substance is come the signe or thing shadowing ceaseth And I say the Seventh-day-sabbath being so as a Seventh-day-sabbath it ceaseth also See again Exod. 31. 13 14. Ezek. 20. 12 21. Coloss. 2. 14. Nor do I find that our Protestant Writers notwithstanding their reverence of the Sabbath do conclude otherwise but that though time as to worshipping God must needs be contained in the bowels of the moral Law as moral yet they for good reasons forbear to affix the seventh day as that time there too They do it I say for good reasons reasons drawn from the Scripture or rather for that the Scripture draws them so to conclude yet they cast not away the morality of a Sabbath of rest to the Church It is to be granted then that time for Gods Worship abideth for ever but the seventh day vanishes as a shadow and sign because such indeed it was as the Scripture above cited declares as to the Sanction thereof as a Sabbath The Law of Nature then calls for Time but the God of Nature assigns it and has given power to his Son to continue SUCH time as himself shall by his eternal Wisdom judge most meet for the Churches of the Gentiles to solemnize Worship to God by him in Hence he is said to be Lord even of the sabbath day Matth. 12. 9. Sixthly I find by reading Gods Word that Paul by Authority Apostolical takes away the Sanctions of all the Jews Festivals and Sabbaths This is manifest for that he leaves the observation or non-observation of them as things indifferent to the Mind and Discretion of the Believers One man esteemeth one day above another another esteemeth every day alike Let every man be fully perswaded in his own mind Rom. 14. 5. By this last clause of the Verse Let every man be fully perswaded in his own mind he doth plainly declare that such days are now stript of their Sanction For none of Gods Laws while they retain their Sanction are left to the will and mind of the believers as to whether they will observe them or no. Men I say are not left to their liberty in such a case for when a stamp of Divine Authority is upon a Law and abides so long we are bound not to our mind but to that Law But when a thing once sacred has lost its sanction then it falls as to Faith and Conscience among other common or indifferent things And so the Seventh-day-sabbath did Again Seventhly Thus Paul writes to the Church of Coloss. Let no man judge you in meat or in drink or in respect of any holy day or of the new Moon or of the Sabbath which are a shadow of things to come but the body is Christ Coloss. 2. 16 17. Here also as he serveth other Holy-days he serveth the Sabbath He gives a liberty to believers to refuse the observation of it and commands that no man should judge against them for their so doing And as you read the reason of his so doing is because the body the substance is come Christ saith he is the Body or that which these things were a shadow or figure of The Body is Christ. Nor hath the Apostle since he saith or of the Sabbath one would th 〈…〉 left any hole out at which mens inventions could get but man has sought out many and so many he will use But again That the Apostle by this word Sabbath intends the Seventh-day-sabbath is clear for that it is by Moses himself counted for a sign as we have shewed and for that none of the other Sabbaths were a more clear shadow of the Lord Jesus Christ than this For that and that alone is called the Rest of God in it God rested from all his works Hence he calls it by way of eminency MY Sabbath and MY Holy-day Isai. 58. 13. Yet could that Rest be nothing else but typical for God never since the world began really rested but in his Son This is he saith God in whom I am well pleased This Sabbath then was Gods Rest typically and was given to Israel as a sign of his Grace towards them in Christ Wherefore when Christ was risen it ceased and was no longer of obligation to bind the Conscience to the observation thereof Or of the Sabbath He distinctly singleth out THIS Seventh day as that which was a most noble shadow a most exact shadow And then puts that with the other together saying they are a shadow of things to come and that Christ has answered them all The body is Christ. Eighthly No man will I think deny but that Heb. 4. 4. intends the Seventh-day-sabbath on which God rested from all his works for the Text doth plainly say so Yet may the observing Reader easily perceive that both it and the Rest of Canaan also made mention of vers 5. were typical as to a day made mention of vers 7 and 8. which day he calls another He would not afterwards have made mention of another day If Joshuah had given them rest he would not Now if they had not that Rest in Joshuah's days be sure they had it not by Moses for he was still before All the Rests therefore that Moses gave them and that Joshua gave them too were but typical of another day in which God would give them rest vers 9 10. And whether the day to come was Christ or Heaven it makes no matter 'T is enough that they before did fail as always Shadows do and that therefore mention by David is and that afterward made of another day There remains therefore a rest to the people of God A Rest to come of which the Seventh day in which God rested and the Land of Canaan was a type which Rest begins in Christ now and shall be consummated in glory And in that he saith There remains a Rest referring to that of David What is it if it signifies not that the other Rests remain not There remains therefore a Rest a Rest prefigured by the Seventh day and by the Rest of Canaan though they are fled and gone There remains a Rest a Rest which stands not now in signs or shadows in the Seventh day or Canaan but in the Son of God and his Kingdom to whom and to which the weary are invited to come for rest Isai. 28. 12. Matth. 11. 28. Heb. 4. 11. Yet this casts not out the Christians Holy-day or Sabbath For that was not ordained to be a Type or Shadow of things to come but to sanctifie the Name of their God in and to perform that worship to him which was also in a shadow signified by the ceremonies of the Law as the Epistle to the Hebrews doth plentifully declare And I say again the Seventh-day-sabbath cannot be it for the reasons shewed afore Ninthly Especially if you adde to all this that nothing of the ministration of Death written and engraven in stones is brought by Jesus or by his Apostles into the Kingdom of Christ as a part of his instituted
me more and so still more and at last all that is requisite for me to know both as to my Salvation and how God is to be worshipped in the Church on Earth Thirdly If it be of the Law of Nature then all men by nature are convinced of the necessity of keeping it and that though they never read or heard of the revealed Will of God about it but this we find not in the world For though it is true that the Law of Nature is common to all and that all men are to this day under the power and command thereof yet we find not that they are by nature under a conviction of the necessity of keeping of a Seventh-day-Sabbath Yea the Gentiles though we read not that they ever despised the Law of Nature yet never had as such a reverence of a Seventh-day-Sabbath but rather the contrary Fourthly If therefore the Seventh-day-Sabbath is not of the Law of Nature then it should seem not to be obligatory to all For instituted Worship and the necessary circumstances thereunto belonging is obligatory but to some The Tree that Adam was forbid to eat of we read not but that his Children might have eat the fruit thereof and Circumcision the Passover and other parts of instituted Worship was enjoyned but to some Fifthly I doubt the Seventh-day-Sabbath is not of the Law of Nature and so not moral because though we read that the Law of Nature and that before Moses was charged upon the world yet I fiâ—d not till then that the prophanation of a Seventh-day-Sabbath was charged upon the world and indeed to me this very thing makes a great scruple in the case A Law as I said we read of and that from Adam to Moses Rom. 5. 13 14. The transgressions also of that Law we read of them and that particularly as in Gen. 4. 8. ch 6. 5. ch 9. 21 22. ch 12. 13. ch 13. 13. ch 18. 12 13 14 15. ch 19. 5. Ezek. 49. 50. ch 31. 30. ch 35. 2. ch 40. 15. ch 44. 8 9 10. Deut. 8. 19 28. ch 12. 2. Psal. 106. 35 36 37. and Romans the first and second Chapters But in all the Scriptures we do not read that the breach of a Seventh-day-Sabbath was charged upon men as men all that time Whence I gather that either a Seventh-day-Sabbath was not discerned by the Light of Nature and so not by that Law imposed or else that men by the help and assistance of that for we speak of men as men in old time kept it better than in after Ages did the Church of God with better assistance by far For they are there yet found fault with as breakers of that Sabbath Ezekel 20. 13. It follows therefore that if the Law of Nature doth not of it self reveal to us as men that the Seventh day is the holy Sabbath of God That that day as to the sanction of it is not Moral but rather Arbitrary to wit imposed by the will of God upon his people until the time he thought fit to change it for another day And if so it is hence to be concluded that though by the Light of Nature men might see that time must be allowed and set apart for the performance of that Worship that God would set up in his House yet as such it could not see what time the Lord would to that end chuse Nature therefore saw that by a positive Precept or a Word revealing it and by no other means Nor doth this at all take away a whit of that Sanction which God once put upon the Seventh-day-Sabbath unless any will say and by sufficient Argument prove that an Ordinance for divine Worship receiveth greater Sanction from the Law of Nature than from a divine Precept or standeth stronger when 't is established by a Law humane for such is the Law of Nature than when imposed by Revelation of God But the Text will put this controversie to an end The Sanction of the Seventh-day-Sabbath even as it was the Rest of God was not till after the Law of Nature was compleated God rested the seventh day and sanctified it Gen. 2. 3. Sanctified it that is set it apart to the end there mentioned to wit to rest thereon Other grounds of this Question I might produce but at present I will stop here and conclude That if a Seventh-day-Sabbath was an essential necessary to the instituted Worship of God then it self also as to its sanction for that Work was not founded but by a positive Precept consequently not known of man at first but by revelation of God QUEST II. Whether the Seventh-day-Sabbath as to Mans keeping of it holy was ever made known to or imposed by a positive Precept upon him until the time of Moses which from Adam was about two thousand years SOmething must also be here premised in order to my propounding of my grounds for this Question and that is That the Seventh day was sanctified so soon as it had being in the world unto the rest of God as it is Gen. 2. 2 3. and he did rest from all his works which he had made therein But the Question is Whether when God did thus sanctifie this day to his own rest be did also by the space of time above-mentioned impose it as an holy Sabbath of rest upon men to the end they might solemnize Worship to him in special manner thereon And I question this First Because we read not that it was And reading I mean of the divine Testimony is ordained of God for us to find out the mind of God both as to Faith and our performance of acceptible service to him In reading also we are to have regard to two things 1. To see if we can find a Precept or 2. A countenanced Practice for what we do For both these ways we are to search that we may find out what is that good that acceptible will of God For the first of these we have Gen. 2. 16 17. and for the second Gen. 8. 20 21. Now as to the imposing of a Seventh day-Sabbath upon men from Adam to Moses of that we find nothing in holy Writ either from Precept or Example True we find that Solemn worship was performed by the Saints that then lived for both Abel Noah Abraham Isaac Jacob sacrificed unto God Gen. 4. 4. ch 8. 20 21. ch 12. 7. ch 13. 4. ch 35. 1. but we read not that the Seventh day was the time prefixed of God for their so worshipping or that they took any notice of it Some say that Adam in eating the forbidden Fruit brake also the Seventh-day-Sabbath because he fell on that day but we read not that the breach of a Sabbath was charged upon him That which we read is this Hast thou eaten of the tree whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat Gen. 3. 11. Some say also that Cain killed Abel on a Sabbath day but we read not that in his Charge God laid any such thing
Worship Hence it is said of that Ministration in the bowels of which this Seventh-day-sabbath is sound that it has now NO glory that its glory is done away in or by Christ and so is laid aside the ministration of the Spirit that excels in glory being come in the room thereof I will read the Text to you But if the ministration of death written and engraven in stones was glorious so that the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance which glory was to be done away It was given at first with this Proviso that it should not always retain its glory that Sanction as a Ministration How shall not the ministration of the Spirit be rather glorious For if the ministration of condemnation be glory much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect by reason of the glory that excelieth For if that which is done away was glorious much more that which remaineth is glorious 2 Cor. 3. What can be more plain The Text says expresly that this ministration doth NOT remain yea and insinuates that in its first institution it was ordained with this Proviso It was to be done away Now if in its first institution upon Sinai it was thus ordained and if by the coming in of the ministration of the Spirit this Ordination is now executed that is if by it and the Apostle saith it it is done away by a ministration that remains then where is that Seventh-day-sabbath Thus therefore I have discoursed upon this fourth Question And having shewed by this Discourse that the old Seventh-day-sabbath is abolished and done away and that it has nothing to do with the Churches of the Gentiles I am next to shew what day it is that must abide that must abide as holy to the Christians and for them to perform their New Testament-church-service in Take the Question thus QUEST V. Since it is denied that the Seventh-day-Sabbath is moral and is found it is not to abide as a Sabbath for ever in the Church What time is to be fixed on for New Testament-Saints to perform together Divine Worship to God by Christ in UPon this Question hangs the stress of all as to the Subject now under consideration But before I can speak distinctly to it I must premise as I have in order to my speaking to the Questions before something for the better clearing of our way 1. Then we are not now speaking of all manner of worshipping God nor of all times in which all manner of worship is to be performed but of that Worship which is Church-worship or Worship that is to be performed by the Assembly of Saints when by the will of God they in all parts of his Dominion assemble together to worship him which Worship hath a prefixed time alotted to or for its performance and without which it cannot according to the mind of God be done This is the time I say that we are to discourse of and not of ALL time appointed for all manner of Worship I do not question but that Worship by the godly is performed to God every day of the week yea and every night too and that time is appointed or allowed of God for the performance of such Worship But this time is not fixed to the same moment or hoâ—â— universally but is left to the discretion of the Believers as their frame of Spirit or Occasions or Exigencies or Tenptations or Duty shall require We meddle then onely with that time that the Worship aforesaid is to be performed in which time the Law of Nature as such supposes but the God of Nature chuses And this time as to the Churches of the Gentiles we have proved is not that time which was assigned to the Jews to wit THAT Seventh day which was imposed upon them by the ministration of death for as we have shewed already that Ministration indeed is done away by a better and more glorious Ministration the Ministration of the Spirit which Ministration surely would be much more inferiour than that which has now no glory was it defective as to this That is if it imposed a Gospel-service but appointed not time to perform that Worship in or if notwithstanding all its commendation it should be forced to borrow of a Ministration inferiour to it self that to wit the time without which by no means its most solemn worship can be performed This then is the Conclusion that TIME to worship God in is required by the Law of Nature but that the Law of Nature doth as such fix it on the Seventh day from the Creation of the World that I utterly deny by what I have said already and have yet to say on that behalf Yea I hope to make it manifest as I have that this Seventh day is removed that God by the ministration of the Spirit has changed the time to another day to wit The first day of the week Therefore we conclude the time is fixed for the worship of the New Testament-Christians or Churches of the Gentiles unto that day Now in my discourse upon this Subject I shall 1. Touch upon those Texts that are more close yet have a divine intimation of this thing in them 2. And then I shall come to Texts more express First for those Texts that are more close yet have a divine intimation of this thing in them First The comparison that the Holy Ghost makes between the Rest of God from his Works and the Rest of Christ from his doth intimate such a thing He that hath entred into his rest he also hath ceased from his own works as God did from his Heb. 4. 10. Now God rested from his Works and sanctified a day of rest to himself as a signal of that Rest which day he also gave to his Church as a day of holy rest likewise And if Christ thus rested from his own Works and the Holy Ghost says he did thus rest he also hath sanctified a day to himself as that in which he hath finished his Work and given it also to his Church to be an everlasting Memento of his so doing and that they should keep it holy for his sake And see as the Fathers work was first so his day went before and as the Sons work came after so his day accordingly succeeded The Fathers day was on the Seventh day from the Creation the Sons the First day following Nor may this be slighted because the Text says as God finished his Work so Christ finished his He also hath ceased from his own works as God did from his He rested I say as God did but God rested on his resting day and therefore so did Christ. Not that he rested on the Fathers resting day for 't is evident that then he had great part of his work to do for he had not as then got his conquest over Death but the next day he
also entred into his Rest having by his rising again finished his Work viz. made a Conquest over the Powers of darkness and brought Life and Immortality to light through his so doing So then that being the day of the Rest of the Son of God it must needs be the day of the Rest of his Churches also For God gave his resting day to his Church to be a Sabbath and Christ rested from his own works as God did from his therefore he also gave the day in which he rested from his Works a Sabbath to the Churches as did the Father Not that there are TWO Sabbaths at once The Fathers was imposed for a time even until the Son's should come yea as I have shewed you even in the very time of its imposing it was also ordained to be done away Hence he saith that Ministration was to be done away 2 Cor. 3. Therefore we plead not for two Sabbaths to be at one time but that a succession of time was ordained to the New Testament-Saints or Churches of the Gentiles to worship God in which time is that in which the Son rested from his own Works as God did from his Secondly Hence he calls himself The Lord even of the Sabbath day as Luke 5. Matth. 12. shews Now to be a LORD is to have Dominion Dominion over a thing and so power to alter or change it according to that power and where is he that dares say Christ has not this absolutely We will therefore conclude that it is granted on all hands he hath The Question then is Whether he he hath exercised that power to the demolishing or removing of the Jews Seventh day and establishing another in its room The which I think is easily answered in that he did not rest from his own Works therein but chose for his own Rest to himself another day Surely had the Lord Jesus intended to have established the Seventh day to the Churches of the Gentiles he would himself in the first place have rested from his own Works therein but since he passed by that day and took no notice of it as to the finishing of his own Works as God took notice of it when he had finished his it remains that he fixed upon another day even the First of the Week on which by his rising again and shewing himself to his Disciples before his Passion he made it manifest that he had chosen as Lord of the Sabbath that day for his own Rest. Consequently and for the Rest of his Churches and for his Worship to be solemnized in Thirdly And on THIS day some of the Saints that slept arose and began their eternal Sabbath Matth. 27. 52 53. See how the Lord Jesus had glorified this day Never was such a stamp of divine Honour put upon any other day no not since the world began And the graves were opened and many bodies of Saints which slept arose and came out of their graves after his resurrection c. That is they rose as soon as he was risen But why was not all this done on the Seventh day No that day was set apart that Saints might adore God for the works of Creation and that Saints thorough that might look for Redemption by Christ But now a work more glorious than that is to be done and therefore another day is assigned for the doing of it in A work I say of Redemption compleated a day therefore by it self must be assigned for this and some of the Saints to begin their eternal Sabbath with God in Heaven therefore a day by it self must be appointed for this Yea and that this day might not want that glory that might attract the most dim-sighted Christian to a desire after the sanction of it the Resurrection of Christ and also of those Saints met together on it Yea they both did begin their eternal rest thereon Fourthly The Psalmist speaks of a day that the Lord Jehovah the Son of God has made and saith We will rejoyce and be glad in it But what day is this Why the day in which Christ was made the head of the corner which must be applied to the day in which he was raised from the dead which is the first of the Week Hence Peter saith to the Jews when he treateth of Christ before them and particularly of his Resurrection This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders which is become the head of thâ— corner He was set at nought bâ— them the whole course of his Ministry unto his death and was mad the head of the Corner by God that day he rose from the dead This day therefore is the day that thâ— Lord Jehovah has made a day oâ— rejoycing to the Church of Christ and we will rejoyce and be glad iâ— it For can it be imagined that the Spirit by the Prophet should thus signalize this day for nothing saying This is the day which the Lord hath made to no purpose Yes you may say for the resurrection of his Son But I adde that that is not all 't is a day that the Lord has both made for that and that we might rejoyce and be glad in it Rejoyce that is before the Lord while solemn divine Worship is performed on it by all the people that shall partake of the Redemption accomplished then Fifthly God the Father again leaves such another stamp of divine note and honour upon this day as he never before did leave upon any where he saith to our Lord Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee Acts 13. 33. still I say having respect to the first day of the week for that and no other is the day here intended by the Apostle This day saith God is the day And as concerning that he raised him up from the dead now no more to return to corruption he saith on this wise I will give thee the sure mercies of David wherefore he saith in another Psalm Thou shalt not suffer thine holy one to see corruption Wherefore the day in which God did this work is greater than that in which he finished the work of Creation for his making of the Creation saved it not from corruption but now he hath done a work which corruption cannot touch wherefore the day on which he did this haâ— this note from his own mouth This day as a day that doth transcend And as I said this day is the Firâ—â— of the Week for 't was in that daâ— that God begat his beloved So from the dead This first day oâ— the week therefore on it God founâ— that pleasure which he found not iâ— the Seventh day from the World Creation for that in it his Son did live again to him Now shall not Christians when they do read that God saith This day and that too with reference to a work done on it by him so full of delight to him and so full of life and Heaven to them set also a remark upon it saying This was the
according to what was fore-promised in the Scriptures Hos. 6. 1 2. 1 Cor. 15. 3 4 5 6. Second That we should live before God by him is a Promise to be fulfilled on this day After two days he will revive us and in the third day we shall live in his sight Hos. 6. 2. See also Isai. 26. 19. and compare them again with 1 Cor. 15. 4. Third The great promise of the New Testament to wit the pouring out of the Spirit fixeth upon these days and so he began in the most wonderful effusion of it upon Pentecost which was the first day of the week that the Scriptures might be fulfilled Acts 2. 16 17 18 19. Nor could these three Promises be fulfilled upon any other days for that the Scripture had fixed them to the First day of the Week I am of opinion that these things though but briefly touched upon cannot be fairly objected against however they may be disrelished by some Nor can I believe that any part of our Religion as we are Christians stands in not kindling of fires and not seething of Victuals or in binding of men not to stir out of those places on the Seventh day in which at the dawning thereof they were found And yet these are Ordinances belonging to that Seventh-day-Sabbath Exod. 16. 23 29. Certainly it must needs be an errour to impose these things by Divine Authority upon New Testament-Believers our Worship standing now in things more weighty spiritual and heavenly Nor can it be proved as I have hinted before that this day was or is to be imposed without those Ordinances with others in other places mentioned and adjoyned for the sanction of that day they being made necessary parts of that worship that was to be performed thereon I have charity for those that abuse themselves and their Lord by their preposterous zeal and affection for the continuing of this day in the Churches For I conclude that if they did either believe or think of the incoherence that this day with its Rites and Ceremonies has with the Ministration of the Spirit our New Testament-Ministration they would not so stand in their own light as they do nor so stifly plead for a place for it in the Churches of the Gentiles But as Paul insinuates in other cases there is an aptness in men to be under the law because they do not hear it Gal. 4. Nor will it out of my mind but if the Seventh-day-sabbath was by Divine Authority and to be kept holy by the Churches of the Gentiles it should not have so remained among the Jews Christs deadliest Enemies and a been kept so much hid from the Believers his best Friends For who has retained the pretended sanction of that day from Christs time quite down in the world but the Jews and a few Jewish Gentiles I will except some But I say since a Sabbath is that without which the great Worship of God under the Gospel cannot be well performed How can it be thought that it should as to the knowledge of it be confined to so blasphemous a generation of the Jews with whom that worship it not I will rather conclude that those Gentile-professors that adhere thereto are Jewifi'd Legaliz'd and so far gone back from the authority of God who from such bondages has set his Churches free I do at this time but hint upon things reserving a fuller Argument upon them for a time and place more fit where and when I may perhaps also shew some other wild notions of those that so stifly cleave to this Mean time I entreat those who are captivated with this opinion not to take it ill at my hand that I thus freely speak my mind I entreat them also to peruse my Book without prejudice to my person The truth is one thing that has moved me to this work is the shame that has covered the face of my Soul when I have thought of the Fictions and Fancies that are growing among Professors And while I see each Fiction turn it self to a Faction to the loss of that good spirit of Love and that oneness that formerly was with good men I doubt not but some unto whom this Book may come have had seal from God that the first day of the week is to be sanctified by the Church to Jesus Christ Not onely from his testimony which is and should be the ground of our Practice but also for that the first conviction that the Holy Ghost made upon their Consciences to make them know that they were sinners began with them for breaking this Sabbath day which day by that same Spirit was told them was that now called the first day and not the day before and the Holy Ghost doth not use to begin this work with a lye which first conviction the Spirit has followed so close with other things tending to compleat the same work that the Soul from so good a beginning could not res◠until it found rest in Christ. 〈◊〉 this then to such be a second token that the Lords day is by them to be kept in commemoration of their Lord and his Resurrection and o◠what he did on this day for their Salvation Amen FINIS