Lastly This Dominica might possibly point at the old Sabbath-day which was really a day of the Lord 's appointing which yet the Writer abstained from calling it Sabbath 〈◊〉 the Day-Sabbath was then utterly dissolved with the City and Temple and long before this Revelation was written And if there were not something of greater concernment to be considered in the Sabbath-Law than Hallowing of a day there can be no sufficient cause alleaged why the antient Sabbath-day was not still retained which yet ought not to be in any wise albeit some Sabbatarians would have it and others would have our Sunday to be the Sabbath These two disagreeing in the day yet agree in misunderstanding and abusing those words of Christ Pray that your flight Matth. 24. 20. be not in Winter neither on the Sabbath day By which words each party would have their severall Sabbaths confirmed and continued To this we answer First This was said to the Apostles when as yet they were but Disciples and they were all dead except only St. John before the time he spake of came Therefore this monition was intended as to be declared to the Jews whom Christ knew to be intangled in Sabbaticall superstition and that they would so persist as that people do to this day for it had been no sin to fly for life on that day even when it was a Sabbath really in force much lesse afterward when it was abrogated 2. It is said Pray that it be not in the Winter surely no Jew would think it a sin to fly for life in winter onely because 't was winter But Winter and Sabbath are here joyned to shew the reason of both to be the same and that not to be sin but onely danger trouble and inconvenience First for Winter Because the daies would be short the waies foul the season cold and dangerous to themselves and their little ones especially to abide in desolate Mountains unto which vers 16. they are directed to flye Secondly for the Sabbaâ—h Because their fellow Jews being involv'd in that superstition would account them enemies to their Religion and so neither joyne with them nor afford them any succour and moreover kill them as they did many upon pretence that they were flying to the Romans 3. â—â—is monition was meant onely to the Jewishly-affected Sabbatarians because as it is remarkably observed by Eusebius * Hist l. 3. c. 5 de Dem. l. 8. at the time of begiâ—â—ing Jerusalem not one Christian was left in that great City they were all departed before to Pella beyond Jordan to which they were warned by that Divine Oracle Migremus hinc as Eusebius thought 4. It is observable that Christ upon the same occasion then said Woe be to them that are with child and give suck in 〈◊〉 19. those daies he woe must signifie temporall woe of affliction and not eternall woe for no man will say that child-bearing or giving of suck are sins because in Scripture both are accounted blessings So that praying against this Sabbath-Hight or Winter-flight is but to pray against temporall calamities 5. If to fly on the Sabbath-day at that time had been a sin Christ would not have said Pray that it may not be but he would absolutely have forbidden it as he did all transgressions of the Morall Law 6. The meaning of Christ was to forewarn the Jews to dâ—sist from their vain Sabbatizing as if he had said The Jews who so much dote on their Sabbaâ—h day and hate me and seek my life for dissolving it as Joh. 5. 18. What will they do when their enemies invade them on the Sabbath day for then they must either break their Sabbath by flight or else die in their sloath and superstition Therefore they have need to pray that this pressure come not on them upon their Sabbath day 7. They that urge â—his place for a now-Sabbath should first agree which day they will insist on whether Saturday or Sunday 1. If Saturday we ask Why themselves do not keep it 2. If Sunday we say This place will appear miserably invalid to prove because Christ never at all mentioned it nor did any Apostle command it as is shewed before nor did any of the Sabbatizing Jews then apprehend it or to this day believe it For these or for better reasons the late Learned and Reverend Bishop of Worcester my most dear Country when he was Professor of Theology in Oxford doubted not to conclude publickly upon this very place That it is ridiculous for any to argue for a confirmation of a Sabbath Dr. Prideaux de Sab. Orat. An. 1622. from these words which Christ foretold but onely as an inconvenience which would arise from the Judaicall superstition I find also another pretty argument used of late to prove our Sunday to be a Sabbath for The word Sabbath signifieth Rest therefore Sunday being a day of Rest ought to be called Sabbath If this will hold VVhy should not our late frequent fasting-Fasting-dayes and Thanks-givings be called Sabbaths which were enforced by watch-men and under penalties with as great caution as our Sundayes from working and travelling Or why should not Nights the time of generall Rest and our Beds the place thereof and even our Graves be called Sabbaths But if the Inventer of this Argument had considered that the Fourth Commandment or Scripturall Sabbath doth not signifie onely the corporall Rest of man but onely his spirituall Rest and moreover and most principally the mystesterious Rest of God as it is said God Heb. 4. 4. Rested he might easily have answered his own argument with a better For the true Sabbaticall Rest cannot otherwise be rightly understood but onely of the Rest both of God and Man and this Rest can no where be found but onely in Christ the Saviour There is yet another scruple occasioned by our translation of the fourth Commandment which either haâ—h or may divert men from the right understanding thereof for thus our English read it Remember to keep holy the Sabbath c. Hence some imagine that to keep holy relateth onely to a Day and not to Christ But the more clear and true and unscrupulous Translation might have been by our old English word Hallow or by the word Sanctifie borrowed from the Latine thus Remember that thou Hallow or Sanctifie the Sabbath day This doubt will be plenâ—ifully cleared by the perusall of the Chap. 9. ninth Chapter of this Book Notwithstanding all this it may be granted that Christ giving that monition to pray did fore-see and relate to some kind of Law whereby the Jews of that time would be girt and obliged to keep the old Sabbath But if we enquire by what Law we shall find it to be neither the Moral nor the Ceremonial Law of God but onely a popular Club-Law or Law of Arms which was indeed the tyrannicall and superstitious Law of those grand Zelots and Rebells which cruelly insulted over their Country-men the Jews as
first Heaven then Earth When the Heaven of Angels was made That their Heaven was intended principally for mankind Why Heaven and Earth are mentioned together Why the making of Hell is not mentioned although it was prepared within the first six daies Why the Creation is mentioned in this fourth Commandment and not in any of the other nine That the Morall Sabbath doth signifie the Creator which is God the Son That he is called the Beginning the Word and the Wisdom of God and is therefore here commanded to be sanctified CHAP. XX. The Exposition continued That all the divine persons co-operated and joyned in Creating Resting Blessing and Sanctifying How the Second Person or Son of God is the Rest or Sabbath of the same Son of God How he resteth in himself Of the divers considerations of God the Son in respect of his Godhead and Manhood Of his severall Appellations respectively Why the seventh day was preferred above the former six That the seventh-day-Sabbath was instituted for a memoriall of the Resting and 〈…〉 of God CHAP. XXI The Exposition concluded The meaning of blessing and hallowing the Sabbath day The difference of hallowing God's Name and hallowing of Creatures The differences of Holinesse When the seventh day was first hallowed How and when it was dis-hallowed Something of Sacriledge How the Prophets spake truly of things to come although they spake as if they had been past Of the Propheticall figure called Anticipation The directions of the Fathers and Scripturall examples thereof applied to this Sabbath CHAP. XXII Reasons why God having conferred honours on the seventh day did also lay some slurs upon it as 1. That this Day-Sabbath was not made known till Moses time nor at all mentioned by zealous David nor this Sabbath-Law by Christ 2. In that God expresly commanded some works on that day 3. That no Manna fell on it 4. That Christ lay dead on that whole day 5. That God called it but a signe and that it was nothing else 6. That it is said to be made for man 7. That it was impossible to be generally kept and also inconvenient occasionally to the Jews The Conclusion That the impossibility both of the seventh-day-Sabbath and also of the Morall Law was designed by God on purpose to drive man to seek for Rest and Salvation onely in the Lord Jesus Christ Errata PAg. 5. line 8. read force and necessity p. 8. l. 3. tell us p. 13. l. 27. Judaical p. 25. l. 6. Onera p. 26. l. 23. Judaical p. 32. l. 31. We are p. 34. l. 16. Judaico p. 37. l. 6. Speaketh p. 41. l. 23. Pharisaical p. 46. l. 34. killing law p. 48. l. 5. Law of God p. 65. l. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 89. l. 17. intermundium l. 18. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 107. l. 6. God added p. 134. l. ult And in him p. 166. l. 16. judicial l. 20. judicial p. 168. l. 1. 10 act a part p. 227. l. 1. Jeremie In the Margin p. 13. l. 1. Ignatius p. 125. l. 3. Laertius in Diog. De minutioribus viderit lector The Mystery of the Sabbath Discovered The Sabbath Morall CHAP. I. The Church disturbed about the Doctrine of the Sabbath Of Sunday-Sabbatism Of works practised therein and Recreations forbidden That the celebration of Sunday is pious although not commanded by the Fourth Commandment How the Antient Patriarks did Sabbatize yet kept not a Seventh day That the ten Commandements are still in force A passage in St. Austin and Isychius explained and an abuse of the Commandements in the Roman Catechism shewed THE various opinions of men in the Doctrine of the Sabbath as it is delivered in the Fourth Commandment of the Morall Law hath more disturbed the Christian Church in these latter times then they did the Fathers the Zealous Christians in the Church Primitive yet then was the Doctrin of the Sabbath mistaken and perverted by Ebion who taught that Christians should necessarily keep the Jewish Hebdomarie or seventh-day Sabbath as some among us have done and is therefore by a Epiph. haer 30. Epiphanius and b Theod. haer fab Lib. 2. Theodoret branded with the mark of a Judaizing Heretick And now although the rejection of the Jewish Seventh-day-Sabbath is almost generally agreed among us yet a new Sabbath is set up on the Eighth day or first day of the week to be observed with as great strictnesse as the old Sabbath was on the Seventh day by the Pharisees for now not only labouâ—s are forbidden but also honest recreations such as we do not find to have been forbidden by those very Jewish zelots Which late strictnesse hath given an occasion or pretence to some to think it to be required rather in opposition to former permissions then for any new light or religious zeal because they have observed that by order of the same Superiors who forbad Recreations Souldiers have been commanded to march and the utensils and luggage of War Carts Wagons Artillary have been drawn out and most cruell bloody battells fought on that very new Sabbath-day and all this upon pretence of either private personall necessity or necessity publik which is now called Reason of State whereupon some of the approved Preachers of these times have openly in the Pulpit declared their dislike and said that now the State Civil is become like a Ship and the Church like a Cock-boat which must follow the motions and turnings of that Ship of State intimating hereby that our Religion must be reformed so as to be subservient to the interest and accommodations of the Civill governors which is quite contrary to the desires of those men who hoped and expected that their Kyrk should have bin made the Ship and the State should have bin the Cock-boat Mose and Aaron were brethren and agreed that Moses might be directed by Aaron in Spiritualls and Aaron Supported by the Brachium temporale or civill authority of Moses for stablishing true Doctrine and godly Discipline which formerly was the happy and peaceable usance of this kingdome wherein the state civill was supreme because as Optatus truly said against the disturbing Donatists c Optat. lib. 3. p. 83. Non est Respublica in ecclesia sed ecclesia in Republica est i. e. The Commonwealth is not included in the Church but the Church is in the Commonwealth And yet the civil power will not excuse those governors before God which authorise the breaking of the Commandments and Moral law of God For if the Seventh-day Sabbath practised in the Jewish Commonwealth or the Eighth among Christians which some yet call the Sabbath were indeed one of the ten Commandments of God which certainly are moral and perpetual then did the Jewes sin in performing the works of Warr and of Circumcision and Midwifery and Sacrificing at the Tabernacle and Temple on their Sabbath day And if our Sunday be really commanded by this morall law of
therefore most worthily account and call our Sabbath Yet this is not all for we shall find that Christ is not only the Rest of men but that he is also the Rest of God which is next to be considered CHAP. X. Of Gods Resting That it is not a cessation from working Nor meant of his ending the Creation Nor his laying aside his care and Providence in Government This Rest and Working doe consist together Something concerning the Creation of Humane Souls Of Vniversals what they are and where to be found A Question discoursed Whether God hath created any new kinds of Creatures since the first Seventh day CHrist is our Christian Sabbath we know none other Sabbath besides him for none but he can give sure and lasting Rest to our Souls he only hath wrought our peace with God and appeased the just displeasure of the Godhead he hath effected our Reconciliation and he is that Atonement by which God and man are reunited or set at one By his mediation it is that a Quietus est or Acquittance of our debts is signed by God so that if we can keep this Sabbath holy and persevere therein we may with true comfort and cheerfulness say with the great Apostle Who shall Rom. 8. 33. lay any thing to the charge of Gods Elect It is God that justifieth it is Christ that died Those that teach others or that do imagine That the only duty required by this Sabbath-precept is the sanctifying of a day whether the last day of the week as the Jews do or the first day as some Christians think and therefore presume to call it not only the Lords day which is but a novelty with us in England as is said before but also the Sabbath day They are farre short and beneath the great purpose and intendment of this fourth Commandement and conceive too meanly and lowly of that most high and mysterious Sabbath which signifieth not only the Rest of man from bodily labours but also our rest from labours and terrors of our Conscience and moreover it representeth to us the Rest of God as it is said both in this Commandement and before also Gen. 2. 2. He rested on the Seventh day For to say that God laboured in these six dayes of Creation is a weak and heathenish conceit such as we read in that Epicurean Dispute in Tully a Tull. de Nat. Deor. lib. 1. Si in mundo Deus inest aliquis qui regat qui gubernet qui cursus astrorum muta ionesque temporum rerum vicissitudines or dinesque conservet terrasque maria contemplans hominum commoda vitasque tâ—eatur nae ille est implicatus molestis negotiis operosis If there be a God in this World ruling and ordering it and continuing the motions of the starres and seasons of the years and the various order and changes of times and taking cognisance of the Land and Sea for support of mans life and welfare surely he is a God incumbred with many troublesome and stirring businesses As if the Almighty Demiurgus could not both create and govern this World except he took great pains and labour therein And yet those Christians which say that Gods resting on the Seventh day signifieth only his cessation from that great Work do in a manner affirm the same But the resting of God hath a more high and more noble signification than so as I trust we shall anon make evident In order whereunto these two Queries are to be discoursed 1. What is here meant by Gods resting 2. Why he is said to rest on the Seventh day and not on any of the former six dayes To the first Querie VVhat is meant by 1. Querie Gods resting We say this resting doth not at all signifie or intend any cessation of the Godhead or any suspension or intermission of his operation or working for although it be said He ended his work which he had made and also That he rested from all his works which God had created Gen. 2. 2. yet it is not said that he ceased resting and ceasing are not all one Nor can this Rest be meant of any ease or refreshment of God as after some motion or stirring work or labour for such a rest was needless to him who never laboured at all Nor can it be meant of any weariness of God that were impossible St. Austin saith truly b Aug. de Civit. lib. 12. c. â—â—â— In opere Dei non est labor nec in quiete desidia quiescens agit agens quiescit And again Deus nec creando defessus nec cessando refectus i. e. In Gods working there is no labour nor in his resting any cessation he resteth working and working resteth he was neither weary in creating nor refreshed by ending it Nor can this Rest of God be so understood as if he then laid aside and cast off all care and providence for his Creatures which he had newly made This cannot be imagined by us for all Christians and Heathens also do acknowledge Gods perpetual management and government of the World for he did even that very Seventh day and all other dayes since co-operate with his Creatures by his assistance it is that these great wheels of Heaven are continually turning Nazianzen saith God is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for his perpetual operation Both Divines and Philosophers call God Actum Purum and the Schoolmen call him Natur am natur antem i. e. God is purely Active and he that continually supplieth his Creatures with the ability of Operation which we call Nature for in him we live and move and have our being Of him Act. 17. 28. it is said in St. Austin c De Civ l. 4. c. 12. Deus est anima mundi Mundus est corpus Dei e. i. God is operative in the World so as our souls are in our bodies And the Poet saith of the divine Spirit Spiritus intus alit totamque infusa per artus Virg. Aeâ— 6. Mens agitat molem magno se corpare miscet All which is signed for a Scriptural-truth by St. Paul 2 Cor. 12. 6. God worketh all in all So then this Rest cannot signifie Gods cessation from working nor the withdrawing his Providence from his Creatures But our Neoterick Theologs have found out another Answer and do generally expound this Rest of God to signifie only a cessation from the work of Creation for they say that although God doth continually work or operate or co-operate with his Creatures which are already made yet he doth not create or produce any new Creatures indeed he daily maketh individual or particular Creatures as Men Beasts Fishes Plants and Hearbs hut all these new productions are of the same Species i. e. sort and kind that God made at the first 1. In this Answer we observe two things First It is confessed that this Rest of God is not an absolute cessation from Work but only a cessation
the finger of God by the Prophets by Christ and by the Apostles were they at first created I suppose No. The blind man when he received sight told the Pharisees to their face which they could not deny John 9. 32. Since the world began was it not heard that any man opened the eyes of one that was born blind 6. What can be said against the newness of Monsters or of mixt Creatures such as Leopards and Mules c. which now are extant but were not so at first created 7. It is said Jer. 31. 22. The Lord Movi coeli terra extractio Movi Adami generatio miracula morbi novi non sunt opera primae extractionis Mart. Borrhai in Gen. 2. in verbum Requievit hath created a new thing on the Earth a VVoman shall compasse a Man Which is meant of Christ to be conceived in the Womb of the Virgin-Mother which was a new thing indeed and a peculiar Signal mark to know the Messiah by 8. The same Creator professeth Isaiah 65. 17. Behold I create new Heavens and a new Earth If you say it is meant but of a new State or condition of the Church under the Gospel I say so too But this new State or condition is not nothing it is not such as it was before and is new So is the creating of a clean or new heart Psalm 51. 10. it is a work of Regeneration or re-Creation and better to us than the Creation thereof 9. The same Creator professeth Isaiah 57. 19. I create the fruit of the lips therefore the holy Apostolical Eloquence with all the excellencies of Rhetorick and Languages and Arts are the Works of God which are not reckoned among the Works of the first Creation and this is confirmed by Christ himself when he said Matth. 10. 19. Dabitur in illa hora And by that which others said of him John 7. 46. Never man spake like this man And all those new Languages at Babel were of Gods creating Gen. 11. Our Answer to this first Querie for present shall be but only Negative because our Discourse is not yet ripe for a full positive Answer viz. That this Rest of God doth not signifie only his cessation from creating the World And moreover we affirm That although God had made more such Worlds as a Diog. Laert. in Epicuro Epicurus thought or if he had made innumerable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Worlds of meer Creatures as b Plut. de Placitiâ— Philos l. 2. c. 1. Democritus in Plutarch said yet all such Worlds would not be of value and worth sufficient to procure this Mysterious Rest and complacency of the Almighty Creator But I proceed to the second Querie CHAP. XI That the Rest of God is fixed on the Seventh day only although he intermitted creation for some time in every former day That his Rest did not consist in any meer Creature Of the Rest of God before the Creation That God performed part of the Creation on the Seventh day and what that was Jewish fables concerning the creation of Adam and Eve A short Answer to the second Querie OUr second Querie is Why God is said to Rest on the Seventh day and not on any of 2 Querie the former six dayes There is surely something more then ordinary implied in this Rest of the Godhead more then the bare Letter expresseth and more then a meer cessation from the work of Creation because this Rest is fixed and appropriated to the Seventh day only and not said at all of any of the former six dayes wherein God did both create and also cease by some pause or respite from creation which interval is by us Mortals called a Rest as the labouring-man at Mid-day is permitted to take some small time for sleep or rest and therein intermitteth his work Doubtless God did not bestow the whole compass of each several day with its evening and morning in a continual creation or forming of his several Creatures for each of them were created by the Will or Word of God which might be in a moment The Psalmist saith By the Word of the Lord were the Heavens Ps 39. 6 9 made and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth for he spake and it was done It is not likely that this word or breath of God was produced to the length of each whole day but that there was some respite and some time of cessation between the Acts of creating the several Creatures each several day yet this respite of God is never called his Rest until the Seventh day That there was a respite we read that Adam was first formed 1 Tim. 2. 13. then Eve It is also very considerable That although it is said Exod. 20. 11. In six dayes the Lord made Heaven and Earth the Sea and all that in them is Whereby it appeareth that all the Creatures were made as the Angels of Heaven the Fowls of the Air and Man Beasts Plants Fishes of the Earth and Sea Notwithstanding God is not yet said to Rest on this sixth day Surely this Rest of God consisteth in something else besides these it seems he rested not in any or all these meer Creatures but in something that was more noble and worthy of this great honour of being the Acquiescence or Rest of the Godhead But what shall we say of the pre-existence of God before the Creation and the infiniteness and eternity thereof before all times when nothing was in being but only the pure Godhead in the three eternal Persons when neither Heaven nor Earth nor Man nor Angels were created We cannot say or imagine that God was then without Rest for besides that He with-held himself from creating and from all external working we know that he was at Rest in himself in his own blessed contentment and all-sufficiencie needing nothing which Rest of God could not then be interrupted by any business or outward operation What the immanent or internal Actions of the Godhead were then we know but little and that only which the holy Apostles have taught us in whom we read of the eternal purpose of God to oâ—dain Christ before the foundation of 1 Pet. 1. 20. Eph. 1. 4 2 Tim. 1. 9. Tit. 1. 2. the world and of chusing us in him But we find no mention of any transient or external Works of the Godhead such as Divines call Operationes Dei ad extra and such as Creation is Yet in all that infinite and incomprehensible duration from Eternity it is never said that God Rested nor until this Seventh day Therefore this Rest of God consisteth in something else besides a cessation or suspension of working and also besides that blessed quiet and tranquillity which for ever was and is in the Godhead of which the heathen Philosophers rule is true h Nisi Quietum nihil Beaâ—um est i. e. God could not be happy if â— Tull de Nat. Deor. lib. 1. he were
firm estate upon his Children he will say that now he is at rest and quiet although he neither intermit his work nor personally enjoy that estate yet calleth his Childrens good his own even as God doth here call the rest of his Creatures his own Rest Of which more in the next Chapter CHAP. XVI That the Rest of Man is called Gods Rest shewed by other like passages in Scripture That Christ is called the Rest of God only because he is the Rest of Mankind An answer to the second Query above mentioned shewing Why God is said to Rest on the first Seventh day only and not before The Conclusion and St. Austin 's Judgment in this Doctrine of Gods Rest THere are many passages in Scripture concerning God which can in no wise be verified except we acknowledge this Doctrine That the properties of Man are there transferred and assumed by God and called his actions passions or dispositions as may thus appear Gen. 22. 12. It is said by God in the person of his Angel Now I know that thou fearest God seeing thou hast not with-held thy Son from me This God did know before but because by this grand trial God made both Abraham and others know it therefore it is said Now I know a Aug. de Gen. l. 4 c. 9 Quia nos cognoscere facit saith the Expositor i. e. God is said to know only because he now made man to know It is said of one Sabinus in Seneca b Sen. Ep. 27 Putabat se scire quod quisquam in domo suâ sciret so God accounteth the apprehension of his People to be his own knowledge Deut. 13. 3. The Lord your God proveth you to know whether you love the Lord your God Not as if God did not know before and without trial but because hereby Man might perceive whether he doth really love God Gen. 18. 21. God saith of Sodome I will go down now and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it if not I will know What need was there of this going down to see and know when God knew what was before and what would be after But only to convince the Sodomites by making them see and know their own wickedness in attempting that Sodomitical sin In the like sense also even Nescience or Ignorance is transferred on the Son of God as Mark 13. 32. But of that day knoweth no Mat. 24 36 man no not the Angels neither the Son but the Father only It were blasphemy to say absolutely that God the Son did not know it who is the same only God with the Father and is also called by the great Prophet The mighty God and The everlasting Father for every Person is the Father in respect of Isai 9. 6 all Creatures although only the first Person is the Father of the Son But when it is said Neither the Son the meaning is as St. Austin and other Expositors with him generally agree a Lib. 83 quaest quaest 60 Nescire filii est cum non prodit hominibus quod inutilitèr scirent And b De Gen. Cont. Manichae'os l. 1. c. 22 Quia discipulos nescientes reliquit Because Christ would not reveal the day of Judgment to his Disciples therefore he is said not to know it In this sense only it is that St. Hilary saith c Hil. de Trin. lib. 9. Luke 13 27 Mat 7. 23 Habemus nescientem Deum our God professeth to some I know you not For otherwise we say with Austin d Aug. Psal 10 1 Cor. 1. 24 Domine quid ignorabas Lord how is it possible that the Wisdome of God should not know all things so that God the Son is said not to know that day only because Men do not know it Isai 1. 24. God is represented by this Prophet as being disturbed of his Rest and Ease and saying Ah I will ease me of mine adversaries So the Psalmist speaketh Psalm 2. 4. and 37. 13. The Lord shall have them in derision The Lord shall laugh at him So Rom. 8. 26. The Spirit it self maketh intercession for us with groanings And Ephes 4. 30. Greive not the holy Spirit of God And 1 Thes 5. 19. Quench not the Spirit These sayings must needs be understood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as relating only to Man for God cannot In himself be eased Nor can the holy Spirit make intercession or be Mediator nor groan nor be greived nor quenched nor doth God deride or laugh Men to scorn But because holy Men in whom the Spirit of God dwelleth are disturbed and persecuted and greived and quenched therefore Gods Spirit is said to be so The groanings of the Spirit are the doleful Ejaculations of holy Men. The easing of God is the removing of Adversaries Oppressors and Persecutors of his People Gods laughing is the exposing of proud Tyrants to the scorn and derision of them over whom they have domineer'd just as the hunger and thirst and nakedness and imprisonment and persecution of the Members of Christ are said to be of Christ himself Mat 25. Acts 9. So the Rest or Sabbath of the Godhead must be meant only of that everlasting Sabbath which God in Christ hath ordained for his Servants The Psalmist saith The Lords Psal 147. 17 delight is in them that fear him Now because no delights or pleasures can possibly be added or new to the unspeakable blessedness of God therefore this delight must be understood of Men That Mans delight in God and his well-being in a course of godliness leading to the everlasting delights and joyes of Heaven is here called God's delight just so as mans Rest is called the Rest of God For we may not think that the Rest of God is confined limited or circumscribed in the single person of Christ for indeed Christ is not otherwise the Rest of God but only in consideration of us Men and in regard that in Christ the Sabbath or Rest of Men is included so that Christ cannot be the Rest of the Godhead but as he is looked on and considered as a Jesus or Saviour of Mankind and in this respect only it was said This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased The Reader may observe that it is not said With Whom as if the complacencie or acquiescence of God were only with the particular person of Christ but it is said In Whom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To signifie that in by and through him God would be at peace and well pleased with others even with all the Members of the most holy Jesus And indeed the whole Oeconomy and design of the Godhead in preparing the Messiah was only in the behalf of Mankind so the Prophet hath taught us Unto us a Child is born and unto us a Son is given Here is both Isai 9. 6 the Nativity and the Death of the Messiah given to us Then he is called The Prince of Peace This signifies that he was to be
Ter. And we often read of Alter tu and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Ille ego and Ego ille as if a man were another and not himself Just so the forenamed Father speaketh of God * Aug. in Joh. Tract 27. Domine repellis nos à te da nobis alterum te So we may often observe Pâ—eachers in their Prayers appealing from God to God when they mean from God as considered onely in his Court of Justice to the same God as sitting in his Temple of mercy which is onely Christ In like manner the great Apostle speaketh of God and of Christ severally as of two 2 Tim. 4. 1. I charge thee before God and the Lord Jesus Christ and this is usuall in Scripture †Act. 4. 2â— Rom. 1. 7. 1 Cor. 1. 3 Although we know that the Lord Jesus is that very same God But the Second Person in the Trinity is described in holy Writ as if he were distinct and different from himself and this is in regard of a two fold consideration of his Person First If we look on him and consider him onely in his pure Divinity then according to the Scriptures we call him The mighty Isa 9. 6. God the everlasting Father The Creator by whom all creatures were made God the Word God the Son And the eternall Son of the eternall Father And the Lord JEHOVA Of him it is said Thy throne O God is for ever and ever Secondly When we consider him together with his assumed Human Nature then we call him Messiah Christ God's Annointed Emmanuel The Word made fleâ—h God incâ—rnate God manifested in the flesh God in the likenesse of sinfull flesh In the form of a servant Made of a woman and The Son of man Which appellations cannot appertain to this Second â—erson but onely in respect of his Incarnation The Premises being acknowledg'd and granted these Mysteries will be discover'd 1. How God the Son is both the Creator of all creatures and also the Rest or Sabbath of the God head 2. How the Son of God may be truly said to Rest in himself 3. How the Rest it self is said to Rest in it self and the Sabbath in the Sabbath All which the Reader will understand by considering these few Aphorisms following which are deducible from those two Considerations of the Person of Jesus just now mentioned 1. The Son of God considered onely in his pure Divinity is the Lord and the Creator who is here said to Rest 2. The Son of God considered in respect onely of his Godhead cannot be truly called the Rest or Sabbath of God and Men. The reason is because the Sabbathship of this Son of God conâ—steth not in his pure Divinity for if so then this Sabbath which is fixed onely on the first seventh day must have been before and also from eternity But it consisteth in consideration of the human Nature assumed into personall union with the Divine Nature 3. The Son of God considered onely as incarnate or as the Son of man or as Christ cannot be called the Creator of the world The reason is because the Creation was performed by this Son of God before the foundation of his Incarnation was wholly laid as is shewed before or before he could be called the Son of man 4. The Son of God is and may be truly called the Rest or Sabbath of the same Son of God This Proposition is thus to be understood That God the Son or Word who is the onely eternall God did and still doth rest in himself so as is said in this Commandment but his so resting is onely in consideration of his Incarnation and as he is Emmanuel and not otherwise So that he is not to be called the Sabbath or Rest either of himself or of us men as he is onely the Son of the Father but as he is also the Son of his mother for in this consideration onely he is styled in his Types the Rest of the Godhead and the Resting place the Habitation the Temple the Delight and the well-beloved Son in whom God is well pleased or as Beza most judiciously rendreth those words in whom the Godhead doth acquiess as is before noted This is that Sabbath or Sabbatism of which the Apostle speaketh Heb. 4. 9. that there remaineth a Rest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the people of God The sum and conclusion is 1. The Son of God is the Creator even of the Son of man and of all the world 2. The Son of man is the Rest or Sabbath of the Son of God and of all holy men Rested the Seventh day In the whole History of the Creation we find mention but of seven daies and no more for all succeâ—ding daies are but the re-iteration of the first seven Of these seven the last onely is blessed and graced with the Rest of God and therefore preferred before the first day wherein Heaven was made and also before the sixth day wherein Man was created And this without any injury or slur to any of the former daies When the noble Generall The mistocles was twitted and repined at by some succeeding and inferiour Commanders because he only had the name glory of those Victories which had been obtained by their joynt-labours and valour the Generall answered them with this Apologue Once said he the working-day contended with the Holy-day for preheminence upon this reason that the Working-day by labours and molestations prepared all things ready for the solemnity but the Holy-day without labour onely rested in quietnesse and enjoyment of those labours The Holy-day replyed * Plut. Quaest Rom. Sed eâ—o nisi fuissem in nunquam esses i. e. Had it not been for the Holy-day Working-daies had not been at all His meaning was that without his wisdom and policy whom they accounted but as an idle Holy-day they had all been defeated captivated and utterly lost So is it here The seventh-day is therefore preferred before all other the former daies because it represented the great Creator of all daies and the Redeemer of the Man and the Woman and of all their posterity without whom no daies had been at all or if any had been yet without this Sabbath they had been to us but daies of misery and but wofull Parasceues against the day of wrath Whereas this mysterious Rom. 2. 5 Rom. 5. 9. Sabbath is he by whom we shall be saved from wrath Wherefore as all the elder sons of Jesse passed before the Prophet and not one of them was chosen to the honour of Unction that it might be reserved for the youngest even David so not one of the elder dayes is graced with the honour of God's Resting but that preferment is deservedly reserved for the last or youngest day which day did indeed signifie David yet not the literal or typical David but Christ the Son of David who is very often in Scripture expresly called David as Jer. 30. 9. Ezek. 34. 23. Hos 3. 5.
they are not fit to be imposed on Christians CHAP. III. Of Ceremonial Laws Why God expressed a dislike of them before they were abrogated Of the dissolving of them and particularly of the Sabbath by Christ Why Christ dissolved the Sabbath The judgment of the Fathers therein That it is now pernicious to Sabbatize as the Jews did and yet do That Christ appointed no new Sabbath-day instead of the old CHAP. IV. Of Laws Moral and why they are so called More of Sunday-Sabbatizing Of Origen and of his Christian Sabbath That Saturday was a Church-day for Sermons Sacraments and Scripture-Lessons and a Fasting-day long after Origen's time That Christians did more reverently keep Saturday then the Jews did that Sabbath That Sunday is not to be called Sabbath Why Easter-day was altered from the Jewish Paschal-day The Author 's reverent esteem of the Christian-Sunday CHAP. V. Of the fourth Commandment what part of it is Morall and what is Ceremonial Why a Ceremonial is taken into the ten Commandments Of the Memento and some other prerogatives proper to this fourth Commandment The excellent benefit of this Sabbath-Law Why it is placed in the midst of the Commandments How the whole Law by it is performable by men CHAP. VI. That Christ is the true Morall Sabbath Why he is concealed under the word Sabbath That the Scriptures do declare him to be the Sabbath The difference of the Lord of Sabbâ—oth and the Lord of the Sabbath Of that Sabbatism mentioned Heb. 4. 9. A passage of Isaiah and another of St. Paul applied to Christ's Sabbathship That Sabbath-breaking is not called a sin in the New Testament CHAP. VII The doctrine of the Primitive Church concerning the Sabbath shewed out of Tertullian and other Father How the Patriarks kept the Sabbath before the daies of Moses The doctrine of the Church herein The meaning of the Prayers at the rehear sing of the ten Commandments How the Law may be written in our hearts and how it is so performable CHAP. VIII That Christ is called a Day Why Christ and the seventh day are both called Sabbath The first institution for keeping holy the seventh day Why the first seventh day of the world is described without mention of evening and morning The Sabbath described by Philo the Jew That the Sabbath and Melchisedech were parallel types of Christ CHAP. IX The sanctifying of the Sabbath How thâ— Godhead is said to be sanctified How the human nature of Christ is sanctified Of the name of God That it signifies God himself That the name Jesus signifies the Person of Jesus How God sanctifieth us and how we sanctifie God How Christ being the Sabbath is to be sanctified or kept holy CHAP. X. Of God's Resting That it is not acessation from working Nor meant of his ending the Creation Nor of layiâ—â— aside his care and providence in Government That his Rest and Working do consist together Something concerning the Originall of human Souls Of Universalls what they are and where to be found A Question discoursed Whether God created any new kinds of Creatures since the first seventh day Two Queries propounded CHAP. XI That the Rest of God is fixed on the seventh day onely although he did intermit Creation for some time in every former day That his Rest did not consist in any meer creature Of the Rest of God before the Creation That God performed part of the Creation on the seventh day and what that was Jewish Fables concerning the creation of Adam and Eve CHAP. XII Why the Rest of God is not mentioned untill the seventh day Why it is fixed on the Creation of mankind rather than of any other of the Creatures Answers to certain Enquiries That the consideration of Christ to be propagated from the man and the woman was the onely cause of this expression of the Rest of God CHAP. XIII That the Rest of God consisted in his purpose of producing Christ is proved by Scripture and Reason Of the Image of God Why the Woman was taken out of the Man Of the union of Christ with Mankind That this union was shewed by Christ in the Sacramentall Bread and Wine That the Soul of Christ was derived or propagated from the first man Something concerning Universall Redemption CHAP. XIV Of Adam's solitude and something concerning Monastick life with the reasons thereof That the help by the Woman consisted not in respect of Society nor of Child-bearing simply considered but onely in respect of the propagation of Christ Of Child-bearing and that it is not salvificall without faith in Christ Of Good and Evill occasioned by the Woman Why she was called Vita or Life Why God permitted the Woman to occasion the Fall CHAP. XV. An Answer to the Question How God can be said to Rest That the Rest of God is onely in Christ and Why That the Tabernacle and Temple are called God's Resting place onely as they were figures of Christ That the Ark is called God's strength in the same respect That God's Rest in Sion is also meant of Christ That the union of God and Man in Christ was ordained onely in order to man's Salvation and everlasting Rest That man's Rest is called God's Rest Certain Conclusion concerning this Rest of God CHAP. XVI That the Rest of Man is called God's Rest is shewed by other like passages of Scripture That Christ is called the Rest of God Onely because he is the Rest of Mankind An Answer to the second Querie above mentioned viz. Why God is said to Rest onely on the first seventh day and not before The Conclusion of the Doctrine of God's Rest and St. Austin's judgement therein CHAP. XVII An exposition of the Ceremoniall part of the fourth Commandement begun That the six dayes labour is not a Precept but onely a Permission That the seventh day is called a Sabbath onely because it was a figure of the true Sabbath That the seventh-day-Sabbath was not changed by Christ to the eighth day but utterly dissolved That it was never instituted till the daies of Moses St. Jerom's translation and our English examined The Jewish Sabbath and Christian Festivalls compared Of works on the Jewish Sabbath That their corporall Rest was but a figure of our spirituall Rest in Christ CHAP. XVIII The Exposition continued Why the Woman is not here mentioned That sons or servants sinned not by working upon command The miseries of servants Why Cattle might not be wrought on Sabbath daies That strangers were not obliged to Sabbatize except they resided within the Jewish pale Why cattle are mentioned before strangers Why servants cattle and strangers are not mentioned at the beginning of this Law with the Memento That by these circumstances the seventh-day-Sabbath is proved to be meerly Ceremonial and Judaical CHAP. XIX The Exposition continued How God is said to have made all in six daies and yet that he ended not his work untill the seventh day Why the Creation was prolonged six daies Of the order of Creatures
from the very Creation of man or from that very time when God commanded man to abstain from the Tree of knowledg And yet in this Assertion I shall not in the least gainsay the Doctrine of those Ancient and most learned Fathers as a Iust dial cum Tryph. Tert. Adv. Iudaeos Euseb de Demonst lib 1. c. 6. Justin Martyr and Tertallian and Eusebius who tells us that neither Adam nor Enoch nor Noah nor Melchisdeck did ever Sabbatize And b Athanas in Synopst Athanasius also who affirmed very truely That the observation of the 7th day sabbath be an not untill the dayes of Moses All which I firmly beleeve to be true provided that we understand their Assertion in the same sense that they meant it viz of the hebdomary weekly or 7th day Sabbath which verily is not that Sabbath which is meant mysteriously implied in the fourth Commandment For the Sabbath which in the fourth commandment is required to be Sanctified is the true substantiall mysticall and eternall Sabbath which is the Son of God the Messiah the great Peace-maker even the Lord Jesus Christ of which true Sabbath the Jewish Leviticall Ceremoniall or seaventh-day Sabbath was but a meer shadow type or figure which shadow is now vanished as other legal shadows are such as Circumcision and Sacrifices both which were farr more ancient then the weekly Sabbath was whereas the Sabbath meant and intended commanded in this 4th commandement was in force and kept by all the holy Patriarks before Moses was born and before it was written in stone it was written in man's heart as all other Moral lawes were and it was and is to last untill the end of this world and in the next world also and not to be Antiquated at all as the seaventh-day Sabbath was and is For the Moral law which was written by the finger of God consisteth of ten Commandments just so many no more nor lesse which number the holy Scripture mentioneth Ex. Ex. 34. 2◠34. 28. Ten commandments or Decem verba Foederis Tenn words And so again Deut. 4. 13. Tenn words or Commandments And God wrote them on two Tables of Stone to signifie the durablenesse of them all and therefore the Moral Sabbath there meant must continue as long and as firmly as any of the other nine We must still have Ten Commandments which is the reason that St. Austin and generally all our Divines to this day call this Moral law Decalogum as consisting of Ten words or Commandments The same Father in his book intituled a Aug. Tom 3. Speculum reciting the Moral law out of Ex. 20. doth quite omit the fourth commandment which is of the Sabbath and this he did because 1. He knew that the Seaventh-day Sabbath was none of the Moral laws of God but that it is totally antiquated and expired 2. Because he perceived that men did mistake the meaning of the true Moral Sabbath by fixing the duety thereby required only on the keeping holy of a day whereas they should have known that the Sabbath there meant is only Christ So that by this misconceit men slighted the Substance and magnified the Shadow for the same Father had said before b Aug. epist 86. Judaeus si sabbatum observando Dominum negat c. i. e. If the Jew by observing his Sabbath day doth thereby deny that his Lord Messiah is come how can the Christian safely observe the Sabbath day And again in his 119. Epistle to c Epist 119. cap. 12. Januarius cap. 12. he thus writeth c. Praeceptum de Sabbato solùm figuratè praecipitur de requie quae in solo Deo certa invenitur-ergo non ad literam jubemur observare diemillum nam nisi aliam Spiritualem requiem significet lex ridenda judicatur i. e. The law of the Sabbath day is only figurative signifying that Sabbath or rest which is no where to be found sure and certain but only in our God Therefore we are not hereby to observe a day as it is literally set down for unlesse some other Spiritual rest be thereby meant that Sabbath law might seem ridiculous Thus he Upon the same reason Isychius of Jerusalem affirmeth That the sabbath day which the Jewes observe is none of the Ten Commandements although it was written among them for the Sabbath there meant signifies d Isych in Levit. lib. 7. c. 26. Requiem intelligibilem saith he i. e. not a Corporal but a spiritual or intelligible Rest which rest is only in our God He added that if we will take the words going before viz I am the Lord thy God that brought thee out of the land of Aegypt for one of the commandments we shall still have Tenn Indeed The mysterious Sabbath which is really meant and intended in the morality of the 4th Commandement is only that God which delivereth us out of not only Egyptian but also Hellish Slavery which deliverance is implied and couched in this word Sabbath so that we need not put out one of the commandments and in the room of it take in a new for preserving the number of of Ten for that number will be found therein without such chopping and we are offended with the Romanists for such practises about these commandments who to hide the second commandement which forbiddeth image-worship have in their Catechisms quite omitted it although it continueth perfectly in their Bibles and to supply the defect they have obtruded the fallacy of Composition in making but one Commandment of the two first And the fallacy of Division in making two of the last as is apparent in their books and particularly in Ledesma's dial p. 81. Ferus libell precat p. 59. 60. the Catechism of Jacobus Ledesma a Jesuite and also of Ferus CHAP. II. The word Sabbath That it signifieth Rest Of the Rest of God and the Rest of man Of our rest Corporal and Spirituall The diffferences of Sabbaths The severall sorts of Jewish lawes which command or enforce the Sabbath The Judicial lawes of the Jewes not fit to be imposed on Christian WHat this word Sabbath signifieth we are certified by two learned Jewes first a Philo. de cherubin Philo saith Sabbatum interpretatur Quies i. e. The interpretation of Sabbath is Rest With him b Ioseph Antiq. l. 1. c. 2. Josephus agreeth Sabbatum significatrequiem i. e. that it signifieth quiet or Rest With them our Christian writers generally consent as Eusebius Nazianzen Epiphanius Jerome Austin The Rest which is signified by this word Sabbath is 1 The Rest of God mentioned Gen. 2. 2. God rested on the 7th day from all his works And so again Ex. 20. 11. How the most blessed Godhead can be said to rest which never laboured or was weary we shall inquire hereafter Secondly The Rest of man and this Rest is of two Sorts First Rest Corporal by ceasing from worldly servile labours on the 7th day both himself his family and his poor beasts
put the appellation of Sabbath upon Christ for as the Son of God considered in his pure Divinity and without and before his incarnation is called The Lord of hosts Isa 1. 9. Jer. 11. 20. which in the New Testament is rendered The Lord of Sabaoth Rom. 9. 29 Jam. 5. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which word Sabaoth is by some Divines a Polan p. 140. affirmed to be one of the names of God So the Church of England accounteth it and ascribeth it to every one of the Three Persons in the Hymn singing Holy Holy Holy Lord God of Sabaoâ—h And so it was heretofore esteemed in this Kingdome as we perceive by an odd story of one of the Bishops of London reported by Bâ—shop Godwin out of Matthew Paris thus As this Bishop lay musing in his Bed he heard an unknown voyce saing to him O Gilberte Foliot Dumrevolvis tot tot Deus tuus est Astarot The Bishop presently and undantedly replyed Menâ—â—ris Daemon Deus meus est Deus Sabaoth If therfore the Lord of Sabaoth were the name of the Son of God before his commng in the flesh which name signifieth the Lord of Armies as if by this name it were signified that the Godhead was at defiance and warr with mankind before our Peace-maker appeared for us Then why should we doubt to affirm that The Lord of the Sabbath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mat. 12. 8. Mar. 2. 28. Lu. 6. 5. is the name of the same Son of God since he is become The Son of man and God incarnate and Emmanuel And this in order to be a person fitly prepared and qualified to perform the law for us and to suffer for our Transgressions as a Redeemer a Saviour and procurer of an everlasting Sabbath and Rest to our otherwise unquiet restless and troubled souls and consciences As also himself professeth Mat. 11. 28. Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you Rest And ye shall find Rest unto your souls Surely every good Christian will find that to be true which one said to the same purpose a Aug. confess Inquietum est Domine cor meum doneâ— requiescat in te i. e. My heart is unquiet O Lord until it may find rest in thee Now if that Sabbath mentioned in this Commandment be not meant of Christ then there is no precept in all the Decalogue of faith in Christ without which the Law is to us impossible we should be Restless And further also If that Sabbath do not signify Christ then have we Christians no Sabbath at all and if so what will become of us But we are assured by the great Apostle that although the Jewish Ceremonial Seaventh-day-Sabbath be quite gon yet Heb. 4. 9. There remaineth a Rest to the people of God This rest is there called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. a Sabbath or Sabbatism And that it may appear to what people of God this Sabbath appertaineth he tels us before Vers 3. We which have believed do enter into Rest Therefore this Sabbath or Rest belongeth to us Christians He further addeth vers 6 They to whom it was first preached entred not in because of unbeleif The Rest or Sabbath here mentioned must needs signify Christ The Jews are they to whom this rest was first preached that is to whom the Gospel of Christ was preached as Christ commanded Luk. 24. 47. to begin at Jeâ—usalem The Jews entred not into this Rest because of their unbelief i. e. they could not be received into the body mystical of Christ as members thereof because they did not believe in him but rejected him But the Apostles other faithfull Chrisians do enter into this Rest through faith as it is said We which have believed do enter that is they enter into Christ they are united with him thereby obtain this Râ—st so partake in the benefits which Christ merited by his most holy life and precious death And those benefits are indeâ—d our everlasting Sabbath For what can be so truly called a Rest and Sabbath as our repose resting in the Lord which leadeth us to an everlasting Sabbath in heaven For all our restings or Sabbatizings which are Earthly are but as dreams in respect of our Rest in Christ for he is that Sabbath whose Rest is called Blessedness and his after this mortal life is ended as we read Rev. 14. 13. Blessed are the dead which dy in the Lord-that they may rest from their labours The Apostle in that place Heb. 4. useth two several words for Rest 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Rest and Sabbath This he did because he was to speak of two several Rests 1. The Earthly Rest of the Israelites after they were put into quiet possession of Canaan by Joshuah who is there called Jesus 2. The everlasting Rest of Gods People by entring into Christ through Faith and this Rest is called Sabbatism so that Sabbath and Sabbatism do plainly signifie Christ and our Rest in him For confirmation hereof it is worth our observation That the great Prophet Isaiah c. 58. v. 12. speaketh of the Sabbath as of a Person If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath from doing thy pleasure on my holy-day and shalt honour him He calls the Sabbath Him which must signifie a Person and cannot be said of a meer Day Who is meant by this Him is declared in the next verse to be the Loâ—d for so it followeth Then shalt thou delight thy self in the Lord. So that the Sabbath here meant is the Lord even the same Lord who in the Gospel calls himself The Lord of the Sabbath whereas other typical Sabbaths whether weekly or annual were but signs of this grand Sabbath as we are taught by another great Prophet Ezek. 20. 12. I gaâ—e them my Sabbaths to be a sign between me and them that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctifie them St. Paul to me seemeth to make this Doctrine evident and past exception when he saith Col. 2. 16. Let no man judge you in meat or drink or in respect of an holy-day or of the new-moon or of the Sabbath-days which are a shadow of things to come but the body is of Christ What can be more plainly said then this to shew That Christ is the true real and substantial Sabbath And that all other Sabbaths are but signs types figures and meer shadows of Christ who is the Body that projecteth these shadows for God himself had so said before concerning the seventh day Sabbath which only is that type which is mentioned in this fourth Commandment Exod. 31. 13. Verily my Sabbath ye shall keep for it is a sign between me and you that ye may know that I am the Lord So this which was the principal and most frequent Sabbath of all was no more but a sign and what the signatum i. e. the signification of it was is shewed to
these thy Lawes in ouâ— hearts we beseech thee This prayer is grounded on the promise of God recorded both in the Prophets and also in the Gospel Jer. 31. 33. Heb. 18. 10. I will put my law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts If we enquire what that Law is and how God doth write it in our hearts and to what intent it is done The Answer is That this Law is Christ The putting or writing of it in our hearts is the mission of the Spirit of Jesus into us The intent or purpose thereof is that by a spiritual union of Christ with us we may fulfill the Law For because Christ and his Members are united by this Spirit and so become one mystical body therefore what Christ hath done in obedience to the Law must be accounted as our obedience and so imputed to us that because he hath performed the Law we also in him have performed it The Apostle tels us a 2 Cor. 13. 5. Jesus Christ is in you and b Gal. 2. 20. Christ liveth in me and c Eph. 3. 17. Christ may dwell in our hearts And Christ himself saith d Matth. 28 20. I am with you alway even unto the end of the world And the Apostle again e Gal. 3. 28. Ye are all one in Christ Jesus And that we may know that when we have the Spirit of Jesus in us then we have also the Lord Jesus himself in us Another Apostle tels us f 1 John 4. 13. Hereby know we that we dwell in him and he in us because he hath given us of his Spirit But how shall it appear That the putting of Christ into us is the putting of the Law of God into our hearts The Answer is That Christ is the Law there meant and he is called the Law and is really the Law * Moses is called by Phâ—lo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 much more is Christ so and not only so but he is moreover The Law with all advantages to us for he is the Law fulfilled That Christ is called the Law the Psalmist tels us a Psal 2. 7. Rom. 8. 2. I will preach the Law whereof the Lord hath said unto me Thou art mâ— Son Here the Son is called the Law or Precept of the Lord. Then that Christ is the Law fulfilled or the fufilling of the Law Of him it is said in another Psalm b Psal 40 10. Heb. 10. 7 In the volume of thy Book it is written of me that I should fulfill thy will O my God I am content to do it yea thy Law is within my heart And this Christ himself professed c Mat. 5. 17. I am not come to destroy but to fulfill the Law This also was signified by his Type the Ark wherein d Heb 9. 4 the Law was put for the Ark represented Christ and the Law in it signified that Christ should keep that Law and this he did perform only to our behoof that his obedience might be accounted ours Upon this reason only it is that the Apostle so confidently saith e Phil. 4. 13. I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me If he can do all things then he can do all the works of the Law But we are well assured that he could not in his own proper person alone considered perform the Law but it must needs be thus only performed by him in and through Christ And in this consideration only Christ is our Rest and Sabbath For this reason our Church prayeth that God would incline our hearts to keep this Sabbath-law which is Christ That by keeping him the whole Law of God may be kept by us through and in him so as is here expressed by having the Law thus written in our hearts Thus this Moral Law which as Divines acknowledge is altogether impossible to the Natural man especially as it is exegetically aggravated and heightened in the Gospel is by this Sabbath made possible and easie to the Matth. 5. Spiritual man so the Apostle tels us a Rom. 10 4. Christ is the end or perfect on of the Law for righteousness to every one that believeth that is He that believeth in Christ hath the benefit of performance of the Law brought home to him So St. Ambrose tels us b Ambr. in loc Perfectionem leg is habet qui credit in Christum CHAP. VIII That Christ is called a Day Why Christ and the seventh day are both called Sabbath The first Institution for keeping holy the seventh day Why the first seventh day of the World is described without Evening and Morning The Sabbath described by Philo Parallel'd with Melchisedech and both Types of Christ IF Jesus Christ be the only Sabbath which is mysteriously covered and spiritually meant and really and ultimately intended in the Moral part of this fourth Commandement as certainly he is because he only is our Redeemer our Mediator and the Peace-maker of God with man We must next enquire how this Sabbath if it be so understood can be called a Day as here it is Remember the Sabbath day for by this word Day a man may reasonably-imagine that the principal intendment of this Precept was only for the Celebration or Sanctifying of a day as the Jewes do yet think and many good Christians among us do still though erroneously believe although they agree not in the self same day with the Jews Their reason is because not only in this former part of the fourth Commandement which I have shewed to be a Morall Natural and an everlasting Law but also in the latter words annexed which are a part of the Law ceremonial and therefore but temporal and transient it is also said The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God by which words a man at first hearing would think that the Sabbath in both parts of this Law is nothing else but a day for if the seventh day be a Sabbath why may not the Sabbath be thought to be a Seventh day 1. Our Answer is That the seventh day is called a Sabbath because it was a type and figure of our true Sabbath and Rest which is Christ as the Jews corporal rest was but a figure of our spiritual rest in Christ And because it was so appointed for a figure or sign therefore it hath the name of the thing figured or signified thereby as other signs and types have for so the Paschal Lamb is called the Passover yet we know Christ only is the true Passover as the Apostle tels us 1 Cor. 5. 7. So the Rock is called Christ 1 Cor. 10. 4. So of the Eucharistical bread it is said This is my body though it was but a Sacrament or holy sign of the body of Christ And the seven Eares are seven Yeares Gen. 41. 26. Just so the seventh day is the Sabbath that is the sign type and figure of the mysterious Sabbath which is Christ 2. As the sign hath
Epitaph Bononiens p. 173. Hermaphroditus The truth is that the woman was then in Adam though but rough-cast as we use to say and not taken out of the mould not finished or polished For it is as easie to apprehend Eve to be then in the side of Adam as it is for us to believe and acknowledg that all we which now live were even then in the loines of Adam for which we have a strong Apostolical evidence Heb. 7. 10. Where it is said of Levi before he was born that he was in the loins of Abraham And so upon the same reason we were certainly with Levi and Ahraham in the loines of Adam So our Answer to this second Querie for present shall be only this That therefore God is not said to Rest until the seventh-day Because that until then the principal work was not finished in which alone the Rest of God consisted And what that is will now soon appear In the mean time I will lay this for my conclusion and for a Truth which I firmly beleive that the seventh-day or Ceremonial-Sabbath was not ordained by God for a memorial of the Creation of the world and all the meer Creatures thereof or for his ceasing from the work of Creation But for an Evangelical memorial of the Rest of God Of which we are next to enquire CHAP. XII Why the Rest of God is not mentioned until the seventh-day Why it is fixed on the Creation of Mankind rather than of any other of the creatures Answers to certain enquiries That the consideration of Christ to be propagated from the man and the woman was the only cause of this Rest of God IT may justly seem strange and wonderful that the most blessed most glorious and Almighty God who is Blessedness and Happiness it self and that so infinitely and incomprehensibly that it is impossible that any addition of happiness or rest can be added to him so as to make him more happy or more at Rest than he was from Eternity And yet so it is that God is here and now said to Rest and also to Rest so now as not before this seventh day Certainly this Rest must be occasioned by something that is External and Extra-essential to God And therefore it must be such a Rest or complacencie or acquiescence as the Godhead assumed and took in some special creature and yet not only in that creature considered singly and meerly in it self for it must be derived from some work of God unto which God intended some excellent beneficial addition of worth goodness by which consideration the Godhead was inclined to express a delight and chearfullness contentedness in it and for it in all the other creatures This as to me seemeth Moses darkly implyeth for he is yet vailed in these words Gen. 2. 2. He rested on the seventh day from al his work which he had made This Rest then seemeth to be occasioned from his work for it is not said that he rested in his work but occasionally from his work It followeth vers 3. God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created to make This sudden repetition of the Rest of God doth intimate something of greater moment and consideration than ordinary Good reader observe with me that in this later expression of God's resting there is much more implied than in the former for in the first it is said He rested from all his work which he had made But in the later it is said He rested from all his work which God created to make These words created to make signifie more than only a creation Our last English Translation reades this text created and made yet in the margin it is there confessed that according to the Hebrew it is to be read created to make which is indeed the true and farr better reading so both St. Hierome and our other masters in the holy tongue read it so doth the Latine of Sixtus and Clemens Quod creavit ut faceret i. e. which he created to make By which expression I humbly conceive that the holy Spirit doth secretly and mysteriously imply that this Rest of God consisteth in some creature newly made upon which the Godhead purposed to conferr some preferment and honour greater than the bare creation of it because it is said he created it to make so saith the Expositor upon those words creavit ut faceret a Martin Borrhaius in loc Ut ad certum usum pararet ac destinaret i. e. God rested from that work which he created that he might prepare and appoint it to a certain use So that To make must signifie that God intended to make some further and greater and more excellent use of that creature than it had of it self in it's own single and created nature and that he would effect some more glorious and gracious work by it which that creature of it self and by it's own power would never be able to perform Now what creaturâ— this is And what further use God intended to make of it And what prerogative of honour he would add to it we are diligently to enquire 1. We can not with reason and judgment fasten the occasion of this Rest of God upon any one particular creature but only upon the creation of Man for from the creation of Adam God did first take occasion to express a complacency and acquiescence or Rest 2. We may not think that this Rest of Goâ— was occasioned only by the creation of the first Adam considered singly by himself and as a 〈◊〉 creature without any further reach or consideration But it was indeed occasioned by a pre-consideration of the second Adam which is Christ who is stiled by St. Paul 1. Cor. 15. 45. The last Adam because whâ—â— Adam was made Christ also was made Christ as a creature in respect of his humane nature for as Eve was then Originally and Substantially in Adam's side as is before said So was Christ seminally in his Loines so that the consideration of Christ now wrapped up in this Root of Adam was that which occasioned the first hint of an expression of complacencie in the Godhead upon the Creation of the Man for thereupon that was said by God which was not said before upon the Creation of any one or of all his other Creatures and it is said with a note of Remarkableness Gen. 1. 31. Behold it was very good Indeed his other Creatures are said to be good but not any nor all said to be very good till now 3. Though Adam was now made and in him Christ was seminally couched yet it is not presently said that God Rested nor untill some other Act was performed by the Godhead For God is not said to Rest until Eve was taken and formed and finished out of Adam's side and this was not done until the Seventh day as is before shewed This was because Christ the Saviour of
WE are now come to the last but the greatest difficulty of this Sabbaticall Doctrine touching the Rest of God and to give some Answer to those two Queries mentioned before in the 10th Chapter First How God can be said to Rest who never laboured or was at unrest Secondly Why his Rest is fixed first on the seventh day of the world and not mentioned before or declared to have been from Eternity as certainly it was seeing this Rest was onely in consideration of the Messiah now secretly laid and couched in our first parents We may not think that this expression of the Rest Contentment or Complacency of God was occasioned onely by the newnesse of that work as man pleaseth himself in new apparell new fashions or new buildings This could not be the cause of God's Rest unto Whom all his intentions and works were known from Eternity and were all present to his Divine Providence with whom there is no futurity because whatsoever is future in respect of our human apprehension is ideally present to God In which respect the words of Solomon may be rightly understood There Eccles 1. 9 is no new thing under the Sun for nothing is new to the Godhead And the Apostles have declared that this very mystery in which as we have shewed the Rest of God consisteth is The eternall purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord. And That our Redemption Eph. 3. 11 1 Pet. 1. 18 19 20. with the pretious blood of Christ was fore-ordained before the foundation of the world And moreover That God hath also chosen us in him before the foundation of the Ephes 1 4. world This being undeniable we may wonder that this Rest of God is confined or limited to this one time and not mentioned before although it had been from everlasting To the first of those Queries our Answer is That the onely Rest or Sabbath of God is 1 Querie answered the Messiah because in the Obedience of Christ both active and passive the Godhead doth rest satisfied contented and well-pleased not onely with the proper and individuall person of Christ but also for and in him with all the holy Members of his Body mysticall being by faith united and One with him For therefore doth God rest in him because by him the whole Law was to be and now actually is performed so that all the duties debts and penalties which in justice are requirable of his servants are fully paid by Christ and thereby the just Godhead is satisfied to the uttermost farthing So that the Rest of God is in no wise to be ascribed to him in respect of any cessation from the work of Creation but onely in consideration of the acquiescence of God in Christ's satisfaction and thereby man's acquiescence or acquittance from the wrath of God That the Rest of the Godhead consisteth in Christ onely may appear by many passages in the Old Testament something obscurely and in the New more clearly for so we read in King Solomon's Prayer Arise O 2 Chron. 6. 41. Lord God into thy Resting-place thou and the Ark of thy strength This he said of the Temple at Jerusalem The like was said before by his father David of the Tabernacle Arise O Lord into thy Rest thou and the Ark of thy strength And the like was said Psal 132. 8 Numb 10. 35. before both by Moses Numb 10. 35. And it came to passe when the Ark set forward Moses said Rise up Lord and let them that hate thee flee before thee * God is gon up with a shout Ps 42. 5. was said of the Tabernacle and Ark Lyranus in loc Observe here good Reader that Moses calls the Ark Lord and that David and Solomon call the Tabernacle and Temple God's Rest and Resting-place These speeches must needs point at and signify Christ for therefore onely did Moses give the title of Lord to the Ark because it was the type and signall of his presence with his people And therefore onely did David and Solomon call the Tabernacle and Temple God's Rest because they were the figures and types of Christ's Body wherein the Godhead was to rest but the very substantiall Body of Christ was the reall and true Temple of God indeed so Christ said Destroy this Temple Joh. 2. 19. 21. But he spake of the Temple of his Body That the Ark was the figure or representative of Christ's Body we are taught by St. Jerom upon those words Thou and the Ark of thy strength a Hier. iâ— Psal 132. Tu corpus assumptum quo diviniâ—as tegebaâ—ur So doth St. Austin expound those words b Aug. in loc Corpus Christi quod ex Maria natum est i. e. The Ark signified that body which God the Son assumed of the Virgin Mary in which his Godhead was covered But the Resting place of God cannot be meant principally or ultimately of the typicall Temple for that is destroyed long ago nor of the Ark for that is also lost nor is the Godhead now hid in a Chest The true Resting-place of the Godhead is onely the human Nature of Christ in which it resteth and abideth for ever so as not to be separated from it all Of this residence of the Godhead John Baptist thus spake I knew him not but he Joh. 1. 33. that sent me the same said unto me Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending and remaining on him the same is he c. For Christ is he on whom the Divine Spirit or Godhead not onely descended but resteth and remaineth for ever The holy Psalmist in the place before mentioned saith For the Lord hath chosen Sion Psal 132. 13 14. he hath desired it for his habitation This is my rest for ever here will I dwell What was Sion literally but an Hill or Rock and how doth God dwell there Verily no otherwise than in any other common part of the world Nor can it truly be said to be his Rest for ever if literally understood because we are sure Sion is long since forsaken as was prophesyed by Isaiah Jeremy and Micah and that this Sion should be plowed as a field Which prophecy Jer. 26. 18 a Euseb de Demon. lib. 6. cap. 13. Eusebius saith he saw performed with his own eyes Which dereliction is thought to have been intimated by that strange voice which was heard in the Temple a little before the finall destruction thereof b Joseph n. 24. Heges n. 34 Euseb Hist lib. 3. cap. 5. Hieron n. 4 Let us depart hence of which speciall notice was taken by many Writers as Josephus Hegesippus Eusebiu and Jerom. But in Sion was the house of David and the Tabernacle and the Ark and the Temple also stood on a part of that great hill of Sion all being figures of Christ for this reason onely it was said of Sion This is my rest for ever because the everlasting Rest of the Godhead
was to be in the family posterity or Son of Mat. 1. 1. David and is him who was represented typified or prefigured by the Tabernacle Temple and Ark and that is onely in the Lord Jesus Christ And so Arnobius expounds that Prophecie c Arnob. iâ— Psal 131. Requies Dei in Jesu evidens est specialis in quo est arca This Rest of God is meant evidently of Jesus in whom especially was the Ark of God That which the great Prophet Isaiah saith of the progeny of Jesse may put us out of doubt that Jesus onely is the Sabbath or Rest of the Godhead Is 11. 1. There shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse and a branch shall grow out of his roots and the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him For from Jesse came David from David came Christ and upon Christ doth the Divine Spirit or Godhead for ever rest And this Rest of the Godhead is the very same thing which was signified by that heavenly voice of God the Father uttered more then once in the Gospell This is my beloved Son in whom I am Mat. 3. 1 17. 5. Beza in Math. 3. 17. well pleased which Beza most pertinently and for weighty reasons renders In quo acquiesco i. e. In whom the Godhead doth acquiesce or is at rest For if God were not well pleased and satisfied and at rest with mankind by Christ the expostulation of the Psalmist might with trembling be taken up by us all Wherefore hast thou made all men Ps 89. 46. for nought If it be here said that this Rest of the Godhead in Christ may possibly signifie the continuall and sempiternall mansion conjunction and union of God and man in Christ So that by these two ingrediâ—nts of Godhead and Manhood thus joyned one Hypostatical or Personall union is made whereby God and Man are become one Person and shall so rest inseparably for ever To this we answer and affirm that all the said allegation is true and that Christ may rightly be called the Rest of God in consideration of the everlasting union of the Godhead with the human nature of Christ But withall we say that there is more to be considered in this Rest than onely a meer union of God with man For we must further enquire Why it pleased the Almighty Godhead to condescend to this abasement and Exinanition so as to be personally united with a creature and to be in the form of a servant whereby the mighty God in the person of the Son became mortall and subject to all the infirmities of mankind except sin and even death also By the serious meditation hereof we shall find that the finall cause or motive of this union of the Godhead with our human nature was not intended or effected for any rest contentment or complacency of the Godhead for it self because God in respect onely of himself did not stand in need of any such Rest oâ— he had from eternity all possible blessednesse rest and Ineffable happinesse and so would have had everlastingly although neither Man nor Angel nor the World had been creaâ—ed or although God the Son or Word had never been incarnate Therefore it must needs be granted that the Incarnation was designed by God for the rest and benefit not of God but of mankind as we are excellently taught by * Atha ser 3 cont Ariâ—n Athanasius that God the Son had never been ordained to become Emmanuel or Incarnate if Mans necessity for Redemption had not wanted and necessarily required it Thus he It being thus evident that this Rest of God is not called a Rest in respect of himself but only in respect of that Rest which by his goodnesse and mercy he hath ordained for his poor Creatures It must needs follow that God calleth that his Rest which is indeed not only principally but solely the Rest of Mankind For our Lord Jesus the Emmanuel is therefore the Rest or Sabbath of the Godhead because he is the Rest or Sabbath of us Men in whom and through whom only our otherwise languishing and fainting souls may find consolation rest and refreshment he is the only solid hope and Sabbath upon whom we can depend and rest and expect and hope for an eternall Rest for in and by him only the offended Godhead is reconcileable so as to be at peace and Atonement with Man and to rest satisfied or well pleased as the Angels sang at his Nativity Glory be to God and on Earth peace Good will towards Men Or as Beza more truly reads it To Men Beza in Luk. 2 of good will 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is To Men designed by Gods free Grace and good pleasure From these premises I infer the 4 conclusions following which I offer to the consideration of the Christian Reader and do here set them down that in this Doctrine of the Sabbath I may be rightly and plainly understood First That Christ is that only Sabbath or Rest both of God and Man which is mentioned and meant in the fourth Commandement and also in Gen. 2. 2. Secondly That Christ is therefore called the Rest of God because God hath in mercy ordained him to be the Rest for Mankind Thirdly That God cannot otherwise be said to Rest in Christ for our good but only because all faithful and holy Men do set up their Rest in Christ Fourthly That the Rest of God here meant consisteth only in the Rest of Man and that God calleth that his Rest which indeed is primarily and properly Mans Rest The Rest of God cannot be meant of any new rest in respect of himself only because it is impossible that any increase or access can be added to infiniteness such as is the blessed eternal and unspeakable Rest of the Godhead Therefore there must needs be some other external respect in which God is said to rest otherwise than before and that surely is the Rest which he hath procured for Man which God calleth his own Rest The holy Scriptures do very often ascribe the passions or affections of Men unto God as when God is said to repent to be angry to be greived and vexed and displeased although we are sure that no such changes can consist with the immutable Godhead for the same Scripture that saith in one place It repented Gen. 6. 6. 1 Sam. 15. 29 the Lord In another place saith The strength of Israel will not lie nor repent Therefore such speeches are but Anthropo-pathetical or after the manner of Men as a Man puls down an house which himself built because he is angry or displeased with it so God in justice destroyes some Creatures which himself made yet God is not angry but because he doth such a thing as Man in Anger doth therefore he is said to be angry Just so the Rest which is only in Man is here for the like reason called Gods Rest As when a provident Father hath settled a good and
Lord with Trumpets and Cymbals and Ezra 3 10 11 Songs So they did before at the Dedication of Solomon's Temple The Levites aâ—ayed in 2 Chron. 5. 12 13 white linnen singing with Cymbals Psalteries and Harpâ— and an hundred and twenty Priests sounding with Trumpets and saying For his Mercy endureth for ever This custome was also continued by the Christians in their Encaenia or Dedication of their holy Edifices as the Fathers and Church-Histories do very often report The most noble and most holy Edifice in the World is the Church Whereof God himself is the Builder The Materials of it are the Son of God together with all his holy Members Therefore when Christ who is the first stone and foundation of this Church was first laid in the Earth that is in our first Parents just then it pleased the Divine Founder to express a joy and complacencie therein under the notion of Rest as it is said God Rested And in another place Exod. 31. 39. He was refreshed And this was done only to signifie the Love and Goodness of God to Man for whom he had now actually begun a certain Rest Ease and Refreshment which the Godhead for it self needed not Then again at the Nativity of Christ when this building was raised for that gracious purpose of Mans Salvation it pleased the Godhead to send a whole Quire of Heavenly Levites to sing Glory to God on high And at the Dedication thereof at his Baptism God the Father by a voice from Heaven declared Mat. 3. 17 his complacencie therein so that the joy of Angels and the Rest complacencie or acquiescence of the Godhead consisted only in Christ and in him for none other reason or respect but only because he brought Peace on Earth to men of good-will This is enough to the second Query The Conclusion of the Moral Sabbath THe summe of this Doctrine concerning the Rest or Sabbath of God consisteth in these two Propositions following 1. The Rest of God is only in consideration of Christ 2. Christ is called the Rest of God for none other reason but only because the merciful Godhead intended by him to procure and effect the everlasting Sabbath and Rest of of Man This Doctrine concerning the Sabbath which I have here delivered is not New nor of mine own invention I utterly disclaim all novellism and that which is now adayes but falsly called new light especially in so concerning and weighty matters of Religion for I have shewed before by many testimonies of the Fathers that this Doctrine is the same which by them was taught and believed in the Ancient Church and now again for a close I will sub joyn only the Testimony of St. Austin who surely was the most profound Theologue of them all who thus writeth upon those words Psal 132. 14. This is my Rest for ever a Aug. in Psal 131 Haec verba Dei sunt Requies mea ibi requiesco Fratres Quantum nos ana Deus ut quia nos requiestimus se dicat requiescere non enim ille aliquando turbatur aut sic requiescit sed ibi se dicit requiescere quia nos in illo requiem habebimus i. e. These words of God This is my Rest for ever are my Rest therein do I rest Brethren so great is the Love of God to us that because we rest in Christ God saith that he resteth for God is not at all disturbed nor can so rest yet he saith that he resteth there only because there in Christ we shall have our Rest The same Father upon those words God Resteth saith b De Gen. cont Man lib. 1 c. 22. Tom. 1 Significat Requiem nostram post bona opera And again c Epist 119. c. 10 Significat se daturum nobis requiem aeterndm And again God resteth d De Gen. ad lit lib. 4. c. 9. To. 3 Quia nos quiescere facit And again upon the same words Requievit Deus e De Civit. lib. 11. cap. 8 Deus fit Requies eorum qui in eo requiescunt per fidem That is When God is said to rest it signifieth only our Rest after our labour And That he will give us everlasting Rest And because he maketh us to Rest And because He is the Rest of all them that repose their trust in him Thus doth this learned Father most judiciously and truly expound this Sabbath or Rest of God This Doctrine which declareth the Lord Jesus to be the true and substantial Sabbath which is intended in the fourth Commandement because he only is the Rest both of the Godhead and also the only perfect and solid Rest of us Men if it be again re-admitted into the present Church as it was received and believed by the Fathers and the Church Primitive as is before shewed it will quit us from many doubts waverings and quarrels and will quench those Pen-Polemicks about Sabbatism which have of late disturbed the minds of many good Christians For by this Exposition we shall easily discern that Sabbath-Law to be still in force as much or rather more than any or all the other Nine And so we shall have still Ten Commandements and not only Nine as some have objected And that this Law is truly a Law Moral and Natural and written in our hearts For I beseech the Reader to consider what precept can possibly be imagined to be more naturally imprinted in mans heart than to sanctifie and reverence him who is our â—ll Of him the Psalmist saith Whom Psa 37. 25 have I in heaven but Thee and there is none upon eaâ—th that I desire besides Thee He is our God our Creator Preserver and Maintainer from whom we have our very being our life and motion And more than all this our Lord Jesus the Lord of the Sabbath or the Lâ—rd Sabbath is He that hath redeemed us from everlasting perdition and more also He only hath prepared for us and tendered to us if we will accept his offer the everlasting and unspeakable Sabbath Rest and joyes of Heaven This is that Sabbath which himself included in those general words representing the summe of the first Table of the Law Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all Lu. 10. 27 thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy strength and with all thy mind This multiplicity of words argues a weighty and most concerning Charge In this Faith I conclude and thus confidently proâ—ess That the Lord Jesus Christ is my only Sabbath In his Bosome do I repose my self All my hope and expectation of everlasting Rest is treasured up in him only And I trust I shall with faith and comfort on my death-bed say with the holy Psalmist I will lay me down in peace and take my rest for Psal 4. 6 it is thou Lord only that makest me dwell in safety Thus having as I trust retrived the most true and most ancient Sabbath I now close up this discourse with our
Church-prayer both in behalf of my self and others Lord Incline our hearts to keep this Law Amen Amen Thus much concerning the Sabbath Moral Next of the Sabbath Ceremonial Macrobius Saturnaliorum lib. 6. cap. 9. Quia seculum nostrum ab omni Bibliothecâ vetere descivit Multa ignoramus quae non laterent si Veterum lectio nobis esset familiaris A Discourse of the Jewish Hebdomarie or Ceremonial Sabbath wherein is contained an Exposition of the Later and Ceremoniall Part of the 4th Commandment CHAP. XVII An Exposition of the Ceremonial Part of the 4th Commandment begun That the 6 dayes labour is not a Precept but onely a Permission That the 7th day is called a Sabbath onely because it is a figure of the true Sabbath That the 7th day Sabbath was not changed by Christ to the 8th day but utterly dissolved That it was never instituted till the dayes of Moses St. Jerom 's Translation and our English compared The Jewish Sabbath and Christian Festivalls compared Of VVorks on the Jewish Sabbath That Corporall Rest was but the figure of our Rest in Christ HAving thus far proceeded in the search of the Sabbath Morall which is commanded in the fourth Precept of the Morall Law of God in these words Remember the Sabbath day to sanctifie it In the next place we are to consider the other words of that Law which we have declared to be meerly Typicall Ceremoniall and Temporall and obliging the Jews onely and not other Nations and to be now antiquated ever since the manifestation of the Son of God in the flesh Which ceremoniall part taketh up all the words of this Law except onely those few above mentioned the severall branches whereof we will now endeavour to expound as they are in order laid down Six dayes shalt thou labour and do all thy work 1. These words are no Command so as to require our labour all the other six dayes but they are onely a Permission by which the Jews were invited to a diligent and cheerfull celebration of their Sabbath in regard God had given them six dayes for their own occasions and reserved but one in the seven to himself when he might have left them but one in the seven which yet was not for any need that God had of it but onely for the benefit of his people just as be permitted all the Trees of Paradice to Adam except onely one Thus far Calvin and other Divines generally agree 2. For if these words were a Command to work all the other six dayes they would contradict other Laws whereby the Jews were commanded to Rest as at the Feast of the Passeover 〈◊〉 12. 16. and at Pentecost Levit. 23. 21. and at the Atonement Levit. 23. 28. at the Feast of Trumpets Levit. 23. 25. and at the feast of Tabernacles Levit. 23. 35. These Feasts did all depend upon the Moon and therefore might and did fall on any and every one of the other six dayes respectively 3. If this Law were Morall how could we Christians lawfully abstain from working on our Sundayes and Fasting-daies and daies of Thanksgiving and other Festivalls commanded by lawfull Authority It followeth But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God These words as I conceive are not rightly rendred by our English Translators of which we will enquire anon and for present take them as they are presented In what sense the seventh day is here said to be the Sabbath of the Lord our God we have shewed before namely That it is therefore called the Sabbath because it was appointed to be a ceremony and figure to represent to the Israelites the true and reall Sabbath or Rest in the Messiah So that it is called a Sabbath just as we call Pictures by the names of those things which they represent as the Painter in Aelian wrote over his pictures * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lib. 10 c. 10 This is an Ox this is an Horse this is a Tree So in Scripture the Ark is often called JEHOVA as †Catech. part 2. p. 45. Beza observeth the Altar is also so called Exod. 17. 15. and the Dove is called the Spirit Joh 1. 33. the seven Kin◠are seven years Gen. 41. and the Rock i◠Christ 1 Cor. 10. 4. For if the seventh day were the onely Sabbath intended in this Commandment we Christians should at this day be bound to keep it as much as the Jews were That Christ or the Apostles changed the seventh day to the eighth or Saturday to Sunday is often too boldly affirmed by our Sabbatarian Writers and too tamely swallowed by their followers which as yet they never have or ever can solidly prove But to say that Christ utterly dissolved the Ceremoniall or seventh-day Sabbath and yet left the true Sabbath unaltered to us which is our firm Rest in himself and that the Church first then Christian Magistrates also assumed another day even our Sunday instead of the Jewish seventh day for their holy Assemblies is true and easily proved although they never called this Sunday a Sabbath Nor can the Jewish seventh day possibly be that Morall Sabbath which is meant and intended in this fourth Commandment because it is here said The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God For we are well assured that the seventh day is not so to be accounted the Rest of God as if God ceased from his operation on every or on any one seventh day but his Rest was onely in consideration of the Saviour of Mankind because on the first seventh day of the world he formed the Woman as is before shewed and even then on that seventh day and ever since upon every seventh day he hath been operative in governing the world and co-operating with every creature therein without any intermission at all But he is said to rest on that seventh day because then our first parents were compleatly and fully finished and in them was laid the foundation of the future Church that is Christ who together with his holy Members was to be propagated joyntly from the Man and the Woman So that Christ onely was and is the Sabbath or Rest of God and men Upon this reason it was that the seventh day was long after sanctified or set apart for a day of bodily rest that thereby it might be a type figure and ceremoniall remembrance or commemoration of Christ the great and mysterious Sabbath Therefore the Seventh day and the Sabbath day are two distinct and severall things and differ as much as the shadow and the body or as Christ and the Lamb that is as much as Type and Anti-type For as the Lamb literally was not Christ but his figure so the seventh day literally considered was not the Sabbath here meant but typically the shadow or representation thereof Just so the Apostle saith of this seventh-day-Sabbath and of other such like ceremonies that they are a shadow of things to come but the body is Col. 2.
be of things indifferent onely or though against some Laws of God which are but meerly ceremoniall as working on the Jewish Sabbath was then servants must obey actively but if their commands be against the Morall Law of God the servant must in no wise perform his master's command nor obey him therein otherwise than passively by bearing his punishment patiently In this case we have Christ's own direction concerning parents He that loveth father or mother more Mat. 10. 37. Luk. 14. 26. than me is not worthy of me And If any man come to me and hate not his father and mother yea and his own life also he cannot be my disciple For although it is not lawfull in any case to hate the persons of our parents otherwise than we must hate or sleight our own lives or souls yet in obedience to God we may and must hate and detest their pernitious commands 4. If this seventh-day Sabbath had been in force from the first seventh day of the world as some have too hotly and unadvisedly affirmed and if the Israelites in their Aegyptian bondage had been thereby obliged to Sabbatize as they must have been if it had been a Morall Law they must have obeyed God rather than men notwithstanding the Aegyptian rigour towards them But surely they had never heard of such Sabbatizing untill they were delivered out of Aegypt For when they petitioned Pharaoh by Moses to have leave to go into the desart three daies journey to sacrifice Exod. 5. 3. it seemed but a pretence for idlenesse and much more would their weekly Sabbatizing have been accounted by him who never had heard of any such thing For surely neither Jacob nor Joseph nor any of those other Patriarks Sabbatized while they continued in Aegypt which they might have done at their first comming and also during the great authority of Joseph and also would if any such morall Law had been imposed on them Therefore if they had neglected their Exod. 5. 4. Bricks upon an allegation of Sabbatizing not onely the inferiour Israelites but even Moses himself and Aaron also had been relegated as one saith Plaut in Asin Apud Fustitudinas Ferri-crepinas insulas Ubi v. vos homines mortu◠incursant boves But in the Babylonish Captivity when this seventh day-Sabbath was actually in force although no doubt the captive Jews were commanded and forced and therefore did work on this seventh day yet they did not offend God thereby because that Law was but ceremoniall and so must give place to necessity and to the great inconvenience of force and stripes In that book intituled Quaestiones Vet. Novi Testamenti which goes under the name of St. Austin The Author very judiciously thus writeth a Aug. parte 2. quaest 23. To. 4. Quod semper non licet non habet excusationem Sabbatum non observare quand que excusationem habet sed Adulterium c. nunquam i. e. That which to do is alwayes unlawful cannot be excused from sin upon any colour whatsoever but the breaking of the Jewish Sabbath-day in some cases is excusable whereas the transgression of the Moral Lawes of God as by Idolatry Perjury Murder Adultery c. is not at all to be excused in any case Thus this Writer evidently sheweth that the Jewish Seventh-day Sabbath was none of the Moral Lawes of God 5. Finally Let it be considered that these words Thou thy Son Servant Cattel and Stranger are not placed at the beginning of this fourth Commandement as Remember is nor mentioned until the Moral part of this Law was described and finished But they are with great wisdome warily reserved to be put into the Ceremonial part thereof because they do not belong to the Moral Sabbath which commandeth the keeping holy or the sanctifying of the Messiah for Cattel cannot sanctifie this Moral Sabbath Nor was there any need of requiring Parents or Masters to cause their Sons or Servants so to do because the Son and Servant were by themselves bound to it and if they did not the sin was in themselves and not in the Parent or Master For the Moral Sabbath which is Christ the Messiah might be kept holy or sanctified by Servants even in the midst of their sorest labours As our Christian Martyrs did keep this Sabbath even in the time when they laboured in the Mettal-mines and also in the midst of flames and other agonies Whereas the Ceremonial or Seventh-day-Sabbath is here appointed to be kept by resting from ordinary works without any mention of any other kind of sanctification which not only Servants and the most ignorant Ideots but Cattel also might keep For so the Heathen Romans had a Festival which they called a Ovid. Fast l. 2. Festum Stultorum And at Syracusa in Sicilie there was a Festival called b Plut. in Nicia Dies Asinarius And among the Greeks a Ovid. Fast l. 2. Feast which they called c Athaeneus l. 3. Porcalia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And another they called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i e. The Feasts of Fools Asses Swine and Dogs So indeed the Jewish seventh-Seventh-day Rest or Sabbath was not only for Masters and Servants but also for Cattel as requiring only bodily Rest which therefore Bishop Andrews doubted not to call d B. Andr. Cat. on the 4th Com. Sabbatum Boum Asinorum In a word the Ceremonial Sabbath belonged not only to Men but to Cattel also who had their interest therein Therefore those words Servants and Cattel are joyntly placed in the ceremonial part of this Commandement and not in the morall part thereof with the Memento But the true Moral and Mysterious Sabbath which is Christ belongeth only to Mankind which the great Prophet doth therefore thus describe e Isa 58. 13. Si vocaveris Sabbatum Delicatum Sanctum Domini gloriosum glorificaveris eum i. e. If thou call the Sabbath a Delight the holy of the Lord Honourable and shalt honour him Here the Sabbath is described as a Person and not as only a day as is before observed And these Titles of Delight and Holy of the Lord and Honourable belong only to Christ who is indeed the only true reall and substantiall Sabbath both of God and Man The Stranger or Gentile includeth all other Nations besides the Jews even us Christians also and so the Jews at this day account us but as Gentiles and Strangers although the wall of partition between them and us is broken Eph. 2. 14. down But we Gentiles do at this day keep the true Moral Sabbath which is Christ so do not the Jews And the Jews keep the Saturday shadowie and ceremonial-Sabbath unseasonably now when it is out of date but so do not we Christians except there be any left among us that judaize CHAP. XIX The Exposition continued How God is said to have made all in six dayes and yet that he ended his Work on the Seventh day Why the Creation was
John saith The Word was with God and The Word Joh. 1. 1. was God Psal 104. 24. O Lord how manifold are thy works in wisdom hast thou made them all Who this Wisdom and Beginning and Word is by which all things were made the Gospell hath taught us that it is Christ who is not onely the Beginning and the Word as it is said but is also called The Wisdom of God 1 Cor. 1. 24. And All things were made by him Joh. 1. 3. and All things by him were created that are in heaven and that are in earth Col. 1. 16. The Jews in disparagement of Christ Maâ— 6. 3. Matth. 13 55. called him both a Carpenter and the son of a Carpenter so did Celsus in a Cont. Cels lib. 6. Origen and b Theod. hist. lib. 3. cap. 23. Julian the impious and apostate Emperour Justin Martyr doth indeed affirm that Christ on earth was literally a Carpenter and did make ploughs and yokes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Iustin Dial. cum Tryph. Ambr. Ser. 10. but withall both St. Ambrose and St. Austin tell us That he was also that Carpenter that built Heaven and this mighty fabrick of the world Finally because this Son of God Aug. de Temp. Ser. 3â— was both the Creator and also the Sabbath both of God and Men therefore for the sanctifying of him this Motive is here mentioned of making heaven and earth And rested the seventh day Touching this Rest of God what it was and why it is fixed on the seventh day we have said much a Chapter 10 11 12 13 15 1â— before and something more must be added which will be more fit to be discoursed in the next that this Chapter may not swell too big CHAP. XX. The Exposition continued That all the Divine Persons concurred in Creating Resting Blessing and Sanctifying How the Son of God or Second Person is the Rest and Sabbath of the same Son of God How he resteth in himself Of the divers considerations of God the Son in respect of Godhead and Manhood and his severall Appellations respectfully Why the seventh day was preferred above the former six That the Ceremoniall Sabbath was for the memoriall of the Resting and not of the Working of God And Rested the seventh day THe more literall and exact reading of these words is And rested on the seventh day for thus St. Jerom renders them Requievit die septimo and the Clementine-Edition In die septimo For it was not the day that was considered by the Godhead but something that was performed on that day that occasioned this Rest which if it had been so done on any other of the former six daies certainly it would have been said of that day as it is of this that God rested on it What that thing was we have shewed before at large namely that it was in consideration of the Messiah or Christ It would now be enquired what is meant by The Lord who is here said to have made heaven and earth and to blesse and sanctifie the Sabbath day whether it be meant of the Person of the Father onely or of the Person of the Son or of the Person of the Holy Spirit or of all of them because all and every one of them is the Lord and the Creator and the Sanctifier Of the Father no man doubteth and of the Son we have proved before and of the holy Ghost holy Job saith By Job 26. 13 his Spirit he hath garnished the heavens and the Psalmist also Thou sendest forth thy Spirit Ps 104 30 and they are created and the Church at the opening of Councils used to sing that Hymn in St. Ambrose which beginneth a Inter Hymnos Ambros To. 5. Veni Creator Spiritus For when our Vulgar Catechisms ascribe Creation to the Father and Redemption to the Son and Sanctification to the holy Ghost we are not so to understand them as if these actions were of each severall person or as if the Father had no interest in our Redemption or Sanctification nor the Son or Spirit in Creation far be it from us to think so But we believe that the whole Godhead and every Person therein did joyntly co-operate in all these acts Indeed the Father created but it was in and by the Son and both by the holy Ghost So the Son Redeemed but it was from the Father and by the Spirit So the holy Ghost Sanctifieth but he doth it from the Father and the Son So also in this place the Rest of God is not to be accounted the Rest of one single Person onely but of the whole Godhead and of every one of the Three most holy Persons therein If it be now granted that the Son of God is this Lord and Creator that made heaven and eaâ—th and He that is here said to Rest and also He that is the onely Rest and Sabbath both of God and of us Men which we have proved before then it must follow that the Rest it self is here said to Rest and the Sabbath it self to rest in the Sabbath and the Son of God must be the Sabbath of the same Son of God Which at our first hearing may seem to be a violent Exposition which yet is not so as will presently appear The Reader may easily apprehend that although God is entirely One yet he is often represented to us under diverse and severall notions and capacities as if he were not the One and the same God for so this Son of God who is the onely God is set forth in Scripture and is so by us to be apprehended and believed as Immortaâ—l and yet mortall as the Mâ—ker of all things and yet made that he was from Eternity and yet born in time the Father of all men and yet the Son of man the Creator of his Mother and yet her Son All these speeches are true of this Son of God considered in his severall and respective capacities neither ought they to seem incredible or strange because we find the like diversities in one and the same Man One in Plutarch said openly to a King sitting in judicature a Plâ—t in Apoph Provoco à Philippo ad Philâ—ppum I appeal from King Philip to King Philip but in another temper So Nazianzen representeth the same person both as a Judge and as one arraigned b Naz. Eâ—ist 79. Te accuso apud te justum judicem So doth St. Ambrose to one as if he were both Client and Counsellor c Ambr. Ser. 64. Stulto consiliario usus es teipso Upon these words Psal 140. 1. Deliver me O Lord from the evill man St. Austin saith d Aug. Hom 29. de Temp. Ser. 233. à te â—e liberat i. e. God doth deliver a man from himself And upon those words Deliver us from evill he saith Deus te liberat à teipso malo We have a Proverb that a man is his own neighbour c Proximus egomet mihi
In a word he that understands in what particular thing the Rest of God consisteth may by the same easily apprehend why it is fixed on this seventh day Wherefore the Lord blessed c. That which our English readeth Wherefore St. Jerom and the Latines generally read Therefore idcircò From which word we observe that the Judaicall or Ceremoniall Sabbath was not appointed in consideration of the work of Creation or that men should on that day contemplate and meditate onely on the creatures of the world although those wonderfull works are also right worthy of our serious consideration and should be a great motive to incite us to glorisie the Almighty Creator but it was principally ordained to put both the Jews and us Christians also in mind of the Rest of God and to move us all to consider in what this Rest consisteth which doth far more concern us and our happinesse than all the world without it because otherwise neither the world nor any creatures therein nor the perfect knowledge by our Studies and Arts of all the excellencies and secrets thereof can bring us to that everlasting Rest which was but typically figured by this Ceremoniall Sabbath For What is a man profited if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul Mat. 16. 26. Now that this Wherefore or Therefore relateth to the Rest of God and not to his creating of the world we are expresly taught by Moses who tells us That God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because that in it he had rested from all his works So that the Gen. 2. 3. Rest of man on that day was afterwards enacted by a Law for a memoriall of the Resting and not of the Working of God Concerning the blessing and sanctifying whereof we are next to enquire CHAP. XXI The Exposition concluded The meaning of blessing and hallowing the Sabbath day The difference of hallowing God's Name and hallowing of Creatures and of the differences of Holiness When the Seventh day was first hallowed and how it was dis-hallowed Something of Sacrilege How the Prophets spake truly of things to come as if they had been past Of the Prophetical figure called Anticipation with Rules and Examples thereof applied to this Sabbath The Lord blessed the Sabbath day or Seventh day THe Leiturgie of the Church of England readeth the Seventh day but the Original hath the Sabbath day Both are read indifferently as Gen. 2. 3. hath the Seventh day and so have some of the other languages in this Commandement as appeareth in the late incomparable and renowned work of our new Great Bible Indeed both are one in this place For the Sabbath Ceremonial is but the Seventh day and the Seventh day only is that Sabbath which is here meant it being but a Sabbath Typical Blessed the Sabbath day To blesse Benedicere is to speak some good of it as in the Leiturgie of St Basil this Prayer is found a Basil n. 2 Domine loquere bonum in cor Regis pro Ecclesia tua When God blesseth he conferreth some favour or special priviledge as here on the Sabbath day such as it was capable of and in order to that purpose for which it was blessed which was to signifie Man's Rest in Christ The blessing of a Day is not like his blessing of a Man on whom by blessing he doth effectually conferre something that is beneficial to him as spirituall Graces or temporal Favours as in Children Lands Cattel Basket and Store mentioned Deut. 28. and as Isaac blessed his Sons with the dew of Heaven and fatnesse of the Earth But the Sabbath being uncapable of such benedictions the blessing of it must consist in such respects as these 1. God chose that day for his own Mysterious Rest 2. He appointed that day only and not any of the other six to be for a memorial to his people of the grand blessing of their Rest in Christ 3. He ordained it for a corporal rest both for Men and Cattel 4. He gave most strict command upon pain of capital punishment for the keeping thereof 5. He appointed larger Sacrifices on that day than on the former dayes 6. He appointed a larger portion of Manna on the Parasceue as a provision for the Sabbath 7. He appointed this holy day to be weekly that is two and fifty times in the year whereas other Festivals except new-Moons were but once These or such like are the blessings thereof And hallowed it Hallowed is holied or sanctified The meaning is that God designed it to be an holy or hallowed day To be an hallowed or sanctified day is to be divided separated or distinguished from other common dayes by way of preferment honour and preheminence and to be set apart so as that work which might lawfully have been done on that day before it was hallowed might not be done on it after the hallowing thereof We read of hallowed or holy oyl holy vessels holy vestments and holy places which might not be used or applied to any other service but that only for which they were hallowed and destinated So this hallowed day was not to be imployed in common works as other unhallowed dayes were for that would have been a profanation thereof but it was wholly to be bestowed and spent in the service of God the Sanctifier by the serious and thankful consideration of that blessed Rest which he had procured and designed for Man And this hallowed use was to continue from the first institution thereof untill the period and repealing of it by the same God who hallowed it Which was performed evidently by Jesus Christ who is the same God which did sanctifie it and this he did not untill God had actually and visibly exhibited in the â—lesh the reall and substantial accomplishment of that Typical Ceremonial and Temporary Sabbath in the Person of the said Lord Jesus But yet during the vigour and continuance of this hallowing the Sabbath day was not altogether and absolutely quitted from all manner of working We know the Priests did then work hard and Souldiers marched and other works were lawfully done the reason was because this Sabbatical Hallowing was but meerly figurative and ceremonial and therefore dispensable in case of pressing necessity and charitable accommodation toward our brethren and in duty to God and also because such workings are commanded by a Superiour Law even the Moral Law of God whereby we are required To love the Lord our God with all our heart and our neighbour as our self This Law hath been in force ever since the Creation was finished and so shall continue until the end of the World but the hallowing of the Seventh day was neither from the beginning nor was it to last to the end of the World being but Ceremonial and Temporary and therefore ought to give place to the Law Moral We find Hallowing or Holiness applied diversly to several things and for divers considerations First There is an Holiness Essential which is only
hallowing the weekly Seventh-day Sabbath If it be here urged That Mâ—ses expresly writeth in the history of the first Seventh day That God blessed he Seventh daâ— and halâ—owâ—d or sanct fiâ—d it Therefore if it were hallowed so early how can we truly affirm that it was not hallowed untill four and twenty hundred years after To this we say although it hath been most solidly answered before by a right worthy and learned Writer a Hist of the Sabbath That Moses doth not write that God hallowed it â—hen and on that very first Seventh day nor doth he there shew when it was hallowed but only why God did chuse thâ— Seventh day in after-times to hallow or sanctifie it and none other of the six The words of Moses may well justifie this Exposition for thus we read God blessed and sanctiâ—iâ—d it because in it he had rested Had rested â—ignifies the time not present but past So the meaning is That because God had formerly rested on the first Seventh daâ— herefore afterwards when he had drawn his people together out of Egypt he chose and preferred that day above the other daies and commanded them to keep it holy If it be further pressed that even in this fourth Commandment the words of Blessing and Halâ—owing are delivered in a Tense which signifieth the â—ime-past as Benedixâ—t and Sanctificavit that is He hath blessed and sanctified Which words do indeed relate to a former hallowing thereof before the giving of the Law And if so Why may they not point to the hallowing on the first seventh day To this we answer and grant that the Hallowing here signifieth the time past for otherwise it would have been said He blesseth and halloweth in the presenttense But this Past or former â—ime referreth us onely to that time when the Sabbath day was first actually and declaratively hallowed or set apart and was no further off than the time of the falling of Manna So we read Exod. 16. This is that which the Lord hath said To morrow Exod. 16. 13. is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord. And vers 29. See the Lord hath given you the Sabbath So the people rested on the seventh day This is the first seventh-day-Sabbath that ever was ordained by God and made known unto his People But let it be supposed and granted that the seventh-day-Sabbath was blessed and hallowed on the first seventh day of the world as we read Gen. 2. 3. yet that Hallowing will noâ— gain-say our assertion For the better understanding whereof I will here set down two Propositions to be examined which at first will seem opposite one to the other and yet will both prove true 1. The seventh day was hallowed in the beginning in the daies of Adam 2. The seventh day was not hallowed untill the daies of Moses Concerning the first The seventh day was hallowed in the daiâ—s of Adam If Moses had said that God hallowed the seventh day not onely in Adam's time but also before the Creation and from Eternity he had said nothing but the truth But this hallowing was secret in the Divine Mind onely in God's Decree and Purpose in his Counsell Providence Predestination and good Pleasure For whatsoever God hath done before these daies or now doth or shall do hereafter were all present to him from eternity for to him Was Is and To come are but as one moment All things and times were present to him from everlasting So that in consideration of this Decree we say that the seventh day was hallowed before the daies of Moses and also before the daies of Adam Just as we may also truly affirm that the world was in Beeing before the actuall Creation thereof But this Beeing is to be understood onely of the Idea in the Divine Mâ—nd and so is this early hallowing of the seventh day And this is really true and may be affirmed in plain down-right speech without any Rhetoricall figure To the second Proposition that The seventh day was not hallowed till the daies of Moses this is to be understood in respect of the actuall performance and execution of the aforesaid Decree and of the patefaction manifestation or declaration thereof The hallowing was Praescitum but not Praestitum The Pre-science of God was before man's Cognisance God's hallowing by his Decree was from Eâ—eâ—nity but the execution and actuall effect thereof was afterwards in â—ime even in the time of Moses and not before It must needs be granted that the world and all its creatures had some kind of Beeing before their actuall creation because the Scripture thus teacheth us Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world Act. 15. 18 yet then most particulars were unmade And The Lord knoweth who are his surely he knew 2 Tim. 2. 19. them before they were actually made And He hath chosen us in him in Christ before the foundation of the world every one knows Eph. 1. 4. that Eâ—ection was before Creation We read also of the Purpose of God and of grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before the 2 Tim. 1. 9 world began These truths cannot otherwise be understood but onely in consideration of the Beeing of Creatures in the Idea or Divine Mind before their existence in Nature Tertullian saith * Tert. Advers Prax. p. 38â— Ante omnia Deâ—s eraâ— solus qâ—ia nihiâ— extrinsecus praeter illâ—m The Schoolmen have also taught us these Maxims Non entis nâ—lla est scientia And Non ens non intelligitur And In Dâ—o sâ—nt omnia Therefore because neither the Knowledge of God nor his Election nor his Giving grace can be said of Non entities and meer nothings it will follow that these known and chosen objects and sâ—bjects of grace had a beeing before their actuall creation and this Beeing must be onely in the same Knower and Chooser and that is God If it be enquired why Moses mentioneth this Hallowing so early seeing it was not declaratively enacted till so laâ—e as is said To this we answer That there was great and weighty reason why he did so Because the true and â—eall Sâ—bbath whereof the seventh-day-Sabbath was but a figure is indeed the greatest and most-concerning and most beneficiall mystery of true Religion for it signified Christ the Saviour and our onely means and hope of everlasting Rest in him And it will be a great consolation to us if we rightly consider thâ—â— our mercifull God ordained a sure means for our blessednesse so early as not onely at the beginning of the world but also from eternity although the externall publication and celebration thereof was not constituted untill the daies of Moses Just so the latter Prophets spake of the Birth Passiâ—n and Dâ—ath of our Râ—deemer as if all had been performed before their daies which yet was not actually effected till long after the death of those Prophets And this they spake and prophecyed by a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
this Law is meant of Christ I have shewed before a Chap. 7. And that Christ only is this everlasting Covenant the Gospel often declareth Christ saith This is my blood of the new Testament Matth. 26. 28. Or as St. Luke reads it This is the new Testament in my blood Luke 22. 20. Testament and Covenant signifie the same thing but only that a Covenant is a Promise Conditional And a Testament there is the same Promise or Covenant given and bequeathed So Hebr. 13. 20. The blood of Christ is called The blood of the everlasting Covenant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Beza renders Aeterâ— foederis i. e. Eternal Covenant So these words Testament and Covenant both to our own and also to forrain Translators seem all one so Christ must be this everlasting covenanted Sabbath But then if this everlasting Sabbath be really Christ how is it called a sign as the Typical Sabbath is for so we read Exod. 31. 17. It is a sign for ever To this we answer That this Sabbath is no otherwise called a sign than Christ himself is so called Luke 2. 34. This Child is set for a sign that shall be spoken against And Then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven This sign signifieth the very Person of Christ as both Origen and Chrysostome expound it Only the Covenant of Christ's Sabbathship is an everlasting sign but so is not the sign of the Ceremonial Sabbath as hath been proved In this sense only the Sabbath is everlasting as it signifieth Christ of which there is no doubt to be made In a like case when question was made by Act. 13. 22. Dâ—lciâ—â—us how Dâ—vâ—d being a great sinner could be styled A man after Gods own heart St. Austin answered a De 8. Quaest. Dulc. To. 3. De Christo intellige nullus nodus est So we say if we understand that this Sabbath Moral signifieth Christ as certainly it doth then there will be no question of the everlastingness and eternity thereof The Ceremonial or Day-Sabbath was taken away that so the true substantial Sabbath might the better take place in mens minds Just as Typical Sacrifices were rejected by God that so the grand Sacrifice of Christ might be by faith apprehended of which the Apostle expresly thus writeth He taketh away the first that he may establish the second Heb. 10. 9. This is also to be observed for a sign of the depreciating or undervaluing of this Typical or Day-Sabbath that Christ said The Sabbath Mar. 2. 26 was made for Man and not Man for the Sabbath This he meant no doubt of the Câ—remonial Sabbath in that it was ordained only to be ministerial and subservient to Man as a Conducter and Guide to the true everlasting Sabbath for if he had spoken of the Moral and Mystical Sabbath he might truly have said That Men was made for the Sabbath because the true Sabbath is God the Son by whom and for whose glory all Men and the World it self were made And he was before all Creatures and not made at all nor created but begotten from Eâ—ernity But yet this Son of God may truly be said to be made the Sabbath for Man yet not as he is meerly the Son of God but as he is also the Son of Man He was made Man for us and by that he became the Mystical Sabbath For the Son of God considered in his pure Divinity cannot be the Sabbath neither can the Son of Man be so if considered without his Divinity but joyntly with both Natures So that in consideration of his assumed humane Nature and therewith his Sabbathship he was made for Man and came to help and minister to Man as himself most graciously acknowledged The Son of Man came not to be ministred Matth. 20. 28. unto but to minister 7. Finally The most notorious slurre of all was That this Seventh day which God appointed to be hallowed could not possibly be so kept on that day in all places of the Earth as any Man that hath but mean knowledge in Geographie may easily apprehend for when in one part of the Earth it is Miâ—-day in another part it is Mid-night and when Day begins in one part Night begins in another so that the Jews themselves in their remote dispersions cannot possibly Sabbatize at the same time By this it may clearly appear that the seventh-day Sabbath was only a national Constitution during the standing of the Judaical Common-wealth and that the Seventh day was not that Moral Sabbath which God required in this fourth Commandement because a Law Moral bindeth all Nations in every part of the Earth but some other Sabbath was intended which possibly might be kept by all Nations that Sabbath is Christ Who therefore sent his Apostles Mar. 16. 15. with an universal Commission Go ye into all the world and preach And not only to the Jews but Go and teach all Nations Matth. 28 19. These and such like incumbrances impossibilities and inconveniences did the Godhead pâ—t upon this Ceremonial Sabbath as no fire-kindling no burden-bearing no meatdressing no stirring out of their places and thereby made that People ridiculous to other Nations as the Prophet saith The adversaries did mock at her Sabbaths And the Manichee Lam 1. 7. called their Saturday Sabbaths * Aug. Cont. Faâ—st l. 18 c. 5. Catcâ—as Saturnâ—acas i. e. the fetters of Saturn Logicians use to say Uno absur do dato mille sequuntur The mis-understanding of this one Sabbath Law led the Jews into strange and ridiculous Superstitions and also to the ruine of their Persons and City and Temple A Jew in a boysterous Sea refused to tug at the stern because it was his Sabbath day and so he perished Another would not be drawn out of a loathsome draught upon the same reason but rather miserably perished as our own Histories record The Jews could not be ignorant that God himself did work on every Sabbath-day and that he did also occasionally command others so to do as the Preists and sometimes the Souldiers therefore they might easily have perceived that both the Sabbath or Rest of God and also of his people consisted in something else and not in a meer cessation from worldly works Some Sabbatarian Writers tell us That Man should work when God worketh and rest when God rested But God worketh alwayes so cannot Man If they had said that Man should rest in that thing which God rested in they had spoken home to the true Sabbath indeed For God rested only in Christ and so should we otherwise all seventh-Seventh-day Sabbatizing is utterly vain and superstitious By these Reasons a pious and judicious Reader will clearly perceive that these slurrs were put upon the Day Sabbath by our Wise God on purpose and design to withdraw his people from the shadow to the substance and from the Ceremonial to the Moral and substantial Sabbath which is Christ for just such a design God had in his Dispensation even of the Moral Law which was first written in Man's heart Then afterwards when it was to our lapsed and depraved nature impossible yet it was again imposed on us and engraven in stone And this he did that thereby he might direct us both to perform so much of it as we can and also to seek help and mercy of him for what we cannot do There had been no need of writing this Law in Tables of stone which was written defore in Man's heart but only because as St. Austin saith a Aug. in Psal 57. Tu fugitivus eras cordis tui i. â— Man was a run-away from his own heart and principles for we find that Man now perpetrateth wickedness which his own conscience judgeth to be so and also condemneth as an Heathen confessed b Juvenal Sat. 13. Se judice nemo nocens absolvitur The reason why God did impose this Law on Man then when it was impossible is singularly rendred by the Apostle thus The Scripture Gal. 3. 2â— hath concluded all under sin that the Promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe Now although the impossible Law is by faith and union with Christ made possible to Man yet it was imposed on us with all its literall impossibilities on purpose to be as the same Apostle saith Our Schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ or indeed to Ibid. v 24. drive force and necessitate us to seek some other means and way for our justification and salvation besides the Law which way is only the Lord Jesus Christ in whom only our peace with God and our everlasting Sabbath consisteth To Him therefore with the Father and the holy Spirit be rendred blessing honour praise and thanksgiving for ever and ever Amen Laus Deo FINIS
also Secondly Rest Spirituall which consisteth in the quiet and tranquillity of our minds and consciences when we are freed and quitted from the disturbing perturbations of our Consciences and turbulent horrors of our Souls upon consideration of our sinns and fear of divine vengeance This Spirituall rest is not confined to a Seaventh day only but is a continuall Rest or Sabbath to every holy Christian St. Austin saith a Aug. de Genesi ad lit l. 4. c 13. Fidelium perpetuum Sabbatum observatur i. e. The faithfull keep a continuall Sabbath And again he saith b Ibid. in Psal 91. Nostrum Sabbatum est in tranquillitate conscientiae est gaudium spei nostrae-intus est in corde Sabbatum nostrum i. e. The Christian mans Sabbath consisteth in the quietnesse and tranquillity of his conscience-It is the joyfulnesse of our hope Our Sabbath is inward residing in our heart We are also taught by St. Jerom that the Jewish Seventh day Rest was but a meer figure of the Christians Rest c Hieron Tom. 9. 11. n. 40. Judaeis Sabbatum in ocio corporali significabat sanctificationem in requie Spiritâ—s sancti i. e. The Sabbath which the Jews observed by a corporal rest did signify a Sanctification of the rest wrought by the Holy-ghost And Origen tells us d Orig. in Math. â—ract 29. Qui vivit in Christo semper sabbatizat a peccato i. e. He that doth live or abide in Christ doth alwayes Rest from sin His meaning is not that a Christian is alwaies without sin but that the infirmities of holy men do not discontinue or extinguish their resting in the mercies of God through Christ that they are freed from the dispairing terror of Damnation This is the true real and spirituall Sabbath or rest in Christ to which we are exhorted by old Ignatius e Inat ep ad Magnesianos Non Sabbatizemus Judaico mâ—râ—-sed Sabbatizemus spiritualiter i. e. That we should not deceive our selves by keeping a Sabbath day only as the Jewes did but to apprehend thereby a more excellent spirituall Sabbath viz. the true rest of our souls in Christ So bâ— these pâ—ssâ—ges we learn that there is not only a day Sabbath of externall and corporall rest to be considered in the Scriptural doctrine of Sabbaâ—hs but moreover principally a secret mysterious and spiritual Rest or Sabbath which is the Grand Sabbath whereof the other Sabbaths are but meer figures and shadows For the more clear understanding of the difference of these two sorts of Sabbaths we must inquire of the Originall of them as when and by what law they were inacted And this we cannot with plainness set forth but by examining the severall kinds of lawes imposed upon the Jewes whereby the Sabbath was both established in the judiciall commonwealth and is also binding to us Christians Wherein I shall not need to meddle with the Sabbath of years which was every Seaventh year wherein the whole land rested from husbandry Nor with the Jubilean Sabbath which was every fiftieth yeare when old owners returned to their ancient inheritances But our inquiry must must only be for the authority of the Saturday weekly or 7th-day Sabbath with the signification meaning and mystery thereof and what that true reall substantiall and spirituall Sabbath is which was but only typified by the Seventh-day Sabbath For the Jewish lawes we find 3 several diferent sorts of them viz. 1 Morâ—l 2. Ceremonial 3. Judiciall by all which the Sabbath is established all which lawes are distinctly mentioned as Expositors say by those words of Moses Deut. 6. 1. Now these are the Commandments the Statutes and the Judgments which the Lord your God commanded to teach you The ancient Latine Translation thus renders them 1. Praecepta to signifie the ten commandments 2. Ceremoniae to signifie the ceremoniall or Leviticall lawes 3. Judicia to signify the lawes Judiciall My designe of discoursing of them requires that I begin with the lawes Judiciall 1 The judicial Law 1. The Judicial law of the Jewes is such as we now call the law Politick Civill Common or Statute-law ordained for the ordering and governing of the commonwealth by this law punishments were enacted to be inflicted on the transgressors both of these judicial laws and also upon them that transgressed other lawes for by it Sabbath-breakers were punished with death Ex. 31. 14. And Ex. 35. 2. The gatherer of sticks on the Sabbath day is stoned to death Num. 15. 35. Idolaters are adjudged to be utterly destroyed Ex. 22. 20. To curse Father or Mother was death Levit. 20. 10. Bearing false witnes in matters capital was death Deut. 19. 18. 19. This judiciall I say appointed punishments for the transgressors of the other sorts of lawes when in those other lawes no punishment was mentioned for transgressours As in the ten commandments we find no visible nor temporal penalty mentioned for the sins of Idolatry Sabbath-breaking Dishonorers of Parents adulterers or falsewitnesses the punishment being either reserved to God or referred to the laws Judiciall or Politick There are some that have thought fit that these judicial laws of Moses should with some additions be made the laws Politick of Christians But I conceave that those laws are now most unfit for any Christian kingdome or State nor can they now have any binding power over us by vertue of that authority which they had from Moses or through him from God for these resons 1. Because they were ordained only for the Jewes commonwealth whilest it stood without any intention to continue them any longer 2. Many of them were enacted purposely to serve for the discovery of the Messiah to be an evidence of the fulfilling of some Prophecies which concerned the Tribe genealogy of Christ before his actuall manifestation in the flesh 3. Many of them are but Typicall therefore not to be used now since the Types are fullfiled by Christ the Antitype so that now they must needs be antiquated and quite out of date as well as all the other Leviticalls or ceremonialls which are typicall lawes are and ought to be disused such as Circumcision Sacrifices and New-moons c. 4. These judicialls would not be convenient for the very Jewes themselves now since the Death of Christ although they had to this day continued a People and State in their owne Country and City because the practise of these lawes would still harden them in their infidelity against the true Messiah as we see their Sabbatizing and Circumcising yet do Much lesse can they be fit for us Christians because of many and great inconveniences which would ensue thereupon Such as these 1. If the Jewish 7th year-Sabbath were in force with us wherein the whole land was to rest from Tillage and Husbandry as is commanded Ex. 23 11. and Levit. 25. 4. how many thousands of poor people would be famished and the richer people undone Indeed God did extraordinarily provide in such years
Commandment the Word Remember is prefixed as a John Baptist or fore runner of Christ which Memento we find not in any of the other Nine Surely there is something in this Commandement of most weighty concernment and more than is in any other of the nine for if in this Commandment God had only intended the keeping of the Seaventh day which we know was but temporary and to be left in its due time he would not have said Remember Because all those lawes which are truly Moral are also unexpirable and undispensable and to be kept at least to the end of the world and this Sabbaticall law especially so long and longer also even to Eternity therefore it deserves a Remember From this Memento Some doe argue that the Seaventh day Sabbath was observed before the dayes of Moses as if Remember related only to former usances If that were true it will make against their Seaventh day Sabbath and for our truly Morall Sabbath i. e. Christ because they may see that the Memento is prefixed to the Sabbath day but not to the Seaventh Day for that was not alwaies to be remembred 3. In this Sabbatical Commandment we finde not only a Memento going before but also another remembrance following after it as a type and shadow of the grand Sabbath for direction of God's people as the Pillar of â—ire and Cloud sometimes before and sometimes behind the Israelites Ex. 14. 19. For so it pleased God to ordain a weekly Shaddowy Sabbath to keep them in a continuall remembrance and expectation of their Messiah in whom only true certain eternall Rest was to be found Indeed Joshuah was to lead them into the Earthly Rest of the land of Canaan the land of Promise but he was but a type of the Messiah and is therefore called Jesus Acts 7. 45. Heb. 4. 8. and Canaan but a shadow of heaven and the weekly Sabbath but a figure of the Substantiall Sabbath Only their Messiah our Jesus was to lead his people into the blessed and everlasting Sabbath or Rest in heaven Now the adding an annexion of a ceremonial type to this Sabbaticall and Moral law which is not found in any other of the Nine doth cleerly shew that the Grand Sabbath here intended is of the most weighty and Considerable concernment of all and is therefore most principally to be Remembred For if it were possible for us men precisely to keep all the other Nine Commandments such a performance would not be Sufficient for our Eternall Rest without the keeping of this For this Sabbath is Christ in whom alone resideth all our hope and confidence of heaven there is none other name whereby we must be saved Acts. 4. 12. And moreover although we have transgressed and broken all the other Nine yet if we shall afterwards constantly and faithfully keep this Sabbath we shall find therein an help and remedy to preserve us from the dangerous consequences that otherwise will follow us upon such disobedience The consideration of that terrible sentence in the Law Deut. 27. 29. Cursed is he that confirmeth not all the words of this Law to do them and of that in the Gospel Jam. 2. 10. Whosoever shall keep the whole Law and yet offead in one point is guilty of all may drive Christians to restlesness of conscience and dispaire if this Sabbath or Rest in Christ be not apprehended which is principally that One point in which we must be most cautelous Christ himself hath said Mat 10. 32. Whosoever shall confess me before men him will I confess But whosoever shall deny me totally finally him will I deny before my Father which is in Heaven The two Tables of this moral law would Plut. in vit Soloâ— in Moral be to us most uncomfortable and formidable and like those cruel Graecian laws of Draco and Lycurgus which are said to be written 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a in blood and death because all transgressions were by them Capitally punished These divine lawes would be far more severe in everlasting punishments if they were not mollified by a gracious Sabbath law Aust saith he disrellished that famous book of Cicero called Hortensius b Aug. conf l. 2. 4. Quod nomen Christi non erat ibi i. e. Because the name of Christ was not there and so should we these two tables if Christ were not included therein But blessed be our gracious Law giver there we find Christ under the name and appellation of Sabbath just as in the Gospel he is called Mat. 11. 30. The Lord of the Sabbath this sweet name only maketh this yoke easie and burden light If there were nothing but the bare letter in this Moral Law woe unto us it would be but a kling law and as the Apostle sairh A killing letter if Christ were not in it But there is also in those sacred Tables as the same Apostle saith 2 Cor. 3. 6. a spirit that giveth life that is there is a secret mysterious and spiritual meaning not openly or plainly expressed but implyed and covertly intimated and that spirit is Christ who onely giveth life and he is that mysterious and spiritual Sabbath which is here intended By vertue of this secret spirit this Law which of it self considered in the bare letter doth only as the Apostle saith of it Rom 4. 15. The law worketh wrath becommeth good and vital and bringeth healing in it's wings * viperae cineres medentur morsui lact deira cap. 13. p. 716. There are some venemous and mortiferous creatures which as learned men say have in them an Antidote or remedy to preserve men from the danger of their poyson as we read in Plinie of a Plin. lib. 29. c. 4 Theriaci pastilli i. e. cakes or pills of Treacle made of the venemous viper So in a night-vision a Dragon presented an hearb to Great Alexander which cured his friend Ptolomy of a mortal wound by a poysoned arrow as b Diod. sic lib. 17. Diodorus writeth Antiochus had a Theriaca or Treacle that preserved him against all poysons as the forenamed c Plin. lib. 20. cl 24. Plinie reporteth such as Homer phanfied of his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 d Homer Odyss lib. 20. Verily this Law which in the letter and outward appearance of it seemeth so deadly and impossible hath in it a pretious and sure Antidote with being faithfully apprehended and piously applied will preserve us from the killing quality thereof and moreover it will shew us how the whole law may by us be perfectly performed And this Antidote is wrapped up and covered in this Sabbath law For the Sabbath is Christ and Christ hath performed the whole law and we that are united to him as members of his mystical body have also in him by him performed the whole law God because we are one with him as the Apostle saith We are members of his body Eph 5. 3. And
as one saith of a companion c Mart. 12. 47. ex Ovid. l 3. Nec tecum possum vivere nec sine te This mysterious truth surely was known by Adam who was a Prophet and is so accounted both by d Orig in cant hom 3. Aug de Gen l. 9. c 19. Origen and Austin as may also appear by his prophetical words before the fall Gen. 2. 23. but especially by his so naming the woman after the Fall whom he called vitam that is life Gen. 3. 20. as both e Hier. in Gen. Ambr. de Parad c 14 Joh. 14. 6. St. Jerome and St. Ambrose read that place and the word Eve or Cavah signifieth life whereby he declared both his expectation and faith in the Messiah to proceed from the woman even that Messiah who calls himself The way the truth and the life for thereby only could she be an help meet for man now fallen and in this respect only was she called life because from her Christ was to come so that she was indeed the first 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or parent of God as the blessed virgin is often called by the Fathers and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or mother of God viz. of God-incarnate otherwise she was not an help meet for man but rather quite contrary Nor could her châ—ld-bearing have saved her self or others except Christ the Saviour had bin in her progeny nor yet could her bearing of Christ originally in her womb have helped her except she had also conceived him in her heart by saith as St. Austin very truly affirmeth of the blessed Virgin Mary who was neerer akin to Christ than Eve was f Aug. de vir c. 3 To. 6. Nihil Mariae profuisset materna propinquitas nisi feliciùs Christum corde quà m carne gestasset c. Neither Eve nor Mary could have bin saved by propagating or bearing Christ in the womb if they had not conceived him in their hearts If we lay aside this consideration of Eve consider her only as a woman she will appear rather an impediment than an help to man for she occasioned the fall of the man by conversing with Satan in wch respect Tertullian saith of her a Tert. de habit Mulieb Faeâ—â—na est janua Diaboli The first inlet of Satan was the woman as Chrysostome cals Job's wife b Chrys n. 56. The Instrument of Satan and c Orig. n. 17. Origen cals her c muscipuiam i. e. The trap of Satan And saith moreover that Satan destroying the goods and children of Job yet touched not his wife but left her on purpose to supplant the holy man But God looked otherwise on Eve when he called her an help and considered her so as the Fathers speak of the blessed Virgin-mother whom they call a Ambr. de Spirit lib. 3. c. 12. Templum Dei And b Fulg. serm 3. Fenestram Coeli And c id ibid Scalam Coeli And d Euseb Emis Homil in Vigil Nativ Portam Coeli i. e. A Temple of God The window of heaven The ladder and gate of heaven for all these was Eve in respect of her fruitfulness and the propagation of Christ from her For in other child bearing she was unhappy as first in Cain then in the holy but unfortunate Abel some of her posterity are called a generation of vipeâ—s and also said to be of their Father the Devil and one of them â—â— called Joh. 6. 70. a Devil The consideration of such miscarriages hath made some parents wish themselvs childless The great Emperor Augustus wished that he had died without wife and child a Suet. in Aug. c 65. his issue proved so ill Capitolinus saith of the good Emperor Antoninus the Philosopher b Capit. in M. Aut. c. 8. Felix fuisset si fiâ—ium non reliquisset i. e. he had bin happy if he had not left a Son he meant wâ—cked and bloody Commodus Dead Tantalus in the fable is brought in desiring rather to return to hell whence he came than to see and promote the wickedness and calamities of his posteritie c Sen. in Thyeâ—te Lu. 23. 29. In which respect Eve might rather have desired barrenness as Christ also said for such reasons Blessed are the barren So the help which Adam had by his wife was not in regard of her society nor in her childbearing generally considered neither was she named Life onely for that she was to be the mother of all other men and women to come nor for any amorous or lascivious apprehension as wantons since used to their minions a Juâ— Sat. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And b Ter. in Eun. Anime mi mi Phaedria But it was surely in a far greater consideration and in prophecy and faith of the Messiah to come by her and of redemption and immortall life which would be onely through him that he named the woman Vita or Life This certainly was the reason that God called the Woman An help and meet for man and for nothing else but onely the preconsideration of the Saviour to descend from her for so the holy Psalmist hath taught us Our help Psal 124. 7. standeth in the name of the Lord which hath made heaven and earth For without this help he saith in another place O be thou our help in trouble for vain is the help of man And more vain is the help of Woman Finally for this cause it may reasonably be thought that the wisdom and providence of the Godhead permitted the fall of man to be occasioned by the woman that so the man might be induced and necessitated to seek for Life and Help otherwise and not in the Person but in the blessed Seed and posterity of the woman To which purpose St. Ambrose thus writeth a Ambros de Parad. cap. 10. Et si mulier prior peccatura erat tamen Redemptionem sibi paritura salva erit per generationem siliorum inter quos generavit Christum i. e. Although the woman first sinned yet Redemption was to come by her therefore she shall be saved in child-bearing because amongst her children Christ was one By this time I trust it appeareth to the Reader that the grand and onely reason of the expression of the Rest of God at that time was the providentiall and mercifull consideration of Christ the Seed of the Woman and Saviour of her and of the man and of their posterity CHAP. XV. An Answer to the Question How God can be said to Rest That the Rest of God is in Christ and why That the Tabernacle and Temple are called God's Resting-place onely as they were figures of Christ That the Ark is called God's strength in the same respect That God's Rest in Sion is also meant of Christ That the Union of God and man in Christ was ordained onely for man's Salvation and everlasting Rest That man's Rest is called God's Rest Certain Conclusions concerning this Rest of God
the maker of Peace or Atonement or Reconciliation of Man with God He is called Messiah or Christ that is anointed fitted and prepared for the great Work of Mans Redemption Then he is properly named Jesus and this in order to the benefit of Man for so the holy Angel said Thou shalt call his name Jesus for he shall save his People from their sins Mat. 1. 21 And that it may appear that this Person Jesus is qualified and endowed with sufficient power to effect that great and merciful purpose of the Godhead toward Mankind the same Prophet cals him Wonderful Counseller The Mighty God The Everlasting Father This I trust is enough to shew the meaning of Gods Rest Now to the second Querie above mentioned 2. Querie Answered viz. Why God is said to Rest on the Seventh day precisely and not before Our Answer is 1. Because on the Seventh day and not before the Creation of Mankind was completed for on that day was the Woman taken and built out of the Man and not before as is above shewed 2. God is not said to Rest until he had actually begun the Work of Mans Rest which was not done untill the Man and the Woman were both of them finished for then and not before was the Saviour of Mankind really and actually laid as the foundation of Mans Rest in which Rest or Sabbath of Man the Rest or Sabbath of the Godhead consisteth and in nothing else What God in his Divine and Secret Counsel had determined before all times to be done that did he now on this Seventh day begin which was the building of his Church for now the first stone was laid even Christ who only is the foundaâ—ion and the Rock and the chief corner-stone thereof The house built upon a Rock Matth. 7. 24. signifieth the Church when Peter had said Thou art Mat. 16 16 Christ the Son of the living God Christ presently replied Upon this Rock will I build my Church The Apostle tels us Christ was 1 Cor. 10 4. the spiritual Rock And Other foundation can no man lay then that is laid which is Jesus 1 Cor. 3 11 Christ Now this foundation of Rest must needs be made known unto the Man for otherwise it could not be his Rest and consequently it could not be the Rest of God until Man did so know it that he might relie and trust and set up his Rest upon it that is upon Christ Therefore the holy Scripture doth by divers intimations signifie that this great Mystery was then revealed to Adam for he was illuminated with prophetical Wisdom He knew as well as Moses that he was made in the 〈◊〉 of God that is in the same shape which God his Redeemer would one day assume as is before shewed He knew the Woman was taken and built out of him on purpose to produce a Redeemer in that only way which might fitly serve for that Work when no other way could for upon the forming of her he said This is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh This speech doth shew that the Man was not ignorant in the great Mystery of the Union of Himself and the Woman and their future progenie with Christ also in one lump which union was contrived by the Godhead only in order and necessity to the Redemption of Adam and his off-spring and nothing else And it is the same which by the great Apostle is applied to the mysterious union of Christ and his Church They two shall be one flesh This Eph. 5. 31 32 is a great Mystery but I speak concerning Christ and his Church After the Fall of Man it pleased the merciful Godhead to give a more open and evident notice by an express promise of this Rest than was before when it was said The Seed of the Woman shall bruise the Serpents head for after this the Man named the Woman Vita i. e. Life as is before shewed whereby he declared his Faith and expectation of a new and better life to come by the fruitfulness of the Woman than that Life which he forfeited by his fall as may reasonably be thought All these intimations and overtures being but descriptions of the great Saviour to proceed from the Man and the Woman in whom they might set up their Rest as surely they did And God having now actually begun that great Work of Redemption and laid the foundation thereof in the Earth of ouâ— first Parents and made it known unto them Therefore he doth now and not before call this blessed Rest of Man His own Best For the Church of God which consisteth of Christ and his Members united not only in the nature of our first Parents but also cemented by one and the same Spirit of God residing both in Christ the Head and also in all holy Men as inferiour Members under that Head This Church I say is very often in Scripture represented as a building even from the beginning of the World and so continued in the Gospel The Woman is said to be builded of the Rib aedificavit costam in Gen. 2. 22 Multierem Rachel and Leah are said to build the house of Israel The natural Body of Ruth 4 11 Christ is called a building by King Solomon Wisdome hath built her an house So is his mystical Body also Ye are Gods building Prov. 9. 1 1 Cor. 3. 9 And Acts 9. 31. The Churches had rest and were edified The Word of God and preaching and brotherly exhortation are resembled to buildings The Word is able to Act. 20. 32 build you up St. Paul calleth preaching there where Christ was named before building on another mans foundation and Rom. 15 20 exhorteth the Thessalonians to edifie one another 1 Thes 5 11 The prime foundation of this building is Christ upon Him the Prophets and Apostles are laid as Super-structures or second Foundations Of Christ the Prophet saith Behold Isa 28. 16 I lay in Sion for a foundation a Stone a tried Stone a precious corner-Stone a sure foundation And this is so applied to Christ by St. Peter who also calleth the Members of Christ Lively stones built up a spiritual 1 Pet. 2 5 6 house And Sion is mentioned because as the same Prophet foretold Out of Sion shall Isai 2. 3 go forth the Law and the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem For so indeed the Law of Christ and the preaching thereof began there as Christ appointed Lukâ— 24. 7. And of Apostles and Prophets and Christ St. Paul telleth the Ephesians That they are built upon Eph. 2. 20 the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets Jesus Christ himself being the chief Corner-stone It hath been an ancient Custome amongst Men to express a joy and delight both at the laying of the foundation and also at the raising and dedication of magnificent or holy Edifices So did the Jews at the laying of the foundation of the second Temple praising the