their Annual Monthly and Weekly Festivals their Annual by Holy days their Monthly by New Moons and so their Weekly by Sabbaths And there was no Weekly Festival but the Seventh-day-Sabbath Or if by Holydays we apprehend the Generality of Jewish Festivals because they were all Holydays as long as their First Institution lasted yet then he condescends to some Particulars of them as the Monthly and Weekly which then must necessarily include the Sabbath because that was a Jewish Holy-day Yet again If we should grant that under the last word Sabbaths any other Festivals may be included or meant Yet certainly the Weekly-Sabbath cannot be excluded being the most famous Analogate comprehended under it and therefore in such an Expression cannot be excepted though sometimes the most famous Analogate be only meant and excludes all others yet never is it it self not intended in such Propositions Withal as we said before of the Galatian Church so we do of the Colossian 't was infected by false Teachers that would make a Mixture of the Jewis and Christian Religion and would have Moses's Rites to be kept with Christ's Ordinances And they know well enough that by Sabbaths was meant the Seventh day seeing 't is always so accepted Whence we may well conclude that here is an express exiling the Seventh-day-Sabbath out of the Church of Church Heretofore we were called upon to shew one Text in which the Seventh-day-Sabbath was abrogated and now we bring an express literal one yet it will not do but many Objections are brought in against it Which we shall successively consider and traverse 1. Some think it must be understood of Ceremonial Sabbaths only because else 't would reach the first-day-First-day-Sabbath as well as the Seventh But there is no fear of that for the First day is never called Sabbath in the Scripture and therefore cannot be meant and wee say the seventh-day-Seventh-day-Sabbath was both positive and ceremonial for he himself allows it to signify the eternal Rest above 2. He Objects that one place names no Sabbath but only Days the other indeed names Sabbaths which he would have interpreted Weeks for which I can see no Reason but much against it and therefore shall say nothing till he produce his Reasons for it And all the weight of this Argument is but a silly Conjecture of the meaning of the word Sabbaths But we have seen before that this is not a silly Conjecture but grounded upon the very usual Acceptation of the Word upon the Connection of the adjoyned things upon the State of the Churches unto whom he writ and upon the design of his Epistles to them But I am sure what follows is not so much as a Conjecture but a very great Oversight for he tells us that he finds the word Sabbaths in the Plural Number no where in the New Testament ascribed to the Seventh day It was then because he would not be at the pains to sind it for 't is in all these places Mat. 12.5 10 12. Mark 3.4 Luke 4.31 and 6.2 9. In all these places he will find it so and in the Original Greek the word is Sabbaths without a Verbal Superaddition of days which he himself must be inforced to acknowledge spoke of this day 3. The Seventh day he faith was never in Question in any of these Epistles and if there be no such Question about altering it how can such a Sense be imposed c. Just so I may say the New-Moon Observation and the Annual Festivals are no where questioned in these Epistles nor any where else that I remember expresly to be lain aside How therefore can such a Meaning be put upon Years and Months as to include the Judaical seeing Sabbaths are as plain and clear for the Seventh days as any of the former for what they are understood here We have still the Thred-beaten Plea of the Moral Law introduced and improved when I assert that neither he nor all the World can ever prove the Seventh-day-Sabbath to be part of the Moral Law Quatenus Moral His Fourth Answer plainly confounds Sabbaths with Years and New-Moons which the Apostle clearly distinguishes and of all the rest I may truly say they are but meer ungrounded Conjectures to baffle an express Text of Scripture But here he has a very strange Fancy That by Days may be meant the First day because the Heathen worshiped the Sun on that day And so then every day because the Heathen worshiped distinct Idols every day And so we should have no Consecrated day at all neither First nor Seventh nor any other All the rest that follows here are but as he expresses his own Thoughts and as well grounded as that Thought of his That the First day was not observed by Christians When yet we have found them several times associated on that day and Christ appearing several times in the midst of them and at Troas Assembled on that day and St. Paul Preaching and Administring the Lords Supper to them and therein to Harmonize with the Church of Galatia which I suppose proved against Objections neither of which can be said concerning the Seventh day Only there were Assemblies of the Jews on that day and St. Paul took the Advantage on these days to Preach to them But what is this to Christs Disciples and Followers We may therefore according to his own Rule That which appears not is not at all conclude that the Seventh day was never observed by the Disciples and Followers of Christ after his Resurrection as a day consecrated to Publick Worship because we never read in the Scripture that they did so meet Whereas the contrary is seen by the First day So I dismiss this Thought and the others as no more likely 5. He farther saith that 't is uncertain and therefore as such I or'e look it 6. He saith from Paul's constant keeping the Seventh-day-Sabbath that he cannot be supposed to condemn his own constant Practice But how he did this we have already seen and therefore shall not stop here 7. That St. Paul commends the Whole Moral Law as Just Holy and Good and therefore can never be thought to condemn it here Here we have anew theatrized the Moral Law which we acknowledge the Apostle doth strenuously urge and never opposed any one Tittle thereof But yet he here decries the Seventh-day-Sabbath as very consistent with and agreeing to all his Zeal for the Moral Law because that was never of the Substance of it Neither is it either Holy or Just or Good I mean not in and of it self as all that is truly and naturally Moral is but by Gods commanding it We acknowledge it to be positively Moral 8. The last Answer is from Math. 24.20 Pray you that your Flight be not in the Winter nor on the Sabbath-day Upon which place he lays so great a Stress as to suppose it a sufficient Proof for the Observation of the Seventh day as our bounden Duty For here he takes for granted that this Sabbath
had exactly followed the Pattern then the Sixth day of the week would bid fairest for the day of Rest of all the Seven because then Adam must have worked six days before his Holy Rest as God did and then being created as we may suppose about the latter end of the sixth day of the Creation he must have wrought the day following which is the Seventh and so the five other days following and rested upon the Sixth day as his first Sabbath for that would have been the day after his six days Labour or Work For 't is clear that the Seventh day after the beginning of the Creation though it were so with respect to Gods Works yet 't was the very next day after Adam was and could not but be within a very few hours if hours after his Creation seeing it begun in the Evening And so Adam and Eve were so far from an exact Imitation of God in the Observance of the first Sabbath that in his particular they were contrary thereto for God wrought six days first and then rested the Seventh but Adam rested his first day and then wrought the six days following God's Rest was in the Conclusion of his Work and Man's Rest was in the beginning of his Work in his first seven days which I think somewhat enervates this solitary Plea they have here for the last week-day-Week-day-Sabbath But yet we will Suppose that in this Clause God did there injoyn the last day of the Creation-week to be the Sabbath but then we say this is purely Positive and no way Moral at all neither Primarily nor Secondarily for it is were so the Morality thereof must arise from the Reason that is given for it viz. Gods Example even because he made his work of Creation in six days and rested on the Seventh But this is no way cogent or rather Moral not such a thing as the light of Nature would engaged us to For 1. God is not to be imitated by us in all that he does neither could the rational Creature conclude upon Gods Revelation of his having ended his work on the Seventh day that therefore he must work six and rest the Seventh without an express Injunction which therefore God gave here 2. If we could suppose that such a Collection of imitating God could have been apprehended by Man without Relevation then the Sixth day of the week would by him be pitched upon for his own Sabbath of Rest because the Sixth day of the following week would have been his Seventh day after his Six days working as before 3. Gods making of the World in six days was a pure Revelation for Man could never have known it of himself no not in the Estate of his pure Knowledge Because for ought he could know God might have made the World simultaneously all at once or by one word speaking for he knew he might so have done if he had pleased he could not know that God did gradually or progressively make the Creatures much less that he took up six days for it neither more nor less Indeed the Order and Method the Time and Duration of the work of Creation must be by Revelation to Man seeing he was created the last of all the Creatures So that in this respect 't is not Moral neither could it ever be the Dictate of Man's Mind 4. God cannot properly Rest because he cannot be said properly to Labour Rest properly is a Refreshment after Weariness Isa 40.28 The everlasting God the Creator of the Ends of the Earth fainteth not neither is weary Consequently neither resteth for he does all he does with an infinite Facility and perfect Immobility and takes no more pains in creating the World than in creating a Fly that is none at all And besides as before God works still in his works of Preservation and Providence which are altogether as Great and Glorious and some of them more Great Glorious than were the works of Creation So that in this respect this Argument is not Moral not such a Motive as could have been found out by the Mind of Man Lastly If this were such a cogent Reason in it self or a Moral Motive for the Sanctification of the Seventh day in the Repetition of the Fourth Command why is it not so much as mentioned For Deut. 5 13-15 there is not a word concerning it but whereas in the other Commands all the Motives that were used and adjoyned to them in their first Edition are here again repeated yet this is quite and clean left out in this second Edition of the Fourth Command and in lieu thereof their mighty and wonderful Deliverance out of the Land of Egypt is inserted that 't was therefore because he saved them that he commanded them to keep the Sabbath-day What this should signifie I cannot well see unless God would hereby teach us that the Salvation of his Church is a far more great and glorious work in it self and far more beneficial and happy to us than that of the Creation for the Deliverance of Israel out of Egypt by the hand of Moses was a Type of the Deliverance of the universal Church from the Devil from Sin from Hell from the Curse from Death and the Grave by our Lord Jesus Christ and that when this shall be compleated as we know 't was at our Savour's Resurrection it being the Conclusion of his Estate of Humiliation by which he purchased our Salvation and an entrance into his Glorification where he would procure it apply and effect it then the Reason annexed to the Fourth Command from the ceasing the Works of Creation should in a sense be lain by and that of the Redemption of the Church be substituted in its place And so consequently as the Seventh-day-Sabbath was observed in Commemoration of the works of Creation until a more admirable work of God should be accomplished so the first day ever after should be the Holy Rest when that Supream of all the works of God our Redemption should be rested from on that day I do verily believe Gods neglecting the works of Creation and substituting that of the Churches Redemption as the gread Foundation and Reason of keeping the Holy Rest here in Deut. declares this unto us But I refer it to wiser Heads Only from what has been here spoken I will conclude that this part is purely Positive both the Seventh week-day-Week-day-Sabbath and this Motive upon which 't is grounded God's working six days and resting the Seventh which is a Motive to us to observe it as well as it seems a Reason in God to require it Wherefore here I would fain demand of this Gentleman why he should be so exceedingly Zealous for the Perpetuity of the Seventh-day-Sabbath when 't is both a Ceremonial and Positive Precept Ceremonial as it signifies Gods own Rest from his Works past and as it signifies our future Rest in Heaven from all our Labours in this present Life And purely Positive seeing all the former Ceremonial and Positive Precepts
Martyr An. 250. Athanasius An. 326. Hilary 355. Ambrose 374. Hierome 385. Chrysostom 398. Augustine in their Time Eusebius saith my Author testifies 't was observed all the World over And Bp. Andrews as I have read him in his Speech against Thrask a Sabbatarian in the Star-Chamber avows it on his Credit that there is not any Ecclesiastical Writer in whom 't is not found Viz. The sacred Observance of the Lord's Day that is the First Day of the Week Which Testimonies of so many excellent Doctors yea saith Bp. Andrews of all eminent Doctors of so many great and flourishing Churches carry much more Weight with them than all his Collections can pretend to do against them As touching Easter and it's Observance that is no Part of this Controversy therefore I shall only say that I am no Zelot for it's Observance and am perswaded it has less Grounds for it's Celebration than any other of those Festivals which are appropriated to our Lord and in Commemoration of his Birth of his Manifestation of his Ascension of his Mission of the Holy Ghost because the Lord's Day is a constant Memorial of that Resurrection being that Day of the Week whereon he rested from all the Work of his Redemption wherefore seeing there is a weekly religious and solemn Commemoration thereof there must needs be the less Cause for an Annual As for the other Festivals which are appropriated to meer Men and dedicated to their Remembrance and Praise as I have nothing to say for them so I think it neither prudent nor seasonable to say any thing against them But let him that keepeth a Day keep it to the Lord and he that keepeth not a Day unto the Lord let him not keep it And let both maintain the Unity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace Here I hoped to have annexed my Epilogue but some Passages in the Discourse of Easter do require a little Animadversion As when He tells us Page 134. which he had done several Times before that the Change of the Seventh Day to the First was introduced by the Bp. of Rome and so imposed by him upon the other Churches which he thinks evidenced by his former Collection But 1. We have seen it observed before there was a Bp. of Rome and he received it from the Assemblies of the Disciples and Christians just upon our Saviour's Resurrection and in the Apostles Days 2. We have seen it observed by very great Churches in the Purity of the Roman Faith and the Moderation of the Roman Ecclesiastical Government when either the Roman Bishop did not pretend to any Authority over them or if he did they rightly and stoutly resisted and refused it And therefore 't was rather an universal Reception of all the Churches conjunctly as from the Apostles and scriptural Authority than any Imposition of Rome upon them He has a strange Notion Page 130. as it appears to me which is that first Rome endeavoured to introduce the Observation of the Passover upon the Lords-day and so the weekly Holy Rest upon that day which to my Apprehension implies that Rome her self observed the Passover Lords-day before she did the weekly Whereas 't is clear that Rome observed the first day of the week because 't was the Dominical day the day of our Lord's Resurrection whereas the proper Paschal-day was two or three days before the Lords day And therefore in Honour to that day did the Bishop of Rome require Easter to be kept and not ordained Easter First-day as a Shooe-horn to bring in the weekly first day after Moreover in those Churches wherein they dissented from Rome as to the day of Easter they concurred with her in the weekly Lords-day So that the Lords-day was weekly observed by them before Easter was kept upon that day and therefore the yearly first day could not be an usherer in of that week-day which was before it SECT XXI AS the Conclusion and Result of all this Discourse I think I have shewn that the Lord Christ did not make the World that Jehovah was not Christ before the World that he never instituted the Seventh day nor rested on it till his Incarnation nor being Christ really till then that he gave not the Commands on Mount Sinai Neither were they there given to the Gentiles but to the Jews only and those mixed People that came out of Egypt That the Ten Commands were confirmed by our Lord Christ in his Sermons and Discourses but the Seventh-day-Sabbath never so much as mentioned by him in them all as that which was no part at all of the Moral Law but purely positive both in it self and in its Grounds and Motive upon which 't is founded and imposed upon its Observers in the Old Testament and therefore was liable to be changed with the other positive and ceremonial Precepts of the Law of God that our Lord Christ indeed observed it in his own Person in the Flesh because he was made under the antecedent Law of all the Ceremonies and Mosaical Administration and observed them all as well as the Sabbath but yet he then spake and did such things as declared its approach to Dissolution and its Non-Morality that he rested no more in the Grave on the Seventh day than he did on the Cross on the Sixth when he hung dead thereon but the day of his Rest from the work of Redemption was the first day of the week which day he supreamly honoured above all the days of the week by his Resurrection thereon from the Dead by his several Appearances thereon to his Disciples after his Death by his most gracious Discourses thereon unto them which he never did nor made on the Seventh day after his Resarrection and by the Mission of the Holy Ghost upon his Disciples thereon Upon which account St. John calls it the Lords day and by all the Churches ever since that Lords day has been taken to be the first day of the Week That the Apostles and Believers kept the Lords day or the first day of the week as their religious Rest and met together on that day as the day of their publick Assemblies and we never read of any Assemblies on the Seventh day save those of the Jews our Lords Enemies in their Synagogues to whom Paul went to preach the Gospel then and there but when he experienced their desperate Obstinacy left that time and those Synagogues and we never read that ever on that day he joyned with any religious Society after that at Troas he preached and administred the Sacrament to the Believers on the first day the Lords day and that the Holy Ghost does call the first day of the week the Lords day being the day of the Redeemer's Rest from a far more glorious laborious gracious and beneficial Work than that of the Creation And that there is an express Prohibition of the seventh-day-Seventh-day-Sabbath in St. Paul's Epistles and consequently seeing the positive Morality of one day in Seven in the Fourth
him to all Mankind without distinction and that before the Sin and Fall of Adam And hence concludes that 't is a Moral Law incumbent upon Adam and all his Posterity which is a Conclusion either from rotten Premises or from such as will never logically infer the Conclusion Which we shall shew as briefly as we can and what is spoken here may lessen some of our Work hereafter 1. Hereby is implyed that this Command of the Seventh-day-Sabbath was given to Man in the State of Innocency which he can never prove For though the Institution thereof be inserted in the beginning of the 2. of Genesis yet 't is clear the Scripture doth not always keep a Chronical Order We must not expect in our Bible a constant Prius and Posterius as they say but the sacred History admits of many hysterons proterons of many Misplacings with respect to the order of time relating those thigns before which were done after and Vice Versa And 't is most clear that 't is so in this very place For here the Sabbath is recorded before the Plantation of Paradice v. 8. which was not spoken of before yet was Paradice part of the Works of the Creation and consequently created before the Seventh day though spoken of afterward which proves that the order of the relation of the Sabbath is no infallible proof that it was instituted before the Fall but might be after it though antecedently mentioned And Mr. Warren brings many probable Arguments to prove that Adam fell before the Sabbath-day and consequently before the giving or declaring of that Precept because therein God's resting on the Seventh-day is proposed as an Example and Motive to his keeping of it which could not be done before the Seventh-day came And so the Command must be given after the Fall Which Arguments of his ought to have been fairly debated their Moment considered and a due Answer and Solution given to them before this had been so peremptorily asserted But 2ly This seems to imply that whatever Injunction God gave to Adam before the Fall was of things that are purely Moral or so in themselves or else it can never regularly be drawn from this Medium that therefore the Seventh-day-Sabbath was so But this we know was not so for God prohibited him to eat of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil which was purely positive and a Duty only resulting from the Will of the Legislator Again if we should take it for granted that the Institution and Injunction of the Seventh-day was antecedent to the Fall yet this would rather prove the Negative than the Affirmative of its pure Morality For whatever was purely Moral and a Duty of its self resulting from the Nature Qualifications and Obligations of the rational Creature Adam in the perfect Knowledge of that Nature must know and discern in and of himself and consequently would have known the Seventh-day to be so And if he knew it there needed no Institution thereof by God at all Besides 't is very observable that from the Creation of our first Parents till their Fall we do not read of one Moral Duty enjoyned them either of the First or Second Table unless this be supposed to be so and what reason can be given for it but this that it needed not because they were all fully and distinctly implanted in Mans Soul If therefore the Seventh-day-Sabbath had been so Moral 't would not have needed a singular Institution much less such Arguments to inforce its Observance upon perfectly wise and holy Adam From whence in my Apprehension a good Argument may be drawn against its Morality 3. It implies that all the Commands that were given to Adam in Innocency are authoritatively incumbent upon all his Posterity The contrary whereto is clear in the prohibition of the Tree in the midst of the Garden for that ceased both to himself and all his Posterity upon his Fall By all which we see the weak reasonings of this Author In the following Paragraph he tells us that all those things were recorded for the Glory of the Lord Jesus Christ where as none of them do at all concern Jesus Christ For all those things in the foregoing Paragraph by his own Doctrin and according to his own Sentiments were effected and agitated before the Fall of Man In which time there could not be so much as any need or use of a Jesus or a Christ Nor was there so much as the least Hint of him given by either Prophesie or Promise much less was he himself in being And consequently none of these things could conduce to his glory for there can nothing appertain to that which is not And thus these supposed unmoveable Foundations of this Tenent are found not to be so much as Sandy For they are found to be nothing at all as he would have them refer to our Lord Christ We acknowledge therefore that all these Particulars which he named are for the Glory of Jehovah and that the Observance of the Seventh-day-Sabbath home to the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ from the Dead was to his Praise as Creator and Legislator But withal we hope to prove that the Change of it and dedicating another day of the Week to our Lord Jesus Christ the same Jehovah and spotless Son of the Virgin does highly conduce to his Honour as Lord and Glorious Redeemer as Conqueror of Hell and Death as Accomplisher of that Great and Glorious Work of our merited Salvation A Work unconceivably more glorious in it self and insinitely more advantageous to us and really laborious and grievous to himself and as he entred into his real Rest on that day even the first day out of the Depths of his Humilitation Here in the next Paragraph he quotes Mat. 12.8 The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath with that Gloss or Interpretation which he puts upon it which I doubt not is very false and has been already proved to be so But because he refers it to another Place we shall attend him there and then endeavour to give its true meaning About the Fourhth Question Page 23. I shall not contend for I verily believe the antient Patriarchs did Observe and Sanctify the Seventh-day SECT IV. THE fifth Question Whether the Ten Commands were given by Christ to Jews and Gentiles Page 24. He thinks he hath proved the Legislation of Christ from the Beginning But how this is to be understood and wherein he has taken false Measures has been before shewn Whether he gave them to Jews and Gentiles that is to all Mankind he takes this for granted also Which we also assert even that all the Moral Law was given to the Humane Nature and so to all Mankind in Adam But withall that the Seventh-day-Sabbath was no part of the Moral Law no nor yet a seventh part of time to be Consecrated and Sanctified to Divine Worship I mean not Primarily and in it self Moral which I should endeavour here to prove if I
cannot So that we have granted him his desire in shewing him what Law Christ meant in such Passages even the Ceremonial as well as the Moral for they were the Object of the Superstitious Jews greatest Zeal and they persecuted him and his Disciples as the Overthrowers of the Ceremonial Laws and therefore Christ tells them He came not to destroy but to fulfil them c. By all that hath been already said is fully shewn the Impertinency of those Quotations Page 35. 38. where our Saviour makes use of an confirms the Moral Law For there is not one word of his Sabbath in them all In our Saviour's Carriage and Language he vindicates the Sanctity of the Temple John 2.13 17. so he does Circumcision and Authorizes its Administrations upon the Sabbath day and derives it from a more August Antiquity than Moses John 7.22 23. If our Author had any such Expression from our Saviour's Mouth concerning the Sabbath how would he have triumphed therein and have fetch'd its everlasting Establishment therefrom But there is not one such Syllable concerning it These have a greater shew for their Authority from our Saviour's Discourses than the Seventh-day-Sabbath yet I doubt not but he looks on them as no longer in Force and of no Obligation in these latter and Evangelical days Page 37. He produces the Church of England Articles the Presbyterian Confession the Independants Declaration of Faith for the Ratification of the Moral Law who yet are all for the Exclusion of the last day of the Week from being the Christian Sabbath and thereby declare their Rejection of it from being any part thereof And thus all the Authority both Divine and Humane that he produceth makes nothing at all for him but very much rather against him With which this question is concluded SECT VIII HE proposes the Question Page 38. Whether Christ in his own Person did not observe the Seventh Week-day-Sabbath and no other during his Life To which we answer affirmatively with him that he did so that he was bound to do it that it was part of his Righteousness which he was to fulfil for he was born under the Authority and Obligation of the Old Testament Administrations even of the Ceremonial ones and therefore was Circumcised the eighth day went up to Jereusalem with his Mother in his Childhood to keep the Annual Feasts and in his Manhood was a Constant Conscientious and obedient Attender upon and observer of the Passover as we read in the History of his Life after his Baptism and manifesting himself to the World home to his Death or just before his Sufferings and so doubtless did by all the other Ceremonial Laws according to Gods Injunction of them and was an Observer of all other positive Divine Laws and so consequently must he be of this for neither all the former nor this particular were to be abrogated and lain aside as to their Authority till he himself was lain aside and buried in the Grave Without doubt he also dutifully kept and practised all the Judicial Laws being born a Member of their State as well as of their Church as far as their Roman Lords would permit for the Authority of these Laws lasted as long as the Judicial Polity and with it declined and perfectly expired Will this Pleader for the Seventh day contend for the Authority of all those Ceremonial and Judicial Laws home to our days because our Blessed Lord observed and kept them He must do so if this Argument be of any weight And it has been the Fate of all his Arguments hitherto to militate as much for all the Ceremonies except that of the Sabbaths being given in Innnocency of the Jews as for the Seventh day Enough for their own Confutation Just another such Medium is cunningly insinuated Page 39. to prove the Goodness of the Observation of this Sabbath viz. Its Antiquity having been the Sabbath of the Church for four thousand Years which will introduce Sacrifices into the Worship of God a Bloody Offering up of Beasts for they are as ancient within a day or two as 't is probable for God taught Adam to offer up such Sacrifices as the Types of the Seed of the Woman who was to have his Heel bruised by the Serpent his Humane Nature murthered by the Devil and his Agents but then sacrificed and offered up to God as the Expiratory Victim for the sins of Fallen Man And 't is probable that those Skins which God made Coats of for Adam might be of such sacrificed Beasts And Adam taught his Sons to Sacrifice to God And we read Gen. 4.4 That Abel brought to God the Firstlings of his Flock and the Fat thereof Will he therefore plead that their venerable Antiquity must still give them a place in the Evangelical Dispensation now that that Grand and All-sufficient Sacrifice the substance of those Shadows is offered up I trow not So neither can the Antiquity of the former Sabbath till our Saviour's days and through his days be any Argument for its Admission and Authority now seeing by our Saviours coming we have the new Heaven and the new Earth which the Prophets foretold Isa 65.17 66.22 and a more glorious and blessed Work accomplished than that of the Creation which doth much more deserve a Sanctification and Separation of that day whereon its Compleater rested from all his former Labours and a new external Administration was introduced and a new day and consecrated time suitably also instituted SECT IX IT is demanded Page 40. Whether Christ did rest the Seventh-day-Sabbath when he was in the Grave And it is affirmatively resolved that his Soul rested in Heaven and his Body rested in the Grave that day All as a Proof that our Lord Christ himself did in his state of Death confirm that Seventh-day-Sabbath as well as by his Practice and Doctrin in Life and so recommended it to the Observance of all the future Churches Which Notion if it could be proved would do more for the Seventh-day-Sabbath than all the Arguments he hath yet brought If he could rationally demonstrate that the blessed Redeemer did rest on the Seventh day from all his Humiliation and Sufferings he would then defeat the great ground on which all the Churches since our Lords coming and consummating the work of Redemption have built upon for the Change of the Seventh day into the first-day-First-day-Sabbath For they say they do it because on the first day our Lord Jesus God-man rested from that more Wonderful Glorious Gracious Profitable and Ravishing Work than that of the Creation and more laborious and difficult work to himself being really and dreadfully so to his Humane Nature But indeed this Notion is a very strange and an uncouth one because the Rest of the Mediator in this Sense cannot be thought to be any other than a happy and Complacential Reflection upon the work of our Redemption merited by all his Active and Passive Obedience which could not be until he had waded through
haling him through the Streets Therefore this must be the former part of the sixth day in the latter part whereof he was Crucified and laid in the Grave in which he continued throughout the seventh and out of which he rose very early in the Morning of the first day And so it could not be after as he would fain have it but upon the third day And therefore without any danger of shaking the third days Resurrection our Expositors according to the use of Scripture do thus interpret this Passage and this Preposition See another express place for this where after three days is said to be upon the third day 2 Chron. 3.5 12. And because it was our Saviour's use to appear to them upon that day even the first day 'T is strange that he should herein go against all the Criticks of that Language and against all the Sense of all the Expositors that I can see to serve his own Hypothesis 'T is without doubt that it was not upon the Seventh day that our Lord did now appear to his Disciples unless we will understand it thus after four or five days after the eighth day he appeared to them And thus he slily evades this other Argument for the Lords days Observance even his Appearance to his Disciples when gathered together for religious Worship which as I have shewed formerly was not once only but several times after his Resurrection And 't is the only day of the Week which is named by all the four Evangelists upon which our Saviour appeared to them and graciously discoursed with them no other day so much as mentioned nor the Seventh so much as hinted to be the day of his Personal Manifestation of himself unto them which is another high Honour and Prerogative our Lord and the King of the Church has bestowed upon this first day of the Week and seems to be a practical and exemplary laying aside of the Seventh day from being the weekly Sabbath-day and substituting the first day to be that day consecrated to the publick and solemn Worship of God and an Assurance that he will be in the midst of his People assembling themselves upon this his day and will come and Bless them which has been and is according to the Experiences of his People in their religious Devotions and publick Congregations for there have they met and do they still meet him in those his Galleries Then he brings them into his Wine-Cellar and his Banner over them is Love Then he gives them the ravishing Kisses of his Mouth Then they behold his Beauty in his Sanctuary apprehend his Glory Experience his gracious Power in and upon their Souls Then they are abundantly satisfied with the Fatness of his House and drink delicious Draughts of the Rivers of Spiritual Pleasures that flow therein Then they experience that that first day of the Week in Gods House is inconceivably better to them than all the days of the Week any where else or about any other Imployment whatever Wherefore we have just cause to hope that our People will not and persuade them that they do not neglect the Sanctification of the first day of the week and their Assembling themselves together on that Holy day Seeing herein they follow the Examples of the Apostles themselves and the other Christians in their days and experience the Gracious Spiritual Presence of our Lord in the midst of them as they did both his Carnal and Spiritual Presence then and turn aside after the novel and singular Opinion of this Author being also poorly grounded as we have seen He proceeds Page 51. against that which some bring from John 8.56 Abraham saw my day c. as the day of Christ's Resurrection and so the First day of the Week He says some would have it meant of his Birth-day for the Observance of Christmas others all the days of his Flesh and the things which he did speak and suffered and our Redemption thereby which I think to be a true Notion But then to be sure he must foresee his Resurrection and so a day thereof and this was the great Cause of his Joy and Gladness Because without this there could be no cause of Gladness in all the rest For his Birth Life and Death could have brought no Glory to him if he had still layen in the Grave nor Good nor Profit to us if he had not rose out of it but he would have been conquered by his Enemies and we forever undone But now his Resurrection is for his own greatest Glory his Enemies Confusion and our Comfort and Triumph This was properly our Lords day He calls the day and time of his Sufferings Luk. 22.53 the hour of his Enemies and the power of Darkness Because then they insulted over him and he was delivered into their Hands But the time of his Resurrection was his own day because he therein Triumphed over all his Enemies and had perfectly vanquished them and therefore this day must chiefly be intended by Abraham because 't was the chief day of his and all Believers Joy and Gladness Though Mr. B. does not so much as once mention it in all those Particulars he reckons up under this Head Moreover Page 52.53 he mentions those Texts Psal 118.22 24. and Heb. 4.1 11. where the day the Psalmist speaks of which God hath made some do interpret of the Resurrection-day and that therefore upon that day of the Week Christians or the Churches should go into the Houses of Worship and there praise the Lord and adore him And Psal 2.7 where the day of God's begetting his Son is interpreted the day of Resurrection And there is very good reason nay there is Divine Authority for it for it 's applyed and appropiated to that very day Act. 13.33 So that the Text in the Hebrews which speaks of a Sabbath besides the Seventh day from the Creation and that Sabbath or Rest which Jehovah brought Israel into in the Land of Canaan which was to succeed and as it were to antiquate and exclude the others is by good and excellent Authors understood of the Lords day the Sabbath of the First day Who bring many excellent Arguments for this their Interpretation and Opinion Which Mr. B. should have Produced Answered and Invalidated and not put them off only by a bare Denial or Calling them Shifts and Wind-laces As though his only Rejection of these Passages were enough to Counterballance all the Arguments and rational and scriptural Discourses which many good Scholars Divines and Holy Men do draw from them and give us upon them And therefore seeing he saith nothing to Confute what they have said and I desire to study Brevity I shall speak nothing more here but only refer the Reader to these Orthodox Authors themselves and Particularly to Mr. Warren in whom he shall find very good Improvement of these Passages for the Lords day Page 54. He mentions Act. 20.7 as an Objection against the Authority of the Seventh day and
here spoken of is the Seventh day that the Flight here spoken of is that at nearest of the Destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple about Forty Years after Christ And therefore our Saviour knowing what a great Trouble of Spirit 't would be to gracious and devout Souls to be forced to flee for their Lives on that day whereon they should have been Glorifying their God and Refreshing their own Souls in Religious Duties and Holy Communion with the Father and the Son He exhorts them to Pray against such an Evil thereby implying as he would have it the Continuance of that Sabbath and his own Confirmation thereof till then and so forever Wherein I think I have I am sure I intended to have given all the strength of what he hath written from hence and not concealed or lessened any whit of it Unto which I proceed to answer that 1. Some understand this to be a proverbial kind of Speech to express the Difficulty and Irksomness of a thing that 't will be as tedious as a Journy in a Cold Snowy Dirty Winter or as a Flight to a superstitious Jew upon a Sabbath-day 2. Others apprehend it to be spoken to the Disciples in this Sense Pray that your Flight may not be on the Seventh-day-Sabbath Because thereby you will greatly offend the superstitious Jews who will deem you as Profaners of that day hereby and so will be so far from Pitying and Relieving you that they will hate and michief you all they can As we know the Jews were great Enemies to them because they were so to their Ceremonial Worship as they deemed them and to their Sabbaths too and hence were so far from sheltring them from that they betrayed them to and delivered them up into the Hands of Heathenish Persecutors 3. It may well be interpreted specifically of a Sabbath and not numerically of the Seventh day only And so 't is as if our Lord had said pray that on what ever day your Solemn Rest for Religious Worship and Divine Service shall be that on that day your Flight may not be for 't will then be very grievous and more intolerable than on any day of the Week And so includes yea primarily intends the First day the Dominical day But 4. To be as fair as we can with him and to grant all that he does desire we will suppose that our Saviour did mean by his words what they 't is most probable did understand by them even the Seventh day to be that Sabbath on which they were to deprecate their Flight Yet this will be also far enough from so clear a Proof for him as he imagines For we know 't is usual in the Holy Writers to speak of Evangelical days and of the Worship of God in them under Legal Metaphors to wit by Sacrifices by erecting of Altars by coming up to the Temple c. as all that know the Stile of the Prophets cannot but be acquainted with because these were then the Services which that People performed and they knew no other and probably would not have endured the mentioning of any other So here our Saviour speaks indeed literally of the Seventh-day-Sabbath because the Jews and his Disciples who were Jews knew yet of no other neither were prepared to hear of the future substituting of another day in its place Yet this does no more confirm the Seventh day to be the future Sabbath than those other Scriptural Sayings do the Ceremonial Rites to be the Evangelical Worship or the external Modes of serving God in the times of Reformation and when the Body and Substance of these Signs and Figures were exhibited Besides we say our Saviour did very well foresee that many of his Disciples as we know the Churches of Galatia and Colosse and those of Jerusalem with James did would many years after his Decease dote upon the judaical Ceremonies and would reverence them out of Conscience to God their Author and Imposer And so also on the judaical day And therefore our Lord fore-apprehending this bids them to deprecate their Flight on such a day which their own Conceits and false Apphrehensions of things would make more grievous and burdensom to themselves not his Injunctions or the real Obligation of the day And there is nothing more common than this way of speaking according to Mens Apprehension of things without any the least Approbation of that Apprehension So we find our Saviour speaking in his Discourses of the Jews Circumcision very commendably and honourably yet I hope this did not confirm it for the future But here it may be objected But he did not Prophesie of its future Observance or require any thing of them upon a Supposition of its Continuance afterwards and therefore this is nothing to the purpose But we know he could not but foresee that they would observe it and keep it up in the Churches after his Departure from them and its Abrogation and so these Speeches of his would then be upon Record and probably made a Plea for its Use especially seeing he never did as I remember speak any thing against it or expresly of its future Extrusion out of the Churches Which Speeches of his cannot Authorize their future Practice Neither can our Saviours foresight of their superstitions and mistaken Observance of the Seventh day and his Command for their Ease-sake upon that Prevision authorize the Continuance thereof Therefore seeing there are so many Solutions given to this Plea against the Apostles meaning of the Seventh day when he condemns them for their Observance of Days and Sabbaths whereof some one may be deemed sufficient but much more all together It cannot by any impartial judicious Person be thought of any Prevalency to evade an express Prohibition of the Apostle of the Observance of that day which we contend his Prohibition of Sabbaths to be the Seventh being the most famous of all Sabbaths Being that which is mostly if not only intended by that Expression in Scripture and in that very word whereby the Holy Ghost in the New Testament intends and means the Seventh-day-Sabbath SECT XVI HE begins Page 75. to betake himself to the Command it self and would from thence collect an absolute Necessity of the perpetual Observance of the last day of the Week asserting the Morality of the whole Command and endeavouring from some Passages and Letters of that Law to ratify his own Opinion herein Therefore I shall take leave with as much Brevity and Plainness as I can to give my weak Thoughts about it and leave it to the Learned and Judicious to determine Here we must premise a Distinction or two 1. Between Moral and Positive between that which is Good Just and Holy in it self which emerges from the right Constitution of the rational Creature and so would be a Duty if 't were never externally injoyned by God And that which has no such innate Goodness neither would have been performed as a Duty by Man were it not imposed by a
superadded Precept 2. Between that which is Purely Naturally and Absolutely Moral in it self and that which is Secondarily Respectively and Positively Moral The former is that spoken of above the latter is that which though the rational Creature could not of it self have judged a Duty yet when 't is once imposed by Command and so revealed to be the Legislator's Pleasure there is discerned in the thing it self a very great Equity Goodness and Suitableness to Gods Glory or the Creatures Good or both As in the case of Tithes or the Tenth of every Mans Estate to be devoted to Pious Uses for the Maintenance of the Worship of God and of those that are by him called thereto and imployed therein Though the Light of Nature could not primarily and from it self have discovered and devoted this very precise proportion to the immediate Service of God as absolutely necessary Yet when God does once require it it must needs close with it as very reasonable and just that God who gives all and whose all is should have the Tenth part devoted and separated to his own Service So that the Goodness of this does not only arise from the Will of the Legislator but also from the Nature of what is required when 't is once discerned to be the Legislator's Pleasure So that it is neither purely positive nor yet primarily Moral discovered only by the Promulgation of the Legislator and then embraced at and acknowledged to be most just and good by the Creature from whom 't is required Whereas what is purely positive has nothing just or good in it self nor discernable after its Imposition 3. In the Fourth Command we must distinguish between 1. The Duty commanded 2. the Explication of the Duty and 3. the Arguments and Motives thereto And so without any more nice Distinctions we proceed by God's Assistance to our Apprehensions about this Matter 1. The Duty Commanded or the Substance of the Fourth Command which is in the first Words of that Command Remember the Sabbath-day or the Day of the Sabbath to keep it holy or to sanctify it Where we acknowledge the Rest or the holy Rest to be primarily and absolutely Moral which this right Judgment of the rational Creature dictates directs to as that which it ows to its Creatour Preserver and Benefactor even a set and solemn Time separated and devoted to the immediate Service Praises and Adoration of God who because of his own Infinite and Incomparable Excellencies deserves all their Praises and Adoration and because of their own innumerable and inestimable Benefits received from him merits all their Love and Observance Which Imployment the rational Creature would acknowledge to be the most noble and excellent the most happy and blessed that it can be imployed in being the Imploying of the most noble Faculties of the Soul in their most excellent Acts about the most raised and glorious Object This I say the true Light of Nature would direct unto and so is purely moral But whether it would have directed to a Separation of a whole intire Day thereto I cannot resolve Though this also may be most probable being a Time so limited measured and distinguished by the antecedent and subsequent Darkness or by the Presence Light and Motion of the Sun in the Hemisphere But here I believe we may take for granted that the rational Creature in its Rectitude would have actually consecrated to so divine Worship and imployed in divine Worship all that Time that could have been duly and conveniently spared from the Refreshment of the Body and those due Preparations which must be made for his decaying outward Man so that Adam would have subserviated had he stood in his Innocence all his tilling of the Garden all his eating drinking and sleeping all the Recruits of his Body to the solemn Manner as that which was the End of his being the due of his God from him and the highest and most blessed Imployment of himself This I say would have been had he beenleft to the Dictates of his own Knowledge which was given him of God of himself and of his Ingagements to the Author of his being and well-being and not been prescribed by a Precept from his Lord and Sovereign But however this all must acknowledge that a Time of Rest For that 's the english of Sabbath to be set apart and sanctified to the immediate Service of the most high and munisicent God is purely moral And it may be also thought that an intire Day may bid fairly for it And this I say is the Substance of this Precept and really moral But here before I proceed I must obviate a little Criticism which the Author here seems to lay a great Stress upon and that is about ה hè in the Original which he would fain have to be very emphatical and to signifie That by way of Eminency here in this Verse the beginning of the Command the Words are Remember the Day of Rest Eth Jom Hasshabbath I would enquire of him whether this rendring of these Words be not as proper as any he can render it by Whether the Day of Rest be not so proper as the Day of a Rest or the Day of that Rest For every one that hath but peeped into the Hebrew Bible very well knows that that Letter ה serves many times if not most times only for a Letter and Ornament of writing without any Signification whatever And whether I render it by an English Particle or no he cannot blame me if I will he hath no Reason to quarrel me if I render it A or The nor I much to quarrel him though he chuses to translate it That For neither A nor The nor That are found in the Original but are only English Particles And I would fain know what Emphasis the same Hebrew Particle hath before Shamajim Aretz and I am Heaven Earth and Sea and whether the Translation either without a Particle or with that which carries no Emphasis be not far better than the Translation with an Emphatical one As for Example the Lord made Heaven and Earth and Sea or the Lord made the Heaven the Earth and the Sea are not better than the Lord made that Heaven that Earth and that Sea for if we take this Particle That Emphatically it seems to signifie that there are more Heavens for we suppose the visible Heaven or inferiour one is here meant and Earths and Seas than One and that 't is Emphatically and Eminently meant of those in the in Command beyond the others whereas there is no other Heaven Earth or Sea but what is meant in the Command and therefore would be very impertinently rendred by an Emphatical That From whence I would ask this Gentleman what reason there is why ה before Sabbath and Shebigni should be more Emphatical than before those other Words in the same Command Sure that Opinion wants solid and deep Foundations that must be upheld by such superficial and weak ones Thus much
for the first part of the Command the Substance and unquestionably moral Part thereof 2. We have the Explication of that Part of the Command in its following Words Six Days shalt thou labour and do all thy Work and the Day the Seventh a Sabbath to the Lord thy God is or shall be or both a Sabbath to the Lord that is dedicted to the Worship and Service of Him Thou shalt do no Work thou nor thy Son nor thy Daughter c. Where we have one Day in Seven or of Seven declared and signified to be that Day of Rest or Holy Sabbath which was commnded in the Beginning And here our Authors contend and worthily that this Seventh Day in this Peace is not an Ordinal Seventh Day that is the next Day after the former Six Days But rather a Proportional If I may so express it Day or a distributed part of the Seven that is that of Seven days God will have one entire day to be sanctified to him and his Service without specifying what day of the Seven it should be And I am sure he has no reason nor ground from the Command hitherto to except against this understanding of the Seventh day In this Explication of the Command we have two things 1. The Portion of Time or the Part of the days that God will have sanctified to an Holy Rest the Seventh 2. How he will have the Rest observed By an Abstinence of all sorts of Persons from earthly and worldly Employments except such as do not interfere with its due Sanctification that they may be wholly in Body and Soul busied in his Service as is clearly enjoyned in that word in the Substance of the Command to Sanctifie it As to this Seventh part of time so sanctified and separated to Divine Service this is not Primarily and Purely Moral though we acknowledge it to be Secondarily and Positively so Not such a measure of Time as the Wisdom of Man in Innocency would have precisely separated to Divine Worship and not one day more nor one day less of all the Week-days I think I have shewn before that the light of Nature would have separated and dedicated all to the solemn Service of God all the time that it could spare from the due Recruits of Nature Which I doubt not but in an Estate of Innocency would have been a greater Measure and part of Time than the Seventh For now we find by Experience that even after the Fall since that the Earth is cursed for our Sins and requires a great deal more Labour and Time to be lain out upon it for the Production of our necessary Sustinence than before the Fall Now that our weak crasie and distempered Bodies call for a great deal more Care and Time for their Sustentation their Recruits and Reparation than when they had a perfect Temperature were compleatly Healthy Strong and Immortal in Innocency and many other Civil Domestick Affairs take up and must have a great deal of our time which would have exacted none of it in Innocencency And yet we experience I say that six in seven allotted us for these things are sufficient enough and we can very well spare a Seventh day for the solemn Service of God without any Detriment to our Bodies or our civil Concerns Yea and have many other Seasons and good Opportunities given us to serve God in And doubtless had God seen fit to have required the sixth part of our time it would have been so also Wherefore I conclude that the seventh part of the Week or one day of the Seven is not primarily Moral because the light of Nature could not have precisely dictated it to us Which methinks I could demonstrate by this Supposition Suppose a Person that is against the Morality of the Sabbath that judgeth no day of the week more Holy than another should by Providence be thrown among Mahonietans or Heathens and preaching the Gospel to them should be Instrumental to convert any of them to the Christian Faith I assert that in such a case and he would certainly be horribly uncharitable that should judge the contrary if they did keep all the rest of the Moral Precepts with a sound Faith in Christ they would infallibly be saved though they never separated one day of the week intirely to Gods Worship and Service But now if they did allowedly live in any Breaches of the other Commands yea supposing some of them should never have been expresly taught them by their Converter as if they did not acknowledge the only true God in their Souls if they did worship Idols if they did Swear Falsly or Vainly if they were Rebellious and Undutiful to Parents and Magistrates if they lived in Hatred and were Cruel if in Wantonness and were Lascivious in Theft and Couzenage or were Oppressing in Lying Slandering and False Witnessing or in an inward Love and Delight in any of these Sins they should certainly Perish And why But because all the other Commands are primarily Moral and this of the seventh part of time is not so Yea in keeping the other Commands they keep the Morality of this also Commands they must separate time to the performance of that Divine Service which is the prime Morality of the fourth Precept Thus I think 't is clear that the Sanctification of one Seventh day of the week is not absolutely and primarily Moral but yet it may also be concluded to be secondarily and positively so that is that upon the Revelation of the Will of the Legislator and his Injunction the rational Creature closes with it as that which is Holy Just and Good as that which is infinitely reasonable for what can be more so than that is seventh part of time should be devoted to his Service whose all our time is especially when it is also for the Creature 's chief good 3. We have the Reasons to inculcate its Observation 1. The Legislator's own Example because he was six days in creating the World and ceased from those works on the Seventh day rested on the Seventh day and 't is hence only in all this Command that they can have any shew or ground to plead for the last day or the Seventh day of the week to be the Sabbath or Rest that God did command which is no way cogent because it may be meant a Seventh day by way of part or portion and not the Seventh day of order nor in number of the week And it may be thus understood Because I was six dyas in making the World and then rested so shall you be six days busie in your common lawful Imployments and then a Seventh you shall consecrate to me and my Worship So that in this Sense it doth not injoyn the last day the Seventh day of the week in order but a Seventh day in proportion of time For which we have this to lead That seeing Gods Example is made the great Fundamental Argument of the Seven-day-Rest it should hence follow that if Adam
rested in his works So that 't is clear from hence that 't is not a Pretence to honour the Lord Christ that is pleaded for the first day but 't is really an Honour a great Honour to the Redeemer that it should be dedicated to a holy Commemoration of his Rest That the first-day-First-day-Sabbath hath the same Argument and Motive in this particular that the Seventh hath even God's Resting from his work and herein a stronger as far as the Glory and Profit of Redemption excels that of Creation I have been somewhat long here and the Subject is very Glorious Delightful and Profitable and the Argument with others weighty and convincing and ought not to be slightly passed over how little soever is said against it the Author seeming to fancy he could blow it out of door with a puff SECT XIII HE proposes Page 49. our Argument from our Saviour's appearing to his Disciples on the first day of the Week for its being the day of Christian and solemn Worship from John 20. to 26. To which he answers all this amounts not to an Institution but with other Arguments it bids fairly for it and shews the Honour our Saviour put upon this day beyond all others As to his other 't is replied that 't is probable that first day spoken of in v. 19. here may be the same with that spoken of Luke 24.13 c. and 't is probable 't is not so for our Lord appeared to his Disciples on several Lord-days But fairly to grant what he cannot get Suppose it were so could the two Disciples travelling to Emaus and our Saviour's coming to them walking and conversing with them any way disparage this day or weaken this Argument Not at all For 1. These Disciples were yet Unbelievers of Christ's Resurrection and so could have no thoughts of keeping a First-day-Sabbath to the Commemoration thereof 2. Their Journey to Emaus might be but a Sabbath-days Journey It might be for religious Ends and we know many among us do go and ride or have gone or rid several Miles to hear Sermons and receive Sacraments and yet not be adjudged as Profaners of the Lords day And our Lord by several Discourses of his about and Actions of his upon the Sabbath might well take them off from too scrupulous and nice Observation of the Lords day 3. The Journey seems not to be so great nor the distance between Emaus and Jerusalem so many Miles as Geographers relate And therefore Beza saith as Mr. Warren informs me that they were mistaken And there seems a great probability thereof because 't is said Luke 24.33 That they rose up the same hour and went to Jerusalem and came to the Congregation of the Eleven and the other Disciples before ever they were dismissed And therefore 't is very improbable that it should be seven Miles and a half from that City and much more probable that it was but a Sabbath-days Journey 4. Our Saviour being risen and entred into his Glory at least the first degree thereof was now no longer subject to Sabbath Observance neither could he be a Profaner thereof whatever he did thereon And beside having a glorified Body he might be with them in an instant upon the way and so in a very small particle of time return to Jerusalem and all his Discourse to them was most proper for the Holy Sabbath opening to them the Scriptures reproving them for their Unbelief and making their Hearts to burn within them So that our Saviour's Discourses and walking with them do rather serve to confirm the First-days-Sabbath and their going to Emaus no way to infringe it As to that which is produced Page 50. from John 20.26 he replies that they might not be gathered together for religious Worship For what else then For fear of the Jews A very probable Conjecture indeed For if it had been only for fear it had been safer to have been divided and every one have hid and concealed himself in some Friends House or unsuspected and safe place or other But to be all assembled together in a suspected House for the Text plainly hints that was either in a Disciples House or some other usual meeting place would be rather to expose themselves and to do this without any design of religious Worship would argue them very indiscreet But now 't was their duty to meet together to worship God though with hazard and this they did and shut the doors upon them that they might not be disturbed by the Jews His denial of this second Appearing to be on the Lords day is taken from a Criticism about a Greek Preposition which we translate after Now all that know any thing of that Language know that their Prepositions are very Polysemous and admit of divers Interpretations or include many of ours and that two joyned to one Case of the following Noun as this Meta does for it might be rendred before the Accusative in within as well as after and it might have been so translated here but they would render it by after well knowing that even so rendred it would no way alter the Sense of the Holy Ghost but according to Scripture Phrase still intend the first day of the week following according to the Expression in Mark 8.31 After three days the Son of Man shall rise again Three days after he was killed he should rise again for so the Text says expresly where the meaning must needs be upon the third day and the English Translation of Queen Elizabeth render this place within three days he shall rise again And thought it well rendred according to the purport of Meta which the Criticks tell us is usually written and spoken by the Grecians in the meaning of in or upon Other Translation render Meta by an Adverb and not by a Preposition as afterward in three days and so in John afterward in eight days in which eight days are comprised the first Lords day and the second as compleating the number and so this second meeting of Christ and his Disciples was on the first day as his Circumcision was on the eighth day which the Scripture expresses by another such like Phrase as this When eight days were accomplished for the Circumcision of the Child Luke 2.21 As for his Evasion of that passage in Mark by telling us the same Expositors think that Mark reckons the time from his first being betrayed and apprehended This no way helps him for suppose he do so yet his after must signifie upon or on the third day for 't is clear that he was betrayed in the Evening late of the sixth day for St. John tells us chap. 18.3 that they came with Lanthorns and Torches to take him and 't is very probable that that young Man who followed him with only a Linnen Cloth upon his Body as he was immediately upon his Apprehension led to the High Priests Palace Mark 14.51 was one startled out of his Sleep and Bed by the rude Violence of the Souldiers