end a more perfect establishment of Christianity which before was not rightly practised This was truly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a time of rectification or direction for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is properly said of them who are directed immediately to their journeys end whereas before they were going the farthest way about and such indeed was the Jews way to heaven God leading them about through the wilderness into Canaan as well in the Mysterie as in the History as well in regard of the Coelestial as of the Terrestrial Hierusalem SECT VII A particular time appointed for rejoycing in Christ not by way of restriction but by way of Application The Christians Joy far above the Jews both for his Redemption and for his Adoption The priviledge of true Faith And how the Redemption by Christ is larger then the Adoption by him And the Adoption greater in his giving then in our receiving TO be glad in the Lord and to rejoyce in him makes Christmass last all the year yet is that no better reason why we should not keep christmass-Christmass-Day then our rest and contentation in God which we have or may have all the week is a reason why we should not keep the Sabbath or the Lords own day for it is very bad Logick and worse Divinity which argues from the position of the Duty to the eversion of the Day wherein we ought to exercise it for if the Duty must be exercised how can we reasonably deny the time of its exercise Yet do I not think that a particular time is to be allotted to rejoyce in Christ by way of restriction or limitation as if we should not rejoyce in him at other times for that is the malignant gloss which some of late have put upon the fourth Commandement confining Gods solemn publick worship only to the Sabbath not considering that the Jews had other grand festivals not prescribed in the Law and yet were more strictly bound to the letter of that Commandment then we Christians but I say that a particular Time ought to be allotted to rejoyce in Christ by way of application or of specification that we may more eminently and notoriously rejoyce in him at some time though our joy in him is to be confined to no time For the spiritual joy of the Jew was unconfined and much more the spiritual joy of the Christian who in a larger proportion hath received the Spirit of joy And therefore its observable that though in the Old Testament we are earnestly called upon to rejoyce in God yet are we not called upon for so much joy as in the New Testament let this one instance serve for all Be glad in the Lord and rejoyce ye righteous and shout for joy all ye that are upright in heart so the Prophet concludeth the 32. Psalm and in the same strain beginneth the 33. saying Rejoyce in the Lord O ye righteous for praise is comely for the upright calling for a very great proportion of Joy from the Jew but yet the Apostle in saying Rejoyce in the Lord alway again I say rejoyce Phil. 4. 4. hath called for a far greater proportion of joy from the Christian For here is not only the same joy that was before to wit joy in the Lord but here is the same joy in a greater degree of extension for he saith rejoyce in the Lord alway and in a greater degree of intension for he saith again I say rejoyce And if we further consider who are called the just and righteous and upon what terms they are called so we shall find also a greater degree of extension for that where is the greatest measure and diffusion of righteousness there must needs be the greatest measure and diffusion of joy And it is evident that they who trust in the Lord not in themselves are by the Psalmist called the just and the righteous or the upright For it is the priviledge of true faith not only to make us just but also to make us upright not only to justifie us but also to rectifie us it justifies us in that it absolves from sin it rectifies us in that it directs in righteousness and therefore the disobedient as well as the unbelieving heart the stubborn as well as the faithless generation is said not to trust in God Psal 78. 7 8 and the faithless generation is there known as well by this Character that set not their heart aright as by this whose spirit was not stedfast with God For true faith hath the priviledge first to set the heart to God then to settle it in God first to make the spirit right then to make it stedfast The heart is made right when it points directly towards God moving as a line from the circumference to the Center and the heart is thus made right or set towards God by the same faith that it is made stedfast or settled in God Wherefore since true faith at the same time both Rectifies and Justifies the soul of man it is no wonder if it cause its unspeakable as well as its unmoveable joy And where shall we look for this true faith if not in Christians for though the act of faith is as expresly set down in the Old Testament as in the New yet the object of faith is much more plainly declared in the New Testament So that Christians having a more perfect faith in Christ then had the Jews must needs have a greater joy in Christ then they could have And indeed what joy like the joy of the Redeemed by Christ or rather what joy like the joy of the adopted in Christ Since the joy of the Redemption is not to be had without the joy of the Adoption For many more have been Redeemed by Christ then do truly rejoyce in him because many more have been Redeemed then are adopted For the Redemption which man hath by Christ is of a greater latitude then is the Adoption because the Redemption concerns all mankind in general but the Adoption is restrained to some particular persons sc to those only within the Pale of the Church and that not only in their number and outward profession but also in their merit or inward affection as Aquinas hath laid the ground of that distinction 22◠qu. 1. art 9. ad tertium in these words Talis enim fides sc formata invenitur in omnibus illis qui sunt numero merito de Ecclesia A true and lively faith is found in all those who are meritoriously as well as numerically members of the Church And where the true faith is found there and there only is the true joy in Christ or the joy of adoption And these two may very well agree that the Redemption it selfe should be universal and concern the whole nature of man which Christ assumed and therefore redeemed but yet the benefit thereof in the adoption of sons should be onely particular that is concerne those alone to whom God doth give special grace to make a right
soul a Sabbath or make it truly to rest in God And indeed iâ— our Sabbath be grounded on this foundation the gates of hell will not be able to prevail against it because on it our Lord and Saviour prevailed against the gates of hell And all Christians will see cause enough to observe it not only religiously but also joyfully because as many as are in the communion of the blessing ought also to be in the communion of the Joy and thanksgiving and wholly devote themselves to the publike profession and acknowledgement of Gods infinite and undeserved mercies and as undeserved as infinite mercies conveyed unto us in and by our blessed Saviours Resurrection If we keep the Sunday or Sabbath upon this ground we shall find a double reason of strictly keeping it one from the duty which is to serve God and to praise him for our Redemption by his Son the other from the day it self which by his own Apostles if not by his own Son htah been consecrated to this duty But we must be sure to take the duty for the principal the day for the less principal unless we will prefer accidents before substances For the worship of God belongs to the substance of Religion but the time of worshipping is meerly an accident of it though being consecrated thereunto by God himself we may well admit it for an inseparable accident Wherefore men had need take heed of that Sabbatarian Doctrine which seeks to advance the day above the duty as if the publike exercise of Religion had been appointed for the Sabbath and not rather the Sabbath for the publick exercise of Religion for this is not in truth to alledge the fourth Commandment but to mistake it For the moral or substantial and eternal part of the fourth Commandment consists of these two particulars 1. That there be a publike solemn worship of God or exercise of Religion for our souls to rest in God And this is morale naturae moral by the Law of Nature that man should desire and declare his rest to be only in God 2. That some certain dayes and consequently other requisites or adjuncts be consecrated or made holy for that publike worship and in relation thereto be esteemed holy and religious as set apart to serve our God not to serve our selves And this is Morale Disciplinae as saith Halensis or ex instituto moral by way of Discipline or by way of institution and is also a substantial part of the fourth Commandment belonging not only to the Jew but also to the Christian But the determination of those dayes to the seventh was meerly ceremonial as a sign to the Jew and to a seventh cannot be moral as a duty to Christians by virtue of this commandment save only according to the rule of general equity that Gods proportion is the best proportion and that if one of seven were apportioned for the lesser how much more for the greater blessing Yet still in asserting thus much we must take heed that the institution of the day which belongs to the letter be not alledged to confine the obligation of the duty which belongs to the end of this commandment for that were to set up the second and lesser against the first and greater morality of the Sabbath In which respect t is probable that Damascene so plainly averreth That whiles there was no Law no Scriptures there was no Sabbath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dan. lib. 4 de orth fide cap. 24. But after the holy Scripture was given by inspiration from God to Moses then was the sabbath consecrated to God for men to exercise themselves in his holy Scriptures So that according to Gods own example if this author say true we are first to provide for the duty then for the solemnity of Religion And we may the better believe him because his saying is according to Gods command For the fourth commandment being the commandment of consecrations yet first requires a worship intrisically and essentially holy before it requires the adjuncts of that worship to be made extrinsically or accidentally holy So that clearly by the fourth commandment it self rightly understood the duty is above the day and the exercise of Religion is to be preferred above the Solemnities of time and place wherein it is exercised and consequently if the publike exercise of Religon that is in use doth not truly glorifie God a man may better keep the sabbath in his own then in Gods house supposing he worship God better in his own house then he can in the Church So neerly doth it concern us all to be sure of the substance of our worship before we can pretend to be true keepers of the sabbath for if the Prayers or Administrations wherein we communicate do not in very deed rightly glorifie God t is not going to Church can make us keep the sabbath for infidels and heriticks may do that as well as the best Christians and the best Christians may be kept from doing it because what we get of the day we lose of the duty â—â—t is not possible that any thing of superstition or of irreligion should afford the soul of man any true rest in God which is the end of the sabbath And this seems to be our Saviour own doctrine at that same time when he reproved the blindness of the Pharisees about the observation of the sabbath by scripture by reason and by a miracle Mathew 12. three such arguments as were sure to leave none of them unconfuted for if they had judgement reason would be their confutation If they had Faith the Scriptures But though they had neither judgement nor faith yet a miracle was able to do the work and we may well suppose the error was very dangerous which our blessed Saviour did confute with so much industry and so many arguments as he did scarce any other in all the Gospel In this case he said to the ruler of the Synagogue Thon Hypocrite Luke 13. 15. In this case he looked round about on the Pharisees with anger being grieved for the hardness of their hearts Mar. 3. 5. He imployed his tongue his eyes his heart his head all to beat down this Heresie or rather this Hypocrisie which under pretence of being zealous for Gods commandments did in truth not only secretly undermine but also openly oppose them Accordingly our blessed Saviour and Master hath in one chapter Mat. 12. fortified us with no less then four limitations of this or any other positive or Ceremonial Law wherein it doth not bind and oblige or at least four interpretations to mitigate the rigour of its obligation The first is Lex naturae or necessitatis it must give place to the Law of nature or of necessity as in the case of Davids Hunger ver 3 4. The Second is Lex cultus it must give place to the Law of Religion as in the case of the Priests working about the sacrifices on the Sabbath and yet they were blameless ver 5.
The third is Lex charitatis it must give place to the Law of charity as is proved from the saying of Hosea I will have mercy and not sacrifice ver 7. The fourth is Authoritas legislatoris the authority of the law-giver for he that made it may abrogate it an argument not used in the Text concerning any intrinsically moral law or duty The Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath ver 8. We may add a fifth from the repetition of the same story and that is Intentio legislatoris it must give place to the intent of the Law-giver which is the good not the mischief of those to whom he gives his Law And this Limitation or Interpretation we find Mar. 2. 27. in these words the sabbath was made for man that is for mans good to wit the outward rest of his body and the inward rest of his soul and therefore it is not his intent who made the Sabbath for mans good both in corporal and spiritual rest that it should bind him to any real mischief either in his body or in his soul wherefore it is evident by our blessed Saviours own determination That though great is the obligation of those ceremonies which are of Gods own immediate appointment yet greater is the obligation of the least moral duty then of any of those ceremonies when that Moral duty concerns either our selves or our neighbours and not only when it concerns our God For ceremonials are appointed for Morals but Morals are appointed for themselvs Positive constitutions are for the inforcement of natural institutions but natural institutions are for the God of nature Wherefore since Gods worship is not ceremonial but moral not positive but natural the Sabbath is both positive and ceremonial it must follow that the worship was not ordained for the Sabbath but the Sabbath for the worship and consequently the worship is cleerly above the Sabbath And this same Antisabbatarian doctrine is not only of Christs but also of Moses his own teaching if we may believe the Jewish Doctors themselves upon those words of Exod. 12. 16. And in the first day and in the Seventh day shall be an holy convocation For there this is Aben Ezzra's gloss in the first day because that was the day of their going out of Egypt and in the seventh day because that was the day of Pharaohs being drowned therefore those two dayes were more strictly observed then any of the rest that came in betwixt them And yet if we look narrrowly into the matter not the dayes themselves but the duties performed on them made the holy convocations for it is evident from the Text that the first day was sanctified by eating of the Passeover and the Seventh day was sanctified by the heavenly Songs and thanksgivings of Moses and Miriam so it was the Passeover and the thanksgiving not the first and the seventh day that is Holy duties not holy dayes which made the Gathering of the people to be an holy convocation and shewed it to be so We ask no more of Christians but this That they will allow Duties to be above dayes in making of holy convocations and consequently the publike worship of God to be above the Sabbath the day wherein he is to be so worshipped And this being granted which cannot well be denied it must needs follow that they best keep the sabbath who have the best publike worship of God which is the duty not they who are strictest in observing of the day which is the ceremony who talke much of the Sabbath but follow such a service or worship of God as is more agreeable with mans humors or with humane invention then with Gods word or divine institution A Service or worship which though it may be solemn and publike in regard of the Convention yet not in regard of the Communion since no man can câ—me as a Communicant to that worship concerning the which he is not well assured that it is according to the analogy of Faith For he may neither give up his conscience in a blind obedience nor may he retain it upon uncertainties the one being against the evidence the other against the assurance of faith and whatsoever is not of faith is sin Rom 14. 23. Whether it be not of faith for want of evidence or for want of assurance Nor doth this divinity whereby we â—ollow the best Divine that ever was in preferring substances above accidents morals above ceremonials Duties above dayes any whit diminish the true Santification of the Sabbath but rather improve advantage it For it is an undeniable rule of reason and much more of religion That all moral duties must have moral antecedents concomitants and consequents which if we will apply to this moral duty of Gods publike worship we shall find any day consecrated there to whether weekly or yearly little enough either for our preparation before we go to worship or for our attention whiles we are worshipping or for our meditation and thankfulness after we have worshipped In a word a Sabbath in general is doubtless moral by the fourth commandment which requires a day to be set apart or made holy for Gods publike worship requires that the day so set apart be esteemed holy and religious though not so much for its own sake as for its works sake according to St. Pauls command concerning the Ministers that are set apart for the same worship 1. Thes 5. 12 13. We beseech you brethren to know them which labour among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you And to esteem them very highly in love for their works sake which text plainly convinceth those men to be the greatest sabbath-breakers and contemners of the fourth commandment who will not know those which labour among them in the Lord unless it be to contemn and to revile and to oppress them and are so far from acknowledging those labourers to be over them in the Lord that they strive both to bring the labour under their girdles and to tread the labourers under their feet for the Apostle saith expresly they are to be esteemed highly if not for their own yet surely for their works sake in saying so teacheth us to say the same of the time and place that are consecrated to the publike worship of God For by the rule of proportion what is commanded concerning one adjunct of Religion is commanded concerning the rest and we may not think we have dicharged our duties to the fourth commandment by honouring the time but pillaging and defying both the Places and the Persons that are consecrated to Gods service or to speak yet more plainly by crying up the Sabbath but beating down both Churches and Ministers And indeed the fourth commandment it self hints no less which deriveth the reason of the Sabbaths being sanctified above other dayes not from any holiness in the day it self or any set number of dayes but only from the holiness that is in God Wherefore
momento aeternitas as we spend our time here so we shall find our eternity hereafter For God who hath given us time only to prepare and provide for eternity will certainly call us to a strict account for all our time but to the strictest account for that time which he hath more immediately allotted and consigned us to make that preparation SECT IX The fourth commandment was not given to limit the first and therefore excludes not other Festivals shewing our true love of Christ but rather commands them The true manner of ob serving any Christian festival particularly Easter is to account and make it a day of Observations by observing our selves and our Saviour our selves what we have been what we are what we desire to be Our Saviour what he was in his humiliation what he is in his exaltation what he will in his retribution CHristian Feasts were not ordained not so much for the outward as for the inward man Hence excellently the divine Nazianzen or at 44. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 No beauty doth so much enamour and delight the most affectionate lover of beauties as our spiritual keeping of publike assemblies doth delight a Christian lover of Festivals We will therefore enquire how a good Christian may best keep a spiritual feast unto the Lord and we hope thereby not to overthrow but rather to establish our set temporal Festivals And indeed we cannot better keep a spiritual feast unto the Lord then by accounting it a day of observations as Moses said of the feast of the Passeover that it was a night of observations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Salomon Jarchi gives this gloss upon the place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because the Lord observed himself that night and watched that he might deliver Israel according to his promise And sure we are that our blessed Saviour thus observed and watched himself that he might deliver us from sin and death and as sure that this day of our deliverance ought be a day for every good Christian most especially to observe himself and yet much more to observe his Saviour That sabbath day was an high day to the Jew whereon was celebrated the Passeover John 19. 31 And since there is much greater reason it should be so to the Christian t is not possible there should be greater supestition in it For reason and superstition could never yet agree so well together that what was truly Rational could by the wit of man be proved superstitious We must then account this day an high day and not confine our devotions so to our weekly Festival as if that alone were within the compass of the fourth commandment For we may not limit the first commandment by the fourth since the first is the great commandment to which all the rest in that Table are to be reduced according to our blessed Saviours own determination Mat. 22. 37 38. Jesus said unto him Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart with all thy soul and with all thy mind this is the first and great commandment By which his determination our infallible Doctor hath concluded the fourth commandment to be moral in that he maketh it reducible to the first but withall to have its chiefest morality meerly by vertue of that reduction And in this respect we may pray in faith Incline our hearts to keep this law as well as any of the rest in the Decalogue looking on the duty as moral for it self on the day as moral for its duty for the duty is clearly reducible to the love of God and consequently to be most religiously observed for it self by vertue of that comes in the day with its other adjuncts to be most religiously observed for the duty We have a Theological certainty concerning the duty which is the rest of our souls in God we can have but a moral certainty concerning the day as set apart for that rest yet we need not fear a mistake in the day being sure of no mistake in the duty and consequently observing the day for the duty we cannot but pray in faith for mercy because we have transgressed for who did ever rest in God as he was bound to do and for grace that we may not transgress but may still more and more rest in him till we come to our eternal rest Therefore we may not limit or restrain the end of the fourth Commandment by the letter of it advancing the day above the duty for that is the way not to pray in faith that we may keep this Law much less may we limit and restrain the first Commandment by the fourth for that is the way not to be able to pray in faith that we may keep any other Law since it is evident that the love of God is the foundation of faith in all our prayers and that Love is required in the first Commandment so that to restrain that Commandment is to restrain our love of God and to restrain our love of God is to restrain our faith in God Again we may not limit the first Commandment by the fourth for that were to limit the greater by the lesser and t is evident the fourth was given to establish the exercise of the first not to enfeeble its obligation since then the first commands us to love God with all our hearts and with all our souls we may not think that the fourth was given to confine this love in any one particular member of Christ much less in his whole mystical body as if Christians were bound to make use of their hearts and souls in the publike exercise and profession of their love to God only upon Sunday or upon one day in seven Accordingly we must account every Christian Festival that is truly in honour and for love of Christ and particularly this of the Passover An high day and to shew that we account it so our best way is to endeavour to make it so by making it a day of observations Now observations cannot be less then two and that two may indeed serve our turns one of these observations must be of our selves another of our Saviour The observation of our selves must be three-fold what we have been what we are what we resolve to be First what we have been miserable sinners Thus the Psalmist observed himself when he said for innumerable troubles are come about me my sins have taken such hold upon me that I am not able to look up yea they are more in number then the hairs of my head and my heart hath failed me O Lord let it be thy pleasure to deliver me make haste O Lord to help me Psalm 40 I have been hitherto a miserable sinner but I beseech thee to deliver me both from my misery and from my sin Secondly what we are penitent sinners Thus holy Job observed himself when he said wherefore I abhor my self and repent in dust and ashes Job 42. 6. T is in the Origin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
enjoyning duties shewing us that we cannot take any of either but we must take all And this is most evident in the present case for the fourth Commandment plâ—inly presupposeth all that is enjoyned in the three former commandments concerning holy duties or the whole substance of Religion both internal and external and then also farther addeth an obligation of consecrating time and other adjuncts for the publick exercise thereof that God may be the more solemnly glorified and men the more truely edified whilst the duties of Religion are all practised together in a full communion of Saints the Church Militant being obliged in this to imitate the Church Triumphant that it invite men on earth to glorifie God with one accord as the Angels do glorifie him in heaven And in this respect we may easily believe and readily confess the first Sabbath to have been both instituted and kept in Paradise for the Church was there founded and the Communion of Saints there first established That is the communion of holy men with the holy Angels and with themselves joyning together to sing Halleluiahs to God their blessed Creator which was indeed the principal end of their creation And accordingly men were at first enabled to the discharge of this great duty as well as the Angels having the right and acceptable forms of praising God imprinted in their hearts and when through transgression they had disabled themselves it pleased God of his infinite goodness to grant them as it were a new impression and to give them a second edition of those praises in his holy Scriptures which before had been written in their own hearts but were now very much slurred and defaced if not quite obliterated and blotted out This great and undeserved mercy of God those men either shamefully forget or ineffectually remember who cry up the Sabbath day but beat down the Sabbath Duty making little or no use of the written Word of God in their publick worship and making little or no account of those forms of praâ—er and praise which are either contained therein or agreeable thereto but setting up their own private gifts against that publick communion which should be in Gods house and service by virtue of this fourth Commandment discountenancing the exercise of Religion in known forms of heavenly prayers able to establish the heart and encouraging new-fangled devices which are only fit to busie and tickle the phansie By which ungodly practice for so it must be called though it pretend to the greatest measure of godliness they in effect throw the fourth Commandment out of the Church whilst they pretend to set it up over the Altar since not sitting still or keeping an outward rest but comming together that we may all labour inwardly in Hallowing the name of our Father which is in heaven is the cheif moral duty of the Sabbath For as in the promise of the fifth so in the precept of the fourth Commandment the Lawgivers expression containeth the least part of his intention and we may no more confine this precept in the duty then we may that promise in the reward Therefore as we would be loth to look no farther then the Land of Canaan for our inheritance so we should be wary how we assert that God looks no farther then the Sabbath day for our obedience Truth is it pleased God to train up the Jews in his fear by types and figures and as it were to wrap up heaven in earth spirituals in temporals morals in ceremonials substances in circumstances to them as well in his precepts as in his promises particularly in that precept which concerned his publick worship because that amongst the Jews was for the most part Ceremonial and figurative Wherefore if we desire rightly and fully to understand the fourth Commandment we must conceive it in so great a latitude as to comprize all those Commissions injunctions invitations and exhortations which we find in the Old and New Testament given either to Kings or Ministers or People concerning the ordering establishing reforming practicing professing or promoting the solemn publick worship of Almighty God which is in truth the principal end thereof unless we will say that all those moral duties are reducible to none of the ten commandments in the decalogue and consequently that all they were will-worshippers who either professed or promoted or practised them For as such duties of Religion are to be done publickly and solemnly by many together in one communion they are not reducible to any of the three first commandments which speak to single persons but only to the fourth which alone speaketh to whole families or to many persons joyned together in one community And therefore it is not amiss to say that Hallowed be thy name is that Petition which most directly prayes for Grace to perform the duty of the fourth Commandment since all other things are hallowed for his names sake God sanctifying times places persons and forms of prayers and praise unto us that he may sanctifie us unto himself nor is it amiss to say that the holy Catholick Church the Communion of Saints is that Article of faith which most directly professeth to believe the truth of the fourth Commandment for it is only the Catholick Church the Communion of Saints which doth rightly hallow and praise Gods holy name The Hallowing of Gods most holy name belonging equally to the decalogue and to the Creed and to the Lords most holy prayer belonging to the decalogue as it is a duty to be performed belonging to the Creed as it is a truth to be believed and belonging to the Lords Prayer as it is a good to be desired as we are all bound to pray that we may perform this duty and believe this truth For Faith Hope and Charity are not to be separated from one another but do alike belong to supernatural Truths and to religious or moral duties because both truths and duties do equally call for our faith to know and believe them and for our hope to crave and desire them and for our Charity to love and embrace them But if we take the outward sanctification of a day for the principal morality of the Sabbath we shall scarce find a Petition in the Lords most holy and most perfect prayer relating to such a Duty nor an Article in the Apostles Creed relating to such a Truth and so we shall phansie to our selves such a morality as is without a good to be desired and without a truth to be believed for without doubt The Lords Prayer briefly containeth all the good we are bound to desire and the Apostles Creed briefly containeth all the Truths we are bound to believe as well as the Decalogue briefly containeth all the Duties we are bound to practise and perform Whereas on the other side if we look upon hallowing the name of God in our publick worship as upon the principal moral duty that is enjoyned in the fourth Commandment we shall find the Decalogue and the Creed and
love and then in the gift of Christ Gal. 2. 20. I live by the faith of the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me First he gave me his love then he gave me himself for even himself had been no gift to me without his love 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Saint Chrysostom What dost thou say blessed Apostle did he love thee only did he give himself only for thee no he loved the whole nature of man all the world besides 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But I think my self as much bound to my Saviour as if he had only loved me and given himself only for me I think my self as much bound to live to him as if he had died only for me and to give my self as entirely to him as if he had given himself onely for me A large soul which can readily comprehend much more which doth willingly embrace and entertain the obligation of the whole world and yet there is no Christians soul but must be thus enlarged For Gods love in Christ though universal in the diffusion yet is it particular in the obligation obliging every particular man to love the Lamb of God as if he had been slain only for his sake as if in him alone he had taken away the sins of the world For indeed in him alone be he never so righteous hath he taken away both the sin of the world and a world of sin the sin of the world that is the original corruption contracted in his nature and a world of sin that is a numberless number of actual transgressions committed in his person SECT III. Gods love to man in Christ was the ground of his consultation with himself how to bring us to eternal life WE have seen Gods eternal love given us in Christ the main reason of our Christian joy and we must now endeavour to see the fruits and effects of that love that we may accordingly rejoyce in him even in our blessed Saviour And truly Saint Paul makes eternal life to spring from no other root but only from this root of Jesse when he saith in his Epistle to Titus cap. 1. v. 2. That God promised eternal life before the world began I ask to whom did he promise it Saint Hierom thinks to the Angels but they not having been before the world it was impossible a promise made before the world began should be made to them It is much safer to say That this promise of eternal life was made to our blessed Saviour in our stead and that God the Father promised to God the Son before the world began That as many as should live according to the Faith of Gods Elect and the acknowledgment of the Truth which is after Godliness should in him have eternal life For thus the same Saint Paul makes a dialogue betwixt God the Father and God the Son in the Love and Communion of God the Holy Ghost to which the Angels were not admitted Heb. 1. 13. To which of the Angels said he at any time Sit on my right hand until I make thine enemies thy foot-stool And the Psalmist tells us plainly the persons that were in this Dialogue saying The Lord said unto my Lord Sit thou on my right hand c. Psal 110. v. 1. whence we may safely conclude that there was a great consultation betwixt God the Father Son and Holy Ghost concerning the Redemption of mankind from the vassalage of sin and Satan and what can we think was the ground of this Consultation but only Gods everlasting love to us in our Redeemer SECT IV. Gods love to man in Christ was not in vain or without success though his Churches love to us in praying for us and teaching us to pray for our selves often proves unsuccessful And yet our best proof that God hath loved us in Christ is that we love him again both in his Authority and in his Ordinances and in his Members GOD will have love for love and never casts away his love in vain Man may love where he may be hated for his pains it fared so of old with the best of men the Church of God among the Iews whose sad complaint is registred Psal 109. 3. 4. for the love that I had unto them lo they take now my contrary part but I give my self unto prayer Thus have they rewarded me evil for good and hatred for my good will we may be sure this complaint was made by the Church for none else could say but I give my self unto Prayer or as it is in the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but I am Prayer save onely the Church which being more peculiarly consecrated to the service of God knew Her self bound more then any other to Pray Continually Thus it is said of the singers chief of the Fathers of the Levites who remaining in the chambers were free for they were imployed in that work day and night 1 Chron. 9. 33. that is to say in the work of singing Gods praises according to that of the 134. Psalm ver 1. Behold now Praise the Lord all ye servants of the Lord ye which by night stand in the house of the Lord. But least we should think that these words they were imployed in that work day and night did only shew the continual obligation of the Levites duty not their continued actual discharge thereof we are told the particular times of the day and night wherein they did actually discharge the same 1 Chron. 23. 28 30. Their office was to wait for the service of the house of the Lord and to stand every morning to thank and praise the Lord and likewise at even It was their office every morning and evening to sing Gods praises publickly in Gods house and not to content themselves only with and much less to confine themselves only to their Sabbath as if God by claiming or challenging that day had thereby denyed and rejected all the rest Had this practice of praising God daily in the Temple been superstition or will-worship in the Jewish Church we should have found it not commanded and commended but reproved and reformed by their Pious Kings and Prophets for their Kings did not reform without the advice of their Prophets but not finding this Practise Reproved or Reformed by them how comes it among some Christians to be accounted as a main Piece of their Reformation to shut up the doors of Gods house all the week daies and to open them only upon Sundaies and then in truth to open them for such a worship of God as is publick rather for its accidents then for its substance rather for its time and place then for its matter and form rather for its notice and for its noise then for its Communion For though a man may go to Church as a Judge wherein he chiefly serves himself and pleases his curiosity upon unknown and uncertain terms yet he can scarce go to Church as a Communicant wherein alone he serves his God and
and therefore sought after the very day of the moneth on which the Paschal Lamb had been slain and our Saviour had been crucified But the Gentile Converts kept 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Passeover in remembrance of Christs resurrection and therefore deferred their feast till the first day of the week that followed next after that day of the moneth So we see that both Churches agreed about the feast it self and thought themselves bound to observe a Passeover once a year and that they agreed also about the time of the year wherein it was to be observed their disagreement was only about the very day For the Churches of Asia had mistaken Saint Johns condescention to the Jew for an approbation to themselves as if because he had allowed this manner of celebrating the feast of the Passeover according to the known and received custom among the Iews he had also approved and by consequent established the same among the Christians The like mistake whereunto might also have been in other Eastern Churches concerning the Iewish Sabbath had they retained the observation of it with the same opinion of necessity For that the Sabbath was at first jointly observed with the Lords day by the Christian Churches appears from antient canons 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Clement cap. 33. And Scaliger takes it for granted that those Churches were converted betimes which retained that old custom Quod Ethiopes sabbatum â—que ac Dominicum ab opere immune habent id non est argumentum Judaismi sed veteris Christianismi saith he lib. 7. de emend That the Churches of Aethiopia do keep Saturday a Holy-day as well as Sunday is not a proof that they are new Iews but that they have been old Christians The truth is the Apostles zeal busied and spent it self wholly upon duties not upon daies and so should ours They continued daily in the Temple Acts 2. 46. and again daily in the Temple and in every house they ceased not to teach and preach Iesus Christ Acts 5 42. This daily preaching shewed their chief zeal was for duties not for daies and yet their every day doth not forbid their particular choice of one principal day for those holy purposes and performances at the same time for so we read Acts 20. 7. Vpon the first day of the week when the Disciples came together to break bread Paul preached unto them Here 's a particular day culled out from the rest of the week both for preaching the word and consequently for praying and for administring the holy Communion for so we may well expound the breaking of bread with some antient Interpreters though it be an ill inference that some of late have made from thence that they may lawfully leave out the other part of that blessed Sacrament By the same reason they might tell us that the Church hath authority to change the very form instituted in Baptism because we read in the Acts of the Apostles that many men were baptized in the name of the Lord Iesus Acts 8. 16. 19. 5. For without doubt if Christs institution may be dispensed withal in the one it may also in the other Sacrament and if not in the one then not in the other Wherefore it is ill arguing from a Synechdoche partis in dicto to a Synechdoche partis in facto from a part for the whole in speaking to a part for the whole in doing The bread may be named without the wine but it follows not therefore it may be given without it We may admit of half speeches but we must be sure of whole Sacraments For though words are not sacrilegious in putting a part for the whole because that is a right way of speaking yet works may be guilty of sacriledge by doing but a part for the whole because that is not a right way of working for in speaking we may follow the custome or practice of men but in doing we must follow the precept and prescription of God Nor can a man that wilfully transgresseth the institution of Christ be excused from infidelity if we will embrace as we cannot justly reject Aquinas his distinction Infidelis non ut habeus malam voluntatem circa finem Sc. Christum sed tamen ut deficiens in Electione mediorum quia non eligit quae sunt à Christo tradita a Christian may be an infidel not as erring about the end for he aims at Christ but yet as erring in the choice of the means when he followeth not those ways which Christ hath prescribed him And thus have they erred about the administration of the holy Eucharist who would be accounted very strict observers of the grand Christian Festivals although in truth they cannot keep a Festival in honour of Christ who falsely administer the Eucharist no more then they who Preach false Doctrine or use false devotions For it is evident from this practice of the Apostles that Christian Festivals ought to be celebrated by preaching the word and administring the holy Eucharist and much more by holy and religious prayers which may not be left out either in preaching of the word or in administring of the Sacrament unless we will not regard Gods blessing on the one nor his presence in the other Nay indeed holy and religious Prayers do in effect partake both of the word and of the Sacrament of the word as they are professions of our faith of the Sacrament as they are remembrances of our Saviour And it is accordingly observable that in all the collects of the Church there is in the first part of them a recognition or profession of some heavenly Doctrine which we are bound to believe as in the latter part there is a special remembrance of our blessed Saviour whom we are bound to honour alwayes concluding Per Jesum Christum Dominum nostrum through Jesus Christ our Lord so that false devotions that is not true in themselves or not true in his certain knowledge who useth them False Doctrine and false administration do all alike profane a Festival Nay Saint Paul thinks the Lords Day not sufficiently celebrated by words and Sacraments and prayers but he requires also the giving of alms Vpon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store 1 Cor. 16. 2. And Saint Chrysostome tels us he chose such a day for it as could not but very much advance the duty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. He argues from the day to the duty bidding them consider what great mercies the Lord hath bestowed on them that very day for that alone would make them willingly and liberally shew mercy to his distressed members This was the antient practice of the primitive Christians to offer up their alms as well as their prayers to God upon those Festivals which they celebrated in a thankful remembrance of his mercies conveyed unto them by his Son and therefore they might beseech him mercifully to accept their alms as well as to receive
enim est Constantini M. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non solum hebdomadem post Pascha sed antecedentem excipit ab opere faciendo sed de posteriore hebdomade usus tantum obtinuit The sum of all is this Because Easter weeke was the first weeke in the year and the dayes of that week were all accounted and kept holy and accordingly were thus computed the first second third fourths fifth holy day Hence it is that the same computation still hold of the days in the other weeks throughout the whole year that instead of the first second third fourth and fifth day it is said the first second third fourth and fifth holy-day For the Emperour Constantine the great made a Law that all Easter week and the week before it should be kept as one Holy-day And though in our age this Law holds only of Easter week yet we have some footsteps of that observation still in the week before it for our Church appoints Epistles and Gospels for every day of the week before Easter and most Churches beyond the seas still call it the holy week and some make it so For which Religious practice it is not to be doubted but the Church of Christ hath warrant enough from that Text Mark 14. 8. She hath done what she could she is come aforehand to anoint my body for the burying or rather to anoint her self for my body to prepare her self for to receive the Holy Eucharist and to celebrate the Resurrection Wherefore it is evident that in the judgement of the first and best Christians Easter day was a greater Sunday then any other all the year after it even as the Sabboth of the Passover was in the Jews account a greater Sabboth then any other of all the year nor was this judgement any way superstitious but truely Religious since we find it authorized by the Text saying for that Sabboth day was an high day John 19. 32. as if he had said that Sabboth day was higher then any other Sabbath because the Passover was joyned with it I will not then quarrel with the Church for preferring one Sunday before another since she observeth them all as holy to the same Lord there was the Holy of Holyes in the Sanctuary without any disparagement to the rest of the Temple The Paschal Sabbath was a high day and yet the other Sabbaths not put down the lower By taking off the opinion of holiness I see much profaness and irreligion in all respects which makes me conclude that though the Church should proclaim Holy Holy Holy never so much before the place and time of Gods worship yet all would be little enough to beget the love and practice of holiness in the worshippers SECT VI. That the Lords day which is observed weekly is to be observed in memory of our Saviours Resurrection and hath a double sanctification one by relation to its duâ—y which is publickly to serve God and to give him thanks for our Redemption by Christ and is the principal The other by institution as consecrated to this duty and is the less principal That the Antisabbatarian Doctrine which advanceth duties above days is not only of Christs but also of Moses his own teaching and makes most for the true observation of the Sabbath which yet is more properly called the Lords Day then the Sabbath WE may not pass by that memorable Canon in the Council of Trullo cap. 66. which hath these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 From the Holy Festival of the Resurrection of Christ our God untill the New Lords Day all true believers ought to go to Church and there uncessantly praise God in Psalms and Hymns and Spiritual songs T is worth our notice that the Fathers of that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 holden in the Emperours Pallace called Easter day it self 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Resurrection day but the Sunday after it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The New Lords day not simply the Lords Day of its self or by its own virtue but as it was a repetition or renovation of the former 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the day of our Lords Resurrection For to say it was called the New Lords Day because of the renewing by Baptism which antiently was administred at that time is not satisfactory for besides that other Sundays must have been called New as well as that upon the same account to wit those of Easter and Pentecost it is manifest that Baptism cannot justly cause any Sunday to be called the Lords day and therefore surely not the New Lords day Whence it follows that if this Sunday was called the New Lords Day as renewing the day of our Lords Resurrection this and all other Sundayes do belong unto the Lord chiefly upon this account that they are memorials of his Resurrection So that though the Law of the Sabbath as well as of other things came by Moses yet the grace and truth of it came by Jesus Christ John 1. 17. And for this reason was the Sabbath translated from its own day to our Lords Day that the Law of Moses might give place to the grace and truth of Jesus Christ and happily for that cause amongst others hath the Church appointed some annual memorials of the grace and truth which came by Jesus Christ to be solemnized as so many Sabbaths least we should think that in this weekly memorial she did rather follow the Law given by Moses then the grace and truth which came by Jesus Christ And doubtless when we have said all that we can there can be no entire keeping of a Sabbath from Moses but only from Christ because in him alone the soul may seek for rest and in him alone is sure to find it For as the souls trouble is from sin so her rest is from the expiation and forgiveness of sins Therefore as her trouble is from her self so her rest is from her Saviour Saint Paul hath taught us both together in his Sermon and our own Church in her Anthymn of the Resurrection For seeing that by man came death by man also commeth the Resurrection of the dead for as by Adam all men do dye so by Christ all men shall be restored to life By man came death by Adam all men do die There 's the souls trouble from her sin for the wages of sin is death By man commeth the Resurrection of the dead by Christ all men shall be restored to life there 's the souls rest or Sabbath from her Saviour for the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. If we will needs gainsay the Judgement of our own Church to set up the Sabbath instead of the Lords day yet we may not gainsay the Doctrine of Saint Paul which requires us to set up the Lords day instead of the Sabbath so that if we will needs borrow the name from Moses yet we can have the thing it self only from Christ for it is not Moses but Christ which can give the
the Lord blessed the seventh day and hallowed it The Sabbath in respect of its duty is without doubt of Divine right in respect of its day may without derogation to the fourth commandment in the Judgement of many good Divines be said to be of Ecclesiastical right For the duty is matter of Religion which God hath reserved wholly to himself the day is matter of order which God hath in part left unto his Church even in this very case for though he hath determined a set day for his publike worship yet he hath not confined his Church to that day as he hath to the worship it self by his determination Therefore we may not deny Gods Church that liberty which he hath given her though we are willing to say he hath given it with this limitation or restriction that where the Apostolical Church hath positively determined any thing in the practice of Religion as in the weekly festival for the honour of Christ 〈…〉 Church after it may not lawfully alter the determination And where the Catholick Church hath determined to the same purpose as in the yearly Festivals for the honour of Christ particular national Churches may not with sobriety or with safety determine against it For though neither of these in it self is against the substance of Religion yet both are against the order and exercise of it and therefore against God who is the God of order and hath commanded the exercise of Religion We conclude then that though the Sabbath in special is abolished that is to say that determinate set day no less then that Temple and that Priesthood yet not others instead of them which having been since determinately pointed out and appointed by the authority of Christ and his Apostles have as much real holiness in them as the other ever had and that by virtue of the same Commandment which requires as a holy a publike worship now as it did then since the same God who said to the Jews in the old hath said to the Christian in the new Testament be ye holy for I am holy 1 Pet. 1. 16. Wherefore the name Sabbath cannot add to the Religion of the worship but it may add to the superstition of the worshippers And t is safest for us now to look upon it as a name of the old use though it signifie a thing of the new use wherein it is not amiss to take notice of Eustathius his Criticism upon the third of the Iliads concerning 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 words that are still of the old usage as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 still signifies a head-peice though now it be not made of a sea doggs skin for which cause it was first called so And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth Arms though now they are not made of brass but of yron So 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is still used for to write though now our writing be not by ingraving or making any hollow impressions many other of the like kind may be observed both in the Greek and Latine tongue wherein the same word is still retained though the thing be quite out of use And by this rule we may still retain the words Priest Altar Temple Sacrifice as well as sabbath viz. all of them by way of custom but none of them all by way of contestation And God himself calling the day of Attonement a sabbath Lev. 16. 31. though it came but once a year hath licenced us to give the name Sabbath as well to our Aniversary as to our weekly Festivals But indeed the question is not about Sunday a Sabbath as if Caesar-like it would admit of no Superiour but of Sunday the Sabbath which Pompey-like will admit of no Equal and I answer That to call Sunday the Sabbath by way of eminency though it were lawful yet it is not laudable and is therefore better omitted then practised for besides that every language in the Christian world takes the Sabbath day for Saturday save only our late new English and God himself hath taken the seventh day and the Sabbath for terms convertible and all the wit of man cannot take the first day for the seventh day it is neither safe for us nor for our festival to seek to derive its holiness from the Jewish Sabbath not safe for us because it will make us Judaize at least in other mens judgements if not in our own which is a thing that Saint Paul if he were amongst us would be much afraid of for our sakes Gal. 4. 10 11. and therefore much more should we be afraid of it for our own sakes Not safe for our festival which by that means will be made rely upon a broken reed for the broken reeds are more now in Judaea then in Egypt and so be subject to a downfall For the Sabbath is as alterable to the Christian as to the Jew but the Lords day is eternal And if we have such a Sabbath as is subject to alteration we must have such a Sabbath as is subject to annihilation for the one is naturally not only a fore-runner of but also a preparation to the other Wherefore let my soul look after such a Sabbath as may lead me not to an outward and temporal but to an inward and eternal rest of which the Apostle speaketh Heb. 4. 9. There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the keeping of a Sabbath but it is such a Sabbath as hypocrites cannot keep nor Atheists hinder good men from keeping whereas this outward Sabbath may be most observed by hypocrites and altogether opposed by Atheists But this is such a Sabbath as Hypocrites cannot keep for it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 only for the people of God And such as Atheists cannot hinder good men from keeping for the text saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 relinquitur They that can take away all other things cannot take away this Sabbath from us they must still leave that behind them though they have plaied at sweep-stakes with all the rest This is a Relique that I must highly prize because they cannot plunder according to that admirable gloss of Epiphanius adver Her Manich. upon these very words of Saint Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Lord Iesus Christ himself is our Sabbath and our rest and in this sense we had need both labour and pray that we may be Sabbatarians SECT VII That Sunday hath a better title to holiness and unchangeableness as the Lords day then as the Sabbath And that the Lords day and the Lords Labourers or Ministers are both to continue to the worlds end by vertue of Gods command in general and of Christs determination and institution in particular WILL you plead for a Sabbath in Paradise from Gen. 2. 2 you will not from thence be able to advantage our weekly Festival For besides that the Fathers are of another mind particularly Justine Martyr in his Dialogue with Trypho who quarrels not with him about that Tenent though being a
boisterous men to say ye shall nor ordain nor for timerous men to say we dare not They that are enemies to the ordination to the witnesses can scare be friends to the Doctrine of the resurrection The Lords daies and the Lords Ministers will stand or fall both together and there is no opposing the one without opposing the other and no opposing either without opposing Gods command For indeed they are both alike in general commanded by the fourth Commandment though only one be named even as uncleanness and fornication are both forbidden in the seventh though only adultery be mentioned and they are both alike in special determined by the example of Christ and of his Apostles and the constant and universal practise of the Christian Church As there is an order from the Holy Ghost that concerns the time or the day proved from the first of the Corinthians 16 2. As I have given order to the Churches of Galatia even so do ye that is the same order that I gave to them concerning the first day of the week I give also to you and in you to all other Churches which order was accordingly speedily and generally obeyed because there was an irresistible reason for that obedience so also there is an order from the Holy Ghost concerning the persons proved from Acts 20. 8. The Holy Ghost hath made you Overseers or Biships and Titus 1. 5. That thou shouldst ordain Elders or Presbyters whence it must needs follow that to disturb the persons ordained to be in the Church of God is equally sacrilegious as to disturb the day that was settled by the same order For the determination of the persons appointed to be the Lords Ministers is full as plain to speak but sparingly both in the prescript of the Text and in the practice of the Catholick Church as is the determination of the Lords day and those men are equally inexcusable who make bold to alter Gods determination in the one as those who make bold to alter it in the other for both being established by the same authority are alike unalterable An universal obligation bindeth equally all persons at all times and in all places and therefore only moral and eternal duties of the Text can immediately and from themselves have such an obligation as the duties of faith hope and charity But yet a determination of the Text though by way of example only concerning the publick exercise of those duties which is without controversie in the Gospel of Christ given to us Christians may also immediately and by vertue of the said duties have an universal obligation because to occasion the disturbance or disesteem of the true and laudable exercise of Religion whether by profaness or perversness whether by throwing aside or pulling down the time place or persons appointed for that purpose is certainly ungodly and irreligious and it is at no time lawful to do an act of ungodliness or irreligion SECT VIII That Sunday as the Lords day is most truly a Christian Festival and ought to be most Religiously observed and so ought also other Festivals instituted in honour of Christ as being likewise our Christian Sabbaths NO Christian festival whatsoever but must be wholly Christian both in its foundation Christian Verity and in its institution Christian authority and in its observation Christian service or duty For the day is holy for the duty not the duty for the day and they who teach or practise otherwise are like those Priests of Spain mentioned and reproved in the fourth Toletane Council can 9. who would not say the Lords Prayer but only on the Lords day Orationem Dominicam tantum die Dominico dicere voluerunt as if Religion were an adjunct of time and not rather time an adjunct of Religion Christian Verity Christian Authority Christian Duty no man can willfully go against either of these principles but he must profess himself either Unchristian or Antichristian And behold our weekly festival in honour of our Saviour Christ is justifiable by all these three and consequently being truly Christian in all these respects that is to say in its foundation in its institution and in its observation must needs be an universal feast for all Christians to be partakers of for that it is annexed to the Christian Religion as necessary by the necessity of Justice from the duty and thankfulness we all owe to our Saviour Christ and therefore may not be carelesly neglected much less irreverently profaned without the Imputation of injustice and unthankfulness The Casuists speak louder and say not without the imputation of Sacriledge So Cajetane in his summulae Festos dies in honorem Dei sanctificatâ—s violare peccatum est Sacrilegii quia injuria fit tempori sacro quantum ad illud ad quod sanctificatum est To profane a Holy day that is made and kept holy in honour of God is a sin of Sacriledge because the profanation of time that is sanctified is an affront and defiance of its sanctification so that in effect it is a double Sacriledge for it robs time of that holiness which belongs to it and it robs God of that time which belongs to him This great Sacriledge is yet further accompanied with one of the seven deadly sins commonly so called and that sin is spiritual slothfulness So saith Alensis Accidia opponitur praecepto de sanctificatione Sabbathi In peccato enim Accidiae Tristitia est de spirituali laborioso cum amore quietis carnalis è contra vero in illo praecepto est Amor sanctae quietis quae est cum gaudio in bono spirituali par 2 qu. 140. m. 10. The sin of slothfulness is opposed to that precept of the sanctification of the Sabbath for in the sin of slothfulness there is sorrow for spiritual labour and love of carnal rest But in the precept concerning the sanctification of the Sabbath is commanded the love of a Holy Rest or Joy in our spiritual good which as it is not obtained without great labour so it is not enjoyed without great rest even the sweet and most comfortable rest of the soul in God for his everlasting mercies in Iesus Christ so that all those Festivals which commemorate to us the mercies of God in Christ are to be accounted as our Christian sabbaths and we shall be little less then enemies to our own souls if not to be our blessed Saviour unless we seriously endeavour to make them so Surely if men did truly believe and earnestly desire the life everlasting they would be as carefull not to defraud their souls of due nourishment as they are not do defraud their bodies and would no more begrutch the time for the one then for the other but would rather be more industrious to save their souls then they are to preserve their bodies and consequently more solicitous how to lay in provision for a supply against their spiritual then for a supply against their corporal necessities alwaies remembring that Motto Ex hoc
life which thou hast given us in our Saviour Jesus Christ I doubt not but the Church might for her liberty have changed more of those Collects then she thought fit to change but infinitely bless God that she valued her Christian charity above her Christian liberty so that she hath never at all changed but for the better not desiring to depart from other Christians but only to come nearer to our Saviour Christ And truly when the Contest was once broached between the Church and the Scriptures in point of authority the most unhappy Contest that ever was broached among Christians for some Church men by laying aside the Authority of Christ did in effect teach other men to lay aside the authority of the Church I say when this unhappy Contest was once broached between the Church and the Scriptures in point of Authority it was high time for our Church to cleave to the Scriptures that she might profess her desire and intention of remaining truly Christian wherein she did but follow Saint Peters own example saying Lord to whom shall we go Thou hast the words of eternal life John 6 68. For surely our blessed Saviour did not bring down with him the words of eternal life to carry them back again to heaven but to leave them here on Earth and where hath he left them if not in the holy Scriptures Wherefore since Christ himself alledged the Scriptures to confirme the Apostles in their faith who yet believed because they had seen him with their their own eyes John 20. 29 How shall any Christian Church deny the People to read the Scripture c. and not hinder the confimation of their faith in Christ For when the Church hath done all that she can to make true believers she must confess that their faith doth not stand in the wisdom of men but in the power of God 1 Cor. 2. 5. and that the word of God is the chiefest instrument of his Power according to that of the holy Apostle For the word of God is quick and powerfull and sharper then any two edged sword piercing even to the dividing asunder of Soul and spirit and of the joints and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart Heb. 4. 12. In which words the Spirit of God setteth forth the excellency of the word of God from its nature and from its effects from its nature that it is quick and powerfull neither a dull nor a dead letter but quick in motion and powerfull in operation from its effects that it pierceth that it devideth that it discerneth the thoughts and intents of the Heart Piercing the thoughts by entring into the botom of our hearts to make us sound and sincere Christians against Hypocrisie Dividing the thoughts by separating good from evil Truth from falshood in our Religion to make us Orthodox Christians against Heresie and discerning the thoughts by shewing us the first truth and the chiefest good in our religion to make us firm and constant Christians against Apostasie For that man never yet discovered Christ in his Religion who could be perswaded to fall away from it He was at the best but a divider of the truth from falshood He was not a Discerner of the first Truth in that Truth which he professed for then he would have been immovable in his Profession Wherefore if you would indeed perswade or rather tempt me for t is properly a temptation which induceth to evil to leave the Scriptures that I may cleave to the Church you must first be able to shew so much in behalf of the Church as is here said in behalf of the Scriptures or you were as good perswade and tempt me to quit my reason that I may get Religion or to cease to be a man that I may begin to be a Christian SECT II. The Apparition to above five hundered at once cleared And Christ considered in his Instructions before he ascended That these Instructions are more particularly to be observed as more directly conducing to the Constitution and the Conservation of his Church Those Instructions briefly explained as they are set down Mat. 28. 19 20. THE proper work of a Christian is to consider and contemplate his Saviour Christ in all his sayings and in all his doings for never any speak like him who was the eternal word of God never any did like him who was the eternal son of God but more particularly in those which come neerest his Ascention for all those his sayings and doings do more immediately and directly concern the Constitution and the conservation of his Church it pleasing the blessed Redeemer and lover of Souls to give his special directions and instructions to his holy Apostles when he was even now to be taken away from them that so he might leave behind him in their minds the stronger impressions of his all-saving Truth and the greater assurance and perswasions of his everlasting love Wherefore though no one word that ever our blessed Saviour was pleased to speak either concerning his love towards us or our duty towards him should be let fall to the ground without our observation because he was so much our friend yet the words that he spake last of all should most diligently be received most carefully retained and most conscionally regarded because they were the words not only of a loving but also of a parting friend and by consequent such words as should both represent him and comfort us during his absence though never so long and keep him in our remembrance till his coming again when he will undoubtedly exact a severe account both of the Ministers of the people how they have observed those words For this cause though our blessed Saviour did after the day of his Resurrection make five more apparitions before his Ascension as that after eight dayes when S. Thomas was now with the rest of the Apostles Joh. 20. 26. And that to his Disciples who went a fishing Joh. 21. 4. And that to his eleven disciples on the mountain in Galilee Mat. 28. 16. And those two spoken of by S. Paul which are not at all mentioned by the Evangelists the one to above five hundred brethren at once the other to S. James alone 1 Cor. 15. 6 7. Yet I will omit all these because the words he spake to his Apostles were spoken on the very day of his Resurrection as well as at the time of his Ascension Only I cannot but wish that Beza had spared his Criticism upon S. Pauls words 1 Cor. 15. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Quod si vero scriptum erat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Quinquaginta Non certè mirum est quingentos hic fratres commemorari quum postea coacto universo coetu numerentur duntaxat centum viginti Act. 1. 15. What if it were at first written by the numeral letter◠which signifies fifty and that fifty come after to be made five hundred for we see that all the
Disciples who were in Jerusalem at S. Peters first Sermon were but 120. He is afraid of an imaginary miscief but fals into a real inconveniency the mischif was meerly imaginary as if S. Paul to the Corinthians had clashed with S. Luke in the Acts whereas Saint Luke saith not there were then in Jerusalem but 120. disciples only there were but one hundred and twenty of such note as the Apostles had called together to consult about the election of a new Apostle accordingly he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the number of the names that is such as were notorious and eminent in the Church not denying but there might be many hundreds of the inferiour sort of people which are called by the Poet sine Nomine turba the common sort that are without a Name who were at that time reckoned among the disciples though they had not been called to the election of Saint Matthias Thus the mischief he feared was meerly imaginary but he fell into a real inconveniency For this supposition that it is possible there should have been such chopping and changing in the Text tends directly to the enervating of the Authority of the Scriptures and the fidelity and veracity of the Catholick Church for both Greek and Latine Churches do now read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 five hundred and if they read not now as they found it delivered to them they are defective in their Veracity if it was not delivered to them as it was at first written their forefathers were defective in their Fidelity for this is too great a change to come in by the mistake of a writer though it is very improbable that the whole Church should be so careless as to suffer any such mistakes However in this particuler Eusebius will justifie our present reading of the Text against all conjectures whatsoever for he lib. 1. Histor Eccles cap. 12. setteth down this very apparition of our blessed Saviour totidem verbis not by numeral letters but in so many several express words as Saint Paul had before saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is an undeniable argument that these words were so writ at large from Saint Pauls own hand Having given this hint only out of zeal to Gods holy word which must sway my faith against the practice of whole Churches much more against the phansies of private men I pass to the words which our blessed Saviour spake immediately before he ascended for without all question he then again repeated them though he had spoken them several times before Saint Luke records them as spoken on the very day of his Resurrection Luke 24. 47. Saint John records them as spoken also on the very same day John 20. 19 20 21 22. Saint Mathew records them as spoken after that day sc on the mountain in Galilee Mat. 28. 16 19. And Saint Mark records them as spoken both on the day of his resurrection for so was the Apparition to which he annexeth them and also on the day of his Ascension for such is the manner of his annexion So then after the Lord had spoken unto them he was received up into heaven For what was it that the Lord had spoken unto them but these words concerning the discharge of their Apostolical Office or Function Go ye therefore and teach all Nations c. which is yet more evidently attested by Saint Luke Acts 1. 9. where it is said when he had spoken these things that is those things which concerned their Function whiles they beheld he was taken up For Saint Matthew's Go ye therefore and teach all Nations And Saint Mâ—â—k's Go ye into all the world And Saint Lukes ye are witnesses of these things And Saint Johns As my Father sent me even so send I you do all of them concern one and the same office of preaching the Gospel and administring the Sacraments and whatever else the Apostles were bound to do in order to the gathering or preserving or governing the Church of Christ And we cannot deny but these same words or at least words to this effect were solemnly spoken at three several times by our blessed Saviour to his Apostles that is to say On the day of his Resurrection and afterwards again in Galilee and yet a third time also after that immediately before his Ascention to shew what a necessity was laid upon them to discharge that sacred function when he thought it necessary so often to repeat their charge as if it had been his only business from his Resurrection to his Ascention And doubtless if we seriously consier the words themselves we shall easily see and willingly confess that as they did concern the constitution of the Church at that time so they do concern the constitution of the Church at this day and will concern both its constitution and conservation to the worlds end I will accordingly explain them briefly as I find them in the Evangelists yet so as to make Saint Matthew the standard for the rest having already explained the words as they are recorded by Saint John And thus Saint Matthew records the words All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth our blessed Saviour had all the power of heaven and earth given to him from the Father both as he was the Son of God and as he was the Son of man as he was the Son of God so this power was given him by eternal generation as he was the Son of man so the same power was given him by free donation partly at his first conception by vertue of his union with the God-head but more fully after his resurrection for the merit of his death and passion So that though he exercised this power in his life time by choosing Apostles and instituting the Holy Sacraments yet after he was risen again he exercised the same much more eminently in a threesold respect Quoad modum quoad statum quoad usum First because he was possessed of it after a more excellent manner as having merited it by his death Secondly because he was possessed of it in a more excellent state as now being past all fear and danger of dying Thirdly because he was possessed of it for a more excellent end as being how to use it not for the conversion of one people but of all the world as it follows Go ye therefore and teach all Nations Go ye therefore relying upon my authority which is founded upon all power both in heaven and in earth whereas any authority that can forbid you to go is founded only upon the power in earth And teach all Nations This the Apostles could not do no more then they could continue to the end of the world in their own persons Therefore our Saviour Christ speaks these words to their Successors as well as to them And so this Precept was given to make good that Promise Mat. 24. 14. The Gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all Nations and then shall
in grace since the Apostle so adviseth him 2 Pet. 3. 18. and say that by communion with his Saviour his soul is united to more and more grace and that both most neerly and most firmly so neerly as without a distance so firmly as without a disunion Lastly He keeps also his eternal life by living to and in his Saviour that is he presently enters his claim that he may keep his right though he happily stay a long time before he enters possession Hence the Apostle said cupio dissolvi esse cum Christo I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ Phil. 1. 23. T is all one for him to be dissolved and to be with Christ for he did live with Christ before his dissolution and therefore cannot but live with him after it The fourth and last effect of this communion with God is that the good Christian lives in God by contentation Hence it is that the outrages of this world may disturb or discompose but not discontent him For when he is weary of men he can retire to himself and when he is weary of himself he can retire to his God And though he be not weary of himself yet he cannot be satisfied in himself as long as he is absent from his God Therefore he will be alwayes turning to him and never satisfied with turning till he get within him Turn again then unto thy rest O my soul for the Lord hath rewarded thee And why Thou hast delivered my soul from death mine eyes from tears and my feet from falling I will walk before the Lord in the Land of the living Psalm 116. 7 8 9. We have been a long time turning and we have turned again and again but surely not unto our God because not unto our rest we have turned unadvisedly and irreligiously for we have turned away from our peace and from our God and therefore the more shall be our turnings in this sort the more will be our troubles But this holy man turns very advisedly for he is sure to get rest by his turning He turns unto God with a deliberate election because he is sure in him to find joy and rest Turn unto thy rest O my soul he turns unto him with a zealous and a thankful affection acknowledging his manifold spiritual and temporal deliverances Thou hast delivered my soul from death mine eyes from tears and my feet from falling Lastly he turns to him with a firm and a constant resolution of persisting and presevering in his thankful acknowledgements I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living These be the effects and fruits of our communion with God we have a league of friendship with him and that friendship makes us more devoted to him then to our selves And hence it comes to pass that we live for him by consent live to him by conversation live with him by cohabitation live in him by contentation SECT III. The third comfort arising from the knowledge of our being in the state of true Christianity is that we are thereby assured of the continuance of our communion with God For his Desertion will be only for tryal not for punishment unless we become unfaithful and unfruitful TRue friendship consisteth in a proportionable communication of offices and of benefices Amicitia consistit in analogica officiorum beneficiorum communicatione One friendly office one friendly courtesie for another So is it in our communion with God The friendship on Gods part is wholly in giving benefits or blessings the friendship in our part is wholly in returning offices or services we receive benefits from him he receives offices from us Beneficium requirit officium His benefice requires our office and we cannot better befriend our selves then by readily and faithfully serving so good a Master who is more willing to pay us our wages then we are to earn them and is not willing to cast us off for every neglect or default in our services It was a sad complaint of the Orator in behalf of that widow whom he lamented Nescio an foeliciorem dicam quod talem virum habueâ—it an miseriorem quod amiserit I cannot tell whether I may call her more happy in that she once had so good a husband or more unhappy that now she hath lost him But God forbid this complaint should be verified of a soul espoused to Christ by a spiritual marriage and associated with him by a spiritual communion Therefore there is yet a third comfort arising from the knowledge of our being in the state of true Christianity which is this that we are thereby assured of the continuance of our communion with God according to that triumphant exaltation of the Psalmist But thy loving kindness and mercy shall follow me all the dayes of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever Psalm 23. 6. Did my communion with God depend upon mine own deserts I that could not invite him to me might justly fear I should soon drive him from me but now that it dependeth upon his mercy and loving kindness I will hope I shall never lose it though I know I can never deserve it For what can love do else but love what can goodness do but good What can the fountain of mercy delight in but in shewing mercy Therefore though I sometimes step aside from him yet I hope he will not forsake me for he hath not only a preventing mercy to receive me but also a following mercy to recall me He came to me when I was out of the way and will he go from me because I cannot constantly keep in it No His mercy and loving kindness shall follow me all the dayes of my life For though men do follow that they may receive yet God doth follow that he may give and that he may give pardon among the rest of his gifts This is the ground of my confidence that I shall dwell in the house of the Lord for ever and that he will continue his dwelling in my heart For God doth not come to men with an intent presently to leave them He comes to the devout foul not as a guest to lodge for a night but as a friend or a lover to abide for ever The Psalmist reckons up four wayes of Gods discontinuing his communion with his servants Ne abscondas faciem ne declines in ira ne dimittas ne derelinquas Hide not thy face turn not away leave not forsake not Psalm 27. 8 9. Each of these is an interruption of Gods communion with us and our communion with him but none of them is a total abruption of it each of them is a breach but none of them is a final breach The first breach is expressed by the hiding of his face the second by turning away his face the third by leaving us the fourth by forsaking us But this which is the greatest of all is capable of a mitigation for though he forsake us for a while
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That in all things he might be first or that in all things he might have the preheminence Col. 1. 18. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith his most faithful interpreter Saint Chrysostom The first in heaven as the beginning the first in earth as Head of the Church the first under the earth as the first born from the dead Thus hath God ordained that our Saviour Christ should have the preheminence in all things and in all places from whence we must conclude that the same is the duty and ought to be the work of all that profess godliness even to give all honour and glory to this Son of man whom the King of Kings is pleased to honour And in this respect those Christians like Mary have chosen the better part though the other like Martha trouble themselves and all the world besides about many unnecessary things who carefully observe all those anniversary Festivals which have been instituted entirely for the honour of Christ and consequently observe our weekly festival rather as a Lords day then as a Sabbath For these sit quietly and orderly at Jesus his feet hearing his Word and place him at their head promoting his honour according to the Apostles example and advice To God only wise be glory through Jesus Christ for ever Rom. 16. 27. They look upon this festival as instituted for Gods glory and think it neither safe nor fit for Christians to glorifie God through Moses but through Christ And therefore desire to honour him not by a Sabbath but by a Lords day for that the Sabbath was a type of Christs rest in the grave who rested there only that whole day as it were to bury it with himself but the Lords day is an undoubted memorial of his resurrection So that the one carries in its name if not in its nature a false protestation concerning the Christian faith and may possibly in time make us turn Jews The other carries in its name and nature a true profession of our faith and can only help to make and to keep us good Christians as immediately directing our thoughts and our thankfulness to our Saviour Christ which alone is the way to make us true Evangelical professors this being the summe of the whole Gospel That he was delivered for our offences and rose again for our Iustification Rom. 4 26. And it is plain that the whole Gospel doth so directly tend to the Article of Christs resurrection that Saint Paul saith expresly it can neither be rightly preached nor professed without it If Christ be not risen then is our preaching vain and your faith also is vain 1 Cor. 15. 14. It nearly concerns all Christian Ministers to abandon those tenents which may either directly or indirectly make vain their own preaching or the peoples faith And it is to be feared the Sabbatarian Doctrine may tend to this for it is to be avowed that the turning those solemn festivals out of the Church which peculiarly commemorate the Incarnation Nativity Resurrection and Ascension of Christ and teach us to bless God for the same that the Sabbath may be set up as Lady paramount and Queen Regent to controule and confine all our publick worship can in no case make for the honour of Christ and therefore not for the truth of Christianity For Saint Paul saith expresly that in all things he must have the preheminence and if in all things then surely both in duties and in daies and if in duties then much more in daies for if the worship be not acceptable to God but in him then sure the day cannot be acceptable but for him T is proper for the Jew to keep a Sabbath who thinks himself still bound to worship God through Moses but t is proper for the Christian to keep a Lords day who knows himself bound to worship and glorifie God only through Christ Jesus the Lord of glory And Saint Paul readeth this Lecture to the Jews themselves and much more to us Christians in those words to the Hebrews Now the God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus that great Shepherd of the Sheep through the blood of the everlasting Covenant make you perfect in every good work to do his will working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ to whom be glory for ever and ever Amen Heb. 13. 20 21. Where he briefly declares the summe not only of that whole Epistle but also of the whole Christian Faith and that by way of benediction to shew we cannot have the blessing of Christians unless we have the faith of Christians And that faith teacheth us to believe and confess 1. That God is reconciled to us Now the God of peace 2. That our Saviour Christ alone hath wrought for us and offereth to us this reconciliation as our King our Lord Jesus as our Prophet the great Shepherd and as our Priest through the blood of the everlasting Covenant 3. That he hath given us sufficient proof of his great work that he is brought again from the dead 4. That he is ready to give us the superabundant fruits of all by making us perfect in every good work to do his will working in us that which is well-pleasing in his sight In all these inestimable and undeserved mercies it is Christ alone that is all in all wherefore it follows in the next words through Christ Jesus and consequently he in himself and the Father in him is to be glorified for all as it is said To whom be glory for ever and ever Amen God is the God of peace to us men in that he brought again from the dead the Lord Jesus so that we cannot rightly glorifie him for the reconciliation unless we glorifie him for the resurrection And for this cause happily it was that the Church did antiently interpose Halleluiah in the midst of those sentences of the Text which she chose for her publick service in celebrating the memory of Christs resurrection not to interrupt the words or sense of the Scriptures but rather to explain them teaching us that good Christians should not read or hear any part of the Text without thinking of Christ and that they should not think of Christ without praising God in him and for him and that praising God in and for their Saviour Christ they can never be zealous enough in their praises nor rejoyce too much in his salvation Therefore they intermingled Hallelujah not only in the Hymns of the Text where it might be thought a natural appendix but also in the Doctrines of it where at first sight it might seem altogether an unnecessary addition As for example thus they recite that Hymn of the Psalmist He brought forth his people with joy Halleluiah and his chosen with gladness Psalm 105. ver 42. And thus also that doctrine of Saint Peter As new born babes Halleluiah desire the sincere milk of the Word 1 Pet. 2. 2. Where
Roman Souldiers would not do but also his body raising factions and schisms in the Church not only against the decency and order which are as it were the coat or cloathing but also against the very substance of worship which is in some sort the body of Christ So then the Church may still in this regard claim and continue the power of Exorcism saying with Saint Paul I exhort or command you by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ or we adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preacheth And if the evil spirit of Schism being thus adjured shall answer Jesus I know and Paul I know but who are yâ— making no more account of the Ministers of Christ then if they were indeed so many vagabond Jews it will shew it self not only a factious but also a lying spirit saying It knows Christ when it doth not know him They profess that they know God but in works they deny him being abominable and disobedient and unto every good work reprobate Tit. 1. 16. Such a lying spirit deserves not to be confuted by the spirit of Truth which saith Let a man so account of us as of the Ministers of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God 1 Cor. 4. 5. shewing that the societies or corporations of Christians may no more take their spiritual food together without their ministers then other Corporations do usually take their corporal food without their Stewards I say such a lying spirit as this which pretends to know both Jesus and Paul but indeed knows neither deserves not to be confuted by the spirit of Truth but by the spirit errour and indeed hath found such a confutation For Satan in this foul affront of Christ is devided against himself and one of his own most false and wicked spirits could not but say of Gods Stewards or Ministers These men are the Servants of the most high God which shew unto us the way of salvation Acts 16. 17. This truth when some men did gainsay after the father of lyes himself durst not deny could not dissemble it they gave occasion to Luther of falling into these bitter expressions As hitherto men have seemed possessed with Devils even so now the Devils themselves do seem to be possessed of far worse Devils and so rage above the fury of Devils and again For who ever heard to pass over the abominations of the Pope so many monsters to burst out at once in the world as we see at this day in the Anabaptists alone in whom Satan breatheth out as it were the last blast of his kingdom through horrible uproars as if he would by them suddenly not only destroy the whole world with Seditions but also by innumerable Sects swallow up and devour Christ wholly with his Church Prefat in Gal. So Luther in his zeal to Christ and his Church for he saw the one could not be devoured without the other he saw the Church could be thrown down but Christ would also be involved in the downfall Without doubt it is a most horrid sin for men to cry up the shadow that they may beat down the substance of the Law and yet this is the sin of many men who cry up the Sabbath in the Day that they may throw it down in the Duty making it their business to discountenance the solemn exercise of Religion in common Prayer to disadvantage Gods publike worship and service to disgrace his Ministers to defile his ordinances to revile and contemn and pollute his Sanctuaries whereas in truth these are all alike sanctified to the hallowing of Gods name by vertue of the fourth Commandment and if we will needs make a separation betwixt the letter and the end or reason of that commandment where God hath made a most strict conjunction we must give the pre-eminence and superiority not to the circumstances or adjuncts but to the substance of Religion The Jew in his typical worship was first to look after the Time the Place the Person as the Sabbath the Temple the Priest which were the adjuncts of his worship and then to offer his sacrifice which was the substance of it But the Christian in his moral worship is first to look after substance then after circumstances though he hath commission to neglect neither but rather hath express command to look after both Nay indeed the Jew himself was to do this in his moral worship even to prefer the Substance before the circumstance for we find that Ezra did read in the book of the Law and blessed the Lord the great God and all the people answered Amen Amen with lifting up their hands and they bowed their heads and worshipped the Lord with their faces to the ground Ezra 8. 5 6. All these were acts of moral worship and accordingly we find them not confined to the Temple for its evident They were all performed before the Street that was before the water-gate verse 3. And it is as evident that the duties of Preaching and Praying were exercised by the Jews in their Synagogues whereas their sacrifices were offered only in the Temple The reason we may conceive was this Because their Typical worship was to continue but for a time and to shew it deserved not to continue for ever there was in it this kind of absurdity that the accessory did draw the Principal the Temple the Sacrifice the Circumstance the Substance But their moral worship was to continue for ever and therefore in that the Principall was to draw the accessories the substance the circumstances blessing the Lord the great God bowing the head and worshipping the Lord reading the Law and giving the sense of it that the People might understand the reading these being all duties of moral worship were unconfinable either to place or time either to the Temple or Sabbath to shew they were above them both and were to remain after them as they had been before them This was the main subject of Saint Stephens Sermon Acts 7. That Abraham and the Fathers worshipped God rightly long before Moses was born to give them any Laws either about the Tabernacle or the Temple and consequently about the Sabbath and that all those outward ceremonies which were afterwards ordained by Moses were to last but for a time but till the coming of Christ And the Jews themselves who call the Sabbath the foundation of the Decalogue because the precept of the sabbath was given before the rest for that was certainly given in the wilderness of Zin Exod. 16. where as the rest were not given till they came to Mount Sinai Exod. 20. yet do ingenuously confess that Abraham did not keep the Sabbath so saith Hospinian who yet was very zealous for the Sabbath Judaei ipsi in minori expositione in Genesin arbitrantur Abrahamum non observasse Sabbatum The Jews themselves in the lesser exposition upon Genesis do think that Abraham did not keep the Sabbath Nay the Fathers do plainly say they know he did not For Tertullian proves against the Jews that