselves do build upon which requireth us to sanctifie a Sabbath and labour six dayes 4. And when it is not probable that most or many Infidels are bound to Adams day for want of notice at least For no Law can bind without promulgation though I now pass by the question how far a promulgation of a positive to our first Parents may be said to bind their posterity that have no intermediate notice It seemeth leÃs probable that Christians should be bound by it who have a more perfect Law promulgate to them 5. Nor is it probable that Christ and his Apostles and all the following Pastors of the Churches would have passed by this Positive Law to Adam without any mention of it if our universal obligation had been thence to be collected Nay I never yet heard a Sabbatarian plead this Law any otherwise than as supposed to be implyed or exemplified in the fourth Commandment III. And that the fourth Commandment of Moses Law bindeth us not to the seventh day Sabbath is proved 1. Because that Moses Law never bound any to it but the Jews and those Proselites that made themselves inhabitants of their Land or voluntarily subjected themselves to their policy For Moses was Ruler of none but the Jews nor a Legislator or deputed officer from God to any other Nation The Decalogue was but part of the Jewish Law if you consider it not as it is written in Nature but in Tables of Stone And the Jewish Law was given as a Law to no other people but to them It was a National Law as they were a peculiar people and holy Nation So that even in Moses daies it bound no other Nations of the World Therefore it needed not any abrogation to the Gentiles but a declaration that it did not bind them 2. The whole Law of Moses formally as such is ceased or abrogated by Christ. I say As such Because Materialy the same things that are in that Law may be the matter of the Law of Nature and of the Law of Christ of which more anon That the whole Law of Moses as such is abrogated is most clearly proved 1. By the frequent arguings of Paul who ever speaketh of that Law as ceased without excepting any part And Christ saith Luke 16. 16. The Law and the Prophets were untill John that is were the chief doctrine of the Church till then Joh. 1. 17. The Law was given by Moses but grace and truth cometh by Jesus Christ. No Jew would have understood this if the word Law had not contained the Decalogue So Joh. 7. 19 23. Act. 15. 5 24. It was the whole Law of Moses as such which by Circumcision they would have bound men to Gal. 5. 3. The Gentiles are said to sin without Law even when they broke the Law of Nature meaning without the Law of Moses Rom. 2. 12 14 15 16. In all these following places its not part but the whole Law of Moses which Paul excludeth which I ever acknowledged to the Antinomians though they take me for their too great Adversary Rom. 3. 19 20 21 27 28 31 4. 13 14 15 16. 5. 13. 20. 7. 4 5 6 7 8 16. 9. 4 31 32. 10. 5. Gal. 2. 16 19 21. 3. 2 10 11 12 13 19 21 24. 4. 21. 5. 3 4 14 23. 6. 13. Eph. 2. 15. Phil. 3. 6 9. Heb. 7 11 12 19. 9. 19. 10. 28. 1 Cor. 9. 21. 2. More particularly there are some Texts which express the cessation of the Decalogue as it was Moses Law 2 Cor. 3. 3 7 11. Not in Tables of Stone but in fleshly tables of the heart But if the Ministration of death written and engraven in stones was glorious so that the Children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his Countenance which was to be done away or is done away They that say the Glory and not the Law is here said to be done away speak against the plain scope of the Text For the Glory of Moses face and the glorious manner of deliverance ceased in a few daies which is not the cessation here intended But as Dr. Hammond speaketh it that Glory and that Law so gloriously delivered is done away And this the eleventh verse fullyer expresseth For if that which is done away was glorious or by Glory much more that which remaineth is glorious or in glory so that as it is not only the Glory but the Glorious Law Gospel or Testament which is said to remain so it is not only the Glory but the Law which was delivered by Glory which is expresly said to be done away And this is
as he nailed the hand-writing of Ordinances to his Cross so he buried the Sabbath in his Grave by lying buried on that day And therefore the Western Churches who had fewer Jews among them did fast on the Sabbath day to shew the change that Christs burial intimated Though the Eastern Churches did not lest they should offend the Jews And that the ancient Christians were not for sabbatizing on the seventh day is visible in the writings of most save the Eastern ones before mentioned Tertull. cont Marcion li. 1. cap. 20. Chrysost. Theodoret Primasius c. on Gal. 4. expound that Text as that by Dayes is meant the Jewish Sabbath and by Moneths the New Moons c. Cyprian 59. Epist. ad Hidum saith that the eighth day is to Christians what the Sabbath was to the Jews and calleth the Sabbath the Image of the Lords day Athanasius de Sab. Circumcis is full and plain on it See Tertullian Advers Judae c. 4. Ambros. in Eph. 2. August Ep. 118. Châ—ysâ—st in Gal. 1. Hâ—m 12. ad pop Hilary before cited Prolog in Psalm Origen Hom. 23. in Num. Item Tertull. de Idol c. 14. Epipban l. 1. num 30. noting the Nazaraei and Ebionaei Hereticks that they kept the Jews Sabbath In a word The Council of Laodiâ—aea doth Anathematize them that did Judaize by forbearing their Labours on the Sabbath or seventh day And as Sozomen tells us that at Alexandria and Rome they used no Assemblies on the Sabbath so where they did in most Churches they communicated not in the Sacrament Yea that Ignatius himself true or false who saith as aforecited After the Sabbath let every lover of Christ celebrate the Lords day doth yet in the same Epistle ad Magnes before say Old things are passed away behold all things are made new For if we yet live after the Jewish Law and the Circumcision of the flesh we deny that we have received Grace Let us not therefore keep the Sabbath or sabbatize Jewishly as delighting in Idleness or Rest from labour For be that will not labour let him not eat In the sweat if thy brows thou shalt cat thy bread I confess I take the cited Texts to have been added since the body of the Epistle was written but though the Writer favour of the Eastern custom yet he sheweth they did not sabbatize on the account of the fourth Commandment or supposed continuation of the Jewish Sabbath as a Sabbath For bodily labour was strictly forbidden in the fourth Commandment Dionysius Alexandr hath an Epistle to Basilides a Bishop on the Question When the Sabbath Fast must end and the observation of the Lords day begin Biblioth Patr. Graec. Lat. Vol. 1. p. 306. In which he is against them that end their Fast too soon And plainly intimateth that the seventh day was to be kept but as a preparatory Fast being the day that Christ lay in the grave and not as a Sabbath or as the Lords day I cite not any of these as a humane authority to be set against the authority of the fourth Commandment But as the certain History of the change of the day which the Apostles made Qu. How far then is the fourth Commandment Moral you seem to subvert the old foundation which most others build the Lords day upon Answ. Let us not entangle our selves with the ambiguities of the word Moral which most properly signifieth Ethical as distinct from Physical c. By Moral here is meant that which is on what ground soever of perpetual or continued obligation And so it is all one as to ask how far it is still obligatory or in force To which I answer 1. It is a part of the Law of Nature that God be solemnly worshipped in families and in holy assemblies 2. It is a part of the Law of Nature that where greater things do not forbid it a stated time be appointed for this service and that it be not left at Randome to every mans will 3. It is of the Law of Nature that where greater matters do not hinder it this day be one and the same in the same Countreys yea if it may be through the world 4. It is of the Law of Nature that this day be not so rarely as to hinder the ends of the day nor yet so frequently as to deprive us of opportunity for our necessary corporal labour 5. It is of the Law of Nature that the holy duties of this day be nâ—t hindered by any corporal work or fleshly pleasure or any unnecessary thing which contradiâ—teth the holy ends of the day 6. It is of the Law of Nature that Rulers and in special Masters of families do take care that their inferiours thus observe it In all these points the fourth Commandment being but a transcript of the Law of Nature which we can yet prove from the nature of the reason of the thing the matter of it continueth not as Jewish but as Natural 7. Besides all this when no man of himself could tell whether one day in six or seven or eight were his duty to observe God hath come in and 1. By Doctrine or History told us that he made the world in six dayes and rested the seventh 2. By Law and bath commanded one day in seven to the Jews by which he hath made known consequentialâ—y to all men that one day in seven is the fittest proportion of time And the case being thus determined by God by a Law to others doth consequentially become a Law to us because it is the determination of Divine Wisdom unless it were done upon some reasons in which their condition differeth from ours And thus the Doctrine and Reasons of an abrogated Law continuing may induce on us an obligation to duty And in this sense the fourth Commandment may be said still to bind us to one day in seven But in two points the obligation even as to the Matter ceaseth 1. We are not bound to the seventh day because God our Redeemer who is Lord of the Sabbath hath made a change 2. We are not bound to a Sabbath in the old notion that is to a day of Ceremonial Rest for it self required but to a day to be spent in Evangelical Worship And though I am not of their mind who say that the seventh day is not commanded in the fourth Commandment but a Sabbath only yet I think that it is evident in the words that the Ratio Sabbati and the Ratio diei septimi are distinguishable And that the Sabbath as a Sabbath is first in the precept and the particular day is there but secondarily and so mutably as if God had said I will have a particular day set apart for a holy Rest and for my Worship And that day shall be one in seven and the seventh also on which I rested from my works And thus I have said as much as I think needful to satisfie the considerate about the day Again professing 1. That I believe that
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
the Apostles actual settlement thereupon was the Promulgation 3. The gradual notification by the Preachers to the Churches and finally the destruction of the Jewish Policie and Temple and Priesthood were the fuller proclamation of it and the way of bringing the change that was made by Command into fuller Execution 10. The seventh day Sabbath was observed by the Apostles after the Resurrection and Ascension Act. 13. 14 15 16 42 44. 16. 13 14. And constantly Act. 17. 2. the same Greek phrase with that Luk. 14. 16. for Christ constant keeping the seventh day Sabbath as before Act. 18. 1 4. c. 10 A. 1. But withal in this time they stablished the Lords day as soon as on that day the Holy Ghost came down upon them 2. So all that while they kept other parts of the Jewish Law They scrupled yea refused a while Communion with the Gentiles as Act. 10. shews They so carryed it to the Jews that Paul made it his defence that he had not offended any thing at all either against the Law of the Jews or against the Temple Act. 25. 8. And when he Circumcised Timâ—thy purified himself shaved his head for his Vow c. Do you think that all these are duties to Believers 3. None of the Texts cited by you do prove that the Apostles kept the Sabbath at all as a Sabbath that is a day on which it was their duty to Rest But only that they Preached on that day in the Synagogues and to the people For when should they Preach to them but when they were Congregated and capable of hearing They took it for no sin to Preach on the Sabbath no more than I would do to Preach Christ on Friday which is their Sabbath to the Turks if they would hear me But Sabbatizing according to the Law was something else than Preaching 4. And it is most evident that for a long time the Christian Jews did still keep the Law of Moses And that all that the Apostles did against it then was but 1. To declare that Christ was the end of the Law and so to declare the keeping of it to be unnecessary to Salvation but not unlawful laying by the opinion of necessity 2. That the Gentile Christians should not be brought to use it because it was unnecessary For the Apostles Act. 15. do not forbid it to the Jews but only to the Gentiles who were never under it Therefore the Apostles who lived among the Jews no doubt did so far comply with them to win them as to keep the Law externally though not as a necessary thing that is not as a Law in force obliging them but as a thing yet lawful to further the Gospel And therefore no wonder if Peter went so far as to withdraw from the Gentiles when the Jews were present when even Paul the Apostle of the Gentiles who speaketh so much more than all the rest against the Law doth yet as aforesaid Circumcise Timothy shave his head purifie himself c. and as he became all things to all men so to the Jews he became a Jew But when the Jews Policie and Temple ceased the change was executively yet further made and the Jewish Christians themselves were weaned from their Law In the mean time Paul and John Rev. 2. 3. do openly rebuke the Judaizing Hereticks the Ebionites and Cerinthians and Nicolaitans and shew the perniciousness of their conceits 11. The Holy Spirit calls the seventh day and no other day the Sabbath throughout the Scriptures before and after the Death Resurrection and Ascension of the Lord Jehovah Christ Gen. 2. 2 3 4. Exod. 20. 10 c. Act. 13. 14 15 16 42 44. 16. 13 14. 17. 2. 18. 1 4. 11. A. Though it be not true that the seventh is called the Sabbath Gen. 2. and though others deny the sufficiency of your enumeration yet I grant your assertion as true And therefore am satisfied that it is the seventh day which is put down when Sabbatizing was put down and that it could be none but the seventh day which Paul meant Col. 2. 16. Let no man judge you in meaâ—s c. and Sabbaths which were Shadows of things to come For the first day is never called a Sabbath as you truly say therefore it was not put down with the Sabbath See Dr. Youngs Dies Dom. on Col. 2. 16. 12. The seventh day Sabbath was prophaned by the Church heretofore and reformed Neh. 10. 28 29 31. 13. 15 17 18 22. See Belg. Annot. on Dan. 7. 25 c. as prophesied who would change it 12. This is all granted Sacrificing also was then Prophaned and Reformed and polluted and destroyed by Antiochus And yet we are not still under the obligation of Sacrificing We are not under the Law but under Grace CHAP. III. Whether the seventh day Sabbath be part of the Law of Nature or only a Positive Law IT is but few that I have any Controversie with on this point But yet one there is who objecteth and argueth as followeth God hath put this into nature Ex. 20. 10. Thy Stranger Deut. 5. 14. The three first Chapters of Romans Particularly Chap. 2. 14 15 26 27. 3. 9. 21. 1 Cor. 11. 14. Nature hath its teachings The humane Nature in the first Adam was made and framed to the perfection of the ten words some Notions whereof are still retained even in the corrupt state of fallen man Gen. 1. 26 27. Eccl. 7. 29. Eph. 4. 20. Col. 3. 10. The Law of the seventh day Sabbath was given before the ten words were proclaimed at Sinai Exod. 16. 23. Even from the Creation Gen. 2. 2 3. Given to Adam in respect of his humane nature and in him to all the world of humane creatures Gen. 1. 14. Psalm 104. 19 Lev. 10. 23. Numb 28. 2 9 10. 'T is the 〈◊〉 word in the Original Seâ— times of Divine appointment fâ—r solemn asseâ—â—â—ing and for Gods instituted service are directed to and pointed at by those great Lights which the Creator hath set up in the Heavens Psal. 19. with Rom. 10. 4 5 6 7. 8 18 19 20. Deut. 30. 10 15. John 1. 9. Every man hath a Light and Law of Nature which he carrieth about him and is born and bred together with him These seeds of truth and light though they will not justifie in the sight of God and bring a soul throughly and safely hâ—me to glory Rom. 1. 20. Yet there are even since Adams fall those reliques and dark Letters of this holy Law of the ten words to preserve the memory of our first created dignity and for some other ends though these seeds are utterly corrupted now Titus 1. 15. Natural reason will tell men that seeing all men in all Nations do measure their Time by Weeks and their Weeks by seven dayes they should besides what of their time they offer up as due to God every day give one whole day of every Week to their Maker who
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.
confesseth that its no doubt but the Religious observation of the day began in the Apostles age with their approbation and Authority and hath since continued in the same respect And what needs he more for confutation And as to his allegations of the Judgement of the Reformed Lutheran and Roman Church 1. We take none of them for our Rule so impartial are we But 2. He himself citeth Beza Mercer Paraeus Cuchlinus Simler Hospinian Zanchius c. as holding that It was an Apostolical and Truly Divine Tradition that the Apostles turned the Sabbath into the Lords day that it was an Apostolical custome or a custome received in the Apostles times c. And whereas afterward he would perswade us that they spent but a little of the day in holy worship he himself cited Mr. George Sandys Travels saying of the Copties that On Saturday presently after midnight they repair unto their Churches where they remain well nigh till Sunday at noon of the Evening he speaketh not but of their first meeting during which time they neither sit nor kneel but support themselves on Crutches And they sing over the most part of Davids Psalms at every meeting with divers parcels of the New Testament This is like the old way And such a Liturgie we do not contradict nor scruple Sandys also informeth us of the ArmenianChristians that coming into the place of the Assembly on Sunday in the afternoon no doubt they had been there in the Morning be found one sitting in the midst of the Congregation in habit not differing from the rest reading on a Bible in the Chaldaean tongue That anon after came the Bishop in a hood or Vest of black with a staffe in his hand That first he prayed and then sung certain Psalms assisted by two or three After all of them singing joyntly at interims praying to themselves the Bishop all this while with his bands erected and his face towards the Altar That Service being ended they all kissed his hand and bestowed their Almes he laying his other hand on their heads and blessing them c. And of the Abaffines he reciteth out of Brierwood and he from Damianus a Goes that they honour the Lords day as the Christian Sabbath and the Saturday as the Jews Sabbath because they receive the Canons called the Apostles which speak for both And King Edgar in England ordained that the Sabbath should begin ou Saturday at three a Clock Afternoon and continue till break a Day on Munday These Laws for the Sabbath of Alfred Edgar c. were confirmed by Etheldred and more fully by Canutus But of these things I shall say more anon under the Proposition following In the mean time only remembring you 1. That it is well that we are required after the fourth Commandment to pray Lord have Mercy upon us and encline our hearts to keep this Law And we accept his Concession that this includeth all of that Commandment which is the Law of Nature Though I have told you that it reacheth somewhat further 2. That we approve of the plain Doctrine of the English Homilies on this point and stand to the Exposition of sober impartiality Prop. 10. It hath been the constant practice of all Christs Churches in the whole world ever since the daies of the Apostles to this day to assemble for publick worship on the Lords day as a day set apart thereunts by the Apostles Yea so universal was this judgement and practice that there is no one Church no one writer or one heretick that I remember to have read of that can be proved ever to have dissented or gainsaid it till of late times The proof of this is needless to any one that is versed in the writings of the ancients And others cannot try what we shall produce I have been these ten years separated from my Library and am therefore less furnished for this task than is requisite But I will desire no man to receive more than the Testimonies produced by Dr. Pet. Heylin himself which with pittiful weakness he would pervert And he being the Grand Adversary with whom I do now contend I shall only premise these few Observations as sufficient to confute all his Cavils and Evasions 1. When his great work is to prove that the Lords day was not called the Sabbath unless by allusion we grant it him as to a Jewish Sabbath as nothing to the purpose 2. Whereas he strenuously proveth that the Lords day was not taken for a Sabbath de re we grant it him also taking the word in the primitive Jewish sense 3. When he laboureth to prove that Christians met on other daies of the week besides the Lords day though not for the Lords Supper we grant it him as nothing to the purpose So Calvin Preached or Lectured daily at Geneva and yet kept not every day as a holy day separated to Gods worship as they did the Lords day though too remisly So we do still keep Week-day Lectures and the Church of England requireth the Reading of Common Prayer on Wednesdayes and Fridays and holy day Evens Do they therefore keep them Holy as the Lords day 4. When he tells us that Clemens Alexandrinus and Origen plead against them that would hear and pray on that day only we grant it him and we are ready to say as they do that we should not confine Gods Service to one day only as if we might be profane and worldly on all other daies but should take all fit opportunities for religious helps and should all the week keep our minds as near as we can in a holy frame and temper Of the rest of his Objections I shall say more in due place 5. But I must note in the beginning that he granteth the main cause which I plead for acknowledging Hist. Sab. l. 2. page 30. it thus So that the Religious observation of this day beginning in the age of the Apostles no doubt but with their Approbation and Authority and since continuing in the same respect for so many ages may be very well accounted amongst those Apostolical Traditions which have been universally received in the Church of God And what need we more than the Religious Observation in the Apostles time by the Apostles Approbation and Authority and this delivered to us by the universal Church as an Apostolical Tradition But yet he saith that the Apostles made it not a Sabbath Answ. Give us the Religious observation and call it by what name you please We are not fond of the name of the Sabbath 6 And therefore we grant all that he laboriously proveth of the abolition of the Jewish Sabbath and that the Ancients commonly consent that by the abolished Sabbath Col. 2. 16. is meant inclusively the weekly Jewish Sabbath Epiphan l. 1. haeres 33. n. 11. Ambros. in loc Hieron Epist. ad Algus qu. 10. Chrysost. Hom. 13. in Haebr 7. August cont Jud. cap. 2. cont Faust. Manich. l. 16. c. 28. I recite the
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
for a word or action about wordly things that falls in on the by without any hinderance to his spiritual work And if another speak not a word of any common thing and yet do little in spiritual things for his own or others edification I shall think him a great abuser or neglecter of the Lords day A few words about a common thing that falleth in the way may be spoken without any hinderance of any holy duty But still we must see that it be not a scandalous temptation to others If I see a man that unexpectedly findeth some uncomely hole or rent in his Cloaths either pin it up or few it up before he goeth abroad I will not blame him But if he do it so as to embolden another who useth needlesly to mend his Cloaths on the Lords day it will be a sin of scandal If I see one cut some undecent stragling haires before he go forth I will not blame him But if he do it before one who will be encouraged by it to be barbed needlesly on that day he will offend And so in other cases VI. By these same Rules also we may judge of Recreations on the Lords day The Recreations of the mind must be the various holy employments of the day No bodily Recreations are lawful which needlesly waste time or hinder our duty or divert our minds from holy things or are a snare to others Unless it be some weak persons whose health requireth bodily motion few persons need any other than holy recreations on that day I know no one man that so much needeth it as my self who these twenty years cannot digest one dayes meat unless I walk or run or exercise my body before it till I am hot or sweat And therefore necessity requireth me to walk or fast But I do it privately on that day left I tempt others to sin But I will not censure one whom I see walking at fit houres when for ought I know he may be taken up in some fruitful Meditation But if persons will walk in the Streets or Fields in idleness or for vain delight or discourse as if the day were too long for them and they had no business to do for their souls this is not only a sin but a very ill sign of one that is senseless of his souls necessity and his duty VII To read History Philosophy or common things unnecessarily on the Lords day is a sinful diversion from the more spiritual work of it and unsuitable to the appointed uses of the day much more Romances Play Books or idle stories Yea or those parts of Divinity it self which are less practical and useful to the raising of Thankful and Heavenly affections But yet sometimes such other matter may fall in at a Sermon or Conference or in Meditation which will require a present satisfaction in some point of History Philosophie or controversal Divinity which may be subserviently used to Edification without sin Here therefore we must judge prudently VIII A thing that may be lawful singly in it self unless it be of great necessity is unlawful when he that serveth us in it is drawn or encouraged to make a trade of it As to use a Barber to cut your hair or a Tailor to mend your Cloaths or a Coblar to mend your Shooes Because if you may use him so may others as well as you and so he will follow his Calling on the Lords day And yet I dare not say if when you are to travel to Church you find your Shooes or Boots by breaking something to make you uncapable of going out but you may get them mended privately where it may be done without this inconvenience And though Cooks and Bakers should not be unnecessarily used in their trade yet is it not alwaies unlawful but sometimes very well Because as one servant in the Kitchin may be used to dress meat for all the family so one Baker or Cooke may serve many families and save ten times as many persons the labour which else they must be at And perhaps with easier and quicker dispatch than others The trade of the Apothecary Surgeon and Physician is ordinarily used but for necessity IX There is no sufficient avoidance of such abuses but by careful foresight and prevention and preparation the week before which therefore must be conscionably done CHAP. XII Of what importance the due Observation of the Lords day is THese singular benefits of keeping the Lords day aright should make all that Love God or holiness or the Church or their own or other mens souls take heed how they grow into a neglect or abuse of it much more that they plead not for such negligence or abuse I. The due observation of the Lords day is needful to keep up the solemn worship of God and publick owning and honouring him in the world If all men were left to themselves what time they would bestow in the worshipping of God the greatest part would cast off all and grow into Atheisme or utter prophaneness And the rest would grow into confusion And if all Princes and Rulers or Churches in the world were left to their own wills to appoint the people on what dayes to meet some Kingdoms and Churches would have one day in eight or nine or ten or twenty and some only now and then an hour and some one day and some another and some next to none at all For there is no one universal Monareh on Earth to make Laws for them all whatever the Pope or his nominal-General Councils may pretend to And they would never all come to any reasonable agreement voluntarily among themselves Therefore the Light of Nature telleth us that as a day is meet and needful to be stated so it is meet that God himself the true Universal Monarch should determine of it which accordingly he hath done And this is the very hedge and defensative of Gods publick Worship When he hath made a Law that one whole day in seven shall be spent in it men are engaged to attend it O what a happy acknowledgement of God our Creatour and Redeemer is it and an honouring of his blessed name when all the Churches throughout all the World are at once praising the same God with the same praises and hearing and learning the same Gospel and professing the same faith and thankfully commemorating the same benefits The Church is then indeed like an Army with Banners And were it not for this dayes observation alas how different would the case be And what greater thing can man be bound to than thus to keep up the solemn acknowledgement and worship of God and our Redeemer in the world II. The due Sanctification of the Lords day doth tend to make Religion Vniversal as to Countreys and individual persons which else would be of narrower extent When all the world are under a Divine obligation to spend one day every week in the exercises of Religion and superiours see to the performance of their
which he would have man chiefly study for the knowledge of his Maker and his Will But sin having introduced disorder confusion and a curse upon part of the Creation for mans sake God purposed at once both to notifie to man what he had done by sin in bringing disorder and a curse upon the Creature and blotting the Book of Nature which he should have chiefly used and also that it was his good pleasure to set up a clearer Glass even Christ Incarnate in which man might see his Makers face in a representation suitable to our need not now as smileing upon an Innocent man nor as frowning on a guilty man but as reconciled to Redeemed man and to Write a Book in which his will should be more plainly read than in the blotted Book of Nature Yea in which he that in the Creature appeared most eminently in Power might now appear most eminently in LOVE even redeeming reconciling adopting justifying and saving Love So that though God did not change the day till the Person of the Incarnate Mediator with his perfect last edition of the Covenant was exhibited and set up as this clearer Glass and Book yet then as the seasonable time of Reformation Heb. 9 10 11. he did it To teach man that though still he must honour God as the Creator and know him in the Glass and Book of the Creature yet that must be now but his secondary study for he must primarily study God in Christ where he is revealed in Love even most conspicuous wonderous Love And how suitable this is to man after sin and curâ—e and wrath may thus evidently appear 1. We were so Dead in sin and utterly deprived of the spiritual Life that the Book of the Creatures was not a sufficient means of our reviving But as we must have the QUICKNING SPIRIT of Jesus the Mediator so we must have a suitable means for that Spirit to work by which that the cursed mortified Creature is not appeareth in the experience of the case of Heathens 2. We were so Dark in sin that the Creature was not a sufficient means of our Illumination But as we must have the ILLUMINATING SPIRIT of Jesus so we must have a Glass and Book that was suited to that illuminating work 3. We were so alienated from God by Enmity and malignity and loss of LOVE that as it must be the spirit of Jesus which must regenerate us unto LOVE so it must be a clearer demonstration of LOVE than the Creature maketh in its cursed state which must be the fit means for the spirit to work by in the restitution of our LOVE Where further note 1. That LOVE is Holiness and Happiness it self and the operations of Divine Love are his Perfective operations and so fit for the last perfective act 2. That man had many wayes fallen from LOVE As he had actually and habitually turned away his own heart from God and as he had fallen under Gods wrath and so lost those fullest emanations of Gods Love which should cherish his own Love to God and as he had forfeited the assistance of the spirit which should repair it and as he was fallen in Love with the accursed Creature and lastly as he was under the Curse or threatning himself and the penalties begun It being impossible to Humane Nature to Love a God who we think will damn us and feel doth punish us in order thereunto So that nothing could be more suitable to Lapsed man or more perfective of the Appearance and Operations of God than this demonstration of Reconciling saving Love in our Incarnate Crucified Raised Glorified Interceding Redeemer All which sheweth that Gods removal of the sanctified day from the seventh to the first of the Week and his preferring the Commemoration of Redemption and our use of the Glass and Book of an Incarnate Saviour before that of the now accursed Creature is a work of the admirable wisdom of God and exceeding suitable to the nature of the things II. Now I come to consider of what you say against all this You Cite the numbers of many Chapters and Verses contrary to your grand principles these divisions being Humane Inventions in all which there is nothing about the Controversie in hand The Texts speak not of the Decalogue only but of the Law and of Gods Commandments and Christs Commandments Now I must tell you before-hand that I will take no mans word for the Word of God nor believe any thing that you say God speaketh without proof Prove it or it goeth for nothing with me For as I know that adding to Gods Word is Cursed Rev. 22. 18. as well as taking away so it I must once come to believe that God saith this or that without proof I shall never know whom to believe For twenty men may tell me twenty several tales and say that God saith them all I expect your proof then of one of these two assertions for which it is that you hold no man can gather by your own words or citations 1. That all the Law which was in being at Christs Incarnation was confirmed and continued by him which yet I do not Imagine you to hold 〈◊〉 all Pauls Epistles and especially the Ep. to the Heb. do so fully plead against it 2. Or else that by the Law in all those Texts is meant all the Decalogue and the Decalogue alone The Texts cited by you prove no more than what we hold as confidently as you viz 1. That all the Law of Nature where the Matter or Nature of the things continue is continued by Christ and is his principal Law 2. That the Decalogue as to that matter of it is continued as it is the Law of Nature which is almost all that is in it but not as the Jewish Law given by Moses hands to the Political body 3. That the Natural part of all the rest of Moses Law is continued as well as the Decalogue 4. That all Moses Law as well as the Decalogue shall be fullfilled and Heaven and Earth shall sooner pass away than one jot or tittle of it shall pass till it be fulfilled 5. That the Elements Shadows Predictions Preparations c. are all fulfilled by the coming of Christ and by a more perfect Administration For Christ fulfilled all Righteousness Mat. 3. 15. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is sometimes put materially for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 6. That a change may be two waies made 1. By destroying a thing 2. By perfecting it And that by the Law in Matth. 5. 17 c. Christ meaneth the whole body of Gods Law then in force to the Jews considered as one frame consisting of Natural and Positive parts Of which he saith that he came not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to dissolve pull in pieces or destroy the Law as a licentious Teacher that would take off Gods obligations and leave the Wills and Lusts of men to a Lawless liberty which was it that the Pharises imputed to such as were
against the Law But that he came to bring in a greater strictness a righteousness not only exceeding that of his accusers v. 20. but instead of destroying it to perfect the Law it self that is to bring in a perfecter Administration and Edition of the Law So that as Generation turneth semen in suppositum and so doth do away the seed not by destroying it but by changing it into a perfecter being and as Paul saith 1 Cor. 13. 16 17 18. When that which is perfect is come then that which is in part shall be done away When I was a child I spake as a child I understood or was affected as a child I thought or reasoned as a child but when I became a man I put away childish things c. not that the child or his knowledge is destroyed but perfected and changed into better And yet many Acts of his childish reasonings may cease And as he that would repair the Temple to a greater glory may take away the brass and put Gold instead of it and so not change one pin of the Temple by a destructive change but by a perfecting change which to the frame is to edifie and not to destroy Even so Christ professeth that he came not to gratifie the lusts of men nor to destroy the Law in the smallest point but 1. Himself to fulfill it in the very letter and 2. To accomplish the shadows Predictions and Types by coming himself as the Truth and End which when they had attained they were fulfilled And 3. By a more perfect Edition and spiritual Administration advancing the Law to a higher degree of excellency by which not the Law is said to be put away or destroyed but the imperfections or weaknesses of it to be done away Not but that all Gods Laws are perfect is to the time and subject which they are fitted to but not in comparison of the future time and degrees to be added It is a Better Testament that Christ bringeth in Heb. 7. 22 8. 6. established on better promises and procured by better Sacrifice and bringing a better hope Heb. 8. 6. 7. 19. and better things that are provided for us that they without us should not be made perfect Heb. 11. 40. So that when Moses Law is considered as such in that Imperfect state it is essentially or formally all done away but not materially for it is done away but by changing it into a better Testament and more perfect administration which retaineth all that is natural in it and addeth better positives suited to riper times So that the Law as denominated from the nobler Natural part and as signifying the whole Law or systeme of precepts then in force is not destroyed but perfected But the Law as signifying that called Jewish delivered by Moses to that Republick as such though part of the said systeme yet is the Imperfect part and is taken down and is now no Law though it be not destroyed but fulfilled and turned into a more perfect Testament and Administration Now that by the Law and Commandments I am not to understand the Decalogue only in any of your cited Texts I thus prove 1. From the notation of the name The word Law in its usual proper sense doth signifie the whole or other parts as well as that and not that one part only Therefore I must so take it till you prove that in any Text it hath a limited sense Else I shall turn Gods universal or indefinite terms into particular and pervert his word by limiting by my own invention where God hath not limited 2. Because the common sense in which the Jewes against whom Christ spake did take the word Law Was not for the Decalogue only but for the Pentateuch or all Moses Law And if Christ speak to them he is to be supposed to speak intelligibly and therefore in their sense 3. Because Christ in this very Chapter Mat. 5. extendeth the sense further than the Decalogue As v. 17. he adjoynes the Prophets equally with the Law which he came not to destroy And thus he speaketh as the Jews who distributed the Old Testament into the Law and Prophets when by the Law they meant the Pentateuch Now it is certain that all the Prophesies that say The Messiah is not yet come but shall come and be incarnate and that shew the time and manner c. are not now true de futuro as they then spake And yet they are not destroyed but fulfilled and so cease as prophecies of things yet future And so it is with the Positives of Moses Law 2. V. 18. he saith universaly Till all he fulfilled and not the Decalogue only 3. V. 19. he extendeth it to the Least command 4. V. 20. he extendeth it to all the Pharises Righteousness which was Righteousness indeed 5. V. 21. Whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the Judgement hath the political penalty in it above the bare sixth Commandment 6. V. 31. Whosoever shall put away his Wife let him give her a writing of divorcement is not the bare seventh Commandment but fetcht from Deut. 24. 1. And this instance it self expoundeth v. 17 18. For when Christ had protested against destroying an iota or tittle of the Law yet he changeth this very Law now cited by himself so far as it indulgeth putting away so that it is hence evident that be meaneth not that he came not to make a perfective change but that he came not to indulge licentiousness and Lust by a destructive change Luk. 16. 18. 1 Cor. 7. 10. Mat. 19. 9. So 7. V. 33. Thou shalt not forswear thy self c. is fetcht from Lev. 19. 12 c. 8. V. 38. An eye for an eye c. is fetcht from Exod. 21. 24. Lev. 24. 20. Deut. 19. 21. and not from the Decalogue alone 9. So V. 43. is from Lev. 19. 18. and other places 4. Because in all Pauls Epistles and commonly in all the New Testament the word Law is ordinarily if not alwayes taken more extensively than the Decalogue Therefore to expound it for the Decalogue only is to contradict the constant use of the Scripture under pretense of expounding the Scripture If then by the Law be meant either the whole systeme of Gods Laws Natural and Positive or all Moses Law or the Pentateuch then I may thus argue It is most certain that much of this Law of Moses is ceased or abrogate Therefore it is certain that it was none of Christs meaning that he would abrogate none of that Law which he speaketh of or change it for a better That all and every word of the Decalogue is not of the dureable Law of Nature I shall prove anon That by the word Law the Scripture meaneth more than the meer Decalogue these Texts among others prove Exod. 13. 9. 24. 12. Deut. 1. 5. 4. 8. 17. 18 19. 28. 61. 29. 29. 31. 9. 2 King 17. 37. 23. 〈◊〉 25. 2 Chron. 31. 21.
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
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