Sabbath day namely when the Creation was finished endured onely till the time of the new Creation in which al things were made new by Christ at which time it ceased or at least a second reason taken from that new Creation comming in place the former both reason day become now old are passed away and behold all things are become new For this worke of redemption or new Creation being the greater may deservedly take place of the other And as the Prophet Ieremy speaking of the deliverance that God would vouchsafe his people from the Babilonish captivity saith Behold the dayes shall come saith the Lord that it shall no more be said the Lord liveth that brought up the Children of Israel out of Egypt but the Lord liveth which brought up the children of Israel from the land of the North c. So may wee say of the day appointed for his worship that the day wherein he finished the worke of Creation shall no more be observed but the day wherein our Lord Iesus Christ by his resurrection from the dead finished the worke of our redemption and begun a new life to be finished in all his members who as S. Peter tels us are by his resurrection begotten vnto a lively hope of an eternall Inheritance The fourth and last thing in this Commandement and that which denominated the day is the resting from ordinary labours And this in regard of the divers ends it had admits a diverse consideration 1. This rest may be considered as a means without which the dutyes of Gods worship cannot be performed For seeing the generall publique dutyes of piety and devotion and our owne private businesses cannot both bee followed at once there must be such a cessation from ordinary labours on that day wherein men are to performe those dutyes as that thereby they be not hindered in the performance thereof in which regardthose workes that in themselves and at other times are not prohibited are on that day vnlawfull so farre as they hinder a man from applying himself to divine dutyes and therein are contrary to the observance of that precept which requires the performance of them And therefore when God commands a day to be dedicated to Him he doth likewise in the same command such a rest as a meanes necessary to that end So that thus farre it is connected with participates of the morality of that Precept that enjoynes the dutyes for which it was appointed in this consideration we are no lesse bound at this day to rest from our labours on the dayes devoted to Gods solemne worship then were the Iewes and as Uenerable Hooker sayth The voluntary scandalous contempt of that rest from labour wherewith God is publikely served we cannot too severely correct and bridle Another end of this rest is mentioned Deut. 5. 14. viz that there might be a time of rest allowed to servants and labourers for their refreshment And this no lesse concernes us then it did them for necessity of nature requires some time of remission from labour and religion teacheth us to be mercifull even to our beasts and much more to our servants who are our brethren But this is not so connected with the observance of the day of Gods publique worship but that it may at other times be supplyed yet is then so far requisite as it makes for the solemne performances of the duties of the day that all as well servants as others may joyne together in the service of God which while they doe they at once enjoy the refreshment of their bodyes and freedome to refresh their soules with holy and religious exercises But this rest as it was prescribed to the Iews had yet a further end in regard of which it was exacted so strictly and beyond that which eyther the solemne service of God or the necessary refreshment of labouring persons did require And that was figurative for the signifying of things past present and future 1. Things past and so it was a memoriall of Gods resting from his worke of Creation and as the day which they observed so the strict rest upon that day served as a sign of the cōmon benefit of Creation which they thereby acknowledged to bee Gods work when they celebrated that day wherein God rested from creating sanctified it by an holy and totall surcease from their owne workes And this end is assigned by God himselfe and annexed to the commandement as a principal reason of the institution of it Secondly it was a memoriall likewise of their deliverance out of Egypt so expressely said to bee Deut. 5. 15. where in the repetition of the Law this reason is added instead of the former God is therefore sayd to command them to keepe the Sabbath that they might remember their servitude in Egypt and their deliverance from thence Againe the Sabbath was a signe also of their present condition and a note to distinguish them from all other people they being then the onely peculiar people of God whom hee had separated and sanctified to himselfe For a signe of which peculiar sanctification they were commanded to observe the Sabbath as we read Exod. 31. 13. Ezech. 20. 12. 3. Lastly the rest of the Sabbath was a Type whereby was prefigured that rest which remained for the people of God to be purchased for them by Christ Into which rest they which believe do enter and shall have the full possession thereof in the Kingdome of glory when after all their works finished they shall rest from their labours And this rest the Apostle designing by the name of a Sabbatisme intimates the prefiguring of it by that Sabbath which the people of God under the Law were to observe So that as the place of this Celestiall and eternall rest was shadowed out by the promised Land so the rest it selfe for the nature condition of it was no lesse presignified by their usuall Sabbaths Now in relation to these good things which were thus vailed under the outward observation of this rest it was very requisite that the rest whereby they were represented should be as strict as might be for the more exact the figure is the better it signifies and the more strictly the rest was observed the more lively was the representation of those things which it aymed at To this if we add the condition of those to whom it was enjoyned we shall have the compleate reason why it was with that strictnesse commanded and exacted the violation of it with such severity punished For first the Iewes though the people of God heire Lord of all yet being as the Apostle saith a child differed not from a servant and as servants were to be held in bondage under the strict yoke of outward observances of this among the rest till the fulnesse of time came when God sent forth his Sonne made of a woman made under the law to redeem them
houres for the dayly sacrifices the building of Synagogues throughout the land to heare the word of God and to pray in when they came not up to Ierusaleme the Feast of the Dedication which was solemnised even by our Saviour and yet never spoken of in the Law and many more which the Church without any particular command onely following the light of reason in her discretion judged meete And certainly the Church of Christ hath not now lesse power or priviledge then the Jewish Church then had to which it is no way inferiour but farre superiour in regard of the measure of grace and the presence of the spirit of Christ by which it is assisted as in other things so in ordaining Lawes for the edification of the Church Now least any should thinke it a matter of indifferencie to obey or disobey the Orders of the Church which are thus constituted without the expresse command of God in Scripture and that the transgressions of such Constitutions are no sinnes I will close this point with that which worthy Hooker from whom I have borrowed the greatest part of this last discourse hath judiciously and fully delivered to this purpose Vnto Lawes thus made saith he and received by a whole Church they which live within the bosome of that Church must not thinke it a matter indifferent either to yeeld or not to yeeld obedience Is it a small offence to despise the Church of God My sonne keepe thy Fathers commandement saith Salomon and forget not thy mothers instruction binde them both alwayes about thine heart It doth not stand with the duty which wee owe to our Heavenly Father that to the Ordinance of our Mother the Church we should shew ourselves disobedient Let us not say we keepe the commandements of the one when wee breake the Law of the other for unlesse we observe both wee obey neither Yea that which is more the Lawes thus made God himselfe doth in such sort authorize that to despise them is to despise in them Him Thus hee with much more to the same purpose Which I therefore thought good to adde that no man might think that while I ascribe it to its true Originall I goe about to impaire the authority of it or to withdraw any thing from the due observance of it And thus I have done with this second Question viz. When and by whom the Sunday or Lords Day was instituted These things thus discussed and cleared it may now seeme superfluous to enquire into the liberty that wee Christians have how farre it may justly be extended in regard of ordinary labours upon the Sunday For if it be granted that the strict rest on the Sabbath was Ceremoniall and abrogated with the Day and that the Day which we keepe is not by vertue of the fourth Commandement but by the custome or Constitution of the Church It wil not be hard for any to conclude that Christians are not bound to rest on that day from all works further then the duties of the day and they who enjoyned it require Yet for more full satisfaction I will adde some-what more particularly concerning those two Questions that remaine To enquire then first What works the lewes might doe or their Sabbath This wil easily be dispatcht in as much as herein the Scripture is very plaine and little or no difference of opinion among Divines Yet will it not be altogether needlesse in regard that the liberty we now have under the Gospell when it is compared with theirs under the Law will the better appeare Now these workes are fitly reduced under three heads The first of which are Workes of necessity such as could not well be deferred or prevented Of which sort are reckoned divers which how ever Pharisaicall superstition had prevailed with the people to scruple at yet were never in the intention of the Law-giver prohibited them as may appeare by the doctrine practise of our Saviour who was both wayes the best expositor of the Law and who both wayes came not to destroy but to fulfill it And among those thus allowed by our Saviour we finde the providing of foode in the case of hunger the watering and by the like reason the foddering of cattell the saving them from imminent danger Whence by analogie and congruity of reason wee may conclude the lawfulnesse of many more things of the like nature as that of Mattathias and his company resolving to fight upon the Sabbath to save their lives So the quenching of an house on fire the saving of corne and other necessary substance from perishing and the like To which wee may adde workes communis honestatis as the decent attiring of our selves and all other workes which necessity of nature hath imposed upon men and thereby allowed as fit to be done The second sort of workes permitted them were workes of mercie and charity as to visite the sicke heale the diseased and the like which wee finde approved by our Saviours often practise and together with those before-mentioned justified by that axiome of his The Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath that is according to Erasmus's Glosse it is fit that the observation of the Sabbath should give place to mans benefit and not that man should perish for the Sabbath as also by that of the Prophet by him cited God will have mercy and not Sacrifice that is rather have the miseries of men relceved then the letter of the Law observed The third and last sort of works were workes of piety belonging to the service of God as to reade the Law to teach the people to circumcise children to offer Sacrifice with their attendants as to make fires for them to slay and prepare the beasts for these workes though servile in themselves being directed to the service of God were sacred and no way violating the Sabbaths rest So our Saviour testifies that notwithstanding these workes done by the Priests in the Temple yet the Priests were blamelesse and not transgressours of the Law And the Jewes had it among their traditions that in the Temple there was no Sabbath Intimating that the Sabbaths rest must give place to those things which were to be done by the Priest in the Temple for the service of God Having seene what might be done on the Sabbath let us now see whether and what liberty Christians now have on the Sunday and how farre that liberty is to be extended which is the last part of our Inquirie And here though some few transported with a heedlesse zeale of maintayning the dignity of this day have not strucke to affirme that the Iewes had as much liberty as we have that we are as much restrained as they were Yet the most even of the strictest and most precise exactors of the Sundayes rest doe grant a liberty which Christians now have more then the Iewes had But what liberty this is wherein it consists how
were yet weake in faith or hinder others of that Nation from beleeving in Him Besides be it that Christians did hold themselves freed from the observance of the Sabbath yet being among those who still made conscience of it even to superstition as did the unconverted Jewes it could not but prove very incommodious to their speedy and farre flight which the greatnesse and suddennesse of the danger required in as much as thereby they should expose themselves to the fury of those who were no lesse zealous in compelling others then superstitious in observing it themselves In these respects our Saviour might well admonish his Disciples to pray that their flight might not bee on the Sabbath day and yet not teach them to observe the Sabbath after his death or that while the observation of it lasted they should thinke themselves so tied in conscience of it that they might not on that day flie farre to save their lives and much lesse to establish the Morality of the Lords Day which neither He nor his Apostles nor the following ages of the Church till within these few yeares ever designed by the name of the Sabbath without some difference added to distinguish it from that of the Jewes For though we finde it sometimes called our Sabbath or the Sabbath of Christians in regard that in the maine end of it it succeeded that yet generally the Sabbath simply put and without addition notes the Iewish Sabbath or the Day on which it was celebrated which is our Saturday and the day before that which we keepe which is therefore called by the Evangelists and S. Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one or the first day from the Sabbath and by S. Iohn in the Revelation the Lords Day by which name or that which the same day had among the Gentiles viz. the Sunday it hath ever since been knowne in the Christian world But I will leave these and now returne thither whence for the answering of these objections I have digressed And having seene the nature and severall degrees of Morall Precepts and in generall that the fourth Commandement hath in it somewhat not moral That I may apply these things to our present purpose and manifest the truth thereof I will more particularly inquire into the nature of that Commandement and in it distinctly consider these 4. things First A Day or time set apart for Gods service Secondly the seventh day or one in the revolution of seven Thirdly the particular seventh there mentioned namely the seventh from the Creation Fourthly the strict surcease or rest from ordinary labours on that day For the first of these It cannot be denied but that the very Law of Nature it selfe to use the words of a Worthy of our Church requireth no lesse the sanctification of times then of places persons and things For which cause it hath pleased God heretofore as of the rest so of times likewise to exact some parts by way of perpetuall homage And that as Aquinas it is morall that man should depute some time of his life for the service of God For there is in man a kind of naturall inclination that to every thing necessary there bee a time assigned as to our bodily refection sleepe and the like Whence also to the spiritnall refection of the soule whereby the soule is refreshed in God by the dictate of naturall reason a man deputes some time And so to have some times for holy Offices comes under the Morall Law and is absolutely of the Law of Nature written in the heart of every man being involved in that principle which even depraved nature hath ever acknowledged viz. that God is to be worshipped And therefore Amesius hath well observed that thus farre the time of Gods worship falls under that precept which exacts the worship it selfe and as God when he created the world is said to have concreated time with it so when he ordained religious actions he appointed also to the same a time for them as a necessary circumstance without which they could not be performed And as the time in which such actions are done so that some Day or Dayes should be destinated and set apart for the more solemne performance of those actions may seeme to be a dictate of the same Law of nature in as much as the Heathens who had no other guide but the law of Nature had their solemne Feasts and set Dayes in all ages consecrated to the worship of their Gods whereby they manifested though not the knowledge of the true God yet their acknowledgement of that Principle That God is to be worshipped and the conveniencie of assigning some Dayes peculiarly to that end For the second That one day in the revolution of seaven should be thus set a part this cannot be said to be absolutely of the Law of nature Nature being ignorant of this without the instruction of the written Law in which God hath revealed his pleasure concerning the Quota pars or how much of our time hee requires to be consecrated to Him And this will easily appeare to any that doth without prejudice consider it For it is an easie thing to give an estimate of what Principles are naturall and written in the hearts of all men and what are gotten by instruction discipline and information Now men may by the light of Nature from the creature climbe up to the knowledge of the Creator and from the nature of God conclude his worship and from the nature of his Worship conclude a time as to all other things to be due to it But to goe further and to determine what part of our time wee cannot For it will not follow that because some time is due therefore the seaventh day more then the eighth of every moneth which was observed by the Graecians in honour of Neptune or any other day above or under that number And for this cause it is saith Saint Chrysostome that in the giving of this Commandement concerning the Sabbath which hee calls a Precept not made knowne to us by our conscience God added a reason as because Ged rested the seventh day from all his worke and againe because thou wast a servant in Egypt c. Whereas in those Precepts that are purely morall as when he saith Thou shalt doe no murther hee onely gives the precept without giving any reason at all Why so saith that Father because our conscience had taught us this before so that God speakes as to those that knew and understood reason sufficient for the Prohibition Neither doth Eusebius though alledged by some to that purpose any way contradict this when he saith That not onely the Hebrewes but all almost both Philosophers and Poets acknowledged the seaventh day to be sacred For here it is not questioned whether the Gentiles which wanted the law of God to informe them did hold the seaventh day as hallowed but whether they were induced by the instinct of nature so to account it
that were vnder the law that wee might receive the adoption of sonnes Secondly the Iews by reason of their long abode in a place of continuall servile toyle could not suddainely be weaned and drawne unto contrary offices without some impression of terror whence the severity with which this duty was enjoyned and the violation thereof punished was to them most necessary And besides we know that there is nothing more needfull then to punish with extremity the first transgressors of those Lawes that require a more exact observation for many ages to come These considerations then being peculiar unto them that strict rest which was thereupon exacted being but accidentally annexed to the principall sanctification of the Sabbath cannot belong unto us by vertue of that command by which it was enjoyned them And this is confessed even by those that stand most for the observation of the Sabbath who grant that the strictnesse of the rest on the Sabbath was Ceremoniall and did belong to the Iewes onely and is abrogated by the death of Christ So Elton And Amesius It may be granted that there was somewhat a more strict observation of the Sabbath commanded in those times as fitted to the pedagogy and time of servitade which obteynes not in all ages So he and generally the most of those which propugne the Doctrine of the Sabbath To give a briefe and full resolution to the first question propounded viz. whether and how farre forth the fourth Commandement concerning the Sabbath is morall and perpetuall and so belonging to us Christians To the former part I say the fourth Commandement is partly morall and partly Ceremoniall To the latter I say First it is morall and perpetuall that some time be dedicated to the solemne publique worship and service of God Secondly that one day in the revolution of seaven be consecrated to this end is not morall yet very convenient and fitly observed and retayned by the Church of Christ Thirdly that the particular seaventh day which the Iewes observed is neither morall nor sit to bee observed being altogether abrogated and out of date ever since the death of Christ Lastly the resting from ordinary labours as it is connected with the dutyes of Gods worship and a means without which they cannot be performed is no lesse necessary on the dayes consecrated to that end now then heretofore but as it concerned the Iewish Sabbath it is together with the Sabbath abrogated So that Christians are not bound either to rest on that day which the Iewes did or to rest on their owne Sabbaths or dayes consecrated to Gods service with the same strictnesse which was enjoyned the Iewes on theirs Thus much shall serve to have spoken of the first generall question Having explained the nature of the fourth Commandement touching the Iewish Sabbath I come now to speake of the Lords Day in which that which was Morall in that Commandement is and ever hath beene observed by Christians The institution of which when and by whom it was being the second generall part of our inquirie And here all Divines are not of one opinion Some ground this no lesse then the Iewish Sabbath upon the fourth Commandement which say they includes both the Sabbath of the Iewes and of the Christians Because the Lord doth not say Remember that thou keepe holy the seventh Day but Remember that thou keepe holy the Sabbath Day that is the Day of rest which before the comming of Christ was the seventh from the Creation but afterward the first day of the weeke or Lords Day But these men while they over greedily seeke after a divine foundation for the Lords Day doe not consider that they stretch the Precept beyond the intent of the Lawgiver For though it bee granted that the Lord doth not say Remember to keepe holy the seventh day but the day of ceasing indeterminately yet seeing in the following explication which God added it is determined unto that particular seventh which was the seventh from the Creation to which it expresly is referred as to the speciall reason of the Institution the Sabbath there cannot without forcing and manifest absurdity bee said to bee as the Genus to the Iewish and Christian Sabbath and to include both For is it not manifestly absurd and unbeseeming a rationall man and much more the wisdome of the Supreame Law-giver to say God in sixe dayes made heaven and earth and rested the seventh and for that cause sanctified the seventh Day Ergo Hee will have men in imitation of him to rest sometime viz. before the comming of Christ on that day whereon hee rested and sometime viz. after Christs comming to rest on the day in which hee began to worke Neither can this absurdity bee salved as some have endeavoured to doe by saying there is alwayes more meant in the Precepts and prohibitions then in words are expressed for those things which are so meant without particular expression must either be necessarily connected with or some way subordinat to that which is expressed that so it may be included in it Sure I am it ought no way to be excluded as we see this is by Gods owne exposition of himselfe and the reason which hee alledgeth which can no way agree both to the Jewish Sabbath and the Lords Day Again others urge the Institution of the Lords Day as founded upon Gods sanctification of the seventh Day at the Creation which being before all Ceremonies must say they needes binde Christians as well as the Jewes But this labours of the same weaknesse and absurdity which the other did For what day did God sanctifie there Surely not the first day of the Weeke but the seventh from the Creation which they must with the Jewes cry up againe if they will have their argument hold good But besides this the weaknesse of this foundation appeares in that as hath beene shewed they cannot prove that God instituted the Sabbath and commanded it to bee observed from that time forward but onely that Moses there relating the story of the Creation intimates the reason of Gods after Commanding his people to rest upon that Day And lastly granting that to be the Institution which cannot be proved and that not the seaventh day from the Creation as the words expresly say but a seaventh or one in seaven were thereby intended to be perpetuall to belong to us Christians If all this be granted here will yet be but a partiall foundatiō and no compleat institution of that particular day which we observe for all this notwithstanding why might not the second third fourth or any other have beene observed and yet that institution of one in seaven no way violated Others therefore no doubt espying the weaknesse of it forsake this hold and seeke for authority to prove it to be of Divine Institution out of the New Testament And among these Amesius will have it to bee done by Christ himselfe laying this for a ground worke that
far to be extended is not on all hands agreed upon Some there are who when they come to define this liberty they pin it up within so narow a room that it proves either none at all or to no purpose Amesius saith There is nothing can be brought out of Scripture cōcerning the strist observatiō of the Sabath which was commanded to the Iewes which doth not in the same manner belong to all Christians except the kindling of fires and the dressing of ordinary dyet And these he thinkes it probable too that the Iewes might ordinarily doe on their Sabbath though upon speciall occasions they were forbidden them so that he seemes to retract that liberty which before he granted them But others doe freely grant these and some few like them as making of beds carrying of burthens to wit on speciall and urgent occasions and these they allow by this name of workes of Christian liberty Egregiam vero libertatem A great liberty no doubt and worthy that precious blood by which it was purchased But two things may here be demanded First how it will appeare that Christians have this liberty And here for ought I can see we must be contented to take their own authority for Scripture they alledge none to purpose Those two places which are cited by Elton on this occasion speak no such thing besides that which is there sayd whatever it be proves no peculiar liberty belonging to Christians which the Iewes had not For in them our Saviour justifies his Disciples from transgressing the Sabbath which was then in force but doth not shew what might be done afterward when by his death the Sabbath should be abrogated If they alledge that our Saviour bad the sicke man on the Sabbath to take up his bed which may seeme to have some reference to making of beds or carrying of burthens It may be answered that our Saviour doth not there shew what might ordinarily be done but by his authority gives a speciall dispensation to the sicke man to take up his bed c. without which dispensation the man could not have beene excused from breaking the Sabbath So that here is no certainty according to their principles for any thing to be done which the Jewes might not doe but that men must for all their pretended liberty either Iudaize or else adventure for this small liberty with a doubting conscience Secondly It may also be demanded How wee shall know that onely this liberty is allowed Christians This also we must take upon their credit For reason or Scripture they alledge none at all And if they without either reason or Scripture shall take upon them to give lawes to the Church of God and prescribe bounds to Christian liberty I see no cause why wee may not upon solid grounds of Scripture and reason assert that liberty which of right belongs to us as purchased by the all precious blood of our deare and Blessed Saviour And this will appeare if we consider what rest or cessation from labours is on this day required First then for that it is a day of Gods publique and solemne worship to bee performed by the whole Church which cannot as hath beene shewed be performed unlesse there bee a vacation from ordinary and common worked a vacation therefore and resting from these as they are impediments to Gods service is on that day required as necessary Yet not so necessary no not in the times of publique assemblyes but that the workes which necessity imposeth upon men and rarer occasions in mens particular affaires subject to manifest detriment unlesse they be presently followed may with very good conscience draw men aside sometime frō the ordinary rule considering the favourable dispensation which our Saviour grounds upon this Axiome The Sabbbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath Which rule if it held for the Iews on their Sabbath is certainely no lesse in force at this day for Christians In the use of which notwithstanding some cautions must bee observed As first that men pretend not necessity or charity when it is covetousnesse or a carelesse neglect or contempt of Gods publique worship upon which ground no doubt it was that the Emperor Leo repealed that liberty which by Constantine was granted to Husbandmen and the Counsell of Matiscon forbids men to frame a necessary to themselves of yoking their Oxen therein allowing both a just dispensation in necessity forbidding the unjust pretence of necessity where none is Secondly men must take heed that they do not by their negligence or improvidence and forgetfulness draw a necessity upon themselves in which regard the word Remember which God prefixed to the fourth Commandement is yet in force to exact our care and mindfulnesse so to provide before hand that the dutyes to which this day is consecrated bee not by our default omitted or hindered Thirdly that being necessarily hindered or forced to omit the solemne publique dutyes of the Day we do as much as may be by private devotions meditations make supply of that defect Againe such is the reverence that is due to the solemne publique dutyes of devotion that they require not onely a surcease from other workes thoughts for the time of their performance but also a decent preparation before-hand that wee looke to our feete when we enter into the house of God put off our shooes before we stand upon holy ground that so our thoughts and affections which are naturally bent upon the world and not easily withdrawne from it may be raysed to a disposition befitting so sacred an employment In which respect it is convenient if not necessary that til the publike service of God be ended men intangle not themselves with unnecessary businesses or give themselves to sportings or recreations whereby their mindes should be hindered from the right preparing of themselves or due performance of those holydutyes Lastly it is good and commendable to spend the rest of that day in holy meditations private prayer reading and calling to minde what wee have read or heard These workes as they are at all times profitable and beseeming Christians so on that day they are most seasonable and suitable to those publique actions of Devotion which are the proper worke of the Day Thus S. Augustine exhorteth his Auditors on this day to sequester themselves from worldly businesses that they may be employed in these works and the Councill of Matiscon yea and our owne Church Canons prescribe the spending of this day and other holy-dayes devoted to Gods service in these and the like religious imployments And therefore they who thus spend the Lords day if it be done without superstition or judging other mens liberty cannot therefore justly be condemned Now by this it is easie to judge of our liberty First then here is a liberty in case of necessity though thereby the solemne dutyes of Gods worship bee hindered Secondly a liberty in
the fourth Commandement as it enjoynes the externall observation of the seaventh day is not morall either of these wayes Whence S. Augustine saith That among all those ten Commandements that onely of the Sabbath is figuratively to be observed whereas as hee after saith Wee observe the other Commandements there properly as they are cōmanded without any figurative signification And generally the Ancients as Calvin hath truly observed called this Precept a shadow which as he there saith was truly but not fully said of them And therefore they do better and more fully expresse the nature of this Cōmandement which say it is partly morall and partly ceremoniall So Peter Martyr and generally all Divines both reformed and others use now to speake Now if any shall therefore thinke it unworthy a place in the Decalogue and to be rankt with those precepts which are morall and of perpetuall observance Aquinas may seeme to give them full satisfaction who saith 1. that the Precept concerning the Sanctification of the Sabbath is put among the Precepts of the Decalogue for that which is moral in it 2. That this Precept as Ceremoniall ought rather to have a place in the Decalogue then any other The other Ceremonies being signes of some particular effects of God but this of the Sabbath was a signe of a generall benefit viz. the Creation of the Vniverse So that that which Amesius will have a most certaine rule and received among all the best Divines as he calls them That all and onely the Morall precepts were delivered by the voyce of God himselfe and by Him written in the tables of stone is not true unlesse Saint Augustine Calvin Martyr c. be in his esteeme none of the best Divines Yet perhaps wee may admit that rule so farre as to say That all the Morall Precepts are contayned in the Decalogue and that every Precept there contayned is Morall though all of every Precept be not so but may have something that is ceremoniall annexed to it which haply God thought good to place among the morall precepts to intimate the perpetuall necessity of having some ceremonies in the Church though that ceremonie be not necessarily perpetuall but with the rest of that nature to expire at the death of Christ which though wee admit yet cannot any justly charge us that wee diminish any of the tenne words or that wee expunge one Commandement out of the Decalogue in as much as wee affirme that onely which was ceremoniall in this Commandement to bee expired and out of date and that there is in it a morality still remaining which retaines its full power of obligation and exacts the same obedience under the same penalty which it did at its first promulgation or inscription in the heart of Adam In which respect the Church hath good cause still to use her accustomed Antiphona at the repeating of this Commandement as well as at any of the rest and to pray Lord have mercy upon us and encline our hearts to keepe this law And here because some who love to have this Commandement termed morall though thereby they intend no more then what hath beene already granted use so to argue as if they did not acknowledge it at all to be ceremoniall it will not be amisse before wee proceed any further to answere some of the principall arguments that are brought to this purpose And I wil begin with that of our Saviour Math. 5. 17. Thinke not that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets I came not to destroy but to fulfill Which words in their opinion make strongly for the morality and perpetuall obligation of the fourth Commandement For from hence they argue to this purpose That which our Saviour did not destroy but fulfill is still in force but hee did not destroy the law contayned in the Decalogue Therefore it is still in force For answere hereunto I say That in this argument two things are by them supposed First they suppose that by the Law in this place is meant only the law contained in the Decalogue or ten Commandements Secondly That our Saviours fulfilling and not destroying this law was the ratifying and perpetuating of the observation of it under the Gospel If wee grant them both these wee shall condemne the Christian Church for altering the day from the seventh to the eight or first day of the week which cannot stand with this exposition of our Saviours speech who in the words following saith expresly That not one jot or title shall passe from the Law But both these are beside the meaning and intent of our Saviour as will easily appeare to any that with indifferency doth consider his words For First the Law which our Saviour here speakes of is of larger extent and latitude and comprehends not onely the Decalogue or law morall but the Ceremoniall and judiciall also As being indeed put for the Pentateuch or five bookes of Moses And so The Law and the Prophets as much as Moses and the Prophets Which formes of speech are used as a Periphrasis of the old Testament of which these two are the maine essentiall parts The Bookes of Moses so containing and describing the Law that they reserre whatsoever else they containe unto that receive their denomination from it as from the principall subject of them The Prophets that is their Bookes comprehend all the rest of the old Testament which the Hebrewes divide into the former and latter Prophets and the Hagiographa All which though they be not Prophesies being written by divine inspiration and by holy men as they were moved by the Spirit of God may justly be termed The word of Prophecy and passe under the name of the Prophets That the Law is taken in this sense is manifest by the use of the same phrase else where Where not only the duties commanded in the Decalogue but Christ and faith in him is said to be taught and witnessed by the Law to which purpose the Apostle S. Paul useth the same phrase Acts 28. 23. Rom. 3. 21. Now what word in all the Decalogue gives witnesse to Christ or perswades the faith which is required in him Certainly however some have found not onely the faith in Christ but the Sacraments also of the New Testament commanded in the Decalogue yet there is no one word there which imports any such thing Yea the very context evinces thus much for our Saviour having thus prefaced his exposition of the Law keeps not himselfe within the bounds of the Moral Law as appeares verse 18. And therefore Interpreters generally upon this place shew how our Saviour did not destroy but fulfill the Ceremoniall Law also as well as the Morall which were altogether needlesse if by the Law that onely were understood Now the Law being as it must needs be thus largely taken any man may easily perceive that the not destroying but fulfilling of it is not the ratifying and the perpetuating of