should have applied that of the Apostle Rom. 14.21 22. to have deter'd him there-from Wherefore seeing this Piece is so dangerous and may do and already has done so much hurt it s very Expedient if not morally Necessary to endeavour a prevention of its evil Consequences and there especially where the Author is resident and it may most infect and it may well be deemed a Duty of some one of the Dressers of that part of the Vineyard of the Lord Christ where this Weed or Thorn is sprung up to endeavour it's eradication before it spreads any farther or wounds any deeper That Province therefore which I most unable for and Naturally altogether averse from Polemical Disputes shall undertake and with the best skill and faithfulness that God shall afford perform shall only be with all possible Brevity and Perspicuity to weaken all the Arguments the Author manages for his Notion and to confirm and Ratifie all these which he endeavours to weaken and evacuate for the ancient general Scriptural Doctrin of the Lords-day-Sabbath or Sacred Rest and herein to follow his own method Giving some transient Glances upon things that may occur some what Excentrical or Alien from the Great design of this Book Which I shall study to do with all Candor and due Deference to the Gentility Gravity and I hope real Piety of the Author THE CONTENTS Sect. I. SOme general Observations premised whether the World were made by Christ as Jesus Christ God-man page 4 Sect. II. Of Christ's being Jehovah and in what sense the Law was given by him p. 8 Sect. III. Whether after the Creation the Lord rested on the Seventh-day and so Sanctified and Instituted it and did himself observe it as that even Adam in a State of Innocence was bound by it and all Mankind without distinction before the Fall p. 12 Sect. IV. Whether the Ten Commandments were given by Christ to Jews and Gentiles p. 21 Sect. V. Whether Christ in the Flesh did confirm all the Ten Commandments and every tittle of the Fourth And whether Christ and his Apostles did enjoyn or did not rather speak against the Observation of the Seventh-day-Sabbath p. 24 Sect. VI. Of the Word Seventh in the Fourth Commandment the Sabbath not recommended by Christ to his Disciples Of Commenius's desire of Reformation c. p. 30 Sect. VII Of the Ceremonial Law and what is Moral and Positive what is truly Moral that the Saturday Seventh-day-Sabbath is not more may be pleaded for Circumcision p. 35 Sect. VIII Whether Christ in his own Person Observed the Seventh-Week-day-Sabbath and no other and what may be gathered from it The Arguments for the Seventh-day-Sabbath equally hold for all the Jewish Ceremonies Of the Pre-Antiquity of that Day and the falsity of that Argument p. 41 Sect. IX Whether Christ Rested on the Seventh-day-Sabbath while he lay in the Grave And what may be Argued from it p. 44 Sect. X. Vpon what day of the Week Christ ascended into Heaven whether the seventh-Seventh-day or Saturday p. 48 Sect. XI Whether after the Resurrection and Ascension of Christ the seventh-day-Seventh-day-Sabbath was observed by the Apostles and First Christians How long the Apostles met the Jews in their Synagogues on the seventh-Seventh-day and for what Reason p. 51 Sect. XII The Argument from Christ's Resurrection for the First-day of the Week to be the Christian Sabbath Vindicated Circumcision not more abolisht than the seventh-day-Seventh-day-Sabbath That abolisht the First succeeds on the Account of Our Lord's Resurrection since that Time with equal or stronger Reason than the former continued till he Rose from the dead p. 57 Sect. XIII Other Arguments for the first-day-First-day-Sabbath Vindicated from the Objections of Mr. B. Of a Sabbath-days Journey After three Days may be understood on the third Day he rose again John 8.56 Psalm 118.22 Psalm 2.7 Acts 20.7 cleared and Vindicated Of the beginning of the Christian Sabbath p. 61. Sect. XIV More Texts cleared Rev. 1.9 10. of being in the Spirit on the Lords-day Math. 12.8 Mark 2.27 Jesus Christ Lord of the Sabbath Of the Lord Supper Christs Resurrection commemorated on the First-day of the Week by Institution p. 79 Sect. XV. Gal. 4.9 10. Explained What days excluded from binding Christians Col. 2.16 What Sabbaths meant as Shadows to vanish when Christ came Math. 24.20 no Argument for the Seventh-day-Sabbath p. 92 Sect. XVI Of the Morality of the Fourth Command The difference between Moral and Positive Between Naturally or Absolutely Moral and positively or secondarily Moral What the Fourth Commandment requires as Moral and Perpetual p. 101 Sect. XVII When to begin the Christian Sabbath and of the fit Time for Publick Worship on that day p. 116 Sect. XVIII The Argument of Tradition considered p. 118 Sect. XIX How far the Decalogue is in Force as to us Gentiles p. 125 Sect. XX. The Tradition of the Lords-day's Rest or First-day of the Week from the Apostles time to the end of the Fourth Century Of Easter and its Observation The change from the Seventh to the First-day not introduced by the Bishop of Rome p. 127 Sect. XXI The Conclusion of the whole with a Summary of what hath been Proved for the Observation of the First-day of the Week as the Christian Sabbath p. 130 A REPLY TO Mr. Bampfield's PLEA FOR THE Seventh-day-Sabbath THE very Title of the Book is justly lyable to Exception as that which does not fairly state the Question the second Enquiry being whether the fourth Command be repealed or altered for he very well knows that these against whom he Disputes even those who acknowledge the Morality of a Sabbath-day do neither pretend to the Repealing of the Command nor yet to the Alteration of it as such for they strenuously assert the Ratification of the preceptive part of it though they allow a practical Mutation of a single Clause therein which was at its first Injunction added as a Motive for the observance of the Seventh Weekly-day And therefore he should rather have stated the Enquiry after such a manner as this Whether every Clause in the Fourth Commandment be Moral or whether every Clause of it be absolutely Immutable or so imposed from the beginning as to be so 'T is not Ingenuous nor Candid so to propose the Controversie as though the Dissenters from him were either Repealers or Alterers of the Fourth Command Moreover the Annexion of this Query to the former and the Subservience of the former to this For 't is very evident that that weighty fundamental Enquiry is made to serve this Hypothesis by his Connexion thereof Page 5. thereto as though the Immutability of every Tittle to this Command was founded upon the Deity of our Lord Christ his creating the World and giving the Moral Law and the Denial of the one were vertually and consequentially the Denial of the other and so those that are for the observance of the Lords day for so I take leave now to call it are really and consequentially Ebionites
and not the seventh in order or the last day of the Week This we say is not expresly commanded therein and might be altered for another day of the Seven upon very good and authentick Reasons and Grounds as it is from it to the first In this same Page he returns to our Saviours Confirmation of the Decalogue from Mat. 5.17 19. Luke 16.17 and then asks why those places confirm all the 10 Commands and not the seventh-day-Seventh-day-Sabbath and tells us that he can assign no other reason for it but the marvelous Corruption of our Nature which inclines us to be Gods c. when yet he knows that they that are for the change of the Seventh into the first-day-First-day-Sabbath have given him many Reasons and good scriptural Grounds and Arguments which do amount in their Esteems to a divine Authority for that Change though they do not produce an express Command for it as that which he seems to require in this Paragraph yet what amounts thereto but it seems all these are not Reasons to him are not so much as Shews of Reasons But the only Reason is Man's Corruption Pride and Rebellion Whereas he cannot but know that many of those who in Doctrin and Practice admit of this Change are as free from these Vices and have as much mortifyed them as himself and are as Eminent for Holiness and Humility and Obedience to God as any Sabbatarian can pretend to be And their Earnestness for the First day does not spring from the Looseness of others thereon nor mainly and chiefly from their Education and Custom But because they know 't is not Moral as other Parts and Appendix's of the Ten Commandments are not and therefore not confirmed by Christ in those Expressions with many other good and solid Grounds And here I shall ask him by way of requital if the Seventh-day-Sabbath were really and primarily Moral and by Christ confirmed as well as all the other Commands which are undeniably so Whence comes it to pass that in all his Sermons and Discourses that he made to the Jews about the Moral Law he did not so much as ever mention the Sabbath to his Hearer either by way of Recommendation of it to them or commending of them for their Zeal for it and tthe strict Observance of it nor yet commanding of its Observance or teaching them how they should Keep and Sanctify it according to its first Institution seeing 't is clear that he in his Discourse doth particularize every other Duty of the Moral Law and Exhorts and Requires Obedience thereto In all his most copious and glorious Sermon upon the Mount where he Explains Enlarges upon and Injoyns the other Moral Duties we have not a Word about their Sabbath and when ever he enumerates Particulars of the Moral Law of the Decalogue he never mentions among them the Sabbath nor when so many particular and express Occasions were given him by the Pharisees and captions Jews in their condemning him and his Disciples as Profaners of the Sabbath c. to expound the Duty of the Sabbath and to shew them wherein the due religious and acceptable Observance of the Seventh-day-Sabbath consisted There is not the least Word appertaining hereunto uttered by him only a Vindication of his own and his Disciples Practices from a Profanation thereof If I may judge at the Reasons I think they may be such as these 1 Because he knew that it was not of the same nature with the others not Moral as they nor necessary to be kept to Salvation as they 2. Because he saw the Jews too superstitiously and zealously affected towards their Seventh-day-Sabbath already 3. Because neither they nor we neither Jews nor Gentiles should have any thing from his Mouth that might have the least colour of confirming that Sabbath-day 4. Because he designed its speedy Absolution as the Seventh day and its Conversion into the First day 5. Because as Place Priesthood Mode outward Ceremonies of Divine Worship which were before his coming into the Flesh were to be altered by his Authority as King of the Church so was Time also the day on which those were chiefly and most slemnly observed into another day wherein his own Institutions were to be chiefly and generally practised by his Church And for these and such like Reasons he did not only particularly recommend and enjoyn but did also speak and do as has been formerly hinted and may be futurely evinced such words and things as had a doctrinal and practical Tendency towards its Expiration Page 33. He imputes the Observation of the First day but to a good Intention which has been the cause of all manner of gross Superstitious Errors Bloody Wars c. As though this general Opinion and Practice of the Universal Church all along since the days of our Lord Christ had no other Foundation but in the deluded Brain of silly Zealots and not the least Footing for it in the Word of God An unworthy Suggestion and a most invidious Comparison and such as very ill becomes a Man of his professed Candor and Reading 'T is strange that a Man should fancy that Commenius when he exhorts to a Reformation of the Government Doctrin Worship and Practice of the Church according to the Word of God and the Patern in the Mount should mean as one if not the chiest of those Particulars the removal of the First-day-Sabbath and the reversion of the seventh day in lieu thereof When he knows that all the Divines and Doctors that are orthodox and his Adversaries in this Opinion prescribe the same rule for the Reformation and call upon those in Authority to subserviate all their own Laws Ecclesiastial and Civil to an Observance of the Laws of God and of Christ And Commenius himself in his Practice and in his own Church was an Observer and Sanctifier of the First-day-Sabbath as he here acknowledgeth so a Disowner and Rejector of the Seventh day And therefore questionless did not esteem the Seventh-day-Sabbath to be any part of that rule according to which he would have all Churches regulated But here we see what a strong fancy can do it can transfigure into its self those things that are quite dissonant if not directly contrary thereto SECT VII HE gives us his Opinion Page 34. of abrogating the Ceremonial Laws But why does he not bring us an Express Command for their Abrogation as he requires us to do for not the Abrogation but only the Mutation of the Sabbath from one Day of the Week to another For I assert and can prove it that some part of the Ceremonial Law was more confirmed by the Mouth of Christ than his Seventh-day-Sabbath I take leave to call it his because though 't was Gods day before the Resurrection of Christ yet now 't is not so but Men will be favourably to themselves and their own Opinions while they are rigorous towards others and their more Orthodox and Scriptural Resentments In the same Page he gives us a
their Annual Monthly and Weekly Festivals their Annual by Holy days their Monthly by New Moons and so their Weekly by Sabbaths And there was no Weekly Festival but the Seventh-day-Sabbath Or if by Holydays we apprehend the Generality of Jewish Festivals because they were all Holydays as long as their First Institution lasted yet then he condescends to some Particulars of them as the Monthly and Weekly which then must necessarily include the Sabbath because that was a Jewish Holy-day Yet again If we should grant that under the last word Sabbaths any other Festivals may be included or meant Yet certainly the Weekly-Sabbath cannot be excluded being the most famous Analogate comprehended under it and therefore in such an Expression cannot be excepted though sometimes the most famous Analogate be only meant and excludes all others yet never is it it self not intended in such Propositions Withal as we said before of the Galatian Church so we do of the Colossian 't was infected by false Teachers that would make a Mixture of the Jewis and Christian Religion and would have Moses's Rites to be kept with Christ's Ordinances And they know well enough that by Sabbaths was meant the Seventh day seeing 't is always so accepted Whence we may well conclude that here is an express exiling the Seventh-day-Sabbath out of the Church of Church Heretofore we were called upon to shew one Text in which the Seventh-day-Sabbath was abrogated and now we bring an express literal one yet it will not do but many Objections are brought in against it Which we shall successively consider and traverse 1. Some think it must be understood of Ceremonial Sabbaths only because else 't would reach the First-day-Sabbath as well as the Seventh But there is no fear of that for the First day is never called Sabbath in the Scripture and therefore cannot be meant and wee say the seventh-day-Seventh-day-Sabbath was both positive and ceremonial for he himself allows it to signify the eternal Rest above 2. He Objects that one place names no Sabbath but only Days the other indeed names Sabbaths which he would have interpreted Weeks for which I can see no Reason but much against it and therefore shall say nothing till he produce his Reasons for it And all the weight of this Argument is but a silly Conjecture of the meaning of the word Sabbaths But we have seen before that this is not a silly Conjecture but grounded upon the very usual Acceptation of the Word upon the Connection of the adjoyned things upon the State of the Churches unto whom he writ and upon the design of his Epistles to them But I am sure what follows is not so much as a Conjecture but a very great Oversight for he tells us that he finds the word Sabbaths in the Plural Number no where in the New Testament ascribed to the Seventh day It was then because he would not be at the pains to sind it for 't is in all these places Mat. 12.5 10 12. Mark 3.4 Luke 4.31 and 6.2 9. In all these places he will find it so and in the Original Greek the word is Sabbaths without a Verbal Superaddition of days which he himself must be inforced to acknowledge spoke of this day 3. The Seventh day he faith was never in Question in any of these Epistles and if there be no such Question about altering it how can such a Sense be imposed c. Just so I may say the New-Moon Observation and the Annual Festivals are no where questioned in these Epistles nor any where else that I remember expresly to be lain aside How therefore can such a Meaning be put upon Years and Months as to include the Judaical seeing Sabbaths are as plain and clear for the Seventh days as any of the former for what they are understood here We have still the Thred-beaten Plea of the Moral Law introduced and improved when I assert that neither he nor all the World can ever prove the Seventh-day-Sabbath to be part of the Moral Law Quatenus Moral His Fourth Answer plainly confounds Sabbaths with Years and New-Moons which the Apostle clearly distinguishes and of all the rest I may truly say they are but meer ungrounded Conjectures to baffle an express Text of Scripture But here he has a very strange Fancy That by Days may be meant the First day because the Heathen worshiped the Sun on that day And so then every day because the Heathen worshiped distinct Idols every day And so we should have no Consecrated day at all neither First nor Seventh nor any other All the rest that follows here are but as he expresses his own Thoughts and as well grounded as that Thought of his That the First day was not observed by Christians When yet we have found them several times associated on that day and Christ appearing several times in the midst of them and at Troas Assembled on that day and St. Paul Preaching and Administring the Lords Supper to them and therein to Harmonize with the Church of Galatia which I suppose proved against Objections neither of which can be said concerning the Seventh day Only there were Assemblies of the Jews on that day and St. Paul took the Advantage on these days to Preach to them But what is this to Christs Disciples and Followers We may therefore according to his own Rule That which appears not is not at all conclude that the Seventh day was never observed by the Disciples and Followers of Christ after his Resurrection as a day consecrated to Publick Worship because we never read in the Scripture that they did so meet Whereas the contrary is seen by the First day So I dismiss this Thought and the others as no more likely 5. He farther saith that 't is uncertain and therefore as such I or'e look it 6. He saith from Paul's constant keeping the Seventh-day-Sabbath that he cannot be supposed to condemn his own constant Practice But how he did this we have already seen and therefore shall not stop here 7. That St. Paul commends the Whole Moral Law as Just Holy and Good and therefore can never be thought to condemn it here Here we have anew theatrized the Moral Law which we acknowledge the Apostle doth strenuously urge and never opposed any one Tittle thereof But yet he here decries the Seventh-day-Sabbath as very consistent with and agreeing to all his Zeal for the Moral Law because that was never of the Substance of it Neither is it either Holy or Just or Good I mean not in and of it self as all that is truly and naturally Moral is but by Gods commanding it We acknowledge it to be positively Moral 8. The last Answer is from Math. 24.20 Pray you that your Flight be not in the Winter nor on the Sabbath-day Upon which place he lays so great a Stress as to suppose it a sufficient Proof for the Observation of the Seventh day as our bounden Duty For here he takes for granted that this Sabbath
for the first part of the Command the Substance and unquestionably moral Part thereof 2. We have the Explication of that Part of the Command in its following Words Six Days shalt thou labour and do all thy Work and the Day the Seventh a Sabbath to the Lord thy God is or shall be or both a Sabbath to the Lord that is dedicted to the Worship and Service of Him Thou shalt do no Work thou nor thy Son nor thy Daughter c. Where we have one Day in Seven or of Seven declared and signified to be that Day of Rest or Holy Sabbath which was commnded in the Beginning And here our Authors contend and worthily that this Seventh Day in this Peace is not an Ordinal Seventh Day that is the next Day after the former Six Days But rather a Proportional If I may so express it Day or a distributed part of the Seven that is that of Seven days God will have one entire day to be sanctified to him and his Service without specifying what day of the Seven it should be And I am sure he has no reason nor ground from the Command hitherto to except against this understanding of the Seventh day In this Explication of the Command we have two things 1. The Portion of Time or the Part of the days that God will have sanctified to an Holy Rest the Seventh 2. How he will have the Rest observed By an Abstinence of all sorts of Persons from earthly and worldly Employments except such as do not interfere with its due Sanctification that they may be wholly in Body and Soul busied in his Service as is clearly enjoyned in that word in the Substance of the Command to Sanctifie it As to this Seventh part of time so sanctified and separated to Divine Service this is not Primarily and Purely Moral though we acknowledge it to be Secondarily and Positively so Not such a measure of Time as the Wisdom of Man in Innocency would have precisely separated to Divine Worship and not one day more nor one day less of all the Week-days I think I have shewn before that the light of Nature would have separated and dedicated all to the solemn Service of God all the time that it could spare from the due Recruits of Nature Which I doubt not but in an Estate of Innocency would have been a greater Measure and part of Time than the Seventh For now we find by Experience that even after the Fall since that the Earth is cursed for our Sins and requires a great deal more Labour and Time to be lain out upon it for the Production of our necessary Sustinence than before the Fall Now that our weak crasie and distempered Bodies call for a great deal more Care and Time for their Sustentation their Recruits and Reparation than when they had a perfect Temperature were compleatly Healthy Strong and Immortal in Innocency and many other Civil Domestick Affairs take up and must have a great deal of our time which would have exacted none of it in Innocencency And yet we experience I say that six in seven allotted us for these things are sufficient enough and we can very well spare a Seventh day for the solemn Service of God without any Detriment to our Bodies or our civil Concerns Yea and have many other Seasons and good Opportunities given us to serve God in And doubtless had God seen fit to have required the sixth part of our time it would have been so also Wherefore I conclude that the seventh part of the Week or one day of the Seven is not primarily Moral because the light of Nature could not have precisely dictated it to us Which methinks I could demonstrate by this Supposition Suppose a Person that is against the Morality of the Sabbath that judgeth no day of the week more Holy than another should by Providence be thrown among Mahonietans or Heathens and preaching the Gospel to them should be Instrumental to convert any of them to the Christian Faith I assert that in such a case and he would certainly be horribly uncharitable that should judge the contrary if they did keep all the rest of the Moral Precepts with a sound Faith in Christ they would infallibly be saved though they never separated one day of the week intirely to Gods Worship and Service But now if they did allowedly live in any Breaches of the other Commands yea supposing some of them should never have been expresly taught them by their Converter as if they did not acknowledge the only true God in their Souls if they did worship Idols if they did Swear Falsly or Vainly if they were Rebellious and Undutiful to Parents and Magistrates if they lived in Hatred and were Cruel if in Wantonness and were Lascivious in Theft and Couzenage or were Oppressing in Lying Slandering and False Witnessing or in an inward Love and Delight in any of these Sins they should certainly Perish And why But because all the other Commands are primarily Moral and this of the seventh part of time is not so Yea in keeping the other Commands they keep the Morality of this also Commands they must separate time to the performance of that Divine Service which is the prime Morality of the fourth Precept Thus I think 't is clear that the Sanctification of one Seventh day of the week is not absolutely and primarily Moral but yet it may also be concluded to be secondarily and positively so that is that upon the Revelation of the Will of the Legislator and his Injunction the rational Creature closes with it as that which is Holy Just and Good as that which is infinitely reasonable for what can be more so than that is seventh part of time should be devoted to his Service whose all our time is especially when it is also for the Creature 's chief good 3. We have the Reasons to inculcate its Observation 1. The Legislator's own Example because he was six days in creating the World and ceased from those works on the Seventh day rested on the Seventh day and 't is hence only in all this Command that they can have any shew or ground to plead for the last day or the Seventh day of the week to be the Sabbath or Rest that God did command which is no way cogent because it may be meant a Seventh day by way of part or portion and not the Seventh day of order nor in number of the week And it may be thus understood Because I was six dyas in making the World and then rested so shall you be six days busie in your common lawful Imployments and then a Seventh you shall consecrate to me and my Worship So that in this Sense it doth not injoyn the last day the Seventh day of the week in order but a Seventh day in proportion of time For which we have this to lead That seeing Gods Example is made the great Fundamental Argument of the Seven-day-Rest it should hence follow that if Adam
had exactly followed the Pattern then the Sixth day of the week would bid fairest for the day of Rest of all the Seven because then Adam must have worked six days before his Holy Rest as God did and then being created as we may suppose about the latter end of the sixth day of the Creation he must have wrought the day following which is the Seventh and so the five other days following and rested upon the Sixth day as his first Sabbath for that would have been the day after his six days Labour or Work For 't is clear that the Seventh day after the beginning of the Creation though it were so with respect to Gods Works yet 't was the very next day after Adam was and could not but be within a very few hours if hours after his Creation seeing it begun in the Evening And so Adam and Eve were so far from an exact Imitation of God in the Observance of the first Sabbath that in his particular they were contrary thereto for God wrought six days first and then rested the Seventh but Adam rested his first day and then wrought the six days following God's Rest was in the Conclusion of his Work and Man's Rest was in the beginning of his Work in his first seven days which I think somewhat enervates this solitary Plea they have here for the last Week-day-Sabbath But yet we will Suppose that in this Clause God did there injoyn the last day of the Creation-week to be the Sabbath but then we say this is purely Positive and no way Moral at all neither Primarily nor Secondarily for it is were so the Morality thereof must arise from the Reason that is given for it viz. Gods Example even because he made his work of Creation in six days and rested on the Seventh But this is no way cogent or rather Moral not such a thing as the light of Nature would engaged us to For 1. God is not to be imitated by us in all that he does neither could the rational Creature conclude upon Gods Revelation of his having ended his work on the Seventh day that therefore he must work six and rest the Seventh without an express Injunction which therefore God gave here 2. If we could suppose that such a Collection of imitating God could have been apprehended by Man without Relevation then the Sixth day of the week would by him be pitched upon for his own Sabbath of Rest because the Sixth day of the following week would have been his Seventh day after his Six days working as before 3. Gods making of the World in six days was a pure Revelation for Man could never have known it of himself no not in the Estate of his pure Knowledge Because for ought he could know God might have made the World simultaneously all at once or by one word speaking for he knew he might so have done if he had pleased he could not know that God did gradually or progressively make the Creatures much less that he took up six days for it neither more nor less Indeed the Order and Method the Time and Duration of the work of Creation must be by Revelation to Man seeing he was created the last of all the Creatures So that in this respect 't is not Moral neither could it ever be the Dictate of Man's Mind 4. God cannot properly Rest because he cannot be said properly to Labour Rest properly is a Refreshment after Weariness Isa 40.28 The everlasting God the Creator of the Ends of the Earth fainteth not neither is weary Consequently neither resteth for he does all he does with an infinite Facility and perfect Immobility and takes no more pains in creating the World than in creating a Fly that is none at all And besides as before God works still in his works of Preservation and Providence which are altogether as Great and Glorious and some of them more Great Glorious than were the works of Creation So that in this respect this Argument is not Moral not such a Motive as could have been found out by the Mind of Man Lastly If this were such a cogent Reason in it self or a Moral Motive for the Sanctification of the Seventh day in the Repetition of the Fourth Command why is it not so much as mentioned For Deut. 5 13-15 there is not a word concerning it but whereas in the other Commands all the Motives that were used and adjoyned to them in their first Edition are here again repeated yet this is quite and clean left out in this second Edition of the Fourth Command and in lieu thereof their mighty and wonderful Deliverance out of the Land of Egypt is inserted that 't was therefore because he saved them that he commanded them to keep the Sabbath-day What this should signifie I cannot well see unless God would hereby teach us that the Salvation of his Church is a far more great and glorious work in it self and far more beneficial and happy to us than that of the Creation for the Deliverance of Israel out of Egypt by the hand of Moses was a Type of the Deliverance of the universal Church from the Devil from Sin from Hell from the Curse from Death and the Grave by our Lord Jesus Christ and that when this shall be compleated as we know 't was at our Savour's Resurrection it being the Conclusion of his Estate of Humiliation by which he purchased our Salvation and an entrance into his Glorification where he would procure it apply and effect it then the Reason annexed to the Fourth Command from the ceasing the Works of Creation should in a sense be lain by and that of the Redemption of the Church be substituted in its place And so consequently as the Seventh-day-Sabbath was observed in Commemoration of the works of Creation until a more admirable work of God should be accomplished so the first day ever after should be the Holy Rest when that Supream of all the works of God our Redemption should be rested from on that day I do verily believe Gods neglecting the works of Creation and substituting that of the Churches Redemption as the gread Foundation and Reason of keeping the Holy Rest here in Deut. declares this unto us But I refer it to wiser Heads Only from what has been here spoken I will conclude that this part is purely Positive both the Seventh week-day-Week-day-Sabbath and this Motive upon which 't is grounded God's working six days and resting the Seventh which is a Motive to us to observe it as well as it seems a Reason in God to require it Wherefore here I would fain demand of this Gentleman why he should be so exceedingly Zealous for the Perpetuity of the Seventh-day-Sabbath when 't is both a Ceremonial and Positive Precept Ceremonial as it signifies Gods own Rest from his Works past and as it signifies our future Rest in Heaven from all our Labours in this present Life And purely Positive seeing all the former Ceremonial and Positive Precepts
spoken of Rev. 1.10 But I think I have disproved that Proof Page 91 He himself recurs to Tradition and undertakes to prove that throughout several Centuries there have been Churches who assembled themselves themselves for religious Worship on the Seventh Day And so this is set as a Bar against and a Counterplea to that Prime Primitive and universal Tradition for the Lords-day To which I answer in general 1. That a few Exceptions against a general Rule do rather confirm than weaken it 2. Every Antiquity or Tradition will not cannot serve to prove either Practice or Doctrin to be commendable or orthodox nor derogate from what is so For the Denyal of the Deity of our Lord Jesus Christ is as ancient as the Apostles Days in which Corinthus was such an Heretick and the Ebionites Photinians and Arains have handed down that damning Doctrin to our Socinians 3. Scarce any Church since the Apostles Days have been without out their Flaws in Doctrin or Worship or both and we doubt not but this hath been one of them if it can be proved to be practised 4. In many Churches where they did observe the Seventh-day as a Day of publick Assemblies yet in them the Lord's-day was also kept and observed and that too as the chief Day For on the Lord's-day all in general were ingaged to wait upon God's publick Worship not so on Saturdays On the Lord's-day all the Ordinances of the Gospel were administred not so on Saturdays And so still the Lords-day had the Preheminence even in those very Churches Which general Answers may be enough to stop the Mouths of all his ancient Witnesses Yet I will take a little Pains and imploy a little Time to inquire into the Particulars for I think they neither deserve nor require much of either As to his first Instance if all the following be such I am sure they are stark naught yea they are not at all For he asserts that in the Apostles times the Seventh Day was observed as the publick Day of divine Worship Here he must meau by Christins or else he trifles But he can never find in all the Scripture that in the Apostles Days there was ever one Society of Christians gathered on the Seventh Day Indeed St. Paul did go on that Day into the Assemblies of the Jews to preach the Gospel to many of them which he could not conveniently do on any other Day But never did he invite any to keep that Day never did he assemble afterward on that Day when he was separated from their Synagogues finding them imperswasible and obstinate But now we can produce several Christian-Assemblies on the First day the Lords day after our Saviours Resurrection in which our Lord appeared to them And 't was then their Custom to Assemble and bring their Publick Alms to the Publick Treasure wherefore I cannot but marvel at this bold Assertion The Basis of traditionary Structue being so visibily sunk and come to nought makes me suspect that the erected Stories thereof will tumble and fall So that 't is clear we have the Apostle Examples the Churches Use in their days and their Commands against the Seventh day and for the Lords day as a sufficient Demurr to all his future Tradition Into which I now descend and must say that I have searched the Magdeburgenses for his Quotations but cannot find them where he quotes them and therefore believe that the Author used either another Edition or another that is various either in the Bulk or in the Pages I found in them the Eliberine Council but there he Twenty Third Canon hath nothing of a Fast upon a Sabbath day As to the other Authors I have them not and know not where to get them that I might peruse them neither is it needful for the matter of these Quotations makes very little for his Cause For whoever considers them will find 1. That very many if not most of them declare the Establishment and Separation of the Dominical day for Divine Service 2. That another great part of them prove the Observation or keeping both of the Dominical day and the Sabbath in very many of the Churches 3. These tell us that the Sabbath was kept as a Fast by the most if not by all of the Churches that kept it and the Lords-day as a Festival which all our Ecclesiastical Writers acknowledge as before And so evince that it was not kept with so equal Authority as the Lords day So does Dr. Young at large which also shews that they never observed it as the ancient Sabbath or 't was enjoyned in the Fourth Command But upon a new Account or for a new Reason even because our Lord Christ lay dead in the Grave on that day Therefore they would Fast and Humble themselves because their Lord and Saviour was on that day in his lowest Humiliation So far were they from this Gentleman's Opinion that his State of Death was his Rest after his Work of Redemption and they would observe the First day with Praises and Holy Rejoycings as the Christian Festival because 't was the Lords day of Triumph over his Enemies even of his Resurrection These include the greatest part by far of his Historical Examples and a very few are left which do not expresly acknowledge these things And they that do not express them may well be thought to include them I mean though some of these Quotations do not verbally tell us that when they kept this Sabbath they also kept the Lords day yet it may well be presumed they did so seeing 't was the common Practice of such Churches to observe both of them in the foresaid manner Such an one for Example is that of Socrates Scholasticus who tells us for I have examined him and find he does verbatim tell us in a manner all the Churches in the World do Celebrate and Receive the Holy Mysteries every Sabbath day after other Yet the People inhabiting Alexandria and Rome of an old Tradition do not use it Yet doubtless they also observed the Lords-day seeing 't was that which Constantine had before by Edict enjoyned the Churches to do And he saith in the very next Page and in the same Chapter of this Quotation that at Caesarea in Cappadocia and at Cyprus the Priests and Bishops do Preach and Expound Holy Scripture at Evening-Prayer on the Saturdays and Sundays by Candle-Light and therefore we may well presume that the other Churches did which before he spake of These being some of these all As for his Historical Account when the Lord's day was brought into Scotland viz. An. 1208. It may be very well answered that the initiating or bringing in of the Dominical day does not refer to the day it self but only to the Authority that introduced it even that in that Year it began to be Established by the Authority of a Council which before it had not been Or if it refer to the day it self it may not simply be understood as if that
Jehovah and the Maker of all things as such yet the same Lord Christ is also the Son of Man and made by Jehovah as such And therefore as Christ as God-man he neither created the World nor rested from that Creation Though in the Body of the Question the Efficient of the Creation be only stiled Lord by which may be equally understood the Son of God before and after the Incarnation yet in the Margin he interprets this by the word Christ and therefore we have given a proper a direct and sufficient answer to that part thereof And here it will be worth our observing that in a proper and strict Sense Jehovah the Creator of the World cannot be said to rest because it is impossible that he should either admit of any Weariness or Pain in himself yea or of any the least new motion in himself God being an Infinite Perfect Immutable Act and Life cannot possibly admit of any such thing and all the Changes that he makes either substantially of nothing into Being or Alteration of the Qualities and Conditions of Being c. without himself are and must be without the least Mutation and Alteration within himself And this the very Light of Nature and Metaphysicks will teach us as well as the light of Scripture and Theology as Mal. 3.6 Jam. 1.17 So that though God may properly be said to conclude or end his work of Creation yet cannot he properly be said to rest from it or after it because this in its formal Notion implies Motion Activity and exerting of Power and Ability with a Weariness thereby which the Deity is infinitely free from Which I desire may be heeded because I perceive the Author would fain have every Clause in the Fourth Command to be Moral and of necessary and perpetual Observance and especially this of Gods resting on the Seventh day Now that which is Moral as to Motive and Obligation to the Humane Nature is that which the light of Nature right Reason or to go higher the perfectly irradiated Mind of our first Parents would have of its self discerned and closed with as a Motive and Engagement to Piety or Charity or any Duty Which I think Gods resting on the Seventh day may well be asserted not to be because 1. Reason or the illuminated Mind of Man could never suppose God to take after his work any real Rest or Refreshment in himself which he had not before And Secondly God's working in the maintaining of the Creation in its Being Order and Operation is altogether as great and as much as it was in the Production of it and therefore the School-men say That Preservation is a continual Act of Creation because the same Word and Power is exerted in the one as in the other Yea if we respect the Work it self or the Term of it without God we may well say that the Preservation of the World is a greater work than the Creation of it Though as to the Act it self in God all is the same being the Act of the same infinite Power Wisdom and Godhead because of the contrary Qualities of the Creatures mutually tending to each others Destruction but especially because of the Malice of Devils and the sinful wretched Depravity of Fallen Man which without an infinite Wisdom and Power exerted to the contrary would soon bring all to Ruin at least it would do so by the Humane Nature for which all other things of this World were made and are continued And therefore this Motive to a Seventh-day-Sabbath cannot be in and of it self Moral And this our Saviour clearly shews John 5.17 My Father worketh hitherto and I work Which he gives by way of Reply to those who in the former Context taxed and condemned him for a Breach of the Sabbath Grounding it seems tacitely at least their Accusation from that Passage in the Fourth Command of God's resting on that day as though it had been of a Moral and Perpetual Obligation And therefore our Saviour here tells them It was not so for both he and his Father did work on the Seventh day as well as on any other day of the week from which 't is clear this Clause in the Command is not Moral but Positive As to the Second Part of the Question whether the Seventh-day-Sabbath was Sanctifyed and so Instituted by him and was observed by him who made the World We answer 't was Sanctified and Instituted by the Lord as Jehovah but not as Jesus Christ And then that 't was observed by Jesus Christ Incarnated but not as Jehovah because the Observation of it seems to import some dutiful Obligation upon its Observer which cannot be supposed with respect to the God-head but may be so with respect to the Lord Christ as Mediator in his Human Nature But then this Observance makes no more for the keeping the Seventh-day-Sabbath than for the Observance of Pentecost the Passover the Feast of Tabernacles and other Ceremonial and Judicial Laws under which our Lord Christ was and which he observed in the days of his Flesh the Mosaical and the Ceremonial Administration being in force all the while he lived and expired with his Death and were buried in his Grave as to their Vertue and Obligation And so we assert the Seventh-day-Sabbath did also which I hope we may evince in the progress of this Discourse By what has been said we have a sufficient Reply to his Three Proofs which follow his Querly for it 's Affirmative and how they may be orthodoxly admitted or else as Heterodox rejected And here we may take notice that all the former Particulars which the Author makes use of as Foundations to build his beloved Notion upon do as equally militate and plead for the Observance of all the Ceremonial and Judicial Laws as for the Seventh-day-Sabbath for the Creator of the World enjoyned them as well as this The great Jehovah imposed them as well as this The Law-giver gave those Laws as well as this And our Lord Instituted and Sanctifyed those as well as this as he was God and observed those as well as this as Christ Jesus as God-man 'T is as Prejudice sufficient against all those supposed Achillean Arguments that if they prove what they are pleaded for We must all turn Jews But before I leave this Query I must reflect upon one Paragraph or two under it Page 23. wherein we have him laying down all his former great Postulata's that the Lord Christ made the World rested on the Seventh day observed blessed and sanctifyed it By which Repetition we may see how much he depends upon these for the carrying off his Design But withal we have formerly seen how little yea how not at all they conduce thereto But to these he superadds another grand Postulatum as though 't were a Particular which either he had undeniably demonstrated before or were granted by his Adversaries Which is that the Lord instituted this Seventh-day-Sabbath for and imposed it upon Adam and in
in this Conjecture And according to his Conjecture and the usual Phrase of Scripture our Saviour would have continued Forty Two days upon Earth For the Scripture in the number of Days does usually include both the First and Last day As in calling the last day of the Week the Seventh it takes into the Number both it and the First day of the Week for there are but Seven in all And so when it saith that our Saviour rose the Third day from the Dead it includes the First and Last days of the Three and therefore having the scriptural usual Phrase on our side and the Tradition of the Churches we have very good Ground to conclude that he ascended upon Thursday and he has no Ground but his own Conjecture for his Opinion of his Ascension upon Saturday But every little Surmise is made use of to exalt the Seventh above all the days of the Week and especially above the Lords day in this Controversie As to that Fancy of our Saviours coming to Judgment on the Seventh day I leave it as a Pure Fancy Here also he takes it for granted that our Saviour after his Resurrection appeared to his Disciples upon the Seventh day or at least he supposes it may well be granted because they were then assembled c. But he knows they met together on other days and particularly upon the First day on which our Lord appeared unto them And that Assembly in the First of the Acts if 't were on the Ascension day was according to Scripture numbering of days upon our Thursday But seeing he would make use of if we would grant our Lords appearing to his Disciples once on the Seventh day what an Advantage may we justly take for the First day from our Saviour's appearing so often unto them on the same so that there is no other day of the Week named whereon our Saviour manifested himself unto them after the Resurrection but this First day 'T is not said that he appeared unto them on the Second or Third nor at all on the Seventh and 't is very probable that all the Appearances of our Saviour which were not a few were on the First day Except only that on his Ascension day 'T is worth our serious Observance that as our Saviour would not grace the Seventh day with one particular express word of his Mouth about it during his Life-time so he would not honour it with one Appearance of his Human Nature to his Disciples throughout all the Forty days after his Resurrection Which to me seems plainly to signify that he would have a perpetual Silence thereof in his future Churches and that he had buried it in his Grave and would have it lye dormant there for ever SECT XI HAving done with this Conjecture we proceed to the Author's Question in the same Page Whether the Seventh-day-Sabbath was observed after the Resurrection and Ascension of Christ Whereof he thinks he demonstrates the Affirmative But is far enough from it by those Instances which he brings from the Apostles and especially and mostly from St. Paul yea only from him For though we take it for granted that many of the newly Proselyted Jews to the Doctrin and Faith of the Lord Jesus the ordinary and common sort of them did continue to observe the Seventh-day-Sabbath out of an Erroneous Conscience toward God and a Persuasion of the perpetual Obligation of the Fourth Command as to this Seventh day as they did also Circumcision the Passover and other Mosaical Rites and Consecrated Times for all which St. Paul in his Epistles to the Galatians and Colossians does clearly and severely reprove them Yet we say that the Apostles themselves never did so much less St. Paul the great Doctor of the Gentiles and the great Vindicator of their Freedom from the Rites and Days of the Old Testament-Administration For they were otherwise and better taught by their Lord and instructed by the Holy Ghost for they went indeed I mean Paul and his Companions into the Synagogues on the Sabbath-day I mean here the Seventh-day though it deserves not now that Name But 't was not in any Observance of that day as more Holy than another as 't was not in any Observance or Deference to the Synagogue as a more Holy Place than another that he went into it But 't was because that then and there the Jews were assembled in great Numbers because that was the time and that the place of their Solemn and Numerous Associations for their Divine Worship And he could not find so fit an Opportunity any other day nor so convenient a Room in any other place to Converse with them to Preach the Gospel to them to prove the Lord Jesus to be Gods promised and their expected Messiah to Convince them hereof and to Exhort them to Believe on him and Embrace him as such which his Zeal for Christs Glory and his Love to their Souls strongly constrained him to And this we assert was the only cause of his so often and so unusal going into their Synagogue on the Seventh day without any Difference as to Time and Place as if it were more holy than any other We know how ardently he longed after the Conversion and Salvation of his own Countrymen and Kinsfolk according to the Flesh how fervently he panted after our Lord Christs being acknowledged by them as that which would be their greatest Good and his greatest Glory in the World For so his Enemies would become his Friends his Basphemers of him as the worst of Deceivers would be turned to be his Praisers Adorers and Relyers on him as the Son of God the King of Israel and Saviour of the World And therefore this constrained him to apply himself to them in every Place and at every Time where he might discourse with most of them and with greatest Freedom and Advantage And if the Jews had convened on other Days in other Places in as great Crowds he could doubtless then and there have applyed himself unto them And had they accustomed their Assemblies at any other time or in any other place he would have made it his Custom and usual Manner to have associated with them The Reason that the Holy Ghost gives us of Paul's going into the Jews Synagogues on the Seventh day and making it his usual Custom is no where said as I remember that he might Worship with them much less that he might observe the day with them but only that he might Preach the Gospel to them and prove the Lord Christ to be their Messiah Wherefore seeing the Holy Ghost tells us every where that this was his great Design and this his great Work in their Synagogue Therefore it hence follows That if he could not have had such Advantages for this Work among them he would never then nor there have accompanied with them So far was he from any Respect either to Time or Place in this his Custom that he only made use of them in a
Subserviency to his farther Design And therefore 't is very remarkable and worthy our most diligent Observance that when the Apostle Paul had sound the Jews given up so far to their cursed Blindness and Prejudice against the Lord Christ that all his Pains he took with them all the Affections he shewed he had for them all the undeniable Demonstrations from Scripture he produced before them could prevail nothing with them but rather they contradicted and blasphemed He forsook them and their Society and turned to the Gentiles Act. 13.45 46. and doubtless went into their Synagogues no more on the Seventh day In other Places he did go into the Jews Synagogues after this on the Seventh day as long as he had any hope of succeeding in his Preaching the Lord Christ to them but when he saw that they were generally hardned and took Advantage to speak Evil of the Lord Christ and his Doctrin before others the Gentiles he turned away quite from them and forsook their Synagogue and made the School of a Heathenish Philosopher one Tyrannus the common Meeting-place of his Auditors Act. 19.8 9. and so questionless altered the Time and Day as well as the Place of his Preaching and the Meeting of his Auditors For after this throughout all the remaining Book of the Acts throughout the remaining part of this Chapter and all the other Nine you find not the least Mention of Paul's Preaching or Praying or Associating with any others upon the Seventh day neither could this Author produce because he could not find any such Passage after this Eighth Verse of this Nineteenth Chapter Wherefore that Word of Mr. B. Pag. 45. Line 15. Continually might well be omitted for he did not continually go into the Jews Synogogue on the Seventh day but ceased from it when his great Design thereof was frustrated and never is said more to do it after this time No not at Rome where he lived Two whole Years in a hired House of his own and might have appointed what day he would for the Collection of his Disciples and Hearers Is he ever said to have called them together on the Seventh day which I assert to be a clear Proof that he never did it before out of any Regard to that day as more holy than other And therefore this Discourse of Two or Three Pages and the particular Remarks which he makes upon this Practice of St. Paul in some few of the Chapters of the Acts and the great Advantages he thinks he has for the Seventh day from them are dwindled and vanished into nothing If he would have gotten any thing for his Cause from this Practice of St. Paul he should have shewn these or such like Particulars 1. That St. Paul called his Auditors together upon that day which he cannot do for the Jews assembled themselves thereon 2. That he associated himself with the Gentiles and made their Religious Assemblies upon that day but this he never reads 3. That he did this perseveringly even when he turned from the Jews but this he can never shew and therefore all this shew is but a shew Besides we know St. Paul preached where-ever and whenever he found a convenient Auditory in the School of Tyrannus Acts 19.9 in the Market-place Acts 17.17 on Mars-hill v. 22. at the High Priests Bar and before Festus and Agrippa and as he made no distinction of places so none of days as to the preaching of the Gospel though as to the Churches solemn stated Worship he did though not the Seventh day and so these days and times have as much to plead for their Sanctity from the Apostles preaching on them as the Seventh hath But I suppose I have said enough of this to satisfie any unprejudiced considering Person Page 46. To his Question we grant that the Holy Scriptures do call no other day of the Week a Sabbath but the Seventh though Dr. Lightfoot shews that one day of the Year is called a Sabbath day whenever it falls out upon any other day of the Week viz. Pentecost and do not begrudge him all the Advantage he can take from hence Thus I hope by Gods Assistance and Guidance I have ran through all this Author's Arguments for his Sabbatarian Opinion and if I deceive not my self have proved them to be very weak and ineffectual as to the Edifying and Establishment of it And now I must proceed to try his Skill in plucking down and to see if he be more Dextrous and Successful in defeating our Arguments against the Seventh day and for the Sanctification of the First day which from henceforth I will take liberty to call the Lords day which he judges to be most weak and empty even the Conjectural Mistakes of the meaning of some Passages in Scripture let us see whether he can prove them to be such SECT XII THe first Objection against the Seventh day and Argument for the Lords day is Page 47. from the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ upon that day c. Against which he has nothing directly and particularly but only hints the Differences of Opinions about the changing of the day but all save one do agree that it is changed and reason would judge that their universal concurrent Suffrages should weigh more for its Mutation than their Differences about the Circumstances thereof should against the Change of it He answers there is no express Alteration of the Seventh into the First-day-Sabbath And he expresses his meaning to be not by any express Precept but we say there are other ways of Abrogating and Establishing things in Scripture than by express Prohibitions or positive Injunctions even by genuine Consequences from Doctrins from Examples of those that are proposed to our Imitation c. And that the Sanctification of the Seventh day is as much abrogated in the Gospel and the Lords day established in its stead as any of the Ceremonies of the Old Administration are And I think we may challenge him to produce any one express Command for the Abolishing of any one of the Jewish Ceremonies or of all of them conjunctly which because we cannot find consequently we must still look upon them to be in force and keep them alive in the Christian Churches and these days of Reformation I do verily believe if my Judgment were sway'd with such Arguments against the Lords day and for the Seventh they would lead me back to all the Jewish Religious Worship because they were all as really commanded by the Second Command even all instituted Worship as the Seventh day is by the Fourth both which are in themselves positive though referred to and virtually contained in the Moral Commands yet he acknowledges the Abolition of these without an express Command and why not of this Let him bring his Arguments from Scripture for the Abrogation of any of them and I do verily believe we shall be able to use the very same for the Exclusion of the Seventh day I know not any one
haling him through the Streets Therefore this must be the former part of the sixth day in the latter part whereof he was Crucified and laid in the Grave in which he continued throughout the seventh and out of which he rose very early in the Morning of the first day And so it could not be after as he would fain have it but upon the third day And therefore without any danger of shaking the third days Resurrection our Expositors according to the use of Scripture do thus interpret this Passage and this Preposition See another express place for this where after three days is said to be upon the third day 2 Chron. 3.5 12. And because it was our Saviour's use to appear to them upon that day even the first day 'T is strange that he should herein go against all the Criticks of that Language and against all the Sense of all the Expositors that I can see to serve his own Hypothesis 'T is without doubt that it was not upon the Seventh day that our Lord did now appear to his Disciples unless we will understand it thus after four or five days after the eighth day he appeared to them And thus he slily evades this other Argument for the Lords days Observance even his Appearance to his Disciples when gathered together for religious Worship which as I have shewed formerly was not once only but several times after his Resurrection And 't is the only day of the Week which is named by all the four Evangelists upon which our Saviour appeared to them and graciously discoursed with them no other day so much as mentioned nor the Seventh so much as hinted to be the day of his Personal Manifestation of himself unto them which is another high Honour and Prerogative our Lord and the King of the Church has bestowed upon this first day of the Week and seems to be a practical and exemplary laying aside of the Seventh day from being the weekly Sabbath-day and substituting the first day to be that day consecrated to the publick and solemn Worship of God and an Assurance that he will be in the midst of his People assembling themselves upon this his day and will come and Bless them which has been and is according to the Experiences of his People in their religious Devotions and publick Congregations for there have they met and do they still meet him in those his Galleries Then he brings them into his Wine-Cellar and his Banner over them is Love Then he gives them the ravishing Kisses of his Mouth Then they behold his Beauty in his Sanctuary apprehend his Glory Experience his gracious Power in and upon their Souls Then they are abundantly satisfied with the Fatness of his House and drink delicious Draughts of the Rivers of Spiritual Pleasures that flow therein Then they experience that that first day of the Week in Gods House is inconceivably better to them than all the days of the Week any where else or about any other Imployment whatever Wherefore we have just cause to hope that our People will not and persuade them that they do not neglect the Sanctification of the first day of the week and their Assembling themselves together on that Holy day Seeing herein they follow the Examples of the Apostles themselves and the other Christians in their days and experience the Gracious Spiritual Presence of our Lord in the midst of them as they did both his Carnal and Spiritual Presence then and turn aside after the novel and singular Opinion of this Author being also poorly grounded as we have seen He proceeds Page 51. against that which some bring from John 8.56 Abraham saw my day c. as the day of Christ's Resurrection and so the First day of the Week He says some would have it meant of his Birth-day for the Observance of Christmas others all the days of his Flesh and the things which he did speak and suffered and our Redemption thereby which I think to be a true Notion But then to be sure he must foresee his Resurrection and so a day thereof and this was the great Cause of his Joy and Gladness Because without this there could be no cause of Gladness in all the rest For his Birth Life and Death could have brought no Glory to him if he had still layen in the Grave nor Good nor Profit to us if he had not rose out of it but he would have been conquered by his Enemies and we forever undone But now his Resurrection is for his own greatest Glory his Enemies Confusion and our Comfort and Triumph This was properly our Lords day He calls the day and time of his Sufferings Luk. 22.53 the hour of his Enemies and the power of Darkness Because then they insulted over him and he was delivered into their Hands But the time of his Resurrection was his own day because he therein Triumphed over all his Enemies and had perfectly vanquished them and therefore this day must chiefly be intended by Abraham because 't was the chief day of his and all Believers Joy and Gladness Though Mr. B. does not so much as once mention it in all those Particulars he reckons up under this Head Moreover Page 52.53 he mentions those Texts Psal 118.22 24. and Heb. 4.1 11. where the day the Psalmist speaks of which God hath made some do interpret of the resurrection-Resurrection-day and that therefore upon that day of the Week Christians or the Churches should go into the Houses of Worship and there praise the Lord and adore him And Psal 2.7 where the day of God's begetting his Son is interpreted the day of Resurrection And there is very good reason nay there is Divine Authority for it for it 's applyed and appropiated to that very day Act. 13.33 So that the Text in the Hebrews which speaks of a Sabbath besides the Seventh day from the Creation and that Sabbath or Rest which Jehovah brought Israel into in the Land of Canaan which was to succeed and as it were to antiquate and exclude the others is by good and excellent Authors understood of the Lords day the Sabbath of the First day Who bring many excellent Arguments for this their Interpretation and Opinion Which Mr. B. should have Produced Answered and Invalidated and not put them off only by a bare Denial or Calling them Shifts and Wind-laces As though his only Rejection of these Passages were enough to Counterballance all the Arguments and rational and scriptural Discourses which many good Scholars Divines and Holy Men do draw from them and give us upon them And therefore seeing he saith nothing to Confute what they have said and I desire to study Brevity I shall speak nothing more here but only refer the Reader to these Orthodox Authors themselves and Particularly to Mr. Warren in whom he shall find very good Improvement of these Passages for the Lords day Page 54. He mentions Act. 20.7 as an Objection against the Authority of the Seventh day and
for that of the First and well he may For 't is an eminent one and such an one as he will find very difficult to answer but yet we must expect the utmost of his Efforts to do it I shall track his Endeavours 1. He says we guess that he First day of the Week was that day we call Sunday as though this were but a bare Guess as a Blind Man shoots the Mark or catches the Hare as the other Three Guesses he says we make in the very next Paragraph But yet 't is such a Guess as he will not controvert and we think 't is because he cannot gain-say it But yet this great Condescension to us must be with a Grant from us to him that St. Paul was a Keeper of the Seventh day and an Observer of it as a Sabbath and so for his granting us what he cannot deny we must grant him what he can never prove Yea what we have denyed and still do viz. that Paul was a Keeper of the Old Sabbath-day We grant indeed as before that he Preached on that day usually to the Jews in their Synagogues because he could have no other such convenient Time and Place for it But that he kept that Sabbath we utterly deny For then he would have done it among the Gentiles as well as among the Jews which yet we never read he did Or if he saith he did let him prove it which we are sure from Scripture he can never do Nor after the former Chapter that ever he did go so much as to the Jewish Synagogue for this is all the Proof of his keeping it upon the Seventh day But here we find that the Disciples came together uon the First day and Paul came to them and associated with them in Religious Duties And why is the First day now named and the Seventh never after as the Solemn Dedicated Day to their Worship but because it was never so from that time But yet this is not all the Condition upon which he will be so exceedingly kind to us as to grant the First day of the Week to be Sunday or our Lords day but it must be bought with another Information even on what part of the Sunday 't was that this Assembly was and St. Pauls associating in them which he takes for granted and I am sure does but guess that his Opponents do that 't was in the Evening after the Seventh day Which he takes for the beginning of the First day and so Paul Preached till the Midnight and brake Bread and discoursed only till the Light of the First day but performed no Religious Duty upon the Morning of that day at all but as soon as ever the first Day-light began to dawn he betook himself to what was Profane and Travelled Which I think is a begging of the Question and in a scriptural Sense is to say that he performed no Religious Duties at all thereon for 't was the Light that God called day and the dakness he called night Gen. 1.5 and so to contradict the express words of the Text. Besides I would fain know of him which is the chiefest part of a natural Day either the dark part of it which we with Scripture call Night or the light part of it which with it we call Day If the light part as I think an unprejudiced Mind will grant why should he suppose that all the Religious Duties of that Day should be done in the Dark thereof and not in the Light Again we think that the Lords day did not begin at Even but rather in the Morning when our Lord rose out of the Grave that being the great occasion of its Sanctification to sacred Duties and its being imployed therein by those Disciples and Paul And for this we have express Scripture I mean for the First day of the Weeks beginning in the Morning as Mat. 28.1 in the end of the Sabbath as it began to dawn towards the First day of the Week where the Scripture determines the Sabbath to end with the Darkness of the Night before the First-day Morning and the Lords day to begin at the dawning of the Morning of the First day So far is it from Truth that the Evening and Night before the Morning of it were part of that day at least in this Scripture Phrase and hence we say that Paul began to Preach to them in the light part of that Day as the beginning thereof and continued with them till the following Midnight Yea throughout that Night and so the next Morning being the Second day on Monday took his Journy as a proper day for it And now we have another of our Guesses which is that the breaking of bread here spoken of was the Lords Supper and we would fain know what other breaking of Bread should be meant Can it be imagined that all the Disciples should come together to Feast it with Paul and that too in the Night-season as he would fain have it They had Houses of their own to Eat and Drink in and they would doubtless rather choose to receive the Consecrated Bread from the Apostle that day being the last he was to tarry with them having as 't is probable no other Apostle or Evangelist or Pastor with them at that time than to eat common Bread which they could do when they pleased in his Absence And the Sacrament is more suitable to the Society of Disciples as such to the Preaching of the Word of God by the Apostle than the feeding their Bodies Wherefore we say that seeing 't is clearly here implied that the Disciples gathered themselves together uon this day as upon the usual time and the Apostle ministerially served them then 't is very probable and more than a bare Guess that this day was the usual day and so to be the future day of their Solemn and Religious Devotions Dedicated thereunto As to what follows in the other Paragraph about Preaching and Reasoning we may with good reason pass it over seeing we can see in it but little to the present Case Next by way of Concession he tells us that though this were a Religious Assembly and the breaking of Bread was the Lords Supper yet then all this is but once But this is such an once as leaves the Seventh day for ever out of mention from being the day of Association Such an once as clearly seems to imply the Custom of the Disciples to be their Convention on the First day Such an once as the Holy Ghost is pleased here so particularly to mention after he had shewed us before that 't was the usual day of the Disciples Religious Association and our Saviours personal Presence with them and his gracious Discourse to them Such an once indeed now as no Meeting can be but once at a time as with the former makes more than once and such an once as with what hath been said and what may be said will be of force enough not to repeal a Law or
the Fourth Command but only to alter a Circumstance and Motive therein the whole Substance thereof continuing in its full Vigour and Authority Once he saith occasioned by Paul's being to depart to Morrow Which very Circumstance seems to me to be of some Moment against the Seventh or for the First day For we may well suppose that St. Paul had determined some days before the very day of his Departure and therefore seeing he intended the Second day of the Week to be it he might with much more Conveniency have Met and Preached and Administred the Lords Supper to the Disciples on the Seventh day If that had been now the Consecrated day of the Week and so have had more Time and Leisure with them for his Work and not have so straitned himself or incommoded them throughout a whole Night But becaust the Lords day was the sacred day of the Week to be observed and kept therefore he would defer it till then though to his own and their greater Inconvenience Here we have a Conjecture somewhat strange viz. that the Apostle kept the Seventh day at Troas What was it alone by himself and without any other with him as a private Person and not as an Apostle and then would keep the First day of the Week as an Apostle and with the Assembly of Believers Doubtless St. Paul was no such Dissembler on one hand nor Supersticious Bigot on the other to observe Two Sabbaths in the Week one by himself and another with the Church when God commands but one only But he seems to do all he can to turn the First day into the Seventh and to persuade us that the Assembly of the Disciples was begun on the last day of the Week and continued some time of the First Whereas the Text expresly tells us they came together on the First day and so continued together the First day till its Conclusion in the Second days Morning Here he takes no notice at all or to no purpose that the Holy Ghost tells us expresly that Paul abode Seven days at Troas of which one must necessarily be the last day the Seventh day in order of the Week And yet never tells us that the Disciples met on that day or Paul with them but only on the First day And why should this be if for any reason but to shew us that the Lords day was the day of their Religious Conventions and the Seventh day antiquated and no more to be mentioned and observed among Christians as such a day What follows has been if I mistake not satisfactorily answered already 'T is well he recedes from and stands not much upon the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be interpeted one for he knows that in both the Sacred Languages the Numerical word is frequently used for the Ordinal and if we should render this word here one it would make the Language of the Scripture very Impertinent and Uncertain It would be Impertinent and Superfluous because if it were upon any day it must be upon one day of the Week for there is no day that is not one of the Week and what need the Holy Ghost to tell us that was which we are sure could not but be And it would be uncertain and dubious for according to this meaning we could never know what day of the Week this religious Congregation met whether on the first or second or third or fourth c. and the Expression seems to hint that the Holy Ghost would acquaint us with the particular day thereof But such an uncertain Translation would greatly befriend this Author for then he might more confidently suppose it to be the Seventh day Seeing that now when the Spirit clearly asserts it was upon the First day he does perswade himself and would perswade us that it was upon the Seventh What follows after being Conjectures and Consequences drawn from his former weak Premises I shall say nothing more to them SECT XIV HE next proposes Page 58. the Objection against his Sabbath and Argument for our Lords day which is in 1 Cor. 16.1 2. which is taken as we say from the Collections for the Poor made in the publick Congregations on the first day of the Week and does what he can to enervate it Let us see how successfully 1. He tells us he knows not what the order to the Church of Galatia was But St. Paul tells him plainly that in this particular it was to collect Mony for the Poor on the Lords-day 2. That he does not find written that this order to that Church should oblige all others The like may be said of all the other Orders and Directions given in Scripture to all particular Churches therein mentioned and written to For 't is not there said that they are intended for all other Churches to the end of the World Yet I hope he looks upon the Doctrins taught them the Ordinance and Discipline established amongst them to be Obligatory upon the Churches now And we may well suppose the Apostles being inspired by the Holy Ghost in these Matters in all their Constitutions of their prime Primitive Churches to lay the Platform for all succeeding ones except there may be some particular Circumstance which may necessitate or allow a Deviation therefrom which in this matter of Collection cannot well be pretended 3. That it was a general order for a charitable Seposition but no order to observe the first day True indeed but it does imply the Observance of that day else why should it be enjoyned on that day more than on another but because thereon publick Assemblies met 4. 'T is an Order he tells us for a profane Employment as to cast up their Accounts on that day and to tell their Mony they have got and to reckon up how much their Stock is increased for he here supposes a Man must on this day look over all his Stock cast up all his Charges c. But certainly this is a pretty far fetch'd Invention for they are commanded only to lay up by them on the Lords-day what God had graciously enabled them to give to the Poor by his Success on their Labours and his providential Blessing on them as to Earthly things which they might very well enquire into the day before even the Seventh and having then discovered how God had succeeded them the next day even the Lords-day to separate that charitable Portion from the rest and carry it unto the publick Assembly and so cast it into the Poors Box. And I think 't is clear that the Text necessarily implies a former Inquisition into their Stock before this Seposition but where it implies it must be done on that day no Man can see Wherefore we say that a former Examination being had of these Matters this day that consecrated part was taken carried to the Congregation and put into the common Stock that so the Apostle when he came amongst them might not be forced to go from House to House to
concerning Worship are abolished by the coming of Christ Why should this then solitarily be excluded and stand in its Strength and Vigour when all its other Companions are thrown to the Ground and vanish I know no reason but because this was written by the singer of God upon stone But this altereth not the nature of the Command it self neither can it from hence plead a greater Privilege for all the former had God for their Author as well as this and God's Mouth is as Authoritative as his Finger Wherefore we may well conclude that seeing there is no reason can be given why the Seventh-day-Sabbath should not recede and give place as well as all other Ceremonial and Positive Precepts to our Lord Christ at his coming and his new and more glorious Administrations that it is and ought to be excluded with them and give place to a more glorious day in Commemoration of a more glorious work and Gods resting from it Even the first day our Lords glorious triumphing day The other two reasons of this Fourth Command follow which are Gods Blessing the Sabbath day and Hallowing it Where 't is worthy our Observance though this Author deems it a Triffe that 't is the Sabbath day not the Seventh day of the Week that is here blessed and hallowed As if God would hint that the Sabbath upon what day soever of his own Appointment should be Blessed even the first as well as the Seventh day of the Week when in the latter days his Sons glorious Rest should Authorize that day and as it should alter all other Ceremonial and positive Ordinances of his own Appointment so also this Ceremonial and Positive day into that other which with all the other Ordinances and Institutions of the Blessed Redeemer should last to the end of the World From which Discourse concerning the Nature of the Fourth Command all that follows in his third or fourth Pages after is sufficiently answered and so his next answer to another Objection against his Opinion P. 82. SECT XVII THUS by God's Help and I hope his Guidance I have considered all his Arguments that he urges for his Sabbatarian Opinion and have shewen their Invalidity and Weakness And all the Solutions that he brings to disannul all our Proofs for the Dominical Tenet and suppose that I have vindicated ours from all his Attempts and shewen how they remain solid and substantial Other things which follow being but Appendixes to this Discourse and not of so great Moment I shall but touch upon them As Page 83. about the Beginning of the Sabbath He would have it to begin at Even and we willingly grant him that the Seventh-day-Sabbath did so for it began when God had ended his Works of Creation which was the Evening before the Sun-rising of the Seventh Day But I judge that now the best Time to begin our Lord's Day with is in the Morning because 1. 'T was on that Time of the Day early in the Morning about Break of day that our Lord Jesus rested from his Work of Redemption Wherefore if the foregoing Evening of the Old Testament-Sabbath was its most convenient Beginning because then God ended his Work of Creation and rested then So he Morning-Light of the First Day is the most convenient Time for its Beginning because then God rested from his much more Glorious and really in his Humanity Laborious Work of our Redemption 2. Because the Holy Scripture expresly begins it thus placing the Conclusion of the Seventh Day at the beginning of the Morning of the First Day Mat. 28.1 In the End of the Sabbath as it began to dawn toward the First Day of the Week and consequently then that Day began 3. Because 't is the most convenient Time because most observable less lyable to Prophanations upon the account of Mistakes and so to turbulent Spirits less obnoxious c. but this is not so substantial a Dispute Let every Person give up and consecrate the whole Lords-day to the Service of God I mean the whole Artificial Day or rather the whole lightsome Part thereof and then let him begin either at Even or Morning I doubt not but if it be conscientiously done in the Name of Christ God will accept him But there he must not scandalize others by doing Common or Mechanick Works upon the following Evening of that Day which the Generality of Christians among whom he lives account as Sacred He seems Page 84. to imply that there should be Morning and Evening religious Service every Day in publick But there is scarcely any preaching Minister can have so much Leisure beside his own personal and domestical Devotions And beside our People will not attend it every day and then the proper publick Duty of the Sabbath to be but once and begin about Noon I for my Part believe the Times of publick Worship on the Lord's-day are most conveniently ordered already Twice once in the Morning about Nine and so in the Evening about Two An Interval being for the Refreshment of the outward Man and Recruits of the Spirit for a more vigorous and enlarged serving of God in the Evening Beside we know in the Country 't is convenient to keep some Persons at home or one Person when Houses are solitary and lyable to Injury by those who should know them totally destitute of an Inhabitant and in Country and City Families that have Children which must be kept at home either through Weakness or such as would disturb the Congregation by their Presence must have some one or other to take care of them Now in such Cases one Servant or Person may be at home in the Morning and another in the Evening and so all partake of the publick Worship every Lord's-day which could not so conveniently be done by one single assembling the Congregation But however to meddle herein would be very impertinent and would rather savour of a restless Fancy to say no worse than of a peaceable and prudent Spirit The other Pages home to the 90th I overlook because in them I find either such things as do not belong to the Sabbath nor to this Controversy at all Or if they do they are such as are written already at least the Substance and answered SECT XVIII HE produces Page 90. the Argument of Tradition from the Apostles in the universal Church these 1600 Years for the Observance of the Lord's-day Whereto his Answer is that no Tradition can add to take from lay aside or alter any Word of Christ or Duty of Man But yet such a perpetualand epidemical Tradition may serve for a good subservient Proof for that which is founded upon and deduced from Scripture as the case is here for we have proved by many Arguments from Scripture the Abolition of the Seventh-Day-Sabbath and the ratification of the Lord's-Day He answers to such a general and lasting Tradition for the Sanctification of the Lord's-day That he has already proved that the Seventh Day is the Lord's-day
the Observance of it from either Jews or Gentiles to whom they write and consequently we may conclude that they never preached it for we truly hold that the Sum and Substance of all their Sermons is in their Books Yea their Writings have several weighty Passages against the Seventh-day-Sabbath Now our Saviour in his Commission which he gave his Apostles after his Resurrection just as he was ascending up to Heaven expresly commands them to teach all Nations to observe all things whatsoever he commandeth them Matt. 28.19 20. Wherefore seeing they commanded not the Nations to observe the Seventh-day-Sabbath Christ never taught them that Doctrin nor injoyned them to do it and therefore this cannot be one of those Jots or Tittles of the Law which in this Authors Sense was not to pass from the Law but only what was Moral in it We acknowledge that the Lord Christ also confirmed the Moral Law by commanding the Lawyer to love the Lord God c. But withall that whoever gives to God the seventh part of his time though it be not the Seventh day of the week does therein love God as to the Declaration as to the Fruit and Effect of his Love as much as if he did the Seventh day because it is as fully the Substance of that Command The same answer will serve to Mark 12.28 31. Page 30. with this Addition That the change of the Seventh-day-Sabbath into that of the first day is no more laying aside of the Morality of the Fourth Command than the change of Circumcision the Passover and other Ceremonial Ordinances of the Old Testament into Baptism the Lords Supper and other Evangelical Administrations under the New These being as really included in and commanded by the second Command at that time as the Seventh-day-Sabbath is in and by the Fourth And therefore as the change of those Rites and Modes of Worship by our Lord Christ and his Apostles was not the laying aside of the second Command but rather a perfect Obedience thereto and practical Confirmation thereof so the change of the weekly-day-Sabbath was no Infringement but rather an Establishment of the Fourth Commandment In the same Page he Insinuates that we take away those words The Seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God which yet we neither do in Letter nor Sense for we leave the words in the Command and obey them in their purport and meaning For they do not so much enjoyn the Seventh day in order as in number not so much the last day of the week as one day of the week to be observed and sanctified by us as I suppose we may have an opportunity to prove Page 31. He shews from Scripture that one great Article of the New Covenant is Gods writing his Law upon the Hearts of his People which he with us expresly acknowledges to be the Moral Law How then can the Seventh-day-Sabbath as such be part of that Law which is not written upon the Hearts of Thousands to one of Gods People I judge this to be a clear Demonstration against the Morality thereof He could never have shewn that the Seventh-day-Sabbath was a part of the Law of Nature in Adam though the substance of the Ten Commands was it and therefore it was instituted by God as before Page 32. He shews us for so I have a Belief he intends that he had a mind to prove that Set Forms of Prayers or other parts of Worship under a Form though never so Excellent though in express words of Scripture are the Pesel or Graven Image that is forbidden in the second Command which is a Notion I am sure alien from the Resentments of the most Grave Prudent Learned and Experienced Christians of former and Modern Ages and very few of them have thought so uncharitably and rigorously of them as to brand them with the grossest Idolatry though many judge them fit to be lain aside by them to whom God hath given a good and competent Gift but yet much rather to be u sed and that comfortably and profitably too where such a Gift may be denied And I think by this Rule that everly Man that joyns with another in Prayer is guilty of Idolatry against the second Command for he makes the words of the Minister or private Christian to be the Set Form of his Prayer And why a Prayer written as a Form should be more an Idol than a Prayer spoken as a Form I do not yet understand In the same Paragraph he also hints that the Lords Prayer ought only to be used in secret and alone not in publick no nor in private with any others because of those Expressions in Matt. 6.6 9. When thou prayest enter into thy Closet and shut thy Door and Pray c. Whereas the Form of that Prayer in the plural Number the very matter of that Prayer being the universal Concern of the Universal Church and of every Congregation and Society of Christians as well as of every private Christian and our Saviour commanding his Disciples to use it without any such Limitation Of a secret Personal Retirement Luke 11.2 are sufficient proofs that it may be as well used Socially as Solitarily with others as lawfully and conveniently as by ones self In the following Paragraph he seems to be of the Opinion that it would be better to have Mens or Ministers own Inventions in singing of Psalms than the Divine Inspirations of David and other Authors in Scripture And when I can believe that theirs can be better than those in Scripture or can be convinced that there is neither Psalm nor Hymn in the Bible that can fit a present Condition either for Prayer or Praises or Gratitude c. I will think so but as to the former of these two I hope I shall never believe and as to the latter I think it is not likely to fall out in my days These things ought as curiously to be replied as the Author has started these Notions and when he sees fit to endeavour a more large Explication and Vindication of them then we may also see what may be discoursed agianst them And I heartily wish he had but hinted this of his Seventh day and so saved all this labour in answering of it for it is just another such Opinion as the former and deserved only to be mentioned Indeed not to be mentioned at all at least not in Print not in publick But of this in the Preface SECT VI. IN the next Paragraph he tells us he has much to do to recover the word Seventh of the Fourth Commandment Whereas none but the Deniers of the Morality of the Seventh would wrest it from him for we all grant it to him and acknowledge it to be of the very substance of the Command that a Seventh day should be set apart for an Holy Consecrated Day to Divine Worship only we say that the Seventh day is so as the seventh part of the Week as one day of the seven