nature soever on other Reasons the Covenant be between them whether that of Works or that of Grace by Jesus Christ. The seventh Day precisely belonging unto the Covenant of Works cannot therefore be firstly but only occasionally intended in the Decalogue Nor doth it nor can it invariably belong unto our absolute Obedience unto God because it is not of the substance of it but is only an occasional determination of a duty such as all other Positive Laws do give us And hence there is in the Command it self a difference put between a Sabbath Day and the arbitrary limitation of the seventh Day to be that day For we are commanded to remember the Sabbath Day not the seventh Day and the Reason given as is elsewhere observed is because God blessed and sanctified the Sabbath Day in the close of the Command where the formal Reason of our Obedience is expressed not the seventh Day Nor is indeed the joint Observation of the seventh Day precisely unto all to whom this Command is given that is to all who take the Lord to be their God possible though it were to the Jews in the Land of Palestina who were obliged to keep that Day For the difference of the Climate in the world will not allow it Nor did the Jews ever know whether the Day they observed was the seventh from the Creation only they knew it was so from the day whereon Manna was first given unto them And the whole Revolution and Computation of Time by Dayes was sufficiently interrupted in the dayes of Joshua and Hezekiah from allowing us to think the Observation of the seventh Day to be Moral And it is a Rule to judge of the intention of all Laws Divine and Humane that the meaning of the preceptive part of them is to be collected from the Reasons annexed to them or inserted in them Now the Reasons for a Sacred Rest that are intimated and stated in this Command do no more respect the seventh Day than any other in seven Six dayes are granted to labour that is in number and not more in a septenary Revolution Nor doth the Command say any thing whether these six dayes shall be the first or the last in the order of them And any day is as meet for the performance of the Duties of the Sabbath as the seventh if in an alike manner designed thereunto which things are at large pleaded by others § 54 It hath hitherto been allowed generally that the fourth Commandment doth at least include something in it that is Moral or else indeed no colour can be given unto its Association with them that are absolutely so in the Decalogue This is commonly said to be that some part of our Time be Dedicated to the Publick Worship of God But as this would overthrow the Pretension before mentioned that there can be no Moral Command about Time which is but a Circumstance of Moral Duties so the Limitation of that Time unto one Day in seven is so evidently a perpetually binding Law that it will not be hard to prove the unchangeable Obligation that is upon all men unto the Observance of it which is all for the substance that is contended for To avoid this it is now affirmed Disquisit p. 14. That Moralc Quarti Praecepti est non unum Diem sed totum tempus vitae nostrae quantum id fieri potest impendendum esse cultui Dei quaerendo regnum Dei Justitiam ejus atque inserviendo aedificationi proximi quo pertinet ut Deo serviamus ejus beneficia agnoscamus celeberemus cum invocemus Spiritu fidem nostram testemur confessione oris c. This is that which is Moral in the fourth Commandment namely that not one Day but as much as may be our whole lives be spent in the Worship of God seeking his Kingdom and the Righteousness thereof and furthering the edification of our neighbour Hereunto it belongeth that we should serve God acknowledge and celebrate his Benefits pray unto him in Spirit and testifie our faith by our Confession § 55 An. It is hard to discover how any of these things have the least respect to the fourth Commandment much more how the Morality of it should consist in them For all the Instances mentioned are indeed required in the first Precept of the Decalogue that only excepted of taking care to promote the edification of our Neighbour which is the summ and substance of the second Table expressed by our Saviour by loving our Neighbour as our selves To live unto God to believe and trust in him to acknowledge his Benefits to make Confession of him in the world are all especial Moral Duties of the first Commandment It cannot therefore be apprehended how the Morality of the fourth Commandment should consist in them And if there be nothing else Moral in it there is certainly nothing Moral in it at all For these things and the like are claimed from it and taken out of its possession by the first Precept And thereunto doth the General Consideration of Time with respect unto these Duties belong namely that we should live unto God whilst we live in this World For we live in Time and that is the measure of our duration and continuance Something else therefore must be found out to be Moral in the fourth Commandment or it must be denyed plainly to have any thing Moral in it § 56 It is farther yet pleaded that the Sabbath was a Type of our Spiritual Rest in Christ both that which we have in him at present by Grace and that which remains for us in Heaven Hence it was a shaddow of good things to come as were all other Ceremonial Institutions But that the same thing should be Moral and a shadow is a contradiction That which is a shadow can in no sense be said to be Moral nor on the contrary The Sabboth therefore was meerly Ceremonial An. It doth not appear it cannot be proved that the Sabbath either as to its first Original or as to the substance of the Command of it in the Decalogue was Typical or instituted to prefigure any thing that was future Yea the contrary is evident For the Law of it was given before the first Promise of Christ as we have proved and that in the state of Innocency and under the Covenant of Works in perfect force wherein there was no respect unto the Mediation of Christ. I do acknowledge that God did so order all his Works in the first Creation and under the Law of Nature as that they might be suitable Morally to represent his Works under the New Creation which from the Analogie of our Redemption to the Creation of all things is so called And hence according to the Eternal Counsel of God were all things meet to be gathered into an Head in Christ Jesus On this account there is an Instructive Resemblance between the Works of one sort and of the other So the Rest of God after the Works of the old
may do well to consider who plead for the observation of the seventh Day precisely For they do profess thereby that they seek for Rest in God according to the tenor of the first Covenant That they approve of and that they look by that profession to be brought to Rest by though really and on other Principles they do otherwise Whatever then be the Covenant wherein we walk with God the great Principle which is to guide us in the holy observation of this Day is that we celebrate the Rest of God in that Covenant approve of it rejoyce in it and labour to be partakers of it whereof the Day it self is given us as a pledge We must therefore 3 Remember that we have lost our original Rest in God by sin God made us upright in his own Image meet to take our Rest satisfaction and reward in himself according to the tenor of the Law of our Creation and the Covenant of Works established thereon Hereof the seventh Day was a Token and Pledge All this we must consider that we have lost by sin God might justly have left us in a wandring condition without either Rest or any pledge of it Our Reparation indeed is excellent and glorious yet so as that on our part the loss of our former estate was shamefull and in the Remembrance whereof we ought to be humbled And hence we may know that it is in vain for us to lay hold of the seventh Day again which is but an Attempt to return into the Garden after we are shut out and kept out by a Flaming Sword For although it was made use of as a Type and shadow under the Law yet to us who must live on the substance of things or not at all it cannot be possessed with robbery and is of no use when attained For we are to remember 4 That the Rest in God and with God which we now seek after enter into and celebrate the pledge of using the means for the farther enjoyment of it in the observation of this Day is a Rest by a Recovery by a Reparation in Jesus Christ. There is now a new Rest of God and a new Rest for us in God God now Rests and is refreshed in Christ in his Person in his Works in his Law in the Covenant of Grace in him in all these things is his soul well pleased He is the Brightness of his Glory and the express Image of his Person making a far more glorious Representation of him than did the works of Creation of old which yet he had left such impressions of his Goodness Power and Wisdom upon as that he Rested in them was refreshed on them and appointed a Day for man to Rest in his Approbation of them and giving Glory to him for them How much more is it so with him with respect unto this glorious Image of the invisible God This he now dealeth with us in For as of old he commanded light to shine out of darkness whereby we might see and behold his Glory which he had implanted and was implanting on the work of his hands so now he shines into our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of his Glory in the face of Jesus Christ 2 Cor. 4. 6. That is enableth us to behold all the excellencies of his nature made manifest in the person and works of Jesus Christ. The way also of bringing them unto him through Christ who had by sin come short of his Glory is that which he approveth of is delighted with and resteth in giving us a pledge thereof in this Day of Rest. Herein lyes the principal duty of this Dayes observances namely to admire this Retriveal of a Rest with God and of a Rest for God in us This is the fruit of eternal Wisdom Grace and Goodness Love and Bounty This I say belongs unto the sanctification of this Day and this ought to be our principal Design therein namely in it to give Glory unto God for the wonderfull Recovery of a Rest for us with himself and an endeavour to enter by Faith and Obedience into that Rest. And for those ends and purposes are we to make use of all the sacred Ordinances of Worship wherein and whereby this Day is sanctified unto the Lord. 5 That in the Observation of the Lords-day which is the first day of the week we subject our consciences immediately to the Authority of Jesus Christ the Mediator whose Day of Rest originally it was and which thereby and for that Reason is made ours And hereby in the observation of this Day have we fellowship with the Father and his Son Jesus Christ. Of old there was nothing appeared in the Day whilst the seventh Day was in force but the Rest of God the Creator and his Soveraign Authority intimated unto us thereby for the observing of an Holy Rest unto him according to the Tenor of the first Covenant But now the immediate Foundation of our Rest on the Lords-day is the Lords Rest the Rest of Christ when upon his Resurrection he ceased from his works as God did from his own This gives great direction and encouragement in the duty of observing this Day aright Faith truely exercised in bringing the Soul into an actual subjection unto the Authority of Christ in the observance of this Day and directing the thoughts unto a contemplation of the Rest that he entred into after his works with the Rest that he hath procured for us to enter into with him doth more thereby towards the true Sanctification of this Day than all outward Duties can do performed with a legal Spirit when men are in bondage unto the Command as taught to them and dare not do otherwise God in several places instructs the Israelites what account they shall give unto their Children concerning their observation of sundry Rites and Ceremonies that he had instituted in his Worship Exod. 13. 14. And it shall be when thy son asketh thee in time to come saying What is this that thou shalt say unto him By strength of hand the Lord brought us out of the Land of Egypt c. It was in remembrance of such works of God amongst them whereof those Rites were a Token and Representation And we have here a special observance in the Worship of God what account can we give unto our selves and our Children concerning our observation of this Day Holy unto the Lord Must we not say nay may we not do so with joy and rejoycing That whereas we were lost and undone by sin excluded out of the Rest of God so far as that the Law of the observation of the outward pledge of it being attended with the Curse was a burden and no relief unto us our Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God undertook a great work to make peace for us to redeem and save us and when he had so done and finished his work even the erecting of the new Heavens and new Earth wherein dwelleth Righteousness he entred into
pretence of certainty above Evidence produced have had any influence into those enquiries after the Truth in this matter which 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we now address our selves unto § 9 In the first place it will be necessary to premise something about the Name whereby this Day may be called For that also among some hath been controverted Under the Old Testament it had a double Appellation the One taken from the Natural Order of the Day then separated with respect unto other Dayes the Other from its Nature and Use. On the first Account it was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the seventh Day Gen. 2. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And God blessed the seventh Day and sanctified it So also Exod. 20. 11. Upon its first Institution and on the Re-introduction of its Observation it is so called But it is a meer Description of the Day from its Relation to the six precedent dayes of the Creation that is herein intended absolutely it is not so called any where Yet hence by the Hellenists it was termed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the seventh and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Sacred seventh Day So is mention made of it by Philo Josephus and others And our Apostle maketh use of this Name as that which was commonly in use to denote the Sabbath of the Jews Chap. 4. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For he speaketh or it is spoken somewhere concerning the seventh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not added because 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was used technically to denote that Day And he educeth the Reason of this Denomination from Gen. 2. 3. Being as was said the Day that ensued immediately after the six distinct Dayes wherein the World was created and putting a Period unto a measure of Time by a Numeration of Dayes alwayes to return in its Cycle it was called the seventh Day And from that course of Time compleated in seven Dayes thence recurring to its Beginning is the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hebdomas a Week which the Hebrews call only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a seven And the same word sometimes signifieth the seventh Day or one Day in seven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is septimum Diem celebrare to celebrate the or a seventh Day And the Latines use the Word in the same manner for seven Dayes or One Day in seven But this Appellation as we shall see the Apostle casts out of Consideration and Use as to the Day to be observed under the New Testament For that which was first so is passed away and another instituted in the Room thereof which although it be also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or a seventh Day absolutely or one in the Revolution of seven yet not being the seventh in their Natural Order that Name is now of no use but antiquated § 10 From its Occasion Sanctification and Use it was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Sabbath and the Sabbath Day The Occasion of this Name is expressed Gen. 2. 3. God blessed the seventh Day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because he rested shabath that Day It is called Rest the Rest because on that Day God rested And in the Decalogue it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Day of the Sabbath or of Gods Rest and ours And absolutely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Sabbath Isa. 56. 2. where also God from his Institution of it calls it my Sabbath v. 4. This being a thing so plain and evident it were meer loss of Time to insist upon the feigned Etymologies of this Name after it came to be taken notice of in the world I shall only name them Appion the Alexandrian would have it derived from the Aegyptian word Sabbo as Josephus informs us Cont. App. lib. 2. and what the signification of that Word is the Reader may see in the same place Plutarch derives it from Sabboi a Word that was used to be howled in the furious Services of Bacchus for his Priests and Devotoes used in their Bacchanals to cry out Evoi Sabboi Sympos lib. 4. c. 15. which things are ridiculous Lactantius with sundry others of the Antients fell into no less though a less offensive mistake Hic saith he est dies Sabbati qui lingua Hebraeorum à numero nomen accepit unde septenarius numerus legitimus plenus est Institut lib. 7. cap. 14. Procopius Gazaeus on the Pentateuch hath a singular conceit Speaking of the Tenth of the Month Tizri termed Sabbaton Sabbat he calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He would have it the Day of the Conception of John Baptist the fore-runner of Christ when the Remission and Repentance that he Preached began and thence conjectures the Etymologie of the Sabbath to be from Sabachta that is the Syriack 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies Remission that Day being remitted holy unto the Lord being the seventh Day which is Sabaa that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The vanity of which conjectures is apparent to all The Reason and Rise of this Appellation is manifest Hence this was the proper and usual Name of this Day under the Old Testament being expressive of its Occasion Nature and End The Word also hath other Formes as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Exod. 16. 23. Chap. 35. 2. Sabbaton and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lam. 1. 7. Mishbat the signification of the Word being still retained Neither yet is this Word peculiarly Sacred as to what it denotes but is used to express things common or Prophane even any Cessation resting or giving over The first time it occurs Gen. 2. 3. it is rendred in Targum by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a common Word to rest See Isa. 14. 4. Chap. 24. 8. and many other places It is also applyed to signifie a Week because every Week or seven of Dayes had a Sabbath or Day of Rest necessarily included in it Levit. 23. 15. You shall count to your selves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seven compleat Sabbaths that is Weeks each having a Sabbath in it for its close for the reckoning was to expire on the End of the seventh Sabbath v. 16. And this place being expounded by Onkelos in his Targum of a Week Nachmanides sayes upon it that if it be so which he also grants and pleads then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there will be two Tongues in one Verse or the same Word used twice in the same Verse with different significations namely that the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 should denote both the Holy Day of Rest and also a Week of Dayes And he gives another Instance to the same purpose in the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Judg. 10. 4. Jair the Gileadite had thirty sons 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies in the first place Colts of Asses and in the latter Cities And the common number of seven is expressed by it Levit. 25. 8. Thou shalt number unto 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seven Sabbaths of years that is as it is
of one Day in seven to be injoyned unto all that fear him by a Law perpetual and indispensible upon the account of what is Moral therein The Reason I say of the Obligation of the Law of the Sabbath is natural and thence the Obligation it self universal however the Declaration and and Determination of the Day it self depend on arbitrary Revelation and a Law meerly positive These things being explained and confirmed the other Opinions proposed will fall under our consideration To obtain a distinct Light into the Truth in this matter we must consider both the true Notion of the Sacred Rest as also of the Law of our Creation whereby we affirm that fundamentally and virtually it is required § 8 The general Notion of the Sabbath is a Portion of Time set apart by Divine Appointment for the Observance and Performance of the solemn Worship of God The Worship of God is that which we are made for as to our station in this world and is the means and condition of our Enjoyment of him in Glory wherein consists the ultimate End as unto us of our Creation This Worship therefore is required of us by the Law of our Creation and it is upon the matter all that is required of us thereby seeing we are obliged by it to do all things to the Glory of God And therefore is the solemn Expression of that Worship required of us in the same manner For the End of it being our glorifying him as God and the Nature of it consisting in the Profession of our universal subjection unto him and dependance upon him the solemn Expression of it is as necessary as the Worship it self which we are to perform No man therefore ever doubted but that by the Law of Nature we were bound to Worship God and solemnly to express that Worship for else wherefore were we brought forth in this world These things are inseparable from our Natures and where this Order is disturbed by sin we fall into another which the Properties of God on the supposition of transgressing our first natural Order do render no less necessary unto his Glory than the other namely that of Punishment Moreover in this Worship it is required by the same Law of our Beings that we should serve God with All that we do receive from him No man can think otherwise For is there any thing that we have received from God that shall yield him no Revenue of Glory whereof we ought to make no acknowledgement unto him Who dare once so to imagine Among the things thus given us of God is our Time And this falls under a double consideration in this matter First as it is an inseparable Moral Circumstance of the Worship required of us so it is necessarily included in the Command of Worship it self not directly but consequentially Secondly It is in it self a part of our vouchsafements from God for our own use and purposes in this world So upon its own account firstly and directly a separation of a part of it unto God and his Solemn Worship is required of us It remains only to inquire what part of Time it is that is and will be accepted with God This is declared and determined in the fourth Commandment to be the seventh part of it or one day in seven And this is that which is Positive in the Command which yet as to the foundation formal Reason and main substance of it is Moral And these things are true but yet do not express the whole Nature of the Sabbath which we must farther enquire into § 9 And first it must be observed that whereever there is mention of a Sabbatical Rest as enjoyned unto men for their Observation there is still respect unto a Rest of God that preceded it and was the cause and foundation of it In its first mention Gods Rest is given as the Reason of his sanctifying and blessing a Day of Rest for us whence also it hath its Name Gen. 2. 2 3. God blessed and sanctified the seventh day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because he sabbatized thereon himself And so it is expressed and the same Reason is given of it in the fourth Commandment God wrought six dayes and rested the seventh therefore must we rest Exod. 20. 11. The same is observed in the New Creation as we shall see afterwards and more fully in our Exposition of Heb. 4. Now that God may be said to Rest it is necessary that some signal Work of his do go before For Rest in the first notion of it includes a respect to an antecedent Work or Labour And so it is every where declared God wrought his works and finished them and then rested He made all things in six dayes and rested on the seventh And he that is entred into Rest ceaseth from his work And both these the work of God and the Rest of God must in this matter be considered For the work of God it is that of the old and whole Creation as is directly expressed Gen. 2. Exod. 20. which I desire may be born in mind And this work of God may be considered two wayes First Naturally or Physically as it consisted in the meer production of the Effects of his Power Wisdom and Goodness So all things are the work of God Secondly Morally as God ordered and designed all his works to be a means of glorifying himself in and by the Obedience of his rational Creatures This consideration both the nature of it with the Order and End of the whole Creation do make necessary For God first made all the inanimate then animate and sensitive creatures in their Glory Order and Beauty In and on all these he implanted a teaching and instructive Power for the Heavens declare the glory of God and the Firmament sheweth his handy work Psal. 19. 1 2. and all creatures are frequently called on to give praise and glory to him And this expresseth that in their Nature and Order which revealeth and manifesteth him and the glorious Excellencies of his nature which man is to contemplate in their Effects in them and give glory unto him For after them all was man made to consider and use them all for the End for which they were made and was a kind of Mediator between God and the rest of the creatures by and through whom he would receive all his glory from them This is that which our Apostle discourseth about Rom. 1. 19 20. The design of God as he declares was to manifest and shew himself in his works to man Man learning from them the Invisible things of God was to glorifie him as God as he disputes The ordering and disposal of things to this purpose is principally to be considered in the works of God as his Rest did ensue upon them Secondly The Rest of God is to be considered as that which compleats the Foundation of the Sabbatical Rest enquired after For it is built on Gods working and entring into his Rest. Now this is not a
and of the knowledge of Good and Evil ceased as all men confess with that Estate And although God did not immediately upon the sin of man destroy that Garden no nor it may be untill the Flood leaving it as a Testimony against the wickedness of that Apostate Generation for whose sin the world was destroyed yet was neither it nor the Trees of it of any use or lawful to be used as to any significancy in the Worship of God And the Reason is because all Institutions are Appendixes and things annexed unto a Covenant and when that Covenant ceaseth or is broken they are of no use or signification at all § 36 There was a new state of the Church erected presently after the Fall and this also attended with sundry new Institutions especially with that concerning Sacrifices In this Church state some Alterations were made and sundry additional Institutions given unto it upon the Erection of the peculiar Church State of the Israelites in the Wilderness which yet hindred not but that it was in General the same Church State and the same Dispensation of the Covenant that the people of God before and after the giving of the Law enjoyed and lived under Hence it was that sundry Institutions of Worship were equally in force both before and after the giving of the Law on Mount Sinai as is evident in Sacrifices and some other Instances may be given But now when the State of the Church and the Dispensation of the Covenant came to be wholly altered as they were by the Gospel not any one of the old Institutions was continued or to be continued but they were all abolished and taken away Nothing at all was traduced over from the Old Church States neither from that in Innocency nor from that which ensued on the Fall in all its variations with any Obligatory Power but what was founded in the Law of Nature and had its force from thence We may then confidently assert that what God requireth equally in all Estates of the Church that is Moral and of an everlasting Obligation unto us and all men And this is the State of matters with the Sabbath and the Law thereof § 37 Of the Command of the Sabbath in the State of Innocency we have before treated and vindicated the Testimony given unto it Gen. 2. 2 3. It will God assisting be farther discoursed and confirmed in our Exposition of the fourth Chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews The Observation of it by vertue of its Original Law and Command before the Promulgation of the Decalogue in Sinai or the first Wilderness Observation of the Sabbath recorded on the occasion of giving Manna hath also been before confirmed Many Exceptions I acknowledge are laid in against the Testimonies insisted on for the proof of these things but those such as I suppose are not able to invalidate them in the minds of men void of Prejudice And the Pretence of the Obscurity that is in the Command will be easily removed by the consideration of another Instance of the same Antiquity All men acknowledge that a Promise of Christ for the Object and Guide of the Faith of the ancient Patriarchs was given in those Words of God immediately spoken unto the Serpent Gen. 3. 15. I will put Enmity between thee and the Woman and between thy seed and her seed it shall bruize thy head and thou shalt bruize its heel The Words in themselves seem obscure unto any such End or Purpose But yet there is such light given into them and the mind of God in them from the circumstances of Time Place Persons Occasions from the Nature of the things treated of from the whole ensuing Oeconomy or dealing of God with men revealed in the Scripture as that no sober man doubts of the Promissory Nature of those Words nor of the Intention of them in General nor of the proper subject of the Promise nor of the Grace intended in it This Promise therefore was the immediate Object of the faith of the Patriarchs of old the great motive and encouragement unto and of their Obedience But yet it will be hard from the Records of Scripture to prove that any particular Patriarch did believe in trust or plead that Promise which yet we know that they did all and every one nor was there any need for our Instruction that any such practice of theirs should be recorded seeing it is a general Rule that those Holy men of God did observe and do whatever he did command them Wherefore from the record of a Command we may conclude unto a suitable Practice though it be not recorded and from a recorded approved Practice on the other side we may conclude unto the Command or Institution of the thing practised though no where plainly recorded Let unprejudiced men consider those words Gen. 2. 2 3. and they will find the Command and Institution of the Sabbath as clear and conspicuous in them as the Promise of Grace in Christ is in them before considered especially as they are attended with the Interpretation given of them in Gods following dealings with his Church And therefore although particular Instances of the Obedience of the old Patriarchs in this part of it or the Observation of the Sabbath could not be given and evinced yet we ought no more on that account to deny that they did observe it than we ought to deny their Faith in the promised Seed because it is no where expresly recorded in the Story of their lives § 38 Under the Law that is after the giving of it in the Wilderness it is granted that the portion of Time insisted on was precisely required to be dedicate unto God although it may be for some Ages it will be hard to meet with a recorded Instance of its Observation But yet none dares take any countenance from thence to question whether it were so observed or no. All therefore is secure unto the great alteration that was made in Instituted Worship under the Gospel And to proceed unto that season there is no Practice in any part of Gods Publick Worship that appears earlier in the Records of the New Testament as to what was peculiar thereunto than the Observation of one Day in seven for the Celebration of it Hereof more must be spoken afterwards Some say indeed that the Appointment of one Day in seven and that the first Day of the Week for the Worship of God was only a voluntary Agreement or a matter consented unto by the Apostolical or first Churches meerly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gratia or to keep good Order and decorum amongst them without respect unto any Moral Command of God to that purpose This they say directly with respect to the first Day of the Week or the Lords Day and its Religious Observation But those who appoint the first Day of every Week to be so observed do without doubt appoint that that should be the Condition of one Day in seven Now I could incline to this Apprehension if besides sundry other invincible Reasons that
is the first express mention of the Sabbath unto and amongst that people And it sufficiently declares that this was not the absolute Original of a Sabbatical Rest. It is only an Appropriation and Application of the Old Command unto them For the words are not preceptive but directive They do not Institute any thing anew but direct in the Practice of what was before Hence it is affirmed v. 29. that God gave them the Sabbath namely in this new Confirmation of it and Accommodation of it to their present Condition For this new Confirmation of it by withholding of Manna on that day belonged meerly and solely unto them and was the especial limitation of the seventh Day precisely wherein we are not concerned who do live on the the true Bread that came down from Heaven In those words therefore to morrow is the Rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord there is a certain limitation of the Day a Direction for its Sanctification as confirmed by the New sign of withholding Manna all which belonged to them peculiarly For this was the first Time that as a People they observed the Sabbath which in Aegypt they could not do And into this Institution and the Authority of it must they resolve their Practice who adhere unto the Observation of the seventh Day precisely For that day is no otherwise confirmed in the Decalogue but as it had Relation hereunto § 9 The Jews in this place fall into a double mistake about the Practical Observation of their Sabbath For from those words Bake that which you will bake and seethe that which you will seethe and that which remaineth lay up for you to be kept untill the morning v. 23. They conclude it to be unlawful to bake or seethe any thing on the Sabbath Day whereas the words have respect only to the Manna that was to be preserved And from the words of v. 29. See for that the Lord hath given you the Sabbath therefore he giveth you on the sixth day the Bread of two Dayes abide you every man in his place let no man go out of his place on the seventh day they have made a Rule yea many Rules about what Motions or removals are lawful on the Sabbath Day and what not And hence they have bound themselves with many anxious and scrupulous Observances though the Injunction it self do purely and solely respect the people in the Wilderness that they should not go out into the Fields to look for Manna on that day which some of them having done v. 27. an occasion was taken from thence for this Injunction And hereunto do some of the Heathen Writers ascribe the Original of the Sabbatical Rest among the Jews supposing that the seventh day after their departure out of Aegypt they came to a place of Rest in Remembrance whereof they consecrated one day in seven to Rest and idleness ever after whereunto they add other fictions of an alike nature See Tacit Hist. lib. 5. § 10 Not long after ensued the giving of the Law on Sinai Exod. 20. That the Decalogue is a summary of the Law of Nature or the Moral Law is by all Christians acknowledged nor could the Heathens of old deny it And it is so perfectly Nothing belongs unto that Law which is not comprized therein Nor can any one Instance be given to the contrary Nor is there any thing directly and immediately in it but what belongs unto that Law Only God now made in it an especial Accommodation of the Law of their Creation unto that people whom he he was in a second Work now forming for himself Isa. 43. 19 20 21. Chap. 51. 15 16. And this he did as every part of it was capable of being so accommodated To this purpose he prefaceth the whole with an Intimation of his particular Covenant with them I am the Lord thy God and addeth thereunto the Remembrance of an especial Benefit that they and they alone were made partakers of That brought thee out of the Land of Aegypt out of the house of Bondage which he did in the pursuit of his especial Covenant with Abraham and his seed This made the Obligation to Obedience unto the Law as promulgated on Mount Sinai to belong unto them peculiarly to us it is only an everlasting Rule as declarative of the Will of God and the Law of our Creation The Obligation I say that arose unto Obedience from the Promulgation of the Law on Mount Sinai was peculiar unto the Israelites and sundry things were then and there mixed with it that belonged unto them alone And whereas the Mercy the consideration whereof he proposeth as the great Motive unto Obedience which was his bringing them out of Aegypt with Reference unto his setling of them in the Land of Canaan was a Typical Mercy it gave the whole Law a station in the Typical Church State which they were now bringing into It altered not the nature of the things commanded which for the substance of them were all Moral but it gave their Obedience unto it a new and Typical Respect even as it was the Tenor of the Covenant made with them in Sinai with Respect unto the promised Land of Canaan and their Typical State therein § 51 This in an especial manner was the condition of the fourth Commandment Three things are distinctly proposed in it 1. The Command for an Observance of a Sabbath Day v. 8. Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy This contains the whole substance of the Command The formal Reason whereof is contained in the last clause of it Wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath Day and hallowed it And upon the neglect of the Observance of the Sabbath in former Generations with a Prospect on the many Difficulties that would arise among the people in the Observation of it for the future as also because the Foundation and Reason of it in the Law of Creation being principally external in the Works and Rest of God that ensued thereon were not so absolutely ingrafted in the minds of men as continually to evidence and manifest themselves as do those of the other Precepts there is an especial note put upon it for Remembrance And whereas it is a positive Precept as is that which follows it all the rest being Negatives it stood more in need than they of a particular charge and special Motives of which Nature one is added also to the next Command being in like manner a Positive Enunciation 2. Secondly There is an express Determination of this Sabbath to be one Day in seven without which it was only included in the Original Reason of it v. 9 10. Six dayes shalt thou-labour and do all thy Work but the seventh Day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God And herein the Day originally fixed in the Covenant of Works is again limited unto this people to continue unto the Time of the full Introduction and Establishment of the New Covenant And this limitation of the seventh Day was
shall be to you an holy Day a Sabbath of Rest unto the Lord whosoever doth work therein shall be put to death Ye shall kindle no fire throughout your habitations on the Sabbath Day Here again the Penalties and the Prohibition of kindling fire are Mosaical and so is on their account the whole Command as here renewed though there be that in it which for the substance of it is Moral And here the seventh Day precisely is made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 holiness unto them or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Convocation of holiness an holy Convocation as it is expressed Levit. 23. 2. where these words are again repeated whose Profanation was to be avenged with Death The Prohibition also added about kindling of fire in their habitations hath been the occasion of many anxious Observances among the Jews They all agree that the kindling of fire for Profit and Advantage in Kilns and Oasts for the making of Brick or drying of Corn or for founding or melting Mettals is here forbidden But what need was there that so it should be seeing all these things are expresly forbidden in the Command in general Thou shalt do no manner of work somewhat more is intended They say therefore that it is the kindling of fire for the dressing of Victuals And this indeed seems to be the intendment of this especial Law as the Manna that was to be eaten on the Sabbath was to be prepared on the Parasecue But withal I say this is a new additional Law and purely Mosaical the Original Law of the Sabbath making no entrenchment on the ordinary duties of humane life as we shall see afterwards Whether it forbad the kindling of fire for Light and Heat I much question The present Jews in most places employ Christian Servants about such works For the poor wretches care not what is done to their Advantage so they do it not themselves But these and the like Precepts belonged unquestionably unto their Paedagogie and were separable from the Original Law of the Sabbath § 17 Lastly The whole matter is stated Deut. 5. 15. where after the Repetition of the Commandment it is added and remember that thou wast a Servant in the Land of Aegypt and that the Lord thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched out Arm therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the Sabbath Day The Mercy and Benefit they had received in their Deliverance from Aegypt is given as the Reason not why they should keep the Sabbath as it was proposed as a Motive unto the Observation of the whole Law in the Preface of the Decalogue but wherefore God gave them the Law of it to keep and observe Therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the Sabbath Now the Reason of the Command of a Sabbatical Rost absolutely God had every where declared to be his making the world in six dayes and resting on the seventh The mention whereof in this place is wholly omitted because an especial Application of the Law unto that people is intended So that it is evident that the Mosaical Sabbath was on many Accounts and in many things distinguished from that of the Decalogue which is a Moral Duty For the Deliverance of the people out of Aegypt which was a benefit peculiar unto themselves and Typical of Spiritual Mercies unto others was the Reason of the Institution of the Sabbath as it was Mosaical which it was not nor could be of the Sabbath absolutely although it might be pressed on that people as a considerable Motive why they ought to endeavour the keeping of the whole Law § 18 From all that hath been discoursed it appears That the Observation of the seventh Day precisely from the Beginning of the world belonged unto the Covenant of Works not as a Covenant but as a Covenant of Works founded in the Law of Creation And that in the Administration of that Covenant which was revived and unto certain Ends reinforced unto the Church of Israel in the Wilderness it was bound on them by an especial Ordinance to be observed throughout their Generations or during the continuance of their Church State Moreover that as to the manner of the Observance required by the Law as delivered on Mount Sinai it was a yoke and burden to the people because that dispensation of the Law gendred unto Bondage Gal. 4. 24. For it begot a Spirit of fear and Bondage in all that were its Children and subject unto its Power In this condition of things it was applyed unto sundry Ends in their Typical State in which regard it was a shadow of good things to come And so also was it in respect of those other Additional Institutions and Prohibitions which were inseparable from its Observation amongst them whereof we have spoken On all these Accounts I doubt not but that the Mosaical Sabbath and the manner of its Observation is under the Gospel utterly taken away But as for the Weekly Sabbath as required by the Law of our Creation reinforced in the Decalogue the summary Representation of that great Original Law the Observation of it is a Moral Duty which by Divine Authority is translated unto another Day § 19 The ancient Jews have a saying which by the later Masters is abused but a Truth is contained in it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Sabbath gives firmitude and strength to all the Affairs of this World For it may be understood of the Blessing of God on the due Observation of his Worship on that Day Hence it was they say that any young clean Beast that was to be offered in Sacrifice must continue seven dayes with the Damm and not be offered until the eighth Levit. 22. 27. That a Child was not to be circumcised until the eighth Day that there might be an Interposition of a Sabbath for their Benediction And it is not unlikely that the eighth Day was also signalized hereby as that which was to succeed in the Room of the seventh as shall be manifested in our next Discourse The Fifth Exercitation OF THE Lords-Day 1 A Summary of what hath been proved a progress to the Lords-day 2 The new Creation of all things in Christ the foundation of Gospel-Obedience and Worship 3 The old and new Creation compared 4 The old and new Covenant 5 Distinct Ends of these Covenants 6 Supposition of the Heads of things before confirmed 7 Foundation of the Lords-day on those Suppositions 8 Christ the â—uthor of the new Creation his Works therein 9 His Rest from his Works the Indication of a new Day of Rest. 10 Observed by the Apostles 11 Proof of the Lords-day from Heb. 4. proposed 12 The words of the Text. 13 esign of the Apostle in general 14 His answer unto an Objection with his general Argument 15 The nature of the Rests treated on by him 16 The Church under the Law of Nature and its Rest. 17 The Church under the Law of Institution and its Rest. 18
applying the duties and services of a Sabbath unto it hath also been demonstrated And that this was owned from the Authority of the Lord is declared by John in the Revelation who calls it the Lords Day Rev. 1. 10. whereby he did not surprize the Churches with a new name but denoted to them the Time of his Visions by the name of the Day which was well known unto them And there is no solid Reason why it should be so called but that it owes its pre-eminence and observation unto his Institution and Authority And no man who shall deny these things can give any tolerable account how when or from whence this Day came to be so observed and so called It is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Lords Day the Day of the Lord as the Holy Supper is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Cor. 11. 20. the Lords Supper by reason of his Institution 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Day of the Lord in the Old Testament which the LXX render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies indeed some illustrious Appearance of God in a way of judgement or mercy And so also in the Person of Christ this was the Day of his Appearance Mark 16. 9. So was it still called by the ancient Writers of the Church Ignatius in Epist. ad Trall ad magnes ect Dionysius of Corinth Epist. ad Rom. in Euseb. Hist. lib. 4. cap. 21. Theophilus Antioch lib. 1. in 4. Evangel Clemens Alex. stromat lib. 7. cap. 7. Origen lib. 8. con Cels. Tertul. de Coron milit cap. 3. As for those who assign the Institution of this Day to the Apostles although the supposition be false yet it weakens not the divine original of it For an Obligation lying on all Believers to observe a Sabbath unto the Lord and the Day observed under the Law of Moses being removed it is not to be imagined that the Apostles fixed on another Day without immediate direction from the Lord Christ. For indeed they delivered nothing to be constantly observed in the worship of God but what they had his Authority for 1 Cor. 11. 23. In all things of this nature as they had the infallible guidance of the Holy Ghost so they acted immediately in the Name and Authority of Christ where what they ordained was no less of divine Institution than if it had been appointed by Christ in his own person It is true they themselves did for a season whilest their Ministery was to have a peculiar regard to the Jews for the calling and conversion of the remnant that was amongst them according to the election of grace go frequently into their Synagogues on the seventh Day to preach the Gospel Act. 13. 14. Chap. 16. 13. Chap. 17. 2. Chap. 18. 4. But it is evident that they did so only to take the opportunity of their Assemblies that they might preach unto the greater numbers of them and that at such a season wherein they were prepared to attend unto sacred things Upon the same ground Paul laboured if it were possible to be at Hierusalem at the Feast of Pentecost Act. 20. 16. But that they at any time assembled the Disciples of Christ on that day for the worship of God that we read not § 29 We may now look back and take a view of what we have passed through That one Day in seven is by virtue of a divine Law to be observed Holy unto the Lord the original of such an observation Gen. 2. 2. the Letter of the fourth Commandement with the nature of the Covenant between God and man do prove and evince And hereunto is there a considerable suffrage given by learned men of all parties The Doctrine of the Reformed Divines hereabouts hath been largely represented by others They also of the Church of Rome that is many of them agree herein It is asserted in the Canon Law it self Tit. de Feriis cap. licet where the words of Alexander the third are Tam veteris quam novi Testamenti pagina septimum Diem ad humanam quietem specialiter deputavit where by septimus Dies he understands one Day in seven as Suarez sheweth De Relig. lib. 2. cap. 2. And it is so by sundry Canonists reckoned up by Covarruvias The Schoolmen also give in their consent as Bannes in 2a 2a g. 44. a. 1. Bellarmine contends expresly decultsanct lib. 3. cap. 11. that Jus divinum requirebat ut unus Dies Hebdomadae dicaretur cultui divino So doth Suarez de dieb sac cap. 1. and others might be added We have the like common consent that whatever in the institution and observation of the Sabbath under the Old Testament was peculiar unto that state of the Church either in its own nature or in its use and signification or in its manner of observance is taken away by virtue of those Rules Rom. 14. 5. Gal. 4. 10. Col. 2. 16 17. Nor can it be denied but that sundry things annexed unto the Sabbatical Rest peculiar to that Church-state which was to be removed were wholly inconsistent with the spirit grace and liberty of the Gospel I have also proved that the observation of the seventh Day precisely was a pledge of Gods Rest in the Covenant of works and of our Rest in him and with him thereby so that it cannot be retained without a re-introduction of that Covenant and the Righteousness thereof And therefore although the command for the observation of a Sabbath to the Lord so far as it is moral is put over into the Rule of the new Covenant wherein Grace is administred for the duty it requires yet take the seventh Day preeisely as the seventh Day and it is an Old Testament arbitrary institution which falls under no promise of spiritual assistance in or unto the observation of it Under the New Testament we have found a new Creation a new Law of Creation a new Covenant the Rest of Christ in that Work Law and Covenant the limiting of a Day of Rest unto us on the Day wherein he entred into his Rest a new Name given unto this Day with respect unto his Authority by whom it was appointed and an observation of it by all the Churches so that we may say of it This is the Day which the Lord hath made we will rejoyce and be glad in it as Psal. 118. 24. § 30 These foundations being laid I shall yet by some important considerations if I mistake not give some farther evidence unto the necessity of the Religious observation of the first Day of the Week in opposition unto the Day of the Law by some contended for It is therefore first acknowledged that the observation of some certain Day in and for the solemn publick Worship of God is of indispensible necessity They are beneath our consideration by whom this is denyed Most acknowledge it to be a Dictate of the Law of Nature and the Nature of these things doth require it We have proved also that there
Holy Rest which either for the matter of them or the manner prescribed have had no sufficient warrant or foundation in the Scripture For whereas some have made no distinction between the Sabbath as Moral and as Mosaical unless it be meerly in the change of the Day they have endeavoured to introduce the whole practice required on the latter into the Lords Day But we have already shewed that there were sundry additions made unto the command as to the manner of its observance in its accommodation unto the Mosaical Pedagogie besides that the whole required a frame of spirit suited thereunto Others again have collected whatever they could think of that is good pious and usefull in the practice of Religion and prescribed it all in a multitude of instances as necessary to the sanctification of this Day so that a man can scarcely in six Dayes read over all the duties that are proposed to be observed on the seventh And it hath been also no small mistake that men have laboured more to multiply Directions about external duties giving them out as it were by number or tale than to direct the mind or inward man in and unto a due performance of the whole duty of the sanctification of the Day according to the spirit and genius of Gospel Obedience And lastly it cannot be denied but that some it may be measuring others by themselves and their own abilities have been apt to tye them up unto such long tiresome duties and rigid abstinences from refreshments as have clogged their minds and turned the whole service of the Day into a wearisome bodily exercise that profiteth little § 7 It is not in my design to insist upon any thing that is in controversie amongst Persons learned and sober Nor will I now extend this Discourse unto a particular consideration of the especial duties required in the sanctification or services of this Day But whereas all sorts of men who wish well to the furtherance and promotion of Piety and Religion in the World on what Reasons or foundations soever they judge that this Day ought to be observed an holy Rest to the Lord do agree that there is a great sinfull neglect of the due observation of it as may be seen in the Writings of some of the principal of those who cannot grant unto it an immediate divine Institution I shall give such Rules and general Directions about it as a due application whereof will give sufficient guidance in the whole of our duty therein § 8 It may seem to some necessary that something should be premised concerning the measure or continuance of the Day to be set apart unto an Holy Rest unto the Lord. But it being a matter of controversie and to me on the Reasons to be mentioned afterwards of no great importance I shall not insist upon the examination of it but only give my judgement in a word concerning it Some contend that it is a natural Day consisting of 24 hours beginning with the evening of the preceding Day and ending with the same of its own And accordingly so was the Church of Israel directed Lev. 23. 32. From even unto even shall you celebrate your Sabbath although that doth not seem to be a general Direction for the observation of the Weekly Sabbath but to regard only that particular extraordinary Sabbath which was thus instituted namely the Day of Atonement on the tenth Day of the seventh moneth vers 27. However suppose it to belong also unto the weekly Sabbath it is evidently an addition unto the command particularly suited unto the Mosaical Pedagogie that the Day might comprize the Sacrifice of the preceding evening in the services of it from an obedience whereunto we are freed by the Gospel Neither can I subscribe unto this opinion and that because 1 In the description and limitation of the first original seven Dayes it is said of each of the six that it was constituted of an evening and a morning but of the Day of Rest there is no such description it is only called the seventh Day without any assignation of the preceding evening unto it 2 A Day of Rest according to Rules of natural equity ought to be proportioned unto a Day of work or labour which God hath granted unto us for our own use Now this is to be reckoned from morning to evening Psal. 104. 20 21 22 23. Thou makest darkness and it is night wherein all the Beasts of the forest do creep from whose yelling the Night hath its name in the Hebrew Tongue The young Lions rear after their prey and seek their meat from God The Sun riseth they gather themselves together and lay them down in their dens Man goeth forth to his work and his labour untill the evening The Day of labour is from the removeal of darkness and the night by the light of the Sun untill the return of them again which allowing for the alterations of the Day in the several seasons of the year seems to be the just measure of our Day of Rest. 3 Our Lord Jesus Christ who in his Resurrection gave beginning and being to the especial Day of Holy Rest under the Gospel rose not untill the morning of the first Day of the Week when the beamings of the light of the Sun began to dispel the darkness of the night or when it dawned towards day as it is variously expressed by the Evangelists This with me determines this whole matter 4 Meer Cessation from labour in the night seems to have no place in the spiritual Rest of the Gospel to be expressed on this Day nor to be by any thing distinguished from the night of other Dayes of the Week 5 Supposing Christians under the obligation of the Direction given by Moses before-mentioned and it may entangle them in the anxious scrupulous intrigues which the Jews are subject unto about the beginning of the evening it self about which their greatest Masters are at variance which things belong not to the Oeconomy of the Gospel Upon the whole matter I am inclinable to judge and do so that the observation of the Day is to be commensurate unto the use of our natural strength on any other Day from morning to night And nothing is hereby lost that is needfull unto the due sanctification of it For what is by some required as a part of its sanctification is necessary and required as a due preparation thereunto This therefore is our first Rule or Direction The first Day of the Week or the Lords-Day is to be set apart unto the ends of an Holy Rest unto God by every one according as his natural strength will enable him to employ himself in his lawfull occasions any other Day of the Week There is no such certain standard or measure for the observance of the duties of this Day as that every one who exceeds it should by it be cut short or that those who on important Reasons come short of it should be stretched out thereunto As
hath before been at large described These are some of the Rules which we are to have a respect unto in our observation of this Day A due application of them unto particular occasions and emergencies will guide us through the difficulties of them Therefore did I choose rather to lay them thus down in general than to insist on the determination of particular Cases which when we have done all must be resolved into them according to the light and understanding of them who are particularly concerned § 11 It remains that we offer some Directions as to the duties themselves wherein the sanctification of this Day doth consist And this I shall do briefly It hath been done already at large by others so as that from thence they have taken occasion to handle the nature of all the Religious duties with the whole manner of their performance which belong to the service of this Day which doth not properly appertain unto this place I shall therefore only name the duties themselves which have a respect unto the sanctification of the Day supposing the nature of them and the due manner of their performance to be otherwise known Now these duties are of two sorts 1 Preparatory for the Day and 2 Such as are actually to be attended unto in it § 12 1 There are duties preparatory for it For although as I have declared I do not judge that the preceding Evening is to be reckoned unto this Holy Rest as a part of it yet doubtless it ought to be improved unto a due preparation for the Day ensuing And hereby the opinion of the beginning of the Sabbatical Rest with the Morning is put into as good a condition for the furtherance of the duties of Piety and Religion as the other about its beginning in the Evening preceding Now Preparation in general is necessary 1 On the account of the Greatness and Holiness of God with whom in an especial manner we have to do The Day is his The duties of the Day are his prescriptions The Priviledges of the Day are his gracious concessions he is the beginning and ending of it And we observed before on this Day he calleth us aside unto a converse with himself And certainly some special preparation of our hearts and minds is necessary hereunto This belongs to the keeping of our foot when we go to the House of God Eccl. 5. 1. namely to consider what we are to do whither we are going to whom we make our approaches in the solemn worship of God The Rule which he gives Lev. 10. 3. is moral perpetual or everlasting I will be sanctified in them that come nigh me and before all the people I will be glorified He loves not a rude careless rushing of poor sinners upon him without a sense of his Greatness and a due reverence of his Holiness Hence is that advice of our Apostle Heb. 12. 28 2. 9. Let us have Grace be graciously prepared in our hearts and minds whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear for our God is a consuming fire And this will not be answered by meer bodily postures of veneration Hence there is a due preparation necessary 2 It is so from our own distractions and intanglements in the businesses and occasions of life I speak not of such who spend the whole Week in the pursuit of their lusts and pleasures whose Sabbath-Rest hath an equal share in prophaneness with all other parts of their lives But we treat of those who in general make it their design to live unto God The greatest part of these I do suppose to be engaged industriously in some Calling or course of life And these things are apt to fill their minds as well as to take up their time and much to conform them to their own likeness Much converse with the world is apt to beget a worldly frame in men and earthly things will taint the mind with earthlyness And although it be our duty in all our secular occasions also to live to God and whether we eat or drink to do all things unto his Glory yet they are apt to unframe the mind so as to make it unready unto Spiritual things and Heavenly contemplations There is a Command indeed that we should pray alwayes which at least requires of us a readiness of mind to lay hold of all occasions and opportunities for prayer yet none will deny but that there is great advantage in a due preparation for that and all other Duties of Religion To empty therefore and purge our minds of secular earthly businesses designs projections accounts dependencies of things one on another with reasonings about them as far as in us lyeth is a Duty required of us in all our solemn approaches unto God And if this be not done but men go full of their occasions into Religious services they will by one means or other return upon them and prevail upon them to their disturbance Great care is to be taken in this matter and those who constantly exercise themselves unto a good conscience herein will find themselves fitted for the Duties of the Day to a good success § 13 For these preparatory Duties themselves I should referr them to three Heads if the Reader will take along with him these Advertisements 1. That I am not binding burdens on men or their consciences nor tying them up unto strict observances under the consideration of sin if not precisely attended unto Only I desire to give direction such as may be helpfull unto the Faith and Obedience of those who in all things desire to please God And if they apply themselves to those wayes in other instances which they find more to their own edification all is done that I aim at 2. That I propose not these Duties as those which fall under an especial command with reference unto this season but only as such which being commanded in themselves may with good spiritual advantage be applyed unto this season Whence it follows 3. That if we are by necessary occasions at any time diverted from attending unto them we may conclude that we have lost an opportunity or advantage not that we have contracted the guilt of sin unless it be from the occasion it self or some of its circumstances § 14 These things premised I shall recommend to the Godly Reader a threefold preparatory Duty to the right observation of a Day of Holy Rest unto the Lord. 1 Of Meditation 2 Of Supplication 3 Of Instruction unto such as have others depending on them 1 Of Meditation and this answers particularly the Reasons we have given for the necessity of these preparatory Duties For herein are the minds of Believers to exercise themselves unto such Thoughts of the Majesty Holiness and Greatness of God as may prepare them to serve him with reverence and Godly fear The nature of the Duty requires that this Meditation should first respect God himself and then the Day and its Services in its Causes and Ends. God
glorified in us and by us and the Interest of Religion in Purity Holiness and Righteousness be promoted amongst Men. J. O. Jan. 11. 1670. Exercitations Concerning the Name Original Nature Use and Continuance of a Day of Sacred Rest. Exercitatio Prima HEBR. Chap. IV. Ver. IX 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Trouble and Confusion from mens Inventions 2 Instanced in Doctrines and Practices of a Sabbatical Rest. 3 Reason of their present Consideration 4 Extent of the Controversies about such a Rest. 5 A particular Enumeration of them 6 Special Instances of Particular Differences upon an Agreement in more general Principles 7 Evil Consequences of these Controversies in Christian Practice 8 Principles and Rules proposed for the right Investigation of the Truth in this matter 9 Names of a Sacred Day of Rest. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gen. 2. 3. Heb. 4. 4. 10 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gen. 2. 3. Exodus 16. 23. Chap. 35. 2. Lam. 1. 7. Saturn called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the Jews and why The Word doubled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Reason of it 11 Translation of this Word into the Greek and Latin Languages 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 12 All Judaical Feasts called Sabbata by the Heathen Suetonius Horace Juvenal cited to that purpose 13 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sunday Used by Justine Martyr Tertullian Eusebius Blamed by Austin Hierom and Philastrius 14 Use of the Names of the Dayes of the Week derived from the Heathen of old Custom of the Roman Church 15 First day of the Week Lords Day Lords Day Sabbath The First Exercitation § 1 SOLOMON tells us that in his Disquisition after the Nature and State of things in the world this alone he had found out that is absolutely and unto his satisfaction namely that God made man upright but they have sought out many Inventions Eccles. 7. 29. And the Truth hereof we also find by woful experience not only in sundry particular Instances but in the whole course of men in this world and in all their concerns with respect unto God and themselves There is not any thing wherein and whereabout they have not found out many Inventions to the Disturbance and perverting of that state of peace and quietness wherein all things were made of God Yea with the fruits and effects of this perverse Apostasie and Relinquishment of that universally Harmonious state of things wherein we were created not only is the whole world as it lyes in evil filled and as it were overwhelmed but we have the Reliques of it to conflict withal in that Reparation of our condition which in this life by Grace we are made partakers of In all our Wayes Actions and Duties some of these Inventions are ready to immix themselves unto our own disturbance and the perverting of the right wayes of God § 2 An evident Instance we have hereof in the business of a Day of Sacred Rest and the Worship of God therein required God originally out of his Infinite Goodness when suitably thereunto by his own Eternal Wisdom and Power he had made all things Good gave unto men a day of Rest as to express unto them his own Rest Satisfaction and Complacency in the Works of his Hands so to be a day of Rest and composure to themselves and a Means of their Entrance into and Enjoyment of that Rest with himself here and for ever which he had ordained for them Hence it became unto them a Principle and Pledge a Cause and Means of Quietness and Rest and that in and with God himself So might it be still unto the Sons of men but that they are in all things continually finding out new Inventions or immixing themselves in various Questions and Accounts for so saith the Wise man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 themselves have sought out many Computations And hence it is that whereas there are two general concernments of such a Day the Doctrine and the Practice of it or the Duties to be performed unto God thereon they are both of them solicited by such various Questions through the many Inventions which men have found out as have rendred this Day of Rest a matter of endless strife disquietment and contention And whereas all Doctrines of Truth do tend unto practice as their immediate Use and End the whole Scripture being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tit. 1. 1. the Truth which is according unto Godliness the contentions which have been raised about the Doctrine of the Holy Day of Rest have greatly influenced the minds of men and weakned them in that practice of Godliness which all men confess to be necessary in the Observation of such a Day of Rest unto the Lord if such a Day of Rest there be on what foundation soever it is to be observed For Christians in general under one notion or other do agree that a Day of Rest should be observed in and for the Celebration of the Worship of God But whereas many Controversies have been raised about the grounds of this Observance and the Nature of the Obligation thereunto advantage hath been taken thereby to introduce a great neglect of the Duties themselves for whose sakes the Day is to be observed whilst one questions the Reasons and Grounds of another for its Observation and finds his own by others despised And this hath been no small nor ineffectual means of promoting that general Prophaneness and Apostasie from strict and holy walking before God which at this day are every where so justly complained of § 3 It is far from my thoughts and hopes that I should be able to contribute much unto the composing of these Differences and Controversies as agitated amongst men of all sorts The known pertinacy of inveterate Opinions the many prejudices that the minds of most in this matter are already possessed withal and the particular Engagements that not a few are under to defend the Pretensions and Perswasions which they have published and contended for will not allow any great Expectation of a change in the minds of many from what I have to offer Besides there are almost innumerable eristical Discourses on this subject in the hands of many to whom perhaps the Report of our Endeavours will not arrive But yet these and the like considerations of the Darkness Prejudices and Interests of many ought not to discourage any man from the discharge of that Duty which he owes to the Truths of God nor cause him to cry with the Sluggard There is a Lyon in the Streets I shall be slain in the Way Should they do so no Truth should ever more be taught or contended for for the Declaration of them all is attended with the same Difficulties and lyable to the same kind of Opposition Wherefore an Enquiry into this matter being unavoidably cast upon me from the Work wherein I am engaged in the Exposition of the Epistle to the Hebrews I could not on any such accounts wave the pursuit of it For this Discourse though
supposition of a Non-obligation in the Law unto the Observance of the seventh Day precisely and of a New Day to be observed Weekly under the New Testament as the Sabbath of the Lord on what Ground it is so to be observed 12 Whether of the Fourth Commandment as unto one Day in seven or only as unto some part or portion of Time or whether without any respect unto that Command as purely Ceremonial For granting as most do the necessity of the Observation of such a Day yet some say that it hath no respect at all to the Fourth Decalogical Precept which is totally and absolutely abolished with the residue of Mosaical Institutions others that there is yet remaining in it an Obligation unto the Sacred Separation of some portion of our Time unto the solemn Service of God but indetermined and some that it yet precisely requires the Sanctification of one Day in seven 13 If a Day be so to be observed it is enquired on what Ground or by what Authority there is an Alteration made from the Day observed under the Old Testament unto that now in use that is from the last to the first Day of the Week Whether was this Translation of the solemn Worship of God made by Christ and his Apostles or by the Primitive Church For the same Day might have been still continued though the Duty of its Observation might have been fixed on a new Reason and Foundation For although our Lord Jesus Christ totally abolished the old solemn Worship required by the Law of Commandments contained in Ordinances and by his own Authority introduced a new Law of Worship according unto Institutions of his own yet might Obedience unto it in a solemn manner have been fixed unto the former Day 14 If this were done by the Authority of Christ and his Apostles or be supposed so to be then it is enquired Whether it were done by the express Institution of a New Day or a directive Example sufficient to design a particular Day no Institution of a new Day being needful For if we shall suppose that there is no Obligation unto the Observance of one Day in seven indispensibly abiding on us from the Morality of the Fourth Command we must have an express Institution of a new Day or the Authority of it is not Divine and on the supposition that that is so no such Institution is necessary or can be properly made as to the whole nature of it 15 If this Alteration of the Day were introduced by the Primitive Church then whether the continuance of the Observation of one Day in seven be necessary or no. For what was appointed thereby seems to be no farther Obligatory unto the Churches of succeeding Ages than their concernment lyes in the Occasions and Reasons of their Determinations 16 If the continuance of one Day in seven for the solemn Worship of God be esteemed necessary in the present State of the Church then Whether the continuance of that now in general Use namely the First Day of the Week be necessary or no or whether it may not be lawfully changed to some other Day And sundry other the like Enquiries are made about the Original Institution Nature Use and Continuance of a Day of Sacred Rest unto the Lord. § 6 Moreover amongst those who do grant that it is necessary and that indispensibly so as to the present Church State which is under an Obligation from whence ever it arise neither to alter nor omit the Observation of a Day weekly for the publick Worship of God wherein a Cessation from labour and a joint Attendance unto the most solemn Duties of Religion are required of us It is not agreed whether the Day it self or the separation of it to its proper Use and End be any Part in it self of Divine Worship or be so meerly relatively with respect unto the Duties to be performed therein And as to those Duties themselves they are not only variously represented but great Contention hath been about them and the manner of their Performances as likewise concerning the Causes and Occasions which may dispense with our Attendance unto them Indeed herein lyes secretly the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and principal Cause of all the strife that hath been and is in the World about this matter Men may teach the Doctrine of a Sabbatical Rest on what Principles they please deduce it from what Original they think good if they plead not for an exactness of Duty in its Observance if they bind not a Religious carefull Attendance on the Worship of God in Publick and private on the Consciences of other men if they require not a Watchfulness against all Diversions and Avocations from the Duties of the Day they may do it without much fear of Opposition For all the concernments of Doctrines and Opinions which tend unto Practice are regulated thereby and embraced or rejected as the Practice pleaseth or displeaseth that they lead unto Lastly On a precise supposition that the Observation of such a Day is necessary upon Divine Precept or Institution yet there is a Controversie remaining about fixing its proper bounds as to its Beginning and Ending For some would have this Day of Rest measured by the first Constitution and limitation of Time unto a Day from the Creation namely from the Evening of the Day preceding unto its own as the Evening and the Morning were said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 One Day Gen. 1. 5. Others admit only of that proportion of Time which is ordinarily designed to our labour on the six Dayes of the Week that is from its own Morning to its own Evening with the Interposition of such Diversions as our labour on other Dayes doth admit and require § 7 And thus is it come to pass that although God made man Upright and gave him the Sabbath or Day of Rest as a token of that Condition and Pledge of a future Eternal Rest with himself yet through his finding out many Inventions that very Day is become amongst us an Occasion and Means of much Disquietment and many Contentions And that which is the worst Consequent in things of this nature that belong unto Religion and the Worship of God these Differences and the Way of their Agitation whilst the several Parties htigant have sought to weaken and invalidate their Adversaries Principles have apparently influenced the minds of all sorts of men unto a neglect in the Practice of those Duties which they severally acknowledge to be incumbent on them upon those Principles and Reasons for the Observation of such a Day which themselves allow For whilst some have hotly disputed that there is now no especial Day of Rest to be observed to the Lord by vertue of any Divine Precept or Institution and others have granted that if it be to be observed only by vertue of Ecclesiastical Constitution men may have various pretences for Dispensations from the Duties of it the whole due Observation of it is much lost
commonly called Sabbaths So Maimonides Tract de Sabb. cap. 29. speaking of their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Good Dayes or Feasts sayes expresly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they are all Sabbaths to the Lord. And from this usage some think to expound that vexed Expression of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luke 6. 1. which we render the second Sabbath after the first So Suidas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It was the second day of the Passeover and the first of unleavened bread And wonder not that it is called a Sabbath for they called every Feast Day a Sabbath Theophylact gives us another Day but on the same Reason Saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Jews call every Feast a Sabbath For Sabbath is as much as Rest. Oft-times therefore there fell out a Feast on the day before the Weekly Sabbath and they called it a Sabbath because it was a Feast And therefore that which was the proper Sabbath at that Time was called the second Sabbath after the first being the second from that which went before Chrysostome allows of the same Reason Hom. in Matth. 39. Isidore Pelusiota fixeth on another Day but still for the same reason Epist. 110. lib. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is called the Deuteroproton because it was the second day from the sacrificing of the Passeover and the first day of unleavened bread which he shews was called a Sabbath upon the general account of all the Jewish Feasts being so called For so he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 By the way this is expresly contrary to the Scripture which makes the Day spoken of to be the proper Weekly Sabbath as it is called without any Addition Matth. 12. 11. whereon depended the Questions that ensued about its Observation But we are beholding to Scaliger for the true meaning of this Expression which so puzled the Antients and concerning which Gregory Nazianzen turned of Hierome with a scoff scarce becoming his Gravity when he enquired of him what might be the meaning of it Scaliger therefore conjectures that it is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because it was the first Sabbath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the second Day of unleavened bread For on that Day they offered the handful or sheaf of new fruits and from that day they counted seven Weeks unto Pentecost And the Sabbaths of those Weeks were reckoned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the first that followed was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So he both in his Emendat Tempor lib. 6. and Isagog Canon p. 218. And this is subscribed unto by his Mortal Adversary Dyonisius Petavius Animad in Epiphar N. 31. p. 64. who will not allow him ever to have spoken tightly but in what the Wit of man can find no tolerable Objection against But this calling of their Feasts Sabbaths with the Reason of it is given us by all their principal Authors So Lib. Tzeror Hammor on Levit. p. 102. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Because all solemn Dayes are called holy Convocations they are all called so from the Sabbath which is called holy wherefore the Sabbath is the Head of all solemn Feasts and they are all of them called by the Name thereof Sabbaths of Rest whereof he gives Instances § 13 Some of the Antient Christians dealing with the Heathens called that Day which the Christians then observed in the Room of the Jewish seventh Day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or diem folis Sunday As those who treat and deal with others must express things by the Names that are currant amongst them unless they intend to be Barbarians unto them So speaks Justine Martyr Apol. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We meet for the Worship of God in common on Sunday Had he said on the Sabbath the Gentiles would have concluded it to have been the Judaical Sabbath To have called it to them the Lords Day had been to design no determinate Day they would not have known what day he meant And the Name of the first Day of the Week taken up signally by Christians upon the Resurrection of Christ was not in use amongst them Wherefore he called the Day he intended to determine as was necessary for him by the Name in use amongst them to whom he spake Sunday In like manner Tertullian treating with the same sort of men calls it Diem solis Apol. cap. 16. And Eusebius reporting the Edicts of Constantine for the Observation of the Lords Day as it is termed in them adds that it is the Day which we call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Sunday But yet among Christians themselves this Name was not in common use but by some was rejected as were also all the rest of the Names of the Dayes used among the Pagans So speaks August in Psal. 93. Quarta Sabbatorum quarta feria que Mercurii dies dicitur à Paganis à multis Christianis Sed noluimus ut dicant utinam corrigantur ut non dicant And Hicrome Epist. ad Algas Vna Sabbati dies dominica intelligenda est quia Hebdomada in Sabbatum ut in primam secundam tertiam quartam quintam sextam Sabbati dividitur guam Ethnici Idolorum Planetarum nominibus appellant He rejects the use of the ordinary Names unto the Heathens And Philastrius makes the usage of them amongst Christians almost Heretical Num. 3. All the Eastern Nations also amongst whom the Planetary Denomination of the Dayes of the Week first began have since their casting off that kind of Idolatry rejected the use of those Names being therein more Religious or more Superstitious than the most of Christians So is it done by the. Arabians and Persians and those that are joyned unto them in Religious Observances The Day of their Worship which is our Friday the Arabians call Giuma the Persians Adina The Rest of the Dayes of the Week they discriminate by their natural Order within their Hebdomadal Revolution the first the second the third only some of them in some places have some special Name occasionally imposed on them The Church of Rome from a Decree as they suppose or pretend of Pope Sylvester reckons all the Dayes of the Week by Feria prima secunda and so onwards only their Writers for the most part retain the Name of Sabbatum and use Dies Dominica for the first Day And the Rhemists on Revel 1. 10. condemn the name of Sunday as Heathenish And Polydore Virgil before them sayes Profccio pudendum est simulque dolendum quod non antebac data sunt istis diebus Christiana nomina ne dii Gentium tam memorabile inter nos monumentum haberent de Invent. Rer. lib. 6. c. 5. And indeed among sundry of the Antients there do many severe Expressions occurr against the use of the common Planetary Names And at the first Relinquishment of Gentilisme it had no doubt been well if those Names of Baalim had been taken away out of the mouths of men especially considering that the retaining of them hath
been of no use nor Advantage As they are now riveted into custom and usage claiming their station on such a Prescription as in some measure takes away the corruption of their use I judge that they are not to be contended about For as they are vulgarly used their Names are meer notes of Ditinction of no more signification than first second and third the original and occasional Imposition of them being utterly amongst the many unknown Only I must add that the severe Reflections and contemptuous Reproaches which I have heard made upon and poured out against them who it may be out of weakness it may be out of a better Judgement than our own do abstain from the using of them argue a want of due Charity and that Condescension in love which become those who judge themselves strong For the truth is they have a Plea sufficient at least to vindicate them from the contempt of any For there are some places of Scripture which seem so far to give countenance unto them that if they mistake in their Application it is a mistake of no other nature but what others are liable unto in things of greater importance For it is given as the Will of God Exod. 23. 13. In all things saith he that I have said be circumspect and make no mention of the names of other Gods neither let them be heard out of thy mouth And it cannot be denyed but that the Names of the Dayes of the Week were the Names of Gods among the Heathen The Prohibition is renewed Josh. 2. 7. Thou shalt not make mention of the names of their Gods which is yet extended farther Deut. 12. 3. to a command to destroy and blot out the names of the Gods of the people which by this means are retained Accordingly the Children of Ruben building the Cities formerly called Nebo and Baal Meon changed their names because they were the Names of Heathen Idols Numb 32. 38. And David mentioneth it as a part of his Integrity that he would not take up the names of Idols in his lips Psal. 16. 4. And some of the Antients as hath been observed confirme what by some at present is concluded from these places Saith Hierome Absit ab ore Christiano dicere Jupiter Omnipotens Mehercule Mecastor coetera magis Portenta quam nomina Epist. ad Damas. Now be it granted that the Objections against the Use of the Planetary Names of the Dayes of the Week from these places may be answered from consideration of the change of Times and the circumstances of things yet certainly there is an appearance of Warranty in them sufficient to secure them from contempt and reproach who are prevailed on by them to another use § 15 But of a Day of Rest there is a peculiar Reason If there be a Name given in the Scripture unto such a Day by that Name it is to be called and not otherwise So it was unquestionably under the Old Testament God himself had assigned a Name unto the Day of Sacred Rest then enjoyned the Church unto Observation and it was not lawful for the Jews to call it by any other Name given unto it or in use among the Heathen It was and was to be called the Sabbath Day the Sabbath of the Lord. In the New Testament there is as we shall see afterwards a signal Note put on the first Day of the Week So thence do some call their Day of Rest or solemn Worship and contend that so it ought to be called But this only respects the Order and Relation of such a Day to the other Dayes of the Week which is natural and hath no respect unto any thing that is Sacred It may be allowed then for the indigitation of such a Day and the Discrimination of it from the other Dayes of the Week but is no proper Name for a Day of Sacred Rest. And the first use of it upon the Resurrection of our Lord was only peculiarly to denote the Time There is a Day mentioned by John in the Revelation which we shall afterwards consider that he calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 diem dominicam the Lords Day This Appellation what Day soever is designed is neither Natural nor Civil nor doth it relate unto any thing in Nature or in the common usage of men It must therefore be Sacred and it is or may be very comprehensive of various Respects It is the Lords Day the Day that he hath taken to be his Lot or especial Portion among the Dayes of the Week as he took as it were possession of it in his Resurrection So his people are his Lot and Portion in the world therefore called his people It is also or may be his Day subjectively or the Day whereon his businesses and Affairs are principally transacted So the Poet Tydeos illa Dies that was Tydeus his Day because he was principally concerned in the Affairs of it This is the Day wherein the Affairs of the Lord Christ are transacted his Person and Mediation being the Principal Subjects and Objects of its Work and Worship And it is or may be called his the Lords Day because enjoyned and appointed to be observed by him or his Authority over the Church So the Ordinance of the Supper is called the Supper of the Lord on the same Account On supposition therefore that such a Day of Rest there is to be observed under the New Testament the Name whereby it ought to be called is the Lords Day which is peculiarly expressive of its Relation unto our Lord Jesus Christ the sole Author and immediate Object of all Gospel Worship But whereas the general Notion of a Sabbatical Rest is still included in such a Day a superaddition of its Relation to the Lord Christ will intitle it unto the Appellation of the Lords Day Sabbath that is the Day of Sacred Rest appointed by the Lord Jesus Christ. And thus most probably in the continuation of the Old Testament Phraseologie it is called the Sabbath Day Matth. 24. 20. and in our Apostle comes under the general notion of a Sabbatism Chap. 4. 9. Exercitatio Secunda 1 Of the Original of the Sabbath the importance of this Disquisition 2 Opinion of some of the Jewish Masters about the Original of the Sabbath that it began in Mara 3 The Station in Mara and the Occurrences thereof Tacitus noted Exod. 15. 25 26. Jews Exposition of it 4 This Opinion refuted by Testimonies and Reasons 5 Another Opinion of the Antient Jews about the Original of the Sabbath and of the Mahumetans 6 Opinions of Christians about the Original of the Sabbath proposed 7 That of its Original from the Foundation of the World asserted The first Testimony given unto it Gen. 2. 2. Vindicated Exceptions of Heddigerus answered 8. What intended by sanctifying and blessing the seventh Day 9 Other Exceptions removed Series and Dependance of the Discourse in Moses cleared The whole Testimony vindicated 10 Heb. 4 3 4. Vindicated 11 Observation
of the Sabbath by the Patriarchs before the giving of the Law Instances hereof collected by Manasse Ben Israel Farther confirmation of it 12 Tradition among the Gentiles concerning it Sacredness of the septenary Number 13 Testimonies of the Heathen collected by Aristobulus Clemens Eusebius 14 Importance of these Testimonies examined and vindicated 15 Ground of the Hebdomadal Revolution of time It s Observation Catholick 16 Planetary Denominations of the Dayes of the Week whence 17 The contrary Opinion of the Original of the Sabbath in the Wilderness proposed and examined 18 First Argument against the Original of the Sabbath Answered c. The Second Exercitation Of the Original of the Sabbath § 1 HAving fixed the Name the Thing it self falls nextly under Consideration And the Order of our Investigation shall be to enquire first into its Original and then into its Causes And the true stating of the former will give great light into the latter as also into its Duration For if it began with the World probably it had a cause cognate to the Existence of the World and the Ends of it and so must in Duration be commensurate unto it If it ows its Rise to succeeding Generations amongst some peculiar sort of men its Cause was arbitrary and occasional and its continuance uncertain For every thing which had such a Beginning in the Worship of God was limited to some seasons only and had a Time determined for its Expiration This therefore is first to be stated And indeed no Concern of this Day hath fallen under more diligent severe and Learned Dissertations Very Learned men have here engaged into contrary Opinions and defended them with much Learning and Variety of Reading Summa sequar Vestigia rerum and shall briefly call the different Apprehensions both of Jews and Christians in this matter unto a just Examination Neither shall I omit the consideration of any Opinion whose Antiquity or the Authority of its Defenders did ever give it Reputation though now generally exploded as not knowing in that Revolution of Opinions which we are under how soon it may have a Revival § 2 The Jews that we may begin with them with whom some think the Sabbath began are divided among themselves about the Original of the Sabbath no less than Christians yea to speak the Truth their Divisions and different Apprehensions about this matter of Fact have been the occasion of ours and their Authority is pleaded to countenance the mistakes of others Many therefore of them assign the Original or first Revelation of the Sabbath unto the Wilderness Station of the people in Mara others of them make it Coaeval with the World The first Opinion hath countenance given unto it in the Talmud Gemar Babylon Tit. Sab. cap. 9. and Tit. Sanedr cap. 7. And the Tradition of it is embraced by so many of their Masters and Commentators that our Learned Selden de Jur. Gen. apud Heb. lib. 3. cap. 12 13 14. contends for it as the common and prevailing Opinion amongst them and indeavours an Answer unto all Instances or Testimonies that are or may be urged to the contrary And indeed there is searce any thing of moment to be observed in all Antiquity as to matter of Fact about the Sabbath whether it be Jewish Christian or Heathen but what he hath heaped together or rather treasured up in the Learned Discourses of that third Book of his Jus Gentium apud Hebraeos Whether the Questions of Right belonging thereunto have been duly determined by him is yet left unto further enquiry That which at present we are in the consideration of is the Opinion of the Jews about the Original of the Sabbath at the Station of Marah which he so largely confirms with Testimonies out of all sorts of their Authors and those duly alledged according to their own Sense and Conceptions § 3 Mara was the first Station that the Children of Israel fixed in in the Wilderness of Shur five Dayes after their coming up out of the Red Sea Before their coming hither they had wandred three dayes in the Wilderness without finding any Water until they were ready to faint The Report of this their thirst and wandring was famous amongst the Heathen and mixed by them with vain and monstrous Fables One of the Wisest amongst them puts as many Lies together about it as so few words can well contain Effigiem saith he Animalis quo monstrante errorem sitimque depulerant penetrali sacravere Tacit. Histor. lib. 5. He feigns that by following some Wild Asses they were led to Waters and so made an End of their Thirst and wandring on the Account whereof they afterwards consecrated in their Temple the Image of an Ass. Others of them besides him say that they wandred six dayes and finding Water on the seventh that was the Occasion and Reason of their perpetual Observation of the seventh Dayes Rest. In their Journey from the Red Sea to Mara they were particularly pressed with Wandring and Thirst Exod. 15. 22. But this was only for three dayes not seven They went three Dayes in the Wilderness and found no Water The Story of the Asses Image or Head consecrated amongst them was taken from what fell out afterwards about the Golden Calf This made them vile among the Nations and exposed them to their Obloquy and Reproaches Upon the third Day therefore after their coming from the Red Sea they came to Mara that is the place so called afterwards from what there befell them For the Waters which there they found being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bitter they called the Name of the place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Bitterness Hither they came on the third Day For although it is said that they went three Dayes in the Wilderness and found no Water Exod. 15. 22. after which mention is made of their coming to Mara v. 23. Yet it was in the Evening of the third Day for they pitched that night in Mara Numb 33. 8. Here after their murmuring for the bitterness of the Waters and the Miraculous Cure of them it is added in the Story There the Lord made for them a Statute and an Ordinance and there he proved them And said If thou wilt diligently hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God and wilt do that which is right in his sight and wilt give ear to all his Commandments and keep all his Statutes I will put none of those diseases upon thee which I have brought upon the Aegyptians for I am the Lord that healeth thee v. 26. It is said that he gave them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Words whereby Sacred Ordinances and Institutions are expressed What this Statute and Judgement were in particular is not declared These therefore are suggested by the Talmudical Masters One of them they say was the Ordinance concerning the Sabbath About the other they are not so well agreed Some refer it to the fifth Commandment of honouring Father and Mother others to the Ceremonies of
the Red Heifer with whose ashes the water of sprinkling was to be mingled for which conjecture they want not such Reasons as are usual amongst them The two first they confirm from the Repetition of the Law Deut. 5. 14 15. For there those Words as the Lord thy God commanded thee are distinctly added to those two Precepts the Fourth and Fifth and to no other And this could arise from no other cause but because God had before given them unto the people in Mara where he said he had given them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is the Ordinance and Law of the Sabbath and the Judgement of Obedience to Parents and Superiors This is one of the principal wayes whereby they confirm their Imaginations And fully to establish the Truth hereof Baal Hatturim or the small Gematrical Annotations on the Masoretical Bibles adds that in those words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the final numeral Letters make up the same number with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Name of the Place where these Laws were given And this is the summ of what is pleaded in this case § 4 But every one may easily see the Vanity of these Pretences and how easie it is for any one to frame a thousand of them who knows not how better to spend his time Aben Ezra and Abarbinel both confess that the words used in the Repetition of the Law Deut. 5. do refer to the giving of it on Mount Sinai And if we must seek for especial Reasons of the inserting of those words besides the Soveraign Pleasure of God they are not wanting which are far more probable than these of the Masters 1 The one of these Commandments closing up the first Table concerning the Worship of God and the other heading the second Table concerning our Duties amongst our selves and towards others this Memorial as the Lord thy God commanded thee is on that account expresly annexed unto them being to be distinctly applyed unto all the Rest. 2 The Fourth Command is as it were Custos primae Tabulae the Keeper of the whole first Table seeing our owning of God to be our God and our Worship of him according to his mind were solemnly to be expressed on the Day of Rest commanded to be observed for that purpose and in the neglect whereof they will be sure enough neglected whence also a Remembrance to observe this Day is so strictly injoyned And the Fifth Commandment is apparently Custos secundae Tabulae as appointed of God to contain the means of exacting the observation of all the Duties of the second Table or of punishing the neglect of them and disobedience unto them And therefore it may be the Memorial is not peculiarly annexed unto them on their own distinct Account but equally upon that of the other Commandments whereunto they do refer 3 There is yet an especial Reason for the peculiar Appropriation of these two Precepts by that Memorial unto this people For they had now given unto them an especial Typical Concern in them which did not at all belong unto the rest of mankind who were otherwise equally concerned in the Decalogue with themselves For in the Fourth Commandment whereas no more was before required but that one Day in seven should be observed as a Sacred Rest they were now precisely confined to the seventh Day in order from the finishing of the Creation or the establishing of the Law and Covenant of Works or a day answering thereunto For the Determination of the Day in the Hebdomadal Revolution was added in the Law Decalogical to the Law of Nature And this was with respect unto and in the confirmation of that Ordinance which gave them the seventh Day Sabbath in a peculiar manner that is the seventh Day after six dayes raining of Manna Exod. 16. And in the other the Promise annexed unto it of prolonging their Dayes had peculiar respect unto the Land of Canaan There is neither of these but is a far more probable Reason of the annexing those words as the Lord thy God commanded thee unto those two Commandments than that fixed on by the Talmudical Masters Herein only I agree with them that both these Commands were given alike in Mara and one of them I suppose none will deny to be a principal Dictate of the Law of Nature For the words mentioned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Ordinance and a Statute the meaning of them is plainly expounded v. 26. God then declared this unto them as his unchangeable Ordinance and Institution that he would bless them on their Obedience and punish them upon their Unbelief and Rebellion wherein they had Experience of his Faithfulness to their cost The Reader may see this Fiction farther disproved in Tostatus on the place though I confess some of his Reasons are inconstringent and frivolous Moreover this Station of Mara was on or about the twenty fourth Day of Nisan or April And the first solemn Observation of the Sabbath in the Wilderness was upon the twenty second of Jiar the Month following as may easily be evinced from Moses Journal There were therefore twenty seven dayes between this Fictitious Institution of the Sabbath and the first solemn Observation of it which was at their Station in Alush as is generally supposed certainly in the Wilderness of Sin after they had left Mara and Elim and the Coast of the Red Sea whereunto they returned from Elim Exod. 16. 1. Numb 33. 8 9 10 11. For they first began their journey out of Aegypt on the fifteenth Day of Nisan or the first Month Exod. 12. 37. Numb 33. 3. And they passed through the Sea into the Wilderness about the nineteenth Day of that Month as is evident from their journyings Numb 33. 5 6 7 8 9. On the twentifourth of that Month they pitched in Mara and it was the fifteenth day of Jiar or the second Month before they entred the Wilderness of Sin where is the first mention of their solemn Observation of the Sabbath upon the occasion of the gathering of Manna Between these two seasons three Sabbaths must needs intervene and those immediately upon its first Institution if this Fancy may be admitted And yet the Rulers of the Congregation looked upon the peoples Preparation for its Observation as an unusual thing Exod. 16. 22. Which could not have fallen out had it received so fresh an Institution Besides these Masters themselves and Raski in particular who in his Comment on the place promotes this Fancy grants that Abraham observed the Sabbath But the Law and Ordinances hereof they say he received on peculiar Favour and by especial Revelation But be it so it was the great Commendation of Abraham and that given him by God himself that he would command his Children and Houshold after him to keep the Way of the Lord Gen. 18. 19. What ever Ordinance therefore he received from God of any thing to be observed in his Worship it was a part of his Fidelity to communicate the knowledge of
of the Law there These therefore make it a meer Typical Institution given and that without the solemnity of the giving other solemn Institutions to the Church of the Hebrews only And those of this Judgement some of them contend that in those words of Moses Gen. 2. 3. And God blessed the seventh Day and sanctified it because that in it he had rested from all his works a Prolepsis is to be admitted that is that what is there occasionally inserted in the Narrative and to be read in a Parenthesis came not to pass indeed until above two thousand years after namely in the Wilderness of Sin where and when God first blessed the seventh Day and sanctified it And the Reason given for the supposed intersertion of the Words in the Story of Moses is because when it came to pass indeed that God so blessed the seventh Day he did it on the account of what he was then relating of the Works that he made and the Rest that ensued thereon Others give such an Interpretation of the Words as that they should contain no Appointment of a Day of Rest as we shall see Those who assert the former Opinion deny that the Precept or rather Directions about the Observation of the Sabbath given unto the people of Israel in the Wilderness of Sin Exod. 16. was its first Original Institution but affirm that it was either a new Declaration of the Law and usage of it unto them who in their long Bondage had lost both its Doctrine and Practice with a renewed reinforcement of it by an especial circumstance of the Manna not falling on that Day or rather a particular Application of a Catholick Moral Command unto the Oeconomy of that Church unto whose state the people were then under a Praeludium in the Occasional Institution of sundry particular Ordinances as hath been declared in our former Exercitations This is the plain state of the present Controversie about the Original of the Sabbath as to Time and Place wherein what is according unto Truth is now to be enquired after § 7 The Opinion of the Institution of the Sabbath from the Beginning of the world is founded principally on a double Testimony one in the Old Testament and the other in the New And both of them seem to me of so uncontrollable an Evidence that I have often wondred how ever any sober and Learned Persons undertook to evade their â—â—rce or Efficacy in this Cause The first is that of Gen. 2. 1 2 3. That the Heavens and the Earth were finished and all the Host of them and on the seventh Day God ended his work which he had made and he rested on the seventh Day from all his work which he had made And God blessed the seventh Day and sanctified it because that in it he had rested from all his Work which God created and made There is indeed somewhat in this Text which hath given Difficulty unto the Jews and somewhat that the Heathen took offence at That which troubles the Jews is that God is said to have finished his work on the seventh Day For they feared that somewhat might be hence drawn to the prejudice of their absolute Rest on the seventh Day whereon it seems God himself wrought in the finishing of his Work And Hierome judged that they might be justly charged with this Consideration Arctabimus saith he Judaeos qui de otio Sabbati gloriantur quod jam tunc in principio Sabbatum dissolutum sit dum Deus operatur in Sabbato complens opera sua in eo benedicens ipsi diei quia in illo universa complevit We will urge the Jews with this who glory of their Sabbatical Rest in that the Sabbath was broken or dissolved from the Beginning whilst God wrought in it finishing his work and blessed the Day because in it he finished all things Hence the LXX read the words by an open corruption 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 on the sixth Day wherein they are followed by the Syriack and Samaritan Versions And the Rabbins grant that this was done on purpose that it might not be thought that God made any thing on the seventh Day But this scruple was every way needless For do but suppose that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which expresseth the Time past doth intend the Praeterpluperfect Tense as the Praeterperfect in the Hebrew must do where occasion requires seeing they have no other to express that which at any time is past by and it is plain that God had perfected his Work before the Beginning of the seventh Dayes Rest. And so are the Words well rendred by Junius Quum autem perfecisset Deus die septimo opus suum quod fecerat Or we may say Compleverat Die septimo That which the Heathen took offence at was the Rest here ascribed unto God as though he had been wearied with his work Hence was that of Rutilius in his Itinerary Septima quaeque Dies turpi damnata veterno Ut delassati mollis imago Dei The sense of this Expression we shall afterwards explain In the mean time it is certain that the Word here used doth often signifie only to cease or give over without respect either to weariness or Rest as Job 32. 1. 1 Sam. 25. 9. So that no cause of offence was given in the Application of it to God himself However Philo lib. de Opific Mund. refers this of Gods Rest to his contemplation of the works of his hands and that not unmeetly as we shall see But set aside Prejudices and preconceived Opinions and any man would think that the Institution of the Sabbath is here as plainly expressed as in the Fourth Commandment The Words are the continuation of a plain Historical Narration Having finished the Account of the Creation of the World in the first Chapter and given a Recapitulation of it in the first Verse of this Moses declares what immediately ensued thereon namely the Rest of God on the seventh Day and his Blessing and sanctifying that Day whereon he so rested That Day which he rested he blessed and sanctified even that individual Day in the first place and a Day in the Revolution of the same space of Time for succeeding Generations This is plain in the Words or nothing can be thought to be plainly expressed And if there be any Appearance of Difficulty in those words he blessed and sanctified it it is wholly taken away in the explication given of them by himself afterwards in the Fourth Commandment where they are plainly declared to intend its setting apart and Consecration to be a Day of Sacred Rest. But yet Exceptions all put in to this plain open sense of the words Thus it is lately pleaded by Heddigerus Theol. Patriarch Exercitat 3. sect 58. Deus Die septimo cessaverat facere opus novum quia sex diebus omnia consummata erant Ei diei benedixit eo ipso quod cessans ab opere suo ostendit quod homo in cujus creatione quievit
factus sit propter nominis sui glorificationem quod cum majus fuerit caeteris quae hactenus creata sunt vocatur benedictio eundem diem cui sic benedixit sanctificavit quia illo die reliquo toto tempore constituerat se in homine sanctificare tanquam in corona gloria sui operis Sanctificare enim est eum qui sanctus est sanctum dicere testari Dies igitur tempus sanctum erat agnoseebatur non per se sed per sanctitatem hominis qui in tempore se sanctificat cogitationes studia actiones suas Deo qui sanctus est vindicat consecrat I understand not how God can be said to bless the seventh Day because man who was created the sixth Day was made for the Glory of his Name For all things as well as man were made for the Glory of God He made all things for himself Prov. 16. 4. And they all declare his glory Psal. 19. Nor is it said that God rested on the seventh Day from makeing of man but from all the works that he had made Grant man who was last made to have been the most eminent part of the visible Creation and most capable of immediate giving glory to God yet it is plainly said that the Rest of God respected all the works that he had made which is twice repeated besides that the works themselves are summed up into the making of the Heavens and Earth and all the Host of them And wherein doth this include the blessing of the seventh Day it may be better applyed to the first wherein man was made for on the seventh God did no more make man than he did the Sun and Moon which were made on the fourth Nor is there here any Distinction supposed between Gods resting on the seventh Day and his blessing of it which yet are plainly distinguished in the Text. To say he blessed and sanctified it meerly by resting on it is evidently to confound the things that are not only distinctly proposed in the Text but so as that one is laid down as the cause of the other For because God rested on the seventh Day therefore he blessed it Nor is the Sanctification of the Day any better expressed God saith he had appointed on that day and alwayes to sanctifie himself in man as the Crown and Glory of his work I wish this Learned Man had more clearly expressed himself What Act of God is it that can be here intended It must be the Purpose of his Will This therefore is given us as the sense of this place God sanctified the seventh Day that is God purposed from Eternity to sanctifie himself alwayes in man whom on the sixth Day he would create for his Glory These things are so forced as that they scarcely afford a tolerable sense § 8 Neither is the sense given by this Author and some others of that expression to sanctifie that is to declare or testifie any Person or thing to be Holy being spoken by God and not of him objectively usual or to be justified In reference unto God our sanctifying him or his Name is indeed to testifie or declare his Holiness by our giving Honour and Glory to him in our Holy Obedience But as to men and things to sanctifie them is either really to sanctifie them by making them internally holy or to separate and dedicate them unto Holy Uses the former peculiar to Persons the latter common to them with other things made sacred by an authoritative separation from prophane or common Uses unto a peculiar sacred or holy Use in the Worship of God And the following words in our Author that the Day is sanctified and made holy not in it self but by the Holiness of man any more to the purpose For as man was no more created on that Day than the Beasts of the Field so that from his Holiness no colour can be taken to ascribe Holiness unto the Day so it is not consistent with what was before asserted that the sanctification intended is the Holiness of God himself as declared in his works for now it is made the Holiness of Man The sense of the words is plain and are but darkned by these circumlocutions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Jews do well express the general sense of the words when they say of the Day that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it was divided or distinguished from the common nature of things in the world namely by having a new Sacred Relation added unto it For that the Day it self is the subject spoken of as the object of Gods blessing and sanctification nothing but unallowable Prejudice will deny And this to be the sense of the Expressions both the words used to declare the Acts of God about it do declare 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he blessed it Gods Blessing as the Jews say and they say well therein is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Addition of Good It relates to some thing that hath a real present Existence to which it makes an Addition of some farther Good than it was before partaker of Hereof as we said the Day in this place was the Direct and immediate Object God blessed it Some peculiar Good was added unto it Let this be inquired into what it was and wherein it did consist and the meaning of the words will be evident It must be somewhat whereby it was preferred unto or exalted above other dayes When any thing of that nature is assigned besides a Relation given unto it to the Worship of God it shall be considered That this was it is plain from the Nature of the thing it self and from the actual separation and use of it to that purpose which did ensue The other Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and sanctified it is farther instructive in the intention of God and is also exegetical of the former Suppose still as the Text will not allow us to do otherwise that the Day is the Object of this Sanctification and it is not possible to assign any other sense of the Words but that God â—â—t apart by his Institution that Day to be the Day of his Worship to be spent in a Sacred Rest unto himself And this is declared to be the intendment of the Word in the Decalogue where it is used again to the same purpose For none ever doubted but that the meaning of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and he sanctified it therein is any other but that by his Institution and command he set it apart for a Day of holy Rest And this signification of that Word is not only most common but solely to be admitted in the Old Testament if Cogent Reason be not given to the contrary as where it denotes a Dedication and separation to Civil uses and not to Sacred as it sometimes doth still retaining its general nature of separation And therefore I will not deny but that these two words may signifie the same thing the one being meerly
exegetical of the other He blessed it by sanctifying of it as Numb 7. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And he annointed them and sanctified them that is he sanctified them by annointing them or by their Unction set them apart unto an Holy Use which is the Instance of Abarbinel on this place This then is that which is affirmed by Moses On the seventh Day after he had finished his work God rested or ceased from working and thereon blessed and sanctified the seventh Day or set it apart unto holy uses for their Observance by whom he was to be worshipped in this world and whom he had newly made for that Purpose God then sanctified this Day Not that he kept it holy himself which in no sense the Divine Nature is capable of nor that he purified it and made it inherently holy which the nature of the Day is incapable of nor that he celebrated that which in it self was holy as we sanctifie his name which is the act of an inferior towards a superior but that he set it apart to sacred use authoritatively requiring us to sanctifie it in that use obedientially And if you allow not this original sanctification of the seventh Day the first Instance of its solemn joint National Observation is introduced with a strange abruptness It is said Exod. 16. where this Instance is given that on the sixth day the people gathered twice as much bread as on any other day namely two Omers for one man which the Rulers taking notice of acquainted Moses with it v. 22. And Moses in answer to the Rulers of the Congregation who had made the Information gives the Reason of it To morrow saith he is the Rest of the holy Sabbath to the Lord. v. 23. Many of the Jews can give some colour to this manner of Expression for they assign as we have shewed the Revelation and Institution of the Sabbath unto the Station in Mara Exod. 15. which was almost a Month before So they think that no more is here intended but a direction for the solemn Observance of that Day which was before instituted with particular respect unto the gathering of Manna which the people being commanded in General before to gather every day according to their eating and not to keep any of it until the next day the Rulers might well doubt whether they ought not to have gathered it on the Sabbath also not being able to reconcile a seeming contradiction between those two commands of gathering Manna every day and of resting on the seventh But those by whom the Fancy about the Station in Mara is rejected as it is rejected by most Christians and who will not admit of its Original Institution from the Beginning can scarce give a tolerable Account of this manner of Expression Without the least intimation of Institution and Command it is only said to morrow is the Sabbath holy to the Lord that is for you to keep holy But on the supposition contended for the discourse in that place with the Reason of it is plain and evident For there being a previous Institution of the seventh Dayes Rest the Observation whereof was partly gone into disuse and the Day it self being then to receive a new peculiar Application to the Church State of that people the Reason both of the peoples fact and the Rulers doubt and Moses's Resolution is plain and obvious § 9 Wherefore granting the sense of the Words contended for there is yet another Exception put in to invalidate this Testimony as to the original of a seventh Dayes Sabbatical Rest from the Foundation of the World And this is taken not from the signification of the words but the connexion and disposition of them in the Discourse of Moses For suppose that by Gods Blessing and sanctifying the seventh Day the separation of it unto sacred Uses is intended yet this doth not prove that it was so sanctified immediately upon the finishing of the Work of Creation For say some Learned men those words of v. 3. And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because that in it he had rested from all his Work which God created and made are inserted occasionally into the Discourse of Moses from what afterwards came to pass They are not therefore as they suppose a continued part of the Historical Narration there insisted on but are inserted into it by way of Prolepsis or Anticipation and are to be read as it were in a Parenthesis For supposing that Moses wrote not the Book of Genesis until after the giving of the Law which I will not contend about though it be assumed gratis in this Discourse there being a Respect had unto the Rest of God when his Works were finished in the Institution of the Sabbath upon the Historical Relation of that Rest Mises interserts what so long after was done and appointed on the Account thereof And so the sense of the Words must be that God rested on the seventh day from all his works that he had made that is the next Day after the finishing of the Works of Creation wherefore two thousand four hundred years after God blessed and sanctified the seventh day not that seventh Day whereon he rested with them that succeeded in the like Revolution of Time but a seventh Day that fell out so long after which was not blessed nor sanctified before I know not well how men Learned and Sober can offer more hardship unto a Text then is put upon this before us by this Interpretation The connexion of the Words is plain and equal And the Heavens and the Earth and all the Host of them were finished And God had finished on the seventh day all his work that he had made and he rested the seventh day from all his work that he had made And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because in it God rested from all his work which he had created and made You may as well break off the order and continuation of the Words and Discourse in any other place as in that pretended And it may be as well faigned that God finished his work on the seventh day and afterwards rested another seventh day as that he rested the seventh day and afterwards blessed and sanctified another It is true there may be sundry Instances given out of the Scripture of sundry things inserted in Historical Narrations by way of Anticipation which fell not out until after the time wherein mention is made of them But they are mostly such as fell out in the same Age or Generation the matter of the whole Narration being entire within the memory of men But of so monstrous and uncouth a Prolepsis as this would be which is supposed no Instance can be given in the Scripture or any sober Author especially without the least notice given that such it is And such Schemes of Writing are not to be imagined unless necessity from the things themselves spoken of compell us to admit them much less where the matter treated
in his Apologie cap. 16. tells the Gentiles of their Sabbaths or Feasts on Saturday But yet as was intimated I shall grant that the Observation of a Weekly Sacred Feast is not proved by the Testimonies produced which is all that those who oppose them do labour to disprove But I desire to know from what Original these Traditions were derived and whether any can be assigned unto them but that of the Original Institution of the Sabbatical Rest. It is known that this was common amongst them that when they had a general Notion or Tradition of any thing whose true Cause Reason and Beginning they knew not they would faign a Reason or occasion of it accommodate to their present Apprehensions and Practices as I have elsewhere evinced and cleared Having therefore amongst them the Tradition of a seventh Days Sacred Rest which was originally Catholick and having long lost the Practice and Observance of it as well as its Cause and Reason they laid hold on any thing to affix it unto which might have any Resemblance unto what was vulgarly received amongst them or what they could divine in their more curious speculations § 15 The Hebdomadal Revolution of Time generally admitted in the world is also a great Testimony unto the Original Institution of the Sabbath Of old it was Catholick and is at present received among those Nations whose converse was not begun until of late with any of those parts of the world where there is a light gone forth in these things from the Scripture All Nations I say in all Ages have from Time immemorial made the Revolution of seven Dayes to be the first stated Period of Time And this Observation is still continued throughout the world unless amongst them who in other things are openly degenerated from the Law of Nature as those barbarous Indians who have no computation of times but by Sleeps Moons and Winters The measure of time by a Day and Night is directed unto sense by the diurnal course of the Sun Lunar Months and Solar years are of an unavoidable Observation unto all Rational Creatures Whence therefore all men have reckoned Time by Dayes Months and Years is obvious unto all But whence the Hebdomadal Revolution or Weekly Period of Time should make its Entrance and obtain a Catholick Admittance no man can give an Account but with respect to some Impressions on the minds of men from the Constitution and Law of our Natures with the Tradition of a Sabbatical Rest instituted from the Foundation of the world Other Original whether Artificial and Arbitrary or Occasional it could not have Nothing of any such thing hath left the least footsteps of its ever being in any of the Memorials of Times past Neither could any thing of so low an Original or Spring be elevated to such an Height as to diffuse it self through the whole world A derivation of this Observation from the Chaldaeans and Aegyptians who retained the deepest tincture of Original Traditions hath been manifested by others And so fixed was this computation of time on their minds who knew not the Reason of it that when they made a disposition of the Dayes of the year into any other Period on accounts Civil or Sacred yet they still retained this also So the Romans as appears by the Fragments of their old Kalendars had their Nundinae which were dayes of Vacation from Labour on the eighth or as some think the ninth Dayes recurring but yet still made use of the stated Weekly period It is of some consideration in this cause and is usually urged to this purpose that Noah observed the septenary Revolution of Dayes in sending forth the Dove out of the Ark Gen. 8. 10 12. That this was done casually is not to be imagined Nor can any Reason be given why notwithstanding the disappointment he met with the first and second time he should still abide seven dayes before he sent again if you consider only the natural condition of the Flood or the Waters in their abatement A Revolution of Dayes and that upon a sacred account was doubtless attended unto by him And I should suppose that he still sent out the Dove the next day after the Sabbath to see as it were whether God had returned again to Rest in the works of his hands And Gen. 29. 27. a Week is spoken of as a known account of Dayes or Time Fulfill her Week that is not a Week of years as he had done for Rachel but fulfill a Week of Dayes in the Festivals of his marriage with Leah For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 can have no other sense seeing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Feminine Gender relates unto Leah whose Nuptials were to be celebrated and not to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Week which is of the Masculine And it was the custom in those antient times of the world to continue the celebration of a Marriage Feast for seven Dayes or a Week as Judg. 14. 12 15 17. The seven dayes of the Feast is spoken of as a thing commonly known and in vulgar use § 16 Let us therefore consider what is offered to weaken the Force of this Observation It is pretended that the Antient Heathen or the contemplative Persons amongst them observing the unfixed various Motions of the seven Planetary Luminaries as they used and abused it to other Ends so they applyed their Number and Names unto so many dayes which were thereby as it were dedicated unto them which shut them up in that septenary Number But that the Observation of the Weekly Revolution of Time was from the Philosophers and not the common consent of the people doth not appear For those observed also the twelve Signs of the Zodiack and yet made that no Rule to reckon Time or Dayes by Besides the Observation of the Site and Positure of the seven Planets as to their Height or Elevation with Respect unto one another is as antient as the Observation of their peculiar and various motions And upon the first discovery thereof all granted this to be their Order Saturne Jupiter Mars Sol Venus Mercury Luna What Alteration is made herein by the late Hypothesis fixing the Sun as in the Center of the World built on fallible Phaenomena and advanced by many arbitrary Presumptions against evident Testimonies of Scripture and Reasons as probable as any are produced in its confirmation is here of no consideration For it is certain that all the world in former Ages was otherwise minded And our Argument is not taken in this matter from what really was true but from what was universally apprehended so to be Now whence should it be that if this limiting the first Revolution of Time unto seven Dayes proceeded from the Planetary Denominations fixed to the Dayes of the year arbitrarily the Order among the Planets should be so changed as every one sees it to be For in the Assignation of the Names of the Planets to the Dayes of the Week the midst is taken out first
and so the fourth in order inclusive falls to be next until the whole Cycle be finished Some would take the Reason hereof from the proportion of Harmony some from the Diurnal Ascension of the Planets which is ridiculous So Dio Cassius in the thirty seventh Book of his Histories the third of them that remain treating of the taking of Jerusalem by Pompey on the seventh Day of the Week when the people out of their superstition made not their wonted Resistance enquires on that occasion of the Reason of the Assignation of the Planetary Names to the Dayes of the Week which he affirms to have had its Original from the Aegyptians And two Reasons he tells us that he had heard of the especial Assignation of their several Names unto the several Dayes in the order wherein they are commonly used The first is that it was taken from the Harmony 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Musical Note of Diatessaron For beginning saith he with Saturne in the highest Sphere and so passing unto the fourth in order it is the Sun and so throughout in the whole Revolution His other Reason is that taking the day and night beginning with the first hour and assigning the Name of a Planet to each hour beginning with Saturn for the Reason before mentioned and the succeeding hours to the other Planets in their Order so renewing the numerations to the end of the four and twenty hours the first hour of the next day falls to the Sun and so of the day following to the Moon and the remainder to the other Planets in the order commonly ascribed unto them What there is in these conjectures I know not But both of them give the precedency of the first dayes as they are fixed unto that which in the true and natural order of the Dayes is the last There is a good account given us of this matter by Johannes Philoponus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or de Creation Mund. lib. 7. cap. 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This saith he is consented unto amongst all men that there are only seven dayes which by a Revolution into themselves compose the whole of Time whereof we can assign no other Reason but that only which is given by Moses the Grecians indeed ascribe the seven dayes to the seven Planets the first to the Sun the second to the Moon the third to Mars the fourth to Mercury the fifth to Jupiter the sixth to Venus the seventh to Saturne and hereby they first acknowledge that there are but seven dayes whereof all time consisteth but farther they can give no Reason why the Dayes are so disposed of unto the Planets For why did they not rather constitute twelve dayes from the twelve parts of the Zodiack through which the Sun passing perfecteth the year Nor can any Reason be assigned from the Motions of the Planets why any one of the Dayes is inscribed to any of them It is most likely therefore that the Gentiles as they without just Reason or Cause dedicate the Planets by the Names of Daemons and Heroe's so when they observed that there were seven dayes acknowledged by all and that the Planets were so many in number they did according to their pleasure in the two equal Numbers assign one day to one Planet another to another to which he adds truly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Only the great Moses being divinely inspired hath delivered unto men the true Reason of the septenary Number of the dayes So far he There seems to be some Reason for assigning the conduct of time to the Sun or calling the first day by his name as also of adjoyning the Moon unto him in the next place For the succession of the Sun though created the fourth day in point of Use unto that diffused Light which was created the first Day with its being the Instrumental Cause and Measure of every day with the Tradition of the Appointment of Sun and Moon to rule and distinguish times and seasons with the sensible Effects and Operations of them might easily give them the Preheminence by common consent in giving Names unto the Dayes of the Week The other Names were added and applyed according to some prevailing Fictions concerning the Planets and their Respect unto Men and their Actions But the Hebdomadal Period of Time was fixed long before the imposition of those Names prevailed among the Grecians and the Romans which perhaps is not very antiently as Dio thinks though they derived them from the Chaldaeans and Aegyptians And that the acknowledgement of seven Dayes gave occasion to fix unto them the Names of the seven Planets and not that the Observation of the seven Planets gave occasion to compute the Dayes of the World by sevens is manifest from hence in that many Nations admitting of the Hebdomadal Revolution of Time gave the dayes in it quite other Names as various Reasons or Occasions did suggest them unto them In the antient Celtick or German Tongue and all Languages thence deriving the Sun and Moon only on the Reasons before mentioned giving name to the leading Dayes of the Week the rest of the dayes are distinguished and signalized with the Names of the Conductors of their first great Colonies in the North-Western Parts of the World For to fancy that Tuisco is the same with Mars Wooden with Mercury Thor with Jupiter and Frea with Venus is to fancy what we please without the least ground of probability Nor did the Celtae ever call the Planets by those Names so that if there be any Allusion in those Names unto those of the Grecians and Romans it was not taken from their natural speculation about the Planets but from the pleasing Fictions about Deified Heroes wherein they were imitated by most Nations of the world The English and Dutch have taken in Saturday from Saturn other Nations of the same extract retain their own occasional Names The observation therefore of the seven Planets gave neither Rise Reason Cause nor Occasion to this Original Period of Time in an Hebdomadal Revolution of Dayes And hence Theophilus Antiochenus lib. 2. ad Antolychum affirms that all mortal men agreed in the Appellation of the seventh Day whose Testimony is of good force though himself mistake the Original of that Appellation For he tells us that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by an Error common to many of the Antients who could not distinguish between 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is also to this purpose observed by Rivet and Selden from Salmasius out of Georgius Syncallus in his Chronologie that the Patriarchs reckoned the times or distinguished them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by Weeks only This therefore is to me no small Evidence of the Institution and Observation of the Sabbath from the Foundation of the world For hence did this Periodical Revolution of Time prevail amongst the Nations even those who had not the least converse with or knowledge of the Jews or their customs after the Command and
Gentiles shall keep the Sabbath one day in seven in Hell 6. For the Distinction which they have invented that a Proselyte of the Gate might work for himself but not for his Master it is one of the many whereby they make void the Law of God through their Traditions Those who of old amongst them feared God knowing their Duty to instruct their Housholds or Families that is their Children and Servants in the Wayes and Worship of God walked by another Rule § 21 It is farther pleaded by the same Author p. 53. That the Gentiles knew nothing of this Sabbatical Feast but that when it came to their knowledge they derided and exploded it as a particular Superstition of the Jews To this purpose many Instances out of the Historians and Poets who wrote in the time of the first Roman Emperors are collected by Selden which we are again directed unto Now it could not be but that if it had been originally appointed unto all mankind that they should have been such strangers unto it But this matter hath been discoursed before And we have shewed that sundry of the first Writers of the Christian Church were otherwise minded for they judged and proved that there was a Notion at least of the seventh Dayes Sacred Rest diffused throughout the world And they lived nearer the times of the Gentiles Practice than those by whom their Judgement and Testimony are so peremptorily rejected It is not unlikely but that they might be mistaken in some of the Testimonies whereby they confirm their Observation yet this hinders not but that the Observation it self may be true and sufficiently confirmed by other Instances which they make use of For my part as I have said I will not nor for the security of the Principle laid down need I to contend that the seventh Day was observed as a sacred feast amongst them It is enough that there were such Notices of it in the World as could proceed from no other Original but that pleaded for which was common unto all The Roman Writers Poets and others do speak of and contemn the Judaical Sabbaths under which Name they comprehended all their Sacred Feasts and Solemn Abstinencies Hence they reproached them with their Sabbatical Fasts of which number the seventh day Hebdomadal Sabbath was not But they never endeavoured to come to any real Acquaintance with their Religious Rites but took up vulgar Reports concerning them as did their Historians also who in the Affairs of other Natitions are supposed to have been curious and diligent § 22 Indeed after the Conquest of Jerusalem by Pompey when the People of the Jews began to be known among the Romans and to disperse themselves throughout their Provinces they began every day more and more to hate them and to cast all manner of reproaches on them without regard to Truth or Honesty And it may not be amiss here a little by the way to enquire into the Reasons of it The principal cause hereof no doubt was from the God they worshipped and the manner of his Worship observed amongst them For finding them to acknowledge and adore one only the true God and that without the use of any kind of Images they perceived their own Idolatry and Superstition to be condemned thereby And this had been the condition of that people under the former Empires of the Chaldaeáns Persians and Grecians God had appointed them to be his Witnesses in the world that he was God and that there was none other Isa. 44. 8 9 10. Ye are my Witnesses is there a God besides me there is no God I know not any As also Chap. 43. 10 11 12. Ye are my Witnesses that before me there was no God formed neither shall there be any after me I even I am the Lord and besides me there is no Saviour therefore ye are my Witnesses saith the Lord that I am God This greatly provoked as other Nations of old so at length the Romans as bidding defiance to all their Gods and their Worship of them wherein they greatly boasted For they thought that it was meerly by the Help of their Gods and on the account of their Religion that they conquered all other Nations So Ciccro Orat. de Respon Harusp Quam volumus ipsi nos amemus tamen nec numero Hispanos nec robore Gallos nec calliditate Poenos nec artibus Graecos sed pietate religione atque hac una sapientia quod deorum immortalium numine omnia regi gubernarique prospeximus omnes gentes nationesque superavimus Let us love and please ourselves as we think meet yet we outgo neither the Spaniards in number nor the Gaules in strength nor the Africans in craft nor the Grecians in Arts but it is by our Piety and Religion and this only Wisdom that we refer all to the Government of the immortal Gods that we have overcome all Countreys and Nations And Dionysius Halicarnassaeus Antiquit. Rom. lib. 2. having given an account of their Sacred Rites and Worship adds that he did it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That those who knew not before the Piety or Religion of the Romans might not now think it strange that they should have such success in all their Wars To be judged and condemned in those things by the contrary witness of the Jews they could not bear This made them reflect on God himself as the God which they worshipped They called him incertum and ignotum affirming the Rites of his Worship to be absurd and contrary to the common consent of mankind as Tacitus expresly Hist. lib. 5. The best they could afford when they spake of him was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who ever he be And Tully will not allow that it was any respect to their God or their Religion which caused Pompey to forbear spoiling the Temple when he took it by force Non credo saith he religionem impedimento praestantissimo Imperatori fuisse quod victor ex illo fano nihil attigerit Orat. pro Flacc. whereunto he adds as high a Reproach of them and their Religion as he could devise Stantibus Hierosolymis pacatisque Judaeis tamen istorum religio sacrorum à splendore hujus imperii gravitate nominis nostri majorum institutis abhorrebat nunc vero hoc magis quod illa gens quid de nostro imperio sentiret ostendit armis quam cara diis immortalibus esset docuit quod victa est quod clocata quod servata Whilst Jerusalem stood that is in its own Power and the Jews were peaceable yet their Religion was unworthy the splendor of this Empire the gravity of our Name and abhorrent from the Ordinances of our Ancestors how much more now when that Nation hath shewed what esteem it hath of our Empire by its Arms and how dear it is to the immortal Gods that it is conquered and set out under Tribute The like Reflections yea worse may be seen in Trogus Tacitus Plutarcb Strabo and Democritus in Suidas with others §
meer cessation from working It is not absolutely so for God worketh hitherto And the Expression of Gods Rest is of a Moral and not a Natural signification For it consists in the Satisfaction and Complacency that he took in his Works as effects of his Goodness Power and Wisdom disposed in the Order and unto the Ends mentioned Hence as it is said that upon the finishing of them he looked on every thing that he had made and behold it was very good Gen. 1. 31. that is he was satisfied in his works and their disposal and pronounced concerning them that they became his infinite Wisdom and Power so it is added that he not only rested on the seventh Day but also that he was refreshed Exod. 31. 17. that is he took great complacency in what he had done as that which was suited unto the End aimed at namely the expression of his Greatness Goodness and Wisdom unto his Rational Creatures and his Glory through their Obedience thereon as on the like Occasion he is said to rest in his Love and to rejoyce with singing Zeph. 3. 17. Now in the Work and Rest of God thus stated did the whole Rule of the Obedience of man originally consist and therein was he to seek also his own Rest as his Happiness and Blessedness For God had not declared any other way for his Instruction in the End of his Creation that is his Obedience unto him and Blessedness in him but in and by his own Works and Rest. This then is the first End of this Holy Rest. And it must alwayes be born in mind as that without which we can give no glory to God as rational creatures made under a Moral Law in a dependance on Him For this he indispensibly requireth of us and this is the summ of what he requireth of us namely that we glorifie him according to the Revelation that he makes of himself unto us whether by his Works of Nature or of Grace To the solemnity hereof the Day enquired after is necessary To express these things is the General End of the Sabbatical Rest prescribed unto us and our observation For so it is said God wrought and rested and then requires us so to do And it hath sundry particular Ends or Reasons First That we might learn the satisfaction and complacency that God hath in his own works Gen. 2. 2 3. That is to consider the impressions of his Excellencies upon them and to glorifie him as God on that Account Rom. 1. 19 20 21. For hence was man originally taught to Fear Love Trust Obey and Honour him absolutely even from the manifestation that he had made of himself in his works wherein he rested And had not God thus rested in them and been refreshed upon their compleating and finishing they would not have been a sufficient means to instruct man in those Duties And our Observation of the Evangelical Sabbath hath the same respect unto the works of Christ and his Rest thereon when he saw of the Travel of his soul and was satisfied as shall afterwards be declared Secondly Another End of the Original Sabbatical Rest was that it might be a pledge unto man of his Rest in and with God For in and by the Law of his Creation man had an End of Rest proposed unto him and that in God This he was to be directed unto and incouraged to look after Herein God by his Works and Rest had instructed him And by giving him the Sabbath as he gave him a Pledge thereof so he required of him his Approbation of the Covenant Way of attaining it whereof afterwards Hence Psal. 92. whose Title is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Psalm a Song for the Sabbath Day which some of the Jews ascribe unto Adam as it principally consists in contemplations of the Works of God with holy Admirations of his Greatness and Power manifested in them with praises unto him on their Account so it expresseth the Destruction of ungodly sinners and the salvation of the Righteous whereof in that dayes Rest they had a pledge And this belonged unto that state of man wherein he was created namely that he should have a pledge of Eternal Rest. Neither could his Duty and capacity be otherwise answered or esteemed reasonable His Duty which was working in Moral Obedience had a natural Relation unto a Reward And his Capacity was such as could not be satisfied nor himself attain absolute Rest but in the Enjoyment of God A pledge hereof therefore belonged unto his condition Thirdly Consideration was had of the Way and Means whereby man might enter into the Rest of God proposed unto him And this was by that Obedience and Worship of God which the Covenant wherein he was created required of him The solemn Expression of this Obedience and Exercise of this Worship was indispensibly required of him and his posterity in all their Societies and Communion with one another This cannot be denyed unless we shall say that God making man to be a sociable creature and capable of sundry Relations did not require of him to honour him in the Societies and Relations whereof he was capable which would certainly overthrow the whole Law of his Creation with respect unto the End for which he was made and render all societies sinful and rebellious against God Hereunto the Sabbatical Rest was absolutely necessary For without some such Rest fixed or variable those things could not be This is a Time or season for man to express and solemnly pay that homage which he owes to his Creator And this is by the most esteemed the great if not the only End of the Sabbath But it is evident that it falls under sundry precedent Considerations § 10 These being the proper Ends and Reasons of the Original Sabbatical Rest which contain the true Notion of it we may nextly enquire after the Law whereby it was prescribed and commanded To this purpose we must first consider the state wherein man was created and then the Law of his Creation And for the state and condition wherein man was created it falls under a threefold consideration For man may be considered either 1. Absolutely as a Rational Creature or 2. As made under a Covenant of Rewards and Punishments or 3. With respect unto the especial nature of that Covenant First He was made a Rational Creature and thereby necessarily in a Moral Dependance on God For being endowed with Intellectual Faculties in an immortal soul capable of eternal Blessedness or Misery able to know God and to regard him as the first Cause and last End of all as the Author of his Being and Object of his Blessedness it was naturally and necessarily incumbent on him without any farther considerations to Love Fear and Obey him to trust in him as a Preserver and Rewarder and this the order of his nature called the Image of God enclined and inabled him unto For it was not possible that such a creature should be produced and not lye
lye against it I did not find that God had alwayes before in all States of the Church from the foundation of the world invariably required the Observation of one Day in seven and I know no Reason why what had been observed all along so far upon his own Authority he would have observed still but no longer on his Command but on the Invention and Consent of men Had the Religious Observance of one Day in seven been utterly laid aside and abolished it would and ought to to have been concluded that the Law of it was expired in the Cross of Christ as were those of Circumcision the Sacrifices and the whole Temple-Worship But to have this Observance continued by the whole Church in and under the Approbation of God whereof none ever doubted by a Reassumption of it through the Authority of the Church after God had taken off his own from it is a most vain Imagination § 39 I dispute not of what the Church may appoint for good Orders sake to be observed in Religious Assemblies But this I dare say confidently that no Church nor Churches not all the Churches in the World have Power by common Consent to ordain any thing in the Worship of God as a Part of it which God had once ordained commanded and required but now under the Gospel ceaseth so to do as Circumcision and Saorifices But this is the State of the Religious Observance of one Day in seven None can deny but that formerly it was ordained and appointed of God And it should seem according to this Opinion that he took off the Authority of his own Command that the same Observance might be continued upon the Authority of the Church Credat Apella Neither do the Footsteps of the Occasion of any such Ecclesiastical Institution appear any where on Record in the Scripture where all things of an absolute new and Arbitrary Institution whether occasional or durable are taken notice of There is indeed mention made and that frequently of the first day of the Week to be set apart for the Assembling of Believers for the Worship of God and a solid Reason is insinuated why that especial day in particular ought so to be But why one Day in seven should be constantly observed to the purpose mentioned no Reason no Account is given in the New Testament other than why men should not lie or stea ' Nor hath any man a Ground to imagine that there was an Intercision of a Sabbatical Observance by the interposition of any time between the Observation of the seventh Day and of the first of the Week for the same Ends and Purposes though not absolutely in the same manner If there be any Indications Proofs Evidences that the first Churches continued without the Observation of one Day in seven after they desisted from having a Religious Respect unto the seventh Day before they had the same regard to the first of the Week unto this purpose I wish they might be produced for they would be of good weight in this matter but as yet no such thing is made to appear For if the Obligation of the Precept for Observing one Day in seven as a Sacred Rest to God may be suspended in any change of the outward State and Condition of the Church it cannot be esteemed to be Moral I speak not of the actual Observance of the thing commanded which for many causes may occasionally and temporarily be superseded but of the obliging force and power in the Command it self which if it be Moral is perpetual and not capable of Interruption Now Testimonies we have that sundry persons not sufficiently instructed in the Liberty of the Gospel and the Law of its Obedience observed both the Dayes the seventh and the first yea it may be that for a while some observed the one day and some the other but that any Christians of old thought themselves de facto set at liberty from the Religious Observation of one day in seven this neither is nor can be proved This Practice then was Universal and that approved of God as we shall see afterwards and farther in another Discourse now more than once directed unto Now what can any man conceive to be the ground of this unvariableness in the commanded and approved Observation of one day in seven in all states conditions and alterations in and of the Church but that the Command for it is part of the Moral unchangeable Law Hereby therefore it is confirmed unto us so to be And indeed if every State of the Church be founded in an especial Work of God and his Rest thereon and complacency therein as a Pledge or Testimony of giving his Church Rest in himself as elsewhere shall be fully confirmed a Sabbatical Rest must be necessary unto the Church in every state and condition And although absolutely another Day might have been fixed on under the New Testament and not one in an Hebdomadal Revolution because its peculiar works were not precisely finished in six Dayes yet that season being before fixed and determined by the Law of Creation no Innovation nor Alteration would be allowed therein § 40 There is yet remaining that which is principally to be pleaded in this cause and which of it self is sufficient to bear the weight of the whole Now this is the Place which the command for the Observation of a Sabbath unto God holds in the Decalogue Concerning this we have no more to enquire but whether it have obtained a station therein in its own Right or were on some other occasion advanced to that Priviledge For if it be free of that Society in its own Right or on the Account of its Origine and Birth the Morality of it can never be impeached if it had only an Occasional Interest therein and held it by a lease of time it may ere this be long since disseized of it Now we do not yet dispute whether the seventh Day precisely be ordained in the fourth Commandment and do take up the whole nature of it as the only subject of it and alone required in it Only I take it for granted that the Observation of one Day in seven is required in the Command which is so because the seventh Day or a seventh Day in a septenary Revolution is expresly commanded § 41 It is indeed by many pretended that the Command firstly and directly respecteth the seventh Day precisely and one Day in seven no otherwise than as it necessarily follows thereon For where the seventh Day is required one in seven is so consequentially And they who thus pretend have a double Design the one absolutely contradictory to the other For those do so who from thence conclude that the seventh Day precisely comprizing the whole Nature of the Sabbath that day is indispensibly and everlastingly to be observed And those do so who with equal confidence draw their conclusion to the utter Abolition of the whole Sabbath and
the Law of it in the taking away of the seventh Day it self Such different Apprehensions have men of the use and improvement that may be made of the same Principles and Concessions For those of the later sort hope that if they can prove the Observation of the seventh Day precisely and not one of seven but only consequentially to be the whole of what is intended in the fourth Commandment that by vertue of the Apostles Rule Col. 2. 16. to which purpose he often elsewhere expresseth himself they shall be able to prove that it is utterly abolished Those of the other sort suppose that if they can make this to be the sense of the Commandment they shall prevail to fix a perpetual Obligation on all men from thence unto the Observation of the seventh Day precisely although the words of the Apostle seem to lye expresly against it § 42 But the supposition it self that both parties proceed upon is not only uncertain but certainly false For the very Order of Nature it self disposeth these things unto that series and mutual Respect which can never be interrupted The Command is about the separation of time unto the service of God This he tacitely grants nor will deny if he be pressed who contends for the seventh Day Here therefore it is natural and necessary that Time be indefinitely considered and required antecedently unto the Designation and Limitation of the portion of Time that is required This the Order of Nature requireth For if it be Time indefinitely that is limited in the Command unto the seventh Day Time indefinitely is the first Object of that Limitation And the case is the same with Reference unto one Day in seven This also hath and must have a natural priority unto the seventh Day for the seventh Day is one Day of the seven And these things are separable Some Part of Time may be separated unto Religious Worship and yet not one day in seven but any other portion in a certain Revolution of Dayes Weeks Months or Years if there be not a distinct Reason for it And one Day in seven may be so separated wherein the seventh Day precisely may have no Interest And these things the very Nature of them doth assert distinguish and determine Whatever Morality therefore or Obligation unto a perpetual Observance can be fancied by any to be in the Command as to the seventh Day it is but consequential unto dependant upon and separable from the command and duty for the Observance of One Day in seven And this sussiceth as to our present purpose For I do not yet treat with them who contend for the precise Observation of the seventh Day now under the Gospel It is enough that here we prove that the fourth Commandment requireth the Sacred Observation of one Day in seven and that so far as it doth so it is Moral and unchangeable § 43 All men as we have often observed do allow that there is something Moral in the fourth Commandment namely that either some part of it or the general Nature of it is so I do not therefore well understand them and Him of late who hath pleaded that the seventh Day only is required in that Command and yet that this seventh Day was absolutely Ceremonial and Typical being accordingly abolished The consistency of these Assertions doth not yet appear unto me For if the whole matter of the Command be Ceremonial the Command it self must needs be so also For a relief against this contradiction it is said that the Morality of this Command consists in this that we should look after and take up our Spiritual Rest in God But this will not allow that it should be a distinct Commandment of it self distinguished from all the Rest of the Decalogue nor indeed scarcely from any one of them For the Primitive End of all the Commandments was to direct us and bring us unto Rest with God of the first Table immediately and of the second in and by the Performance of the Duties of it among our selves And of the first Precept this is the sum so that it is unduely assigned to be the peculiar Morality of the fourth instead of the solemn Expression of that Rest as our End and Happiness Neither is there any way possible to manifest an especial Intention in and of any Law that is not found in this The Words and Letter of it in their proper and only sense require a Day or an especial season to be appointed for a Sacred Rest. And so doth the Nature of Religious Worship which undoubtedly is directed therein The Rest of God proposed in the Command as the Reason of it which was on the seventh day after six of working requireth the same Intention in the words So doth also the exact limitation of Time mentioned in it all in complyance with the Order and Place that it holds in the Decalogue wherein nothing in general is left unrequired in the Natural and Instituted Worship of God but only the setting apart with the Determination and Limitation of some time unto the solemn Observation of it Few therefore have ever denyed but that the Morality of this Command if it be Moral doth extend it self unto the separation of some part of our Time to the solemn recognizing of God and our subjection unto him and this in the Letter of the Law is limited on the Reasons before insisted on unto one day in seven in their perpetual Revolution The sole Enquiry therefore remaining is whether this Precept be Moral or no and so continue to be possessed of a Power perpetually obligatory to all the sons of men And this is that which we are now enquiring into § 44 Here therefore we must have respect unto what hath been discoursed concerning the subject matter of the Precept it self For if that be not only congruous to the Law of Nature but that also which by the Creation of our selves and all other things we are taught and obliged unto the Observation of the Law whereby it is required must be Moral For the Descriptive or Distinctive Term Moral doth first belong unto the things themselves required by any Law and thence to the Law whereby they are commanded If then we have proved that the thing it self required in the fourth Commandment or the Religious Observation of a Sacred Rest unto God for the Ends mentioned in the Periodical Revolution of seven dayes is Natural and Moral from the Relation that it hath unto the Law of Creation then there can be no Question of the Morality of that Command What hath been performed therein is left unto the Judgement of the Sober and Judicious Reader For no man can be more remote from a pertinacious adherence to his own sentiments or a Magisterial imposition of his Judgement and Apprehensions upon the minds thoughts or practice of other men than I desire to be For however we may please our selves in our light knowledge learning and sincerity yet when we have done all
or teach men to break any one of them And men make bold with him when they so confidently assert that they may break one of them and teach others so to do without offence That this reacheth not to the confirmation of the seventh Day precisely we shall afterwards abundantly demonstrate In like manner St. James treats concerning the whole Law and all the Commands of it Chap. 2. 10 11. And the Argument he insists on for the Observance of the whole namely the giving of it by the same Authority is confined to the Decalogue and the way of Gods giving the Law thereof or else it may be extended to all Mosaical Institutions expresly contrary to his Intention § 49 It is known that many things are usually objected against the Truth we have been pleading for namely the Morality of a Sacred Rest to God on one Day in seven from its Relation to the Law of Creation and the Command for it in the Decalogue And it is known also that what is so objected hath been by others solidly answered and removed But because those Objections or Arguments have been lately renewed and pressed by a Person of Good Learning and Reputation and a new Reinforcement indeavoured to be given unto them I shall give them a new Examination and remove them out of our way § 50 It is then objected in the first place Disquisit de Moralitate Sabbati p 7. That the Command for the Observation of the Sabbath is a Command of Time or concerning Time only namely that some Certain and Determinate Time be assigned to the Worship of God and this may be granted to be Moral But Time is no part of Moral Worship but only a Circumstance of it even as Place is also Therefore the Command that requires them in particular cannot be Moral For these and the like Circumstances must necessarily be of a Positive Determination § 50 An. 1. The whole force of this Argument consists in this that Time is but an Help Instrument or Circumstance of Worship and therefore is not Moral Worship it self nor a part of Moral Worship nor can so be But this Argument is not valid For whatever God requires by his Command to be religiously observed with immediate respect unto himself is a Part of his Worship And this Worship as to the kind of it follows the Nature of the Law whereby it is commanded If that Law be meerly Positive so is the Worship commanded however it be a Duty required by the Law of Nature that we duly observe it when it is commanded for by the Law of Nature God is to be obeyed in all his Commands of what sort soever they are If that Law be Moral so is the Duty required by it and so is our Obedience unto it The only way then to prove that the Observation of Time is no part of Moral Worship is this namely to manifest that the Law whereby it is required is Positive and not Moral for that it is required by Divine Command of the one sort or the other is now supposed And on the other side from the Consideration of the thing it self naturally as that it is an Adjunct or Circumstance of other things no consequence ariseth to the determination of the Nature of the Law whereby it is required 2. Time abstractedly or one Day in seven absolutely is not the adequate Object of the Precept or the fourth Commandment But it is an Holy Rest to be observed unto God in his Worship on such a Day And this not an Holy Rest unto God in general as the Tendency and End of all our Obedience and living unto him but as an especial Remembrance and Representation of the Rest of God himself with his Complacency and Satisfaction in his Works as establishing a Covenant between himself and us This is the Principal subject of the Command or a stated Day of an Holy Rest unto God in such a Revolution of Dayes or Time This we have proved to be Moral from the Foundation and Reason of it laid and given in the Law of Nature revived and represented in the fourth Command of the Decalogue Now though Place be an inseparable circumstance of all Actions and so capable of being made a circumstance of Divine Worship by Divine Positive Command as it was of old in the Instance of the Temple yet no especial or particular Place had the least Guidance or Direction unto it in the Law of Nature by any Works or Acts of God whose Instructive Vertue belonged thereunto and therefore all Places were alike free by Nature and every Place wherein the Worship of God was celebrated was a natural Circumstance of the Actions performed and not a Religious Circumstance of Worship until a particular Place was assigned and determined by Positive Command for that purpose It is otherwise with Time as hath been shewed at large And therefore although any place notwithstanding any thing in the Law of Nature might have been separated by Positive Institution unto the Solemn Worship of God it doth not thence follow as is pretended that any Time a Day in a Monthly or annual Revolution might have been separated unto the like purpose seeing God had given us Indication of another Limitation of it in the Law of Creation § 51 It is farther objected Disquisit p. 8. That in the fourth Commandment not one Day in seven but the seventh Day precisely is enjoyned The Day was before made known unto the Israelites in the Station at Mara or afterwards at Alesh namely the seventh Day from the foundation of the world This in the Command they are required to observe Hence the words of it are that they should Remember 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that same Sabbath Day or that Day of the Sabbath which was newly revealed unto them This Command therefore cannot be Moral as to the Limitation of Time specified therein seeing it only confirms the Observation of the seventh Day Sabbath which was before given unto the Hebrews in a Temporary Institution And this is insisted on as the principal strength against the Morality of the Command I shall first give you in my Answer in general and then consider the especial improvements that are made of it 1. Instances may be given and have been given by all Writers concerning the Hebrew Tongue wherein the prefixed Letters sometimes answering the Greek Praepositive Articles are redundant and if at all emphatical yet they do not at all limit specifie or determine See Psal. 1. 4. Eccl. 2. 14. Lev. 18. 5. The Observation therefore of prefixing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which may possibly denote an Excellency in the thing it self but tends nothing to the Determination of a certain Day but as it is afterwards declared to be one of seven is too weak to bear the weight of the Inference intended Nor will this be denyed by any whoever aright considered the various use and frequent redundancy of that Praefixe 2. The Sabbath or
Rest of a seventh Day was known and observed from the foundation of the World as hath been proved And therefore if from the Praefixe we are to conclude a Limitation or Determination to be intended in the Words Remember the Sabbath Day yet it respects only the Original Sabbath or the Sabbath in respect of its Original and not any new Institution of it For supposing the Observation of the Sabbath to have been before in use whether that use were only of late or a few dayes before or of more antient Times even from the beginning of the World the Command concerning it may be well expressed by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 remember the Sabbath Day 3. Suppose that the Sabbath had received a limitation to the seventh Day precisely in the Ordinance given unto that people in the first raining of Manna then doth the Observation of that Day precisely by vertue of this Command necessarily take place And yet the Command which is but the revival of what was required from the foundation of the world cannot be said to intend that Day precisely in the first place For the Reason of and in the Original Command for a Sabbatical Rest was Gods making the World in six dayes and resting on the seventh which requires no more but that in the continual Revolution of seven dayes six being allowed unto Work one should be observed a Sacred Rest to God These words therefore Remember the Sabbath Day referring unto the Primitive Command and Reason of it as is afterwards declared in the Body of the Law requires no more but a Weekly Day of Rest whereunto the seventh Day is reduced as added by an especial Ordinance And the Reason of this Commandment from the Works of God and the Order of them is repeated in the Decalogue because the Instruction given us by them being a part of the Law of our Creation more subject unto a neglect disregard and forgetfulness than those other Parts of it which were wholly innate to the Principles of our own Nature it was necessary that the Remembrance of it should be so expresly revived when in the other Precepts there is only a tacit excitation of our own inbred Light and Principles 4. The Emphatical Expression insisted on Remember the Sabbath Day hath respect unto the singular Necessity Use and Benefit of this holy Observance as also to that neglect and decay in its Observation which partly through their own sin partly through the Hardships that it met withal in the world the Church of former Ages had fallen into And what it had lately received of a new Institution with reference unto the Israelites falls also under this Command or is reduced unto it as a Ceremonial Branch under its proper Moral Head whereunto it is annexed And whereas it is greatly urged that the Command of the seventh Day precisely is not the Command of one day in seven and that what God hath determined as in this matter the Day is ought not to be indefinitely by us considered it may be all granted without the least Prejudice unto the Cause wherein we are ingaged For although the Institution of the seventh Day precisely be somewhat distinct from one Day in seven as containing a determinate limitation of that which in the other notion is left indefinite yet this hinders not but that God may appoint the one and the other the one in the Moral Reason of the Law the other by an especial determination and Institution And this especial Institution is to continue unless it be abrogated or changed by his own Authority which it may be without the least impeachment of the Moral Reason of the whole Law and a new day be limited by the same Authority which hath been done accordingly as we shall afterwards declare § 52 It is yet farther pleaded Disquisit p. 9 10 11 12. That no Distinction can be made between a Weekly Sabbath and the seventh Day precisely And if any such difference be asserted then if one of them be appointed in the fourth Commandment the other is not For there are not two Sabbaths enjoyned in it but one And it is evident that there never was of old but one Sabbath The Sabbath observed under the Old Testament was that required and prescribed in the fourth Commandment and so on the other side the Sabbath required in the Decalogue was that which was observed under the Old Testament and that only Two Sabbaths one of one Day in seven and the other of the seventh Day precisely are not to be fancied The seventh Day and that only was the Sabbath of the Old Testament and of the Decalogue These things I say are at large pleaded by the forementioned Author An. 1. These Objections are framed against a Distinction used by another Learned Person about the Sabbath as absolutely commanded in the Decacalogue and as injoyned to practise under the Old Testament But neither he nor any other sober Person ever fancied that there were two Sabbaths of old one injoyned unto the Church of the Israelites the other required in the Decalogue But any man may nay every prudent man ought to distinguish between the Sabbath as injoyned absolutely in words expressive of the Law of our Creation and Rule of our Moral Dependance on God in the fourth Command and the same Sabbath as it had a temporary occasional Determination to the seventh Day in the Church of the Jews by vertue of an especial Intimation of the Will of God suited unto that Administration of the Covenant which that Church and People were then admitted into I see therefore no Difficulty in these things The fourth Commandment doth not contain only the moral Equity that some Time should alwayes be set apart unto the Celebration of the Worship of God nor only the Original Instruction given us by the Law of Creation and the Covenant Obedience required of us thereon wherein the substance of the Command doth consist but it expresseth moreover the peculiar Application of this Command by the Will of God to the State of the Church then erected by him with respect unto the seventh Day precisely as before instituted and commanded Exod. 16. Nor is here the least appearance of two Sabbaths but one only is absolutely commanded unto all and determined unto a certain Day for the use of some for a season § 53 2. That one Day in seven only and not the seventh Day precisely is directly and immediately injoyned in the Decalogue and the seventh only with respect unto an antecedent Mosaical Institution with the Nature of that Administration of the Covenant which the people of Israel were then taken into hath been evinced in our investigation of the Causes and Ends of the Sabbath preceding and been cleared by many And it seems evident to an impartial consideration For the Observation of one Day in seven belongs unto every Covenant of God with man And the Decalogue is the unvariable Rule of mans walking before God and living unto him of what
absolutely changed or abolished but a afresh represented unto the people only with a relief provided for the Covenanters against its Curse and Severity with a direction how to use it to another End than was first given unto it it follows that the Day of the Sabbatical Rest could not be changed And therefore was the Observation of the seventh Day precisely continued because it was a Moral Pledge of the Rest of God in the first Covenant For this the instructive part of the Law of our Creation from Gods making the world in six dayes and resting on the seventh did require The Observation of this day therefore was still continued among the Israelites because the first Covenant was again represented unto them But when that Covenant was absolutely and in all Respects as a Covenant taken away and disannulled and that not only as to its formal Efficacy but also as to the manner of the Administration of Gods Covenant with men as it is under the Gospel there was a necessity that the Day of Rest should also be changed as I have more fully shewed elsewhere I say then that the precise Observation of the seventh Day enjoyned unto the Israelites had respect unto the Covenant of Works wherein the foundation of it was laid as hath been demonstrated And the whole Controversie about what day is to be observed now as a Day of holy Rest unto the Lord is resolved fully into this enquiry namely what Covenant we do walk before God in § 6 And that we may understand the whole Nature of the Judaical Sabbath it must moreover be considered that the Law in general and all the Precepts of it was the Instrument of the Politie of the people under the Government of God as we before observed For all the Judgements relating unto Civil things were but an Application of the Moral Law to their State and Condition Hence was the sanction of the transgressions of it to be punished with Death So was it in particular with respect unto the Sabbath Numb 15. 35 partly that it might represent unto them the Original Sanction of the whole Law as a Covenant of Works and partly to keep that stubborn people by this severity within due bounds of Government Nor was any thing punished by Death Judicially in the Law but the transgression of some Moral Command 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Hand of Heaven is threatned against their Presumptuous Transgressions of the Ceremonial Law where no Sacrifice was allowed I the Lord will set my Face against that man and cut him off This also made the Sabbath a yoke and a burden that wherein their Consciences could never find perfect Rest. And in this sense also it is abolished and taken away Again it was made a part of their Law for Religious Worship in their Typical Church State in which and whereby the whole Dispensation of the Covenant which they were under was directed unto other Ends. And so it had the Nature of a shadow representing the good things to come whereby the people were to be relieved from the Rigor and Curse of the whole Law as a Covenant And on these Reasons new Commands were given for the Observation of the Sabbath new Motives Ends and Uses were added thereunto every way to accommodate it to the Dispensation of the Covenant then in force which was afterwards to be removed and taken away and therewithall the Sabbath it self so far as it had Relation thereunto For the continuation of the seventh Day precisely belonged unto the new Representation that was made of the Covenant of Works The Representation of that Covenant with the sanction given unto it amongst the Judgements of Righteousness in the Government of the people in the Land of Canaan which was the Lords and not theirs made it a yoke and burden and the use it was put unto amongst Ceremonial Observances made it a shadow in all which respects it is abolished by Christ. To say that the Sabbath as given unto the Jews is not abolished is to introduce the whole Systeme of Mosaical Ordinances which stand on the same bottom with it And particularly the Observation of the seventh Day precisely lyeth as it were in the Heart of that Oeconomy And these things will the more clearly appear if we consider the dealing of God with that people about the Sabbath from first to last § 7 The Jews some of them at least as was before discoursed would have not only the first Revelation of the Sabbath unto them or the Renovation of its Command but its first Institution absolutely to have been in their station at Mara Exod. 15. The vanity of this pretence we have before sufficiently discovered And whereas this was the Opinion of the Talmudical Masters of the Middle Ages since Christ they seem to have embraced it on the same Account whereon they have invented many other Fancies For observing that a Sabbath was in esteem amongst the Christians in Opposition unto them they began to contend that the Sabbath was as they called it the Bride of the Synagogue and belonged to themselves alone being given secretly to them only The vanity of this pretence we have before laid open and so shall not again insist upon it § 8 The first peculiar dealing of God with them about the Sabbath was evidently in their first Station at Alush Exod. 16. The occasion of the whole is laid down v. 4 5. Then said the Lord unto Moses Behold I will rain Bread from Heaven for you and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day that I may prove them whether they will walk in my Laws or no And it shall come to pass that in the sixth day they shall prepare that which they bring in and it shall be twice as much as they gather dayly Here is no mention of the Sabbath nor any Reason given why they should gather a double portion on the sixth Day This Command therefore must needs have seemed somewhat strange unto them if they had before no notion at all of a seventh Dayes Sacred Rest. They must else otherwise have been at a great loss in themselves why they must double their measure on the sixth Day However it is apparent that either they had lost the true Day they were to observe through that long Bondage in Aegypt or knew not what belonged to the due Observation and Sanctification of it For when the people had observed this Command and gathered a double portion of Manna to keep one part of it for the next day although they had Experience that if at another season it were kept above one Day it would putrifie and stink v. 20. The Rulers of the Congregation fearing some mistake in the matter go and acquaint Moses with what was done amongst them v. 22. Hereon Moses replyeth unto them v. 23. This is that which the Lord hath said to morrow is the Rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord bake that which you will bake This
but the Renovation of the Command when given unto them in the way of an especial Ordinance Exod. 16. and belongs not to the substance of the Command it self Yea take the Command it self without respect unto its explications elsewhere and it expresseth no such limitation though vertually because of the precedent Institution Exod. 16. it be contained in it Hence Thirdly There is a Prescription for the manner of its Observance accommodated unto the state and condition of that people and that two wayes 1. In comprehending things Spiritual under things Carnal when yet the carnal are of no consideration in the Worship of God but as they necessarily attend upon things spiritual Hence that part of the Command which concerns the manner of the Observation of the Sabbath to be kept holy is given out in a Prohibition of bodily Labour and Work or a Command of bodily Rest. But it is the Expression of the Rest of God and his complacency in his Works and Covenant with the Sanctification of the Day in Obedience to his Commands in and by the holy Duties of his Worship that are principally intended in it And this he farther intimates afterwards unto them by his Institution of a double Sacrifice to be offered Morning and Evening on that Day 2. In the Distribution of the people into the Capital Persons with their Relations Servants and Strangers that God would have to live amongst them and joyn themselves unto them In the whole it appears that the Sabbath is not now commanded to be observed because it is the seventh Day as though the seventh Day were firstly and principally intended in the Command which as we have shewed that neither the substance of the Command nor the Reason of it with which the whole of the Precept is begun and ended will admit of but the seventh Day is commanded to be observed because by an antecedent Institution it was made to be the Sabbath unto that people Exod. 16. Whence it came to fall under the Command not primarily but reductively as it had been on another account from the foundation of the World The Sabbath therefore is Originally commanded as one day in seven to be dedirated unto an Holy Rest. And the seventh Day if we respect the order of the dayes is added as that especial Day which God had declared that he would have at that Time his Sabbath to be observed on Now all these things in the Law of the Sabbath are Mosaical namely the Obligation that arose unto its Observation from the Promulgation of the Law unto that people on Sinai the limitation of the Day unto the seventh or last of the Week which was necessary unto that Administration of the Covenant which God then made use of and had a respect unto a previous Institution the Manner of its Observance suited unto that servile and bondage frame of mind which the giving the Law on Mount Sinai did ingenerate in them as being designed of God so to do the ingrafting it into the systeme and series of Religious Worship then in force by the double Sacrifice annexed unto it with the various uses in and accommodations it had unto the Rule of Government in the Commonwealth of Israel in all which respects it is abolished and taken away § 12 God having disposed and setled the Sabbath as to the seventh Day and the manner of its Observation as a part of the Covenant then made with that people he thereon makes use of it in the same manner and unto the same Ends with the residue of the Institutions and Ordinances which he had then prescribed unto them This he doth Exod. 31. 13 14 14 15 16 17. And the Lord spake unto Moses saying Speak thou unto the Children of Israel saying Verily my Sabbaths ye shall keep for it is a sign between me and you throughout your Generations that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctifie you Ye shall keep the Sabbath therefore for it is holy unto you Every one that defileth it shall surely be put to death for whosoever doth any work therein that soul shall be cut off from amongst his people Six Dayes may work be done but in the seventh is the Sabbath of Rest holy to the Lord whosoever doth any work on the Sabbath Day shall surely be put to death Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath to observe the Sabbath throughout their Generations for a perpetual Covenant It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever For in six Dayes the Lord made Heaven and Earth and on the seventh Day he rested and was refreshed This is the next mention of the Sabbath amongst that people wherein all that we have before laid down is fully confirmed God had now by Moses appointed other Sabbaths that is Monthly and Annual Sacred Rests to be observed unto himself With these he now joyns the Weekly Sabbath in Allusion whereunto they have that Name also given unto them He had sufficiently manifested a Difference between them before For the one he pronounced himself on Mount Sinai as part of his universal and eternal Law The other he Instituted by Revelation unto Moses as that which peculiarly belonged unto them The one was grounded on a Reason wherein they had no more concern or interest than all the rest of mankind namely Gods Rest on his Works and being refreshed thereon upon the Creation of the World and the establishment of his Covenant with man the other all built on Reasons peculiar unto themselves and that Church State whereinto they were admitted But here the Sabbaths of both these kinds are brought under the same Command and designed unto the same Ends and Purposes Now the sole Reason hereof lies in those temporary and Ceremonial Additions which we have manifested to have been made unto the Original Law of the Sabbath in its Accommodation to their Church State with the Place which it held therein as we shall see yet farther in particular § 13 The Occasion of this Renovation of the Command was the Building of the Tabernacle which was now designed and forthwith to be undertaken And with Respect hereunto there was a double Reason for the Repetition of this Command First Because that Work was for an holy End and so upon the matter an holy Work and whereon the people were very intent hence they might have supposed that it would have been lawfull for them to have attended unto it on the Sabbath Dayes This therefore God expresly forbids that they might have no pretence for the Transgression of his Command And therefore is the Penalty annexed unto it so expresly here appointed and mentioned Secondly As the Tabernacle now to be built was the only seat of that solemn instituted Worship which God was now setting up amongst them so the Sabbath being the great Means of its continuance and performance this they were now to be severely minded of lest by their neglect and forgetfulness thereof they might
this fully answers the first Law as it was a Principle of Light and Power unto Obedience And in a great measure it supplys the loss of it as it was a Rule also For there is a great Renovation thereof in God's writing his Law in our hearts not here to be insisted on But in this new Creation God designed to gather up all that was past in the Old and in the Law thereof and in the continuation of it by writing under the Old Testament unto one head in Christ. Wherefore he brings over in this state the use of the first Law as renewed and represented in Tables of Stone for a directive Rule of Obedience unto the new Creature whereby the first original Law is wholly supplyed Hereunto he makes an Addition of what positive Laws he thinks meet as he did also under the Old Law of Creation for the tryal of our Obedience and our furtherance in it So the Moral Law of our Obedience is in each condition the old and the new materially the same nor is it possible that it should be otherwise But yet this old Law as brought over into this new estate is new also For all things are become new And it is now the Rule of our Obedience not meerly and absolutely unto God as the Creator the first cause and last end of all but as unto God in Christ bringing of us into a new Relation unto himself In the Renovation then of the Image of God in our souls and the transferring our of the Moral Law as a Rule accompanied with new distinct Principles Motives and Ends doth the Law of the new Creation consist and fully answer the Law of the first as it was a Principle and a Rule each of them having their peculiar positive Laws annexed unto them § 4 Secondly The Law of Creation had a Covenant included in it or inseparably annexed unto it This also we have before declared and what belonged thereunto or ensued necessarily thereon Thus therefore must it be also in the new Creation and the Law thereof Yea because the Covenant is that which as it were gathereth all things together both in the Works and Law of God and our Obedience disposing them into that order which tendeth to the Glory of God and the Blessedness of the Creatures in him this is that which in both Creations is principally to be considered For without this no End of God in his Works or Law could be attained nor man be made Blessed in a way of Righteousness and Goodness unto his Glory And the Law of Creation no otherwise failed nor became useless as to its first End by sin but that the Covenant of it was thereby broken and rendred useless as to the bringing of man unto the enjoyment of God This therefore was principally regarded in the new Creation namely the making confirming and ratifying of a new Covenant And the doing hereof was the great promise under the Old Testament Jerem. 31. 32. whereby the Believers who then lived were made partakers of the benefits of it And the confirming of this Covenant in and by Christ is expressed as a part of the new Creation Heb. 8. 9. and it is indeed comprehensive of the whole Work of it § 5 Thirdly The immediate End of the old Covenant was to bring man by due Obedience unto the Rest of God This God declared in and unto his inbred native light by his Works and his Rest that ensued thereon and the Day of Rest which he instituted as a pledge thereof and as a means of attaining it by that Obedience which was required in the Covenant This we have before declared and this was the true original and End of the first Sabbatical Rest. All these things therefore must have place also in the new Covenant belonging unto the new Creation The immediate End of it is our entring into the Rest of God as the Apostle proves at large Heb. 4. But herein we are not absolutely to enter into Gods Rest as a Creator and Rewarder but into the Rest of God in Christ the Nature whereof will be fully explained in our Exposition of that Chapter For Obedience is now to be yielded unto God not absolutely but to God in Christ and with that respect therefore are we to enter into Rest. The foundation hereof must lye in the Works of God in the new Creation and the complacency with Rest which he took therein For all our Rest in God is founded in his own Rest in his Works For a pledge hereof a Day of Rest must be given and observed the reasons and necessity whereof we have explained and confirmed in our preceding Discourses This as hath been shewed originally was the Seventh day of the week But as the Apostle tells us in another case the Priesthood being changed there must also of necessity a change of the Law ensue so the Covenant being changed and the Rest which was the End of it being changed and the way of entring into the Rest of God being changed a change of the Day of Rest must of necessity thereon ensue And no Man can assert the same Day of Rest precisely to abide as of old but he must likewise assert the same Law the same Covenant the same Rest of God the same way of entring into it which yet as all acknowledge are changed The Day first annexed unto the Covenant of works that is the seventh Day was continued under the Old Testament because the outward administration of that Covenant was continued A relief indeed was provided against the curse and penalty of it but in the administration of it the nature promises and threatnings of that Covenant though with other ends and purposes were represented unto the people But now that Covenant being absolutely abolished both as to its nature use efficacy and power no more to be represented nor proposed unto Believers the whole of it and its renewed administration under the Old Testament being removed taken away and disappearing Heb. 8 13. the precise Day of Rest belonging unto it was to be changed also and so it is come to pass § 6 We must here suppose what hath been before proved and confirmed There was a Day of holy Rest unto God necessary to be observed by the Law and Covenant of Nature or Works neither was or could either of them be compleat without it looking on them as the rule and means of mans living unto God and of his coming to the enjoyment of him That this Day was in the innate right of Nature as directed by the Works of God designed and proposed unto it for that purpose to be one Day in seven This was it to learn and this it did learn from Gods creating the World in six dayes and resting on the seventh for God affirms every where that because he did so therefore it was the duty of man to labour on six dayes as his occasions do require and to rest on the seventh This therefore they were taught by
there can be no tolerable Reason assigned why he should mention the works of God from the foundation of the World with his Rest that ensued thereon and referr us to the seventh Day which without respect unto another Day to be introduced doth greatly involve his whole Discourse Again his use of this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Sabbatism which is framed and as it were coyned on purpose that it might both comprise the Spiritual Rest aimed at and also a Sabbath-keeping or Observation of a Sabbath Rest manifests his purpose When he speaks of our Rest in general he still doth it by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 adding that there was an especial Day for its enjoyment Here he introduceth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Sabbatism which his way of arguing would not have allowed had he not designed to express the Christian Sabbath Adde hereunto that he subjoynes the especial Reason of such a Days observation in the next Verse as we have declared And here do we fix the Foundation and Reason of the Lords-Day or the Holy observation of the first Day of the Week the Obligation of the fourth Commandment unto a weekly Sacred Rest being put off from the seventh Day to the first on the same Grounds and Reasons whereon the state of the Church is altered from what it was under the Law unto what it is now under the Gospel And the Covenant it self also is changed whence the seventh Day is now of no more force than the old Covenant and the old Law of Institutions contained in Ordinances because the Lord Christ hath ceased from his works and entred into his Rest on the first Day § 26 Here we have fixed the foundation of the observation of the Lords-Day on the supposition of what hath been proved concerning our Duty in the Holy observance of one Day in seven from the Law of our Creation as renewed in the Decalogue The remaining Arguments evincing the change of the Day from the seventh unto the first by Divine Authority shall be but briefly touched on by me because they have been lately copiously handled and fully vindicated by others Wherefore 1 when the Lord Christ intended conspicuously to build his Church upon the foundation of his Works and Rest by sending the Holy Ghost with his miraculous Gifts upon the Apostles he did it on this Day which was then among the Jews the Feast of Pentecost or of Weeks Then were the Disciples gathered together with one accord in the observance of the Day signalized to them by his Resurrection Acts 2. 1. And by this doth their obedience receive a blessed confirmation as well as their persons a glorious endowment with abilities for the work which they were immediately to apply themselves unto And hereon did they set out unto the whole work of building the Church on that foundation and promoting the worship of it which on that Day was especially to be celebrated § 27 The Practice of the Apostles and the Apostolical Churches owned the Authority of Christ in this change of the Day of sacred Rest. For hence forward whatever apprehensions any of them might have of the continuance of the Judaical Sabbath as some of them judged that the whole service of it was still to be continued yet they observed this Day of the Lord as the time of their Assemblies and solemn worship One or two instances hereof may be called over Acts 20. 6 7. We came to Troas in five dayes where we abode seven dayes And upon the first day of the week when the Disciples came together to break bread Paul preached unto them ready to depart on the morrow and continued his speech untill midnight I doubt not but in the seven dayes that the Apostle abode there he taught and preached as he had occasion in the houses of the Believers but it was the first Day of the Week when they used according to their duty to assemble the whole body of them for the celebration of the solemn Ordinances of the Church synecdochically expressed by breaking of Bread This they did without any extraordinary warning or calling together for in answer to their duty they were accustomed so to do Such is the account that Justin Martyr gives of the practice of all Churches in the next Age 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 On the Day called Sunday there is an assembly of all Christians whether living in City or the Countrey and because of their constant breaking of bread on this day it was called Dies Panis August Epist 118. And Athanasius proved that he brake not a Chalice at such a time because it was not the first Day of the Week when it was to be used Socrat. lib. 5. cap. 22 And whosoever reads this passage without prejudice will grant that it is a marvellous abrupt and uncouth expression if it do not signifie that which was in common observance amongst all the Disciples of Christ which could have no other foundation but only that before laid down of the Authority of the Lord Christ requiring it of them And I doubt not but that Paul preached his farewel Sermon unto them which continued untill midnight after all the ordinary service of the Church was performed And all the Objections which I have met withall against this instance amount to no more but this that although the Scripture sayes that the Disciples met for their worship on the first Day of the Week yet indeed they did not so do 1 Cor. 16. 2. the same practice is exemplified Upon the first Day of the Week let every one of you lay by him in store as God hath prospered him that there be no gatherings when I come The constant Day of the Churches solemn Assemblies being fixed he here takes it for granted and directs them unto the observance of an especial duty on that Day What some except that here is no mention of any such Assembly but only that every one on that Day should lay by himself what he would give which every one might do at home or where they pleased is exceeding weak and unsuitable unto the mind of the Apostle For to what end should they be limited unto a Day and that the first Day of the Week for the doing of that which might be as well to as good purpose and advantage performed at any other time on any other Day of the Week whatever Besides it was to be such a laying aside such a treasuring of it in a common stock as that there should be no need of any Collection when the Apostle came But if this was done only privately it would not of its self come together at his Advent but must be collected But all exceptions against these Testimonies have been so lately removed by others that I shall not insist farther on them § 28 That from these Times downwards the first Day of the Week had a solemn observation in all the Churches of Christ whereby they owned its substitution in the room of the seventh Day
this matter with the Blessing that attended it was that which multitudes now at Rest do bless God for and many that are yet alive do greatly rejoyce in Let these things be despised by those who are otherwise minded to me they are of great weight and importance § 32 Let us now a sittle consider the Day that by some is set up not only in competition with this but to its utter exclusion This is the seventh Day of the week or the old Judaical Sabbath which some contend that we are perpetually obliged to the observation of by vertue of the Fourth Commandment The Grounds whereon they proceed in their Affertion have been already disproved so far as the Nature of our present undertaking will admit and such evidences given unto the change of the Day as will not easily be everted nor removed The consequences of the observation of the seventh Day should the practice of it be re-assumed amongst Christians is that which at present I shall a little enquire into when we have summed up somewhat of what hath been spoken 1 It was not directly nor absolutely required in the Decalogue but consequentially only by way of Appropriation to the Mosaical Oeconomy whereunto it was then annexed The command is to observe the Sabbath-day and the blessing is upon the Sabbath-day God blessed the sabbath-Sabbath-day And the mention of the seventh day in the Body of the command fixeth the number of the Dayes in whose Revolution a Sabbatical Rest returns but determines not an everlasting Order in them seeing the Order relating to the Old Creation is inconsistent with the Law Reason and Worship of the New And if the seventh day and the Sabbath as some pretend are the same the sense of the command in the enforcing part of it is but the seventh day is the seventh day of the Lord thy God which is none at all 2 The state of the Church and the Administration of the Covenant whereunto the observation of this day was annexed are removed so that it cannot continue no more than an House can stand without a Foundation 3 The Lord Christ who was the Lord of the Sabbath and by assuming that Iitle to himself manifested his Authority as to the disposal of the Day whereon a Sabbatical Rest was to be observed hath in his own Rest from his works limited unto us another day of Sacred Rest called from his appointment of it the Lords-day his Day who is the Lord of the Sabbath 4 The Day so introduced by his Authority hath from the Day of his Rest been observed without interruption or any such difference about it as fell out among the Churches of God about other Feast dayes whose observation was introduced among them they knew not well how as of the Pascha and the like And whereas the due observation of it hath been enjoyned by Councils Edicts of Emperors Kings and Princes Laws of all sorts advised and pressed by the antient Writers amongst Christians and the practice of its observance taken notice of by all who from the beginning have committed the Affairs of Christianity unto posterity yet none of any sort pretend to give it any original but all mediately or immediately referr it unto Christ himself The observation then of this Day First is an evident Judaizing and a returnal unto those Rudiments of the World which the Apostle so severely cautioneth us against I know not how it is come to pass but so it is faln out that the nearer Judaism is unto an absolute Abolition and Disappearance the more some seem inclinable to its revival and continuance or at least to fall back themselves into its antiquated observances An end it had put to it morally and legally long ago in the coming Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. And we may say of it what the Apostle said of Idols when the World was full of Idolatry we know that Judaism is nothing in the world no such thing as by some it is esteemed The actual Abolition of it in the profession of the present Jews by the removing of the Veyle from their Hearts and Eyes and their turning unto God we hope is in its approach And yet as was said there seems in many an inclination unto their Rites and servile observances It is apparent in the Acts and Epistles of the Apostles especially that to the Hebrews that at the first preaching of the Gospel there were very many Jews who came over to the faith and profession of it Many of these continued zealous of the Law and would bring along with them all their Mosaical Institutions which they thought were to abide in force for ever In this weakness and mis-apprehension they were forborn in the patience of God and wisdome of the Holy Ghost guiding the Apostles and Disciples of Jesus Christ. In this state things continued unto the destruction of Hierusalem and the Temple when the chiefest cause of their contests was taken away In the mean time they carried themselves very variously according to the various tempers of their minds For it is apparent that some of them were not content themselves to be indulged in their opinions and practices but they endeavoured by all means to impose the observance of the whole Mosaical Law on the Churches of the Gentiles Their Circumcision their Sabbaths their Feasts and Fasts their Abstinences from this or that kind of meats they were contending about and thereby perverting the minds of the Disciples Some stop was put to the evil consequences hereof in the Synod at Hierusalem Acts 15. which yet determined nothing concerning the Jews own practice but only concerning the liberty of the Gentile-Believers After the destruction of Hierusalem City and Temple these professing Jews fell into several distinct wayes Some of them who as is probable had despised the heavenly warning of leaving the place took up their lot amongst their unbelieving Brethren relinquishing the profession of the Gospel which they had made not it may be with any express renuntiation of Christ but with a dis-regard of the Gospel which brought them not those good things they looked for of which mind Josephus the Historian seems to be one These in time became a part of that Apostate brood which have since continued in their enmity to the Gospel and into whose new and old superstitions they introduced sundry customes which they had learned among the Christians Some absolutely relinquished their old Judaism and compleatly incorporated with the new Gentile Churches unto whom the promise and Covenant of Abraham was transferred and made over These were the genuine Disciples of our great Apostle Others continued their profession of the Gospel but yet still thought themselves obliged unto the observation of the Law of Moses and all its institutions Hereupon they continued in a distinct and separate state from the Believers and Churches of the Gentiles and that for some Ages as some say to the dayes of Adrian These it may be were they whom Eusebius out
Directions for the manner of the observance of such a Day are to no purpose And many by degrees have declined from that strictness which they could not come up unto a delight in untill they have utterly lost all sense of duty towards God in this matter And these things are true only the Reasons of them are not agreed on § 4 And in things of this nature those who are called to the instruction of others are carefully to avoid Extreams For he that condemns the righteous and he that justifieth the wicked are both of them an abomination to the Lord. And several Instances there are of the miscarriages of men on the one hand and the other On the one lay the sin of the Pharisees of old When they had gotten the pretence of a command they would burden it with so many rigid observances in the manner of its performance as should make it a yoke intolerable to their Disciples getting themselves the reputation of strict observers of the Law But in truth they were not so wanting unto their own ease and interest as not to provide a secret dispensation for themselves They would scarce put a finger to the burdens which they bound and laid on the shoulders of others And this is the condition of all almost that hath an appearance of Religion or Devotion in the Papacy And a fault of the same nature though not of so signal a provocation others may fall into unadvisedly who are free from their hypocrisie They may charge and press both their own consciences and other mens above and beyond what God hath appointed And this they may do with a sincere intention to promote Religion and Holiness amongst men by engaging them into the strictest wayes of the profession of it Now in the Directions of the consciences of men about their duties to God this is carefully to be avoided For Peace is only to be obtained in keeping steady and even to the Rule To transgress on the right hand whatever the pretencebe is to lye for God which will not be accepted with him § 5 On the other hand there lyeth a rock of far greater danger And this consists in the accommodation of the Laws Precepts and Institutions of God unto the lusts with the present courses and practices of men This evil we have had exemplified in some of late no less conspicuously than the fore-mentioned was in them of old A mystery of iniquity unto this purpose hath been discovered not long since and brought forth to light tending to the utter debanchery of the consciences and lives of men And in it lyes the great contrivance whereby the famous sect of the Jesuits have prevailed on the minds of many especially of Potentates and great men in the earth so as to get into their hands the conduct of the most important affairs of Europe And this abomination as it is known hath lately been laid open by the diligence of some in whom at once concurred a commendable care of Christian Morality and an high provocation in other things by them who endeavoured to corrupt it A search hath been made into the Writings which that sort of men have published for the Direction of the consciences of men in the practice of moral duties or unto their Disciples for their guidance upon confessions And a man may say of the discovery what the Poet said upon the opening of the House of Cacus Panditur extemplo foribus domus atra revulsis Abstructaeque boves abjurataeque rapinae Caelo ostenduntur Non secus ac si qua penitus viterra dehiscens Infernas reseret sedes regna recludet Pallida Such a loathsome appearance of vizards and pretences for the extenuating of sin and countenancing of men in the practice of it was never before represented unto the eyes of men The main of their design as is now manifest hath been so to interpret Scripture-Laws Rules and Precepts as to accommodate them all to that course of corrupt conversation which prevaileth generally in the world even among them who are called Christians Gratum opus Agricolis A Work exceeding acceptable and obliging to all sorts of men who if not given up to open Atheisme would rejoyce in nothing more than in a reconciliation between the Rule of their consciences and their lusts that they might sin freely without trouble or remorse To this end having learned the inclinations and temptations of men from their private confessions and â—nding it a thing neither possible in it self nor at all conducing to their own interest to endeavour their Reformation by and recovery unto the fixed stable Rule of Truth and Duty they have by their false glosses subtle distinctions and resined imaginations made it to justifie and countenance them in the highest abominations and in wayes leading constantly to the practice of them And there is nothing in their whole course which faithfull interpreters of the mind of God ought more carefully to avoid than a falling in any instances into that evil which these men have made it their design to promote and pursue The World indeed seems to be weary of the just righteous holy wayes of God and of that exactness in walking according to his institutions and commands which it will be one day known that he doth require But the way to put a stop to this declension is not by accommodating the commands of God to the corrupt courses and wayes of men The Truths of God and the Holiness of his Precepts must be pleaded and defended though the World dislike them here and perish hereafter His Law must not be made to lacquey after the wills of men nor be dissolved by vain interpretations because they complain they cannot indeed because they will not comply with it Our Lord Jesus Christ came not to destroy the Law and the Prophets but to fulfill them and to supply men with spiritual strength to fulfill them also It is evil to break the least Commandement but there is a great aggravation of that evil in them that shall teach men so to do And this cannot be done but by giving such Expositions of them as by virtue whereof men may think themselves freed from an obligation unto that obedience which indeed they do require Wherefore though some should say now as they did of old concerning any command of God Behold what a weariness it is and what profit is it to keep his Ordinances yet the Law of God is not to be changed to give them relief We are therefore in this matter to have no consideration of the present course of the world nor of the weariness of professors in the wayes of strict obedience The sacred Truth and Will of God in all his commands is singly and sincerely to be enquired after § 6 And yet I will not deny but that there have been and are mistakes in this matter leaning towards the other extream Directions have been given and that not by a few for the observation of a Day of
those Works and Rest of God or it could not be proposed as the reason of their suitable practice and for this end did God so Work and Rest. The Law therefore of this holy Rest he reneweth in the Decalogue amongst those other Laws which being of the same nature and original namely branches of the Law of our Creation were to be unto us moral and eternal For God would no longer entrust his mind and will in that Law unto the depraved nature of man wherein if he had not in the best often guided and directed it by fresh extraordinary revelations it would have been of little use to his glory but committed it by vocal revelation to the minds of the people as the doctrinal object of their consideration and recorded it in tables of stone Moreover the nature of the first Covenant and the way of Gods instructing man in the condition of it by his Works and Rest had limited this holy Day unto the seventh Day the observation whereof was to be commensurate unto that Covenant and its administration however the outward forms thereof might be varied § 7 On these suppositions we lay and ought to lay the observation of the Lords Day under the New Testament according to the institution of it or declaration of the mind of Christ who is our Lord and Law-giver concerning it 1. A new work of Creation or a work of a new Creation is undertaken and compleated Isa. 65. 17. Chap. 66. 22 23. 2 Pet. 3. 13. Rev. 21. 1. Rom. 8. 19 20. 2 Cor. 5. 17. Gal. 6. 15. 2. This new Creation is accompanied with a new Law and a new Covenant or the Law of faith and the Covenant of Grace Rom. 3. 27. Chap. 8. 2 3 4. Jer. 31. 32 33 34. Heb. 8. 8 9 10 11 12 13. 3. Unto this Law and Covenant a Day of holy Rest unto the Lord doth belong which cannot be the same Day with the former no more than it is the same Law or the same Covenant which were originally given unto us Heb. 4. 9. Rev. 1. 10. 4. That this Day was limited and determined to the first Day of the Week by our Lord Jesus Christ is that which shall now further be confirmed only I must desire the Reader to consider that whereas the Topical Arguments whereby this Truth is confirmed have been pleaded improved and vindicated by many of late I shall but briefly mention them and insist principally on the declaration of the proper grounds and foundations of it § 8 As our Lord Jesus Christ as the eternal Son and Wisdom of the Father was the immediate cause and Author of the old Creation Joh. 1. 3. Col. 1. 16. Heb. 1. 2 10. so as Mediatour he was the Author of this new Creation Heb. 3. 3 4. He built the House of God he built all these things and is God Herein he wrought and in the accomplishment of it saw of the travail of his soul and was satisfied Isa. 53. 11. that is he rested and was refreshed Herein he gave a new Law of life faith and obedience unto God Isa. 42. 4. not by an addition of new Preceps to the moral Law of God not virtually comprized therein and distinct from his own positive institutions of worship but in his revelation of that new way of obedience unto God in and by himself with the especial causes means and ends of it which supplyes the use and end whereunto the Moral Law was at first designed Rom. 8. 2 3. Chap 10. 3 4. whereby he becomes the Author of eternal salvation unto all that do obey him Heb. 5. 9. This Law of life and obedience he writes by his Spirit in the hearts of his people that they may be willing in the day of his power Psal. 110. 3. 1 Cor. 3. 3 6. Heb. 8 10. not at once and in the foundation of his work actually but only in the causes of it For as the Law of nature should have been implanted in the hearts of men in their conception and natural nativity had that dispensation of righteousness continued so in the new birth of them that believe in him is this Law written in their hearts in all generations Joh. 3. 6. Hereon was the Covenant established and all the promises thereof of which he was the Mediatour Heb. 8. 6. And for an holy Day of Rest for the ends before declared and on the suppositions before laid down evincing the necessity of such a Day he determined the observation of the first Day of the Week For § 9 First On this Day he rested from his works in and by his Resurrection for then had he laid the foundation of the new Heavens and new Earth and finished the works of the new Creation when all the Stars sang together and all the Sons of God shouted for joy On this Day he rested from his works and was refreshed as God did and was from his For although he worketh hitherto in the communication of his Spirit and Graces as the Father continued to do in his works of providence after the finishing of the works of the old Creation though these works belonged thereunto yet he ceaseth absolutely from that kind of work whereby he laid the foundation of the new Creation henceforth he dieth no more And on this Day was he refreshed in the view of his works for he saw that it was exceeding good Now as Gods Rest and his being refreshed in his work on the seventh Day of old was a sufficient indication of the precise Day of Rest which he would have observed under the administration of that original Law and Covenant so the Rest of our Lord Jesus Christ and his being refreshed in and from his works on the first Day is a sufficient indication of the precise Day of Rest to be observed under the dispensation of the new Covenant now confirmed and established And the Church of Christ could not pass one Week under the New Testament or in a Gospel-state of worship without this indication For the Judaical Sabbath as sure as it was so and as sure as it was annexed unto the Mosaical administration of the Covenant was so far abolished as not to oblige really the Disciples of Christ in conscience unto the observation of it whatever any of them might for a season apprehend And if a new Day was not now determined there was no Day or season appointed for an observance of an holy Rest unto the Lord nor any pledge given us of our entring into the Rest of Christ. And those who say that it is required that some time be set apart unto the ends of a Sabbatical Rest but that there is no divine indication of that time when not what it is or shall be if we consider what are the ends of such a Rest as before declared must allow us to expect firmer proofs of their uncouth Assertion than any as yet we have met withall § 10 Accordingly this Indication of the Gospel Day of Rest
eminent and answered Gods Rest from his own 2 Satisfaction in his works and the glorious product of them as those which had an impression on them of his Love and Grace Psal. 16. 7. § 23 It remains only that we enquire into his Entrance into his Rest both how and when he did so even as God entred into his on the seventh day for this must limit and determine a Day of Rest to the Gospel-Church Now this was not his lying down in the Grave His Body indeed there rested for a while but that was no part of his mediatory Rest as be was the founder and builder of the Church For 1 It was a part of his Humiliation Not only his Death but his abode and continuance in the state of Death was so and that a principal part of it For after the whole Humane Nature was personally united unto the Son of God to have it brought into a state of Dissolution to have the Body and Soul separated from each other was a great Humiliation And every thing of this nature belonged unto his Works and not his Rest. 2 This separation of Body and Soul under the power of Death was poenal a part of the sentence of the Law which he underwent And therefore Peter declares that the pains of Death were not loosed but in his Resurrection Act. 2. 24. Whom God saith he hath raised up loosing the pains of Death because it was not possible that he should be holden of it Whilst he was held of it he was under it penally This therefore could not be his Rest nor any part of it Nor did he in it enter into his Rest but continued in his Work Nor 2dly did he first enter into his Rest at his Ascension Then indeed he took actual possession of his Glory as to the full publick manifestation of it But to enter into Rest is one thing and to take possession of Glory another And it is placed by our Apostle as a consequent of his being justified in the Spirit when he entred into Rest 1 Tim. 3. 16. But this his entrance into Rest was in by and at his Resurrection from the dead For 1 Then and therein was he freed from the sentence power and stroke of the Law being discharged of all the Debts of our sins which he had undertaken to make satisfaction for Acts 2. 24. 2 Then and therein were all Types all Predictions and Prophesies fulfilled which concern the work of our Redemption 3 Then therefore his work was done I mean that which answereth Gods creating work though he still continue that which answers his work of preservation Then was the Law fulfilled and satisfied Sathan subdued Peace with God made the Price of our Redemption paid the Promise of the Spirit received and the whole Foundation of the Church of God gloriously laid on his Person in his Works and Rest. 4 Then and therein was he declared to be the Son of God with power Rom. 1. 4. God manifesting unto all that this was he concerning and unto whom he said Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee Acts 13. 33. § 24 Thus did the Author of the New Creation the Son of God the Builder of the Church having finished his works enter into his Rest. And this was as all know on the morning of the first day of the week And hereby did he limit and determine the Day for a sacred Sabbatical Rest under the New Testament For now was the Old Covenant utterly abolished and therefore the Day which was the pledge of Gods and Mans Rest therein was to be taken away and was so accordingly as we have shewed As the Rest from the beginning of the World had its foundation from the works of God and his Rest which ensued thereon which was determined unto the seventh Day because that was the Day wherein God ceased from those works which Day was continued under the legal administration of the Covenant by Moses so the Rest of the Lord Christ the Son of God is the foundation of our Rest which changing the old Covenant and the day annexed unto it he hath limited unto the first Day of the Week whereon he ceased from his works and entred into his Rest. And hereby the Apostle compleats the due Analogy that is between the several Rests of God and his people which he hath discoursed of in this Chapter For as in the beginning of the World there was first the work of God and his Rest thereon which made way unto a Rest for his people in himself and in his worship by the contemplation of his works that he had made on whose finishing he rested and a Day designed determined blessed and sanctified to express that Rest of God whence mention is made of those works in the command for the observation of that Day seeing the workship of God in and on it consisted principally in the glorifying of him by and for those works of his as also to be a means to further men in their entrance into eternal Rest whereunto all these things do tend and as at the giving of the Law there was a great Work of God and his Rest thereon in his establishing his Worship in the Land of Canaan which made way for the peoples entring into his Rest in that Worship and Countrey and had a Day of Rest enjoyned unto them to express the one and the other as also to help them to enter finally into the Rest of God so now under the Gospel there is a Rest answering all these in and by the instances which we have given § 25 And this is that which the Apostle affirms as the substance of all which he hath evinced Namely that there is a Sabbatism for the people of God v. 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The word is framed by our Apostle from an Hebrew original with a Greek Termination And he useth it as that which is comprehensive of his whole sense which no other word would be For he would shew that there is a Sabbatical Rest founded in the Rest of God remaining for the Church and therefore makes use of that word whereby God expressed his own Rest when he sanctified the seventh Day for a Day of Rest thereon That Day of Rest being removed and another on a new foundation namely the Rest of Christ upon his works introduced he calls it a Sabbatism or a Sabbath-keeping He doth not do this only and separately averring the necessity of a Sabbath-observation in the first place distinctly from a Spiritual Rest in Christ with an Eternal Rest ensuing thereon but in the manner and Order before laid down wherein the necessity of such a Day is included And besides the evidence that ariseth from the consideration of the whole Context there are two things which make it undeniably evident that our Apostle asserts an Evangelical Sabbath or Day of Rest to be constantly observed in and for the Worship of God under the Gospel For first without this design