Selected quad for the lemma: rest_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
rest_n	day_n	enter_v	sabbath_n	3,353	5	9.6983	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A47164	The Presbyterian and independent visible churches in New-England and else-where brought to the test, and examined according to the doctrin of Holy Scriptures ... : more particulary directed to those in New-England, and more generally to those in old England, Scotland, Ireland, &c. : with a call and warning from the Lord to the people of Boston and New-England, to repent, &c. : and two letters to the preachers in Boston, and an answer to the gross abuses, lies and slanders of Increase Mather and Nath. Morton, &c. / by George Keith.	Keith, George, 1639?-1716.	1691 (1691)	Wing K191; ESTC R21261	124,580	240

Confession it is revealed to all elect Persons who are uncapable of being outwardly called by the Word the Spirit working in them when where and how he pleaseth 7. But whether any are or can be saved or justified without the express Knowledge and Faith of Christ crucified and risen again is one Question and whether without all outward hearing of Christ crucified outwardly Preached unto them is another Question For without all outward preaching of Men the mystery of Christ crucified can be revealed and preached inwardly to Men by the Spirit of God and by the same Spirit Faith can be wrought in them by that inward hearing as these Men confess And though it may seem hard and difficult to prove that all honest Gentiles who did by Nature to wit by the Principle of the divine Nature implanted into the true Nature of Men the things contained in the Law had that express Knowledge and Faith of Christ crucified and raised again yet it is more hard and difficult unto them who affirm they had it not to prove it seeing the Spirit who worketh when and where and how he pleaseth might reveal it unto them and that they grant the Spirit doth work in all elect Persons who are not outwardly called by the Word and doth regenerate and save them by Christ. And to the further clearing of this matter we are to consider that the Work of Salvation is not a thing that is commonly done in an instant but hath its gradual Steps its beginning progress and finishing even as Faith it self hath for as at the first instant of a Man's sincere believing he is en●●ed into a state of Salvation so as his Faith groweth his Salvation doth gradually encrease and grow with it the which Salvation is not only a Salvation from Wrath to come or from Hell fire and torment but is a Salvation from Sin and from under the Power of Darkness and from all Ignorance and Error and Darkness of Understanding and a thorow renewing into the Image of God and bringing Man into Conformity unto the Image of the Son of God the heavenly and second Adam And the true knowledge of Christ and of God the Father being a part of the Image of God that is to be renewed in them that are to be saved according to Col. 3.10 And have put on the new Man which is renewed in Knowledge after the Image of him that created him Therefore it doth necessarily follow that perfect Salvation in the full extent of it cannot be had without the full and perfect knowledge of Christ the which full and perfect knowledge of Christ is to know him both as he is that eternal Word and Son of God the only begotten of the Father who was with the Father before the World was by whom all things were made and as he is God manifest in the Flesh justified in the Spirit c. to wit Christ crucified and raised which Paul calleth the great Mystery of Godliness And that both Salvation and Faith is gradual and hath its steps and progress beginning growth and perfection is very clear both from the Scriptures Testimony and the Saints experience for Paul writing to the believing Philippians exhorted them to work out their Salvation with Fear and Trembling 2 Philip. 12. So though they were entred into a state of Salvation through Faith in Christ yet it was not perfected in them but was to be further wrought out and to encourage them in this great Work he told them It was God which worketh in them both to will and to do of his own good pleasure And Paul encouraged the believing Romans and also himself saying Now is our Salvation nearer than when we believed Rom. 13.11 And the perfect Salvation of Souls is called the end of Faith 1 Pet. 1.9 And verse 10. Of which Salvation the Prophets have enquired and searched diligently who prophecyed of the Grace that should come unto you Verse 11. Searching what or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signifie when it testified before-hand the Sufferings of Christ and the Glory that should follow And Verse 13. Wherefore gird up the Loins of your Mind be sober and hope to the end for the Grace that is to be brought unto you in the Revelation of Jesus Christ so the Greek hath viz. Enapokalepsei And Philip. 1.6 Being confident of this very thing that he which hath begun a good Work in you will perform it unto the Day of Jesus Christ And as the Work of the outward Creation is distinguished into six Days and that a Day of Sabbath or Rest which is the perfection So the Work of the inward Creation which is the creating Men anew in Christ Jesus by way of Analogy may be said to have its six Days and then the spiritual Sabbath or Rest according to Heb. 4.9 There remaineth therefore a Sabbath to the People of God And verse 11. For he that is entred into his Rest hath ceased from his own Works as God did from his And Verse 11. Let us labour therefore to enter into that Rest c. Where its plain the Writer doth hint at the said Analogy Now though it ought to be granted that the Knowledge and Faith of Christ crucified and raised again doth belong to the finishing and perfecting of the Saints Salvation yet it is most clear and plain from Scripture that it doth not universally belong to the beginning of it For we can prove most clearly from Scripture that the good work of God even the Work of Salvation was begun in them who had not that Knowledge and Faith of Christ crucified as first to instance in Nathaniel of whom Christ gave a noble Testimony Behold an Israelite indeed in whom is no Guile John 1.47 And yet at that time he had not Faith in Jesus of Nazareth as being come in the Flesh but reasoned or questioned saying Can any good thing come out of Nazareth Philip saith unto him Come and see c. Next to instance in the Disciples of Christ who for sometime after they had followed him and that Peter had confessed to him that he was the Son of God and that Christ had told him his Father had revealed it to him yet the mystery of his Death and Resurrection was for all that hid from him and the rest of them For this see Mark 9.31 For he taught his Disciples and said unto them the Son of Man is delivered into the Hands of Men and they shall kill him and after that he is killed he shall rise the third Day And verse 32. But they understood not that saying and were afraid to ask him See again Luke 9.43 But that instance of Cornelius is a most manifest and clear demonstration of this Truth For this Cornelius was a Gentile and uncircumcised and therefore no Proselite of the Covenant to be sure and though some alledge that he was a Proselite of the Gate according to that distinction that was

Works were finished from the Foundation of the World and therefore that seventh day doth signifie Christ Jesus the first and the last who is the alone true Rest and Sabbath of all the Faithful as he invited saying Mat. 11.28 Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you Rest And concerning this spiritual and divine Sabbath or Sabbatism it is said in Heb. 4.9 10. Therefore there doth remain a Rest unto the People of God for he that is entred into his Rest he also hath ceased from his own Works as God did from his let us labour therefore to enter into that Rest c. And Verse 3. We which have believed do enter into Rest By all which it doth plainly appear that the New-Testament understandeth the Christian Sabbath not of any outward Day but of Christ which the outward Sabbaths of the Jews did by way of Allegory signifie and hold forth And lastly as to Matth. 5.17 where Christ saith he came not to destroy the Law but to fulfil it It is not to be understood that he came to keep up and perpetuate the Types and Figures of the Law but to put an end to them and in the room and place thereof to fulfil all the Righteousness Equity and Justice that they did signifie or hold forth which is as the Kernal Otherwise ye might argue as much for upholding the outward Circumcision as the outward Sabbath and that outward Sabbath was not the first day but the seventh day And whereas some plead that the 4th Commandment is altogether Moral as well as the other nine that were given forth immediately by the Mouth of the Lord unto the People and writ by his Finger on the Tables of Stone and therefore is perpetual and never to be abrogated If all this be granted it doth not prove that the first day of the Week is there commanded as these called Presbyterians and Independents would have it Nor can they who plead for the keeping of the seventh day of the Week for the Sabbath prove that the said fourth Commandment did enjoyn to the Jews the keeping of any outward or natural seventh day of the Week for their keeping the outward seventh day of the Week was enjoyned to them among the other Ceremonial Laws and Precepts as is clear from Exod. 16.23 and Chap. 31.13 14. where it is called a Sign to wit of that spiritual moral and perpetual Sabbath And therefore if it be granted that the fourth Commandment is altogether moral and perpetual it doth not follow that the seventh day therein mentioned is any outward day or that it enjoyneth any outward day for it can all be spiritually understood very well as the tenth Commandment Thou shalt not covet doth not enjoyn any outward thing but reacheth to the Heart and inward part only and is altogether Spiritual And as the last Commandment of the second Table is altogether spiritual so why may it not be said that the last Commandment of the first Table is altogether spiritual And even the mystick Writers among the Jews do acknowledge that not only the seventh day mentioned in the fourth Commandment but all the six days signifie spiritual Days and Mysteries as well as the seventh of which I shall not particularly enlarge at present A Call and Warning from the Lord to the People of Boston and New-England to Repent c. THE Burden of the Word of the Lord that came unto me on the twenty first day of the fourth Month 1688. in the Town of Boston in New-England to declare it unto Boston its Inhabitants and to the Inhabitants of New-England who have been or are concerned in opposing and hardning their Hearts against the inward appearance of God and of his Son Christ Jesus in the Hearts of his Servants and in the Living Testimonies they have born unto you to call you to believe in the Light of his Son Christ Jesus who hath enlightned you all and every one of you and to turn you from Darkness to Light and from the Power of Satan unto God Oh! Repent Repent for your great Sins and Transgressions of all sorts that ye have committed against the Lord and against his holy and divine Light and Gift in all your Hearts and especially Repent of your great Hypocrisie all Teachers and People of Boston and New-England every where who call your selves Christians and have a Name to live but are dead who draw near unto God with your Mouths and honour him with your Lips but have removed your Hearts far away from him and who have the Name of Christ oft in your Mouths and think to cover you with his imputed Righteousness while ye are ignorant of his Life and holy Power Spirit and divine Nature in your Hearts and while ye are daily crucifying the Lord of Glory afresh and putting him to open shame and treading under Foot the Blood of the Covenant as the holy Scripture declareth concerning some that professed Christ Jesus in former Ages And this is the state of many of you yea of the generality of you both Teachers and People of Boston and New-England of all sorts a few Names excepted whom the Lord doth honour and they shall walk with him in White although ye have sought to dishonour them And this I have seen from the Lord in that pure Light of his that maketh all things manifest and before which all things are naked and bare which Light ye generally despise and reject and blaspheme calling it A meer natural Light and insufficient to lead unto God and the Children of it ye have hated reproached and mocked with cruel Mockings whereby ye have sufficiently declared your selves to be born after the Flesh and not after the Spirit Oh ye Blasphemers against God and his Temple which is his Light and them that dwell therein Repent repent of your Blasphemies and hard Speeches and hard Thoughts against Gods inward appearance by his holy Word Light and Spirit in all your Hearts And Repent of all your Pride Vanity Folly Excess in Meats Drinks and Apparel who though ye profess your selves to be more pure and more purely reformed than other Churches so called yet in the sight of God ye are nothing better but many of you worse and the Sin of Sodom which was Pride and Excess and fulness of Bread is the Sin of many of you especially of the richer sort Oh unthankful Nation Do ye thus requite the Lord who are Jesurun like that since ye waxed fat have kicked against the Lord and are gone from that Tenderness Sobriety and Simplicity that was among you and your Fathers sometime ago Oh! how quickly have ye degenerated and departed from the Lord of whom ye have made and still are making a great Profession The anger of the Lord is ready to break out against you yet more than formerly unless ye Repent And though his Hand hath been manifestly stretched out against you in manifest Judgments and especially in

infallible Assurance doth not belong so to the essence of Faith but that a true Believer may wait long and Conflict with many Difficulties before he be partaker of it see Chap. 18. Sect. 3. And it is yet as strange that they affirm That a Man without divine new Revelation which here they call Extraordinary although in their first Chapter they have denyed all new divine Revelation even since the Apostles can be infallibly assured that he is in favour with God the which Assurance they seem to ground upon the inward Evidences of the Graces of God and the Testimony of the Spirit of Adoption witnessing with our Spirits that we are the Children of God But whether this be not a manifest Contradiction one while to assert the necessity of the inward Evidence of Grace and the Testimony of the Spirit witnessing with our Spirits that we are the Children of God and another while yea with the same Breath to deny all inward Revelation of the Spirit and to say the Spirit worketh only effectively and not objectively and therefore is only medium incognitum assentiendi to wit an unknown Principle of assenting let the wise in heart consider and judge For seeing no place of Scripture telleth us that we have these infallible marks of God's Children and yet the Spirit doth tell or witness it to or together with our Spirits this certainly is a novum effatum or new Truth or saying no where either expresly or consequentially contained in the Scripture or if they say it is contained in Scripture at least consequentially to wit that J.D. or J.C. hath the infallible marks of a Child of God let him produce it or any for him which they shall never be able to do It is wonderful that these Men have such inveterate Prejudice against divine inward Revelation that rather than assent to so blessed and comfortable Doctrin they will run into the most palpable Non-sense and Contradiction And when they start from the Testimony of the Spirit as implying divine inward Revelation they run at last to the Testimony of a Man 's own Heart and Conscience not well considering that the bare Testimony of a Man's Heart and Conscience cannot infallibly assure him or if it could it is no divine Testimony but only human and therefore no true object of divine Faith 11. But as the least true measure of Faith as it is lively acted or excercised upon Christ inwardly revealed hath an infallible Assurance in it so this Assurance doth only reach to the present state of Faithfulness as it is continued in until it please God to reveal to the Soul that it shall be preserved faithful to the last which so high degree of Assurance many true Believers have not attained unto God reserving that to such as he counteth worthy to reveal the same But the first degree of Assurance to wit whereby the Soul is infallibly assured that for the present it is in the way and state of Salvation and as it abideth and continueth to walk in that living Way and Path it hath begun in it shall be eternally saved is a very blessed and comfortable degree and such as for which every Soul that hath it has great cause to praise God Nor doth this degree of Assurance hinder but that the Enemy of the Soul's peace may raise up Clouds and Fogs of doubting and unbelief which may for some time obscure that Assurance if the Soul be not duely watchful and diligent to retain the same CHAP. VIII Whether true beginnings of Sanctification can be fallen from totally And whether it is true that no Man by any Grace of God given him or to be given him in this Life can perfectly keep the Commandments of God but doth daily break them in Thought Word and Deed 1. THat real and true beginnings of Faith and Sanctification or true and real Righteousness may be fallen from is clear from many Testimonies of the holy Scripture especially Heb. 6.4 5 6 7 8. Where first is described the state of some who do fall away what it was before they so do as 1 st that they were enlightned so as to have tasted of the heavenly Gift 2 dly to have been made partakers of the holy Ghost 3 dly to have tasted the good Word of God and the Powers of the World to come and surely all this could not be without some real beginning of true Sanctification Secondly the state of such is described when or after they do so fall away that they crucifie to themselves the Son of God afresh and put him to an open shame and also the great danger they are in so that it is impossible to renew them again unto Repentance But how far this Impossibility doth extend whether to a simple Impossibility or only in some respect is not the present business to determin and to the same purpose the Author writeth Heb. 10.26 27 28. Thirdly The Apostle Paul in his Epistle to the Romans Chap. 11. doth not only affirm that many Jews and People of Israel who were the natural Branches were broken off from the Root which Root is Christ by unbelief but warneth the believing Gentiles of their great danger also to be cut off if they did not keep in holy fear and watchfulness see Verse 20.21 22. Fourthly The Apostles Peter and Jude set before the Christians the fearful Examples of the fallen Angels and of the old World and also of the People of Israel who were saved out of Egypt to be a warning and caution unto them lest they should fall after the same manner Now the fall of the Angels was a total falling away and so was that of Israel in the Wilderness who though they did eat that spiritual Meat and drink that spiritual Drink to wit the Rock that followed them and that Rock was Christ as Paul expresly declared 1 Cor. 10. yet were overthrown in the Wilderness for their Idolatry Fornication and other great Sins they were destroyed of the Destroyer so that in that day God did swear against them they should not enter into his Rest see 2 Pet. 2. throughout compared with Jude and 1 Cor. 10. throughout Fifthly The Parable of the Seed that was sown in the stony and thorny Ground that sprang up and afterwards whithered did signifie as Christ expresly did expound it some that believed for a time and afterwards did fall away And this Faith was not altogether a false Faith otherwise it had not been blame-worthy in them to have left it or cast it away for it is rather commendable than reproveable to cast away what is false and hypocritical and not real Nor doth it argue that their Faith was not true or real that it sprang up in the stony and thorny Ground For many that are real and sincere Believers at their first believing feel their Hearts to be both stony and thorny Ground and yet with diligence and labour through the Power and Grace of God come to get their Hearts in

time and it was not a bare Figure or Sign that he gave them but in the use of the Bread and Wine he gave them at the same time an inward enjoyment of him And all this we own and are very glad of such occasions when we have them to sit together and eat and drink both outwardly and inwardly enjoying a two-fold Table and Supper at one time and finding the Lord himself spiritually present and blessing both unto us and enabling us to receive both his Spiritual and Temporal Blessings with Prayer and Thanksgiving And such breaking of Bread we own from House to House even outwardly as well as inwardly with singleness and gladness of Heart as the Primitive Christians did of Old sometimes in a lesser Number and sometimes in a greater For at that Supper above mentioned Luke 24.30 there were only present these two Disciples besides Christ himself so that it is not the number whether greater or small that is essential And also we do believe and say that it is our Duty not only in these more solemn Eatings and Drinkings to remember the Lord's death and what he hath done and suffered for us when we thus eat drink together perhaps many belonging to divers Families but also in all our other Eatings and Drinkings and at all other times as it doth please the Lord to enable us and every true Christian hath the Lord's Death Resurrection and his great Love and what he hath done and suffered for us printed as in Capital Letters upon his very Heart and Soul and writ as a living Epistle with the Spirit of the living God upon fleshly Tables and that this ought to be done not only to his more abundant inward and spiritual coming unto us but to be perpetuated and continued by all true Christians to the end of the World and the last coming of Christ And now tell me wherein we are behind you or wherein we fall short of you or what excellency worth or value hath your Supper above and beyond ours But on the contrary hath not ours the advantage every way Seeing we have more frequently both the outward and inward eating and drinking together than ye have the outward and alas the many lean and dead Souls among you void of inward and spiritual discerning taste or savour too manifestly demonstrate ye are generally strangers to the Supper of the Lord. And we also acknowledge the outward eating and drinking is but a figure of the inward and therefore ought not to be rested in but the Substance that is invisible and eternal ought to be minded and sought after above all And though we are not for holding up or preaching of Figures meerly institute for to signifie and represent a thing to come as were these under the Law yet such a Figure as is natural and necessarily to be used by us all as eating and drinking we may not reject For the outward eating and drinking is a natural and necessary Figure of the inward even as the whole outward World is a Figure of the inward and spiritual as Paul doth expresly call it 1 Cor. 7.31 see the ●reek 5. And concerning that ye call your Christian-Sabbath which ye say is the first Day of the Week and ye do positively affirm in your Confession That the Sabbath was changed from the last Day of the Week from the Resurrection of Christ unto the first day of the Week and so to continue unto the end of the World see Confess cap. 21. sect 7. But ye bring no sober proof for any such change and the Scriptures ye cite say no such thing as Gen. 2.2 3. Rev. 1.10 Exod. 20.8 10. Matth. 5.17 That place in Gen. 2.2 3. saith nothing of the first Day but of the seventh Day And what that seventh Day is ye cannot demonstrate And as to the next Scripture Rev. 1.10 where John saith He was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day Although it is more than ye can prove from Scripture that the first Day of the Week is that Lord's Day yet taking it for granted it doth not therefore follow that it was appointed to be the Christian Sabbath But it might be so called because Christ rose upon that day and honoured that day solemnly not only with his rising upon it but appearing at sundry times on that day to his Disciples betwixt his Resurrection and Ascension And that the Christians did usually and more solemnly meet on that day for publick and religious Worship in honour of our Saviour than on other days we readily grant and so also do we according to the Example of the ancient Christians And all true Christians should employ more of their time in religious Works and Services both in private and in publick than the Jews did and ought not to fall short of them but exceed them And that beside other times set apart for the worship of God both in publick and in private it is commendable in Christians to set apart the first day of the Week from common and ordinary labour not only for an ease to their Servants and Cattel but also that they may with the more freedom and cheerful readiness attend upon the Lord and his Service without all incumbrance For experience doth prove it that even bodily Rest from toyl and labour doth contribute to the ease of the Mind and is a help being duly used to disburthen it from divers weights For if the Body be over-charged with labour it is a hurt and clog unto the Mind in divers respects But all this doth not prove that the first day of the Week was appointed for a Sabbath and put in the room of the seventh day of the Week enjoyned to the Jews and People of Israel for that outward Sabbath that was enjoyned unto them was a Sign and Figure as all other outward Sabbaths which they had were as of Weeks Months Years as well as of Days And when the pure Gospel and Christian Dispensation did take place all these figurative and shadowy Sabbaths were changed to the Substance and that Substance or Body is Christ according to Coloss 2.17 But to say the Jewish Sabbath is changed into the first day of the Week is to put the first day of the Week in the room of the Lord Jesus Christ which is a great dishonour unto him for he is the End and Perfection of the Law and of all the shadowy and figurative Ordinances thereof And as the outward Temple that the Jews had is not to be changed into another outward Temple but Christ is the true Temple of the Christians wherein they meet so he is their Sabbath and not any outward day Next as to Exod. 20.8 10. it saith nothing of the first day of the Week nor of one day of seven All this is but Man's invention But it mentioneth the seventh day wherein the Lord rested from all his Works and that Rest signifieth the perfection or finishing of them although as it is said Heb. 4. the